Night’s Nomenclature

Inside T101 Military Base, located north of City 10, the massive Qingshan Airship Fortress was undergoing a comprehensive overhaul.

The black city rested silently on the ground, surrounded by tall maintenance platforms, resembling dense scaffolding around a building under construction.

Thousands of maintenance engineers toiled on the platforms, manipulating enormous mechanical arms to dismantle and replace the Qingshan Fortress's worn-out Ling components.

Hundreds of engineers also inspected the Qingshan Fortress's systems and code, attempting to glean future improvement plans for the Air Fortress from the previous battle's data.

The battle in Forbidden Zone 00 had left the Qingshan Fortress in a state of total war damage.

The anti-gravity devices and overloaded reactors all required maintenance. The larger and more intricate the machine, the more carefully it had to be treated.

Currently, simply repairing its outer armor would take astronomical figures.

In a war of equals, victory went to the one with deeper pockets.

Although Li Changqing's actions had crippled the Chen Clan Fleet for at least a year, the Li Clan had also paid a corresponding price.

She silently reviewed the intelligence relayed by the Red Sparrow Organization, two items of which caught her attention.

The first was the discovery of Foreigner footprints within the northern Shendai territory, though the flying vehicle they used to cross the Forbidden Sea had yet to be found.

The Forbidden Sea could be crossed; while ships couldn't pass, the air posed no obstacle.

Even in the Outer World, a direct flight across the ocean would only take about an hour.

In the past, people from the West Coast had come to the Federation. Initially, the Federation welcomed them, but it was later discovered that they were all engaged in espionage, leading to the cessation of such exchanges.

The spies were all sentenced to life imprisonment and rigorously interrogated for information about the West Coast, ultimately revealing their desire to establish a new continent and colonize the Federation.

While the Forbidden Sea could be crossed, it wasn't suitable for combat.

A Fighter Jet's flight radius was about 8,000 kilometers.

The West Coast kingdom's intention in sending people this time was to find an island in the sea to serve as their forward transit base.

Airships and Fighter Jets would resupply at this base before flying over the Federation.

Since then, the Federation had regarded any West Coast presence on their land as a provocation, deploying Radar bases along the coast for 24/7 monitoring.

Now, the presence of Foreigners in the north meant they must have flown in, and the Federation army under Shendai hadn't provided Radar warnings, indicating that Shendai had opened its borders to the West Coast forces!

Li Changqing frowned. This was not good news. The West Coast was making a comeback and had likely found a forward base at sea.

The second piece of intelligence concerned the internal strife in City 5. The unrest was quelled that same night, but despite the failed attempt to overthrow the family head, the Head of the Qingshi Clan remained in his cottage on Ginkgo Mountain, taking no action.

This puzzled Li Changqing. What exactly was the Head of the Qingshi Clan up to, that he could treat such a serious provocation as if nothing had happened?

In fact, the Head of the Qingshi Clan's intentions had always been a mystery to all factions.

Previous family heads had balanced the relationship between Shadow and the various factions. Shadow checked the factions, and the factions checked Shadow, while the family head controlled the overall situation.

The past family heads on Ginkgo Mountain had used their powerful Emperor's Arts to keep everyone in their grasp.

But the current family head, Qing Xun, didn't do this. He allowed the Shadow forces and the various factions to compete against each other, neither intervening when Shadow gained the upper hand nor when the factions did.

It was as if nothing concerned him.

Internal strife within the family only benefited outsiders. In recent years, the various Qing Family factions had been making trades with other Conglomerates in order to counter Shadow, like when Qing Wen's mother, Qing Yun, transferred core technologies. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before they sold off all their assets.

This would damage the family's interests.

But the family head still didn't care. The only time the Head of the Qingshi Clan had intervened in the past decade was to prevent Qing Yun from trading away Air Fortress Technology.

He was in that cottage, silently watching the building collapse.

