Xiao Wu's Sacrifice (Part 2)

—The fifth minute.

The tug-of-war at the valley entrance reached a fever pitch.

Half of the wedge formation had been shattered, but they could no longer hold the line.

Jiang Tieyi's [Myriad-Kilogram Body] was blasted apart by the combined attack of two assault-type Spirit Masters. His left arm was fractured and hung uselessly at his side.

Yan Wuji's [Profound Ice Seal Domain] had one corner burned through by a fire-attributed Soul Sage. Cold air leaked out, and the domain shattered into ice fragments across the ground.

Two of Mo Qianye's ribs were broken, yet he remained standing. But his Netherfire had shifted from blackish-purple to dark red—it was nearly depleted.

More than half of Ling Shuang's immortal vines had been severed. Three cuts marked her bare feet, leaving bloody prints with every step she took across the shattered stones.

Level fifty against level seventy, for five minutes.

That was already a miracle.

Su Chen paced back and forth at the valley entrance, monitoring more than a dozen battlefields through the contract link as they advanced at once—the Thunder Eagle's diving angle, the Thousand Jun Ant's ambush perimeter, and the positions of each of the Six Abyssal Generals.

There was a map in his mind, twenty-five lines moving at once. Not one of them could break.

There was no time to catch his breath.

Every report he received made that net tighten another fraction.

They were not holding steady. They were grinding them down. Grinding until the tenth minute.

—The sixth minute.

Three Soul Sages broke through the defense line and charged into the depths of the gorge.

Tang San stood before them.

His third sleeve arrow had already been fired, striking the leading Soul Sage in the thigh. The man pulled out the arrow and kept running without even