CHAPTER 408: CHAPTER 408 TRAPPED IN A HEAVY ENCIRCLEMENT

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—

Wang Lan stood rooted to the spot, utterly dumbfounded. When had he ever been in a situation like this? He had barely raised his hands, not yet having had the chance to mobilize his Star Power, when the experts beside him unleashed a torrent of attacks.

Hadn’t he always been the one at the forefront? Wasn’t he always the one to land the first decisive blow? Yet, this time, he felt like a mere child. The speed at which these people struck—how many years of bachelorhood would one need to cultivate such reflexes? In almost the blink of an eye, a vast number of the Exotic Beasts before them lay dead.

The group surged forward instantly, maintaining their full-speed sprint. The dense swarm of Exotic Beasts ahead not only failed to hinder their pace but couldn’t even manage to slow them down.

Even though many Exotic Beasts ahead possessed Star Sea realm strength, it was all futile. After all, among the hundred Star Martial Warriors, not one was merely in the early stages of the Star Sea realm...

No, that wasn’t quite right; there were two Lower Ninjas mixed in with the group of elite Upper Ninjas. But Wang Lan and Yu Ruoyun were essentially just tagging along. They’d be doing exceptionally well just to keep up.

BOOM—

A deafening explosion ripped through the air as the distant ground suddenly caved in, bringing their charge to an abrupt halt.

The ground before them collapsed on a massive scale. As the land gave way, a towering plume of dust and debris rose, and from within it, a beastly roar echoed, seemingly from a desolate, ancient era.

A colossal beast emerged from the collapsed earth. Standing tall, it made Wang Lan and the others at its feet seem no larger than grasshoppers. The beast violently lifted its foot and stomped down towards the crowd.

The Star Martial Warriors scattered instantly. As the beast’s foot crashed down, the earth trembled violently, and even the sky seemed to shudder. Wang Lan’s figure flickered out from his Dance of the Dark Butterfly.

Before he could fully assess the situation, he saw Zuo Ming, Qi Hu the Star Traveller, and another figure already encircling the giant beast in a triangular formation.

"Tai’a Sword!" Zuo Ming’s right hand thrust towards the heavens, and a gigantic, transparent sword shot skyward. The sword was immense, easily a hundred meters long.

"Comet Fall—"

"Tiger Roar Explosive Flame Fist—"

Three attacks rained down simultaneously. The mammoth-like Exotic Beast didn’t even have time to unleash an opening roar before it was blasted away by the onslaught. Its enormous body flew back a thousand meters before crashing into the forest, leaving a swathe of destruction in its wake.

"Wind Array, Autumn Wind Falling Leaves—"

The Vermilion Bird Squad struck the instant the three Titled Strongmen’s attacks landed. Fifty Star Sea realm experts joined forces to unleash a superb Star Martial Skill. The resulting Star Energy Fluctuation was so intense Wang Lan almost felt as if Star Power had condensed into a celestial river, pouring down from the sky.

Within the massive array, a violent wind carried a sky-obscuring barrage of wind blades hurtling into the distance. Everywhere it passed, hills were flattened, and forests turned to dust. The mammoth beast had just struggled to its feet when the fierce storm surged directly at its face.

Wang Lan quickly activated his Void Purple Eyes. To the naked eye, the mammoth beast’s flesh seemed to evaporate rapidly. As the Autumn Wind Falling Leaves swept past, the beast’s struggling skeleton disintegrated into flying ash, leaving only two defiant, skyward-pointing tusks as a testament to its fleeting existence...

The original landscape before them had been completely transformed; craters were filled, and the dense jungle had vanished. The entire mountain range looked as if a colossal bite had been taken out of it, leaving behind a massive, seemingly endless valley nearly eight hundred meters wide.

So... incredibly strong...

Wang Lan stared, his eyes wide with disbelief. He knew full well how powerful a giant beast could be. Previously, when he and Yu Ruoyun had both activated their Sublimation forms and combined their Star Power to achieve the Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious state, it had still taken a Herculean effort to defeat a single giant beast. But this one, from its appearance to its annihilation, hadn’t even lasted thirty seconds.

First, it was sent flying by the three Titled Strongmen, then obliterated in seconds by the Vermilion Bird Squad’s combined Star Martial Skill—reduced to nothing but dust.

Despite easily dispatching one giant beast, no one present looked relieved. With a hundred of them against one, an instant kill was expected. However, more than fifty such giant beasts remained.

ROAR—

BOOM—

The swift demise of the mammoth beast seemed to have agitated the giants lurking deeper within. Accompanied by furious roars, Exotic Beasts began to emerge from every corner—some from behind mountain peaks, others from deep within the earth, some descending from the sky, and still others erupting from lakes.

The sight of one giant beast was terrifying enough; the appearance of fifty giant beasts at once was simply overwhelming. Even a legendary, battle-hardened unit like the Vermilion Bird Squad was momentarily stunned.

"Engage in your designated teams! Kill if you can; if not, tie them down! Old Zuo, Old Qi, we’ll handle targeted elimination!" a voice commanded.

"Understood!"

There was no probing, no feint. Almost instantly, the beasts’ attacks rained down like a torrential bombardment.

At that moment, Wang Lan finally understood what those Exotic Beasts they had slaughtered along their path must have felt.

A single, exasperated thought—*This is bullshit!*—said more than a thousand words could.

Elemental Balls the size of houses danced through the sky. It wasn’t enough to simply avoid a direct hit; the shockwaves from their explosions alone could cripple you.

Almost instantly, casualties occurred.

