Safe City Ch.203

Chapter 203: Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals

Yu Bo hesitated for a while, but in the end, she still didn’t ask the other “Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals” around her how they knew which direction to go.

Ever since joining Blue Sea, Yu Bo had never encountered any situations where “Inner City residents throw their weight around” or “Inner City residents look down on Outer City residents.” Even so, she hadn’t been in Blue Sea for very long. And right now, she wasn’t inside the Safe City, where Blue Sea’s laws could keep people in check. So she decided to stay cautious and keep her mouth shut.

Besides, everyone was currently using the appearance of “Heavenly Soldiers and Generals.” If she didn’t say anything, who would know she was an Outer City resident?

Yu Bo kept her facial expression under control, making herself look just like everyone else, as though she were naturally making her way along with the crowd. At the same time, she secretly observed the other “Heavenly Soldiers and Generals.”

She and Liu Tiegu and the others had come down together in the same line. It was possible that some of her teammates were among this crowd.

Yu Bo was experienced enough to put on an act so flawless that not even the slightest crack showed.

Suddenly, a “Heavenly Soldier” up ahead turned his head. Although there was a whole crowd of people standing behind him, he looked directly at her and said,

“This way. We need to turn right up ahead.”

His tone was exceptionally friendly, and his manner was particularly considerate.

Yu Bo, whose act had been absolutely flawless until that moment: “…”

She couldn’t very well ask, ‘Why are you only telling me?’

When you were out and about, the most important thing was not to let anyone see you falter. So she nodded as calmly as though nothing were amiss.

“Thank you.”

Based on Yu Bo’s experience dealing with Inner City residents, the locals of Blue Sea were quite particular about politeness.

Apparently, this was because they believed that all Blue Sea residents were the children of God, and that their God would always be “watching” over them. Therefore, maintaining a good image was important.

As a result, when Outer City residents were fortunate enough to travel alongside Blue Sea locals, they could see that even when away from home, the locals would do their best to keep themselves clean and presentable.

The people of Blue Sea also liked to adorn themselves with accessories that wouldn’t interfere with combat. Things like necklaces, pendants, and bracelets were all carefully selected before they wore them.

Although, in their case, those accessories happened to be black skull necklaces, black skull pendants, and red skull bracelets.

They also had a particular fondness for hanging the stuffed heads of mutated beasts in their homes.

When Yu Bo visited Li Bujing’s home, she had pushed open the door only to see a monster baring its fangs and opening its enormous mouth at her. She had nearly flung a Burning talisman at it on the spot.

Still, she had to admit that although her first impression of the people of Blue Sea had been that they were a little intimidating, the more time she spent with them, the more she felt that their way of doing things was actually pretty good.

Yu Bo had encountered civilizations with religious beliefs before, but generally, their faith came with a strong sense of exclusivity and ethnic identity.

The Safe City system only reinforced this exclusivity.

Even when such civilizations were willing to accept residents from other civilizations, they treated them as lower-class citizens. They had all sorts of strange rules, which they not only followed themselves but also expected others to follow.

Some civilizations even continued to practice “human sacrifice” to this day.

In Yu Bo’s eyes, however, Blue Sea was practically the ideal model of a religious civilization.

For starters, the way believers worshipped Blue Sea’s Creator God was by working hard and treating their fellow believers with as much kindness as possible. Meanwhile, the clergy operated the Temple and provided believers with free medical examinations and treatment.

They did their best to keep themselves clean, but if circumstances made that impossible and they had no choice but to go about their business covered in dirt, that wasn’t considered blasphemy either.

They were willing to accept believers from other civilizations. And once Blue Sea considered someone a believer, they would treat that person as one of their own.

They had their own preferences and certain rules, but they only imposed those requirements on themselves. They never demanded that others do the same.

Most importantly of all, the people of Blue Sea could maintain harmony within their own civilization while still joining forces against external enemies. They possessed formidable combat strength and the ferocity of a pack of wolves.

The inner peace of their civilization allowed Blue Sea to develop smoothly from within.

And when facing war from the outside, their intense aggression allowed Blue Sea to keep expanding outward.

If Yu Bo had to give Blue Sea a comprehensive rating as a Safe City, she would choose a perfect score without a second thought.

How could there be a civilization that not only kept advancing and growing stronger but also maintained such rock-solid internal stability?

At first, she had indeed come for the benefits and welfare its residents enjoyed.

