EFB Chapter 177 Peak of Transformation
Chapter 177 Peak of Transformation
The Black Wind Valley stronghold was built in a concave mountain hollow, surrounded by two earthen and stone fortifications. The low walls were rough, with piles of ashes from still-burning campfires at their base. The walls were dilapidated and riddled with gaps. The number of defenders was as expected; most of the troops had been redeployed, leaving only a few dozen scattered at several sentry posts. Some were dozing, others were squatting in corners eating. The outer array had long since ceased functioning; the runes at the main array eye were almost entirely dim, with only a few remaining patterns barely maintaining a faint fluctuation. Chu Fan, leading the array masters, approached silently, cutting off the spiritual energy supply to those remaining array patterns, rendering the fortifications completely ineffective. Leng Feng's team scaled the gap in the eastern wall without alerting anyone. After landing, they spread out along the base of the wall, each choosing their own direction of attack. Lin Chen was the first to rush into the stronghold, followed by the others, their shouts of battle echoing through the narrow mountain hollow. The defenders didn't have time to put up a resistance. Some were dragged out of their tents while they were still sleeping, and others tried to escape into the main camp but were intercepted along the way.
The main gate of the stronghold was pushed open from the inside with tremendous force. The door slammed against the wall, shattering two loose bricks. A powerful evil general, over ten feet tall, slowly stepped out. Sharp bone spikes extended from the ends of every bone in his body, their tips gleaming with a dark gray luster. The surrounding evil energy rapidly gathered as he emerged, condensing behind him into a thick wall of black mist. The previously thin and loose evil energy in the air was greatly compressed, becoming viscous and heavy. Sensing that aura, the young soldiers invariably took several steps back. Some instinctively gripped their weapons, while others couldn't even control their retreat. This was their first time facing a powerful evil cultivator at the Earth Fusion Realm in actual combat. The suppression of their cultivation level felt like an invisible mountain pressing down from above, its weight not so much a difference in cultivation level, but something more fundamental.
"Everyone back off!" Lin Chen's voice echoed from the front of the formation. He himself didn't retreat; instead, he took a step forward. From the front of the formation, his back was ramrod straight, and the armor plates made a soft scraping sound as he gripped his sword. The evil general's enormous bone claw, carrying evil power, slashed through the air and hurtled towards them. The trajectory of that claw was like a long, narrow black arc, sweeping away the surrounding rubble and dust to both sides with overwhelming force.
Lin Chen did not retreat. He raised the Star Sword high above his head, the Star Martial Core contracting violently from his dantian, the accumulated silver-white star energy surging from his meridians into the sword, colliding head-on with the evil general's bone claws. The ground beneath his feet shattered, the rocks where he landed cracking outwards in several fissures. Liquid seeped from his tiger's mouth, flowing down the hilt to his wrist. After the strike, he staggered back three steps before regaining his footing, his chest tight from the impact. His cultivation was only at the mid-stage of the Transformation Realm, while his opponent was at the early stage of the Earth Fusion Realm—two vast chasms of cultivation separated them. With each collision, he was completely overwhelmed by power; the opponent's evil energy was like an endless river, pressing down on him before he could even catch his breath. But his sword continued to operate, the star energy flowing continuously along his meridians. He adjusted the angle and rhythm of each strike, ensuring that each collision was not a passive acceptance, but rather a way to guide the pressure away through contact. Under continuous pressure and attacks, the flow of stellar energy in his meridians accelerated, and the qi in his dantian began to compress and condense on its own. Each of his sword strikes became more precise than the last.
"Leng Feng, disrupt his retreat; Mu Yue, trap and restrain him; Chu Fan, break his protective evil power!" Lin Chen's voice remained steady amidst the rapid fighting, overpowering the sound of bone claws tearing through the air, landing on each name.
Leng Feng bypassed the evil general's line of sight from the side, hugging the edge of the low wall to the rear wall of the main village. He cut in from the evil general's blind spot from behind, slashing at the joint of his knee. The evil general's attention was entirely on Lin Chen in front of him, and he was a fraction of a second too slow in dodging, allowing Leng Feng's blade to cut a shallow gash on the outside of his knee. Su Muyue stood a hundred paces away, her array flag planted at her feet. Five binding arrays simultaneously wrapped around the evil general's limbs from different directions, like layers of invisible knots, slowing down his twisting speed. Chu Fan's evil-breaking array light struck the evil general's back from above, cleaving a crack in the thick black mist armor on his back, allowing evil energy to leak out from the fissure.
