If possible, Wen Yuzhi wanted everyone to return alive and unharmed.

But to do that, they undoubtedly had to come up with a proper plan.

For a moment, everyone present fell silent.

“What about burning them with high heat?”

Wen Yuzhi thought of the method they had used against that stray beast in the clothing store earlier.

These stray beasts did not seem resistant to high temperatures, and that mucus would also lose its effect in a high-temperature environment.

Xi Heyan, however, pointed out, “We’d need too much fuel.”

The clothing store before had been relatively small. Using flames to force the stray beast out had indeed been feasible. But now, what they had to face was an entire square full of stray beasts.

Where were they supposed to find that much fuel in such a short time?

Lottie did have an idea. It was just that this idea was a tiny bit immoral.

The unlucky Fire Lizards still did not know they had been targeted.

Although they had suffered a bit of a setback in the safe zone, they had turned around and happily occupied a shopping mall. There was plenty to eat and drink inside, enough for these Fire Lizards to comfortably stay here for three days.

On a rooftop not far away, Lottie watched the Fire Lizards moving things around inside. She split her mouth into a smile, smiling even more brightly than today’s sun.

“Excellent. Our angel investors have arrived.”

As she spoke, Lottie rolled up her sleeves and swaggered into the shopping mall.

Very soon, the Fire Lizards’ miserable screams came from inside.

Immediately afterward, the Fire Lizards, tied together in a row, were dragged out by Lottie from inside. Looking at their wilted appearances, they must have undergone a very profound education of love in there.

“All right. Now we have our lighters.”

Fire Lizards. Since their name carried the word “fire,” of course it also had something to do with the fact that they could spit fire.

These Fire Lizards lived year-round on planets dominated by volcanic terrain. They worshiped the God of Fire, could bathe in flames without burning, and could also breathe out flames hotter than magma.

Do not look at the Fire Lizards as if they were very weak, as if they had been repeatedly bullied by the Saint Clan and the merfolk. That was only because the former was too strong, and the latter just happened to be their natural counter. They played with fire, while the merfolk played with water.

When these Fire Lizards ran into merfolk, they were simply restrained to death.

But aside from those two races mentioned above, the Fire Lizards were still very powerful among the lower-middle races.

Otherwise, they could not possibly have occupied the safe zone and dared to act so arrogantly, or even, after being taught a lesson by Lottie, run off to another street and occupy the mall with the richest supplies.

And what they relied on was precisely this ability to spit fire.

Unfortunately, their luck was not very good.

Wen Yuzhi and the others needed things that could burn. In Lottie’s words, was there any lighter more useful than the Fire Lizards?

And so this group of unlucky Fire Lizards was targeted just like that.

Not only did they have to fulfill their value as lighters, even the shopping mall they had just occupied was robbed by Wen Yuzhi and the others.

As it happened, there was a newly refreshed safe zone nearby.

Wen Yuzhi and the others brought the supplies from the mall to the safe zone.

“Everyone, let’s make a trade.”

The boy, who looked fair and delicate, like some young master who had run out from someone’s family, said this to the many teams inside the safe zone.

And beside him, the full pile of supplies was stacked almost higher than a mountain.

Everyone’s breathing grew heavy at the sight.

It was not that no one had crooked ideas.

But the bodyguard-like figures standing behind the boy looked extremely difficult to provoke at a glance.

Lottie was even hoping someone would come up and try to rob them. That way, they could fleece another wave of wool the same way they had dealt with the Fire Lizards.

Unfortunately, the teams present were all relatively rational.

They had seen what the merfolk were capable of. Now that they saw there were three mermaids on the other side, those little thoughts naturally died down.

“How do we trade?”

Under Lottie’s disappointed gaze, these people chose a more peaceful method.

Wen Yuzhi took out the explanation they had already prepared.

“We need a lot of fuel, or other things that can burn. The more, the better. Before dusk today, you can all bring things here to exchange for supplies.”

Most of the shops on the streets had already been searched almost clean. Food and other scarce items had long since been divided up.

The pile of supplies Wen Yuzhi brought out was clearly very tempting. There were medicines, food, and the weapons survivors wanted most.

