174: Chapter 174 One Slash Kills a Prodigy, Transferred to Changning City

Immediately after, Lin Jing, who excelled in speed, swept onto the ramparts with her sword in hand.

Seeing Li Wen, who was always one step faster than her, a flash of admiration and envy crossed her eyes. She quickly said, "Captain Li, your speed is truly unreachable."

Before her voice had even faded, she had already transformed into a green shadow, rushing to the front line where the Interstellar Gate was located to set up defenses.

Captain Gao Yuan's steady footsteps, along with the three Great Sun Realm Peak God-Demons—Liu Kun, Wang Qiang, and Zhou Tong—and dozens of well-trained Bright Moon Realm and Flying Star Realm God-Demon soldiers, all took their positions.

Like precise gears quickly interlocking, they constructed a solid defensive line in front of the Interstellar Gate.

The light of the Interstellar Gate flickered violently, and energy surged.

The first batch of invading Yao Race completed their teleportation.

What came into view were still twenty fierce-aura Great Sun Realm Yao Race, the lineup identical to the previous probe.

However, the moment these Yao Race appeared, Li Wen's Primordial Spirit Power, which had become even more refined and powerful after his Breakthrough to the Great Sun Realm, silently swept across the entire field.

Three layers of subtle yet formidable Primordial Spirit probing instantly distinguished the uniqueness of three of the Yao Race.

Their auras seemed restrained, indistinguishable from the other Great Sun Realm Peak Yao Race.

But in Li Wen's Primordial Spirit perception, these three contained an ancient and noble Bloodline aura within their bodies, like sleeping lava; once it erupted, it would surely be earth-shattering.

More importantly, the pressure faintly emanating from this Bloodline and the dormant fluctuations of Origin Divine Ability unique to the Yao Race clearly revealed their identities—direct descendants and Prodigies bearing the Yao Emperor Bloodline.

"Captain Gao, everyone," Li Wen's voice rang out calmly and clearly through the team's internal communication channel, "Target acquired. Hidden among the Yao Race group coming out of the Interstellar Gate are three descendants of the Yao Emperor Bloodline. The real big fish have arrived."

The minds of Captain Gao Yuan and the other five all tightened.

Prodigies with the Yao Emperor Bloodline!

This was by no means an ordinary probe; it meant that a long-planned, all-out comprehensive invasion had officially begun.

The tragic sacrifices of the last time were still fresh in their minds; Panshi Fortress Pass was standing on the edge of the cliff once again.

But the heavy atmosphere did not make them hesitate.

Since the opponent chose to hide, they would play along with the ruse.

"Follow the original plan, lure the snake out of its hole!" Captain Gao Yuan's voice was steady and powerful as he gave the order.

The battle began in an instant!

The defensive line formed by the Human Race God-Demon soldiers advanced steadily, colliding violently with the surging Yao Race vanguard.

Zhou Tong's black longbow acted like the scythe of the Grim Reaper from the rear, precisely sniping the Bright Moon Realm Yao soldiers who were rushing to the front and attempting to tear through the defensive line.

Captain Gao Yuan's Domain quietly opened, and the invisible gravity field was like a quagmire, causing the Yao Race that rushed into it to become sluggish and struggle to move.

Liu Kun, Wang Qiang, and Lin Jing formed a tactical formation, cooperating tacitly. Their attacks appeared fierce, but in reality, they were cleverly controlling the tempo, bit by bit luring the main force of the Yao Race away from the Interstellar Gate.

Those three Yao Race Prodigies, disguised as ordinary Great Sun Realm Peak, mixed into the Yao group, cautiously observing the battle situation.

Every attack deliberately suppressed its power, appearing exhausted and struggling to cope, even appearing somewhat flustered under the pressure of Captain Gao Yuan's Domain and their comrades' attacks.

After a while, the opportunity seemed to arrive.

During a coordinated attack that appeared to be a Human Race tactical error.

