leonardwarren Chapter 155 Li Kuangdao
Chapter 155 Li Kuangdao
Su Muyue stood by the city wall, eyes closed, her Martial Emperor bloodline operating at full power, sensing the distribution of evil energy outside the city. Her brows furrowed deeper and deeper, her eyelashes trembling slightly, as if she were trying to make out something very blurry. After a moment, she opened her eyes, her face paler than the stones on the city wall.
"Deep in the mountains, there exists an extremely powerful evil force, more terrifying than all the evil beings I've encountered before combined. It's not a difference in quantity, but a difference in quality; they exist on completely different levels." She paused, her voice tightening. "And a large number of ferocious beasts are gathering, even more than before, and they'll probably launch a new all-out attack tonight."
Chu Fan had reached the breach in the city wall. He crouched down, placing his hands on a copper plate contaminated by evil energy, probing it with his spiritual power to examine the extent of the damage. The runes on the copper plate had faded, and the surface was covered with a layer of black grime, like grease, but it wasn't grease; it was a crystallization formed from solidified evil energy. He stood up, dusted off his hands, and adjusted his glasses.
"The defensive formation is severely damaged, and most of its key points have been corrupted by evil energy. It will take a whole night to repair the main defensive formation and reactivate its power. That is, if no one comes to disturb us." He glanced at the darkness outside the city, then at the soldiers on the city wall, and said no more.
Su Muyue walked to his side and took out an array flag from her backpack. "I'll help you. My evil-repelling array can purify the evil power at the array's core and speed up the repair process. Two people working together will be faster."
Su Ling'er and Leng Feng didn't go up the city wall. They were in the barracks inside the wall, taking stock of supplies. Food was running low; the remaining rations were only enough for the entire army for two days. If reinforcements didn't arrive for three days, they would have to fight on an empty stomach on the third day. Medicine was even scarcer; there were less than two hundred healing pills left, and exorcising pills were almost gone. Even bandages were insufficient. Su Ling'er carefully collected the last few rolls of bandages, stuffing them into the innermost layer of the medicine box, refusing to give them to anyone. It wasn't that she was stingy; she was afraid there would be more wounded soldiers who needed them more later. Leng Feng was in charge of tallying the wounded; his notebook was filled with numbers—how many were lightly wounded, how many were seriously wounded, how many were still combat-ready, and how many needed rest. He closed the notebook and reported the numbers to Chen Feng.
Lin Chen walked up to Li Kuangdao and stood face to face. He was almost a head shorter than Li Kuangdao, and his shoulders were also narrower, but his gaze did not look away or flinch; he looked directly into Li Kuangdao's eyes.
"General Li, leave the defense to us tonight. You focus on recovering from your injuries and conserving your strength to deal with the Void Breaking Realm experts."
Li Kuangdao stared at him for several breaths. In the boy's eyes, he saw something very familiar—not courage, not determination, but something deeper, something heavier, something he himself had once possessed in his youth, something that had been honed and hardened through countless bloody battles. It was a martial artist's clear understanding of his own strength and his proactive assumption of responsibility; neither could be lacking.
"Good!" Li Kuangdao patted Lin Chen's shoulder heavily. The pat was quite forceful, and Lin Chen swayed slightly, but quickly regained his balance. "I'll have my deputy coordinate with you to mobilize all forces. As long as we hold out for these three days, we can launch a counterattack once the allied reinforcements arrive!"
As night fell, the Black Stone Mountain defense line was brightly lit.
It wasn't the bright, warm kind of light, but a dim, flickering light, as if it could go out at any moment. Pine resin torches were stuck into the city walls, their flames flickering in the wind, casting long, distorted shadows like a group of ghosts dancing on the wall. Under the command of Lin Chen and others, the soldiers carried sandbags and timber to reinforce the breaches in the city wall. Some dug usable timber from the collapsed watchtowers, others moved stones from the foot of the mountain, and still others used shovels to dig soil and fill sandbags. No one spoke; only the sounds of tools clattering, footsteps, panting, and the occasional distant, wolf-like howl from outside the city.
Chu Fan and Su Muyue, along with several array apprentices, squatted at various nodes of the city wall, working through the night to repair the array. Chu Fan was responsible for dismantling the contaminated array patterns, using spiritual energy to peel away the black crystals piece by piece, revealing the original runes beneath. Su Muyue was responsible for reactivating the array patterns; golden array patterns flowed from her fingertips, filling in the gaps bit by bit, like mending a garment riddled with holes. The array patterns slowly lit up on the city wall, the golden light faint but exceptionally clear in the darkness, like glowing veins, reconnecting the entire city wall.
Leng Feng and Su Ling'er moved between the various barracks. Leng Feng distributed the rations according to the number of soldiers, halving each person's daily ration and saving the surplus for the third day. No one complained, no one thought it was too little; the soldiers took the dry rations, silently munching on them and swallowing them with cold water. Su Ling'er distributed healing pills to the wounded, two pills each, four for the seriously wounded. She squatted beside the soldiers lying on the straw mats, putting the pills into their mouths, feeding them water, and changing their bandages. Her movements were gentle and slow, as if she were caring for a group of sick children. While changing the bandages, she would say a word or two, not comforting, not encouraging, just simply asking, "Does it hurt?" or "Is the wound still itchy?" The soldiers shook their heads, saying "No," "It doesn't hurt," and then, after she left, they would secretly glance at their old bandages, which were covered in dried blood and festering yellow pus—a single glance was enough to tell how much pain they had endured.
Lin Chen stood alone atop the city wall, gazing at the dark mountains and forests beyond. A cool, sharp night wind blew from the north, causing his robes to flutter and nearly extinguishing the torch at his feet. He pulled his collar up, his left hand resting on his sword sheath, his right hand hanging at his side, fingers slightly spread, ready to draw his sword at any moment. Stellar energy flowed slowly within his body, neither too fast nor too slow, like a tranquil river, but beneath its surface lay turbulent undercurrents. He didn't deliberately activate the Stellar Martial Core; he simply let it spin on its own, like a ready-to-go engine, idling, poised to rev the engine at any moment.
He could sense the approaching auras of countless ferocious beasts from the depths of the mountains and forests. Not just one or two, not just a couple hundred, but an overwhelming swarm, like locusts, densely packed and layered, surging towards the defensive line from the depths of the forest. The evil power of the Void Breaking Realm cultivator was also moving, slowly but steadily, like a colossal beast awakening from its slumber, slowly opening its eyes in the darkness. That evil power pressed down on everyone's hearts, like an invisible boulder, heavy and immovable.
Lin Chen placed his hand on the Star Sword. The scabbard was cool, but the blade was warm. A slight warmth emanated from the scabbard, as if the sword itself was also anticipating the moment it would be drawn.
He raised his head, gazing at the northern sky. There were no stars, no moon, only an unfathomable darkness. But he knew that in the deepest part of that darkness, there was a defensive line, a group of people, waiting for them. He was here, and they were there too. He had not fallen, and they would not fall.