novelraw Chapter 458: All Forms Return to Origin
Chapter 458: All Forms Return to Origin
In the south, at Iron Wall Fortress.
The once majestic walls of Iron Wall Fortress were now riddled with holes and gaps. Massive breaches, like hideous scars, were precariously plugged with temporary sandbags, wrecked vehicles, and the earth-based abilities of Awakened individuals, looking ready to collapse at any moment.
Beneath the walls, the corpses of monsters and humans were piled layer upon layer, almost forming a new rampart of flesh.
Blood had soaked the earth, turning it into a dark red quagmire.
Feng Jue, Liu Ziming, and Xu Hao were currently holding a particularly brutal section of the wall breach.
Their standard-issue military uniforms were already tattered and torn, stained with blood and viscous fluids, and exhaustion was etched on each of their faces.
"Damn it! It's endless!"
Liu Ziming cursed angrily, purple lightning erupting around him as he thrust both palms forward.
A twisted thunderbolt, thick as a child's arm, shot out with a roar, instantly electrocuting over a dozen flayed hounds attempting to scale the breach into charred husks.
The stench of scorched flesh and fur filled the air.But the moment he cleared a small area, several toad-like monsters capable of spraying corrosive acid swelled their cheeks from the flank.
"Ziming, watch your left!"
As Xu Hao's voice rang out, his figure had already vanished from his spot.
In the next instant, he appeared like a phantom among those acid-spitting toads, two tempered daggers in his hands tracing icy arcs.
"Shhh-shhh-shhh!"
The daggers precisely sliced open the acid-storage sacs of the toads. The foul-smelling liquid sprayed out, instead corroding several nearby low-tier monsters with a sizzling sound.
Xu Hao's figure flickered again, returning to his original position, breathing slightly heavily. High-frequency teleportation placed a tremendous burden on both his spirit and Spiritual Energy.
And at the very front of the defensive line, bearing the greatest pressure, was always Feng Jue.
He stood as silent and steady as a mountain, the Startling Swan Sword hovering before him, emitting a clear, melodious hum.
Facing heavy Mist Creatures resembling rhinoceroses clad in thick bone armor.
He pointed with two fingers together like a sword, gesturing forward.
The Startling Swan Sword transformed into a streak of light, rotating at high speed like a drill bit, piercing through the hardest skulls of three bone-armored rhinos. Sword energy erupted within their bodies, utterly dismantling them.
These thick-skinned, tough creatures were just cannon fodder.
The real threat came from the elite units mixed within the monster tide, their auras noticeably stronger.
"ROAR!"
A scythe-armed demon ape, over five meters tall and resembling a giant ape but with two massive bone scythes for arms, shoved aside the cannon fodder in front of it.
Its blood-red eyes locked onto Feng Jue at the core of the defense line, and it pounced with a stench-laden gale.
Its aura had clearly reached the peak of the Special-risk level.
Simultaneously, piercing shrieks came from the air. Several skeletal drakes with broad wingspans, capable of hurling explosive bone spikes, circled, also targeting this breach.
"Poker Face! Above!"
Liu Ziming urgently warned, Purple Thunder gathering in his hands again, but his strength was beginning to falter.
Xu Hao's eyes sharpened, ready to teleport again to harass the aerial threat.
Feng Jue took a deep, sharp breath, sword energy erupting from his entire body.
The hovering Startling Swan Sword emitted a fierce, resonant hum and instantly split into three.
Three solidified sword rays, as if possessing their own spirit, shot out. One charged head-on toward the scythe-armed demon ape, while the other two soared skyward, twisting and slashing toward those skeletal drakes.
Sword light clashed with bone scythes, sparks flying.
Collided with bone spikes, triggering chain explosions.
Feng Jue, relying on his own power alone, forcefully blocked the strongest waves of attacks, but his face instantly paled several shades.
Simultaneously controlling multiple sword rays placed an immense burden on him.
"We can't go on like this!"
Xu Hao parried a nimble monster that seized the chance to pounce, his tone urgent. "Our consumption is too great! Spiritual Energy recovery can't keep up! General Shi Potian is tied up by two other Calamity-level creatures; he can't spare any effort to support secondary defense lines like ours!"
Liu Ziming looked at the seemingly endless tide of monsters below and gritted his teeth. "Damn it, where are the reinforcements? Didn't they say support was coming from the Capital? Why haven't we seen even a shadow?"
Their section of the defense line, thanks to the trio's seamless coordination and desperate fighting, could still hold for now.
Multiple defense lines were in critical condition, and casualty numbers were skyrocketing every minute and second.
The fortress's energy reserves were about to bottom out. The glow of the Spiritual Energy Shield enveloping the fortress had dimmed to the point of resembling a candle flame in the wind.
Even more deadly was the fact that everyone could sense that within the depths of the Mist, even more terrifying auras were brewing.
Feng Jue swung his sword, shattering a monster. Cold sweat dripped along his jawline. He glanced toward the direction of the distant main battlefield, from which earth-shaking energy collision fluctuations emanated, then looked at his two panting brothers beside him, saying solemnly:
"Even if we can't hold, we must hold."
Either die fighting here, or wait for reinforcements whose whereabouts were unknown.
This was the grim reality they, and the entire Iron Wall Fortress, faced.
...
Over Ten-Thousand Crags Mountain Fortress in the Western Border.
Mo Yuan, Zhang Daoxuan, and the Grand Elder stood in a triangular formation mid-air, their auras distinct and separate from the churning Mist in the distance, forming their own domain.
Their opponent was a constantly twisting, shifting dark golden humanoid silhouette...
This was an incarnation projected into the mortal realm by the Demon God of Greed, Mammon.
It had no fixed appearance, sometimes resembling a mountain piled with gold coins, other times like a flowing river of jewels. The only constant was the Authority of Greed it ceaselessly emanated.
This authority was formless and intangible, yet more dangerous than any physical attack.
It eroded space, attempting to convert all energy and matter in this area into wealth it could absorb.
"Hmph, insatiable greed."
Mo Yuan snorted coldly, his deep blue robes billowing without wind.
He pointed two fingers together like a brush, slowly tracing through the void.
As his fingertip moved, trails of ink as deep as night appeared.
These ink traces spread, and wherever they passed, the corrosive power of the Authority of Greed seemed to meet its nemesis, being forcibly isolated.
They constructed an absolute domain around the three, free from the taint of greed.
No matter how the external authority churned, this ink-black domain remained unshaken.
Zhang Daoxuan's hair and beard flew wildly. The phantom image of the Taiji Bagua behind him rotated at an unprecedented speed.
The dual energies of Yin and Yang evolved into manifestations of various natural forces: earth, water, fire, wind, mountain, lake, thunder, heaven.
"Heaven and Earth lend their power, All Forms Return to Origin."
He lightly swept his horsetail whisk toward the pervasive Authority of Greed itself.
The Taiji phantom descended like a massive millstone, pressing down slowly.
The formless, intangible power of greed, upon contacting the Taiji domain's edge, was forcibly decomposed.
The pure energy essence it had plundered was stripped away by the Yang aspect, returned to its original state, and dispersed into the world, actually nourishing the struggling spiritual veins of the fortress below.
As for the Grand Elder in the center, who appeared as a youth, he hadn't glanced at the Mammon incarnation from beginning to end.
His empty gaze seemed to pierce through this incarnation, directly landing upon the source of greed that existed within the endless depths of the Mist behind it.
The Mammon incarnation seemed angered by the trio's seemingly effortless handling of its power.