There were beast auras everywhere, so many that one could hardly keep count. His best guess from intuition was that there were at least two hundred thousand of them. This was equal to the second wave that had emerged from the door. Who knows how many more in the forest were still dormant?
Qianye immediately calmed down after a moment of panic; there was no more fluctuation at all. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know that exploring a forest of this level was playing with fire at his level.
Safety was never a prerequisite in his operations, mainly because he didn’t have enough time. The distance between him and the Sacred Mountain was a distance others could only gaze upon with envy, something that would plunge anyone into despair. That was a distance he would need to cover.
He had no good way for it, either. All he could do was forge ahead continuously, taking one step at a time. The only thing he needed to pause and think about was how to forge ahead amidst the perils. Stopping was never an option for him.
Qianye’s figure flickered continuously through the horde of beasts and soon arrived at the heart of the forest.
The arrangement here was generally the same. The Holy Trees standing at each corner confirmed his guesses. The pond between them was deeper, bigger, and almost the size of a small lake.
The island at the center of the lake was several times bigger and now sported a stone hall, supported by twelve stone pillars. The throne at the center was more magnificent and imposing. Upon it, the six-armed commander was asleep with his head propped up on his palm, his elbow on the handrest. This six-armed monster was even more enormous than the ones from before, and his entire body was covered in a strange type of armor. It didn’t quite look man-made but rather a naturally formed armament.
Just as before, there were several stalagmites outside of the hall, just taller and wider. Each of these was a mobile resource depot, but they were also lethal weapons in this commander’s hands.
Qianye felt a sense of deja vu when he remembered the six-armed general from the Great Maelstrom. The two were somewhat similar—the current creature was a bit smaller but was definitely stronger. At the thought of this, he felt that creature or commander wasn’t a suitable term for these beings. It would be better to call them generals.
The observation lasted but a moment before the six-armed general shook all over, apparently sensing the intruder.
Qianye wasn’t about to give him the time to react. He fired at the holy tree just as usual, and the six-armed general reacted similarly to its peers. Enraged, the general rushed out of the stone hall in his petrified state and blocked the origin bullet with a swing of his large palm. The impact sent shattered pieces of stone flying in all directions and elicited a pained growl from the creature.
The next moment, the general roared in extreme fury as Qianye blasted most of the stone chair away. Qianye, who had just taken advantage of the distraction to attack, was also startled by the results. He had never imagined that a blast from Heartgrave would fail to destroy the throne entirely. This forest with four holy trees was indeed different.
His thoughts shifted quickly as he raised his gun and took aim at the remaining portion of the throne. Shocked out of his wits, the general flew back to the hall and blocked the throne with his body. Such intense movements not only produced cracks all over his body, but there were various parts where his petrified skin sloughed off to reveal the flesh beneath.
The general had managed to block the throne, but the gunshot he was waiting for never came. He looked up all of a sudden to see two, almost-connected black feathers appear in front of him!
The six-armed general didn’t have the time to react before the feather vanished into his forehead.
Qianye’s figure flickered from his previous spot, not waiting to see the results at all. Behind him, the six-armed general roared while grabbing his head, his pained howls shaking the entire forest.
Qianye appeared outside of the forest in a flash. He fell to the ground with a plop after stepping out of the void and had to struggle to clamber up. He had used Spatial Flash continuously to escape the massive beast army, so he was already drained at this point.
It wasn’t quite safe even outside of the forest. Qianye checked the direction and dragged himself behind a giant rock, where he produced the motorbike he had prepared earlier. He then started the engine and sped away.
Countless beasts charged out from the forest, and the rumbling motorcycle undoubtedly became a noticeable target for the beasts to chase after. It was just that most of them stopped after leaving the forest, evidently confused. Only a couple dozen of them kept up the chase.
On the motorbike, Qianye’s blood was surging inside his body as he reached a state of blood-boil. His stamina was recovering fast. All of a sudden, he hit the brakes and charged back into the chasing pack of beasts, killing them all in just a few slashes. He then mounted his vehicle and continued back.
Qianye calmed down quite a bit after returning to base. Although some of the six-armed generals were stronger and others weaker, the arrangement in each forest was exactly the same. This gave him a lot of opportunities.
This time, the six-armed general had been badly injured by two Shots of Inception. Despite that, he would surely leave the forest and seek revenge. Qianye was waiting for this moment. The heavy airship cannons on his ten turrets were prepared just for them.
Once back at the base, Qianye ordered all troops to get ready for battle. At the same time, he urgently transferred soldiers from the bases at the rear. In half a day’s time, eighty thousand soldiers had been stuffed into a base that could hold fifty thousand. Countless guns were aimed at the distant sky, waiting for the beast army to arrive.
Qianye finally heaved a sigh of relief when the horde appeared over the horizon at dawn. This proved that the six-armed general couldn’t stop himself from seeking revenge against Qianye despite his wounds. Qianye wouldn’t be able to do much if the general had decided to hide in the forest and focus on recovery. The six-armed general’s strength wasn’t below Qianye’s, to begin with. Who could kill such a creature if he were to hide behind a hundred thousand beasts?
