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After half of an hour flying further to the North from the Airtrain station, Duan Li has just reached the Grand Canyon when he felt amazed with what he saw.
This was a place filled with barren tall cliffs and steep slopes jutting downwards for several dozens and some to hundreds of meters, and the total area stretches to about hundreds of kilometers wide, if not thousands, from the East to West. But from South to North, the total area was only about 2 to 3 kilometers wide.
According to history, back in the ancient past, the entirety of the Grand Canyon was covered by thick ice all the way to the Blastwinter desert. When it melted, these natural formations were revealed under it!
As such, due to these natural formations, the Grand Canyon provides a natural barrier or walls for the Northern part of the Empire, and any rogue monsters that had entered the border from the Blastwinter desert would be allowed to enter here and then eliminated easily by the border patrols using the Great balista cannons arranged ontop of the cliffs.
This was evidenced by the numerous decomposed remains and bones of monsters laying around beneath the cliffs with thick metal rods penetrating at them.
If going by the original plan, this area would be the Second front where 10,000 monsters would be cramped together and then slaughtered. Perhaps, due to the protection from these cliffs, the number of student casualties would be the lowest here as friendlies could provide cover fire from the high grounds for those fighting below.
Furthermore, as depicted by the map, this was the final region before the border of the Jiu Empire - where the outskirts of the Blastwinter desert or also the First front, are located.
After reaching the ends of the Grand Canyon, standing on top of one of the higher cliffs with squinted eyes, he found out that there were already some forward camps being set up by people further up ahead.
Judging from the Jixue Knights Academy emblem on top of those tents, they must be the camps for the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh squad..
According to the newly added plan, these three squads would head out tomorrow morning to the middle region of the Blastwinter desert where they will cross and skirmish with the incoming monster stampede there to whittle down the enemy numbers.
Their target was at least to eliminate 15,000 of these monsters and it was by no means an easy task. Eventhough the individual strength of the members from the three squads could take out numerous 2 star monsters or even 3 star monsters at once, the numbers of 1 star monsters this time around was simply too huge!
To put this situation into an a.n.a.logy, no matter how strong a dam was built to retain a river and control its output, during a heavy thunderstorm, the upper rivers would be overflooded to the extent that the dam would have to increase its overall output in order to keep the base pressure stable, causing low flood to the lower ends of the dam as a result.
If the dam somehow tried to forcefully retain the overflooded river on the higher ends of it without increasing its output to the lower ends, they risk of compromising the overall structural integrity of the dam, and dam burst situation would be highly likely, which would result in a catastrophic destruction and overflooding to the low lands.
And thus was the monster stampede this time around, they were just like that unprecedented heavy thunderstorm that was about to hit the dam!
After the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh squad reached their goal, the remaining monsters would then be allowed to move towards the outskirts of the Blastwinter desert where the Second and Third squad will receive them and continue the battle in their place to eliminate another 5,000 of them.
And then after that, these monsters would be redirected to the First, Second and Third fronts respectively.
Although Duan Li couldn"t see the camps of the Second and Third squads from his position right now, he was sure that they should be placed somewhere around it.
But he was not interested in finding out where their camps were located, because he was here for another reason; and that was to have the first taste of the stampede before anyone else could!
"I should head out to the Blastwinter desert soon, it is already evening and I can"t stay for too long there during the night.." said Duan Li inwardly as he bolted off into the distance.
Pshew!
...
After another half an hour of flying, Duan Li had finally entered the outskirts of the Blastwinter desert. This was a treacherous place on its own where it would be extremely hot, reaching 58 degree celcius in the morning and utmost cold of almost -30 degree celcius at night!
"d.a.m.n.. it"s already this cold and the temperature would only be decreasing as night comes.." Duan Li said as his exhaled breath turned misty.
One hour later, his eye finally caught sight onto the scene of a large conglomeration of monsters from the distance of about 2 kilometers away from him.
"Hmm? They seemed to be.. not moving at all? What kind of monsters are they? My soul sense would not reach that far.." Duan Li cupped at his chin.
As his eyes could not make out the details of the monsters and his soul sense could not cover such a vast distance yet, he turned to ask at the sword.
"Can you sense what kind of monsters they are?"
The sword replied, "I"ll try, hang on for a moment Young Master."
