61: Beneath the scythe, silver armor blocked the sky.

The scythe slashed down.

The sound of the wind vanished in that instant.

Lin Xiaoman closed her eyes.

Behind her was Henry's chest; the old man's heartbeat came through his shirt, fast and chaotic, but his arms held her tight.

She waited for death.

Death did not come.

A loud clash of metal exploded from overhead.

"Clang—!"

The shockwave spread in a ring, sending shattered bricks at the bunker entrance flying; Lin Xiaoman's hair was blown wildly backward.

She opened her eyes.

A silver-white tower shield hovered in mid-air.

On the shield's surface, the golden radiance blooming from the cross pattern stung her eyes until they ached.

The scythe was deflected, and the exotic beast's six articulated limbs carved deep grooves into the ground, the light in its dark green compound eyes flickering violently.

It was retreating.

Everyone's gaze followed the trajectory of the tower shield upward.

Beneath the dark red firmament, a silver-white figure descended from mid-air.

The silver-white light armor clung to her figure, its lines sharp and clean.

The shoulder guards were slightly upturned, and thin lines of golden holy light flowed through the seams of the arm and leg armor.

At the center of the breastplate—flames supporting a star.

The totem of spark.

The helmet covered her face, revealing only a clear jawline and those cold, resolute eyes through the visor's gap.

The Sword of Judgment hummed in her right hand, holy runes lighting up along the length of the blade.

Liu Yuyan landed.

Her combat boots crushed a piece of concrete, sending debris scattering.

She turned back.

She swept a glance at the survivors inside the bunker through the visor's gap, her gaze lingering on Professor Henry's face for a moment before shifting to Lin Xiaoman.

The corners of her mouth beneath the armor curled slightly.

Then she turned to face the exotic beast.

With a gesture of her left hand, the tower shield flew from the ground back into her palm, and she raised her sword with her right.

A voice came from beneath the helmet, steady and cold:

"Exotic Beast, prepare to die."

The Sword of Judgment swung out.

A crescent-shaped strike of holy light swept out, accurately hitting the exotic beast's torso.

The exotic beast was knocked back three steps.

It crossed its scythe-like forelimbs to block, and the black mist on its carapace was scorched by the holy light, leaving a white mark.

It did not penetrate.

Inside the bunker.

There was a second of dead silence.

Then the survivors collapsed almost simultaneously.

Not kneeling.

It was their legs completely losing strength.

Someone fell backward onto the broken bricks, staring at the cracks in the ceiling, tears streaming sideways from the corners of their eyes into their ears.

Someone clutched their child tightly, lips trembling, unable to utter a complete word.

In the corner, an old woman with a face covered in mud and ash knelt on the ground, hands clasped, lips moving as she chanted the same word in the local language.

The person next to her heard it and followed suit.

One, two, seven, a dozen.

Different accents, different languages, merged into a low, rumbling hum, like wind passing through the crevices of ruins.

Lin Xiaoman could not understand those words.

But she could feel the warmth in those voices.

That was not prayer.

It was the sound of someone being dragged back from the execution platform, their entire being shattered, and then slowly pieced back together within that golden light.

Professor Henry stood at the bunker entrance.

His hands were shaking.

Not because of exhaustion, nor because of fear.

It was because he was looking at that breastplate.

Flames supporting a star.

Three petals of flame, one hexagram.

His hand reached into his shirt pocket.

Passing over the photo of Isaac, he touched the bronze piece in another pocket.

The same totem.

The same kind of golden light.

The voice of Liu Yuyan when she gave him the bronze piece surfaced from the depths of his memory.

"Go to the battlefield and become a field medic. Everything has its own destiny."

Outside the bunker.

Liu Yuyan already felt it was tricky.

The Mantis Beast's carapace had extremely strong defense, far exceeding the Silence-Eroding Spirit in the Qin Province ruins.

That strike of holy light only left a white mark on the surface; it hadn't cut into the core at all.

And this thing was too fast.

Its six articulated limbs granted it terrifying mobility, and the frequency of its scythe-like forelimb slashes was so dense that it gave no room to breathe.

