bookandnovel Chapter 153 Cave
Chapter 153 Cave
"The opportunity has arrived!"
Lin Chen leaped into the air. He didn't walk on the ground; there were too many ferocious beasts on the ground, densely packed, and every step he took would land on a beast's corpse or a living one. He stepped forward on the backs of the beasts, each step landing on the back of a different beast, and each leap causing the beast beneath his feet to suddenly sink.
With the Star Qi fully activated, the Star Martial Core within his dantian spun rapidly, and silvery-white Qi surged forth from his dantian, flowing along his meridians and converging on the Star Sword. The sword erupted with dazzling silver light, like a comet streaking across a dark passage.
The leader of the evil thugs was at the mid-stage of the Transformation Realm. Seeing the silvery-white sword light flying towards him, his expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly conjured a black shield of evil energy in front of him. The shield was as thick as a city wall, its surface swirling with dark red runes. He thought this shield could block Lin Chen's sword.
The moment the Star Sword pierced the shield, the shield shattered like paper. The exorcising power of the Star Qi surged along the blade into the shield, and the runes on the shield's surface, upon contact with the Star Qi, curled up, turned black, and crumbled like insects burned by fire. The shield shattered, and so did the evil man's chest.
The sword tip pierced his chest and exited through his back. A surge of stellar energy erupted within him, simultaneously destroying his core of evil power, meridians, and internal organs. He looked down at the silvery hole in his chest, his lips moved a few times but no sound came out, then his body went limp and he collapsed off the rock.
Of the remaining four evil men, one had his weapon cleaved in two by Leng Feng's blade, and his chest was ripped open with another; two had their hearts pierced by Chen Feng's sword; and the last one, who turned to run, was riddled with arrows by the archers, his body riddled with over a dozen arrows, kneeling on the ground with his head drooping, like a statue pierced by arrows.
The horde of ferocious beasts was out of control. The control signal of the Soul-Controlling Gu disappeared, and the manipulated beasts, as if suddenly awakened from a nightmare, stood blankly in the passage, their crimson eyes slowly returning to their normal color. They looked at the corpses, blood, and severed limbs around them, letting out low, mournful cries, then turned and ran towards the passage's exit, disappearing into the night. It wasn't an escape; it was a return to their lairs. They were originally wild beasts driven from the deep mountains and forests by the evil race, and now that the control was gone, they only wanted to return to where they belonged.
The battle is over.
From the moment the boulder rolled down until the last ferocious beast disappeared, less than an hour had passed.
The soldiers began clearing the battlefield. Some moved boulders blocking their path, some collected scattered weapons, and some counted the spoils of war. Chu Fan squatted beside the corpse of a villain, searched his body and found several secret letters and a token, glanced at them, and stuffed them into his backpack. Su Ling'er, carrying a medicine box, ran to each wounded soldier. Her movements were quick but meticulous—first, she cleaned the wounds with exorcising powder to prevent any residual poison, then applied healing powder, and bandaged them. When she ran out of bandages, she began tearing her own skirt into strips, washing them clean before using them again. Her skirt grew shorter and shorter, from a long skirt to a midi skirt, from a midi skirt to a short skirt, but she didn't care, keeping her head down and bandaging one wound after another.
In a cave deep within the pass, the soldiers found the remains of the entire company that had been stationed there. They hadn't been crushed by boulders, nor had they been killed by ferocious beasts; they had died from exhaustion. More than a hundred men had fought their way from the pass entrance to the depths of the cave, leaving behind a trail of corpses—the bodies of beasts and villains—as well as their own. The last man lay dead at the very back of the cave, his back against the wall, his hands clutching a broken spear, its tip still embedded in the skull of a beast. His eyes were open, his mouth slightly agape, as if he were shouting something. Perhaps it was "Kill," perhaps "Hold on," perhaps it was someone's name.
Nobody knows. And nobody will ever know.
Lin Chen stood at the cave entrance, gazing at the bodies covered in white sheets, remaining silent for a long time. Moonlight filtered through the cracks in the cliff top, falling on the white sheets. The sheets were white, the moonlight was white, but their whiteness differed—one thick, the other thin; one heavy, the other cold. He turned and walked back to the group.
The soldiers carried the fallen soldiers' bodies out of the cave, chose a sunny spot on the hillside, dug a pit, buried them, and erected a monument. The monument was made of wooden planks, without names or numbers, only a single number engraved on the plank—one hundred and seven. This number was their entire name.
Chen Feng stood in front of the tombstone, silent for a long time.
"stand at attention."
More than four hundred soldiers stood at attention simultaneously. Chen Feng raised his right hand and saluted. More than four hundred hands rose at the same time. No one spoke, no one moved, only the wind blew from the pass, passing through the standing soldiers, through the erected tombstones, through the broken weapons that had not yet been cleaned up, making a whistling sound, like someone was crying, or like someone was singing.
The troops were fully prepared. The wounded were placed in a temporary camp at the pass, cared for by the remaining soldiers. The main force continued northward, advancing towards the Black Stone Mountain main peak defense line. Lin Chen walked at the head of the column, his hand on his sword hilt, his gaze piercing the night as he looked north. There were no lights in the north, only endless darkness. But he knew that at the end of that darkness, there was a defensive line, and a group of people, waiting for them.