A powerful Sword Qi erupted by Liu Kun seemed to deviate slightly, forcing back a Great Yao beside Lin Jing.

Yet it "accidentally" "exposed" that snake-headed, human-bodied Yao Race Prodigy to a small gap in the defense.

Behind the gap was Captain Gao Yuan, who was bearing a certain amount of pressure.

Right now!

The three Yao Race Prodigies who had been dormant for a long time revealed their fierce light, their disguises instantly torn away, and their powerful Bloodline auras erupted with a roar.

Boom! The earth shook!

The burly, bull-headed Yao Race leader roared at the sky, and violent earth-yellow runes lit up around his body as his Earth-Shaking Divine Ability was activated.

Countless sharp earth spikes burst out of the ground like living things, throwing the surrounding formation into chaos.

Clang! A sharp piercing sound rang out!

The eagle Yao with magnificent wings erupted with dazzling golden light from behind, its speed soaring several times over. Like a sharp blade tearing through space, it charged straight at Captain Gao Yuan with unparalleled cutting force—its Divine Ability, Space-Splitting Wing Slash.

Sizzle! Green mist filled the air!

The snake Yao opened its huge mouth, spewing out thick, emerald-green poisonous mist that carried strong corrosive and nerve-paralyzing, eerie power, enveloping Captain Gao Yuan and Lin Jing like a living snake—its Divine Ability, Heart-Devouring Poisonous Miasma.

The instantaneous eruption of the three Prodigies was like three red-hot daggers, viciously stabbing into the core of the Human Race's defensive line.

Fierce roars erupted from the Yao group, their morale greatly boosted, preparing to tear apart this victory that seemed within their grasp.

However, just as the lingering sound of the bull Yao's Divine Ability shockwave had not yet faded, the eagle Yao's space-tearing blade wings were about to touch Captain Gao Yuan, and the snake Yao's poisonous miasma had just left its mouth—

A purple light, seemingly faster than lightning and purer than thunder, appeared out of thin air behind the eagle Yao, silent yet carrying an unquestionable will of destruction.

It was Li Wen, the Prodigy who had been enduring and waiting for a full two months.

"Open!"

Captain Gao Yuan let out a low roar, his eyes flashing with intensity.

His face suddenly turned pale, and a wisp of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth; he had clearly paid a certain price.

The "Star Evolution · Domain Fall" Domain he was channeling suddenly collapsed inward.

The gravity within the Domain instantly increased several times over, while the range rapidly constricted, as if an invisible cage, tightly trapping the eagle Yao, the snake Yao, and the few Great Sun Realm Yao Race near Captain Gao Yuan in place.

"Mystic Vault · Thunder Strike!"

Li Wen's blade moved!

There was no earth-shattering momentum, only a purple bolt of lightning, condensed to the extreme, as if devouring all light and sound.

The blade light passed through the eagle Yao's back like a teleportation, the majestic Thunder Strike power ignoring its tough wing defense, instantly annihilating its vitality.

The ferocious, confident smile on the eagle Yao's face froze before it could even turn into astonishment.

While slaying the eagle Yao, Li Wen's figure did not pause in the slightest, so fast that it left afterimages on the retina.

"Star Gallop!" His movement technique was so fast that he seemed to appear in different positions simultaneously; his next target was the snake Yao, from which poisonous mist was gushing.

The snake Yao's innate poisonous miasma was astonishing, but Li Wen's speed was too fast.

The blade light flashed, and the cold purple lightning, like a spear of judgment, pierced through the snake Yao along with the source of its spewing poisonous miasma—its snake mouth! The poisonous miasma suddenly dissipated.

"Don't even think about it!" The last bull-headed Yao Race's eyes were splitting with rage; its Divine Ability was pushed to the limit, the earth spikes spinning and cutting frantically, trying to force Li Wen back.

Captain Gao Yuan endured the backlash, concentrating the Domain's gravity to suppress the bull Yao.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The purple blade light, under the blessing of the Domain, appeared even more untraceable.

