The spring and summer of 1996. Nearly half a year had passed since Azure's Lost Continent Expedition and the final battle at the Pole.
Linzhou was the capital of Yuejiang Province.
Due to its proximity to Shenghai, this famed Jiangnan city had suffered multiple large-scale direct assaults during the period when the Great Spikes swarmed across the skies.
Those brutal memories had not faded, just as the battered ruins of the old Yuejiang University campus had been deliberately preserved to this day, left unrepaired. It served as a memorial—both for the lives lost under alien slaughter and for that legendary, stirring story.
At the same time, the speed at which the people restored daily livelihood, food, production, and the rhythm of life remained as it always had been: astonishing and steady. Today, life here had long since returned to order, peace, and vitality.
In the aftermath of immense terror and catastrophe, those who remained alive in this world seemed to carry a bit more courage and free-spirited ease than ever before.
The evening glow fell over the lake; dusk had arrived.
Half the shores of West Lake were lined with people. There were few tourists among the crowd; most were local residents. Whether they had lived here for generations or migrated from elsewhere, one thing held true: most of their families were also in this city.
The threat and invasion of the Great Spikes had altered many things, including people's outlook on life: nowadays, few were willing to leave their families to travel far away alone. The general mindset was a fear that if an invasion came again one day, they wouldn't be by their family's side.
Conversely, there were also those who, knowing invasion could strike again at any time, decided to journey out and see the world while there was still time. But such people were, in the end, only a minority.
"If you ask what makes the kids leave home the most these days, it's military screening and enlistment," an old man sighed during a casual chat in a lakeside pavilion.
Just early this month, Azure had launched a new round of global recruitment, and the public's fervor for testing and enlisting was even greater than before.
The enormous sacrifices of the Antarctic expedition had not extinguished the enthusiasm and will of the human race. The world seemed forever destined to be this way: faced with fear, there would always be even more people who resolutely chose to stand against cowardice and flight; witnessing brutality and despair only fortified their determination and courage.
At the same time, the huge sacrifices of the Antarctic expedition had won humanity's allied forces an unprecedented stockpile of resources, as well as a perfect proving ground for recruits—now that the vast majority of high-tier Great Spikes had been eliminated and the rest routed and scattered.
Both were undoubtedly cornerstones for humanity to alter its future destiny. Through ceaseless, hazardous combat day and night, that bloodstained icefield was now nurturing one future powerhouse after another, the hopes of humanity.
In the newly updated, globally standard edition of the *Source Energy Warfare* curriculum, Azure's historians defined the Battle of Antarctica as "the greatest yet cruelest victory in the history of human source energy warfare to date."
In the end, it was a victory.
"I still remember that scene—hundreds of people leaping into the sky, defying death to hack at it. People from Azure, people from Stream Blades, and those folks in white robes... You couldn't know what was going through their heads then, but they went and did it all the same. Later the papers said Azure didn't detain a single Snow Lotus person that day; they let them all go... And that clash was the very last roar across the entire Antarctic battlefield!"
After that final roar, the giant Great Spike high in the sky died on the spot. Its corpse crashed down, shattering the thick ice for hundreds of meters around. That shocking sight remained etched in the memories of countless people to this day.
"Above Daie: Ultra-High-Tier Great Spike Puta'er Slain in Under Ten Minutes on Day One of Blue Star Descent";
"Highest-Tier Great Spike Witnessed by Humanity to Date: Puta'er, Subordinate to Miwang—Kill Confirmed";
"Death Tour of a Super Great Spike: A Fifteen-Minute Stay on Blue Star"...
The day after that battle, newspapers worldwide used tens of thousands of headlines to report the same event. Subsequent depictions and commentaries from every conceivable angle continued for over three months.
The human world was profoundly inspired, its spirits soaring.
However, outside of Azure's internal classified documents, not a single media outlet truthfully told the world that the Puta'er had actually been severely wounded at the time, its combat capability likely under half its normal strength. And humanity, regardless of each fighter's individual condition, had virtually wagered every critical chip it possessed.
Beyond this, there was another matter that even Azure's internal documents never mentioned a single word about: what had ultimately become of those who fought in that final clash.
In particular, how Corps Commander Chen fared, how Major Qing was, how Second Lieutenant Shen Yixiu was... To this day, there was no definitive word on any of them.
"At any rate, that woman didn't die. They say she was actually Ne. In the satellite footage back then, someone saw her fly out and carry away a man standing by the ship's hatch..."
"Yeah. Speaking of which, I wonder if Major General He Tangtang from Stream Blades ever got to eat that Puta'er in the end. If he did, he must be terrifyingly strong by now, right? Wonder if he can beat Ne."
"Yeah. Sigh, even though they fought side by side back then, having someone from Snow Lotus become number one under heaven just doesn't sit right with me."
He Tangtang was still alive. The fame of the "Great Spike Devourer" spread far and wide, inspiring both awe and dread. Furthermore, he was now a major general. Leaping straight up from the rank of private, he had accepted an honorary military rank from the Thai Front Army.
