344: Chapter 344 World Famous Painting: Prodigies Huddling Together for Warmth!

"Don't run around!" Chu Tiankuo roared, his deep-sea-like pressure instantly spreading across the entire scene as he tried to stabilize the morale.

His handsome face, usually calm and aloof, now looked incredibly grim.

As the chief of Nanhai Academy, he had been well-traveled since childhood and had heard of all sorts of rare Supernatural Abilities and strange techniques within the Great Xia Martial Arts World.

However, the methods of the enemy before him were bizarre to the extreme, completely exceeding his martial arts knowledge accumulated over more than twenty years!

What kind of unheard-of ability was this?

"Everyone, don't panic!"

Just as the team was on the verge of collapse, Yan Qinghuan stomped hard on the formation disk beneath his feet, and a beam of mind-clearing and focusing formation light showered over everyone.

He kept his eyes tightly closed, but his Brain was spinning rapidly, calmly analyzing the deadly situation before them:

"Although the opponent's methods are bizarre, think carefully: why doesn't he just use the black clouds to swallow us all at once?"

"Why does he only dare to target those on the edge of the team, those who are alone, or those with the weakest defenses every time he makes a move?"

Hearing Yan Qinghuan's analysis, the group was momentarily stunned.

Yan Qinghuan took a deep breath and shouted out the only countermeasure he could think of:

"This means that his method of instantly dragging people into another dimension has huge limitations!"

"Either the range of effect is very small, or he cannot withstand the blood energy resistance of multiple high-order martial artists at the same time!"

"Therefore, if anyone is alone right now, or even in groups of two, they will only be picked off one by one by the opponent!"

Yan Qinghuan suspended several white jade chess pieces in mid-air and roared:

"Everyone, huddle together quickly! If you don't want to disappear inexplicably, stick close to your teammates and don't leave any gaps that can be cut off!"

"Huddling together is our only way to survive right now!"

These words were like thrusting a life-saving straw into the hands of a drowning person.

The team of forty or fifty people, which had already shown signs of breaking, instantly erupted with unprecedented survival instincts.

"Quick, quick, quick! Move closer!"

"Don't stand so scattered! Brothers in the middle, make some room!"

"Damn it, you stepped on my foot! Squeeze in tighter!"

This group of young prodigies, who usually looked down on everyone in the Great Xia Martial Arts World and thought little of each other, completely abandoned all their pride and dignity at this moment.

More than fifty people huddled together like a flock of penguins keeping warm in winter.

The four captains, Chu Tiankuo, Captain Shen Xiuan, Helan Que, and Yan Qinghuan, stood at the four outermost positions, guarding all the team members tightly in the center.

The members, in groups of three or five, pressed closely together, shoulder to shoulder, back to back.

Some of the support-class members, who were usually weaker and more timid, even dropped their weapons and, like octopuses, used their hands and feet to cling tightly to the burly teammates beside them, their entire bodies shivering uncontrollably.

In the vast canyon, a scene that could be called a world-famous painting appeared.

On one side, Gu Changfeng sat cross-legged leisurely inside a white absolute defense light shield, watching the show like a bystander.

On the other side, more than fifty contestants from the top universities of Great Xia were squeezed together into an airtight lump of flesh, completely devoid of image, all of them sweating profusely and staring at the ground under their feet as if facing a formidable enemy.

"Alright, the formation is stabilized."

Chu Tiankuo gripped his heavy sword, his palms covered in sweat, as he vigilantly watched his surroundings: "Everyone, stay alert. As long as we are connected as one, the moment the opponent's black mist appears, everyone should unleash their power simultaneously. We will definitely be able to burst that thing open!"

The group's hearts settled a little.

If the blood energy of dozens of Peak Fourth-Order experts were connected, they could overturn a mountain, let alone a small patch of black mist?

The group clung tightly to each other, their heavy breathing rising and falling in the oppressive canyon.

