Ye Zhongming stood before the ten rows of weapons, continuously carving massive blade marks into the ground. Each slash was delivered with full force.
There was no other way. Only by doing this could he summon more powerful undead creatures, who, at least in terms of level, would only be slightly inferior to the horde of monsters.
After a short while, Ye Zhongming retreated, leaving behind over a hundred massive gashes that glowed faintly. Various undead creatures began to emerge.
Most of the people were seeing their leader’s ability for the first time, and their jaws dropped in astonishment.
After consuming a stamina recovery potion, Ye Zhongming sat on the ground.
Even for a monster like him, delivering over a hundred full-force slashes in succession was exhausting. To maintain peak condition for the upcoming battle, he needed to rest.
“Three minutes until contact!”
A voice echoed across the battlefield. The monster horde had already appeared in the vision of the Cloud Peak warriors, stepping into the green swamp.
Various preparation sounds rose and fell.
“Two minutes until contact!”
As the voice rang out, the ultimate Annihilation Crystal Cannons behind the formation began a new firing round. The monsters within range were once again met with the most intense bombardment.
The undead creatures summoned by Ye Zhongming knew no fear. By now, hundreds had emerged, and under Ye Zhongming’s command, they moved forward, stopping at the border between the grassland and the gravel ground.
Behind them, Ye Zhongming stood up and carved another two hundred gashes on each side of the Cloud Peak’s battle formation. He then had to rest again.
He noticed that while this ability was manageable at first, the more he used it, the more stamina each slash consumed. After two hundred slashes, his mental energy also began to decline—not just in terms of depletion but overall capacity.
This startled Ye Zhongming. If summoning these undead creatures caused his mental energy capacity to shrink, it would be a huge loss. Mental energy was the foundation of his strength.
But after careful consideration, he stopped worrying. He realized that the capacity wasn’t shrinking; it was being “occupied” by these gashes. Once the gashes lost their effect, his mental energy would return to its original level. Of course, while the upper limit would recover, the consumed energy was still gone and needed replenishment.
During Ye Zhongming’s recovery period, the command was handed over to Xia Lei. The ten rows of weapons had already opened fire, continuously reaping the lives of the monsters. Li Qiang and his shooters were also clearing the monsters in the sky.
However, this time, the number of monsters wasn’t seventy thousand from the vanguard but over eight hundred thousand. The monsters’ levels were significantly higher, and their ferocity was even more intense. The massive casualties didn’t frighten them; instead, they enraged them, driving them to charge even more frantically. By now, they had crossed the swamp and entered the gravel ground.
Cloud Peak’s long-range attack strategy this time was not to adjust the firing targets. The monsters charging forward would be left to the Cloud Peak evolved at the rear.
The gravel ground was a unique terrain, covered with stones of various sizes and shapes. Some were as small as sand grains or fingernails, while others were as large as multi-story buildings piled up like small hills.
When the monsters charged in, they were met with an attack they could never have imagined—traps!
These traps weren’t traditional, like digging a pit and placing sharp wooden stakes or setting up a tripwire that would trigger a few arrows.
The traps here were all high-quality products from Le Dayuan’s laboratory and some professional traps set by hunters and assassins.
For example, when the monsters stepped on Crystal Mines, weapons initially designed to defend Cloud Peak, the explosions were devastating. Even if they weren’t as powerful as standard city-defense Crystal Cannons, they were close. Upon detonation, monsters within a ten-meter radius were almost shredded to pieces. Another example was the Spike Bed Trap. The activation switch was a sensor device. Once a moving object exceeding a certain speed triggered it, the trap would activate. The spike bed, disguised as the ground, would flip over, revealing a pit beneath. Driven by a machine, the spike bed would rotate, continuously striking any lifeforms that fell into the pit. The cycle would repeat as long as the machine was operational. If the spike bed got stuck or the machine broke down for any reason, a self-destruct mechanism would activate, causing the entire spike bed to explode and dealing with indiscriminate damage to the surroundings.
There was also a trap covering over a thousand square meters. Its activation device was at the far end. Once triggered, it would open over a hundred shooting holes within its coverage area, firing Arc Slicing Discs. To maximize the trap’s effectiveness, Ye Zhongming crafted these discs, each at the silver level. Upon firing, they would perform wave-like attacks at a height of no more than five meters until their energy was depleted.
Each shooting hole could fire over a hundred of these cutting discs. Powered by demon crystals, the discs were highly lethal. Combined with their sharpness, they could continuously inflict damage on the surroundings. Monsters with lower levels or weaker defenses would be sliced apart.
In the most concentrated area of the gravel ground, hidden among the massive rocks, was a formation of Cannibal Flowers. Almost every rock, even on top of them, had an Earth-Gilded Cannibal Flower. They formed a sea of man-eating flowers connected through decomposing soil. Ye Zhongming had invested heavily, planting over ten thousand in that area, consuming a vast amount of Fertile Soil.
Within the sea of man-eating flowers, other types of offensive plants and various small traps were also there. Though seemingly insignificant, they made it extremely difficult for the monsters to advance, constantly under attack by the cannibal flowers.
It’s worth noting that such a massive number of man-eating flowers shared defenses and digestion. If one flower swallowed prey, all ten thousand would digest it together through the rotting soil. Lower-level monsters would be turned into nutrients within the rotting soil in less than a second, enhancing the flowers’ abilities or repairing damaged ones.
This sea of man-eating flowers became an almost insurmountable barrier for the monsters.
In addition, there was a deadly poison zone. This area contained almost every poison Cloud Peak could find—substances that rotted flesh, coagulated blood, numbed limbs, and dulled senses. Even Liu Zhenghong contributed her creation to this zone—Gene Disruptor!
Once monsters came into contact with this potion, their genes would be disrupted quickly, causing various physical symptoms like infections, high fevers, tumors, and rot, directly affecting their combat effectiveness or even rendering them incapacitated.
There was also a field of Dazzling Flash Grenades. When stepped on, they wouldn’t immediately explode but turn into powder, sticking to the monsters’ bodies. However, upon contact with liquids like bodily fluids or blood, they would emit an intensely blinding light, damaging the monsters’ visual systems. Those farther away would be temporarily blinded, while those closer would be permanently blinded.
The monsters that managed to break through Cloud Peak’s long-range weapon strikes were trapped in a sea of traps they could never comprehend.