Chapter 301: Node Containment, Special Invitation (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Roar!

The roar of Xueling Dahuang shattered the snowstorm,

One massive arm swept through, carrying violent air currents, crushing down upon the Allied Battle Group.

Immediately after, a chorus of roars erupted.

The Beast Stream players within the Allied Battle Group surged forward, roaring back at Xueling Dahuang, their mountain-sized bodies charging straight into it.

The partially emerged Xueling Dahuang was shoved off into the valley by the Beast Stream players.

The remaining Beast Stream players followed suit, leaping over the ridgeline and plummeting from above into the Kongyuan Peak Valley.

Amidst thunderous crashes, the Beast Stream players piled atop Xueling Dahuang like human pyramids.

The Xueling Dahuang, once capable of wiping out entire player armies by itself, had no resistance against the mob of Beast Stream players, only able to emit low, guttural roars as its spined arms swung wildly.

But against the thick-skinned, tough-bodied Beast Stream players, pure physical assaults posed no threat.

Soon, they pounded this Xueling Dahuang to death.

The dying shriek of Xueling Dahuang stirred more of its kind in the valley; one after another, mountain-like forms rose from within.

"Descend into the valley, form ranks!" the God-King immediately ordered.

Instantly, members of the Allied Battle Group advanced forward, leaping over the ridgeline like dumplings dropped into boiling water.

Below, they reformed their battle lines; every player who landed looked up toward the valley's end.

In the distance, the earth moaned,

A muffled heartbeat thundered, like war drums being pounded.

Figures of Xueling Dahuang kept appearing, converging at the entrance of the Kongyuan Peak Node.

One, two, a thousand… massive forms emerged from the blizzard, or leapt in from other Shanfeng.

Each stood as towering as a mountain, its ox horns piercing the heavens, its spines standing like a grim forest, and with every swing of its thick arms, ice storms surged forth.

No words were wasted—war erupted instantly.

The gathered Xueling Dahuang charged, shaking the earth and trembling the mountains.

The ground, long compacted by constant trampling, cracked open; frozen soil was crushed into powder, snow waves rising like tsunamis.

The entire valley trembled beneath their advance, as if the whole world were being shattered by these furious titans.

"Hold the line! Beast Stream up front, Damage-Taker Stream activate Blood Shields to protect the rear!"

The God-King's roar echoed through the Allied Battle Group channel, but his voice was instantly drowned by the deafening snowstorm outside.

The front-line Beast Stream players all roared in unison, leaning forward, bracing for impact.

Beast Stream players who had not yet transformed during their march now activated their Beast Forms.

Their bodies twisted and elongated; their initial black robes dissolved automatically, while thick fur or scales sprouted across their skin.

Roar!

One player's body suddenly stretched, his skin cracking inch by inch, black scales surging forth like a tide.

In an instant, an eighty-meter-long black serpent reared up, its pupils contracting into cold vertical slits, purple fangs glowing with lethal venom, its tail sweeping aside to crush frozen earth effortlessly.

On the other side, a player arched his back, muscles swelling violently, white hair piercing his skin like steel needles.

His head deformed, tusks jutting out, transforming into a 70-meter-tall Roaring Battle Bear; after shifting into Painful Painful Minghun Form, he slammed both palms onto the ground, the shockwave blasting away surrounding snow.

Beside the Roaring Bear, a slender player suddenly dropped to the ground, his spine protruding joint by joint, his back splitting open with a "crack-crack," a spiked lizard tail erupting from his coccyx.

His limbs soon turned into claws, his tongue split, his body swelling like an inflating balloon—within a few breaths, he became a mountain.

A burly player's arms, upon shifting into Painful Painful Minghun Form, became two colossal bone hammers; his heavy body caused the valley's ice layer to collapse.

During the transformation, his shoulder blades bulged, forming thick biological armor—viewed from afar, he resembled a living siege engine.

Black-Scaled Serpent, Roaring Bear, Si Lie You Zhong Lizard, Heavy Hammer Beast… various melee Beast Forms sprouted like mushrooms after rain, forming the front-line Beast Army of the Allied Battle Group.

"Blood Burn!" the God-King's voice rang out again.

Instantly, players from the Life Light squad locked onto pre-set Beast Stream targets; the Blood Burn beams they released soared skyward, then fell like meteor showers, striking their own Beast Stream players with pinpoint accuracy.