At that moment, a staff officer walked in with a piece of intelligence. Li Changqing glanced at the symbol on the report, which indicated Level S Information from the Li Clan Intelligence Agency:

Tonight, a young man named Ji Guanya visited City 18's Ban Shan Mountain Estate and had a 0-minute private conversation with Li Yunshou.

Ji Guanya was originally a Time Traveler belonging to the Li Clan and was Li Changqing's direct subordinate.

Li Yunshou was now the head of the Li Clan, so he naturally wouldn't bypass Li Changqing to meet with Ji Guanya.

The Li Clan valued internal order, so Li Yunshou didn't like people taking the liberty of meeting him out of turn.

This wasn't Li Yunshou's arrogance, but for a vast Conglomerate, the power structure needed to be stable. If Li Changqing's subordinates could freely meet him out of turn, it would diminish Li Changqing's authority and cause the Li Clan's underlying structure to collapse.

As the owner of Baopu Building, Li Yunshou had absorbed decades of knowledge from his father, watching him handle everything in an orderly manner and teaching him countless principles.

Many outsiders said that Li Xiurui favored Li Shutong the most, so the family head might make an exception and pass the position to the seventh son.

However, only Li Xiurui knew that after his mother passed away, his father, no matter how busy, would spend two hours every day imparting knowledge, sharing experiences, and testing his wisdom.

In fact, from that moment on, Li Yunshou already knew that his father wanted to leave with his mother.

After his mother's passing, everything his father did for the rest of his life was only to ensure the long-term continuation of the family.

Li Yunshou was already asleep when Ji Guanya arrived at Ban Shan Mountain Estate and had no intention of meeting.

However, when Ji Guanya explained that he was sent by Qing Chen, the head of the Li Clan immediately got up.

After the private conversation, a piece of intelligence was sent to T101 Military Base via an encrypted network.

Li Changqing only glanced at it before immediately standing up. "Prepare a Class A Airship. I'm heading to City 10."

Old Twenty-One, who was dozing on a chair outside the command center, asked in confusion after hearing Li Changqing's words, "Why not take a Class B Airship? It's faster."

"I'm going to war. Prepare a Class A Airship and an Escort fleet!" Li Changqing said coldly. "The family head said that Qing Chen sent a message through Ji Guanya that City 10 has been contaminated by Shendai Qianchi's corpse and a disaster is about to occur."

Old Twenty-One was stunned for a long time. "Wait a minute, you just got back from the south. There's no need to go personally, Boss. You should stay in the rear. There's no reason to have you go to the front lines every time there's a battle."

Li Changqing glanced at him. "Qing Chen is in City 10."

Old Twenty-One was silent for a long time. "What a sin."

"Where's Little Eagle?" Li Changqing asked loudly.

"I'm here, Boss," Little Eagle walked in timidly from outside.

"Weren't you and Qing Chen at that Time Traveler Academy? Why didn't you tell me about this?" Li Changqing asked with a grim expression.

Little Eagle was overwhelmed by the woman's aura and could barely breathe. "Qing Chen said that you had just finished a battle and it wasn't appropriate for you to risk going to City 10."

Li Changqing walked out with a sneer. "He didn't come to me but went to Secretariat. He clearly doesn't want me to go, but I'm going anyway."

At that moment, Li Shu quickly walked over. "Lieutenant General Li, Shendai has just held a press conference. They announced that City 10 has been contaminated by Biological Contamination and a huge disaster is brewing. The Shendai Northern Fleet will set sail in 8 hours to provide support to City 10."

Li Changqing frowned. "The thief is calling "stop thief!" They're going to use this as an excuse to move south!"

The Shendai Consortium themselves had created the disaster, but now it was becoming the reason for the Shendai Northern Fleet to move south.

Moreover, not only the Northern Fleet, but also the Field Army controlled by Shendai would likely move south as well.

The Qing Family, Li Clan, Koshima, and Chen Family had all participated in the battle in Forbidden Zone 00, but the Shendai Consortium had remained silent and schemed.

