The best countermeasure the Dark Beast royalty could devise against Wei Huan was to encircle him with a ring of Royal Cities. By clustering their territories tightly together—and with some royalty abandoning their own lands to reinforce the domains of stronger kin—they could simultaneously assault Wei Huan with a greater density of Royal Talents.
From their current perspective, the only powers they possessed capable of dealing lethal damage to Wei Huan were the Royal Primordial Spirits and the backlash damage triggered when a Level 6 protective shield shattered. Rather than relying solely on shields, the Dark Beast royalty decided to employ high-mobility, proactive combatants for this first wave.
Though the royalty were few and precious, the threat of extinction left them no choice. When all other methods proved ineffective against Wei Huan, the time had come for the royalty to step forward and shoulder the burden, no matter the cost.
Furthermore, King Lie had identified a fatal weakness in Wei Huan. Provided they arranged their forces correctly, victory was not impossible.
The humans' overwhelming strength was tied entirely to Wei Huan. Their greatest mistake, in the beasts' eyes, was allowing him to fight alone. A man like that should have remained in the Challenge World to contest higher-tier realms. Had humanity reached Level 7 instead of Level 6, the Dark Beast race would truly have had no chance to resist.
Thus, as humanity relied on Wei Huan, the Dark Beast race would kill him at any cost for the sake of their future. What did it matter if a few Royal Dark Beasts were sacrificed?
Consequently, when the Eye in the sky reappeared and dropped a golden scroll onto a Dark Beast royal who had manifested a massive form, the other royals—though seeing it clearly—chose to accept the gambit.
The gale released by the unrolling golden scroll whipped the seawater into a vortex, dragging the Dark Beast royal into the depths. Within this maelstrom, the seawater became a blade to flay flesh and an axe to cleave bone. The royal was torn into a bloody, tattered mess, looking like a glob of foul sewage as it spun through the churning sea, propelled toward the Royal City.
The force of the vortex stirred the ocean into a restless turmoil. From over twenty miles away, Wei Huan could already sense the commotion of battle ahead. The vision summons he had recently recruited were rushing toward the front, their speed bolstered by the pull of the whirlpool.
By the time he arrived in haste, all that remained was a mess of seawater clouded by churned-up silt.
"Yake?" Wei Huan could now only rely on Yake' vision.
Yake reported, "One Forbidden Curse scroll successfully deployed. It dragged the Dark Beast royal five miles before colliding with the Dark Beast territory. The energy was broken by the territory's Level 6 shield. The heavily injured royal has been rescued into the city."
'A pity.'
It seemed a single Forbidden Curse scroll was indeed insufficient to kill a Dark Beast royal.
"The shield is broken; now is the chance to storm the city," Wei Huan said, immediately pivoting to the tactical opportunity despite his disappointment. "My vision summons will arrive in thirty seconds. Until then, you are my eyes."
"Understood!"
Under Yake' "Eagle Eye," Wei Huan's undead army surged toward the designated coordinates. Countless Facehuggers and Swift Wolves perished on the road to the city. Inside, an eight-armed Dark Beast Primordial Spirit, resembling a Shura, joined the wall-mounted weaponry in raining down devastating attacks on the undead.
Yet, Wei Huan's legions poured forward in an endless tide until the Shura's palm slammed into a Facehugger, igniting a spark of green flame.
BOOM!
The Netherfire Bomb hidden within the Facehugger's abdomen detonated. The Shura's arm was scorched, emitting black smoke. Simultaneously, the energy of the numerous Dark Beasts gathered to protect the king was heavily drained, causing them to wilt.
The Dark Beast royal paid little heed, continuing to swat at the ant-like Facehuggers, determined to keep the undead outside the walls until the shield recovered.
However, Wei Huan had already shifted his strategy. Soon, a second Netherfire Bomb exploded against its hand. BOOM. Then a third, a fourth...
Even for a being as powerful as a Dark Beast royal, its limbs could not withstand the repeated blasts. Its elbow was obliterated. Dense dark energy bled from the stump as it tried to reform its wrist and hand, but suddenly, its expression froze.
