Encounter

Above the undulating, pitch-black mountain range, a saucer-shaped spacecraft flew through the air at sub-light speed.

Inside the cabin, Zhan Qiu sent a telepathic message to Bai Muye: "We've been in the Black Meteor Mountain Range for over a decade. Based on our past habits, after another one or two battles, we'll likely set off to return to the 049 Military Base..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a deafening boom erupted, and the entire cabin shook violently.

"Enemy attack!"

Dongluo's cold, clear voice rang in their ears, the two simple words carrying a hint of barely perceptible urgency.

Bai Muye steadied himself, exchanged a glance with Zhan Qiu, and felt his heart sink.

The situation was dire; in over a decade of entering the Black Meteor Mountain Range, they had never encountered a situation where the spacecraft was directly attacked.

The occurrence of this situation could only mean one thing—Dongluo's detector had failed to detect the enemy's presence in advance!

This proved that the enemy's detector was of a higher grade than Dongluo's, and typically, the grade of a detector was directly proportional to one's strength; the higher the grade, the stronger the power!

If the opposing party was a squad possessing a Marquis Rank Immortal God, they were in extreme danger.

"Everyone, leave the ship and engage the enemy!"

Dongluo's voice came from outside the ship—she had smashed through the cabin wall from inside the main control room and exited the vessel.

The moment the attack occurred, the ship's exits opened automatically. Without needing Dongluo's orders, all the World Lords had already telepathically instructed their subordinates to leave the ship as quickly as possible.

Bai Muye and Zhan Qiu flew out of the exit with their Universe Rank subordinates. Fortunately, the ship did not suffer further attacks during these few short moments.

Standing in the air, roars came from all directions. What met Bai Muye's eyes were thousands of silver-gray Zerg Warriors.

A quick glance revealed that these Zerg Warriors were generally divided into two types: the majority were about 30 meters tall, covered in ferocious spikes, and possessed thick armor.

The minority were about 20 meters tall, with sturdy lower limbs and two pairs of forelimbs that resembled war blades.

"It's the Zerg..."

While Bai Muye breathed a sigh of relief, he also felt a heavy pressure in his heart.

He felt relieved because the enemy this time was not the Marquis Rank Immortal he had previously imagined, but seeing that the opposing Zerg Warriors were all at the peak of the World Lord Rank, their situation remained far from optimistic.

The aura of the vast majority of these Zerg Warriors was at the World Lord Rank, proving that the Mother Empress controlling them was likely at the World Lord Rank. As long as Dongluo could kill or suppress this Zerg Mother Empress, the crisis would be resolved.

That was, provided Dongluo could do it and they could hold out until that moment.

He looked back at the ship and couldn't help but gasp.

There was a glaring scar on one side of the ship, the edges of which were exceptionally smooth, clearly the result of some kind of energy attack.

Fortunately, Dongluo had sensed it at the last moment before the attack arrived, instantly releasing her divine power to form a shield, which changed the angle of the attack. Otherwise, the ship might have been hit directly in the core; disintegration would have been a minor issue, but after the energy explosion, it was unlikely that any of the Universe Rank individuals inside the ship would have survived.

These thoughts flashed through Bai Muye's mind in an instant. The surrounding Zerg Warriors, led by the vast majority of the smaller ones, were closing in on Dongluo in the air.

Only a few hundred 30-meter-tall Tiger Armor Zerg were swarming toward Bai Muye and his group. Zhu Ang led those World Lords to intercept them, but each of the dozens of World Lords could only hold off ten to several dozen Tiger Armor Zerg, leaving nearly a hundred to slip through the net and charge toward the Domain Lords and Universe Rank soldiers like Bai Muye.

Bai Muye recalled the descriptions from the original text and carefully distinguished them; the thousands of Zerg Warriors surrounding Dongluo were clearly more agile and moved with great discipline, while the Zerg Warriors surrounding them appeared somewhat dull, seemingly fighting purely on instinct.

Clearly, that Zerg Mother Empress also knew who posed the greatest threat, so it focused all its energy on Dongluo, precisely controlling the Zerg surrounding her. Moreover, as long as it could kill the Immortal in the team, the remaining World Lords, Domain Lords, and Universe Rank soldiers would absolutely not be able to escape its pursuit.

