Half an hour later, the Red Kestrel activated a loud broadcast in the Jade City region.

"Residents, in response to Duke Baili's attack, Jade City will soon close and will be completely sealed off with no entry or exit. Please immediately take your important belongings and evacuate orderly from indoors."

"Similarly, please evacuate from Maria Hospital and Yalong Bay."

"If you fail to evacuate within the specified time, you will bear all consequences."

Many new humans were evacuating with large and small bags, appearing from above like sparsely scattered fleeing ants. However, a considerable portion of the residents chose to bear the consequences and stayed within the residential buildings of Jade City.

In particular, the residents of Mao Valley Town in Building 2 remained motionless, and more than half in Building 3 also stood their ground.

Cao Dayuan, in charge of evacuation, was busy and sweating profusely. His voice hoarse, he reported to the Red Kestrel, "Director, the townspeople of Mao Valley Town want to come with us. Wherever we go, they will follow."

"Those left behind are the original Scavengers and refugees. Those who left are mainly local residents who came from Chicken Head Town, Green Onion Town, and Oasis Town seeking high-paying jobs. They can go back, but those left behind really have nowhere else to go; they trust you and the company, saying they would start over with the company if needed."

They are willing to come along as well.

Zhou Yi wasn't concerned about that, the critical thing was that this full-scale strike must be executed swiftly.

His subsequent orders were issued one after another.

"Cease all affairs related to the farms, and have Tie Ma and Tong Niu first retreat to the Mushroom Forest for safety."

"Do not move from the Mushroom Forest, but be wary of potential attacks from Duke Baili."

"Nemo, with the sand rats, stay hidden and collect real-time intelligence of the Sand Port Region, ensuring their safety."

"All employees to proceed with Jade City."

...

The aliens also started moving.

Maria Hospital raised its supports made of sand and rebar, moving towards the back of Yalong Bay and settling again firmly.

Jade City lifted strings of buildings serving as ammunition, positioning them by the coast of Yalong Bay. The smaller buildings 2, 3, and 4 also walked upright for the first time, following behind closely.

The transfer and relocation were quickly completed.

The living buildings gathered at the submarine base.

Zhou Yi told Yalong Bay, "Set sail."

The massive crescent-shaped base slowly detached from the land and entered the foggy, unknown Dead Sea.

Behind it, over three hundred Sheng Snakes, transformed into propulsion engines, accelerated it.

On the rooftop, Zhou Yi looked back.

He could see the half-built Building 5 that had been abandoned midway through construction, the pit left by Jade City's departure, unprotected low walls that could no longer form a closed loop, the coastal dam, and the people on the sand bewilderedly watching from the sidelines.

Plans cannot keep up with changes.

Zhou Yi turned around, focusing on what lay ahead.

His target was Steel Refining City to the north.

Occasionally visible above the Dead Sea were Guangna Species flying or lurking in the mist, but they wisely kept a great distance from this fleet of aliens.

Red Kestrel continued with real-time broadcasts: "Driven by the Sheng Snakes, Yalong Bay is currently traveling at 12 kilometers per hour, slower than the previous 15 kilometers per hour, due to carrying four Jade Cities, Maria Hospital, and a large number of buildings."

"From here to Steel Refining City, a straight-line distance of 380 kilometers, it will take 32 hours at the current speed."

"We could be discovered by the enemy at any time."

Being discovered was inevitable.

After all, living buildings aren't known for their speed.

But Steel Refining City doesn't have legs; it's stationed right there. It cannot run.

Zhou Yi wasn't afraid to start a battle on the Dead Sea.

Jade City's aerial bombing of houses was sufficient to cover the surrounding area, suppressing Duke Baili's illusion fish troops range-wise. As long as no Class B creatures appeared, other attacks on Jade City were mere minor irritations.

Once Yalong Bay completes the beach landing, Jade City could fully utilize its ground combat capabilities.

Less than 150 kilometers into the sea voyage, Zhou Yi and Duke Baili's army clashed for the first time.

The enemy deployed six sea warriors as their ships.

These were large quadrupeds clad in hard scales, their flat heads surrounded by armored plates. They possessed wide, heavy claws and floated in the Dead Sea with agility that belied their physique.

On the backs and heads of the sea warriors stood several sea horse shooters, poised to fire once within range.

Jade City directly initiated long-range bombardments, igniting buildings for comprehensive firepower coverage. The slow-moving sea horse shooters were the first to suffer heavy casualties and injuries. The tough sea warriors were also blasted, their scales shattered, and bloodied, yet they still charged despite their injuries.

However, the second round of aerial strikes from the Hunters arrived soon after, cutting one sea warrior in half with the "Light Prism Outer Bone's" Death Light, causing it to sink and die at sea. The other few, finally realizing the situation, hastily retreated.

Zhou Yi witnessed all of this.

This is the superiority of the attack.

The defenders are innately a step slower, forced to extend their defense lines to guard against various possibilities.

