Chapter 547: Completed
At the very front of the army, atop the arrow towers on the backs of mammoth war elephants, a fire mage held a staff, the tip of which emitted a pillar of flame several meters high, burning a huge hole in the darkness within a hundred-meter radius.
Behind them stretched an endless line of ordinary people: an old man leaning on a sharpened tree branch, a woman holding a baby wrapped in the last blanket she had brought from home.
The men pushed creaking wheelbarrows piled high with sacks of grain and door panels salvaged from the collapsed ancestral home.
The cries of children, the jingling of bells on pack animals, the scraping of wheelbarrow axles, and the chaotic yet dense sound of footsteps mingled together, forming a long, continuous river of human life.
In the group, a young mother carrying a bag was struggling to pull a cart, but the wheels were stuck deep in a mud pit.
She was sweating profusely with anxiety, and her young child behind her was crying.
"Auntie, let me help you!" A passing second-tier shield warrior Awakener immediately stopped in his tracks.
He put down the tower shield, exerted force with both hands, and easily pushed the cart out of the mud pit.
"Thank you, thank you so much, sir!" the young mother said repeatedly, her eyes filled with gratitude.
"Let's hurry up, Hangu Pass is just ahead, we'll be safe once we get there."
The Awakened One smiled憨厚ly, picked up the tower shield again, and joined the marching torrent.
At another point in the group, a middle-aged awakened individual was squatting by the roadside repairing the bearings of a wooden cart, while a young man next to him held a torch to light his way.
He tightened the bolts a few times, then stood up, dusted off his hands, and said, "Alright, let's go."
The young man put away his torch: "How much further ahead?"
The middle-aged awakened one looked up at the faint golden halo in the distance: "It'll be soon. In another ten minutes or so, we should be able to enter the Great Wall area."
One hundred meters above the center of the army, Lin Feng was alone, suspended in mid-air.
The pale blue halo of the Swift Marching Army spread outwards from him, enveloping every person, every pack animal, and every wheelbarrow within a six-mile radius.
Wherever the halo swept, everyone's steps became lighter, and the panting of the pack animals became calmer.
He has maintained this posture for a full eighteen days.
"We're almost there." Lin Feng looked down at the vast crowd below and sighed inwardly.
The three million-strong migrating army from the easternmost region arrived safely a few days ago.
Thanks to the tireless coordination of Li Yuan and his team of senior clerical and professional workers, they have been properly settled in various territories of Fenghuo Territory.
Now, with an additional five million people, the massive resettlement work will likely cause Li Yuan and his team even more headaches.
He recalled what Hel Shadow had said before he died: a one in ten thousand chance of winning.
He is now almost certain that the one in ten thousand refers to the 【Nightmare Lord's Token】.
If the rules of this world stipulate that victory can only be achieved by obtaining the 【Nightmare Lord's Token】, then even if the human race repeatedly annihilates the Nightmare Clan's army, the Nightmare Clan will endlessly respawn as long as the token is not obtained.
Add to that the fact that the number doubles each time, and it's practically a mockery: "So what if you're good at fighting? What good is being good at fighting? To survive in this world, you need power and connections!"
"However, now that I've seen through the rules, there's nothing to be afraid of."
Lin Feng snapped out of his thoughts and looked ahead with a determined gaze.
About six minutes later, the soldiers and civilians at the front finally stepped into the spectacular effect range of the Great Wall.
When the first warm and real rays of sunlight fell upon them, the entire army fell into a brief silence, followed by a burst of cheers that seemed to lift the dome of the sky!
"The sun! It's the sun!"
"We survived..."
"Waaaaah, Mother, I can finally see the sun again..."
Countless people embraced and wept. Under the warm sunshine, all weariness, fear, and despair vanished.
The cheers erupted and spread from the front of the line to the back, spreading forward and backward in waves, and extending to both sides along the line's direction, quickly reaching the middle and rear of the line.
On the north gate tower of Hangu Pass, Jiang Zhaoyue was already standing there, with the Silver Moon Heavenly Spear standing upright beside her.
Standing behind her were Jiang Yelan, Zhao Hu, Tiedun, and several core members.
Jiang Yelan leaned against the battlement with his arms crossed, his Shadow Moon Blade at his waist.
Her face showed little expression, but her gaze remained fixed on the golden halo that was getting closer and closer in the distance.
Zhao Hu braced himself against the top of the stack with both hands, his neck stretched out as far as it could go, and the smile on his lips was impossible to suppress.
Tie Dun squatted by the battlements, half a piece of dry rations dangling from his mouth, and mumbled indistinctly, "The lord's trip is way too far. If I flew that far, I would have been exhausted long ago."
Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Hu slapped him on the back of the head.
Golden light fell on the city wall, and Lin Feng stepped out from the halo of the Swift March.
The Sky-Piercing Boots echoed clearly as they stepped onto the stone slabs of the city wall, and nine golden halos slowly swirled around him.
Jiang Zhaoyue clasped her hands in greeting first, a smile on her lips: "Lord, you must be tired from your journey. The relocation army from the Eastern Pole Region has been fully settled, and the reinforcements from the various countries of the Antarctic Region have also arrived at Hangu Pass."
Jiang Yelan nodded slightly, a hint of admiration flashing in his eyes: "Five million people, moved in without a scratch, that's really not easy."
"Yes, with this new population, the strength of our Beacon Fire Territory is about to skyrocket!" Tie Dun excitedly rubbed his hands together.
Lin Feng smiled and waved his hand, then said to Jiang Zhaoyue, "Zhaoyue, inform Director Zhou and the others that we will have a meeting in the council hall in half an hour. Also, invite high-ranking officials from various countries to come over."
"I'll make the arrangements right away." Jiang Zhaoyue nodded, then rose from the side of the city tower and flew towards the northwest.
Lin Feng exchanged a few words with the people on the city wall, then leaped up and flew towards the second floor of the council hall.
He entered the room through the window, stood in the center of the room, and withdrew his consciousness from the clone, returning to his original body.
As his power surged back into his body, he moved his wrists, sensing the difference in attributes between his main body and his clone.
Only the original body can truly shoulder the heavy burden ahead.
He clenched his right hand in the void, and the core territory of Hangu Pass appeared instantly.
A semi-transparent light screen unfolded before him, densely packed with hundreds of requests for submission from various territories in the Antarctic region. Some had been sent more than ten days ago, while others had arrived in recent days.
He went through each request one by one. When his fingertip touched each request, a confirmation window would pop up on the screen, listing the other party's territory location, population size, and current troop strength.
The golden light at the core of the territory would flash slightly each time it was received.
After accepting and confirming the requests for submission from various countries in the Antarctic region one by one, and bringing all these territories under the coverage of the Great Wall, Lin Feng turned around and went downstairs to the council hall on the first floor.