I, from the Celestial Empire, have parachuted into Teyvat.

The arrogance within the rotten root serpent's body narrowed its eyes slightly.

"You lowly creatures of Earth, are these your final words?"

Ivan's eyes flashed with a sharp, eagle-like gaze as he raised his right hand, pointing it directly at Pride.

"No, this is a eulogy for you!"

Even though Ivan's body was a hundred times smaller than the Rotting Root Serpent's, he was still incredibly tall at this moment.

"We will find your true form and send you back to the Ocean of Quanta forever!"

"Such arrogance."

Arrogance controlled the body of the Corrupting Root Serpent, causing it to raise its head.

"Then let's see if you lowly creatures of Earth have the ability."

The next second, all the swamp pools around the temporary camp suddenly made the sound of churning mud and water. Then, dozens of large, rotten root snakes of varying sizes roared out of the swamp and completely surrounded the temporary camp.

Surrounded by the roars of the Corrupted Root Serpent, everyone instinctively jumped in surprise, gripping their weapons even tighter.

Seeing this, Ivan frowned.

The tense atmosphere reached an unprecedented level at this moment.

Ivan took a deep breath and shouted without hesitation, "Fire!"

The rifles in the soldiers' hands instantly spat out flames, while the rotten root serpents piled up from all directions roared and charged towards the temporary camp. At the same time, the arrogant consciousness left the scene and returned to its body.

The final outcome of the battle is meaningless to it; from the very beginning, it has only had one purpose: to delay its own body from recovering its power as much as possible.

Ivan was aware of this as well, and understood that the battle could not be delayed and needed to be resolved quickly.

Facing the giant snakes closest to the temporary camp, the first round of rocket attacks temporarily halted their offensive. At the same time, the soldiers of the Second Artillery Battalion of the Qianhai Base on the rear positions immediately set up fully automatic individual mortar launchers. Then, several incendiary mortar grenades drew a perfect parabola in the air and slammed heavily onto the bodies of the foremost rotten root snakes. Torrential flames immediately spread and burned along the withered bodies of the snakes. The massive wall of fire temporarily stopped the onslaught of the other rotten root snakes behind them. The snakes in front roared and struggled in the flames for a while before finally turning into a pile of motionless black charcoal.

Of course, the rotten serpents inhabited by the consciousness of destruction, even if they were only in their nascent stages, were not entirely like dull, wooden figures. Apart from a few that were consumed by the flames, most of the other serpents, which were also hit by the incendiary grenades, twisted their bodies and rolled around in the swamp a few times. Most of the flames on their bodies were then extinguished by the scarlet mud.

Seeing this, Ivan immediately raised an eyebrow and said, "Use elemental compressed bullets!"

We should be frugal when we need to be, but we should never be stingy when we need to use them. Now is the time for elemental compression bullets to shine.

While firing, Xiang Feng shouted "Change ammunition!" to the soldiers behind him, then pulled out a magazine that was already fully loaded with fire element compressed bullets from his waist pouch and loaded it into the rifle in his hand.

Other soldiers who were firing also stopped firing or immediately switched to elemental compressed bullets after their magazines were emptied.

Taking all possible unforeseen circumstances into account, each soldier in the main force was equipped with elemental compressed bullets before the operation. To facilitate replacement on the battlefield, the bullets were also pre-loaded into magazines by the soldiers.

Six elements, six magazines, each magazine containing twenty bullets. Of the nearly ten thousand troops, almost a thousand had changed their weapon magazines.

What is this concept?

In an instant, thousands of compressed fire element bullets were fired at the outer Root Serpent Legion.

At this moment, this place is no longer at the foot of the World Tree of Blue Star, but a hellish land where flames purify everything...

Chapter 496 We Forced It Out

The burning flames purified everything in front of me.

Before thousands of elemental compressed bullets could be fired, dozens of rotten root serpents fell one after another like wheat under a sickle. As soon as the rotten root serpents in front fell, the ones behind were devoured by the subsequent fire elemental compressed bullets.

