"Bang! Bang! Bang--"
One after another, white streaks of light, like comets tearing through the night sky, streaked across the sky above the base.
On the city wall, everyone silently gazed up at this magnificent sight.
"How spectacular!" Yu Yanhui looked up, her eyes reflecting the fleeting streaks of light. She unconsciously clenched her fist, then relaxed it, muttering softly, "How much did this cost?!"
Upon hearing this, Han Ling paused.
He raised his gaze, glanced at Yu Yanhui, then lowered it again, quietly inspecting every part of the sniper rifle.
"Is this the time to think about that?" Lin Zhaoran gently patted her back, his tone tinged with helplessness, but his gaze also followed the missiles that trailed fiery exhaust as they hurtled into the distance. His voice lowered, "Hopefully, we can eliminate as many of the Calamity Beast as possible!"
Upon Yu Yanhui's relaxed expression vanished, and she nodded seriously. Following Lin Zhaoran's example, she turned her gaze to the forest that was about to be engulfed by flames.
Time ticked by in the tense wait.
In the distant mountains and forests, clusters of firelight occasionally lit up.
The muffled explosion, even from tens of kilometers away, sounded like a heavy drumbeat, striking the hearts of everyone present.
The atmosphere on the city wall grew increasingly tense, and everyone's breathing became heavy involuntarily, their palms sweating as they gripped their weapons.
The soldiers subconsciously adjusted their gun-holding postures, their knuckles turning slightly white from the force.
The inspectors closed their eyes or concentrated, their internal Origin Power flowing slowly along different cultivation paths, adjusting their own state in order to unleash their strongest combat power instantly when engaging the enemy.
The bombardment was getting closer and closer.
Finally, beneath the previously blurry, dust-shrouded mountain shadows, some small, wriggling dots suddenly appeared.
These tiny dots were initially just a blurry mass, mixed in with the rising dust and smoke, making them difficult to distinguish.
But soon, they began to increase and converge rapidly, like a flood bursting its banks or an ant colony collapsing its nest.
Soon, a dark, viscous torrent that seemed capable of swallowing everything appeared clearly before everyone's eyes, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression.
As the torrent surged forward, just as it was about to enter the wasteland, the leading waves suddenly stopped, as if an invisible boundary had temporarily halted their advance.
Then they just stood there.
Dark figures were densely packed beneath, within, and above the mountain shadows, layer upon layer, stretching as far as the eye could see.
They remained silent, allowing the missiles that continued to fall from behind and to their sides to tear their bodies apart and send them flying.
Although they already knew the scale of the beast tide from the announcement, seeing the dense, seemingly endless Calamity Beast before their eyes still sent a chill down everyone's spine.
At that moment, everyone realized with absolute clarity—war had truly arrived!
Under the breathless gaze of everyone, a massive figure, significantly larger and whose outline could be clearly seen even from a distance, slowly climbed to the top of the mountain shadow.
It stood there, like a king reigning over the land, its cold gaze piercing through space, directed towards the base.
The city wall fell into an eerie silence, so quiet you could hear a pin drop; even the sound of the wind seemed to be swallowed up.
All eyes were fixed on that tall figure radiating a terrifying aura.
"They're here..."
Suddenly, someone blurted out something without thinking, their voice dry like sandpaper, with a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.
The next moment.
"Roar--"
The deafening roar of the lion, like a thunderclap from a clear sky, reverberated across the wasteland!
Majestic, tyrannical, and carrying an irresistible command!
In an instant, the Calamity Beast, which had been standing still like statues, suddenly went berserk, like a powder keg that had been ignited or boiling oil!
"Waaah--"
"Hiss--"
"Ha--"
All the Calamity Beast, regardless of their rank or form, let out frenzied and bloodthirsty roars, their limbs digging wildly at the ground, kicking up clouds of dust, as they charged toward the base's walls!
"Waaah--"
The piercing sound of sirens echoed throughout the base.
The red warning light spun faster and faster.
One cold, urgent command after another rang out through the loudspeakers throughout the base, drowning out all the other noise.
"Everyone, prepare for battle!"
