The city of Starfire, larger than any prosperous metropolis on Blue Star before its mysterious arrival, boasted magnificent palaces and pavilions, with divine mountains and immortal landscapes everywhere, appearing as scenes from mythology.
Indeed, setting aside the disasters of the evil gods, this era could be described as one where everyone was like a dragon.
Mystery brought disaster, but it also brought new life.
However, when compared to the other eight Level Eight Oases Great Cities, Starfire City seemed small, smaller by several folds.
This was not due to the short time available for construction. In terms of infrastructure, Starfire was professional.
It was simply that Fang You wanted to leave ample space outside the oasis.
This time, he not only aimed to elevate the oasis to a high position and acquire unique powers, but also intended to use this opportunity to annihilate a large number of malevolent entities.
This was a trial!
...
One day, the weather was pleasant, suitable for undergoing tribulation.
The awakened ones belonging to various combat legions began checking their equipment, collecting combat potions and items, and then, along with their respective legion commanders, proceeded to the city walls they were responsible for defending.
They were silent, and it seemed only the thudding of their boots on the ground remained in the world. Clad in black combat attire adorned with flame patterns, they ascended the city walls. Under the sunlight, their figures stretched, as imposing as the walls themselves, like mountains, shielding the thick gray fog outside.
At the same time,
The ordinary citizens within Starfire City were also evacuating in an orderly manner to various shelters.
There was not much panic on their faces; they were very accustomed to such events. It was just another malevolent entity attack on the city, hadn't everyone experienced a few?
They were also pioneers of Starfire City, possessing their own beliefs and pride.
Perhaps their strength was too weak to be of any help against the malevolent entity attack, but they had the next generation! They would raise their sons and daughters to become warriors and heroes capable of defeating the malevolent entities!
"Master, everything is ready, please issue the next instruction!"
Xiao Huan's voice, usually cheerful, now carried a rare seriousness and solemnity.
She had changed into a stern combat uniform, saluting by placing her right fist across her heart. Simultaneously, using the power of virtual reality, she materialized a three-dimensional image of Starfire City, marking the locations of various legions, shelters, and the operational status of defensive formations.
Xiao Huan had already connected to Starfire City's defense system.
Fang You glanced at his watch; there were still 16 minutes and 35 seconds until the scheduled time.
After waiting for a moment, he said, "Activate all Dawn Lighthouses."
Hum—
Invisible ripples spread out.
The pure white towers, erected throughout the city, began to emit the warm, protective light of dawn from their spires. The radiance enveloped the entire city, bestowing a golden armor upon the grand city, as if divine and sacred.
The next moment,
Clang—
The alarm bell sounded.
Fang You raised his right hand, holding the Heart of the Oasis aloft.
The World Power accumulated by the Starfire Oasis surged out at this moment, as if a blazing fire was about to lift the entire oasis into ascension.
The power of laws also poured in, providing the final push for the oasis's promotion.
Rumble—
Stones trembled, trees swayed, and winds and clouds changed.
An invisible force diffused instantly, and the land at the outermost edge of the oasis, symbolizing life, began to spread at a visible rate, covering the dead land and driving away the thick gray fog.
The newly formed land was still somewhat barren, but scattered specks of new green could be seen on the bare ground, with tender shoots beginning to grow tenaciously. With time, effort in cultivation, and nutrient input, this land would become increasingly fertile.
According to the experience of oases advancing from Level Six to Seven and Seven to Eight, the oasis land would continuously expand until it reached a certain critical point, only then would it provoke a backlash from the gray fog.
But the promotion from Eight to Nine was different!
The oasis's advancement had just begun, and the outermost land had only expanded by twenty to thirty meters when the external gray fog began to churn violently.
The gray fog rapidly thickened and became active, resembling a colossal wall formed by ten million entwined serpents, twisting, writhing, and flying! Merely gazing upon it caused the scalp to tingle and reason to plummet.
At this moment, the Dawn Lighthouses standing in various parts of the city emitted increasingly brilliant and dazzling light.