In just a few minutes, dozens of rotten root snakes had turned into dozens of lumps of charcoal in the swamp, and they hadn't even reached a distance where they could attack the main group.

In fact, when dealing with the first Rotting Root Serpent, the firepower of the Chinese army had already demonstrated sufficient suppressive power. Now, with the unleashing of elemental compressed bullets, it was an even more crushing defeat.

However, now is not the time to relax, because just as everyone was eliminating these dozens of rotten root snakes, new rotten root snakes emerged from the surrounding swamp pools, and this time there were hundreds of them!

"Maintain suppressive fire! Don't stop!"

Gunfire erupted once more from within the ranks of soldiers.

The burst of fire element compressed bullets was still a terrifying killing move for these rotten root serpents, but at the same time, facing enemies several times more numerous than before, the group was also struggling a lot.

Although these giant snakes fear fire, it takes them some time for their massive bodies, which are tens of meters long, to burn. After these rotting snakes at the forefront fall, they form an excellent physical shield for the enemy charging behind them. Before their bodies are completely burned, the main force cannot attack the enemy behind them except with mortars, howitzers, and other means of attack. This also causes the battle line to be continuously compressed toward the temporary camp.

And under these circumstances, some fish finally slipped through the net.

A giant snake, over twenty meters long, suddenly lunged from the side towards Ivan's location, using the cover of its companions writhing in the flames.

Seeing this from afar, Xiang Feng felt a chill run down his spine and roared, "Commander Yi, be careful!"

Ivan was also startled, but the serpent's speed of ten meters per second meant that Ivan had no time to dodge. Just as Ivan was about to use the Heart of the Rock God, an ice wall unexpectedly froze the serpent's tail, which was swinging towards him, right in front of him. Then, a bolt of lightning detonated the solid ice and shattered the serpent's long tail. The serpent roared and turned to bite, but was knocked away by a giant rock that the fire phoenix was clinging to.

The next second, a gentle breeze lifted Ivan and pulled him back into a soft embrace.

Ayaka Kamisato, Keqing, Diluc, and Ningguang chased after Orochi, while Jean looked at Ivan in her arms and smiled, "Are you alright?"

This combo not only stunned Orochi, but also stunned Ivan.

When she came to her senses, she hurriedly stood up from Qin's embrace and coughed awkwardly.

"Cough cough, it's nothing..."

After saying that, he hurriedly buried his head and left to command the battles in other areas.

The incident did not disrupt the rhythm of the battle.

Although the number of giant snakes had increased significantly compared to before, they were wiped out by the main force after twenty minutes.

This time, no new giant serpents appeared, giving everyone a chance to catch their breath.

Looking at the charred corpses of the Rotting Root Serpents scattered on the ground, Ivan took a deep breath. Just as he had said before, he understood that Pride had sent so many Rotting Root Serpents to their deaths in order to slow down the main force as much as possible and buy them more time to recover. Therefore, the most important thing was to finish the battle quickly and find Pride's true form as soon as possible.

The problem now is that the equipment for building the pontoon bridge has not yet arrived. Without the equipment, the main force will be stuck here temporarily.

"Check equipment and ammunition!"

After the battle ended, Ivan ordered an inspection of equipment and ammunition and a temporary rest. At the same time, the reconnaissance company, which had been responsible for long-range drone reconnaissance, suddenly made a new discovery. Upon receiving the report from the soldiers, Ivan and Xiang Feng rushed over immediately.

Upon seeing Ivan approach, Zhao Xiujun, the company commander of the reconnaissance company of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the Qianhai Base, saluted Ivan.

After Ivan retorted, he asked, "What's going on?"

"One of the eight unmanned reconnaissance aircraft that were just dispatched suddenly lost signal connection."

"Loss of signal connection?"

Ivan asked, "Which direction are you checking for drones in?"

Because the space around the World Tree roots in front of them didn't have clear north, south, east, or west directions, and the compass equipment had malfunctioned, Company Commander Zhao Xiujun simply pointed in one direction and said, "That's the direction."

Ivan raised an eyebrow slightly, because that direction was exactly where he had sensed arrogance earlier.

