Chapter 27

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Protagonist:

Xuan Ge

The hand the Marshal extended was like an invisible boundary marker, interposing itself between Xuan Ge and that terrified Tai Bu.

Although her figure was a projection, the majesty precipitated by countless ages was enough to make the nearly stagnant air inside the control room ripple slightly.

"Jing Tian." The Marshal's voice was calm and unwavering, yet carried an indisputable directive: "Just state the bearing."

Jing Tian understood.

It was his inertial thinking; when divination involved life-and-death whereabouts, he habitually stated the most heart-palpitating "fortune or misfortune" conclusion first.

But at this moment, what this Divine Might General wanted was not an omen, but coordinates, a direction, a path that could be acted upon immediately.

"General." Jing Tian steadied his mind, his speech accelerating, and said clearly:

"Seven consecutive Jumps, following this bearing, may touch the edge of the trail."

He raised his hand and traced a winding energy trajectory in the air; the star chart coordinates updated synchronously in a corner of the main screen.

This was originally the content he was to report, merely interrupted by Xuan Ge's suddenly erupting fury.

No need for Xuan Ge to order again.

The command had long since been conveyed.

The instant Xuan Ge uttered the words "path," the vast fleet of the Divine Might Army moved like a swarm with a unified will; each ship's navigation system had already begun synchronously receiving and calculating the trajectory data Jing Tian provided.

Almost simultaneously with Jing Tian's words falling, the navigation officer's decisive confirmation rang out inside the flagship control room:

"Jump coordinate sequence locked! Full fleet, prepare for consecutive Jumps!"

Xuan Ge turned, his gaze once more cast toward the observation window, at that stretch of starry domain that seemed empty yet appeared to have swallowed his subordinates.

The massive fleet array began turning collectively; engine nozzles shifted from deep blue to blinding white, and space undulated violently like water waves.

"General!" The fleet commander's voice sounded the moment the seventh Jump completed, carrying a thread of tense excitement.

"Based on reverse inference from the terminal offset model of the Jump trajectory, combined with analysis of spatial structure anomaly points in that region;

the area where the target was most likely transferred or concealed has narrowed to — within 0.3 light-years ahead, the energy shielding characteristics highly match the signal disturbances previously monitored!"

Xuan Ge's figure had already vanished before the commander's voice fell.

The next second, he appeared at the emergency sortie hatch on the flagship's flank.

The heavy alloy blast doors slid open soundlessly; outside lay the violent, chaotic Jump aftershocks and freezing vacuum.

Xuan Ge stepped out of the hatch in one stride; the power of the Hunt's Emanator erupted explosively around him!

Deep purple surging energy expanded like a nebula; in an instant, a colossal Divine Lord phantom — Chi Gui — rose towering behind him!

Xuan Ge's figure merged with the Chi Gui phantom, becoming a purple-black meteor tearing through the gloom, hurtling toward the planet marked by the commander at a terrifying speed far exceeding conventional ship travel!

Crossing the starry sea in the flesh, he pushed the Emanator's authority to its limit; every flicker spanned an astonishing distance, leaving only fleeting spatial folds in his wake.

Deep underground, a natural cavern crudely modified.

Here permeated a thick bloody stench, the foul reek of excrement, and a weird cloying scent mixing despair and cruelty.

The rock walls were haphazardly chiseled with niches holding strange crystals emitting dim red light, barely illuminating this cramped cage.

Six mangled bodies were fixed fast to cold stone racks by crude yet extraordinarily sturdy metal chains.

The Divine Might Army standard armor on them had long been stripped away, leaving only tattered undergarments; their exposed skin was covered in crisscrossing wounds deep enough to reveal bone.

Some wounds had already begun slowly healing due to the Abundance Blessing's power, budding pink granulation tissue.

But beside more wounds, flesh had been deliberately peeled back and stripped away, even revealing faintly pulsating viscera beneath.

Fresh blood soaked the stone platforms beneath them, converging into viscous dark red rivulets that slowly flowed toward lower ground.

Drip, drip. Unknown whether blood drops or water seeping from rock crevices.

"Tsk, are Xianzhou men all this naive and easily fooled? Or is it... that the guise our Li Li Jie fabricated suits your appetites perfectly, hmm?"

A female voice with a coquettish lilt rang out in the silence, yet clashed utterly with this bloody scene.

