CHAPTER 1520: CHAPTER 1520: THE CAUSE OF THE MONSTERS’ EMERGENCE

"The entire nobles’ district has undergone a mutation?" Kela lifted her head, looking at the empty street around her and the drifting ice crystals.

She thought of the mutated maid, her cheeks turned slightly, gazing at He Ao, "All these monsters were once humans?"

"Yes," He Ao shrugged, silently gazing at the desolate street, his movements slowed, his gaze deepened, and his voice turned low, sighing once again, "Yes."

"What caused it?" Kela seemed to sense his emotions, folding her hands in front of her, her voice gradually slowed, she asked softly.

"The cause," He Ao’s voice paused slightly, his originally chaotic thoughts were thoroughly cleared up with the arrival of Kela and Rote, he turned his gaze to Rote, who had completely risen, "Have you drunk the meat soup recently?"

The slight cold wind brushed against Rote’s cheeks, and the dizziness caused by rapid shaking made him somewhat uncomfortable, but he had actually been awake for a while.

It was just that the pollution in the ice crystals around him had brought out the intense hunger within his body, and he spent some effort suppressing the rising hunger before fully coming back to his senses.

And once he came to, he heard He Ao’s question.

He raised his head, initially stunned, then instinctively responded, "I haven’t had meat soup in a long time,"

He rubbed his brow, "But the Governor’s Palace has meat soup delivered every day. I don’t know where it’s from, but I didn’t drink it. Mostly, I let the maids—"

At this point, his words paused, he sharply raised his head to look at He Ao, "Is it the meat soup?!"

"Perhaps." He Ao’s gaze swept across the empty street, in the distance, amidst the snowstorm, faint outlines of monsters were sketched out.

"Did everyone who drank the meat soup turn into monsters?" Rote was momentarily excited, he looked up at He Ao, then glanced at the dense snowstorm and empty street around him, "How could that be, so many people in the entire nobles’ district, did they all drink that meat soup?"

He seemed to find grounds for refutation, looking at He Ao, he quickly said, "This snowstorm has even frozen the ocean, where could there be so much meat for so many people to eat? The city has practically run out of food!"

"Why couldn’t there be so much meat?" He Ao calmly gazed at him, asking in return.

Hearing He Ao’s question, Rote was slightly stunned, lifted his head to look at He Ao, and realized something.

After a moment’s pause, he rasped, "What is in the meat soup?"

This time, He Ao did not answer, he simply raised his hand gently, brushing through a lock of the little girl’s hair beside him.

The little girl raised her head somewhat puzzled, looking at him.

The faint wind rose out of nowhere, dispelling the gathered ice crystals around them, softly covering the box in the little girl’s arms.

The howling cold wind paused slightly, but the surrounding space seemed to become chillingly cold at this moment.

But soon, this coldness quickly receded and dissipated, as if it had never appeared.

He Ao lifted his head, looking at Kela, who had been silent beside him.

Kela’s expression showed no change, but on her fair, delicate cheek, there seemed to be a slight congealing of frost.

Beside her, Rote shivered slightly, realizing He Ao’s implication.

He raised his head, looking at He Ao, after a brief silence, he slowly began to speak, "So, did everyone consume it? How did they infect each individual?"

"Perhaps this is a special ’ritual’ in itself," He Ao lifted his head, looking at the brilliant aurora in the sky, sighing, "The focus isn’t on the soup, but on the act of eating, human greed is like hunger, endless, one spread to another."

"Does this ’greed’ also infect? As long as one has come into contact with it, they’ll be infected? Becoming a part of these greedy ’diners’? Plundering others’ lives to satiate oneself." Rote looked at He Ao, recalling the maid’s bloodstained crimson lips, "But why haven’t I—"

His words paused slightly, that meat soup indeed held a great allure for him.

The reason he didn’t drink it was that every time he saw the meat soup, he would think of the city-state’s soon-to-be-depleted grain warehouses, he couldn’t bring himself to it.

Perhaps this was a kind of luck, or perhaps a sort of misfortune.

"But these monsters also have distinctions in strength." Kela suddenly spoke beside him.

