Su Chen wanted to speak, but found his throat was blocked by something, unable to make a sound. He wanted to reach out and grab them, but his hand passed right through their bodies, grasping at empty air.
"We will always be watching over you," the three said in unison. "The heroic spirits are immortal; our guardianship will never cease."
Then, the golden light dissipated, and the three vanished.
Su Chen snapped his eyes open, finding himself lying inside the tent with Ares sitting beside him, looking at him with a face full of concern.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Ares asked.
Su Chen shook his head, sat up, and rubbed his eyes. "Not a nightmare. A beautiful dream."
"A beautiful dream?" Ares looked bewildered. "Seeing you covered in sweat, I thought you were having a nightmare."
"It truly was a beautiful dream," Su Chen said softly. "Because I dreamed of them."
Ares fell silent for a moment before asking, "What did they say?"
"They told me to keep moving forward." Su Chen stood up, walked to the tent entrance, pushed aside the canvas flaps, and looked out at the faintly visible north through the swirling blizzard. "They told me not to give up."
"Then we won't give up." Ares stepped up beside Su Chen, clenching his fists. "Let's go, Strategist. Dawn is breaking; it's time to set out."
Su Chen nodded, then turned to the students in the tent and called out, "Wake up! Pack your things, we're moving out!"
The students woke up one after another, quickly packed their gear, and the thirty-three of them stepped back onto the snow, marching northward.
The blizzard grew fiercer and visibility worsened, but they did not stop, for they knew that what they needed to protect lay ahead.
...
The wind and snow howled, the world a vast expanse of white.
The team of thirty-three trudged arduously across the ice fields of the Extreme North, every step sinking half a foot into the deep snow. The fierce winds carried ice crystals that lashed against their faces like slicing knives. Yet no one halted, and no one retreated. Their eyes were resolute, their strides steady, as if what awaited them ahead was not peril, but a sacred mission.
Su Chen walked at the very front of the column, his soul power perception fully unfurled. Not a single movement within a three-li radius could escape his detection. Though the Extreme North was desolate, it was not a dead zone. A vast number of ice-attribute soul beasts lived here, including terrifying existences with ten-thousand or even hundred-thousand-year cultivations. If they provoked them, their mission could end before it even began.
After trekking for about two hours, Su Chen suddenly stopped and raised his right hand.
"Halt."
The thirty men halted simultaneously, their movements perfectly synchronized without a single extraneous sound. This was the foundational training of the Heroic Spirits Academy—absolute obedience to orders, absolute silence.
"There's movement up ahead," Su Chen said in a low voice, his gaze locked on the north. "People. More than one."
Ares quickly stepped to Su Chen's side. His Martial Soul had already been released, the massive phantom of a Thunder Wolf flickering behind him. As the combat instructor of the Heroic Spirits Academy, Ares' soul power had reached the level of a Level 95 Titled Douluo, making him the strongest fighter in the squad besides Su Chen.
"How many?" Ares asked.
"About twenty, moving in our direction." Su Chen's perception spread out seamlessly like flowing mercury. "Their soul power fluctuations are strange... they don't feel like normal Soul Masters."
"Strange how?"
Su Chen's brows furrowed tightly, seemingly trying to discern that unsettling feeling: "There's a... hollow sensation in their soul power. It's as if a part of their souls has been devoured by something, leaving behind a void. I've seen this fluctuation before. It's the Void Cult."
Hearing the words "Void Cult," the students' expressions all turned grave. But they felt no fear; instead, an eager itch to act welled up within them. Chen Hao in particular had already placed his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist. His Sword of Light Martial Soul was restless within his body, as if sensing its master's fighting spirit.
"Do not act impulsively." Su Chen looked back at the students, his gaze lingering on Chen Hao for an extra moment. "Our mission is to investigate, not to fight. Avoid them if we can."
"But Strategist..." a student couldn't help but say.
"No buts." Su Chen's tone allowed no argument. "That is an order."
Though unwilling, the students obeyed the command. The thirty-three quickly changed direction, moving southeast in an attempt to bypass the Void Cult patrol.
But fate didn't seem to want them to pass so easily.
Less than fifteen minutes after they changed course, Su Chen's perception caught another anomaly—not just one patrol, but three, encircling them from three different directions.
"We've been spotted." A trace of helplessness lingered in Su Chen's voice, but it was mostly overshadowed by calmness. "They knew we were coming all along."
Ares clenched his fists, and the soul power of his Thunder Wolf Martial Soul began to surge across his skin, emitting crackling blue arcs of electricity. "Then we fight."
Su Chen quickly analyzed the situation. Three patrols, roughly twenty people each, totaling about sixty. Judging from the soul power fluctuations, their strengths were uneven; most were between the Soul Ancestor and Soul King ranks, but three fluctuations were exceptionally powerful—at least at the Soul Douluo level, possibly even Titled Douluos.
"Sixty against thirty-three, and they have three powerhouses," Su Chen rapidly concluded. "A head-on clash isn't wise."
"Strategist, you mean..." Ares looked at Su Chen.
"I'll hold off those three powerhouses. You take the students and handle the rest," Su Chen said. "Remember, don't get bogged down in the fight. Repel them and immediately retreat north, entering the base. Our primary objective for this trip is to investigate the situation inside the base, not to wipe out these patrols."
"You're taking on three alone?" Ares frowned. "That's too risky."
Su Chen smiled faintly, a smile that carried the accumulation and confidence of a century: "Do you think I spent the last hundred years doing nothing?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Su Chen's figure vanished from where he stood. The very next instant, his voice rang out from the north, clearly reaching everyone's ears: "Move!"
Ares took a deep breath, turned to the thirty-one students, and shouted, "Stay close to me, don't fall behind!"
The thirty-one answered in unison, simultaneously releasing their Martial Souls. In an instant, the light of Martial Souls flickered across the ice plains—fire, lightning, frost, light, darkness—a myriad of colors intertwining into a magnificent tapestry.
Chen Hao marched at the very front of the squad, his Sword of Light already in hand, a pale golden radiance flowing along the blade. His heart was racing, not out of fear, but out of excitement. He had fantasized about this scene countless times in his dreams—wielding the Sword of Light, fighting for the sake of protection. Now, his dream was about to come true.
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