Free Web NovelChapter 219: Chapter 212: Star Bloodline
"Brother... is it really you?"
Li Yao’s voice was still trembling. His dirt-caked hand hovered in mid-air, wanting to touch him but not daring to.
Ian stepped forward and used a relatively clean part of his sleeve to wipe the grime from the boy’s face.
"It’s me." His voice was quiet, but every word was steady.
The surrounding crowd was still reeling from the scene that had just unfolded.
Three Rot Beetles had been pinned to the ground in the blink of an eye by the young man who had appeared out of nowhere.
The silver light on the tip of his sword had yet to fade completely, and the acrid, scorched stench of the beetles’ bodily fluids hung in the air.
"Li Yao, you know him?"
Chen Scarface walked over, blade in hand. The scar on his face looked particularly sinister under the sky’s light.
His gaze swept back and forth between Ian and Li Yao before finally landing on the Iron Sword in Ian’s hand, which was still dripping with black blood.
The silver glow on the sword’s blade was slowly fading, but a residual fluctuation remained.
That was Starlight Energy, and it was controlled with extreme finesse—something no ordinary civilian’s Awakening could achieve.
’Who would’ve thought? A Star Bloodline.’
"He’s my brother, Li Xing."
Li Yao shuffled forward, instinctively shielding Ian with his body.
"Our family... we were in Maple City before this."
"Maple City?" Chen Scarface narrowed his eyes. "The city fell last night. Not many managed to escape alive."
He took a step forward, his leather boot crushing the upper half of a beetle’s Shell on the ground with a sharp "CRUNCH."
"Kid, that Starlight Attraction technique you just used... who taught you that?"
The air instantly grew tense.
A few Guards slowly closed in, their hands resting on the hilts of their blades.
Someone in the crowd shrank back, but more people craned their necks to watch.
In this godforsaken place, one more fighter meant a better chance of survival for everyone.
Ian slowly stood up, pulling Li Yao behind him.
He could clearly sense that Chen Scarface’s aura wasn’t particularly strong. He was probably also at the Awakening Late Stage, just a bit more seasoned than him.
’If it came to a fight, I could kill him in a few moves.’
"Figured it out myself," he said, his voice calm and emotionless.
"You have to know a thing or two to survive while you’re on the run."
He had briefly noted earlier that this group of refugees still had some food and supplies.
Chen Scarface stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly grinned, revealing a set of blackened teeth.
"Alright, you’ve got skills." He slapped the scabbard at his waist.
"Since you’re family, that makes things easier. Our group is heading to Blue Cave Mountain.
The nearest human settlement is another two hundred li to the west. We’re short on people for the journey, especially capable fighters like you."
He paused, his tone shifting.
"But the group has its rules. Newcomers have to prove they’re useful."
Ian looked at him without replying. ’Just a petty trick to make me show my hand.’
Chen Scarface raised a hand and pointed to the rocky cave from before.
"There might still be Rot Beetle eggs in there, or some other nasty things.
You go scout it out and clear it. If you can find a water source... the credit will be yours."
A few low murmurs rose from the crowd.
"That cave almost got Li Yao killed just now..."
"Brother Chen is testing him."
"What if there’s something big in there..."
Ian’s gaze grew cold, a trace of contempt in his eyes.
"Are you telling me what to do?"
’If it weren’t so hard to find supplies in the Wilderness, I would’ve killed him with a single strike just now.’
Chen Scarface’s expression changed. He was about to erupt in anger, but then he remembered Ian’s sharp and deadly skills.
"HUFF!" He took a deep breath. "I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just thinking about everyone’s safety."
"Hmph!" Ian sneered, not bothering to hide his disdain.
"I have an idea, too. Why don’t we go down and take a look together? Just the two of us. How about it?"
Chen Scarface’s face darkened, but he forcefully suppressed the killing intent in his heart.
"Haha, what nerve. Fine, I’ll go with you. But it’s safer to bring more men."
With that, he called over two of his subordinates and turned to walk to the cave entrance.
Ian’s eyes were dark as he stared at the man’s back, saying nothing more.
Li Yao grew anxious and grabbed Ian’s arm.
"Brother, don’t go! That cave is bad news. When I went in just now, I felt..."
"Felt what?" Ian turned to look at him.
"I felt... something moving underground." Li Yao lowered his voice, his lips pale.
"Like a heartbeat. It was slow, but huge... And there was black slime on the rock walls that smelled just like the inside of a corruption fissure."
Ian’s expression flickered, and he walked closer to the cave.
The entrance wasn’t large, and the inside was pitch-black, like a gaping maw.
That’s where the beetles had crawled out from. A few shattered pieces of Shell were now scattered around the entrance.
[Starlight Perception] spread out silently.
The flow of Energy in the air gradually became clear in his mind.
Most of the area was a dim, chaotic mess, but deep within that rocky cave...
...there was a mass of exceptionally dense, dark red, foul Energy, like a slowly pulsating tumor.
Not only that, but centered on the cave, the Energy veins in the ground within a fifty-meter radius formed a bizarre, root-like network.
All the veins pointed to a single spot.
"It’s not a Rot Beetle nest," Ian said suddenly.
Chen Scarface, standing beside him, frowned. "What did you say?"
"It’s an Incubator for a juvenile Corrupted Beast."
