Chapter 1784 - 456: Lonely Flame, Cang Xuan of Sword Dao_5

Chapter 1784: Chapter 456: Lonely Flame, Cang Xuan of Sword Dao_5

These memories together formed what he understood as the "Dream Weaving Civilization."

Beyond its rapidly advancing technology, there was warmth and inheritance.

The sword he practiced was also for inheritance and protection.

But when the civilization that bears all this is itself on the brink of annihilation, what meaning does individual perseverance still have.

When the skin is gone, where can the hair cling.

What he pursued had never been the so?called Peak of the Sword Dao.

The sword he learned was a continuation of the ancestral culture that had been passed down to his generation.

At this moment, Cang Xuan made his decision.

He took one last look at the place he had been living in, then resolutely pushed open the door, striding into the crowd outside the window, moving against the flow toward the conscription square.

From here on, the battlefield would be where the Sword Dao he had learned would find its final resting place.

The recruitment office was in utter Chaos; when Cang Xuan reported "Martial Arts System," the busy registrar didn’t even look up, just mechanically entered his data and casually assigned him a number.

No ability test, no Combat Power assessment.

No one cared any longer about the specific ability of these conscripts from non?mainstream systems.

Cang Xuan, together with tens of thousands of other conscripts from various non?mainstream systems, was hastily formed into a newly established unit: the "Seventy?Third Independent Tactical Response Detachment."

But Cang Xuan knew full well this was nothing but a mixed force cobbled together from miscellaneous systems.

The detachment was a motley assortment.

There were primitive Shamans who studied herbs and totems, poets who studied Sound Law, craftsmen adept with mechanisms and traps, and many others like him, inheritors cultivating various outdated lineages.

Their only common point was that their Strength systems could not be effectively integrated into the existing War System.

Even the higher?ups had no idea how to use them; although they were already enlisted, they were only assigned Support work in logistics.

They were ordered to stand by behind the defensive line.

The Equipment issued to them was the most rudimentary standard?issue Energy Armor.

The detachment’s acting Commander was a Spiritual Ability System officer who had been forced off the front line due to injuries; one of his arms had been corroded by Energy and was wrapped in suppressive bandages, his eyes filled with exhaustion and numbness.

Facing this ragtag force, he even skipped the most basic pre?battle address, merely rasping out:

"We will not directly participate in the war... Our duty is transport work; basically, there will be no Life?threatening danger."

Cang Xuan said nothing; he found a relatively An Jing corner and slowly wiped the Iron Sword in his hand.

Waiting for the moment when the sharp blade would leave its sheath.

That day, the logistics unit Cang Xuan belonged to received an urgent distress signal from the front line:

"All non?combat units, advance immediately to Sector 142."

"73rd Independent Engineering Team, the Spiritual Energy repair unit in Sector C7 has been contaminated by Erosion Light Clan Energy, transport the backup unit there immediately, at once!"

In the face of the order, the team Cang Xuan was in did not hesitate; they decisively set off, escorting the heavy backup unit.

But just as they were passing through a stretch of building ruins constantly collapsing under repeated Energy impacts, the light ahead was swallowed by an invisible Darkness, abruptly dimming; then countless twisted silhouettes surfaced out of the shadows.

Their forms seemed composed of solidified Darkness—the Nightmare of the Dream Weaving Clan: the Erosion Light Clan.

Clearly, they had been drawn here by the fresh breath of Life.

"It’s Erosion Light Clan, evade, quick, evade!" the injured Spiritual Energy officer shouted hoarsely; the Spiritual Energy he had left had just flared when, like a dying candle in the wind, it was devoured by that dense Dark Domain.

A Shaman began Chanting an ancient prayer, attempting Summoning of the Spirit of Nature, but that Life?filled fluctuation touched the Darkness wreathing the Erosion Light Clan and was instead like a mud bull entering the sea, completely assimilated.

A craftsman hurled a high?explosive mechanism, which vanished into the Darkness without stirring even a ripple.

Despair twined around everyone’s heart like a cold vine.

All of their Resistance methods were utterly meaningless before the powerful combat species of the Erosion Light Clan.