Under Blood Burn's enhancement, the Beast Stream players' muscle fibers tore and reformed, bones cracked in rapid succession, scales and fur boiled in crimson light.

Their bodies swelled rapidly; their already massive frames grew even taller, muscle contours rising like mountain ranges, blood flowing beneath their skin like magma.

The Black-Scaled Serpents' scales collectively gleamed with metallic luster, their bodies writhing with the roar of grinding steel.

The Roaring Bear shook its body, its suddenly expanded size casting a sky-obscuring shadow.

The Si Lie You Zhong Lizards' backs erupted in synchronized rows of bone spines, glinting coldly in the snow.

The Heavy Hammer Beasts' bone hammers crawled with crimson patterns; each breath expelled scalding steam…

Under Blood Burn's enhancement, the Beast Army became like a gunpowder barrel doused in gasoline—frenzied energy made every muscle quiver, their bloodthirsty pupils locked unblinkingly onto the charging Xueling Dahuang horde!

"Crush them!"

At the God-King's command, two titanic streams of beasts launched a devastating charge toward each other.

The beast streams collided with a thunderous crash.

At the moment the front-line Blood Burn Heavy Hammer Beasts struck the Xueling Dahuang, the collision of bone hammers and spines exploded into visible shockwaves, instantly vaporizing nearby snow.

One Heavy Hammer Beast swung its hammer-arm straight into the head of a Xueling Dahuang; activating its Heavy Hammer trait, it stunned the beast into forced incapacitation.

Nearby, a Black-Scaled Serpent coiled around the Xueling Dahuang's body, its fangs tearing frantically at joint gaps.

The Roaring Bear reared upright, using its claws to forcibly pry open the beast's gaping maw, then unleashed a Roaring Trait shockwave directly into its mouth.

Fierce combat erupted between the titans.

No flashy techniques—only pure, brutal physical collision.

Roars echoed throughout the valley.

Avalanches, earthquakes… the battlefield became a meat grinder.

In the freezing cold, blood sprayed and instantly froze into crimson ice crystals; beast roars wove together into a symphony of destruction.

At this moment, behind the battle formation, the God King hovered in the air, switching the Lord Brand on his brow to Warlord Mode.

The amplification power radiated from himself as the center, extending toward the monster-flow player warriors ahead, boosting their physical constitution and strength.

After the new command was issued.

Countless brilliant light points suddenly lit up above the snowfield as magic-type players were gathering the floating energy of heaven and earth.

The elemental tide oscillated wildly in the air, even twisting the wind and snow into spiral shapes.

The Arcane Torrent descended with a boom.

Dense, dazzling streams of light shot skyward like a reverse meteor shower, weaving a net of destruction in the air that precisely covered the rear of the Snow Ridge Great Wilderness before exploding in a bombardment.

The rear of the Snow Valley was instantly covered by rule-elemental energies of different colors.

Ink Flame, Rushing Thunder, Ice Mist Breath, Void Grasp, Dissolution, Withering... the earth sank amidst a roaring sound.

The next second, the Archer Corps activated, the sound of bowstrings trembling echoing across the battlefield.

The ascending arrow rain spread out like a canopy, tracing elegant parabolas in the air before falling; once the Extreme Speed trait activated, it instantly transformed into a Death Storm upon landing.

The Assassin Corps also activated at this moment, flooding the battlefield like a tide of ink, seeking out low-health units for decapitation strikes.

Their advance process resembled a carefully choreographed death ballet.

It was also like a flock of crows scattered by the wind; the assassin-flow players in the front constantly released Flowing Shadow Clones, turning them into physical coordinates.

Each clone served as a coordinate node; assassin-flow players could utilize the Star Shift trait to rapidly swap positions through these coordinates, crossing the battlefield in the blink of an eye.

Forming a Killing Star Map that covered the entire battlefield.

Viewed from high above, the Assassin Corps' advance looked like ink spreading on rice paper, creating diffusing trails of death.

Their light figures darted through the vast Snow Ridge Great Wilderness; the sharp sound of daggers slicing the air and the cracking of bones followed their movements, leaving splashes of flying blood wherever they passed.

However, against creatures with thick hides and flesh like those in the Snow Ridge Great Wilderness, the Assassin Corps' killing power was far inferior to the rear-line magic corps and archer corps.

They mostly undertook the duty of finishing off low-health targets.

