Nine-Tailed Snow Fox Battle
Upon seeing the newcomer, the faces of the senior officers inside the cave all darkened.
Aso Mente is wary and vigilant, while Kliu is filled with hatred and anger.
Beside the burly man stood another man whose limbs were covered in mushrooms, which emitted a colorful, fluorescent glow, their roots faintly gray and rotting.
Upon seeing him, both Keliu and the sentries in the cave showed extreme disgust.
This is the owner of the mutated mushroom that can induce hallucinations.
The Snow Mountain tribe's previous harassment was all intended to exhaust the base's sentinels, bringing them to their lowest point of mental stability.
The mutated mushroom then induces hallucinations and invades the mind.
This caught the base completely off guard. Lieutenant General Klü issued the highest-level lockdown order to Eve, locking down the base lobby and control room, and then led the sentries in an emergency evacuation.
Enemies meeting are bound to be filled with hatred.
"How did you know about this place?" Minur pondered. Snow waterfalls could erase all traces; after a heavy snowfall, nothing would be left behind.
Brian, the chieftain of the Snow Mountain tribe, sneered: "I've always known about this place. I also know that this is your and our mother's secret base. I also know that you hid our mother here and helped her escape back then."
“Back then, I said nothing, I didn’t expose you; but today, you have betrayed our tribe once again.” Brian’s iron-grey eyes were cold.
As if struck by a memory of the past, Minur was stunned and speechless.
Minur and Klein are siblings, descendants of the old royal family of Black Tower.
"How many times do you think I'll tolerate you?" Brian raised his arm, which, in front of everyone's eyes, transformed into a sharp longsword, and attacked Minur.
The long sword slashed through the air with a sharp, long whistling sound.
Minur grew seven long tails covered in snow-white fur from behind, and after a burst of strength, he leaped to the top of the cave, dodging the fatal blow.
"Are you trying to kill me now, brother?" Minur sprouted a pair of fox ears on his head, with clearly visible pink membranes. "Is it because I let two guides go, or because I'm the one Mother favors!"
Minuel tore open the truth that the brother and sister had both concealed, each word like a sharp knife stabbing into Brian.
Brian's body visibly swelled, and his body began to mutate continuously. Even Sangye, who was far away, could feel the radiation energy emanating from the black crystal on his body, and she couldn't help but feel dizzy for a while.
"He's gone mad! How many black crystals did he consume?" Du Yuan stood in front of his two disciples, his eyes wide with disbelief.
The sentries behind Brian rushed toward the group in the cave.
Suddenly, green gas filled the cave, making people feel dizzy.
Some sentries with lower mental levels began to hallucinate again, as if they were seeing something beautiful, and they faced the swords and spears of the Snow Mountain Tribe.
The Gu Diao suddenly appeared, emitting a long, mournful cry like that of an infant. The sharp scream briefly brought the sentinels back to their senses.
"It's that mushroom man."
Aso Ment drew his Scimitar, aiming it directly at the mushroom-man who was releasing his mental energy with his eyes closed; the mushrooms on his body were rotting rapidly.
This action briefly drew Brian's attention back to himself, and he swung a heavy palm at Aso Ment, his hand being even longer than half of Aso Ment's body!
"Brian! What is your purpose in doing this?" Aso Ment demanded sharply, brandishing her scimitar and slicing through anyone who stood in her way, dodging the giant hand that was about to strike.
"Do you really think you can stand against the Empire with just the Snow Mountain Tribe? If it weren't for the fact that the mineral veins are useful to us, natives like you who have been stubbornly resisting would have been destroyed by the Empire's warships long ago!"
Brian's expression toward Aso Ment grew increasingly disgusted: "Stop talking to me like that! Why should I make peace with you? Black Tower Star originally belonged to us! If it weren't for that woman's mental manipulation, who would have signed the agreement? You're the ones who should get out!"
The tribe members that Brian brought with him all mutated under his radiation, and the scene was like hell, with incompatible human tissue and blood scattered everywhere.
However, it's not only the Snow Mountain Clan that is affected by radiation. Some base sentinels are already coughing up blood due to the radiation, and some are even showing signs of mutation. Their spiritual entities, rushing out to protect their masters, are directly affected by the radiation.
As the mushroom man's hallucinations intensified, the situation worsened.
Brian's body quickly grew to the top of the cave and continued to grow upwards, as if he wanted to break through the cave, causing falling rocks to continuously hit everyone.
Du Yuan erected a mental barrier to protect the sentinels, his eyes filled with heartache as he looked at the Snow Mountain Clan.
“Brian was originally an S-rank, and his spiritual body is the Black Crystal!” Du Yuan dodged around in the constantly collapsing cave. “He can draw energy from the Black Crystals throughout the entire snow mountain, especially from the Snow Pear Plain! His mutated spiritual level has long surpassed S-rank; this is a gap that cannot be bridged by simply increasing numbers!”
Du Yuan said anxiously, "Everyone will be affected by his radiation, run!"
Aso Ment didn't miss Du Yuan's words. She looked up and the Gu Diao, who was connected to her mentally, quickly understood what she wanted to do.
“Rong Cheng!” Aso Mente didn’t even turn his head.
Rong Cheng was invigorated.