Just then, a figure stepped out from among them.

It was Cang Xuan.

He gripped the Iron Sword, his steps steady, and walked toward the dense Darkness that was devouring the light.

The leading Erosion Light Clan entity sensed something unusual in this "prey"; the Darkness around it surged violently, transforming into a Surge of shadow that swallowed all in its path, sweeping toward Cang Xuan.

Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

All they saw was Cang Xuan’s wrist lift slightly, the Iron Sword rising from low to high with a light flick.

Block.

The dark Surge, enough to swallow Spiritual Energy and bring material to Annihilation, hit the sword’s edge—and at that instant, as if colliding with an invisible wall, it suddenly stalled.

The next second, Cang Xuan’s wrist turned, and the Iron Sword thrust forward along its motion.

Strike.

It was still a plain, unremarkable stab.

Where the tip of the sword pointed, the dense Darkness seemed forcibly "dispersed" by some invisible force.

Rank upon rank of Erosion Light Clan warriors melted in an instant like accumulated snow beneath a blazing sun.

Silently, without a trace, they turned to nothingness.

From first motion to finish took no more than a heartbeat.

Cang Xuan slowly sheathed the sword, the faint gold flowing along the Iron Sword quietly fading.

He stood where he was, his breathing as calm as before.

The entire transport squad, however, fell into Deathly Silence.

Everyone stood frozen like stone statues, their gaze locked on the figure standing with sword in hand.

It was beyond imagining that the terrifying Erosion Light Clan—who brought them despair and drove an advanced civilization into continual retreat—

Had just been swept away by an Iron Sword that looked utterly ordinary, as easily as a horsetail whisk brushing off dust, breeze?light and cloud?calm... erased?

After the Deathly Silence came the harsh, post?calamity gasps for breath.

Countless looks, laden with shock, reverence, and disbelief, converged on Cang Xuan.

Once the transport mission was completed.

Cang Xuan was quickly taken away from the 73rd Detachment alone and brought into an underground base guarded by layers of Spiritual Runes.

Cang Xuan was no longer facing numb officers, but a group of Dream Weaving Clan high?level leaders and research scholars, their eyes Sharp and their auras powerful.

Here, he underwent comprehensive testing.

Yet no matter how the scanning instruments’ lights swept back and forth across him, they could never lock onto the Source of the Strength within him.

His physical data was repeatedly analyzed; the results showed that although his body had been somewhat optimized for survival in this High Spiritual Energy World—

His muscle density, bone strength, cell activity, and other indices, compared with Spiritual Ability Users or Genetic Warriors of the same age, could only be described as mediocre.

This clearly did not match the Physical fitness a person capable of instantly destroying an Erosion Light Clan combat unit ought to possess.

What puzzled the researchers even more was that, in simulated combat, the monitoring devices clearly recorded that when Cang Xuan swung his sword, the surrounding Space energy field did undergo a violent disturbance, forming a unique faint?gold force field.

Yet within Cang Xuan himself there was no sign of any Energy consumption.

It was as if the Iron Sword were merely a fuse, igniting some kind of Strength that existed outside of him, something they could not comprehend.

"What is the Source of your Strength? Some unknown variant of Spiritual Energy?" a senior scholar could not help asking Cang Xuan, his tone full of frustration.

Cang Xuan was silent for a moment, then gave an answer that left everyone even more confused:

"Perhaps it is... intent."

Intent?

This vague, ethereal concept had no place in the Dream Weaving Clan’s research system; it simply could not be subjected to Quantification or understanding.

They tried all sorts of stimuli on other experimental subjects, attempting to trigger or measure the "intent" Cang Xuan spoke of, but gained nothing.

In the end, the high?level gave their conclusion: manifestation of Strength is special; cannot be classified under any existing system; mechanism of action unknown; Energy consumption mode unknown; does not possess value for mass application; but its practical combat effectiveness has been verified and shows significant lethality against Erosion Light Clan. Recommendation: effective immediately, transfer to Broken Blade Assault Corps to participate directly in frontline combat.

From this point, Cang Xuan formally stepped onto the brutal front?line battlefield.