Decapitation Plan, Ring the Bell!

"There are already hundreds of bow-wielding phantoms!"

"And their numbers keep snowballing. Double them one more time and there'll be over a thousand."

Everyone watched this dazzling solo performance from atop the Defense Tower.

The Manor Lord's entrance was quite something.

Could it be that after joining the battle, he could deal with the entire crow swarm by himself?

But they soon realized they had been overthinking it.

Things were nowhere near that simple.

A delicate black Crow King suddenly flew through the sky. It was smaller than an ordinary large crow.

It was less than half a meter long, exquisitely petite. Its feathers gleamed black, and each wing resembled a sharp sword shimmering with a metallic chill. Riding the wind, it swiftly dove down.

Boom!

Several bow-wielding phantoms that had acted on instinct were blasted apart.

Whoosh!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Hundreds of bow-wielding phantoms instinctively drew their bows and loosed their arrows.

But the super-small crow was far too fast. Like a fading afterimage, it moved with the speed of the wind and lightning, blasting apart the phantoms on the ground one after another.

Within a few short minutes, all the phantoms had been wiped out.

"What..." The blacksmiths in all the Defense Towers were dumbstruck. Such a glorious situation had vanished in an instant?

The Manor Lord's clone was a little fragile.

But then again, that did seem to be the case.

This clone was clearly stronger against stronger opponents.

Since it had split off from the enemy, what could one expect from an ant clone split from an ant's soul if it were planted in an ant?

The combat power of these clones seemed to always be evenly matched with their enemies, and the gap between them and the crow before them was not large.

"The boss has appeared."

"Is it personally leading the charge?"

"That makes sense. If it doesn't act, after two more rounds of snowballing, the numbers will make our scalps go numb. We have to stop the virus from spreading."

Before everyone had time to analyze the situation, the opponent suddenly swept them with a sharp gaze. It began personally pecking at a nearby Defense Tower, its beak digging through it as easily as excavating tofu.

"Fire!"

"Fire, quick!!"

Someone on the opposing tower defense team shouted.

Arrows of Magic Copper rapidly struck the Crow King.

Unfortunately, it merely raised its wings. They protected it like two iron fans. The arrowheads clanged against the wings like metal, while it continued digging away at the ground without lifting its head.

With nothing able to stop it, the Crow King instantly dug through a Defense Tower. Several blacksmiths inside fled for their lives in terror. "This is ridiculous! The tower defenses were breached in an instant! To the tunnels, quick! To the tunnels!"

Ning Zheng saw this through his viewpoint, his brows furrowing deeply.

"So strong."

Through the images atop the Mountain Villa, he considered the difference between his combat strength and the opponent's.

He was at the Two Bodies Realm, while that black crow had clearly reached the Great Perfection of Five Bodies Realm. There were a full three minor realms between them.

If it were an ordinary cultivator, he might not be unable to fight above his level. By splitting again and again, surrounding the enemy, and kiting it to death, he could slowly wear it down.

But the opponent's incredible speed was the perfect counter to his system.

If he could not hit it, he could not plant poison in it. It could also swiftly clear away his clones.

"These blacksmiths have already lost. My clones won't be able to help much either." Ning Zheng silently furrowed his brows.

He glanced at the more than seven thousand Luck Value in his hands, wondering how he should use it flexibly to create some chance of counterattacking and winning.

Boom!

A huge pit appeared.

The tower defenses of the "Eye Legend" team had been breached.

Within the underground passage, Eye Flower, Eye Bag, Eye Blind, and Yan Zhong fled like madmen.

But they did not get far.

With a bang, Eye Flower's head exploded on the spot.

The three blacksmiths who had run farther were quickly caught as well. With another bang, one more exploded, utterly powerless to fight back.

The gap between them and the demon beast was simply too vast!

The Crow King then began rapidly attacking the blacksmiths from the other teams one after another in the passageways. Amid the screams, the number of casualties continued to rise.

"The defensive line has collapsed."

"We're going to die! It's a total wipeout! It's as easy for them to come in and kill us as slaughtering chickens."

The opponent's overwhelming pressure kept the blacksmiths' nerves taut as they fled frantically.

Unbeknownst to them, the Crow King's pursuit led it to an underground room.

Several words were written at the entrance:

Boss Bell Room

The Crow King could not read. It charged straight in and saw that the entire room was circular, made entirely of bronze-colored Magic Copper. With a bang, the Magic Copper door behind it suddenly slammed shut.

Realizing it had been locked inside, the Crow King's eyes revealed a humanlike trace of mockery. This Magic Copper could not possibly stop it.

But the next moment—

"Duang!~"

The entire Magic Copper wall suddenly trembled. The room turned out to be a gigantic bronze bell.

BOOM!!!!!

The Crow King's head suddenly exploded, leaving it dizzy and seeing stars.

It felt just like playing a computer game, happily tapping away at the keyboard, when someone silently slipped a heavy iron bell over your head from behind and then took a huge iron hammer and struck it with all their might.

It was deafening!!

It made one want to kill someone!

The Crow King's brains had been shaken into a slurry!

A puddle of mush.

But thanks to its terrifying regenerative ability, its head was rapidly growing back.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Terrifying sound waves rippled through the room, shaking the Crow King's exceptionally clever brain blank. It could not form a single thought.

