Inside the secret chamber of the Azure Board of Elders, stagnant and lifeless as it had been for decades.
Neither the smiles etched deep into their wrinkles nor the tears welling in their dull gray eyes could mask the uncontrollable tremors shaking the old men's limbs.
Soon, even their smiles turned conflicted and bitter.
The shifts in the Martian battle had unfolded far too swiftly, too suddenly, and too unexpectedly.
Had time been more generous, these old men almost certainly would have firmly vetoed that extremely reckless battlefield decision before any of this began.
Even now, after Han Qingyu and Pegmont had achieved an instant kill against a Daie-class Great Spike, some among the Board of Elders still found it difficult to endorse such a course of action.
In their overarching scheme for humanity's future—elevated, rational, and cold—the combined existence of Han Qingyu and Pegmont had unquestionably stood far above the survival of the entire expeditionary force.
Yet things had reached this point; what else could be done?
"In matters like this, it seems there is rarely much we can do."
"Yes. History has long told us that certain things cannot be bound, nor can the blossoms of hope ever bloom under constraint."
The conversation, carried in aged voices, veiledly revealed the true undercurrents tracing the hundred-year history of human source energy.
There were two such threads.
The first lay in organizational decisions, schemes, and endeavors centered on Azure, grounded in its command of power and resources. This was unquestionably the greatest driving force behind human source-energy armed forces forging the situation that existed today.
The second lay in the emergence and growth of truly extraordinary geniuses.
On this second point, Azure's governing apparatus had in truth always strived to exert greater influence, attempting proactive guidance and controlling the odds of cultivating talent under strict discipline.
In the end, however, they discovered that what they could accomplish was precious little.
In the century-long history of human source energy, not a single one of the exceptional figures among the "Hope List top five" had ever been proactively discovered and meticulously groomed by Azure.
Correspondingly, such exceptional beings were rarely subject to meaningful, effective constraints from Azure's governing apparatus, and rarely grew or acted within their plans.
Just as they had never managed to effectively constrain a certain elderly Huaxia officer holding a vital post. Azure had been forced to plant an undercover informant at his side—yet later, that very informant became the Chief of General Staff of the Huaxia Front and the staunchest supporter behind all his reckless actions.
And then there was Han Qingyu, who went without saying.
Even Pegmont, who ostensibly remained within Azure's military system, had he ever truly grown under regulatory and administrative planning?
Who taught him to critique Christine's backside?
As for the simple, unpretentious, endearing Wolf... that barefoot little wolf cub from the African plains still refused to read books or wear shoes, and had never uttered a sentence of more than three words to Azure's top brass.
When it came to fighting Great Spikes, he stubbornly insisted it was nothing more than primal hunting, or a tribal warrior guarding his camp.
Thus, virtually every genius of miracle caliber was unbound by constraints or calculated direction. Their very growth was, in itself, a sequence of miracles and accidents.
As one of these exceptional beings, Han Qingyu clearly understood this truth far better than Azure's upper echelons.
Therefore, while proposing that Pegmont take charge of breaking the tractor field and choosing to strike first himself, he offered no specific opinions or advice regarding Pegmont's exact timing, choice of opening, or method of attack.
On this point, even if Han Qingyu were later pushed to his limit and died in the deep valley below without Pegmont ever launching an attack on the tractor field, Han Qingyu would still consider his partner's choice and decision justified.
Three hundred battleblades severed the cliff, bombarding the valley...
Han Qingyu had already struck.
Amid the rain of descending blades, Pegmont erupted with sudden lateral momentum, crashing headlong into the cliff face at the base of the precipice.
*Bang!* Dead iron plates. Those damned Great Spikes really had buried thick dead iron plates—the grade of spaceship bulkheads—in the soil. Having erupted with too much force, Pegmont slammed hard, leaving him briefly dizzy.
Perhaps out of momentum from living on Mars for a year, or perhaps stemming from the confidence of surviving being buried deep underground, Pegmont had originally planned to tunnel through the dirt. But now, he was blocked.
*Boom!* A tremendous roar erupted, echoing through the valley.
The three hundred battleblades bombarded the abyss. A few probing strikes confirmed, just as expected, that they could not pierce the tractor field's energy shield.
The majority were driven by Han Qingyu into the swarm of Great Spikes on the ground.
In an instant, at least twenty Red Shoulders were pinned dead to the earth, while Black Armors and blue-sheened Great Spikes collapsed in droves. Immediately following, Han Qingyu hurtled down brandishing a battleblade, delivering an unadorned, simple slash toward one of the Daies.
*Clang! Buzz...*
The Daie swiftly brought its column sword up horizontally, blocking the blow, yet the impact forced it back more than ten meters.
An opening! A chance to pounce and kill.
Yet at the same instant, the other Daie was already sweeping its column sword fiercely in from the flank.
Han Qingyu's momentum was thwarted. Forced to defend, he barely managed to parry with his blade across his body.
*Bang!* He slammed heavily against the cliff face, punching through the topsoil and crashing against the dead iron plating beneath.
As he dropped to the ground, the two Daies and a massive swarm of Red Shoulders at the valley floor were already surging madly forward, clearly intending to complete an encirclement and crush this formidable human against the cliff wall.
Abruptly—*shink!*
Right as the swarm of Great Spikes charged forward, the three hundred dead iron battleblades on the ground that had seemingly finished their mission snapped upright in unison, standing vertically with their blade edges facing upward.
The tips of the blades pierced the soles of the Great Spikes' feet, while the blades sliced into their calves.
This alone could not cut through or bite deep, inflicting little real damage.
Great Spikes—especially those from the Red Shoulder rank upward—inherently possessed immense defense and vitality, clad from head to toe in outer dead iron plating.
An ineffective tactic?
No. By the cliff face, Han Qingyu had sheathed his battleblade at some unknown moment. He now held a blue-light column sword reversed in both hands, the blade hanging in front of him and the hilt raised above his head.
The next second, his arms dropped, driving the column sword down.
The point pierced the dirt layer and slammed heavily against the dead iron plating beneath.
*Boom!*
Dust erupted violently. In that instant, every inverted dead iron battleblade in the ground before Han Qingyu blasted upward like ignited missiles, *whoosh-whoosh-whoosh*, rocketing straight into the air.
After a dense cacophony of tearing and slicing, more than two hundred more Great Spikes went down, dead or crippled, writhing on the ground.
The Great Spikes' encirclement failed to materialize.
Yet such an area-of-effect strike was obviously ineffective against Daie-class Great Spikes. Caught off guard by the surprise, they had merely paused for an instant before recovering, erupting once more into motion, and charging together toward Han Qingyu at the cliff wall with swords raised.
By the cliff wall, Han Qingyu, who seemed momentarily spent, unexpectedly raised his head with deliberate calm, straightened his posture, and stood firm.
Resting a hand on the column sword propped against the ground, his gaze met the two Daies with total calm. He seemed to await their attack, yet made no move to defend...
*Whirrr!* A colossal howl ripped through the air.
Immediately following came a colossal shadow plunging down at terrifying speed. It engulfed Han Qingyu where he stood, engulfed the two Daies in mid-lunge, and engulfed the entire valley floor.
*Boom!*
The severed cliff in the sky, massive as a mountain peak, finally crashed down.
The dense mass of earth and stone slammed down alongside the three hundred dead iron battleblades whose upward momentum had been exhausted.
It buried everything.
Chapter 921