The speaker was a fox-woman, but unlike the elegance or dash common to Xianzhou fox people.

She had a head of slightly withered white long hair; her features bore a sharpness and seductive air formed by long existence in a tense, cruel environment.

She wore a tight outfit crudely stitched from various beast hides and metal plates; her fingernails were sharp and pitch-black.

At this moment, she stood before that central rack, extending her blood-stained hand to press lightly on the exposed chest of the tortured — Qiu Han.

Her movements appeared gentle, yet her fingertip was like the sharpest dissection knife, bit by bit slowly and meticulously tearing open and peeling back the skin at the edge of a wound on his chest that had just barely begun to knit.

Fresh blood welled out, accompanied by Qiu Han's pained muffled groan squeezed uncontrollably from the depths of his throat.

"Abundance's grace..."

The white-haired fox-woman tilted her head, watching the granulation tissue writhing beneath Qiu Han's wound attempting to repair; her eyes held no pity, only a light mingling jealousy and loathing.

"Truly biased, isn't it? Clearly we were all once seeds He scattered carelessly; why is it that you Xianzhou people so naturally enjoy this undying power?

While we White Wolves must, in the filthiest mire, use every means just to grasp a sliver of possibility to survive?"

She seemed to be asking Qiu Han, yet also asking herself.

Suddenly, her five fingers formed a claw and, without warning, violently plunged into Qiu Han's chest wound that had just been torn open!

"Ah—!!!"

Qiu Han's body arched violently like a shrimp; chains rattled under the strain.

Indescribable agony exploded from his chest cavity; he could distinctly feel that cold hand randomly scratching and touching the edges of his viscera inside his warm body.

Bean-sized beads of sweat instantly covered his deathly pale cheeks and forehead, rolling down mixed with blood and grime.

His teeth ground with a creaking sound, gums bursting with blood threads, yet he desperately swallowed the ensuing screams, leaving only broken, heavy gasps forced from his nasal cavity.

"Look at you~" The white-haired fox-woman nearly plunged half her arm inside, yet wore a smile of near-ecstatic cruelty.

"Still holding onto what? Look at your companions—their breaths are growing weaker... Soon, you'll all be able to sleep quietly together, forever."

She yanked her hand out, bringing with it a spray of warm blood and bits of tissue.

She carelessly raised her hand to her mouth, stuck out her crimson tongue, and licked the blood from her fingertips and the back of her hand, her gaze coldly sweeping over the other four dying Shenwu soldiers.

"Heh... hehehe..."

Qiu Han gasped for several breaths, prioritizing the Abundance Blessing's power to repair his severe lung trauma so he could speak again.

He lifted his head; though his vision blurred from blood loss and pain, he still glared fixedly at the white-haired fox-woman, the corner of his mouth twisted into a blood-flecked smile.

"Using... using our General's words..."

His voice was hoarse as a broken bellows, yet carried a near-arrogant mockery.

"You... are nothing but a bunch of... bastards born of mothers but not raised by them! Only daring to hide in sewers... using such low-down methods... you slut!"

"Hahaha—!!!"

On the rack beside them, a Shenwu soldier with a gaping chest wound and faint breath suddenly burst into hoarse but loud laughter.

Coughing blood, he roared: "Qiu Han! Your damn... attack power is too weak! Forgot how the General taught you!"

"I fuck your mother******, your mom is also a ******!"

The other Shenwu soldiers began laughing aloud.

Then, centering on mothers and with genealogies as radius, they all began madly outputting abuse at the white-haired fox-woman!

For a time, in this bloody underground cell, rose the Shenwu soldiers' hoarse yet impassioned curses and wild laughter.

Extreme pain and the brink of death instead stirred the most fierce, most unyielding savagery in their bones.

Obscene language, biting mockery—they laid bare the White Wolf Hunt Pack's historical scars and despicable deeds.

Every word was like a poisoned dagger, stabbing straight at the most painful spots.

The charming smile and cruelty on the white-haired fox-woman's face froze instantly, replaced by a twisted ferocity of being thoroughly enraged.

The Xianzhou people's orthodox identity, the injustice of the Abundance Blessing, and especially the White Wolf's humiliating history born of enslavement and forced resistance for survival—these were her, and the entire Hunt Pack's, most sensitive, most untouchable reverse scale!