Last year, after the Battle of Antarctica, front armies worldwide had sought to pay tribute; at least several dozen had expressed the wish to confer an honorary rank upon He Tangtang.
It was merely a gesture of respect; at first, no one expected a super-tier powerhouse from Stream Blades to actually accept.
Unexpectedly, He Tangtang accepted—just one. He accepted the rank of major general and the Super Combat Power Badge conferred by the Thai Front Army.
On the day of his commissioning, He Tangtang arrived in person in Thailand to attend the commendation ceremony. Along the way, before the ceremony began, he also attended the funeral of a private from the Thai Front Army.
People said the eyes of the Great Kidney Striker turned red at that funeral. They said that private had originally been the Thai Front Army's top genius rookie. But tragically, her very first battle was an inferno; before she even had a chance to temper herself and grow, she perished on the vast Antarctic icefield.
...From the shores of West Lake to Antarctica...
Howling wind and knife-sharp snow filled the sky.
Through the blurred whiteout, a recruit trial squad from the Europa Allied Army—about forty people—pushed through the blizzard and appeared in the region near the Pole.
Their clothes were tattered, and hanging from their battered banner pole was a string of about ten horns taken from ordinary Great Spikes. More than half the squad bore bandaged wounds.
Their state looked rather grim, but the fact that they had reached this place was proof enough of this trial squad's formidable strength... They had cut their way through at least several hundred kilometers of perilous terrain across the Antarctic continent.
To prevent the recruits from growing up as a hothouse generation, Azure's postwar cleanup operations across Antarctica had not been executed with total thoroughness. Aside from the mandatory extermination of Red Shoulders, even larger packs of ordinary Great Spikes were merely broken up and dispersed by the cleanup forces.
As a result, this colossal proving ground remained rife with peril and unpredictable life-and-death stakes for these genius recruits. In particular, the journey toward the Pole was hailed as the most lethal trial of all.
Azure had not erected any honor flags or markers at the Pole; in fact, the trial manual explicitly warned and repeatedly advised recruit squads against making the attempt.
Yet batch after batch of recruits from every front army developed an unspoken pact, regarding setting foot upon this former ultimate battlefield as the supreme honor of the Antarctic trial.
Any squad that believed it had the capability and the chance would strive against all danger, hoping to cast their eyes upon this ultimate battlefield and salute.
"They say that when the Great Kidney Striker leaped into the air back then, he really did shout, 'Get out of my way, I'm gonna swallow it!'... As for whether he actually ate it in the end, nobody knows."
"Yeah. And I've got another thing—not sure if you've heard. Word is Major General He Tangtang had a thing going on with that fallen top genius rookie from Thailand. And that Miss Nisha was actually a trans woman..."
With their salute finished and the tension easing, the conversation between Luca and Teo in the ranks grew heedlessly loud, their excited voices drifting on the wind.
"Shh! Shut your mouths!" Captain Richiero snapped, whirling around with a stern scowl.
Gesturing with his eyes toward the swirling blizzard nearby, he whispered, "Damn it, if you don't want to get beaten to a pulp here and end up unable to walk back, drop that disrespectful topic right now!"
"Why? I'd think that since Major General He Tangtang was willing to openly attend Miss Nisha's funeral, he wouldn't mind people associating him with that topic in conversation..." Teo protested in bewilderment.
Beside him, Luca hastily gave him a yank.
Not far away, obscured by the blotted visibility, a recruit squad clad in black combat uniforms with red moth insignias on their chests was walking out in silence.
From their banner pole hung two long strings bearing at least forty Great Spike horns.
"It's Stream Blades' recruit trial squad. I kept hearing they came too, but this is the first time I've actually seen them."
"Yeah. They're so strong!"
"Indeed. Looking at them now, it's as if they no longer belong to this proving ground."
In this proving ground, gauging a trial squad's strength did not require a head-on clash; one could tell directly from their record of kills and their overall condition after continuous combat.
Beyond that, there was a distinctive aura that developed in a recruit squad only after undergoing brutal combat and frantic slaughter—something an ordinary squad could never fake.
"It makes sense that they're strong. I heard that when the Third Fixed Exploration Site finally announced its recruitment, almost all the pretentious geniuses and bastards from across the world went to enlist."
"And that's Stream Blades. I heard that once they suit up in armor, their sparring partners in live-combat training are top combat powers. Some of the particularly outstanding or exceptionally wicked ones even get hauled out from time to time for a thrashing from super combat powers who happen to be in an overly good or foul mood."
As the strongest members of this Europa squad, Captain Richiero and Vice Captain Marshall carried a subtle trace of envy and longing in their exchange.
"Oh right, speaking of that, I suddenly remembered: someone rumored earlier that you also tried out for Stream Blades' recruitment, Captain Richi, and only ended up joining the Spanish Front Army because you didn't make the cut. Is that true?"
Luca suddenly asked with earnest curiosity.
Chapter 862