Ying Wenjie took a mantis's frontal slash head-on—he crossed his arms to block, and the tremendous force drove his feet half a foot into the ground.
The mantis's scythe left a white mark across his forearm. Its shell was sharper than expected.
"This thing's shell is too tough!" Ying Wenjie roared, swinging a fist into the mantis's abdomen. It merely staggered back two steps before its other scythe swept in from the side.
Yang Wanqing struck a mantis's neck three times with her sword before she barely managed to cut a crack into it.
But before she could deliver the killing blow, another mantis lunged at her from behind.
"Senior sister, behind you!" Ye Chendong leaped over and kicked the mantis away, only for a third mantis's scythe to slash across his thigh. Blood instantly soaked his trouser leg.
The situation was rapidly deteriorating.
Chen Siyao shattered a mantis's triangular head with a palm strike, but two more immediately took its place.
They couldn't kill them all.
They really couldn't kill them all.
More mantises poured out from deep within the woods. Twenty, thirty, fifty—they surged forward one after another, without hesitation or retreat.
"There are too many!" Wu Tian's face was covered in blood, though he couldn't tell whether it was his own or the mantises'.
Gritting her teeth, Chen Siyao pulled a black Jade Pendant from inside her clothes...
She poured energy into it.
A beam of black light burst out.
The phantom of the Black Qilin took shape around them, radiating an astonishing oppressive aura.
The surrounding mantises all paused, a flicker of fear passing through their compound eyes.
Several even took two steps back.
"It's working!" Qin Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief.
But it lasted only an instant.
After that brief moment of fear, the