The territory of a Tier 5 Lord stretched over ten kilometers—and that was just within the city walls. In the world of the Lord Challenge, the vast lands outside the walls also belonged to the Lord, spawning massive amounts of resources. Successful occupation and extraction allowed a Lord to construct higher-level buildings and recruit more powerful units.
Despite the scale of this vast region, the front of Wei Huan's direct assault spanned only a little over a kilometer in length. However, the overwhelming pressure of his army combined with a clever stratagem had successfully diverted the Dark Beast Lord's total attention to this spot once the wall was breached. Naturally, the bulk of the enemy's forces were concentrated here as well.
But one must not forget: Wei Huan was not alone, and his undead army consisted of far more than what was visible. Including the number recruited through the Burrow Beasts, the total number of undead Wei Huan could unleash upon the battlefield exceeded 240,000. It was a staggering figure.
If one were to kill one undead every second, it would take a day and a night to fell only 86,400 of them—and that didn't account for Wei Huan's ability to resurrect them. An undead army of this magnitude deployed on the battlefield would leave any opponent dazzled and overwhelmed; it was only natural for them to lose sight of one end while guarding the other.
This tactic of feinting in the east to strike in the west was a move Wei Huan used repeatedly with consistent success. By the time the Dark Beast Lord realized the ruse, it was already too late.
Take Gen, for instance. Distracted by Wei Huan's main force and seeing that his two Pseudo-God heroes were dealing massive damage to the undead, Gen wanted nothing more than to hunt down and kill as many of them as possible. He forgot that he was currently without a protective shield. He also overlooked the Swift Wolves—creatures that looked low-level, as if their scratching would take an eternity to do any real damage.
These Swift Wolves weren't just for transporting small Kobolds; they could also carry Nether Flame Bombs!
While thunderous explosions roared on one side, more blasts erupted on the other before the Dark Beast Royal could even react. Simultaneously, a group of small Kobolds was transported to the base of the wall. "Hah, tui!"
Over a hundred human challengers were instantly air-dropped beneath the city walls. These challengers were not like the undead army; as their Sequences rose, their individual strength grew formidable. Xu Qingqiang alone dealt more damage than ten or twenty Two-Headed Phantoms combined.
"Jie jie jie!" Xu Qingqiang, transformed into his demon form, let out a piercing laugh. His mouth split all the way to his ears, revealing rows of sharp teeth as he tore frantically at the city wall. Around him, fifty other demons—similar in form but varying in color and detail—laughed maniacally as they clawed away. The wall's durability dropped like an avalanche.
They didn't even need a minute to scratch through 300,000 points of durability. But a minute was still too slow; on a rapidly changing battlefield, speed was everything. The small Kobolds' mouths opened and closed, and a new round of "special delivery" arrived.
This time, it was the Martial King squad. Brother Hammer, in particular, swung his door-sized axe, shearing off over a hundred points of health with a single blow. The damage of the Martial Kings was no weaker than the Criminal Sequence. Furthermore, interspersed among them were Gamblers who had performed who-knows-how-many rounds of "Burst Calisthenics" to stack their multipliers; upon emerging, they unleashed a savage flurry of slashes against the wall.
'Slash, slash, slash!'
A single person could strip 3,000 durability points in one breath. A city wall is a specialized defensive structure; it is naturally tough. A common warrior's strike might only shave off 2 or 3 points. Even the powerful challengers from Wei Huan's vehicle dealt only 20 to 30 damage per hit.
But the sheer numbers were overwhelming!
The Dark Beast Royal, currently absorbed by the frontal battlefield and seeing Wei Huan's undead retreating step by step, wanted only to press the advantage. Suddenly, the system interface flickered before his eyes, screaming warnings.
[Notice: The Eastern Wall is under attack.]
[Notice: The Western Wall is under attack.]
[Notice...]
By the time the screen-filling notifications finished scrolling, the new alert that followed made him gasp in cold air.
[Notice: The Eastern Wall has been destroyed.]
[Notice: The Western Wall has been destroyed.]
[Notice...]
Looking at the territory map and the tattered, "dog-bitten" remains of his walls, the Dark Beast Royal was left wondering who he was and where he was.
Meanwhile, the viewers in the Daxia livestream were floored by Wei Huan's maneuver.
[Holy cow! My Brother Wei is amazing!!]
[Brilliant! I'm floored! Wei, I love you!!]