Just as the great battle gradually intensified.

The Empty Origin Peak suddenly trembled violently; a roar more shocking than Lei Ting came from the direction of the mine entrance cave, and the incoming sound wave rolled back the sky-high wind and snow.

Seven towering figures, as massive as mountains, were seen breaking through the snow curtain to appear.

These seven figures were all King Beasts of the Snow Ridge Great Wilderness; their size was more than double that of ordinary individuals, and each one emitted a suffocating pressure.

"Protect the DPS."

As the voice fell, the leading King Beast's figure distorted, appearing in the center of the battle formation the next second.

Where the arm, like a pillar holding up the sky, swept, hundreds of magic-type players were instantly beaten into black mist and vanished, leaving a huge crater on the ground.

Then, the second King Beast transformed into a dark blue streak of light, crossing several kilometers of battlefield in the blink of an eye to appear above the magic corps.

With a raised hand, it generated a downward-pushing black hole vortex, dragging in and crushing a large number of magic-type players.

The remaining King Beasts also quickly joined the battlefield.

These King Beasts usually inhabited near the Node Crystals, absorbing massive amounts of spatial elemental energy.

Their evolved life forms retained spatial attributes, possessing abilities such as spatial teleportation, generating spatial backflows, and a series of other powers.

This was why, in the God King's eyes, they were the most formidable combat units in this campaign.

Each King Beast's body seemed capable of penetrating physical barriers; during combat, they would sometimes burst from the ground, thrusting rows of magic-type players into the sky.

At other times, they would tear through the clouds and plummet from the sky, smashing and scattering a large number of melee players upon landing.

The God King acted decisively, using the Marked Painful Painful Minghun to mark the seven King Beast figures, ordering the focused-kill DPS units within the joint battle corps to strike.

The pre-grouped players were responsible for protecting these focused-kill players.

The moment the order fell, the second King Beast had already transformed into a dark blue afterimage, descending from the sky and pressing out a black hole vortex with a palm strike in mid-air.

The terrifying suction force twisted the sky-high ice crystals along with nearby player bodies into spiral-shaped blood mist, instantly shredded by space.

Just then.

An ice arrow pierced the air, pinning precisely into the forehead of this King Beast, yet failing to break through its formidable physical defense.

The extreme cold freezing energy exploding from the arrow instantly swept across the Snow Ridge Great Wilderness, covering its body surface with a layer of ice crystals.

But the King Beast, having grown up in cold regions, feared no extreme cold; it roared, its gaze locking onto the figure that fired the arrow.

At this moment, Ning Qing stood upon the air, her silver hair flying like a war banner in the storm.

The ice crystal longbow in her hands erupted with brilliant cold light; every time the bowstring vibrated, a Snow Maiden arrow left the string.

The next arrow pinned into the King Beast's knee, causing its figure to stumble, instantly disrupting the spatial power swirling around it.

The second arrow followed closely, shooting into the black hole about to form in the second King Beast's palm; the collision of extreme cold and spatial turbulence prematurely detonated the unformed black hole vortex.

The third arrow split into seven streams of light in mid-air, pinning into the vulnerable spots of this King Beast: eyelids, eardrums, finger gaps, and so on.

Though not fatal, it caused these dominant-level creatures to roar in pain for the first time, their angry gazes fixed relentlessly on Ning Qing.

"Focus fire! All units with Marked Painful Painful Minghun, attack! The rest of the players, focus on the main front line!" The God King's roar echoed across the battlefield immediately after.

Possessing a Marked Painful Painful Minghun allows attacks to automatically lock onto and fly toward the marked unit.

This was also the God King's decision to avoid friendly fire.

The area-of-effect strikes from our own magic corps and archer corps could easily send our own players back to the small black room.

Ning Qing also fired another arrow at this moment, but instead of aiming at the King Beast, she shot it straight toward the sky.

When the arrow exploded within the clouds, the sky-high blizzard suddenly froze.

Countless ice crystals refracted brilliant auroras, and a barrage of area-of-effect strikes like an arrow rain descended with a boom.

"Light Shield!"

Seeing Ning Qing's action, the God King spoke decisively.

Instantly, the Light Shields released by the Support Corps rose from the ground, intercepting the dense ice crystal arrow rain.

And the King Beasts, blocked outside by the Light Shield, were met with a barrage of critical hits from the arrow rain.

