The Airborne Jeep

The moon was never truly warm; moonlight was cold. On this night, it was especially so. Looking down from above at Medical Station 101, the L-shaped courtyard formed by the five six-story buildings of Zone D was now a temporarily hushed battlefield. The ground shone a ghastly pale, and even the blood gleamed. Moonlight cast shadows of trees across the earth, stretching over men's bodies and across their faces. "Form ranks!" Major and squad leader Wang Zhanpo ordered resolutely. As things stood, the enemy outnumbered them nearly two to one. Almost every man on their side was wounded, and in terms of individual combat strength, they fell far short of their opponents. The only advantage Azure had left was their years of drilling offensive and defensive formations, honed through extensive battlefield experience. Whether in a standard detachment battle array of around twenty soldiers or the close coordination of a few-man squad, they could maximize their combat effectiveness. On the field, Wang Zhanpo led the main battle formation. Starting now, they would treat Tian Hetai—an expert who clearly outmatched them in raw power—like a Great Spike and hack him down. The remaining soldiers also began forming up with whoever was nearest. Familiar faces and strangers stood shoulder to shoulder. Amid the frantic, hurried shouts, Ran Qiuling quietly fell back beneath the shadow of a tree. A young soldier with bandages wrapped around his head called out to her from a small formation, "Sister, join us!" Ran Qiuling shook her head and offered a radiant smile. "No thanks. Big sister is plenty strong on her own." Her left leg had most likely broken again during her earlier exertion. Even supported by her source energy apparatus, she couldn't move with any agility. A battle formation required seamless coordination, shifting positions to strike or covering flanks and rear; Ran Qiuling knew she wouldn't be able to keep up. She couldn't risk becoming an opening in their defense and getting others killed. Yet her arms were intact, and the rest of her body was unharmed. She could still swing a blade—the blade of a Grade C, six-year veteran could still kill. Present on the field, many were wounded far worse than she was and still fighting to the death. She could not retreat. Tian Hetai narrowed his eyes, watching for a moment without moving to stop Azure from assembling. He saw no need. At the same time, he couldn't quite understand these people. When a person died, their lamp went out; was there anything in life more important than staying alive? The decision of the seven clans to defect to Snow Lotus had been initiated and brokered by the He clan and two others who had already crossed Azure and were being hunted down. Yet it was Tian Hetai who had played the decisive role in sealing the deal. Had it not been for his backing, the matter could never have been settled so quickly, nor could so many people have been gathered. Much less would they have come to commit tonight's deed, offering a pledge of allegiance from which there was no turning back. During the negotiations, Stan had laid his cards on the table. The Azure Huaxia Research Institute had made a breakthrough in source-energy-powered spacecraft—a field of research Snow Lotus had abandoned decades ago. Now desperate to acquire the technology, they had orchestrated this large-scale operation to blackmail the Azure Alliance Council. To do that, they needed hundreds of Azure lives as bargaining chips. Such threats would never work against an organization like Snow Lotus, but against the Azure Council—which practiced democratic centralism and comprised representatives of diverse voices—it stood a very good chance. And the promise Snow Lotus offered, or rather their bargaining chip, beyond sanctuary, was the core secret of "immortality." Ne was already close to eternal life. As one of the possessors of a "Bone of Eternal Life," Tian Hetai also believed immortality was real. "Try to take them alive. Only kill them if you have no choice." His tone was casual. The old man offered an easy smile as he lifted his gaze to the main Azure battle array before him. "Leave these ones to me." Capture them alive if possible. To the underlings of the seven clans, this requirement inevitably meant higher casualties, but that wasn't something he cared about. The slaughter... began anew. *** The operating rooms were on the third floor. The brutal sounds of fighting reached their ears as the severely wounded were carried up by nurses, waiting outside in the corridors. More and more operating room lights turned on. More and more medical personnel walked out of the safe room. Tonight, those in Azure who chose to stand their ground, holding fast and fighting to the death at their posts, were not just soldiers. While Mu Xiaolan wiped her sweat and fed her glucose, Mu Qijian stole a few glances out the window below. A chaotic battlefield. The surge of source energy apparatuses, blue light flitting like shadows. The clash of blades. The crumbling of formations. In just those few glimpses, her eyes reddened, and tears blurred her vision. She turned back, not daring to look again, afraid the surge of emotion would disrupt her focus. "If only Han Qingyu and the others were still here..." Turning back beside her, Mu Xiaolan couldn't hold back a sob. "No," Mu Qijian said, shaking her head as her hands continued to work. "I'd rather they left." The enemies below were too formidable. One of them would likely be considered top combat power even in Azure. Mu Qijian knew this all too well because her father was the leader of a top-five squad in Azure's Third Army—he was a top combat power himself. And Han Qingyu and his friends... they were still so young. So rather than seeing them die fighting here tonight, Mu Qijian wished they were far away, glad that they had left. "Once they grow up, they will avenge us. They will repay this a hundredfold, a thousandfold," Mu Qijian said as she began stitching. Before her lay a soldier's shocking wound. "That's how Azure soldiers are. If you save their lives, they will repay you with their own." Though she was a doctor, Mu Qijian was also, in some respects, a radical. A complete internal purge of humanity had to take precedence over resisting external threats—that was a conviction she had always