"Station Master."
From the side, Zhou Mo, his voice tense with panic, braced himself to ask, "Are we going to run now?"
"Not yet."
Chen Fan shook his head. "We still have a trump card. If we still can't win after it's used, we escape."
They had already moved through the "Meat Grinder Passage" to the first opening near the canyon entrance. They had prepared ropes here; sliding down any of them would bring them to the canyon entrance.
They had had nine Skeleton Horses hidden in the jungle.
This place was a full kilometer away from the abyss pit.
If eventually, they couldn't hold...
They would evacuate. With the Eerie King's arrival, he reckoned no Eerie Creatures would dare approach. As long as they survived the night, there would be hope of survival.
It was just a camp. Although they had worked on it for a long time, losing it was no big deal.
Where there's life, there's hope.
...
Finally—
After dodging several beams from the Level 6 Cannon Tower, the Eerie King was about to reach the city wall. At that moment, the Level 2 "Wind Tower" suddenly activated, discharging a fierce gale from Cave No. 1.
Caught off guard, the Eerie King was blown several meters back by the powerful gust.
But just that moment of stiffness allowed the Level 6 Cannon Tower to lock on. Another beam from the Level 6 Cannon Tower scored a hit, striking the Eerie King into the cliff once more.
Struggling to get himself out, the Eerie King, feeling the pain from within, wiped the blood from his mouth. The fury in his eyes grew thicker. "Show me all the tricks you have!"
He charged straight at the city wall again!
The Wind Tower activated once more.
This time, however, it didn't release a gale. Instead, it set off its active skill, Storm Suction.
The Wind-Warding Pearl on the tower instantly lit up. The countless pores over its surface began moaning.
A massive funnel of twisted air currents emerged!
It began pulling the Eerie King towards the city wall!
"Great!"
The Eerie King didn't resist. Instead, he let the air current pull him in, boosting his momentum toward the city wall. Just as he was about to reach the wall—the moment he could have slipped through the breach to kill like a wolf among sheep inside the camp—
He suddenly saw a peculiarly shaped Cannon Tower inset in the city wall.
A vertical eye.
Before he could take a good look, the vertical eye slowly opened. In the pupil was a madly spinning vortex of darkness, the whites crisscrossed with capillaries. Moreover, the vertical eye was draped in an Eerie-skin.
That was... Qiu Kui's skin.
"Damn you, damn you!!!"
Flying into a rage, the Eerie King produced a crimson spear in his hand and charged straight at the vertical eye Cannon Tower!
However.
Just as he closed to within a meter, a brown-black light beam momentarily filled his vision. He caught a dangerous scent from it, yet was only in time to make an instinctive swing of his spear.
...
"Cough... cough."
Having been pounded into the cliff by the brown-black light beam, the Eerie King shakily broke free from it. Falling several meters to the ground, he struggled to his feet and spat out a glob of thick blood.
He had never been wounded this severely before.
Normally, in such a situation, he would have retreated long ago. It wouldn't hurt to heal and return later.
But tonight.
Rage had clouded his mind. He refused to retreat.
The crimson glow formed a spear in his hand once more, though it looked noticeably dimmer this time.
"Any more?"
"Any other tricks?"
Staggering, spear angling at the ground from his grip, the Eerie King slowly advanced. His voice was calm, yet utterly bone-chilling.
"If not, I'm coming in. Are you prepared to face me?"
That vertical eye Cannon Tower.
It's immensely powerful.
It had gravely wounded him. But before he was blasted away, his spear strike had shattered that vertical eye Cannon Tower, as well as the normal Level 6 Cannon Tower.
Those Level-5 Cannon Towers in the abyss pit had been taking care of him the whole time, yet their beams all vanished upon contact with the crimson barrier around him, unable to take a toll.
Even though he was severely wounded.
Apart from those two Level 6 Cannon Towers, the other Level 5 Cannon Towers couldn't stop him.
Now, no one could bar his way.
...
"Let's go."
Chen Fan, at the cliff opening near the canyon entrance, had learned through the Shadow Recording Formation that all his trump cards had failed. This Eerie King was stronger than expected.
"If only there were a few more Cannon Towers..."
He sighed softly.
There just weren't enough Cannon Towers. Had he slaughtered all the Eerie Creatures immediately, thwarting the Eerie King's "In One" fusion so that he couldn't draw power from any Eerie Creature, then they would have been the final victor.
But alas...
He had done his best.
The resources he had obtained were limited. With these resources, this was the most thorough way he could have fortified the camp.
The Eerie Eye Cannon Tower and the other Level 6 Cannon Tower had been smashed into pieces, beyond even an Altar's ability to repair.
"Young Master."
Crippled Monkey looked back down the passage towards the camp, his voice hoarse. "We only took some Eerie Stones. Many other resources are still in the warehouse."
"Let's go. Staying alive comes first."
Chen Fan shook his head without further comment. He was the first to lie prone at the opening, preparing to slide down one of the ropes. They would be holing up somewhere in the darkness, waiting for dawn before worrying about the future.
Just then—
"Thump, thump, thump."
Heavy, hurried footsteps sounded from the darkness outside the canyon, as if a giant creature was dashing down the mountain. The familiar sound made Chen Fan pause momentarily.
The next moment!
He saw a giant crocodile, eyes filled with intense fear and rage, race out of the darkness. It projected an air of unstoppable recklessness as it made its way into the canyon illuminated by the 20 Eerie Fires.
At an incredible speed, it barreled headlong along the canyon towards the abyss pit!
"Heyhey!"
Chen Fan couldn't help but exclaim, "Come back! We're evacuating!"
However.
Heyhey, who had usually been obedient to him, merely glanced at him before looking ahead again, continuing its charge towards the abyss pit. In the blink of an eye, it crossed the kilometer-long canyon, reached the abyss pit, and parted its maw and bellowed at the Eerie King, who was about to enter the cave.
It sounded so deafening as to shake loose rock and dust from the surrounding cliffs, resounding endlessly within the abyss pit.
"...Sigh."
The Eerie King, a few steps short of the wall breach, paused at the snarl from behind. With a light sigh, he turned around in unsteady steps. Eyeing the giant crocodile, as blood oozed out all over his wounded body, he muttered,
"Where did this Mystical Beast come from?"
"Are you the Mystical Beast guarding Nameless Mountain that the fool mentioned?"
"Very well."
"Let me see your strength."
At that moment, Heyhey saw the shattered porcelain vat inside Cave No. 1 through the breach in the wall. For the first time, an intense killing intent and rage flickered in its pupils. Though trembling uncontrollably, it slowly pressed forward with a low growl.
"You..."
The Eerie King gave a tilt of the head while studying the giant crocodile, and suddenly laughed. "You seem afraid. And inexperienced in combat? In that case..."
The next moment—
The Eerie King evaporated like a ghost. When he reappeared, he was already in midair above the crocodile's head, his hands closed on the spear. As he plummeted, he aimed it at the crocodile's head and stabbed down fiercely.
"Then... die!"
The crimson spear, like a red-hot iron rod, melted through the scales on top of the crocodile's head, sinking a full meter deep.
But before he could pull it out.
The crocodile, now in a state of frenzied rage, endured the pain and gaped wide, biting down on the Eerie King's torso. Its thick, rough teeth clamped the Eerie King fast, making it impossible to escape.
Immediately after!
The crocodile's massive, hill-like body erupted with devastating force. Using its bite on the Eerie King as a pivot, it executed a furious, violent rotation!
This was the Death Roll.
A primordial, utterly savage attack method engraved into the crocodilian bloodline since ancient times.