Chapter 1 The Gamble

Li Tianran knew very well that the Gale Apostle might be bluffing, but he couldn't afford to gamble right now.

Because he couldn't bear the cost of losing the bet.

He used to dare to gamble his life with others at any time, but he couldn't now.

Because the current Li Tianran is the leader and spiritual pillar of the entire human coalition army, and every decision he makes is closely related to the fate of all mankind.

Therefore, before deciding anything, he had to consider the consequences!

"The only thing I'm worried about is that the Kunlun Battleship will enter a brief period of weakness after launching the Valley of Death. During this process, it may be invaded by lower-sequence followers, leading to a complete failure..." Li Tianran analyzed the current situation and quickly found a way to solve the current predicament: "In other words... as long as all the lower-sequence followers who invaded the Kunlun Battleship are killed, the Valley of Death can be released without any worries."

"In this way, regardless of whether the opponent has the ability to resist the Valley of Death, after releasing it, there is no need to worry about being counterattacked!"

Li Tianran clenched his fist. This was the only feasible method.

But it seemed a bit difficult to kill all the lower-sequence followers who invaded the periphery of the Kunlun Battleship in a short period of time...

Li Tianran turned his attention to the monitoring display screen of the Kunlun Battleship. There were a large number of red dots moving rapidly on it. Those were the Gale Apostle's followers who had invaded the hull of the Kunlun Battleship. Roughly calculated, the number was about eight hundred.

They passed through the defensive net woven by the Kunlun Battleship's barrage of fire. At least two thousand companions were severely damaged by the Kunlun and died on the way to the charge.

And these eight hundred followers were carrying the hopes of the Gale Apostle. If they could successfully invade the interior of the Kunlun and sabotage Li Tianran or the Kunlun's control system, then this war would come to an end today.

No, it should be said that if they could break into the Kunlun and kill Li Tianran, then the entire war between the ancient civilization and human civilization would come to an end, and humanity would be completely destroyed.

The victory or defeat of the two civilizations now rests on these eight hundred followers!

"Report the location of these followers to the Trailblazer Legion..." Li Tianran said in a deep voice. The Kunlun Battleship automatically responded and continuously sent signals through internal connections to the Trailblazer Legion led by Lu Chi, locking the location and movement route of the invaders.

At this time on the battlefield, the human coalition army saw the terrifying electric ball formed by the convergence of the Valley of Death expand to its limit, and then gradually shrink, returning the energy to the Kunlun Battleship, and finally turning into nothingness.

The Valley of Death lightning ball completely disappeared, and the Kunlun Battleship, which had previously entered a semi-weak state due to overload, returned to its peak again.

"Wha... what happened?"

"Why did the commander-in-chief recover the Valley of Death?"

"What went wrong?"

In the human coalition army, many soldiers raised questions. Not only the soldiers, but even many generals couldn't help but feel a thud in their hearts after seeing this scene, and began to speculate wildly, wondering if something unexpected had happened inside the Kunlun Battleship!

At this moment, Li Tianran's voice rang in the headsets of every general.

"I am Li Tianran, and everything is fine here. I just temporarily changed the tactics, so don't panic and continue fighting!"

Hearing this, the morale of the coalition army, which had been somewhat chaotic, stabilized.

As the commander-in-chief of the coalition army, any action of Li Tianran would affect the entire coalition force, so he couldn't be careless at all, and needed to let the coalition force know that he was fine and that there were no problems!

This was not being fussy, but the principle on the battlefield.

...

Three thousand Trailblazers spread out on the Kunlun Battleship, forming teams of thirty, and followed the Kunlun Battleship's prompts to kill the incoming followers.

Why was the number of people in a team set at thirty?

Because after the experience of fighting against lower-sequence followers on the human defense line, the Trailblazer Legion came to a rough conclusion: under normal circumstances, about twenty people could die together with a lower-sequence follower; twenty-five people could barely kill a follower, but their own side would also suffer heavy injuries; thirty people could complete the kill relatively easily, and the casualty rate would only be around ten percent, with only three or four people killed or injured on their own side for every follower killed.

With the support of this data, the Trailblazers also conducted special cooperation training in groups of thirty, and now they have basically formed an effective battle formation. Except for some second-evolution creatures with special abilities, they basically don't give a follower a chance to escape.

Thump, thump, thump!

Lu Chi had no expression on his face, listening to the route reports constantly coming from the headset, with the sound of wind whistling around him.

He passed over a turret, and a winged figure appeared in front of him, less than a hundred meters away!

Clang!

The follower was about three meters tall and was constantly bombarding the barrel of a laser railgun. Its power was extremely terrifying, and every bombardment caused the barrel to vibrate!

At this time, the follower seemed to notice the arrival of Lu Chi and others, stopped what it was doing, and turned to look over.

Pa!

Pa pa!

