Chapter 179: Miscalculation

At this moment, Shi Haojun, who was rushing over, stared in stunned silence at the group that had vanished from the city walls.

The people of Black Stone City had reacted surprisingly fast; under his combination attack, the city had suffered not a scratch, which greatly exceeded his expectations.

"Quite lucky! You people of Black Stone City are the first faction to detect the worms in the water; this trick of mine has never failed in a hundred tries, yet I didn't expect it to fail this time."

"No wonder you are the foremost city of the Western Lands; truly, talents emerge in large numbers."

"But that is all; with me personally making a move, Black Stone City ultimately cannot avoid the fate of total destruction."

"It is time we settled the old scores from the past."

Shi Haojun curled the corners of his mouth, narrowed his eyes slightly, and released a killing intent that was faint yet palpable.

He suddenly waved his hand backward; instantly, the ground trembled as if countless things were galloping wildly, emitting bursts of sounds unlike those made by humans.

Everyone inside the city soon noticed the City Protection Barrier flashing frequently, while booming strikes echoed from outside the city, as if something was attacking the City-Protecting Great Array.

Everyone's expression changed; the Gu Kings dared not ascend the city walls, and after using their Soul Power to sense the situation outside, their faces simultaneously turned pale, revealing looks of disbelief.

"So many Plague Corpses, at least a million; exactly how many people did he kill to refine so many Plague Corpses?" Cai Xuan exclaimed in great shock.

"This is huge trouble; with so many Plague Corpses fiercely attacking the City-Protecting Great Array, how long can this array hold? If we only defend without attacking, the Spirit Stones consumed daily by the City-Protecting Great Array will be an astronomical figure," Yao Chen said with a slightly changed complexion, speaking in alarm.

"We cannot let them continue attacking; we do not have enough Spirit Stones to withstand such consumption."

Yan Pojun swept his gaze across the Gu Kings and shouted loudly, "We cannot wait any longer; we must go out of the city to take the initiative and join forces to kill Shi Haojun as quickly as possible."

"Everyone immediately swallow the Poison Pills now; we will go out of the city at once to fight him to the death!"

The assembly of Gu Kings nodded, took out the Poison Pills that had already been distributed to them, and without hesitation threw the pills into their mouths.

Yan Pojun and Yao Chen also threw the Poison Pills into their mouths together, rapidly refining the medicinal power within the pills.

From a distance, Long Xuan watched with great relish; over a hundred Gu Kings collectively ingesting poison was truly a famous scene.

The onset speed of this Poison Pill was obviously extremely fast; before long, every Gu King's face displayed an expression of pain, their features twisted, clearly showing that the experience of being poisoned was far from pleasant.

But they endured this pain forcefully, not daring to take the Antidote Pill too early, fearing that the microbes inside their bodies had not been completely eradicated, which would render all previous efforts futile, causing them to suffer in vain only to face danger afterward.

It was only when this group was so poisoned they were nearly vomiting blood that they finally could not hold back and tossed the Antidote Pills into their mouths to detoxify rapidly.

Those with heavier suspicions feared that the microbes inside their bodies had not yet been completely poisoned to death at that moment, so they gritted their teeth and persisted for a while longer, only tossing the Antidote Pills into their mouths when they were so poisoned they sprayed several mouthfuls of blood.

Seeing this scene, the corners of Long Xuan's mouth twitched incessantly; so ruthless—those who are this ruthless even toward themselves are truly ruthless people.

They only used the Antidote Pill when poisoned down to their last half-life; are they all this desperate?

When everyone had finished detoxifying, activated their Spirit Armor with full power, and swallowed a Healing Pill to adjust their condition, Yan Pojun waved his large hand and shouted, "Kill for me!"

As he spoke, he was the first to leap down from the city wall, charging toward Shi Haojun in the distance; obviously, the Barrier had been activated with a function allowing exit but not entry, so Yan Pojun passed through the Barrier with ease and charged into the Corpse Tide.

Wherever he passed, a Fire Sea spread; countless Plague Corpses perished in the Fire Sea, and despite there being a million Plague Corpses, none could obstruct Yan Pojun in the slightest; one powerful Plague Corpse after another met its end in his Fire Sea, burned until not even ash remained.

Yan Pojun bore the surname Yan, so naturally, all his abilities were related to fire; the Flame he created could not be underestimated.

After Shi Haojun's departure, he was already considered the Western Land First Strongest; even though Shi Haojun possessed the renowned Forbidden Gu, he currently felt not the slightest fear and headed straight for Shi Haojun.

