Hanyuan meditated for the remaining six hours, his breathing slow and synchronized with the pulse of the valley. He stepped out of his hut and walked back toward the stone wall, his footsteps light on the dirt path. The villagers watched him from a distance, peering from behind half closed shutters and doorways with a mixture of hope and trepidation. They had seen many protectors come and go, but never one so young, and never one who stood alone.
He climbed the worn stone steps to the ramparts. Looking outward, the valley narrowed into a jagged throat of black rock and tangled thorns. It was a natural funnel, designed by geography to concentrate any advancing force into a killing zone.
A small shadow appeared at the top of the stairs. It was Li Tian, the blonde haired boy. He was carrying a wooden tray with a bowl of steaming porridge and a few coarse pieces of bread.
"L-Lord," the boy whispered, careful not to look Hanyuan directly in the eye, his small hands trembling. "Grandmother said you should eat. It's not spirit-food, just... just what we have."
Hanyuan turned and smiled, the coldness in his eyes softening for a moment. He took the tray and sat on the edge of the battlement, his feet dangling over the ten meter drop. "Thank you, Li Tian. It smells delicious."
He took a bite. It was simple, salted grain, devoid of the high tier energy of the Sect's cafeteria, but it was warm and made with genuine care.
"Tell the villagers to stay in their homes tonight," Hanyuan said, handing the empty bowl back to the wide eyed boy. "And tell them to block their ears. It's going to get loud."
Li Tian nodded frantically, gripped the tray, and scurried away as if the very wind were chasing him.
As the sun dipped behind the western peaks, painting the sky in a bruised purple, the ground started to vibrate. Tiny pebbles on the ramparts began to dance.
"They are coming," Hanyuan murmured, opening his eyes.
He stood up, the Roaring Thunder Spear appearing in his hand with a low hum. He didn't wait for the beasts to reach the wall. He leaped from the ten meter stone rampart, his robes fluttering in the Wind. He landed in the dirt with a silent grace, immediately walking toward the mouth of the pass.
Thrum... Thrum... Thrum...
The vibration grew into a rhythmic, deafening pounding. From the pitch black entrance of the valley, hundreds of glowing yellow and red eyes flickered to life, reflecting the dying sunlight.
"ROAR!"
The first wave erupted from the shadows like a tide of teeth and claws. It was a swarm of Tier 1 Shadow Blade Panthers and Iron Hide Wolves,hundreds of them, their bodies lean and hungry.
Hanyuan slowly walked forward, a thin, dangerous smile playing on his lips. He channeled His Qi into his Spear.
"Let's see what you can do," he whispered to his spear.
Suddenly, the air around Hanyuan turned oppressive. Wisps of Black Ice began to crawl across the ground from his boots, freezing the dirt into jagged, obsidian colored glass. Above him, the clear night sky seemed to flicker as arcs of Golden Lightning danced along the shaft of his spear.
The Shadow Blade Panthers, usually masters of the dark, recoiled in primal fear at the sight of the black frost. But the momentum of the pack was too great. The front line of Iron Hide Wolves lunged, their jaws wide.
Hanyuan didn't use a Spirit grade technique yet. He simply swept his spear in a basic horizontal arc.
CRACK-BOOM!
A wave of black frost and golden electricity erupted from the strike. The result was instantaneous devastation. The wolves were frozen solid into black statues and then shattered by a thunderclap of golden energy.
Ten beasts died in a single breath.
"Is that all?" Hanyuan chuckled, his obsidian eyes glowing with a reflected golden light.
He blurred into motion, the Thunderclap Steps leaving scorched, golden footprints on the black iced earth. He dove into the heart of the swarm, a lone silhouette of white silk amidst a sea of monsters.
Hanyuan took three quick, tactical steps back, his boots crunching on the obsidian iced soil. As the beasts lunged into the space he had just occupied, he swept the Roaring Thunder Spear out twice in a blinding horizontal blur.
BOOM!
A thunderous shockwave of golden lightning and black frost erupted. Dozens of beasts were vaporized or frozen into brittle fragments in an instant. He didn't pause, he twisted his waist with fluid grace and thrusted out three times. Each strike was a needle of golden light, killing three Iron Hide Wolves in less than a second.
As a Shadow Blade Panther leaped at his blind side, Hanyuan used the iron shod end of the spear to parry a descending claw with a sharp Clang! and finished the beast with a devastating roundhouse kick that shattered its skull.
SQUELCH!
A sharp pain flared in his lower body. A persistent wolf had managed to slip past his guard, leaving a deep, bleeding claw mark on his right leg. Hanyuan didn't flinch.
"Silver Crescent Horizon!"
He unleashed a magnificent, sweeping arc of Black Ice Qi. The obsidian colored wave expanded with terrifying speed, blasting the surrounding beasts into frozen mist. He immediately transitioned, his focus sharpening.
"Star-Point Piercer!"
He thrusted into the thickest part of the crowd. The spear tip became a beam of concentrated Black destruction, carving a straight path of death through the horde with overwhelming might.
"ROAR!"
A massive shadow blotted out the flickering lightning. A Stone-Maned Lion, radiating the heavy pressure of the Mortal Core Realm, erupted from the darkness. Its fur was like jagged granite, and its eyes burned with madness.
Hanyuan took five rapid steps back to catch a jagged breath, his core spinning frantically to cycle his energy.
"Blizzard's Hidden Fang!"
Hanyuan swept out. The first ray of frost Qi struck the Lion's armored front, shattering against its stone mane. The beast sneered, thinking the attack weak,but then the second, hidden ray of pitch black Qi erupted from the shadow of the first.
BOOM!
The invisible strike tore a huge, gruesome wound across the Lion's back. Enraged and dripping black blood, the Lion charged. Hanyuan twisted his waist at the last microsecond, deliberately enduring a deep gash on his shoulder to create an opening. As the Lion's claws passed through his flesh, Hanyuan drove the Roaring Thunder Spear straight through the beast's massive heart.
With a final, gurgling roar, the Mortal Core Lion collapsed, its granite like body turning into a cold, black statue.
Hanyuan panted, his breath coming in white plumes. As the adrenaline momentarily dipped, he saw the nightmare was far from over. From the valley's throat, an seemingly endless tide of red eyes continued to surge forward.
"This will be a long night," Hanyuan murmured, his voice raspy and cold.
His Spirit Root worked at a divine pace. His Core spun with such velocity that it hummed like a turbine, drawing in the ambient Qi to replenish the massive amounts he was spending. For three brutal hours, Hanyuan remained a lone beacon of gold and black in the slaughterhouse. He moved until his robes were no longer white, but a sodden, dark crimson.
Finally, the silence returned to the valley. The horizon was no longer moving. The field before the wall was a lake of flowing blood and a mountain of mangled corpses.
Cough!
Hanyuan bent over, coughing up a glob of dark, clotted blood. There was almost no part of his body that wasn't screaming in agony. Shallow cuts, deep gashes, and bruised muscles covered his frame,but the worst was his chest, where a Tier 1 beast had managed to clamp its jaws, leaving a gruesome, circular bite mark that reached near his ribs.
On trembling legs, Hanyuan sat down in the very center of the battlefield, surrounded by the silence of the dead. He pulled a High Grade Healing Pill from his storage ring and swallowed it.