This light was like numerous small suns, striving to dispel the gloom and haze.
Under the protection of the Dawn Light, the defending soldiers did not suffer overly fierce corrosive impacts. However, even with dozens of Dawn Lighthouses erected within the city, the sky of Starfire City quickly dimmed. Thick, dark clouds covered the firmament, pressing down like a dark cloud over the city, creating an almost suffocating pressure.
All these changes in the celestial phenomena occurred within a mere span of tens of seconds.
Following this brief, oppressive period of dimness, the ground began to shake violently, and loose stones outside the city walls continuously rattled. The entire magnificent city also began to tremble uncontrollably, but under the protection of the golden ritualistic light shield, the city remained impregnable, with not a single building showing cracks due to the intense tremors.
"Malevolent entities have appeared!"
Someone spoke.
In the command center, Black Blade One's avatar, seated there, watched the reconnaissance footage with unblinking, icy eyes.
Thousands of "Eyes of Detection" converged images from all directions, allowing the generals to command and make judgments.
"One million level."
"Three million level."
"Six million level."
"The number is still continuously rising, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down!"
At this point, one reconnaissance screen after another went dark, losing visual feed.
Although the Eyes of Detection possessed stealth capabilities, they could still be destroyed. When the malevolent entities filled every inch of space, covering the sky and earth, the Eyes of Detection along the way would be mercilessly crushed.
However, this was within expectations, and the generals in the command center remained unfazed.
They merely stared at the tide of malevolent entities, estimating the distance.
Black Blade ordered, "Begin charging the Demonic Crystal Cannons."
Behind the city walls, atop the cannon tower exceeding one hundred and thirty meters in height, rings of light representing charging levels began to illuminate.
The space between heaven and earth was filled with a heart-palpitating, terrifying energy.
Although also called Demonic Crystal Cannons, these were already the fourth generation developed by Master Wang Chui's team, currently the most destructive conventional warfare weapons in Starfire.
Compared to the first-generation Demonic Crystal Cannons, the fourth-generation cannons had dozens of times higher destructive upper limits, extremely high energy utilization efficiency, more stable operation, and wider coverage, and so on.
When countless malevolent entities surged out from the gray mist wall and stepped onto the oasis land, with the foremost malevolent entities only three kilometers away from the city walls, the prepared Demonic Crystal Cannons unleashed earth-shattering roars.
Immediately after, dazzling white light, capable of blinding the eyes, erupted from the tide of malevolent entities, like a continuously expanding inverted giant bowl, annihilating everything within its coverage and radiating terrifying shockwaves outwards.
The blast of air kicked up stones and toppled trees, surging towards the city walls like a tide, crashing against the flickering golden rune light shield.
When the aftershocks gradually dissipated, the world before them was left with only a massive crater and scattered remnants of malevolent entities within it.
The rest had been annihilated and dispersed.
Including the Demonic Crystals and materials that could be harvested from the bodies of the malevolent entities.
This was also unavoidable.
Even a divine semi-divine would not be able to kill malevolent entities precisely while leaving behind materials – killing a few could be controlled, but killing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands? Controlling them was a pipe dream! Much less so with Demonic Crystal Cannons.
While defending the city could yield a large number of Fate Points and Mysterious Points, it also meant losing a lot of materials.
There were gains and losses.
Although for other factions, defending a city only meant losses and no gains.
After a volley of Demonic Crystal Cannons, they ceased firing, allowing the malevolent entities to continue their charge.
At this point, the elites stationed on the city walls began to engage in free fire. They used either Demonic Artifact firearms or Demonic Artifact bows and arrows, or dozens of awakened individuals, amplified by instruments, simultaneously unleashed a certain spell or skill, merging into a large-scale magical technique that rained down upon the tide of malevolent entities.
Rumble—!
Within the city, a low hum echoed.
Outside the city, the roar of artillery fire continued unabated.
Malevolent entities fell.
Malevolent entities, undeterred, continued their charge.
Malevolent entities charged to the base of the city walls, constantly crashing and bombarding. Even as their bodies instantly turned to dust, they pressed forward one after another.
