wavenovel Chapter 64 Entering the Peach Blossom Spring, Easy Battle
Chapter 64 Entering the Peach Blossom Spring, Easy Battle
The air currents in the square shifted. All eyes turned to them.
Lei Zhan is nearly two meters tall and wears heavy plate armor. Standing in front of Xiao Qianyu, he is like an iron tower.
"Team Leader Xiao," Lei Zhan said, "For this job, Old Li brought several of our teams to cooperate with you, no problem. We admire the strength of your First Squad. But our Seventh Team has been to that godforsaken place, Taoyuan, and it's not as simple as you think."
He raised his hand, which was covered in heavy arm armor, and pointed at Lu Yan behind him.
"You brought in such a pure support character, not only taking up a valuable combat slot, but we also have to expend energy protecting him during the battle."
Lei Zhan's thoughts represented the majority of the Dragon Guard members who had never met Lu Yan.
On the battlefield, teammates who lack offensive capabilities and the ability to withstand damage are simply a liability that can destroy the team.
Xiao Qianyu didn't reply. The spear paused on the ground, making a slight metallic clanging sound.
Zhao Leiguang, standing beside him, took a half-step forward. The dark red knuckles at his waist rubbed against each other, making a soft clicking sound.
"Team Leader Lei, take care of your own team. Our people don't need anyone else's help." Zhao Lei tapped the two shields in his hands.
Lei Zhan ran his thumb along the scratches on the edge of the shield. "Zhao Leiguang, last time in the Northwest Secret Realm, you single-handedly took on three lords. You're a real man. But this time is different. You haven't experienced the mechanics of the Thousand-Year Corpse Locust Tree. Going in is about fighting to the death, not about grinding experience for newbies."
Lu Yan locked the terminal and put it in his pocket. He stepped over the crowd and stood in front of Lei Zhan. The two were half a head apart in height, but Lu Yan stood firmly.
"Captain Lei," Lu Yan addressed him by name, "Your mission is to proceed as planned. Any damage I sustain inside is on my own. The Seventh Squad doesn't need to contribute any healing or shields."
He looked at Lei Zhan. "So, you're not at a loss, are you?"
Lei Zhan paused for half a second. He had thought the young master would cower in the back and let Xiao Qianyu take the lead.
"Alright. That's all I have to say. Don't expect us to come to your rescue if anything goes wrong." Lei Zhan picked up his heavy shield, turned around, and walked back to his own ranks.
It was exactly 8:00 AM. The teleportation node lit up. The team of thirty stepped into the pillar of light and vanished.
The feeling of weightlessness subsided, and an intense, pungent stench assaulted my nostrils.
What came into view was an eerie valley. The sky was obscured by leaden-gray clouds, and the sun was nowhere to be seen.
The surrounding mountains and fields were covered with peach blossoms, the petals a sickly purplish-red, and the stamens oozing a sticky black liquid.
The soil underfoot was soft and dark brown, sticky to the touch, and occasionally pale knuckles would emerge from the mud.
This is the Rotten Paradise. Records indicate that it was once a blessed land for an ancient immortal cultivation sect. Later, it suffered a catastrophic disaster, and the entire space was contaminated by a plague of corpses. All living things perished, and the dead became spirits.
"Activate the anti-toxic life support system for all personnel. Maintain formation and keep the formation closed." Xiao Qianyu issued the order.
The first squad was at the very front. Zhao Leiguang and Shen Xinglin led the way in the front row. The third squad was responsible for the left flank, while the seventh and eighth squads were responsible for the right flank and the rear.
Lu Yan was positioned in the very center of the formation, with Su Yunqing and Song Tangtang on his left and right sides respectively, providing double support for recovery.
The team advanced along the only path through the valley.
The peach trees on both sides were not inanimate objects. As the crowd approached, burls resembling human faces grew on the trunks, and the branches twisted strangely, as if trying to scratch at passersby.
Lei Zhan walked on the right flank, his shield snapping off a dead branch that reached out to him.
Yellowish-green pus spurted from the broken edge, landing on the armor with a piercing hissing sound, and the durability dropped slightly.
"The monsters on the outskirts are more poisonous than they were half a month ago," Lei Zhan reported in the channel. The rate of environmental degradation exceeded intelligence assessments.
After about fifteen minutes of driving, the road ahead suddenly opened up.
