Chapter Ninety-Two: Earth and the Beast Tide (Thirty-Three)

As the system’s voice rang out, Sun Meng felt a faint sense of foreboding.

The third stage of this evaluation has begun. All participating civilizations will now face the final trial. Every contestant must reach the safe zone within the allotted time. Contestants who die in this stage may be revived free of charge after the evaluation ends. The first one hundred civilization contestants to survive until the end will receive rewards and earn the right to take part in an additional trial competition.

The next moment, a mysterious force descended upon Sun Meng and the others, and in an instant the world around them changed. Most importantly, everyone else nearby was gone as well.

How did the system do that? Sun Meng was stunned. He felt neither the discomfort of spatial displacement nor any trace of energy fluctuation during the process.

Then a map appeared in his field of vision, marked with points of five colors. White represented himself, red represented monsters, yellow represented the safe line, green represented other contestants, and purple represented the final destination.

The final stage of the evaluation has officially begun.

On Earth, the remaining monsters that had been lying low suddenly flashed with savage light in their eyes. The binding force had finally vanished, and they were ready to exact revenge on the humans outside.

At the same time, another world appeared projected across Earth’s sky. Within it, countless beings like the monsters were itching to move.

One hundred and eight pillars of light fell from the heavens, linking the two worlds. Through those pillars, monsters from the other world poured endlessly into Earth.

Looking at the shrinking boundary of the safe zone on the map before him, Sun Meng had no time to ask about Earth’s situation. He shot up into the sky and raced swiftly toward the final destination.

Very soon, all sorts of monsters were rushing toward him from every direction. Some flew through the air, some charged across the ground, and all of them attacked him directly.

He drew his bow and loosed a storm of arrows. The fastest of the charging monsters were instantly pierced into sieves, but the monsters on the ground all launched long-range attacks. Sun Meng could only cloak himself in inner energy and accelerate through them.

After he killed them, those monsters would directly turn into rare metals and enter his personal space, though for now he could not take those metals out.

The ground trembled, and a gigantic snake head emerged. It opened its mouth toward Sun Meng, and a terrifying pulling force came surging forth.

Domain ability, half a step into the third tier!

Sun Meng had no choice but to stop flying and steady himself. At that moment, the monsters on the ground launched another coordinated assault at him.

Sunset Arrow Technique!

He summoned the phantom form of the Archer of the Sun, and his inner energy condensed into an arrow. He aimed straight at the enormous snake maw below and fired.

The fire-red arrow carried a faint cry within it. In the blink of an eye, it burst above the snake’s mouth. The scattered crimson arrowlets caught the surrounding monsters off guard.

The giant snake head was blown apart by half. As the pulling force disappeared, Sun Meng followed with another arrow, shattering the snake head completely before accelerating away.

On Earth, the pillars of light had appeared three-tenths over the oceans, three-tenths over the polar regions as well as South America, Australia, and the African continent, and the remaining one-tenth was scattered through forests and mountains in other places where humans were mainly concentrated.

A vast number of monsters surged out of the pillars of light and prepared to storm human cities.

But with the help of the earth spirit, the energy missiles that humanity had long prepared slammed into the areas near those pillars of light, catching the monsters completely off guard. They had never imagined humans would possess such a method.

“The spirit-energy storm after the missiles explode will definitely cause destructive damage to the spiritual veins within ten kilometers of the area. It seems this method can’t be used unless absolutely necessary.” Looking at the results, Yi Gang said to Xu Xiao, “In that kind of situation, let alone plants and animals, even we would find it difficult to absorb it.”

Xu Xiao nodded. This had long been anticipated. Now they could rightfully list this weapon among the forbidden internal-use arms. “All the second-tier late-stage cultivators have assembled. Prepare for teleportation!”

With the combined power of the Five-Color Soil, the Earth Spirit Book, and the civilization core, they completed the construction of the teleportation arrays within Earth itself. This ensured that every human civilization city could receive support from other places at any time.