But now that she had truly experienced life in Blue Sea, Yu Bo was certain of one thing: even if Blue Sea eventually had to cut residents’ benefits for the sake of development, requiring them to surrender fifty or even seventy percent of their earnings, she still wouldn’t leave. Even if she encountered another Safe City offering better benefits than Blue Sea, she wouldn’t leave either.

Yu Bo wasn’t insisting on living an exceptionally comfortable life. They had all come from apocalyptic civilizations. Who among them hadn’t suffered hardships?

All she wanted was to put an end to this life of constant wandering, where every morning when she woke up, the first thing she had to do was tell her own head, ‘Stay attached today. Whatever you do, don’t fall off.’

She followed the others, lightly hopping toward their destination.

As newly born deities, their entire bodies were as light as feathers. They couldn’t walk with their feet firmly planted on the ground, so hopping was their only option. Each leap carried them an enormous distance.

As they hopped along, the first rays of dawn fell upon Fallen Heaven Star.

Yu Bo gazed ahead. The rosy glow of dawn flowed slowly along the mountain ridges, the slopes gleamed beneath the rising sun, and white morning mist rose into the light.

The scene was so beautiful that it almost took her breath away. Yet Yu Bo knew that this world had already begun its descent into destruction.

Even if it had been pulled back from the brink this time, the apocalypse would still come again.

Only by growing stronger, step by step, until a Safe City became a planet in its own right, could they escape the endless cycle of apocalyptic existence.

At that very moment, beneath the morning light, Yu Bo was hopping forward alongside a large group of Blue Sea residents. She wore armor and a golden-yellow helmet, and as she looked ahead, she believed that Blue Sea Safe City could achieve that future.

Now that she had become a Blue Sea resident, perhaps she would live to see such a morning.

An ordinary morning when she wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. She could sleep until she woke naturally, get up in the morning and pull open the curtains to bask in the sunlight outside. And when she started planning what to do that day, instead of thinking, How many mutated beasts do I need to kill today? she would be thinking, What should I eat today?

Someone up ahead shouted, “We’re almost there! Everyone, take flight!”

“How do we fly?”

“Use your divine power to support the soles of your feet, as if you’re standing on an airplane! Remember, support only the soles of your feet. Don’t use too much. We don’t have much divine power, and if you use too much, you won’t have enough left!”

Following the instructions, Yu Bo directed some of the divine power swirling around her body toward the soles of her feet.

—Though she had no idea how that person had somehow become the one giving orders.

Whatever. Who cared!

Yu Bo rose into the air and tightened her grip on the golden-yellow spear in her hand.

No matter what happened in the future, she had put down roots in Blue Sea. She wasn’t leaving.

“Now that’s what I call putting down roots.”

—

Qingtian County

Song Xi was sent flying. But she sprang to her feet again, grabbed the enormous broom in her hand, and swung it straight at the tree demon at the very center.

The tree demon spread countless roots in every direction. More than a dozen suddenly shot up from below, attempting to coil around Song Xi.

She nimbly dodged the roots on her left, planted one foot on a root below her, and used it to propel herself upward. Instead of being hindered by the tree demon’s roots, she turned them into a ladder, divine power swirling beneath her feet as she rapidly flew toward its trunk.

A root suddenly shot out of nowhere and knocked the broom from Song Xi’s hand before wrapping itself around her arm.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Song Xi exerted force with her left hand and chopped off her right hand, which had been formed from divine power.

With a flip, she caught her broom and swung it fiercely at the root. The root, which was clearly much more agile than the others, had no time to dodge and was severed on the spot.

Song Xi landed on the ground. At the stump of her severed right arm, golden divine power slowly gathered, forming a brand-new right hand.

—Being a god sure was convenient. Not only could you chop other people up, you could even chop yourself up whenever you wanted.

The only problem was that reconstructing her body consumed a tremendous amount of divine power. Song Xi could clearly feel that the amount of divine power available to her had decreased considerably.

But that didn’t matter. As long as she could maintain her physical form, that was enough. After all, this tree demon clearly had little combat experience. With so many roots at its disposal, it still couldn’t manage to catch her.

Song Xi flexed her newly reconstructed right hand, confirming that it worked properly. Then she used her divine power to draw a torch over from the distance.

Spotting a root whipping through the sky, she clenched the torch between her teeth and leaped upward with all her might. The root carried her high into the air, allowing her to evade countless other roots as she soared. Then she tossed the torch directly onto one of the tree demon’s main roots.

Heh heh. She had doused that root with lamp oil fifteen minutes ago.

Sure enough, a raging fire erupted almost instantly.

