"Summon the lightning tribulation!"
Boom boom boom!
The fight on Hu Yan's side was really "earth-shattering"! He hovered in midair, thunderclouds thick over his head, and bolts of lightning fell from the sky, smashing onto the Gold-Clawed Red Tiger.
The Gold-Clawed Red Tiger was really unlucky. Since it had fused with the gold element, Hu Yan's lightning tribulation directly turned into "jumping lightning", single-target attacks turning into group attacks.
And in the past, Hu Yan's lightning tribulation did low damage, but after changing classes, his lightning carried true energy attacks. After several rounds of strikes, all four Gold-Clawed Red Tigers were killed!
"Charred Gold-Brick Red Tiger corpses." Jiang Kai put the loot away and shook his head. "The number of charred corpses just keeps increasing."
"Kai, my lightning tribulation combined with true energy attacks is insanely strong!" Hu Yan looked extremely excited. After all, he had always been just a super support, and now he finally had the ability to fight on his own.
Jiang Kai laughed. "Yeah, it's really strong. Old Hu, with your strength boosted, our chances of helping Dongli get across go way up!"
Hu Yan nodded hard. "I know! Ruan Ghost, if you're not tired, let's keep going!"
Ruan Yu raised the wine jug and took a big swig. "We've only done a few, not tired! Kai, let's keep going!"
For the next stretch of time, Jiang Kai took Hu Yan and Ruan Yu around the nearby unknown regions to train.
After entering the transcendent phase, leveling slowed down a lot compared to before, and Jiang Kai's goal wasn't leveling anyway. The main thing was letting Hu Yan and Ruan Yu get familiar with their new states.
Jiang Kai still had a triple-A clue rewarded from the military, but Dongli didn't have much time left, so he didn't have time to check it.
At the start of their training, Jiang Kai struck the Earth God Token deep into the ground, and twenty-five days later, he dug along the direction of the Earth God Token.
Around the Earth God Token, Jiang Kai dug up three or four pieces of ore of pretty good quality.
This was a passive effect of the Earth God Token. It could attract ores. But the place Jiang Kai chose didn't seem great. Or maybe the token hadn't been placed long enough, so they didn't get any rare ore.
Still, the four ores were worth nearly a million star coins.
Which meant he could basically earn tens of millions of Huaxia coins per month!
"It's practically a money tree, a treasure bowl!" Jiang Kai looked at the Earth God Token in his hand, unable to put it down.
"If we can find some ore-rich area and put the Earth God Token there, we'd be rolling in money!"
After about a month of training in the unknown region, the three returned to the safety zone of District 18.
At this moment, the main city of District 18 was already overflowing with people. Massive groups were moving toward the safety zone. One batch after another of troops and civilians almost linked the safety zone directly to the main city.
The safety zone's size had grown at least five times over!
And a huge number of troops were still pouring in.
"My god, so many people! Even more than when the map boss beasts invaded last time!" Jiang Kai exclaimed.
Hu Yan nodded. "Every time we fight the Lord of the Guardians it's like this. And everyone who comes has to be at least fourth-tier."
"Kai, actually all the other safety zones are about this scale right now."
"The whole country is preparing for battle?" Jiang Kai was stunned.
Ruan Yu's gaze turned serious. He recalled his past experiences and said quietly, "Yeah. When the Lord of the Guardians reaches the near-death phase, it launches a full beast tide assault. All parts of Huaxia will face fierce beast tides."
"And the one we face in District 18 will be the fiercest."
"Also, only war god-level experts are qualified to go to Zhulu Ridge. The Huaxia War God Hall and every regional War God Hall need to gather at least five thousand people."
"No one else is allowed near Zhulu Ridge. Going would just mean death, and they might mess up the war gods' tactics."
Jiang Kai frowned. Even though he had reached the transcendent fifth stage, he still hadn't officially become a war god. Meaning he wasn't qualified to enter Zhulu Ridge.
"Looks like the big battle is coming. Let's head to Taiping Mountain Path first." Jiang Kai said in a low voice.
The three immediately went to Taiping Mountain Path.
"Husband!"
