High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

Chapter 390: Chapter 390: Ambush

Half an hour later, Mining Area Two appeared in their sights.

The mining area was brightly lit, but the guards were clearly more lax than during the day.

The Wolfman War General on the watchtower was yawning. Below, warriors dozed around a bonfire. The slaves were locked in crude shacks, with only the overseers making occasional patrols.

Four in the morning—the time when one’s biological clock is at its lowest ebb.

Xu Wuyi and Hong Nianyi exchanged a look and split up.

Xu Wuyi circled around to the east side.

His figure flickered between the shadows, each movement precisely avoiding the patrols’ lines of sight.

The tyrannical physique granted by the Hundred Refinements Melting Furnace allowed him to move quickly and quietly through the complex terrain.

Thirty seconds later, he reached the base of the first watchtower on the east side.

The tower was fifteen meters tall with a crude wooden structure. On the platform at the top, a Wolfman War General was nodding off, cradling a long spear.

Xu Wuyi didn’t climb the tower.

He took an auxiliary detonation sphere from his pack and pressed it against a support pillar at the tower’s base. The sphere’s suction device activated, silently fixing it to the wood.

After setting the delay, he turned to the next target.

There were two mining machines on the east side, parked at the edge of the pit. Xu Wuyi attached spheres to the machines’ chassis and driveshafts, choosing concealed spots where the explosions would destroy key structures.

The entire process took less than two minutes.

He looked toward the pile of raw ore in the center of the mining area.

Hong Nianyi was already there.

She was even faster. By the time Xu Wuyi had planted the last sphere, she had already placed the solvent canister on top of the ore pile and was setting the detonation timer.

Xu Wuyi quickly moved closer to stand guard.

Hong Nianyi’s fingers moved swiftly over the pressure valve. A countdown began to tick down on the screen: 180, 179, 178...

"Done," she said in a low voice, taking two steps back.

The two of them retreated simultaneously, sprinting toward their planned escape route.

As they passed the coarse screening platform on the west side, Hong Nianyi casually tossed the last two spheres under the conveyor belt’s bearings and the sorting machine. The spheres automatically adhered, and their countdowns synchronized and started.

Ten seconds later, they rushed out of the mining area’s perimeter and took cover behind a rocky hill three hundred meters away.

Xu Wuyi checked the time on his personal terminal.

4:03 a.m.

One minute to go.

He brought up the comms interface. Chen Yuan’s status showed "Setup complete," and Lin Jue replied, "Monitoring ready."

Everything was going smoothly.

Thirty seconds.

Xu Wuyi could hear his own heartbeat, steady and strong. Beside him, Hong Nianyi’s breathing was long and even, her gaze fixed on the mining area.

Ten seconds.

Five, four, three, two, one—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

It wasn’t a single great bang, but a continuous series of explosions.

Flashes of light erupted simultaneously from all over Mining Area Two.

The base of the eastern watchtower was blown apart, and the entire structure tilted and collapsed, sending the Wolfman War General on top falling with a scream. Flames shot out from the mining machines’ chassis, their driveshafts twisting and snapping.

The conveyor belt on the west side was blasted into several pieces, and the sorting machine belched thick smoke.

And at the very center, the pile of raw ore—

PFFT!

A muffled pop.

The solvent canister burst open, but instead of flames, a large cloud of dark green mist erupted. The mist spread rapidly, blanketing the entire ore pile like a living creature before expanding outward.

"Enemy attack—!"

The Werewolf guards finally reacted, their shrill howls tearing through the night sky.

But it was too late.

The moment the dark green mist touched the ore, a web of black lines instantly appeared on the dark red surface of the stones, their luster rapidly dimming.

Like metal doused in strong acid, it was "rotting" at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Xu Wuyi saw several Werewolf Warriors near the ore pile inhale the mist. They immediately began coughing violently, an unnatural bluish-black color spreading across their skin.

"Let’s go."

Hong Nianyi barked, and the two of them turned and sprinted at full speed toward the rift valley.

On his personal terminal, a short message arrived from Chen Yuan: "Mining Area One complete. We’ve evacuated."

The first step of the mission was a success.

...

The rift valley was located between Mining Area One and Mining Area Two. It was a naturally formed narrow canyon, about two kilometers long and less than a hundred meters at its widest point, flanked by steep rock walls.

This was the only path the Priests could take from the base to the two mining areas, and also the best place for an ambush.

When Xu Wuyi and Hong Nianyi arrived, Chen Yuan and Lin Jue were already there. You Sicheng had arrived ten minutes before them and was setting up an observation point high up in the middle of the canyon.

"What’s the situation?" Hong Nianyi asked.

Chen Yuan pointed toward the canyon entrance. "Fifteen minutes ago, two teams were dispatched from the direction of the base. One is heading to Mining Area One, led by a Priest with eight War Generals. The other is heading to Mining Area Two, also led by a Priest, with ten War Generals—just as we predicted, they split up."

"Which Priest is coming to Mining Area Two?" Xu Wuyi asked.

"Based on the Energy signature, it’s the one who came to investigate the last explosion," Lin Jue said, pulling up the data. "Its movement speed is faster than last time. It’s clearly furious."

You Sicheng slid down the rock wall, landing silently. "The middle of the canyon is the narrowest point, only sixty meters wide, with the walls on both sides eighty meters high. I’ve already set up six shockwave-rune traps on the walls. When detonated, they can trigger localized rockslides to block off the retreat path."

He looked at Hong Nianyi. "When do we make our move?"

Hong Nianyi thought for a moment. "Wait until the Priest enters the middle of the canyon, when it has no path of retreat, forward or back. Xu Wuyi and I will engage it head-on. Chen Yuan will provide interference with ranged attacks. Lin Jue will detonate the traps. And Old You... you’ll be responsible for the final blow."

She looked at You Sicheng. "Your left-handed blade technique... can you still use ’Duan Yue’?"

You Sicheng raised his left hand, his five fingers slowly curling into a fist.

The hand was steady, unnaturally so for a sixty-two-year-old man.

"Once," he said. "My Qi and Blood are only enough to support one strike. After that one strike, either it dies, or I’m crippled."

Hong Nianyi nodded. "Then one strike it is."

The five of them quickly moved into position.

Xu Wuyi and Hong Nianyi hid on a protruding rock platform halfway up the eastern wall in the middle of the canyon. The spot offered a wide, open view overlooking the entire canyon, about forty meters above the canyon floor.

Chen Yuan was in the corresponding position on the western wall. He had already taken down the longbow from his back, his Quiver stuck in the ground beside him. The bow was a specially made composite Star Energy bow, and the arrowheads were coated with Breaking Gang runes, designed specifically to pierce Protective Gang Qi.

Lin Jue was situated even higher up. Her workstation was set up in a rock crevice, its screen displaying the Energy monitoring within the canyon and the status of the traps. Her fingers hovered over the detonation key, her eyes focused.

You Sicheng did not hide.

He simply stood in the middle of the canyon, right at the center of the canyon floor.

He leaned on a seemingly ordinary wooden staff, his empty right sleeve swaying gently in the wind. The military-issue short blade hung at his left hip. His eyes were closed, as if he were waiting for something, or perhaps reminiscing about something.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Five minutes later, the sound of chaotic footsteps and wolf howls drifted from the canyon entrance.

’They’re here.’

Xu Wuyi gripped his long spear, his Spirit sinking into his sea of consciousness. The Dark Gold Mountain Body stood majestically within it, and the Golden Crow Illusion spread its wings, Flames flowing between its feathers.