Chapter 653: Fire Rain

Border of the Red Dust Realm.

Shuangqiao Town.

Thick black clouds hung over the town, as if a storm were brewing.

A resident dressed in simple clothes hurried along the muddy path with firewood on his back. He looked up at the sky from time to time, and as the drizzling rain fell on his cheeks, he quickened his pace.

Under the iconic stone arch bridge of Shuangqiao Town, one covered boat after another was slowly docking. People used thick ropes to tie the boats to the shore to prevent the hurricane from blowing them away; shops on both banks closed early, and the clothes racks left outside by every household were all taken in... The entire town had made full preparations for this unusual storm.

"Mom! It's going to rain!"

Under the tiled eaves, a girl who looked as round and cute as a New Year painting, squatting by the door, spoke excitedly.

"It's going to rain, don't run around, you hear?" A middle-aged woman walked past the door quickly, carrying several stacks of bedding.

"I won't run around. Can I play in the courtyard?"

"No, you'll catch a cold in the rain."

"I'll wear Dad's bamboo hat and straw raincoat!" The girl stared at the hat and raincoat on the wall with shining eyes, as if she had been interested in them for a long time. "I'll just play for a little while, just a little while when the rain is light... If you tell me to come back, I'll come back immediately!"

"Haha, if my daughter wants to wear them, let her wear them." A tall middle-aged man walked out of the house and laughed. "Playing in the courtyard for a while won't hurt."

"...Honestly, you two are cut from the same cloth."

The woman glared at him, but didn't refuse, continuing to busy herself with taking in the laundry and doing her chores.

Seeing this, the girl jumped up excitedly and hugged her father's neck, giving him a kiss. Then she took the bamboo hat and straw raincoat off the wall and put them on carefully. In a moment, she turned into a brown fur ball. Perhaps because she was too short, the long end of the straw raincoat dragged on the ground like a bird's tail.

Drip—drop—

Drops of rain fell from the pitch-black clouds, creating ripples on the surface of the river. Seeing this, the girl immediately jumped and ran out of the house, running back and forth in the small courtyard.

"Dad! I'm really not getting wet!" The girl said excitedly, her large bamboo hat shielding her from the rain.

"Run slowly, don't fall."

Gusts of wind blew through Shuangqiao Town, and the original light drizzle gradually intensified. Ripples intertwined in the puddles, as if an invisible pair of hands were playing a chaotic and disorderly piece of music.

The girl's father sat under the eaves, watching the young figure playing wantonly in the rain, the corners of his mouth curling up involuntarily...

Just then, his nose twitched slightly, and a look of confusion flashed in his eyes:

"Strange... what is that smell?"

He sniffed carefully for a long time, reached a hand out from under the eaves, caught a few drops of rain, and sniffed them carefully under his nose.

"This isn't right, this doesn't seem like rain..."

"Dad! Why do I smell stinky?" The girl playing in the rain seemed to notice something was wrong, tilting her head in confusion.

The man was stunned for a long time, then suddenly looked up at the ink-black rain clouds and immediately beckoned to the girl, "Stop playing, come back quickly!!"

The moment the man's words fell, a sudden change occurred!

A red lightning bolt streaked through the pitch-black clouds. The next moment, the rain filling the sky was suddenly ignited. The dim sky seemed to be shrouded in the radiance of countless tiny suns, blinding everyone!

What was falling from the sky wasn't rain at all, but nitroglycerin.

Boom—!!

The fire rain poured down from the sky. The girl, who had just started running, was hit by a drop of fire rain. Her straw raincoat and bamboo hat, already soaked, turned her into a blazing phoenix in the blink of an eye, her sharp wails piercing the sky!

"Jiajia! Jiajia!!"

The man's pupils contracted sharply. He rushed into the rain without hesitation, trying to pull the girl back.

The desperate firebird danced in the rain. Her wings struggled only twice before she collapsed to the ground. The earth, already soaked by the "rain," turned into a sea of fire, blocking the man from reaching her!

At the same time, the man's own clothes caught fire. He screamed and stripped off his burning clothes, trying to extinguish the flames on his body, but even without clothes, the "rain" sticking to his skin could still ignite his body!

The flames on the man grew more intense, and the smell of burning flesh drifted through the air. He tried desperately to crawl into the house, because only the ground under the eaves was not covered by the fire rain...

But it was too late.

The torrential rain poured down from the sky, and the entire Shuangqiao Town had turned into a hell of flames. The man only took three steps before he was burned into a charred corpse, falling in front of his own house and shattering into pieces.

Not only the earth, but even the tiled roofs were ignited by this fire rain. Fragments of fire rain flowed down the eaves like dazzling waterfalls of flame, and all the houses creaked in the high-temperature combustion.

Flames filled every corner, thick smoke billowed, and the oxygen grew thinner and thinner... Even those who were hiding in their houses and hadn't been burned to death by the fire rain were now curled up on the ground in pain, their faces pale and twisted!

They greedily tried to breathe, but all that was left for them were burning embers and smoke. After just three or four breaths, they lost consciousness completely.

The earth was burning, the roofs were burning, the rivers were burning;

In this sea of fire amidst the wind and rain, human life was as fragile as an ant. Every second, people were dying...

How long does it take to slaughter a town?

A heavy rain,

13 minutes.

Above the clouds releasing the fire rain, a figure stood tall.

Red thunder roamed beside him, and a massive alchemy array rotated silently beneath his feet. This fire rain that slaughtered Shuangqiao Town was nothing more than a disaster he had conjured up on a whim.

"Thirteen minutes, and thousands of people are dead... The efficiency is still too low."

Brand shrugged regretfully.

"The Red Dust Realm has a sparse population distribution, especially these hundreds of towns outside the main city... At this rate, it will take at least several days to gather enough Philosopher's Stones."

"I really have to go to the Red Dust main city..."

"There are millions of people living there. A casual fire rain array technique could kill hundreds of thousands. The speed should be much faster than here."

Brand identified the direction and then manipulated the thick rain clouds beneath his feet to move toward a certain location, leaving behind only a sea of raging fire dancing in the dead, silent town.

Just then, as if he had sensed something, he turned his head to look at the horizon.

"Tsk... these people, they came quite fast."

In the direction approaching the Red Dust main city, an ink-wash figure like a furious thunderbolt rapidly tore through the sky and flew over!!