Free Web NovelChapter 175: Chapter 172: Light at the End of the Tunnel
By now, he had established a firm footing on the first relay point.
As long as his teammates could keep up, they could use it as a foothold to gradually advance to the opposite side.
A commotion erupted from the crowd at the cliff’s edge.
"He actually made it!"
"This guy’s really something, withstanding such a dense barrage of attacks."
"Look, his teammates are jumping too!"
With the bald, burly man providing cover, his three teammates also finished their running start.
One after another, they charged off the cliff and glided toward the small island.
The bald, burly man stood at the island’s edge with his machete, looking like a blood-soaked god of war.
While clearing away the harassing cannon fodder around him, he looked up at the sky.
The muscles on his face contorted into a ferocious, triumphant smile.
"A bunch of feathered beasts think they can block my way?"
However, just as his teammates reached the halfway point, the unexpected happened.
From the several more distant Floating Islands, over a dozen extremely shrill cries suddenly rang out.
The sound was no longer just a chaotic din; it had a metallic, eardrum-shattering Penetration Power.
’Something’s not right.’
Han Feng stood at the back of the crowd, his pupils constricting.
In his [Spiritual Vision], he saw a dozen dazzling masses of cyan Energy rapidly ascending from the surrounding islands.
Those were not Tier One Wind Falcons.
They were Tier Two elites!
The bald man’s massacre hadn’t scared off the flock.
Instead, it was like kicking a hornet’s nest, completely enraging the top fighters of the Wind Falcon flock.
"Watch out!"
Someone cried out hoarsely.
But it was too late.
A dozen or so streaks of cyan light shot across the sky, moving so fast they left visible trails in their wake.
They were more than a dozen elite Wind Falcons, each twice the size of a normal one.
Unlike their Low Tier brethren, they didn’t ram with their bodies.
Instead, they hovered in the air about thirty meters above the bald man’s head and opened their beaks in unison.
No fire, no lightning.
Only the invisible ripples of intensely compressed air.
All Han Feng could see were dozens of crescent-shaped cyan Wind Blades forming in an instant.
If the Tier One Wind Falcons’ attacks were like throwing stones, then this was a silent barrage of heavy artillery.
’This is bad!’
The smile on the bald man’s face froze.
He, too, sensed the lethal threat from above his head.
The Inner Qi in his body surged wildly into the Shield Generator at his waist, as if it cost him nothing.
The pale yellow Shield’s brightness flared, becoming as thick and substantial as a solid object.
"Hold, damn you!"
He let out a despairing roar.
The next second.
THWIP THWIP THWIP THWIP THWIP!
The dense volley of Wind Blades descended.
The first, the second, the third...
The Tier Two Upper Grade Shield the bald man was so proud of lasted less than two breaths under such a high-density, concentrated assault.
CRACK!
With a crisp snap, the Shield shattered into a sky full of glittering motes.
What followed were the dozen or so remaining cyan Wind Blades.
There was no suspense.
The high-pressure Wind Blades, sharp enough to slice through metal and jade, tore through his heavy Leather Armor without resistance.
They easily sliced through the powerful muscles and hard bones he was so proud of.
The bald man didn’t even have time to let out a final scream.
Amidst the dense cyan Light Blades, his entire body was instantly reduced to a heap of mangled parts. freewebnσvel.cѳm
The hot, acrid stench of blood and viscera filled the air as they splattered across the rock, dyeing it a shocking, dark red.
It dripped down through the cracks, falling into the endless Cloud Sea below.
His three teammates, still gliding in midair, witnessed the entire scene.
Their minds went blank. The color drained from their faces in an instant, leaving them ashen.
Before they could react, the dozen-odd elite Wind Falcons that had dispatched the bald man had already turned.
Their cold, emotionless, vertical pupils locked onto the three living targets in the air—unable to change course, unable to dodge.
"Help—"
One of them had barely uttered a cry for help before several Wind Blades tore through the sky and sliced him in half.
The other two didn’t escape their fate.
Without the protection of a Shield, they didn’t last a single second in the air.
Their Wingsuits were shredded, and their bodies were sliced into pieces mid-scream, plunging into the crimson Netherworld Blood Sea below.
The cliffside, bustling with noise moments ago, was now so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone stood frozen, unable to make a sound, as if a fishbone were caught in their throats.
The few teams that had been warming up, preparing to follow, froze in place, cold sweat instantly soaking their backs.
It was too brutal.
Truly, horrifically brutal.
That was a veteran Hunter at the Second Layer of the Meridian Passage Realm, protected by a Tier Two Upper Grade Shield.
And what happened?
In a single exchange, he was completely obliterated.
This wasn’t a battle; it was a slaughter.
The path to Wind Eye Market was no shortcut; it was clearly a death trap that had to be paved with lives.
"How... how are we supposed to cross now?"
Wang Meng’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, silently retracting the foot he had been about to move forward.
He dutifully shouldered his Large Axe once more.
"This is fucking... suicide."
The dozen or so Tier Two elite Wind Falcons didn’t leave.
They circled above the first islet, letting out defiant shrieks as if mocking the weakness and incompetence of the humans.
And on a higher, more distant Floating Island, the Wind Falcon King, which hadn’t moved at all, didn’t even bother to open its eyes.
"Fengzi, what’s the plan?"
Zhang Hao looked at Han Feng. Though his voice remained steady, his eyes betrayed a deep, unshakeable solemnity.
