263: Chapter 263 Gu Lie's Surrender, the Veteran's Advice

"Send two men to fish that piece of trash out of the pit."

Su Chen's voice was not loud, but it was clearly audible across the dead-silent Shura Camp plaza.

The two ruffians closest to the pit shivered, as if waking from a dream. They scrambled and tumbled into the ten-meter-deep crater.

A moment later, the two men propped up Gu Lie's arms and dragged him up from the bottom of the pit like a pile of mud.

"Thud." Gu Lie was laid flat on the cold snow.

He was in a truly miserable state. His chest was deeply sunken, and black blood mixed with organ fragments kept gushing from his mouth. He was taking in more air than he was letting out. His only remaining eye was half-open, and his pupils were already beginning to dilate.

"He's a goner." The ruffian who dragged him up checked his breath and shook his head, his face deathly pale. "His sternum is shattered, piercing his lungs and heart. Not even a god could save him."

The surrounding ruffians looked on with expressions of pity. On the extreme northern front, such injuries were equivalent to a death sentence. There was no need to even call a medic.

Su Chen walked over to Gu Lie with his hands in his trench coat pockets, his expression indifferent.

He looked down at the dying giant.

"Brother Chen, should we just put him out of his misery?" Jiang Feng walked over, clutching his chest. Although he had been injured by Gu Lie earlier, he respected him as a tough man.

Su Chen said nothing. He slowly crouched down.

He pulled his right hand out of his trench coat pocket. Between two of his fingers, he held a tiny, almost imperceptible speck of powder.

It was a small crumb left over from crushing most of a [Senzu Bean].

Su Chen reached out and pried open Gu Lie's jaw. He shoved the Senzu Bean crumbs directly into Gu Lie's blood-filled mouth.

"Battalion Commander, he can't swallow the medicine anymore..." a veteran nearby couldn't help but speak up.

"Shut up." Su Chen spat out the two words coldly.

The next second.

A burst of extremely intense green light suddenly erupted from the palm of Su Chen's right hand! The light had no warmth, yet it radiated a vitality that made one's heart palpitate!

Elementary Sage Body! Wood Release life-force Chakra!

Su Chen did not hesitate and pressed his glowing right hand directly onto Gu Lie's sunken chest.

"Hum—!"

Green Chakra, like a flood breaking through a dam, surged wildly from Su Chen's palm into Gu Lie's body!

"Crack! Crunch!" A sound of bones grinding against each other that made one's scalp tingle suddenly emanated from within Gu Lie's chest cavity!

"What... what is he doing?"

"Is he desecrating the corpse?!" The surrounding ruffians widened their eyes and retreated in terror.

But immediately after, they witnessed a miracle they would never be able to comprehend in their entire lives!

Under the shroud of the green light, Gu Lie's deeply sunken chest bones actually began to bulge back up, bit by bit, at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The bone fragments that had pierced his internal organs seemed to be guided by some invisible force. They automatically reset! They reconnected!

"Sizzle!" It wasn't just the bones. The medicinal power of the Senzu Bean crumbs, combined with the Sage Body, rampaged through Gu Lie's body.

The torn flesh on his chest began to squirm and grow frantically. Granulation tissue intertwined, quickly scabbed over, fell off, and grew brand-new, tender skin!

Even the old, blackened, necrotic scars on Gu Lie's body began to fade and fall off under the wash of this high-dimensional life force!

"Gulp." Several hundred people in the battalion swallowed in unison. Their eyeballs were almost popping out of their sockets.

In less than half a minute, Su Chen withdrew his right hand. The green light dissipated.

Gu Lie lay on the snow, his chest restored to its flat state, his breathing becoming extremely heavy and powerful.

"Hoo—!"

Gu Lie's previously unfocused eye snapped open! He gasped like a drowning man who had suddenly surfaced, greedily breathing in the cold air of the extreme north.

"I... I didn't die?" Gu Lie bolted upright. He lowered his head and touched his own chest.

It was intact! Not only was there no pain, but he even felt filled with unprecedented strength! Even the old hidden injuries had disappeared without a trace!

Gu Lie looked up, staring blankly at Su Chen, who stood before him.

If Su Chen's punch earlier had merely broken Gu Lie's spine in terms of raw power, making him feel fear...

Then at this moment, this Heaven-Defying ability to "bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh and bone" had thoroughly destroyed the last shred of Gu Lie's psychological defenses!

One punch to send you to Hell. One hand to pull you back to the mortal world. To kill or to save, all within a single thought!

This was no human. This was a god!

Gu Lie's massive two-and-a-half-meter frame stood up abruptly from the snow.

He looked at Su Chen. There was no longer any arrogance, unwillingness, or humiliation in his single eye.

What remained was only absolute reverence, as if facing a god! And the purest fanaticism!

