The Spell's Range Covers the Entire Territory of China? Hand It Over to the Nation

10: Chapter 10: The Desperate Tragedy of the Front Lines and the Tension in the Rear Command PostSouthwest border, Luofeng Slope.

The place name here is truly inauspicious, as if it was destined for even the legendary divine Phoenix to break its wings here.

The air was filled with a nauseating smell of rust, mixed with the ozone scent of high-energy explosives after burning. The sky was like tattered cotton blackened by gunpowder smoke, with only occasional tracer bullets providing a little light to this bleak world.

“Left flank! Watch the left flank!”

The shouts in the communication channel had become hoarse and broken. A bone-chilling sound of bones shattering, accompanied by the helpless sound of blind gunfire, was followed by silence.

Zhao Gang wiped his face. His palm was sticky with warm fluid, indistinguishable whether it was his own blood or that of Guard Xiao Zhang, who had fallen beside him. His left side was numb. The military exoskeleton mech ’Pojun’ that had accompanied him for three years had its left mechanical arm, along with a layer of flesh, torn off by an elite Wind Demon Wolf. At the斷口處, exposed cables crackled with electric sparks, and the high temperature had scorched the wound black and curled, saving the trouble of applying a tourniquet.

Who would have thought that during the day he was leisurely reflecting on youth on the campus playground, and by night he was burning his life in this meat grinder in such a way?

“Zhao Gang... no, Old Zhao!”

From behind the nearby concrete bunker, a grimy figure scrambled over. This company commander was usually a tough guy, even with broken bones, but at this moment, his face was crisscrossed with black gunpowder smoke and clear tear streaks. The barrel of his Gauss Rifle was glowing red from continuous firing, and he was still trembling uncontrollably.

“We can’t hold on anymore. The First Company is gone, and the Third Company only had two people left when they last reported... These beasts are too fast! Our fire control radar can’t lock onto them at all; it’s completely useless!”

Zhao Gang leaned against the shell-pocked broken wall, gasping for air. His lungs felt like they were filled with burning iron sand, every breath a piercing pain.

He raised his head, looking forward through a gap in the bunker.

In the past, books spoke of “black clouds pressing down on the city” as a metaphor; now, it was a literal description.

At the edge of his vision, the black beast tide was like a giant carpet, being frantically rolled towards them by an unseen hand. And above the black carpet, streaks of cyan lightning were leaping.

Those were Wind Demon Wolves.

Although these creatures are named wolves, their size is comparable to a light car. The most deadly aspect is the cyan wind element shield flowing around their bodies, which can not only easily deflect the trajectory of light weapon bullets but also gives them an abnormal acceleration that defies physical common sense. When they swarm in groups, even S-class powerhouses would perish on the spot.

“Whoosh—!”

A sharp whooshing sound suddenly erupted.

Zhao Gang’s eyelids twitched, and he instinctively pushed the company commander beside him into the mud.

Almost in the same millisecond, a cyan shadow swept over their heads. The machine gun position behind them, which had been roaring furiously with heavy machine gun fire, instantly fell silent.

Half a second later, half of a heavy gun barrel, along with the upper torso of the machine gunner, slowly fell from the air, crashing heavily onto the wet ground.

This was the battlefield now.

You couldn’t even clearly see the enemy’s appearance, and before you could even feel fear, the death notice had already arrived.

Zhao Gang spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva: “Too fast.”

Human reaction speed, in front of these exotic beasts, was as sluggish as a silent film played in slow motion.

“Old Zhao, retreat!” The company commander struggled out of the mud, grabbing Zhao Gang’s shoulder tightly. “Fall back two more kilometers, into the second line of defense, that’s the tank brigade’s position. We only have infantry here; staying here is suicide!”

“Retreat?”

Zhao Gang gave a bitter laugh. He painstakingly turned his head and looked behind him.

The night was dim, with only silent darkness in the distance. But he knew that just thirty kilometers behind them was Chuncheng, with its myriad of twinkling lights.

There were no towering city walls, no dense air defense firepower network, only twenty million ordinary people who hadn’t had time to evacuate.

“Tell me, why should we retreat? Haven’t we been prepared for this all along?”

