Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 849: Chapter 645 Hill’s Unbearable Patience

An Ran was unclear about many things, but he explained most of the situation, so Hill sighed softly and didn’t plan to ask more questions.

There are some things that the Shulong people would never say to an outsider like Hill, and An Ran was forced to be this honest.

If they still hoped Hill would lend a hand, he absolutely couldn’t hide most matters, especially those related to today’s troubles.

But in An Ran’s words, he only mentioned that his family members would be safe.

If members of a noble clan died, they died, and upon hearing An Ran’s words, Hill understood. Among the families that did not intend to betray the nation, there were also those like An Minyi. Hill had never been interested in such internal strife.

Moreover, when the head of the An Family cleared the way, those family heads still had a chance to escape. If the An Family’s head had An Ran as a lifesaver, other families would definitely have backup plans too.

But... what about the ordinary people?

Hill was silent for a moment before softly asking, ”Are the people of Benevolence City okay? The monster is still there!”

”The An Family is fine, they should run,” An Ran replied evasively. ”The reason the eldest son fainted was that the Black Cavalry had issued their national emergency rescue order, which they couldn’t release even in the face of a life-threatening danger.

It’s only released when the empire’s safety is threatened.

No matter where they are, the Black Cavalry will rush to Benevolence City, including the commander in the Imperial Capital.

Without controlling the part of the city owned by the An Family, there’s no way Benevolence City can withstand the Black Cavalry.”

So the ordinary people... if they’re lucky enough to survive until the Black Cavalry arrives, they’ll be saved? If not, they’ll just have to accept their fate?

Hill’s face darkened as he turned to look at the closed gates of Benevolence City. Should he blow that gate open?

An Ran quickly sensed his displeasure and quickly said, ”As long as the ordinary people hide in their homes, nothing will happen to them. The worm fears sunlight and doesn’t dare come to the surface during the day.

Even at night, compared to ordinary people, those noble clan members trying to escape are more attractive to the monster. It likes to eat those with vigorous energy.

Except for those who have to go out and see, most people are fine.”

Hill glanced at An Ran and silently erased any goodwill he had toward him.

Although An Ran spoke lightly, at least the ordinary people living in the area of the Lin Family would have no way out after these noble clan members left.

He was avoiding the important issues.

An Ran could indeed ignore the life and death of those people, after all, he still had two closer people to save. But he shouldn’t try to keep Hill here to protect them just because Hill showed concern for civilian lives.

Hill didn’t say anything more to him, just notified Shalna to prepare to leave Benevolence.

When Hill was chasing that volcanic snake, he had already collected those puppets. Shalna only needed to pack up the small house.

He thought for a moment and still left a Defensive Magic Array. Although An Ran’s actions were a bit disappointing, human nature is such that everyone hopes to be safer.

But Hill felt that he was still willing to befriend someone like Lynn. Paths ultimately converge or diverge, and it doesn’t change even if they have his preferred black hair and brown eyes.

If it were Lynn...

Even if similarly caught up in family conflict, Lynn would choose to let Hill save people first; he would desperately protect his own.

Hill flew outside Benevolence City, and twelve long swords shot directly at the city gate.

This time, the accompanying spell wasn’t Thunder, but golden light. As the city gate blew apart, these lights swiftly followed the main road to the city center. Any tendril of the worm that touched the golden light was rapidly incinerated by the Power of the Sun.

It seemed that compared to Thunder, this monster feared sunlight more, though this wasn’t normal and was likely related to the Demon-sealing Magic Formation.

Hill saw that even with such a strong Power of the Sun, it was still being dissipated by the Demon-sealing Magic Formation. Fortunately, the speed of light was fast enough to act before the formation could react.

Benevolence City suddenly shook like an earthquake, indicating the monster was hurt to an unclear extent.

Hill spoke calmly, his voice not loud but reaching every corner of the city: ”You have 1 hour to leave Benevolence City if you wish.”

He floated quietly in the air, observing the immense city of Benevolence.

The areas where the noble clans resided were brightly lit, with many people bustling back and forth, seemingly packing up things.

The one silent place was by the river in the northeast of the city, likely where the An Family was located, but even there, the entire fortress’s sky was filled with Evil-Banishing Lamps.

Indeed, staying home would suffice, but do ordinary people’s homes have Evil-Banishing Lamps?

All they can do is huddle together and pray for the Heavenly Court’s protection, right?

But...with no sorcerer to convey their prayers to heaven, and with the Heavenly Court on the Kalartu Continent being a layer away, there’s no chance they could respond.

An Ran indeed wanted to use the truth to cover up his lie: the noble families do plan to leave Benevolence City, but tonight they will only pack their belongings. Even if the Black Cavalry sets out overnight, it is impossible for them to arrive by tomorrow.

