Chapter 353

Chapter 353: The Rooted Poet

Where did he come from?

This question was rather difficult to answer, but after this battle, the so-called "great hero" would surely be solidified in everyone’s minds.

In the conference room, the council members all had this question, but one among them voiced it for everyone.

Thus, the other members shot him looks of shared fury, but no one could answer the question.

No wonder the ten members present fell into an angry helplessness. Despite the differences between the inheritance faction and the longevity faction on certain issues, they were all members of the council at the core, unable to empathize with the city defense army and the residents of the outer city.

After receiving transmission about the beast tide from the outer city, they quickly devised a plan.

They could deploy all the superpowered individuals for battle, but the first and Second Teams had to remain close.

It was not because the upcoming situation was not urgent; on the contrary, it was because the situation was too urgent.

Such sudden events were prone to unforeseen accidents, so keeping the two most powerful and obedient teams nearby was, in a sense, the best choice.

However, the council members did have a point: the more sudden the event, the more likely there were to be accidents— and right now, a living accident was prominently displayed on the big screen.

According to the original plan, they would wait until the outer city withstood the first wave of the beast tide before deploying their trump cards.

By that time, the situation would stabilize, and the presence of the two strong teams would carry greater weight on the scales of battle.

Then came the classic scene that everyone loved to see: superpowered individuals rescuing the residents of Hope City from disaster. As for why the residents found themselves in such danger?

Let’s not dwell on that for now.

But now, everything was different.

It was like an out-of-tune funeral band entering a theater, or a thirsty thief stumbling into a melon patch.

In any case, at the climax of the story, when the indescribable peak was about to arrive, a blond-haired guy popped up from nowhere, stealing everyone’s hard-earned victory!

This guy not only took the triumph meant for the council members but also snatched away their awe and praises, all while showcasing it right in front of them!

A great humiliation!

Although the surveillance cameras were not installed by that blond-haired individual, such a critical moment didn’t need to concern itself with trivial details.

Overall, despite their lack of understanding of the gray culture from the Old Era, the council members felt a pain that only the aggrieved could comprehend.

“Stop watching, turn it off.”

One member said somewhat dejectedly:

“With the Blood Puppet with him, that guy won’t escape. We’ll make him one of us once the event is over.”

“Bullshit!”

The furious member who first raised the question seemed to have had his tail stepped on, pointing at the projection of the two fighting shoulder to shoulder and back to back:

“Still with him? Look, look, the ‘Blood Puppet’ is practically becoming his pet!”

“Stop saying meaningless things and think about what we should do now?!”

A younger voice of a so-called "moderate" began to intervene.

“What else can we do? Let’s deploy both the first and second teams. Otherwise, it seems like we contributed nothing this time.”

An elderly member wearing a hood slapped the armrest of the high-backed chair, making a clattering sound, but struggled to hide the weakness in his arm.

“Sending them out now may be a bit late, but there are many of them, and they can make the situation visible to more people…

“By the way, lift the red emergency order and let those people out from underground so they can see who really rescued them.”

“Good idea!”

Another council member chimed in and quickly went through the process for lifting the alert in front of him, muttering:

“I’m not leaving today! I want to see when he reaches his limit.

“Can he save one breach, save ten breaches, or even a hundred or a thousand?!”

It turned out, Lin Qingliu could.

The council members were all sharp individuals; sitting in those chairs required unique insights into human nature and emotions.

However, their understanding of superpowers set the upper limit on their perception of the word “powerful."

For ordinary people, they could easily be manipulated, but Lin Qingliu was different—

As long as Lin Qingliu wanted, he could transcend humanity.

“Is this really a person?!”

Fourteen hours later, at four in the morning the next day.

The sun set and rose again, the sky darkened and then brightened.

The council members who were determined to go head-to-head with Lin Qingliu transitioned from grandiose statements at the beginning to silence in the first half of the night, then to delirious ramblings by the second half of the night, and they were starting to lose their minds.

Normal human members of the inheritance faction visited the bathroom from time to time, sneaking snacks to replenish their energy.

An elder from the longevity faction directly opened the pump for the nutrient solution, remaining completely still while replenishing energy, seemingly in an unspoken contest with the active guy on the screen.

This was no simple matter of pride; it was their instinctive desire not to miss witnessing a battle against a superpowered individual of this caliber.

They had never seen such a superpowered individual before.

That blond-haired guy seemed like a perpetual motion machine long deemed impossible—once he started, he wouldn’t stop.

To be fair, his attack strength was not as strong as the Blood Puppet’s, his area abilities were not as good as Ink Drench’s, and his manipulation of surrounding objects was far from that of Nian, who was already dead.

But the issue was his endurance, which was downright absurd.

Four hours earlier, the Blood Puppet had already exited the battlefield.

That blood-red gelatinous substance, the Blood Puppet’s unique, thinking blood, had been completely drained by Lin Qingliu.

After running back and forth for dozens of kilometers, clearing stairs piled with hundreds of extraordinary beasts, that mass of blood retracted from the cut wounds in the Blood Puppet’s chest—

He was done, truly incapable of continuing.

Before being sent to professional medical superpowered individuals, the Blood Puppet looked apologetically at Lin Qingliu, trying to convey that he was not cowardly but had simply reached the limits of humanity.

At that moment, Lin Qingliu’s gaze shifted from fierce killing intent toward the extraordinary beasts to one of warmth, exuding a quality that made one believe involuntarily.

In that moment, the Blood Puppet only regretted that he could not continue to stand alongside this light of humanity on the front lines, and he could only wave a tearful goodbye.

That was what happened at midnight.

When this scene was transmitted back to the conference room, the council members felt victory was within reach.

If the Blood Puppet couldn’t hold on any longer, how much longer could that guy fight?

Maybe he was just hanging on, not wanting to show weakness in front of a powerful being like the Blood Puppet.

Yes, it had to be that way.

The council members had unknowingly started to hypnotize themselves, but the bloody reality quickly served as a lesson for these high-ranking individuals unwilling to relent.