163: Thunder returns and dominates the field

One particular battlefield immediately caught Su Lei's attention.

A hundred-meter radius had been completely transformed into a world of ice and snow.

Xiao Yuwei floated in mid-air, her silver-white hair wildly dancing in the cold wind, like an Ice and Snow Heavenly God descending to the mortal realm.

Hundreds of ice spears encircled her, each crystal clear, reflecting a cold, sharp light.

But what was most striking was the grotesque wound on her left shoulder;

black mist wriggled like a living thing at the wound, and the flowing blood, before it could even drip, congealed into blood-red ice crystals in the cold air.

"Profound Ice Nine Revolutions, Thousand-Edged Snow!"

She let out a clear cry, her voice like the clashing of ice jade.

Instantly, the ice spears encircling her rained down like a storm, tracing countless silver trajectories in the air.

They accurately pierced every pouncing monster, pinning them to the frozen earth.

The impaled monsters maintained their pouncing postures but were instantly frozen into ice sculptures, then shattered into countless ice shards with a "crack" sound.

But after unleashing this move, Xiao Yuwei's figure swayed, and she stumbled from mid-air to the ground, kneeling on one knee on the ice.

Her face was even paler, and the cold aura surrounding her noticeably weakened; clearly, her Protective Aura was almost depleted.

"Left flank breach!"

Chen Xuan's hoarse roar came from not far away.

His sword-wielding hand was trembling slightly, his breathing was heavy like a bellows, and the veins on his forehead bulged, clearly indicating he had reached his limit.

Ye Qingyun's situation was equally grim.

He shattered the head of a scorpion-like monster with a palm strike, and the splashing green blood instantly corroded his sleeve, revealing a bloody, mangled arm beneath.

Blood seeped from his knuckles, dripping from his fingertips onto the scorching sand, making a "hissing" sound.

Three consecutive hours of fierce fighting had pushed even a Grandmaster's body to its limit.

He had no choice but to retreat a few steps, leaning his back against the city wall, gasping for breath.

He looked around, and the sight was despairing.

His companions fell one by one.

Some were torn to shreds by monsters, some died of exhaustion, and others were corroded by the black mist, undergoing terrifying mutations.

Monsters surged like a tide, and in three places, they had already breached the defense line, their grotesque claws climbing the city wall.

In the distant sky, dense Bone-Winged Monsters circled, like a moving black cloud, ready to dive down at any moment.

"This is the third wave..." Ye Qingyun spat out a mouthful of blood, his knuckles cracking, his eyes burning with unwilling rage, "When will these beasts ever stop!"

Chen Xuan's sword tip trembled slightly, his face as pale as paper.

"My Protective Aura... it's almost gone..."

His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, and his lips were an unhealthy bluish-purple from excessive blood loss.

Xiao Yuwei struggled to stand up, her slender fingers wiping away the blood on her forehead.

At this moment, Lin Qianqian's urgent voice, accompanied by distinct static, came through her earpiece:

"Everyone, retreat immediately! Latest intelligence shows these monsters can contaminate Martial Artists, and three outpost brothers have already mutated!"

Ye Qingyun took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently.

He looked at Xiao Yuwei, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "Chief Xiao, let's retreat! If this continues..."

Xiao Yuwei looked around at her companions fighting valiantly, then at the endless tide of monsters in the distance.

Finally, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath; when she opened them again, her eyes were filled with resolve.

"Prepare for a Breakthrough!"

In that instant, an unexpected change occurred!

The sand beneath Xiao Yuwei's feet collapsed without warning, and a gigantic claw covered in black carapace burst out of the ground,

its tip glowing with a faint green venomous light, striking like lightning straight for her fair throat!

"Watch out!"

Ye Qingyun's eyes were bloodshot; his figure shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.

His longsword clashed violently with the claw, sparking dazzling flames.

Amidst the clanging of metal, his tiger's mouth instantly split open, and blood dripped down the hilt of the sword.

The terrifying force from the giant claw numbed his wrist, and the longsword flew out of his hand.

"Profound Ice, Five Ultimate Slashes!"

Xiao Yuwei cried out, raising her delicate hand.

Five crystal-clear ice spears condensed out of thin air, piercing the attacker through with bone-chilling cold.

The monster let out a shrill roar, and black blood splattered onto the ice spears, immediately congealing into eerie black ice crystals.

But just as her old strength was depleted and new strength had yet to form, Xiao Yuwei's figure suddenly swayed.

Black Qi surged from the wound on her left shoulder, slowing her movements by half a beat—

It was this flash of an instant!

Several slimy tentacles shot out from the shadows, wrapping around her limbs like venomous snakes.

The corrosive mucus on the tentacles fiercely clashed with the ice crystal Protective Aura on her body, emitting a grating "sizzling" sound.

As white mist rose, Xiao Yuwei's Protective Aura melted at a visible rate!

"Chief Xiao!"

Chen Xuan's eyes were bloodshot, but he knelt on the ground from exhaustion.

Just at this critical moment—

Boom!!!

A brilliant blue lightning bolt, like a Heavenly God's sword, tore through the sky, precisely striking the top of that monster's head.

The dazzling lightning illuminated a hundred-meter radius as if it were daylight, and the terrifying energy fluctuations caused everyone to instinctively squint their eyes.

The shockwave from the explosion stirred up a sky full of dust, and nearby monsters instantly vaporized!

The wind and sand gradually subsided.

A slender figure had appeared in the center of the battlefield at some unknown point.

He was enveloped in a seven-colored electric glow, and with every step he took, lightning patterns spread across the ground.

Tiny electric arcs danced at his hair tips, and a lightning pool seemed to surge in his eyes.

Any monsters attempting to approach him were struck into charcoal by the stray electric arcs before they could even get within three zhang of him!

"Su... Su Lei?" Xiao Yuwei's beautiful eyes widened in disbelief.

The lightning in Su Lei's eyes surged, and a seven-colored glow suddenly erupted from his body.

The Origin Qi of heaven and earth converged wildly, forming a hundred-meter-diameter lightning halo behind him.

Seven-colored electric light intertwined and flowed within the halo, each flicker causing the air within a thousand-meter radius to tremble.

"Perish."

A single, understated word, yet it resonated with heaven and earth.

In an instant, thousands of lightning pillars descended from the sky!

Each one precisely locked onto a monster, with seven-colored halos mixed in the brilliant blue lightning.

The monsters didn't even have time to scream before they turned to dust in the lightning.

Those eerie black mists, just as they tried to escape, were completely annihilated by the purifying power contained within the lightning.

Chen Xuan's sword clanged to the ground.

This usually composed swordsman now had his mouth wide open, forgetting to wipe the blood from his face.

Ye Qingyun was even worse, his legs gave out, and he knelt directly on the ground, his pupils contracting violently.

They knew too well how terrifying these monsters were.

Claws that could easily tear through superalloys, carapaces that could withstand a Grandmaster's full-power strike, those strange black mists that corroded Protective Aura... Yet now, hundreds of such terrifying monsters were all turned to ashes in a single breath?

Xiao Yuwei's slender fingers covered her crimson lips, her ice-crystal-like eyes trembling violently.