The first scythe sweep came across.

Liu Yuyan raised her shield to block; the moment the holy light collided with the scythe blade, the impact surged from the shield face into her arm, and half her body went numb.

The second one followed immediately.

She dodged sideways, her combat boots carving an arc in the gravel ground, and the Sword of Judgment slashed out backhanded, the blade grazing the exotic beast's abdominal segment.

Another white mark.

Still no penetration.

The third one.

The scythe slashed straight down from overhead, faster than the previous two.

Liu Yuyan didn't have time to raise her shield; her body shifted sideways before her mind could react, the scythe blade grazing the surface of her shoulder armor.

The armor emitted a harsh sound of metal friction, and thin lines of holy light exploded into sparks at the point of contact.

Within three moves, she had figured out this exotic beast's attack rhythm.

Fast, hard, but with large movement ranges, and a 0.3-second gap when turning.

Enough.

Liu Yuyan's eyes changed.

The holy runes on her entire suit of armor lit up simultaneously, and the golden radiance surged.

The holy light on the Sword of Judgment condensed at the tip, and the air around the blade was distorting.

She did not retreat again.

Facing the fourth scythe slash, she charged straight ahead.

With her tower shield held horizontally to hard-block the slash, her body slipped through the gap between the shield and the scythe.

Using the recoil of the impact to accelerate, she became like a streak of silver-white lightning, cutting into the exotic beast's flank.

The Sword of Judgment swung out at close range.

This strike did not use holy light; it was purely a precise physical slash.

The blade found the joint gap between the carapaces, cut in, and sank three inches deep.

Dark green body fluid sprayed from the gap.

The exotic beast let out a sharp hiss, its six articulated limbs exerting force simultaneously, attempting to shake her off.

Liu Yuyan pulled her sword out and retreated.

The blade brought out a length of viscous dark green liquid, stretching into thin threads in the air.

Effective! The joint gaps are the weak point!

But her breathing was already heavier than when the battle began.

The energy of her holy light protection was continuously being consumed; every block, every acceleration, was draining her stamina reserves.

She couldn't afford a war of attrition.

She had to finish it quickly.

Liu Yuyan adjusted her breathing, concentrating the remaining holy light onto the sword.

The golden radiance of her silver-white armor dimmed significantly, with only the holy runes on the Sword of Judgment glowing blindingly.

A desperate gamble.

She watched the exotic beast's movement trajectory, waiting for that 0.3-second gap during its next turn.

The struggle between the Paladin and the Mantis Beast entered its most critical stage.

— — On the other side.

Section Chief Han Zheng's convoy rushed into the War Zone.

Three off-road vehicles bounced forward on the gravel road dense with craters.

The drivers' hands gripped the steering wheels tightly; every time they rolled over a pit, the chassis emitted the screeching sound of twisting metal.

In the distance, the light and shadows of Liu Yuyan fighting the Mantis Beast could be seen.

Gold and dark green flashed alternately, and the shockwaves blew away the surrounding ruins layer by layer.

"People from Kindling are here!"

Section Chief Han Zheng's voice exploded from the walkie-talkie,

"Quick! While it's being pinned down, evacuate the refugees!"

The convoy screeched to a halt near the bunker.

Soldiers jumped out of the vehicles and began moving the survivors onto them.

Wang Hao ran to the bunker entrance.

At a glance, he saw that silver-white figure in the distance.

Silver-white armor, Sword of Judgment, Oath Tower Shield.

Exactly the same as in the Qin Province ruins.

His fists clenched, nails digging into his palms, his eye sockets burning with pain.

During the evacuation, Liu Yuyan's tower shield blocked a scythe slash, and she took the opportunity to turn sideways, drawing the exotic beast's attention away from the bunker.

Looking back, she only threw out three words,

"Go!"

The last survivor was shoved into the vehicle.

All three vehicles closed their doors simultaneously.

Engines roared, and the convoy turned around and sped toward the perimeter.

The walkie-talkie rang.

"Section Chief Han!"