"Ruoyun, go all out—now!" Wang Lan roared urgently, activating his Phoenix Form in an instant.

If he didn’t activate his Phoenix Form, Wang Lan wouldn’t even be able to cope with the current onslaught from the Exotic Beasts. His normal strength was only equivalent to the mid to late stages of the Star Sea realm.

While the Phoenix Form’s enhancement was no longer as transformative as it once was, it could still boost Wang Lan’s strength to the Star Sea realm. Coupled with his speed advantage, he instantly swept through, moving several critically injured comrades to relatively safer ground.

He activated Life Light, connecting Life Lock Chains. Within a dozen breaths, the ten most severely injured comrades were restored to full health. Wang Lan then continued his search and rescue efforts while the Star Martial Warriors still capable of fighting launched counterattacks to hold back the Exotic Beasts’ bombardment.

In this chaotic melee, Wang Lan’s Dance of the Dark Butterfly was pushed to its absolute limits. Whenever an attack landed, he would dissolve into Nether Butterflies and disperse. As long as a single Nether Butterfly reached a safe spot, Wang Lan could reappear there.

Yet, despite Wang Lan’s desperate efforts to save his comrades, several had already fallen, never to return to their loved ones. Wang Lan could heal even the gravest injuries, but he couldn’t save those who had already crossed the threshold of death.

Combat was a brutal exchange; the humans couldn’t expect to annihilate an Exotic Beast in one fell swoop without the beasts launching their own terrifying counteroffensive. The collective assault of more than fifty giant beasts had left the human forces reeling.

If the three Titled Strongmen hadn’t combined forces to block half of the assault, it would have been a miracle if even fifty of the hundred humans survived.

Although this group of Exotic Beasts didn’t seem to move quickly, their positioning revealed they could have easily rescued the mammoth beast earlier. However, they had allowed the mammoth to be overwhelmed by the attacks, merely to buy themselves enough time to set up this devastating bombardment.

Under such indiscriminate bombardment, survival depended solely on one’s ability to dodge or block; cowering in a corner hoping to escape the onslaught was a death sentence.

After a round of bombing, the area within a five-kilometer radius had been completely leveled. Surveying the charred ground, the group of Exotic Beasts unexpectedly revealed disturbingly human-like grins.

ROAR—

ROAR—

BOOM—

Suddenly, a beam attack struck an Exotic Beast on the forehead, making its head buzz. The other giant beasts immediately looked up to see five humans who had appeared out of nowhere, adopting a formation for a combined attack.

Just five of them? No problem, they’ll soon be...

Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed. An intense premonition of danger struck the hearts of the targeted Exotic Beasts. They hastily leaped aside to evade or activated their Talented Skills to resist.

WHOOSH— With a sound like tearing air, Zuo Ming and Qi Hu, transformed into streaks of light, shot past an Exotic Beast. The beast’s body suddenly gushed green blood and split into four pieces, toppling slowly like a felled mountain.

One by one, human Star Martial Warriors emerged, attacking the giant beasts from various positions. Although the humans were tiny in comparison, attacks from peak Star Sea realm warriors were already formidable. Attacks from Titled Strongmen, in particular, could be fatal if a beast reacted even a fraction too slowly.

A continuous barrage of large-scale attacks suddenly erupted, forcing the giant beasts to scatter. The Star Martial Warriors pressed their advantage, unleashing dazzling Star Martial Skills that bloomed like fireworks in the sky. However, for the Exotic Beasts, the power of these skills was often only enough to cause pain, not significant injury.

After one round of bombardment, the major Exotic Beasts had dispersed as much as possible, the closest two now separated by at least five hundred meters.

The recovering Exotic Beasts stared in stupefaction. The number of humans before them... hadn’t seemed to decrease much at all?

Damn it! We bombarded them for so long and didn’t even clear out half of them? Are this generation’s human Star Martial Warriors really that strong?

"Excellent! All teams, execute Plan B!"

"Understood—"

Fierce fighting erupted on all fronts. The Exotic Beasts had their advantages: vast reserves of Star Power, terrifying attack range, thick hides, and incredible resilience. Human Star Martial Warriors, on the other hand, boasted high damage output, smaller individual targets, and superior agility.

When the battle began, it was almost an even match. A team of five Star Sea realm Star Martial Warriors could barely hold its own against a single giant beast. However, while there were fifty giant beasts, the humans didn’t have fifty such teams.

Originally, individuals like Zuo Ming could handle one Exotic Beast each, but dealing with two was extremely taxing. Currently, Zuo Ming and the other two Titled Strongmen were simultaneously holding back seven giant beasts. The battle appeared to be a stalemate, but in reality, Wang Lan’s side was at a severe disadvantage.

As the fight wore on, this disadvantage would only grow. Moreover, the giant Exotic Beasts relentlessly tried to regroup. If they succeeded, their combined might would be like an overwhelming, unstoppable force.

"Ruoyun, don’t worry about me! Go help the others—" Wang Lan suddenly shouted, clasping his hands together. "Mandala Flower—"

The Mandala Flower was not only an offensive Star Martial Skill but also a defensive one. Wang Lan trusted that Yu Ruoyun would understand his intention.

"Injured brothers, throw them over to me—" Wang Lan bellowed.

The words had barely left his lips when a member of the Vermilion Bird Squad roughly tossed a severely wounded comrade towards him. Blood arced through the air, and in the blink of an eye, the injured warrior landed above the Mandala Flower. Vines from the Mandala Flower instantly shot out, ensnaring the warrior and delivering him to Wang Lan, who immediately connected a Life Lock Chain.