In contrast, what they wanted was fuel and other flammable objects, things that basically no one wanted.

The survivors quickly calculated in their hearts and all felt that this trade was very worthwhile.

The movements of these teams also attracted the attention of other survivors. More and more survivors learned that they could exchange fuel for supplies here.

For a time, most of the survivors began to move.

After the first group of people returned and exchanged for supplies, the enthusiasm of these survivors grew even greater.

When they were busy bringing the fuel they had collected back, these survivors clearly no longer had any time to engage in internal fighting.

Some teams even chose to cooperate in order to find more fuel.

And looking at the impact Wen Yuzhi and the others had caused, this was probably the first time these survivors had begun cooperating since they had been trapped here.

Opening one livestream square after another, the screen...

...made them feel excited.

【That’s it! Everyone has to cooperate to survive!】

【If they don’t cooperate, it’s a dead end. Several teams have already run into those evolved stray beasts. They were wiped out the moment they met them, and not even their corpses were left behind.】

【So many squares went dark during this period. The stray beasts don’t seem to move much during the day, but more people ended up dying instead...】

【There’s no helping it. Those evolved stray beasts are way too abnormal. I hope this side can hurry up.】

【Good thing the cub and the others went to check the square. Otherwise, if this kept dragging on, I don’t even dare imagine what it would turn into inside.】

While the bullet comments were anxiously worrying over the survivors inside, Wen Yuzhi was also receiving more and more exchanged items.

It was not only fuel, but also a pile of all kinds of messy objects.

As long as he thought something could be useful, he kept it.

For example, among them were nearly a dozen tons of fireworks, along with iron sheets, iron nails, and things like that. No one knew where these survivors had dug them out from.

Of course, there were also people who wanted to rob them directly.

But all of those people were beaten up by Lottie, tied with rope, and bound together with those Fire Lizards.

The “prisoners of war,” packed just as full as the supplies, were placed together. The deterrent effect was still extremely astonishing. After a few times, no one dared to make a move anymore.

Without these people jumping out to interrupt, the entire trade proceeded very smoothly.

Seeing that the sky was approaching dusk, Wen Yuzhi and Xi Heyan both knew that night was when these stray beasts were most active.

So after exchanging away the last of the supplies, they no longer accepted trades.

“Can I ask you to help with something? Help me transport these things to a certain place,” Wen Yuzhi said.

There were still many teams who stayed where they were after finishing their trades and did not leave. Naturally, the reason they stayed was curiosity.

Wen Yuzhi and the others had used supplies to exchange for so many things that seemed somewhat useless to these survivors. Of course the survivors were very curious about what Wen Yuzhi and the others wanted to do.

The moment they heard that help was needed to move things, several teams immediately responded. When the others saw that quite a few people were going, they also joined in to watch the excitement.

In the end, many people chose to follow.

When they stood on the rooftop and saw the scene below in the square, these survivors instantly fell silent.

No words could describe the shock they felt at this moment.

At this time, the sky was at dusk. The blood-red setting sun illuminated the situation below clearly, and also snuffed out the last trace of luck in their hearts.

“Do you still think you can last three days?”

Wen Yuzhi turned back and looked at them as he asked. His tone was very flat, and even the expression on his face was calm.

But it was precisely this calm that formed an intense fracture against the scene below.

Could they last three days?

Everyone silently asked themselves this in their hearts, and without needing anyone else to answer, they themselves could answer this question.

—No.

They did not even need three days. Once the sky went dark and these stray beasts crawled out of the tumors, all of them would die tonight.

The safe zones during the day and the supply packs obtained by killing stray beasts had given them an illusory misconception.

That was that these stray beasts were not so difficult to deal with after all.

As long as they were careful, avoided large-scale beast hordes, and found those lone stray beasts to kill.

If that really did not work, they could also hide inside the safe zones.

In short, it seemed that surviving was not as difficult as they had imagined.

However, the scene below was like a slap, thoroughly waking these survivors up.

Compared with the stray beasts gathered in the square, the ones they had encountered on the streets could almost be called child’s play.

It was only because the stray beasts here in the square had to guard those tumors. If they were to pour out in full force...

The faces of these survivors all turned somewhat pale.

