On the floor above in another building on the same side, at the operating room window, Mu Qijian turned around blankly and looked at the frozen nurses behind him. "Hurry!"
Carrying various instruments and medications, they bolted out of the operating room and dashed toward that building.
In that moment, every gaze across the compound was fixed on that window. But there was no movement within—after that single crash earlier, not a sound had come.
Tian Hetai looked up and chuckled. "Stop looking... He's dead. My blow landed dead center. There is no way on earth he survived."
The crowd stood in silence, looking toward him.
"Surrender. Those who submit first shall live. Once half of you surrender, all the rest will be butchered," Tian Hetai threatened in a placid tone, though his eyes gleamed ferociously.
He felt the people before him ought to be in despair right now.
Indeed, at this moment, having witnessed it with their own eyes, and seeing Wen Jifei's reaction, despair had gripped them all.
Yet the response they gave to despair was—
*Whoosh!*
Fifty sets of gear detonated, yet only a single, unified roar shook the air.
Tears streaming down her face, Ran Qiuling picked up her saber and stood, taking difficult, staggering steps toward the battle formation.
Not a single doctor or nurse stopped her. Seeing the look on her face, they knew they could not—and should not—hold her back.
"They..." beside Tian Hetai, someone muttered in confusion. In truth, throughout this night, there were many things they simply could not comprehend.
"Ignorance breeds bravado," Tian Hetai said with a trace of weakness and helpless resignation.
Meanwhile, in the Azure battle formation ahead:
Wang Zhanpo raised his saber, his eyes bloodshot. "Tonight's battle has come to this... There is nothing left for us but to die together, everyone."
*Shnk!*
Azure could still fight. Over fifty men raised their sabers in unison.
"I hope that old bastard Chen Buer keeps his word." Li Jincheng lifted his saber, let out a weak chuckle, and glanced toward that window... They were Azure, the Sole Witness Legion. Their legion commander had once declared:
*"Anyone who makes our medical stations their target shall be killed on the spot, with no prisoners taken... If you fail to kill them here, hunt them down to the ends of the earth..."*
Li Jincheng's murmur was not loud.
"If you fail to kill them here, hunt them down to the ends of the earth!" Yet the unified roar detonated behind him.
"No stop until they fall!"
"No stop until they fall!"
"No end until we die!"
"No end until we die!"
The next second, Wang Zhanpo shouted at the top of his lungs, "Spearhead formation, ready!... Drag him down with us!"
The spearhead formation paid no heed to defense; its only purpose was to break through the encirclement and charge straight at the objective... In this moment, Azure was resolved to die. Their objective was one and one alone: Tian Hetai.
*Rumble.* The formation shifted.
Tian Hetai was going mad. What in the bloody hell were these people made of?!
Right now, he did not want to strike again; he didn't dare strike again.
Turning his head inadvertently, Tian Hetai glanced at Wu Xu.
Wu Xu was looking back at him, his face wooden, his gaze vacant.
"Formerly of the Yu clan?" Tian Hetai pondered a moment, speaking in an appreciative tone. "You have great promise."
"...They are right. What I should do now is drag you down with me," Wu Xu said.
"..." Tian Hetai's face stiffened again. *If this guy joins in too, will they actually grind me to death?!* Under his rising panic, he flew into a rage, his eyes sweeping from Wu Xu to the Azure battle formation. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"
He was somewhat rattled. Realizing his own agitation, he forced himself to calm down. He glanced back at the side window, then made an ancient, formal gesture with his hands, brushing the dust from his sleeves, and said slowly, "Killing him cost this old man... barely any effort. I would have preferred to spare his life for a trade, but had I spared him, who knows if one day in the future..."
Standing before the battle line, he prattled on in a rather rambling manner. Logically speaking, there was no reason for him to say any of this.
"Is that so?" suddenly a voice asked from a distance.
"Non—" Tian Hetai started to snap, but before he could even finish the word, he froze.
Because the direction the voice came from... seemed wrong.
*Whoosh!*
In an instant, everyone turned their heads toward that building on the side, toward that window.
A figure stood there, twin sabers in hand. "Truly, barely any effort?"
