Chapter 382: The Slander and Praise of the World Have Nothing to Do With Me

Silhouetted by soaring flames, Lin Canyang walked out of the noble district and vanished into the night.

His task was not yet complete. Su Mu had ordered him to plunge the nobles into chaos, and nobles did not only exist within the Chiyan Empire.

He rushed to the next location without stopping, dedicating himself to the Leader's mission in hopes of being promoted to an official member of the Seven Deadly Sins as soon as possible.

While Lin Canyang busied himself, the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins weren't idle either. They took turns entering the dream world to train.

With a world-ending crisis looming, the strength of the Silver Tier was no longer enough. The official members had to keep up with the changing times and advance to Gold as soon as possible.

The Dream Time Chamber was the best training ground for this. A single day of training inside equaled a year on the outside. Paired with a massive supply of resources, advancing to Gold was no longer just a dream.

Two days later, Su Mu finally arrived at the Coastal Border.

There were many cities along the Coastal Border, and the final stop for his train was a coastal city named Haibin City.

He had read up on Haibin City before arriving. The city was extremely prosperous; boasting a major port, its maritime trade was highly developed, and the seafood caught here sold well across the entire country year-round.

But when he stepped off the train, all he saw was widespread desolation. The once-towering skyscrapers were now nothing but broken walls and ruins. Rebar lay exposed like twisted, withered bones, concrete fragments were scattered everywhere, and wisps of black smoke still rose from some areas.

The streets were covered in craters of all sizes. Abandoned cars were parked haphazardly, their windows shattered and their bodies covered in scratches and dents. Some had even been flipped over.

Very few of the shops along the street were open. Most had their doors and windows tightly shut, their signs teetering on the verge of collapse. The once-dazzling storefront window displays were now just shattered glass and looted shelves.

"I found a Mithril Shell Casing!" In a nearby alley, a child in ragged clothes picked up a Mithril Shell Casing, a flash of excitement crossing his face.

Beside him was a little girl who looked to be only five or six years old. She was just as dirty, but her large, bright eyes were full of joy.

"That's great, big brother! We can trade this for food."

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go." The older boy held tightly to his younger sister's hand, stuffed the Mithril Shell Casing into his pocket, and hurried away, as if terrified someone would snatch it from him.

Unable to bear the sight, Lin Lingling quickly chased after them, took out all the candy she had on her, and gave it to the two children.

When she returned, she couldn't stop sighing.

"That damn Pride! If it weren't for him, there wouldn't be so many children forced out of their homes."

Lin Nanxing and the others nodded in shared indignation.

In the crowd, Pride calmly pushed up his Tinted Glasses and did not voice a rebuttal.

When he decided to open the gates to the nightmare world, he knew he would become universally condemned, becoming the greatest villain in the world.

People only saw Pride intentionally releasing countless nightmare monsters to plague the common folk, completely unaware that without him, the world would be utterly destroyed in less than a year, and no one would be able to save it.

Releasing the floodwaters would certainly cause casualties, but if they weren't released, the dam would eventually break, and everything would be submerged.

Acting in the name of destroying the world to carry out the deed of saving it—choosing such a path destined him to stand in opposition to the entire world.

A savior bearing the infamy of a destroyer. Such heavy pressure was enough to crush a man of firm resolve, but... it could not crush Su Mu.

Because Su Mu felt no pressure, much less any psychological burden. He had destroyed the world many times and was feared by the masses; he had also saved the world many times and was revered by all people.

The slander and praise of the world had nothing to do with him.

His way of thinking was different from that of mortals. Instead, it leaned more toward that of a God, like a deity high above, looking down upon the changing tides and shifting events of the mortal realm.

He only did what he believed was right, or rather... what he found interesting.

"Captain, didn't they say the Haibin City garrison would come to greet us? Why is there no sign of them? Could it be that the Nightmare Creatures..." Lin Nanxing said with a hint of panic.

As soon as those words were spoken, the nightmare apostles who had just gotten off the train began murmuring among themselves, visibly panicking.

On this reinforcement mission, Su Mu hadn't just brought his own squad. There were also over a hundred nightmare apostles. These people were mostly those who had participated in the earlier exploration project and had been eliminated.

Some of the eliminated nightmare apostles had returned to their hometowns, while others, enamored by the prosperity of the Imperial Capital, had settled down there temporarily.

Then, when the crisis of the world's destruction broke out, these nightmare apostles in the Imperial Capital were conscripted. They were placed under Su Mu's unified command, forming a Special Action Squad.

Many more Special Action Squads composed of nightmare apostles were currently being vigorously formed. Su Mu and his group were merely the first batch to arrive.

"They're here." Su Mu suddenly looked toward the end of the street.

Before long, black silhouettes appeared at the end of the street, and the roar of armored vehicles approached from a distance.

It was a squad of fully armed soldiers wearing special combat uniforms. There were about twenty of them, following closely behind the armored vehicles.

Rumble...

The armored vehicle slowly came to a halt in front of Su Mu and the others. A burly man dressed as a non-commissioned officer leapt down from the vehicle.

"Which of you is Marquis Su Mu?"

Before coming here, Su Mu had been specially promoted one rank by King Chi, becoming a marquis.

This was a title of nobility that only Gold Nobles could possess.

Su Mu slowly stepped forward. "I am."

The officer looked Su Mu up and down. Seeing his delicate, aristocratic young master appearance, he secretly frowned.

This was the reinforcement sent by the Empire?

The officer gave a military salute and spoke, neither haughty nor humble, "This subordinate greets the Lord Marquis. You must be exhausted from your journey. Please follow me to the base to rest first."

"There's no need to rest. I remember the one overseeing Haibin City is Yuchi Hong, right? Where is he? Take me to see him," Su Mu said directly.

Because the number of Gold experts in the Chiyan Empire was limited, the dispatched Gold powerhouses were stationed in different areas to defend the coastline.

After all, the Chiyan Empire's coastline was far too vast. If the Gold experts were concentrated in one area, other regions would fall on a massive scale.

And Yuchi Hong was the Gold expert overseeing Haibin City.

A look of difficulty appeared on the officer's face. "Lord Yuchi probably doesn't have the time to see you right now. The current situation in Haibin City is not optimistic. A Gold Nightmare Creature has attacked the city multiple times, and Lord Yuchi is currently guarding against it. He cannot get away."

Su Mu's eyes shifted slightly. "In that case, I must see him even more so. The mission of our Special Action Squad is to provide assistance."