81: Chapter 81 The Frontline of the Fog Sea

It was still dark when the military skiff lifted off from the Wanxiang University spaceport.

Shen Ye leaned against the porthole, watching the four-tower light beams of Lake Heart Island gradually shrink into four pale golden threads in the morning mist, eventually swallowed by the clouds.

Qin Shu pushed the engines to their limit, and the skiff, trailing a pale blue exhaust, sped toward the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

Qin Youyou sat opposite him, using a whetstone to sharpen the tip of her ancient war spear stroke by stroke, the blade surface gleaming with a cold luster in the daylight filtering through the porthole.

She had officially reported to the Independent Pioneer Sequence yesterday; as soon as the paperwork was done, she had grabbed her ancient war spear and boarded the skiff.

"General Lin Yuan's frontline camp has already advanced to the area covered by the twilight beacon on the southern edge of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist."

Qin Shu's voice came from the cockpit, "Gu Qinghan sent the latest flight path map. The activity range of the Void Tribe Scout at the southern end of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist has shrunk by about one-third, but several pieces of intelligence indicate that some scattered scouts are probing toward more remote directions, which requires our attention. Your task is to activate a twilight beacon at an outpost outside the frontline camp and use the Twilight Light Beam to extend the existing light network forward."

Shen Ye opened the detector and imported the outpost coordinates and twilight beacon resonance frequency sent by Lin Tianyin into the flight path map.

The coordinates were located on the south side of the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, right next to the edge of the residual zone of the Ash King's law burn marks.

The last time he came here, the fog was so thick that his spiritual sense was suppressed into his body, making it almost impossible to perceive anything; after the four-tower light beams were activated, the twilight residue deep in the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist turned from dormant to active, and those ancient beacons scattered throughout the ruins should all be awakened by the resonance of the Heart of Twilight.

It was already noon when the skiff landed at General Lin Yuan's frontline camp.

The camp was built on a high ground of ruins covered by the Twilight Light Beam, with a temporary defense line built from gray-white stone slabs reinforced with laws.

The patrol had just changed shifts, and a group of wounded soldiers sat outside the camp's medical station; some had bandages on their arms that had turned black after being eroded by the power of the Devouring Abyss, while others leaned against the wall, eyes closed, resting.

A young sentry was squatting outside the camp cafeteria peeling potatoes; seeing the skiff land, he put down the half-peeled potato and ran over to help move supplies.

Shen Ye walked down the ramp, with Qin Youyou carrying her ancient war spear behind him.

The two walked through the camp and met General Lin Yuan at the entrance of the medical station.

He looked more weathered than his actual age, with broad shoulders, thick eyebrows, and deep-set eyes; his temperament was somewhat similar to Second Lieutenant Meng Yan's, but he carried an extra layer of exhaustion left by long-term command on the front lines.

His hand was wrapped in spiritual power bandages, and a very faint dark red color seeped from the edge of the bandages—that was the trace of the Devouring Abyss power remaining after being scratched by a Void Race bone blade.

The wound was at the tip of his finger; it wasn't serious, but it hadn't healed.

Qin Youyou stepped forward, planted her ancient war spear on the ground, and gave a military salute.

"Qin Youyou, reserve member of the Independent Pioneer Sequence, reporting for duty."

General Lin Yuan looked at the ancient war spear in her hand, his gaze lingering for a moment on the bone blade fragment remaining on the spear tip.

"Ancient battle intent. You are Old Qin's daughter."

He said, "Your father guarded the border for several years when he was young, but later he was seriously injured and retired early. Is his ancient war spear still around?"

"It's at my father's bedside. He said that when he retired from the front lines, he wanted the ancient war spear to return to the battlefield. I am here in his place."

General Lin Yuan was silent for a moment and nodded.

He turned to Shen Ye, his gaze sweeping over the Wanxiang University core student badge on his collar.

"The Void Race lord you killed here last time—its bone blade fragment is still embedded in the stone slab outside the defense line. The brothers at the outpost call that crack 'Shen Ye's Signature.' Colonel Lin has already sent me the beacon's resonance frequency; come with me."

The outpost was built on a small hill outside the camp, a three-story tower made of blue stone reinforced with laws.

At the top of the tower stood a dim twilight beacon, of the same origin as the crystal on the top of the Wanxiang University tower, though it was unknown how many years it had been dormant.

The surface of the beacon was covered in twilight script, every engraving worn extremely shallow by years of wind and sand.

Shen Ye reached out to brush away the dust, his fingertips slowly tracing the strokes of the twilight script—he had repeatedly practiced these characters in the underground palace altar and in the deciphering notes sent by Jiang Yue; at this moment, he didn't need to consult any materials, and could identify the lingering ancient law aura between the engravings at a glance.

He condensed a twilight longsword and pressed the tip of the blade against the core law pattern on the surface of the beacon.

Chen and Ye simultaneously injected holy light and abyss into the Heart of Twilight at the Twilight Altar, and the resonance frequency was output at the same frequency as the longsword through Shen Ye's mental link.