Enraged by the continuous interference, the evil general roared to the sky, its bone claws closing in to gather power, intending to shatter the array patterns surrounding it in one fell swoop. Lin Chen seized the moment when the evil general's chest was exposed as it gathered power, concentrating all his stellar energy at the tip of his sword. His Star Martial Core, after violently contracting in his dantian, was suddenly released. Star Annihilation was pushed to its peak at this moment, the silver pillar of light condensing on the sword carrying a trace of the peak of the Transformation Realm. The instant he drew his sword, he felt the barrier shatter; the flow of stellar energy in his meridians surged, his Qi became more solid and heavy, and his Star Martial Core transformed from high-speed rotation into a continuous, stable thrust. He felt he had touched a new realm, but before he could think further, the sword light had already pierced through the last remaining layer of the evil general's protective evil energy and entered his brow.
The evil general's movements stopped at the same moment, and the evil power surrounding him dissipated. His body stood frozen in place for a moment, then leaned forward and crashed to the ground with a dull thud. Several of his bone spurs broke off as he fell, scattering into the dust.
Lin Chen stood still, his aura slowly circulating around him, much deeper than before. He didn't look at the corpse at his feet, but looked down at his hands—blood was still seeping from the tiger's mouth, and several cuts from the evil power were peeling, but his sword-wielding posture remained unchanged, the way his fingers were clenched was the same as when he drew his sword.
Cheers erupted from all around, some shouting "The commander has broken through!" while others patted the shoulder of the person next to them. Under the gaze of the crowd, Lin Chen sheathed his sword, the silvery afterglow fading from the edge of the blade and merging into the scabbard. He didn't linger in the joy of his breakthrough for long, instructing Leng Feng to lead men into the main camp for a search, while he stood in the open space outside the camp, adjusting his breathing.
Leng Feng searched the lower levels of the main stronghold and found a large number of weapons, several boxes of sealed Gu worm eggs, and several bags of grain. Chu Fan found more documents from the evil race in the secret room of the stronghold chief, including a hand-drawn deployment sketch marking the troop distribution of the evil race's vanguard camp in the vicinity. More importantly, there was an ancient jade tablet, its color warm and lustrous, its surface engraved with star patterns, resonating with the Star Martial Core in Lin Chen's dantian. He gripped the jade tablet tightly, feeling the faint resonance emanating from within. Su Muyue took it and examined it carefully, her fingertips lightly touching the patterns. When her fingertips touched the patterns, her Martial Emperor bloodline also fluctuated slightly.
"This is a token from the ancient Martial Emperor Dynasty. Logically speaking, it should have disappeared a thousand years ago. Why would the evil race collect such a thing?" She handed the jade token back to Lin Chen, her tone revealing a hint of inquiry.
Lin Chen stroked the intricate patterns on the jade tablet's surface, not answering immediately. The Qin family's thousand-year-long betrayal, the Gu calamity of Qing Shi Border City, the beast tide of Black Stone Mountain, the Black Crow Young Master's evil array, and now this jade tablet—every single event was converging in the same direction. He put the jade tablet into his inner pocket and, in the dim light of dawn about to spill over the mountainside, ordered the entire team to return to Tianlang Pass. He needed more information to figure out where this clue led.
As dawn broke upon their return to Tianlang Pass, Han Polu greeted them from the tower atop the pass. After listening to the battle report, he set down the military intelligence file in his hand, his eyes filled with clear approval. Lin Chen stood atop the pass. The jade token felt slightly cool, not hot, beneath his clothing and through his inner pocket, but resonated in his dantian, its presence was more palpable than any other spoils of war. He stood before the crenellations, watching the morning light rise from the edge of the wasteland. The first rays of sunlight fell upon the banners atop the pass, tinging their edges with a pale gold. He hadn't yet fully ascertained the origin of the jade token in his hand, but he could sense that the answer it pointed to lay beyond the pass.