The creature’s roar was akin to a rally bugle cry. The entire underground world came to life—countless insects crawled out of the ground and flew toward the door in the form of a bug cloud. The smaller pegmat.i.te crocodiles appeared like the rising tides and approached in groups. In addition to swarms of insects from the two hives, more of them burst out from the cave walls to join the fray.

No one had expected a hidden bug hive. One more nest signified hundreds of insects, dozens of elite bugs with different abilities, and one or more insect kings like the silvery creature from before, capable of contending against a rank fifteen champion.

In the blink of an eye, the bugs and beasts arrived like a tide.

At this point, even Elder Wei could hardly remain calm. He could spare no attention to catch the culprit who had secretly lured the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile into battle. He directly overrode Anderfel’s authority and ordered the latter’s men into a defensive formation.

This formation was fairly odd and full of openings. Anderfel wanted to remind the elder but was afraid he would embarra.s.s the old man. Then again, how important could prestige be in a life or death situation?

The tide of beasts and bugs arrived while he was hesitating, and it was already too late to adjust the formation now.

Elder Wei fished out an ancient scroll and flipped through it rapidly while muttering some incantation. Shades of radiance shot out from each page of the tome and landed in different places within the ranks, actually forming a powerful formation in the blink of an eye!

Soldiers in different parts of the formation saw their power increase accordingly—an origin s.h.i.+eld formed around some of them, others received upgrades to their speed and reaction, while some found their origin guns glowing with increased firepower.

The openings in the defense were quickly covered up as the formation came into play. The different troops matched well in terms of attack and defense, with no gap whatsoever between them. The soldiers roared in unison as countless origin bullets formed a stream of flames that dug out an opening in the beast horde, momentarily stemming the torrential a.s.sault.

However, this opening was almost negligible compared to the entire swarm. The cloud of insects quickly filled the defective battlefront and continued a.s.sailing the enemy like a tsunami.

In the blink of an eye, Elder Wei’s group was surrounded on all sides. The hundred-men group in the middle was like a boat being tossed about by the tides, yet the formation stood firm against the deluge of beasts and bugs. The front row soldiers whipped out their swords and, under the cover of the origin s.h.i.+elds, cut down the incoming creatures in swathes. The rear line fired with all their might to weaken the enemy a.s.sault.

Even so, the horde was simply too big and every wave killed would be replaced by another. The high-ranking soldiers, on the other hand, couldn’t hold out that long.

At this moment, a streak of lightning illuminated the entire underground world. With an explosive shout, Caroline rushed into the air and lashed fiercely at the front lines with her seven-meter whip!

Countless arcs of electricity condensed into a dragon and crawled hundreds of meters forward, killing everything in its wake. Droves of insects were burnt to a crisp under the might of this lightning, while the beasts were either charred black or burst into flames. Only a couple of extremely powerful pegmat.i.te crocodiles continued to crawl forward, albeit at a slower pace.

Caroline’s attack had produced a clearing in the field that was over a hundred meters long and a dozen wide. The might of a divine champion was indeed extraordinary.

The giant pegmat.i.te crocodile was enraged. The creature bulged up as it took a deep breath and shot out several pieces of crystal in Caroline’s direction. The projectiles were as swift as lightning, arriving almost in the blink of an eye!

Caroline’s expression s.h.i.+fted drastically as she pulled her whip back to defend, wrapping the weapon right around the incoming crystals. Then, with a jolt of her power, arcs of lightning burst out in all directions to shatter the crystalline bullets. However, two of the projectiles managed to escape destruction and made right for her heart!

Ashen faced, Caroline braced her chest and abdomen, ready to take the incoming blow. It was at this time that an origin-power s.h.i.+eld appeared between her and the approaching danger. With a bang, both the s.h.i.+eld and incoming projectiles shattered at the same time. The shockwave from the explosion blew Caroline’s long hair into disarray and covered her body in crystal powder.

A sorry figure was nothing compared to a heavy injury. Terrified after surviving a calamity, Caroline shouted, “Thanks, old man.”

“This big monster is more powerful than either of us, do not be careless!” Elder Wei’s voice was just as calm.

The fight grew ever more intense, and the two sides fell into an impa.s.se. Caroline flew around the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile, las.h.i.+ng repeatedly with her Thunderous Whip. The crystals on the creature’s body were all weapons—they shot toward the flying divine champion like a rain of arrows.

Elder Wei supplied Caroline with various buffs, increasing her speed and the damage of her Thunderous Whip. Three origin barriers rotated around her, blocking the crystalline projectiles she couldn’t dodge. Whenever one of them was shattered, Elder Wei would add one more to her stock.

With all those upgrades in place, Caroline’s combat strength increased by almost fifty percent and was momentarily on par with the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile.

Caroline was extremely nimble and managed to dodge nine out of ten arrows fired by the giant creature. She planned to fight a battle of attrition with the enemy, reducing her own attacks while baiting the opponent to fire more crystalline projectiles.

However, the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile’s body was like a small mountain, and it would be a matter of days before the monster ran out of ammunition. The first to become exhausted would surely be Caroline.

