The second method was Cloud Peak’s air force.
Originally, this unit was far from being a proper formation. Ye Zhongming had spent a great deal of effort and resources on them, but flying lifeforms were simply too rare. Taming and training them required a lot of time. With support from the Posthumous People and Saint Light Hall, they had begun to take shape and could be considered initially combat-ready.
However, their numbers were small, and their training was insufficient. Compared to Saint Light Hall’s massive air force, they were far behind.
Thus, Ye Zhongming only deployed them for reconnaissance or guaranteed-victory missions around Ying City, occasionally letting them “play around.”
But this time, with Cloud Peak’s fate on the line, the fledgling air force was brought out. They were joined by a powerful ally—Yangos.
With Yangos leading the charge, the battle would be easier.
Additionally, the Exquisite Floating Ball and a War Fortress were also integrated into the air force, providing further protection for these novice Cloud Peak Sky Knights.
Finally, there were the ground-based anti-air equipment and units.
Within the Cloud Peak battle formation stood numerous tall structures—Violent Thunder Towers.
Over a thousand towers were spread out, one every few dozen meters, covering the entire battle formation within their firing range.
Facing the flying monsters that didn’t have to traverse the gravel ground, Yangos became the second level-eight being from Cloud Peak to join the fight after Jiu Bao.
The evil dragon patiently guarded the roughly 2,000-strong Cloud Peak air force as they ascended into the sky to engage the flying monsters.
Once given the order to attack freely, Yangos immediately became ferocious. Like a king of the skies, it bit, clawed, breathed fire, and spewed mist, single-handedly scattering the flying monsters.
The Cloud Peak air force and the War Fortress, which provided aerial fire support, merely played a supporting role.
However, if you knew Yangos, you’d notice that its gaze kept drifting toward the distant black clouds where the Nine-Winged Crow resided during the battle. In its eyes were greed, desire, fear, and… vigilance.
The evil dragon had already decided: if things went south, it would immediately flee with Ye Zhongming.
If anyone in Cloud Peak disagreed with this battle, it was Yangos.
Its philosophy was simple: bully the weak and fear the strong—and it was unapologetic about it.
In Yangos’ view, challenging a level-nine lifeform now was completely unnecessary, even if it was part of a plan to pit two level-nine beings against each other.
Were level-nine lifeforms so easy to deal with? Ultimately, they’d still have to face one, even if it was injured. It was still a level-nine being!
Yangos believed it would be much safer to wait until it evolved to level nine before taking them on.
However, despite its plans to flee at the first sign of trouble, Yangos fought fiercely in battle. Its dragon bloodline allowed it to compete with many powerful lifeforms of the same level shortly after evolving to level eight. It had grown even stronger nearly a year into being level eight. Yellow Ball, who had once been its equal, struggled to keep up.
Liu Zhenghong had said that among Cloud Peak’s forces, three had the highest potential to reach level nine: Death King Tree, Jiu Bao, and Yangos.
Death King Tree was a given. As a veteran eight-level lifeform and a mutated plant, it possessed a Life Brain and was very close to level nine.
Jiu Bao, on the other hand, had its unique ability to absorb vast amounts of energy directly from the soil.
Both the Death King Tree and Jiu Bao had innate abilities that allowed them to evolve rapidly.
Only Yangos relied entirely on its bloodline, which naturally granted it rapid evolution.
Once all three reached level nine, Liu Zhenghong believed that Yangos would inherently be stronger than other newly ascended level-nine beings.
The number of flying monsters wasn’t particularly high among the over five million monsters, but there were still nearly a million, given the base number.
They continuously assaulted Cloud Peak’s airspace, and their numbers were growing. Even Yangos, initially fierce, began to take damage. Its roars of anger and pain frequently echoed through the sky.
Reluctantly, Ye Zhongming ordered all combat machines with anti-air capabilities to assist in attacking the flying monsters.
The sky was soon filled with beautiful trails of energy.
This significantly reduced the pressure on Yangos and the Cloud Peak air force.
However, increasing anti-air firepower meant reducing ground firepower.
The traps in the gravel ground and the sea of man-eating flowers were terrifying, inflicting massive casualties. But the sheer number of monsters was overwhelming. After paying a heavy price, they finally broke through the gravel ground and entered the small grassland where Cloud Peak was stationed.
There, they clashed with the undead creatures.
During this time, hundreds of gashes had produced many undead creatures. Concentrated at the border, their numbers had surpassed 10,000. Under Ye Zhongming’s command, they didn’t spread out to block all paths to the Cloud Peak battle formation. Doing so would have made their formation too thin, easily scattered by the monster onslaught.
Instead, Ye Zhongming had them form a dense battle formation to withstand the charging monsters.
The effectiveness… was naturally good. They held out for a full minute!
But again, the sheer number of monsters was overwhelming. Like a tidal wave, they crashed through the undead creatures, even at the cost of several times their own numbers.
Thus, only a small, nearly unobstructed grassland remained between the Cloud Peak battle formation and the monster horde.
The two sides finally faced each other directly.