Commander Dong and Mu Zhong spoke almost simultaneously: "Understood. Handle it with caution. Stay safe."
Wei Huan, however, had no time to reply. In his left eye, he saw only a flash of white light, followed by total darkness as the green flames within his socket extinguished. This indicated he had been forcibly disconnected from the vision projection.
Mu Zhong, seeing this clearly, noted with understanding, "As expected of the Royalty. The tier of their territory is indeed exceptionally high."
Wei Huan gave a noncommittal snort. Then, the green flames at the bottom of his left eye flickered once more; his vision had now descended upon a Demon Eye Lord following closely behind. The lower-tier vision was somewhat uncomfortable, but it allowed him to see clearly that, under his command, the Ghost Crows were still charging. Despite the enemy's spatial artillery attacks, some Ghost Crows successfully evaded the strikes and reached the walls of this Royal Dark Beast territory.
Compared to the high-tier Lords they had slaughtered along the way, a King-class Lord was indeed far more formidable. Even though the Dark Beast race had not yet leaped beyond the Tier 5 world to obtain the "Ascension Path" of the Tier 6 world, these Royal clans—which gathered the resource contributions of an entire race—found it simple enough to upgrade individual buildings within their territory to Tier 6.
Wei Huan looked at the city wall ahead, which stood over a hundred meters tall. It loomed like a natural chasm, a towering barrier of majesty. Though it wasn't the first time he had seen such a thing, it still gave him a sense of trouble.
The last time he encountered such a wall was on the Advancement Road from Tier 4 to Tier 5, where the Dark Beasts dispatched three Royals and over ten thousand high-tier Lords in an attempt to kill him. In that battle, Wei Huan fought one against three, achieving an outstanding record of two kills and one escapee. It was the first time since the human-Dark Beast conflict began that an adult Dark Beast Royal had been successfully slain—and two died at once.
Wei Huan remembered that battle vividly; a Pseudo-God rank Archer recruited by the enemy had been terrifyingly strong, capable of shaking their war vehicles and dealing massive damage single-handedly. However, back then, Wei Huan had chosen to go it alone, driving a single vehicle day and night along the edge of the world, successfully reaching the end of the road and destroying them before the Royal territories could reach higher tiers.
Back then, he hadn't seen many of the advanced territory buildings. But now, he saw them.
A city wall upgraded to Tier 6 was not merely taller and thicker; the weapons mounted within it also leveled up. For instance, the specialized spatial shells: in the past, as long as the Ghost Crows didn't actively fly out of the alternate dimension, they had never been harmed. Now, under the targeted barrage, they were being sent back to the Great Tomb one by one. Similarly, the "Kite State" of the Flying Monkeys would likely be affected.
Wei Huan summoned the Ghost Crows again, along with the Demon Eye Lords.
Mu Zhong saw the dark mass of Ghost Crows flying out and asked after observing, "Aren't you using the Nether Flame Bombs?"
Wei Huan shook his head. "I can't use them for the moment."
"You've hoarded many, and haven't used them yet."
"I'm looking for the spatial cannon. Until I destroy it, no amount of Nether Flame Bombs will be effective."
"Since the walls are Tier 6, the shield is likely Tier 6 as well. What's your plan?"
"Then I'll send up a different unit."
Wei Huan spoke nonchalantly; he didn't believe this would stump him. The spatial cannon was inside the shield. If he relied on Ghost Crows to deliver bombs, the cannon could strike outside the shield, specifically targeting the crows while the shield itself remained protected from the Nether Flame.
The Dark Beast race had indeed studied tactics specifically designed to counter him. However, Wei Huan didn't have just one type of unit, and his combat style was never stagnant. If one move failed, he had others. Even if the Dark Beasts had carved their knowledge of him into their DNA, he was improving and changing every single day. He didn't even know his own limit—what made a pack of beasts think they could outcalculate him?
The Burrow Beast Mother, who had been guarding above the vehicle, received Wei Huan's order and let out a resonant cry: "Yeeeee!"
Countless Burrow Beast Mothers flew out from beneath her abdomen. Simultaneously, they began releasing Facehuggers. These Facehuggers spread across the ground like a carpet, filling the field of vision, scuttling forward until they disappeared over the horizon. They moved with extreme speed, and interspersed among them were massive, robust Great Bears. The bears stepped on the Facehuggers, being carried to the front line to strike the walls head-on.
On the left and right flanks, countless Swift Wolves were also carried by the Facehuggers, which moved flexibly across the seabed. Under the rhythmic "ka-ka-ka" commands of the Gut-Bro, these Facehuggers actually divided into numerous small squads, weaving up and down with agility as they charged toward various strategic passes.