According to the danger posed by the impending monster assault, the strongest second-tier late-stage cultivators of the entire human civilization were divided and assigned to deal with the monsters emerging from the pillars of light near the cities, buying time for the defensive systems to restart.

Yi Gang and Little Rabbit appeared at the foot of the snowy mountains in western Huaguo, together with more than a dozen second-tier mid-stage experts who had long been waiting there. They were perfectly positioned to meet the monsters that had burst forth from the pillar of light.

“We have to hold for ten hours. We cannot let the monsters break through here.” Yi Gang said calmly as he drew his bow. “Prepare for battle.”

The others said nothing more. Not only did Yi Gang’s own strength give them a sense that they could trust him, but even the current level of development of human civilization gave them confidence.

As the torrent of snow surged like a landslide, a thunderous roar rolled over the mountains. A gigantic ape with white fur led the charge down from the snowy peak toward Yi Gang and the others.

“Golden Crow Crosses the Sky!” Yi Gang shot an arrow, condensing in midair a blazing golden-red phantom of the Golden Crow. It ignited the surrounding air and crashed into the ape monster.

A furious roar rang out, followed by waves of miserable howls.

Yi Gang’s attack was immediately followed by the attacks of those standing beside him. Earth’s cultivators, no matter which system they practiced, could all unleash ranged attacks once they reached the second tier mid-stage. Still, the first wave of violent assault came from the ranged attackers, while those skilled in close combat prepared to charge, ready to create room for Yi Gang and the others to keep dealing damage.

Within the flames, the ape’s body had already been scorched in many places, but that only made it look even more vicious.

“Little Rabbit, restrain it!” Yi Gang said.

Little Rabbit nodded and shot out at once. Pink light burst from her body, and a pink barrier, inverted and pressed down upon the ground, trapped the ape inside. Cold mist kept rising from the ape’s body, while cracks began to appear in the pink barrier.

Little Rabbit darted back to Yi Gang’s side, and the arrow in Yi Gang’s hand had already been loosed.

If the previous arrow had been fierce fire, a broad-area attack, this one sought only penetration and explosive force.

The ape stared at the arrow closing in on it. Instinct kept warning it of the danger in that arrow, yet its body still could not break free from Little Rabbit’s innate power.

The pink barrier shattered, and the ape’s head was pierced through as well. The next instant, the explosion of fire brought its body crashing to the ground.

A streak of ice-blue light swept across the ground, freezing the avalanche that had still been surging toward them for an instant.

Then everyone rose into the air at once. The greatest difference between the second tier and the first was the freedom of flight, which was precisely why they felt no fear at all in the face of the avalanche.

As for the monsters below, aside from a small number that could fly and a few with especially strong bodies that managed to escape the avalanche, the rest were temporarily buried beneath the snow.

“Did that count as helping us?” Little Rabbit asked, wrapping her arms around Yi Gang’s waist and blinking.

Less than one hundred monsters remained, and the strongest among them was only at the second tier mid-stage. In the hands of the close-combat specialists, they were all wiped out in just a few minutes.

Yet what they saw next was a wondrous sight. A field of emerald light points drifted up from the snow, and the monsters they had killed also turned into those same points of light.

“This feels so good!” Little Rabbit reached out and caught one. The light point merged into her body.

“Little Rabbit!” Yi Gang asked nervously, “How are you?”

“I’m great! It feels like pure spiritual energy. No, even better than spiritual energy! It merges directly into the body!” Little Rabbit’s face lit up with excitement, and her ears stood erect.

Yi Gang wrapped his hand in inner energy and tried drawing in some of the light points. “It really is concentrated spiritual energy, and it even contains life force. It should be fine—”

Before he could finish, it felt as though a blaze had erupted from his heart. The next instant, his clothes burst apart, and flames wrapped around his body, repelling everyone else.

In the trial world, Sun Meng stopped flying. “What’s wrong with Yi Gang? He actually awakened his bloodline at a time like this!”

He glanced at the map. He was only one-third of the way from the final destination now. Most people were around halfway there. Slower by a little, and it should still be fine, right?