[Hahaha, the wall is broken like a fishing net. I bet the Dark Beast Lord is beyond confused!]
[This victory feels so smooth; it finally let out the breath I've been holding for eight years. Even my acne is cured! This feels incredible!]
Even the human leaders on the battlefield wore expressions of pleasant surprise. This wasn't limited to the Daxia generals; even the Aosam generals, who were usually at odds with Daxia, felt a surge of exhilaration. They knew Wei Huan should be fine, but seeing him break the Dark Beast Royal's defense line so effortlessly was profoundly satisfying.
The entire process sounded slow in description, but in reality, less than three minutes had passed from the moment Wei Huan broke the shield to the toppling of the walls. After all, three minutes was exactly how long it took for a shield to recharge and redeploy.
Now, with the walls breached on all sides, nothing could stop the iron hooves of the undead army. Swift Wolves flooded in with small Kobolds, dancing like a horde of demons. Like scattering seeds of hope, they spread the Kobolds across the entire territory.
Had they broken in? Was victory at hand?
Keen-eyed viewers noticed that when the walls broke, only the undead rushed in. Xu Qingqiang and the other challengers were swallowed by the small Kobolds once more, vanishing from the battlefield.
'Why? Why not press the advantage?'
This question arose in many hearts. The "experts" in the livestream were about to begin a long-winded analysis, but before they could speak, the situation on the battlefield shifted again.
The undead who had just stepped into the territory collided head-on with a "Titan." This was not the bell-topped turtle from before, but a creature even more gargantuan and ferociously powerful. Over a thousand meters tall, it loomed over the city. It looked somewhat like an octopus, possessing countless tentacles as thick as trains that slammed into the ground, sending the undead running through the streets back to the Great Tomb in batches. Its swinging tentacles churned the seawater, and lighter undead were slapped into the air before being crushed. There were at least a hundred such tentacles.
Yet to call it an octopus would be inaccurate, for its upper half was nothing like one. It was a giant eagle with six eyes and a hardened beak that opened to reveal rows of fangs. Its body was pitch black, and it possessed a pair of wings that blotted out the sun when unfurled.
[Body of a bird, tail of tentacles? What the hell is that?]
[That look makes me want to vomit.]
[It's huge! It must be a thousand meters tall. Is it a God-tier hero?]
Someone answered clearly:
[That is the Avatar of a Dark Beast Royal.]
[Avatars come from the innate transformation ability of the Dark Beast Royalty. They choose the form they consider most powerful, and the Avatar magnifies that form to the extreme for high-intensity combat.]
[The strength of the Avatar depends on how many subjects are in the Royal's territory. More subjects make it stronger and allow it to last longer.]
[However, the Avatar is a Dark Beast Royal's final resort. Since it drains the power of the subjects and the Royal itself, if it fails to win, the Royal is left with no ability to resist further.]
[Victory or defeat hinges on this battle. Go, Wei Huan!!]
Indeed, upon seeing this massive, alien monster, Wei Huan knew it was the Royal Avatar. This was his second time fighting a Royal Avatar, and he knew it couldn't be underestimated; this was the ultimate power used by the Dark Beast Royalty to suppress their own race.
However... it wasn't particularly hard to kill.
Wei Huan spoke only five words: "Yake, make your move."
Yake, who had been waiting atop the vehicle, took out the scroll he had been holding. It was a golden scroll, only the width of a thumb and about ten centimeters long, made of an unknown material and sealed with profound, complex runes. Yake held the scroll up to his brow, his eyes flowing with golden radiance. His gaze had long since pierced through the scroll and through space-time to look into the distance.
Simultaneously, directly above the Dark Beast Royal Avatar, a pair of eyes drawn with golden lines appeared. A second later, an unrolled golden scroll appeared ten meters above the Avatar's head, drifting down gracefully.
The Dark Beast Royal immediately sensed the anomaly. It raised its sharp, grotesque bird head to look at the falling scroll. When it realized what it was, its pupils shrank. A tentacle lashed out, intending to swat the scroll away.
Unfortunately, the "delivery man" was a professional; it wouldn't be given time to react. Before the tentacle could strike, the activated scroll vanished. From that point of disappearance, a massive surge of energy erupted.
An unimaginably vast undersea vortex formed from nothing, expanding in an instant to fill the entire field of vision. The vortex was so massive that even Wei Huan, twenty miles away, could feel the surge of violent energy.