This strategy of huddling together for warmth indeed gave them a false sense of security.

"Keep your spirits up. As long as we don't scatter, he can't do anything to us." Chu Tiankuo said in a deep voice, the tip of his edgeless heavy sword resting on the ground, ready to unleash Deep Sea Sword Qi at any moment.

However, this sense of security that had been so hard to establish lasted less than half a minute.

"Hiss... do you guys feel... like the sky has gone dark?"

Someone in the crowd asked in a trembling voice.

Upon hearing this, everyone looked up at the sky.

It had been a clear, sunny sky just moments ago, but at this very moment, the light above their heads seemed to have been quietly obscured by an invisible curtain.

No, the sky hadn't darkened. It was that the light... was being devoured.

"Look at your feet!!!"

A shrill scream instantly tore through the deathly silence of the crowd.

More than fifty prodigies looked down in terror.

Without knowing when, the originally hard and rough canyon floor had completely disappeared.

Replacing it was an endless black cloud of gas, surging madly from the ground like boiling ink!

This black cloud was no longer the small puddles or patches from before; it had transformed into a pitch-black swamp covering several hundred meters in radius.

The black mist not only submerged their ankles but was also rapidly climbing upward at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon reaching their knees and waists.

This was no mere small patch of black mist!

It was clearly an ink-colored storm dragging everyone into the abyss!

Fear, like a plague, exploded among the crowd.

"Get away! Don't touch me!"

"Help! What the hell is this thing!"

The originally tightly connected formation instantly fell apart under the shadow of death.

Some people frantically swung their weapons to hack at the surrounding black mist, while others desperately jumped upward in an attempt to escape, but all struggles were futile.

The black cloud was like a living swamp; the more they struggled, the deeper they sank.

"Hold on! Everyone hold on!!!"

Chu Tiankuo roared until his voice was hoarse, but in the face of such collective panic, his voice seemed pale and powerless.

Just in the midst of this suffocating chaos, Yan Qinghuan, who had been keeping his eyes tightly closed and struggling to hold on by relying on his spiritual perception, suddenly twitched his ears.

In this desperate situation where all sight and sound were blocked by the black mist, the few formation white jade chess pieces he had secretly buried underground finally captured a trace of unusual spatial fluctuation!

"Found him!!!"

An expression of the madness of a trapped beast burst forth on Yan Qinghuan's cold-sweat-soaked face.

He turned abruptly, pointed his finger like a sharp sword toward a position deep in the thick fog, and roared hoarsely: "He's in the southeast corner!"

"He's coming for us!!!"

This sentence was like a guiding beacon lighting up in the darkness.

"Kill!!!"

Without any hesitation, the three peerless prodigies standing at the peak of the Great Xia Martial Arts World—Chu Tiankuo, Helan Que, and Captain Shen Xiuan—at the very same moment they heard Yan Qinghuan's warning, squeezed every last bit of spiritual power remaining in their bodies to the absolute limit!

"Deep Sea Immeasurable, Ocean-Severing Sword!"

Chu Tiankuo gripped his sword with both hands, and the deep blue sword qi, like a tsunami splitting the heavens and the earth, tore through the layers of black mist and headed straight for the southeast corner.

"Sandstorm, Sand Burial of the Heavens!"

Helan Que's eyes were crimson red; his body transformed into a sky full of wild sand, turning into a giant sandstorm dragon that opened its bloody maw and roared out with destructive force.

"Blood Demon Fatal Slash!"

Captain Shen Xiuan was even more completely manic; the dark red Shura blade light turned into a crescent of a wretched blood moon and followed closely behind.

Coupled with the kill-formation disk Yan Qinghuan threw out, which flashed with blinding white light—the four great experts, four fatal strikes capable of killing ordinary Peak Fourth-Order martial artists in seconds!

Converged into a heaven-destroying and earth-shattering torrent of energy, carrying their full measure of humiliation and rage, they crashed thunderously into that void in the southeast corner!