Chapter 788: Blood Battle on the Return Path

Darkness.

A tearing, intense pain.

Then came a sense of weightlessness and a nauseating spatial dislocation.

As Yue Fei regained consciousness in the chaos, he felt a scorching pain and a bone‑chilling cold intertwining at his right shoulder blade—a strange sensation.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

He discovered he was lying on a surface emitting faint golden light, constantly undulating.

Around him were bizarre, rapidly flowing ribbons of light and the afterimages of blurred scenery.

This was not the burnt wasteland outside Yingtian City.

It was inside the passage.

The passage, forcibly torn open temporarily, was extremely unstable, more violent than the path through the seventh weak point they had used before.

Energy turbulence, like an invisible blade, rampaged wildly in the narrow space.

"Yue Marshal! You're awake!" a Northward Aspiration soldier with soot on his face lunged over, trying to help him.

Yue Fei used the momentum to sit up and quickly looked around.

The passage was less than two zhang in diameter, irregularly tubular; its wall consisted of fluctuating golden light and the external dark void.

The surviving soldiers huddled together, about two hundred or more, each wounded, their armor severely damaged.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da and the others protected in the center were likewise bedraggled, but appeared to have no immediate threat to their lives.

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his gaze to his hands, smeared with blood and ash, his eyes somewhat vacant.

Liu Ji coughed violently, while Li ShanChang's face was as pale as paper.

"How long have we been inside?" Yue Fei asked in a low, hoarse voice.

"Less than a hundred breaths." the soldier replied, "but the passage is extremely unstable, the shaking growing stronger. The last message from Commander Zhang was……hold on, the passage could collapse at any moment."

His words had not yet faded.

Boom!

The whole passage shook violently!

The golden light on the left wall suddenly dimmed; a twisted patch emitting an azure glow—the "stain"—seeped in, like ink dropped in clear water, quickly contaminating the passage structure.

From outside came a dull roar, like a giant beast striking.

"It's pursuers!" a soldier near the "stain" shouted, "They're attacking the passage from outside, trying to contaminate and break it down!"

Within that azure "stain", faintly visible were the sharp, blade‑like outlines of arthropods and flickering cold pupils, desperately trying to squeeze inside.

"We can't let them in!" Yue Fei gritted his teeth, rose despite his shoulder wound, grabbed a broken spear‑shaft nearby, unleashed its residual momentum at the tip, and thrust hard into the stain.

Golden light and azure collided, emitting a piercing sizzle.

The arthropod attempting to burrow in recoiled slightly.

"All who can move! Hold the weak points of the wall! Attack the infiltration points with anything that carries momentum!" Yue Fei roared.

The surviving Northward Aspiration soldiers struggled to their feet, hurling whatever weapons they had—even bare hands—imbued with faint momentum or merely coated with strange‑iron, at the azure infiltration points beginning to appear throughout the passage.

Zhu Yuanzhang also rose to his feet.

He picked up a shard of armor with a sharp edge, flashing a faint golden light.

It was a fragment of the Northward Aspiration soldiers' shattered "Purging Defilement" armor.

He walked to a section of the wall being permeated by fine blue threads and, without a word, pressed the shard firmly onto it.

The golden light flickered slightly; the blue threads, as if scorched by fire, quickly faded.

Xu Da and Tang He followed suit, joining this desperate defense.

Buffeted from inside and out, the passage bucked and twisted like a small boat in a storm.

Soldiers were continually hurled by the violent shaking, striking the wall with audible cracks of bone.

New azure contamination spots kept appearing, draining the people's last strength and hope.

"This can't go on!" the vice‑general shouted, his left arm twisted unnaturally, "The passage won't hold long enough for us to get back!"

Yue Fei looked ahead.

The passage's "front," which should have been the bright exit, was now a blur of golden turbulence, like a blocked vortex.

"Zhang Cheng and the others are trying to reopen the exit, but the interference is too strong…" the soldier handling the portable communicator reported despairingly.

Another massive impact.

The entire passage tilted sharply to one side, nearly vertical.

Many screamed as they slipped and piled together.

The wall emitted a brittle groan, as if glass were about to shatter.

The azure contamination spread like a spiderweb across the golden wall, accelerating.

"It's going to collapse…" someone whispered, voice full of despair.

Just then.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly lifted his head.

He looked at Yue Fei; the vacancy in his eyes vanished, replaced by an almost ruthless resolve.

"General Yue Fei," his voice rang unusually clear amid the shaking and roar.

"I do not understand the methods of your Chen Dynasty."

"But I know that energy requires a source, a path."

He pointed to the ever‑spreading azure contamination points, then to the blocked turbulence at the passage's front.

"These things come from outside, following a trace."

"Is there not also a 'trace' linking this 'path' we stand on back to where we came from?"