The thirty-man team led by Lu Chi immediately began to spread out, surrounding the follower.

"Inferior creatures..." the follower said, speaking in human language. It suddenly spread its wings and soared into the sky, seemingly not wanting to entangle with the Trailblazers.

Their mission was not to fight the Trailblazers, but to do everything possible to damage the Kunlun Battleship or break into the Kunlun Battleship and kill Li Tianran.

Killing the Trailblazers... would have little effect on the victory or defeat of this war.

It flapped its wings and soared into the sky, moving very fast, but someone was faster than it.

The moment it saw it flap its wings, a Trailblazer standing behind it had already made a move. A high-combustion new energy bullet soared into the sky and slammed into the wings on its back.

A dazzling ball of fire exploded in the air, and the follower, who had already risen dozens of meters into the air, fell straight down like a meteorite.

Boom!

The follower crashed to the ground and quickly got up, charred all over. All the feathers on its back wings had been burned away and were still emitting hot air, looking like uncooked chicken wings, which was very funny and ridiculous.

The powerful body of a second-evolution creature allowed the outer skin, bones, flesh, and blood to resist the flames of high-combustion bullets, but the fragile feathers and hair could not.

Without its feathers, the Gale Follower could no longer take off and could only be trapped here, forced to fight the Trailblazers.

"A group of... ants!" The follower was extremely angry. It reached out and extinguished the flames still burning on its body, and then strode towards Lu Chi.

Suddenly, its legs bent and its body leaped into the air like a tiger.

At the same time, a terrifying sense of suffocation swept over him.

Lu Chi's body had already reacted instinctively and dodged to the left when it moved forward.

Whoosh!

Lu Chi only felt a fierce gust of wind brush past the edge of his body, followed by a clanging sound of metal colliding.

Looking closely, the follower was now behind Lu Chi, its five fingers deeply embedded in the steel turret behind him.

Divine Descent Ability - Tear!

Seeing this scene, Lu Chi's eyes turned gloomy.

Such swift speed and such powerful destructive force. If he hadn't dodged that blow just now, it would have been his chest that was torn apart by its five fingers!

The follower missed its strike and slowly pulled its five fingers out of the steel turret, then turned to look at Lu Chi, giving a condescending sneer:

"Soon you will know the consequences of forcibly keeping me here!"

"I will make you regret it!"

Whoosh!

As soon as the Gale Follower finished speaking, it pounced again at a speed that was impossible to track with the naked eye. A fierce gust of wind howled, making it difficult for the Trailblazers to cope with its extreme speed!

Puff!

A Trailblazer was struck in the chest, and his combat suit and chest cavity were torn apart at the same time!

Whoosh!

Another Trailblazer was hit and thrown heavily, smashing into a turret in the distance.

It was too fast. If it wasn't restrained, it would be difficult to cause effective damage to it.

"Is this all you've got? Is this all you've got?" the follower laughed wildly, acting like a ferocious tiger.

But at this moment, a Trailblazer took out a strangely shaped gun, braced himself against the follower's blow, his left half of his body was torn apart, and then shot the opponent.

Clang!

But unexpectedly, what was fired from this gun was not a bullet, but a very thin steel cable. At the same time as it hit the follower, the steel cable instantly wrapped around its left arm!

The follower paused, then raised its arm to look at it.

It saw that the surface of the steel cable was covered with a layer of dense barbs, like the bristles on a spider's legs. At this time, it was tightly wrapped around its arm and could not be untied at all.

Immediately afterwards, four or five more steel cables shot over, firmly locking its arms, legs, and neck!

The follower tried to twist off these steel cables, but... it failed!

"This is a steel cable made of the highest toughness alloy, specially developed for you... you can't break it." Lu Chi strode over, the steel knife in his hand emitting a cold light.

These steel cables were extremely tough and might not be able to trap those huge beast-type second-evolution creatures, but it was still very easy to lock down a Gale Follower.

The difference in size did make the Gale Followers more agile and swift, but it also meant that their innate strength was lower than that of the larger beast-type evolvers.

Thump, thump, thump!

The follower suddenly ran wildly, forcibly dragging six Trailblazers towards Lu Chi.

"Damn it!"

"This bastard is really strong!"

"Legion Commander... we can't hold him back, get out of the way!"

Several Trailblazers roared at the same time. Their muscles were straining, and the Tyrant Dragon combat suits were ejecting a huge amount of compressed gas to propel them backwards, but they were still being dragged by the frenzied follower!

Whoosh!

Facing the rushing follower, Lu Chi raised the steel knife in his hand.

A ferocious smile appeared on the follower's face.

Past combat experience told it that the steel knives in the Trailblazers' hands were difficult to inflict fatal damage on them in one go, and it was even difficult to break through their defenses.

And this human in front of him actually didn't dodge or avoid, daring to put on a posture of fighting it to the death...