Chapter 268: Ion Storm

Chapter 268: Ion Storm

Twelve sword lights flew forward in parallel, each tracing a unique trajectory like graceful butterflies before swiftly diving into the swarm of monsters.

The Serrated Mantises were mere common monsters, and Ji Xinghuo needed not expend excessive spirit energy. He relied solely on the sharpness of the sword lights to attack. In an instant, the leading mantises fell like cut grass—some decapitated, some pierced through, and others cleaved in half with smooth cuts across their waists.

The colorful sword lights swept across, leaving behind a trail of corpses.

Due to their sheer numbers, there were bound to be some that slipped through, and those Serrated Mantises that managed to avoid the sword lights ignored their fallen comrades and charged relentlessly toward Ji Xinghuo.

However, this was all within Ji Xinghuo's calculations.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The high-temperature beams from the Crystal Light Gun struck the oncoming Serrated Mantises, exploding them into pieces of wood shavings.

In less than ten seconds, the sword lights had mowed down over two hundred Serrated Mantises, slaying more than seventy percent of them. They then turned around and accelerated, chasing after the remaining mantises to slash them from behind.

Ji Xinghuo acted as bait, luring the monsters while shooting at them from the front.

In the blink of an eye, the swarm of mantises was wiped out, but before Ji Xinghuo could catch his breath, more monsters emerged from both sides to surround him once again.

Behind him, the creatures that had been pursuing him for over an hour were also drawing closer, with the fastest among them, the Thorny Vine Spheres, now less than a hundred meters away.

Ji Xinghuo was fully aware of the situation around him.

Electromagnetic induction painted a clear picture in his mind, and he turned around calmly, manipulating his spirit energy to control the twelve sword lights. They flew in a circle with a radius of about fifty meters around him, moving at lightning speed and setting up a deadly circular formation.

Any monster that dared to cross the path of the circular sword lights was instantly sliced to pieces.

Ji Xinghuo's Crystal Light Gun never ceased firing, sending out high-temperature beams to slay multiple monsters with each shot.

However, the number of monsters was simply overwhelming.

They came in waves, one after another, like an unending tide.

Using their sheer numbers, they forged a path forward, sacrificing themselves to the sword lights so that others could rush in without fear, charging relentlessly at Ji Xinghuo.

His spirit energy was being depleted at a furious rate, and Ji Xinghuo's brain was working in overdrive.

Crack! Crack!

Several shattering sounds rang out as the Ice Swords, after slaying countless monsters, broke into fragments of ice, drastically reducing the number of sword lights.

The tide of monsters surged forward.

Ji Xinghuo had no choice but to shrink the radius of his circular sword formation, sacrificing defensive range for increased killing frequency.

However, as more and more Ice Swords shattered, the formation's radius continued to shrink, reducing from fifty meters to forty, then thirty, and finally, twenty-five meters... Various monsters trampled over the corpses of their fallen comrades, advancing like a relentless tide, while Ji Xinghuo stood firm like an island amidst the sea, his situation becoming increasingly precarious.

Despite this, Ji Xinghuo's expression remained calm.

In fact, he even had the leisure to open the interface of the Myriad Manifestations Star Pupils. The value of his spiritual source energy was steadily rising.

Although each monster only provided one point of spiritual source energy, their sheer numbers were significant. In just a short while, he had slain five to six hundred monsters, causing his spiritual source energy to surpass 6,000 points.

His Eternal Day Merit was also increasing.

Only monsters personally slain by him would count toward his Eternal Day Merit. If they were killed by the laser cannons, he would only gain spiritual source energy, which was a much less profitable outcome.

"I need to kill more and earn more merit," Ji Xinghuo said to himself.

At that moment, the frenzied monsters had compressed the sword formation to a radius of less than ten meters. The layers of monster corpses on the ground piled up, and the dense swarm of monsters extended outward, threatening to engulf him. In the sky above, the Spore Bats dove down as well.

Ji Xinghuo finally felt the pressure as his star power was being depleted at an alarming rate.

He looked up at the sky. Since he was surrounded by monsters, the Crystalites hesitated to use their orbital laser cannons for fear of harming him.

