Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 236
Blood-Drenched Sandstorm & The Zhenxi Defensive Line
Rumble... Rumble... Rumble!
The sky over the Western Region wasteland no longer held the familiar sapphire blue of scorching sunny days. Instead, a thick, murky, dark-red haze draped down from the vault of heaven, resembling a colossal layer of dried blood scales blanketing the entire desolate realm.
Gusts of sandstorms carrying corrosive magic energy howled frantically, sweeping in from the western horizon. Tiny, razor-sharp red sand grains like iron filings rubbed against each other, generating ghostly static electric currents that flickered eerily in the twilight. The air was stifling, suffocatingly heavy, reeking of rotting flesh mixed with a pungent smell of sulfur that burned the back of the throat.
“SWOOSH... CRASH!”
From the crimson clouds high above, the “White Wild Goose V-9” military transport aircraft plummeted in an uncontrolled dive. One of the aircraft’s left wings had its magic-reinforced titanium alloy skin torn apart by the bloody sand vortex, and its Wind-Thunder propulsion engine spewed thick black smoke.
“Hold the control stick! Pitch down fifteen degrees! Engage all backup magic shields!”
Inside the cockpit, the military pilot roared hoarsely, his hands bulging with blue veins as he gripped the assistive control bar tightly. Beside him, Ye Qingwan bit her lip until it bled, her ten fingertips continuously weaving seals, releasing streams of cool wind to steady the violently rocking aircraft amidst the ferocious vortexes.
“SCREEECH——!”
The heavy-duty alloy landing gear scraped violently against the basalt slabs of the emergency runway inside the Zhenxi Outpost Base. The terrifying friction threw up brilliant showers of sparks several zhang high, and a scorching trail of burnt rubber stretched for hundreds of meters before the multi-ton aircraft slammed into the pile of defensive sandbags and finally came to a complete halt.
The emergency exit burst open. Ye Qingwan and the pilot staggered down onto the red sand-covered ground. She raised her head, her lips pressed tightly together in a bloodless line.
Before her eyes was not an intact military base, but a living hell.
The Zhenxi Outpost Base leaned against the Zhenxi Ancient City—an ancient millennium-old fortress built from massive solid black basalt blocks up to thirty meters thick. This ancient stone citadel had once stood as an impregnable wall protecting the lifeline of commerce and the boundary between life and death for Shenzhou for centuries.
Yet now, the outer surface of that colossal black stone wall had been utterly ravaged. Countless deep, twisted claw marks slashed across the ancient reinforcement runes. Pools of pitch-black blood clung tightly to the rock walls, steaming with wisps of white smoke possessing extreme acidity, hissing hideously as they corroded the basalt blocks.
And at the base of the wall... lay an endless sea of monsters!
Over a hundred thousand ferocious desert creatures surrounded the perimeter on all fours, forming surging tides of pitch-black mixed with bloody red.
The most numerous were the “Blood Magic Scorpions”—gigantic desert scorpions ranging from three to five meters in length. Their carapaces shone with a sanguine luster, as tough as forged steel, and their oversized pincers constantly ground against each other, emitting ear-splitting clacking sounds. Arching high behind their backs, their curved scorpion tails resembled a forest of spears and lances, incessantly spitting dark-green venomous jets at the magic barrier.
Intermingled among the scorpions were packs of “Crimson Sand Frenzied Wolves.” Tens of thousands of red-furred sand wolves stood with fur bristling like sharp spikes, their jagged, half-foot-long teeth dripping with saliva. They ran frantically across the sinking sand, trampling over the corpses of their own kind to leap onto the sheer rock walls, their eyes blazing with wild fury, utterly devoid of fear.
“Concentrate fire! Squad Three, suppress the southwest approach! Don’t let those frenzied wolves climb onto the firing ledge!”
Across the vast expanse of the ramparts, a hoarse voice rang out amidst the roaring of beasts and the rumbling of cannons.
