The sheer power of individual combat strength was utterly exposed in the face of the sheer mass of the undead army.

While the individual power of the undead soldiers lagged behind the strength of Qian Jin and his companions, their numbers were simply overwhelming. Moreover, the ranks of Necromancers were not singular; there were more than a dozen separate teams of mages, each standing upon different magic arrays, weaving a tapestry of auxiliary and offensive spells.

Even Chek, gripping the Holy Artifact, felt a crushing pressure. He had managed to decipher the artifact's function in these past days: its ability was stealth, concealment!

The most fitting application was for an assassin carrying out a secret killing! Wielding the Holy Artifact, one could hide in a specific location, utterly motionless, waiting for the prey to appear, achieving complete invisibility before launching a sudden, fatal strike.

Such an ability held little use in a chaotic team battle. Its sole benefit here was that, being a Holy Artifact, it amplified Chek’s power exponentially, making him akin to a freshly ascended Saint-level expert. If not for the masses of mages maintaining control, there might truly have been a chance to break through!

Attacking like a tide, utterly fearless of death, Qian Jin clearly sensed that if the enemy's objective hadn't been to capture them alive, they would already have been slain. The individual mages possessed little standalone capability, but when gathered, the sparse magic elements each commanded would undergo a strange qualitative and quantitative transformation, aided by the magic arrays, their resulting power capable of threatening even Saint-level experts.

If these mages were to unite for a desperate, all-out assault, even Qian ZhanXuan would likely choose to evade rather than confrontationally meet the charge.

Such was the nature of Mages; individually weak, but when assembled, they could unleash terrifying might. This was why elite bloodline warriors rarely managed to slice deep into an army and then carve their way out; they were almost always pinned down and neutralized by the Mage Corps.

Blood sprayed and wounds marred the group as they fought. Though the undead restrained themselves from outright killing, acts like severing a limb were well within their brutal repertoire.

The circle of the six-man fighting unit steadily constricted, losing the fierce frenzy of their initial onslaught.

“Commander Chek! Give me the sword!” Fen Tu Kuang Ge took several heavy blows directly, his body already lacerated by more than a dozen cuts from battle knives. “I will ascend to Saint!”

Ascension! Achieving Saint status using the Holy Artifact!

At this critical moment of life and death, Fen Tu Kuang Ge abandoned all illusions and further self-accumulation. He was the only one capable of achieving Saint status quickly right now.

Qian Jin’s Battle Soul had not yet reached its apex, fundamentally lacking the prerequisites for Saint Ascension. The other two Bloodline Warriors required dedicated time to reach that level.

Saint Ascension? Qian Jin instantly grasped Fen Tu Kuang Ge’s intention: he meant to break through to Saint, unleash a final, desperate, explosive strike of life force, and force open a path for their escape—exchanging his life for theirs!

“Commander Chek! Don’t give it to him!” Qian Jin took a deep breath; continuous use of the Violent Soul Domain had already taxed his spirit. He looked up at the cold, emotionless girl in the sky and sent a silent sigh inward: Qing'er… do you really not remember Brother Jin?

“Oh, Battle Souls slumbering within my body! Burn! Boil forth…”

Qian Jin’s words sounded softly between his lips. The three healthy, whole Battle Souls, constantly growing stronger, simultaneously trembled. An indescribable Soul Fire surged within them, boiling like a rolling volcano. Waking from their slumber, they began their most dazzling eruption.

Burning the Battle Souls! In this instant of life and death, Qian Jin unleashed the desperate combat method that damaged his very foundation: Burning the Battle Souls! To burn a Battle Soul meant damage, potentially rendering Saint Ascension impossible forever… perhaps even causing the Battle Soul itself to vanish…

“Oh, Nine-Headed Serpent Battle Soul! Let this be the moment to display the glory of our noble bloodline! Burn for me!”

A colossal spectral image of a nine-headed black serpent shot into the sky. Their closed eyes snapped open, and they issued an unyielding roar toward the heavens, a sound that traversed the primordial chaos and the long river of history.

“Fallen Angel! Angel Fall! Burn!” “Brother! I won’t be able to compete in the Rookie King tournament! But I will not disgrace you! Battle Souls! Burn and roar!” All the Battle Souls shot skyward, surrounded by erupting flames that resembled burning fire. In an instant, their previously suppressed aura struck awe across the entire battlefield, causing the nearest undead to falter. The six eyes hanging in the sky shrieked piercingly upon impact with the Battle Soul surge, then vanished without a trace…

Humming…

Qian Jin’s arms vibrated with a resonant hum as his battle knives pierced the surging battle aura. Innumerable undead hordes blocked his path; they leaped, roared, hissed, and swung their weapons, launching wave after wave of lethal attacks.

The scene of the Iron Arm Mantis bloodline launching a desperate charge years ago now seemed so similar to the present situation. That atmosphere, that soul-driven desperation in charging forward, that glory—it fused completely with Qian Jin in this moment.

