44: Chapter 44 Dimensional Fragments, Abyss Points Battle

When the white light dissipated, what Wang Pingan stood upon was no longer the energy floor of the virtual plaza.

Coarse black rocks covered the ground, and a faint dark red magma glow seeped from the fissures, while the air was filled with the pungent smell of a mixture of sulfur and rotting flesh.

In all directions stood towering black stone pillars and broken rock walls; the sky was a thick, dark purple with no sun, only a few slowly burning dark fires on the distant horizon providing a faint light source.

Abyss Plane Fragment.

The patterns of the teleportation array beneath Wang Pingan's feet had not yet fully faded, but he had already begun to scan the surrounding terrain.

A prompt popped up on the command interface: "You have entered Plane Fragment No. 7: Abyss Ruin Zone. A total of twelve contestants have been assigned to this fragment. The levels of alien creatures within the fragment range from F to D. Kill points are uploaded to the Seventeen Stars overall leaderboard in real-time." (F corresponds to Body Tempering, E corresponds to Qi Refining, and D corresponds to Foundation Establishment).

Twelve people were dropped into the same fragment, with each person's deployment point randomly dispersed.

This meant that there would be no direct contact with other contestants in the short term, and the opponents in the first stage were the native alien creatures within the fragment.

Wang Pingan did not hesitate at all; he directly opened the Divine Kingdom passage and deployed the pre-set first batch of troops into the plane fragment.

One thousand Extreme Realm elites filed out from the teleportation beam.

Five hundred Martial Heavy Armor units were in the front, holding up their Black Iron Shields and drawing their crimson flame sabers, while their Qi and blood were released externally, forming a pale red mist covering the surface of their armor.

Five hundred Cultivation Heavy Armor units were in the back, with their crimson flame sabers held horizontally across their chests, spiritual energy compressed and circulating within their meridians, ready to release fire rays at any moment.

Wang Shan landed first, propping his lance on the black rock, and scanned the surrounding terrain.

"The ground is too fractured; it is not suitable for a large-scale Cavalry charge. Use the infantry to push forward first."

Wang Mu followed closely behind, his gaze landing behind several collapsed stone pillars in the distance.

There was movement there.

Low hisses surged from the crevices in the rocks; at first, it was only a few sounds, but in the blink of an eye, it turned into dozens, then hundreds, merging into a single piercing howl.

Black figures crawled out from behind the stone pillars, rock wall fissures, and holes in the ground, scrambling to emerge.

Abyss monsters.

They varied in size, some as small as wild dogs, others as sturdy as water buffaloes. They were pitch black, their skin covered in hard carapaces, with two rows of jagged, sharp teeth exposed in their mouths, and their eyes were dark red with no pupils.

Seeing one thousand fully armed human subjects, they did not retreat; instead, they let out even more frantic howls and charged toward them using all four limbs.

The number was immense.

The black shadows surging from behind the rock walls became denser and denser, and on the higher cliffs in the distance, new monsters were constantly climbing over.

A rough estimate suggested there were at least five thousand in the first wave.

Wang Pingan stood on the high ground in the center of the formation, his gaze sweeping over the monsters covering the mountains and plains as if looking at a field of weeds waiting to be harvested.

Five thousand against one thousand; the numerical ratio was five to one.

If it were ordinary Qi Refining Stage 9 subjects from a novice's Divine Kingdom, facing a monster charge of this scale would likely require them to first form a defensive array to slowly wear them down, taking several hours to clear them out.

But Wang Pingan's one thousand elites were by no means ordinary Qi Refining Stage 9 units.

"All troops, form up. Push forward."

Wang Pingan's command was transmitted through divine sense into the mind of every subject.

Wang Shan gave a loud shout, and the five hundred Martial Heavy Armor units stepped forward in unison. A Black Iron Shield wall formed, and Qi and blood were poured into the shield surfaces, causing a layer of visible blood-colored Qi to condense in front of the shield wall.

The shield wall began to move forward.

Not a slow advance, but a heavy, striding push.

When the first row of Abyss monsters crashed into the shield wall, the Qi and carapaces collided, emitting a dense series of dull thuds.

The monsters' sharp claws only left a few white marks on the Black Iron Shields, but the Qi and blood of the five hundred Martial elites behind the shield wall were the Extreme Realm foundation compressed over fifty years; in a single encounter, they knocked the entire front row of charging monsters flying.

