Chapter 240

Chapter 240: The Deadly Weakness

Translator: TYZ Editor: X

The night sky seemed to be covered with a black veil while the gloominess in the air resembled an insoluble black ink .

All of Central Pine City was empty . The streets were filled with ruins and rubble . A few undestroyed pumpkin lamps were giving off a dusky yellow light, shining upon the dilapidated city .

Two indistinct dark figures were walking through the ruins .

Yan Hai was walking ahead of the other figure . He had lived in Central Pine City for many years . Even though the city had fallen to ruin, he still knew his way around .

Ever since the day he’d refined the blood crystal that Tian Kuan had given him, he had successfully developed blood traces and become a legitimate blood elementalist . Tian Kuan also taught him a thing or two about [Shadowless], sharply increasing his fighting capabilities .

The unprecedented abundance of power in his body had imbued him with absolute confidence . Furthermore, he had Sir behind him to provide support .

He was walking erratically and the environment surrounding him was distorted . It was as if a thin layer of shadow had covered his surroundings, merging with the night scene and making it difficult for him to be seen clearly .

They walked and stopped, walked and stopped, avoiding the patrolling elementalists along their way .

They had arrived .

Yan Hai stopped in his tracks, raised his head, and looked at the towering perimeter walls . The wall was covered with various species of densely-packed plants . Other than the mayor’s residence, this was the most intact place in all of Central Pine City: the casualty barrack .

Yan Hai made a hand-signal behind his back . He remained prudent as usual .

With the recent formation of the blood traces, his powers had gotten a lot stronger than before; however, the surviving elementalists in Central Pine City had also been strengthened . The A-1 unit and the Lightning Blade had gotten rather popular these days . The previous scene of numerous lightning bolts surging down from the sky had struck fear in him as well, so much so that he’d almost collapsed onto the ground . After that incident, he was filled with anxiety and worry . One careless mistake could cost him his life .

He was not the only who was worrying . Initially, Sir was nonchalant towards the elementalists in the city; however, he had now also become fearful of them .

However, Sir was truly someone who had lived through countless life-and-death battles . He’d identified Central Pine City’s weakness with one glance .

If their plan was successful, the situation in Central Pine City would change immediately .

Yan Hai felt that the success rate of the plan was very high . When he thought of this, his heart burned with fervor .

The casualty barrack that was surrounded by towering walls was used to quarantine injured elementalists . A few thousand elementalists that had been infected by the blood poison were being locked up here . These infected elementalists gave the mayor a headache . Until now, he had yet to find a cure for the blood poison . He could not kill these inflicted elementalists or take a carefree attitude towards them . The only thing he could do was to quarantine them in order to prevent the blood poison from spreading .

There was no other way except to drag out the situation . Everyone could only hope that the Elders Guild would quickly find a cure to the blood poison .

The quarantine zone was heavily guarded; however, these walls were only used to keep the blood fiends out and prevent those severely inflicted elementalists within the facility from escaping . Central Pine City was low on manpower, hence, there was no extra manpower to guard the inflicted elementalists . To reduce the number of people taking care of the casualties, the casualty barrack was sealed off . The surrounding high walls and the thick, vine-made dome roof were used to cut off contact between the casualties and the outside world .

Surveillance plants and vines that could shackled the casualties were grown all over the casualty barrack . They were the most loyal sentinels . Once they discovered that an inflicted elementalist’s condition had worsened and turned aggressive, the nearby vines would quickly bind him or her .

With the surveillance plants and the restricting vines placed in every corner of the facility, only three wood elementalists were needed to manage the place . Casualties who went crazy could only act on their instincts and did not know how to use their powers . As such, they were not difficult to deal with .

On the contrary, there were a lot of elementalists patrolling the surroundings of the casualty barrack . The higher-ups were worried that blood fiends would suddenly appear and damage the high walls surrounding it .

For the past few days, Yan Hai’s mission had been to observe and study the patrol schedule of the patrolling unit clearly . Other than this, he did not need to care about anything else .

Two green pills appeared in Tian Kuan’s hand . He ate one himself and passed the other one to Yan Hai . Under Tian Kuan’s watchful eyes, Yan Hai ate the pill .

"Use your spiritual force to dissolve it," Tian Kuan instructed Yan Hai in a low voice .

Yan Hai quickly channeled the blood spiritual force in his body . He was shocked to discover that the red-colored blood spiritual force in his body had turned green in color . The blood aura that engulfed his body had disappeared and was replaced by the fresh and clean aura of plants .

Yan Hai was startled . The organization was indeed unfathomable!

They actually had such good stuff!

"You will lead the way," Tian Kuan instructed in a low voice once again .

"Yes . "

A shiver ran down Yan Hai’s spine . Not daring to hesitate any longer, he began to climb up the perimeter wall . The vine bells that could be found everywhere stayed quiet, looking as if they had fallen asleep .

Two dark figures silently climbed the high wall, then penetrated the thick, vine-made dome roof .

Yan Hai felt extremely amazed . Those highly dangerous and vigilant vines did not seem to have noticed them .

Sir must have prepared for them!

He could not help but become filled with expectations . What would Sir do next?

The loft where the three wood elementalists stood guard was located at the center of the casualty barrack . Thick, strong vines were packed in the areas surrounding the loft’s windows . Being stationed at the highest point of the casualty barrack, the wood elementalists could monitor the wandering inflicted elementalists below . This position had the best view as they could clearly see everything in the courtyard of the facility .

The countless vines were drooping downward like keen-eyed venomous snakes, prepared to bind any casualties that lost control at any time .

Those elementalists who were inflicted with blood poison would show symptoms of beastification . As the blood poison got worse, the process of beastification would deepen . Eventually, those elementalists would lose control of themselves and turn into wild beasts .