"Han Qingyu?"
"Han Qingyu!"
"Qingzi..."
*Whoa!* Cries and gasps erupted.
Yes, Han Qingyu was alive. By now he had climbed out, standing poised outside the windowsill.
*Bang, bang!*
The sound of a door being pushed open came from inside the room behind him. Wen Jifei had burst through the door, took one look, and just happened to hear Han Qingyu speak. His expression froze... *Damn it, that's so embarrassing.* Thinking this, he immediately pulled the door shut, turned around, and walked away.
At the top of the stairs, Mu Qijian had just arrived with the nurses.
"It's fine. It's fine now. Go on, go, go, go... all of you leave," Wen Jifei intercepted them, rubbing his eyes with his head bowed. He looked up and threatened, "Don't you dare mention you saw me later!"
Tian Hetai finally couldn't help himself. He turned his head and looked back... and felt utterly sick. *How? Why the hell isn't he dead?!*
Han Qingyu had just asked whether it was truly "barely any effort." Tian Hetai gave no answer.
However, Tian Hetai had said more than just that earlier.
"No need to wait for the future. Today will do," Han Qingyu said. "Right now, I'll send you on your way."
Tian Hetai: "..."
The bastard across from him looked entirely too full of life, whereas he himself truly was at the very end of his tether.
Han Qingyu continued, "Azure has a motto: For all that breathes, no retreat in battle, our bodies barricade the sky... I took a moment just now to think it over. If that's the case, how could scum like you be allowed to keep breathing?!"
His words fell.
*Whoosh!*
The resonant boom of source energy rang out across all of Medical Station 101.
In that instant, Wen Jifei, Mu Qijian, and the others still inside the building could clearly feel the structure tremble slightly.
And that was merely the detonation of source energy!
In this moment, everyone across the field raised their heads.
In their sight, Han Qingyu leaped into the air from on high, his body hurtling toward the ground like a falling meteor.
Within the streaming light:
Two saber arcs flashed.
The moon hung behind him, and across its face... there seemed to be two saber gashes, as though severed by the blade-light in his hands.
Man and blades arrived in an instant.
The terrifying source energy surge roared like an oceanic tide.
*Whoosh!* In shock, fury, and desperation, Tian Hetai unleashed every scrap of his remaining strength! *If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me! Kill!*
If that guaranteed kill had failed to take Han Qingyu's life... Tian Hetai was already in despair.
Gripping the heavy mace in both hands, he chopped downward!
*...Boom!*
*Crack!*
The mace shattered.
Tian Hetai stood frozen in place.
Han Qingyu landed before him.
No one spoke. No one cheered. In this moment, only the echo of the earlier impact lingered in the air.
Tian Hetai choked out, "You..."
As he uttered that single word, an immense unwillingness, agony, and grievance welled in his turbid eyes.
No one present had been able to clearly see the exchange just now; to them, it was simply too fast. In truth, Han Qingyu had pulled a trick. At the very end of his dive, he made a sudden feint, using his lethal momentum to bait out Tian Hetai's mace blow—the one that drained virtually the last of the old man's vitality... The clashing sound that followed was actually a second strike, at which point Tian Hetai was practically finished anyway.
"One last thing I'll let you know: I'm really not like you," Han Qingyu whispered, standing in front of Tian Hetai. "So tricking you was just to save myself some trouble. Truth is, even if we fought until you croaked and turned to ash on the spot, I'd at most shed a layer of skin... That's all. Bye-bye."
Walking past Tian Hetai, Han Qingyu even reached out and patted him on the shoulder, as if consoling him not to take it too hard.
So... it's over?
At this moment, both friend and foe stood lost in thought, dazed.
The answer was: yes, it was over.
*Thud!*
Roughly two seconds after Han Qingyu walked past, Tian Hetai's body stiffened and collapsed face-first onto the ground behind him, kicking up a wisp of dust amid the pooling blood.
Han Qingyu did not look back. He kept walking forward until he stopped in front of the blood-drenched Wu Xu, taking a careful look.
"Wu Xu, you didn't actually think I was dead, did you?!"
"I... didn't," Wu Xu shook his head, turning his face away. "I didn't believe it."