"Did the drone transmit any images before losing signal connection?"

Zhao Xiujun nodded and said, "Yes."

"Let me see it."

Then, under Zhao Xiujun's instructions, the drone operator retrieved the last few minutes of video footage taken by the drone before it lost signal connection from the control panel.

The footage captured by the drone in the first minute was exactly the same as what everyone was seeing now: a vast expanse of crimson swamp.

As the drone continued its flight, the swamp pools gradually diminished, and the dark brown earth came into view.

Suddenly, a network of crisscrossing, crimson roots appeared on the ground in the scene. These roots spread out on the ground, densely packed, as numerous as the ocean.

Upon seeing this, Ivan's spirits lifted.

This is at the foot of the roots of the World Tree on Blue Star, exactly the same as what he saw when he established a subtle connection with the World Tree through the Heart of the Wind God. The crimson color of the World Tree's roots is also the result of being eroded by the aura of destruction.

The image clearly shows that the outermost layer of roots is gradually falling off under the constant erosion of the destructive aura. This scene is like the receding tide of the ocean, with the ocean composed of roots shrinking layer by layer.

The drone continued flying forward, and the roots of the World Tree became increasingly complex. Just then, a red figure suddenly appeared in the drone's camera view. This figure sat cross-legged, hovering above countless tree roots. A large amount of red destructive energy was constantly seeping from the surface of the intertwined tree roots and penetrating into the red figure. The figure's palms were also outstretched at its sides, palms facing down, constantly releasing red mist to accelerate the destructive energy's erosion of the World Tree.

Ivan squinted as he stared at the screen.

This figure was none other than Arrogance.

At this moment, the arrogant figure in the picture also noticed the presence of the drone, looked up at the sky, and the next second the picture went black and the drone lost contact.

After the video finished playing, Ivan asked, "How far is it from here?"

Zhao Xiujun said, "About ten kilometers."

Ivan did a quick mental calculation.

"If it's ten kilometers, the main force should be able to reach it in one or two hours by marching at full speed, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the arrogant troops will move again."

Xiang Feng, who had been standing silently to the side, clicked his tongue and said, "It's a pity we can't measure the coordinates of this space for the time being, otherwise we could just use the space teleportation device to teleport there."

Ivan glanced at his watch and asked Xiang Feng, "How much longer will it take for the pontoon bridge construction equipment to arrive?"

"It's on its way, it should take about half an hour."

Ivan closed his eyes and pondered for a moment. When he opened them again, he said, "Let's not wait any longer. We'll change our strategy. We'll go find Arrogance, who's unreliable. He's a small target. If he's willing to be ruthless and interrupt his power recovery process to move away, coupled with the obstruction of the Corruption Serpent, our main force will have a hard time catching up with him. We might be led by the nose. So instead of us going to find him, let's make him come to us."

"We forced it out."

Chapter 497: The Prelude to the Decisive Battle

"Move over here, move over here, be careful!"

"Watch out, everyone, don't bump into anyone!"

"No, we need to drive this way again..."

At the foot of the World Tree on Blue Star, in the temporary camp established by the main force, engineering vehicles drove out from the space teleportation channel under the coordination of the military personnel.

Standing on the perimeter, looking at the rows of excavators, loaders, road rollers, cranes, and other construction vehicles, Qin, Xiang Feng, and the others were somewhat bewildered.

After watching the video, Ivan said he wanted to change the strategy. He then applied to the Qianhai Base Command and transferred more than a dozen engineering vehicles of various types from the Qianhai Base Engineering Department. This series of actions left everyone a little confused.

Xiang Feng asked, "Commander Yi, what's going on here?"

Ivan explained, "Expansion."

"Expansion?"

Xiang Feng asked with some confusion, "Expand what?"

Ivan continued, “We need to expand our current foothold, this very piece of land. Right now, this area is too small, only suitable for infantry operations. We need to expand it to a size that can accommodate Galaxy-5 missiles.”

Hearing this, Xiang Feng was slightly taken aback.