Chapter 46 — ILK Chapter 46

Minur

Their current position was extremely close to the Snow-Pear Plains. In terms of radiation exposure, Guides and Sentinels were affected equally, though Guides generally possessed a higher innate resilience.

The Sentinels were all retreating toward the original landing point of the small warships, pairing up to evacuate before the radiation wave could reach them. However, Major General Keliu had put her combat helmet back on and pulled her mask up to her eyes. She was busily reloading equipment onto her small warship.

"Major General, are you going back?" Sang Ye asked as she helped Du Yuan onto the ship. If it weren't for Rong Cheng standing nearby radiating heat, Du Yuan would have already suffered frostbite. Keliu didn't look up, nor did she answer; her hands simply never stopped moving.

"Going back is futile," Sang Ye couldn't help but urge. "The gap in mental rank is not something weapons can bridge."

"The Executive Officer and I have faced life and death together for over seventy years. It was so before, and it will be so now," Keliu replied flatly, her tone unwavering. "I have escorted you here. You return, carry out her orders, and destroy the Snow Mountain."

Sang Ye almost blurted out that she was doing something pointlessly foolish, but she swallowed the words. When they had rushed back to save Shifang Grotto, they had known it was foolish too. To act despite knowing the impossibility—to insist on one's own path.

But before Keliu could finish her preparations, a massive explosion that drowned out all sound rippled from another part of the peak. The specific radiation of Black Crystals surged. Even with Du Yuan timely deploying a mental shield, it couldn't filter everything out. The Sentinels reacted violently according to their varying mental ranks.

"Snow-Pear Plains!" Keliu looked toward the explosion in shock. They hadn't even started their operation yet; who could have triggered such a massive event? Unlike the base of the mountain, the peak was facing the radiation at point-blank range. All three women were heavily impacted.

This was not the only wave. After a few seconds of silence, another explosion roared.

"Go! Now!" Keliu roared, commanding everyone to launch the warships and flee. She looked toward the silent peak and leaped onto her ship, only to be grabbed by Sang Ye.

"I’m going with you. Me and Du—Du Yuan."

Keliu looked back with a gaze of disapproval, but Sang Ye spoke first: "The Snow Mountain tribe wants Du Yuan most. With her there, Brian will have to hesitate. Du Yuan and I are both Guides; if the General is in trouble, we can save her."

Sang Ye wouldn't admit she was having flashbacks to her past life. From a pragmatic standpoint, helping Asu Ment brought only benefits. A change in Executive Officer might not be a good thing for her. Asu might be eccentric and distant, but she truly protected every soldier under her command. Even for Sang Ye, who had left a bad first impression, Asu had blocked Wu Huansheng's initial attack.

In the unique environment of Black Tower, if the Executive Officer deviated even slightly, this place would become a true hell. Du Yuan had already changed into the thermal suit Rong Cheng brought; she insisted that Rong Cheng stay behind. She patted Rong Cheng’s round cheek and said softly, "We can't all go this time. We finally found each other; we can't all be in danger together again."

…

On the peak, Asu Ment was hidden beneath the giant wings of the Gu-Eagle. There was a massive puncture wound in her abdomen, blood gushing out. At the moment the radiation hit, her mind had gone momentarily blank, allowing Brian’s blade to run her through. Normally, such a wound would take an S-rank Sentinel mere minutes to heal, but not now. Her blood flowed rapidly, and her mental energy was being consumed in a futile attempt to repair the damage while being hammered by wave after wave of radiation.

Even as tough as she was, blood loss made her face pale. The pig-nosed snake on her cuff was stained red.

"After so many dangerous wars, I didn't think I'd meet my end here," Asu patted the Gu-Eagle’s warm feathers, looking into its golden eyes. "Sorry, old partner. I was too arrogant, too careless. I underestimated the Snow Mountain tribe; I didn't think they hid someone like this."

As an Imperial General, she had been nothing if not arrogant toward this planet—after all, it was just a common mineral world. Years away from the battlefield seemed to have dulled her sharp edges. "But besides me," Asu smiled bitterly, "who else at the base could come? Better me than letting Wu Jianing lose her parents."

The Gu-Eagle lowered its head and nuzzled her face, telling her it was okay.

After several shockwaves, Brian let out a piercing shriek—a scraping sound of metal against metal that caused headaches. Brian had become inexplicably enraged; his mental power was climbing, and his attacks grew more vicious.

The other person present was also covered in wounds. Four of the Nine-Tailed Snow Fox's tails had been severed. Blood splattered across the snow like crimson petals, but she refused to give up. As if immune to the radiation, her tails regrew rapidly. The moment she was thrown back, she summoned a snow-avalanche and charged forward again. Siblings fighting like mortal enemies.

"Was it you?!" Brian roared. "Did you blow up the Snow-Pear Plains?! How dare you!"

The Plains were the source of his power. With a Black Crystal spiritual form, he was the only human accepted by the Plains. As long as things were peaceful, he could hide there, consuming crystals and mutating, then returning to form with the help of his spirit. He had been reckless, thinking he had formed a bond with the Plains.

"I thought about it, but I couldn't do it. But there is always someone who can," Minur’s face was completely slashed, wounds deep enough to show bone, a testament to Brian’s malice. "Is it not a good thing the Plains are destroyed? No more Snow Mountain tribesmen will covet this cursed crystal! No one will die for it again!"

"Why are you still fine?! WHY!" Brian wanted to slice her into snowflakes. Why wasn't Minur affected by the radiation? Why wasn't she mutating?