Wen Yuzhi glanced at the sky. He was not in the mood to comfort these survivors. He only put on a stern face and said coldly, “Those willing to stay can follow us. Those unwilling can put the things down and leave now.”

The survivors looked at one another.

Some people left.

What kind of joke was this? Seeing that the place below was full of stray beasts, they were not willing to stay here and throw their lives away. If they hid back in the streets, no matter what, their chance of living would at least be much greater than staying here.

But what surprised Wen Yuzhi was that most of the survivors chose to stay.

“We’ve already been trapped to death here. Where can we hide? Might as well gamble.”

The survivors who stayed saw things very clearly. Between them and the stray beasts, one side had to die. If these stray beasts were not dealt with, then the ones who died later would be them.

“You had us help move things because you wanted us to see the situation here too, right?”

The leader of one team raised a brow and asked.

Wen Yuzhi nodded, with no intention of disguising their “conspiracy” at all.

Instead, that leader choked a little at the child’s obedient appearance, then laughed. “Whose little cub are you? I really want to know how your guardians taught you. Being this honest outside makes it very easy to get tricked.”

“No one dares trick me.”

Wen Yuzhi puffed up his cheeks and said seriously.

“My papa is very powerful. If you bully me, he’ll get angry.”

Wen Yuzhi said it with great solemnity.

But paired with that soft tone, his words had no persuasiveness at all. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

None of the survivors present took the papa Wen Yuzhi mentioned seriously.

After all, with the boy’s cotton-ball appearance that looked as if a poke would leave a dent, how powerful could his papa possibly be?

Children were just a little more naive when they spoke.

These survivors all smiled kindly.

And after this little interlude, the tense atmosphere at the scene became much better.

The sky slowly darkened. Below them, the stray beasts began making rustling movements.

Wen Yuzhi and Xi Heyan stood on the rooftop. The boy glanced at the time.

It happened to be six o’clock in the evening.

Yesterday, it had also been at this time that these stray beasts had suddenly appeared. In other words, a full day had already passed since the crisis descended.

Some viewers in the livestream room subconsciously looked at the number of survivors displayed above.

The number above shockingly showed 3,842.

When the livestream had first appeared yesterday, there had still been seven thousand people. After one day passed, the survivor count had directly fallen by half.

This astonishing death rate once again made the viewers in the livestream room realize—they were watching a livestream, but to the people trapped inside, this game was truly gambling with their lives.

Perhaps precisely because of this, more and more people poured into Wen Yuzhi’s livestream room.

They all wanted to know which side would win in tonight’s life-and-death battle between the survivors and the stray beasts.

On the meeting hall’s side, the expressions of the representatives of every race also grew solemn.

The screens before them had also switched to the boy’s livestream footage.

Haisena stared at the boy on the screen, who was directing others to act. The more she watched, the more she felt that other people’s children were much cuter.

Especially since the boy also had such a good temper. Even when giving orders, he spoke to the other party in a nice tone.

He did not seem to realize that the other survivors were all holding back smiles when they looked at him. Wen Yuzhi thought his stern face was having an effect.

The boy in the footage was simply Haisena’s ideal image of a younger sibling. When she was young, she had always wanted a younger brother or sister this considerate and obedient. In the end, she had unexpectedly gotten a little demon king.

“How about we give his papa a sum of money and ask him to let this cub come back with us?”

Haisena was the same as Lottie. The two sisters sometimes loved to have sudden whimsical ideas. It was just that Lottie was more unreliable, while Haisena was comparatively steadier. After inheriting the throne, she had rarely been this flighty.

Unexpectedly, that steadiness had been broken by this one cub.

The female officials behind her had yet to speak, but in the next moment, they felt an overwhelming chill spreading over them.

Haisena, however, was still immersed in her own thoughts. “Didn’t the Saint Clan say their little highness is trapped inside too? Why does it feel like we haven’t seen him at all?”

Merfolk female officials: “........”

“I haven’t seen a Saint Clan cub before either... Right, why are you trembling?”

As soon as Haisena finished speaking, she saw the merfolk female officials looking stiff-faced as they shook their heads at her.

