The moment the Dragon Crystal shattered, Yu Lian released his senses, allowing the overflowing invisible energy to infuse his body and fill his soul.
Those red, green, yellow, black, and purple things, enough to open a dye shop, seemed to reappear, but they didn't surge to his throat; instead, they all poured into his head.
This time, however, there was no outlet for them to vent, so they could only follow his nerves deeper into his sea of consciousness.
They arrived in the soul, which was like a chaotic sea, and began to boil, as if they had found a new world.
“Boom!” Yu Lian vaguely felt an explosion in his mind that swept through all the chaos, destroying and disintegrating all the memory fragments in that ocean of soul.
The intense light almost deprived him of all his vision, guiding the hazy chaos toward annihilation.
Yet, in that annihilation, something new seemed to be forming.
Yu Lian’s last shred of spiritual awareness always followed the changes of these “entities,” waiting for them to gradually solidify and differentiate.
After an unknown period, their orbits gradually stabilized, emitting a warm halo that re-condensed and restored the destroyed mental fragments, drawing them into their operational orbits.
It was as if a star were using its gravity to maintain the existence and stability of planets.
A vast white nebula descended into Yu Lian’s sea of consciousness.
That was the legendary Soul Star Ring, abbreviated as “Star Ring” or “Star Disk,” and also the transcendent root of all Wisdom life in the known universe.
The “universe” within the soul began to resonate with the true universe.
A power that only Yu Lian himself could feel flowed from his spirit into his body, healing his wounds, stimulating his blood and cells, and strengthening his bones, muscles, and nerves.
He was resurrected with full health and status.
Yu Lian felt as if he had witnessed the birth of a universe, but in reality, it was only an instant.
He raised his hand, not even having time to marvel at the invisible power flowing within him or to enjoy his fully recovered body, and directly condensed an invisible spiritual energy into a beam and blasted it out.
The Zergling, which had already extended its bone blades, was like it had been hit on the head by an invisible giant hammer; its head visibly deformed, and it died without a sound.
Not only that, the concentrated spiritual energy did not lose momentum, instantly piercing through a Hydralisk and a Dreadclaw.
Their upper bodies were already twitching on the ground, while their lower bodies stiffly took a few more steps before finally stopping their spasmodic movements.
At this moment, Ina hadn't even reacted yet.
The vast white nebula in his mind flickered with light, like the halo of a star, a symbol of the spiritual energy factors beginning to boil.
At this moment, Yu Lian, who had lived for three lifetimes, once again officially stepped into the world of the extraordinary.
“To hell with the universe spirit! I don’t want white, pure white sounds like a minor character! I want the rusty color of a swordsman and the rainbow color of a mage! I’d even settle for the wimpy blue of a ranger from my last life!” Yu Lian roared internally, eager to cut something to vent, so he strode towards the city gate!
“Bean! Baka!” Sergeant Baka continued to shout his meaningless, Battle Roar, raising his axe and following closely.
“Charge! Only dead bugs are good bugs!” Youyou also howled and joined in, looking like a gorilla wearing only armor at first glance.
At this moment, everyone's morale exploded, even Sergeant Major Banks and Nurse Belinda joined the charge, though they were at the very back...
Speaking of which, it seemed they hadn't been seen earlier, had they? Could they have been slacking off somewhere?
In just a few strides, Yu Lian had already leaped into the trench, while at this point, everyone else hadn't even rushed out of the city gate.
This was the power of spiritual energy; the evolution of the spirit ultimately affected matter, substantially strengthening his body and instantly healing his crippling injury.
His weak body now coursed with abundant physical energy and power, making Yu Lian feel an unprecedented excitement and ferocity.
He raised his hand and directly threw the crystal sword he held, like throwing a large shuriken.
The sharp, high-carbon crystal blade smoothly sliced through the bodies of three Zerglings and one Hydralisk, then directly impaled the forehead of a Dreadclaw.
“Dance of Steel… Is it the ability to manipulate weapons in mid-air with spiritual energy? Hmm, while useless against experts, it’s not bad for bullying weaker opponents.” Yu Lian thought to himself, then casually picked up a rifle, rapidly shooting down several nearby bugs.
He reached out with his empty hand and pulled an ownerless battle axe into his grasp.
With a rifle in one hand and an axe in the other, he swept Past the stunned Ina and charged into the Bug Swarm.
At this moment, the charging reinforcements also arrived, thus entering the final melee.
Of course, it wasn't particularly brutal.
The Xenomorphs, after all, had to pass through the sloped firepower net's interception, and by the time they charged up the hill, their total forces were already reduced by seventy to eighty percent, with almost every single one bearing bullet holes and scorch marks—frankly, if it weren't for that Gravel Dragon whose belly was drilled by a puppet bug, the sloped firepower Yu Lian had arranged would have absolutely prevented any of them from getting through.
