Chapter 61: Willpower
“Hold the line, everyone! Block them!” The eldest brother stood at the absolute front, brandishing his sword as his voice boomed across the battlefield.
Behind him, the rest of the sect disciples lunged into action. Any feral beast that managed to claw its way to the perimeter was cut down instantly.
Though everyone looked highly motivated on the surface, the brutal clash had already raged for a full day and night. The high morale was nothing but a fragile mask; in reality, no one dared to slacken for even a second, terrified that a single weak link would cause the entire defense to collapse.
The inner disciples were especially pushing their physical limits, their muscles tightly coiled. Aside from the eldest senior brother, who was the solitary Master-tier expert on the field, the inner disciples were anchoring the vanguard. Because they were vastly outnumbered by the outer disciples, maintaining absolute concentration for a continuous twenty-four hours had left their nerves completely fried.
When they finally slaughtered the last creature of this wave, a heavy silence fell over the perimeter.
Lu Yunxi glanced at the floating text above her senior brother’s head not far away—[Level 80]—before stiffly rotating her wrists and allowing herself a moment to relax. Thank goodness the strongest of the inner sect leaders had stayed behind to anchor the defenses. If they had been left with only ordinary inner disciples, the feral horde would have breached the sect’s barriers hours ago.
“Senior brothers, senior sisters! Come and get some food!” A few menial disciples came jogging out from the rear, carrying heavy baskets of steamed buns. Oblivious to the sweat pouring down their own faces, they began distributing the rations one by one.
Yunxi pressed a hand to her stomach, suddenly realizing she was famished. While the beasts had been charging in an endless, maddened torrent, survival instincts had completely overridden her hunger. Now that the immediate threat had cleared, her appetite returned with a vengeance.
“Everyone, eat up and regain your strength,” the eldest senior brother called out, pacing the perimeter. Once he confirmed that the immediate danger had passed, he finally sat down himself. “We won’t have a spare second to chew once the next wave hits.”
Meanwhile, a few outer disciples scrambled to bring out the sect’s reserve armor pieces, quickly replacing the shattered and damaged gear of the frontline inner disciples. For a moment, the staging ground outside the gates was a scene of chaotic industry—some were frantically eating, others were stripping off broken plate armor, and the air was thick with tension.
Because Yunxi specialized in long-range archery, she had been systematically picking off the beasts from a safe distance. Having avoided any direct damage, she simply cleared a small patch of dirt and sat down, picking up a default steamed bun to take a bite.
Wow… the food from the free cafeteria is still completely unpalatable.
She choked instantly, coughing violently as she pounded her chest to force down the bite. The bun was so dense and rock-hard it could have been used as a lethal throwing weapon. It was entirely devoid of flavor, tasted terrible, and had the texture of solid clay. It simply wasn’t fit for human consumption!
Staring at the remaining half of the bun in her hand, her brows furrowed tightly. After a long moment of disgust, she looked over at the menial disciples frantically bumbling around a makeshift iron stove in the distance, falling into deep thought.
“The fire is way too hot! It’s smoking everywhere! This is terrifying! Quick, pull some firewood out before the whole thing explodes!”
“Don’t pull the wood out, everyone is starving! Just… pour the oil, pour the oil right now!”
“No! There’s still freezing cold water in the pot, don’t add the oil yet!”
Loud, crackling pops echoed from the makeshift kitchen area as the panicked menial disciples shrieked and ran around in circles.
The eldest senior brother watched their antics, the grim expression on his face softening slightly. Amused by the chaos, he offered some comfort to the ranks. “Take it easy. Based on past patterns, we should have a three-hour window before the next wave hits. Everyone, use this time to get some proper rest.”
Yunxi’s hand paused. Another wave is coming?
She decided she couldn’t afford to be lazy any longer; she needed to step in and prepare real sustenance. Her master-tier cooking skills were exceptionally potent, capable of rapidly restoring both health and mana bars. If her fellow disciples ran out of stamina and collapsed from exhaustion, there was no way she could stop an overwhelming horde entirely on her own. Besides, any monster killed by her peers still funneled a passive share of experience points directly into her account.
Making up her mind, she rolled up her sleeves, marched over to the hearth, and gently nudged a frantic disciple aside. “Let me take over.”
The menial disciples froze, waving their hands in a panic. “Senior Sister, you’ve been fighting out on the front lines to protect us! You’re already exhausted. You shouldn’t be worrying about trivial chores like this. Please, go rest!”
“The food I cook actively replenishes vitality and energy. Can your buns do that?”
“Uh…”
Unable to counter her logic, the group could only stand back and watch her manipulate the ingredients.
To prioritize speed and efficiency, Yunxi kept the menu straightforward, opting to manufacture large batches of meat and vegetable buns to ensure both health and mana pools were fully covered.
As she brought the water to a flawless boil, the onlookers watched with bated breath.
As her fingers flew, kneading the dough with practiced ease, expressions of awe began to ripple through the crowd.
