Three hundred miles north of Silver Immortal City, Chen Lin gazed at the enormous, glowing, honeycomb-like object in the distance, his expression grave.
This thing was a "Hive."
Its defenses were extraordinarily strong, and half of it existed in this realm while the other half lay hidden in the void. Destroying it was extremely difficult.
Over the years of war between the cultivators and these otherworldly monsters, the cultivators had gone from retreating at every turn to mounting counterattacks through small alliances, and finally to the present tug-of-war. Neither side could wipe out the other.
But the monsters seemed endless; no matter how many they killed, more remained. Meanwhile, dwindling resources and a sharp decline in births had steadily reduced the cultivators' numbers. High-level cultivators were especially scarce. It had been several years since anyone had heard of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator advancing to Golden Core.
Even a fanatical Seven-Star Pill refiner like him had none left in reserve.
He still had some ingredients for refining Seven-Star Pills, but he dared not touch them. He had to save them for the few people close to him.
It was not as though there was no longer a single green leaf in the wilderness, but finding spiritual herbs had become all but impossible outside secret realms. Once the ingredients were used up, there would be no getting more.
"Elder Chen, this Hive is of a high rank. Not only are its defenses extraordinarily strong, it can also counterattack. Elder Yu died in a counterattack from this very Hive."
An Early Golden Core short-haired man withdrew his gaze from the Hive and offered Chen Lin a warning.
Chen Lin nodded. "These things have started appearing in large numbers again. Another wave of monster attacks is probably about to begin. We must clear