A soldier's voice came from inside,

"On the other side of the War Zone... those two Shadow Erosion Beasts are moving in our direction!"

Section Chief Han Zheng's hands froze on the steering wheel.

Two Shadow Erosion Beasts, E-Rank.

Bullets couldn't penetrate them, and artillery shells couldn't destroy them.

In Qin Province, the Paladin had barely managed to kill one Silence-Eroding Spirit using a Cross Slash.

They didn't have a Paladin.

They only had a few pistols, a few spare magazines, and three bulletproof off-road vehicles.

And thirty-seven human lives in the vehicles.

"Drive through."

Section Chief Han Zheng's voice was hard, without a sliver of room for negotiation,

"Bypass them."

The convoy sped at full throttle on the gravel road.

In the rearview mirror, two clusters of black mist were approaching at an astonishing speed.

Three hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

One hundred meters.

The road ahead was cut off by a huge crater.

Gravel and mud filled the entire road; the moment the tires sank in, the vehicle speed plummeted.

Two exotic beasts flanked them from both sides.

Black mist rolled, and their reverse-jointed limbs sprang off the gravel.

The one closest could already be seen with the dark red pulsation at the core of its chest cavity.

Inside the vehicle.

The survivors saw the black mist outside the window.

Someone hugged the child in their arms tightly, pressing the child's face into their own chest.

Someone lowered their head, hands clasped, forehead pressed against their fingertips.

No one screamed.

Screaming required strength; they had none left.

Section Chief Han Zheng unholstered his gun.

The 9mm pistol slid out of the holster, the grip fitting against his palm. The coldness of the metal spread from the web of his hand to his wrist.

He knew bullets were useless.

The muzzle aimed at the cluster of black mist fifty meters outside the window.

His index finger rested on the trigger.

The trigger's touch was light.

A few tenths of a millimeter of travel was enough to fire.

The bullets fired would be completely unable to cause damage to the exotic beast.

It was meaningless.

But the muzzle did not lower.

In the back row, Wang Hao clutched the bronze piece, nails digging into the metal edge.

The bronze piece was scorching hot, and golden light spilled from the engravings, reflecting on his pale face.

Thirty meters.

Twenty meters.

Ten meters.

The edges of the two exotic beasts' black mist had already touched the car doors.

Fine, corrosive patterns began to appear on the surface of the metal door panels, aging at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Section Chief Han Zheng pulled the trigger.

The gun fired.

The shell casing ejected, landing on the center console with a ding.

The bullet passed through the car window, through the black mist, and hit the Shadow Erosion Beast.

Useless, completely useless.

He knew that.

But the gun still fired.

Just at the moment the second bullet was chambered—

Above the firmament.

In the dark red light screen, a small, bright orange-red spot of light appeared.

The spot of light rapidly magnified.

It was fire.

A staircase of flames extending downward step by step, each step suspended in the void, like stairs leading from heaven to the human world.

At the highest point of the staircase stood a person.

A black windbreaker fluttered violently in the air current.

Half his face was hidden beneath a bronze mask, the mask's patterns ancient and strange, casting intersecting shadows in the firelight.

On the half of his face that was exposed, those eyes—

Calm to the extreme.

No wind, no waves, no joy, no sorrow.

Section Chief Han Zheng's hand released the trigger.

He stared at the figure walking down from the staircase of flames, his pupils contracting to the size of pinpricks.

East Sea, destroyer, treading on fire in the sky.

Steel structure factory, molten iron becoming spears, one palm burning the heavens.

Wang Hao sprang up from his seat, his head hitting the roof of the car, but he didn't feel the pain.

"It's him—!"

His voice cracked, his throat torn.

Not the Paladin.

It was that man.

Kindling—not only did the Paladin come.

Even that man had come.

Su Chen stood at the highest point of the staircase of flames.

Looking down at the two E-Rank Exotic Beasts pouncing toward the convoy.

The corners of his mouth behind the mask slowly curled into an arc.

The hem of his windbreaker rolled in the thermal radiation.

He raised his right hand.