Zhao Gang asked, “If we can’t hold, we retreat. Then will those behind us also retreat if they can’t hold? How many lines of defense do we have to retreat? When the beast tide rushes into the city, it won’t be just a few hundred soldiers like us who die, but the elderly, the children, and our parents who are still at home!”

The company commander was stunned, his lips trembling, unable to speak.

“We are indeed infantry, without armor or artillery.”

“But we still have our lives.”

Zhao Gang used his intact right hand to pull out his blunted tactical alloy knife from his waist. The chilling blade reflected the distant flames of war, dazzling and tragic.

He leaned against the wall, slowly straightening up. His broken mechanical arm swayed with the movement, making clanking sounds.

At this moment, an absurd thought suddenly popped into Zhao Gang’s mind.

He remembered the student he had seen on the playground of Jingda Affiliated High School during the day. That kid named Su Yun, who had awakened the unlucky Five-Meter Shaman.

What had he said back then?

“Modern warfare is beyond visual range strike; a five-meter range is suicide.”

Zhao Gang gave a bitter smile.

How times change.

Who would have thought that just a few hours later, the so-called beyond visual range strike would become empty talk? This was literally close-quarters combat!

If that kid’s totem could have a thousand-meter range, even if it was just a slowing totem, this battle wouldn’t be such a mess.

Unfortunately, there are no ’ifs’.

“Attention all!”

Zhao Gang took a deep breath, using all his strength to roar into the buzzing communicator, which was crackling with static interference.

This shout actually overpowered the overwhelming sound of artillery fire, echoing over the position.

“Those who are out of ammo, throw your guns away! Fix bayonets!!”

“Those without bayonets, grab the pin of your Glory Grenade!”

On the position, the remaining soldiers, who had been too terrified to lift their heads, were stunned for a moment upon hearing this command. Then, an emotion called “despair” reached its peak, bouncing back to become a hysterical determination.

Yes, it’s death either way.

Rather than being chewed up like snacks by these beasts, it’s better to break two of their teeth and let them know how hard the bones of Dragon Summer people are!

Click! Click!

The sounds of countless bayonets being fixed converged, as crisp as the death knell.

“Brothers!”

Zhao Gang was the first to leap out of the bunker, standing at the front of the position with no cover.

The strong wind, carrying raindrops, lashed against his face—it was the foul wind and air current brought by the charging Wind Demon Wolf pack.

He looked at the cyan reapers surging forward like a tide, and raised his knife high.

“Our home is behind us! If we retreat one step, our families will all die!”

“For Dragon Summer!”

“Charge—!!!”

No grand rhetoric, no tragic accompaniment.

Only hundreds of men, knowing they would die, let out their final roar into the darkness.

“Kill!!!”

They charged out of the trenches.

Like hundreds of moths drawn to a flame, they fearlessly crashed into that black fire capable of devouring everything.

...

Jingcheng, three thousand meters underground, Kunlun Command Center.

Here, one could not hear the roars from the front lines, nor smell the pungent scent of blood.

Here, there was only the faint hum of the constant temperature air conditioning, and the cruel reality of the green dots representing the lives of soldiers rapidly extinguishing on the huge holographic screen.

A deathly silence enveloped the entire hall.

Everyone stared at the screen.

The generals, who usually remained unfazed even when Mount Tai collapsed before them, now had their fingernails dug into their palms, or their lips bitten until they bled.

They watched the faint lights representing Dragon Summer soldiers on the screen, not retreating, but instead, launching a suicidal counter-charge, like moths to a flame, against the red torrent of the beast tide.

“They’re crazy... they’ve all gone crazy...”

A young staff officer covered his mouth, tears uncontrollably streaming down his face.

This was suicide.

But everyone present understood why.

This was merely to buy even one second of escape time for the people in the rear.

“Su Yun!”

Long Yi’s voice broke the silence.

The old man’s voice was no longer steady; it carried a hint of trembling, a hint of plea, and even a hint of choked emotion:

“Do it!!”

He didn’t need a reminder.

As early as when the bad news came from the front line, Su Yun, standing in front of the command console, had already moved.

He looked at the screen.

He watched the middle-aged man with only one arm leading the charge.