With the City Lord charging out first, the remaining Gu Kings dared not fall behind; they followed closely one after another, leaping down from the city walls and rushing out of the city, causing another swath of Plague Corpses outside to be blown away.

Seeing this magnificent scene, Long Xuan revealed an excited expression.

A great battle involving over a hundred Gu Kings—what a spectacular sight that would be.

Such exciting and thrilling grand scenes were rare; since the opportunity was hard to come by, he said he must record it no matter what.

As he spoke, Long Xuan took out the Shadow Recording Gu and began recording this great battle.

Even the Shadow Recording Gu, upon witnessing the great battle of so many Gu Kings, widened its eyes and revealed an excited gaze; even if Long Xuan had not said anything, it would have used its best filming technique to record this great battle.

At this moment, Long Xuan was not panicking in the slightest; he even had the leisure to watch the excitement from a distance with great relish.

He indeed was not panicking, completely lacking the tension visible on others' faces.

It was not that he had great confidence in this battle; rather, even if Black Stone City truly faced the danger of city slaughter, he could escape at any time via the Space Hut; having a way out, he was not panicking at all at this moment.

The Gu Kings of Black Stone City intended to settle the matter quickly, and the battle instantly entered a white-hot phase.

At this moment, a hundred Gu Kings joined forces, smashing through the Corpse Tide with overwhelming force to carve out a wide path.

However, there were simply too many in the Corpse Tide; before long, the path they had cleared behind them was once again filled with Plague Corpses, which rushed madly toward the Gu Kings in the center of the encirclement.

At this point, the Gu Kings were already deeply trapped in heavy encirclement.

Very soon, a scream of agony rang out from one of the Gu Kings.

This Gu King Early Stage's Spirit Armor on his body surface was not thick enough; at this moment, it was actually bitten through by the Variant Microorganisms in the air, which then frantically drilled into his body.

This Gu King instantly collapsed to the ground in pain, scratching at his own body surface.

The moment this Gu King fell behind, he was instantly swallowed by the Corpse Tide.

All the Gu Kings felt their hearts sink; had casualties appeared this quickly?

An inauspicious start like this was not a good omen.

However, the loss of the first Gu King was merely the beginning; very soon, another Gu King's Spirit Armor was bitten through, and he collapsed to the ground, emitting a gruesome scream of agony.

The one who fell this time was actually a Gu King Mid Stage, causing everyone's expression to change.

"It can actually instantly breach the defense of a Gu King Mid Stage; this is bad—the Plague Demon Gu has made its move; the Plague Demon Gu must also be in a form so small it is invisible to the naked eye, and it can easily tear open the defense of a Gu King Mid Stage; this thing kills people with no solution."

No one knew who in the crowd suddenly shouted; the moment his voice fell, another Gu King Mid Stage let out a scream of agony, causing everyone's scalps to go numb.

An invisible thing was killing back and forth within the crowd; how could one defend against this? There was simply no solution.

Fortunately, this thing had apparently not yet grown to its Peak state and could only breach the defense of a Gu King Mid Stage; otherwise, the first to die would likely have been the few Gu King Peak experts in the crowd.

What was even more fatal was that a large group of Plague Corpses emitting Gu King-level aura suddenly darted out from within the Corpse Tide; there were even three Plague Corpses radiating the aura of Gu King Peak.

Under the charge of this group of Gu King-level Plague Corpses, the hundred Gu Kings were instantly scattered, divided into several separate battlefields; such an unexpected turn of events was undoubtedly adding frost to snow, making the situation even more unfavorable, and very soon, several more screams of agony from Gu Kings rang out within the Corpse Tide.

The appearance of Gu King-level Plague Corpses was truly fatal; one must never think that Plague Corpses, being unable to control Gu Worms, are easy to deal with.

One must know that the air is now filled with mutated small insects; all Gu Kings similarly cannot release their Outer Gu, and under these circumstances, releasing any amount of Outer Gu would only lead to death.

Unable to release Outer Gu, they could only engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Gu King-level Plague Corpses; yet, great strength is a characteristic of all Zombies, who excel at close-quarters combat.

With the air full of small insects, anyone scratched even slightly by these things would die; under such circumstances, who would dare to engage in close-quarters struggle with the immensely powerful Corpse Kings?

Thus, a scene unfolded where a single Corpse King chased a herd of Gu Kings; the formation instantly scattered, each Gu King fighting alone, utterly unable to surround Shi Haojun.