"Thud!" Gu Lie did not hesitate in the slightest. Like a golden mountain collapsing and a jade pillar toppling.

His iron-tower-like body knelt on one knee before Su Chen! His knee smashed a deep crater into the hard, frozen earth.

Gu Lie raised his right hand and struck his left chest hard. He lowered the head that had once been held so high.

"Gu Lie!" His voice, though hoarse, was filled with absolute devotion and rang throughout the entire battalion.

"From now on, this life belongs to you, Battalion Commander!"

"The Shura Camp swears to follow the Battalion Commander to the death!!!"

"Swears to follow the Battalion Commander to the death!!!"

The hundreds of ruffians around them were completely conquered at this moment. They knelt on one knee in unison, their right fists pounding their chests.

The earth-shaking roar tore through the wind and snow of the extreme north.

Su Chen stood in the center of the crowd. With his hands in his trench coat pockets, he calmly accepted the allegiance of these hundreds of outlaws.

He nodded slightly. "Rise."

Su Chen turned around, intending to take Jiang Feng and Lin Qinghan into the camp's command post. He needed to understand the specific defensive layout of the extreme northern front.

"Battalion Commander! Please wait!"

Gu Lie jerked his head up and stood up from the ground. He walked quickly behind Su Chen, the fanaticism on his face rapidly receding, replaced by bitterness and extreme solemnity.

Su Chen stopped and tilted his head slightly. "What is it?"

Gu Lie took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

"Battalion Commander, your martial prowess is Heaven-Defying, and your methods are god-like. We, the Shura Camp, submit to you!"

Gu Lie gritted his teeth, a trace of deep apprehension flashing in his eyes. "But you are new here and have no idea of the sinister intentions of those people above!"

"What do you mean?" Jiang Feng, standing to the side, frowned.

Gu Lie extended his thick arm, pointing behind the gate of the Shura Camp camp.

There stood a massive mountain range, towering into the clouds, its entire body a dead, pitch black. In front of the mountain range, there was no cover, facing the ten-thousand-meter-long Star Gate rift in the extreme northern sky directly!

"Battalion Commander, look at that mountain." There was a deep chill in Gu Lie's voice.

"The mountain we, the Shura Camp, are stationed on is called 'Jueming Ridge'."

"Jueming Ridge?" Lin Qinghan stepped forward, looked in the direction of Gu Lie's finger, and her cold, clear eyes constricted sharply.

"That's right," Gu Lie said through gritted teeth.

"There are no natural barriers to defend here. It is the first buffer zone that the Star Gate beasts must pass through every time they charge the Steel Great Wall!"

"To put it bluntly," Gu Lie looked at Su Chen, saying each word clearly.

"The higher-ups didn't assign you here to lead troops in battle."

"They are using you, and our entire Shura Camp, as bait to exhaust the beasts' stamina, as meat shields to fill the beasts' bellies!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Jiang Feng flew into a rage, cursing, "Those sons-of-a-bitch warlords! They really have no good intentions!"

Gu Lie took a deep breath, his expression looking terrible.

"Battalion Commander, if it were just a normal beast tide, we might be able to hold out for a few days by risking our lives, but..."

Gu Lie raised his head and glanced at the grey, murky sky.

"Tonight, we can't."

"Why not?" Su Chen asked in a calm tone.

"Because tonight is the extremely rare 'Dark Moon Night' on the extreme northern front!" A trace of undisguised fear flashed in Gu Lie's single eye.

"Whenever the Dark Moon Night arrives, the abyssal magnetic field within the Star Gate rift reaches its peak! The abyssal aura is at its most concentrated!"

"Those beasts will fall into a complete frenzy, lose their reason, and launch a desperate, suicidal charge!"

"Tonight, the beasts will definitely stage an unprecedented riot!"

Gu Lie knelt on one knee, his tone extremely urgent.

"Battalion Commander!" "They want to use the Dark Moon Night tonight, to use the mouths of the beasts, to exhaust you to death at Jueming Ridge!"

"You must make plans early! If it comes to it, we will protect you and retreat back inside the Steel Great Wall!"

The wind and snow howled over Jueming Ridge.

Su Chen listened quietly to Gu Lie's warning. He did not look at the black mountain range towering into the clouds. Nor did he look at the massive Star Gate rift in the sky.

He just casually straightened the collar of his trench coat, which had been ruffled by the wind.

"Dark Moon Night?"

A cruel, cold smile slowly curled at the corner of Su Chen's mouth.

"I was just worrying about where to find so many beasts to practice on."

Su Chen walked towards the command post with his hands in his pockets. He left behind only one sentence in the wind and snow that made the scalps of Gu Lie and all the veterans tingle.

"Notify the entire battalion. Tonight, no one is allowed to retreat."