Defeat

The battle situation at this moment had completely exceeded everyone's expectations.

Bai Yuan, wielding a blade in one hand and a shield in the other, faced twenty-five opponents alone, yet he forced them all to retreat step by step.

Seizing an opening, Bai Yuan's blade flashed again, and another opponent was eliminated.

If his previous fighting style had been a wildfire sweeping across the plains, now he was as steady as a mountain, responding to change with stillness.

"No good, his defense is airtight. Though we have the numbers, our coordination is full of holes. Once he finds an opening, we risk elimination."

Twenty-six had come, and two were already eliminated.

But now, forget eliminating Bai Yuan—even injuring him was extremely difficult.

For a moment, many in the group began to waver.

Just then, the burly warrior from before shouted again:

"Everyone, don't panic! No matter how strong he is, he's only an Apprentice Eighth Rank. His stamina has limits. If we hold steady and outlast him, victory is ours!"

These words were like a shot of adrenaline, reigniting the flagging fighting spirit.

The martial artists fell back, letting the eleven psychokinetic masters unleash their telekinetic weapons at full power, draining Bai Yuan's stamina as much as possible.

Bai Yuan saw through their plan and shook his head slightly: "Want to run? In a speed contest, are any of you faster than me?"

Boom!

Before the words faded, he transformed into a golden streak of light, his battle blade arcing through the air toward the nearest youth.

Countless blades intercepted him from all directions, but Bai Yuan's strike was resolute, tearing a gap through the encirclement and cutting the youth down.

Then he spun and raised his shield, blocking nearly all the pursuing blades.

Though his reaction was swift, a few blades still grazed his body, leaving shallow bloody gashes.

Fortunately, the wounds were not deep and did not hinder his movements.

"Everyone, don't panic! He's clearly getting anxious too! Hold on, and victory will be ours!" The burly warrior's roar rang out like a war drum, stirring the others once more.

Bai Yuan's brow furrowed. Those psychokinetic masters hovering at the edge of the battle were now his most troublesome opponents.

If he were facing twenty-six martial artists, Bai Yuan was confident he would have broken them one by one already.

"Looks like I'll need to figure out some techniques for group battles. Picking them off one by one like this is too much trouble," Bai Yuan sighed inwardly.

Watching from the sidelines, the cosmic-level experts couldn't help but smile.

"The swarm tactic is always one of the simplest and most effective strategies on the battlefield."

"True. I've heard that on the Outer Realm Battlefield, those Zerg Mother Empresses are truly terrifying. They can spawn hundreds of thousands or even millions of Zerg warriors at the same cultivation level—that's real horror!"

"That's still too far off for us. That great Immortal God has already set the rule: below Domain Lord level, one doesn't even qualify to set foot on the Outer Realm Battlefield."

As a faction backed by an Immortal, the Blade Clan was not entirely ignorant of the universe's many secrets.

But they only knew of them—such levels were far beyond their reach.

Pfft!

With that dull sound, a spray of blood blossomed on the battlefield.

Bai Yuan, enduring the rain of blades from all sides, used his absolute speed to charge forward again. Every strike was precise and ruthless, cutting down an enemy at an astonishing pace.

But this time, his left shoulder was also slashed by a blade, sending a bead of blood flying.

Even so, he stood his ground without changing expression, his cold gaze sweeping over the surrounding enemies.

Seeing this, the burly warrior's eyes lit up: "Everyone, don't panic! He's injured, which means our strategy—"

"Shut the hell up! I'm out of here! Whoever wants to fight can fight!"

A furious shout cut off the burly warrior mid-sentence, and the speaker fled like a startled bird, racing toward the valley exit.

The reason was simple: Bai Yuan's gaze had locked tightly onto him!

He didn't know how this battle would end, but he knew one thing clearly—if he didn't run now, he'd be the next to suffer!

"I'm out too!"

"Tch, how embarrassing. A group fight and we still can't win."

With the first to leave, two more immediately dropped out of the battle.

The others' faces darkened.

They had relied on their numerical advantage, hoping to barely scrape by through attrition.

But now, with three gone and four eliminated before, only nineteen remained.

Worse still, when Bai Yuan's icy gaze turned to another martial artist, the man's expression stiffened, and he too turned and fled without hesitation.

Among the psychokinetic masters, some had already silently withdrawn their telekinetic weapons.

"Forget it. Once the martial artists are all gone, we'll be next."

The other psychokinetic masters nodded in agreement.

Now only seven of the fifteen martial artists remained, and it was likely a few more would flee before long.

Once they lost the close-quarters containment of the martial artists, with Bai Yuan's speed and explosive power, killing them—these psychokinesists—would be as easy as turning over his hand.

At this point, the encirclement of twenty-six people had finally collapsed.

But Bai Yuan paid no attention to the rest; he only slowly fixed his gaze on the burly warrior who had shouted the loudest.

"Brother Don't Panic, have you figured out how to deal with me now?"

"Ha ha ha ha..." The burly warrior threw his head back and laughed, a deafening roar of wild laughter, but then his expression shifted, instantly twisting into a look caught between crying and laughing.

"Brother, when you strike... can you go easy?"

"Don't worry, I'll make the move. Just calm down and feel it."

Bai Yuan's brows relaxed, his smile warm as spring, as he slowly raised the war blade in his hand.

A flash of white light, and the burly warrior was eliminated.

Bai Yuan let out a long breath. This battle had been incredibly hard-fought and extremely stifling.

It was like a top-tier boxing champion facing off against street thugs, only for the thugs to disregard martial honor and swarm him with dozens of people.

Facing dozens at once, even Tyson would have taken a beating.

Fortunately, he had already evolved in Taro's direction.

"Tsk, it seems those geniuses who had already comprehended intent won't be having an easy time either."

Just as Bai Yuan had guessed, half of those geniuses who had clearly grasped intent before the clan competition had already been eliminated.

Aside from a very few exceptions, the rest had been taken down by group beatings.

In one-on-one fights, they naturally had nothing to fear, but a good tiger can't withstand a pack of wolves.

On the other side, a genius who had long comprehended intent finally couldn't hold on and collapsed to the ground with unwillingness.

"Hateful! If my Force Armor hadn't been disabled, how could these people be a match for me!"

Facing a joint assault from seven martial artists and three psychokinesists, after struggling to eliminate two of them, he ultimately fell.

Without armor to protect him, he simply couldn't withstand such dense group attacks.

Comprehending intent only made one exceptionally strong in a certain aspect; it was far from making one invincible.

Since the enemy chose to gang up, they naturally wouldn't give you a chance for one-on-one combat.

Either your own strength was solid enough, like Bai Yuan and Bai Luoyan.

Or the methods you mastered were suited for fighting multiple opponents, or were bizarre and hard to defend against.