novelnext Chapter 370: The Meaning of Guarding
Chapter 370: The Meaning of Guarding
The middle-aged engineer in the lead wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Understood, understood. We’ll do our best to speed things up."
The mining mecha’s engine roared to life. Its drill began to spin, plunging deep into the crimson rock layer.
The ear-piercing sound of friction echoed throughout the mining area, carrying far into the distance.
Xu Wuyi leaped onto a high pile of ore and sat down cross-legged, his long spear resting across his knees.
His Spiritual Perception spread out like ripples, covering the mining area and a two-kilometer radius around it.
The vibrations from the ground, the ore dust filling the air, the occasional scent of a Star Beast flitting through the distant hills...
All of this information flowed into his sea of consciousness, where it was swiftly processed and categorized.
The Golden Crow hovered silently in his world of consciousness. It no longer soared freely, but instead overlooked the Earth below, which was gradually being bathed in golden light, like a guardian.
Xu Wuyi could feel that in this state of high alert, the flow of his Spiritual Power had, contrary to his expectation, become steadier and more sustained.
Time slowly passed.
At 5:00 PM, the first wave of attacks arrived.
It wasn’t Iron-Claw Wolves, but seven Star Beasts shaped like pangolins, each about three meters long.
They emerged from under an earthen slope to the north, their bodies covered in dark yellow scales. With short, thick limbs and sharp claws and fangs, they charged straight for the operating mining mecha.
"Earth-walking Beasts!" Zhang Yuan shouted a warning from the watchtower.
Zhou Heng barked, "Chen Wu, Wang Hai, intercept them head-on! Li Hongwei, harass the flank! Xu Wuyi—"
Before he could finish, Xu Wuyi had already vanished from the pile of ore.
The next moment, Xu Wuyi appeared ten meters in front of the seven Earth-walking Beasts.
He didn’t use his spear. Instead, he made a grasping motion with his right hand. A dark golden flame rose from his palm, condensing into a three-foot-long spear of Flame.
The spear’s shaft was formed entirely from the Undying Flame. As the flames flowed, the faint silhouette of a Golden Crow flapping its wings could be seen.
The seven Earth-walking Beasts stopped in unison, turning their heads toward Xu Wuyi. A wary, savage light glinted in their small eyes.
Xu Wuyi flicked his wrist.
The Flame spear shot from his hand, splitting into seven in mid-air. The seven streaks of dark golden light shot precisely toward the forehead of each Earth-walking Beast.
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP—
Seven soft sounds rang out almost simultaneously.
The Earth-walking Beasts didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before the Flame spears pierced their foreheads.
The dark golden Flame poured in through the wounds, instantly spreading through their bodies and burning them into seven curled-up lumps of charcoal.
After completing their task, the Flame spears didn’t dissipate. Instead, they flew back to Xu Wuyi’s palm, merged back into one, and disappeared into his body.
From the moment he attacked to the end, less than three seconds had passed.
The mining area fell silent.
Chen Wu was still frozen in his charging pose, shield raised. Wang Hai’s power hammer was only halfway through its swing. Li Hongwei’s figure was locked in place on her flanking path.
Zhou Heng took a deep breath and waved his hand. "Clean up the bodies. Stay on alert."
Only then did the team members snap back to their senses. They silently went forward to drag the charred corpses of the Earth-walking Beasts away to be buried.
Xu Wuyi leaped back onto the ore pile, closed his eyes, and began to regulate his breathing.
That last attack hadn’t consumed much energy, but he needed to maintain full coverage with his Spiritual Perception. He had to seize every moment to recover.
「Night fell.」
The Seventh Star Realm had no moon, but even at night, its three suns provided a faint light, blanketing the land in a dim, reddish haze.
The temperature began to plummet. The scorching heat of the day rapidly faded, replaced by a chill rising from the ground.
The squad split into two groups for watch duty.
Zhou Heng, Chen Wu, and Zhang Yuan took the first half of the night. Xu Wuyi, Li Hongwei, and Wang Hai took the second.
