198: Chapter 198 Sword Intent Slaughter, the Price is the Proof (3)

Commander Cai walked over from the direction of the Pier. He stood at the edge of the shallow water zone, casting a glance at the wreckage on the water's surface.

Then, he pulled the roster out of the leather pouch at his waist. The roster was bound with thick thread, and the cover was inscribed with the numbers of the twelve sentry posts of the Sin Battalion, along with the names of the three people at each post.

He opened the roster, flipping to the page for the Fourth Sentry Post.

The Fourth Sentry Post—the location of the breach. Two men were gone.

Before Leng Feng could reach the breach, two Abyssal Beasts had skirted the outer side of the shield wall, biting through the shields of the two outermost sentry posts.

The iron plating of the shields was bitten through, the hardwood boards were crushed, and the armor plates behind the shield faces were torn open in the process.

The two men hadn't held out until Leng Feng arrived.

The Third Sentry Post—the outer observation position.

When the False Core Commander first charged the Sword Net, he threw a bone spear. After leaving his hand, the bone spear dragged a dark cyan water trail as it slammed into the stone wall of the observation port.

The stone wall of the observation port was smashed through, and a sentry behind the wall was struck by the shockwave.

Three men. Their names were written on the roster in charcoal pencil, the handwriting being Commander Cai's own.

He took out the charcoal pencil and drew a horizontal line across the first name.

The tip pressed against the paper, occupying less than half a line. The stroke went from left to right, and as he finished, the tip paused on the paper. Then he crossed out the second name. Then the third. Three horizontal lines.

After finishing, his fingers lingered on the roster paper for about two breaths. Then he turned the roster over, flipping to the casualty registration page.

The casualty registration page was blank. This was the first time since the Sin Battalion had taken up their posts that anyone had been written onto this page.

He copied the three names onto it one by one, writing nearly twice as slowly as usual.

At the end of each name, the tip of his pen paused and pressed back. That pause was intentional.

Eleven were wounded.

Deng Yue's left shoulder—before Leng Feng reached the breach, it had been pierced by a bone spear that went through the outer armor plate, but the lining beneath the plate had blocked the spear tip.

The wound was less than half a grain of rice deep. After Gu He applied the hemostatic powder, the bleeding stopped in about ten breaths.

The other eight men had suffered injuries to their arms or chests when the shield wall took the shockwave. The wounds were not deep, but every one of them had bled.

There were also two others whom Leng Feng hadn't been able to block in time at the breach; they had been cut on their calves and wrists by the bone spikes of the Abyssal Beasts.

The wounds left only shallow marks on the bone, but the cuts were located at the thinnest parts of the armor seams.

Gu He had moved the hemostatic powder from the Pier warehouse area to the foot of the reef wall. Less than fifty doses of the three hundred had been used; the rest were stacked back into the rattan medicine chest.

The sound of him muttering while applying medicine to each person was louder than usual. After being tense for nearly an hour, he had relaxed, and the muttering spilled out from his throat.

On the sea, the dark purple water band was being stretched wider and wider by the receding tide. At the edge of the water band, the tide was pushing the wreckage back toward the Dragon Burial Trench.

The wreckage collided with the reefs on the outer perimeter of the Ring Reef, the shattered bone armor scraping against the surface of the reefs with a faint, rustling sound.

Su Qingli walked from the Formation Affairs Room to the Pier. She stood on the outermost side of the jetty, her feet resting on the stone platform next to the Receiving Formation's Formation Plate.

During the battle, the waveforms of the four sensor array pieces on the Formation Plate had jumped to the highest density she had ever recorded, and now they were falling back.

But the rate of the decline was slower than she had expected; the position of the sixth wave source was still less than fifty miles outside the Ring Reef.

The vanguard had retreated, but the main force was still there.

She glanced at the sea surface, which had been stained dark purple, then turned and walked back to the Formation Affairs Room.

The battle report Jade Slip was placed on the left side of the stone platform in the Formation Affairs Room; it was a blank Jade Slip, with only the most basic communication array paths carved onto its surface.

She inserted the Jade Slip into the communication stand in the Formation Affairs Room; the base of the communication stand was carved with three rings of relay Array Patterns.

Su Qingli's finger touched the surface of the Jade Slip, and a faint layer of spiritual light rippled across it.

She drafted the report on rubbing paper first. Five lines were written on the paper:

Time of engagement—Mao hour, third quarter. Enemy scale—two False Core, over one hundred Foundation Establishment Abyssal Beasts, three rows of shock lines. Kills—two False Core fled, approximately eighty Foundation Establishment Abyssal Beasts killed. Friendly casualties—three dead, eleven wounded. Geng Metal Killing Array sword thread consumption—thirty percent.

She copied the five lines from the draft into the Jade Slip; it took less than twenty breaths.

Lu Changyuan stood beside her. After reading the five lines, he pressed his finger on the "Friendly casualties" column.

The force of his finger pressed down dimmed the spiritual light on the surface of the Jade Slip for a moment, before it returned to its original brightness.

He removed his hand from the Jade Slip. Then he pulled the battle report Jade Slip from the communication stand and handed it to Leng Feng.

"Send it to the fortress. Don't change a single word."

Leng Feng took the Jade Slip. The spiritual light on the surface of the Jade Slip vibrated slightly in his palm—it was the communication array path in standby mode.

He held the Jade Slip in his palm, his other hand resting beside the Great Commander seal at his waist. He walked out of the Formation Affairs Room and headed toward the Pier.

On the Pier, inside the Ring Reef, the yellow lights went out. The repeaters for the twelve sentry posts switched back to green lights.

The Old Veteran set up the observation scope again, aiming the lens at the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The dark purple water band on the sea was still expanding, but the vanguard was gone. He knew the main force was still behind.

The green light on the repeater shone steadily in the wind of the receding tide.