Chapter 287 - 171: Great Sun Realm

Chapter 287: Chapter 171: Great Sun Realm

"Senior Brother Li, no, I should be calling you Captain Li now!" Zhao Mingyu held up his glass, his face flushed red from excitement and a bit of wine. "The Great Sun Realm! Last night when you broke through, the commotion... even through the door, I could feel a pressure that made my hair stand on end. Powerful! So powerful!"

The squad members beside him nodded vigorously in agreement.

They had all followed Li Wen on many missions and knew full well how unfathomably deep the young vice-captain’s strength was.

Now that he had officially stepped into the Great Sun Realm, the significance was extraordinary.

"This is the result of everyone’s hard work," Li Wen said, holding a cup of water. His face held a tranquil smile, showing no arrogance in the face of their congratulations.

"Guarding the Star Gate is not a one-man job. In the new year, I’ll still be counting on all of you brothers."

His simple words carried a reassuring steadiness.

"To Captain Li!" the squad members shouted in unison as their glasses clinked together.

Right in the middle of the lively atmosphere, Li Wen’s personal terminal began to chime with a continuous stream of notifications.

He made a small gesture to the others and walked to a quieter corner of the dining hall to check it.

The first messages to flood in were from Spark University.

[Fang Chengwu]: "You brat, you made it to the Great Sun Realm? Good, very good! The foundation you built by perfecting the Ninth Layer will only now begin to truly display its might. Don’t get complacent. Focus on adapting to your new power."

The words were simple, but they carried his usual concern and the expectations of a teacher.

[Du Yun]: "Li Wen, congratulations on your breakthrough! A new year brings a new start. The junior brothers and sisters on the mountain will have a new legend to tell now."

[Fang Chenghong]: "Brother Wen! Awesome! Great Sun Realm! Are you even giving us regular folks a chance to live? (with an exaggerated tongue-out emoji) But seriously, I’m really happy for you! Come back and visit when you have time. That guy Sun Rui has been grumbling for a while, saying Nine Heavens Peak has gotten a lot quieter since you left."

A hint of warmth appeared in Li Wen’s eyes as he looked at the congratulatory messages sent by one familiar name after another.

Though his years on the mountain were in the past, the bonds forged with those who studied alongside him remained strong.

He carefully replied to each one with his thanks.

Rejoining the boisterous dining hall, Li Wen could clearly feel the deeper reverence in his squad members’ gazes.

He understood the source of this respect—a Great Sun Realm Godfiend.

On Blue Star, where Spiritual Energy had been reviving for less than two hundred and thirty years, Great Sun Realm Godfiends were already the undisputed backbone of humanity’s power.

The birth of every single one meant another solid cornerstone in the Human Race’s line of defense.

And for an existence like Li Wen, who had stepped into the Great Sun Realm with a foundation built on the perfection of the Ninth Layer of the Nine Heavens Divine Body, his potential and strength far surpassed his peers.

It was no exaggeration to say that as long as no Marquis Level Godfiends made a move, he was a top-tier figure standing at the apex, looking down on all others.

His value as an individual was so great that he could even shoulder the heavy responsibility of guarding a medium-sized underground fortress all by himself.

This wasn’t arrogance, but an assessment based on reality.

On Blue Star, there were over three hundred medium-sized Stargates that Great Sun Realm demons could pass through, but the Human Race had only a little over two hundred Marquis Level Godfiends.

This massive deficit forced many medium-sized fortresses to adopt a strategy of having multiple Peak Great Sun Realm Godfiends join forces to guard them.

The squad members’ hushed conversations also gradually turned to these grim realities.

"Sigh... I heard that last month, the medium-sized fortress in the Rocksolid City area of eastern Jiangnan fell again..." a veteran squad member sighed, a world-weary look on his face. "Senior Brother Wang Ji and his entire squad were wiped out. Five experts at the Peak of Great Sun Realm..."

The atmosphere grew a little heavy.

"The Demon Race is doing it on purpose!" Zhao Mingyu gritted his teeth, his voice filled with anger.

"They could obviously crush us in one fell swoop, but instead they conquer a fortress and then just... stop. After a while, when we send in new people to garrison it, they come back to ’harvest’ them all over again! It’s a goddamn blatant scheme, and we have no choice but to keep feeding them our people!"

Yes, this was the Demon Race’s nakedly blatant scheme.

Using their absolute numerical advantage, they treated countless medium-sized fortresses as "fishing grounds" to constantly deplete the Human Race’s precious Great Sun Realm combat power.

And yet, the Human Race had no choice but to defend them. After all, if they abandoned the medium-sized fortresses, countless Great Sun Realm demons would pour into their territory.

Blue Star was so vast. If a massive number of Great Sun Realm demons successfully broke through and chose to go into hiding, scattering deep underground and concealing their demonic auras, even powerful King-level Godfiends would find it difficult to conduct a carpet search to wipe them all out. ℴ

That would be an unimaginable catastrophe.

It was feared that aside from the few large city-fortresses protected by a resident Marquis Level Godfiend, the rest of Blue Star’s surface would be reduced to hunting grounds for the Demon Race. The lands where humanity could thrive would rapidly shrink, or even be wiped out entirely.

Without a large population base, the birth of a new generation of human experts would become a distant dream. The extinction of the entire race would perhaps only be a matter of time.

Therefore, the birth of every Godfiend who reached the Peak of the Great Sun Realm, or even possessed the combat power to challenge the threshold of the Marquis Level, was never just a personal success.

It was one more tenacious barrier on the race’s defensive line, one more spark in the flame of hope.

It was worthy of the most sincere cheers in this underground fortress, worthy of the most earnest congratulations from teachers and friends afar.

The sounds of laughter, clinking glasses, and conversation rose in the dining hall once more. Amid the joy of celebrating the new year lay a heavy sense of responsibility and determination for the future.

Li Wen’s gaze swept over the faces around him, some young, some world-weary, and finally landed on the heavy blast door leading to the Stargate’s monitoring area.

This... was his battlefield.

Guarding this place meant guarding the flickering lights of the countless homes behind him.

...

「January 29th, 232nd year of the Galactic Calendar.」

Everyone’s prediction came true.

Just a few days later, a formal transfer order from Spark University’s High Command arrived at the Bluestone County Fortress.

Li Wen fell silent for a moment as he stared at the conspicuous words on the light screen’s transfer order: "Transfer to Rocksolid Underground Fortress."

’It was true. He had perfected the Ninth Layer of the Nine Heavens Divine Body and possessed combat power approaching the Marquis Level right after entering the Great Sun Realm. To have someone like him guard a small-to-medium Star Gate node like Bluestone County—a place that had just been stabilized and posed a relatively low threat—was a gross waste of his abilities.’

’Just as Zhao Mingyu and his superiors had analyzed, his value would be more fully realized on a broader, more high-pressure frontline battlefield.’

’Rocksolid Fortress had just fallen and was in urgent need of a powerful Godfiend to fill the vacancy. That was the position where he could currently exert the most deterrent force.’

’Though he was reluctant to leave—this was his hometown, a place he had personally protected, and his parents were still here.’

’But duty called, and the bigger picture was more important.’

Li Wen quickly accepted the arrangement.