"Hmm, indeed, something is not right. With their skill level, they shouldn't have died so easily..." Xiong Kaishan stroked his chin. "At the Venerable Realm, while they have absolutely no chance of winning against a Saint or Holy Emperor, at the very least, they shouldn't just vanish in a flash. If they were truly that weak, that brat who fought me would have been finished long ago..."
"Not to mention that most of them were finished off by an unexpected slash, yet it was precisely because it was unexpected that so many perished..." Eagle King added.
"If that's the case, these bastards are truly unsuited for group combat, or at least they shouldn't use that damned invisibility technique to stab people in the chaos of a melee," Xiong Kaishan's eyes lit up.
Just now, facing Xia Chuanpo Gua, he had exerted almost all his strength but could never do anything about the opponent. In fact, if he hadn't firmly remembered Jun Moxie's admonition—"Before considering victory, first anticipate defeat; a tight defense may not guarantee a clean retreat"—things might have been different.
If these Ghost Ninjas truly were unsuitable for group combat, or incapable of using that dreadful invisibility technique in a chaotic fight, then the time their side could buy with delaying tactics would certainly increase by several magnitudes.
"Even so, we cannot afford blind optimism," the Eagle King said gravely. "While these wretches are ill-suited for group combat, killing or even wounding them within one requires sheer luck on our part. And as their numbers dwindle, our chances of success decrease, since we have no way of knowing where these wretches are hiding."
"Furthermore," the Eagle King continued, his face heavy, "although I've noticed this, I still can't devise a targeted method to exploit their weakness to the fullest. If Big Sister or Brother-in-law were here, it would be wonderful; they are the true masters of battlefield strategy..."
"Do these fellows even warrant the personal attention of Big Sister and Brother-in-law?" Xiong Kaishan scoffed. "If these annoying things didn't turn invisible, I alone could take on ten of them..."
The Eagle King pursed his lips, raised his head toward the sky, and stood with his hands behind his back. He dismissed Xiong Kaishan's outburst as just so much hot air. They possessed a near-heaven-defying super skill perfectly suited for using the weak against the strong, yet Xiong Kaishan wished they wouldn't use it. If it were him, would he not use it?
The Eagle King felt that if he stayed with the Bear King much longer, his own IQ might plummet to an all-time low... He couldn't help but stealthily shuffle a step outward, putting distance between himself and the brute. If his mind truly filled with nothing but stones, muscle, and paste, that would be truly fatal... As they secretly conferred, contemplating how to leverage this discovery, the opposing aliens were also whispering amongst themselves.
The opposing forces glared at each other, yet the battle unexpectedly entered a temporary truce!
It was undeniable that the Sky Punishment Bear Clan's displayed, overwhelmingly powerful fighting force, along with their thunderous, lightning-fast methods of slaughter, had instantaneously stunned every alien witnessing the massacre!
A full ten thousand people!
If they could be cleaved in half, that would mean twenty thousand people with intact hands and heads.
They had been reduced to nothing but a mire of scattered fragments!
And the entire process had been witnessed by everyone present!
What a terrifying visual impact this was!
Some of the conjoined female aliens had already started vomiting...
Xia Chuanpokou stared blankly at the sludge of debris and flesh ahead. His originally ashen face had now turned deathly pale. His eyes flickered with an indescribable hatred, and... fear!
During the previous sudden volcanic eruption, their tribe had suffered objectively massive losses. Alien experts treasured their lives above all else; in the face of great disaster, they only focused on saving themselves. Consequently, the vast majority of the old, weak, sick, and crippled tribesmen had perished under the bombardment of broken stones!
And the ten thousand or so people before them represented the final strength of the Xia Chuan Clan, their most elite force—otherwise, how could every single one possess the strength of a Ninth-Grade Ninja? Yet, with such power, in less than the time it takes for one stick of incense to burn, fewer than fifty Nether Ghost Ninjas survived; the rest were utterly annihilated!
From this day forward, the Xia Chuan Clan could essentially be declared extinct!
At best, these survivors would become vassals to other clans!
And the three thousand magnificent Bear Clan warriors before him now appeared to Xia Chuanpokou as an indestructible, insurmountable wall of steel!
Xia Chuanpokou firmly believed that facing such warriors, even concentrating the elite forces of the ten nearest tribes for a frontal breakthrough, would require paying an unimaginable price, even if they ultimately succeeded!
Behind him, Deku Bushang’s lips trembled slightly, feeling a dry, parched sensation that bordered on suffocation. He took a deep breath before slowly recovering.
The idea of sitting back and watching the tigers fight was undoubtedly appealing, but what if the two opposing forces were one tiger and one cat?
Or what if it was a group of tigers facing a group of cats!?
Beside him, those Ghost Ninja experts who had previously urged him vehemently to ally with the Xia Chuan Clan now stood with their mouths agape, staring ahead in disbelief, their eyes faintly reflecting fear and a touch of sincere relief.
