Chapter 73: This Earth Wall… It Can’t Hold Much Longer
“I’ll bash your brains in! Die, you bastard, die!” A middle-aged man roared as he swung a rusted iron pipe with wild abandon, smashing it repeatedly against the skull of a zombie forcing its way through a narrow breach in the barrier. He didn’t stop until the head was completely caved in and foul, black blood streamed down the metal shaft. Even then, he seemed entirely numb to the horror, his bloodshot eyes fixed in a manic glare as he kept hammering away.
“Stay back! Get the hell away from me!” a woman shrieked, thrusting a sharpened steel rod frantically into the fray. Her aim was clumsy and erratic, but her sheer desperation gave her formidable momentum.
Li Yu fought alongside the front line as well.
Her Water Ability lacked raw offensive power, so she kept a white-knuckled grip on the hunting knife Chu Yang had given her. Whenever an opening presented itself, she gritted her teeth and slashed violently at the rotting arms clawing over the ramparts, or drove her blade into the temple of any monster poking its head through the cracks.
“Li Yu! Aim for the neck! Yes, right there!” Jiang Lin shouted from a few paces away.
Jiang Lin held a sharpened steel bar, stabbing repeatedly through the gaps in the earthen wall. Her technique was unrefined—clumsy, even—but she fought with fierce determination. Every thrust carried the full weight of her body, and through sheer grit, she managed to impale and topple two or three zombies attempting to crawl under the barricade.
Irritated by the unsolicited coaching, Li Yu let out a sharp breath, shook out her stinging wrist, and raised her blade once more. Timing her strike perfectly, she brought the edge down hard against a zombie’s exposed cervical vertebrae.
The creature froze instantly, shattered white bone showing through the wound. Lin Xiao, reacting with lightning reflexes, swept his heavy blade through the opening with a clean, whistling arc. With a wet thud, the head flew free from the shoulders.
“Brother Wang! Can you make this damn wall any thicker?! It feels like it’s about to cave in—shit!”
Li Wang braced his back against the vibrating earthen barrier, swinging a heavy fire axe with both hands, every chopping blow sending up a spray of putrid gore.
Before he could finish his complaint, a pair of blackened talons shot through a fissure in the dirt, missing the tip of his nose by millimeters. The foul draft of rotting flesh made him jerk back in alarm. Jolted with sudden terror, he flew into a rage. With a guttural roar, he brought the heavy axe down squarely onto the creature’s wrist. “Try clawing at me, you piece of filth? I’ll chop you into kindling!”
Wang Qiang was pushing his Earth Ability past its absolute limits. Straining to maintain the crumbling fortification, he panted raggedly and fired back: “Make it thicker? I’m… I’m running on empty here! You think I’m just playing with mud?! If you’re so damn capable, you do it!”
Lin Xiao cleaved straight through a charging zombie before spinning to bisect another lunging from his flank. Rancid gore splattered across his jacket, but he didn’t even flinch. Seizing a split second between strikes, he bellowed: “Pace yourselves! Keep your formation tight! Little Yu, get over to the right flank—the gap there is getting too wide!”
“On it!” Little Yu’s small, disembodied voice drifted back through the air.
Su Mubai called out in a steady, commanding tone to the survivors wielding improvised clubs and pipes: “Stop wasting your strength on wild swings! Focus entirely on their heads and necks! Body shots won’t stop them!”
The battle descended into a grueling, chaotic standoff. Roars, shrieks, the ringing clash of steel, and the heavy thuds of blunt impacts tore through the air.
The earthen wall shuddered constantly as the undead surged forward in endless waves, yet this ragtag group miraculously held the line, refusing to let a single monster breach the perimeter.
Amidst the fierce skirmish, Su Mubai caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Jiang Jue and Chu Yang emerging from the stairwell, leaning on each other for support.
His eyes narrowed. Driving back two lunging zombies with a flurry of rapid slashes, he called over his shoulder: “Lin Xiao, take the vanguard!”
