Chapter 1: The Gold Beetle Swarm (Part 2)

It was at this moment that one could see each person’s strength. Some professionals only had a layer of defensive talisman armor and had to constantly attack the incoming gold beetles. Those with greater strength ignored everything else, using various real and virtual talismans to desperately slay the beetles.
Guo Shier also rushed forward a few steps, his vision filled with red, unable to see anything around him. The dense swarm of gold beetles surrounded him tightly, with waves of flames shooting at him. The Ancient Flame Sparrow suddenly stretched out, growing over two meters long, and with a sharp cry, it shooed away the beetles attacking it.
The Ancient Flame Sparrow was extremely excited—this was the battlefield it loved. The high temperature around it increased its strength by at least 30%.
Guo Shier had no time to observe further. Surrounded by his life talisman sword, any gold beetle that approached him was instantly cut down. He shouted, “Uncle Eagle Demon, don’t stand in front of me… come to my left!”
Eagle Demon roared, “Okay!” Here, if you didn’t speak loudly, your voice would be unheard. The noisy chirping and crackling of flames created a chaotic noise.
Guo Shier cast a spell and shouted, “Myriad Blades!”
A dazzling light flashed, and countless axe blades descended densely, clearing a large area ten meters in front of Guo Shier in an instant. He cast another spell: “Mountain Press!”
The Giant Axe suddenly transformed into a small mountain and crashed down, killing all the gold beetles within ten square meters. Yet Guo Shier wasn’t satisfied; he thought the power of “Mountain Press” should be even greater. But amid the battle, he had no time to overthink and continued to control the Giant Axe to launch attacks.
The Ancient Flame Sparrow had a sharp long beak. With each attack, the beak trembled rapidly, and with every movement, a gold beetle was pierced. As it killed, it also desperately absorbed the souls of the dead beetles on the ground. Its wings flickered slightly, and patches of talismanic shadows descended, dragging the still-present souls into its body.
In about four minutes, everyone felt they could no longer hold on. Xu Yan shouted, “Retreat to the defensive talisman formation!”
Guo Shier, Eagle Demon, and Luo Zhan retreated together. Yet the three of them could still fight. Only after the rest of the team retreated into the defensive talisman formation did Guo Shier and the others calmly withdraw as well.
They held out for five minutes. Then it was the third group’s turn to attack. Everyone’s expression was grim—the duration they could endure was far too short.

All professionals found it extremely difficult to deal with the swarm of golden beetles; they would be exhausted in just a few minutes. Without the defensive talisman array to rely on, most people, aside from a few experts, had no chance of survival.
Xu Yan said, “Without reinforcements… even if we die of exhaustion, we won’t be able to kill many. There are too many golden beetles!”
Along the perimeter of the defensive talisman array, countless professionals stood, launching wave after wave of attacks in an attempt to reduce the pressure on the array. Everyone knew that once the array collapsed, the vast majority would not survive.
On Guo Shier’s side, three groups of professionals took turns attacking. After just a few hours, they were already exhausted beyond endurance.
Xu Yan sent a signal, and moments later, Han Yan arrived with a group of people. Xu Yan said, “Uncle Han, with such a small number of us… it’s hard to keep going. Five people have already died here, and almost everyone is injured. We need reinforcements!”
Han Yan replied, “Reinforcements will arrive soon. Hold on for another half hour.”
The defensive talisman array emitted continuous faint cracking sounds that made people’s hair stand on end. Han Yan added, “Once the array breaks, retreat immediately… well, about a kilometer away… there’s a second defensive talisman array that will be set up soon. Everyone, try your best to buy some time.”
After another half hour of fighting, during which Han Yan also led a group of experts in an attack that lasted twelve full minutes, stunning everyone present. At the level of Great Sage Master, one’s strength was indeed extraordinary.
When the reinforcements finally arrived, everyone was greatly disappointed. Although there were many professionals—around 300 in total—they were mostly at the master level, with only a few beingcrazy masters. Han Yan instructed them to form groups, dividing them into three groups of a hundred each. They couldn’t fight alone; each group had to merge with the experts from the first three groups to form a larger group.
Guo Shier’s group thus consisted of 110 professionals.
Each Sage Master andcrazy masters was accompanied by ten master-level professionals. They didn’t need to be at the forefront; their role was simply to clear the golden beetles in front of them.
Guo Shier smiled bitterly inwardly. On the Advanced Continent’s sects, master-level professionals could only perform auxiliary tasks. If not for the severe shortage of manpower, these masters wouldn’t even be sent to the front lines. But at the North Talisman Sect, a master was already a top-tier professional who could wield great influence within the sect and even establish their own families—truly an invincible existence.

However, after this battle, Guo Shieru made a new discovery. The masters of the Advanced Continent were not as strong as those of the North Talisman Sect—there was at least a level difference, sometimes even two levels. The masters of the North Talisman Sect not only had rich combat experience but were also far more resilient and formidable, far beyond comparison to these amateur-like masters.

After two rounds of fighting, more than a dozen masters from Guo Shieru’s group were killed or injured. Two died in the swarm of insects, and one was rescued but died tragically just over ten minutes later. Nine were seriously injured, and over thirty suffered minor injuries.