Within the territory, the defending beasts and various summoned populations were collapsing; the weaker ones were on the verge of death. Even with the gathered population, the overlapping energy demands of so many royals were simply too great. The energy was insufficient. Instead of regenerating its hand, the royal had accidentally drained a batch of its own subjects to death.
Unable to draw enough energy yet unable to flee, the royal switched to its other arms to block the undead advance.
BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions went off like firecrackers, wreathed in constant black smoke. Two more arms were about to be stripped bare.
The royal felt its plight was miserable, but a glance upward revealed it wasn't the worst off. The humans had dropped more Forbidden Curse scrolls—two directly into the city. Every Dark Beast royal except itself was targeted. While their bodies were torn by the vortexes, the city's buildings were rapidly demolished, and many defending beasts were slaughtered.
The royal that had previously retreated with injuries was caught in a vortex once more. Despair filled its eyes; its life was at its end.
Outside the city, of the three Dark Beast royals who had initially sallied forth, only one managed to retreat. The remaining two were faring poorly. They were besieged by a swarm of undead carrying bombs and hunted by teams of high-strength Two-Headed Hidden Demon Ghouls. Though they wouldn't die easily, they were in a pathetic state, barely able to defend themselves, let alone aid others.
Finally, amid these hardships, the six Dark Beast royals and nearly 500,000 defending beasts successfully stalled the undead for three minutes, allowing the shield to reactivate.
As soon as the shield flickered to life, the two royals outside scrambled back inside without looking back. They huddled within the barrier, coordinating to resist the next round of the undead assault until the shield was shattered once more.
'Shua—'
The exploding shield took countless undead with it. To re-summon the fallen from the Great Tomb, Wei Huan had to expend Nether Power according to their level. Even if the cost per unit was small, his Nether Power was visibly depleting in a war of this scale.
Wei Huan glanced at the pile of "Super Energy Storage Tanks" beside him. He had thirty-one tanks now, but at this rate of consumption, even they wouldn't last long. The Dark Beasts' strategy against him was crystal clear.
At that moment, Yake sent a fresh update: "Commander, the heavily injured Dark Beast royal escaped. It vanished during the shield's uptime; I've lost its trail."
Wei Huan's expression chilled. He was displeased. Fighting for this long without a single royal kill was not what he wanted. He understood their plan, but he had his own ideas.
He was willing to drain his Nether Power and exhaust a number of scrolls. As long as he killed three to five royals, the battle would be a net gain. The opening war had only just begun. His Nether Power would recover after a sleep. If he ran out of scrolls, he could get more by killing beasts. But the Dark Beast royalty were finite; every death was an irreplaceable loss. Young royals were not yet combat-ready.
Trading renewable resources for non-renewable royalty was always a winning bargain. But now, as they entered the second round of attrition without a single kill, Wei Huan was dissatisfied.
It seemed he could no longer hold back. The failure to kill them stemmed, ultimately, from insufficient burst power.
Having made his decision, Wei Huan looked at Mu Zhong. "Activate the Blessings and the Judgment."
Indeed, up until now, Wei Huan had not used the Shaman's Blessing or the Diviner's Judgment. He was already Sequence 5. On par with the current world level and bolstered by God-tier equipment and his Special Operations Team, he could easily slay a royal. He had refrained from using Blessings to preserve his endurance.
Only Xu Qingqiang, due to his unique "Glutton" ability, had been constantly enjoying the ten-fold combat power of the "Bloodthirsty Blessing" without worrying about the backlash. No one enjoyed being a "Three-Minute Hero"—suffering thirty days of weakness where even walking was a chore was a miserable prospect. Even the standard Blessing states, with two hours of power followed by a day of rest, were a nuisance.
But now was not the time for such concerns. If the results were falling short of his requirements, he had to use every tool at his disposal.
Receiving the order, Dou Lin put on his white gloves and lit the Scales in the firmament. The prophecy was heartening: a Great Victory for humanity. Dou Lin's projected hands reached into the heavy scales, scooped up a handful of stars, and tossed them into the sky.
BOOM!
Beams of light descended, piercing the deep sea and landing upon the undead. Their bones began to shimmer with a fluorescent glow, lending them a strange, sacred aura that replaced their usual gloom as they marched across the seabed.
The Great Victory Judgment: Undead strength doubled!
