After a few minutes, Qiao Qiao finally managed to calm herself down.
She looked at Lin Fan as if she was asking him what she should do.
Lin Fan looked right back at her and said, "My parents are here, you shouldn't be alone right now. I'll take you to them first."
Qiao Qiao hesitated a bit before giving a nod in response.
Lin Fan took her hand and led her over to the corner where his parents had been staying.
When they saw him bring over Qiao Qiao and Qiao Man, they revealed happy looks at first. However, as soon as they saw that it was only Qiao Qiao and Qiao Man, their expressions turned dark again.
The two families were quite close, which was why they had been very supportive of Qiao Qiao and Lin Fan getting married.
However, now that they had received the news that their friends were dead, naturally they would feel sad.
Lin Fan's mother came over to Qiao Qiao and took her away from Lin Fan, bringing her to the corner with his little sister to have a talk and to help her calm down.
The three men didn't say anything and just watched the three women move to the corner.
Once they were gone, Lin Fan's father turned to ask him, "Xiao Yu, what are we going to do now?"
Lin Fan knitted his brows to think first before saying, "For now, we seal ourselves in here and see what the situation outside is. Once it becomes more stable outside, we can send people out to see what the damage is."
Qiao Man said, "But what if they…"
Before he could finish, there was a loud sound that came from outside the shelter.
As soon as they heard this noise, all three of them turned to look at the entrance before running up the stairs to the second floor.
This shelter was built inside the mountain and consisted of three floors.
The first floor was the floor that they had been on previously and it was the floor with spaces for them to live and sleep in.
The floor underneath that floor was the underground floor which held most of their storage, such as food, water, and other necessities, as well as weapons just in case they needed to fight.
The second floor was the smallest out of all three floors and it only contained a few simple rooms, but this floor was the floor that was used as a conference area as well as a surveillance area. There were slits that had been carved into the side of the mountain, which they could look out of from the second floor.
As soon as they arrived on the second floor, they found that there were already people who were looking out the slits.
When these people saw that Lin Fan had arrived, they immediately made way for him to look out the slits to judge the situation outside.
Lin Fan moved forward and looked out the slit right above the door.
When he looked down, he found that there were beasts that were standing in front of the entrance.
Even though the entrance looked exactly like a normal side of a mountain, the beasts had somehow figured out that it was the entrance to this shelter.
Currently, there were two large gorillas that were banging on the door with their fists, as well as several dozen other beasts waiting behind them.
Based on the blood that was on their fur, Lin Fan could tell that they must have slaughtered some people before coming over here.
Seeing the beasts that were gathered here, he knew that it was only a matter of time before the entrance for his place was busted open.
Since he was a cultivator before, he was sensitive to the aura these beasts released.
Not a single one of these beasts were in the Soul Realm, the strongest among them was only in the Gold Realm.
If he still had his cultivation, he would have been able to take care of these beasts with only a single wave of his hand. It was just too bad that his current body didn't have a single bit of cultivation.
He also knew that he couldn't just leave these beasts outside since they would be able to break through eventually. He also couldn't evacuate everyone because there were just too many people here and it would be impossible to save them all.
After falling into deep thought for a bit, he turned to look at all the warriors standing around him, waiting for him to speak.
After another long pause, Lin Fan asked, "Who's ready to die with me today?"
He didn't sugarcoat it at all, it was very likely that they would die if they were to go out and fight the beasts.
After all, even if they were well trained fighters, they were still humans that didn't have a single bit of cultivation.
When facing these demon beasts, it would be like fighting them naked because they wouldn't have any life energy to protect themselves with.
Just a single hit from any of these demon beasts would mean every bone on their body shattering. If they were unlucky enough to be hit by the Gold Realm beasts, they would certainly be splatted into meat patties.
The men gathered around Lin Fan all looked at each other and then without any hesitation, most of them agreed to dying with him.
There were two who hesitated, but in the end, they chose not to fight.
The others were about to say something, but Lin Fan stopped them and allowed the two of them to return to their families.
These two were people who had immigrated over to the town in the past few months, so they didn't have an attachment to the town like the rest of them.
Lin Fan didn't blame them for feeling this way, but he also couldn't rely on them since his plan required no hesitation at all.
If even a single person were to run, it would break his entire formation and kill them all, so he couldn't take any chances at all.
After making sure that everyone was prepared, Lin Fan shared his plan with everyone.
It was a very simple plan, but it was also very hard to execute since the enemies were much stronger than them. It would take precise teamwork to pull off this plan, but everyone had to admit that it was the best plan they had right now.
Once everyone understood the plan and their part in the plan, they all went to say farewell to their families.
After all, it was very likely that they would die, so they would want the chance to leave a few words with their families.
Lin Fan also went over to his family to say his goodbyes.
When he came back, Qiao Qiao had already calmed down, but the moment she saw the look on his face, she started getting worried again.
Lin Fan's mother also saw this and turned to his father, but his father also pulled her aside to speak to her privately.
Even though Qiao Qiao was worried, she could guess what Lin Fan was planning to do, so she couldn't stop him.
She just looked at him and said, "Can you promise that you'll come back?"
Lin Fan looked back at her and said, "I can't." Then after a pause, he said in a determined voice, "But I can promise that I will protect you."
Qiao Qiao shook her head and threw herself in his arms as she said, "But I don't want that, I just want you."
Lin Fan gave a sigh and said, "We both know that I can't just walk away from this."
Qiao Qiao gave a chuckle when she heard this before she put her head in his chest and said with a sob, "I know."
There was a long silence that filled the air, but then Qiao Qiao suddenly came out of his embrace and raised her head. Before Lin Fan could even react, he felt a pair of soft lips fall onto his lips and a warm feeling filling him.
This feeling lasted for a few seconds before Qiao Qiao pulled away and said with a smile, "Now you owe me a kiss. I'll wait here for you to return it."
Lin Fan was stunned at first, but then he revealed a smile and said, "Alright."
After they had all finished saying their goodbyes, all the warriors gathered at the side entrance.
When designing this shelter, Lin Fan had naturally considered the possibility of the entrance being blocked, so he had made two side entrances just in case they needed to escape.
Now they were using this side entrance to sneak up on the beasts and ambush them.
Before heading out, Lin Fan turned to look at all the warriors gathered around him. Taking a deep breath, he said, "It is an honour to die with you all."
The warriors all looked at Lin Fan and said, "It's our honour to die with you."
Lin Fan gave a nod to their determination before saying, "Then let's go out there and die."
Turning around, Lin Fan walked out of the side entrance without any hesitation.
The other warriors followed a few steps behind because the plan was to let Lin Fan scout out the area alone first since he had the best senses.
When Lin Fan stepped outside the side entrance, he didn't see anything at all, so he turned back to wave his hands at the others to follow him.
However, before he could give the signal, there was a whistling sound that came from above him.
Then before he could understand what was happening, there was a dazzling beam of white light that fell in front of him, completely blinding him.