Beast Tide Erupts! War Begins!

Third-Tier Stage?

Those two words seemed to possess some terrifying magic.

They pierced straight through the screen and slammed viciously into the minds of 1.4 billion citizens.

The livestream chat actually went completely blank for five full seconds.

No one spoke.

No one typed.

Everyone had even forgotten to breathe, staring fixedly at the upright figure on the screen.

Then—

The chat surged like a burst dam, instantly flooding the entire livestream!

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"

"Third-Tier Stage? Did I hear that wrong, or did the host misspeak?"

"Other defenses treat even Second-Tier Martial Artists like treasures, but Shu Capital just pulled out a Third-Tier Martial Artist?"

"Oh my god! What kind of immortal is this?!"

"One person defending Shu Capital? No Second-Tier Martial Artists supporting him? What kind of dominance is that?!"

Ordinary people had no idea just how powerful a Third-Tier Martial Artist was.

But the government's deployment had already laid the answer plainly before everyone.

One hundred and fifty thousand Ferocious Beasts.

Fifteen Second-Tier giant beasts.

One Mad Ape at the Peak Second-Order Stage, standing ten meters tall.

Against such a terrifying force, the government had deployed only 120 First-Order Martial Artists.

Along with Lin Yuan.

What did that mean?

It meant that, in the eyes of the nation's top brass, Lin Yuan alone was worth an army of thousands!

Shu Capital.

Military family housing compound.

Lin Jianguo held a cigarette between his fingers.

The ember had burned down to the filter and scorched his fingers red, yet he did not notice at all.

Zhang Hui sat on the sofa, covering her mouth tightly with both hands as tears poured down like a breached dam.

That was her son!

The young man on the screen, standing with his back to 1.4 billion people and facing the Ferocious Beasts across the mountains and plains alone, was her flesh and blood!

"Brother..."

Lin Xiaoxiao sprang up from the sofa.

Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

At the same time—

The events of a few days ago flashed through her mind.

While practicing the health-preserving method her brother had taught her, a warm current had suddenly surged through her body.

At first—

She had thought it was merely an illusion, but now she understood everything!

"My brother is a Martial Artist!"

"My brother is Dragon Country's only Third-Tier Martial Artist!"

Lin Xiaoxiao's face flushed bright red with excitement.

That was the Third-Tier Stage!

The livestream had said that First-Order Martial Artists could dodge bullets, while Second-Tier Martial Artists could tear armored vehicles apart with their bare hands.

What about the Third-Tier Stage?

Couldn't they withstand missiles head-on?

Just then—

The phone on the coffee table began vibrating madly.

The piercing ringtone shattered the strange atmosphere in the living room.

Lin Jianguo snapped back to his senses.

He hurriedly tossed away the cigarette butt and grabbed the phone.

"Hello, Jianguo!"

"Turn on the television, now!"

"Is that Xiaoyuan? Is that your Xiaoyuan?"

His older brother's roar came through the phone.

Lin Jianguo's Adam's apple bobbed.

He opened his mouth, but not a single sound came out.

Over the past half month, their relatives had already learned that Lin Yuan had been specially recruited by the military district.

But who could have imagined that this special recruitment had turned him into a pillar protecting the nation?

Before Lin Jianguo could answer—

Zhang Hui snatched the phone away and hung up immediately.

"Don't answer it!"

"One hundred and fifty thousand monsters!"

"How could he dare stand so far forward by himself?!"

Zhang Hui's voice trembled with tears, her eyes full of terror.

Pride?

Glory?

In this mother's heart, none of it mattered more than her son's life!

She stared fixedly at the grotesque giant beasts on the screen.

Her heart felt as though an invisible hand had gripped it tightly, ready to crush it at any moment.

Lin Xiaoxiao calmed down as well.

Looking at the dense black Beast Tide, her legs began to weaken.

"Dad..."

"Brother... he'll be okay, right?"

Lin Jianguo lit another cigarette.

He took a deep drag, letting the harsh smoke flood his lungs.

"Trust the country."

"Trust your brother."

White Eagle Country.

White House.

The atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme.

The Chief Commander stared fixedly at the giant screen ahead.

Bang!

A glass was smashed viciously against the wall.

The Chief Commander's facial muscles twitched violently, his eyes bloodshot.

"Who can explain this to me?"

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Martial Artists? Third-Tier Stage?"

"Why did our intelligence department receive absolutely no information?"

The officials below remained silent as cicadas in winter.

The intelligence director rose to his feet despite himself.

"Mr. Commander."

"Dragon Country kept it too tightly sealed."

"Using military exercises as a pretext, they cut off every channel for outside infiltration."

"Trash!"

