Chapter 27: A Blow of Fury: The Escape Finally Succeeds
Got you! A surge of wild joy erupted in Liang Bing's eyes!
However, just as she believed victory was within her grasp and was about to exert force to utterly crush Hefeng’s heart—
A hand covered in blood-stained platinum armor gripped her sword-wielding wrist like an iron vice!
The strength was so immense it nearly shattered her wrist bones!
Hefeng whipped his body around! His eyes, bloodshot from excruciating pain and blood loss, now burned with a ferocity and murderous intent more terrifying than the core of a star! That gaze, as if from a demon god of the netherworld, instantly froze all of Liang Bing's ecstasy!
"You... are courting death!"
Hefeng’s voice sounded like the grinding of ten-thousand-year-old glacier ice, every word dripping with the heavy stench of blood.
He ignored the dark-silver thrusting sword still embedded in his chest! His left hand clamped down on Liang Bing’s wrist, pinning it so she could neither pull the blade out nor exert any further strength!
The King’s Sword in his right hand, carrying the fury of world-destroying catastrophe and the power to sever stars, swung horizontally toward Liang Bing's snow-white, slender neck without a moment’s hesitation!
This strike was fast! Ruthless! Final!
It condensed the overwhelming murderous intent of a War God’s desperate counterattack!
Liang Bing’s pupils contracted to pinpricks; the shadow of death enveloped her completely in an instant! She could even feel the bone-chilling cold radiating from the flowing gold blade, a cold capable of freezing the soul! She had no doubt that if struck, her beautiful head would be severed from her body in a heartbeat!
"Queen!!!" A shrill, distorted scream tore through the air!
A figure, like a moth to a flame, lunged at Liang Bing from the side with speed beyond her limits! Simultaneously, a short silver dagger fiercely intercepted Hefeng’s lethal King’s Sword!
It was Liang Bing’s adjutant, Angel Liu!
*Clang—!!!*
A piercing, deafening metallic screech echoed through the canyon!
The silver dagger shattered inch by inch like a withered branch before the King’s Sword! The trajectory of the King’s Sword was only slightly obstructed and its speed marginally reduced, yet it still descended with peerless power!
*Pfft! Pfft!*
Two fountains of blood erupted simultaneously!
Angel Liu had shoved Liang Bing out of the way with her own body, taking the full brunt of Hefeng’s furious strike with her left shoulder and arm!
Her left arm and shoulder were severed clean off. Her body was blown away by the immense force like a tattered rag doll, her blood tracing a harrowing arc through the air!
The King’s Sword in Hefeng’s right hand had been blocked, but his left hand was not idle!
The moment Angel Liu shoved Liang Bing away, Hefeng’s left hand, which had been clamping her wrist, released its grip and instantly clenched into a fist!
The fist, encased in the King’s Armor, struck like a heavy cannon blast, slamming into the soft abdomen of Liang Bing, who had lost her balance from the shove!
"Ugh—!" Liang Bing’s eyes bulged, her body folding like a shrimp! An indescribable agony, as if her internal organs had been pulverized by a giant hammer, choked her instantly!
She heard the crisp sound of her own ribs fracturing!
It wasn't over!
Hefeng’s right leg whipped out like a steel lash, carrying the force of a thunderstorm, and kicked her hard in the chest!
This strike contained his indignation at leaving his homeland of ten thousand years!
This strike contained the memory of his loyal adjutant, Lei En’s death!
This strike contained the fury of the sneak attack that had just crippled him!
*Bang—!!!*
A dull thud, like a heavy hammer striking a war drum!
Liang Bing’s body felt as if it had been hit head-on by a high-speed starship; she vomited a spray of blood mixed with fragments of her internal organs!
She flew backward like a kite with a broken string, slamming into a massive, protruding crystal of dark matter on the canyon wall with a bone-chilling crunch.
She slid to the ground limply, like a pile of sludge, motionless, save for the unconscious twitching of her body.
Had Hefeng not been at his last gasp, his strength reduced to less than thirty percent of his peak, that punch and kick would have killed her on the spot!
"Queen!!" The remaining female angels screamed in sheer terror as they saw their king instantly crippled and brought to the brink of death! A vast, icy tide of fear engulfed them!
Yet, this fear lasted only for a heartbeat!
"Avenge the Queen!!" A veteran female angel, the closest to Liang Bing, looked at her king, whose fate was unknown, and a bone-deep hatred and final madness erupted in her eyes!
"Sisters! Fight them to the end!! Avenge the Queen!!"
"Kill! The heavenly scum! Kill the heavenly scum Hefeng!"
Liang Bing’s "heroic" sacrifice (in their eyes) and the tragic sacrifice of her adjutant Angel Liu acted like a final shot of adrenaline, mixed with boundless fear and hatred for Hefeng, reigniting the nerves of the female angels who were on the verge of collapse!
They forgot their casualties, forgot their fear; all that remained was the madness of mutual destruction!
The white tide surged forward again in an even more desperate and tragic manner! Their target was Hefeng, who was heavily wounded and gasping for breath!
Hefeng staggered, bracing himself with the King’s Sword to barely steady his stance.
The dark-silver sword still embedded in his chest sent searing pain through him with every movement, and every breath tasted of thick blood.
The wound on his left arm was still gushing blood. His vision began to blur; his ears were filled with the crazed roars of the female angels and the final cries of his desperate soldiers.
At the end of his rope!
"General! The flagship 'Ark' reports! Final coordinates locked! We have successfully entered the Boundary Sea!!"
In the communication channel, the captain’s voice, cracked with excitement, was like a final salvation piercing the clouds of despair!
The Boundary Sea!
Hefeng looked up sharply. Through the layers of enemies and the wreckage of broken ships, he saw it!