Li Wen's figure flickered around the bull Yao's massive body, and every time he appeared, it was accompanied by a fatal Thunder Strike blade scar.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the bull Yao's massive body was covered with terrifying scorch marks and bone-deep blade wounds, and it crashed to the ground.

The three Prodigies bearing the Yao Emperor Bloodline were all executed in less than three breaths within the fatal trap carefully set by Li Wen and Captain Gao Yuan.

The instantaneous fall of their leaders made the originally high-spirited Yao Race army like ducks whose necks had been strangled, stunned for a moment.

Fear spread like a plague.

"Kill!"

Captain Gao Yuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, forcibly raising his True Qi, and his Domain expanded suddenly, bringing more Yao Race into the suppression range.

Lin Jing, Liu Kun, and Wang Qiang's Battle Intent, which had been suppressed for a long time, erupted completely, and with hateful killing intent, they rolled toward the chaotic Yao group like a torrent.

Zhou Tong's arrows transformed into the Grim Reaper, continuous and unending.

And Li Wen was the arrowhead charging at the very front of this torrent.

The purple lightning leaped, shuttled, and erupted within the Yao group!

Every time the blade light flashed, a Great Sun Realm Yao Race would perish.

The perfect combination of speed and strength, as efficient as a precision instrument on the battlefield.

His powerful Primordial Spirit Power guided him to accurately pounce on any Yao Race leader attempting to organize a counterattack or posing a special threat.

The slaughter began!

The Yao Race army, having lost its core strength and command, collapsed completely.

The Bright Moon Realm Yao soldiers fell in droves under Zhou Tong's rain of arrows and the siege of the Human Race soldiers, while the Great Sun Realm Yao generals were specially targeted by Lin Jing and the others who were holding back their frustration, or were instantly harvested by Li Wen's purple lightning.

In the end, this sudden, highly anticipated all-out invasion by the Yao Race turned into a complete rout under the perfect counter-measures of Panshi Fortress Pass.

More than fifteen Great Sun Realm Peak Yao Race, nearly thirty Bright Moon Realm Yao generals, and countless Flying Star Realm Yao soldiers remained forever on this cold underground battlefield.

The light of the Interstellar Gate dimmed, and the remaining Yao Race fled back behind the Interstellar Gate to the Monster Realm.

Beneath the fortress pass, the air was filled with smoke, blood, and the irrepressible, exhausted victory gasps of the Human Race warriors.

Captain Gao Yuan looked at the messy battlefield below the fortress and the soldiers who were quickly cleaning it up, then looked at Li Wen, who was standing beside him with his blade sheathed, his aura having returned to calm, his eyes complex, filled with relief and shock.

He knew that today's victory relied entirely on this young vice-captain's nearly terrifying patience, insight, and decisive, explosive power.

Panshi Fortress Pass had temporarily weathered the crisis.

But the shadow behind the Monster Realm gate was bound to grow even heavier.

Li Wen's blade still had to prepare to meet an even fiercer storm.

May 3rd, 232 galactic calendar.

A month had passed since the battle outside Panshi Fortress Pass where three Yao Race geniuses were slain.

Since losing over a dozen Peak Great Sun Realm combatants in one go, the Yao Race seemed to have been deterred, and Panshi Fortress Pass ushered in a long-lost tranquility.

The wind on the ramparts was cold; although the patrolling team members still looked vigilant, their tense nerves had relaxed significantly.

— The Yao Race were not foolish creatures ignorant of when to advance or retreat. Knowing that an existence capable of easily slaying their elite was stationed here, continuing to dispatch subordinates before finding a countermeasure would be nothing more than a futile death. Even orders from the level of Yao Kings could not prevent the lower-level Yao Race from developing strong resistance.

This peace was broken by an emergency transfer order from the Kindling Hall.