At this instant, Qian Jin finally understood the iron-blooded history and glory of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline family! For comrades, for kin—this was the reason one could not fail, could not retreat! This reason could span the entire river of history!

Streaks of battle aura coalesced into bloodline battle skills derived from the Iron Arm Mantis lineage: Earth Split! Sea Sever! Once formed, the immense Battle Seals instantly shattered, mingling with the Gold-Splitting Consecutive Slashes, mixing with Water Breaking, and incorporating Earth Split!

All four Soul Seals burst forth simultaneously. Qian Jin’s body transformed into a streak of blood-red light, relentlessly grinding down everything in his path like a massive tank. Every single undead soul blocking him disintegrated, fragile as tofu. In this moment, he felt an impulse as if he could cleave the very sky in half.

The three Battle Souls burned completely, and the four Soul Seals exploded in unison. The power unleashed was enough to instantly disintegrate and annihilate even a Half-Saint who dared to obstruct him!

A Saint-level expert? Even a newly ascended Saint would struggle to withstand Qian Jin’s all-out, desperate assault; their only recourse was to retreat and evade.

The aura of fierce, violent, relentless advance flowed into Qian Jin’s very being, merging with his fists and feet, his battle skills, his very soul. Every strike carried an accompanying soul attack! The armies blocking his path began to continuously shatter. The undead, now lacking the direction of their eyes, hesitated: should they unleash a powerful spell to blast Qian Jin away, or continue their mission to capture him alive?

“Unite…”

Hai Qing'er’s calm utterance commanded the undead to persist in their capture orders. Various encirclement spells began to weave anew.

“Magic? Devour it for me!”

Duan Feng Bu Er raised his hand, and the descending, powerful magic spells were instantly drawn into his palm. Crimson blood instantly spurted from beneath the scales coating his body.

Forcibly drawing that power into his body without an immediate release mechanism meant that unless he could rapidly digest it, this was the inevitable consequence: blood would erupt from his scales.

This instantaneous pressure release allowed the group to accelerate their advance even further!

“Freeze them…”

As Hai Qing'er spoke, all the mages simultaneously unleashed their Freezing Magic.

“Burn the Soul Domain!” Air, light, and golden sand instantly ignited into a blazing inferno. Even the bodies of the nearby undead warriors began to erupt with burning flames. This sea of fire completely blocked the descending icy aura.

Chek’s third pair of wings unfurled fully, releasing waves of intense heat, akin to a Destruction Demon Eye, from between the wings. Layer upon layer, these forces joined Qian Jin’s Burning Soul Domain, causing the intensity of the conflagration to expand again, managing, in that instant, to fend off all the freezing energy.

Charge! Charge! Charge! The possibility of escape had seemed nonexistent, but through this desperate struggle, a genuine sliver of dawn finally appeared.

The Ghost Queen inscription on Hai Qing'er’s forehead pulsed with a faint glow. The Thunder Vulture beneath her feet plummeted sharply. She gently raised her hand—she merely lifted her hand—and an aura of destruction tumbled within her palm. It was gray, tinged with despair, a power of death one could not see, unleashing waves of Saint-level might.

A Saint-level expert!

A bracelet on Hai Qing'er’s fair jade wrist rapidly disintegrated, reforming into a metallic gauntlet that encased her palm, radiating the power of a Holy Artifact. The Saint-level power within her body resonated and clashed with the artifact, blooming an even more potent force. With a single palm strike downwards, she completely shattered the protective barrier of the Burning Soul Domain.

Puff!

Mid-charge, Qian Jin spat out a mouthful of blood. His Soul Domain had been breached, and even his Burning Hammer Battle Soul showed faint, spiderweb-like cracks, as did the nascent, jewel-like form of his Soul Domain.

The might an expert could wield using a Holy Artifact perfectly suited to them far surpassed that of a non-ascended warrior.

This was just a single strike, and one clearly not using her full power, yet it unleashed terrifying force.

If he survived this… Qian Jin didn’t even pause to wipe the blood from his lips. I must reach Saint Ascension! The power of the Saint realm is too immense!

“Remain…”

“In your dreams!” All of Qian Jin’s Battle Seals inside his body instantly pulverized and exploded. Scarlet blood erupted from every hair follicle, forming a dense mist of gore that enveloped his body, assaulting his sturdy battle meridians.

What kind of power did shattering all Battle Seals unleash? Qian Jin himself didn't know, only that his physical form absolutely could not withstand such energy.

Violent Soul Domain! Unleash the most brutal power possible from this strike!

At this juncture, Qian Jin exploded completely, shattering every single Battle Seal. His skeletal structure emitted sickening, grinding cracks under the force of the explosive power, while his internal organs seemed to writhe and knot together.

The resulting collision of battle aura and battle skill was incomparably potent. Qian Jin’s legs suddenly felt weak, threatening to buckle, and the ground beneath his feet could no longer bear the impact of the clash. All the golden sand within a three-hundred-meter radius soared into the air, and the earth instantly sank by ten meters!