The spinning vortex was like a giant meat grinder. It caught the Dark Beast Royal at its center instantly. The Royal struggled in vain, unable to escape this Forbidden Curse Scroll from the Tier 6 shop.
The Royal was only Tier 5; even with the combined power of the entire city, it was no use. Bound by the vortex, its limbs and wings pinned, its tentacles were shredded, and its feathers were torn off as it spun wildly. Blood, so red it was nearly black, squeezed out like juice.
"Aaaaaah—!"
Screams of agony filled the water. But it was far from over. The vortex didn't just pull in the Royal; it ravaged the city. The subjects who had just sacrificed their power to the Royal were torn to shreds the moment they were caught by the vortex, vanishing completely. Buildings crumbled and collapsed; the resulting rubble became new, terrifying weapons within the vortex, battering the Dark Beast Royal until it was bloodied and visibly shrinking.
[Holy crap!]
[What is that? That's basically a natural disaster.]
[I'm dying laughing. That Dark Beast Royal was trying to pull a big move, acting all tough, and then he got neutered before he could fire a single shot. Ten thousand likes for this move!]
[Well done, Wei Huan! Powerful but not reckless. He clearly has the strength to fight the Avatar head-on, but he chose the simpler, faster method. While this doesn't show off extreme individual martial force, I give ten thousand likes for this strategy of winning through superior planning!]
The damage raged for a full minute. Just as the Dark Beast Royal was on the verge of death and the territory was in ruins, the vortex finally dissipated. After all, it was a strategic item from a Tier 6 shop, not a Tier 9 or higher item. Even if it embodied the power of a disaster, it was limited.
However, this was enough for Wei Huan to easily break the Royal Avatar. If he could crush it while lying down, there was no need to stand up and fight.
The Dark Beast Royal, barely surviving, gasped for air as he opened the city's protective shield. The recharged shield flickered, a transparent light covering the city to block the undead army's advance. The blood-drenched Royal lay on the ground, his gaze sweeping over his utterly defeated city.
Even his Pseudo-God heroes—Twilight Bell and Black Bird—had withered significantly after their power was drained, their combat strength plummeting. Not to mention the lower-tier heroes, the units, and the Dark Beasts who had come to his aid; all had lost the majority of their strength in the recent sacrifice.
He had planned to concentrate all his power to fight. Even if he couldn't kill the human with one move, he hoped to drive him away. Once his shield was back up, there might have been a chance to resist after regrouping. Of course, he also knew that with his own ability, stopping a human who had already entered a Tier 6 world would be difficult. Before even entering a Tier 5 world, this human had killed their Dark Beast Royalty—the "Brave King," whose strength was not inferior to his own. Why would he be able to stop him alone?
What he sought was merely a brilliant confrontation to prove his value to the King. The King would then have allowed his retreat. If he lost this time, as long as he lived, there was a chance for a comeback.
His plan was good; he accounted for Wei Huan's strength and the King's psychology. He wanted to prove himself in one move. But the reality? That human gave him no chance to recover. In their first true collision, the human used a move more ruthless than his own.
Strategic items from the Tier 6 shop could only be purchased by civilizations that had unlocked the Tier 6 world. The Dark Beast civilization could neither buy nor defend against them. This "King Gen" had effectively swallowed the full force of the damage.
Spitting blood, he opened the city shield. Before he could even catch his breath to reorganize, he looked up and saw the humans again. That's right—the humans who had retreated earlier had been teleported back by the Kobolds.
Everything happened too fast, leaving him no room to think. A single miscalculation, and the whole world had collapsed. Although many Kobolds had died under the scroll's attack or were killed by guards, there were simply too many of them. Some always slipped through the cracks. One was all it took. As soon as one survived, the Kobolds and humans multiplied like infinite cells.
They were here.
Xu Qingqiang, transformed into a demon with thorn-like patterns on his skin, led the charge. He leaped through the ruins of buildings, letting out a "jie jie jie" cackle as he raked his claws across the Royal's neck. Gen barely dodged, rolling over only to see a Martial King—armed to the teeth in Platinum-grade gear—running toward him. A sudden surge of rage filled him; he roared and struck the Martial King with a paw.
The next second, his back felt like it had been hit by a mountain. He flew forward, coughing up blood. Looking back, he saw the Martial King turn somewhat sluggishly to continue the charge. New and old hatred burned into a fiercer fire.
