Lin Huang sat on a chair as he listened to the border soldier who was talking to him in the guest room.


    "There’re a total of 32 posts in the southern border of the White Capital. The post that has been discovered is the South Beacon. It’s the biggest post in the south, and there’s a detective supreme relic."


    "There supreme relic has to be activated using energy crystals. Under normal circumstances, it’ll be randomly activated once a week. It can detect a radius of up to a thousand kilometers which covers half of the southern border. It’ll alert us whenever something is wrong. Of course, an alert will be sent if more than a thousand monsters appear within three hundred kilometers."


    "Around forty minutes ago, the relic was triggered. When the alert was sent, the South Beacon staff spent a massive amount of energy crystals to activate the relic. That was how they confirmed the monster horde. They informed all of the posts as well as the Union Government headquarters as soon as they found out. After the Union Government confirmed that it’s real, they sent all of you the mandate. You already know the rest..."


    "How did they confirm the scale of the monster horde? Was it with that relic as well? Also, who gave the final say of the destruction-grade monster horde? Is it confirmed that there’ll be many immortal- and imperial-level monsters this time?" Lin Huang asked the questions that he was eager to know after hearing about what had happened.


    "All of them came from the relic. Not only can it calcte the rough number of the monsters, but it can also differentiate the monsters’ aura. As soon as it detects transcendent-level monsters, it cane up with the exact number andbat level. It has never made any mistakes before."


    "ording to the results sent from the South Beacon, the monster horde this time is massive. There are over 1.5 million monsters from different sources. I heard it’s not the opening of Virtual Eye, but the South Beacon has yet to identify what the cause of the monster horde is. Theybel it a ’destruction-grade’ monster horde not because there’re so many monsters, but the relic has detected that they are more than three thousand transcendent-level monsters this time with more than a hundred immortal-level monster as well as three imperial-level monsters..."


    Lin Huang was shocked when he heard what the border soldier said.


    "Thee thousand transcendent-level monsters... More than a hundred immortal-level monsters... And three imperial-level monsters?!"


    Lin Huang had never expected such a huge scale of monsters. He started doubting if this was the work of the Purple Crow. If the Purple Crow had really gone out of their way to drive such a terrifying monster horde, the Union Government would have been reced by them since the beginning of time.


    "How wide does the area of the monster horde cover?" Lin Huang snapped out of his thoughts and asked.


    "ording to the South Beacon, more than 80% of the southern border is within the range of the monster horde. The monster horde will take an hour and a half to reach the border, but there’re already some flying monsters at some of the posts..."


    Lin Huang got up and left the guest room after obtaining the information that he needed from the border soldier. The two immortal-levels had just finished their conversation with the directors when he got to the hall. The duo peeped at Lin Huang again as he walked out while Lin Huang nced at them as well. He then walked out of the post, trailed by the duo.


    "The monster horde will take an hour and a half to arrive here. Should I stay here or should I get to the ce where the monsters are already to help?" Just when Lin Huang was deciding, the two immortal-levels flew into the sky and headed to the east. Looking at the duo who disappeared into the sky, he decided to stay. If there were no immortal-level at this post, it would definitely be destroyed once a chief-level monster appeared. Since the two immortal-levels had left, the postcked an immortal-level, so he decided to stay.


    Many people started talking about the two immortal-levels who had left while a majority of the holy fire-levels were concerned. They knew about the situation from the border soldier as well. Not only would there be chief-level monsters that were as powerful as immortal-levels, there were even king-level monsters that wereparable with imperial-levels. There were only three imperial-level monsters, so the probability of encountering them was low. However, there were more than a hundred immortal-level monsters. If those were to be divided among the 32 posts, there would be at least three of them at every post on average. Without any immortal-level person there, the post was in crucial danger.


    Lin Huang did nothing as he watched the insecure people. He could not tell them that he was powerful enough to kill immortal-level monsters. Even if he did, nobody would believe him. As time passed, no immortal-level person arrived. Many of them were in despair, and some of them were even thinking of running to other posts. A few of them decided to leave after giving it a thought. Some of them did not stay as they did not see any immortal-leveling.


