Chapter 96: "Revelry"

Yuxing and his companions lingered at the edge of the crowd, pretending to be mere passersby, quietly observing the trio ahead. Two of them were Maguna’s comrades, while the third was an unfamiliar young man—likely a temporary teammate recruited by Balero and his group.

Maguna, though clearly agitated, refrained from rushing through the crowd. The situation was unclear; it was safer to reunite in private. The three warriors had already stepped off the red carpet, and the revelers were not dispersing. Cheering and waving their belongings, they followed the warriors down the main avenue, clustering around them.

Zonggu Yu watched the crowd intently and unexpectedly spotted a suspicious figure pulling a black, box-like object from his coat. Its shape was unmistakable.

“It’s a bomb!”

As Zonggu Yu instantly forced Yuxing on his left and Peijia on his right to the ground, explosions erupted among the crowd ahead. A violent blast swept over them, limbs flying amidst the thick smoke. Panic-stricken screams filled the air as people fled in terror, trampling one another. In an instant, the site of celebration became a living hell.

Maguna, though not knocked down by Zonggu Yu, reacted swiftly, dropping to the ground the moment he heard the warning. He emerged with nothing more than a disheveled hairstyle, unharmed.

The crowd scattered like frightened animals, leaving chaos in their wake. Some of those trampled groaned on the ground, while others lay motionless.

Curiously, the three warriors at the center of the blast suffered little harm—perhaps they had taken measures in the moment of explosion. Now, the trio had already begun rescue efforts, moving survivors who could still be shifted to the roadside.

Their expressions, as they surveyed the scattered limbs and the maimed supporters, could only be described as grim.

No hospitals existed here in the usual sense; only doctors serving the wealthy and powerful, themselves victims transported into the nest. As long as they offered their expertise to the distinguished, they could secure a relatively safe and comfortable life. The circular districts built around the “Cavern” housed these elite, with the “Arsenal” providing their security. Beyond the ring lay only smoky alleys and dilapidated buildings—the true slums.

It was no wonder that, upon arrival, the group had been escorted out by the Arsenal. They had been banished to the slums, forced to prove their worth. Only those who demonstrated value could hope to reside in the upper ring district near the Cavern; the worthless were left to wallow in the mud.

Yuxing and his party were natural allies of the three warriors, so Maguna took the lead, guiding his companions toward Balero.

Noticing Yuxing’s group approaching openly and rapidly, Balero glanced at them, quickly recognizing Maguna among them. His vigilance toward the four immediately faded.

“Save the wounded first,” Balero said, without pleasantries, eyes sweeping over the devastation.

Yuxing and his companions searched for survivors, extracting those still breathing from the piles of bodies and propping them against the wall. Yuxing looked at those missing limbs but still gasping for air and felt a wave of pessimism. He knew some basic battlefield care, but could only bandage and temporarily staunch bleeding—he couldn’t truly pull them from the brink of death. The air here was filthy; wounds so exposed would almost certainly become infected. He could only hope these beings possessed some peculiar constitution that would help them survive the infection.

Indeed, the basic medical items provided by the Arsenal hinted at the situations they might face. Tourniquets signified bleeding wounds; disinfectant meant infection was a threat. Yuxing quickly tallied the number in need, then emptied all his basic medical supplies from his pack. He didn’t really need these for himself; with a simple adjustment of the light key’s allocation, his own wounds would rapidly heal. From the outset, he had regarded these items as a form of currency.

Now, he regretted not trading drinking water with the bartender.

“Keep your medical supplies,” Yuxing said as he distributed bandages, gauze, and disinfectant to Senior Yu and Maguna. “Don’t use it all here. Our team must retain at least a minimum stock of medical supplies.”

What he didn’t need, others might. Yuxing worried that his act of offering supplies would become a silent moral obligation, compelling Senior Yu and Maguna to give up theirs as well. He needed to set boundaries.

Yuxing’s suggestion meant their supplies were pooled and managed collectively. Thus, Zonggu Yu and Maguna swallowed their objections and agreed, donating a third of the team’s medical resources for rescue—a number within their comfort.

Even used sparingly, their supplies were soon depleted. Survivors received only the simplest care, left to fate thereafter.

Zonggu Yu encountered a victim who refused treatment: bathed in blood, his left arm torn apart, he painfully raised his right hand and gripped the bottle in Zonggu Yu’s grasp, silently shaking his head.

He’d had enough.

Enough of this place.

Yuxing finished tending to the wounded; some expired before help arrived. Depending on their species, some bodies vanished, others dissolved into unidentifiable sludge—like mud or sand—and some remained unchanged.

Some, despite treatment, still died. Yuxing looked at those who consumed their supplies yet could not survive, his eyes full of regret.

There was so little they could do.

Not daring to linger, under Balero’s guidance, the group swiftly retreated from the main avenue, ducking into a side alley.

Half an hour later, Yuxing and his companions stood before a clean, bright villa—with a swimming pool—stunned into silence.