By the time she began wrapping the fillings—shaping the dough into immaculate, beautifully pleated buns with a few deft twists—the disciples’ jaws dropped completely.
The exact microsecond the steamer lids were lifted, an intoxicating aroma swept across the staging ground. Whether the wounded disciples were collapsed on the grass or standing guard along the barricades, the moment the scent hit their nostrils, the fog of exhaustion instantly lifted from their minds.
“What is that heavenly smell?”
“We actually have a culinary master on the front lines? This is beautiful!” A particularly quick-witted outer disciple snatched a bun fresh from the rack, tossing it between his palms to cool it down before taking a massive, reckless bite.
The rest of the crowd snapped out of their daze and frantically swarmed the station.
“You didn’t even wait for me! Are we even friends?!”
“Is it really that good? Let me try! I didn’t know food like this existed in the mortal realm!”
“I’ve officially decided that from this day forward, steamed buns are my absolute favorite thing in the world!”
The disciples aggressively scrambled for the freshly baked rations. As the food settled into their stomachs, their depleted health and mana bars violently surged back to maximum, instantly re-energizing their tired frames. After eating their fill, the frontline fighters slumped back against the barricades, cradling their stomachs with sighs of profound relief. Because the outer disciples were numerous, they began organizing a rotation schedule, leaving a vanguard to keep watch while the rest slept.
Yunxi, thoroughly drained, also closed her eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.
Boom! Boom!
The heavy vibrations traveling through the earth caused the sleeping inner disciples to snap their eyes open. They vaulted to their feet, staring intently into the distance.
A massive, churning cloud of dust was rising on the horizon. Through the haze, a sprawling horde of red-eyed beasts was charging toward the gates in a maddened frenzy.
They had been asleep for barely thirty minutes before the next wave materialized!
The eldest senior brother’s brow furrowed so tightly it could have crushed a fly. “How is this possible?! The intervals between waves have never been this brief in previous cycles!”
But despite their profound shock, their reflexes were flawless. Every disciple snatched a handful of Yunxi’s premium buns, sprinting back to their designated defense sectors.
Backed by the stat attributes of her master-tier cooking, the physical strain of this engagement was vastly more manageable than the previous day. However, while their physical bodies weren’t breaking down, their mental fatigue was scaling dangerously. The psychological weight of non-stop, mechanical slaughter without a single window for prolonged rest was becoming agonizing.
At this moment, Yunxi was incredibly grateful to her eccentric master for gifting her that Orange-grade bow. The true marvel of the weapon was its lack of a physical quiver; the moment her fingers pulled back the string, arrows of pure, condensed light coalesced automatically. The structural damage output was astronomical, completely eclipsing her old wooden starter bow.
Shielded by her high-tier disciple suit and utilizing her ranged advantage, she remained completely unscathed, barely needing to consume her own consumables.
Yet, as they repelled wave after wave of the relentless onslaught, Yunxi suddenly registered a strange notification flashing on her user interface.
A new status condition had manifested on her panel:
[Status Debuff: Impending Hairline Recession]
Description: Prolonged sleep deprivation causes severe metabolic harm to your hair follicles. Operating for more than five consecutive days without biological rest triggers localized balding. Early to bed and early to rise ensures systemic longevity!
Yunxi’s hand began to tremble. She reached up and nervously ran her fingers through her hair. While her scalp didn’t show visible patches yet, a alarming clump of loose strands came away in her palm.
Oh, no!
She screamed frantically in her mind. Having been thoroughly traumatized by the brutal “996” corporate grind in her previous life, the existential dread of overwork hit her with full force.
She glared at the incoming wave of monsters, an absolute, unbridled rage boiling over in her chest.
You made me lose hair. You’re all asking for death!
But no matter how furious she became, she couldn’t leave her post. Even a cluster of dozens of outer disciples couldn’t replace a single inner disciple when it came to holding off the higher-tier beasts. Each inner disciple was entirely responsible for a massive spatial sector, and the outer disciples were fully occupied clearing the stragglers behind them. There was no one available to relieve her.
“Look at Senior Sister Lu! Her stamina is terrifying! Everyone else is dragging their feet from exhaustion, but she’s only getting more aggressive!”
“Senior Sister Lu isn’t just an elite combatant, her cooking is god-tier. I wish I possessed even a fraction of her talent.”
“Wait… why did Senior Sister Lu suddenly halt? Is her stamina bar finally empty?”
“Let’s move in to reinforce her!”
Before the beasts could even touch her line, however, Yunxi unleashed a rapid sequence of arrows, obliterating the frontline threats in a flash. Her focus was entirely locked onto her system interface.
Just a moment ago, she had noticed that executing the monsters had suddenly become significantly easier, as if a massive weight had been lifted from her attributes. She had initially assumed she had triggered a level breakthrough.
Instead, peering deep into her hidden statistics, she discovered an entirely unfamiliar attribute node:
[Vow Power: 118]
What on earth is Vow Power?