A powerful spiritual force erupted from the Gu Diao's body, clashing repeatedly with Brian until the final blow—
The entire cave ceiling collapsed completely due to the collision of the two S-level mental powers, and a torrent of snow poured in.
The three-legged golden crow soared into the sky, melting all the snow. Rong Cheng lay on the golden crow's body, and the flames burned away the mushroom poison mist. Thanks to the neutralizing effect of the snow, the sentinels were unharmed.
"The support signal can't be sent out." Keliu led the sentry with limited mobility away from the cave entrance.
"We have to kill him." Aso Ment was dragged to the cave entrance by the Gu Diao and looked at the mushroom man who was preparing to exert his power a second time.
Only she could fight Brian; anyone else would just be cannon fodder.
Brian's transformation continued. Without the guide's measurement, everyone could sense that his mental strength had surpassed S-level, and an overwhelming pressure kept coming.
And Aso Ment, standing in front, was the only barrier.
She had been wounded in the previous exchange; blood was seeping from her abdominal wound, and due to the radiation, the wound, which healed through mental energy, was recovering extremely slowly. The overflowing blood had already stained her jeweled scabbard.
Despite the enemy's mental strength far surpassing hers, she remained unmoved, her expression resolute, her golden hair fluttering in the snow.
"General, what about you?" Even though Keliu knew that staying behind would only cause trouble, she couldn't help but ask, her voice quickly fading into the wind.
“Klui, I brought you from your hometown, and I’m going to send you back safely.” Aso Ment didn’t turn around. She said softly, “You’ve been with me for so many years, and you’ve never been home once. You still have family there. You can’t die here.”
"This is a military order." She turned to look at Kliu. "Return to base, mobilize all warships, and together with Brian, destroy the snow mountain!"
As for what will happen to Asso Ment, who stopped Brian, it's self-evident.
The three-legged golden crow grabbed one person with each foot and carried several people on its back as it rushed out of the cave.
Sangye and Du Yuan were thrown into the snow. Before Du Yuan could even get up, Sangye sensed her raising a mental barrier to protect everyone.
However, the development of mental power for guides and sentinels is not in the same direction. Without sufficient level suppression, guides cannot provide protection on the battlefield.
Sentinels can only rely on themselves and the mental preparation they receive before going into battle.
"Grab her!" Brian roared, his voice echoing through the snow-capped mountains. He was no longer recognizable as human. He extended a weapon-like tentacle, pointing it at Du Yuan.
Just as the mushroom-man hiding behind him was about to launch another attack, he felt a chill in his abdomen, and all his life force was rapidly draining away.
The mushroom-man, who could only act on instinct after being irradiated, paused for a moment before looking down.
Minur stood behind him, pulled a long knife from Brian's body, and stabbed the mushroom man through.
“Young Miss…” The mushroom man was still stunned, and he addressed Minur as before.
But after a while, he smiled and said, "That's good too. I'm finally free."
After undergoing mutations time and again, he knew long ago that he could never revert back to his original form. Death would be a relief.
Looking around at the tribesmen, they all resembled wild beasts, bearing no resemblance to their former selves.
Is this really the right way?
Minur couldn't make any expression.
"You bitch! How dare you!" Brian roared in fury.
Minur looked at him without fear: "You considered your mother a lowly person back then, and I am now, aren't I?"
"Why do you portray yourself as so noble? Don't you want to stop your mother? You can't. You have no way to resist the mental mark your mother has placed on you."
"You've always been jealous of me because my mother loved me the most, because I inherited her spirit. So you couldn't stop my mother, but you did stop me from leaving with her."
“But Brian, I wasn’t stopped by you.” The huge shadow behind Minur slowly solidified into a beautiful nine-tailed snow fox. “I chose not to leave. This is my homeland, and my tribe. I will not let you destroy the entire Snow Mountain Tribe.”
Her mental strength gradually increased until she could compete with Aso Ment and Brian on the field, until Rong Cheng exclaimed, "She didn't show this kind of mental strength when we caught her!"
The nine-tailed snow fox is intelligent and cunning, and can predict the future to a limited extent.
Countless thoughts flashed through Sangye's mind, but ultimately settled on the guidance and hints of those Minur.
She is a woman who is frighteningly intelligent.
Klü led the sentries in retreat, but Brian was determined not to let them take Du Yuan away.
Aso Mente and Minur moved at the same time.
As Kuwano and the base sentries retreated, they distributed the refueling packages they had brought. Each rice ball had to be eaten in two bites after being opened, otherwise it would freeze into an ice block instantly.
Ke Liu walked along, tears streaming down his face.
Sangye looked back. The clash of mental energy on the plain was like a bomb exploding, and Brian's bursts of mental energy grew stronger with each attack.
After arriving at the plains, he absorbed the energy of the black crystal, which allowed him to make significant breakthroughs in a short period of time.
The gap between Class A and Class S can be bridged in a few hundred years, but the difference between Class S and Class S is as vast as the distance between dozens of galaxies, seemingly insurmountable.
After reaching S-rank, every advancement becomes extremely difficult.
If Brian continues to improve relentlessly, even for a short period of time, Aso Ment and Minuel combined will not be his match.
And just as Kuwano had predicted, the two gradually became outmatched.
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