Chapter 162: The Best Resting Place for a Martial Artist

"A year or two earlier than expected?" Li Yuan's heart trembled. He had previously thought Teacher Xu Bo was merely injured and his strength impaired.

He had not expected it to be this severe.

So, the teacher only had a year or two of life expectancy left? By common logic, it was very easy for a Source Martial Artist to live over one hundred and fifty years.

Li Yuan knew clearly that with the teacher's character, at this point, there was a high probability he was not lying.

"Senior Xu Bo, why not try?" Gao Hao could not help but say, "The medical aircraft will arrive very quickly."

He was a martial arts genius from Jiangcheng.

Although he had not been taught by Xu Bo, as a member of the Starfire Martial Hall, he had heard of Xu Bo's deeds.

"No need."

"Executive Gao Hao, the crisis at Nanhuang Elementary School has been resolved. Go execute your next mission; there is no need to worry about me." Xu Bo shook his head heavily. "The sooner the Fish-Spirit Tide is cleared, the fewer casualties there will be."

"Alright, Senior, take care." Gao Hao's gaze dimmed slightly; he stopped persuading and cupped his hands.

Hum~

An aircraft descended. Gao Hao leaped lightly, rising over ten meters high, and landed on the aircraft. Following closely, the aircraft sped away, disappearing into the night sky.

Time was tight.

As a Source Martial Artist, he was an extremely important combat force and could play a huge role.

"Teacher." Li Yuan looked at Xu Bo.

"How is your body?" Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan and asked proactively, "Are you seriously hurt?"

"No." Li Yuan shook his head.

"Then take the uninjured members from your team and mine, form a new team, and you lead them to continue the next mission. Don't stay here." Xu Bo's face was pale, but he was quite composed. "A team led by you can still play a huge role."

"No." Li Yuan shook his head. "Teacher, I must send you back."

"Listen to orders."

Xu Bo's eyes suddenly became sharp. "Why are you not even listening to your teacher? What can you do if you stay here? Can you treat me?"

Li Yuan opened his mouth, his eyes slightly reddened, but he could not speak.

In his heart, it felt as if a giant boulder had crashed down, and deep within, a faint sorrow was spreading.

"Don't worry."

"I won't die for a while yet." Xu Bo's voice became gentle again. "You've become a martial artist, and you've been in university for half a year. You should have experienced several actual combat assessments. Can you still not distinguish between what is urgent and what is not?"

"Right now, the most urgent matter is to resolve the Fish-Spirit Tide."

"This is a disaster that Jiangbei Province hasn't encountered in over a decade, and even more so, one that Jiangcheng hasn't seen in over a hundred years." Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan. "Since you have the ability now, go and play your part."

"Go!" Xu Bo said heavily. "Don't make me lecture you again."

"Yes." Li Yuan gritted his teeth.

... A few minutes later.

The 16 survivors from the two martial artist squads were reorganized into a new 10-person squad.

Led by Li Yuan, they piloted an aircraft and, according to the intelligent system's arrangement, began to execute the next mission.

They quickly disappeared into the night sky.

As for the remaining six, either because their strength was weaker or they were injured, they all stayed behind to continue participating in the school's rescue efforts.

"Gone."

Xu Bo watched Li Yuan lead the team away. He struggled to stand up and followed toward the half-collapsed teaching building in the distance. Listening to the cries for help coming from beneath the ruins of the building, his heart ached slightly.

"It's my fault."

"If I could have lured that Fish-Spirit tribe away, the battle wouldn't have spread and caused the building to collapse." Xu Bo gritted his teeth, enduring the pain throughout his body, and began to participate in the rescue.

Death? From the day he knew he was beyond medical help, he had already prepared himself.

In the dark night, in the marshland.

A large number of Fish-Spirit tribe members who had originally hidden here were fleeing frantically.

Hum~ Hum~ Hum~ A large number of combat drones in the high sky were gathering from all directions, driving them away frantically.

"Da-da-da!" A stream of metal bullets flashed across the night sky, strafing wildly. One by one, Fish-Spirit tribe members fell to the ground, and wails filled the wilderness.

"Boom!"

In the wilderness on the outskirts, the heavy drones finally had no scruples, using radar, thermal imaging, and other technologies to continuously drop bombs.

Deafening! The sound shook the heavens!

Further away, there were also a large number of ground troops and combat robots composed of humans around level 10, holding various thermal weapons, continuously pushing forward from the ground, slaughtering everything.

On such a head-on battlefield, let alone a thousand Entry-Rank Fish-Spirit tribe warriors.

As long as they didn't have Second-Rank strength.

Even if there were tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Fish-Spirit tribe members, facing the massive encirclement of the mechanical legion, they would all be wiped out.

Over forty kilometers away from the center of Jiangcheng, in the ruins of a street.

"Kill!"

"Three-line advance! Slaughter them." Li Yuan's voice was cold as he issued the order.

In such street ruins, one had to be wary of the large number of ordinary people still alive; it was impossible to use heavy weapons.