Li Wen opened his eyes during his Cultivation in the quiet room, and his wristband projected new mission instructions.

He quickly scanned the content and fell silent for a moment.

The transfer order required him to set off immediately and return to Qingshi County, where a far-reaching plan was being launched.

The situation on Blue Star was becoming increasingly severe.

With small and medium-sized Interstellar Gates constantly emerging everywhere, the strategic nodes requiring defense were growing explosively.

The number of Human Race Gods and Demons, especially the backbone force of the Bright Moon Realm, was being continuously consumed, and their growth could no longer keep up with the expanding defensive needs.

After much deliberation, the upper echelons made a difficult but necessary decision: merging counties into cities and strategically retracting.

This meant abandoning those small and medium-sized Interstellar Gates and surrounding counties that were too scattered, faced immense defensive pressure, and whose defensive forces were unsustainable.

Qingshi County, the place Li Wen had once guarded and which also buried his homesickness, was on the evacuation list.

His new mission was to return to Qingshi County to assist with the evacuation and garrison work, and ultimately escort the remaining populace of the entire county to the nearby Changning City.

This move by the Kindling Hall was truly a last resort.

Blue Star's spiritual energy had only been recovering for a short two hundred years, and the Foundation of the Human Race's accumulated God and Demon power was still shallow.

As the bridge connecting the Flying Star Realm and Great Sun Realm combat power, the number and quality of surviving Bright Moon Realm Gods and Demons were directly related to the entire Human Race's future potential.

If these precious backbone forces were allowed to be slowly and continuously consumed by one scattered small or medium-sized fortress pass after another, it would be tantamount to cutting off one's own path to the future.

By comparison, allowing some small and medium-sized Interstellar Gates to open and letting some Yao Race below the Great Sun Realm infiltrate would cause damage that was, conversely, controllable.

Although Bright Moon Realm Yao Race were indeed stronger than the Flying Star Rank, within the vast Human Race territory, their destructive power and mobility had clear upper limits.

As long as the Human Race maintained a certain amount of mobile Great Sun Realm forces, they could extinguish these relatively scattered threats at any time.

Most importantly, these infiltrating low-rank Yao Race also feared death.

In the human world surrounded by powerful enemies, they would never dare to rampage as they did in small counties; they would mostly choose to hide in the deep sea, wilderness, or deep underground to linger on in a steadily worsening condition.

The actual damage caused was not as vastly different from the powerful Yao Beasts breeding in the wild as one might imagine.

Of course, the price was that the activity range of ordinary humans would be further compressed back to the core urban circles, and some former homes would completely become Forbidden Grounds.

But compared to sacrificing the entire Foundation of the Bright Moon Realm God and Demon class, leading to a lack of successors in the God and Demon system, this concession of space seemed insignificant.

Living space could be slowly reclaimed; once the Foundation was severed, there would be nothing left.

Li Wen bade farewell to Captain Gao Yuan of the Panshi Fortress Pass and several other team members he had fought alongside.

Captain Gao Yuan nodded understandingly and patted Li Wen on the shoulder: "Duty calls, take care!"

Zhou Tong, Liu Kun, and others all said goodbye solemnly.

Li Wen did not delay; his figure turned into a pale purple stream of light, speeding along the dedicated high-speed channel towards Qingshi County at an astonishing speed.

The scenery of the fortress pass was quickly left behind, and his feelings were hard to describe.

Panshi was a new battlefield, while Qingshi County carried too many memories.

The ignorance when first entering the Martial Dao, the heroic passion during the first battle against alien races, the promise to protect his parents, and that unforgettable, tragic defensive battle that buried six Bright Moon Realm Gods and Demons ———— now, he was to personally send away a part of its history.

A grand migration.

Over the next half month, a grand migration of unprecedented scale, concerning the future fate of tens of millions of people.

Following an order from the Blue Star Supreme Command, it fully unfolded across many areas involved in the evacuation.