“Got it!” Lin Xiao barked without turning his head. His blade erupted with renewed ferocity, cleaving violently through the monsters crowding the main breach and temporarily stabilizing the front.
Seizing the opening, Su Mubai fell back, crossing the floor to reach Jiang Jue and Chu Yang in a few swift strides. Taking in their blood-drenched clothes and visibly drained complexions, he frowned with deep concern. “Boss, how bad is it?”
Jiang Jue shook his head, his voice raspy and strained: “I’m fine. Check Chu Yang first.”
Understanding the urgency, Su Mubai gently took Chu Yang from Jiang Jue’s arms, helping him sit down against a relatively clean section of the wall.
He took Chu Yang’s wrist, channeling a gentle, probing thread of energy into the young man’s meridians.
A moment later, Su Mubai released his grip, his tense expression softening slightly. “Severe mental exhaustion, and his energy pathways are somewhat jarred, but there’s no major external trauma or internal hemorrhaging. Once we get back, a good rest and some pure crystal cores should nurse him back to full strength.”
Chu Yang was pale as a ghost, managing only a faint, tired tug at the corner of his mouth in response.
His eyes, however, shifted anxiously toward Jiang Jue. “Brother Jiang, what about you? You were coughing up blood earlier. Let Little Bai check you over.”
Jiang Jue didn’t argue. He gave a quiet nod of assent.
Turning to face him, Su Mubai raised his hands, summoning a warm, vibrant halo of white light across his palms.
He pressed his hands gently against the center of Jiang Jue’s chest and abdomen, right where the internal trauma was concentrated.
The soothing white radiance seeped smoothly into his flesh. Jiang Jue felt the searing heat and constricted blockages within his chest gradually wash away, as if bathed in a cool mountain spring, beginning to mend and soothe the torn fibers of his meridians.
The tight furrow between his brows smoothed out, and a touch of color returned to his ashen face.
While Jiang Jue received treatment, Chu Yang endured the throbbing migraine in his skull and retrieved a dozen colorless Tier 1 crystal cores from his spatial storage.
Cradling the clear stones in his palm, he closed his eyes and began drawing upon their raw energy.
Cool trickles of pure power flowed through his skin like spring rain soaking into parched, cracked earth, slowly replenishing his depleted mental reserves.
By the time the stones crumbled into fine gray dust, Chu Yang slowly opened his eyes. Though he still looked weary, the blinding pain behind his eyes had receded significantly; the double vision and static buzzing in his sight had finally cleared.
At the same time, Su Mubai’s healing session drew to a close. As he withdrew his hands and let the white light fade, beads of sweat glistened across his forehead—channeling that much concentrated restorative energy had taken a heavy toll on his own stamina.
“Little Bai, how is he?” Chu Yang asked immediately, his voice noticeably firmer than before.
Before Su Mubai could reply, Jiang Jue stood up under his own power, rolling his shoulders and rotating his arms to find his internal energy circulating smoothly once more.
Stepping over to Chu Yang, Jiang Jue crouched down and casually ruffled the boy’s messy hair. “I’m fine,” he said in a low, quiet voice. The gesture was natural and unhurried, carrying a steady, unspoken reassurance.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Su Mubai added, “Brother Jiang took some internal damage—his organs were jarred by the concussive force, and his pathways suffered minor backlash from overcharging his lightning. It’s nothing fatal, though. I’ve completed the initial repairs. With a few crystal cores and some time to meditate, he’ll make a full recovery.”
Up at the barricade, Lin Xiao’s blade hadn’t slowed for a second, though he had kept a sharp ear tuned to the conversation behind him.
Seeing their color return and their breathing steady, he bellowed over the roar of the horde: “Hey! Boss! Third Brother! Are you two done having your tea break yet?! Get up here and lend a hand! I can’t hold this gap forever!”
Right on cue, Wang Qiang’s strained voice followed, cracking with pure exhaustion: “Yeah, Boss… I’m about to pass out… This earth wall… it can’t hold much longer…!”
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