Her voice was no longer as gentle as it was before, even though her tone still remained beautiful, it carried a certain repressive chill.

"This may be related to their greed,"

He Ao stood in the snow, gazing at the depths of the snowstorm, behind those small monsters, there were also vaguely swaying large shadows, "The more greedy a person is, the larger the monster within their heart."

"Then those great nobles," Rote couldn’t help but interject, he let out a self-deprecating chuckle, "must all be huge monsters."

And just as these words fell, his smile stiffened slightly.

He suddenly remembered that the giant monster that broke through the Governor’s Palace was indeed massive.

And near the Governor’s Palace, there just happened to be a residence of a great noble.

"Alright." He Ao turned around, looking at Kela and Rote, "Enough chitchat, time to get to work."

The orange-gray brilliance in his eyes faded, during the conversation, he had already let the Eye of Truth float high in the air, using the Power of the Truth Eye, he quickly scanned the entire nobles’ area.

He raised his hand gently, and two still unconscious children flew from the sky, landing in front of him.

The clothing on these two children was not very thick, and without the protection of extraordinary power, even in their sleep, entering this area dense with snowstorms, they shivered slightly.

Kela, seeing this, gently raised her hand, and a sled formed out of thin air, catching the two children, then ice blocks on either side of the sled rose, closing off most of the sled, shielding the surrounding wind and snow.

"I just rescued them," He Ao said casually to the puzzled Rote, then he looked at Kela, "Now, should we exchange teammates?"

With that, he stepped aside, raised his hand, gesturing for the little girl to go to Kela.

The little girl looked up at him for a moment, somewhat puzzled, but she still walked over.

"What needs to be done?" Kela looked at He Ao, asking directly.

He Ao raised his hand, and a piece of scattered ice appeared in his hand from a distance.

Retrieve objects from the air.

He picked up the ice strip, quickly sketching a curved triangle in the snow, "This is the rough map of the city,"

He cut a quadrilateral out of the lower right corner of the triangle, occupying roughly a third of the triangle, "This part is the nobles’ district where we are now."

He quickly said, "Between this nobles’ district and the outer civilians’ district, there’s no city wall, but a row of three-story stone houses serves as a dividing line. There are actually only two entrances and exits for this area."

He Ao cut an opening on the top and right side of the quadrilateral, "The Governor’s Palace is in the area below, we came in from the opening below, now we’re in this top area, go a bit forward, and it’s the northern opening of the nobles’ district."

"As of now, neither the southern opening nor the edges of the nobles’ district have shown large-scale mutation, there’s no need to concern ourselves with those areas,"

He Ao pointed to the northern opening, a flash of orange-gray flashed in his pupils, "I just roughly scanned this entire nobles’ area, the mutations are mainly happening from the Governor’s Palace, connecting all the way to the northern opening.

"Right now, the people at the northern opening are rapidly mutating into monsters, a large number of monsters are moving up north through this opening."

He Ao lifted his head and looked at Kela, "There are many monsters in this area, and at the northern opening, there’s a large civilian settlement."

"I will stop them." Kela nodded slightly.

Kela’s freezing ability was quick, wide in scope, and could directly control monsters forcibly, making her more suitable than He Ao to block the opening.

"Take these children out with you as well." He Ao glanced at the little girl and the children in the sled, speaking quickly, "The aristocratic district and the southern opening haven’t started rapid mutation yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. Be careful."

"Understood." Kela nodded slightly.

She didn’t ask about He Ao’s other plans but instead raised her hand, and the ice reindeer pulling the sled condensed directly from the void.

She held the little girl, placing her and the other two children on a sled.

Then, instead of creating a new sled, she stood directly behind the one they were on.

The narrow ice path once again linked to the sky, and the ice reindeer galloped upwards with the sled.

At this moment, the outlines of monsters were faintly appearing in the surrounding snowstorm. A new wave of monsters had arrived, albeit much fewer than before.

"What do we do now?" Rote lifted his head and looked at He Ao, somewhat puzzled.

"Evacuate the people." He Ao said quickly.