The Chief Commander roared.

"They had already begun preparing!"

"And what about us?"

"Our cities are still full of mutated stray dogs!"

The Chief Commander slammed his palm onto the table.

"At any cost!"

"I want that Martial Artist's cultivation method!"

"Do you hear me?!"

A silver-haired Secretary of Defense stood up.

His expression was incomparably grave.

"Mr. Commander."

"The matter of stealing their cultivation technique can be discussed later."

"Right now, we face a more deadly threat."

The Chief Commander abruptly turned his head, looking as though he wanted to devour him alive.

Under that gaze, the Secretary of Defense swiftly brought up a satellite image.

"Just now."

"We detected more than 200,000 mutated creatures gathering near the Rocky Mountains."

"They are moving toward the cities on the west coast."

The moment those words were spoken—

The conference room fell deathly silent.

Every official's breathing stopped.

Two hundred thousand?

Dragon Country had organized Transcendent Realm troops, overwhelming heavy firepower, and even a Third-Tier Martial Artist holding the line.

Even so, they treated a Beast Tide of 150,000 as a dire threat.

And them?

Even a single mutated stray dog could bite seven or eight civilians to death in the streets!

What could they use to stop 200,000 monsters?

"Oh, God..."

Someone let out a despairing groan.

Panic instantly spread through the White House.

At the same time—

Dragon Country.

Changbai Mountains defense line.

The battle began here first.

Roar—!

A Mutated Amur Tiger more than six meters long suddenly let out a thunderous roar.

That roar seemed to be some kind of signal to attack.

The Ferocious Beasts covering the mountains and plains instantly went mad.

Their eyes crimson, they surged like a black tide toward Dragon Country's positions without regard for anything else.

"Open fire!"

The commander roared.

In an instant—

Heaven and earth changed color.

Hundreds of heavy artillery pieces spewed blinding tongues of flame at once.

Countless rockets streaked through the sky, dragging long trails of fire behind them.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

The explosions merged into one continuous roar.

The entire Changbai Mountains seemed to tremble violently.

Earth flew everywhere, and snow melted.

Vast numbers of Ferocious Beasts were torn to pieces amid the artillery fire.

In the livestream—

Hundreds of millions of viewers watched with their blood boiling.

"Blow these bastards to pieces!"

"My fear of insufficient firepower has been completely cured!"

"That's it? The Martial Artists don't even need to step in!"

However.

The artillery barrage had just ended.

Then a sight that made teeth ache appeared.

Dense masses of Ferocious Beasts charged out from the scorched earth once more.

Ferocious Beasts possessed extremely tenacious vitality.

As long as their heads or hearts had not been blown apart on the spot,

even with missing limbs and broken legs, they would still charge madly forward!

Not only that.

The three leading Second-Tier Ferocious Beasts even forced their way forward through the artillery fire.

Ordinary shells left nothing but pale marks on their bodies!

In the blink of an eye,

they had already closed to within five hundred meters of the defense line!

"Martial artist troops!"

"Draw your blades!"

The four Second-Tier Martial Artists standing at the very front roared in unison.

"Shing—"

Three hundred war blades left their sheaths at once.

The frigid gleam of the blades flashed with dazzling cold light beneath the sun.

"Kill!"

There was no hesitation.

No retreat.

Led by the four Second-Tier Martial Artists,

the three hundred First-Order Martial Artists plunged into the black Beast Tide like sharpened blades.

Flesh and blood collided.

Cold weapons clashed against fangs.

A First-Order Martial Artist twisted aside to evade a Mutated Wild Wolf's pounce, then swept his war blade in one smooth motion.

The wolf's throat was slit open, and scalding blood sprayed out.

Meanwhile,

the four Second-Tier Martial Artists had already engaged the Second-Tier giant beasts.

True Qi Projection.

Blade qi swept in every direction.

Though the situation was perilous beyond measure,

the Changbai Mountains defense line remained as steady as a mountain.

At the sight,

the people across the country erupted.

"Dragon Country is mighty!"

"Martial artists are badass!"

Just then,

in the lower-right corner of the screen,

the feed from the Shu Capital Defense Line suddenly carried a hair-raising roar.

"Roooar—"

The ten-meter-tall Ironclad Mad Ape began pounding its chest.

Its dark golden scales reflected a cold sheen beneath the sunlight.

Accompanied by its furious roar,

all one hundred fifty thousand Ferocious Beasts went completely berserk!

The ground began to shake violently.

Even through the screen,

every viewer could feel that suffocating pressure.

After all,

compared with Changbai Mountain's Beast Tide of twenty thousand,

the numbers here were seven times greater, and the quality utterly crushed it!