With Flesh and Blood, Building a Wall of Protection

【Amid the suffocating tension, Liu Tian slowly rose to his feet inside the iron cage.】

【The heavy shackles weighed so heavily upon him that he could barely lift his head. Yet the frail, trembling old man let out a deafening roar.】

【“Yingzi! Your father’s only regret is that he’s grown too old to kill these otherworlders himself!

With the Marshal leading you into battle, our ancestors must be watching over us!

Stay alive—and kill enough of them for me too!

Your father will go on ahead!”】

【Summoning every last ounce of strength, Liu Tian hurled himself headfirst into the iron bars and died on impact.】

【“Father!”】

【On the battlefield, Liu Ying’s eyes nearly split with rage and grief.】

【Her father, the only family she had in the world, had died so horribly before her eyes. Even though Liu Ying was now the rebel army’s deputy marshal, she could not keep her emotions under control.】

【She tried to charge over and fight Kaideli to the death, but the rebel generals beside her held her back with all their strength.】

【“Deputy Marshal! Don’t go!”】

【“That was my father!”】

【Liu Ying’s voice was hoarse, tears streaming down her face.】

【In his own way, Liu Tian had shown the other captive relatives of the rebels what they needed to do.】

【More and more began to follow his example.】

【At the sight, Kaideli was so furious that his face twisted.】

【“Stop them! Don’t let them die!”】

【Kaideli’s men tied the hostages to the iron bars with ropes, preventing them from smashing their heads against the cage.】

【But some began biting off their own tongues.】

【Kaideli had no choice but to order his soldiers to gag every hostage.】

【Each time the hostages devised a new way to take their own lives, Kaideli was forced to find another way to stop them.】

【“Damn it! What kind of farce is this? I’m bending over backward to keep them alive! Is that really supposed to be my job?”】

【The rebels watched their loved ones being driven to their deaths. Though tormented by grief and consumed with rage, their resolve did not waver.】

【They rallied around the starship, guarding their Freedom.】

【Meanwhile, thanks to the formation masters’ desperate efforts, the starport’s launch ritual finally activated.】

【Within the colossal, rainbow-colored pillar of light soaring into the heavens, brilliant streams of starlight emerged and slowly began to rise.】

【That mysterious power enveloped the enormous starship and gradually lifted it into the air.】

【At that same moment, the western rebel force’s diversion was exposed, and the Eagle Legion turned back.】

【More than ten thousand wingfolk soared through the skies, converging from every direction. Their objective was clear: the starship.】

【Accompanying them were more than a dozen white-robed priests and a vast number of their subordinates.】

【Below, realizing that the ruse had failed, Kaideli ordered his personal troops and the starport garrison to launch an assault on your starship.】

【The rebels had originally held the advantage in numbers. Now, however, the enemy outnumbered them several times over.】

【Rank upon rank of enemy troops surrounded the starport, sealing it off completely.】

【“Kill them! Wipe out the rebels!”】

【“One million Source Stones to whoever captures Chen Yi alive!”】

【“White Porridge Rebel Army? What a joke! Today, this starport will become your burial ground!”】

【Enemies were everywhere, both in the skies and on the ground.】

【The One-Line-Sky Grand Formation required vast quantities of materials to serve as its foundation. Although you had gathered a considerable stockpile over the years, setting up the formation would take time—and the enemy clearly had no intention of standing idly by.】

【Moreover, once you entered the Real Realm, the so-called “immortal formations” of the Virtual Realm were merely fourth-grade formations here, and their actual effectiveness was greatly diminished.】

【As a result, you had no effective way to counter airborne enemies.】

【Furthermore, far off in the distance, you could clearly see a figure in red hovering in midair.】

【It was a Cardinal!】

【He was not using any technique to fly. He could fly because he belonged to the Winged Race.】

【The Cardinal had yet to personally take action against the rebel army, yet now even he had come!】

【Tens of thousands of rebels tightened their grips on their weapons, entrusting their backs to their comrades. There was no fear in their eyes—only boundless hatred.】

