Lightning was a natural bane to blood elementalists, striking fear in them. The arrogance derived from the sharp increase in their fighting capabilities had received an enormous blow. This had at least calmed the chaotic Central Pine City, boosting everyone’s moral. Even though there were daily casualties among the survivors in Central Pine City, nobody’s confidence wavered. They strongly believed that the time for victory would soon come.
This surging morale allowed them to drive the blood fiends out of Central Pine City once more.
The plan to "treat the city as a piece of cloth" was unexpectedly proceeding smoothly. The lightning bolts from the sky had struck fear into the blood elementalists’ hearts. This allowed the A-1 unit to nail the gold needles without any further obstruction from the blood elementalists.
Some of the members conjectured that the blood elementalists must have realized that things were not going too well for them and escaped into the woods outside of the city.
From the continuous battles, everyone had obtained a lot of blood crystals. However, the other materials in Central Pine City had already run out. Without these materials, the blood crystals could not be directly absorbed. Otherwise, everyone’s fighting capabilities could rise to a higher level.
Not only did these materials run out, but the supplies in Central Pine CIty were running low as well, especially weapons. Right now, Jiang Wei, Sang Zhijun, and the other archers did not dare to be excessive with their arrows since there was no more spare ammunition.
Regarding the food supply, the situation was a bit better, but only a bit better. During the initial period of the blood catastrophe, there were many casualties. This reduced the consumption of the food supply and allowed it to last until now, but the food supply was still considered low. Wang Zhen had no choice but to deploy some manpower to search for food among the ruins. Due to the presence of blood fiends, however, their efficiency was quite low.
Anyone who possessed common sense would know that the plan to "treat the city as a piece of cloth" was the last hope. Otherwise, they would starve to death.
The blood crystals were very valuable and could be exchanged for Heaven Merit Points. However, as of now, they were rather useless. Ai Hui had a multitude of blood crystals, but all he could do was look at them. Luckily, Lou Lan could still use them.
Ai Hui was a bit shocked that Lou Lan could use the blood crystals, but there was nothing to be surprised about since Lou Lan was different from other sand puppets to begin with.
As for Shi Xueman and the other, they kept on praising Lou Lan. Omnipotent Lou Lan!
"The seventh gold needle!" Ai Hui muttered to himself as he watched the gold needle being nailed to the ground. The faces of people around him shone with radiance.
"Ai Hui, two more gold needles!" someone yelled, sparking off a wave of cheers.
Everyone followed Fatty in chanting Ai Hui’s name. After going through so many trials and tribulations together, the A-1 unit’s members treated each other like brothers.
It had been three days since the previous battle. Seven gold needles had been nailed and everyone could clearly sense that the elemental energy field in Central Pine City had changed. It was as if the elemental energy that had been lying dormant in the city had awakened, causing the air to filled with energetic elemental energy.
Every survivor’s face was filled with confidence and fighting spirit. The darkest time had passed.
The blood fiends were becoming increasingly stronger, and the number of casualties continued to rise. Battles continued to occur, and there were still people dying every now and then. However, despite all of this, the survivors’ confidence remained unwavering. They strongly believed they would obtain victory.
The vigorous elemental energy in the air was like fresh, clean air. It nourished everyone’s wound riddled bodies.
Everyone also discovered that their training efficiency rose significantly.
Yu Mingqiu, who guarded the sky, could clearly observe the situation on the ground. Watching over from above, he could see that the blood aura that engulfed Central Pine City was becoming fainter. It was as if the elemental energy that surrounded the city had undergone a tremendous transformation.
Yu Mingqiu was extremely surprised.
His master was a Grandmaster, so the knowledge and experience that he had been exposed to were extraordinary. However, even so, he had not come across such a phenomenon before. The energetic elemental energy in the air condensed and flowed in an indecipherable manner, forming an unique cycle that even Yu Mingqiu, himself, found incomprehensible.
Yu Mingqu immediately realized its usefulness. The vigorous elemental energy field was good for training!
If there was another city like the current Central Pine City, where the elemental energy field was so vigorous, it would attract countless elementalists. In the Avalon of Five Elements, any place that was good for training would be packed with people.
One such place was the Silver Mist Sea.
From the Silver Mist Sea, powerful currents of metal elemental energy flowed downward through the great Silver Mist River to Palette Cloud Village. 70% of the population and 90% of the cities were gathered on the two coastlines of the Silver Mist Sea.
This was all due to the fact that the closer a city was to the Silver Mist Sea, the better it would be for its inhabitants’ training and its production efficiency. The powerful currents of elemental energy from the Silver Mist Sea were a necessity to workshops and factories, just like how fire was essential to a smithy.
One unique characteristic of elemental energy was that it was very stable in nature. In other words, it was not vigorous enough. When it was not vigorous enough, the rate at which it could be absorbed and used was very low, resulting in a low training efficiency for elementalists.
Everyone knew about this weakness of elemental energy and had been thinking of ways to resolve it. Establishing the Avalon of Five Elements was one of the many ways. Take the Silver Mist Sea as an example. Countless damaged weapons were thrown into the river valley to excite the metal elemental energy within them before the river delivered the vigorous metal elemental energy to the entire Silver Mist Sea.
This was a grand engineering project. The current Silver Mist Sea and Silver Mist River were formed through generations of accumulated effort and hard work.
Yet, other than the two river banks of the Silver Mist River, the other places within the Silver Mist Sea were sparsely populated and unsuitable for living. Currently, the two river banks of the Silver Mist River were well-developed and did not have much empty land.