"Immediately check your weapons, equipment, and ammunition!"
"Repeat, check immediately!"
"Relevant personnel, artillery ammunition needs to be prepared immediately..."
Commands echoed throughout the base, interspersed with the sounds of hurried footsteps, the clanging of metal equipment against walls and weapons, and the crisp clicks of guns being cocked.
The wind whistled from the top of a tall building somewhere within the base.
Li Daoyi narrowed his eyes slightly, briefly glancing at the surging tide of beasts before raising them and focusing his gaze precisely on the lion-like Calamity Beast standing atop the mountain peak, radiating a powerful aura.
Was there only one?
He silently recited it to himself, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.
It shouldn't be, the others...
His gaze moved, slowly sweeping across the mountains.
The underground command center was brightly lit, and data flowed like a waterfall on a huge screen.
Shen Heng lowered his eyes slightly, listening to the roar beside him.
The roar was not simply a shout or a command; it also contained some special power.
He raised his hand and caught a sonic wave that had traveled to the underground command center.
Exhilaration, berserk... does it seem to carry some other meaning as well?... Shen Heng frowned slightly as he stared at the ripple on his fingertip.
A few seconds later, he released his fingers, letting the captured sound wave dissipate, and turned to look at Zhang Weijun, who had a solemn expression beside him.
"Commander, if there's nothing else, I'm heading to the front lines!"
"Etc..."
"No, after being bombed by missiles for so long... are there still so many left?"
Looking at the surging, black Tsunami -like beast tide, Yu Yanhui subconsciously swallowed, feeling her throat go dry.
I thought that after such a dense barrage of long-range missile strikes, the size of the beast tide should have shrunk considerably.
Surprisingly, even after the number was significantly reduced, there are still so many?
There are probably... at least five or six thousand left, right?
Lin Zhaoran took a deep breath of the cold air, her gaze fixed on the beast tide.
"Get ready. If the beast tide gets close to the city walls, then it'll be our turn."
"Mm." Yu Yanhui nodded seriously.
Their mission at the base was to guard the city walls and prevent the Calamity Beast from crossing them and entering the base.
"Click!"
A crisp click of the mechanism closing.
Han Ling inserted the last Marrow-Exploding Bullet into the magazine, then raised her eyes and slowly scanned the beast horde.
While searching for her target, she also waited for the distance to close.
Currently, the vanguard of the beast tide is still about ten kilometers away from the city wall.
At this distance, let alone those at the first, second, or third tier, even those at the Fourth Tier, with the right abilities, probably couldn't attack Calamity Beast that far away.
As for the Sixth Tier...
Han Ling raised her eyes again, looking beyond the clamor of the beast tide towards the enormous beast shadow that stood high on the mountaintop in the distance, resembling a demon god in the light of the explosion.
Maybe it's possible, maybe it's not, who knows?
Han Ling withdrew her gaze and once again focused on the surging black waves.
Missiles rained down, relentlessly bombarding the horde of beasts.
Many Calamity Beast fell with howls in the explosion, but were immediately overwhelmed and trampled by their kin surging from behind. More Calamity Beast, their scarlet eyes blazing, charged forward fearlessly.
The distance was rapidly closing amidst missile interception and the desperate charge of the beast horde.
Ten kilometers, eight kilometers, six kilometers...
The moment the foremost Calamity Beast stepped into the five-kilometer mark.
"Bang!"
A slightly muffled but extremely penetrating gunshot rang out abruptly from the somewhat noisy city wall.
The crimson bullet shot through the air at several times the speed of sound.
In the distance, the pupils of a Fourth Tier Calamity Beast, resembling a cheetah, were slightly contracted as it charged forward.
It jerked to the side, trying to dodge the attack, but the bullet was faster.
"Boom--"
The explosion occurred at the location of the humerus.
The leopard-like Calamity Beast's body jerked to the side; it tried to roar, but a new red light had already appeared in its pupils.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two more shots landed precisely on the leopard-like Calamity Beast's head.
With a burst of blood, the leopard-like Calamity Beast's body lurched forward a few steps due to inertia before crashing to the ground.