Yet, the Bear Clan warrior who chose self-destruction understood the vast gulf between himself and the enemy before him; he never entertained the delusion of taking his foe down with him. His sole intention was to use his explosive demise to buy a sliver of time, employing his final strength to halt the advance, allowing his brethren to prepare, and inflicting as many casualties as possible upon the enemy!
With his life, with his soul, he exploded entirely into a wave of outward-rushing force, meant to hold that God of Slaughter outside! Even if only for a single second! His sacrifice would be worth it!
Or perhaps, just enough time for his comrades to gain a single second for preparation!
Because once a Saint Venerable master like that fell into the dense formation of the Heaven’s Punishment warriors, the resulting devastation would surely be apocalyptic! Many comrades might be cut down by that fiend before they could even consume a Life-Restoring Pill!
And he himself had already taken the Life-Restoring Pill earlier! He had already died once!
This life was a gift, a second chance! To gain even a slim chance of survival for his partners made the cost entirely worthwhile!
“Big Black N—” Seeing his brother charge into a noble death, Xiong Kaishan’s eyes were split with rage, his gaze venomous. He roared toward the heavens, his eyes crimson as if ready to bleed! Dragging his great saber, he charged toward that direction in a suicidal frenzy.
Everywhere he passed, it was as if a massive ship had cut across the water, churning up twin wakes of blood-formed spray!
“Form ranks! Everyone, array yourselves! Do not fall into chaos! Form ranks and butcher these curs! Avenge our brothers!” King Eagle roared, his voice sharp, piercing the very heavens. From the sound alone, one could imagine his ferocious expression, grief-stricken to the point of spewing blood from his throat!
“Revenge! Revenge!” Following the selfless sacrifice of this Heaven’s Punishment Bear Clan warrior, the ferocity of every Heaven’s Punishment warrior present was completely ignited!
And King Eagle, at this moment, made the most correct decision!
Form Ranks!
The Ten-Sided Ambush Killing Formation taught by his brother-in-law! Every ten men forming an independent unit!
And this brief time needed for the formation was precisely what that Heaven’s Punishment Bear Clan warrior had exchanged with his life! Although it was only a fleeting moment! Without that small buffer, the formation might have been annihilated before it could even fully materialize!
Even the most powerful formation is nothing until it is truly solidified!
It was precisely this moment when—” A piercing, sharp whistle sounded once more, like a sword drawn across the firmament, shooting toward the Supreme Heavenly Ninja 【Ji】 who was retreating!
The Supreme Heavenly Ninja who had just been blasted away by the self-detonation force was nearly spitting blood in his rage! He had charged swiftly, and before even arriving, he had ordered the human sea warriors to swarm and deplete the enemy’s combat strength and break their formations!
Nearly thirty or forty thousand had been sacrificed in total” all so that upon his arrival, he could burst into the enemy’s formation, which was too stretched out to consolidate, sweeping through them like an autumn wind scattering dead leaves, and finally, in one decisive push, lead the hundred thousand troops behind him to breach and enter the Profound Continent! To establish the first foothold for the alien races on the Profound Continent, securing this path that was now free of volcanic threats!
As long as their main force arrived continuously, the immense opportunity to fully conquer the Profound Continent would be seized!
He was absolutely confident that while fighting the Heaven’s Punishment warriors, the advantage was entirely against the forty to fifty thousand sacrifices due to the high combat power of the enemy, but relying on superior numbers, they could certainly disrupt the enemy’s formation!
That was all he required! An army that formed ranks and maintained strict order—even a master like himself could not easily break through such cohesion! The combined might of thousands of masters acting as one unit was not something even a Saint Sovereign could underestimate!
But once the basic formation was broken, he could find openings, exploit the chaos, and achieve the greatest results with the least expenditure of his own forces!
As for the preceding forty to fifty thousand kin, in his eyes, they were nothing more than cannon fodder!
If they died, so be it” as long as their deaths carried weight, held value” then even if another forty or fifty thousand perished, what difference would it make!
Yet, how could he have anticipated that his perfect plan, which was nearly successful, would be ruined at the final, most crucial juncture by an ordinary Bear Clan warrior with merely Saint Realm cultivation!
That damned, dense Black Bear had, at the first possible moment, resolutely adopted the extreme measure of self-detonation, successfully halting his advance and causing a fatal flaw to appear in his flawless plan, leading to its complete collapse!
How could this high-and-mighty Supreme Heavenly Ninja accept such an outcome!
However, it was not yet over. As the saying went: when one plan fails, another arises. Judging by the battle before him, while the Heaven’s Punishment side was undoubtedly strong, they lacked any truly high-level masters holding the line! As long as he and the other Supreme Heavenly Ninjas charged together, pressing forward in one unified assault, victory would still be theirs; it would only cost a little more effort!
Thinking of this, the Supreme Heavenly Ninja finally felt slightly better.