Yue Fei's whole body shuddered.

He instantly understood Zhu Yuanzhang's meaning.

The Iron Crow Army's attacks could track and seep in because the passage itself left a "trace" or "coordinate" when it was built.

Likewise, the other end of the passage—Chen Dynasty—must also be continuously outputting energy to maintain it, no matter how faint.

"You mean… reverse tracing? Forcibly blast through the blockage?" Yue Fei asked urgently.

"Or, use their force against them." Zhu Yuanzhang spoke faster, "Using the force they seeped in with, follow their 'trace' and rebound it—perhaps we can blast open a path to life!"

This idea was crazy and dangerous.

But in desperation, there was no better choice.

"Gather all residual energy of the 'Breaker Cones'!" Yue Fei hoarsely ordered without hesitation.

"Sense the strongest point of external contamination! Prepare to unleash the remaining energy in a single reverse blast!"

"Others, brace for the impact!"

The few remaining "Breaker Cone" husks were dragged to the middle of the passage, their residual energy cores brutally wired together in parallel, aimed at a section of pipe wall where contamination was worst and the azure light almost seeped through.

"Sensed the strongest point of the external attack source… locked on!"

"Energy chaining complete… extremely unstable!"

"Marshal Yue!"

Yue Fei glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang, then at the surrounding soldiers, scarred but still resolute in their eyes.

"Your Majesty, please step back."

He turned, facing the pipe wall about to collapse and the frenzied surge of azure.

"Fire!"

Hum—Boom!!!

It was not the hum of launch, but the tremendous roar of the energy core overloading and detonating!

The golden torrent, coalescing all remaining potential energy, did not strike outward but was guided, fiercely poured into the heart of the azure contamination!

Like pouring molten iron into icy water.

The terrifying clash erupted simultaneously inside and outside the passage!

The external attack seemed to choke, instantly falling into disorder.

Meanwhile, inside the passage, it endured an unprecedented energy recoil and explosion!

Sections of the pipe wall shattered and peeled off!

Violent void turbulence surged in!

"Hold on!" Yue Fei only managed to shout before an irresistible tearing force seized him, hurling him toward the suddenly opened, yet even more chaotic, bright area ahead of the passage caused by the explosion!

The world spun.

His body felt as if it were about to be torn apart.

In his final consciousness, Yue Fei saw countless comrades' figures tumbling and dissipating amidst the golden light, azure glimmers, and void turbulence.

He saw Zhu Yuanzhang firmly grasped by Xu Da, both swept into the torrent.

He saw Liu Ji reaching out futilely, vanishing after the light.

Then.

There was boundless darkness, and a heavy impact sensation.

Yue Fei violently spat out a mouthful of dark blood mixed with organ fragments, feeling himself flung onto a solid yet icy ground.

The wind howled in his ears, and… a familiar, clean-scented air unique to the Chen Dynasty?

He struggled to prop up his upper body.

Before him lay a ravaged slope; in the distance, the familiar outline of Chen Dynasty border watchtowers, shrouded in a faint golden glow.

The sky was a normal deep blue, dotted with sparse stars.

They… had come back?

Back to the east side of the light curtain?

He struggled to look around.

The survivors lay scattered on the slope, moaning or motionless.

Xu Da supported the nearly unconscious Zhu Yuanzhang, half-kneeling not far away.

Tang He dragged a broken leg, trying to crawl up.

Liu Ji, Li Shanli, and others were also present, seemingly alive but in terrible condition.

The Northward Aspiration troops he had brought…

Yue Fei's gaze swept over.

What could be seen numbered fewer than fifty.

And each was seriously wounded.

The five-hundred-strong Elite Battalion, plus the later-joined three-hundred-plus main force…

Eight hundred brothers.

Those who returned amounted to less than one-tenth.

His throat sweetened, and he spat another mouthful of blood.

But the next moment, he heard hurried footsteps and familiar shouts.

"Over there!"

"Quick! Save them!"

They were the Chen Dynasty border troops and medics, frantically running from the watchtower direction.

They were rescued.

They truly snatched back a spark of fire from purgatory.

The price was that almost the entire army was wiped out, and a forcibly opened temporary passage, which is now likely completely collapsed.

Yue Fei could no longer hold on, his vision went black, and he fell forward.

Before losing consciousness, the last thing he saw was Zhu Yuanzhang being helped up by Xu Da, slowly straightening his body.

The Hongwu Emperor was gazing toward the west.

Gazing at that thick light curtain, invisible to the naked eye but truly existent.

Gazing beyond the light curtain to the homeland that had already fallen and was burning.

There were no tears on his face.

Only a kind that had been scorched by flames and then soaked in icy water.

A profound, unfathomable calm.

And hardness.