"Heh... hehehe..." She laughed back in fury, her voice bone-chillingly cold.

"Truly... what kind of general brings out what kind of soldiers! A bunch of things that don't know when to quit!"

She clearly couldn't out-curse these soldiers who had honed their tongues in the army camp and were now throwing everything away, so she could only turn her spear toward the one existence they might possibly fear.

"Pah! You're not worthy to mention the two characters 'Divine Might'! Bastard!" A Shenwu soldier beside Qiu Han spat a big mouthful of phlegm at her.

"Hahahaha!" The other soldiers burst into another round of rowdy laughter, even as the laughter tugged at their wounds, bringing more pain and blood.

Killing intent blazed in the white-haired fox-woman's eyes; she suddenly raised her hand, wrapped in sharp force, and slapped Qiu Han's face viciously!

"Crack!"

A bone-cracking sound that set teeth on edge. Qiu Han's jaw instantly twisted and deformed, teeth mixed with blood spraying out, his entire chin skewed to one side at an unnatural angle.

"Heh~ Too bad, you'll never see your General again."

The white-haired fox-woman coldly looked at them; after she left, she'd tell Li Li Jie to have them all executed.

However—

Amidst the excruciating pain, Qiu Han's pupils, somewhat scattered from blood loss, suddenly contracted at this moment, then burst forth with a strange light.

It was not fear, not pain, but a sharp light of near-ecstasy, of seeing hope arrive!

He didn't even bother with his shattered jaw; his throat emitted a "heh-heh" air-leaking laugh as he struggled to turn his eyes, looking behind the white-haired fox-woman.

Qiu Han's twisted lips struggled to move, emitting a muffled yet delighted breathy voice: "Heh... hehe... look again... behind you?"

"Hmm?" The white-haired fox-woman froze, then, subconsciously following some instinctive alertness, suddenly twisted her head to look behind her—

A hand wearing a black metal hand guard, five fingers long and powerful, as if containing endless Destruction Power, reached out as if from the deepest Shadow.

In the instant she turned back, precisely and coldly, it seized her neck.

Time, as if at this moment was infinitely stretched and frozen.

She saw.

Pitch-black General Armor, a ferocious Ghost-faced Beast Devouring on the shoulder, and ghostly purple energy flowing like a living thing on the cloak.

That face—young, handsome, two strands of black hair falling over the forehead, but those golden eyes now calmly, indifferently looking down at her.

In that gaze, there was no anger, no urgency, not even killing intent—only absolute coldness as if looking at a dead thing.

"Ugh... gah..." She wanted to scream, to struggle, to beg for mercy.

But that hand seized not only her throat, but also a violent, matchless thunderous power carrying endless Destruction Aura, which instantly penetrated her limbs and bones along that hand!

Countless tiny purple lightning snakes crawled and exploded under her skin, madly tearing at her meridians, flesh, and even her soul!

Extreme pain instantly drowned all her consciousness; her body spasmed violently uncontrollably, and warm liquid from loss of bladder control flowed down her thighs.

So uncomfortable... so painful... so...

The terror, allure, cruelty, and all emotions in her eyes were rapidly being devoured and annihilated by that pure, overbearing Destruction lightning.

Xuan Ge didn't even glance at her again. His fingers slightly closed.

"Pop—"

A slight sound, like pinching a dry mud brick, rang out.

The white-haired fox-woman's body stiffened violently, then her pupils fully dilated.

Her entire body, starting from the seized neck, rapidly became charred, withered, carbonized, then turned into black powder that fell rustlingly.

Xuan Ge released his hand, as if merely brushing away some dust.

"General!" Qiu Han and the others shouted with their last bit of strength.

He stepped forward, walking toward the rack.

The chains, the moment his fingertips touched them, silently shattered and melted like ice and snow scorched by high heat.

Then came the second, the third.....

His movements were steady, swift, without any superfluous words or expressions.

After finishing all this, Xuan Ge only then retreated half a step, his gaze sweeping over these five faces covered in bloodstains, pale yet rekindled with excitement because of his appearance.

The cold indifference on his face, like sealed ice, finally melted into a trace of an extremely faint, almost invisible arc.

He spoke, his voice not loud, yet clearly reverberating in this bloody prison cell, carrying a kind of penetrating power that pierced through all gloom and reassured:

"I've come to pick you up and go home."