National Fate: Eight Yin Generals Guard China from Their Sleeping Coffins

Inside the Oval Office of the Black Palace in the United States.

The president slammed his hands heavily on the desk.

Scattered on the table were newly printed intelligence summaries of China.

The thick document, spanning over fifty pages, was a record of various unusual phenomena that had just occurred among the 1.4 billion people of China.

"Fuck!"

The president threw the document hard in the face of his chief of staff.

Paper flew everywhere.

"Why can our gene serum only enhance a few people? Yet, the national fortune of China allows the paralyzed to stand up!"

The president's eyes were bloodshot, and his chest heaved violently.

The chief of staff lowered his head, not daring to meet the president's angry gaze.

"Connect with EU headquarters immediately! Connect with NATO!"

The president loosened his tie and roared.

"Pressuring the Chinese government! Their power is disrupting the balance of this planet!"

"Make them hand over the secret of that paper craftsman! Tell them all the principles of those three spells!"

"If they don't pay, immediately freeze all their overseas assets! Cut off all trade routes!"

Meanwhile, in the British Cabinet meeting room.

The prime minister smashed an expensive bone china teacup to pieces.

He stared intently at the world map on the wall.

The blood-red cross of the Southern Yue Kingdom stung his nerves.

"China is cheating!"

The Prime Minister gritted his teeth, "They must have exploited some unknown spatial loophole. This method of gaining power without accumulating points must be mastered by us!"

Online, foreign netizens' sour grapes have completely boiled over.

A deluge of foreign language comments flooded global public channels.

[Protest! The system must review China's scores! This is definitely cheating!]

Why do we have to suffer death and injury while they can sit there and enjoy the benefits of the nation's fortune? This is unfair!

[Hand over the secret of paper offerings! This is the shared heritage of all humanity in our fight against monsters!]

Selfish Asians! Why didn't you go to save Annam when it was being eaten?!

[Let's see if they're still so arrogant when the fourth wave of monsters arrives!]

Jackson has been injected with an advanced serum and is now a true superhuman. He could crush that sickly scholar with a single finger!

[Joint sanctions! We absolutely cannot allow China to receive any more points rewards!]

[...]

Chinese netizens immediately launched a direct attack on the public chat.

[Those foreign devils are getting anxious. Seeing us ascend to heaven, your eyes are bleeding, aren't they?]

[What common heritage of mankind? Can you even learn from our ancestors? Your crappy history only adds up to a few hundred years!]

[Unfair? What were you doing when our players gave up personal enhancements three times? Thinking about how to steal equipment.]

The path you chose, you have to walk it to the end, even if it means death. Don't try to find fault with us.

[Waiting for our ancestors to continue teaching these ignorant barbarians a lesson.]

【……】

Yanjing.

Strategic command center 100 meters underground.

The atmosphere was oppressive and heavy.

This sense of oppression stemmed not from fear, but from profound shock.

Staff Officer Li, carrying a tactical tablet, walked to the main control console.

"Commander."

Staff Officer Li's voice was noticeably paused.

He pressed the remote control in his hand.

A high-precision holographic map of China appeared on the large screen.

Eight flashing red dots appeared in eight directions on the map.

"The technical department marked the registered residence locations of these eight comrades on the map."

Zhou Yaoguo turned around, his eyes blazing.

"Based on satellite mapping and comparison."

Staff Officer Li retrieved the first set of data.

"The blacksmith Guanshan. An abandoned ancient city on the edge of the desert that he has never left in the past twenty years. The coordinates are in the northwest. In the Eight Trigrams, the northwest is Qian."

"Ma Ling, the corpse-driver. He lives in a dilapidated temple deep in the mountains of western Hunan. His coordinates are due south. Due south is the direction of Li (離)."

"Ji Yuan, a paper craftsman. He lives in seclusion in the old book alley of the ancient city of Jinling. His coordinates are due east. Due east is the Zhen direction."

Staff Officer Li then reported the locations of the remaining five men.

"The blind old man lives in a water town in the southeast, which belongs to the Xun direction."