Belatedly, she turned around and saw the Saint Clan members over there, including that silver-haired sovereign, all looking at her coldly.

In a flash, every abnormality since the Saint Clan had arrived here swept through Haisena’s mind. She lifted her head and looked at the boy’s somewhat familiar brows and eyes on the screen, then looked again at Mansendis’s appearance.

.......No, it couldn’t be, right?

An incomparably shocking guess emerged in Haisena’s heart.

.............

Time reached six thirty in the evening. As the last trace of daylight disappeared.

Roars from the stray beasts also came from below, one after another. Their density was enough to make everyone’s heart tighten.

These stray beasts were about to begin hunting.

Countless stray beasts tore open the tumors, wanting to crawl out from inside and search for food.

Suddenly, they smelled a somewhat pungent odor. Cold liquid splashed over their bodies.

Was it raining?

Before these stray beasts could understand what had happened, on a rooftop not far from them, Wen Yuzhi drew the bow in his hand.

In truth, Wen Yuzhi also did not know why these survivors insisted on having him be the first person to shoot an arrow.

But the moment he placed the arrow on the string and drew the bowstring open, Wen Yuzhi no longer had the mind to think about those miscellaneous things. He only knew that they had to win tonight.

In the moonless night, even the light of a single spark appeared so dazzling and bright.

It was a burning arrow. Carrying a leaping flame, it dragged a tail through the darkness, like the arrow Hou Yi shot toward the sun in the long river of human history.

Firelight reflected in the boy’s pupils.

He watched that strand of brightness fly for a distance, then fall from above like a meteor.

And it was like a signal.

Countless arrows carrying flames fell one after another.

Elsewhere, the Fire Lizards tied up by Lottie were also doing their utmost to spit fire downward.

They had no choice but to work hard.

The moment they spat even a little slower, a fist the size of a sandbag would smash over from behind them.

These Fire Lizards could only huff and puff as they worked hard to give off light and heat.

The other survivors were not idle either. They poured fuel all over the square.

For example, the octopus boss from whom Wen Yuzhi had previously bought ice cream had eight tentacles and could do the work of eight people alone. With him there, the speed at which fuel was poured down became much faster.

The stray beasts’ side also discovered that something was wrong.

The falling sparks ignited the fuel.

Almost in an instant, the flames spread into one connected sheet, surrounding the stray beasts inside.

The fact that the stray beasts were gathered together so densely had originally been to better protect those tumors, but at this moment, it became an aid for the sea of fire to spread.

One barrel of fuel poured down could splash over three or four stray beasts at once.

Once the flames licked up, a large patch caught fire.

Stray beasts feared nothing, but they feared fire. If they evolved a few more rounds, perhaps by then, flames would no longer be effective against them.

But Wen Yuzhi and the others had chosen to strike early. Most of these stray beasts had only just completed their first round of evolution and had not yet completely shaken off their fear of fire.

The moment the fire rose, these stray beasts let out painful roars as well. In the chaos, the stray beasts shoved and pushed one another, even causing tragic stampedes.

The stray beasts that had just crawled out of the tumors were crushed under their companions before they could even get up. Some had not even managed to crawl out of the tumors before they were roasted alive by the high heat.

As for that mucus, it was burned until it sizzled, releasing a scorched stench like tiny insects being burned.

“The fire method works!”

The survivors’ side let out joyful cheers.

Wen Yuzhi, however, was very calm.

“Tell the people guarding the street entrances to pay attention. Don’t let these stray beasts escape.”

Some of the stray beasts close to the streets had already instinctively begun trying to flee from this sea of fire.

But they did not know that the survivors had long since set up all kinds of traps at the street corners, waiting for them to throw themselves into the net.

More people meant more strength.

The benefit of having enough manpower was that they could deploy defenses everywhere.

What Wen Yuzhi wanted was to prevent even a single stray beast from escaping from here.

“It’s about time for us to move too.”

Seeing that these Fire Lizards really could not spit out even a single spark anymore, Lottie simply tossed the Fire Lizard in her hand, which had already been wrung dry to the point of foaming at the mouth, to the side.

She stretched her body, put on a fireproof protective suit, and many survivors changed into protective suits just like her.

