Ash flowed through his fingers, mixing with the cold sweat and mud in his palm, leaving behind only a handful of powder devoid of any spiritual energy.

Su Ming stared at the now-useless "Earth Escape Talisman" in his hand, his pupils contracting slightly.

There was no anger, nor that hysterical feeling of being toyed with by fate. He simply let go with extreme calmness, allowing the powder worth five mid-grade spirit stones to be scattered by the blood-scented night wind.

A rib was broken, probably the fourth one on the left side. The broken end stabbed painfully into his lung, making every breath agonizing.

Su Ming pushed against the ground, trying to stand up.

As soon as he put force into his knees, a sweet taste surged in his throat. A mouthful of dark red, stagnant blood choked out, splattering onto the rubble-strewn ruins.

He wiped the corner of his mouth roughly and forcefully.

The world around him was a chaotic mix of dark gold and blood red.

The dust raised by the explosion hadn't settled yet, but that teeth-grating "rustling" sound already filled his ears.

Leaning against a broken section of stone wall, Su Ming activated the Aura Concealment Art. Using the shadow as cover, he quickly adjusted his breathing rhythm.

The Like Water Art struggled to circulate within his body. Spiritual energy flowed like a tiny stream, wrapping around the broken rib, forcibly holding the nearly dislocated bone in place.

"Master, our retreat route... is cut off."

"If it's cut off, we need to think of another way."

Lin Yu's Soul Body fluctuated violently within the Xuantian ring. His divine sense probed the surroundings but was suppressed by countless insectoid auras to within a ten-zhang radius.

Su Ming withdrew his gaze, looking down at his chest.

There, he had originally carried his most crucial possession—the main control formation plate of the "Spirit Response Spider Web."

Now, this formation plate, crafted with immense effort using the finest Star Pattern Steel, was covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

The spirit stone at its core had also grown dim and murky, leaving only an extremely faint, ghostly blue speck of light stubbornly flickering deep within the cracks.

That was the last remaining warmth of the Bing-7 Defense Zone.

"Master, although the earth energy is chaotic, the frequency of the spiritual energy remains."

Su Ming's fingers gently traced the broken lines on the formation plate. "My Spiderweb nodes don't rely on earth veins; they only borrow earth energy."

Su Ming suddenly bit down hard on the tip of his tongue.

Intense pain stimulated his nerves. A surge of pure heart's blood instantly flooded his mouth.

This wasn't ordinary blood. It was the condensed essence of a cultivator's vitality, spirit, and energy.

"Pfft!"

Su Ming opened his mouth and forcefully sprayed this mist of blood, tinged with a faint golden luster, onto the shattered main formation plate.

The moment the blood made contact with the plate, it emitted a light "hiss," like water dripping into boiling oil.

The previously broken and dimmed runic patterns, nourished by the essence blood, began to writhe eerily. Fine crimson threads extended from the broken ends, forcibly bridging the gaps.

"Madman!" Lin Yu cursed within the Consciousness Sea. "This is blood sacrifice! This thing will drain your spiritual energy dry! If it backfires, you won't even have the strength to hold a sword!"

"Better than waiting to die."

Su Ming's face was as pale as paper, but his eyes shone frighteningly bright.

His ten fingers moved with incredible speed, pulling out strands of pale blue water spiritual energy threads from his fingertips. These threads followed the crimson patterns, burrowing into the core of the formation plate.

"Master, help me modify the formation lines!"

Lin Yu fell silent for an instant.

The next moment, a vast and pure surge of soul power poured out from the Xuantian ring.

"Shift from the Li Position to the Qian Position. Sever the Kan water cycle. Connect directly to the Li fire rush..."

Lin Yu's coordination was astonishingly fast. "Block the loop at the third node! Take the backup channel! Hurry! Those bugs over there are looking this way!"

Outside the ruins, several dark gold hunter insects responsible for vigilance seemed to detect the spiritual energy fluctuation here.

They halted, their head antennae vibrating violently. The red light in their compound eyes intensified as they lunged fiercely toward the stone wall.

A foul wind hit his face.

Su Ming didn't even lift his head, pouring all his concentration into the formation plate in his hands.

"Remnant spirits unextinguished, the beacon fires shall burn."

He murmured softly, as if reciting an ancient incantation or giving himself a final command.

"Rise—!"

With this low shout, Su Ming poured the remaining fifty percent of his spiritual energy within his body, without any reservation, into that faint ghostly blue speck at the core of the formation plate.

Hum—!

The shattered formation plate emitted a groan of unbearable strain, then abruptly exploded.

There were no fragments flying everywhere.

All the material, all the spiritual energy, along with the mouthful of essence blood Su Ming had sprayed on it, collapsed into a singular point in that instant.

Immediately after.

A pillar of light, as thick as a bucket, blue tinged with red, shot up into the sky from Su Ming's embrace!

It tore through the sky full of dust, pierced the dark night sky, and shot straight toward the heavens with a desperate and resolute shriek.

This light pillar had no real killing power.

The hunter insects charging over were merely staggered slightly when swept by the light, not injured.

Yet, they retreated in terror as if encountering a natural predator, emitting sharp, piercing shrieks from their mouths.

Because this light was too bright.

Blindingly bright, brazenly bright, bright as if it had just slapped despair hard across the face in this pitch-black hell.

Simultaneously.

The moment this main light pillar rose.

As if triggered by a signal, or like sleeping soldiers hearing the assembly call.

Bing-6, Bing-8, Bing-9... even the more distant Yi-character Camp area.

In the ruins buried underground, in the frozen soil, even in corners covered by insect corpses.

One by one, surviving "Spirit Response Spider Web" nodes were forcibly awakened by this powerful pulse from the main formation plate.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Shrill sounds of tearing through the air rose one after another.

One, two, ten...

Sparse and scattered, some bright, some dim, some even crooked.

But at this moment, dozens of light pillars of the same design, glowing with a ghostly blue luster, struggled to ignite from this deathly silent ruin.

They were like sparks on a desolate plain. Though weak, they echoed each other, forcibly illuminating a stretch of bleak light within this Iron Wall Pass swallowed by darkness.

This wasn't a warning.

This was a beacon fire.

A message to all who still lived—there are still people here who haven't been completely wiped out!

"This just got lively."

Lin Yu watched the light pillars rising across the sky, his tone carrying a complex flavor. "Disciple, you've just put yourself on a spit over the fire. With this light shining, every bug within ten li will see you as a target."

Su Ming didn't speak.

He slowly straightened his body, his blood-stained blue robe flapping sharply in the night wind.

On his originally delicate face, one side was now illuminated by the ghostly blue light pillar, the other half hidden in dark shadow, exuding a heart-palpitating sternness.

With one hand, he pressed against the formation plate core, now completely shattered and reduced to a cluster of light and shadow.

With his other hand, extremely slowly yet with unwavering determination, he grasped the longsword at his waist.

Clang.

The longsword left its sheath, its cold light gleaming sharply.

Su Ming raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the dark gold outlines beginning to stir restlessly in the surrounding darkness, converging toward his position.

The anxiety from before was gone from his eyes, replaced by a calm acceptance—since there was no path of retreat left, he might as well blow the path to pieces.

"Master, you're right. Running away is impossible."

The corner of Su Ming's mouth lifted slightly, forming a bloody curve.

"Next, we wait for people."

He paused, the tip of his sword pointing diagonally at the ground, a drop of blood sliding down the blood groove.

"Or... wait for death."