This was a rule publicly announced by the official website of the Eternal Day Guardians.

If there was even the slightest chance of injuring an Eternal Day Guardian, the Crystalites' space-based weapon systems would not open fire.

However, if a safe distance could be maintained, the laser cannons would automatically engage, just as they had the day before.

Alternatively, the Eternal Day Guardians could request fire support themselves.

Beep! Beep!

A light projection emerged from the Eternal Day badge on his chest, displaying the image of a Crystalite who asked anxiously, "Guardian, please inform us if you require fire support. The laser cannons are already charging."

"Not yet," Ji Xinghuo replied decisively, refusing the Crystalites' assistance.

There was no way he was going to pass up this opportunity.

He had worked hard to gather so many monsters, and he intended to slay as many as possible to maximize his merit earnings. If the laser cannons were to blast them away, there would be nothing left but dust.

He channeled his spirit energy into the Ice Swords, once again condensing eight Ice Swords.

However, the space within which the flying swords could slash and kill had been compressed to a radius of about ten meters. Even with the replenishment of sword lights, he could only barely maintain the formation and had no capacity to push it outward.

Suddenly, the Crystal Light Gun fell silent as it exhausted another high-energy battery.

Ji Xinghuo swiftly replaced it with a new one, firing with his left hand while reaching into his waist pouch with his right. He pulled out several high-explosive grenades, threw them into the air, and detonated them among the diving Spore Bats. A burst of fiery light exploded, killing dozens of the bats that were at the forefront of the dive, temporarily halting their descent.

But this delay only lasted for two or three seconds before more Spore Bats descended. Ji Xinghuo's hand moved relentlessly, throwing one grenade after another.

His movements were swift and precise, always managing to hurl the grenades in the direction of the Spore Bats' charge.

Explosions echoed in the sky.

The Spore Bats were unable to dive down and self-detonate as intended. Even when they changed direction and tried to approach from behind, Ji Xinghuo's high-explosive grenades seemed to predict their movements, shadowing them and detonating at just the right moment.

Large groups of Spore Bats were blasted into green toxic liquid, raining down like a deadly shower.

Ji Xinghuo had hundreds of high-explosive grenades stored in his dimensional pouch, enough to wipe out the Spore Bats in the sky. However, with the Crystalites' satellites watching, he did not want to expose his ability to use spatial equipment outside of the Stellar World. Thus, after throwing about a dozen grenades, he stopped.

"I can't hold out much longer," he muttered.

On the ground, the tide of monsters once again compressed the space, closing in to within ten meters. The pile of corpses hindered the killing efficiency of the flying swords.

In just a few seconds, the sword lights were pushed back to within five meters.

At such a close distance, the vines of the Thorny Vine Spheres nearly reached Ji Xinghuo's body.

His star power was also being rapidly depleted, with less than half remaining.

Yet, Ji Xinghuo remained calm and collected.

In fact, even without the Ling Jian Smart Ring, and without relying on the Crystal Light Gun or high-explosive grenades, he dared to engage in close combat with the horde of monsters. With his Saintly Dragon Scale Armor's defense and the bodily recovery provided by the rotating magnetic field, melee combat was the most economical way to fight.

Being surrounded wasn't as terrifying as it seemed.

While the number of enemies seemed overwhelming, in reality, no more than ten enemies could engage in close combat with him at any given moment.

This was due to the limited space.

Within the relatively small area surrounding him, Ji Xinghuo's microscopic perception and super-frequency thinking allowed him complete control. He was confident in his ability to easily take on ten enemies at once, and with his strong defense, he had no fear of being besieged.

As long as his star power and stamina held out, he could slay every last one of the monsters.

This was the true meaning of being a match for ten thousand!

However, Ji Xinghuo did not want to reveal too much just yet, so he chose the most efficient, yet also the most consuming, way to fight.

Ji Xinghuo ceased firing and hovered lightly in the middle of the sword formation.

He spread his arms wide, electricity coursing over his skin, and his eyes flashed with electric light, growing brighter and brighter. After a few seconds, his spiritual energy and star power erupted simultaneously.

Boom!