That was why there was room for these First-Rank martial artists to play a role.

"Awoo~"

A Fish-Spirit tribe warrior hidden in the ruins suddenly erupted, and a dazzling blade light streaked through the darkness.

"Clang!"

The long spear swung, blocking this terrifying blade strike.

"Boom!" Li Yuan's figure was like lightning, whistling as he suddenly lunged, directly colliding with the body of this level 18 Fish-Spirit tribe high-level warrior.

Causing its massive body to fly backward with a boom.

"Pfft~"

A spear shadow streaked across the long sky, instantly piercing through its massive body. This scene froze in mid-air.

Blood flowed.

The long spear swung too fast.

"Pfft~" "Bang~" Li Yuan suddenly retracted the spear, the tip pointing downward, and blood flowed down the spear shaft.

This level 18 Fish-Spirit tribe member's body landed heavily on the ground, still trembling.

"Swish!" "Swish!" Two more spear strikes flashed by, and the Fish-Spirit tribe member's head and four arms were instantly severed, its body torn apart.

It stopped moving.

Li Yuan had always listened to his teacher.

"【You have continuously killed Entry-Rank creatures, obtaining spiritual nourishment. Spiritual awakening degree has reached 25.2%】." A Divine Palace prompt flashed across Li Yuan's vision.

It made Li Yuan freeze subconsciously.

"I killed six or seven First-Rank Fish-Spirit tribe members before, and there was no reaction. I thought it was impossible to increase the spiritual awakening degree and that I had to kill Second-Rank ones." Li Yuan thought to himself, "So, it turns out a single First-Rank alien is no longer enough to increase it by 0.1%."

Li Yuan could imagine that the further he went, once the spiritual awakening degree increased to 40% or 50%, he would probably have to kill a large number of aliens to increase the spirituality by even a little bit.

"Then let's kill."

"No matter how many aliens there are, kill them all." Li Yuan's eyes were cold, and his inner killing intent surged.

Originally, breaking the shackles of the Divine Palace to further increase the spiritual awakening degree should have been a great joy.

But Li Yuan, right now, could not feel any joy at all.

At this moment, he only wanted to execute more missions and kill more Fish-Spirit tribe members.

For the entire Jiangcheng, this was an incomparably long night.

It was a disaster that had not been suffered in over a hundred years.

In the past, although the Fish-Spirit Star Realm had repeatedly erupted in attacks, most were small-scale, and the only three times were targeted at the Yizhou and Yizhou areas near the Star Realm entrance.

Jiangcheng? It had never suffered such a super-large-scale attack.

Therefore, at the beginning of the Fish-Spirit Tide, it caused astonishing damage to the entire Jiangcheng, and the casualties were extremely heavy.

However.

The perfect city patrol system, Sky Net, mechanical legions, and the numerous martial artists caused the entire Jiangcheng's war machine to erupt rapidly.

Coupled with the nearby counties and states providing full rescue at the first moment.

When the morning sun shone on the earth again.

This unprecedented 'Fish-Spirit Tide' had basically been cleared.

Except for a small number of Fish-Spirit tribe warriors who fled into lakes, large rivers, or escaped along underground caves... the vast majority of the invading Fish-Spirit tribe members had been slaughtered.

However, human martial artists piloting aircraft were continuously pursuing and killing them.

Massive numbers of mechanical warriors were also continuously tracking and killing them.

"According to preliminary statistics."

"After a night of bitter fighting, Jiangcheng has returned to peace, and the Star Realm creature attack has basically been cleared." The host's voice on the Star Realm channel was heavy. "According to preliminary statistics, the death toll in Jiangcheng this time exceeds 110,000, the number of injured exceeds 120,000, and economic losses exceed... roughly, over 60,000 Entry-Rank Star Realm creatures were killed... This is a painful lesson."

"This was a targeted attack on the loopholes in our country's 'City Defense System'."

"It has been reported to the Qixinglian Alliance, and major adjustments and deployments will be made to a large number of city defense systems."

December 18th, 11:00 AM.

Li Yuan's squad no longer received missions dispatched by the intelligent system.

"The war mission has basically ended."

"Martial Artist Li Yuan, your combat video will be uploaded synchronously with the intelligent ring monitor... After the Jiangcheng defense battle is completely over, there will be a unified commendation." Li Yuan received the reminder.

"I received it too."

"There's a reminder to let us go home and rest first, waiting for further orders." Instructor Xing, Fang Longhu, and others spoke one after another, all looking at Li Yuan.

After this night of fighting.

Their conviction in Li Yuan had reached an extreme point.

"Alright."

"Return." Li Yuan's eyes were bloodshot as he issued the order.

Swoosh!

The aircraft flew rapidly toward the Starfire Nanhu residential area.

Ordinary rescue missions? Ordinary people across the whole society had already been mobilized rapidly.

Starfire Nanhu residential area was as quiet as ever; the flames of war seemed not to have caused any impact here.

Returning home.

After Li Yuan exchanged a few words with his family.