The man who had just issued the command was a sturdy middle-aged man wearing the tattered uniform of a Shenzhou general. His epaulets bearing the rank of Major General were raggedly torn, and fresh blood mixed with sand dust matted against his chest and his fractured left arm, which was temporarily stabilized by a wooden splint.
He was none other than Major General Meng Zhan—the Frontline Commander of the Western Region Military District!
After leading a detachment to break out through Death Canyon without success, Meng Zhan had desperately carved a bloody path, bringing the surviving soldiers to retreat into the Zhenxi Ancient City to join forces with Brigadier General Lei Jing. But after five consecutive days and nights of desperate defense, the price paid was tragically heavy.
Along the thousands of meters of ramparts, fewer than three thousand Shenzhou soldiers were still able to stand. Each of their faces was gaunt, their lips chapped and pale from lack of water, and the magic energy in their star oceans was nearly exhausted to the last drop. The soldier-mages tried to trace the simplest magic trajectories, but the flames or lightning bolts they released now were as weak as dying embers, extinguishing the instant they touched the dense carapaces of the Blood Magic Scorpions.
At the base of the inner wall, over four thousand wounded soldiers lay scattered across torn tarpaulins. The agonizing groans of necrotic venom poisoning echoed repeatedly, tightening everyone’s hearts. Three thousand evacuated civilians huddled tightly together in the ancient underground shelters, trembling in utter despair.
“General! The stone magic formation at the West Gate has blown!”
A liaison officer, covered entirely in blood, staggered over and collapsed to his knees before Meng Zhan, his voice trembling with choked emotion:
“Primary and secondary magic crystal stockpiles are both completely depleted! The Sand-Stone Diamond Formation barrier no longer has energy to maintain itself... The cracks have spread over twenty meters! If the monsters concentrate their force to detonate again, the barrier will completely collapse!”
Meng Zhan clenched his remaining sound right hand tightly around the hilt of his notched magic saber, which had worn down into a jagged edge. The bloodshot eyes of the veteran general gazed out toward the churning sea of red sand.
“What do the reconnaissance reports say about the reinforcements from the center of the theater?” Meng Zhan’s voice dropped, as heavy as a thousand-pound boulder.
The officer lowered his head, tears mixing with dust as they rolled down his ashen cheeks:
“Magic-dao signals are completely cut off by the bloody sandstorm... The last contact six hours ago reported that the armored corps was trapped in the quicksand marsh, unable to arrive before nightfall. General... we have... no reinforcements!”
The four words “no reinforcements” dropped onto the basalt floor like a ruthless death sentence.
All around, the young soldiers shuddered slightly. But in their eyes, panic gradually vanished, replaced by the tragic fortitude of soldiers ready to sacrifice themselves on the battlefield.
“Very well.” Meng Zhan inhaled a lungful of scorching air and straightened his back. He swept his gaze across every familiar face of his subordinates—the eighteen- and nineteen-year-old boys who had followed him through life and death.
“Shenzhou soldiers! Behind our backs lie thirty thousand innocent compatriots! Behind us lies the gateway to the thousand-mile plains of our homeland!”
Meng Zhan’s roar resounded, overriding the howling storm:
“Shenzhou soldiers can only die in battle upon the ramparts; there are never cowards who retreat! When the barrier breaks, everyone prepare to unlock and detonate your magic star oceans! Even if we must turn to ashes, we will drag these beasts down to hell with us!”
“Fight to the death! Defend Shenzhou!”
Thousands of soldiers simultaneously raised their weapons and roared in unison. Their cries of hatred and tragic heroism shook even the crimson clouds, demonstrating an ironclad, unyielding will.
Yet, cruel reality did not afford them much time to prepare for death.
“CRASH... RUMBLE... RUMBLE...!”
The ground outside the ancient city suddenly shook violently. The dozens-of-meters-thick red sand layer was churned up as if by a colossal spoon, swirling into a gigantic ghostly whirlpool directly in front of the fortress’s main gate.
