Chapter 109 The Escape

"Doctor, we can't leave Wu behind!" Painful memories flooded back; this meeting might be their last farewell.

"He's right. Staying won't help; we'll only be a burden." Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty. "We'll leave first, find people outside, and come back to help!"

This village was strange. Neither the Dahe Niangniang (Great River Goddess) nor Wen Zhao, who inherited the mantle of the Marquis of Wild Words, could be contacted, let alone called for help.

At that moment, Wu, merged into the darkness, silently appeared on a watchtower in the village, the highest point, closest to the sky.

Wu's face was unusually heavy. The reality was much worse than he described. Having fought the old president before, he fully understood the terrifying existence he faced.

And this time, there was no Water Lord, only him.

Fortunately, his task wasn't to kill the old president. He only needed to attract its attention, injure it as much as possible, and once a loophole appeared in the surrounding space, Jiang Cheng and the others could escape.

Past memories flashed before his eyes. Unknowingly, they had been together for so long. But all good things must come to an end, and the moment of parting had finally arrived.

Wu's eyes suddenly reflected a scene from the past: a rainy night, in a dark office building, a man holding a turned-off desk lamp walked out of the elevator, fulfilling his promise.

"Like that time, someone always has to stay behind."

The darkness above became more profound. Something enormous seemed to be churning within. Without hesitation, Wu held his knife in front of him, grabbed the blade with his left hand, and slowly drew it across. Blood, almost black, flowed from the cut palm, coating the entire blade.

This might be the last strike he ever made, so there was no holding back. Taking a deep breath, Wu slowly closed his eyes.

When the dense blackness above was about to erupt, Wu suddenly opened his eyes. In an instant, his aura changed completely. His cheekbones protruded, blue blood vessels and tendons crawled all over his face, and a pair of scarlet, feverish eyes were embedded in his about-to-split sockets. His once angular face was as ferocious as a demon. The black figure leaped upwards at an extreme speed, his hands clenched around the hilt. His movements were broad and powerful, and the blood-red blade left trails of phantom images in the night sky. The original clear blade was obscured by the scarlet light, and the surging blade light extended outwards like a fiery cloud hundreds of zhang long.

At that moment, Jiang Cheng and the others, sensing the astonishing aura, rushed out of the room and looked up. A distant, almost unrecognizable black figure was wielding this blood-colored torrent, crashing into the darkness, the layers of blade light tearing through the night sky.

This scene was unexpected. Daheitian (Great Black Sky) collapsed, and the blade light cleaved a huge gap in the darkness above.

Even more shocking was what followed. Light shone in along the gap, a hazy, faint light that Jiang Cheng couldn't describe. At the same time, shouts of battle came from behind the gap, distant yet extremely tragic.

"You... you guys look!" Fatty exclaimed.

Along the crack in the darkness, the entire night sky was collapsing. Unexpectedly, Wu's strike not only opened an escape route to the outside world but also severely injured the old president, making it unable to even maintain this world.

With a loud sound like shattering glass, the darkness above shattered, and Jiang Cheng and the others instantly flew into the air.

No, not flying, but falling!

Heaven and earth reversed, gravity inverted, and they slammed heavily onto the ground. Fortunately, it was a beach-like area, only making them dizzy, not injured.

"It's done!" Cheers came from nearby. Some of the voices sounded strangely familiar to Jiang Cheng.

Getting up from the ground, Jiang Cheng finally saw this new world.

It was a land of red earth, without even a single complete large stone or tree nearby. Everything had been destroyed by fierce fighting. Twisted corpses and blood-soaked soil formed the foundation of this world.

Not far away, two armies were arrayed against each other. On the side closer to him, Jiang Cheng immediately saw Lin Wan'er wearing camouflage training uniforms, with a light blue ribbon tied around her left arm.

Not only her, but everyone in the team wore one, except for some wounded who had lost arms.

"Number 10!" Someone in the team waved and shouted. It was Number 13. His condition was terrible; he had lost a hand, and the wound was barely wrapped with a bandage, but his eyes lit up when he saw Fatty.

Escorted by Wu, nothing attacked along the way.

Getting closer, Jiang Cheng also saw the others in the team. The team of thirty or forty people was almost all injured. If the imposter Night Watcher elder wasn't lying, Lin Wan'er's team had suffered more than half casualties.

It was clear that the composition of this team was complex. Almost half of the people wore camouflage uniforms, the rest wore the black uniforms of the Night Watchers, the night suits of the Dark Army, and some Jiang Cheng didn't recognize at all, perhaps belonging to various families or elite martial artists recruited from the public.

The opposing side seemed quite wary of the appearance of Jiang Cheng and the others. Jiang Cheng's eyesight couldn't even make out the people on the other side. They were hidden in black mist very similar to the darkness seen in the village, leaving only vague outlines. They seemed slightly fewer in number than Lin Wan'er's team.

Without time for formalities, Jiang Cheng went directly to Lin Wan'er, "What exactly is going on?"

Seeing Jiang Cheng and the others safe and sound, Lin Wan'er breathed a sigh of relief. "It's all thanks to Senior Quan Xu. He calculated the timing of Wu's attack, and we concentrated our strength at the same time, working together from the inside and outside, to break the cage that trapped you."

Saying that, Lin Wan'er looked to the side, where an old man wrapped in a long robe was standing. The old man had white hair and a goatee, but strangely, the end of the goatee was not exposed but was wrapped into the robe. The robe, dragging on the ground, was bulging, and it was unknown what was hidden inside.

"Just call me Old Man Quan Xu. I'm in command of this operation." Old Man Quan Xu was concise. His gaze briefly lingered on Jiang Cheng, then moved to Wang Fugui, and finally to Wu.

"Thank you. You saved Zero, which at least gave us the determination to persevere." Old Man Quan Xu's tone was unusually calm, as if this great battle was just an event he was observing.

Jiang Cheng glanced at the ribbon on his arm. The number on it was Zero.