High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

Chapter 418: Chapter 418: The Use of the Fire Source Stone

The dark red round stone suddenly lit up.

Not a gentle light, but a blindingly incandescent white.

The next second, a ring of incandescent white light spread out from the Fire Source Stone at its center.

The ring of light moved slowly, yet it carried an indescribable weight. Wherever it passed, the frost breath silently melted away and the Wind Blades shattered to pieces, as if they had never existed.

The two Priests’ faces paled in horror.

"Fall back!" the Azure Priest shrieked, his figure flashing backward in a hasty retreat.

The Black Priest wanted to retreat as well, but it was too late.

The incandescent white ring of light swept over his body.

There was no sound, no explosion.

The Black Priest froze. He looked down at his chest, where the Bone Armor was rapidly turning red, softening, and then... vaporizing.

It wasn’t just the Bone Armor; his skin, muscles, bones, and internal organs were all vaporizing before his very eyes.

"No—" The Black Priest let out a blood-curdling scream, but the sound was cut short after only half a second.

Three seconds later, only a wisp of smoke remained where he had stood.

The Azure Priest had already retreated over five hundred meters away. He watched the scene unfold, his entire body trembling.

’What is that power? What is that round stone? Who is this human?’

Countless questions churned in his mind, but the Azure Priest knew this was no time to think. He had to run. Right now. As far away as he could get.

He turned, pouring all his strength into his legs and sprinting frantically back the way he came.

But Xu Wuyi wasn’t going to let him escape.

The Fire Source Stone still hovered in the air, the incandescent light on its surface having dimmed considerably. That last attack had consumed nearly thirty percent of the stone’s Energy, but Xu Wuyi was satisfied with the result.

He raised his hand, aimed in the direction of the fleeing Azure Priest, and with a thought...

Eighty meters away, the Azure Priest’s charge came to a sudden halt.

He felt his legs go numb. Looking down, he saw that his legs had vanished below the knees. The stumps were as smooth as glass, with no blood; the wounds had been instantly cauterized by the intense heat.

"AHHH—!" The Azure Priest screamed as he collapsed, trying to drag himself forward with his hands.

But Xu Wuyi was already standing before him.

"Wait... I can give you intel... the Celestial Wolf Civilization’s plans..." the Azure Priest babbled, begging for his life. "Don’t kill me... Please..."

Xu Wuyi looked down at him, his gaze calm.

"I don’t need intel," he said. "I just need you dead."

As the words left his lips, the Azure Priest’s chest exploded. Dark golden Flame erupted from within, engulfing him completely.

Two seconds later, the flames dissipated, leaving behind another pile of ash.

Xu Wuyi retrieved the Fire Source Stone, sensing it still had about sixty percent of its Energy remaining.

He had studied the Fire Source Stone for a long time without managing to comprehend its secrets, but he had discovered that it could be used against enemies as an amplifier for his Power of Heart Image.

By borrowing the Fire Source Stone’s inherent power, he could amplify his Power of Heart Image, conserving his own strength. As for the stone’s own energy expenditure, even if fully depleted, it would recover in a day at most.

And the results were truly astonishing.

Two level-42 Priests, killed in an instant without even a chance to fight back.

This was the power of the Fire Source Stone—or rather, the Power of Heart Image, amplified by the stone to produce an overwhelming suppressive effect.

Though he didn’t know Grandmaster Yue’s intention in giving him the Fire Source Stone, Xu Wuyi had come to see it as a vessel for the Grandmaster’s will. Using it to slay the Werewolf Race was a tribute to him.

Xu Wuyi turned and walked back to Outpost Seven. In the control room, he found the coordinates and defensive layouts for the other two outposts. He studied them carefully, committing them to memory, before destroying all the storage devices.

Next, he would head to Outpost Eight and Outpost Nine.

’Since I’ve already started, I might as well finish the job.’

「One hour later.」

Outpost Eight, inside the main fortress building.

The last Werewolf War General collapsed in a pool of blood, a scorched hole where its heart had been. Xu Wuyi withdrew his spear and glanced at the bodies littering the floor.

This outpost had only one Priest, weaker than the pair at Outpost Seven—around level 40. Xu Wuyi hadn’t even used the Fire Source Stone, ending the battle in under three minutes with just his Power of Heart Image and Spear Technique.

He went to the control room and started sifting through the stored data.

Most of it was just ore mining records and supply manifests—nothing of value. But inside an encrypted folder, Xu Wuyi found an intelligence summary.

It detailed the Celestial Wolf Civilization’s troop movements on the Star Realm Battlefield over the past half-month.

"East Third District reinforced with two Priest squads... West Seventh District establishing a new forward base... High-energy ore vein discovered in South Ninth District, conflict ongoing..."

Xu Wuyi scanned the information quickly, committing it to memory.

He then left Outpost Eight and headed for his final target: Outpost Nine.

Outpost Nine was the largest of the three, with a garrison of over eighty and two Priests still stationed there. But Xu Wuyi no longer cared.

He had to finish this cleanup before reinforcements from the Celestial Wolf Civilization could arrive.

Beneath the dark red sky, Xu Wuyi’s figure sped across the scorched earth.

Behind him, two Werewolf outposts, now reduced to rubble, were burning.

...

Outpost Nine was situated in a hilly region, its fortress built halfway up a low mountain—a position that was easy to defend and difficult to assault.

By the time Xu Wuyi arrived, it was already three in the afternoon.

The dark red sky still hung low, but a little more pale light now filtered through the gaps in the clouds, making the landscape feel slightly less oppressive.

He made no attempt to conceal himself, walking straight up the mountain path.

The Werewolf Warriors on the fortress walls spotted him quickly, and the alarm blared once more. But this time, it was met not with the sound of warriors scrambling to assemble, but with a dead silence.

The Werewolves inside the fortress had already received news of the destruction of Outposts Seven and Eight via emergency communications. They knew who was coming: a god of slaughter.

"Activate all defensive runes!" a Priest’s roar echoed from deep within the fortress. "All War Generals, to the front wall! Archers, ready!"

Xu Wuyi heard the commands, but he didn’t break his stride.

The first volley of attacks came when he was a hundred meters from the fortress wall.

Dozens of arrows, each glowing with an eerie green Energy, flew from the top of the wall. They traced arcs through the air, precisely blanketing the ten-meter area around Xu Wuyi.

’A standard volley. It might have worked against an ordinary Innate Martial Artist.’

But Xu Wuyi merely raised his left hand and pressed it lightly against the air.

Every arrow froze in mid-air, then reversed direction, shooting back along their original paths even faster than before.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK—!

A series of screams erupted from the wall as more than a dozen Werewolf archers were pierced by their own arrows and tumbled from the ramparts.

"Ranged attacks are useless!" an enraged War General roared from behind the wall. "Open the gate! Melee team, on me!"

The heavy stone gate slowly ground open, and more than twenty War General Level Werewolves swarmed out.

They formed a crude triangular formation. At its point were five defensive War Generals wielding heavy shields, while those behind them carried an assortment of weapons: long spears, War Axes, and Curved Sabers.