Chapter 238: The Mountain Beast

Chapter 238: The Mountain Beast

Noon had arrived, and as the golden sun hung directly overhead, a loud, rallying horn echoed throughout the Blood Fury Tribe's camp.

It was the signal to attack.

The allied forces of the three tribes, an army of a hundred thousand, sprang into action.

Along the riverbank, spanning several kilometers, the Highlanders and mercenaries began to form ranks, mounting their warhorses and gathering at the center of the camp, directly across from the Blood Eye Berserker Tribe's stronghold.

Mounted on Qinghong, Ji Xinghuo gazed at the tribe on the opposite bank of the river and suddenly spoke in the common language of Asia: "Be careful not to stray too far from me, and be ready to retreat at any time."

Beside him, Xia Qingyu looked surprised. "What's wrong?"

Over the past few days, he had witnessed Ji Xinghuo's extraordinary perception and judgment, always a step ahead and invariably correct.

No, he had never been wrong!

So when Ji Xinghuo spoke like this, there had to be another reason, perhaps even a hidden danger that he had sensed.

"The Blood Fury Tribe might be defeated," Ji Xinghuo revealed partially.

"What?"

Xia Qingyu found this hard to believe.

With three tribes and an army of a hundred thousand laying siege to a fortress, the Blood Eye Tribe, numbering only fifty to sixty thousand, was at a clear disadvantage, especially with nearly half of them being women and children with lower combat strength. How could the enemy possibly lose?

"Starry War is not about numbers," Ji Xinghuo said, not divulging too much.

Xia Qingyu immediately understood the implication. "You mean there are experts among them?"

Ji Xinghuo nodded silently.

"What are you two talking about?" Masha asked curiously.

"Nothing," Xia Qingyu said, glancing at her. "Masha, don't charge too far ahead in this battle. I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up with you."

"You're actually worried about me?" Masha was touched, and she gave him a coquettish look.

"I've always been concerned about your safety," Xia Qingyu said with a smile.

As the horns continued to blare, the army assembled. On the opposite side of the Red River, at the foot of the mountain where the Skull Crushers tribe was located, there was also movement. Countless Blood Eye Berserker tribesmen rushed to the walls, including legendary Berserker warriors and the powerful Blood Marshals.

The eyes of the Tiger tribesmen were large and round, and their vision was sharp. They stared at the enemies across the river, their eyes filled with bloodlust.

"Halt!"

"Prepare to cross the river!"

Commands rang out across the army, and the troops came to a stop at the riverbank.

Ji Xinghuo looked at the rushing river, wondering how they would cross, when a row of tall figures emerged from the tent of the Blood Fury Tribe's chieftain, Gu Luo Ke.

Snow Ape Giants!

Xia Qingyu recognized these figures and exclaimed, "What are they doing here?"

Anyone who had been to Skyfall Cliff would be familiar with these giants clad in exquisite armor.

There were over twenty Snow Ape Giants, led by a six-meter-tall giant. However, it was not the Chieftain Han Qiu that Ji Xinghuo had met before, but another Sixth-Stage Giant. Among the rest were two legends, each standing at over five meters tall, fully armed and exuding a chilling aura.

Ji Xinghuo had already guessed what was happening.

The Snow Ape Giants had obviously been hired by the Blood Fury Tribe, but he wondered what their price was and if it exceeded the rate the Virtual Spirit had quoted him.

Under the gaze of the entire army, the Snow Ape Giants lined up along the riverbank, each giant standing a hundred meters apart.

"Roar..."

The attack horn sounded once more.

At that moment, the over twenty Snow Ape Giants stepped into the water, and the chilling aura they exuded caused the temperature to plummet. The rushing river began to freeze.

The Sixth-Stage Giant in the center, a king among men on Earth, took the lead.

His eyes icy blue, he blew a gust of white breath toward the river, and in an instant, the breath, like a speeding arrow, crossed the two-hundred-meter-wide river. Wherever the breath passed, the water froze instantly, forming ice that retained the shape of the flowing river and rapidly expanded outward.

Crackle, crackle...

Amid the loud friction of ice, the ice paths created by the over twenty Snow Ape Giants merged into one.

Nearly three kilometers of rushing river had been transformed into a smooth passage, and the ice continued to thicken, reaching a depth of three meters in just a few seconds, with no signs of stopping.

"Cross the river!"

Chieftain Gu Luo Ke roared, his command echoing across both banks of the icy river.

The tall and burly Gu Luo Ke was the first to charge across the ice, his blood-red braids flying. His body blazed with blood flame, and he brandished a massive axe, each step covering a distance of over a dozen meters and leaving behind exploding craters in the ice. In the blink of an eye, he reached the opposite bank.

The walls of the Skull Crushers tribe were three to four kilometers away from the riverbank, leaving a completely open stretch of land. Gu Luo Ke sprinted across this distance, rushing toward the enemy's walls.