"Wife!"
Jiang Kai and Ruan Yu were already used to it…
Jiang Kai walked over. "Dongli, there are three days left before Huaxia begins hunting the Lord of the Guardians. How's your preparation?"
"I don't need to prepare anything." Dongli said.
"Then we'll wait at the edge of Taiping Mountain Path. Once they start fighting over there, we'll get ready to break out."
...
Three days later, Zhulu Ridge.
At this moment, several thousand war god-level experts were gathered at the central area of the Zhulu Ridge map.
In that area, several summoning skulls and wild totems were placed.
When the fourth wild totem was inserted into the ground, moments later, flowing light rose from all four wild totems. The glow traveled along the patterns on the surface of the totems, as if some unreadable text had appeared across them.
After the light covered the totem patterns completely, it flowed along the ground, linking all the summoning skulls.
Once all the summoning skulls and wild totems were lit, a huge region suddenly erupted with a blinding light.
Within several thousand meters, a pillar of light shot straight into the sky, illuminating the world.
A middle-aged man around forty stood with his hands behind his back, watching the whole ritual with a solemn gaze.
"The ritual has taken effect. Everyone get ready for battle. In three minutes, the Lord of the Guardians will appear!"
The thousands of war gods took out their weapons, checked their armor one last time. Those who needed to add buffs added buffs, those who needed to activate relics activated relics.
Behind them stood a group of healers holding vials of potions, watching the light pillar with tense focus, ready at any moment.
Before long, a massive figure suddenly emerged inside the pillar and was blasted high into the air. As the light faded, the figure fell from a height of a thousand meters.
The moment it hit the ground, there was a loud boom and the earth shook.
The ground near the creature was lifted like a carpet, thrown up by the powerful shockwave.
Where the shockwave passed, the earth buckled, trees toppled, and the world shook violently.
"Roar!" The thing let out a howl at the sky and spewed a pillar of fire straight upward.
With a boom, this half-wolf half-fox creature covered in fiery red fur suddenly burst into raging flames.
As soon as it landed, several war gods exclaimed in low voices, "Its strength is insane!"
Someone immediately used an identification card.
[Exotic Beast Firelight Beast… unable to identify living creature attributes.]
"Firelight Beast? That fire element is ridiculously strong. This won't be easy! Everyone stay sharp, get ready for battle!"
...
"They've already summoned the Lord of the Guardians!" Dongli looked a bit nervous.
"So do we rush now?" Jiang Kai looked at the Taiping Mountain Path's defensive line. The soldiers had almost all returned to the safety zone. The only thing blocking them now was the Ghost Star Barrier Dongli had mentioned.
"Wait a bit longer!" Dongli said. "The Lord of the Guardians has three chances to instantly cross into neighboring maps. We have to wait until your people fully pin it down and force it to use up all three of its teleports. Only then can we slip away."
"What? Instantly crossing into neighboring maps?" Jiang Kai's eyes widened. "How do you even fight that? If it runs to another map, the war gods from Zhulu Ridge can't keep up."
Hu Yan suddenly said, "Kai, that's exactly what makes the Lord of the Guardians terrifying. The safety zones need so many people not just to deal with the beast tide. Stopping the Lord of the Guardians is one of their main tasks."
"Every Lord of the Guardians battle kills countless people. It's always a drawn-out war."
Right then, Dongli frowned lightly. "I can feel its strength. It seems a lot stronger than before. What's going on?"
Hu Yan thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's because we won some territory in the last national war. We had less than a hundred thousand square kilometers before. We gained another fifteen thousand."
Dongli nodded. "Makes sense. No wonder it leveled up a notch. But it still feels too strong."
Just then, Jiang Kai suddenly heard the system's voice.
[Heaven's Punishment effect activated. The Lord of the Guardians gains fifth-stage power.]
Jiang Kai's eyes flew open.
What? His Heaven's Punishment state actually affected the Lord of the Guardians' strength.
The military would never expect this. Which meant this hunt… was going to go badly!
[T/N: New novel is up—🔥I Became a Character in Honkai: Star Rail🔥. Enjoy~]
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