Minur slowly stood straight, blood flowing from her cheeks and freezing into pillars before hitting the ground. "You inherited Father’s Black Crystal spiritual form, so you have his power and the clan. But I am Father’s child too. If you can inherit his legacy..." She said syllable by syllable, "Then—so—can—I."

"Brian," the Nine-Tailed Fox regrew its limbs, fueled by its master's fury, "no one exists just for you. Not the tribe, not me, and not Mother!"

Brian, humiliated and enraged, struck at Minur without mercy. Meanwhile, the person who blew up the Snow-Pear Plains was approaching with an unstoppable aura; the sounds of explosions grew closer, threatening to consume everyone. There was no point in staying. Asu Ment looked at the siblings, gritted her teeth, and forced herself up to leave the battlefield.

But Brian, blinded by bloodlust, wouldn't let her go. Just then, a needle-like pain shot through his brain, commanding him to stop. It was a sensation he hadn't felt in years.

A Mental Mark.

He turned his head in fury toward the sky. On the flying warship, a black-haired woman stared down at him, unmoving. Du Yuan had planted a mark on him, though it was shallow and lacked a blood bond. He had been a child then, but he wasn't now.

Sang Ye, supporting Du Yuan, heard her Master groan as blood leaked from her mouth and bloody tears fell from her eyes. She collapsed against Sang Ye, suffering a mental backlash.

But that single moment was enough. The Gu-Eagle swept past the snow like a whirlwind, leaping into the air with Asu Ment. A steel blade was hurled at the eagle; a split second before it hit, the eagle let out a shriek and looked at its master with longing.

Asu Ment retracted the eagle into her landscape and faced the frenzied Brian alone. The moment her mental power exploded, the air seemed to freeze. Like water or a gale, her energy deflected the steel blade, the hum echoing through the sky. As she fell, she twisted her body. Her wings tore through her suit, and like a fierce hawk, she snatched the blade mid-air.

The blade, sensing its master’s call, thrashed in her hand, slicing through her glove and mangling her palm, but she didn't let go. She lunged at Brian, driving the blade into his chest through the mental pressure and radiation. An eye for an eye.

Roaring in pain, Brian threw her back.

"General!" Keliu piloted the ship to chase Asu’s falling body.

"Sangsang," Du Yuan whispered in her ear. "Release your spiritual form."

Sang Ye struggled to stay stable in the turbulence. "What?"

"Release your spiritual form and stop her. Believe in yourself! Your dimension is for more than just growing vegetables."

Sang Ye never raised her guard against her Master; Du Yuan’s mental energy seeped into her landscape. The Parasol Tree seemed to hear a summons. Before Sang Ye's eyes, a massive forest appeared. Lush parasol trees erupted from the snow, their branches entwined with the roots of Du Yuan’s flowers, weaving a dense, replicating web.

Behind them, Brian was in pursuit. The small ship was already battered.

"Jump," Sang Ye heard her own voice—resolute, brave, and full of confidence. "Jump. We will survive. I can protect you."

Keliu stared at her for a few seconds, let go of the controls, and opened the hatch. Below was a sea of green—parasol trees and flowering vines woven into a massive net. It caught the four of them, wrapping them in a botanical sphere that bounced and dodged through the forest.

Brian’s vision was blocked by layers of greenery. A Guide’s mental energy was resilient; he could slice one layer, but another grew instantly. Under normal circumstances, an S+ rank wouldn't be stopped by a B-rank Guide.

But the bombardment of the Snow-Pear Plains had reached its end. His source of mental power was gone. Behind him, a heat more scorching than mountain magma approached.

Someone had arrived.

Brian turned his body, his weaponized limbs clashing with a metallic shriek; he could no longer return to human form. Standing before him was a man who looked far too young. Black hair fell over his shoulders, with one gold-red lock standing out. He looked down with cold indifference, as if looking at trash.

Brian knew him but had never dared to face him. He had seen this man incinerate an entire forest with a flick of his fingers and "liberate" his mutated clansmen like a blessing. After he left, the eternal snow of the mountain had stopped for days.

The chasm in strength meant Brian never dared provoke him, nor even appear before him. But Brian knew Minur had once saved a clansman from his hands, even losing a braid to the fire. On the day Minur had bravely rushed out, he had hidden in the cave, silent. That day, the man had cast a contemptuous glance into the cave and let Minur go.

It was he who had blown up the Snow-Pear Plains.

The Phoenix's cry was clear and high. It soared through the parasol forest, brushing the leaves with a gentle rustle.

"In this state, you actually still want to live?" Lin Changli looked at the "mountain of cold weapons" with a hint of amusement. His flames crawled up the steel, melting the strange amalgam of weapon and flesh.

Under the mental pressure, Brian could make no sound and no movement. Amidst the agony of the fire, his mutated growths were burned away—though he could no longer be called human. His skin was covered in black crystals; his skull and limbs were crushed and deformed. Asu Ment’s blade had cracked open the black crystal on his chest, revealing the heart within.

The heart had turned into a solid black crystal. There was no going back.

In his fading consciousness, he saw a familiar face running toward him, blood still on her nine tails. She stumbled but didn't stop.

"Big brother! Big brother!"

She still called him big brother. Her face was ruined.

The pain surged as the radiation backlash finally occurred. Brian coughed up blood mixed with organ fragments. The woman finally reached his side, weeping for the man she had just fought to the death. Minur grabbed his twisted hand. Even knowing his end... they had held hands like this as children, watching Mother’s warship leave.

Brian tried to remember what Minur had said then, but the pain made it difficult. He only remembered when she raised a blade to pierce his heart and end his suffering.

He remembered now. Minur had said: "Brother, this is my home. I will never leave."