held. What was happening tonight only deepened that conviction. Operations continued in the third-floor operating rooms. Downstairs, the gruesome battle raged on just the same. Tian Hetai practically held off the main battle array composed of Wang Zhanpo and the other wounded soldiers all by himself. Due to their injuries, the formation constantly exposed too many openings. It was only because he was in no hurry to slaughter them that he hadn't broken the array immediately, continuing to toy with them. In this sense, it could barely be counted that he was pinned down by the formation as well. However, among the seven clans, there were two other experts second only to him who had barely engaged earlier. One was the head of the He clan, He Zengsheng, who fought with a spear; the other was a young genius of the Gong clan, Gong Xing, who wielded a dead iron staff. With Azure's main battle array pinned, these two—along with Ping Guangliang of the Ping clan and others—held an overwhelming advantage against the rest of Azure's wounded soldiers. They were... capturing people. Yes, capturing them. Whenever an Azure wounded soldier fell behind, struggled to move, or had their formation shattered, the raiders picked them off one by one, injuring them before tossing them to the rear. "We can't go on like this, Squad Leader Wang." Inside the main battle formation, Li Jincheng, who could barely even stand, squeezed forward from his defensive position. "I can't keep up with the formation anyway... I'll trade my life for an opening... you follow up." Without waiting for a reply, Li Jincheng burst through a gap between the ranks. With no path of retreat and no defensive guard, he thrust his single blade straight at Tian Hetai. "Courting death!" Tian Hetai snapped in anger. On the other side, Ping Guangliang spotted a straggler. He charged forward, clamping one hand onto Ran Qiuling's shoulder while swinging the flat of his blade with the other, intending to knock her unconscious and toss her back as a prisoner. Ran Qiuling neither dodged nor flinched—she had been waiting for this exact moment. Her left arm, which had hung limp as if broken, whipped a short blade out from behind her waist, thrusting explosively toward Ping Guangliang's heart. *Clang!* Ping Guangliang pulled his blade back to his chest just in time, blocking the thrust with the flat of the steel. In the same motion, he kicked Ran Qiuling away, roaring in startled fury, "Courting death!" He Zengsheng scanned the battlefield and noticed a group of his men besieging a small formation of just six wounded Azure soldiers, unable to break them even after all this time. "Useless trash!" the old man cursed. Leveling his spear, he joined the siege... "Vroooom... rrrrrmmm..." Outside the L-shaped courtyard, from the flank of the battlefield, the roar of an engine suddenly erupted in everyone's ears. Soon, even the frenzied spinning of wheels grew distinctly audible, gravel rattling and scattering violently under the tires. "Vroooom..." Zone D was on high ground. The access road coming up from the side had a steep incline, so the sound arrived well before the vehicle. A vehicle was coming! Who was it?! *Whoosh!* A burly, dark-green jeep in civilian disguise suddenly burst into view. Its hood was splattered with blood, exposed for only an instant before revealing its undercarriage and spinning wheels. Because it was airborne—propelled by extreme speed straight off the steep slope below. Who was it?! A figure leaped from the hood, plunging toward the battlefield. Yet his objective was not merely to hit the ground. In that instant suspended in midair, Han Qingyu had no time for a full assessment, but he spotted one spot where six soldiers were besieged, their situation dire... The distance was too great. Han Qingyu immediately roared, "Wu Xu!" *Whoosh!* A black spear shot straight up into the sky. Han Qingyu stepped off it, launching himself forward once more, leaping directly above the six-man formation. *Boom!* He crashed down like thunder, dual blades sweeping out in a cleaving arc. The besiegers were blasted back as though an explosive had detonated among them, flying through the air as blood sprayed across the darkness. Only He Zengsheng, bracing his spear upright in a desperate block, barely held his ground. Han Qingyu paid him no mind. Reaching out, he caught the spear Binggu as it flew in behind him, flipped the spearhead in his grip, and hurled it back like an arrow. Like lightning, the black spear pierced straight through two men, flying back toward where it came from. Along its path, someone swung a blade to chop it down. *Clang, clang, clang!* Three blades hacked down, striking it dead-on. Yet the black spear did not budge in the slightest. Because a hand gripped the weapon. Wu Xu caught the spear near the tip. *Whoosh.* With a thrust backward, he impaled another man, then twisted his grip, sweeping the impaled corpse and spear together across the surrounding enemies. He hurled that body straight at Tian Hetai. Tian Hetai slashed the airborne body aside, while Li Jincheng's desperate strike hit empty air. "Fuck your mother!" A furious roar descended from above. The last figure leaping down from the jeep was Wen Jifei. Having observed longer from the vehicle, he had seen Ran Qiuling slammed to the ground. In a fit of white-hot fury, he threw caution to the wind, diving recklessly through the air with blade drawn, slashing down at Ping Guangliang's turned back. This was the Dice, Wen Jifei. The same Wen Jifei who spent every day hanging around Han Qingyu, Shen Yixiu, and Wu Xu. After nearly a year in Azure, having consumed who knew how many source energy blocks, he was finally, for the first time, swinging his blade on a battlefield. "Plague Chicken!" Han Qingyu cried out in alarm. "Plague Chicken," even Wu Xu blurted out automatically. Their source energy apparatuses erupted as both prepared to rush to his rescue. *Slash!* A. Ping Guangliang had only turned halfway around before he was dead. *Crash!* The jeep slammed to the ground. Wen Jifei landed, blade dripping with blood. "You dare hurt my sister?!" From the moment the three landed to this single slash, total silence fell over the field. Though the Ping clan head was on the weaker end among the seven clans' top masters... killed in a single strike?!