Duan Li wanted to at least know of what kind of monsters he was expecting here. After all, the only thing he knew was that those are 1 Star monsters and nothing else.
If they seemed to be too strong for him to handle.. well, pack my bags then!
"They seemed to be a mix between Earth and Fire type of monsters, as for their average battle prowess.. most are only at the Middle stage of the Foundation establishment realm based on their Qi signature.." the sword said.
Oh? Earth and Fire type of monsters..
No wonder they could pa.s.s through the scorching heat of the Blastwinter desert easily..
These two types of monsters has high heat tolerance, especially the Fire type monsters!
"Wait a moment, Earth and Fire type? Am I lucky or what?" Duan Li chuckled.
Dilong and Zhulong! It appears that the time for you both to level up would be approaching soon!
Huehuehue!
"From my observation senses, most of the Earth type monsters had somehow cuddled together with the Fire type monsters.. it cannot be.. that they are brazen enough to engage in a blasphemous cross-breed activity when night hasn"t even come yet?! What gal!" the sword commented in disdain.
As expected of lower life forms, they can"t even control themselves and were blinded by l.u.s.t to do such things!
Pu!
Duan Li choked when he heard this.
Fool! If they are cuddling together it"s obviously because they wanted warmth!
What an unreliable hypothesis!
Ahem!
"I don"t think that"s the case.. since night is approaching soon and the temperature is decreasing even further, they had to stop marching and save their body heat by cuddling together. Otherwise they might freeze to the death by nightfall.."
"Is that so.. turns out that they"re just some weak creatures after all to still be doing that.." the sword remarked with a snort.
Ignoring the sword, Duan Li has several thoughts flashed inside his mind.
This would be the perfect time to set up an ambush!
Tap!
Duan Li landed on the ground and find himself a natural entrenchment to prepare himself so that he wouldn"t be noticed.
Woongg!!
With a flip of his hand, three Guardian Knight puppets materialized, of which he inserted one High quality spirit stone each.
Wengg!!
The body of the three Guardian Knight puppets jerked for a moment before their eyes flashed red.
[System activated.]
[Boot sequence completed.]
[Owner identified, Imperial overseer.]
[Current mode on standby, waiting for orders.]
"Hmm? These are the voices of the Mirealithians.. these puppets has some System Core in them?" the sword said, feeling deeply intrigued.
Hearing this, Duan Li couldn"t help but to ask, "System Core? What is that?"
The sword replied, "Its another ingenious relics from the Mirealithians advanced technology.. they were used for the golem soldiers back then, but I never remembered they ever came into the Tian continent before?" It said feeling puzzled.
How did the Jiu Empire get ahold of them?
"I see.. well that"s a mystery for another time. Let me first prepare myself."
Driving his spiritual Qi to the necklace that was gifted to him by the Emperor, Duan Li called out;
"Necklace of Armor!"
Psshiingg!
Warm lights began to engulf Duan Li with the necklace as the center before spreading throughout the rest of his body, slowly tranforming into a piece of full-set armor from top to bottom!
Thankfully, he was hidden inside an entrenchment or the lights coming out from the necklace would have definitely attracted the attention of the monsters!
"Looks like I"ve made the right decision to hide here first.. but the color of this silver armor is just too flashy for my purpose.. not suitable for a sneak attack.."
I know!
Weengg!!
Duan Li called out several of the treasure boxes he had obtained from the Eternal maze before in that last boss fight.
With a single thought, these treasure boxes of his began to morph and cover the exterior of the armor.
Since the wooden color of it was dark brown, Duan Li"s armor now looked less striking than it"s previous conspicuous silver and shiny appearance!
"This should be good enough!" Duan Li clenched his hand into a fist in excitement.
Not only that the equipped armors provided him with increased defense power, he could also feel that they"re reinforcing his physical strength by at least one level as well!
Therefore, in terms of physical prowess alone, Duan Li was confident that he could engage toe-to-toe with any Core formation realm expert with this armor on.
Duan Li explained his plan to ambush the monsters to the sword.
"Ohh, that sounds fun! But.. are you sure about this Young Master?" the sword asked.
"Why am I not? Are you perhaps, scared?" Duan Li replied in a sarcastic tone.
"Nonsense! Let us go now Young Master, I am ready anytime!" the sword took the bait.
And so, Duan Li skedaddle silently towards the pack of monsters along the entrenchment slowly..
...