This single strike caused no substantial effect on the King Beasts, merely scraping slight blood trails across their bodies.

Discovering that the weapon-attached skill which could easily wipe out groups in the Eternal Silence Binghu region could barely even break their defense, Ning Qing decisively changed her combat strategy, choosing to continue single-targeting.

The God King's voice also rang in her mind immediately after, demanding she continue single-targeting and not use area-of-effect damage.

At this moment, besides Ning Qing, other single-targeting players were also in action.

Under the blessing of the Divine Core, the Zoo Director activated the third growth stage's divine body form of a specific path, transforming into a golden deity and ascending into the sky.

Standing in mid-air, golden liquid flowed across the Zoo Director's divine body surface; his body shifted into a pure energy form, every spiritual pattern on him erupting with brilliant golden light, his eyes turning into scorching white suns, the depths of his pupils reflecting the movement trajectories of the seven King Beasts.

As he raised his hand and grasped at the void, golden energy bursting from his palm wove into golden chains, sweeping out like heavenly punishment, darting through the battlefield sky following the King Beasts' movement trajectories.

But the Xueling Great Wilderness's movement speed was too fast to be restrained by the chains.

Just then, the Zoo Director raised his hand and pressed down upon the void, unleashing the power of divine punishment.

A massive golden spear shadow manifested above one King Beast's head, plummeting down suddenly.

Boom!

The divine punishment struck this King Beast's back squarely.

Visible golden shockwaves exploded outward in rings; the King Beast's mountain-like body was smashed straight into the frozen earth, ice layers within a thousand-meter radius surged up like ocean waves, causing the players below to evaporate along with them.

When the dust cleared, the King Beast stumbled to its feet in the giant crater; the golden spear had not shattered its body but had transformed into chains wrapping around its surface, making every movement it made appear incredibly strenuous.

"Zoo Director, hold on, I'm coming."

Accompanying the shout of "Zui Nai" in the squad voice channel, a super Ink Flame Fireball with a hundredfold amplification shot out abruptly.

The moment it struck the King Beast, it ignited its body.

Amidst screams of agony, the King Beast activated spatial teleportation, returning to the rear of the battlefield.

The Zoo Director's gaze decisively shifted to the other six King Beasts still wreaking havoc; the divine body form consumed faith power every second, and he had to deal maximum damage before his mana ran dry.

On the other side.

Facing Ning Qing's powerful single-target capability, the remaining King Beasts in full strength simultaneously locked onto Ning Qing; six towering figures vanished at once.

When they reappeared, they were already above Ning Qing's head.

Seeing this scene, the veteran squad leader "Li Tie" stepped forward, looked up at the six figures pressing down from the sky, and curled the corners of his mouth upward.

Crimson energy gushed out from within his body, enveloping his surroundings.

The Bao Jun Fa image activated at this moment.

His gray-white hair flew wildly amidst the surging violent energy, his robes billowing wildly, revealing knotted muscles and the scars on his body that existed before entering the game.

Under the illumination of crimson blood light, every scar looked like a waking giant dragon, surging with the muscles as if angry dragons were roaming.

Boom!

A column of blood-colored light shot up from the crown of his head to the sky, expanding rapidly.

Within the light column, a Bao Jun Fa image clad in tattered battle armor rose from the ground, enveloping Li Tie within it.

The Fa image shadow stood over a hundred meters tall, its face blurred and indistinct, with only the light patterns on its body matching the positions of the scars on Li Tie's own body exactly.

Li Tie slowly raised his right hand; violent energy steamed from his body surface, and the qi and blood energy within his body was rapidly extracted.

As he slowly closed his five fingers covered in calluses, a sound of metal clashing rang out in the sky. In the giant palm of the Bao Jun Fa image, which rose in sync, countless blood-colored energies wove together in his palm.

A weapon shaped like a forceful axe, entirely dark gold and wrapped with blood-colored spiritual patterns, manifested in the Bao Jun Fa image's palm.

Boom!

The surging power was fully released.

Li Tie's eyes stared at the six King Beasts in the sky; the Bao Jun Fa image followed by swinging the battle axe.

The simplest chopping motion.

Yet it carried the solemn killing aura of ten thousand years of fighting on the battlefield.

The Bao Jun Fa image's arm muscles knotted together, driving the forceful axe to carve a dark golden afterimage through the air.