Now, they were choosing this moment, when all the forces were preparing to rest and recuperate.

The reason they chose to contaminate City 10 was also very cunning.

First, City 10 had the largest population.

Second, City 10's defenses were weak.

In earlier years, the five major Conglomerates had all sent troops there, but when the Qing Family stationed troops 100 kilometers away from City 10, Shendai would station troops 90 kilometers away, and the Li Clan would station troops 80 kilometers away.

In the end, everyone was stationed on the edge of the city, making it look like the five-nation allied forces were going to besiege the city.

Any slight disturbance in the military camps would make everyone extremely sensitive and nervous.

So the Conglomerates agreed that no Conglomerate troops would be stationed within 800 kilometers of City 10.

800 kilometers was the distance between City 10 and City 18.

Now, because the various parties were avoiding suspicion, the troops were very far away, and no one could provide rapid support.

Shendai had calculated everything.

This would be the beginning of an all-out war!

Li Changqing returned to the command center, calmly watching the Holographic Sand Table, taking in the entire northern battlefield.

Ten minutes later, a staff officer entered the command center. "Koshima has also announced that it will move south to support City 10."

She paced back and forth in the command center, eventually making a decision. "We're not going to City 10. Reply to Secretariat that my unit will complete logistical preparations within 8 hours and rendezvous with front-line commander Li Yunmu in 16 hours. We're going to fight a hard battle."

The Qingshan Fortress couldn't take off right now, but the Shendai Consortium's Air Fortress was intact.

This battle would be difficult.

Li Changqing glanced at City 10, which looked like an isolated city on the sand table. She really wanted to go there.

But she was a general of the Li Clan. Before, she could drive the Qingshan Fortress and recklessly appear in front of the Chen Clan Fleet, but now, with an all-out war about to break out, she had to be responsible for the Li Clan's soldiers.

And Li Changqing knew very well that when the all-out war broke out, all the main forces would be tied down on the main battlefield, and City 10 probably wouldn't get any real support.

This was what Qing Chen had said to Xiao San. They were likely to receive not support, but war.

Return Countdown 166:00:00.

Only two hours had passed since the crossing.

"Follow me!"

Dianfu was leading more than six hundred Kunlun Members through the streets.

At this time, the Rat Tide had just emerged from the ground, and its main activity areas were still in the second, fifth, and sixth districts.

These rats didn't randomly extend their battle lines, but instead wanted to completely devour these three areas before plotting other areas.

At that time, their breeding numbers would complete their transformation, and the entire city would become their granary.

Qing Chen had given Dianfu Plan A: If the city hadn't fallen into darkness after the crossing, the Kunlun Members would have to defend the power plant at all costs to ensure a normal power supply.

But if they didn't have time to get there, they would have to activate Plan B: immediately go to the PCE Public Security Committee headquarters in the fifth district.

There were nearly three months of police records there.

At first, Dianfu didn't understand why Qing Chen wanted them to retrieve a copy of the police records at such a critical moment.

But after explaining, they understood that Qing Chen wanted the police records from the PCE headquarters to analyze the location of the Rat King.

According to Qing Chen's reasoning, the Rat King wanted to invade the lower three districts first because they were in a no-man's land and could easily become a blind spot in the city, which was a strategic choice.

The people in the lower three districts were all the abandoned bottom people, and there were said to be more than half of the population living there. It could completely treat them as a granary.

It had to be said that the Rat King's plan coincided with the Guardians' Union, and they both felt that no one cared about the lower three districts, so they had to start there first.

However, what the Rat King didn't expect was that when it absorbed power from Shendai Qianchi's corpse, the lower three districts had already become the Guardians' Union's reserved territory, which led to it not being able to get in at all.

Qing Chen analyzed that since the rat swarm's invasion of the lower three districts had failed and there was no optimal strategic target, it didn't matter which area they invaded.