"Roar!!" King Gen roared as he lunged at Captain Xue. Despite being surrounded by a dozen challengers, he seemed to see no one else, hunting only Xue.
Captain Wang Ming leaped up for a spinning slash, causing Gen to stagger. He was then caught by a sliding slash from Liu Xiaotian, which severed three tentacles from his legs, sending him sprawling. Brother Hammer, appearing from nowhere, threw a boarding axe that carved a massive wound into Gen's back, spraying blood.
The fallen King Gen was mobbed, nearly dying on the spot. Finally, Twilight Bell and Black Bird arrived at his call. Though they had sacrificed much of their energy for him, they could still restrain the group of human challengers.
He wanted to run. He wanted to live. He only had to get to the Lord's Hall and take his Lord Core to escape. If the Core were destroyed, he would die too.
'I don't want to die... I don't want to die... King, save me...'
It was all in vain. The undead army broke the shield once again. This time there was no resistance; they marched in effortlessly. Furthermore, with Kobolds scattered throughout the city, the challengers and Two-Headed Phantoms had already reached the Lord's Hall via teleportation.
'Clang! Boom! Crash!'
Countless attacks fell upon the Lord's Hall; the building's health plummeted instantly. Without giving the Dark Beast Royal any time to react, Xu Qingqiang leaped into the ruins, grabbed the shimmering Lord Core, and gave it a gentle squeeze.
'Pop!'
Like a lightbulb shattering—or like the Dark Beast Royal's heart breaking—King Gen, still putting up a final struggle, froze. The light in his eyes vanished instantly, and he collapsed heavily to the ground, motionless.
Simultaneously, his recruited heroes, Twilight Bell and Black Bird, grew calm. Twilight Bell stood still, withdrawing its limbs and head into its shell. The red flames on Black Bird vanished; it turned back into a fluffy little yellow chick that flapped its wings and landed on the stone bell. Its eyes blinked as if tired, and it fell asleep as soon as they closed.
Captain Wang Ming stopped his team from attacking further, silently watching the two Pseudo-God heroes. Once they calmed down, their aura of malice vanished completely. Then, like a painting dropped into water, they and the small area around them blurred, faded, and finally dissipated entirely.
As the heroes vanished, the entire territory began to melt away like sand. The grains fell onto the seabed, piling into small dunes until the current washed them away. Every trace of the city vanished.
Watching these changes, the tension in the team finally eased. Liu Xiaotian was the first to turn and hug Captain Wang Ming, laughing loudly: "We won!!"
Yes, they won! They had killed a Dark Beast Royal! This was the first time humanity had achieved such a result on the battlefield against the Dark Beasts.
How hard was a Royal to kill? Everyone knew from the past eight years of conflict that a Royal would flee when things went south. Everyone knew they would run, but no one could stop them. By the next meeting, they would have recovered into powerful Lords again. There were only so many Royals; with the power of a civilization, it wasn't hard to re-nurture a high-tier Lord. They were inexhaustible, always coming back.
But this time, truly, right before their eyes and the eyes of all humanity, they had killed one. When the body of the Dark Beast Royal lay motionless at their feet, all the hatred finally found an outlet. A younger teammate, who loathed the Dark Beasts, gave the corpse a fierce kick.
"Pah!" He spat in disgust, then turned to hug his teammates, laughing, "We won!! Hahaha!!"
Outside the battlefield, on Blue Star, people ran to tell each other, celebrating with laughter and joy. They believed in Wei Huan. Everyone had been convinced before the battle that Wei Huan's strength could change humanity's plight. But seeing him kill a Dark Beast Royal so easily still sparked a profound shock within that conviction.
'Has Wei Huan become this powerful?'
'Has our humanity finally stood up?'
'Do we not have to worry about extinction? Are we no longer afraid of the Dark Beasts? Can we live? Can our children finally grow up?'
The hope of life once again covered Blue Star. As if bolstered by some power, many people felt a surge of infinite courage.
'Perhaps I should return to the Challenge world and fight one more time.'
'Perhaps I should work and study hard; I can apply for a better university, I can pursue a better career.'
'Perhaps I dare to marry, to bring a new life into the world to see it…'
Victory was not just victory; it was a seed that could sprout. When a nation coalesces into a spirit of upward growth, the race can grow into a towering tree. It gains a backbone.