It was the tradition of the Highlanders for their strongest warriors to lead the charge.

Following Gu Luo Ke were the three Blood Marshals of the Blood Fury Tribe and the Blood Marshals from the two allied tribes—six kings surging across the frozen river.

The cavalry of the Highlanders in the front row stepped onto the ice, and the six-legged warhorses ran steadily on the ice surface, getting faster and faster while maintaining their formation, crossing the river in record time.

Even before the cavalry had cleared the ice, Gu Luo Ke was already locked in combat with the enemy.

The Skull Crushers tribe also had Blood Marshals, and despite their smaller population, they had four of them, the same number as the Blood Fury Tribe.

A towering figure from the Biao Tribe, exceeding three meters in height, leaped down from the city walls. His back was adorned with a pair of flaming bat-like wings, which radiated intense heat. With a fearless battle cry, he charged towards Gu Luo Ke, his bare fists augmented by a pair of large and razor-sharp claws. His entire body was engulfed in raging flames, sending waves of scorching heat that distorted the air around him as he moved.

The clash between these two kings echoed with a thunderous boom, like two colossal beasts locked in a brutal melee, yet with astonishing speed.

Each clash reverberated like a thunderclap, deafening to the ear.

Every aftershock of their battle tore through the air and earth, leaving behind a trail of craters.

Outside the walls of the Skull Crushers tribe, ten Blood Marshals, ten kings, waged an incredibly rare and fierce battle.

Ji Xinghuo and his companions were positioned further back. Before the Highlanders in front of them could cross the river, he gazed across the ice, his heart pounding as he witnessed the terrifying might of this level of combat. It was far beyond his current ability to intervene, and even being in close proximity could be dangerous.

He turned his gaze to the riverbank and noticed that after the Snow Ape Giants had frozen the river, they had retreated to a safe distance.

These giants did not join the battle.

"Didn't get paid enough?" Ji Xinghuo wondered aloud, then looked up. From a cleft in the mountain, about ten thousand meters above the foot of the Red River Giant Peak, a massive black shadow took flight.

A Mist Shadow Dragon! The dragon lord had appeared again.

With a wingspan of over thirty meters, the dragon, resembling a giant bat, dove towards the ice at incredible speed.

"Blood Demon Bats! Intercept him!" A loud command rang out across the battlefield.

Ji Xinghuo recognized this voice as belonging to Duotai, one of the Blood Marshals of the Blood Fury Tribe. With a six-on-four advantage, the Blood Fury Tribe held the upper hand, allowing Duotai to spare some effort to direct their troops.

In the army's rear, hundreds of Blood Demon Bats took to the skies.

Each Blood Demon Bat carried a Highlander warrior on its back, forming a sky-obscuring formation as they ascended to intercept the Mist Shadow Dragon, led by four legendary Blood Warriors.

"Cross the river, quickly!"

"Don't dawdle!"

The mercenary group that Ji Xinghuo, Xia Qingyu, and Masha belonged to soon reached the shore, where He Yan was urging them on.

As Ji Xinghuo stepped onto the opposite bank, he was met by a sea of people.

Already, two to three thousand Highlander cavalry had crossed ahead of them, surging towards the city walls in a tidal wave of bodies.

The four thousand-meter stretch from the riverbank to the city walls served as a natural battlefield.

"Charge!"

"Burn my blood, flame sacrifice to the Red Emperor!" The Highlanders screamed wildly as they charged, mindful to steer clear of the Blood Marshals on the battlefield to avoid being caught in the aftermath of their battles.

"Follow me," Ji Xinghuo instructed Xia Qingyu and Masha.

The two guided their warhorses closer to him, and Ji Xinghuo blended into the mercenary formation, charging forward but veering slightly to the left. If one were to observe from the air, they would notice he was tracing a diagonal path, as if avoiding something.

When Ji Xinghuo was still a thousand meters away from the city walls, the leading edge of the Highlander warriors had already reached the base of the walls, and with a thunderous boom, a hundred-meter section of the walls collapsed.

Through the billowing dust and smoke, the towering figure of Chieftain Gu Luo Ke emerged.

Taking advantage of his opponent being entangled by two other Blood Marshals, Gu Luo Ke swung his massive axe, cleaving a gap in the walls.

Highlander cavalry poured through the breach in a relentless tide.

Gu Luo Ke brandished his giant axe, his formidable two-meter-tall frame unleashing terrifying power. Each swing of his axe caused the earth to shake, and the walls seemed to collapse in a chain reaction, the breach widening to nearly five hundred meters in length.

"Warriors of the Red Emperor!"

Gu Luo Ke stood atop the rubble of the fallen walls and bellowed, "For blood! For glory! For strength! For the Red Emperor! Kill them all, leave not a single enemy alive! The Red Emperor watches over us, kill!"

