He received a silent nod.
He turned back, facing the void, as if he could penetrate the rock layers and see the familiar or unfamiliar young faces scattered throughout the Death Realm.
He took a deep breath, and his voice, through that inconceivable broadcast, spread in all directions.
“Everyone can curse me as a bastard, a cold-blooded man, a butcher who doesn’t care about his brothers’ lives. I admit it! I’ll bear those charges!”
“But—”
His voice suddenly rose, like a drawn military saber, resolute and decisive.
“Just now, I learned a piece of news! In the future! In the living world! There’s a bunch of sneaky rats who designed a vicious trap! They used me, Su Xiche—all the soldiers of our 103rd Division, our sacrifice a hundred years ago—as bait! They want to surround and kill the warriors who came here from the future, also to protect our homeland!”
“They want our sacrifice a hundred years ago to become the accomplice that slaughters our compatriots!”
“You—”
Su Xiche’s voice roared like a wounded tiger, turning through the airwaves into thunder that shook the entire Death Realm.
“Do you agree?!”
“I don’t agree—!!!”
This roar seemed to drain all his strength, but then came an even more majestic, even more resolute declaration.
“Therefore! I, Su Xiche, commander of the 103rd Division, now—in the name of the highest military commander—redo the final plan detonation route!”
“No longer targeting the combat area! Change to—”
He all but gritted his teeth, spitting out the words one by one.
“Set the boundary of this fake world we’re in as the preset line, and detonate… all those big things along this path!”
“Use this fake sacrifice of ours to blast a bloody path to reality! Clear the obstacles, sweep away the demons for the warriors of the future!”
Silence.
Everywhere in the Death Realm, a deathly stillness.
Only Su Xiche’s heavy breathing could be faintly heard through the airwaves.
Then his voice came again, lower this time, but carrying a nearly devout, farewell-like solemnity.
“Hereby, I, Su Xiche… earnestly request of all my brothers.”
“Considering that we are all soldiers.”
“Considering the lights of ten thousand homes behind us that need protecting.”
“Accompany me…”
He paused the longest, as if using all the strength and emotion of his life, and bellowed the last four words, hoarse and desperate, yet brilliantly magnificent.
“To die together—!!!”
BOOM!!!
This roar, like the final war drum, like a parting bugle, carried a hundred years of tragedy, the iron blood of soldiers, and the deepest blessings and entrustment to those who came after.
It spread to every corner of this land and slammed heavily into the hearts of everyone in the void battlefield!
Southwest of the Death Realm, a temporary defensive position.
The smoke had not yet fully dissipated.
The air reeked of blood and fire.
The soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 227th Regiment, who had just repelled a wave of aberrants and suffered considerable casualties themselves, were either sitting or lying down, catching their breath and bandaging wounds.
Su Xiche’s voice descended from the sky, ringing clearly in everyone’s ears.
First came bewilderment, then shock, then a deathly silence.
Everyone froze, as if unable to digest this overwhelming flood of information.
No one knew how long passed.
A lieutenant colonel, his officer’s uniform almost unrecognizable under the smoke, a fresh bloodstain on his face, slowly and stiffly stood up.
He moved with some sluggishness, reaching for the breast pocket of his jacket, which had been torn open by shrapnel.
He fumbled a few times and pulled out a squashed cigarette pack.
He opened it.
Inside were a few wrinkled cigarettes.
He took one out, then without a second glance, tossed the pack—along with the rest—to the nearest young soldier.
Click.
The sound of an old-fashioned lighter, strikingly clear in the silence.
A flame shot up and lit the cigarette.
The lieutenant colonel took a greedy, deep drag.
Smoke filled his lungs, making him squint involuntarily.
He slowly exhaled a broken smoke ring, watching the gray smoke twist and fade in the dusty air.
“Brothers…”
His voice was a little hoarse as he spoke.
The soldiers around him remained silent.
No one said a word.
They just silently took the pack the colonel had thrown, one, two… silently passing it around, lighting up.
Pinpricks of firelight flickered in the dim position.
The lieutenant colonel smiled—a smile full of gunpowder and exhaustion.
He took several more puffs until the smoke caught in his throat.
“Cough cough cough… cough… cough cough cough!!!”
He coughed violently, bending over, shoulders heaving.
It took a while before he could stop.
When he raised his head again, his eyes were slightly red, with some wetness—whether from the smoke or something else.
He unconsciously rubbed the cigarette filter with his fingers, his gaze slowly sweeping across the position—over the brothers covered in dust and blood, almost all wounded, yet still clutching their weapons, silently watching him.
“Our division commander… he’s really… a piece of work…”
He muttered a curse, but there was no real hatred in his tone—more of a helpless, resigned lament.
“He hid it from us, came up with such a big plan… counted all of us in…”
He twitched the corner of his mouth.
“He was afraid… afraid we wouldn’t want to carry it out? Afraid we… were cowards?”
At this, the colonel’s voice paused.
Then he suddenly raised his volume, though hoarse, with an undeniable iron-blooded spirit, like the howl of a wounded alpha wolf.
“But—”
“Our 103rd Division…”
His gaze blazed, sweeping over each face, young or no longer young.
“Has it produced a coward?!”
Silence.
Then came an even more determined, even more burning silence.
In every pair of eyes, fire ignited.
The colonel had his answer.
He no longer needed a verbal response.
He casually tossed the half-smoked cigarette butt onto the blood- and dust-stained ground at his feet.
Then, raising his booted foot, he ground it down hard and slowly until the spark went out completely.
“But…”
His voice dropped again, but clearer and more decisive than before, carrying a soldier’s unique awareness, fused into his bones.
“The commander—he got one thing right.”
He slowly raised his head, and in an instant, all the exhaustion, helplessness, and wetness faded from his eyes, leaving only rock-solid determination and fiery resolve, like a quenched blade thrusting into the gray sky.
“We… are soldiers.”
Four simple words, heavy as a thousand mountains.
He took a deep breath, as if inhaling all the smoke, blood, sacrifice, and faith of this position.
Then he looked at his brothers and screamed with all his might, his voice like a bowstring about to snap but producing the sharpest arrow’s cry.
“Brothers!”
“Are you willing…”
His voice was like a bowstring on the verge of breaking, strung to the keenest arrow.
“To go with me—”
“To die!!!”
The last two words exploded like thunderclaps in the barren defensive position, the echoes rolling and rushing to the surrounding fields!
Deathly stillness.
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
Then—
A young soldier, a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his arm, slowly stood up first.
His movements were a bit labored, but his spine was straight as an arrow.
Then came a second, an old veteran with black smoke stains covering his face.
A third.
A fourth…
One, two, three… tens… hundreds…
More and more figures rose from behind broken shelters, from beside the bodies of their comrades—silent and resolute.
They were wounded, their uniforms ragged, faces full of fatigue and grime.
But their eyes shone like stars lighting up one by one on the position, burning with the same light—awakening, calm, and the unsullied pride and loyalty of a soldier!
The young soldier who stood up first looked at his battalion commander and grinned.
His cracked lips stretched into a smile that might not have been beautiful, but was incredibly bright and pure.
It was blindingly radiant on his dirty face.
He shouted loudly, his voice trembling with excitement but exceptionally clear.
“Commander!”
“Our 103rd Division…”
He paused, exchanged glances with all the brothers standing around him, and then, using all the strength in his body, roared out the oath carved into their bones.
“Has no cowards!!!”