The Ghost Crows and Demon Eye Lords gathered into a massive legion once more, with squads of thirty Two-Headed Phantoms hidden among them. These Phantoms were the hardest, sharpest hidden weapons in this frontal assault—concealed like daggers in a velvet glove—forming a powerful combination strike with the Nether Flame Bombs hidden who-knows-where.
The undead army closed in. At this moment, all eyes were focused here. Not just the viewers in the Blue Star livestream, but the Dark Beast Royals and their King were also waiting for the outcome of this clash.
Finally, under the gaze of millions, the thundering undead army collided with the Royal Dark Beast territory. It wasn't the violent "planet-hitting-planet" impact one might imagine, but it was enough to make one's scalp tingle. Countless undead, densely packed and filling the entire horizon, swarmed up, gnawing at the energy of the protective shield.
From within the Dark Beast Lord's walls, various spells and artillery fire poured out. With every shot, large swathes of undead vanished. Occasionally, a massive 'BOOM' echoed. A Nether Flame Bomb had been detonated. Some carriers were blown apart by concentrated fire before they could reach the shield, but some lucky ones reached the barrier, pressing their bodies tight against the light and detonating the Nether Flame within.
The Tier 6 shield, under such an assault, flickered like a candle in a storm, teetering on the verge of collapse. Seeing this and anticipating the next shift, Wei Huan signaled the approaching Two-Headed Phantoms to halt.
But the output from the other units did not slow down; it grew even more violent. The Facehuggers, which had been moving systematically, accelerated their charge, even stacking two or three deep against the shield, scratching frantically with eight legs and biting with the mandibles beneath their bellies. The Demon Eye Lords pressed down in layers from above, their black light beams piercing the water to strike the shield in a concentrated barrage. Even the Ghost Crows flew out from the void, darting through the seawater and slamming their fragile bodies into the barrier.
"Roar!!" the Great Bears bellowed, rising onto their hind legs and concentrating all their strength into mountain-sized claws that slammed into the light. Finally, after sustaining this final blow, the overtaxed shield flickered one last time and shattered.
The shield was broken!
However, with the shield's destruction, a more terrifying force suddenly emerged, like an invisible scythe of sword-aura swinging outward.
'Slash!'
The circle of Facehuggers and Ghost Crows surrounding the shield vanished instantly, unable to put up even a struggle. Following them were the Demon Eye Lords—whose defense was mediocre at best—half of which vanished in a breath; only those at a distance survived.
Wei Huan had deep experience with the power of a shield explosion. Back when he only had a Tier 4 vehicle, he had relied on the attack generated by a shield's shattering to face the Giant Dragon Projection of a Dark Beast Royal. Against this massive damage, even the meat-shield Undead Bears suffered heavy losses, let alone the scouts and long-range units.
In the front line, aside from seven or eight elite-level Storm Bears, no bears remained within a hundred meters. Even the Great Bears, who had been soaking up damage earlier, had their health pushed too low and were taken out by this explosion.
The sight of the shield's explosion left the livestream silent for several seconds before the comments went wild.
[Destroying the shield causes an explosion?]
[So a Tier 6 shield is this fierce? Wei Huan's undead were wiped out in an instant. What now?]
[I told you not to be reckless. Thinking you can charge a Royal territory with just a thousand vehicles—isn't this just suicide?]
[The battlefield is almost cleared of undead. Tier 6 shields are too terrifying. How do you break it? If you don't break it, you can't hit the wall, but breaking it causes this much damage. I want to know if our Tier 6 vehicle shields are like this. Otherwise, it's unfair!]
But those who complained without understanding were in the minority. Their somewhat dim-witted comments were soon buried by a new wave of praise.
[That prediction was insane!!]
[As expected of my Brother Wei, he's a true War God! This command must have left the Dark Beasts dumbfounded.]
[Hahaha, why do some people think a mere self-detonating Tier 6 shield means we lost? What kind of loser mentality is that? Is your life that miserable?]
[Using the burst from a breaking Tier 6 shield to kill monsters is a trick Boss Wei used ages ago. How could our boss get caught by that?]
[It's coming! The follow-up is here! I knew nothing could stump Brother Wei!]
Amidst the sudden screams of excitement in the livestream, the undead army—which had been waiting three kilometers away—launched a charge like a crashing tide. This was a reorganized charge, an attack with accumulated power. Like a heavy punch thrown after a deep breath, the Two-Headed Phantoms alone, who had been waiting outside the explosion radius, numbered a full seven hundred.
