Hai Ji sat cross-legged in the center of the courtyard, her eyes closed, unleashing her full King-level aura, radiating a domineering darkness.

The rats, fearless in their madness, dared to bite anyone they encountered, but sensing the aura emanating from Hai Ji, they wouldn't dare take a single step forward, their legs trembling.

Even the Rat King had never inspired such fear in them.

It was like the dragon's might, a deterrent to lower life forms.

Not a single rat entered the courtyard.

But outside Chen Luo's courtyard, almost everywhere was littered with rat corpses, some places piled high like mountains.

There were too many rats, and many members had exhausted their abilities, forced to use brute strength to kill them.

"Squeak, squeak."

Many rats were grabbed directly by the members, torn apart with force, their blood splattering in the air.

Simple and brutal.

Why not use weapons?

Because there were no suitable weapons. Kitchen knives and axes from before the apocalypse didn't do much damage to the rats, and if too much force was used, these weapons couldn't withstand it and would break easily.

Long Yu's weapon production was limited, mainly focused on armor, which better protected the members' safety.

Everyone was more or less covered in rat blood.

Chen Luo looked at Yin Ling with shining eyes, thinking, "As expected of my disciple, not bad, not bad.

"I'll have to give you some pointers when I have time.

"That girl Meng Yin is also very good; it's a pity she died so early in the last life."

Dawn City wasn't very big, but it wasn't small either. It was impossible for Chen Luo to pay attention to every corner. Absolutely impossible.

The mother rat, with blood-red eyes, burrowed into Dawn City. This was the only chance; there wouldn't be another opportunity for revenge.

It would absolutely be impossible to gather such a large rat swarm again.

"If I don't avenge this, I'm not worthy to be a rat."

As soon as the mother rat appeared, it raised its head to the sky and let out a shrill cry.

The cry was truly eerie, sending chills down the spine.

"There's a rat over there! Kill it quickly! I have a feeling it's not simple!"

A member spotted the shrilly crying mother rat and instinctively felt that it was extraordinary.

A dozen members rushed over and bombarded it with attacks.

The mother rat saw them, but didn't dodge, still crying shrilly.

The mother rat was quickly beaten to death.

But after it died, a thick black mist emerged from its body.

The black mist spread extremely quickly, seeming to trigger some kind of resonance in the dead rats.

The dozen or so members near the mother rat were the first to be affected by the black mist.

Two level six members immediately spat out black blood and fell to the ground.

The level seven members also looked unwell.

The black mist continued to spread, but it wasn't as dense as it was initially, gradually thinning out.

Then it swept across the entire Dawn City.

No members died suddenly; the concentration wasn't nearly as high as it was near the mother rat.

But most members had feverish foreheads, tightness in their chests, and felt weak.

It didn't have much effect on level seven members.

Chen Luo arrived, his face grim. It was a plague.

Was it caused by this mother rat?

There was no point in dwelling on that now.

Chen Luo knew that too many dead rats could cause a plague. He had planned to deal with the rat corpses immediately after the battle, but he didn't expect it to come so quickly.

Damn it, a group of rats actually reduced Dawn City's combat capabilities by half.

Even though there were quite a few of these rats.

Shu Yun, looking pale, handed Chen Luo the Queen Ant's level eight psychic crystal.

The Light-type members had been buffing and healing the members during the battle, and now their abilities were also depleted.

Initially, Chen Luo recruited any Light-type members, but later he stopped being so preferential to them.

"I'll only recruit you if you're at least level six."

Light-type members who remained at level four or five had limited talent and were useless.

The three branch bases had also taken away many Light-type members. Now there were only four hundred or so Light-type members in the base.

There were only three Light-type members who had reached level seven.

The healing and purification effects of the Light-types were limited. Even the three level seven Light-types could only temporarily suppress the plague, not completely eradicate it.

The black mist still shrouded Dawn City. If they continued to stay here, even level seven members might be affected by the plague.

Unfortunately, the Miri Crystal was broken. If it hadn't been broken, casting a large-scale Light Rain might have purified the black mist.

The level nine Miri was already capable of casting it, let alone the level ten Miri.

Chen Luo was helpless. It didn't affect him, but the members couldn't withstand it. Were these rats picking their moment?

Dawn City was definitely uninhabitable for the time being. Chen Luo was about to issue an order to evacuate when suddenly a huge dark eye emerged from his courtyard.

The dark eye turned, powerfully absorbing the black mist.

Hai Ji's wild laughter rang out, "What is this energy? It actually makes me feel a little stronger!"

Hai Ji kept moving the dark eye, doing her best to absorb the black mist.

Chen Luo was stunned. "Ah, this. The black mist can actually make Hai Ji stronger?"

Crystals were full of energy. Was this black mist also a kind of energy?

Chen Luo hadn't expected that the troublesome black mist would be solved so easily.

In less than ten minutes, all the black mist in Dawn City had been completely absorbed by Hai Ji.

Chen Luo rushed to Hai Ji, who greeted him with a smile and quickly told him the good news.

"Little brother, I feel that after absorbing this energy, my strength will increase."

Of course, it wouldn't be a leap from King-level to Emperor-level, but more like from the initial stage of King-level to the intermediate stage.

Chen Luo hugged Hai Ji to celebrate.

Crystals weren't the only way to advance, of course. The mysterious substances consumed by marine creatures could also do it, and even faster, allowing King-level creatures to be born in the ocean much earlier.

Could other natural energies also be absorbed?

Ability users could slowly increase their power on their own, but that was too slow. If they reached the peak of a certain level, they could advance even without absorbing crystals for two or three years.

But that was only useful for ability users who were just a little bit short of energy.

Chen Luo felt a little regret. These rats were too low-level, and their death energy wasn't much.

Hai Ji hadn't absorbed all the energy at once, but stored it and was absorbing it slowly.

It also meant that there wasn't much mysterious energy left undigested in Hai Ji's body.

In his previous life, only Bai Hao had reached the Emperor-level. He must have devoured a lot of marine creatures to reach that level.

Chen Luo was different from Bai Hao; he relied on picking up crystals.

With the black mist gone, Chen Luo quickly ordered the members to dispose of the rat corpses. The carnivorous plants brought from the base couldn't possibly handle so many corpses.

"Let's bury them somewhere."

Fortunately, Chen Luo had shown the sea creatures his Dimensional Blade a few days ago, leaving behind a terrifying great rift.

Just throw the rat corpses into it. Even if the number was ten times higher, it would definitely fit.

One member muttered, "With so many rats dying at once, the other survivors' lives are going to be tough."

Rats weren't something you could just catch whenever you wanted, especially with so many dying at once.

There were other mutated creatures too, but would you eat something like Elder Xiang?