Yefutidaolu

Chapter 320 Minced Meat
"You bastard—!" Jin Dafu roared, his voice a mixture of pain and rage.

But the sacrifice of the Qilin tribe has won the border a crucial and fleeting respite!

In that brief moment when Jin Dafu's power backfired and his impact was forcibly interrupted—

Om-!
On the border city wall, the protective array that had just been hastily lit up and whose runes flowed had finally completed its final energy convergence! The light, which had been somewhat flickering and unstable, suddenly became incredibly solid and heavy! Countless profound runes moved and combined rapidly on the light screen like living things, constructing layers of indestructible energy barriers!
The enormous array of light curtains resembled an inverted giant glass bowl, exuding an aura of grandeur, antiquity, and stability like a mountain, firmly protecting the entire section of the city wall!
Boom-! ! ! !

Jin Dafu's "Destruction Golden Sun," now greatly weakened and unstable, still crashed hard into the already formed city-protecting formation!
A deafening roar erupted! Blinding light flashed, and turbulent energy surged outwards like a storm!
However, the outcome was completely different!
The light barrier of the city's protective formation fluctuated violently and dented, the runes on its surface flickered wildly, and even some tiny cracks appeared, but in the end, it held on!

It wasn't pierced through in one strike! The devastating impact was dispersed, absorbed, and neutralized by the layers of array energy. Although the city wall near the impact point shook violently, with bricks and stones falling, the overall structure remained stable!

As the smoke and turbulent energy dissipated, the protective array on the city wall, though cracked, still stood stubbornly. Before the array stood Jin Dafu, a massive figure slightly disheveled from the backlash of power, his eyes filled with rage and astonishment. Behind him, Huang Chengshi and the others also had slightly disordered breathing due to the array's instability, their faces grim.

Between them and the city walls, on the ravaged land riddled with craters and traces of lava, only a few pools of glaring, still-warm crimson blood remained, along with the lingering, intense stench of blood and the aura of savagery. Those Qilin tribe experts who had shattered the destructive meteorite with their flesh and blood, in the most barbaric yet ingenious way, were now gone without a trace.

They risked their lives to accomplish the most impossible interception.

The meat grinder of the border was ultimately not smashed by brute force from the very beginning.

The defending forces gained the opportunity to hold their ground by relying on their formation, and a fierce war of attrition inevitably began.

On the city wall, the commander looked at the stubbornly standing light barrier, a flicker of relief flashing in his eyes, quickly turning into an even more resolute determination. He roared hoarsely, "Attack—before the breach! Stop them!"

The Hu people of the Qilin tribe, a group of uncivilized people who were despised as "only knowing brute force," actually stood up against a shocking attack that was enough to shake the combined forces of fourteen top cultivators at the most impossible moment, in the most impossible way, with their purest flesh and blood!

Like a group of silent meteorites burning with the flames of life, they crashed into the nascent torrent of destruction with savage wildness and a resolute determination to perish together, instantly turning the entire formation upside down! The overwhelming power that should have crushed everything was forcibly torn open with a bloody gash by these dozen or so savagely charging bodies!

Jin Dafu's rage was like solid magma, churning and exploding in his chest! The meticulously prepared "Golden Sun Formation" was brutally interrupted by a group of reckless barbarians with their bare hands. Not only did it fail to break through the border in one fell swoop, but it also caused a backlash against his own forces, dampened his morale, and allowed the defending army to fully deploy their formation! This was an utter disgrace!
"kill--!"

A roar that shattered the clouds burst forth from Jin Dafu's throat. In that case, for the remaining experts, there would be no more tactics; only one path remained!
His enormous, obese body stomped the ground with a sudden, violent stomp, no longer a charged attack but a pure, brutal trampling! With a deafening roar, the already ravaged ground beneath his feet collapsed once more, and he shot into the sky like a cannonball, carrying with him the still-vibrant martial energy, crashing fiercely into the shimmering, cracked yet still sturdy light barrier of the city's protective array!
"Follow me to break through the city!" Huang Chengshi's originally calm voice suddenly became sharp as metal scraping against metal. His figure swayed and transformed into a twisted gray shadow, from which a ghost king materialized.

He was faster than Jin Dafu. The Ghost King's target was the weakest point in the array's light, the point where the cracks were most concentrated after Jin Dafu's earlier impact! The Ghost King's hands were joined together like swords, with a point of extreme sharpness that almost pierced through space at the fingertips. Before he even arrived, the incomparably sharp sword energy had already caused the light screen in front of him to groan under the strain.

