Desperate Road

A human martial artist, middle-aged with a square face, was charging rapidly through the endless Rat Tide. No wonder there were so few rats besieging Wang Ji; it turned out the vast majority were gathered here. The bulk of the Rat Tide's firepower was focused on this single martial artist!

Furthermore, that rat, larger than a water buffalo, had to be a Lord-level monster. It was just unclear whether it was a low-level or mid-level Lord.

"Ah! I am not reconciled!" Every punch and kick from this middle-aged martial artist was accompanied by a gale, his bare hands striking with the sound of sonic booms. Every time his sword slashed out, whether the target was a rat the size of a domestic pig or one the size of a cat or dog, it was cut clean in two.

This was absolutely a person at the War God level!

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." The Lord-level rat did not engage personally. Only when the Beast General-level rats had completely pinned the War God down and it seemed absolutely safe would it seize an opening to take a bite. Each time, even if it didn't land a hit, it forced the War God to lose focus, leaving him vulnerable to attacks from countless Beast General-level rats.

Circles of rats formed waves three or four meters high, not coming one by one, but crashing against the War God wave after wave.

"Ah!" The War God, now exhausted, let out another roar.

Wang Ji couldn't help but roar as well, heading toward the area where the Rat Tide was swarming. Hearing the sound, the War God was visibly stunned and overjoyed. But upon seeing that it was only Wang Ji, and that he appeared to be merely a newly-promoted War General, his hope instantly turned to deep disappointment.

He said with great effort, "You... you cannot save me! You must leave! Once you are trapped, you won't be able to get out!"

Wang Ji leaped from a low building and landed steadily on his arm shield, which carried him flying toward the War God.

"Jump! Jump up here!" Wang Ji shouted.

The War God bent his legs slightly. "Boom!" A crater over a meter deep exploded into the ground as the War God leaped steadily eighty or ninety meters into the air. "Boom!" Wang Ji's arm shield nearly buckled under the War God's weight, dropping more than ten meters before barely stabilizing.

"Squeak!" A gray shadow lunged toward Wang Ji's arm shield. Wang Ji used every ounce of his spiritual telekinesis, "Dodge! Hurry and dodge!" Carrying another person, and a War God at that, Wang Ji and the man were flying at less than ten meters per second.

Although they dodged the Lord-level rat's pounce, a whip-like afterimage lashed out. It was a rat tail!

The rat tail created a sonic boom cloud, appearing before the two like a teleportation. The War God had no choice but to swing his sword to block.

"Boom!" The shield was instantly crushed underfoot.

All force comes from interaction. If there is nowhere to borrow force, power is like duckweed without roots; even a thousand catties of strength cannot exert a single bit of effect. The strength of a War God was terrifying; as he lightly swung his sword, the force he exerted to push off the shield instantly crushed it, and the two plummeted from a hundred meters in the air.

"Ah..." Soon, Wang Ji commanded the arm shield to support him again, but the War God fell back into the wave of monster rats.

Before Wang Ji could think of anything else, "Boom!" The descending Lord-level monster attacked again. "Swish!" The gray-black rat tail struck Wang Ji, cutting him in two!

"Ding! Instance: Rat Tide. Main Quest: Survive, Failed!"

"Wang Ji Age: 17 Strength: 7805kg Speed: 75m/s Nerve Reaction: Low-level War General qualified Essence Source: 337"

Wang Ji had just woken up from the terror of death when he grinned. It turned out he had reserved 40 points of Essence Source. This meant he had gained 297 points this time! Wang Ji had thought he might get a bit more, considering he had killed seven or eight War General-level monsters alone.

Still, this wasn't bad!

"Add points! Add 300!"

"Boom!" An endless wave of pleasure nearly drowned Wang Ji. He gritted his teeth to keep from making a sound, his body trembling as if in release.

"Hoo!" The extreme sensation of comfort finally passed, and Wang Ji felt he could kill a cow with a single punch.

"Strength: 10805kg; Speed: 98m/s"

"Awesome!! Enter! Enter again! I want to blast the rat swarm to pieces."

Wang Ji stood on the 14th floor of a building. Below him was the dilapidated county town.

"Run! It's a Rat Tide! A Rat Tide!" someone exclaimed.

Wang Ji jumped directly to the ground. "Boom!"

From sewers, basements, and houses, countless rats suddenly poured out, the smallest the size of a house cat, the largest even bigger than a wild boar.

Wang Ji suddenly thought, "With my current strength, if I get trapped in the Rat Tide like this, I'll be killed sooner or later. If a few Beast Generals come at once, or if a high-level Beast General appears, it's game over. But dragging it out won't work either. Once the Rat Tide kills that War God-level senior, the next focus will be on people like me who are still alive. So, either I escape before the War God senior dies, or I help the War God senior escape together!"

Should he try escaping on his own first?

Wang Ji picked a direction far from the previous battle and charged forward.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." The Rat Tide constantly swarmed Wang Ji. He kept fighting; Beast Soldier-level monsters were now basically one-hit kills. For Beast General-level monsters that were low-level War General strength, Wang Ji used smoke bombs to kill them quickly. As for mid-level Beast Generals, Wang Ji tried killing one but was nearly surrounded by the tide. It wasn't worth it; mid-level Beast Generals were too troublesome to kill and made it easy to get trapped.

Wang Ji charged for a while, then used his advantage in spiritual telekinesis to borrow force in mid-air and jump out of the encirclement. But this mid-air maneuvering was extremely dangerous. Wang Ji's flight speed was less than 30 meters per second. At low altitude, he was a living target. One had to remember that Beast Generals could easily jump twenty or thirty meters high. If he flew too low, they could pounce on him.

If he flew too high, there were Golden Eagles in the sky! Those were even more terrifying.

He could only rely on a martial artist's rapid movement, occasionally using the flying shield to borrow force as a surprise tactic.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!..." More and more rats surrounded Wang Ji.

"Squeak!" A piercing rat cry rang out. A large rat with silver-gray fur and a metallic luster charged toward Wang Ji from afar.

"Cannot be fought head-on!" Wang Ji realized instantly. This speed was several times his own!

Wang Ji stepped on the window ledge of a building to rush upward, but the surrounding Beast General-level monsters followed him closely. Just as Wang Ji tried to fly using his arm shield, he was knocked down by the Beast General-level rat.

It seemed these rats were very clever; after a few times, they were prepared for the same trick. He couldn't escape! Danger! Behind him were low-level Beast General rats in pursuit, and ahead were high-level Beast General rats blocking his path. He was in trouble now.

Wang Ji simply pried open a sewer cover and, hardening his heart, jumped down.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" Countless rats surged down after him.

The sewer was pitch black. Even for rats, their vision was severely hindered. Yet, within a 40-meter radius around Wang Ji, every speck of dust was reflected clearly in his mind. This was the advantage of spiritual telekinesis.

"Swish, swish, swish..." The Series 8 throwing knives harvested the lives of the rats without restraint. In this narrow, dark space, the rats found it even harder to dodge.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" A Beast General-level rat monster also followed them inside. However, Wang Ji did not engage it head-on, instead fleeing rapidly along the sewer. If he were to be bogged down by this Beast General-level rat, he would be as good as dead.

With the complex environment of the sewer and Wang Ji's occasional interference with his throwing knives, the Beast General-level rat could only trail behind Wang Ji, eating his dust for the time being.

Flee! Kill!

Wang Ji did not know how far he had fled, nor did he know exactly how many rats his throwing knives had killed.

"Squeak!" The top of the sewer ahead suddenly collapsed! A large rat with a silver-gray metallic luster blocked Wang Ji's path.