Swarms of Blood Magic Scorpions and Crimson Sand Frenzied Wolves panicked and scattered to both sides, flattening themselves against the ground as if welcoming a brutal overlord.
“RIP——!”
The red sand exploded skyward, scattering like a rain of blood.
From deep beneath the desert floor, a colossal black shadow emerged, eclipsing the dying twilight.
It was a scorpion-shaped behemoth of terrifying proportions beyond all imagination! Its entire body spanned over sixty meters in length, towering as high as the basalt ramparts. The armor plates on its back were not the usual dark red, but pitch-black like black jade, deeply engraved with flashing crimson magic runes that radiated a heavy aura of primeval death.
Its four pairs of giant legs plunged into the basalt foundation like steel piles, every movement causing the earth to tremble violently. Its two front pincers, as massive as ore-crushing machines, easily pulverized tens-of-tons boulders into fine powder.
And most terrifying of all was the venomous tail behind its back!
The colossal tail, as thick as a temple pillar and nearly a hundred meters long, undulated erratically through the air. At the tip of the tail, a razor-sharp, three-meter-long venom stinger emitted a sinister purplish-black glow, dripping venom that hissed as it corroded the ground, turning the surrounding sand and stones into a boiling froth of pitch-black smoke.
“Commander Level... Blood Sand Giant Scorpion!” Meng Zhan’s face turned pale, his pupils contracting to tiny dots. “An upper-position Commander-Level mutation bearing the ancient king’s bloodline!”
The oppressive aura of a Commander-Level creature instantly weighed down upon the entire fortress. The invisible pressure constricted the soldiers’ chests; many soldiers whose magic energy was depleted could not withstand the mental shock and collapsed onto the stone floor, coughing up mouthfuls of fresh blood.
“SCREEEEECH——!”
The Blood Sand Giant Scorpion reared its head and emitted a shrill, eardrum-piercing screech. The ghostly sound wave carrying the red sandstorm slammed directly into the Sand-Stone Diamond Formation barrier.
“SHATTER... CRACK CRACK!”
Crisp sounds rang out like shattering glass. The millennium-old defensive barrier that had once protected the Zhenxi Ancient City cracked into tens of thousands of glowing fragments under the behemoth’s direct assault, then vanished completely into thin air!
The final line of defense had collapsed!
The colossal monster did not hesitate for a second. Its blood-red compound eyes locked onto the black basalt gates of the ancient city. Its towering venomous tail coiled back, then whipped through the air like a thousand-pound mace, smashing straight down from the nine heavens toward the top of the ramparts and the main gate!
The wind-tearing shriek roared with terrifying ferocity, compressing the air pressure into a gale that blew dozens of soldiers off the ramparts.
“Everyone disperse!” Meng Zhan roared in despair. Channeling the scant remaining magic energy in his body, he prepared to hurl himself forward to block the venom stinger and buy a little time for his subordinates.
Yet, before the absolute power of an upper-position Commander-Level behemoth, the effort of a crippled general was no different than a mantis trying to stop a chariot!
Death was imminent. Everyone closed their eyes in excruciating grief, awaiting the moment the millennium-old stone wall was flattened and the city gates shattered beneath the desert monster’s venomous tail.
But at that very moment, hanging by a thread...
“BOOM——!”
A thunderous sound rang out abruptly, blindingly bright and sharp like the tearing of the vault of heaven!
Amidst the crimson clouds smeared with sandstorms, a brilliant golden beam of light suddenly burst forth, illuminating the nine heavens and completely dispelling the bloody, gloomy desolation of the Western Region twilight.
Immediately following was a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering primeval roar:
“ROOOAR——!”
A dragon’s roar!
It was no illusion, but a genuine dragon roar carrying supreme, sovereign dragon majesty—deep, ancient, and overwhelming all creation!
As soon as the roar echoed, all hundred-plus thousand desert monsters below—from the ferocious Blood Magic Scorpions to the bloodthirsty Crimson Sand Frenzied Wolves—trembled violently. The primitive survival instinct deeply embedded in their bloodline froze them in place, and countless monsters flattened themselves against the sand, trembling like mice seeing a python.
