Chapter 56

"Based on my judgment, the leader of this Shadow Clan invasion possesses a certain level of intelligence, and the current situation is likely a trap," Chen Zizai expressed his concern. Hai Yuntian, upon hearing this, quickly analyzed and organized the information, soon understanding the reason for Chen Zizai's judgment.

"Captain, do you think these Shadow Clan members have long discovered the human presence and knew that rescue support would arrive, and thus had a plan for a counterattack?"

This was precisely Chen Zizai's judgment. The Shadow Clan members discovered by the Water Blue Clan were all juveniles. Normally, juvenile Shadow Clan members would be led by adult Shadow Clan members when hunting, but there were none present. Given the nature of the Shadow Clan, there was only one explanation: these juveniles were deliberately emitting signals, waiting to be discovered as bait!

Chen Zizai hoped he was being overly suspicious. If a more intelligent leader among the Shadow Clan was planning this, then the killing of these baits would also clearly inform the surrounding Shadow Clan members that they had arrived!

"Does that mean the surrounding Shadow Clan members will soon attack?" Heng Yi, understanding the gravity of the situation, quickly gripped the special rescue net given to him by Chen Zizai.

"I hope I'm just being overly suspicious." Chen Zizai could only prepare for the worst. Normally, randomly teleported Shadow Clan members would not include those with such intelligence, as intelligent Shadow Clan members were rare and would not be randomly teleported unless there was a targeted major plan.

However, the situation on Peak Star was stable, and it was not on the border of human civilization, so the Shadow Clan would not have a plan for a large-scale invasion.

If there were indeed intelligent Shadow Clan members among this group, there was only one possibility: the first batch of offspring of the randomly teleported Shadow Clan members had developed this intelligent mutation. If so, they were just extremely unlucky!

At this moment, the Water Blue Clan members of the search team withdrew. After kneeling and expressing their gratitude to the four rescuers, they all participated in the mourning ceremony for the two murdered clan members.

Watching their mournful ceremony, Heng Yi tightly gripped the rescue net, hoping Chen Zizai was being overly suspicious!

The group training bead suddenly emitted a blue light and shot up into the sky!

Chen Zizai quickly retrieved it and saw a yellow emergency light, which made him change color.

"Emergency situation, this is Xia Xia from North Elephant Mountain. The team I lead is heading your way, with many Shadow Clan members chasing us. There are too many, and we can't fight them off!"

Hu Baijie's face turned cold, feeling that their enemies were too close for comfort! She only hoped that the people Xia Xia led would be killed by the Shadow Clan before they arrived!

"This is Chen Zizai. There are many people in Water Blue City who need protection, and it's not suitable for combined combat. You'd better go to another combat zone."

"Can't! We have people from three other combat zones here!" Xia Xia's urgent tone made everyone in Chen Zizai's group feel heavy-hearted, as this abnormal situation confirmed their fears!

At this moment, the group training bead lit up yellow again, and another voice came through.

"This is Wang Bupa, a 17-year-old disciple from Northeast Elephant Mountain. I'm heading your way, with a large number of Shadow Clan members chasing me..."

"Water Blue City is not suitable for combined combat!" Chen Zizai said, seeing the light pillars shooting up from the sky, realizing in despair that the worst had indeed happened! "We must retreat south. Please buy us as much time as possible. We need to evacuate hundreds of Water Blue Clan members!"

"I have gathered people from three combat zones. The situation is not optimistic, but I, Wang Bupa, swear by the honor of Northeast Elephant Mountain to do my utmost to buy you time! Please retreat immediately!"

"Go!" Chen Zizai ordered, flying up and shouting, "Water Blue Clan, gather!"

Heng Yi quickly activated the rescue net, flying up and extending the magical artifact, which quickly transformed into a large net covering the panicked Water Blue Clan members. The light net enveloped each person, and golden energy lines connected them, with each small net containing one Water Blue Clan member. Outside the connected golden lines, more golden lines converged into a single one, held by Heng Yi.

Heng Yi exerted his strength and flew up, carrying hundreds of Water Blue Clan members protected by the net into the night sky.

Looking down, he saw the trees in the distant forests around Water Blue City swaying, with dust continuously rolling out from the branches, clearly indicating that many Shadow Clan members were approaching from the forest, surrounding Water Blue City!

The juvenile Shadow Clan members discovered by the Water Blue Clan were indeed baits, confirming the arrival of human support at Water Blue City—

When the surrounding Shadow Clan members confirmed their arrival, they would organize and rush towards the human gathering place.

This initial clash in the Divine Gate training had completely failed, falling into the Shadow Clan's trap, resulting in a complete defeat!