After the encounter, Red Kestrel conducted post-battle statistics: "7 Sea Horse Shooters and 1 Sea Warrior from the enemy side were killed, with a suspected presence of two illusion fish lurking in the distance, but they all retreated."

Yalong Bay continued moving northwards.

Along the way, they encountered multiple blockades and harassments. On two occasions, the enemy dared to charge at Yalong Bay but couldn't stabilize their footing and were swiftly annihilated by the well-prepared samurai crabs.

The greatest danger encountered in this cross-sea operation wasn't Duke Baili's interception but a massive area of rapids covering the Dead Sea. To avoid this hazardous zone, Zhou Yi ordered Yalong Bay to detour.

Unexpectedly, the area of the rapids was far larger than imagined, forcing Yalong Bay to make a significant detour, taking nearly 20 hours.

The only benefit was that, upon exiting the rapids, they received a strong propulsion from a Death Light, significantly increasing their speed—it acted like a natural accelerator of the Dead Sea, provided they could withstand it inside.

At this moment, Red Kestrel reported, "Yalong Bay is about 110 kilometers from Steel Refining City, but also not far from Shell City, only 134 kilometers away."

Zhou Yi thought it over.

Both cities were viable targets.

Attacking Steel Refining City would destroy Duke Baili's iron ore region and steelworks, directly damaging the key steel industry. Attacking Shell City, Duke Baili's earliest stronghold, where shell exports were a pillar industry, would also cause significant disruption.

Faced with this situation, Zhou Yi pulled out a one-yuan coin from his pocket.

Heads to attack Steel Refining City, tails for Shell City.

He flicked his thumb, and the coin flipped.

It fell and he caught it.

Tails.

Shell City, it is.

…

Duke Baili was feeling somewhat irritable at the moment.

The whole battle situation had taken a strange turn.

Originally, the strategy for annexing the Sand Port Region was clear: start by blocking the transportation on the Dead Sea to continuously bleed Lord Sha Hai, then create the impression of a major offensive to make him spread his defenses thin, followed by sending Mechanical Thugs, Thorny Bird Team, and Sea Horse Shooters to create chaos and panic.

There were merchants in Sand Port City who had already switched sides and several enhancers. Through Red-eyed Vultures, they continuously relayed information from within the city, voluntarily acting as Duke Baili's internal allies.

And then, the acute humans used the guise of maritime merchants to flee Sand Port with the transportation ships.

Humans are extremely sensitive to environmental changes; they easily become panicked and disorderly. But with sufficient strong control, they would stabilize and survive inertially, becoming a useful workforce.

Duke Baili wanted Sand Port Region's population of 40,000.

Simply continue to advance steadily; Lord Sha Hai either had to take his people to find another place or had only the choice to surrender.

In the latest attack by the Mechanical Thugs, Lord Sha Hai ambushed them. However, a Dead Sea Alien suddenly appeared and seriously injured Lord Sha Hai before dragging him away.

The situation became very strange.

But what followed left Duke Baili utterly confused.

News from Sand Port City came that the mayor, Chen Jiadong, announced that Duke Baili had attacked Lord Sha Hai using special means to trigger discord between Lord Sha Hai and the chairman of the Wasteland Development Company.

Lord Sha Hai was recuperating there and instructed Chen Jiadong to tell the people to be vigilant and not to be misled. Now that he was physically incapacitated, he had temporarily entrusted the Sand Port Region to the chairman.

Duke Baili immediately realized this was a plot.

Lord Sha Hai was playing a trick of self-sacrifice to bring Zhou Yi, who possessed the Alien, into play.

To further confirm, he ordered the Mechanical Thugs to cooperate with the airborne Red-eyed Vultures to delve deeper into the Sand Port Region, probing and investigating the true situation of Lord Sha Hai at Jade City.

This brought forth a military retaliation from the Wasteland Development Company.

What Duke Baili could not fathom was that the enemy directly sent the Dead Sea Alien to attack from the sea.

Just a few humans and samurai crabs dead, and they start a war over such trifles?

Consecutive blockades failed.

The Wasteland Development Company came aggressively, not merely putting on a show, drastically increasing the pressure on Duke Baili.

It seemed that when splitting the Sand Port Region, he would have to concede a bit more territory and benefits to the other side to appease them.

As he pondered how to negotiate with the opponent, he suddenly received an urgent message.

"My lord, the Aliens are here, the Aliens are here! They didn't go to Steel Refining City, but circumvented the rapids to attack here!"

"They suddenly started accelerating; the previous speed was fake!! They're about to land! The guards can't hold them back; the front requests reinforcements! Requesting reinforcements!"

Duke Baili's heart tightened.

How did they know he was in Shell City?

However, Duke Baili was battle-hardened and immediately decided, "Tell the front to fall back! All personnel to enter combat readiness and set up defenses on Shell City's walls! Transmit my order for the Northern Defense Army to come to aid immediately, and Steel Refining City to also dispatch troops to attack from this direction immediately!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.