In the midst of the battlefield, the hundred thousand warriors, bathed in blood, comprised both men and women, old and young.
Just ten days prior, these individuals might have been toiling for their livelihoods.
But living in this peaceful nation, at least they didn't have to fear being shot and killed at any moment while walking down the street.
The past world was never peaceful, yet the ancient Great Yan, upon its resurgence, had maintained its unique normalcy amidst a fractured world.
Wars and diseases occurred sporadically across the globe.
Only the ancient Eastern kingdom, amidst the world's turmoil, had stabilized the fundamental situation.
If the world continued on this trajectory,
When the distant, beautiful nation finally relinquished its position as the world's number one,
And when Great Yan, this ancient nation, reassumed global leadership.
All Great Yan citizens could naturally expect to live the good lives enjoyed by their Western counterparts.
High housing prices, income inequality, the gap between rich and poor, and even the world's overall unrest and anxiety could be gradually resolved once the ancient Eastern nation held the highest authority.
This was because, over the past few decades, this ancient nation had, step by step, guided its own people out of famine and chaos.
Everyone who deeply loved this country believed that Great Yan's goal was not domination,
But to make the world a better place, and even to guide humanity towards the sea of stars.
However, an unreasonable doomsday game shattered everything.
...
Chen Luo stood on the bronze hand, hearing Su Xiao's question. He gazed at the soldiers who acknowledged him, remained silent for a moment, and then said:
"They merely wish to tell these invaders that we humans are not toys to be bullied at will."
Su Xiao was momentarily speechless. As a former armed police officer, protecting civilians was one of her core beliefs.
Therefore, she strongly approved of Chen Luo stepping forward and taking everyone under his protection from the outset.
Those with the ability should step forward, while others should simply be protected.
However, Su Xiao had never imagined that the populace, whom she considered the weak, actually possessed the courage to wield a blade.
Chen Luo had understood the feelings of his soldiers from the very beginning. After all, for the past ten days, he had traversed more than half of Donghai City,
Opening up one safe zone after another, and gathering the remaining survivors.
What had touched him most during these ten days were not the villains encountered by Ruo Shui and Ruo Xue.
Those scums only evoked Chen Luo's anger, after which he would burn them to ashes.
What Chen Luo truly found difficult to recall were the shattered safe zones.
The minimum standard for establishing each safe zone was a gathering of over three thousand people.
Even if the population later decreased, these safe zones would continue to exist. Moreover, if strong individuals emerged, they might even obtain their own territories, like Chen Luo.
But after traversing more than half of Donghai City, all Chen Luo saw was desolation.
In those largely destroyed safe zones, fewer than a thousand survivors often remained, and in the most tragic cases, less than a hundred.
And within the completely annihilated safe zones, the protective light had nothing left within it.
Bodies lay scattered everywhere; due to the cold weather, they had not yet decomposed.
But the silent corpses were unforgettable to Chen Luo.
It could be said that Chen Luo deeply understood the anger felt by all survivors from the bottom of their hearts.
And he himself had truly witnessed the death of this city.
Chen Luo had not spoken of any of this to anyone, because all humanity in this city, and indeed in this world, bore a deep, bloody hatred.
This hatred would be repaid by reducing their enemies to dust.
...
On the vast, gray plain, the war continued.
The low-level undead, born from death, knew no fatigue or fear. They instinctively detested the living.
Had the superiors within the towers, during their metamorphosis, instinctively subdued these undead, they would have long ago stormed out of the land of death and slaughtered all living beings.
And when these soldiers, burning with passion, charged into the land of death,
The vibrant aura of life caused the skeletons to feel a soul-deep aversion.
The howling death skeletons transformed into surging black tsunamis, each surge intent on the complete annihilation of humanity.
But within the black tsunamis, countless crimson points of light let out the roar of humanity into the silent, gray-white world.
"Burning the boats! No turning back!"
Each attack was a Pyrrhic victory, inflicting a thousand wounds for eight hundred of their own. Even though pain was shielded, the reality of flesh being torn apart repeatedly was a rather horrifying experience for ordinary people of peacetime.
However, they did not care.
Having lost almost everything, they only wished to become the sharpest blade of their commander, to shatter these damned invaders!
"Blood for blood" granted the soldiers nearly permanent endurance. Even when surrounded and attacked relentlessly, as long as they could attack, their physical damage would rapidly heal.
Chen Luo had even slowed down the frequency of using his Legion Descent, as the soldiers were now rarely dying.
But Chen Luo, standing on the battlefield, was not at ease. Maintaining the continuous effect of skills across the entire battlefield was only a small part of it.
The vast majority of his energy was focused on the rapid refresh of "Divine Body Refining Technique."
...
The earth-shattering battlefield before them was merely the prelude to the great battle of Donghai City.
While the soldiers' passion brought Chen Luo comfort, the true determinant of the outcome was Chen Luo himself.
With this thought, Chen Luo's eyes turned towards the towering black pillar that reached into the heavens.
He could sense a sinister and terrifying power continuously rising within it. The strength of that power was still greater than his own!
Of course, power strength was only one aspect; who would win or lose could only be determined through combat.
But what made Chen Luo frown was that the power within the pillar was still growing stronger, seemingly still undergoing metamorphosis.
Judging by the difficulty of the mission, the opponent this time might be what was referred to as Abyss-level.
Even in his Legion Descent state, with all attributes amplified tens of times, Chen Luo was still only Infernal-level.
What Chen Luo found troublesome was that his current attacks could not break through the monster's metamorphosis process.
Therefore, Chen Luo had to compete with the monster in the pillar to see who could grow stronger faster.
And regarding this matter, Chen Luo had a premonition that the key to breaking through this situation might lie in the upgrade of "Divine Body Refining Technique."
In the battlefield below, red and black powers clashed fiercely,
And on the battlefield, Chen Luo was also engaged in another, invisible war.
Hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the situation on the battlefield finally began to change!
Boom!
The long saber fiercely struck a black skeleton. Under multiple buffs, the solid skeleton instantly shattered.
The terrifying wounds on the soldier's body also healed rapidly,
But,
"Hoo... hoo...."
With bloodshot eyes, the soldier's hand holding the saber began to tremble subtly...