Just like the map on the ground depicted, the city had not only an aristocratic district but also a civilian district.

"How do we evacuate now?" Rote looked at He Ao, puzzled.

However, before he finished his sentence, He Ao raised his hand, grabbed him, and quickly asked, "How many people are roughly in the civilian area outside?"

"About thirty thousand," Rote quickly shouted, "The population outside is much denser than in the aristocratic district."

"Thirty thousand." He Ao sighed lightly.

In this place, establishing a city of thirty thousand, if not for the Extraordinary Worldview, would almost be impossible with such ancient societal productivity.

"So we—" Rote began to speak again, but before he finished, he felt a tremendous force lift him, his feet leaving the ground, icy winds slashing his cheeks.

Accompanied by the fierce howling wind in his ears, he finally realized what was happening.

He was ’flying’!

’Hein’ had directly lifted him into the air!

His eyes widened, momentarily unable to react.

Flying without any support, this was even more shocking than Kela’s ice path construction earlier.

This must be the power of the Divine Being, right!?

While his thoughts were in turmoil, his figure had already passed through the fierce snowstorm and stopped.

The wind around steadied, yet it was much stronger than on the ground, and as the stable state calmed his thoughts, he quickly collected himself.

He lifted his head to look around.

At this height, he could already see the entire city’s outline shrouded in misty snow.

But for some reason, his limbs felt stiff, and an inexplicable panic arose.

He had never been to such heights before.

"Over there is the north," surrounded by the fierce snowstorm, He Ao raised his hand, pointing in a direction along the faint city outline, then turned to look at Rote, asking quickly, "Now, tell me, how should we evacuate the people?"

"We can’t evacuate the people now," Rote braced against the howling cold, raising his voice to overpower the wind, "The city is not designed for evacuation routes, nor is there any evacuation plan, and now, the entire aristocratic district, including the soldiers, have been infected by the monsters, rendering us unable to deliver any orders."

He looked at He Ao, "What you call ’evacuation’ is impossible."

"Outside the aristocratic district, there are thirty thousand ordinary people," He Ao gazed at the city, speaking calmly yet quickly, "If those hungry monsters are released, these people will be devoured, becoming nourishment for the monsters, and the city will be erased from history,"

He turned back to glance at Rote, "As the governor of Rock City State, is this the outcome you desire?"

His voice was calm and natural, each word pronounced clearly.

As if an external observer, asking the person at the storm’s center.

Governor, is this the outcome you desire?

This question was like a heavy hammer striking Rote’s chest, rendering him momentarily speechless.

He lowered his head, finding his hands tightly clenched without knowing when, unsure if it was due to fear or unwillingness.

But he knew he didn’t have much time to think. He took a deep breath and pointed to the city’s southern side, "Through the harbor,"

He looked in the direction he was pointing,

"Rock City State is surrounded by mountains to the north and east, the southwest is all sea, the harbor is directly south of the city, with no city walls, only some wooden fences, and it’s very wide, can be easily breached,

"Due to maritime transport, every main road in the city connects to the harbor, while the aristocratic district is on the mountain side, away from the harbor,

"Now the entire sea is frozen, the ice on the sea is thick, as long as people don’t gather too densely, they can completely escape to the sea.

"The harbor is the farthest from the North Gate, but for those residents, they can leave directly through the North Gate and then seal the city gate, making it the most efficient evacuation method,"

He turned his gaze to He Ao, "But, in such a short time, we can’t let everyone hear our instructions, all notification methods have failed, and with the wind and snow so strong, visual notifications are also ineffective, even if notified, many wouldn’t understand, nor be willing to evacuate."

The plan he could think of was just an idealized solution, the real difficulty lay in evacuation and management.

It’s extremely challenging to get tens of thousands to respond in such a short time.

"This need not worry."

He Ao raised his gaze, looking at the surrounding city.

Black ashes had long appeared on his other hand, forming into a shimmering, translucent black page.

He grasped the page with his fingers, slowly pulling it outward.

Boom——

Amidst the fierce snowstorm, an illuminating brilliance suddenly lit up above the dazzling aurora.