They had all volunteered to go down and fight these stray beasts.

Fire alone was not enough to burn these stray beasts to death. In fact, that was indeed the case. Although everything below looked chaotic, not many stray beasts had truly died.

If they did not launch an attack now, before the stray beasts had reacted, then once these stray beasts recovered, they would realize that these flames were actually not that powerful.

So the true battle had only just begun now.

Wen Yuzhi looked at these survivors as they geared up one by one. He took a deep breath and reminded them in a hoarse voice, “If you get injured, you must find a way to come back. I have a way to save you.”

“Got it, little cutie.”

Ever since they had heard this name from Lottie’s mouth, these survivors had all changed the way they addressed Wen Yuzhi to “little cutie.”

They were all older than him.

And children younger than Wen Yuzhi had already been hidden away by the survivors through whatever means they could find.

This was also the reason they had to find a way to deal with the stray beasts.

Otherwise, if they failed here, those hidden children would not survive either.

They had all kinds of reasons for staying behind, but their purpose was only one—that was to kill all the stray beasts.

Lottie was the first to jump down.

Her legs changed back into a massive fish tail in midair.

The stray beast below had yet to react before it was suddenly slapped across the face.

The force of a fish tail as hard as steel plating smashing down could not be underestimated either. That stray beast was smashed directly into dizziness.

Immediately after, the sharp claws from the mermaid tore open its skull.

Amid a spray of blood, Lottie revealed teeth as sharp as a shark’s.

This was the true face of merfolk.

They were not silly, sweet creatures from fairy tales who were willing to give up their lives for princes and love, but true apex predators from the deep sea.

But before Lottie could look cool for more than a few seconds, there was a bang. A bullet just happened to graze past her cheek and strike the stray beast behind her.

Even so, Lottie still looked furiously in the direction the bullet had come from, only to see Xi Heyan setting up a sniper rifle from high above.

The moment their gazes met, both sides found the other unpleasant to look at.

“Annoying bastard. Sooner or later, I’ll make little cutie dump you!”

She had reason to suspect that the other party was taking revenge for what she had said earlier.

Lottie was still angry when, by coincidence, a stray beast beside her came up without any sense.

And so, very quickly, the nearby stray beasts bore all the mermaid’s anger.

On the other side, Xi Heyan was also wearing tactical goggles. The silver sniper rifle in his hands seemed to be part of his own body, and every bullet he fired hit its target.

They had to thank the people behind the scenes.

In order to give the survivors some ability to struggle, they had placed many lethal weapons in the supply packs, along with bullets capable of piercing the stray beasts’ defenses.

Right now, that happened to make things convenient for Xi Heyan.

Once he got a gun, it was like a fish having water, like a bird having wings. The tiny bullets were like ghosts, leaving those stray beasts completely unable to defend against them.

Blood blossoms burst open one after another.

On Wen Yuzhi’s side, injured people also began arriving one after another.

He carried the medical kit and bandaged them. During this process, he would quietly cover their wounds with mental energy.

Wen Yuzhi did it very discreetly. Added to the cover of night, the viewers in the livestream room did not notice anything unusual.

Moreover, their attention had all gone to the battlefield where the fighting was happening, and not many people paid attention to the situation here.

As for the injured, they only thought it was the effect of the medicine.

During this time, the survivors who had gone down also came up to rest for a while. After the teams rotated twice, they went down again.

This was a difficult, drawn-out battle.

No one dared to stop completely. The survivors wanted to live, and the stray beasts wanted to eat more flesh and blood.

They had long since become irreconcilable.

For the survivors, this was a battle they had to win.

In the end, the only one left beside Wen Yuzhi was Qiqi. She also knew some simple bandaging, so she stayed on the rooftop with Wen Yuzhi to take care of the injured.

And the six Saint Clan royal guards had also been sent out by Wen Yuzhi.

Their addition clearly eased the pressure on the survivors’ side, but there were still many stray beasts in the square, densely packed, as if no matter how they killed, they could never kill them all.

Just then, through the sniper scope, Xi Heyan discovered something abnormal in the beast tide.

And Wen Yuzhi also sensed something through his mental energy.

At that moment, both of them looked in the same direction at the same time.