For the Sake of Hope

Contrary to what the fleeing Sandfolk leaders suspected, Hesen the Grand Elder wasn't dead. In fact, he was in pretty good health.

He was a three-ring psychic, the Sandfolk's strongest fighter and the strongest on the planet. He had at least a few ways to save his own skin.

His psychic talent gave him extraordinary perception, allowing him to sense the approaching danger at once and swiftly cast a psychic spell. A giant stone golem erupted from the ground, shielding him beneath it in the camp. The next instant, a deafening explosion overwhelmed his hearing through the golem's solid stone body. Then came scorching heat and a shockwave that tore through his scales like a blade, reaching deep into his muscles and bones. He felt pain everywhere. His organs churned, and it seemed the blood in his veins was about to boil dry.

In fact, if Hesen hadn't already unlocked the third ring of his astral chart and become a powerful psychic, his body would have been no more than mortal, and all of the above would have happened.

After the agony and a brief spell of bewilderment, he gradually realized he was under artillery fire. And not just any artillery fire—it was coming from Alchi Heights.

Had the mercenaries rebelled? That was the Grand Elder's first thought. Had there been an accident during the test firing? No, someone was staging a coup! Yes, there were far too many city-state "kings" and tribal "khans" who couldn't stand him! Had they finally decided to make their move? Someone must have bribed those greedy goblins, always eager for money.

But it couldn't be. It really couldn't! Even if they were going to attack, they should have waited until the Tulong garrison was completely crushed! You short-sighted fools—you're hopeless at plotting!

For a long time, the Grand Elder never even considered the possibility that the "heavy artillery positions had been seized by the Earthlings." That was understandable. Hesen wasn't a military expert who'd undergone rigorous training and intensive study, nor was he some born general with extraordinary instincts. After all, he had an army of a million. It was hard to imagine anyone slipping through his army's defenses, seizing all the heavy guns, then turning them on his own forces.

The heavy artillery kept bombarding the camp for who knew how many rounds. Just as the Grand Elder thought he was really going to die beneath the rubble, someone finally dug through the shattered stone golem and pulled him out.

"Teacher! Thank goodness... You're alive! Thank goodness!"

It took the Grand Elder a few seconds to come around. His vision slowly shifted from murky to blurry. His shaking field of view, the dazzling light and heat all around him, and the constant thunder of explosions still overwhelmed most of Hesen's senses, but at least he could make out who was in front of him.

"Mi Xun..."

The Grand Elder's most prized disciple let out a long breath. The fact that her teacher recognized her meant he wasn't dead and didn't seem to have lost his mind, either. She quickly reached out to help him up.

The Grand Elder bared his teeth and sucked in a breath, forcing himself to endure the pain as he looked around. He still couldn't make anything out. "What happened? Did someone rebel? Hanlat? Jame? Or someone else...?"

Mi Xun shouted, "Teacher, the Earthlings have taken our heavy artillery positions!"

Hesen stared blankly for a second, then shook his head. "Th-that's impossible! We..."

"Teacher, it's already happened! And the garrison inside Tulong Harbor has sortied, too! Our forces are in full retreat! Please, you have to decide what we do!"

The Grand Elder froze again for a second, then suddenly bit down hard on his tongue, forcing the confusion from his mind. He got to his feet and rasped, "Where are the others? Feng Quan?"

Mi Xun lowered her head, her expression heavy.

By "the others," the Grand Elder didn't mean the forces belonging to the other lords and chieftains. He meant the thousand-man guard personally led by his disciples—probably the most organized unit the Sandfolk had ever assembled. As the Grand Elder's guard, they were stationed around the main camp, naturally making them the first targets of the bombardment.

"I see..." The Grand Elder looked at Mi Xun, who was also covered in wounds, and sighed.

"Teacher, most of our people are fleeing. There's no saving this situation. But as long as we're alive, there's still a chance!" Mi Xun said.

Hesen gritted his teeth and nodded. "Yes, there's still a chance! Let's go... Ugh, wait, Mi Xun, where's Kazhan? Have you seen him?"

Mi Xun shook her head. She'd been knocked out just moments ago, too. The first thing she'd done after waking was dig Hesen out. How could she have spared a thought for anyone else?

"We have to save him! He's the future! We're going to him!" Hesen said.

Mi Xun naturally had no objections. Her teacher was like a god to her, and she also had a little motive of her own.

She helped her teacher up and looked around. To her surprise, a large raptor lay nearby, barely alive. Mi Xun hurried over and poured her psychic energy into its body. She was a "believer" and planned to develop along one of the branches of the "Purity" ring.

Her abilities focused on repair, healing, infection, and encouragement. In other words, she was a healer. Of course, she was only at the first ring, so she couldn't bring the dead back to life or restore the flesh on someone's bones. At most, she could use her psychic energy to unleash all of someone's vitality at once, temporarily restoring their ability to move.