A thunderous crack of lightning split the sky.

Countless bolts of lightning burst forth from Ji Xinghuo, each carrying searing heat as they instantly spread to the effective radius of his spiritual energy, reaching 120 meters, and then continued to push outward due to the inertia of the electromagnetic field.

The air within the electric field was pierced, turning into flame-like plasma. All the monsters within the field were blasted to the ground, igniting and quickly turning into charred fragments and ashes.

In the sky, half of the Spore Bat swarm was directly eliminated.

Their bodies rained down like falling leaves.

The spiritual lightning struck out to a radius of about 200 meters before retracting, and the visible arc of electricity once again swept across everything within range, shrinking back to Ji Xinghuo and then disappearing.

"Phew..."

Ji Xinghuo breathed a sigh of relief.

This move was called "Ion Storm," a spiritual energy application technique he had figured out on his own. It instantly formed high-temperature plasma, blasting and igniting targets within a certain range. A full release of the Ion Storm consumed nearly 1,000 points of star power.

The power of the Ion Storm was immediately apparent, clearing all the monsters in the vicinity.

Suddenly, the pressure dissipated.

However, a single Ion Storm couldn't eliminate all the monsters.

Beyond the range of the attack, more monsters immediately surged forward like a tide, filling the space that had just been cleared.

"There are still so many of them..."

Ji Xinghuo manipulated the sword lights once more, forming a sword formation with a radius of fifty meters, while his Crystal Light Gun continued to fire relentlessly.

Still, the number of monsters remained overwhelming.

In the distance, attracted by the commotion, even more monsters were rushing over, while his star power had dropped to just over 600 points.

The tide of monsters surrounded Ji Xinghuo once again, relentlessly pressing forward and causing the defensive radius of the sword formation to shrink further. In less than a minute, the radius had shrunk to less than ten meters.

"That's enough," Ji Xinghuo said, without hesitation.

He unleashed another Ion Storm, but this time, the range of the attack was much smaller, eliminating only the monsters within a twenty-meter radius and clearing some space. Then, he quickly ascended into the sky to escape the monsters on the ground, with the sword lights following and slashing at the pursuing Spore Bats, keeping them at a safe distance.

When he reached a height of over three hundred meters, Ji Xinghuo manipulated the sword lights to hold off the Spore Bats.

Suddenly, he sensed something and looked up.

In the distant sky, several crimson starlights blossomed, dazzling even in the daytime. They rapidly grew larger, transforming into gigantic red laser beams with a diameter of over five meters, as if tearing through the sky itself, and instantly struck the ground.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The deafening explosions shook the earth, and countless flames and shockwaves swept across an area of several kilometers in the blink of an eye, turning everything into ashes in the searing heat.

The forest, the monsters, the grass, and everything else met the same fate.

One of the laser beams accurately struck the remaining Spore Bat swarm, less than a hundred meters away from Ji Xinghuo. The bats were nearly wiped out by the blast.

He had just managed to retract the sword lights in time, or they would have been destroyed as well. Even so, the destructive power of the laser cannon left him startled.

If he had been hit by that blast, he would have been instantly obliterated.

As the smoke and dust cleared, only a few huge craters with diameters of several dozen meters were left on the ground. The soil and rocks had been melted by the extreme heat, turning into lava that gradually cooled and hardened into a glass-like substance. Not a single leaf remained of the thousands of monster corpses that had once been there.

The monsters that had been gathering also turned and fled in fear.

Ji Xinghuo descended back to the ground.

Standing at the edge of one of the massive craters, he couldn't help but shake his head, both amazed and daunted by the terrifying power of the turbid laser cannon. It meant that any Eternal Day Guardian who set foot on the surface of the Earth Abyss Star had their life in the hands of the Crystalites.

Fortunately, the Crystalites had shown no ill will towards the Eternal Day Guardians.

Ji Xinghuo opened the interface of the Myriad Manifestations Star Pupils, and his eyes lit up with joy. Just those few laser blasts had caused his spiritual source energy to surge by nearly 10,000 points, and it now exceeded 18,000 points! At the same time, his Eternal Day Merit had also increased significantly.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end