Even the Commander-Level Blood Sand Giant Scorpion paused for a beat, its descending venomous tail slowing by a tenth of a second due to the sudden terror erupting from deep within its soul.
And that tenth of a second was more than enough!
From the infinite heights of the vault of heaven, a golden pillar of fire wreathed in ferocious purple lightning plunged downward like a world-destroying meteorite!
Its speed far exceeded the sound barrier, leaving behind a blazing, thousand-meter-long vacuum trench piercing straight through the sandstorm.
Inside that blinding lightning-fire pillar, a figure strode forward arrogantly, the dark black military cloak snapping wildly in the storm.
He did not fall; rather, he seemed to tread upon the wind and clouds, descending upon the world like a God of War stepped out of ancient myth!
“Who dares touch the borders of Shenzhou... DIE!”
A cold, resolute voice like exploding thunder rang out beside everyone’s ears.
The young man’s figure plunged straight down onto the very top of the colossal venomous tail!
Lin Feng planted his foot down.
His right foot was enveloped in a dazzlingly bright layer of golden flames—flames carrying the phantom of an ancient giant dragon baring its fangs and brandishing its claws. At the same time, thousands of deep purple lightning branches burst from his Lightning Star Ocean, transforming into ferocious lightning chains that tightly wrapped around his calf.
“BOOMMMMM——!”
A strike landed squarely on the scorpion’s tail!
The collision sounded not like metal hitting stone, but like a magic atomic bomb detonating right in mid-air!
The space surrounding the point of impact distorted violently. The tough, steel-like black carapace of the Blood Sand Giant Scorpion—which had withstood numerous magic bombardments—cracked like a chicken egg under Lin Feng’s lightning-fire stomp!
“CRACK... SHATTER!”
The Primordial Dragon Flame instantly unleashed its terrifying “Armor-Breaking Dragon Flame” trait. The golden flames reaching temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees Celsius melted the protective shell in an instant, plunging straight into the flesh within.
“CRASH!”
The colossal venomous tail, as thick as a temple pillar and dozens of meters long, was snapped in half by Lin Feng’s single stomp!
The tail segment carrying the sharp venom stinger broke clean off from the behemoth’s body, flying violently into the air before exploding into hundreds of thousands of blazing fragments, burning fiercely amidst the sea of golden flames before hitting the ground!
“SCREEEEECH——!”
The excruciating agony caused the Commander-Level Blood Sand Giant Scorpion to unleash a world-shaking, heart-rending scream. Its massive sixty-meter-long body was smashed straight down into the earth by the terrifying downward pressure from the sky, its four pairs of giant legs snapping with crisp cracks, its chest and belly slamming violently against the basalt foundation and cracking a large section of the citadel floor.
Yet, the destruction did not stop there!
The instant Lin Feng’s foot touched the behemoth’s body, the shockwave of mixed energy between the Primordial Dragon Flame and Solitary Lightning erupted in an annulus, sweeping across all directions!
“BOOM BOOM BOOM!”
A thirty-meter-high wall of golden fire surged outward like an ocean tsunami. Wherever the heat wave traveled, the dozens-of-meters-deep red sand layer at the foot of the wall was instantly pushed back by miles!
Thousands of Blood Magic Scorpions and Crimson Sand Frenzied Wolves standing on the frontlines were engulfed by the golden flames before they even understood what had happened. Their tough carapaces turned to ashes in the blink of an eye, and their flesh and blood evaporated without a trace!
The entire basin valley before the main gate of the Zhenxi Ancient City, which had just been a dense sea of black monsters, was completely swept clean by a single stomp of lightning and fire, transforming into an open yard stretching thousands of zhang wide where the ground was melted into a layer of boiling, glowing red glass!
Silence.
The entire battlefield abruptly fell into a deadly hush.
