Just as everyone in the conference room was at a loss for what to do, an urgent knocking came from outside the conference room door. Lady Jessica called out for them to enter, and a young attendant pushed the door open and walked in. The attendant hurried to Lady Jessica's side and leaned in to speak quietly in her ear. By the time the attendant finished, Lady Jessica's expression had changed completely.

  "Lady Jessica, is there new information about the beast?" The white-haired elder noticed that something was wrong with Lady Jessica's expression and immediately pressed her.

  Lady Jessica stared bnkly for a moment. She swept her gaze around the room, drew a deep breath, and said slowly, "The beast is heading this way — toward Yufei City..."

  Time passed into the dead of night. After an exhausting day, Rulu and his companions were thoroughly worn out. They had settled in to rest inside temporary tents set up outside Yufei City when, all of a sudden, a soldier yanked open the tent fp and shouted at the people inside, "Everyone up — all of you, get out here!"

  At the sound of the soldier's voice, Rulu and the others opened their eyes, pulled themselves up off the ground, and filed out of the tent. The soldier shouted at the bleary-eyed group, "Get to the city gates and assemble — everyone, now!"

  Kallen rubbed her sleepy eyes and compined at the soldier, "What is going on? It's this te and you're making us assemble — can't you let people sleep?"

  The soldier shot Kallen a sharp look and barked, "Disaster's about to strike and you're still thinking about sleeping? Get to the assembly point now, or that beast will make you its first meal."

  "The beast?!" Rulu sensed something was seriously wrong and immediately turned to the soldier. "Wait — you just said 'beast.' What do you mean by that?"

  The soldier looked at Rulu with barely concealed impatience. "I don't have time to expin. Just get to the assembly point, all of you — that's all." With that, the soldier turned and walked off toward the other tents.

  Rulu stepped quickly in front of the soldier, fixed his gaze on the man's eyes, and said, "Brother soldier, could you tell me in detail exactly what's happened?"

  The moment Rulu locked eyes with him, the impatience vanished from the soldier's face. His agitated temper gave way to a calm, even tone. "Oh... it's like this — not long ago, a massive beast attacked the inn near Yufei City and completely destroyed it, killing many of the people staying there..."

  At these words, whatever drowsiness remained in Rulu and the others vanished instantly. Shari's body trembled as she asked the soldier, "That inn you mentioned — is it the one our Sanctuary tour group was staying at? And that beast — is it the giant serpent with nine heads?"

  The soldier said, "Yes. After the Hydra destroyed the inn, it began moving toward Yufei City. By the look of things, it won't be long before it arrives. Lord Euphemia is concerned for the safety of the people in Yufei City and wants to evacuate everyone in the surrounding area and relocate them elsewhere."

  The group erupted into arm. Kallen cried out, "How can this be? How did that creature know we were here?!"

  Rulu said to the soldier, "If the beast is heading toward Yufei City, why aren't you sending troops to eliminate the Hydra instead of running?"

  The soldier let out a long sigh and said, "We were pnning to deploy the armored soldiers to destroy it, but for some unknown reason the armory exploded, and we lost a great number of armor suits. The regur troops we sent out to intercept the beast have already been defeated by the Hydra. The residents inside the city are all fleeing outward now. Who knows how things will end up."

  "And your Lord — where is she right now?"

  "Lord Euphemia is still inside the city. From the look of things, it seems she intends to make a stand against the beast right there in Yufei City. That's all I know."

  "All right, that's enough — go on and do what you need to do," Rulu said. The soldier turned at once and went off on his own.

  "I never thought that beast would chase us all the way here. What do we do — should we evacuate with everyone else?" Nana's face was etched with deep dread. Just thinking about that enormous creature made her shudder.

  Rulu said pensively, "No. We won't move with the others."

  Shari said, "Why not? If we go with everyone else, we'd have the protection of the soldiers — wouldn't that be safer?"

  Rulu said, "They can barely protect themselves right now, let alone us. Besides, no number of soldiers can deal with this creature. We can only rely on ourselves from here."

  Nana said, "Then where do we go?"

  "Anywhere — the point is we can't stay here. Everyone, follow me."

  Inside Yufei City, residents who had received the emergency evacuation order were streaming out of their homes and into the streets, clutching their belongings as they fled toward the city exits. But the sheer number of people packed into the streets brought the flow to a standstill, and the evacuation crawled along at an agonizingly slow pace.

  Then suddenly, for some unknown reason, the residents who had been fleeing toward the city gates reversed course and came running back inward. Someone shouted in a panic, "The beast is here — that monster has come to Yufei City!"

  With a thunderous boom, an earth-shaking sound erupted from the direction of the city gates. The residents of Yufei City stopped in their tracks, raised their heads, and looked toward the source of the noise. There in the darkness of night, an enormous bck shape, dozens of meters tall, appeared near the city gates.

  The massive shadow crawled straight toward the gates. Its colossal body crashed directly through them and forced its way into Yufei City. In the glow of the city's lights, the residents could finally make out the creature's form — a deep-blue giant serpent bearing a multitude of snake heads. It was none other than the Hydra that had attacked Lord Euphemia earlier that day.