Then their next frequently active area must be the area closest to the Rat King, because they had to transport food nearby to continuously complete the reproduction of the group.

When the rats first raged, some residents must have survived by chance.

And what would those surviving residents do? They would definitely inform the PCE Security Committee of this terrifying thing as soon as possible.

The PCE Security Committee headquarters had a spare generator. He needed Kunlun Members to use the report records to analyze the active areas of the rat swarm, so as to analyze the location of the Rat King. Only in this way could Qing Chen find a way to behead it.

Moreover, Qing Chen was thinking about a question. What if Shendai Qianchi was holding Forbidden Artifact Ant Queen ACE0?

Then finding the Rat King might lead to finding Shendai Qianchi.

Qing Chen was determined to kill this person. Tens of thousands of people in the city had no way to survive because of the power outage, and the Shendai Consortium must pay for it with blood.

"Captain, are we sure we're going to the fifth district?" someone in the Kunlun team asked in a low voice. "Actually, we can still evacuate in time. We can go to the lower three districts to join up with the Guardians' Union members. As long as we defend there for a few days, the Federation army's reinforcements will arrive anyway."

Now, everyone knew that a Rat Tide disaster was about to break out in the city.

The orders received by the Time Travelers of the 99th team in the Academy were all to remember the route and use Plan A and Plan B as guides to retreat outside the city or to the lower three districts.

Only Kunlun received the order to penetrate into the center of the city.

They all knew that this was a dead end, and there was no turning back once they stepped on it.

Now that the Rat Tide was only sporadically distributed, they could still retreat in time.

"No," Dianfu responded coldly. "An order is an order. Qing Chen requires us to occupy the PCE headquarters before the Rat Tide fully breaks out, and we must do it. So far, everything Qing Chen has said has been fulfilled. He has prepared Plan A and Plan B for everyone. Since he hasn't missed anything so far, I have no reason to doubt him."

Someone asked, "What if he's really wrong?"

Dianfu was silent for a moment. "Even if he's really wrong, we must execute it."

In fact, Dianfu admired Qing Chen. As the person in charge of Kunlun in City 10, he had personally witnessed how the other party had exhausted his efforts to find a way out for everyone and formulate backup plans in the remaining five days of his return.

At this moment, everyone was clearly in a city without electricity or communication, but everyone could still continue to respond according to the plan. This was entirely because Qing Chen had done all the planning, variables, and preparation work before the crossing.

This was the reason why all the Time Travelers were not flustered when faced with the sudden power outage after the crossing.

Because Qing Chen had told them everything that could happen, even in this dark city without command or commanders, all the Time Travelers still knew what they should do.

It could be said that Qing Chen's work ended the moment the Return Countdown ended.

Just like what Shadow had said to Qing Chen.

Qing Chen had asked Shadow in Forbidden Zone 00, "The Federation is at war. Is it appropriate for you to run around?"

And Shadow's answer was, "What I should do, I have already done."

At this moment, in the vast city, the residents were gradually panicking because of the increasing activity of the Rat Tide, and countless people were running towards the edge of the city, wanting to escape from here.

The residents who had gone to bed early also woke up from their dreams in screams.

Dianfu stopped a fleeing refugee. "Are there any Rat Tides in the direction you came from?"

The refugee said in horror, "Yes! There are rats everywhere over there!"

Dianfu frowned, not expecting that the fifth district they were going to was actually one of the hardest-hit areas!

"Keep moving forward!" Dianfu said heavily. "Brothers, we must complete the mission."

On the last day of the Return Countdown, Qing Chen talked to each person in charge again. At that time, Qing Chen said to Dianfu: This order may not be fair to you, and you may not understand it, but I know how important your mission is. In this disaster, I need everyone to be a hero so that we can save more people. Please.

Dianfu couldn't help but smile when he thought of this. Kunlun couldn't let Daybreak look down on them.

At midnight, everyone was running out, and only this team of more than six hundred people was going against the tide.