The beacon suddenly lit up, and a Twilight Light Beam shot into the sky from the top of the tower, piercing through the thick fog of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist and connecting with the light network formed by the convergence of the four towers in the sky.

The light network extended from above the outpost to the north and south; wherever it passed, the thick fog was dispersed, revealing the gray-black wasteland of ruins.

A low commotion suddenly came from the medical station, like a group of people saying "Come and look" at the same time.

Shen Ye walked down from the tower and returned to the entrance of the medical station, finding several wounded soldiers surrounding a comrade who had removed his bandages—the black wound on his arm caused by the Devouring Abyss was starting to fade from the edges.

It wasn't fully healed, but that dark red trace of law erosion was retreating from the edges of the wound at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After the twilight beacon was activated, the resonance frequency of the Heart of Twilight caused the power of the Devouring Abyss within the coverage area to be continuously restored.

For the wounded soldiers, this meant that the Devouring Abyss residue in the wounds would no longer continue to erode, and the body's own healing ability began to take effect.

General Lin Yuan looked down at his finger wrapped in spiritual power bandages—the dark red color that had been seeping from the edge of the bandages for a long time was now slowly fading.

He was silent for a moment and looked up at the Twilight Light Beam still spreading outward from the top of the tower.

"This light can make wounds heal."

"It is making the twisted power return to its original state."

Shen Ye retracted the twilight longsword, "The twilight beacon of this outpost is connected to the four-tower light network, and the activity of the Devouring Abyss power within the coverage area will continue to decrease. The wounded soldiers' wounds will heal faster, but it is not a cure; it just stops them from worsening."

Qin Youyou walked over from the other side of the tower; her ancient war spear was coated with extremely fine gray powder—that was the law residue condensed on the spear tip from the thick fog dispersed by the Twilight Light Beam.

She looked at the wounded soldiers at the entrance of the medical station who were comparing the fading progress of their wounds, and was silent for a moment.

"It's more effective than the hemostatic herbs in the Wild Ancient Land."

She held the ancient war spear horizontally in the crook of her arm, "No wonder my late father kept nagging that what can truly counter the Void Race at the root is not stronger weapons, but something that can twist their distorted power back to its original state."

Back at the camp, Shen Ye sat down against the wall in the public lounge.

He checked the beacon's operational data and compared it with the law fluctuation curve sent by Lin Tianyin and the newly updated border Void Tribe Scout activity distribution map from Gu Qinghan—after the twilight beacon was activated, the activity of the Void Tribe Scout within the area covered by the light network continued to shrink.

But there was a residual zone of the Ash King's law burn marks on the edge of the light network; after the Void Tribe Scout were driven away, they detoured toward more remote directions, and a small group of scouts infiltrated toward a half-collapsed ancient watchtower, brushing against the southern edge of the light network, where they encountered a squad of patrol soldiers who had just rotated off duty.

There were no serious injuries, but several wounded soldiers were scratched by bone blades, and their wounds were eroded by the power of the Devouring Abyss.

Shen Ye took a brocade box out of his backpack, which contained the first batch of spiral purification pill refined by Tie Chui using the flames of the Heart of Twilight.

He walked into the medical station and placed the brocade box in General Lin Yuan's hands.

"The usage is simple: just take it orally. One pill can suppress the Devouring Abyss residue in a wound; those with minor injuries will heal that day, and those with serious injuries can stop the spread of law erosion even in cases of massive blood loss."

General Lin Yuan took the brocade box and opened the lid.

The surface of the pills was flowing with very faint twilight patterns, the same kind of light he had felt earlier at the entrance of the medical station that could fade the Devouring Abyss residue.

He took a meteorite iron box from his military backpack and carefully packed the first batch of spiral purification pill one by one.

Once these pills entered the battlefield medical system, their effects spread in the most direct way.

Several wounded soldiers lined up at the entrance of the medical station; after taking the pills, the dark red Devouring Abyss residue at their wounds began to fade from the edges, and the old scars that had been festering for half a year finally stopped seeping fluids. The young non-commissioned officer whose knee had been cut by a bone blade still moved slowly and cautiously when walking again, but his pace was noticeably steadier.

After dinner, General Lin Yuan ordered an orderly to spread a military map on the temporary meeting table in the camp.

The map marked several newly discovered activity points of the Void Tribe Scout on the south side of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

Within the area covered by the light network, the scouts had left behind several long-vacant Nomadic Royal Court outpost caves after being dispersed; the residual zone of the Ash King's law burn marks on the edge of the light network was circled in red after being overlaid with new patrol data.

"After the Nomadic Royal Court scouts were driven away, they detoured toward more remote directions; although the ash laws in this residual zone are no longer active, they are still a familiar energy hotbed for the Void Race."

General Lin Yuan pointed to the red circle, "We need to activate all the twilight beacons around the Twilight Shelter before they assemble on a large scale, and seal off the residual zone with the light beam coverage area."

He drew a line next to the red circle, a straight line passing through the scorched earth burned by the Ash King in the past, leading directly to the location of the Twilight Shelter deep in the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

Shen Ye looked at the line, his expression calm.

"I will arrange the activation order. Tomorrow, we start from the outermost ones."