This ghost king was actually transformed from a ninth-realm martial artist sword cultivator. After his death, he was enslaved by the Netherworld and is now Huang Chengshi's ghost slave.

Behind them, ten eighth-realm experts instantly dispersed, like ten shooting stars, each rushing towards different parts of the city wall. Their fists unleashed dragon-like power, their palms like surging waves, their blades crisscrossing, their swords cleaving the sky—a torrential downpour of attacks rained down on the protective array's light screen! The four ninth-realm experts hovered in mid-air, their gazes icy cold. They didn't immediately attack, but instead surveyed the battlefield like eagles, their auras as deep as the sea, an invisible pressure enveloping the battlefield—a deterrent, and also a search for the core nodes and high-level combat power of the defending forces' formation.

On the city wall, the commander's roar echoed through the dust: "Fire arrows! Activate the formation, sorcerers! Target—the Qilin tribe! Block the breach!"

Om-!
The sky suddenly darkened! Not by dark clouds, but by a rain of arrows that blotted out the sun! Specially crafted, powerful arrows gleamed with a cold light, carrying a shrill whistle, and covered the airspace where Jin Dafu and the others were like a swarm of locusts!

"Child's play!" A swordsman at the eighth realm sneered, his longsword whipping up a gleaming wheel of blades that was impenetrable, shattering all the arrows aimed at him. Meanwhile, another boxer roared, unleashing a punch that condensed into a massive fist imprint, blasting a flaming boulder hurtling towards him into the air!
However, the arrows were endless, and rolling stones and logs followed one after another. Furthermore, invisible magical fluctuations interfered with their perception and internal energy circulation. Jin Dafu's massive body became the perfect target; countless arrows clattered and struck the liquid protective energy remaining on his body. Although most were deflected, the energy was visibly being consumed and dimmed. The rain of swords from the moat poured down, splashing onto him with a hissing, corrosive sound and emitting pungent white smoke. While it couldn't truly harm his powerful physique, it only fueled his rage.

"Shatter!" Ignoring all attacks, Jin Dafu's enormous fist burned with dark golden light, like a giant hammer of a god, carrying an indomitable will to destroy, and slammed hard into the light screen of the city's protective array!
Thump—! ! ! !

A deafening roar so muffled it could stop your heart! The light barrier dented violently, cracks spreading wildly like a spiderweb, and the light dimmed instantly to its lowest point! The sorcerers on the city wall responsible for maintaining the formation all coughed up blood, their faces ashen.

"Now!" A fierce glint flashed in Huang Chengshi's eyes. He was waiting for the moment when the great formation was shaken by Jin Dafu's immense power and the flow of energy became sluggish!

But then, his ghost king suddenly transformed into smoke, which condensed into an extremely fine and sharp gray line. Man and sword became one, piercing the center of the most dense crack with unparalleled precision! *Pfft!*

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a soft sound, like a bubble bursting. But the effect was terrifying! The swordsman Ghost King's sword energy, concentrated to its extreme, pierced through the ice like a red-hot steel needle, actually creating a fist-sized hole in the seemingly crumbling yet unbroken light barrier!

"It's broken through!" The experts below the city walls were greatly encouraged!
"Block it!!" The garrison commander's eyes were bloodshot, and his voice trembled.

The instant the hole appeared, several figures, covered in blood and exuding a savage and ferocious aura, pounced like wolves that had been lurking nearby! They were the remaining experts of the Qilin tribe! They completely ignored the chaotic energy turbulence emanating from the edge of the hole, which was powerful enough to tear steel apart, and directly used their strong bodies to block it!

"Roar!" A burly man from the Qilin tribe clenched his arms like steel cables, clinging tightly to the edge of the hole, letting the violent energy turbulence cut through his arms, leaving them bloody and mangled, the bone visible, yet he did not retreat an inch!

"You're courting death!" Upon seeing this, an eighth-realm expert below the city unleashed a sharp blade of energy that slashed through the light barrier at the Qilin tribe warrior blocking the hole!
*Thud!* The blade pierced flesh, and blood spurted out! The Qilin warrior's body trembled violently, spitting out blood and foam mixed with fragments of internal organs, but his eyes became even more crazed, his bloodshot eyeballs staring intently at the enemy outside the city, his body as still as if rooted to the spot! He roared with the last of his strength, urging his comrades on.