Yu Lian knew very well that once it came to close combat, the greatest threat to everyone would be those few Dreadclaws.
Ordinary people could only withstand such behemoths by wearing power armor, but even if he forced the Lieutenant to bring out all the stock and spares, the entire army's armor coverage was still less than thirty percent.
He had to take out the big ones first.
He made up his mind, then performed a sliding step, tilting his body to an angle impossible for an ordinary person, dodging the bites and pounces of two Zerglings, and charging into the Bug Swarm.
He directly pressed his rifle against the center of a Dreadclaw's bone pincer, a burst of bullets blowing open its central brain, and with a flick of the axe in his hand, he pulled down its bug claw.
Before the sharp bug claw even hit the ground, it was sucked into the air by an invisible force, then accelerated sharply, striking out like a javelin, piercing through two Hydralisks that had just opened their carapaces to spray needles.
At this moment, Yu Lian had already slid along the ground under another Dreadclaw's belly, bullets tearing through the relatively weak gaps in its abdominal carapace and shredding all its internal organs.
Ina stood behind, completely stunned.
She could naturally see that many of Yu Lian's current movements had surpassed the limits of a normal person, indicating he must be a spiritual energy user.
However, what shocked her even more was Yu Lian's swift and direct fighting style.
Every attack, dodge, and advance he made showed no unnecessary movements or hesitation; at least, as a seasoned combat expert, Sergeant Major could find nothing superfluous.
She felt as if she were witnessing a magnificent painting, with swords and guns as brushes, and blood and fire as pigments, where every stroke was filled with sharp, deadly, and efficient rhythm, pushing the aesthetics of refinement and efficiency to their extreme.
An indescribable emotion transformed into a warm current, surging in Ina's chest, then flowing downwards... uh, flowing to her face and forehead.
Her face immediately flushed red, feeling that the scene before her was simply too surreal, and she found it truly difficult to accept.
“...Even for Moon People, this is too exaggerated! Uh, no, it’s even more exaggerated because he’s a Moon Person!
How can an official be so capable in combat?”
Miss Ina’s thinking was very simple: “Moon People” equaled “elite bureaucrats,” and they were the elite of the elites; “elite bureaucrats” were naturally officials, meaning those bloated “big shots” from above.
But these guys, didn’t they usually just put on airs, take kickbacks, and swagger in front of subordinates to get promoted as if on an orbital elevator? How could they actually do anything serious?
Although her thinking was simple and linear, just this point alone made Sergeant Major's revolutionary spirit far higher than Lieutenant Mondeson's.
No wonder she would be a famous person in the future.
If Yu Lian knew, he would surely lament that even in this world where technology and ideology had gone awry, there were still like-minded companions.
It wasn’t until the bear-man and the old black man howled like two beasts as they swept Past her that Sergeant Major finally reacted.
She still lacked empathy for the current situation, feeling as if she were in a B-grade absurd action movie, so she self-deprecatingly gave up thinking and continued to fire her gun.
Her bullets always precisely blocked the areas Yu Lian temporarily couldn't cover, killing or repelling all Xenomorphs attempting to ambush him from the side or rear, or at the very least, stunning them to create opportunities for her teammates to deliver a killing blow.
Yu Lian smashed his empty C10 rifle onto a Zergling's head, deforming the stock but also splattering the creature's bodily fluids, then forcefully threw his crystal battle-axe, covered in chips and cracks, onto the head of the last Dreadclaw.
The large bug reflexively shrieked a few times, convulsed for at least half a minute, and then finally became completely still.
Yu Lian took a deep breath of New Yumen Star's dry, hot air; his nostrils were now filled with the scent of Xenomorphs.
He still felt a distinct fatigue, so he stopped in place, allowing the rest of the morale-boosted soldiers to rush forward and deal with the remaining bugs.
...A mere first-ring initiate is still weak! Yu Lian told himself.
He didn't realize that the battle just now, in the eyes of others, was nothing short of a god descending to earth; otherwise, how could everyone's morale have suddenly exploded?
In such a universe, rich in martial prowess but skewed in many aspects, an officer who can charge into enemy lines and fight like a one-man army is the easiest to gain the trust of ordinary soldiers.
With a one-man army officer and mid-level sergeants possessing both combat power and courage, the soldiers finally overcame their fear of the Xenomorphs and fought bravely.
Within minutes, when the last Zergling was beaten into a pulp by several soldiers with a flurry of blows, looking around, there seemed to be no more active enemies within a hundred miles, and everyone cheered.
They had finally achieved a glorious victory!
...Although it was once again a victory in a cold weapon battlefield.