The tree demon had plenty of ordinary, slender roots, but only a dozen or so main roots, which were even thinner. Song Xi had no idea how the tree demon’s body was structured, but she knew one thing: the rarer something was, the more valuable it tended to be.

Besides, if burning this root didn’t work, she could always burn another one.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

The tree demon shrieked in agony. With the flames raging, it had no choice but to endure the pain and sever one of its main roots.

It glared hatefully at Song Xi, the culprit responsible for the loss of its root.

In an instant, at least eighty percent of the roots that had been fighting the other deities broke away and converged on Song Xi instead.

Rather than panicking, Song Xi grew even more excited.

“Now you’re talking!”

They had been fighting for ages. Finally, something worthwhile was happening!

Song Xi raised her left hand slightly, and another golden broom dropped into her grasp. Holding the broom in both hands like a spear, she pushed off with her feet and charged straight toward the roots filling the sky.

—Not far away, the locals and local deities who were also fighting the tree demon’s roots watched in utter astonishment.

“County God, is she one of your subordinates?”

A human cultivator who had merely been passing through the area when he saw the demon attacking the city and decided to lend a hand couldn’t help turning to the County God of the City God Temple. Before his eyes, Song Xi had just ripped a tree trunk apart with her bare hands.

The County God looked even more astonished than he did.

“I don’t recognize this honored deity either. Does the Mountain Lord know her?”

He turned toward the enormous tiger standing nearby.

The tiger was gigantic, and it was immediately obvious that it belonged to the demon race. However, the local mountain villagers regarded it as a mountain god and had built a temple in its honor. After accepting the faith of the people, it could be considered half a deity.

The enormous tiger had cultivated for over four hundred years and possessed considerable strength. It had never harmed humans and even kept the beasts in the mountains from descending the slopes indiscriminately. As a result, whenever the County God encountered it, he would respectfully address it as the Mountain Lord.

The giant tiger let out a low growl. It had already cultivated the transverse bone in its throat, allowing it to speak human language.

“I don’t know her either. I’ve never seen this honored deity in any of the nearby mountain villages.”

The whole situation had been utterly baffling.

Qingtian County had been ambushed by the tree demon, and in almost an instant, its roots had spread throughout the entire county.

Originally, the only divine forces capable of fighting in the entire county were the City God’s faction and the Mountain Lord.

Having a passing cultivator join the battle halfway through was already a stroke of extraordinary luck.

And yet, in the middle of the fight, another deity had suddenly appeared and joined the fray.

What was more, her combat prowess was astonishing. The way she charged into battle and cut her own arm off without the slightest hesitation made it seem as though she, rather than anyone else, was the County God of Qingtian County.

Now things had become even more absurd. The tree demon had diverted a full eighty percent of its roots to deal with that deity, instantly relieving the pressure on everyone else.

A deity, a tiger demon, and a human cultivator exchanged bewildered looks.

Then, a low-ranking ghost soldier from the City God Temple, who was also participating in the battle despite his limited strength, suddenly spoke up in a quiet voice.

“Lord County God, this subordinate knows which deity she is.”

“This subordinate was a resident of Daxiang Village when I was alive. This deity is the Broom God worshipped by Daxiang Village. According to legend, the Broom God is responsible for keeping households safe and healthy. With the Broom God guarding the home, there will be no infestations of rats or disasters caused by snakes.”

County God: “…The Broom God??”

The human cultivator recalled carefully. “The Broom God… Isn’t it only supposed to chase away rats?”

The enormous tiger also widened its eyes, staring at the towering deity up ahead. She was growing more and more vigorous as she fought, wielding two brooms while weaving in and out among countless roots.

“You people from Daxiang Village… You call that the Broom God?”

The human cultivator said, “Forget about all that for now! The divine power around the Broom God is dwindling. We’ve already rescued the civilians here, so let’s hurry up and go help!”

This tree demon was truly terrifyingly powerful. If a “Broom God” hadn’t suddenly appeared, the three of them alone would probably have perished here.

In fact, even with the Broom God’s help, the four of them together might still run out of stamina before the tree demon did.

The three figures were just about to charge forward.

Suddenly, a massive bolt of lightning crashed down.

The tree demon’s enormous trunk abruptly froze.

It let out a pained scream as the lightning struck, leaving the three local fighters stunned in place.

Then they saw the dark clouds above disperse.

Hundreds of heavenly gods stood suspended in the air, clad in golden armor and gripping swords, spears, and other weapons. They stared coldly down at the tree demon.

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**TN
Holy sh*t, their entrance is so cool! ₍₍⚞(˶>ᗜ<˶)⚟⁾⁾