Da Xuan Martial Saint

A thousand-household officer from the Inspectorate answered Chen Mu, "Milord, the entire eastern region is submerged by the floodwaters; there are no homes, nor any survivors to be seen. Along the way, we were attacked by numerous monsters, but all were repelled."

On one side, the thousand-household officer reported the situation.

On the other side, Yu Jun's gaze swept over the crowd on the entire hillside, but his brows were slightly furrowed.

The tide disaster brought more than just flooding; there were monsters in the water, and the possibility of Earth's Veins tremors at any moment. It wasn't just difficult for ordinary people; even their team of absolute elite warriors encountered many troubles on their way.

To evacuate such a large group of over a thousand disaster victims seemed almost impossible to him. After all, the maximum capacity of the canoes they were using was only about ten people at a time. As for calling in more boats, it was not possible; the current was so swift that large boats simply couldn't be controlled.

Only these elite Martial Artists could forcibly control the canoes by virtue of their strength and cross the water.

He wondered what Chen Mu had planned.

As Yu Jun pondered, Chen Mu had already listened to the officer's report. After nodding slightly, he said, "All of you, come up here and guard this place. Do not let the monsters hurt anyone. I will send these disaster victims away."

Upon hearing Chen Mu's words, some from the Demon-Slaying Office responded.

But there were others, like Yu Jun, who showed hesitant expressions,

"Milord, our small boat can carry at most about ten people at one time. It will take at least half an hour to navigate out of the flooded area from here. A round trip will take an hour. I'm afraid this may be a bit..."

Not to mention that the small boat required at least three or four Martial Artists at the Tendon Changing Realm to control it so it could progress in the swift currents. Even if Chen Mu could control the small boat alone by his own strength and carry ten people at a time, it would still take several dozen, nearly a hundred trips.

The time spent would be too long.

The main issue was that for the sake of these thousand or so elderly and young people, having their team of elite warriors stationed here for ten days or half a month was not a particularly wise decision. There were still manpower shortages on the outskirts, and every additional team of elites could control another area of disaster, saving just as many disaster victims.

In Yu Jun's view, it would be better to abandon this difficult group of villagers, who were mostly elderly and young, or simply rescue only some of the children, and devote more manpower and energy to dealing with the monster disaster outside the flood areas.

However, this tide disaster was not like the drought disaster of An Yu County last time, which he was in charge of managing. Instead, Chen Mu, the Metropolitan Commander, was responsible for the troop movements of two counties in the Qingping River basin. He was just a subordinate under Chen Mu's command.

"No matter," Chen Mu said calmly after hearing Yu Jun's words.

Yu Jun hesitated for a moment, but he still obeyed and did not persist in dissuading him further. In his eyes, the lives of over a thousand villagers were a trivial matter. Even if some died in the outlying area, it didn't matter much. If Chen Mu's decision-making and dispatching were flawed, at most, more disaster victims would die, which was not significant.

Plus, their staying here was not without meaning. At the very least, if there was a surge of the Earth's Veins nearby, they might have a chance to obtain some rare Spiritual Objects.

Swish! Swish!!

Yu Jun led a group of Demon-Slaying officers and men to leap onto the rocky walls, guarding the surroundings of the hillside.

Although the hillside and rocky walls were very congested with hardly any space to stand, that was for ordinary people. The weakest among the group Yu Jun brought were Martial Artists in the Tendon Changing Realm who could easily find their footing where commoners couldn't. If worse came to worst, they could forcibly split the rocky wall to carve out a small space to stand on.

Yet as everyone leapt onto the rocky walls, Chen Mu didn't move towards the small wooden boat brought by the others. Instead, he let the boat be carried away by the swift current far into the distance and leapt in the opposite direction.

"Huh?"

Yu Jun and many others were briefly startled.

Even though for them, not having the small boat wasn't impossible for leaving the place, and at worst, they could guard this small hillside until the tide subsided, the question was, if Chen Mu didn't need that small boat, how was he planning to rescue the people?

What happened next,

They saw Chen Mu alighting, after a few leaps, on a part of an ancient tree that was still floating on the water. Then he dived into the water.

Afterward, there was a muffled hum from beneath the water, as if something had exploded. The water's surface suddenly erupted with a wave ten zhang high, and they saw the ancient tree slowly tilting in the water until it toppled over onto the surface with a boom!

But that wasn't all.

Before the nearly embrace-thick ancient tree could drift far in the flood, another splash arose not far away, followed by another ancient tree breaking apart. The two enormous ancient trees floated down the rapid floodwaters toward the small hillside.

Watching this, Yu Jun felt a slight shock in his heart. These two ancient trees were indeed much larger than the small boat; however, if they were to be used for carrying people, even if they were stripped of branches and leaves, that might not necessarily be much better than the small boat.

After all, being heavy and deep in the water, carrying a dozen people would practically submerge them, and with the swift current, how could a group of elderly and young villagers maintain their balance on it?

However,

Before the two ancient trees approached the hillside, Chen Mu appeared again with the Silverstream Saber in hand. With a flash of the blade, the branches of the two trees were sequentially stripped away, leaving only two sturdy trunks.

Immediately after that, a glint of light flashed in Chen Mu's eyes, and two invisible Wind Blades condensed on the edge of the Silverstream Saber. He ran them down the middle of the trunks and then thrust his hand into the trees, flipping them open with a powerful lift.