Before the axe blade arrived, the terrifying air pressure had already torn a fissure in the sky clouds, the clouds rolling over to both sides like ocean waves.

The six King Beasts roared simultaneously, releasing spatial barriers, their massive bodies continuing to press downward.

The instant the battle axe collided with the spatial barrier.

Boom!

A dark golden shockwave exploded outward in rings.

At the contact point between the dark gold axe blade and the blue barrier, spiderweb-like cracks erupted, with qi and blood Lei Ting leaping within every crack.

The six layers of spatial barriers, like tempered glass stretched to its limit, refracted rainbow prism light at the depressed points.

"Break for me!"

A war cry exploded from Li Tie's throat, veins bulging on his neck.

Driven by his will, the Bao Jun Fa image erupted with crimson light all around; the blood patterns wrapped around the axe blade suddenly writhed like living creatures, and the released power poured into the spatial barrier cracks.

The spatial barrier emitted a teeth-grinding creaking sound, like a prop struggling desperately under a million-ton hydraulic press.

Boom!

The instant the first layer of barriers exploded into scattered crystal powder, the second layer triggered a chain reaction the moment it contacted the axe blade, and the shattered spatial fragments burst again under high pressure.

When the axe force struck the third layer, the dark gold axe body had already burned to a scorching white, with escaping energy trailing a long blood-colored tail flame behind it.

"Moo-woah," blood burst from one King Beast's eye socket, and the fourth layer of barrier condensing between its horns suddenly crystallized.

The collision between the axe blade and the crystal wall burst forth light spots; the shockwave swept across the clouds in a jagged pattern, shaking the cumulus clouds into a ring-shaped vacuum zone.

The Bao Jun Fa image's arm armor shattered piece by piece, yet it continued to chop at the sky in an even more violent, bare-chested posture.

This scene stunned the players watching in the livestream room, as well as Ning Qing and her child protected beside her.

The forum universally recognized the strongest guild as the Shen Tang Guild, and the strongest war commander as the God King.

But who was the strongest player had never had a unified voice.

Some players believe the Painful Painful Minghun brothers are the strongest; although their kill efficiency is lower, they are undoubtedly the strongest Phantom Gods in internal warfare.

Others believe it is the Headmaster who possesses the Dark Blood Legion.

Among them, Seeing Li Zheng from the Grind King Group is also in the running.

Even Xiao Xiao Fa, whom forum players disdain, is in the discussion; with the Spirit Breath Legion and Super Beast buffs, his combat power has long surpassed the vast majority of players.

But among these peak players, the one with the highest voice is someone else.

He is Li Tie from the Veteran Group, also known by forum players as: Grandpa Tie.

A technical player who was already very famous in other games before entering the Monster World.

His personal fame is even higher than that of his own "Fan Zui Guild."

Most of the popular Weapon Spirit Painful Painful Minghun on the Painful Painful Minghun List are currently collected by Li Tie alone.

Under his leadership, every member of the Veteran Group is an elite; each is a super player standing at the peak of the player community.

It has been too long since a video appeared on the forum, but now, Li Tie tells all players with absolute strength that he still stands at the peak of the player community.

He is also the first player to use the "Bao Jun Fa Xiang" in actual combat.

Players watching the battle in the livestream only then realized that this super veteran player had already created a significant combat power gap with the main player force.

With the Fa Xiang and potion buffs, the strength displayed was not inferior to a King Beast of over level 140.

Li Tie's power continued to surge during the standoff with the King Beast.

The progress bar for the Charging Painful Painful Minghun trait was constantly increasing.

When it reached the limit of physical endurance, Li Tie's roar shook heaven and earth.

The Charging Painful Painful Minghun trait, held for so long, finally broke through the critical point.

Countless blood mist instantly exploded on his body surface; every drop of fresh blood burned into crimson-gold flames in mid-air, converging into the hands of the Bao Jun Fa Xiang.

The Bao Jun Fa Xiang's twin pupils immediately burst forth with blinding blood light; the energy swirling around it became completely frenzied, and the previously motionless Forceful Axe suddenly surged forward.

Crack!

The final spatial barrier finally could not withstand this utterly brute force and exploded with a boom like fragile glass.

The dark-gold axe light, its momentum unabated, transformed into an arc tearing through heaven and earth, striking the six-headed King Beast fiercely.

The six-headed King Beast's roars were tinged with fear.