"Is that so?" Han Qingyu scrutinized his bloodshot, reddened eyes. "Then what's going on with your eyes?"
"Nothing," Wu Xu hastily rubbed his eyes. Then, feeling that this was too blatant a lie, he added, "Blame Plague Chicken... It was him. He thought you died."
"Is that so?"
Han Qingyu turned and cast his gaze around. Wen Jifei wasn't there... But this sweep allowed him to take in everyone else's condition.
"Wait, you guys didn't all think I was dead, did you?" Han Qingyu asked earnestly before the battle formation.
The crowd paused, slightly embarrassed. A moment later, everyone shook their heads. "No... no, of course not."
"Big Sister, what about you?" Han Qingyu's gaze fell on Ran Qiuling.
"Huh?" Ran Qiuling looked up. She had just secretly wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes, but the glistening wetness remained. Forcing a radiant smile, she said, "How could I? Not at all."
Behind her, hundreds of doctors and nurses looked at Han Qingyu, wiping their tears while smiling and waving their hands at him. "Nope, none of us did."
Han Qingyu let out a smile. "Well then, let's kill some people."
All around, the remaining hundred-plus members of the Seven Families were now routing and scattering in every direction.
Having said that, Han Qingyu did not actually move, letting them scatter.
In truth, it was very difficult for him to strike again for the time being.
As for the Seven Families' people, there was no way they could escape. Back upstairs, Han Qingyu had already spotted lights beneath helicopters in the distant sky.
A great many of them.
If the air was like this, Azure ground reinforcements were undoubtedly sweeping in from every direction as well. With Legion Commander Chen Buer's special operational order, not a single one of those people was destined to survive today.
"Where's Wen Jifei?" Han Qingyu asked.
*Right, where did that guy go?* For a moment, nearly everyone turned their heads, looking around for him.
Yet nobody spotted him.
*Vroom...* The rumble of a car engine sounded, followed by the honk of a horn: *Beep, beep.*
That jeep could actually still run.
Wen Jifei sat inside, in the driver's seat, waving through the shattered window. "Let's go. Xiao Li's been taken... We're going to bring her back."
"..." *A group has already been moved away?* Han Qingyu tensed. "All right."
Finally, he hastily searched Tian Hetai's body, retrieved his cleft bone... and conveniently took a source energy block, holding it where everyone could see.
Han Qingyu got into the vehicle.
The jeep drove off.
Inside the vehicle, he replaced his source energy blocks... holding two blocks in his hands to absorb their energy. After a moment's thought, Han Qingyu suddenly asked, "Did you really think I died back there?"
"How could I?!" Wen Jifei focused on driving, eyes fixed ahead. "Quit messing around, I'm driving here."
The jeep sped along the mountain road.
Before long, sounds approached: helicopters were circling in the sky... while countless streaks of light through the wooded mountains converged on Medical Station 101 from all directions.
Roughly ten-odd minutes later:
*Beep, beep-beep...*
"Looks like communications are restored," Wen Jifei said, casually patching it through. He glanced at the display. "It's an all-sector broadcast."
The three listened in silence.
For a broadcast like this, given their military ranks, they could only listen quietly.
In truth, by this time, all arrangements concerning the rescue had already been finalized on another dedicated channel. This transmission was initiated by Legion Headquarters specifically to find a certain person after receiving field updates and clearing the jamming.
"Ninth Army, is Han Qingyu there? Is Han Qingyu there? If you are there, please speak."
"It's for you... No idea what it's about," Wen Jifei whispered, shooting a look at Han Qingyu.
"Azure Sole Witness Legion, Ninth Army, Regiment 425," Han Qingyu spoke. "Squad 1777, Han Qingyu reporting... Awaiting orders."
The other end fell silent for a brief moment, then suddenly commanded, "Salute!"
*Rustle.* The rustling sound of uniform sleeves as a salute was rendered came through the communicator, sounding like at least a dozen or two dozen people.
That was the Sole Witness Legion—Legion Headquarters!
The next second, *rustle...*
Countless sounds of salutes came through clearly from countless communicators across the entire sector.
Chapter 219