The camp's location was strategically advantageous, situated in a canyon-like area, so only the first defensive line, 800 meters in front, faced the enemy. Lu Chenxing could easily see which mutated beasts were about to rush within 20 meters.
At that moment, to Lu Chenxing's left, a group of mutated beasts was about to rush within 20 meters. He immediately activated a card.
Following a loud explosion, that group of mutated beasts was instantly blown into disarray!
The military's card usage was extremely fast. Gradually, only long-range attack professions and Lu Chenxing were still launching attacks!
Under the dazzling attacks of spells, Taoist arts, and crystal energy firearms, the beast horde was temporarily held back beyond 50 meters. This position seemed like an insurmountable barrier, but it was only temporary, as everyone's energy would eventually run out.
Benefiting from everyone's donated crystal nuclei, the crystal energy cannons restarted, bombarding the beast tide in the rear, reducing some pressure on the front lines.
Yet, even so, the beast tide continued to advance, now reaching the 20-meter mark.
And there were hardly any flying mutated beasts left in the sky. There were not many flying mutated beasts in this secret realm to begin with, and now, engaging in such suicidal attacks, they were almost completely wiped out. However, the light of the defensive formation also dimmed considerably.
As Lu Chenxing used his last Bombardment Art, the energy of the long-range attacking professionals was almost exhausted, and the crystal energy cannons had long since stopped. The next moment, without any surprise, the beast tide broke through the 20-meter mark and surged forward!
And it was at this moment that close-combat professionals such as martial artists, immortal cultivators, and believers all swarmed out, clashing with the mutated beasts. Using their flesh and blood, they once again held back the beast tide, even forcing it to retreat dozens of meters!
Continuously using sixty Bombardment Art cards, although each use only required a small amount of magic power to activate the energy circuit, it still consumed nearly half of Lu Chenxing's magic power. The fundamental reason was that he only had Peak First-Order strength.
Looking at these mutated beasts, all of whom had madness in their eyes, Lu Chenxing felt something was off. Because beast tides could be forced to retreat. Even if there were highly intelligent mutated beasts commanding them, the fear of facing death would make them sober!
But these mutated beasts seemed to have no fear at all; all they had was madness, as if they had completely lost their sanity. Why was this?
As Lu Chenxing's thoughts raced, he used Probing Technique on one of them and received the feedback: Chaos (Debuff), Frenzy (Debuff), Out of Control (Debuff), Bloodlust (Buff).
Among the four statuses, three were abnormal. The only buff, Bloodlust, was also abnormal for Lu Chenxing as a human.
However, since he could get feedback through Probing Technique, it meant he could use the corresponding Dispelling Technique to dispel it!
Without hesitation, Lu Chenxing immediately used Dispelling Technique. A white and blue light cluster flew out, and the light and water elements exploded on its body. The next moment, the mutated beast's eyes returned to normal, and a hint of fear flashed, stopping its charge, wanting to turn around and flee.
But facing countless charging mutated beasts, how could it retreat? Before long, it was trampled into a pulp by the subsequent surging mutated beasts!
However, its behavior made Lu Chenxing's eyes light up, because its first instinct was to run, and other mutated beasts did not attack it! Were they affected by other factors?
But then he frowned again. Given the current situation, what use was knowing this news? This vast beast tide covering the mountains and plains couldn't possibly be made to regain their sanity!
Even if Lu Chenxing modified his spell to achieve an area-of-effect abnormal status dispel, it would only cover a few dozen meters. Draining all his magic power, the effect wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket!
“Let's still try to block the beast tide first!” Lu Chenxing withdrew his impractical thoughts, then channeled his magic power to communicate with the elements, releasing a Thunderstorm Technique that removed the spatial element towards the sky.
Dark clouds gathered in the sky, covering an area of twenty meters. Then, strong winds and heavy rain followed. Lu Chenxing took a deep breath and shouted, “Left Zero Right Fire, Lord of Thunder, aid me!”
He casually made up an incantation, then randomly formed a hand seal, and immediately thunder roared in the sky, lightning striking directly down from within the dark clouds!
The powerful lightning was dispersed by the rainwater, causing the mutated beasts within twenty meters to fall into a state of paralysis, then directly trampled to death by the mutated beasts behind them!
This repeated until less than a tenth of his magic power remained. Looking at the undiminished number of mutated beasts, Lu Chenxing felt his scalp tingle. Then, looking at the mutated beast corpses piled up like small mountains nearby, and still growing higher, a slight sense of powerlessness arose in his heart!
At this moment, many of the martial artists in the front were also injured and retreated into the rear formation to receive treatment. The beast tide advanced another step, and Lu Chenxing followed the flow of people, retreating backward.
It was at this moment that Lu Chenxing discovered a strange mutated beast. This mutated beast was completely black, shaped like a horse, its aura was Mid Second-Order, and its eyes were also filled with red light, but it stood motionless at the edge of the beast tide, its red eye light flickering on and off!
Curious, Lu Chenxing threw another Probing Technique at it and then received the feedback: Chaos (Debuff), Frenzy (Debuff), Out of Control (Debuff), Bloodlust (Buff), Living Corpse (Debuff), Parasitism (Debuff).
What was this situation? Two more effects appeared, Living Corpse and Parasitism?
From the looks of it, this mutated beast was already dead. Was something parasitic on its body?
He tried to strike it with lightning, scorching its back, but the mutated beast remained motionless. What exactly was going on?
Lu Chenxing didn't know, but he had a way to find out. After retreating into the first defensive formation, he turned and found Wang Qibing, telling him everything he had discovered, including how he found it, his Probing Technique and Dispelling Technique, and so on. He told him everything.
And Wang Qibing also knew Lu Chenxing's identity: he was the one who sold Bombardment Art cards to the military, and he was also the one who solved the Loshen City flu!
Coupled with his previous act of unhesitatingly taking out all his crystal nuclei, which earned him his goodwill, Wang Qibing chose to believe him!
“Is that the one?” Wang Qibing looked at the horse-shaped mutated beast and confirmed with Lu Chenxing.
“Yes! That's it! Generally, when facing death, the parasite will abandon the host. We must not let it escape. Perhaps from that parasite, we can find a way to break this situation!” Lu Chenxing voiced his thoughts.
Seeing the target confirmed, Wang Qibing directly leaped up, revealing his Early Third-Order strength. His steel blade unsheathed, he plunged into the mutated beast horde, cutting a bloody path as if slicing melons and dicing vegetables, and directly cleaved that horse-shaped mutated beast to death with one strike!
And even with death upon it, the horse-shaped mutated beast remained motionless in place. When the steel blade split the horse-shaped mutated beast's head in half, a wisp of golden light quietly flashed. Wang Qibing was somewhat surprised, then collected that golden light, turned, and killed his way back with a few leaps!
“I found the parasite.” Wang Qibing extended his hand and handed the item in his hand to Lu Chenxing, “It's a Sun-Glimmering Golden Cicada.”
As he spoke, a thumb-sized golden insect corpse fell into Lu Chenxing's hand. The light it emitted was as dazzling and warm as the first ray of morning sunlight. He immediately closed his palm, covering the light, and at the same time, was a little dazed, his heart beating uncontrollably.
Because he realized that his promotion mission seemed to have been completed!