Had recruitment not been restricted and the time until the Opening Battle not been so short, Wei Huan would have loved to replace his entire undead army with Two-Headed Phantoms. The combat power of gathered Phantoms was indeed staggering. In the second after the Tier 6 shield vanished, the Phantoms raced from all directions like a pack of rabid wolves, charging toward the walls. Their extreme movement speed translated well to the water; one second they were three thousand meters away, the next they were right in front of the enemy.
But just as everyone thought they would scale the walls to engage in a bloody melee with the garrison, they were shocked to discover that these Phantoms seemed to be hiding something in their arms. Looking closer...
'Oh my god! Brilliant! All's fair in war!'
It turned out these Phantoms—whose bodies weren't particularly massive but whose bellies were abnormally swollen—were actually clutching a Facehugger to their abdomens. These Facehuggers were held tight, their bodies affected by the Phantoms' innate stealth abilities, mimicking the Phantoms' skin perfectly. They utilized the Phantoms' powerful explosive force, flexible maneuverability, and most importantly, their superior natural defense. They braved the first round of the Dark Beast Lord's attacks after the shield broke and reached the walls.
"Stop them!"
Gen, the Royal member who had realized what the Phantoms were doing, roared within the Lord's Hall. But it was a step too late. Most importantly, it had assumed the Phantoms were charging to scale the walls and slaughter its guards; it never expected them to be mere fodder for transporting the true trump card.
'Using Two-Headed Phantoms as fodder?'
Of course, to the Dark Beast Royalty, everyone below Royalty was fodder; Two-Headed Phantoms were just high-grade fodder. But when humans controlled these skeletal remains in battle, the Royalty—who knew exactly how strong Phantoms were—would subconsciously view them as the Necromancer's ultimate weapon.
Thus, at that moment, Gen—knowing Phantoms were hard to deal with—prioritized weapons that destroyed their mimicry to prevent them from sticking to and hiding on the walls. Only then did the concentrated attacks follow.
But this tactically sound response became a joke because it completely miscalculated Wei Huan's plan. Indeed! After a full circle, Wei Huan's strategy still relied on the Nether Flame Bombs as the trump card. Once the Facehuggers were close enough, they kicked off the Phantoms' bodies and launched themselves at the wall. Their eight claws gripped the stone tightly, and the Nether Flame Bombs on their bellies were activated against the surface.
Amidst thunderous roars, bubbles surged on the seabed, and the silt became turbid. The Dark Beast Royal's walls shook violently, their durability plummeting rapidly.
What was most breathtaking—and later hailed by Blue Star as a masterpiece of the "Art of War"—was that although the Phantoms drew the wall's fire and took a round of attacks, the recoil from the Facehuggers' launch allowed many Phantoms to take only one or two hits and retreat entirely.
Listening to the roar of artillery and watching the wall's durability zero out and crumble, the Dark Beast Royal Gen felt a surge of dread. It had only focused on this wave of attack for a moment; when it regained its focus, the Asura Horses stepping on Facehuggers, the roaring Great Bears, and the dense, bulging Demon Eyes above were already pressing against the foot of the wall once more.
This time, they weren't fighting around a shield; they were attacking the wall directly. The defensive line had been compressed in a bizarre "one step forward, one step back" maneuver!
The Dark Beast King, witnessing this, looked grim enough to eat a person, a displeased growl echoing from his throat. Even from thousands of miles away, Gen felt the King's wrath. Simultaneously, a sense of terror toward this human surged in its heart. After all... he had killed three Royals already. He was a King-slayer. One more or one less made no difference.
Though it knew such thoughts were traitorous, Gen—possessing high intelligence and not being absolutely bound by the King's Hive Mind—actually began to wonder how to save its own life after the inevitable defeat...
"Gen—!"
The Dark Beast King's voice rang out through the Lord System. Though it was only one word, it snapped Gen awake. Snapping back to reality, it knew it had to give its all. The King was watching; there was no retreat. This hideously shaped Dark Beast put away its private thoughts, rallied its forces, and began a new round of deployment.
The first to be sent out, of course, was its proudest and most powerful Pseudo-God hero!
With a thought, a titan slowly approached the wall shattered by the Nether Flame Bombs. From Wei Huan's perspective, just as the wall collapsed and before his undead could rush into the city, the gap was plugged from the inside.