Mi Xun helped the Grand Elder onto the raptor's back, picked a direction, and prepared to head toward Kazhan's encampment. But the two of them had barely gone a short distance when they collided with a large crowd of Sandfolk retreating toward them.

"Stop! Stop! Turn around and fight! You are the children of Wanu! You are the masters of this planet! Take up your weapons! Turn back and fight! Why are you running? Why are you running in front of your mentor?"

The young Mi Xun stood on the raptor's back, shouting at them. But the roar of artillery and gunfire drowned out her voice. The panicked Sandfolk could barely see the road ahead. They only knew to flee with the crowd like walking corpses, so they didn't notice Mi Xun and the others.

"You cowards! Stop right there!" Mi Xun roared. Her psychic words, formed from condensed psychic energy, burst out like a clap of thunder from nowhere, completely drowning out the artillery for a moment. Quite a few Sandfolk were caught by surprise and actually snapped out of their panic.

"L-Lady Mi Xun?"

"The Grand Elder!"

"It's the Grand Elder!"

The Sandfolk who came to their senses saw Hesen on the raptor's back. They immediately overlooked the fact that he was clearly gravely wounded and barely conscious. Many of them threw themselves to the ground and began kowtowing.

"Grand Elder, save us!"

"Save everyone!"

"Please, guide us again!"

More and more fleeing Sandfolk stopped. Even in a civilized society, people followed the herd. They might flee because others were running, but they could also find their courage again when they saw someone going against the tide.

Hesen looked at Mi Xun with approval. Without his prized disciple turning the tide with her psychic words, he, the Grand Elder and a three-ring "wizard," might have been as helpless before the retreating soldiers as a dead tree in a flood.

A higher ring didn't necessarily mean greater strength, let alone that someone was all-powerful. In the right circumstances, an awakened novice with the right abilities might prove more useful than a master or even a saint.

The Grand Elder felt he really ought to give serious thought to how different psychics could be used in war. But this kind of "high-level" strategy seemed far beyond the Sandfolk for now.

"Get up and form ranks at once! Which of you have served as officers? Get up and organize the troops!" Hesen shouted.

There really were a few officers among the fleeing soldiers, including a warrior captain and a centurion—the highest-ranking military officers under the "kings" and "khans." Encouraged by the Grand Elder and Mi Xun, they finally got to work. Unfortunately, they weren't the sort of geniuses who could bring an army together or scatter it at will. It took them nearly fifteen minutes to reorganize about five hundred soldiers.

Still a rabble... The Grand Elder discreetly shook his head. He supposed it was better than nothing.

He didn't expect to lead this lot in a counterattack. If he could protect himself and rescue Kazhan, then use that as a foundation to rally the fleeing troops, he wouldn't have lost everything.

"We..." The Grand Elder was about to give everyone a pep talk when crimson beams began raining down on the crowd. Many Sandfolk were pierced by the scorching beams on the spot, their innards and muscles vaporized through the holes. But when the beams struck the ground, they exploded, sending shockwaves surging outward and tearing into the bodies of the Sandfolk around them.

The Sandfolk had only just recovered a little courage, and now they vanished like soap bubbles tossed into a raging fire. This time, though, there was no psychic cry to restore their morale.

Another chain of energy bolts exploded near the raptor, knocking the two on its back to the ground.

Fortunately, Hesen had recovered a little strength by then. He gathered air with his psychic energy and softened the fall for himself and Mi Xun, so they weren't badly hurt when they landed. Through the panicked crowd, he finally caught sight of a figure in power armor in the distance, along with a "Divine Guardian" tank.

"Divine Guardian" was the official name the Sandfolk lords had agreed on for their "Frankenstein" tanks. It sounded impressive, but the tanks were essentially toys cobbled together from parts made by different countries.

Hesen knew, of course, that tanks of this quality wouldn't even be considered fit for service in the galactic heartland. But he also knew that they were still the most powerful weapons of war on this remote planet.

Whatever else could be said, they were proper tanks with armor, shields, and ion cannons. They were at least far more powerful than the Black Panther vehicles in the hands of the security forces.

He had persuaded the various tribes and city-states to scrape together every last coin and buy two hundred of them from those "partners." He'd always believed they would be the trump card that broke through Tulong's defenses. Yet so far, the tanks had killed far fewer enemies than they'd crushed allies. And now that they'd fallen into enemy hands, they'd become a nightmare for his own forces.

"We should've listened to Kazhan. Once we got the tanks, we should've trained for at least a year and formed a separate unit before we could make them combat-ready!" Hesen gritted his teeth, then grabbed Mi Xun and hauled her up.

"Quick, go find Kazhan!"

"B-but, Teacher!"

"Go! I'll hold them off!"

Mi Xun was on the verge of tears, but her mentor had already shoved her away. By the time she came to her senses, she'd been carried a hundred meters away by psychic energy.

"Remember! He's the future! Help him! Support him! Give us hope!" Hesen's final command to his disciple was to charge without hesitation toward the direction the enemy was coming from.