This was also the blacksmiths' plan.

The gap between mortals and low-level cultivators was quite large too.

It lay in the enemy's extremely high defense and rapid regeneration of flesh and blood, making it difficult to kill.

Mental attacks like bell sounds were the only effective form of hard control they could think of.

"Demons like this adapt quickly. Ring it again!" someone shouted.

Dong!!!

A group of people outside slammed into the bell, shouting courageously, "Demon, listen to my Great Thunder Bell Sound! Hear the bell's chant!"

"Quick!! If we can't bring it down now, we'll all die!" Jiu Cai Rong's expression was incomparably solemn. He suddenly waved as well. "Time is tight. Open the door immediately and bring in the suona."

The bronze door suddenly opened.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

A group of Money Boys with their ears plugged rushed in with superb discipline. They quickly carried in a huge suona, fitted it over the dizzy Crow King's head, and took a deep breath.

Blow!!

Boom!

The Crow King's brain was shaken into mush once again, and it remained under continuous control.

They did not dare to keep striking the large bell outside, because anyone who entered would be shaken to death. Thus, they had switched to a giant suona for localized control.

"Where are the executioners?" Jiu Cai Rong suddenly shouted.

A loli holding a large magical weapon dashed in. It was none other than Su Yu Niang.

Dao Jiujiu had led the team in working overtime, and they had successfully crafted the magical weapon.

Wind Crow Mad Blade

Trait: Swift

Magic Copper energy storage: 1/1

Can only be triggered once per day.

Afterward, it would have to wait for the Magic Copper to absorb the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and store magical power again.

"Let me do it!"

Su Yu Niang entered with the blade and took a deep breath. The situation was urgent. Looking at the Crow King under hard control, she knew it would not last long. The opponent would soon adapt.

They had to seize this chance to finish it.

Now was the moment!

The opponent had fallen into their trap not because the Crow King was too stupid, but because they had prepared while it had not.

After all, their original plan had been for the tower defenses to serve as the first line of defense. Once the arrows were exhausted and the towers breached, they would retreat to the second line of defense: tunnel warfare.

The route was right there. The Crow King would have to pursue them down, wouldn't it?

Once it gave chase, it would enter this room. No matter how high its intelligence, it could still fall victim to a kill on first sight.

"Not good!! It's protecting its internal organs very well." Su Yu Niang did not know where to strike. Her mind was a tangled mess, and the urgency of death seemed to coil around her entire body, chilling her to the marrow.

The opponent was at the Great Perfection of Five Bodies Realm. It had not reached the Four Organs Realm, which meant its internal organs had not been tempered by spiritual energy.

That was its weakness. They could win as long as they stabbed it in the stomach.

But even though the Crow King before her had been shaken until it could not think, it still used its wings to protect its belly front and back, forming a defensive turtle that left them with nowhere to strike.

There was not much time. The opponent would soon adapt completely.

"I can only settle for second best and chop off its head!" Su Yu Niang took a deep breath and raised the magical weapon high. "It's only a demon beast that has just entered the first transcendent realm. It shouldn't be much stronger than a mortal. It's equivalent to a ninth-level Qi Condensation cultivator in traditional cultivation novels. Its flesh should still be vulnerable to mortal attacks."

Swift!

She murmured the activation word, raised the magical weapon high, and swung it down viciously. "Besides, I'm holding a magical weapon!"

With her tremendous speed and the unique strength of the Money Boys, she chopped through half the bird's head in one stroke, leaving it attached by its tendons, bones, and spine.

"That head is really tough, but this is already excellent. Keep it up! More than half is cut through. Team Three, hurry up and bring over the guillotine!" Jiu Cai Rong shouted.

A group of people rushed in. The guillotine they had prepared had an O-shaped opening, and they slipped the bird's head inside.

"Put your backs into it! Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!" Seven or eight Money Boys frantically cranked the gears, forcing the blade down inch by inch.

Crack!

The bird's head was finally chopped off.

But in the next moment, the headless Crow King finally awoke from the agony. It realized that someone was cutting off its head.

The severed head let out a sharp, shrill roar, as though it were rapidly regaining consciousness.

"A Five Bodies Realm beast has a lifespan of eight hundred to two thousand years. It won't die even if its head is severed."

"But if we carry the head away, its headless body will be brainless and run wild."

They did not get greedy for credit, nor did they dare to. The group withdrew in orderly fashion, carrying away the bird's head and closing the door behind them.

The body that had lost its head suddenly became violent. It rammed about wildly, denting the room everywhere. Within a few minutes, it quickly smashed a huge hole through the ceiling.

The headless Crow King soared into the air and flew toward the sky.

"What kind of ridiculous boss is this?!"

The group tightly bound the constantly struggling bird's head with iron chains, then placed it inside an isolated Magic Copper box. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.

It had no brain.

From here on, they had forcibly reduced the boss's intelligence, making it far easier to fight.

Without this leader secretly directing its movements, arranging formations, and searching for blind spots, they only had to repair the breached Defense Tower and resume their defense. It would be far, far easier.

Meanwhile, Ning Zheng had hidden himself and was preparing an ambush. He suddenly froze, his face filled with bewilderment.

How were they this ridiculous? A mere group of mortals had actually chopped off its head with nothing but a crudely made magical weapon?