"The old beggar lives in the mountains of southwest China, which corresponds to the Kun trigram."

"The little girl is on the western plateau, which belongs to the Dui trigram."

"Chen Xiao, the coffin carrier, is from the Northeast Black Soil, which belongs to the Gen (艮) position."

"Jiang Chen, the corpse retriever, is in the desolate northern wilderness, which belongs to the Kan trigram."

Eight red dots flashed simultaneously.

Staff Officer Li slid his finger across the tablet.

Eight golden data lines extend across the screen, connecting the eight red dots end to end.

Light and shadow intertwine.

A massive Tai Chi Bagua diagram, spanning 9.6 million square kilometers of China, was prominently displayed in mid-air above the command center.

The entire command hall was completely silent.

Minister Chen suddenly stood up.

The teacup on the table was knocked over.

The tea spilled all over the table.

Zhou Yaoguo strode to the holographic projection.

He looked up at the massive formation that encompassed the destiny of China.

Eight people.

Zhou Yaoguo's voice was hoarse, "Guarding all directions, this is no coincidence at all."

Staff Officer Li nodded repeatedly.

My back was soaked with cold sweat.

"This is the core of the formation! Twenty years ago, someone used them as the core, forcefully nailing a national-level protective formation into the land of China!"

Minister Chen gripped the table tightly with both hands.

His eyes revealed undisguised horror.

"Investigate! Who exactly is their master!"

"To be able to foresee the nation's fate today twenty years ago—what incredible predictive ability!"

"He scattered his disciples in all directions, waiting for this day!"

Staff Officer Li looked troubled.

"Sir, we can't find anything. Neither the top-secret national archives nor the Skynet database has any trace of this person."

"This person does not exist in any records."

Zhou Yaoguo took a deep breath.

"No need to investigate further."

"Such extraordinary people cannot be fathomed by modern methods."

"All we need to know is that for the past twenty years, there have been people who have been bearing the fate of China."

Zhou Yaoguo stood up straight.

He solemnly saluted the eight figures on the screen.

Minister Chen and all the officers present stood up in unison.

The military salute was solemn.

The space for national destiny.

Above the sky, the enormous, dark red single eye opened once more.

The piercing air raid siren shattered the brief silence.

On the city walls of various countries, the contestants who had just completed their enhancements and were immersed in their power all felt a chill run down their spines.

The system's merciless mechanical voice crashed down.

[WARNING: The fourth wave of monster siege is about to begin!]

[The difficulty increase mechanism has been activated for this round.]

[Warning: Total monster population has doubled. Elite monsters now make up 30%!]

The cold notification sound brought the chat in the foreign live stream to an instant halt.

Thirty percent of them are elite monsters!

This means that out of every hundred monsters, thirty possess terrifying leader-level strength.

........

Bald Eagles on the front lines.

Jackson's newly regained confidence suffered another huge blow.

He clenched his fists tightly.

The veins on the back of his hand were bulging.

"Fuck! Has the system gone mad?!"

Japanese positions.

Yamamoto Itto's long katana trembled slightly.

He felt a terrifying pressure emanating from the distant black mist.

That was a violent energy far exceeding that of the third wave.

Republic of Korea's position.

Park Ji-sung holds the scepter with both hands.

A slight, unstable ripple appeared on the surface of the newly formed holy light shield.

The camera cuts back to the Chinese battlefield.

Eight people in one coffin, their positions unchanged.

Guan Shan sat in meditation.

Ji Yuan draws circles.

The old beggar closed his eyes.

Chen Xiao supports the coffin.

A strong wind whipped up yellow sand.

The far left side of the city wall.

A person wearing a tattered raincoat and a large bamboo hat stopped what they were doing.

This is the person who has been squatting in the corner weaving hemp rope ever since they entered the forbidden area.

His name is Jiang Chen.

A corpse retriever.

Jiang Chen tied the last knot in the hemp rope in his hand.

He raised his hands and pressed down on the bamboo hat on his head.

He slowly straightened up.

The water plants clinging to the raincoat emitted a musty, damp smell.