The sun began to set as the horde retreated and everyone took a breath of relief. They had survived the first day.

People went out to gather the bodies of the creatures. These corpses had some value and the city needed whatever they could get to pay for reparations. With such destruction, the city would need to spend a large amount of money for repairs.

Beast hordes usually last several days and night attacks were common as well. This made the threat of these events much worse, knowing that they could attack and retreat at any moment.

This was also one of the reasons why the Jade Dragon Pavilion existed, humans were ultimately weaker than these beasts. Rank 1 beasts needed several men to fight, while rank 5 and above could decimate cities and even countries. The one advantage that humans had was intelligence, with such a connected system like the pavilions, information traveled quickly, allowing reinforcements and other means of support to arrive much faster.

Ming Yue went back into the city walls, earning numerous gazes from everyone. Her clothes were covered in blood as she walked back to the medical tents.

Suddenly a man approached her.

“It’s you”, he said.

Ming Yue looked at him and recognized him. It was the boy from when they fought the snake together, Fei Xian. He wore green robes and carried a simple sword. Compared to before, he wasn’t as weak looking or pathetic. His eyes had a look of confidence but when theirs eyes met, that confidence was replaced by timidness.

“What are you doing here?”, she asked him.

“Don’t you remember? I come from the Eternal Blade Sect. Even sects have a responsibility to protect the people. “

Afterwards, they both walked to the medical tents, she looked at him weirdly, wondering if he was following her. Noticing her gaze, he quickly explained.

“I’m a member of the medicinal side of the sect so I won’t be fighting anytime soon. Probably thought, I was here to fight, right?” He said.

Fei Xian felt slightly embarrassed, he did not think that Ming Yue would be here, prompting his awkwardness.

“She must think I’m strange”, he thought.

She didn’t really notice this and continued walking to the tents. When they arrived, it was extremely busy. While casualties weren’t extreme, there were still at least 200 injured and 100 dead. Out of two thousand people, there were only 1700 men who were able to fight against the several thousand beasts. Fei Xian left her to fulfill his duties as a medic while she, herself, went off to help as well. She was the daughter of a doctor after all. Ming Yue helped around, bandaging patients and distributing medicine.

Some of the people there recognized her as the one that jumped off the wall, going on a rampage against the massive number of beasts. They either looked in respect or saw her as a insane human. Night soon fell and the city was lighted up with torches. Ming Yue rested outside of the tents after treating someone. Their arm had been mangled from a Howler Ape but was able to kill it before it could bite their arm off.

She sat down and leaned against a tree before cleaning her sword. It was still had some blood on it and she wiped it down with a wet towel.

“Ming Yue!”

A familiar voice enter her ears and she turned to see Cui Fen and her daughter. It had been several months since she saw them and knowing that they were fine made her relieved. She stood up from her spot and went to embrace them. After doing, she asked about the rest of the brothel members.

“Everyone’s fine”, said Cui Fen, “We’ve been worried for you when we heard the beast horde coming. None of us were sure if we would see you again.”

Her heart warmed at Cui Fen’s words, they were the closest she had to family. Being treated with such kindness was something Ming Yue rarely had anymore.

“When all of this is done, come back and stay with us”

At this moment, a large rumbling resounded in the air. Horns suddenly blew from every corner of the city, signaling one thing.

“A night attack!” she thought.

She quickly said goodbye and went back to the walls. This time, only around half of the horde had arrived but the city could not take it easy. Even if it was half, this was still enough to trample a city. Ming Yue was still tired from before and chose to stay on the walls, helping to clear out any beasts that got close to the top. Xiao Yin flew up into the air, occasionally warning her of any particularly strong-looking ones.

“Kill as many as you can! The more they die now, the less there are going to be tomorrow!” a husky voice yelled across the walls.

Ming Yue saw that it was the captain from before who assigned a team to support her. After getting a better look at him, she noticed that he looked familiar. He noticed her stare and looked back before waving at her.

“Hello there! Must be surprising to find out that a simple store owner like me is really the commander of the city’s army, eh”, he said.

“Owner Su!”, she recognized him now.

The owner of the store she always goes to was high ranking figure in the city.

“But why are you doing this?” Ming Yue asked.

“I am a former soldier, being a store owner was just my retirement. Besides, I’m only here to help out with the southern gate. In any case, I was quite the capable commander in the past and I managed to gain a bit of fame from that. Some families would even send their young masters to see if they could become my disciple. Hence, the issue with the Xu Family from before. If you weren’t there that time, this old man would have had to stretch his muscles.”

Owner Su chuckled a bit before turning serious again.

“In any case, this beast horde is much more dangerous than I had anticipated. I have already conversed with the city lord to prepare for the worst. I know about the reinforcements from Cloud Dawn City, a team was also sent for the rank 5 by the emperor.. As far as I know, they are currently searching for the beast.”