Chapter 59: Air Raid!

Chen Chong had no idea that the Blood General’s hands-off attitude toward him held another layer of meaning. When he arrived at the mess shed where meals were served, a large crowd of underlings had already packed every stone table, and a clamor of noise filled the place. Chen Chong’s gaze swept quickly across the scene, and he spotted Yin Hu, Gu Jun, and two other figures he had never seen before sitting together. They seemed to be Awakeners as well, managers of the Territory.

By now, through Old Xu, Chen Chong had learned that there were as many as eight Awakeners in the entire Crimson Territory, all of them were claws and fangs under the Blood General’s command, each in charge of different tasks: Territory defense, resource management, factory supervision, hunting outside, resource gathering… and so on. They were Tie Shan, Gu Jun, Yin Hu, Li Bao, Zhang Long, Sun Yimao, Qian Xu, and Wang Qianlie—these eight Awakeners. If Qiao Jun, who was currently at the Dawn Gathering Place, was added, the total would be nine.

After confirming the positions of these squad-leader-level figures, Chen Chong deliberately kept a low profile, avoiding those spots without drawing any attention as he went to the serving counter to get his own food.

Due to his mad cultivation, Chen Chong had been secluded for the past few days, hardly leaving his room except for meals and night guard duty at the Power Station. And since the conflict with Li Bao last time, no blind fool had come to provoke Chen Chong again.

But just as Chen Chong had gotten his food and was about to find a quiet place to quickly finish it and go back to his training, an unexpected situation suddenly erupted.

“Jingle-jingle-jingle—!”

The piercing alarm bell rang out, clear and sharp, suddenly echoing throughout the sky above the entire Territory, making Chen Chong freeze in surprise.

What was going on?

Chen Chong frowned, and then he immediately saw dozens, even hundreds, of underlings in the mess shed jump up as if struck by lightning. They all grabbed the makeshift guns, sticks, and clubs at their sides, their expressions extremely tense, and swarmed out in a rush.

At the same time, Chen Chong also noticed that on the other side, Gu Jun, Yin Hu, and the other Awakeners had also stood up with grave expressions, as if something major had happened. They quickly rose and began gathering their own men, shouting loudly.

“Alarm level three, Wing-claw Stone Vultures are attacking!”

“Prepare for air raid, prepare for air raid! Combatants, find cover immediately and prepare to fight back!”

“All other personnel, head to your assigned factories immediately! Move!”

Wing-claw Stone Vultures? What were those? Radiation Species?

A question formed amidst the chaos. Chen Chong watched as squads of underlings rapidly assembled under the roars of the Awakeners, then were led in a frantic rush toward the main gate of the Territory and the locations of various factories, as if they had drilled this many times and were already experienced.

The vast mess shed emptied of underlings, leaving only a mess behind. It seemed no one had time to bother with Chen Chong. Stirred internally, he immediately followed behind a group of underlings, arriving near the open ground in front of the Territory’s main gate.

Once here, the underlings suddenly dispersed, each finding cover. Gripping their assorted guns and cannons tightly, they stared nervously at the sky, fully prepared for battle.

“Scree! Scree—!”

Here, the view was wide open. In an instant, Chen Chong noticed that beneath the dark clouds on the distant horizon, a great expanse of black shadows was rapidly surging toward the Territory’s location. As they swooped down, they let out wave after wave of terrifying, piercing shrieks that crashed down upon the Crimson Territory on the ground!

Even at a distance of several kilometers, these sharp, shrill cries were so clear and chilling. Then, with the aid of his sharper-than-normal eyesight, Chen Chong immediately discovered that the black shadows swooping down from the sky in overwhelming numbers were dozens of monstrous birds, each as large as a calf. These monstrous birds had four claws on their bellies, and each claw was gripping a rock even larger than a basketball!

“Are these flocks of monstrous birds attacking the Territory?”

