This time, the people of Cloud Peak understood.
"Right, rightâyouâre not completely stupid. My kill count is now 4,999. As soon as I kill this person, Iâll obtain the passage right!"
So thatâs how it is!
The Cloud Peak members exchanged glances, unsure how to handle the current situation.
In contrast, Ye Zhongming, who had already sensed something was wrong and guessed correctly, remained completely calm.
"You wonât kill this person immediately. Youâll wait until the other two factions obtain their passage rights before killing him, excluding us from the final trial."
Ye Zhongming took a step forward, causing the man to fall silent for a moment. Clearly, no matter how arrogant and confident he had acted earlier, facing the leader of the only faction besides his own that had stirred up the entire battlefield required caution.
"In other words, we havenât been sentenced to death immediately. Instead, within the next five minutes, if we can kill youâor break through your defenses and eliminate those two factionsâthen we still have a good chance of advancing, right?"
The man grinned. "Thatâs right. I think this way is more fun. Simply eliminating you like that would be too boring."
He had originally sent mechanical soldiers to attack Ye Zhongming, but when his subordinates arrived at the battlefield, he saw Cloud Peak and Cannibal Chain join forces to achieve impressive results. He also witnessed the chaotic battles among many factions, including groups like the Great America Women Guard and others, either taking advantage of the chaos or completing their kill counts to pass the trial. That was when a new idea occurred to him.
Using his mechanical puppetsâ ability to monitor the entire battlefield, he continuously observed and analyzed the situation, eventually coming up with this plan.
Clever, bizarre, and reckless...
Calling him clever was because this method almost guaranteed his invincibility. If the situation turned unfavorable, he could simply kill that person and advance directly. If conditions allowed, he could toy with his opponents at will.
Calling him bizarre was because this wasnât something a normal person would do. In a special roulette space where top-tier treasures were being contested, caution and prudence were essential for every factionâyet he was "playing around."
Calling him reckless was because he abandoned the easy path and chose difficulty, imposing risks upon himself.
Ye Zhongming shook his head. "Youâre really confident."
The battle began amid the brief and rapid exchange between the two leaders.
The young man inside the mechanical puppet laughed wildly, ordering his mechanical troops to form a battle formation.
This self-proclaimed strongest man in the world actually adopted a defensive stance!
Yangos and Xia Bai took to the skies, attempting to charge from above. However, the mechanical battle formation also had airborne unitsâfour mechanical dragons, not particularly large but exuding immense pressure, each with two pairs of wings.
On the ground, positioned at the forefront of the mechanical puppet formation were ten mechanical rhinos, each with twin horns on their foreheads, red crystal eyes, and three-pronged tails raised high, emitting red, yellow, and blue smoke.
Behind these ten mechanical rhinos were strange machines no one could name, all bizarre in shape. At the center was the one that had given Ye Zhongming an overwhelming sense of power. These machines had dark metal tubes, likely barrels or launchers, while the rest were harder to guess.
In the gaps between these machines were numerous mechanical soldiersâtaller and broader than normal humans, covered in various weapons, their entire bodies encased in solid metal, appearing the most complex in craftsmanship.
Cloud Peak naturally didnât know that these mechanical soldiers were made from real people.
Further back were all kinds of beast-like and humanoid mechanical puppets, numbering in the hundreds.
Finally, there were those few special puppets and some scattered, unknown machines.
The first attack from Cloud Peak came in the form of energy weapons.
Though Cloud Peakâs "specialty" and these mechanical constructs were entirely different things, the people of Cloud Peak still couldnât help but compare.
Anything even remotely related to machinery had to be inferior to energy weaponsâthat was the only way theyâd be satisfied.
The energy guns tore through space, engulfing the ten mechanical rhinos at the front of the mechanical puppet army.
The collision of energy instantly lit up the battlefield.
Where the energy struck, the ten rhinosâ bodies shimmered with a faint blue halo. The lightning that could easily shred an evolvedâs defenses flowed and flickered across the blue halo, but, for once, lacked its usual destructive powerâit was directly channeled into the ground.
"They are Big Ox, Second Ox... up to Tenth Ox. Very powerful. Their skin is made of Atler Demon Metal, which has extremely high resistance against all energy attacks. You... canât do anything to them."
Seeing Cloud Peakâs first wave of attacks fail, the young man inside the mechanical construct laughed loudly, even explaining to Cloud Peak what made his mechanical rhinos so formidable.
"Hurry up and fight! Youâve only got about four minutes left!"
He taunted them, reminding them of the time.
Within Cloud Peakâs ranks, the glow of group skills began to coalesce. Xia Bai was already in position, her scythe raised high.
In the sky, Yangos plunged into the midst of the four mechanical dragons, weaving left and right, cursing nonstop. Phrases like "disgrace to dragon bloodlines" and "bastard hybrids" were among the mildest insults it hurled.
The juvenile corps wasnât idle either. While the Female Guard prepared their attack, they harassed these metal lumps with long-range skills and weapons. Compared to the energy weapons, these attacks had some effect, though still limited.
The defensive power of these ten mechanical rhinos left all of Cloud Peak in awe.
At that moment, Xia Bai swung her scythe. The Female Guardâs full-force strike slashed toward the mechanical puppet formation, with the ten mechanical rhinos taking the brunt of it.
The previously motionless mechanical rhinos suddenly moved, their tails whipping rapidly, ejecting vast amounts of tricolored smoke. The smoke arranged itselfâred at the front, yellow in the middle, blue on topâenveloping the mechanical puppet formation. Then, the rhinos raised their heads, and red beams shot from their crystal eyes, merging into the bottom layer of red smoke.
In the next instant, flames erupted across the sky!
The fire roasted the middle layer, producing a yellow smoke that rapidly crystallized into chunks of yellow crystals. Heat seeped through the gaps between the crystals, altering the blue smoke as well, transforming it into droplets of blue water suspended at the top.
The changes in the three types of smoke were completed in an instant. The droplets fell onto the crystals, merging blue and yellow into a large, beautiful amber-like substance above the flames.
When Cloud Peakâs attack landed and struck this amber, the amberâsomehowâdeflected Xia Baiâs strike entirely!