Su Yun recognized him. Zhao Gang, the military observer who had rejected his special recruitment contract because of the “five-meter range.”

And a pure soldier.

“Don’t worry, Zhao Gang Zhao.”

Su Yun whispered in his heart.

“This time, it won’t be five meters. This time, it’ll be enough.”

[part:deepseek-chat]

The young man’s slender finger jabbed sharply into the Void Realm.

The motion was casual, as if tapping a ’Confirm Payment’ button on a phone screen.

But deep within his consciousness, that golden grand map covering 9.6 million square kilometers suddenly lit up.

The System’s notification exploded in his mind like a massive bell:

[Detecting host’s will...]

[F-rank skill ’Mud Swamp Totem’ is being released...]

[Judging... Talent ’Territory is Domain’ intervenes.]

[Judgment passed. Current coverage area: 9.6 million square kilometers.]

[Detected skill energy level too low, unable to match current scope... Extracting historical heritage... Reshaping concept...]

[Skill mutation complete.]

——

[Draw a Circle as a Prison·Cloud Dream Marsh (LV1)]

[Description: In ancient times, there was the great Cloud Dream Marsh, spanning nine thousand li, swallowing rivers and exhaling the Han, unfathomably deep. All who enter this place tread upon mud weighing a thousand jun, as if falling into an eternal abyss.]

[Effect: All hostile targets judged as ’invaders’ will suffer the ’Spatial Viscosity’ effect. Movement speed infinitely reduced, attack speed infinitely reduced.]

[Current cost: 10 mana points (deducted), maintenance cost: 0 (due to the ’all under heaven is the kings land’ trait, cost compensated by ambient energy of heaven and earth).]

[Note: On this land, without my permission, even the wind must stop for me.]

...

Luofeng Slope front line.

Zhao Gang had already charged to the forefront.

The nearest Wind Demon Wolf King was just over thirty meters away from him.

Thirty meters.

For a monster with such explosive power, it was but an instant.

Zhao Gang could even see the mocking, cruel glint in that wolf king’s eyes. It slightly lowered its body, hind legs taut, the surrounding cyan Qi swirling violently.

It was gathering strength.

The next second, it would shoot over like a cannonball, its sharp claws easily slicing through Zhao Gang’s body like cutting tofu.

”Come on!!”

Zhao Gang, eyes red, pointed his blade forward with his last ounce of strength.

So be it if I die!

In eighteen years, I’ll be a hero again!

Whoosh——!

The wolf king moved.

Too fast, so fast that Zhao Gang’s brain had just registered the signal ’it moved’ when the drooling, gaping maw was already before his face.

A foul-smelling wind rushed at him.

Zhao Gang didn’t even have time to swing his blade.

He instinctively closed his eyes, waiting for the cold, sharp pain to arrive.

...

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Three seconds...

The expected pain of his neck being torn apart did not come.

The surrounding chaotic shouts, gunfire, and artillery seemed to become somewhat strange in that instant.

What’s going on?

I don’t feel my Soul Emergence either?

Could the underworld service be so humane now, giving a painless injection when you die?

Zhao Gang somewhat dazedly opened one eye.

Then, he saw a scene he could not understand in this lifetime, the next, or the one after.

That Wind Demon Wolf King was still there.

It was right at the tip of Zhao Gang’s nose, less than five centimeters from his face.

Zhao Gang could even count the hairs on its nose, see the shreds of fresh meat hanging from its yellowed canine teeth.

But.

This monster, which had just been fast as lightning, now seemed sealed inside a huge, transparent piece of amber.

It maintained its fierce pouncing posture, all four paws off the ground, its entire body suspended in mid-air.

It wasn’t completely still.

It was still moving.

It was moving forward... shifting... at an extremely slow, extremely comical pace, bit by bit, like a 0.1x slow-motion replay in a movie.

Its eyeballs were frantically rotating, filled with terror and confusion.

Its maw, which should have snapped shut instantly to crush Zhao Gang’s head, was now closing at the slowest speed of its life.

”Crack... squelch...”

A very faint sound, like glue being stretched, came from the air.

Not just this one.

