When Old An arrived, the city center of Black Dragon City had already descended into complete chaos.
He had been in the middle of a conversation with Ye Zhongming when the King of Cloud Peak suddenly said trouble was coming and rushed out of the house. At the time, Old An had no idea what was happening—until, nearly a minute later, he smelled the thick scent of blood in the air.
Then, news came: for some unknown reason, the mutated lifeforms on the other side of the city had become extremely aggressive, launching a large-scale assault on the human side. Some of the most powerful among them had even breached the human-controlled zone of Black Dragon City, slaughtering evolved humans.
This was something the humans of Black Dragon City could not tolerate.
The half of the city they occupied was their foundation for survival. If they lost it, they would become rootless wanderers.
In the frozen wastelands of the north, amid the ever-looming threat of ice storms, no one could survive.
Because of this, when the mutated lifeforms in the city’s other half began to stir, all the prominent figures of Black Dragon City gathered around Old An, their expressions grave.
“What’s going on?”
Due to the city’s unique circumstances, there was a strict rotation system in place for the central district.
Though it was said that humans and mutated lifeforms coexisted in the same city, only four access points led from the human side to the other.
The city was oriented north-to-south, with the southern half under human control and the northern half ruled by mutated lifeforms. Roughly speaking, the two sides were separated by an east-west strip of land, which the people of Black Dragon City habitually called Blood Street.
The widest parts of Blood Street stretched over a hundred meters, while the narrowest were at least fifty meters across. It was littered with boulders, ruins, massive pits, and skeletal remains.
The ground itself was stained an eerie bluish-purple from the blood of countless creatures, creating a bizarre and unsettling sight.
On the human side, Blood Street was accessible through four passageways. The two in the middle were the widest—one was a gap between two massive ruins of ice-crusted buildings, about a hundred meters wide and just as deep.
At the end of this passage, the humans had built a small wall connecting the two ruined structures using the same materials as Black Dragon City’s defensive walls. There was no gate; evolved humans who wanted to enter Blood Street from here had to use ropes to descend from above.
Because this passage resembled the Chinese character for concave, it was called the Concave Exit.
About a kilometer west of the Concave Exit stood the enormous skeleton of a powerful mutated beast. By the third year of the apocalypse, this creature had already reached level eight. It had once rampaged through Black Dragon City from the north before being killed in a joint effort by the humans.
Though the battle had come at a great cost, the beast had brought tremendous benefits to Black Dragon City. Its demon crystal was the first level eight crystal ever obtained here. Much of its body had been turned into equipment now wielded or worn by the city’s leaders. Its flesh had enhanced the physiques of many…
And then there were its bones—thick as a grown man’s torso, rooted so firmly in the ground that no evolved human could move them. Eventually, people realized these bones were incredibly durable; even another level eight lifeform couldn’t damage them. So, instead of trying to remove them, they repurposed the skeleton into another passage to Blood Street.
Numerous heavy weapons and fortifications were in place on the human side of this passage. A hundred meters ahead lay the skeletal passage, while behind it was the human city. This was where most hunters chose to enter Blood Street, where the fighting was most intense, and where attacks from mutated lifeforms were most frequent.
Over the course of a year, the mutated lifeforms launched over two thousand assaults on this location—an average of more than six per day!
The evolved humans of Black Dragon City called this place the Bone Passage.
These bones provided excellent cover for the evolved humans when they ventured out—though, just as often, they also served as cover for the mutated lifeforms.
Aside from these two wider passages, there were two other access points, one each on the eastern and western sides.
The eastern one was called the Hive Maze. It wasn’t an actual maze, but rather a network of tunnels carved through the ruins by both humans and mutated lifeforms, connecting Blood Street to the human district. Some mutated lifeforms liked to linger in the Hive Maze, allowing evolved humans to hunt them for magic crystals and materials without even needing to enter Blood Street.
However, the Hive Maze was dimly lit at all times, day or night. Only evolved humans with special visual or auditory abilities were willing to hunt there.
The western access point was a roughly twenty-meter-wide slope extending from Blood Street to the top of the ruined ice walls. The slope was about two hundred meters long, and the humans had set up defensive positions at the summit. Few evolved humans ventured out from here; instead, they used bait—usually flesh—to “fish” for mutated lifeforms, luring them onto the slope before attacking from above.
Because the icy surface of the slope was hard and slippery, the mutated lifeforms often lost their footing while charging upward, making them easy targets.
This place was thus named Fishing Slope.
Right now, Old An and the others were standing at the top of Fishing Slope.
Just moments ago, this place had been attacked by a horde of over ten thousand mutated lifeforms. If not for the fact that the battle-crazed Yan Shuangfei and her team had been stationed here today, the defenses might have been overrun.
Now, looking down from the slope, the entire path was carpeted with the corpses of mutated lifeforms. Some weren’t completely dead yet, their bodies still twitching.
“It’s not just Fishing Slope,” said Hai Dayu, cracking his knuckles. “The Bone Passage, the Concanve Exit—they’ve all been attacked. Just not as many as here. Each location had at least one level eight or higher leading the charge. The only place that’s quiet so far is the Hive Maze.”
“Who’s in charge at each location?” Old An asked. Given his status, his words were practically commands in situations like this.
“White Skin’s at the Concave Exit. Ah Kai’s at the Bone Passage, with Sister Ru and He Qinchuan supporting. The Hive Maze hasn’t seen any action yet, but with everywhere else in chaos, it’s bound to be next. So Old Long’s gone to hold the line there.”
Hearing this, Old An’s expression eased slightly.
These people might not always get along, but when real trouble came, they stood together.