Desperate Straits!

Xia Wan was the first to sense the enemy closing in from behind.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed, blazing with dense life-green light. With a flip of her left hand, she produced an emerald longbow; her right hand plucked an arrow from thin air as she spun and loosed. A bolt shimmering with verdant radiance howled toward the sky.

"Boom—"

The arrow detonated midair, bursting into a cloud of spores.

The Dread Demon horde charged without hesitation, barreling straight into the spore cloud.

But the moment the spores touched flesh, they transformed into countless fine threads like dodder vines, tangling every Dread Demon that entered the zone and binding them into cocoon-like bundles.

Deprived of wingbeats, the Dread Demons plummeted, crashing heavily onto the ground.

The earth was thick with [Genesis Grass Seed]. As the demons made contact, their bellies swelled rapidly. Within a few breaths, something inside them began struggling desperately to burst out.

The hunter's trap combo was smooth, and the double control effect was obvious—the vanguard of the Dread Demons failed to reach the group immediately.

But even as Xia Wan loosed arrow after arrow like rain, she could only hold back a limited number.

The enemy's numbers were simply too vast. The locust-like shadow soon exhausted the airborne spores and surged once more toward the group's position.

"No time! Assassins, protect yourselves! Everyone else, get behind me!"

Chen Chong roared, tossing Cao Sansui off his back to Nangong. He drew his massive shield, planted it on the ground, and drove its tip deep into the gravel before him.

Wide-eyed, he bellowed: "Order Endures!"

The faintly glowing giant shield flared in response, its blinding holy light cascading upward like an inverted heavenly waterfall. At its zenith, it curved in a perfect arc and poured back down, racing outward to either side of the group.

The path of light traced the shape of a colossal wall, sealing Cheng Shi and the others safely within.

"Yah—Sah—"

"Boom—boom—boom—boom—"

The sky-darkening Dread Demon horde crashed down, slamming one after another into the Light Screen Wall formed by the shield. The impacts thundered, but the barrier held firm, and everyone inside stood steady as mountains.

Chen Chong's face was grim, veins bulging in his arms as he pressed against the shield, not daring to move.

"Too many Dread Demons! The Holy Light Great Wall can only last five minutes—with both priests buffing, maybe fifteen at most. Think fast, or we won't last twenty-four hours; we'll be done for in fifteen!"

His urgency was clear, but panic wouldn't help. The enemy was simply overwhelming.

Nangong was restoring Cao Sansui's mental energy on the side. Her Healing Art was effective; Cao Sansui had already shaken off his lethargy.

"The Progeny Priest has a big heal pool. If you manage the 'Newborn' on yourself well, we can probably hold out a bit longer."

Cao Sansui tried to boost his teammates' morale, but his heart was ice-cold.

He hadn't expected this trial's engagement pace to be so fast, the enemy's assault so ferocious. Even the 2000-point trials he'd matched into before hadn't been this brutal.

The highest score in this trial was his own—just 1900.

The lowest was barely 1400. What had he done to deserve a Dread Demon army this massive?

Anyone watching would think this was a damn 2100-point match.

Everyone's expressions were grim. Sheltered by the Holy Light Wall, Xia Wan stopped shooting and focused on recovering her strength.

Nangong, her face pale, frowned and cast another Healing Art on Xia Wan.

Xia Wan was slightly surprised and nodded in thanks. Feeling the rich restorative energy in her body, she manifested a few more Spore Arrows.

As for the other priest, Cheng Shi, he just sat on the ground, staring around blankly like a freeloader.

To be honest, Cheng Shi was a bit troubled too. He'd seen scenes like this before, but never with teammates this low-scoring.

He was racking his brain for a way to use the cards he had to escape this trap.

In high-score matches, every player was strong. When danger struck, they'd pull out all kinds of creative tricks, always finding a way out.

Beyond their combat experience, the key was confidence and capability!

That was why the [Path to Godhood] (ladder) score mattered so much.

Because at the end of every month, the Path to Godhood had an extra settlement, and players in different brackets received different rewards.

These rewards covered everything—from supplies to equipment, from talents to skills—nothing was off the table.

And the higher the bracket, the greater the chance of high-grade rewards.

Since basic skills between the same classes were nearly identical, the only thing that set players apart was the talents, skills, and gear they chose to build their combat power.

Chen Chong's Shieldsword, which balanced offense and defense and gave a special bonus to barrier-type defensive skills, came from an A-rank reward on the ladder.

Chen Chong, gripping his shield, saw the Dread Demons outside block every direction of the light barrier, plunging the shielded space into darkness. His anxiety grew.

The others frowned, their nerves taut, bracing for the worst.

At this moment, they had fallen into a dead end.

And the trial had only been running for less than an hour.

"Are we... going to die?" Nangong's small hands were clenched white.

No one answered her. Even Chen Chong just focused all his energy on maintaining the Holy Light Great Wall, buying everyone a few more minutes to think of a way out.

But those few minutes felt more like the last gasp of their lives.

The atmosphere sank to rock bottom.

Everyone was racking their brains, yet still couldn't come up with any way to escape. Silence fell within the shield's protection.

But just then, Cheng Shi suddenly spoke up:

"Is Song Yawen still alive?"

Song Yawen had shadow cover and didn't need the shield's protection, but shadow cover wasn't unlimited in duration either. The slightest movement would eject him from the shadow plane, revealing him to all.

That said, a seasoned assassin could hold out for quite a while—at least longer than five minutes.

Song Yawen didn't answer, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't dare.

He was currently crouched under a broken wall outside the Holy Light Great Wall, and that wall was packed with bloodthirsty Dread Demons—at least seventeen or eighteen of them.

"He probably isn't dead..."

Cheng Shi wasn't concerned about him either; 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 still have a chance to escape.

Just as "Holy Light Great Wall" was the exclusive skill of an Order Knight, "Death Funeral" was the exclusive skill granted to assassins who believed in [Death].

This skill's effect was to summon a massive Scythe of Death within the "Death Domain," delivering a guaranteed lethal strike against all targets in the domain.

However, because constructing the "Death Domain" was too demanding—requiring the collection of a large amount of freshly dead souls in a confined space—few [Death] assassins ever used this skill.

When they did, they couldn't strike and retreat like other assassin classes. Instead, they had to lurk continuously in the shadows, killing relentlessly.

Then finish it all with one final blow.

This kind of sustained close-quarters kill setup was very disadvantageous for an assassin, carrying great risk.

But likewise, the payoff was high.

Because Death Funeral was guaranteed to hit.

For this reason, [Death] assassins were called "Death Weavers"—true to their name.

Yet faced with such a terrifying horde of Dread Demons, Song Yawen's Death Funeral had no chance to be executed.

The moment he showed himself, the first to die wouldn't be the Dread Demons—it would be him.

So Song Yawen stayed hidden in the shadows, not daring to move at all.

But just because he didn't dare didn't mean Cheng Shi didn't.