Thank goodness they hadn't rushed forward just now!
The Clan Head’s foresight was truly brilliant!
Instantly, dozens of gazes filled with extreme reverence locked onto Deku Bushang. He should have felt elated under such scrutiny, but now he only felt a chilling in his heart and a cold sweat down his spine.
The Xia Chuan Clan was doomed; that was indeed good for him, but...
The task of directly facing these brutal Bear Clan warriors now fell to his Deku Clan.
Could he resist them? Or, rather, did he possess the ability to defeat them, to break open this first grand gate into the Xuanxuan, to blast open this path to glory?!
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind; the oriole is undoubtedly the ultimate winner. But what if the mantis is, in fact, a mechanical mantis with abnormally devastating lethality?! What would be the oriole's fate then?!
Facing Xiong Kaishan's untamed, fiercely hostile gaze, Deku Bushang felt regret for the first time.
Just then, Xiong Kaishan and the Eagle King concluded their discussion. Xiong Kaishan suddenly strode forward a few paces, glared, and roared, "You alien bastards opposite, who else dares to fight? Grandpa hasn't had enough fun killing just now..."
The roar shook the heavens, utterly majestic, as if the nearby volcano was startled by his bellow and erupted even more fiercely.
One man holding the pass, preventing ten thousand from advancing!
The power of one man standing tall against the sky!
At this moment, Xiong Kaishan’s exceptionally magnificent figure, standing there, perfectly embodied those two phrases!
Seeing their clan king so mighty, so fiercely heroic, inspired by his soaring battle spirit, the three thousand Bear Clan warriors suddenly felt a surge of burning passion erupt in their chests! In unison, they stepped forward simultaneously!
Three thousand feet landed at the same moment, creating a deafening crash. Around the three thousand figures, plumes of dust and smoke erupted skyward!
The three thousand roared in unison: "Who else dares to fight? Grandpa hasn't had enough fun killing!" The weakest among these three thousand warriors had reached the level of a Venerable. At this moment, unleashing their profound techniques in a unified shout, the very heavens shook, and the sun and moon dimmed! They were like a legion of ancient War Gods suddenly emerging from the earth, appearing between heaven and earth, opening their massive maws to reveal savage fangs!
Opposite them, following this explosive shout, Xia Chuanpokou and Deku Bushang felt a gust of dust and sand rush into their faces, causing them to choke simultaneously. They couldn't help but retreat a step!
Heavens above, after such a bloody massacre, they still weren't satisfied? What kind of existence were these people on the other side?!
It wasn't just the two clan heads; all the tens of thousands of aliens present retreated several steps in response to that single roar!
One shout, and tens of thousands of aliens retreated in unison!
How magnificent was this display!
Who in this world would dare to stand against them?!
Just then, a sudden, rising sound of wind erupted, and its momentum grew stronger. Both sides looked up in astonishment, only to see that the southwest wind, which had been blowing fiercely, had silently shifted its direction.
It had turned into a northeast wind!
The southwest wind was still howling, but the even more ferocious northeast wind was rapidly gaining strength. In the sky, two massive clouds, one from the south and one from the north, were driven by their respective winds and collided violently together!
A thunderclap that split the heavens and cracked the earth followed, and then hailstones the size of fists began pelting down!
The Eagle Clan warriors had already completed their recuperation and stood quietly in formation behind the Bear Clan. With their power, although the sudden hailstorm was formidable, it was utterly inconsequential to them; being hit a few times was nothing.
But the aliens under Deku Bushang were not so fortunate. Although their forces continued to pour in, numbering forty to fifty thousand by this time, while there were certainly many experts among them, the majority were relatively average in strength!
Facing this sudden, unprepared onslaught—and because the crowd was dense with no room to evade—amidst the crackling and smashing sounds, many were struck on the head, and some of the unluckier ones ended up bleeding profusely from scalp wounds.
However, neither side paid attention to this; both looked up at the changing sky simultaneously.
Because this hailstorm was too illogical.
Too absurd!
Yet this absurd reality unfolded before their eyes!
And it didn't stop there; everyone had never seen, nor even heard of, the southwest and northeast winds blowing simultaneously and colliding violently in the world!
What was happening?!
The hailstorm continued fiercely for a while, then stopped.
The situation resembled the heavens suddenly becoming enraged, grabbing a large basin and dumping it all out at once; once the basin was empty, it was over.
Though brief, the hailstorm left a thick layer of egg-sized hailstones shining on the ground. However, the temperature in this area was too high. Under the extreme heat, all the hail rapidly melted, coalescing into a pool of water, which then immediately transformed into wisps of green smoke visible to the naked eye, quickly evaporating into the sky and forming a thick layer of nimbostratus clouds!
The southwest wind still howled, clearly having residual momentum, but everyone could distinctly feel that the northeast wind, which shouldn't have been there, was now howling even more wildly and aggressively!