On the city wall, even the ordinary soldiers were stirred by this horrific scene. They knew that if the monsters outside the city were allowed to break in, everyone would die! The archers frantically drew their bows and fired arrows, their arms aching and numb, but they didn't stop; the strongmen roared as they pushed the rolling stones and logs down with all their might; the sorcerers, disregarding the backlash, desperately poured their magic into the core of the formation, trying to repair the fatal hole.

"Charge in!" Jin Dafu roared, his enormous hand carrying the power to shatter mountains and rivers as he slammed it down on the light barrier near the hole that had been blocked by the flesh and blood of the Qilin warriors! He wanted to widen the gap completely!

"Stop him!" The captain of the guards beside the general's bodyguards turned red and led a squad of heavily armored shield soldiers, fearlessly rushing to the spot below where Jin Dafu's palm struck. They stacked the huge tower shields layer upon layer, trying to use their own bodies to withstand the immense force of the Ninth Realm!
boom! ! !
Jin Dafu slammed his palm onto the light screen. Although the power was weakened by the great formation, the remaining terrifying force still transmitted down through the light screen! Like a meteorite crashing down!

Snap! Puff!
The topmost steel shield towers instantly twisted and shattered! The heavily armored soldiers below were smashed like rag dolls by a giant hammer, their bodies and armor crushed into a bloody pulp! Blood and shattered organs gushed from the gaps in the shields, staining the city walls red! However, the soldiers behind gritted their teeth, tears streaming down their faces, and roared as they pushed forward, using their bodies and the tattered shields to hold them back! The dam they built with their lives was only meant to delay the hand of destruction for a moment!
The entire section of the city wall was completely transformed into a meat grinder!
Above, arrows, rolling stones, and exploding talismans rained down like a storm.

In the middle, the light barrier of the city's protective formation flickered under the violent attack, and cracks kept appearing. The defenders and the remaining Qilin warriors risked their lives to block and fill the cracks.

The Qilin warriors, like wounded beasts, leaped and pounced on the city walls. Unafraid of swords, they used the most primal biting and charging to hold back enemy experts who tried to approach the weak points of the light barrier, even rolling down the city wall with their opponents to perish together!

Below, Jin Dafu, like a tireless siege beast, frantically pounded the light screen with his fists and body. Each impact made the city wall tremble and caused the defenders to spit blood.

Huang Chengshi hid to one side, while the Ghost King he controlled was like a ghostly assassin, its figure flashing on the city wall. Each time it appeared, its sharp sword energy would tear a new crack in the light screen, or take the lives of several guards.

The experts of the Eight Realms displayed their unique abilities, some confronting the great formation head-on, some slaughtering the defending troops, and others engaging in fierce battles with the Qilin warriors who rushed forward.

Blood flowed from the cracks in the city wall's bricks, pooling into streams. The air was thick with the pungent stench of blood, gunpowder, molten metal, and entrails. Limbs and severed bodies were scattered everywhere, and the screams of the dying mingled with the frenzied shouts of battle.

At this moment, Huang Chengshi finally focused his attention on several key points on the city wall—the core of the formation, as well as several powerful commanders and sorcerers among the defenders.

The Ghost Kings were locked in battle, and their figures began to move silently, like a deadly shadow about to descend upon the already overburdened city walls. The true catastrophe had only just begun. Numerous Ghost King figures flickered like phantoms on the city walls, each appearance accompanied by the desperate screams of the defenders and violent fluctuations in the protective array's light barrier.

Before the blood trail from the sword tip could fall, his figure vanished like smoke, narrowly dodging several heavy crossbow bolts infused with powerful energy.

His target was crystal clear—not far away, the colossal bronze tower, inscribed with intricate and profound runes, was now flickering with the infusion of magical power, closely connected to the light curtain enveloping the city walls. This was the very core of the city's protective array!
A cold killing intent flashed in Huang Chengshi's eyes. As long as this array's core was destroyed, the power of the city's protective array would be weakened by at least 70%! His figure blurred again, as if merging into the distorted shadows of the city wall.

Leave the direct combat to the Ghost King; he can handle that.

"Stop him!" The commander of the personal guards guarding the center of the formation was furious. Although he was only at the peak of the seventh realm, he did not hesitate to lead a team of elite personal guards to meet him.

A forest of spears, driven by a resolute will to die, pierced towards that fleeting gray shadow.

(End of this chapter)