Zhao Gang widened his eyes, looking past the wolf king before him toward the rear.

The entire battlefield seemed to have turned into a huge, absurd oil painting.

The black tide of beasts covering the mountains and plains, the tens of thousands of Wind Demon Wolves and Shadow Leopards that had been so arrogant just moments ago, were now all trapped in this bizarre ’slow motion.’

Some were leaping in mid-air, slowly descending like clumsy balloons; others were running, but their raised paws couldn’t seem to land, as if stepping into an invisible deep-sea mire.

And among them, the Dragon Summer soldiers who had been certain to die were now holding their bayonets with bewildered expressions, looking at the monsters around them.

A Young Soldier who had just been about to pull the pin on his Glory Grenade froze, finger on the ring.

He watched as a sharp claw that was supposed to slash at his chest now slowly, leisurely extended toward him, slower than his grandma doing tai chi.

The Young Soldier instinctively took a step to the side.

The claw grabbed at empty air.

”What... what’s going on?” the Young Soldier muttered to himself, ”Did this Demonic Beast have a stroke?”

Zhao Gang was also stunned.

He tried moving his limbs.

Flexible, free, without any sense of obstruction.

He tried taking a step forward.

The ground beneath his feet was solid and firm, not turning into a trap, with no abnormalities.

But as soon as his gaze fell on those alien beasts, he could feel a visible ’heaviness.’

It felt as if this heaven and earth, the surrounding air, the soil underfoot, even gravity itself, were rejecting these outsiders.

The air had turned into molten steel, gravity increased a hundredfold.

Every alien beast trying to run wild on this land was carrying the weight of an entire mountain as it moved.

”Thud.”

Before him, the suspended wolf king finally landed.

Not a light landing, but like an iron ingot crashing to the ground, emitting a dull thud. Its limbs trembled, desperately trying to lift its head, but an invisible force pressed it firmly into the mud.

It was howling, but to Zhao Gang, the sound was stretched out, turning into a low, comical ”awoo——oo——”.

Zhao Gang stared blankly at all this.

He suddenly remembered that familiar, déjà vu sensation that had enveloped him earlier.

That was the feeling that had appeared hours ago on the school playground, when that young man had his Awakening.

”Concept rule judgment... friend-or-foe identification... Mud Swamp Totem...”

A few terms mentioned in the materials suddenly popped into Zhao Gang’s mind.

He abruptly turned his head, looking toward the distant north, the direction of the capital.

Rainwater flowed down his cheek into his mouth, carrying a salty taste.

He smiled.

First a low chuckle, then turning into wild laughter, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

”Hahahaha! Good kid! Good kid!!”

Zhao Gang laughed while raising his combat blade, pointing the edge at the wolf king still struggling in the mud.

”This is your five-meter range?!”

”This is what I called useless?!”

”All units, attention!!”

Zhao Gang’s roar once again resounded across the battlefield.

This time, there was no despair, only the violent desire for revenge about to erupt, as if the anger pent up in his heart had found an outlet.

The soldiers around him, who had been prepared to die, now finally snapped out of their shock.

Seeing the monsters that had been hard to hit even with heavy machine guns now lying on the ground as if acupuncture-pointed, at their mercy.

If they didn’t act now, they’d be letting down these ’live targets’ all over the ground, letting down their fallen comrades!

”Strike while it’s weak! Take its life!”

”These bastards can’t run anymore!!”

”Kill them all!!”

The situation completely reversed in that instant.

What had been a one-sided slaughter turned into another one-sided slaughter. Only this time, the roles of hunter and prey were completely swapped.

Those Wind Demon Wolves that usually couldn’t even be caught by cars could now only watch as a not-so-sharp bayonet slowly, yet unavoidably, stabbed into their eye sockets.

Squelch!

Zhao Gang viciously stabbed his blade into the wolf king’s neck, scalding wolf blood spraying all over him.

He pulled out the blade, wiped the blood from his face, and with all his might, shouted toward the sky:

”Thank you!!”

Though he didn’t know if the young man could hear.

But he knew.

That young man he had judged as ’having no future’ had saved his life, saved the entire battalion’s lives, and even more, defended the lives of the twenty million civilians behind this line!