Their lives would come to an end at that moment .

Everyday, someone’s life was terminated . Initially, the three wood elementalists had felt depressed and disturbed . Eventually, they became numb to it .

What could they do about it? Human lives were just so insignificant in this blood catastrophe .

Outside of the perimeter walls, there were many people being killed by blood fiends everyday . Inside the perimeter walls, there were also many people being killed by them .

The harshest decisions were always made out of desperation .

Sun Ke watched on as a snake-like vine tied up a berserk elementalist while another pointed vine pierced through the back of his head like a sharp sword . The terrifying blood color in that elementalist’s eyes gradually dimmed .

"We are probably the executioners among wood elementalists . " Sun Ke laughed sarcastically at himself .

"We’re doing this for their own good," mumbled Wang Tongan, who was beside him .

"I knew him personally . He was my neighbor and a good man . " Sun Ke’s tone got more sarcastic .

Wang Tongan did not know how to console him .

"You don’t need to console me," Sun Ke muttered as he looked absent-mindedly at the courtyard . "I know what I’m doing . I just hope that this blood catastrophe will be over soon . "

Wang Tongan felt that the atmosphere was getting tense and tried to change the topic . "What do you want to do after you get out of here?"

"Start on my training again . " Sun Ke turned his face around and replied, "I don’t want to be a wood elementalist anymore . In the past, I chose to be a wood elementalist because I didn’t want to kill people . I didn’t expect that I would end up killing even more people . "

A shiver went down Wang Tongan’s spine . Then, he patted Sun Ke’s shoulder and said, "That’s what I thought too . Do you want to take a rest?"

"You go and have a rest first, I will try to stay awake for a while more . Anyway, Xiaozheng will be waking up soon . " Sun Ke’s facial expression returned to normal . "Don’t worry, I’m not that weak . "

"Alright then, I will go and take a break first . Yell for us if there’s any situation . " Wang Tongan nodded his head .

"Go ahead, go ahead . " Sun Ke waved his hand .

Wang Tongan went to take a nap, leaving Sun Ke alone to observe the situation below . Even though there were so many vines around, it was still very exhausting for the three of them to oversee the enormous casualty barrack by themselves .

They had tried asking the higher ups for more manpower, but their request had been rejected . There were a lot of casualties among the elementalists, causing a severe shortage of manpower . There was no way that the higher-ups could send reinforcements to the three of them .

Currently, everyone knew that there was no cure for blood poisoning . Hence, a lot of injured elementalists would choose to die together with the blood fiends . Eventually, the number of injured elementalists that were sent to the casualty barrack was reduced sharply, allowing the three wood elementalists to cope with the duty of overseeing the facility .

Sun Ke’s attention was placed completely on the courtyard below, not noticing the danger that crept increasingly closer to him from above .

… .

The mayor’s residence .

Wang Zhen looked at Ai Hui . This was the first time Ai Hui had taken the initiative to come to the mayor’s residence . Ai Hui had asked for details about the plan to ‘treat the city as a piece of cloth’, expressing his wish to help out in any possible way .

"Shouchuan has taken in a good disciple," Wang Zhen praised .

He was not saying this out of courtesy . His subordinates had long reported to him of Ai Hui’s visit to Wang Shouchuan .

Wang Zhen’s impression of Ai Hui was that the latter was a very capable and talented young man, although he was also a moody and melancholic individual . Rather than behaving like any of the usual youngsters, he behaved like an old veteran who had been through a lot . He was also not someone who liked to meddle in other people’s business . Not only that, if one was to give him a task, he would haggle over the reward . He would only agree to the task until he felt that the reward was enough .

Wang Zhen was having a huge headache over this characteristic of Ai Hui .

The thing was that with Ai Hui’s performance getting increasingly better and him gaining a reputation, Wang Zhen could not get tough with him .

Wang Zhen did not expect Ai Hui to take the initiative to offer his help . He knew that Ai Hui was doing it because of Wang Shouchuan; however, from this he could also tell that the relationship between Ai Hui and his master was very deep .

Ai Hui being willing to help was the best situation .

Shi Xueman, who was standing beside Ai Hui, could not help but take a glance at the latter . She now realized that there was actually so much inside information regarding Ai Hui .

"With your help, our rate of progress will increase," Wang Zhen said bluntly . "The golden needles are going to be completed soon . The next task is to nail the nine needles in specific positions . Those positions are the nodes for the elemental energy surrounding Central Pine City . Once these nodes are activated, the elemental energy surrounding all of Central Pine City will transform . That means that the moment we nail the first golden needle, the subsequent needles have to be nailed into their respective positions within a day’s time . "

"So the mayor wants to start nailing from the most difficult position?" Ai Hui asked .

A look of admiration appeared on Wang Zhen’s face as he replied, "You’re indeed a quick-witted fellow . That’s right, we will start with the most difficult one and then move on to the easier ones . This way we will reduce the risk . Therefore, we must nail the first golden needle at the most difficult position . "

"I’m willing to take up this mission . " Ai Hui volunteered without any hesitation .

"The A-1 unit is willing to take up this mission . " Shi Xueman volunteered without any hesitation as well .

"Alright, then I will give all of you the most difficult mission . " Wang Zhen walked to the map of Central Pine City and pointed to a dot . "You have to nail the golden needle at this location . On the day itself, specialized smiths will be following your unit . You all have to ensure their safety as well as your own . If the situation gets critical, it’s okay to delay the mission by one or two days . If you all are injured, then it will be too dangerous for us to nail the remaining eight needles as well . "

Shi Xueman’s gaze froze when she saw the point on the map .

That place was… Heaven Pit!

Ai Hui nodded his head emotionlessly and replied, "No problem . "