A wide, circular clearing appeared. In the center of the clearing was a deep, sunken swamp of mud. Bubbles were rising from the mud, and when they burst, they released a thick, stench of death.
At the edge of the mud pit stood a monster of exaggerated size.
It had no uniform form; it was a mountain of flesh forcibly stitched together from hundreds of mutilated corpses. Countless arms and legs flailing about on the mountain of flesh, and a few mutilated faces were embedded in the chest and abdomen, emitting meaningless wails.
The number one leader, stitching together a giant corpse.
A dozen or so smaller, green-skinned elite companion monsters, plague spreaders, also roamed around.
Xiao Qianyu brought up the data panel and shared it with the whole team in real time.
"Boss #1, the Stitched Giant Corpse. It has two core skills: Plague Spray, a frontal fan-shaped AOE attack with high-level poison stacking; and Corpse Explosion, which triggers every 20% of its health drop, dealing indiscriminate damage to all enemies, with the damage amount doubling based on the number of surviving Plague Spreaders on the field."
Xiao Qianyu pointed her spear forward.
"Tactical arrangement. Third squad, Jiang Xiaorou, will engage the monsters and pull the leader away from the crowd. Seventh squad is responsible for clearing the plague spreaders at the edge of the arena."
The eighth squad will provide mobile support. The first squad will be responsible for suppressing the leader's attacks.
"start."
The moment the command was given, Jiang Xiaorou moved.
In the past, when facing a leader of this caliber, she would have activated three damage reduction skills before charging in. Now, she didn't even raise her shield; she charged forward with her battle shield in hand.
Lei Zhan, watching from the right flank, frowned deeply. That initial move was too crude; he hadn't even assumed a defensive stance. Was he courting death?
"Three tanks, be careful to avoid frontal fire!" Lei Zhan shouted in the channel, preparing to send his secondary tank to take over.
Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Xiaorou had already crashed into the attack range of the stitched-together giant corpse.
The giant corpse roared, and the faces on its chest opened their mouths, spewing out large amounts of dark green plague virus fluid in a fan shape.
Instead of retreating, Jiang Xiaorou charged forward, plunging headlong into the venom.
The venom was poured onto her Bulwark Guardian armor, causing its durability to plummet. But at the same time, a dark red aura emanated from her and spread outwards.
The fire of judgment.
Deals true damage equal to 10% of maximum health per second.
An exaggerated damage number floated above the head of the stitched-up giant corpse, and its shrill scream drowned out the bubbling sound of the mud pit.
The physical attack failed; this was real damage that burned through the mechanism from the inside.
The giant corpse's health bar visibly dropped.
Lei Zhan's hand, holding the shield, froze in mid-air. He stared at Jiang Xiaorou's steady health bar, then looked at the BOSS, who was scalded and emitting black smoke, and his mind was a little confused.
One main tank went up without using damage reduction abilities, took a big hit, and then burned off a large chunk of the BOSS's flesh.
What kind of outrageous damage conversion rate is this?
"Seventh Squad, watching the show?" Xiao Qianyu's voice rang out in the channel, interrupting Lei Zhan's daze. "Clean up the spreaders, don't let them get close."
Lei Zhan snapped out of his daze and quickly directed his team to pull the smaller monsters away.
At this moment, Lu Yan stood in the center of the group, his hands in his pockets.
He didn't even look at the battle ahead; his gaze was fixed on the withered bones corroded by venom at the edge of the mud pit.
Zhao Leiguang, carrying two shields, slowly walked to Jiang Xiaorou's side. He didn't make a move, just stood there, the Taotie belt at his waist flashing red.
Devouring triggers.
The giant corpse's proud toxin resistance and recovery mechanism were partially stripped away and transferred to Zhao Leiguang.
"That feels good." Zhao Leiguang twisted his neck, feeling the abundant recovery power within his body, and casually slapped away a plague spreader that tried to approach with his shield.
The battle defied all common sense from the very beginning.
Only two minutes had passed.
The first wave of strange tides
The stitched-up giant corpse didn't even have time to trigger its first corpse explosion before it was burned to death by Jiang Xiaorou's true damage. The exaggerated mountain of flesh collapsed into the mud, splashing up mud everywhere.
The system notification sounded in the ears of everyone in the team of thirty.
Boss killed.
The ground was filled with flickering dark gold light, interspersed with several dazzling, epic purple beams.
"???"
"What happened? How did it end so suddenly?"