Immediately following this, crimson flame sabers extended from the gaps in the shields.

Five hundred blades slashed out simultaneously, fire rays shooting out from the gaps and cutting into the monster horde; swaths of black carapaces were cleaved open by the high-density spiritual energy blade aura, with severed limbs and black blood splattering everywhere.

The five hundred Cultivation elites in the back row did not use conventional sword energy for long-range output, but instead did something that took the outside audience by surprise.

They compressed their spiritual energy to the tips of their crimson flame sabers, gathering it into high-density fireballs the size of a fist, with groups of fifty people, and ten groups releasing them simultaneously.

Ten high-pressure fireballs soared over the shield wall and smashed deep into the monster horde.

With a roar, the high-density spiritual energy violently expanded. The monsters' carapaces rapidly cracked under the high temperature, and those affected collapsed on the spot, twitching, only to be crushed by the following shield wall.

This was not a level of firepower output that ordinary Qi Refining Stage 9 units could achieve.

The spiritual energy compression effect brought about by the Foundation Suppression Method allowed the spell output density of these Cultivation elites to far exceed that of their peers.

The momentum of the Abyss monsters' charge lasted less than a quarter of an hour before it began to collapse in front of the shield wall.

The front row was smashed, the middle section was carpet-bombed by fireballs, and the flanks were flanked and encircled by Wang Shan leading the reserve detachment; the entire battlefield turned into a one-sided slaughter.

Wang Shan charged at the very front of the flank, holding his lance. Every thrust carried a thick, blood-colored Qi, the tip of the lance piercing through the monsters' carapaces without any resistance—one shot per kill, clean and efficient.

Wang Mu stood at the high ground in the rear, coordinating the firepower output. Wherever the monsters were dense, he would deploy the fireball groups, sending compressed fireballs smashing down round after round, blasting hole after hole of sparking craters into the black rocky ground.

Half an hour.

Five thousand Abyss monsters were wiped out completely, the ground covered in black remains and charred carapace fragments.

The one thousand Extreme Realm elites reorganized on the spot; not a single one had fallen in battle, not even a serious injury, with at most a few claw marks on some of their shields.

Wang Pingan opened the points panel.

Behind his name followed a string of numbers, and on the Seventeen Stars overall leaderboard, he had already surged from his starting position into the top fifty.

Not enough.

Wang Pingan shifted his gaze to the northeast, where the rock walls were higher and the fissures deeper, and he could vaguely see more dark red eyes flickering in the darkness.

"Continue pushing."

The one thousand elites stepped over the remains of the monsters and continued forward, the shield wall reforming, the fire rays on the crimson flame sabers not yet extinguished.

The second wave of monsters surged out from the rift valley in the northeast, greater in number and larger in size than the first wave, interspersed with a few armored monsters that were as tall as three zhang, their carapaces covered in a layer of dark purple Abyss energy protection.

Wang Pingan ordered the deployment of the Spiritual Energy Artillery Battalion.

Five hundred gunners and fifty Psionic Heavy Cannons were teleported out from the Divine Kingdom passage, quickly setting up the cannons on the high ground in the rear.

Wang Mu took over command of the Artillery Battalion and, after the armored monsters entered range, ordered a volley.

Fifty beams of psionic light blasted out simultaneously, directly hitting three armored monsters; their Abyss energy protection was torn apart by the artillery fire, their carapaces shattered, and their massive bodies fell into the monster horde, knocking down a large swath.

The second round of artillery fire followed immediately, covering the middle section of the monster horde, with black flesh and purple energy fragments filling the sky.

The infantry shield wall took advantage of the gap in artillery fire to stride forward, five hundred crimson flame sabers slashing out simultaneously, the fire rays connecting into an orange-red curtain of light, cutting down the remaining monsters row by row.

The numbers on the points panel began to skyrocket.

Surging from the top fifty to the top thirty.

From the top thirty to the top twenty.

From the top twenty to the top ten.

In less than half an hour, Wang Pingan's name was already hanging at ninth place on the Seventeen Stars overall leaderboard, and it was still rising.

In the network-wide live broadcast room, the audience area for Tianhai Star was the first to erupt in excitement.