Then, war drums echoed from the horizon. Projections of ancient sacrificial rites appeared in the depths; primeval tribesmen danced around totems. The gaze of the gods descended, answering their piety. Wisps of blue light appeared within the undead army, quietly bolstering their strength.
Another doubling.
In an instant, the undead army's power was quadrupled.
Dot Mom's body expanded rapidly until she reached nearly a thousand meters in height. She let out a haunting cry, her long, slender legs moving like a dancing elf as she entered the city to engage a Dark Beast royal's Primordial Spirit.
Big Bear's body grew to nearly a hundred meters, standing two hundred meters tall when upright. Though he faced an Evil-Faced Shura with four severed arms and a thousand-meter stature, he was not overwhelmed. Having reached the strength of a Legendary Hero, now quadrupled, his health pool alone allowed him to tank the royal's strikes rather than being killed instantly.
Big Bear's task was not to duel the royal alone. As long as he held the line, the tsunami of undead could swarm the royal's body and dismember it.
Wei Huan's Two-Headed Hidden Demon legion split into two squads of 330 each, forming highly mobile, high-damage strike teams. Though they were "common" grade undead, their high-star combat prowess made them the sharpest bullets on the battlefield.
Bolstered by the four-fold attribute boost, the Hidden Demons swarmed two Dark Beast royals. Though they were small as bees compared to the thousand-meter giants, they were deadly "killer bees." The two royals struggled to brush them off, suffering miserably. But the other royals were faring no better. They began to envy the one who had escaped back to the Dark Beast plane.
Now, there was no escape. The King might accept a retreat due to injury, but he would never tolerate desertion. To live, they had to fight.
The two sides clashed with everything they had. The defending beasts in the city could not withstand such intensity and died in droves. Yet, from the far side of the city, more reinforcements were pouring in.
Wei Huan's system screen refreshed constantly with "+1 Point" notifications. He had lost count of his kills; he was nearly at the threshold to purchase another Golden Scroll.
"Ugh—!"
A scream of agony rang out. The first to fall was the Shura with the severed arms. It was covered in a thick carpet of undead. Big Bear had moved elsewhere; the one drawing its attention now was Captain Xue.
Captain Xue, also enhanced by the Judgment and Blessing, was so powerful he frightened even himself, easily tanking the royal's damage. But the killing blow came from Xu Qingqiang, who possessed ten-fold combat power from the Bloodthirsty state. The moment he appeared, he found the royal's weakness and struck.
Severely wounded, the royal's Primordial Spirit vanished, leaving its original body slumped on the ground, unable to move. This body was identical to its manifested form. However, the Dark Beast royalty were formless and colorless—more like creatures created from the race's collective will than biological entities.
As the royal fell, it attempted to manifest a new shape to flee under the watchful eyes of the humans. Its body twisted and shrunk, seemingly trying to turn into a small Kobold.
Unfortunately, it was doomed. Xu Qingqiang pounced, pinning the royal down. The desperate beast shifted into a wolf-dog, then a venomous snake, then tried to draw energy for another Primordial Spirit, but it was no match for the bloodthirsty Xu Qingqiang. Its wounds mounted; Xu Qingqiang began tearing away and consuming its flesh.
With the aid of the other undead, the royal became the second sacrifice of this war.
Dark Beast Royalty remaining: 316.
The death of their kin filled the other royals with a sense of impending doom. Before they could shift the tide, the royal entangled with Dot Mom crashed to the ground. Its body was bound by Dot Mom's long limbs and swarmed by countless undead who began to cannibalize it.
Xu Qingqiang, his Bloodthirsty state still active, leaped onto the royal's neck and tore at it savagely, decapitating it in one go. The Primordial Spirit vanished, and the beast reverted to its original size, trying to flee in a new form. Xu Qingqiang launched a final, fierce assault, taking half the royal's life before he was forced to retreat under undead cover as his negative status effects began to kick in.
The near-dead royal was torn apart by the undead. Xu Qingqiang, despite his debuffs, hopped back to consume the royal's remains.
Dark Beast Royalty remaining: 315.
