Desperate Situation!

Xia Wan sensed the approaching enemies behind them first.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed, brimming with rich green vitality. With a flip of her left hand, she produced a verdant longbow. Her right hand formed an arrow out of thin air. She spun around and loosed it, sending an arrow glowing with emerald light howling into the sky.

"Boom—"

The arrow exploded in midair, scattering spores across the sky.

The Dread Demon army charged straight through the sea of spores without the slightest hesitation.

Yet the moment the spores touched flesh, they transformed into countless fine tendrils resembling dodder. The tendrils wrapped around every Dread Demon that entered the area, binding them into "silkworm cocoons."

Without their wings to keep them aloft, the Dread Demons plummeted one after another, crashing heavily into the ground.

The ground was also covered with Genesis Grass Seeds. When the Dread Demons came into contact with them, their bellies rapidly swelled. After only a few breaths, it seemed as though something inside them had begun struggling desperately to break out.

The Hunter's trap combo was incredibly smooth, and the effects of the double control were obvious. The Dread Demon vanguard did not reach the group immediately.

But even though Xia Wan fired arrows like rain, she could only hold back a limited number of Dread Demons.

There were simply too many enemies. The shadows, like a locust plague, soon exhausted the spores in the air and surged toward the group's position again.

"We're out of time! Assassin, protect yourself! Everyone else, get behind me!"

Chen Chong roared and tossed Cao Sansui, who had been on his back, to Nangong. He then drew his giant shield, turned around, planted it on the ground, and drove its tip deep into the gravel in front of him.

He glared and shouted, "Order Endures!"

The giant shield, which had already been glowing faintly, suddenly blazed with light. Blinding holy radiance surged upward like a heavenly waterfall flowing in reverse, bent into a perfect arc high in the sky, then poured down and rapidly spread toward both sides of the group.

The trail of light took the shape of a gigantic wall, firmly shielding Cheng Shi and the others inside.

"Yah—Saa—"

"Bang—bang—bang—bang—"

The Dread Demon army blotted out the sky as it swooped down, repeatedly slamming into the Light Screen Wall formed by the giant shield. The impacts thundered, but the Light Screen did not budge in the slightest. Everyone inside remained as steady as a mountain.

Chen Chong's expression was grim. The veins on his arm bulged as he pressed down on the shield, not daring to move at all.

"There are too many Dread Demons. The Holy Light Great Wall can only last five minutes. With two Priests supporting it, we can extend that to fifteen minutes at most. Think of something, quickly! Forget twenty-four hours—even if we can't hold for fifteen minutes, we'll all die here!"

It was clear that Chen Chong was frantic, but panic was useless now. There were simply too many enemies.

Nangong was restoring Cao Sansui's mental power from the side. Her Healing Art was highly effective, and Cao Sansui had already recovered from his listless state.

"Progeny Priest has a large healing output. As long as you control the 'Newborns' on your body, you should be able to hold out a little longer."

Although Cao Sansui was encouraging his teammates, his heart had already gone ice-cold.

He had not expected the enemy engagement in this trial to begin so quickly, or the enemies to act so ferociously. Even in the previous trial he had been matched into, which had a score of 2,000, things had never been this intense.

The person with the highest score in this trial was himself, and even that was only 1,900.

The lowest score was not even 1,400. What had he done to deserve attracting such a massive Dread Demon army?

Anyone who did not know better would think this was a 2,100-point match.

Everyone wore solemn expressions. With the protection of the Holy Light Wall, Xia Wan did not continue firing. Instead, she began charging her strength and recovering.

Nangong's face was a little pale, but a strange light flickered in her eyes. She frowned and cast another Healing Art onto Xia Wan.

Xia Wan was slightly surprised. She nodded to Nangong in thanks, felt the dense restorative power filling her body, and raised her hand to manifest several more Spore Arrows.

As for the other Priest, Cheng Shi, he merely sat on the ground, looking around aimlessly like a freeloader.