Ian raised the tip of his sword, pointing to a seemingly ordinary slope of rubble to the side of the cave.
"About three meters underground over there, an Energy Node is forming.
Judging by its scale... in three to five days at most, a Corrupted Earth-Burrowing Beast will emerge. It’ll be at least at the Awakening Late Stage and have Highly Poisonous Glands."
He paused, then looked back at the open area where the group was currently camped.
"And where we’re standing right now... is right in the impact zone for when it breaks through the ground.
When it emerges, its first bite will be the closest flesh and blood it can find."
As his words fell, a dead silence descended upon the area.
A few of the Guards exchanged glances, and someone instinctively looked down at the ground beneath their feet.
Chen Scarface’s expression changed. "What makes you say that?"
"This." Ian used the tip of his sword to carve a shallow trench in the dirt.
Then he pulled out the Metal plate from his robes—the very one he’d found in the ruins of the observatory.
He placed the Metal plate by the trench. The stellar patterns on its surface showed a faint, matte sheen under the dim red light of the sky.
"This is a Positioning Plate left behind by the ancient Stargazers. It can detect abnormal fluctuations in the surrounding Earth Vein Energy."
Ian pressed his finger on the small hole in the center of the plate and infused it with a sliver of Starlight Energy.
VMMMM...
The lines tracing the stellar trajectories on the plate’s surface actually began to glow with an extremely faint silver light.
The light flowed along the lines, finally converging into several intersecting paths.
One of them, a thick, dark red line, passed directly through the group’s campsite, its other end pointing deep into the cave.
"This thing..."
Chen Scarface leaned in closer, a hint of shocked suspicion in his eyes. "Where did you get this?"
"Found it on the road." Ian put the Metal plate away.
"But the information is correct. If you don’t believe me, you can send someone to dig at the side of the cave.
Three meters down, you should be able to find a corrupted layer that hasn’t fully hardened yet."
Just then, a white-bearded old man from the group shakily stood up.
He wore a faded gray robe and leaned on a wooden staff, the head of which was embedded with a small, dim Crystal.
"Leader Chen, allow this old one to take a look."
The old man walked to the spot Ian had indicated, crouched down, and pressed the Crystal head of his staff to the ground.
He closed his eyes, his withered palm resting on the staff’s shaft.
After about half a minute, the old man’s eyes shot open, his face deathly pale.
"Underground... there really is a pulsation of foul Energy! It’s massive, and it’s... gestating!"
At that, the crowd erupted into chaos.
"Hurry! Let’s get out of here!"
"My god... we were almost..."
"That kid was telling the truth!"
Panic spread like a plague. Some people were already gathering their belongings and pulling their families back.
Chen Scarface’s face was ashen with fear. He glanced at Ian with a look of gratitude.
He raised his hand and roared, "What are you panicking for! Everyone, pack up immediately and retreat five hundred meters to the west! Now!"
The order was given, and the group immediately sprang into action.
People shouldered their packs, scooped up their children, and stumbled westward.
The Guard Team fanned out to maintain Order, shouting at those who tried to scatter in different directions.
In the midst of the Chaos, Li Yao clutched the corner of Ian’s shirt, his young face tense.
"Brother, how did you know all that..."
he asked in a small voice, "...and that plate..."
"I’ll tell you later." Ian patted his head, but his gaze was fixed on Chen Scarface.
Scarface was whispering with a few of his trusted men, quickly giving them instructions.
He would glance over at Ian from time to time, his expression complex—a mixture of apprehension, calculation, and an undeniable trace of greed.
’We’re safe for now,’ Ian knew, ’but more trouble is coming.’
「By the time the group had retreated to a relatively flat gravel beach, the sky had already darkened.」
The gray clouds hung low, almost scraping the ground.
On the distant horizon, several bands of dark red light pulsed through the clouds like blood vessels.
It was the luminous glow of Energy seeping from the depths of corruption fissures, and it was the only source of light in this world at night.
The people gathered in a few circles, lighting small bonfires.
The fuel consisted of scavenged dry thorns and rotten wood, which crackled as they burned, giving off a choking black smoke.
Ian and Li Yao sat by a fire near the center of the camp, a position that would give them time to react if something suddenly happened.
Chen Scarface had originally tried to assign them a spot on the perimeter.
Ian had simply ignored him, killing intent for Chen Scarface already stirring in his heart.
He took a small piece of hardtack that Li Yao handed him, broke it in two, and pushed the slightly larger half back into the boy’s hands.
"Eat."
"Brother, your injuries haven’t healed yet..." Li Yao, who now knew Ian was hurt, tried to push it back.
"I said eat."
Ian’s tone left no room for argument as he took a bite of his own piece.
The hardtack was tough enough to chip a tooth and tasted bitter and astringent, but at least it could fill their stomachs.
Li Yao lowered his head and nibbled on the hardtack, the corners of his eyes a little red.
The firelight flickered across his grimy face, revealing his deep exhaustion and the dazed look of a survivor.
"I thought you were dead," the boy said, his voice muffled.
"It was so chaotic last night... When I escaped, I saw the area where we lived... it was all on fire."
Ian was silent for a few seconds before putting an arm around his shoulder.
"I don’t die that easily."
He paused, then added, "You need to stay alive, too."
Li Yao nodded forcefully and stuffed the last bite of hardtack into his mouth.
He chewed with great effort, as if he were fighting against something.
