197: Chapter 197 Sword Intent Slaughter, the Price is the Proof (2)

The False Core Commander on the left did not try to support the Sword Net. In the gap as the Sword Net pressed down, it aimed its bone spear at a mesh hole on the far left of the Sword Net. That mesh hole was nearly half again as large as the surrounding ones—a loose point that appeared naturally when the sword threads intertwined. The bone spear thrust in—the dark cyan water ripples on the spear tip bit into the sword threads, emitting an extremely sharp metallic scraping sound. The False Core Commander slapped the water surface fiercely with its snake tail—borrowing the force to push the spear forward. The bone spear tore open a rift in the mesh.

The rift was about half a zhang wide. Seven or eight Abyssal Beasts squeezed out the moment the rift tore open—after emerging, they split to both sides—bypassing the front of the defense line and flanking towards the outpost.

Leng Feng was already at the position of the rift.

He leaped down from the stone platform—his body tilted about twenty degrees to the left during the descent, landing directly above the rift. The Formation Flag in his hand was still glowing—the control of the Killing Array had not been interrupted by the change in position. However, the location of the rift was not within the coverage of the Sword Net—the Sword Net had a hole, and the position of the hole could only be plugged by people.

Deng Yue, Ma Yuan, and Tian Qi followed behind him—the four of them landed in the Shallow Water Zone at the rift. The water reached their knees—the shallow reef surface was covered with a layer of barnacles softened by seawater, sinking nearly half an inch when stepped on. Leng Feng stood in the center of the rift—his shield wedged in front of him.

The False Core Commander probed half its body inside from the outside of the rift—its vertical pupils paused on Leng Feng's shield for less than half a breath. Then its bone spear thrust over—aiming at the seam between the upper edge of the shield and the armor plate on Leng Feng's left shoulder. The spear tip pierced through the seam—penetrating the two layers of armor on Leng Feng's shoulder. The lining under the armor plates blocked the spear tip—the wound was less than half a grain of rice deep. Leng Feng did not retreat—he pushed the shield upward, using the shield face to wedge the shaft of the bone spear. After the spear shaft was wedged, the False Core Commander could not push forward—the moment it tried to pull back, Deng Yue's shield pushed up from Leng Feng's right side.

Deng Yue's new wound on his left shoulder had not yet healed—under the spare armor plate given to him by Commander Cai, it was still wrapped in white gauze with hemostatic powder. His shield slammed into the side of the bone spear—the force of the impact jarred the bone spear out of the seam of Leng Feng's shoulder armor. The False Core Commander's snake tail whipped a full circle on the water surface—the shockwave brought up by the tail whip slammed head-on into the face of Deng Yue's shield. Deng Yue's knees buckled slightly—the new armor plate over his old left shoulder wound was cracked by the shockwave. The white gauze under the armor plate was exposed in the crack for a moment—the gauze was dry. The wound had not reopened. He straightened his knees—his shield was wedged back in front of him.

The seven or eight Abyssal Beasts that had squeezed through the rift were pinned down by the shield wall of Ma Yuan and Tian Qi. The two shields were wedged into a V-shape—the shield faces outward, and the two arms of the V-shape sealed the inner side of the rift. The bone spurs of the Abyssal Beasts slammed into the shield faces—the sound of the impact was extremely muffled, like stones Smash into wet sand. The bone spurs left several white scratch marks on the iron plating of the shield faces—not deep. Under the iron plating of the shield face was a hard wooden board—the bone spurs could not pierce through.

The Tortoise Shell Array of the Sin Battalion withstood the aftermath of the shockwave at the foot of the Ring Reef.

The Qi rings generated when the False Core Commander's bone spear collided with the Sword Net spread outward wave after wave. The first wave was absorbed by the reef wall—the second wave bypassed the base of the reef wall and struck the outer arc surface of the Sin Battalion's first page of the shield wall.

The shield wall did not scatter.

The edges of the twelve shields were each wedged into the grooves of the adjacent shields—the grooves had been chiseled into the edge of each shield with an iron chisel by Commander Cai three months ago at Leng Feng's request. After being locked into position, the twelve shields connected into one arc-shaped wall. The moment the shockwave struck the wall surface—the spiritual power of the twelve people converged into a single stream through the shield grooves and transmitted toward the reef wall. The flow of spiritual power was absorbed by the Array Pattern on the reef wall surface—the auxiliary patterns of the Geng Metal Killing Array chiseled into the surface of the reef wall lit up for a moment. Then it disappeared into the auxiliary patterns.

The people behind the shield wall—only the one on the very edge had his arm numbed by the shock. The edge of his shield slid out of the groove by half an inch—he pushed it back with his shoulder. The other eleven people did not move a muscle. The shockwave had already been transmitted away by the convergence of spiritual power between the shields before it reached their bodies—the shield grooves converged the spiritual power of the twelve people into a single stream and transmitted it toward the reef wall, dissipating the shockwave before it reached their bodies.

The battle lasted for nearly half an hour.

The Sword Net continued to shrink. The outer light wall dropped from a height of three zhang to less than one zhang—the density of the sword threads inside the light wall nearly doubled. The spacing between the mesh holes shrank from half a palm's width to the width of two fingers pressed together. The remaining Abyssal Beasts were compressed onto the water surface less than twenty zhang directly in front of the Ring Reef—the dark purple seawater and the greyish-white shattered bone armor were mixed together on the water surface.

The shock line of the vanguard had ceased to exist. The three rows of formations were cut into pieces by the Sword Net—the Abyssal Beasts in the rear rows tried to regroup after the shock line collapsed, but the Sword Net did not give them space. Whenever the front and rear rows tried to increase the distance between them again—the Sword Net would press down another foot. The distance could never be opened up.

The two False Core Commanders stopped first.

The one on the right—the dark cyan water ripples on its bone spear had dimmed by half, and the spear tip had been cut with at least a dozen fine slits by the sword threads. The one on the left—a small piece of the gill-like slit on its snake tail had been sliced off by the sword threads, and dark purple blood was dripping down from the edge of the slit. The two commanders exchanged a glance at the innermost side of the Sword Net—the exchange lasted less than a breath.

Then they turned around simultaneously. Their snake tails whipped fiercely on the water surface—the power of the tail whip exploded a circle of dark cyan water ripples on the surface of the Shallow Water Zone. The water ripples pushed toward the Ring Reef—but were blocked by the light wall of the Sword Net. The two commanders used the thrust of the tail whip to dive into the Deep Water Zone—when they entered the water, only a tiny whirlpool churned up on the surface. The whirlpool was filled in by the rushing seawater in less than three breaths.

The remaining Abyssal Beasts followed the commanders and dove down. Less than twenty escaped.

About eighty remains of Abyssal Beasts floated on the water surface. Shattered bone armor, broken scales, severed tails—scattered on the water surface less than a hundred zhang directly in front of the Ring Reef. The dark purple blood dyed the entire Shallow Water Zone—looking out from the edge of the reef, the seawater was an extremely deep purple-black. After the ebb tide began, the purple-black seawater was carried outward—stretching into a dark water belt about three li wide and five li long around the periphery of the reef wall.

Leng Feng walked out of the Shallow Water Zone. The armor plates below his knees were soaked through by the dark purple seawater—with every step, a string of dark purple water droplets dripped from the edge of the armor plates. He inserted the Formation Flag back into the socket on the stone platform—the dark golden spiritual light at the base of the flag pole slowly faded from the bright gold of the combat state back to the dark gold of the pre-heating state.