The roars of the demon horde ceased. The cannons on the ramparts fell silent.
The desert sandstorm seemed to stop blowing as well, leaving only the crackling sound of golden flames burning upon the dying behemoth at the young man’s feet.
Lin Feng stood loftily atop the spine of the Blood Sand Giant Scorpion.
His dark black military cloak snapped wildly in the churning heatwaves. Around his body, nine golden fire dragons the size of fingers coiled and danced, intertwining with deep purple lightning bolts that hissed sharply.
The young man’s angular face was as cold as ice, his dark eyes shining with golden radiance as he calmly surveyed the strewn battlefield.
On the ramparts, Meng Zhan dropped his jaw, his magic saber slipping clattering onto the basalt floor without his knowledge.
Thousands of Shenzhou soldiers stood frozen in place, their eyes wide as they stared at the solitary yet towering figure standing like Mount Tai amidst the monster horde.
Below in the base courtyard, Ye Qingwan leaned against the broken aircraft wing, her hands pressed tightly against her chest. Seeing that familiar figure appear like a miracle in the moment of deepest despair, two hot tears uncontrollably welled up and rolled down her cheeks.
A single stomp broke a Commander-Level venomous tail!
A single strike cleared a thousand zhang of beast tide!
Whose power was this?!
“Lin... Lin Feng?!” Meng Zhan stammered aloud, his voice breaking through the silent space. “You... you actually came?!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Lin Feng tilted his head slightly to look up at the ramparts. Seeing that Meng Zhan was still alive despite his injuries, the cold look in his eyes softened slightly.
He raised his right hand toward the veteran general and all the Shenzhou soldiers, his deep, resonant voice echoing across the battlefield:
“Major General Meng Zhan, Shenzhou soldiers!”
“I, Lin Feng, have arrived.”
“Today, with me here, the Zhenxi Ancient City shall never fall!”
Every word fell like a thousand-pound hammer, shattering the fear and despair that had accumulated over the past five days and nights in everyone’s hearts.
A second later, upon the cracked and tattered ramparts, cheers suddenly erupted like a volcanic eruption:
“LIN FENG! IT’S LIN FENG!”
“OUR WORLD CHAMPION HAS ARRIVED!”
“WE ARE SAVED! THE WHOLE ARMY CANNOT LOSE!”
The morale of the thousands of exhausted wounded soldiers and fighters instantly ignited into a roaring blaze. Tears streamed down dust-weathered faces. The appearance of a single individual in the darkest hour relit the entire flame of hope for thirty万 lives at the frontier!
Yet, Lin Feng knew very well that this life-and-death battle had only just begun.
Beneath his feet, the tail-broken Blood Sand Giant Scorpion struggled frantically, its mouth spewing foul black fluids as it attempted to bite back.
Outside the valley, after the momentary shock of primeval dragon majesty, the monster horde of over a hundred thousand began to frenzy. The scent of their kin’s fresh blood and bloodlust stimulated by dark Qi made the eyes of tens of thousands of Blood Magic Scorpions and Crimson Sand Frenzied Wolves glow red once more. They roared savagely, slowly tightening their encirclement, preparing for an even more insane, all-out assault.
And even more terrifyingly...
From deep within the crimson desert wasteland, at the border between the sea of sand and the thousand-zhang Ancient King’s Imperial Tomb deep underground, a colossal pillar of pitch-black grievance Qi suddenly shot straight into the sky, stirring rolling dark clouds.
A demonic, icy, and far-beyond-Commander-Level evil aura was slowly awakening...
Standing atop the behemoth’s head, Lin Feng slowly raised his right hand. The golden flames of the Primordial Dragon Flame and deep purple lightning began to spin, condensing into a brilliant lightning-fire lotus flower in his palm.
The corners of Lin Feng’s lips curled up in an arrogant arc, monstrous killing intent radiating from his body:
“A hundred thousand desert monsters... together with those Nether cult rats...”
“Just right to serve as whetstones for my Primordial Dragon Flame!”