The Situation Reverses, Complete Suppression

The horn outside the valley still echoed on the wind. Chen Wuya stood at the mouth of the cave, his broken blade raised over his shoulder. He did not look back. He merely poured true qi into the blade, and Misaligned Force shuddered out along the metal with a piercing cry, like torn silk slicing through dust and sand.

The sound overwhelmed the fading horn blast and stabbed straight into their eardrums.

The allied soldiers below abruptly halted in their hesitant steps, then looked up in unison. The seven squads nearly all straightened their backs at once, tightening their grips on their weapons.

"Move!" Chen Wuya barked.

No further explanation came with the order, but the Staggered Formation that had long been laid out immediately began to turn. Squads of three sprang from their hiding places. No longer advancing under cover, they pressed deep into the valley in triangular formations. Each group struck the ground to a different rhythm, yet under the transmission of Misaligned Force, they formed a strange resonance—the sand subtly rippled like waves spreading across water.

The surviving alien soldiers hid amid rock crevices and gullies, intending to use the terrain to stall for time until reinforcements arrived. Yet the tremors beneath their feet sped and slowed without warning, their direction impossible to discern. They could not tell which side was a feint and which was the main assault.

One surviving soldier poked his head out and fired an arrow. The instant it left the string, a shockwave exploded from the sand to his left. He instinctively ducked back, but in the next instant, a three-man squad had closed to within ten paces on his right. Their spears swept out, forcing him from cover. Bai Zhi had long been waiting there. Her flexible sword flicked like a