At the end of the canyon, that deep, chaotic "curtain" that seemed capable of swallowing everything had fully opened!
The tail section of a massive transport ship was slowly sinking into that bizarre, rule-distorting unknown!
It was done! The spark had finally ignited its first glimmer of light!
"All forces, retreat!!" Hefeng roared with all his remaining strength, his voice raspy like a broken gong.
"Everyone! Board the ship!! The tail ship 'Homeward Bound'! Quickly!!!"
The order was given! The rear hatch of the transport ship, which had been waiting in the back, groaned open!
"Go! Go quickly!!"
"Protect the General!!"
The remnants of the desperate army unleashed their final strength. Some, with bloodshot eyes, lunged at the incoming female angels like mad tigers, using their bodies to form a final human wall to buy time for their comrades to board!
Others quickly helped their heavily wounded brothers or carried the remains of the fallen, stumbling toward the open hatch.
Hefeng did not move. He remained leaning on the King’s Sword, standing at the very forefront of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, like a final floodgate.
The light of the King’s Armor flickered, and the hilt of the dark-silver sword in his chest reflected a cold, eerie light in the dimness.
He looked coldly at the crazed female angels rushing toward him. The King’s Sword in his hand was still dripping blood; every seemingly slow swing precisely claimed a life, buying precious seconds for the retreat behind him.
One... two... ten... a hundred...
The figures of the desperate soldiers dwindled rapidly, pouring into the gaping mouth of the 'Homeward Bound' like a receding tide.
Near the hatch, the soldiers in charge of receiving the evacuees waved their arms anxiously.
Seeing that the surrounding remnants had all retreated, Hefeng used his last ounce of strength to flap the wings on his back, fleeing toward the tail ship 'Homeward Bound'.
In the middle of the canyon, Liang Bing, who had been given emergency treatment and was barely clinging to life, struggled to lift her head with the help of a few high-ranking angels.
She saw the back of Hefeng as he fled, saw those "heavenly scum" rapidly boarding the ship, and saw the tail of that massive ship already sinking into the chaos of the Boundary Sea!
"No... no... Hefeng!!" Liang Bing’s voice was hoarse and broken, like an old bellows, filled with extreme resentment and unwillingness. "You... stop! Stop!!"
She shoved away the angels supporting her and used her final strength to shriek hysterically into her communicator. Her voice pierced through the chaotic battlefield, clearly reaching the direction of the 'Homeward Bound':
"Hefeng!! Do you think you can escape?! The Boundary Sea will be your grave!! You will never find a place to settle!!"
"Surrender! Surrender now! Keisha might spare your life! Otherwise... otherwise all of you! Along with the millions of lowly commoners you took! Will die without a burial ground!!"
"Think of your sister Hexi! You left her! Abandoned her! And you still have the face to flee with this dead weight?! You coward! You filthy mongrel!!"
"Leave the resources! Leave the scientists! Otherwise... I, Liang Bing, swear! I will scour the ends of the universe to hunt you down! And grind you into dust!!!"
Threats, curses, temptations, sowing discord... Liang Bing used every vicious word she could think of, trying to shake Hefeng’s will and delay the final moments.
Hefeng listened to the desperate wails behind him, feeling his life force rapidly draining away, and watched as the last soldier of his desperate army disappeared into the hatch of the 'Homeward Bound'.
He did not look back.
A thousand thoughts flooded his mind. There was mockery for Liang Bing’s stupidity, complex and unspeakable hatred for Keisha...
There was the heavy burden of the three million civilians behind him, and even more, the tragic sorrow for this homeland he was about to bid farewell to forever, and for the countless comrades who had sacrificed themselves...
In the end, all his emotions transformed into a wild laugh!
"Ahahaha... ha!"
"Ahahahaha... hahahahaha——!!!"
That laughter started low and repressed, like the whimper of a wounded beast, then grew higher, more wanton, and more unbridled!
It was filled with the relief of surviving a catastrophe, the extreme mockery of Liang Bing’s hysteria, and the defiance against the fickleness of fate!
The laughter echoed in the Eternal Canyon, drowning out the roar of gunfire and the dying wails, like an invisible hammer slamming into the hearts of all the female angels!
The meaning within that laughter was enough to drive any proud female angel to madness and searing shame!
Then, he lunged forward, his snow-white wings spreading one last time with all his might, carrying his blood-stained body like a moth to a flame, or a weary bird returning to its nest.
He turned into a resolute stream of platinum light and, before the final attack of the female angels could descend, plunged into the slowly closing hatch of the 'Homeward Bound', which shimmered with an energy film!
*Hum—!*
The heavy alloy hatch slammed shut the moment Hefeng’s figure disappeared inside!
It cut off the blood and slaughter of the Eternal Canyon, and it cut off the gaze of Liang Bing, which was filled with extreme resentment!
The massive engine exhaust of the 'Homeward Bound' erupted with an unprecedented deep blue light, and the powerful thrust propelled the giant ship, carrying the final spark of hope, to accelerate toward that chaotic curtain that swallowed everything!
Liang Bing watched with her own eyes as the stern of the tail ship was swallowed by an invisible giant mouth, disappearing inch by inch into the bizarre, rule-distorting chaos of the Boundary Sea.
"No——!!!" She let out a heart-wrenching shriek, filled with endless fury and unwillingness! This scream exhausted her last bit of strength; her vision went black, and she passed out completely.
In the Eternal Canyon, only deathly silence remained, along with the thick, inseparable stench of blood. The churning "flesh wall" seemed to have settled down, satiated.
The Hefeng Group had successfully escaped! Carrying the last spark of the Angel civilization, they plunged into the depths of the unknown Boundary Sea!
The chaos of the Boundary Sea, like thick oil paint, slowly swallowed the final outline of the 'Homeward Bound'.