High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

”What... what is this...” the Priest stammered, horrified beyond belief. He tried to use his incantations to suppress the flame, but it seemed to have a life of its own, spreading along his energy pathways and incinerating his meridians wherever it passed.

Three seconds.

In just three seconds, the level 44 Priest had been reduced to a charred corpse and collapsed to the ground.

Without a second glance, Xu Wuyi turned and charged toward Li Shuang’s Battle Group.

Xu Wuyi joined the fray. He thrust his spear, combining his Dark Gold Flame with Frost Power. The Priest didn’t even have time to scream before he was frozen solid and shattered into countless pieces.

The situation with Wang Lie was much the same. Once Xu Wuyi began fighting in earnest, all three Priests were dead in under ten seconds.

But Xu Wuyi’s expression remained grim.

He looked at the Rift. It had already expanded to five meters wide, and through it, he could clearly see a landscape of scorched plains. He could even see the Celestial Wolf Civilization’s troops gathering in the distance.

”The channel’s stability is over seventy percent,” Ji Shanhai said, rushing over while catching his breath. He had just finished off the last War General. ”Its self-repair is too fast. We can’t damage it quickly enough.”

Xu Wuyi strode to the edge of the Rift and placed his hand on the distorted wall of space.

It felt cold and viscous, like touching some kind of living tissue. He could sense the spatial structure inside the channel stabilizing rapidly. At most, it would be fully formed in another three minutes.

”For an artificially created channel, the core is a spatial anchor,” Xu Wuyi said, recalling intelligence he’d read in the military database. ”As long as we destroy the anchor, the channel will collapse.”

”Where’s the anchor?” Li Shuang asked.

”Usually, it’s at the other end of the channel, on the Celestial Wolf Civilization’s side,” Xu Wuyi said with a frown. ”But it’s also possible... they might have placed a backup anchor nearby.”

His gaze swept the surroundings as he fully extended his Heart Image perception.

Twenty meters, fifty meters, a hundred meters...

”Found it.” Xu Wuyi suddenly turned his head and looked toward a small hill two hundred meters to the northeast. ”There’s a strong residue of spatial energy there. That’s the anchor device.”

”I’ll go destroy it,” Ji Shanhai said immediately.

”Wait.” Xu Wuyi stopped him. ”The Celestial Wolf Civilization isn’t stupid enough to leave the anchor exposed like that. There’s definitely a trap, or... a guard.”

As if to prove his point, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from the direction of the hill.

The sound wasn’t like a Werewolf’s; it was more primitive, more savage.

With the roar, a massive figure rose from behind the hill. It was a Star Beast, shaped like a giant lizard, over eight meters long. Its body was covered in dark red scales, and an ethereal blue flame burned at the tip of its tail.

”A Flame-Armored Lizard, mature stage. Its strength is equivalent to a level 46 Innate.” Li Shuang recognized the Star Beast, her voice growing grave. ”The Celestial Wolf Civilization is herding Star Beasts through the channel to use as guards.”

”What a clever move,” Wang Lie spat. ”Opening a channel, sending Priests, and unleashing a Star Beast all at once. These damn wolves are really making the most of their resources.”

Xu Wuyi stared at the Flame-Armored Lizard, then glanced back at the nearly-stabilized channel behind him.

There wasn’t much time.

”Li Shuang, Wang Lie, Pei Ju, you three stay here. Keep destroying the runes at the edge of the channel to slow its stabilization,” Xu Wuyi commanded rapidly. ”Ji Shanhai, Zhou Qian, Wang Jingran, Chen Tao, you’re with me to take care of that lizard. Sun Xiaoyun, provide support from the center.”

”Yes, sir!”

The team split up once again.

Xu Wuyi led the four toward the hill. The Flame-Armored Lizard had already spotted them. It opened its massive, fang-filled maw, and a torrent of fiery breath erupted forth.

”Spread out!”

The five of them dodged in different directions simultaneously. The fiery breath swept across the ground, leaving a scorched trench in its wake and melting rock into magma.

As he dodged, Xu Wuyi raised a hand. The Power of Heart Image coalesced, and a Dark Gold Flame ignited over the Flame-Armored Lizard’s left eye.

But the Flame-Armored Lizard’s defenses were far tougher than the Wolfman Priests’. An ethereal blue light flashed across its scales, blocking most of the Dark Gold Flame, merely charring a small patch of them.

”The scales have Energy resistance,” Xu Wuyi quickly deduced. ”Focus your attacks on the weak points like its joints and eyes!”

Ji Shanhai had already circled to its flank, his longsword unleashing a sharp Sword Qi that stabbed toward the Flame-Armored Lizard’s hind leg joint. Meanwhile, Zhou Qian used her speed to circle around the lizard’s head, occasionally slashing out with a Wind Blade to obstruct its vision.

Wang Jingran and Chen Tao launched a frontal assault. Both of their True Intentions were geared toward armor-piercing and burst damage, and each of their attacks left cracks on the scales.

But the Flame-Armored Lizard’s Life Force was incredibly tenacious, and its combat instincts were formidable.

It swept its thick tail, forcing Ji Shanhai to retreat. A swipe of its foreclaw knocked Wang Jingran back. All the while, it breathed a continuous stream of fire, suppressing Zhou Qian and Chen Tao.

Xu Wuyi saw his chance. The moment the Flame-Armored Lizard breathed fire again, his figure shot forward like an arrow.

The Dark Gold Flame on his Meteor Iron Long Spear blazed to its absolute peak. He didn’t attack the scales. Instead, he thrust the spear into the Flame-Armored Lizard’s open mouth, an area with no scaly protection.

The spearhead sank into flesh.

The tip pierced its upper palate, and the flame exploded within its mouth.

The Flame-Armored Lizard let out a pained roar and thrashed its head wildly. Xu Wuyi gripped the spear shaft tightly. With another thought, a second wisp of flame ignited inside the lizard’s skull.

This time, no defense was strong enough to matter.

The flame burned it from the inside out. The Flame-Armored Lizard’s movements gradually stiffened until it finally collapsed with a thunderous crash, the light in its eyes extinguishing.

”It’s done.” Xu Wuyi pulled out his spear and looked behind the small hill.

Just as he’d expected, there was a metal device there. It was shaped like a hexagonal prism, its surface carved with complex spatial runes, and it was continuously channeling Energy into the Rift.

”Destroy it.”

Working together, the group smashed the device to pieces in less than ten seconds.

The instant the device shattered, a violent spatial tremor emanated from the distant Rift. Its expansion halted, and its edges began to show signs of collapse.

”The channel is collapsing!” Li Shuang’s voice came over the comms channel. ”We’re pulling back!”

”Fall back!” Xu Wuyi ordered, leading the four in a rapid retreat.

A few seconds later, the Rift shattered inch by inch like a broken mirror. Space distorted into a vortex before finally collapsing into a single point and vanishing.

All that remained was a scene of utter devastation and the lingering aftershocks of energy in the air.

The battle was over.

From start to finish, the entire operation had taken less than fifteen minutes.

Xu Wuyi stood his ground, watching the space gradually calm, but he felt no sense of relief.

This was only the first one.

According to command’s monitoring, at least five similar anomalous energy fluctuations had appeared within Dongjiang Province tonight. The Celestial Wolf Civilization was opening multiple channels simultaneously, a strategy designed to divide their enemy’s forces and wear them down.

”Captain Xu, casualty report,” Ji Shanhai said as he walked over. ”No deaths, three with minor injuries who have already received treatment. As for consumables, we used twelve Energy Potions and five Healing Potions.”