Xu Qingqiang ate ravenously. Pure, massive power surged into him, rapidly restoring his attributes. As his stats returned to normal, the Bloodthirsty backlash vanished. Without a moment's pause, he returned to the vehicle via a Kobold, where a Shaman immediately reapplied Bloodthirsty.
The "Three-Minute Man" charged back into the fray, much to the envy of the others.
Combat with Dark Beast royalty was not for everyone. An average Challenger entering such a battlefield would be like a rag caught in a hurricane—obliterated instantly. Only the pinnacle of human strength could move freely here—men like the Bloodthirsty Xu Qingqiang, the humans' greatest tank Captain Xue, and the "passerby" Brother Hammer.
Just as the others wondered why they hadn't heard from Brother Hammer while Xue and Xu were racking up kills, a report of victory arrived.
Another Dark Beast royal slain. Royalty remaining: 314.
The credit went to Brother Hammer. After Xu Qingqiang went solo, Captain Xue received a "Cooperative Combat" request from Brother Hammer and charged a royal with a howl. Xue drew the attention, and Hammer delivered the execution. As old partners, their coordination was seamless; the royal's Primordial Spirit was shattered before it could react.
Once their Primordial Spirit is broken, a Dark Beast royal is merely a Sequence 5 Lord—stronger than a common beast, but only marginally so. They could hardly win a 1v1 against humanity's elite, let alone against Wei Huan's undead, Captain Xue, and Brother Hammer combined. After a minute of desperate struggle, it died with a final scream.
Three royals slain in a single siege—this feat shattered the record for human-beast conflict from the past several years. Both Earth and the Challenge World erupted in celebration.
"Withdraw!"
Mu Zhong's voice crackled in the headsets of Xue, Hammer, and Xu. "Back to the vehicle immediately. The shield is about to restore. Eight, seven, six, five..."
During the countdown, the three human powerhouses found the nearest Kobolds and retreated. They were met with a warm welcome inside the vehicle, with everyone embracing and celebrating their success.
At the final second, the shield flickered back on, severing the undead army between the inside and outside of the walls. Now, only one royal remained under attack by the Hidden Demons inside, along with perhaps one more hidden royal.
Despite the deaths of three royals, the city still stood, leading many to suspect that even the current visible royal was not the true City Lord. Directing a territory, managing resources, and timing the shield required a Lord's focus. The royal currently pinned by the Hidden Demons clearly didn't have the capacity for that.
The answer was obvious.
"Wei Huan, be careful. There's likely more than one royal left inside," a staff officer under Commander Dong suggested, warning Wei Huan immediately.
Wei Huan paused to consider. He knew the officer was right, but looking at the battered royal on the verge of collapse, he was loath to abandon the kill.
In that moment of hesitation, more Dark Beast royals appeared one after another!
"One, two, three, four..." Yake counted rapidly. "Five new Dark Beast royals have appeared in the city!"
Even without Yake' report, Wei Huan saw the towering figures through the eyes of the Demon Eye Lord. He also saw that his hesitation had cost him; the undead trapped inside the city were being decimated.
The new royals had a clear objective: kill as many undead as possible in the shortest time. They hadn't even appeared when their kin were being slaughtered, so they cared nothing for the city's buildings. Massive palms slammed down. Kill! Kill! Kill!
Wei Huan acted to mend the situation. Undead hands reached out from the void, dragging the survivors back to the Great Tomb. But he was slightly too slow. Those few seconds of hesitation had cost him nearly half the undead within the city.
As they resurrected in the Tomb—especially the three hundred Hidden Demons—Wei Huan's Nether Power was nearly halved. Frowning, he grabbed the energy tanks and drained three in a row to top himself off. He looked at the remaining twenty-eight tanks. They seemed like a lot, but they wouldn't last the entirety of a battle at this intensity.
"This is their plan," Mu Zhong said. "To drain your Nether Power and our stock of Golden Scrolls. Most importantly, they traded three royals to force the cooldown on your undead army's Blessings."
After a pause, Mu Zhong added, "In two hours, your undead army will fall into a weakened state."
Wei Huan nodded, unfazed. "The cards we hold aren't limited to just one or two. The advantage of entering the next world early is obvious. It's time to show them what we're truly capable of."
Mu Zhong smiled. "True."