【Standing atop the starship, you swept your gaze across the surroundings and prepared to face the Eagle Legion.】

【“Soldiers, get aboard! I’ll hold them off!”】

【You slammed your fist down on one of the starship’s control levers. Countless ropes and boarding ladders dropped from all sides, allowing many people to climb aboard at once.】

【The rebel army had never disobeyed your orders, but this time, not a single person moved to board the ship.】

【“What’s wrong? Yingzi? General Cheng? General Qin? Why aren’t you getting aboard? If you don’t hurry, there won’t be another chance!”】

【Liu Ying turned to look at you and gave a bitter smile.】

【“Commander, we can’t leave…”】

【You replied solemnly.】

【“I know it won’t be easy, but we save as many as we can. Wasn’t that the plan from the very beginning? Didn’t we all know it might come to this?”】

【You had expanded the starship until it could carry a hundred thousand people, but that had only been the ideal scenario.】

【When the time came to put the plan into action, everyone knew that even if they managed to escape, it would be impossible to take that many people with them.】

【Everyone had foreseen that the battle at the starport would be brutal. Even if they escaped in the end, fewer than one in ten would survive.】

【Yet now, not a single member of the rebel army was willing to leave. You had never expected this.】

【The enemy continued to close in.】

【Their long-range attacks were already raining down.】

【Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!】

【Every soldier in the Eagle Legion carried a pack full of javelins.】

【They flew through the air at tremendous speed, using that momentum to hurl their javelins with all their might and give them even more terrifying impact.】

【Boom! Boom! Boom!】

【Each javelin punched clean through the starship from one side to the other, leaving a gaping hole behind.】

【More and more holes appeared as they systematically tore the starship apart.】

【You had already intercepted many of their attacks.】

【But enlarging your body was not an option.】

【If you grew any larger, the starship would not be able to hold you. You would also lose the agility needed to defend it from all sides—and you might even crush the ship beneath your own feet while trying to protect it.】

【All you could do was intercept as many attacks as possible.】

【“Argh!”】

【Enduring the agony of breaking bone, you used the bone-manipulation ability of “Wolverine” to force the bones of your left palm out through the back of your hand, turning them into weapons. With a rapid series of cracks, you sliced through javelin after javelin.】

【Your right arm possessed the “Qilin Arm,” making it incomparably tough, so you used it as a shield.】

【You also possessed the Shen Clan’s mighty martial art, the Star River Divine Art.】

【Manipulating gravity in the Real Realm was extremely difficult, but if you could alter the javelins’ trajectories even slightly and keep them from striking the starship’s critical sections, that alone would be immensely useful.】

【Amid the fierce battle, you witnessed a scene that left you stunned.】

【The rebel soldiers threw themselves across the starship’s hull, clinging desperately to anything they could grasp, their feet braced against the shoulders of those beneath them.】

【With their own flesh and blood, they forged a suit of armor for the starship!】

【“Thud! Thud! Thud!”】

【A javelin pierced one soldier through, and another immediately took his place. Wave after wave surged forward, fearless in the face of death!】

【“Protect the starship!”】

【“We cannot let the starship be destroyed!”】

【“Commander! Get aboard! You have to escape!”】

【You realize that someone is directing the rebel army.】

【It is not you.】

【It is Liu Ying, Cheng Guang, and the rebel army’s many other officers.】

【The way they defend the starship does not seem like a spur-of-the-moment decision. It looks as though they have rehearsed it countless times.】

【“You...”】

【You see blood trickling from the corner of Liu Ying’s mouth as he gives you a bitter smile.】

【“I’m sorry, Commander. We discussed a few things behind your back...”】

【Liu Ying and the others had considered what they would do if the enemy’s resistance proved too fierce during the battle at the starport, leaving little hope for everyone to escape.】

【Their answer was this: if they could all leave, they would follow your plan and escape together. But if they could not, they would give their lives to ensure that you did!】

【“Yingzi, your commander never asked this of you...”】

【“But Commander, since ancient times, when has there ever been reason for the soldiers to live while their commander dies?”】