Everything would be much easier now that he was willing to lead his troops out of the forest.
Qianye climbed up to the kinetic tower at the center of the base and cried out, “Prepare for battle!”
Alarms blared across the fortress. The kinetic tower spat out a large cloud of steam, emitting a sharp whistle as it did so. The tower was now running at maximum capacity.
As the first batch of beasts entered firing-range, countless rapid-fire cannons opened fire and formed a tightly knitted network of flames. The firepower immediately shaved off several layers of enemy beasts. The heavy airship cannons rumbled immediately afterward, producing a large empty space on the battlefield. By the time the enemy air creatures arrived, an almost-impenetrable net of firepower was waiting for them.
The last injured beasts that managed to charge into the base found themselves in a sea of steel. The cold glint of heavy shields and axes shone as they ground the fallen creatures into paste like a grinding machine.
This beast army was almost equal to the second wave that had appeared from the door, but because the throne had been destroyed, the chain of command was no longer as responsive. This greatly reduced their cohesion. Another reason was that Qianye’s army was no longer the same as before. The werewolves back then were still in the primitive era, and what little armor they had was just two plates on the chest and back. Now, they were armed to the teeth.
Having been in the new world for so long, Qianye had already developed a set of targeted strategies for his battles. The most useful one was more related to logistics and supplies than strategy. That was to use all kinds of threats, promises, and enticements to borrow or buy vast amounts of ammunition.
The best way to deal with these beasts was fierce firepower. If one had to suggest a better method, that was even fiercer firepower.
At this moment, Qianye’s fortress was like a hedgehog covered in quills, bloodying the beast horde that was charging at it. Rather than say that the sea of creatures was falling to the defensive firepower, it could be said that they were being smashed to death with gold coins. Even a high-ranking aristocratic family wouldn’t give the soldiers a blank check when it came to origin bullets.
The bloody battle ended with an overwhelming victory for Qianye’s side. He also managed to find the six-armed general’s hiding spot.
All these creatures shared the habit. Not only did they like hiding at a distance to issue commands, but they also hid in the same type of beast. One could easily spot a group of these rare species, and the largest one among them was surely where the six-armed general was hiding.
Of course, Qianye was fairly cautious as well—he had learned back in Yellow Springs that one shouldn’t be careless just because of prior experiences. However, the pattern was so identical that Qianye felt speechless after taking ample precautions. In the end, this kind of repetitiveness greatly reduced the cost of victory. That really wasn’t a bad thing.
Just like that, the six-armed general became the target of several heavy cannons. The high-firepower homing ballista bolts blasted the beast apart, stunning and injuring the six-armed general hiding within. This damage, though, was far from enough to kill it. The only true injury it had received was from Qianye’s two Shots of Inception.
The six-armed general possessed great life force and actually started to flee under present circumstances. Qianye attacked him all along the way but still couldn’t kill him before he fled into the forest.
Naturally, Qianye wasn’t going to give up. He rested for half a day outside of the forest and snuck in once again when a new feather appeared. This time, the entire forest was empty with almost no traces of beasts. Apparently, they had all fallen at the fortress.
Qianye arrived smoothly at the center of the forest, where the four holy trees and pond remained the same. Only the base of the throne remained inside the hall as the debris had been cleared away. The six-armed general was lying near the pond, half of his body soaked in the water. Under the effects of this bath, a thin membrane had appeared all over his body, and it seemed like he was already regenerating.
This was the first time Qianye had witnessed the six-armed generals’ healing process. Such strong lifeforms required large amounts of energy to regenerate, much more so than ordinary creatures. Being able to heal so quickly proved just how miraculous the tree sap was.
Qianye wasn’t going to let it heal in peace. With a wave of his hand, four origin grenades flew toward the four holy trees, shaking them fiercely and stirring waves in the lake.
The six-armed general woke up from the commotion and roared furiously when he saw the damage to the trees. Most of the healed wounds on his body once again opened up and began spurting blood. A pair of luminous wings unfurled behind Qianye as he fired a feather of light that vanished into the six-armed general’s forehead.
The creature grabbed its head and emitted a miserable howl of agony. His body trembled all over, shedding pieces of flesh and producing large gaping defects.
Even though the general was in a truly bad shape, the level of danger Qianye could sense didn’t decrease in the slightest. His firm trust in his instincts led him to flee immediately. As expected, several stone spears whistled over and landed at the spot where he was standing.
Qianye stopped only when he was outside of the woods. He trusted that the injured creature would not follow him out.
Just like that, he rested for half a day until he had recovered another Shot of Inception before going back in. There, he delivered yet another fierce blow to the six-armed general.
Three days passed by in this manner, and the six-armed giant took an entire six of Qianye’s attacks. Finally, his body broke down completely and left a piece of translucent crystal.
Employing every trick up his sleeve and with the help of some good luck, Qianye had finally taken down this forest with four holy trees.