Even if the commander of the Black Cavalry, upon discovering the chaos in Benevolence, could directly contact the emperor for permission to attack the city, if Hill doesn’t take action, these civilians might have to endure another night under the ravaging of the monsters.

How many people would die?

Hill’s expression wasn’t good; the journey to Shoulong truly went from an interesting beginning, to a burst of anger in the middle, to complete disappointment now.

If he hadn’t held so many beautiful fantasies about Shoulong, he probably wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable at this moment.

Perhaps, those novels and TV dramas of the past still left him with a bit of fantasy about people in a feudal dynasty?

There, no matter how cruel the place, it seemed there was always an official or noble willing to reach out and save people.

However, this is not the world in the books. At the critical moment of life and death, no one cares about the lives of ordinary civilians; they have to struggle on their own.

No noble family opened their gates for those civilians.

And the officials, Hill saw the evil-banishing lamps shining brightly above each mansion on Tianguan Residence Street, but they didn’t even let the light spill outside the walls.

This isn’t a world where the accumulation of ordinary people outside would push down the courtyard walls; even if the civilians multiplied by dozens of times, they couldn’t harm the people inside the courtyards.

Yet, still no change.

Hill considered the path back to Agleya City; after all, the Undead Tribe is more endearing.

Hill knew he was also at fault. Even though he knew the character of the nobles in Ferun, he still thought the ones in Shoulong would be different. But in reality, people like An Ran were already quite decent nobles.

He gazed at everything in Benevolence City and sighed quietly in his heart.

The golden light harmed the reality of that monster, seemingly giving the civilians hope to survive. Hill saw countless figures emerge from the neighborhoods, madly rushing toward the gates of the city that Hill blasted open.

The gates that Hill blasted, half on water, half on land, so some boats were quickly being rowed.

Hill saw many children being put on the boats and smiled slightly, his somewhat gloomy mood lightened significantly.

He knew this matter wasn’t largely related to him, but... if his indifferent observation led to so many innocent civilians’ deaths, Hill thought he would be very tormented.

Hill gently raised his hand and sent a wisp of wind to the boats filled with children that were moving a bit slowly.

The Toril people, regardless of which continent they’re from, deeply understand the principle that life is more important than money, and they also understand very well that when a strong person is willing to help, it’s out of kindness, but that kindness always has its limits.

Most importantly, humans in the Fantasy World are physically quite robust, so an hour later, when the monster’s tentacles started to probe out again, only the people from the noble families remained in the city.

Although Benevolence City is very large, the population outside of the noble families was only a few hundred thousand.

Hill could somewhat understand the Shoulong Emperor’s hostility toward the noble families. In his perception, the number of people left in the city wasn’t much less than those who had left.

Hill didn’t plan to consider those political issues. When dogs bite each other, people just need to observe. He quietly drew a straight line with Sun Crystal Stones between the places where civilians gathered and Benevolence City.

As long as they don’t cross that line seeking their own death, they can quietly await Shoulong’s reinforcements.

Hill would rather go to such trouble than personally clean up that monster.

In his heart, there was a pent-up frustration that couldn’t be expressed.

Let Shoulong handle their own monster!

Hill settled down on a gigantic nanmu tree, glanced at Farana, who had walked under the tree, and pulled out his self-made map of Shoulong to consider his way back, whether to go through the Ice Mountain or the Great Sea.

Luckily, that Treasure Pavilion was at the inner-most part of a commercial street, and on his way there, Hill emptied quite a few shops, which of course included bookstores, but what Hill was most interested in was the specialty shops.

In several specialty shops, besides seeds, they also sold fruit trees and tea trees planted in large pots. Hill found it interesting, so he bought them all: he got over a dozen types of lychee seeds and saplings, and even more tea trees.

The shop owners probably thought Hill was a curious foreigner, since everyone knows that such things can’t be grown in large volumes outside the special environment of the Shulong Empire.

Especially the delicate lychee, can’t be planted even in the Magic Botanical Garden; if the environment isn’t just right, such fruit trees will directly die.

People in Haidong Province have actually gotten used to the surprise and excitement of foreigners. They all know that these wealthy foreigners are more than willing to take those fruit trees that can’t be grown back home to show off, as proof that they did cross the sea to the mysterious Shulong Empire.

These ordinary people seemed to have gotten used to the life of fleeing, there weren’t even many sounds of quarreling.

The place Hill found for them had trees and water, and when they escaped, they brought with them some food, and now they’ve started lighting campfires.

The Silvermoon in the night sky shined on the earth. Occasionally, someone would look up at Hill sitting on the big tree, then comfortably smile as they sat by the campfire drinking water and eating.