While rushing to the girls, I couldn't ignore the alarm siren during my scrap with the three Liquidators, and the violet-blue smoke rising. Means violet alert threat to Shanghai, but still under control.
Unable to sneak High-level mages in, Black Church opted to lure ours out via drawing a Warlord-level monster's attention to Shanghai. Doubt it'll actually attack, but it'll rattle the city brass plenty.
Interesting, what happened to old man Bao? If he were in the city, dealing with this situation would have been much simpler. But unfortunately, judging by how everything is unfolding, I have a feeling that he was lured out somehow or they timed it when he left his usual haunt on his own. After all, Salan couldn't not know about him, which means she accounted for old man Bao in her plans.
Ooooh, why can't everything just follow the canon? In my previous life, there weren't such big changes. Or is it because of my current power level? An elephant will definitely squash way more butterflies than a mouse, nothing to be done about that. And this could just be a difference in this specific parallel world. As I found out from Ling Ling, nothing is inscribed on the stone that would let me say with full confidence what happens next.
Orienting by my connection to my pets, I understood that things weren't all rosy for the girls there, but their lives weren't in danger yet, which was reassuring. I didn't want to become a man living for revenge over loved ones. I like my girls alive much more.
Running up to the right spot, I heard screams, explosions, and whining. And considering the data from my spiritual detection, I had every reason to assume a battle of many students against Black and Cursed beasts was raging there, where unfortunately not everyone survived. My girls were holding back the main mass of the creatures and the deacon in blue. My pets were holding off another five deacons quite successfully.
Apparently, they sent three trios of mages to Shanghai, dispatching the most experienced and strongest after me, while the rest stayed to oversee the plan's execution. In terms of power, honestly, they weren't much ahead of that blue-robed deacon girl whom Mo Fan beat in Xi'an in the canon using Intermediate Tier magic.
In general, weaklings who had just submitted their stars and didn't even have the weakest Spiritual Seed. They were holding against my pets only thanks to artifacts that were gradually depleting, tipping the scales our way.
Not for nothing did I level up my helpers; without them, a bunch of students would have been dead long ago. As it was, only a few of the least nimble and dumbest lost their lives. But they served as an example to the rest to treat the situation more seriously.
Finally reaching the spot, the scene I expected unfolded before me. TuTu was holding back the main mass of Black and Cursed beasts with Silver Grass, not letting them charge the students and methodically cutting them down.
Hundreds of unnatural creatures fell to her hands, and as many more were approaching. High Tier plant element mana reserves allowed that quite well, especially given the low consumption of that grass.
This time the Black Church outdid itself, herding such a horde of cannon fodder and, surprisingly, barely using its gray and black exchange pawns. Apparently Salan decided to preserve her Shanghai cell in the city, since destroying it wasn't planned—just culling a large number of students who had just moved to the Main Campus.
Using only artificial monsters that could be quickly restored was a smart move on her part, especially considering the funding strain. Hiring and indoctrinating Novices would have been way more expensive.
But fat chance of her preserving the cell in this city! At least Tang Yue and her team were set to thin it out nicely, following the trail of the few but present helpers. Apparently, the plan was that in the chaos of countless deaths, no one would notice them. Heh, they sent four High Tier judges with lots of field experience after them. No chance there.
No longer just watching, I tensed my legs and jumped to the most problematic spot on the battlefield—the students. Though only a smaller part of the monsters broke through to them, there were still several hundred, causing a ton of problems for the roughly one and a half thousand students present.
Most of them had just broken through to Intermediate Tier and hadn't even submitted their stars. Only a few could really nimbly use magic of that level in combat. So rare Cursed beasts at Pack Leader level in the breakthrough crowd had no one to kill them, sowing chaos unpunished.
And not everyone present could even use magic in such a stressful situation, having spent almost all their time on simple cultivation to break through quickly, without real combat experience. So despite their several-fold numerical superiority, the students were slightly losing in combat power, gradually yielding ground.
But credit where due: the main mass didn't even try to flee the battlefield, bravely containing the monsters in the area. I think if they survive today, they'll make great Hunters or soldiers in the future. Mankind will always welcome such talent.
Not wasting High Tier spells, I conjured a bunch of enhanced "Ice Chains" at the sixth step of Intermediate Tier and first started knocking out the Cursed beasts from the crowd—they were the main obstacle here.
A couple minutes later, I finished with them and switched to Servant-level Black beasts, killing them in batches thanks to the chains I twisted into all sorts of shapes: hammers, spears, sharpened saws. Today I was putting on a very diverse slaughter, while giving the present students a master class in controlling their spells and changing their forms.
Having mowed down most, I left about fifty remaining monsters for the stunned students so they could finish them off themselves and taste well-earned victory. If I just killed them all myself, it wouldn't impact their character growth as much as this.
Jumping out of the student crowd, I rushed to the next most problematic battlefield—to TuTu. She wasn't really struggling, just would have finished her task last. Well, I'll help fix that annoying oversight and boost her mood a bit with my presence.
"Mu Bai! You came!" TuTu cried joyfully, yet not stopping killing monsters with her Silver Grass. She hadn't gotten distracted in battle for a long time now, even while talking to someone. I'm proud I instilled that useful habit in her.
"Yes, I'm here and now everything will be fine." Nodding and giving her an encouraging smile, I repeated my recent trick with "Ice Chains" and started helping my first girl deal with the monsters.
We finished faster than either would have alone. That's where team work advantages shine. Though I hadn't trained much with them on this, the basic point—not getting in each other's way in battle—we had perfected.
"Now go help Jiao Jiao finish her opponent; I'll head to Bul and Pikachu, make sure none of their foes escape in the heat of battle." Nodding to me, she used Seven-League Boots and quickly ran to her best friend.
I headed to my pets; time to finally strangle this terrorist act.