"Disaster!" Yan Pojun's face changed drastically; this Shi Haojun was far more troublesome than he had imagined, not at all as easy to deal with as he had thought.

The appearance of those three Plague Corpses emitting Gu King Peak aura sent a chill through his heart; could the Plague Demon Gu actually create and control zombies of this caliber?

This Plague Demon Gu was absurdly strong; he realized that even this truncated version was absolutely not easy to deal with.

If a truncated version of the Plague Demon Gu could be this powerful, then to what extent was the Plague Demon Gu of the Age of Gods strong? He simply dared not imagine it.

That such an exaggerated Gu Worm could exist in this world was no wonder the Human Race was halved during the Age of Gods.

An ominous premonition arose in Yan Pojun's heart; the appearance of three Gu King Peak Plague Corpses completely exceeded his expectations, and such an unexpected turn was truly fatal.

At this moment, their side, including himself, totaled only four Gu King Peak experts; these were the personnel meant to deal with Shi Haojun and could not be dispersed.

Whether one-on-one or two-on-one, defeating Shi Haojun was impossible; this did not even require thought.

In that case, those three Gu King Peak Plague Corpses would be utterly unchecked; such an accident had completely disrupted his plan, and if things went wrong, he might truly perish here today.

And that Plague Demon Gu currently rampaging unchecked—no one could see its figure, let alone check it; the Plague Demon Gu's strength had completely exceeded his expectations.

How could this world allow such a balance-breaking existence? He realized he had still underestimated the Plague Demon Gu's strength and had been far too confident.

Yan Pojun's expression grew increasingly grim.

The plan had changed; he had thought that once he devised a method to counter the Mutation Domain, killing Shi Haojun would be effortless, so he had conservatively claimed an eighty percent chance of success.

Now it seemed he had been slapped in the face; where was this eighty percent chance of victory? If they had even a twenty percent chance, that would be good enough! He had been arrogant and ignorant!

But there was no time for such thoughts now; he forcibly calmed himself and shouted urgently, "Exorcising demons and defending the Dao is everyone's responsibility! All Gu King Late Stage experts, hold those three Gu King Peak Plague Corpses at bay; the rest, follow me to kill!"

As his words fell, Yan Pojun struck out with a palm, unleashing a Fire Sea that cleared away all Plague Corpses blocking his path, then rushed swiftly toward the figure in the center of the Corpse Tide.

To capture the bandits, first capture their leader; this was the only way he could think of to break the deadlock.

He could only pin his hopes on quickly eliminating Shi Haojun, causing the Plague Demon Gu to die violently and the Corpse Tide to lose control.

Otherwise, the situation would be critical; not only would a large number of Gu Kings die, but Black Stone City itself would face the danger of collapse.

The other three Gu King Peak experts shared his thinking, knowing that only by quickly eliminating Shi Haojun could they break the deadlock; after swiftly carving a path through the Corpse Tide, they rushed toward Shi Haojun together.

"Ants shaking a tree—overestimating one's own strength!"

Facing the encirclement and suppression of the Four Gu Kings, Shi Haojun showed not the slightest intention of fleeing; with a cold sneer, he actually took the initiative to charge at the four of them.

With a tug of his Insect Breeding Bag, fourteen Extreme Grade Gu Worms immediately flew toward the four.

For someone who often massacred cities and had amassed the wealth of countless cities, refining a large group of Extreme Grade Gu Worms was utterly effortless.

Moreover, the Extreme Grade Gu Worms he refined were not ordinary; supported by the wealth of countless cities, the materials required for each of his Extreme Grade Gu Worms started at ten thousand.

If one truly thought Shi Haojun had only one Plague Demon Gu worth mentioning, one would be gravely mistaken.

Every one of his Extreme Grade Gu Worms was of Heaven-defying caliber; the vast quantity of materials meant normal people could not refine them.

Without exaggeration, each of his dozen-plus Extreme Grade Gu Worms was an invincible existence in the Western Lands.

Yet, under the Mutation Domain, all Gu Kings besieging Shi Haojun were unable to utilize their Outer Gu, which was fatal.

Under such circumstances, how could the task of besieging Shi Haojun be accomplished by merely four people?

Seeing this scene, all the Gu Kings' faces changed; muttering "ominous" in their hearts, they hastily dispatched over ten more Gu King Late Stage experts to charge at Shi Haojun, leaving the three Plague Corpses emitting Gu King Peak aura to be held back by a large group of Gu King Mid Stage experts, as the battle situation began to spiral out of control...

(End of Chapter)