Looking at the incoming Zerg Warriors, Dongluo couldn't help but feel her scalp tingle. The look in her green pupils was extremely grave. She released her Immortal-level divine sense without reservation, but the Zerg Mother Empress opposite her was extremely cunning, and its detector was higher-grade than hers, so Dongluo could not find its trail at all.

The new detector she had purchased was already standard for a low-level Marquis Rank; she hadn't expected a World Lord Rank Zerg Mother Empress to have a detector higher-grade than her own.

After leaving the ship and confirming that the opponent was a World Lord Rank Zerg Mother Empress, she had immediately sent a distress signal through the military system.

She didn't call for help entirely for her own sake; if she were determined to run, it would be difficult for mere World Lord Rank Zerg Warriors to trap her. But if she left, not a single one of her subordinates would survive.

She might not care about the Universe Rank soldiers, but these World Lords and the few Domain Lords had almost all followed her for thousands or tens of thousands of years. Humans are not made of wood or stone—who could be without emotion? Unless she was in a desperate situation, she would not easily give up.

"Hold on! I have called for allies; they will arrive within ten minutes!"

Dongluo's voice spread across the battlefield; this sentence was also meant for that Zerg Mother Empress to hear.

But the surrounding Zerg Warriors remained completely unmoved and had already begun their attack.

Thousands of Zerg Warriors surrounded the inner circle, while further out, dozens of military formations, each consisting of hundreds of Zerg Warriors, were gathering energy and locking onto her figure.

The energy gathered by a hundred Zerg Warriors was no less powerful than the attack of a High-Level Military Lord; if she took a hit head-on, it would be enough to severely injure her.

A Sword Domain Storm composed of forty-nine cyan-gold longswords protected Dongluo in the center. As soon as the inner-circle Zerg Warriors approached, they would be shredded by the sword formation in the next instant.

However, the energy attacks from the periphery were constant. She dodged with all her might, but unfortunately, under the precise control of the Zerg Mother Empress, the space left for her was becoming smaller and smaller.

In the World Lord Rank battle circle, some World Lords were in precarious positions facing the siege of over a dozen Zerg Warriors. Even powerful World Lord Generals like Zhu Ang were under immense pressure when facing the attacks of dozens of World Lord-level warriors.

Dozens of World Lord-level Tiger Armor Zerg pounced on the circle where the Domain Lords and Universe Rank soldiers were located, cutting through them like chopping vegetables. With a casual swipe of the sharp claws on their forelimbs, they erupted with terrifying speed and power; the Universe Rank soldiers had no power to resist such attacks at all.

Hundreds of Domain Lords led their Universe Rank subordinates to fight back. Peng Donghan, the top Domain Lord under Zhu Ang, shouted via telepathy, telling everyone to find a way to split these Zerg up. Otherwise, if a small squad faced so many World Lord-level Zerg alone, they would be torn to pieces in less than a second.

The idea was good, but it was truly difficult to implement. Although the Zerg Warriors relied only on instinct, this actually made them even more terrifying to them.

"Spread out! Each of you use long-range attacks on a single Zerg to lure and disperse them..." Bai Muye sent a telepathic message to Peng Donghan.

Peng Donghan felt this made sense and immediately relayed the message to all the Domain Lord captains.

All the Domain Lords spread out, using long-range methods to attack a specific Zerg. The Zerg that were attacked immediately lunged toward the squad that had targeted them.

The battle lines were quickly stretched out, and with five or six squads facing a single Zerg Warrior, the pressure was slightly reduced.

Bai Muye and Zhan Qiu led the Universe Rank members of their own squads to join four other Domain Lord squads in confronting a single Tiger Armor Zerg.

The Universe Rank members could only stay on the periphery, desperately launching long-range attacks, while the Domain Lords stood at the very front.

The situation was extremely dire; even when Bai Muye unleashed the full power of his Mixed Domain, the Tiger Armor Zerg was only slightly restricted, its speed remaining incredibly fast.

It paid no attention to the attacks from the Universe Rank members, allowing them to strike its thick carapace, though they only managed to deal negligible damage.

Bang, bang, bang, bang...

The Domain Lords blocking the front could not withstand a single strike from the beetle, coughing up blood as they were sent flying one after another.

The beetle's compound eyes turned toward Bai Muye, its powerful combat instinct telling it that the shackles binding it originated from this short human standing before it.

Raising its sharp claws, it lunged toward Bai Muye.