He re-entered the underground martial arts room and first consumed a portion of High-Source Spirit Spring.

Then, he silently practiced the "Great Sun Starry Sky Sutra" and "Heavens of Stars."

This non-stop fighting and the injuries sustained from fighting the Second-Rank alien had exhausted him to the extreme.

This practice lasted for over five hours.

It was not until 5:00 PM.

That Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes, and the exhaustion throughout his body had completely dissipated.

The injuries in his body had also basically recovered, and Li Yuan even felt that he had become more energetic.

"Source power naturally has the effect of recovering injuries." Li Yuan sighed inwardly. "Combined with the visualization method, as long as it's not a fatal injury, it will recover quickly."

Li Yuan's peripheral vision subconsciously glanced at the Divine Palace panel.

——

【Life Layer: 15.9 (First Rank)】

Fist Strength: 17,345 kg

Speed: 59.2 m/s

Mental Power: 24.8

Willpower: 29

Spiritual Awakening Degree: 25.4% (Current limit 30%)

Star Pulse: 10

Skill Realm: Spear Technique (Fourth Stage 99%), Movement Technique (Fourth Stage 99%), Fist Technique (Fourth Stage 99%)

Looking at the data changes on the Divine Palace panel alone, except for the spiritual awakening degree, the changes in other aspects were very small.

But in reality.

Everything experienced during this night of bloody battle—the ruined streets, the dead ordinary people, the old and weak wailing in the collapsed buildings, Teacher Xu Bo... the impact on Li Yuan's soul was unprecedented.

This was something ten actual combat assessments could not compare to.

"The duty of a martial artist."

"Kill the enemy, protect the country." Li Yuan murmured to himself, and he had a deeper understanding of these four words.

This was something that over a hundred 'General Knowledge History Classes' could not compare to.

6:00 PM.

Li Yuan rushed to the ninth floor of the Guanshan District First Hospital and headed straight for the high-level ward.

Li Yuan had asked Principal Tan and many others, confirming that Xu Bo had already been sent here.

He was a Source Martial Artist and had made many contributions... Although Xu Bo was unwilling, he was still forcibly sent here.

"Uncle Wan." Li Yuan saw Wan Qinghe and another unfamiliar woman in black standing at the door.

"Li Yuan? You're here?" Wan Qinghe saw Li Yuan.

"You are Li Yuan?" The woman in black stared at Li Yuan, her eyes quite kind.

"Uncle Wan." Li Yuan nodded and looked at the woman in black. "Senior, who are you?"

Through the Divine Palace investigation, Li Yuan could confirm that the woman in black was a level 24 Source Martial Artist.

"She was your Teacher Xu's teammate in the past." Hall Master Wan said softly. "Li Yuan, we'll talk later. You go in first. Your teacher... doesn't have much time left."

Li Yuan's heart trembled, his eyes slightly reddened.

He stepped past the two Source Martial Artists and walked into the ward. There were many people in the room.

They all looked at Li Yuan one after another.

"It's Li Yuan, that student of Old Xu."

"Li Yuan is here." Most of these people had average strength, and among them was a young man whose face was somewhat similar to Xu Bo's.

Li Yuan understood instantly that these people before him were likely Teacher Xu Bo's family.

"Li Yuan." Xu Bo on the hospital bed had an incomparably pale face.

Compared to the burly man who could fight and battle Second-Rank aliens like a war god last night.

It was a world of difference.

"Teacher." Li Yuan felt a sourness in his nose and leaned over the hospital bed.

Li Yuan could clearly perceive that the teacher's vitality was indeed constantly fading.

"Teacher, is your illness really beyond saving? Are there no heavenly treasures that work?" Li Yuan's heart trembled faintly, still holding a glimmer of hope.

It was just that Gao Hao's strength and vision were not low, and he had said it was nearly unsolvable, so it was highly likely true.

Moreover, from last night until now, Li Yuan had also asked many people.

The answers he got were either 'unsolvable'.

Or impossible to achieve.

"Don't think too much. Your teacher has many friends, and even Flying Heaven martial artists have come to help me look." Xu Bo lay on the hospital bed, his voice very weak. "That I could delay it for these few years is already a miracle."

"I know what you are thinking. How can everything in this world go as one wishes?"

"Even Dongfang Ji cannot do it."

"Last night, being able to be with you, to join hands with my own student to kill a Second-Rank alien, was enough to be satisfied." Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan, the smile on his pale face very bright. "At least it proves that I, Xu Bo, died heroically! Died gloriously!"

"This is the best resting place for a martial artist."

"You also prove that I, Xu Bo, was not bad when I was a martial artist, and I am barely qualified as a teacher."

"I previously hoped to wait until you won the championship at the Global University Martial Arts Competition, but it seems I won't be able to wait."

Li Yuan's eyes were completely red, and he gritted his teeth, trying hard not to let tears fall.

"Xu Ling, come over and meet your Senior Brother Li." Xu Bo suddenly whispered and scolded.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 163 =====