Joining Forces

Looking at the group of dejected and spiritless Prodigies before him, Lei Ao forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart. He took a deep breath, his voice as cold and hard as iron, breaking the deathly silence of the battlefield.

"Rest in place complete! Second Tier the mission begins immediately!"

Objective: Infiltrate the nesting area, eradicate all elite-level and above Devouring Locusts, and destroy the Mother Nest!

His words were like a stone thrown into an icy lake, not causing the slightest ripple.

All the Prodigies lowered their heads, remained silent, and even deliberately softened their breathing.

The glaring numbers on the Light Screen were like an indelible brand, burning away every inch of their pride.

In this suffocating atmosphere, a hoarse voice suddenly rang out.

I don't believe it!

Gao Peng suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, staring intently at the distant figure who seemed calm and detached from the situation.

"I admit, he's strong! Strong like a monster!" He panted heavily, his chest heaving. "But that method of instantly disintegrating the Devouring Locusts into nothingness must have consumed a tremendous amount of energy! No matter how powerful his Divine Fire is, he absolutely cannot use it without restraint!"

These words were like a lifeline, which the drowning person clung to desperately.

A faint light rekindled in everyone's eyes.

Yes! That must be it!

How could such an incomprehensible attack method come without a price?

He just looks relaxed!

The leader of the New Martial Arts School, a tall young man, seemed to have been awakened, and suddenly stood up, raising his arms and shouting.

"Gao Peng is right! He's just one person! But we have nearly a hundred!"

"Ancient Martial Arts Schools, New Martial Arts Schools, let's all join forces! Form Battle Formation, combine the strength of a hundred of us, and in terms of endurance, recovery, and efficiency in eliminating the enemy, how could we possibly lose to a lone wolf?!"

This suggestion was like a shot in the arm, instantly injecting strength into all the Prodigies on the verge of collapse.

They found an outlet, a way to save face, and a reason to avoid becoming a complete laughingstock.

"That's right! Join forces!"

"By utilizing the power of Battle Formations, we can minimize our losses!"

"No matter how strong he is, he's still made of flesh and blood; he'll eventually run out of energy!"

"This battle is for the honor of all of us!"

The clamor returned, and the previous dejection vanished. The Prodigies of the two factions quickly reached a consensus.

With Gao Peng and New Martial Arts as the core, they quickly discussed tactics and assigned positions, forming an impressive hundred-man Battle Formation in a very short time.

Seeing the group's serious and excited expressions, Chen Fan was in the distance, finally opened his eyes.

He found it somewhat amusing, but couldn't even muster the urge to yawn.

It's noisy.

He simply closed his eyes again and continued to rest, as if everything in the outside world was irrelevant to him.

"Honorary Allies! Attack!"

With a roar from Gao Peng, the hundred-man allied army surged forward with overwhelming momentum, transforming into a unified torrent of steel as they charged deep into the lair.

The Battle Formation activated, with Sword Qi and fist energy intertwining to form an impenetrable net of death. The Devouring Locusts elites along the way were instantly shredded into pieces before they could even get close, demonstrating astonishing efficiency.

On the Light Screen, the total contribution points belonging to the Allied Forces began to climb rapidly.

Watching the numbers jump around, everyone in the allied forces had a strange feeling—they seemed to actually be able to fight that monster!

"Faster! Faster!"

"Keep your formation! Our efficiency is surpassing his!"

However, just as they had sprinted a thousand meters and their morale was at its peak, Chen Fan, who had been resting with his eyes closed, finally slowly opened them.

His figure flashed, transforming into an inconspicuous golden Stream of Light. Instead of following the main force's route, he cut directly into the core and densest area of Insect Tide from a tricky angle, at a speed far beyond their comprehension.

At first, the allied forces were still enjoying the thrill of their efficient killing.

But when someone glanced at the Light Screen above their head, the excitement on their face instantly froze.

"Look... look at the top of the list..."

A trembling gasp made everyone instinctively look up.

On the leaderboard, the combined contribution points of their nearly one hundred people were indeed increasing rapidly.

However, behind that solitary name at the top of the list—[Life School - Chen Fan]—the long string of numbers was skyrocketing at a speed they couldn't comprehend, even defying the law of conservation of energy!

The rate of growth was not like the sum of individual numbers, but rather like a series of astronomical numbers being multiplied!

It's ten times, a hundred times, the combined strength of their allied forces!

It's even beyond calculation!

"No... this is impossible..."

"Why... why did this happen?!"

"Is his Divine Fire... inexhaustible?!"

The hope of catching up was shattered once again, and most completely.

The morale of the Allied forces plummeted from its soaring peak to an icy abyss in an instant.

The shouts ceased.

The initial enthusiasm has cooled.

They mechanically brandished their weapons, numbly carrying out their attacks, their last line of defense completely overwhelmed and submerged by an emotion called despair.

After an unknown amount of time, when the allied forces had almost exhausted all their strength and were filled with despair, they finally made their way to the central hall of an enormous lair.

A terrifying pressure, so powerful it froze their Divine Souls, suddenly emanated from the throne at the deepest part of the hall!

That was a creature over a hundred meters tall, with a carapace shimmering with dark gold, and an aura far surpassing the Golden Body Peak, already infinitely approaching the Sixth Grade Undying Realm... the Locust Devourer Queen!

The mere emanation of that aura was enough to plunge the entire hundred-strong coalition into an ice cave, rendering them immobile and even freezing their thoughts.

It's over!

In everyone's heart, only these two words remained.

However, amidst this deathly silence and despair, a languid voice, tinged with a hint of complaint, drifted out from behind the terrifying queen.

"Finally something decent! The ones before were too brittle, not even enough to fill a tooth gap."

The allied forces looked up in horror.

They saw that the figure they thought they had long since left far behind was now leisurely sitting beside the Queen Mother's throne.

Chen Fan was already waiting there.

While the other Prodigies were so intimidated by the Empress's oppressive aura that they were like mosquitoes trapped in amber, unable to move, Chen Fan stood up and walked around to the Empress's side as if he were strolling in his own backyard.

He stretched out his finger and casually tapped on the Queen Mother's armor, which was as hard as divine metal.

"Knock! Knock!"

The crisp sound was incredibly jarring in the deathly silent hall.

Then, he turned to look at Gao Peng and the others, who were already terrified, and asked earnestly in a purely inquisitive tone:

"Hey, shouldn't the Life Core of this thing be more heat-resistant?"