Chapter 1405: Breathing Vents

During this time, Teacher Ye had been feeling very distressed.

When they lived at the Mother Tree, although their activity area wasn't large, at least they could freely attend classes, choose the food they liked, and manage their own time. Beneath that small canopy was a free world that belonged only to them.

But now?

The Fusion Faction had indeed received protection in the Nanhai Realm, but the children's lives were no different from those of prisoners... Their activity area was restricted to a small factory, there were people patrolling outside at all times, their daily meals were fixed and delivered by designated personnel, and they were even escorted by God Path users. The way those people looked at the Fusion Faction children was as vigilant as if they were looking at a group of wild beasts in a zoo.

Teacher Ye could see the look in the children's eyes—from the radiance they had at the Mother Tree to the fear and inferiority they had now. Everyone was treating them like monsters, and even they themselves had started to doubt who they were.

Teacher Ye wanted to break people's prejudices, even if it meant he had to go to the battlefield himself; he believed Old Wolf and the others would definitely be willing. As long as they could perform meritorious service on the battlefield, perhaps the children could gain a portion... even if it was just a sliver of freedom and equality.

"No," the blind man refused without hesitation.

"Teacher Ye, I hope you can understand. This concerns the life and death of the Nanhai Realm; we cannot take even the slightest risk."

As soon as these words were spoken, Teacher Ye's face turned visibly pale. He opened his mouth as if to say something more, but in the end, he could only fall into silence.

Teacher Ye no longer had the heart to listen to what was said in the rest of the meeting.

When the meeting adjourned, he was still sitting there in a daze, until a hand gently patted his shoulder.

Teacher Ye looked up and saw that Han Meng was standing behind him.

"Teacher Ye, the meeting is over," Han Meng reminded him.

"...Mm."

Teacher Ye came to his senses and turned to walk out of the conference room, his back looking haggard and helpless.

After everyone had left the conference room, the blind man still didn't move. He sat quietly in his place, his fingertips constantly calculating something, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter...

"Strange..."

"Why... can't I calculate it?"

……

Boom, boom, boom—!!

A dull, thunderous sound came from the sky of the Nanhai Realm.

On the other side of the sky, countless spell-covered sea monsters were climbing layer upon layer along the turtle shell. They used their tentacles, teeth, tails, and sharp claws to frantically hammer at the outer surface of the shell, emitting thunderous roars.

But with every strike, a layer of ink-like characters would bloom on the surface of the shell, as if adding a layer of protection to the already incredibly hard shell. No matter how they struck, it was difficult to leave a mark; only a few high-order Calamities were able to blast out cracks.

And at different positions on the shell, countless Calamities were swirling like a vortex along the gaps in the edge of the shell, continuously drilling inside.

"Quick!! The first line of defense can't hold on much longer, the second line of defense, move up!"

"Don't panic! The enemy will only attack from the breathing vents. As long as we don't lose our rhythm, they won't be able to break in!"

"Two Seventh-Order Calamities and one Eighth-Order Calamity have just drilled in!"

"Don't be afraid, focus all your efforts on the other Calamities; someone will deal with the high-order ones!"

“……”

Behind one of the breathing vents, countless figures were charging one after another at the Calamities that had broken through. The semi-enclosed defense line, combined with the Book God Path's "Store" ability, had almost turned this place into a slaughterhouse for Calamities. Any relatively low-order Calamity that attacked would be killed here in less than a minute.

And the moment the two Seventh-Order Calamities and one Eighth-Order Calamity broke through, several figures flew out from the rear.

Pu Sanyuan had been prepared for a long time, and as he joined the battlefield, the fighting became even more intense.

Just as Han Meng was about to step forward, Pu Chunshu called out to him:

"Uncle Sanyuan is here, there won't be any major issues. You should conserve your strength and go support the other breathing vents."

"Where are the other breathing vents?"

"There is a breathing vent every fifteen kilometers."

Han Meng was slightly startled when he heard this, and then, as if realizing something, he said, "These breathing vents... were they left intentionally?"

"We don't have that kind of ability," Pu Chunshu laughed. "It was mostly arranged by the Nanhai Lord and our ancestor."

Han Meng nodded. "Very clever... If you were to seal the entire Nanhai Realm with the turtle shell without leaving a single gap, it would be safe in the short term, but they would eventually open a crack, and the location of that crack would be unpredictable...

But if you reserve gaps for them in advance, these Calamities will abandon indiscriminate large-scale attacks and instead focus their attacks directly on the gaps, allowing us to firmly control the location of the battlefield and occupy the geographical advantage, which makes defense much more sustainable.

No wonder you call them 'breathing vents' instead of gaps."

"Blocking is not as good as channeling," Pu Chunshu summarized the Nanhai Realm's tactics in four words. "The things left behind by our ancestors all have their reasons."

"Then I'll go check the other breathing vents."

Han Meng set off to rush to the other locations.

Han Meng passed through several breathing vents in succession. The size of these vents seemed to have been precisely calculated; a large vent was basically surrounded by small vents, and since most of the Forbidden Sea's Calamities were large in size, the Calamities that could pass through the small vents were not very strong. The Nanhai Realm used this method not only to block the Calamities but also to filter them based on their strength.

"This Nanhai Lord is truly not simple," Han Meng muttered to himself.

Just as Han Meng was on his way, his peripheral vision fell onto the street to the side. Perhaps due to the keen intuition brought by [Judgment], he instantly locked onto a petite figure running hard through the crowd.

It was a young girl wearing brown hemp clothes and a small yellow hat on her head. At this moment, her hands were tightly gripping the edge of the hat, perfectly covering the two furry ears on her head. She was carefully observing her surroundings while running toward the factory.

"...A Fusion user?" Han Meng narrowed his eyes, but after hesitating for a moment, he didn't step forward to stop her.

He could roughly guess where this girl had run out from.

Han Meng withdrew his gaze and continued his journey toward the next breathing vent...

At this moment, Xiao Tao didn't notice Han Meng's presence at all. She passed through the crowded street and arrived near the factory where the Fusion Faction lived.

She looked around to make sure no one was there, jumped directly into the sewer to the side, crawled into the factory through the "dog hole" Xiao Bai had left, and then quietly sealed the "dog hole" back up.

"Xiao Tao, you're finally back!" Just then, a voice rang out from the darkness.