196: Chapter 196 Sword Intent Slaughter, the Price is the Proof (1)

About an incense stick's time after the yellow light at the Old Veteran's post lit up—the mist on the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench began to disperse to both sides.

More water columns burst through the surface from below—each water column exploded closer to the Ring Reef than the last.

The distance between the water columns was shrinking—from three li to two li, from two li to one li.

The vanguard emerged entirely from the water.

Over a hundred Abyssal Beasts lined up in three assault lines on the sea surface.

Each row had about thirty-something beasts—ranging in size from one zhang to three zhang.

The smallest, one zhang in size—had only a row of short bone spurs on its back, with no membrane between the spurs.

The largest, three zhang—had three layers of bone armor stacked on its back, with the edges of the bone armor curling outward, the protruding parts resembling blades.

The three assault lines were separated by about twenty zhang—maintaining distance between the front and rear rows using extremely low-frequency underwater sound waves.

As the sound waves passed through the water surface, they vibrated out circles of extremely fine concentric ripples.

Two False Core Commanders pressed on both sides of the front row.

Their upper bodies were humanoid—almost identical to humans from the waist up, but their skin was covered in dark cyan scales.

The scales spread from the shoulder blades down to the wrists—with the scales being densest at the wrists.

Their lower bodies were snake tails—the length of the snake tail exceeded three times that of the upper body, the tail tip swaying slowly beneath the water surface.

On both sides of the snake tail were rows of gill-like slits—the slits opened and closed as it swayed.

They held bone spears in their hands—the spear shafts were carved with dark cyan water patterns.

The water patterns extended from the spear tip down to the handle—the path of the patterns was identical to the signal frequency of the outer fluctuation source on the Receiving Formation.

The False Core Commander on the left raised its bone spear above its head—the dark cyan water pattern on the spear tip suddenly lit up.

The three assault lines moved simultaneously.

Over a hundred Abyssal Beasts shifted from stationary to full speed—without any intermediate acceleration process.

This was the swimming method of deep-sea raids—when sprinting from extremely deep to extremely shallow in the Deep Water Zone, there could be no acceleration buffer; any buffer would be detected by the prey.

They brought this swimming method to the water surface—the water surface was churned into a patch of choppy waves by over a hundred simultaneously bursting tail fins.

Choppy waves layered upon choppy waves—the seawater in the shallow water zone was churned from dark blue to grayish-white.

The Ring Reef was deathly silent.

Not a single person at the twelve posts of the Sin Battalion made a sound.

The barrel of the observation scope was steady on the stone platform of the post—the Old Veteran's hand on the focusing ring was motionless.

The yellow light of the repeater transmitting between posts was still lit—but there was no sound in the communication port.

Leng Feng stood on the stone platform—holding the Formation Flag in his right hand, the dark golden spiritual light on the copper patterns at the base of the flag pole was hard to see in the morning light.

He pulled the flag pole out of the socket—his hand gripping the pole hanging at his side.

The vanguard crashed into the shallow water zone on the outer perimeter of the Ring Reef.

The water depth in the shallow water zone was less than two zhang—the Abyssal Beasts did not reduce their swimming speed when entering the shallows.

This was their consistent tactic—never slowing down during the final leg of a deep-sea raid.

Previously, Human Race strongholds were unprepared before the water was breached—by the time they saw them, they were already on the reef wall.

The shallow water zone was lethal to unprepared defenders—but it was a different story for defenders with a warning formation.

The False Core Commander on the left was the first to sense something abnormal.

Its vertical pupils swept across the Ring Reef—after scanning, its snake tail slammed hard against the water surface.

The array of the assault lines changed from "Full-Speed Charge" to "Slow Advance"—the deceleration was a beat slower than the sprint.

But it was already too late.

The approximately thirty Abyssal Beasts in the very front row had already charged to a position less than a hundred zhang in front of the Ring Reef—stepping exactly onto the outer Restriction line of the Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array.

Leng Feng slammed the Formation Flag onto the reef rock.

The base of the flag pole struck the surface of the stone platform—knocking out a circle of extremely fine dark golden spiritual light.

The spiritual light conducted from the stone platform down to the reef wall—the speed of conduction was much faster than the naked eye could follow.

The three circles of Array Patterns of the Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array lit up simultaneously.

The outer circle lit up first.

The dark golden light patterns on the outer edge of the Restriction line floated up from the water surface—as the light patterns emerged from the water, they brought up a layer of extremely thin white water vapor.

The light patterns closed on both sides of the vanguard—after closing, they formed a wall of light extending from the water surface to mid-air.

The height of the light wall was about three zhang—the dark golden patterns on the wall surface were distributed like tree roots.

The middle circle lit up next.

The water surface inside the light wall began to churn—something was piercing upward from beneath the water surface.

Thousands of extremely fine golden sword threads emerged from beneath the water surface—the sword threads were so fine that the naked eye could barely see the outline of a single one, but thousands gathered together like a patch of golden mist floating up from the water.

The sword threads pierced up from the water surface to about two zhang high—weaving into a net in mid-air.

The size of the mesh was less than half a palm.

The inner circle lit up last.

After the Sword Net was woven, it paused in mid-air for about one breath—then pressed downward.

The speed of the press was not fast—the Sword Net sank downward with its own weight.

The sword threads between the mesh emitted an extremely fine humming sound during the descent.

The first batch of about thirty Abyssal Beasts in the assault line—crashed into the Sword Net.

The moment the sword threads cut into the bone armor, the sound was extremely fragmented—an extremely fine, extremely sharp cutting sound, like fingernails scratching across the surface of coarse pottery, but a hundred times faster.

The seven or eight Abyssal Beasts charging at the very front didn't even have time to let out a cry—their bodies were cut into pieces by the Sword Net.

The sound of the fragments hitting the water hadn't yet reached the Ring Reef—the twenty-something Abyssal Beasts behind had already begun to dodge.

There were only two directions to dodge—left or right.

But the outer light wall sealed off both sides—they crashed into the light wall and were bounced back, the spot they bounced back to being exactly the area where the middle circle Sword Net was densest.

The second wave of cutting sounds was denser than the first—the twenty-something Abyssal Beasts struggled in the Sword Net for less than three breaths.

Then the fragments fell into the water from beneath the Sword Net—the seawater turned from light gray to dark purple.

The False Core Commander—the one on the right—reacted when the Sword Net was sinking.

It raised its bone spear above its head—choosing to withstand it head-on.

The dark cyan water pattern on the spear tip exploded with a circle of spiritual power shockwave.

The shockwave spread outward from the spear tip—colliding with the descending Sword Net.

The spiritual power and the sword threads collided—a circle of visible white air rings exploded at the point of impact.

The air ring pushed outward—shoving the seawater in the shallow water zone outward by nearly three feet.

The moment the seawater receded from the shallow reef—everyone on the Ring Reef saw the bottom.

The bottom was the shallow reef surface—the remains of the Abyssal Beasts cut by the sword threads were scattered all over the stone surface.

Between the remains were broken bone armor and broken scales—dark purple blood seeped out from the edges of the remains, seeping into the crevices of the reef rock.