Heng Yi, holding the rescue net with one hand, followed Chen Zizai and his team, flying as fast as possible. The higher they flew, the more light pillars representing emergency situations of other combat zones appeared in the night sky!

Indeed, in all directions, there were light pillars indicating that other combat zones were caught off guard and needed to combine forces.

Each moving light pillar meant that they were being pursued by a large number of Shadow Clan members they could not resist.

Except for the south, where the light pillars were clearly sparse, perhaps a trap, or perhaps the invading Shadow Clan numbers were insufficient, forcing them to abandon areas beyond their reach.

But regardless, compared to retreating in other directions, the south was the only way.

The sudden change in the situation made everyone very tense. Hu Baijie noticed that Heng Yi's speed of carrying hundreds of people through the air was much slower than usual, and saw the Shadow Clan members in the forests around Water Blue City discovering their escape and flying after them in large numbers. She shouted anxiously, "Forget about them! If we keep carrying them, we'll be caught too. Look at how many flying Shadow Clan members there are! If we're caught, we won't be able to protect them, and we'll be in danger ourselves. It's better to make a decision now!"

Hai Shan and Hai Yuntian, also tense, looked at Captain Chen Zizai. The situation was clear; if they left the Water Blue Clan members behind, they wouldn't be caught.

But they didn't say it out loud because they all knew that if the Water Blue Clan members died, their training achievements would be greatly reduced. The more who died, the more their achievements would be discounted. If all died, their achievements would only be counted at a normal one-tenth.

Chen Zizai said coldly, "If all the humans on Seed Star die, what's the point of winning?"

"But—"

"Shut up, Hu Baijie! I will not abandon them!" Heng Yi's angry outburst made Hu Baijie tremble, and she closed her mouth, feeling wronged. She thought she was thinking of everyone, but seeing Heng Yi so angry, she retorted, "Do you think I'm afraid of death? I won't say it, and I'll die with you if I have to!"

Heng Yi said firmly, "If we can't escape, I'll stay behind to cover you."

"Don't be foolish! If we try our best and still can't, we'll have to abandon them, but only as a last resort." Chen Zizai turned back, seeing that Heng Yi was clearly unwilling to make such a decision. Although worried, he knew arguing wouldn't help. The priority was to retreat as quickly as possible and avoid being caught by the Shadow Clan.

Chen Zizai roughly understood the movements of other combat zones through the changes in the light pillars on the southern escape route, deducing the distribution of the Shadow Clan pursuing them. He led the team to fly away quickly, avoiding enemy groups chasing other teams.

However, they couldn't avoid the approach of other teams who didn't consider their situation!

Xia Xia, leading three 16-year-old Second Earth Rank and two First Earth Rank disciples from North Elephant Mountain, came from the left despite Chen Zizai's repeated warnings. She was accompanied by three other teams.

Seeing Hu Baijie and Heng Yi there, Xia Xia was surprised, but in the face of the Shadow Clan's pursuit, there was no time for such considerations.

Hu Baijie, seeing them, shouted angrily, "We told you there are people here! Why are you still coming?"

Xia Xia snorted, "Why not just leave them? We're surrounded by Shadow Clan members on all sides, with no place to retreat. If we don't combine forces, we'll die!"

"Didn't you see that Wang Bupa from Northeast Elephant Mountain is dead!" Hu Baijie mocked, knowing that Xia Xia and her group were unwilling to take any risks, while Wang Bupa was leading his team to fly around in the air, trying to delay the enemy as much as possible.

Chen Zizai's face darkened. Although he was angry at the cowardice and lack of cooperation of the three teams led by Xia Xia, arguing now was pointless.

Hai Yuntian saw that the number of Shadow Clan members pursuing the three teams led by Xia Xia was less than those pursuing them in Water Blue City, frowning slightly. As an external disciple, he didn't say anything.

Heng Yi, however, had no such reservations. Noticing that Xia Xia and her group had not brought a single person from Seed Star, he asked in surprise, "Where are the people you were supposed to protect?"

Xia Xia found Heng Yi's question strange but was afraid of him. Without the support of an elder, she dared not speak rudely and replied calmly, "There were too many Shadow Clan members; we couldn't escape with them."

"What do you mean? You just left them there for the Shadow Clan to eat!" Heng Yi's indignant question made Xia Xia feel ashamed, but the other two disciples from other mountains, who didn't know Heng Yi, were unaware of his reputation. The team leader was very dissatisfied and said, "Isn't that obvious? Should we die with those lowly lives?"

Xia Xia remained silent, unwilling to provoke Heng Yi.

Heng Yi was shocked by the other leader's matter-of-fact tone, as if stating a simple truth like needing to eat when hungry. It was clear they hadn't even tried to help, yet they showed no remorse, leaving Heng Yi speechless with disbelief!