Chen Chong’s expression became solemn. He instantly understood what Gu Jun and the others had meant when they shouted about an air raid earlier. He had absolutely no intention of trying to be a hero. He immediately shrank down into a trench beside him.

And just as Chen Chong had ducked into cover—

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

A rapid succession of gunshots rang out. The guards at the main gate, cursing furiously, fired their makeshift guns together at the monstrous birds in the sky over a hundred meters above, seemingly trying to attract their attention.

“Scree!”

However, in the next moment, an exceptionally loud cry rang out across the sky. As if they had received some sort of command, the dozens of monstrous birds in the air completely ignored the guards gathered at the main gate. They suddenly accelerated their dive, passing over the gate, and just as they were about to reach the sky above the center of the Crimson Territory, they released their claws, dropping the hundreds of rocks down!

Amidst the dull, howling wind, these rocks accelerated downwards like cannonballs. To the Crimson Territory, it was nothing short of a fierce artillery barrage. With a series of deafening crashes, these dense rock-bombs smashed through the roofs of dilapidated low buildings and factory workshops one after another. Quite a few unlucky underlings were unfortunately struck by the rock-bombs, blood splashing on the spot as they turned into meat paste.

“Dammit, their target is the factories!”

“They’re so high up, we can’t hit them at all!”

“What’s going on? How did these beasts get so smart?!”

Everywhere was filled with roars, screams, and explosions. It was impossible to tell who was giving orders anymore. The guards at the main gate changed color drastically, firing their guns futilely into the sky. However, their makeshift guns, with a maximum range of no more than fifty meters, posed almost no threat to the Wing-claw Stone Vultures circling and screeching in the air.

These Wing-claw Stone Vultures seemed to possess considerable intelligence. The main focus of their care wasn’t the underlings guarding the open ground of the Territory, but the various factory workshops, which were the largest targets. The effect they created was very obvious: when the roof of one workshop after another was smashed open, immediately large numbers of panicked laborers surged out, scrambling over each other to flee.

As dense streams of laborers poured out of the workshops, the Wing-claw Stone Vultures circling above the Crimson Territory let out excited screeches, then dove toward the fleeing human streams on the ground like bolts of lightning!

“Go reinforce the factories! Quickly go to the factories!”

Seeing this scene, the guards at the main gate immediately surged toward the locations of the various factories. Amidst this chaos, just as Chen Chong was about to follow closely, from the corner of his eye, he saw Wei De and Lu Kai running out from somewhere, shouting at him.

“It’s dangerous here! Come with us!”

He knew these two had been watching him, worried he might try to escape in the confusion. But Chen Chong himself had no intention of escaping, so he ignored the two men and continued to follow closely behind the running guards.

“Damn!”

Wei De and Lu Kai cursed angrily. They didn’t understand Chen Chong’s intention, but dared not forcibly stop him. They had no choice but to nervously and anxiously follow closely behind Chen Chong.

“Ah! Ah!”

“Save me! Someone save me!”

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The Wing-claw Stone Vultures circled and dove in the air. The miserable wails of the laborers rose from every corner of the Territory. On the streets and in the alleys, one Territory guard after another was shooting madly with ferocious expressions. Muzzle flashes, roars, screams, and the hair-raising cries of the monstrous birds filled the sky above the Crimson Territory. Chen Chong, however, stopped at the outer edge of the chaos zone and quickly climbed up a small, half-destroyed gun tower that had been smashed by rocks to look out.

Using the height advantage, Chen Chong immediately saw the monstrous birds in the air circling and waiting for opportunities to strike. From time to time, one would swoop and pounce toward the ground, and then a terrified, struggling laborer would appear in its claws. As if it had caught its own food, it would flap its wings excitedly, soaring straight up into the high sky!

And in mid-air, these monstrous birds would begin to hungrily tear and gnaw at the laborers caught in their claws. The sharp mouthparts directly tore the desperately struggling laborers apart like rag dolls. For a moment, blood mixed with entrails splattered down from the sky. It was a foul wind and a bloody rain, too horrible to behold!