Chapter 5 – The Calamity Descends

Chapter 5 – The Calamity Descends

After finishing his conversation with Yu Kai, Cheng Yang walked towards the lead truck. He had spotted Mr. Li, the owner of the lumber mill, jumping down from it. It seemed Mr. Li valued this transaction greatly, coming personally to oversee it.

When Mr. Li saw Cheng Yang approaching, he visibly relaxed. However, after glancing around, he asked, “Xiao Cheng, what are you planning to do with all this lumber here? Building a house? The ground isn’t even leveled yet!”

Cheng Yang smiled. “It will be leveled soon.”

Mr. Li’s jaw dropped, his mouth wide enough to fit a duck egg. This had to be a joke! While Phoenix Fall Slope wasn’t a sheer cliff, leveling it enough for construction would take days, if not weeks, and require heavy machinery.

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Li,” Cheng Yang said. “Just have the lumber unloaded by the roadside. Once that’s done, we’ll head back to transfer the payment.”

Mr. Li sighed. “Alright, you’re the buyer. Your call.”

He then directed the twelve strong laborers who had come with the trucks to start unloading. Each log was over two feet in diameter and more than five meters long, making them incredibly heavy. These specifications were Cheng Yang’s request, as anything smaller would be useless to him.

Cheng Yang returned to Yu Kai and the others. Yu Kai, finally catching on, asked with a bitter smile, “Yang, don’t tell me you spent all the money you borrowed on these logs.”

Cheng Yang nodded. “Exactly. How else could I afford so much lumber?”

Yu Kai groaned. “Yang, I should call you boss. Even if the apocalypse is coming, shouldn’t you be stocking up on food? What are we going to do with logs? And why drag us out to this wilderness? What’s the point?”

Cheng Yang replied calmly, “Don’t worry. You’ll understand soon.”

Despite his confident words, Cheng Yang’s anxiety grew as time passed. If his prediction was wrong and the disaster didn’t come, how would he pay Mr. Li the remaining hundred thousand yuan? Even if Mr. Li took the lumber back, the eighty thousand yuan deposit was likely non-refundable. The thought of being eighty thousand in debt weighed heavily on him.

But if the disaster did come and he wasn’t prepared, it would be a catastrophe of life-and-death proportions. This thought somewhat eased his mind.

At 4:45 PM, Cheng Yang grew anxious as Niu Bing still hadn’t arrived. A phone call revealed that Niu Bing had just left the city. Cheng Yang was furious—this was playing with his life!

He urged Niu Bing to hurry, insisting they reach Phoenix Fall Slope by 5:00 PM. After hanging up, Cheng Yang felt a heavy weight in his chest. With Niu Bing still in the city, reaching the slope in fifteen minutes seemed impossible. After some thought, Cheng Yang made a decision.

He looked around and said to Yu Kai and the others, “No matter what happens, stay calm and try to stay where you are. I’ll go warn Mr. Li and his men.”

Ignoring their puzzled looks, Cheng Yang approached the trucks. “Mr. Li, have your men take a break. Have a smoke. This is hard work, and fatigue can lead to accidents.”

He handed Mr. Li a pack of cigarettes.

“Sure,” Mr. Li said, glancing at the sky. “It’s still early. Let’s take a few minutes.”

As the men climbed down from the trucks, Cheng Yang smiled faintly. As long as they weren’t on the trucks, they should survive. He even thought they might become his subordinates later, and losing even one would be a shame.

4:57 PM…

4:58 PM…

4:59 PM…

As the seconds ticked by, Niu Bing still hadn’t arrived.

Cheng Yang’s palms were sweaty, and Yu Kai and the others were visibly tense. In contrast, Mr. Li and his men seemed relaxed, occasionally glancing at Cheng Yang’s group with curiosity.

Suddenly, a fierce wind swept down from the sky, shaking the trees violently.

The wind was unnatural—wind doesn’t usually blow downward unless at high altitudes. Mr. Li and his men looked up in confusion, only to see the once-clear sky turning gray, as if veiled in mist.