It was a pitch-black, iron-like substance, tall and solid. A Facehugger happened to land on it and ignited its Nether Flame Bomb. But the Tier 5 Nether Flame, which could easily crack the city walls, didn't leave a scratch on this black object. Even more shocking, as the gap was plugged, a fierce current pushed the waves outward in ripples. The light-bodied undead were tossed backward, tumbling through the water. A few Asura Horses and Storm Bears managed to reach the front of the black object and struck it with all their might, but it remained motionless.
Wei Huan was surprised. He concentrated his focus, using the Legendary Demon Eye Lord to look deeper. His eyes then traced the silhouette of the titan hiding behind the wall.
'What is this?!'
Before Wei Huan could be certain, another figure appeared. A creature as flexible as a loach dropped from above the titan, zipping here and there so fast the water seemed sliced open. Simultaneously sliced were several Asura Horses and walking corpses that had neared the titan. Finally, in its cutting-like dash, it slammed into a Great Bear that was waiting for it.
"Roar!"
"Squeak!"
A terrifying attack instantly stripped a fifth of the Great Bear's health and consumed a Flying Monkey in its kite state. A green cloud circled the bear's head, shedding ripples of healing light. The creature, blocked by the bear's massive frame, was forced to stop. Only then did Wei Huan see what it was.
It was actually a small yellow bird? It looked like a chick with fluffy plumage and a round body. Having slammed into the bear and been forced to a halt, it was currently spinning as it fell, appearing dazed.
'How cute.'
Wei Huan ordered the bear to swat it to death. This bird and the thing behind the wall were clearly heroes recruited by the Lord; killing one would reduce the pressure. The bear's movements were slow, and by the time its paw fell, the little yellow bird had recovered, flapping its wings to escape. But right in front of it, an Asura Horse—which had gripped the bear with its claws to avoid being swept away by the current—slapped it with a faster, more accurate strike.
The little yellow bird was slapped down again. This time, before it could recover, the attacks of the bear and the horse followed in succession, ruthlessly intending to turn it into a bird-pancake. The titan behind the wall, seemingly to save the bird, increased the surge of the current, forcing even the Great Bear to stumble half a step back.
In that moment of oversight, the little yellow bird woke up again, flapping its wings to fly away. Just then, a pair of eyes appeared in the sky, and a bullet fell as if piercing through space. It landed precisely on the little bird.
'Splat!'
Blood sprayed. The little yellow bird was knocked into a series of tumbles, looking as though it wouldn't survive. But the next second:
"Chirp!!"
A resonant cry rang out. The blood-soaked little bird was suddenly engulfed in scorching red flames. Within the flames, which seemed only the size of a fist, a ten-meter ribbon of light suddenly shot out. Then, spinning, it revealed a seductive figure flickering within the fire.
"Chirp!" another sound echoed. The temperature of the flames was so high that it boiled the seawater around it into bubbles and wisps of smoke. From the dense smoke emerged a fierce-looking bird head with a long, downward-curving beak and a ring of crimson flesh around its eyes. It opened its mouth—"Whoosh!"—and spat out fire arrows at the nearby undead. These arrows were of extreme temperature and exploded upon impact; a single arrow could often blow apart one or two Tier 5 Asura Horses.
Looking again at the titan behind the wall, it was revealed to be a colossal creature, a giant soft-shell turtle as large as a mountain range. But to say it was just a turtle wasn't quite right; it had a single horn on its head and carried a massive, bell-like stone on its back. The bell tolled—"Dong! Dong! Dong!"—sending out ring-shaped currents that repelled all undead, preventing them from crossing even a step.
"What is that?"
"Baxia and a Fire Phoenix?"
"The Fire Phoenix looks similar, but Baxia carries a stone tablet."
"This thing is so fierce, the undead are being crushed."
"It's the Dark Beast Royalty after all; they must have some tricks. Don't worry, I believe Wei Huan can do it."
"Haha, you're all distracted by the big spectacle here. Look at the other side—a feint!"
"Look at the left and right flanks!!"
Indeed, everyone's gaze had been unconsciously drawn to this battlefield where the noise was loudest and the fighting most intense. But in reality? The clever ones remembered that Wei Huan's Running Wolf army was not on this main battlefield. Similarly absent were the strongest human challengers. How could a battle against Royalty be missing the true combat force?
Some clear-headed viewers had kept their perspective locked on Xu Qingqiang from the very beginning. While following Xu Qingqiang might not offer the heart-pounding spectacle of the frontal assault, there was one thing for certain: if you wanted to see how a battle was won, Xu Qingqiang and his team were the dagger thrust into the enemy's heart.