After forming an initial judgment of the battle, Qianye paid more attention to the stealthed person, lest she disrupts the fragile balance. Her aura had leaked out during the repeated episodes of shock, allowing Qianye to confirm that this was indeed Bluemoon.

At this point, she was moving toward the other end of the cavern and away from the battle. It would seem she had no intention of interfering in this fight. That was an intelligent move because this was not a battle she could jump into. In a divine-champion-level fight, the shockwaves alone were enough to force her into a corner.

Anderfel and Keimor had both joined the battle, and their powerful fighting power became the cornerstone of the entire defensive formation.

Qianye was in no rush to attack and merely kept on observing patiently. The key to this entire fight was Elder Wei. With him around, everyone’s power would increase—even a divine champion like Caroline had received a shocking fifty percent upgrade to her power. She alone could keep the giant monster in check while Anderfel and Keimor took advantage of this opening to kill the powerful beasts. As for the ordinary creatures and bugs, they were left for the high-ranking warriors to clean up.

The entire fight proceeded in an orderly fas.h.i.+on. After a short while, the beast horde fell into disarray from all the casualties, and there were even some empty areas that they couldn’t fill up in time. At this rate, the sea of bugs would be cleared out after a while, and the two marquises would be able to join the a.s.sault on the pegmat.i.te crocodile.

Qianye remained still and observed the developments in silence. That was because the scroll in Elder Wei’s hand had already run out of pages.

Caroline noticed the impending danger. “Old man, can you still go on? This fellow’s skin is too thick, I don’t think I can wear him down.”

Elder Wei was still calm. “Don’t worry, I still have some cards left to play.”

He put the remaining pages away, fished out an ancient envelope and, from it, a letter. The paper was filled with a dense array of unintelligible words. Elder Wei adjusted his clothes before unfolding the paper ceremoniously.

Most of the buffs on Caroline had worn off during this delay. She was in quite the precarious situation amidst the barrage of crystalline arrows and had no opportunity to retaliate. “What are you delaying for? You guys can forget about leaving this place alive once I die.”

Elder Wei said in a solemn voice, “One does not treat a saint’s item lightly.”

At this moment, the letter in his hands erupted with dazzling light, and a powerful origin power aura spread out in all directions. Qianye was bewildered—did that letter really belong to a saint? Qianye could be considered quite knowledgeable at this point, but he had never heard of this kind of item.

Just as Elder Wei pointed at the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile, the paper streaked across a thousand meters and vanished into its forehead.

The giant crocodile let out a mournful howl as its upper body swung backward, almost as though it were standing up and flailing about. All of a sudden, the creature’s back exploded in a shower of crystal and flesh. A terrifying wound had appeared there, one that was several meters wide and so deep that one couldn’t see its bottom.

That letter flew out from the wound. It was now devoid of light and had become an ordinary sheet of paper. Soon afterward, it ignited into a cloud of dark fumes and disappeared.

Qianye was stunned by the scene. It was indeed hard to believe that a single letter would possess such frightening power. He would’ve been blasted into mincemeat had that letter come for him instead.

Caroline was also shocked at Elder Wei’s trump card. Her current gaze toward him contained less arrogance and more apprehension. She would’ve been gravely injured if this paper had struck her, and with how fast it could travel, Caroline wasn’t really confident that she could evade it, either.

Enraged after receiving heavy injuries, the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile lunged forward all of a sudden. Caroline pulled back immediately and dodged the attack, but unexpectedly, the creature spat a giant ball of crystal at her—the projectile was several meters in size and rumbled toward her like a cannon sh.e.l.l.

Without enough time to maneuver, Caroline was blown away like a broken-stringed kite. She traveled over a hundred meters before stabilizing her body and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Elder Wei was surprised—if this giant pegmat.i.te crocodile had fired at their formation, most of the soldiers would be destroyed. Whether or not Anderfel and Keimor could dodge was up to their luck. Fortunately, the enraged monster was currently fixated on Caroline—the strongest of the lot and closest to it—and that spared everyone from the disaster.

“The animal has no more power to seal the door, we’ll head in first. Caroline, you restrain it for a while, then follow us in.”

No one objected to Elder Wei’s plan. Caroline’s injury wasn’t serious, and she still had the ability to protect herself against the giant crystalline reptile. With her attracting its attention, the others would have a chance to enter the doors.

It was just that a safe retreat in the sea of beasts and bugs wasn’t an easy feat, either. Under Elder Wei’s leaders.h.i.+p, the entire squad pushed back against the enemy attacks and began moving slowly toward the door. At this point in the battle, casualties had started to pile up among the soldiers, and both Anderfel and Keimor had sustained injuries.

The fight was arduous but still within Elder Wei’s grasp. He not only bolstered his own men but also weakened the enemy horde. A wide beam of light would fly out from time to time, covering the beasts and bugs in a deep yellow light. This slowed down their movements and reaction, almost as though they had fallen into a swamp.

Anderfel was an experienced fighter. Under his command, the soldiers did their best to injure the beasts instead of killing them. The wounded creatures would usually go into an indiscriminate frenzy, blocking the path of the beasts behind them.

Everything was going according to plan and the group was about to enter the giant doors. Qianye finally felt that the time was ripe—he flew up like a bird and swooped toward Elder Wei’s group.