Fearless, or rather, completely devoid of any concept of life and death, of any rational emotions, malevolent entities were indeed terrifying.
The volley of Demonic Crystal Cannons had thinned the tide of malevolent entities considerably, but it was not long before more groups of malevolent entities swarmed forward. Looking as far as the eye could see, there were few open spaces not filled with malevolent entities.
And this was merely the beginning of the promotion war.
The tribulation of promotion was indeed terrifying!
...
The scale of the malevolent entity tide far surpassed the wave that had attacked Starfire Academy under the guidance of the Black River myth on that day.
Within the tide, several Seven-Star malevolent entity shadows had already appeared, and this number was still continuously rising.
The pressure on the city defense formations was immense.
However, Starfire City's defensive strength was also far superior to that day. Even without improving high-end combat power, the basic city defense weapons, such as Demonic Crystal Cannons, Light Energy Towers, and Swords of Radiance, far surpassed Starfire Academy by a wide margin.
After all, Starfire Academy's "skill points" were all invested in strategic retreat.
The masses of malevolent entities surged forward and were annihilated in equal measure.
Large-area destructive war weapons like Demonic Crystal Cannons did not fire continuously. The reason? They were too expensive, each shot costing thousands or tens of thousands of Demonic Crystals.
Thus, the mythical powerhouses stationed on various sections of the city walls also began to act, unleashing large-area destructive skills such as the Thunderclap Grand Hand Seal, Heavenly Fire Meteor, Nine Heavens Thunder, and Meteorite Descent upon the tide of malevolent entities.
This was the most cost-effective way of defense.
After all, mythical powerhouses not only had an extremely wide kill radius but also recovered their life energy far faster than ordinary awakened ones.
Each additional myth saved a considerable amount of Demonic Crystals.
Of course, only Starfire City, with its dozens of mythical powerhouses defending it, could afford to pour precious mythical power onto ordinary malevolent entities.
The most dazzling figures on the battlefield were undoubtedly Ilosi, with her fiery red hair.
No one understood "fast monster grinding" better than she did!
She stood in the sky, arms outstretched, her robes fluttering, her hair billowing in the wind. Ripples of space spread out behind her for hundreds or thousands of meters. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of meteors, burning with raging flames, rained down, fiercely impacting the tide of malevolent entities.
The destructive power of this attack was comparable to a volley of a hundred Demonic Crystal Cannons.
After unleashing one volley, Ilosi did not stop but circled around, moving to another defense zone to continue showering the sky with raging flames. She wanted more people to witness her invincible prowess.
However, after several rounds of furious bombardment in a berserk manner, Ilosi had to rest.
It wasn't that she was depleted.
She still had thirty percent of her life energy remaining, but she had to save it in case an opportunity for showing off arose, but she lacked the power to show off – cough, cough, mainly because her mentor had warned her never to exhaust her energy when dealing with ordinary malevolent entities. She wasn't afraid of her mentor, but her mentor's advice was indeed sound.
Yes, that was it.
...
The number of malevolent entities was immense, seemingly endless. But the difficulty of the promotion war was not solely in their numbers.
As time passed, the number of Seven-Star malevolent entities also increased.
If Seven-Star malevolent entities foolishly charged forward, mythical powerhouses would step in to quickly slay them. However, some Seven-Star malevolent entities, including a few Six-Star ones, were adept at super long-range attacks. They did not need to set foot on the oasis land; merely by being within the gray fog, they could launch attacks towards Starfire City from tens or even hundreds of kilometers away.
Terrifying energy continuously attacked from afar.
Mythical powerhouses intervened to resist, but prolonged defense inevitably led to weaknesses. Humanity could not afford to engage in a war of attrition with malevolent entities.
At this point, it became necessary for powerful individuals to venture alone into the tide of malevolent entities to eliminate these high-level malevolent entities that posed a great threat to the defensive formations.
This was the second difficulty of the promotion war.
If one was careless, a team of mythical powerhouses venturing alone could also perish!