    An hour had passed, and the post was only left with 19 holy fire-levels, including Lin Huang. Apart from Lin Huang, most of them had no expression on their faces. Some of them looked gloomy. Although they know they would die if they stayed, they decided to stay anyway because if there was nobody left here, the monsters could invade right away. If they stayed, they might be able to buy some time for the soldiers.


    Lin Huang became upset as the atmosphere thickened. He knew that those who decided to stay would probably die. It was the end of November, and despite being the southernmost part of the White Capital, it was winter there. As the sky turned bright, ayer of snow had umted on the ground. The 19 of them surrounded a burning bonfire, and the heavy atmosphere was even colder than the weather. Looking at the crackling bonfire, an indescribable emotion mustered in his chest. Lin Huang could not help but breathe out a cloud of white mist.


    A tall, bearded man sitting on Lin Huang’s left peered at him and the other couple of young men.


    "Guys, I bet all of you know that this post is at high risk as there’s no immortal-level here. I’m not trying to discourage any of you here, but there’s something that I must say." The bearded guy looked at the young men and said after hesitating. After he had gotten everybody’s attention, he started speaking.


    "We have three young men here. I’m guessing the oldest of them isn’t even 25. They have the potential to level up to immortal-level or even imperial-level. You shouldn’t waste your lives here. I think you guys should leave and get to a post with at least an immortal-level."


    What the bearded man said made many of them fall silent, but soon grunts of agreement were heard.


    "The bearded guy is right. There’s no difference if we have the three of you here anyway. Let the three kids go," another old man with gray hair said.


    Lin Huang did not say a word. He could see that the two other young men were pausing.


    "Kids, leave. You guys still have a long way to go. You shouldn’t waste your life here. We’re old, so there’s no hope for us to get to immortal-level anymore. But you guys are different..." The bearded man patted Lin Huang’s shoulder.


    Lin Huang kept quiet for a moment and shook his head while smiling wanly. "I’m staying. If I leave, nobody will kill the immortal-level monsters for you guys."


    The people were stunned but soon many of themughed out loud.


    "You didn’t look like a funny guy." The bearded man patted Lin Huang’s shoulder hard again and grinned. It was not an insulting smile, but a humorous one.


    The two young men seemed to be much rxed now and one of them said, "I’m staying. If I run away this time, I’d be guilty for the rest of my life."


    "I’m staying too. I’ve never seen how an immortal-level monster looks like. I would like to see it." The other young man forced a smile.


    "Since you guys are so determined, we shall be life and death partners. Let me introduce myself. My name is Ai De." The bearded man raised his wine pot high, took a big swig, and passed it to Lin Huang.


    "Hi, my name is Lin Huang. Nice to meet everybody here!" Lin Huang was surprised at first, but he then took the wine pot and raised it up. He took a sip like the bearded man did and passed it to the middle-aged man on his right.


    "My name is Wang Long!" The middle-aged man epted the wine pot, introduced himself, and passed the pot along...


    All of them then started passing the wine pot around as they surrounded the bonfire. They drank while they introduced themselves. Even the young man, who was not good at drinking, took a big gulp and his face was flushed. Everyone was guffawing at him. Lin Huang remembered all of their names. As the wine pot returned to Ai De’s hands, he took a few sips again and howled hard.


    "From today onwards, no matter dead or alive, we’re all partners!"


    Lin Huang was moved as he had never thought having life and death partners could bring such power to him. Suddenly, a horn was blown very loudly as someone shouted from the top of the tower, "The monster horde is here!"


    "Hahaha..." Ai De walked to the bonfire and spilled all of the remaining wine into the fire. The mes roared a couple of meters higher as Ai De took out an ax and smirked, shouting to them, "My brothers, it’s time to party!"Author ced a note saying [Imperial Level] here.