Chapter Sixty-Nine: The One Who Should Have Died

Without experiencing it firsthand, one can never truly understand. Qin Ming had always felt a sense of awe, but ever since he fought for his life in the wilderness and witnessed the terrifying tide of rats, the downfall of the Australian continent, and recalled the countless sea beasts in the ocean—thousands, even tens of thousands of times more numerous—he couldn’t help but feel his scalp prickling with fear.

It was truly a force that could not be killed off, no matter how many you slaughtered. If he hadn’t known what was to come, he too would have been driven to despair. Against the sea beasts, all one could do was defend passively; there was not even the possibility of launching an attack. And even if millions, tens of millions, or even a hundred million or a billion sea beasts died, it would still be insignificant in the face of the vastness of the ocean.

This made Qin Ming even more aware of the difficulty of coastal defense, and the silent, continuous sacrifices made by one group after another of honorable people—those who had given their lives and would forever remain there.

Naturally, he did not hesitate to accept Li Dawei’s request. Born and raised here, how could he stand by and watch disaster befall his homeland? If he had no ability, that would be one thing. But to have the power and not use it—that would be a disgrace to his ancestors!

After the banquet, Qin Ming returned to Yangzhou in his fighter jet. His life returned to a peaceful routine. While striving to comprehend the ninth level of the Inch Fist, he also continued to cultivate the Profound Way technique.

He had already perfected the second tier of the Profound Way, but the third tier still eluded him—unable to break through, unable to cultivate further. Yet his strength continued to grow, albeit slowly.

Beep beep beep!

One day, his wrist communicator chimed. When he answered, Wang Lang’s terrified voice came through: “Qin Ming, I’ve encountered a rat tide at Ruins 0235. Please—please help me!”

The voice was breathless with panic.

“Another rat tide?” Qin Ming frowned, and his memories stirred. He recalled that after the Son of the World, Luo Feng, had completed the quasi-warrior trial and gone out hunting, he too had encountered a rat tide.

It was a level-three rat tide, but Luo Feng had not been trapped by it.

“This must be the time it happened. If I recall, this rat tide also saw the death of the ‘first’ War God in the world of Swallowed Star—a most humiliating end at the hands of rats!”

“Xiao Qiang!” Qin Ming called out as he sent a voice message: “I’ll be there soon. Hold on!”

In a flash, he left his room, leaping through the air to land atop his fighter jet, which had been hovering above his villa.

Whoosh!

A streak of light, and the jet vanished into the sky.

Inside a tall building at Ruins 0235, four people were desperately fighting off the attacking gray-furred rats. Two of them were already wounded.

“Wang, he’s an inspector—far above us. Will he really come?” someone asked.

“Captain Zhang, if it were someone else, I wouldn’t be sure. But Inspector Qin—he’ll come for sure!” Wang replied.

“Good! Damn it, how did we get so unlucky—to run into a rat tide and watch Xiao Ma and Xiao Liu get eaten right before our eyes?”

“Alas!”

As they spoke, two king-class gray rats lunged at them, throwing their defense into chaos.

“It’s over!” Wang and the others looked utterly hopeless.

Before, they had managed to hold out by pressing against the wall, but now their defense had fallen apart. How could they possibly survive? The rats surged in like a raging tide.

“Wang, you're still young. We’ll shield you—go! The longer you hold out, the more hope you have!” Captain Zhang shouted.

“Captain, I won’t go! If we die, we die together—if we live, we live together!”

At that moment, more than a dozen gray rats leaped toward them, claws extended, jaws wide, about to tear into their faces—when suddenly a flurry of soft thuds echoed.

One by one, the rats in front of them dropped dead, silent and still.

In the blink of an eye, the room was empty of enemies.

They looked to the wall and saw it was riddled with small holes.

“We’re saved!” Wang Lang was stunned, then understood.

“That was fast!” Captain Zhang wiped the blood from his face.

Thud, thud, thud—outside, the sounds continued.

Soon, the cries of the rats faded into the distance.

Wang Lang and his companions emerged to see a fighter jet hovering overhead, spitting out streams of fire—bullets pouring down like a torrential rain.

Strangely, every bullet struck a rat, never missing.

Such a rapid and precise barrage could only come from a smart machine.

Qin Ming jumped down from the jet. Seeing Wang Lang, he smiled, “It’s good you’re alright! Stick close to the jet. I’ll go see if there are any more survivors nearby.”

“Thank you, Qin Ming!” Wang Lang said gratefully.

The others also expressed their thanks.

Qin Ming nodded and, in a blur, darted off. This time, he used his rapid-step technique, leaving afterimages stretching into the distance, and everywhere he passed, the ground was littered with crushed rat corpses.

He was so fast that in no time he had rescued several more groups of people.

The terrifying rat tide was no threat to him at all.

Even when tens of thousands of rats appeared, forming a surging wave to encircle him, creating wall after wall with their leaping bodies, they could not stop him for an instant.

“Go!”

Qin Ming spotted someone stranded atop a building, on the verge of death. With a bound, he reached the man, grabbed his arm, and flung him far away to safety.

Without pausing, he continued his search.

Eventually, he returned to the jet, where more than thirty people had gathered. As for the others, their fate was all too clear.

“Get on the jet!” Qin Ming ordered.

Above, the jet had descended to about thirty meters, opening its hatch. The warlord-level fighters could leap aboard; as for the warriors, Qin Ming tossed them up one by one.

“Xiao Qiang, scan again—are there any survivors left?” Qin Ming commanded as he boarded.

“Master, there are no living humans left!”

“No more?” Qin Ming closed his eyes for a moment.

Wang Lang and the others felt a shadow pass over their hearts.

“In that case…” Qin Ming’s eyes snapped open, a ruthless gleam in his gaze. “Drop an annihilation bomb!”

“Yes, Master!”

In the next moment, a missile launched from the jet’s arsenal, landing in the center of the ruined town as the jet sped away.

Boom!

A mushroom cloud rose, soaring ten thousand meters into the sky.

A searing shockwave swept in all directions.

Ruins 0235 was utterly destroyed.

“Such destructive force—if a War God was caught at ground zero, there’d be no chance of survival. But with a War God’s speed, as long as they spotted it in advance, they could easily escape. Missiles are really of little use,” Qin Ming reflected.

The jet flew on at a steady pace.

But below, on the open ground, the rat tide spread in all directions like a flood.

There were simply too many.

Even Qin Ming felt powerless.

One of these little things alone would be nothing, not even a threat to a warrior. But when they gathered into a tide, it was truly terrifying.

Even a War God could do nothing against them.

Ahead, a group of people appeared, being chased by a horde of gray rats.

“It’s him!” Qin Ming recognized a familiar face on the screen and gave the order: “Fire!”

In the next moment, bullets rained down, and in a flash, the ground below was covered with corpses.

The fleeing group heard the commotion behind them, turned to look, and stopped in shock.

Among them was Luo Feng.

Because he was a spiritual master, he’d gone out hunting alone to temper himself—never expecting to encounter a rat tide, which almost scared him to death.

He had learned one thing: if you run into a rat tide in the wilderness, all you need to do is run faster than the others.

He stuck to that principle, overtaking one person after another.

“A fighter jet—that means at least a War God is here. I don’t have to run anymore!” Luo Feng wiped the sweat from his brow and breathed a sigh of relief. But as the hatch opened and a man leapt down, he froze in surprise. “Qin Ming—it’s you!”

“My old classmate, you really are in a sorry state!” Qin Ming laughed as he approached.