The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

Ying Wenjie took a direct hit from a praying mantis's slash—he crossed his arms to block, and the immense force caused his feet to sink half a foot into the ground.

The mantis's scythe left a white mark on his forearm; its carapace was sharper than he had expected.

"This thing's shell is too hard!" Ying Wenjie roared, and punched the mantis in the abdomen with his backhand. The thing only took two steps back, and then another scythe swept across from the side.

Yang Wanqing slashed three times at the neck of a mantis before barely managing to cut a slit.

But before she could deliver the fatal blow, another mantis pounced from behind.

"Behind Senior Sister!" Ye Chen Dong leaped and kicked away the praying mantis, but was slashed across the thigh by the scythe of the third praying mantis, and blood instantly stained his trouser leg.

The situation is deteriorating rapidly.

Chen Siyao smashed the triangular head of a praying mantis with one palm, but two more immediately followed.

They can't kill them all.

There are simply too many to kill.

More mantises emerged from the depths of the forest. Twenty, thirty, fifty—they surged forth one after another, without hesitation or retreat.

"Too much!" Wu Tian's face was covered in blood, he didn't know if it was his own or the mantis's.

Chen Siyao gritted her teeth and pulled a black jade pendant from her bosom...

Energy infusion.

A black beam of light shot out.

The phantom of the black Qilin condensed and took shape around everyone, radiating an astonishing pressure.

The surrounding swarm of mantises paused simultaneously, a flicker of fear flashing in their compound eyes.

Several of them took two steps back.

"It worked!" Qin Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief.

But it was only for a moment.

After a brief moment of fear, the mantises began to swarm again. There were simply too many of them.

The aura of the black Qilin can intimidate them, but it has no killing power.

One, two, three... more and more mantises overcame their fear and approached again.

They are testing the waters.

After discovering that the phantom of the Ink Kirin would not attack on its own initiative, the siege resumed.

"Still no good!" Ying Wenjie kicked a praying mantis away, and then got slashed on the back by another mantis's scythe.

Chen Siyao's brain was working at lightning speed.

It's endless. You can't kill them all by brute force. For every one you kill, three more appear. You can't clear them all out until your stamina is completely depleted.

unless...

She suddenly thought of something.

This morning, just before she was about to leave, her brother slipped something into her hand.

A palm-sized bronze token, covered with dense array patterns.

Chen Hao said at the time, "Take it with you, you never know when you might need it."

It was just a casual remark. He didn't even elaborate on when or how to use it. It was as if he had known this would happen all along.

Chen Siyao took out the token from her storage bag, turned it over and looked at the back—it had four small characters engraved on it: "Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin".

The Great Killing Formation.

This is a powerful formation artifact.

Given their current skill level, setting up a killing formation of this caliber is simply wishful thinking.

The nodes, the direction, the precision of energy infusion... if any one of these aspects is off by even a fraction, the entire formation will collapse.

But this token is different.

It is the core of the array itself. All the array patterns have already been pre-engraved on it. She and Qin Xiaoyu only need to be responsible for the final activation and guidance.

"Xiaoyu!" Chen Siyao turned and called out, "Come here! Set up the formation!"

Qin Xiaoyu ran over and paused for a moment when she saw the token.

"This is……"

"My brother gave it to me. The Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin Formation. You guide the formation patterns in the southeast direction, and I'll take care of the northwest."

Qin Xiaoyu took a deep breath—no, she bit her lower lip and nodded.

"How long will it take?" Yang Wanqing asked, turning back after forcing back a mantis with a single sword strike.

"At least three minutes." Chen Siyao squatted down, pressed the token to the ground, and began to infuse it with energy.

three minutes.

In this situation, three minutes is a matter of life and death.

"Leave it to us." Yang Wanqing turned around to face the swarm of mantises that were rushing towards them.

Ying Wenjie stood at the front, with Ye Chendong and Wu Tian guarding the left and right sides respectively. Yang Wanqing filled in behind them, covering whichever side had an opening.

The swarm of mantises charged forward like madmen.

Ying Wenjie unleashed seven consecutive punches, each aimed at the mantis's joints, striving to create maximum resistance with minimal effort.

But with each swing of the sickle, four or five more cuts appeared on his arm.

"How much longer!" he roared.

"One and a half minutes!"

Ye Chendong was swatted three meters away by a praying mantis's scythe, rolled over and got up, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Wu Tian took his place, but was grabbed by the shoulder by another mantis, its sharp shell piercing through his leather armor.

"Wu Tian!"

"It's okay, it's okay, I won't die!" Wu Tian gritted his teeth and rammed his head into the mantis, managing to push it away.

Yang Wanqing's sword speed increased, but her breathing also became more rapid. Her energy was being consumed quickly.

"Thirty seconds!" Chen Siyao shouted.

The array patterns on the ground were mostly lit up, and bluish-white light spread along the intricate lines, enveloping the entire area in an eerie halo.

Qin Xiaoyu pressed her hands on either side of the token, her forehead covered in sweat. The final guidance was crucial—a slight misstep could have ruined everything.

ten seconds.

Five seconds.

"It's done!"

The token burst forth with a blinding white light.

The array patterns on the ground lit up, forming a huge pattern.

Chen Siyao slammed down her final slap—

The sky has changed.

The entire sky suddenly darkened, and then—countless sword lights appeared out of thin air.

The silvery-white sword light, dense and numerous, filled the entire field of vision. It was as if someone had turned an entire armory upside down in the sky.

Each sword beam was two meters long, sharp and radiating a chilling aura.

Then they began to fall.

It didn't all fall at once. Instead, it was harvested in batches, from the outside in, layer by layer.

The first slash of sword light swept across the outermost swarm of mantises.

Those three-meter-tall armored monsters were like paper before the sword light. Scythes shattered, shells cracked, and green fluid splattered.

A beam of sword light pierced through the body of a mantis, its speed undiminished, continuing to penetrate the second and third mantises behind it.

Round 2. Round 3.

The light of swords filled the sky and covered the earth.

The entire forest trembled. Trees were snapped in half, and leaves shattered into powder that scattered through the air.

The killing formation covers an area of ​​one kilometer in radius.

Within this kilometer, there is only one safe location.

The key point of the formation.

The area where Chen Siyao and the others were standing had a diameter of no more than five meters.

Beyond five meters, not a blade of grass grows.

ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty seconds later, the sword light dissipated.

The sky brightened again.

The six people stood rooted to the spot, surrounded by utter devastation. Within a 300-meter radius, all the mantis monsters were dead. The ground was littered with shattered carapaces and green liquid.

The once towering trees have been mostly cut down, leaving only bare stumps.

Quiet.