His voice seemed to hold a magical power, and the eyes of the Highlanders turned crimson with fervor.

A bloodthirsty aura permeated the battlefield.

Even those who were not followers of the Red Emperor, like the mercenaries, were influenced by this fervor, their minds filled with killing intent as they charged towards the fallen walls without hesitation.

Boom!

Just as Xia Qingyu finished speaking, a deafening explosion rocked the battlefield, causing the ground to tremble violently. Countless warhorses and Highlanders stumbled and fell.

The sound came from underground.

"An earthquake?"

Before anyone could react, the ground suddenly caved in right in front of the city walls. Within a range of several hundred meters, the earth split and turned over, swallowing countless Highlanders and mercenaries along with their mounts. They disappeared without a trace, buried under the deluge of soil and rocks.

Immediately afterward, a mountain rose from the ground, reaching higher and higher as debris and soil rained down.

In the blink of an eye, a wall appeared before them.

Xia Qingyu was terrified.

He was only two to three hundred meters away from the edge of the pit. If he hadn't veered off the charging route with Ji Xinghuo, he might have fallen into it by now.

What was even more terrifying was that what emerged from the pit was not a wall but a colossal beast!

"Mountain Beast!" Masha exclaimed in shock.

Xia Qingyu also cried out in fear, "Run! The further away from it, the better!"

The two immediately jumped off their warhorses and turned to flee, noticing that Ji Xinghuo had already turned around, guiding Qinghong to run towards the left.

"Did you know about this beforehand?" Xia Qingyu asked as he ran.

"Hehe..."

Ji Xinghuo did not answer.

Ever since they had arrived at the riverbank camp yesterday, his electromagnetic induction had detected a massive creature lurking a hundred meters underground across the riverbank. With a body length exceeding 300 meters, it had a robust body and limbs, resembling a rhinoceros covered in rocky armor, but with a long tail. It was one with the earth and rocks, as if it were asleep.

If not for its unusually strong magnetic field, creating a distinct outline, even he might have struggled to discover it.

This was a Mountain Beast, also known as a Mountain Giant Beast! True to its name, the Mountain Beast could grow to the size of a mountain range, and the larger its size, the more formidable its strength. It was said that the growth of the Mountain Beast had no limits, and in the Star Realm, there were kilometer-long Mountain Giants, more terrifying than the Holy Masters of the Shepherd Star.

Mountain Beasts were born with the ability to manipulate the earth's pulse.

With their enormous bodies, a single pulse of the earth's energy made them incredibly difficult to kill. They had thick, rugged skin, immense strength, and an indomitable life force.

Among monsters of the same level, the Mountain Beast's killing difficulty was more than ten times higher.

This Mountain Beast was of the "Meteor" grade, the highest of the four grades of calamity monsters. If it evolved further, it would become a Star-Killing Monster.

A Meteor-grade Mountain Beast was equivalent to a top-tier King.

The Mountain Beast didn't have many or varied attack methods, but what it had was more than sufficient.

Ji Xinghuo turned to look.

He saw this "Meteor"-grade calamity monster rear up on its hind legs, its massive front limbs coming down heavily to deliver a seemingly ordinary "Stomp."

Boom! The ground shook violently.

The entire battlefield and the icy river trembled violently as a terrifying shockwave swept through the area, carrying countless rocks and soil. Highlanders within a radius of a thousand meters were knocked to the ground.

Thanks to Ji Xinghuo's warning, Qinghong leaped into the air, dodging the stomp's impact.

Xia Qingyu and Masha, however, were not so fortunate, ending up covered in dirt and dust.

Fortunately, the three of them had already moved a good distance away, and there were other Highlanders behind them to bear the brunt of the shockwave, so it wasn't lethal.

The Mountain Beast, having cleared the area around it, began to climb out of the pit.

Boom! Boom! Boom...

Each of its steps caused minor earthquakes.

While the Mountain Beast was incredibly difficult to kill, it had a significant weakness: its slow movement speed. As long as one could outrun it, they could survive.

However, this was a battlefield, and the space between the city walls and the river was packed with Highlander armies.

It was like throwing a lion into a crowded sheep pen.

"Get back!"

"Move back, get away from this beast!"

The Blood Fury Tribe's warriors frantically shouted, but there were just too many people, and the area was too cramped. The Mountain Beast slightly increased its speed and let out a deep, rumbling roar.

Boom! In front of the beast, a fan-shaped area of the ground erupted with countless stone spikes.

These spikes were at least three to four meters tall, with the larger ones reaching over ten meters in height and as thick as pillars. It was like a forest of giant spears, instantly impaling hundreds of Highlanders within its range. With just one wide-area attack, the Mountain Beast had killed over three thousand Highlanders.

"Damn..."

Ji Xinghuo's heart skipped a beat, and his mind went numb with pain. He almost couldn't hold back a cry.

His spiritual source energy had instantly surged by over ten thousand points!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end