“What…” Mr. Li started to ask but stopped as the ground beneath them began to tremble, growing more intense by the second.

“Earthquake!” someone shouted, and panic spread like wildfire.

Cheng Yang, however, remained calm. “It’s finally here,” he murmured, though no one noticed the bitterness in his eyes.

“Yang, is this… the disaster you mentioned?” Liu Hao’s voice trembled with fear.

“This is just the beginning,” Cheng Yang replied calmly.

The ground shook violently. While the vegetation on Phoenix Fall Slope held firm, preventing rocks from tumbling down, the trees were flattened by the wind.

“Don’t run! It’s safer here!” Cheng Yang shouted to Mr. Li’s men, who were on the verge of fleeing. Despite the howling wind, his voice reached them.

Cheng Yang was right. The gentle slope offered some safety, unlike the unpredictable terrain beyond.

Five minutes later, the ground shook like a sieve, knocking everyone to the ground. Mr. Li and his men were pale with fear. How many buildings in Yun City would collapse? How many would die?

In the distance, a passenger plane plummeted from the sky, crashing in a fiery explosion.

Cheng Yang knew Yun City was in chaos. The earthquake’s terror was unimaginable. Against nature’s wrath, humanity was powerless.

People flooded out of skyscrapers, too scared to use elevators. Crowds surged down stairwells, desperate to escape.

The buildings, though shaking, didn’t collapse immediately, giving most a chance to flee. Tragically, the stampede caused countless casualties, though no one would have the time to count them in the days to come.

Ten minutes later, the skyscrapers crumbled, reducing the city to rubble. Survivors stood unsteadily amidst the ruins.

They crowded into open squares and streets, trying to contact the outside world with their phones. But soon, they gave up—none of the phones would turn on.

What was happening? Fear gripped everyone. Earthquakes shouldn’t affect phones. If one or two phones were dead, it could be a coincidence, but all of them? This was unnatural.

The ground continued to shake, and the eerie wind howled around them.

In that moment, everyone, rich or poor, felt utterly helpless. They hoped for news, for an explanation. They still believed this was just an earthquake.

The Xiang City government sprang into action, not wanting to be blamed for poor disaster response when national aid arrived. But with the earthquake still ongoing, their options were limited.

…

Cheng Yang and the others lay on the ground, unable to stand due to the violent shaking. Unlike the city, they were on a slope, making it hard to maintain balance. Staying on the road was too risky—they could easily be thrown into the river.

“Look! What’s that?” Mr. Li pointed in horror at the top of Phoenix Fall Slope.

Cheng Yang and the others looked up to see the peak of the slope slowly sinking, like quicksand in a desert.

Everyone but Cheng Yang panicked. Yu Kai, pale-faced, said, “Are we going to sink into the ground? Yang, let’s get out of here…”

Cheng Yang shook his head firmly. “This is our chance. We can’t leave. And I promise, we won’t sink.”

Yu Kai and the others trusted Cheng Yang, but the laborers and drivers didn’t know him. Two of them bolted for the road.

“Come back!” Mr. Li shouted, but his voice was lost in the wind.

As the two reached the road, a truck, unable to withstand the shaking, tipped over. The logs it carried tumbled out, crushing the two men beneath them. They didn’t move again.

The sudden deaths heightened the panic. Until now, everyone had been alive, if terrified. But seeing two people crushed to death changed everything.

Ten minutes later, the hundred-meter-high slope had flattened into a plain, leaving Cheng Yang and the others in disbelief. He had expected the slope to level, but not in such a dramatic fashion.

The shaking finally stopped. Just as people worldwide thought the disaster was over, a voice echoed in everyone’s minds, even reaching the deaf.

“Insignificant ants! Your laziness has angered the gods. Only through brutal slaughter can the universe evolve. Now, feast on the carnage!”

PS: New book, seeking recommendations and collections…