Countless levitating transport vehicles and heavy vehicles, like a torrent of steel, shuttled back and forth on the security corridors opened by the military.

Transporting batches of residents, along with the limited belongings they could carry, continuously to the destination cities.

On the outskirts of these core cities, huge temporary settlement areas had long been planned and rapidly constructed.

Qingshi County was also caught in this torrent.

After returning, Li Wen immediately took over the fortress defense and critical path escort missions during the migration phase.

He was stationed in the temporary command post of the former Qingshi County Underground Fortress Pass, his mental perception covering a large area like an invisible spider web, ensuring the safety of the main migration route and the surroundings of the settlement points.

The once-familiar streets had now become empty yet busy, no longer showing scenes of daily life, but the clamor of the evacuation operation.

The Yao Race naturally would not sit idly by and watch humans actively retract their defenses to accumulate strength.

They immediately perceived the human strategic intent and attempted to sabotage it.

Every medium-sized fortress pass and strategic location still holding out encountered more fierce and frequent attacks.

Clearly, they were attempting to drag down the Human Race's Great Sun Realm combat power, leaving them with no time to attend to other matters, unable to smoothly support the migration or clear out infiltrators.

At the same time, they seized the opportunity of the opened gates, and a large number of Bright Moon Realm Yao Generals and Flying Star Rank Yao Soldiers began attempting to infiltrate the interior of Blue Star through these small and medium-sized Interstellar Gates abandoned by the Human Race.

But the human high command had long anticipated the Yao Race's counterattack.

This plan to merge counties and cities was not hastily introduced, but had undergone a year or even longer of careful deduction and preparation.

The Yao Race's intensified frontal offensive was like a heavy punch hitting a well-prepared, solid barrier; the Human Race utilized defensive advantages to resist layer by layer, not allowing the opponent to gain any substantial advantage.

And those Bright Moon Realm Yao Race who risked infiltration fell right into a meticulously woven net.

Several powerful King-rank Gods and Demons, like humanoid ultra-efficient scanners, launched a thunderous sweeping operation under the guidance of precise intelligence.

During the migration, Li Wen's Primordial Spirit perception repeatedly captured intense combat fluctuations and powerful King-rank energy signatures coming from afar, as well as the rapidly extinguishing life auras of the Yao Race that followed.

With King-rank Gods and Demons personally taking the field to sweep, the effect was devastating.

Large swaths of infiltrating Yao Race squads were precisely located, intercepted, and completely annihilated, and the scattered few who luckily escaped the disaster were also scared out of their wits, never daring to show their heads again.

They could only hide deeper, temporarily losing the ability to act, no different from lurking beasts.

Under the orderly and well-prepared response of the humans, the Yao Race's obstruction actions had minimal effect.

Although the half-month was full of pressure and busyness, the core goal of the great migration was achieved.

Around May 20th, 232 galactic calendar.

This unprecedented strategic population transfer in Blue Star's history had basically settled.

All small counties were abandoned and cleared according to the plan, and the population was integrated into nearby provincial capitals or special-grade urban areas.

The former Qingshi County had now become a newly designated large administrative region of Changning City.

On the edge of the settlement area, a huge protective dome flickered with the faint light of an energy barrier.

Rows of neat temporary housing units extended into the distance.

The dust settled, and the clamor gradually subsided.

The people, with faces carrying the bewilderment of parting and a glimmer of longing for the future, began to struggle to adapt to their new lives in the new district.

Li Wen also officially received new permanent garrison instructions.

— His garrison point was no longer some isolated small county, but the entire mega-city radiating majestic vitality and defensive depth — Changning City.

As one of the important strategic deterrent forces stationed here by the Kindling Hall, besides guarding the Underground Fortress Pass, he also needed to be responsible for patrolling and monitoring this super-city.

At the same time, as a powerful mobile reserve force, he was ready to respond to any high-rank Yao Race threat alarms that might appear within the city and surrounding areas at any time.