The mining mecha didn’t stop operating; its roar carried even farther in the silent night.
Xu Wuyi sat cross-legged on an ore pile next to the watchtower, his Spiritual Power spreading out like a spiderweb.
He could clearly perceive at least five Star Beast gathering points within a three-kilometer radius of the mining area, with numbers ranging from over a dozen to thirty.
Attracted by the commotion of the mining, they were slowly approaching.
"Are you scared?" Li Hongwei suddenly sat down beside him and asked softly.
Xu Wuyi opened his eyes. "No."
"Right, you’re so strong." Li Hongwei smiled, but it was a bit wry. "My son is six this year. The last time I was home, he asked me, ’Mom, why do you have to go so far away?’ I didn’t know how to answer him."
Xu Wuyi was silent for a moment, then said, "So that he will never have to answer that question."
Li Hongwei froze for a moment. Then she lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously stroking the hilt of her blade. "Yeah... I hope so."
At 2:00 AM, the second wave of attacks arrived.
This time, it was a mixed pack: twelve Iron-Claw Wolves, eight bat-like creatures with two-meter wingspans called "Night Howlers," and three of the Earth-walking Beasts from before.
The pack attacked from three directions at once, clearly showing a degree of coordination.
Xu Wuyi stood up.
"I’ll take the Night Howlers," Zhang Yuan said from the watchtower as he drew his compound bow. He fired a continuous stream of arrows, each one precisely piercing a Night Howler’s skull.
Li Hongwei and Wang Hai went to intercept the Iron-Claw Wolves on the west side, while Chen Wu raised his shield to block the Earth-walking Beasts from the north.
Xu Wuyi’s targets were the six Iron-Claw Wolves to the east.
He didn’t use the Flame spear this time. Instead, he gripped his Meteor Iron Long Spear and charged forward to meet them.
The spearhead traced simple arcs in the reddish dark of the night. Every thrust precisely struck an Iron-Claw Wolf’s neck, eye, or a joint in its torso.
No flashy Techniques, only the most direct killing efficiency.
Six Iron-Claw Wolves, six thrusts of the spear.
Each one a fatal blow.
After dealing with the threat from the east, Xu Wuyi’s figure flashed, and he appeared on the north side.
Chen Wu was being besieged by three Earth-walking Beasts, and cracks had already appeared on his heavy shield.
Xu Wuyi swept his spear horizontally. The wind from the attack, carrying dark golden sparks, blasted all three Earth-walking Beasts back at once.
Immediately after, his spear tip jabbed out in a rapid succession, leaving a charred black hole in each of their foreheads.
The battle was over in under two minutes.
Wang Hai and Li Hongwei had also taken care of the Iron-Claw Wolves on the west side. Both of them had sustained some injuries, but none were serious.
"Dress your wounds. Time to change shifts." Zhou Heng’s voice came from behind. He, Chen Wu, and Zhang Yuan had finished resting and were taking over guard duty.
Xu Wuyi returned to the temporary shelter, sat down cross-legged, and swallowed a tube of highly concentrated Nutrient Liquid.
He didn’t fall asleep immediately. Instead, his consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness.
The Golden Crow was still hovering. Xu Wuyi could feel that by alternating between high-intensity vigilance and combat, the growth of his Spiritual Power, though slow, was exceptionally solid with every small increase.
More importantly, he was beginning to understand the meaning of "defending."
Defending wasn’t about passively taking a beating. It was about establishing absolute control within a limited area.
Where the enemy comes from, how many there are, their strength, when to strike, how to respond... all of it required instantaneous judgment, decision-making, and execution.
This required an extremely calm mind and absolutely precise control over one’s own power.
Xu Wuyi recalled the Flame Venerable’s words: "Fire needs to burn, to move, to connect and resonate. The Earth needs stability, it needs substance, it needs to contain and to bear."
Perhaps "defending," then, was one of the characteristics of the Earth.
To bear attacks, to neutralize impacts, to counter movement with stillness, and to meet a multitude of changes with an unchanging core.
But it seemed there was even more to it than that.