275: Chapter 275 A Life-and-Death Illusion, Comradeship

Some of those Yao Race members were shaped like giant wolves, spitting wind blades; some had wings on their backs with claws like hooks; some were covered in scales and possessed infinite strength; and there were even exotic species capable of spitting poisonous fire, controlling earth and stone, or confusing the mind...

They were like a black tide, crashing wave after wave against the Taihu Clan's crumbling defensive line.

Every moment, Taihu Clan warriors fell, torn apart by the claws and Spells of the Yao Race.

This was a defensive battle with a massive disparity in strength, bordering on despair!

Xu Ruyu instantly understood his situation—he had been cast into a tragic, ancient battlefield where the Taihu Clan's survival hung in the balance!

He had become an insignificant foot soldier among them.

“What are you standing there for?! Do you want to die?!”

Seeing that Xu Ruyu wasn't moving, the female warrior roared in anxiety and anger, though a flash of sorrow for a fellow sufferer flickered in her eyes.

“The Clan Chief said to hold as long as we can! Buy time for the women and children in the back to retreat! Get over here!”

Xu Ruyu took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart.

He knew this was a test, an illusion, but the blood, death, cries of despair, and the fellow clansmen fighting alongside him (even if they were from ancient times)... everything was too real!

The thick scent of blood and the threat of death could not be faked!

Without hesitation, he lunged forward, helping the female warrior drag the wounded soldier to a relatively safe, makeshift bunker in the rear.

Then, he picked up a broken sword and rushed to the defensive line at the edge of the earthen slope.

“Newcomer? You look unfamiliar.”

A veteran nearby, his face covered in scars and with only one eye remaining yet still radiating Killing Intent, glanced at him and rasped:

“No matter who you are, since you're here, you're a brother!”

“Grip your blade tight, look those beasts in the eye, and cut their throats!”

“Don't fear death; those who fear death die faster!”

“Understood!”

Xu Ruyu gave a low shout, accelerating the circulation of Haotian True Qi within his body and pouring it into the longsword. Although he was suppressed, his twenty-five layers of foundation and subtle control remained.

“Awoo!”

A Yao creature resembling a leopard but with a bone-spiked tail nimbly leapt over the front row of shields, lunging straight for Xu Ruyu’s face!

Xu Ruyu’s gaze turned cold. He stepped aside to dodge the pounce; his longsword didn't strike head-on, but rather the tip trembled slightly, condensing a sliver of highly compressed Haotian True Qi to precisely strike the weak point of the leopard's forelimb joint as it lunged!

“Puchi!”

With a faint sound of penetration, the leopard's forelimb buckled, its momentum vanished, and it fell to the ground with a miserable howl.

The veteran nearby was quick and agile, decapitating it with a single blade strike.

“Good lad! You've got some skill!”

The one-eyed veteran looked at Xu Ruyu in surprise.

Xu Ruyu had no time to respond as more of the Yao Race swarmed up.

He calmed his mind, applying various techniques from the True Explanation of Taixu Source Energy to this most primitive of slaughters.

Although he couldn't use large-scale Spells (due to high consumption and the risk of friendly fire), his exquisite control over 'kinetic energy' meant that every thrust, flick, cleave, and block carried penetrative power and finesse far beyond their surface strength. He specialized in attacking weak points like joints, eyes, and mouths, making him highly efficient.

Soon, seven or eight Yao lay dead around him, causing a small commotion among the enemy and drawing the surprised and admiring gazes of more Taihu Clan warriors.

“Brother, great moves! Which tribe are you from?” a burly man holding twin blades, his fox tail stained with blood, asked while fighting.

“I...” Xu Ruyu paused for a moment, “You could say I'm... passing through, just lending a hand.”

“Hahaha! A fine 'passing through and lending a hand'!”

The burly man laughed, a sound that was desolate yet heroic: “No matter who you are, to go to the Yellow Springs with my White Fox Tribe today makes us brothers in life and death!”

“I, Liefeng, recognize you as a brother!”

The battle continued, its brutality constantly escalating.

Under the Yao Race's relentless assault, the Taihu Clan's defensive line kept shrinking, and casualties mounted rapidly.

Xu Ruyu saw the female warrior who had first called out to him. In order to save a youth being pounced on by a Yao, she was struck by the tail of a poisonous fire lizard. She spat blood as she fell and was quickly submerged by the swarming Yao Race.

He saw the one-eyed veteran. After hacking down three Yao, he was pierced through the chest from behind by a hidden Shadow Yao. The veteran roared, turned to hug the Shadow Yao, and ignited an Explosive Talisman on his person, dying together with the enemy.

He saw the Clan Chief—a white-haired elder who still stood as straight as a pine. Holding a broken Crescent Staff, he fought bloodily at the very front. Covered in wounds, he did not retreat a single step, acting like a stabilizing pillar to inspire the final morale.

“Clan Chief! We can't hold! Retreat! Save some seeds for the White Fox Tribe!”

Liefeng, covered in blood, retreated to the elder's side and roared.

The old Clan Chief’s eyes were sorrowful as he looked around. Of the original hundreds of warriors, fewer than thirty remained, all wounded and surrounded on this final earthen slope by countless Yao.

From the rear, the faint sound of women and children weeping and retreating footsteps could be heard.

“Retreat? To where?” The old Clan Chief’s voice was hoarse. “Our home is already destroyed; not one in ten of our clansmen remain.”

“Today, this place shall be the final burial ground of my White Fox Tribe! Lads! Are you afraid to die?!”

“No!!”

The remaining warriors let out hoarse but resolute roars.

“Good!” The old Clan Chief’s eyes overflowed with tears, yet he was full of heroic spirit. “Then let these beasts know that the Taihu Clan has no cowards! Killing one breaks even, killing two is a profit! Follow me—fight to the death!!”

“Fight to the death!!!”

The last Taihu Clan warriors erupted with the final radiance of their lives, like moths to a flame, charging into the boundless tide of the Yao Race.

Xu Ruyu was right in the middle of it, feeling the overwhelming despair and tragedy, and sensing the burning emotions and unyielding will of these 'comrades' who were strangers yesterday but were now facing death side-by-side today.

His blood was also boiling—not because of the test, but because of a most primitive sense of comradeship!