Their massive bodies were blown away by the aftermath of this axe strike, crashing into the distant white snow-capped mountains like meteors.

The hard prismatic spikes on their bodies cracked inch by inch during the backward flight, and fresh blood gushed out from the fissures.

The King Beast that was hit first had its chest torn open by the frenzied blood qi energy, revealing a ferocious gap.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The consecutive impacts made the earth tremble; Li Tie's figure stood firm on the ground, the Bao Jun Fa Xiang's war axe still pointing diagonally at the sky, the blood patterns on the axe blade greedily devouring the blood qi energy Li Tie was channeling, erupting with brilliant light.

At this moment, Li Tie had also reached his limit; the phantom image of the Bao Jun Fa Xiang began to flicker unstably.

But in the livestreams of the participating players, the bullet comments had completely exploded.

"Holy crap, one axe strike blew away six King Beasts! Mom, come look at the immortal! We players have produced an immortal!"

"This damage is something a player can deal? We are all players; I am still wrestling with small monsters on the ground in the Eternal Silence Binghu area, yet top-tier players already have the posture of gods. Wait, can we keep up? You ascended too fast."

"Grandpa Tie, forever the god. He led the vast majority of players from the start and still stands at the peak after all this time."

"Too strong! Grandpa Tie's actual combat power must have reached over level 140. So shocking. The video has been recorded; I'll upload it to the forum later."

Li Tie's performance stunned the entire scene.

When players in the livestream uploaded the video to the forum, it attracted more players and tourists to flood into the participating players' livestreams to watch the battle.

At this time, Li Tie had already exhausted his blood qi and waved his hand to disperse the massive Bao Jun Fa Xiang phantom image.

But the performances of the other Veteran Group members continued.

Besides Li Tie, the other players in the Veteran Group all possessed combat power at the peak of the player community.

Among them was the first assassin-style player of that year; the video of him going in and out of the Black Tide seven times is still frequently dug up and watched.

His performance in this war was still very stunning.

Using Flowing Shadow Clones to weave a node network, he shuttled through his form; each time he precisely released the Seal Spirit trait, interrupting those Snow Ridge Great Desolations possessing spatial power.

A niche Painful Painful Minghun ignored by many players made its debut in his hands.

This Painful Painful Minghun was the "Spirit Eye."

Once activated, his vision could penetrate flesh to observe the target's weaknesses and view the energy flow paths within the target's body.

This was also the key to his ability to precisely interrupt spatial jumps.

Throughout the entire process, focusing not on kills, his ethereal figure was a moving "Interrupt Machine" on the battlefield.

This made many assassin-style players exclaim "awesome," learning techniques from him.

Compared to the players in the United War Group, the members of the Mixed Group were all powerful solo players invited from outside by the God King.

What they displayed was the peak of personal skill.

This included the famous forum player Phase Kill, whose towering figure clashed with the Snow Ridge Great Desolation with a tiny body.

This scene was even frozen and screenshotted by livestream players, who felt it was too atmospheric.

In the picture:

Snow Ridge Valley, heaven and earth vast and hazy.

Phase Kill's figure was almost invisible amidst the raging wind and snow; the Snow Ridge Great Desolation roared as it smashed down a giant fist. Phase Kill did not dodge or avoid; he stepped back with his right leg and threw a punch against the sky-shattering strike.

The picture froze at the instant before the two fists made contact.

Others included Zui Nai from the Infant Group who drew a hundredfold buff, the arena big shot "I Am Strong" from the Wild Eagle Group, and the Vice Leader "Yun Wuhen" from the Wind and Cloud Group, and so on.

Facing the fierce offensive of the Snow Ridge Great Desolation, the United War Group displayed extremely strong war resilience.

During this period, the God King also displayed extremely strong battlefield control ability.

Although he couldn't control every detail of the battlefield as effortlessly as Di Nian the Bully, nor respond with pinpoint precision.

But with the hawk-headed demon's perception enhancing him, he could grasp every movement across Snow Ridge Wasteland in an instant.

After several Snow Ridge Wasteland advances into the rear lines, he always reacted within the next second, swiftly readjusting to channel the damage suffered by the ambushed players through Life Link to the blood-bag squad behind.

When the first fierce assault was repelled, the God-King already knew the final outcome of this battle.

If Snow Ridge Wasteland did not introduce new forces, the war would end under his control.

They, the players, were no different from the Black Tide.

