Axis Rhythm, Palace Ruins Mold (4)

The blade wave that charged in from the diagonal was vast and ferocious in spectacle, yet its timing was that of an exceedingly skilled assassin. Had the Outer Dao fiend's grasp of the human heart reached such a level? There was no answer for the moment, but the situation grew increasingly dire. Even the largest colony of Blade Ants would never exceed five thousand; that was already the most devastating killing force capable of drowning even an Earth Immortal powerhouse. Now, the two groups combined numbered around two hundred, enough to make anyone below a Calamity Law Grandmaster retreat three steps. Moreover, the Blade Ant swarms had fixed their gaze upon the flaw exposed when the two sword formations merged. Once they bit down, they would not release their hold even in death. The two groups displayed a chilling tacit understanding. The earlier group had completely abandoned its original overall formation, relying on the coordination and rigor innate to its species to form assault formations of three to five ants each. Like madmen throwing away their lives, they infiltrated the sword formation. Regardless of the larger situation, they focused only on tangling with the cultivators in mutual slaughter, with a single purpose: to make it impossible for them to gather their strength. The newly arrived group, though possessing an overwhelmingly powerful combined blade-wave assault, never lingered in battle. After killing more than a dozen sword cultivators in its first strike, it immediately retreated, adjusted, and shifted position. Several breaths later, it rode another blade wave like a black tide and charged in from another direction. It cared not whether those tangled together were cultivators or its own companions—it slaughtered them all, sweeping them away in one stroke. When the blade wave swept through a second time, another seven sword cultivators