If those other places were like the current Central Pine City, they would definitely attract a huge number of elementalists. Regardless of their profession, elemental energy was the basis for elementalists. Farmers were not the only ones that needed Mother Earth for their livelihood, as elementalists also needed her. Even though the Silver Mist Sea contained an immense amount of energy, it still faced the risk of its energy being completely depleted. For example, a lack of discarded artifact remnants would directly cause a lack of metal elemental energy in the Silver Mist Sea.
A lot of cities could forge the same gold needles that Central Pine City had forged. Central Pine City was just an insignificant small town with limited resources in the Avalon of Five Elements. If the city could be popularized…
Yu Mingqiu was very excited. If all of these could be achieved, then Central Pine City would become well-known for making such a great contribution.
He remembered the mayor had previously mentioned that the designer and implementer of this plan were Ai Hui’s master and mistress, respectively. Mingxiu’s junior was indeed extraordinary.
Yu Mingqiu was not stupid enough to ask for the plan details. Right now, what mattered the most was getting through this crisis. He believed the higher-ups would not turn a blind eye to the impact that the gold needles had on Central Pine City’s elemental energy field
Similarly, Ai Hui did not ignore the impact of the gold needles either. He waved his arm and instructed, "Everyone, make good use of the time to train and recover your energy."
Everyone was used to him not saying anything motivational. On the contrary, they felt at ease. After working together for so long, everyone was connected on a deep level with each other. Without any hesitation, they started training.
"Lou Lan, supervise Fatty," Ai Hui instructed Lou Lan without even turning his head.
"No problem, Ai Hui," Lou Lan replied cheerfully.
Ai Hui was quite shocked by the fact that Fatty was previously able to kill a blood elementalist. He clearly knew Fatty’s fighting capabilities. Other than brute strength, Fatty did not have many spectacular skills. Usually, he was timid and lazy. How would one not find it surprising that he killed a blood elementalist by himself?
It seemed that Fatty did have some potential.
Promptly, Ai Hui increased Fatty’s training intensity and ignored his grumbles.
Ai Hui, himself, also tried to make full use of the time he had.
His fighting capabilities had improved greatly, especially his swordsmanship. Other than the last move of the sword pill, he was very proficient in executing the [Crescent Moon] and [Dust Fall]. [Crescent Moon] was used as a long-ranged offensive weapon. Even though the lightning bolt ability of the [Dust Fall] technique had an intimidating effect, its destructive power was not as impressive as the [Crescent Moon]’s in reality.
Of course, it was a different case for the blood elementalists. Lightning was the natural bane of the blood elementalists, so the [Dust Fall] was extremely threatening to them.
He had some ideas about the last move of the sword pill, [Night Epiphyllum], as well. However, he was still far from success.
Ai Hui was not anxious. Day by day, his understanding toward swordsmanship grew. The success of [Dust Fall] had significantly and especially enlightened him. [Dust Fall] differed from the usual sword moves. It more closely resembled the sword moves that the ancient swordsmen used.
Naturally, when compared to the moves of those swordsmen, its power was much weaker.
The improvement in swordsmanship could only be achieved through persistent hard work. Ai Hui was still working on this himself. As his understanding toward swordsmanship increased day by day, he started to devise more and more basic moves like the [Oblique Slash] and [Misty Strike].
With the destruction of the sword embryo, his swordsmanship instinct had actually become stronger instead. However, his instinct was still filled with uncertainty. To purely depend on instinct was to wager his life on a gambling table.
Ai Hui did not want to do that. Instinct could help him create more basic sword moves, allowing him to have a deeper understanding of swordsmanship.
He did not know how other people trained, so he could not think of anything else other than sticking to this stupid method.
There were very few sword inheritances nowadays.
He had not collected the inheritance that the mayor previously rewarded him and wanted to collect it only after he left this place, provided he was still alive by then. Learning a new inheritance in a short period of time would not be of much use to him at his current critical junction.
Sometimes, due to all the blood crystals and Heaven Merit Points, Ai Hui would think about life as a moderately wealthy person if he survived this catastrophe.
If he really survived this catastrophe, he planned to return to the Old Territory with Fatty.
His dream of becoming an elementalist had been achieved, and he also experienced being a hero. The other troublesome issues should be left to those geniuses to settle.
Upon witnessing the deaths of countless people and an entire city reduced to ruins, Ai Hui realized there were indeed places that were worse than the Wilderness.
He should bring master and mistress and find a place to lead a simple life.
Master was like a candle flickering in the wind, old and ailing. When mistress completed the plan of "treating the city as a piece of cloth," the damage inflicted to her body would most likely be irreversible as well.
Yeah, the Old Territory was quite good. He did not have any family members, so he could move somewhere near Fatty. He also had some money and could bring master and mistress back to the Old Territory and open an embroidery workshop there. Senior Mingxiu would come along of course.
Right now, Ai Hui’s biggest wish was to accompany master and mistress through the twilight years of their lives.
He glanced at the snow-white bandage, which was wrapped around his wrist tightly, and discovered that there was a blood trace on it.
This was left by the mysterious drop of blood from the red-dressed girl. The shape of the blood trace was somewhat weird, resembling an eye. Ai Hui did not know if this was just a coincidence or something peculiar.
All right, he would have to wait until everything was over before investigating it.
Everything would have to wait until he lived through this catastrophe.