Xitina, Xing Jing Lei, Polly, Ming Deng Master, Roland, and about a dozen other mythical powerhouses either teamed up or went alone into the tide of malevolent entities to eliminate Seven-Star malevolent entities hundreds of miles away.
Xitina was enveloped in blazing golden flames, her battle spirit soaring. However, sometimes she went too far, charging in and out of the tide of malevolent entities seven times, then forgetting to go home.
Xing Jing Lei transformed into a small giant several meters tall, smashing a bloody path through the tide of malevolent entities.
However, although the attacks of the malevolent entities did not breach his defenses, they greatly restricted his speed. His charging speed became slower and slower, as if he were about to be buried by the tide of malevolent entities.
"Damn it!"
"Eat this, my Body-Splitting Dance."
This skill, with which he had high compatibility, Xing Jing Lei had long since cultivated to a profound level. He did not need to dance awkwardly in the tide of malevolent entities; a mere exaggerated twitch of his pectoral muscles, followed by a split stance, left hand pressing on his right shoulder, right shoulder quickly rising and returning, then dropping down... within a few steps, he met the prerequisites for the Body-Splitting Dance.
Instantly, his muscle strength surged, his skin split and healed in an instant.
His imposing aura soared, faint reddish aura emanating from his body. Accompanied by the up and down motion of his shoulders during the Body-Splitting Dance, he shattered all the malevolent entities around him. The next moment, he shot out as if shattering space itself. He instantly appeared before the target Seven-Star malevolent entity and, with a twist, delivered a powerful kick while carrying the faint reddish aura...
Bang!
Space trembled.
The Seven-Star malevolent entity, larger than a mountain, had its entire body pulverized. Countless huge corpses scattered, crashing onto the surrounding malevolent entities.
Xing Jing Lei shook his shoulders and casually tore apart a few small malevolent entities, "Hmph, who said this lord has no output!"
Time flowed, one hour, two hours, three hours...
The tide of malevolent entities still surged from all directions.
The warriors had lost count of how many malevolent entities they had killed. If they hadn't been mentally prepared, such an endless, seemingly never-ending city defense battle would have driven them to despair.
It was as if the entire world was densely packed with malevolent entities, and their oasis was the only remaining island.
Sooner or later, it would be engulfed by the endless tide of malevolent entities.
There couldn't possibly be this many malevolent entities in the entire Great Domain!
Of course, that statement was not entirely accurate.
Normally, the number of malevolent entities in a region had a limit, which could be scanned and ascertained with divine sense. However, Fang You had once attempted (and courted death) when he massacred malevolent entities on a large scale; the more he killed, the more malevolent entities appeared, even accompanied by indescribable great terror.
The current environment was different from when he single-handedly entered the gray fog to kill them all, but there was a similarity.
That was the appearance of the malevolent entities!
The malevolent entities were not converging from all over the Great Domain. In fact, Starfire Oasis's promotion did not create much of a stir in the Falling Star Great Domain. Only mythical beings could sense that the energy fluctuations in the Great Domain were somewhat abnormal.
These malevolent entities had appeared out of thin air under the gray fog hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of miles away from Starfire Oasis.
After two days and two nights of fierce battle, the awakened ones and mythical beings defending the city had rotated shifts, yet the scene outside the city remained unchanged from two days ago.
The sky was covered by malevolent entities.
The ground was littered with broken skeletons.
The malevolent entities at the edge of the line of sight were still charging.
But the lack of change also indicated that after two days and two nights of bitter fighting, Starfire City had not sustained any damage whatsoever! Neither outside nor inside the city!
The only inevitable consequence was that the defending soldiers had become somewhat fatigued.
Compared to the promotion wars of dominant forces like Cloud Map Nation and Water Man Nation, Starfire's ability to pass the first two days unscathed was a miracle and a testament to its strength.
For two days and two nights, Fang You had not rested, periodically entering a "pseudo-divine sense high-level state" to survey the battlefield from afar.
At this moment, he noticed a change in the distance.
"The big ones are coming."