The moment the enemy became locked in a war of attrition, victory or defeat was already decided.

In wars of attrition, aside from the Black Tide and the Insect Tide, the players had never lost.

No matter how strong Snow Ridge Wasteland's endurance, how could it compare to the players, who returned to battle the moment their death cooldown ended?

And before this battle began, the specially invited Ning Shu and his son did not disappoint him.

Every arrow fired inflicted effective damage upon Snow Ridge Wasteland.

Aside from her low Painful Painful Minghun level and incomplete Star Veins, Ning Qing's battlefield performance—with a 428-level weapon—placed her among the top tier.

This was also one of the most wondrous settings in the Monster World.

In the game, there was no such thing as fairness or balance.

Even new players could rise to the top tier within a short time through fortuitous encounters.

For example, the early Garden Director entered the game half a year later than veteran players.

But with the Divine Soul Painful Minghun gained from a fortuitous encounter, plus the special rule of the Dark Descendant Legion, he had long since ascended to the pinnacle of players.

Another example: the Gantry Gang, once a small group surviving by mining and selling Shou Shou Jili, now had every member among the pinnacle players.

There were countless other similar cases.

The game clearly contained an element of luck, and it could arrive in any form.

Besides exploration, it might also fall from the sky.

For instance, the Painful Brothers' inheritance was sought out by themselves.

The early top-tier player known for his control style, who gained the "Celestial Soldier" pet, received it when it fell from the sky and landed right before him.

This unfairness and imbalance brought by luck was not only accepted by players, but felt deeply authentic.

Second, every player had the chance for a fortuitous encounter.

Within their lifetimes, all might, through unexpected surprises in the Monster World, reach the pinnacle of players.

This "setting" of fortuitous encounters gave players a sense of anticipation in every moment within the Monster World.

Like the constant hope for loot drops during dungeon runs.

The course of the war gradually became clear amid fierce combat.

As Snow Ridge Wasteland continued to fall, being absorbed by all things into glowing orbs that merged into the players' bodies, their numbers steadily dwindled.

All seven King Beasts were wounded; even with their instant-movement ability, top players from the mixed squads engaged and restrained them.

Snow Ridge Wasteland's former crushing advantage over players had long since been erased by time.

Half a day later, just as the players' potions neared depletion, the final King Beast's body crashed to the ground.

In truth, the King Beasts with space-jump ability could have easily fled the battlefield—the allied coalition's players were powerless to stop them.

But all seven King Beasts chose to fight to the death, unwilling to surrender the territory node they regarded as "home."

This sealed their fate.

The war ended when a stealth-assassin player from the allied coalition touched the node crystal.

The Challenger Prompt echoed in every player's mind.

【Challenger Prompt (All Channels): Congratulations to the squad led by player "God-King" for successfully containing the territory node: Shanfeng.】

Shanfeng:

Territory Type: Resource

Territory Trait: Spirit Ore Generation (Special Spirit Ore)

Trait Description: Continuously generates a single type of spirit ore, "Shanfeng Stone," usable for crafting space-type items or consumed to expand space storage capacity.

Territory Status: Contained.

As the Challenger Prompt sounded, the entire Shanfeng was swallowed by a spatial black hole and fully merged into Dizong Village's space.

This news instantly ignited the forums.

It meant that from now on, when players mined in their own space mines, they had a chance to unearth space-type ores with high prices on the trading market.

Finding one stone could save days of grinding.

The mining faction players immediately opened champagne on the forums to celebrate this successful containment.

Equally excited were the arms dealers' guild, the gold merchants' association, and other player organizations that heavily relied on space-type ores.

With increased output of space-type ores, all of them would profit.

Especially the gold merchants' association—their long-held plan to construct space-teleport arrays in the Dream Island and Rainbow Mist Coast regions could finally begin.

On the other side, Ning Qing also received a private message invitation after the battle ended.

The invitation came from Explorer.

He hoped she could use her ultra-long-range sniping to hunt down and kill one of his enemies.

Seeing Explorer's private message, Ning Qing immediately recalled the three widely circulated videos on the forums.

In the video footage, Explorer was pinned down and brutally beaten by a certain butterfly, its wings flapping into blurs.

Explorer challenged three times, each ending with a bruised, swollen face and pleas for mercy.

Many scenes from the videos had been turned into meme collections by forum players—including ones she herself used.

(End of Chapter)