Guo Shieru’s group was responsible for clearing the edges of the defensive talisman array, the parts in contact with the ground, where there were mostly low-level Golden Armored Beetles. The higher-level ones were above, so the lower areas were relatively safer. The real battlefield was above, where professionals above the rank of Great Sage were fighting.

So far, no mutated Golden Armored Beetles above level five had been found in the swarm below; most were at levels two to four. The Beetles above level five had flown into the air to attack the defensive talisman array.

There were hundreds of flying vehicles in the sky, each carrying a mid-to-high-level Great Sage, along with a few Sages, sweeping back and forth to disperse the clustered high-level Golden Armored Beetles and reduce their attack force.

Half a day passed before the Fire Sect deployed all its professionals above the master level to barely keep the defensive talisman array from being destroyed. But at this point, everyone knew the array could not hold much longer. So far, no truly powerful Golden Armored Beetles or great masters from the Fire Sect had appeared, leaving the two sides in a temporary stalemate.

After repeated battles, few professionals remained unharmed. Gradually, Guo Shieru and his two companions began to stand out, and their attacks remained fierce even now. What was most enviable was that none of the three had been injured. After a day of fighting, even experts like Xu Yan sustained minor injuries. Only four people remained unscathed—aside from Guo Shieru and his two companions, the other was Lu Yiding from the Thousand Ice Continent, who, protected by an ice bear, suffered no harm at all.

The later-arriving 300 masters withdrew as well, almost all of them injured—over thirty seriously and fourteen dead. Han Yan ordered them all to return to the inner sect to recover.

Fewer and fewer people were left to fight. Even Xu Yan’s team was down to just seven members, with three injured and sent back for treatment. Guo Shier looked at his talisman. According to the records, he had already killed over eight thousand Golden Armored Beetles. As for the Ancient Flame Sparrow, having absorbed the essence of countless Golden Armored Beetles, it was on the verge of advancing to the next level.

Guo Shier never dared to unleash the Dark-Winged Scorpion. If there were only dozens or a few hundred Golden Armored Beetles, he would have risked using it in battle. But facing thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of them, no matter how brave he was, he wouldn’t risk sending out the Dark-Winged Scorpion—it would surely die. After being destroyed several times in a row, its strength would be greatly diminished. So he could only rely on the Ancient Flame Sparrow, which was born from fire and feared none of the Golden Armored Beetles.

At dusk, Han Yan ordered everyone to retreat to the second line of defense, as the first layer of defensive runes could no longer hold back the attacks.

It had to be said that the Fire Sect had remarkable execution skills. With a single command, all the professionals fighting on the front lines withdrew simultaneously. The flying vehicles engaged in aerial combat also retreated quickly.

In less than ten minutes, the first line of defense was completely empty.

Han Yan led his troops to the second line of defense and said with a smile, “Everyone can enjoy the show now.”

Click! Click!

Strange noises came from afar, like a porcelain vase cracking under pressure. Suddenly, the entire defensive rune array emitted a dazzling light.

Boom!

In an instant, explosions spread along the outer edge of the defensive barrier. The design of the entire defensive rune array was such that it would explode when it could no longer withstand the attacks. Countless Golden Armored Beetles were shattered to pieces, especially those near the edge of the array, which were almost wiped out. With just this one strike, at least hundreds of thousands of Golden Armored Beetles were killed.

Guo Shier was stunned. After a long while, he said, “That’s ruthless! That move was absolutely brilliant!”

Han Yan, however, sighed, “It’s not ruthless enough. Not even one-fifth of them were eliminated. It’s a pity…”

Rolling flames surged along with the tide of Golden Armored Beetles, burning the entire land. Flames reached heights of up to a hundred meters, with countless Golden Armored Beetles floating within them.

In just a few minutes, the wave of flames, along with countless Golden Armored Beetles, reached the second line of defense and crashed violently against the rune barrier. The professionals inside the defensive rune array stepped back involuntarily. The heat wave passing through the rune barrier made it hard to breathe.

A shrill cry came from afar, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

Han Yan’s expression turned serious as he said, “The truly formidable ones have arrived!”

Guo Shier said, “An Abnormal Giant Golden Armor?”
Hiss…
Everyone couldn’t help but gasp. A huge Giant Golden Armor slowly crawled in from afar, its size comparable to a mountain. Though moving slowly, it advanced toward the defense formation with unwavering determination. Guo Shier couldn’t resist flying up to get a better look at the Abnormal Giant Golden Armor.
Many others also flew up. Standing on the ground, one could only see its back plate; from above, it was clearly visible.
When Guo Shier saw it clearly, he was terrified. All the professionals in the air were speechless as well. Silence reigned within the defense formation, with only the loud footsteps outside and the sound of flames rising audible.
With each step the Abnormal Giant Golden Armor took, massive amounts of magma surged up from the ground. The ground behind it gradually cracked, and molten rock poured out, forming a river of magma behind it.
Dozens of advanced mutated Giant Golden Armors flew around it, the lowest level among them being level 11.
For the first time, Guo Shier thought about escaping. He felt that this Abnormal Giant Golden Armor was extremely difficult to resist. Perhaps only experts like Chou Mo and Li Ran could deal with it.
Everyone’s gaze fell on Han Yan, eager to hear what he had to say.