That smelly bear, no matter how cunning his calculations, could only delay him momentarily. A dense brute was still a brute!
But just as he was settling his thoughts, preparing to fly back and join forces with the other Supreme Heavenly Ninjas following behind him, a supremely sharp gust of wind ripped through the air!
In an instant, his body was utterly paralyzed!
“Life Space Lock!” These five words were almost trembled out of his mouth! This was a spatial confinement technique deployable only by Saint Venerable level powerhouses—and it was the most tyrannical and dangerous one!
This method involved burning one’s own life force, communicating perfectly with the heavens and earth, and then completely locking down a specific volume of space that the caster intended to trap!
This technique was undoubtedly most effective for surprise attacks!
If the target was prepared, the effort would be wasted! Because as masters of the same level, no one would foolishly stand still and allow themselves to be imprisoned!
But precisely at this moment, this Supreme Heavenly Ninja was in that exact state of total unpreparedness!
The Supreme Heavenly Ninja had carefully surveyed the entire battlefield just moments before; there were clearly no Saint Venerable-level masters holding the field for the enemy! How could one suddenly appear at this critical juncture?
“Shima-kawa, have you been well?” A chilling, murderously cold voice spoke indifferently. A figure materialized before him, holding aloft a long, gleaming blade. The newcomer was none other than Saint Venerable Lu!
As he spoke, he brought the long blade down viciously without hesitation! He afforded the Supreme Heavenly Ninja no time to react; his eyes held only cold apathy: “Shima-kawa, within this Life Space Lock I have established, I wonder if your Sacred Infant can escape?”
This Supreme Heavenly Ninja was named Shima-kawa Kikyu. Saint Venerable Lu had encountered him during the previous Heaven Seizing War.
Thus, they recognized each other.
“It’s you, you dead deer! Ba-ge! You dare take advantage of my vulnerability and strike sneakily!” Shima-kawa Kikyu also recognized this old adversary from five centuries ago, screaming in terror. But anger was useless now. Suddenly gritting his teeth, he made a swift decision and roared, “Heavenly Ninja Clone Remnant Body Great Art!”
With a poof, a round column of blood erupted from his mouth, and instantly, all his hair stood on end. His face turned deathly pale, completely drained of color, yet his aura suddenly surged into violent power! His Profound Art instantly increased by at least three times. Under the impact of such immense power, it seemed he could break through Saint Venerable Lu’s established Life Space Lock at any moment!
The Heavenly Ninja Clone Remnant Body Great Art was a desperate, life-risking technique of the alien races. Once activated, it could instantly increase one's strength threefold to inflict damage upon the enemy! However, afterward, one’s internal organs were certain to suffer damage, possibly even ceasing function entirely, requiring years of meticulous recovery!
But now, Shima-kawa Kikyu was not trying to kill the enemy; he was trying to tear free of this Life Space Lock! Aside from this self-mutilating technique, he could not conceive of any other way to shatter a Life Space Lock set with full power by an equal-level Saint Venerable master!
He had no other choice!
But Saint Venerable Lu’s strike descended without mercy! Shima-kawa Kikyu twisted his head with every ounce of his strength. With a swish, the great blade cleaved into Shima-kawa Kikyu’s brow.
Both bodies were struck simultaneously! However, because they were back-to-back, one entered the left shoulder area, and the other entered the right shoulder!
By temporarily boosting his own power using the alien secret technique, Shima-kawa Kikyu’s inherent strength was indeed considerably higher than Saint Venerable Lu’s at this moment! His physical durability had also tripled simultaneously!
The blow, which should have easily cleaved him in two, ultimately failed to bisect him directly!
But the single strike still achieved a remarkably significant result: the wound stretched from the shoulder down to the chest cavity, nearly reaching the lower abdomen! Raging blade energy surged inward, instantly turning Shima-kawa Kikyu’s internal organs into a mess of pulp!
Both sets of Shima-kawa Kikyu’s internal organs were nearly fully exposed, steaming with heat! And chunks of shattered organs continued to fall away.
Shima-kawa Kikyu’s two mouths screamed simultaneously: one a male voice, one a female voice, both emitting shrill cries! The intensity of their agony was almost beyond human sound!
After a momentary, sudden pause, a large gush of blood suddenly erupted!
“Ba-ge!” Severely wounded, Shima-kawa Kikyu’s four eyes glowed with terrifying fierceness; it was clear he had fallen into complete madness! As the torrent of blood poured out, although his body had suffered a potentially fatal, catastrophic injury, his Heavenly Ninja Clone Remnant Body Great Art kept his aura climbing in a terrifying ascent!
With a sharp bang, cracks suddenly appeared in the space that should have been utterly silent, as if something formless had abruptly exploded in the air!
Saint Venerable Lu immediately let out a muffled groan and violently spat out a mouthful of blood; his face turned paper-white!
The result was clear: the Life Space Lock he had constructed using his life force had been forcibly broken by the opponent’s overwhelming strength!