To be honest, Cheng Shi had a headache too. It was not that he had never seen a scene like this, but he truly had never faced one alongside teammates with such low scores.

He was racking his brains, trying to figure out how to use the cards currently in his hand to escape this predicament.

In high-score matches, every player possessed formidable combat strength. Whenever they encountered a crisis, they came up with one ingenious trick after another, always finding some way out.

Aside from their rich combat experience, the most important thing was that they had confidence and ability!

That was also why the score on the Path to Godhood (Ladder) was so important.

At the end of every month, the Path to Godhood conducted an additional settlement. Players in different tiers received different rewards.

Those rewards covered everything, from supplies to equipment, and from talents to skills. Nothing was excluded.

Moreover, the higher the tier, the greater the probability of receiving high-grade rewards.

Since the basic skills of the same class were nearly identical, the only things that distinguished different players' styles were the various talent skills and equipment items they selected when building their combat strength.

Chen Chong's Shieldsword combined offense and defense and provided special bonuses to Light Screen defensive skills. It had come from an A-rank Ladder reward.

Holding his shield, Chen Chong saw that the Dread Demons outside had almost blocked every direction around the Light Screen, darkening the entire shielded space. His expression grew increasingly anxious.

The others also furrowed their brows, secretly tensing themselves and preparing for the worst.

At that moment, everyone had fallen into a desperate situation.

And the trial had only begun less than an hour ago.

"Are we... going to die?" Nangong's small hands clenched until her knuckles turned white.

No one answered her. Even Chen Chong could only muster all his strength to maintain the Holy Light Great Wall, buying everyone a little more time to think of a way out.

Yet these few minutes felt more like the last miserable struggle of their lives.

The atmosphere had sunk to rock bottom.

Everyone was racking their brains, but no one could think of a way to escape. Silence descended within the shielded space.

But just then, Cheng Shi suddenly spoke:

"What about Song Yawen? Is he still alive?"

Song Yawen had Shadow Concealment and did not need the shield's protection. However, Shadow Concealment did not last indefinitely. The slightest movement would eject him from the shadow plane and reveal him to everyone.

Still, a mature Assassin could remain concealed for quite a long time—at least longer than five minutes.

Song Yawen did not respond, not because he did not want to, but because he did not dare.

He was currently crouching beneath a broken wall outside the Holy Light Great Wall. The broken wall was packed with bloodthirsty Dread Demons—at least seventeen or eighteen of them.

"He should still be alive..."

Cheng Shi was not actually concerned about him. He was thinking of a countermeasure.

He knew that the exclusive skill of a Death Assassin was Death Funeral. If Song Yawen was still alive, they might have a chance to escape.

Just as Holy Light Great Wall was the exclusive skill of an Order Knight, Death Funeral was an exclusive skill granted to Assassins who worshiped death.

Its effect was to summon a gigantic Scythe of Death within the Death Domain, delivering one unavoidable death strike against every target inside the domain.

However, constructing the Death Domain was excessively demanding. It required collecting a large amount of the aura of the recently dead within a limited space, so few Death Assassins used this skill.

Once they decided to use it, they could not retreat after striking like other Assassin classes. Instead, they had to remain hidden in the shadows and continuously create slaughter.

Then they would finish everything with a final strike.

This kind of killing operation, which required maintaining close-range contact for an extended period, was highly disadvantageous to an Assassin and carried enormous risks.

But the rewards were equally great.

Because Death Funeral was unavoidable.

That was why Death Assassins were called "Death Weavers"—a name that was entirely fitting.

However, against a Dread Demon army of such terrifying size, Song Yawen had no chance to use Death Funeral.

The moment he revealed himself, the first one to die would definitely not be a Dread Demon. It would be him.

That was why Song Yawen remained hidden in the shadows, not daring to move in the slightest.

But just because he did not dare did not mean Cheng Shi did not.