Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1460: 776: Rout (Part 2)

The primary cultivators had been tagged by the Great Cultivators, with this tag serving as the spiritual power signal from the Great Cultivator, something Li Yuanba could detect without issue.

Should any of these cultivators suffer real injury, Li Yuanba would have to step in for urgent treatment right away, which is precisely why he's been kept out of the fight itself.

The clash kicked off the instant the surviving White Emperor Sect cultivators dashed into the base; a barrage of spells engulfed the Hell Creatures, with extra focus poured onto those two Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Bull Head Spirits.

Regarding the Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Creatures trailing behind, the far-off position and various barriers made it impossible to hit them precisely.

As the downpour of spells hammered the Hell Creatures, a dark barrier sprang up encircling their formation, astonishingly holding off this initial volley of spells for a short while.

Even though the dark barrier looked unsteady, the Hell Creatures Formation poured all its power into it, and the cultivators' offensive boiled down to just that single assault.

Earlier on, the White Emperor Sect had been hounded too relentlessly by the Hell Creatures Formation, so any strikes might have accidentally struck their allies, hence the delay until the White Emperor Sect group reached safety.

According to the initial strategy, more than a thousand cultivators—packed with numerous Great Cultivators—ought to have smashed this Hell Creatures Formation to pieces in one unified spell barrage.

Evidently, they had lowballed the might of the Hell Creatures, or more accurately, the inclusion of five Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Creatures in the formation had wildly surpassed what they anticipated.

The pair of Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Bull Head Spirits smashed against the base's formation, carrying the full rush of every Hell Creature in the charge, their twin horns carrying a strange ability to pierce through armor.

Li Yuanba observed the base formation getting torn through seven levels; luckily, since various superpowers had built it together, it featured ten defensive layers in total, so this blow didn't wipe it out entirely.

Right then, the Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Sheep Head Beings inside the Hell Creatures Formation unleashed a sinister energy orb; this dark orb struck the base formation just a heartbeat after the two Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Bull Head Spirits.

With a sharp “crack,” the formation buckled and broke apart for good.

“Scatter and battle on your own!” came the order from a Great Cultivator.

This had been mapped out in advance; the moment the base fell, teams from each superpower would switch to guerrilla-style combat.

Cultivators' defenses paled against those of the Hell Creatures, and since the majority fought from afar, without the base, they had no choice but to pull back farther from the Hell Creatures.

Li Yuanba shook his head; the Great Cultivator directing this fight had clearly slipped up badly.

They had wrongly assessed the power of the Hell Creatures, letting them smash past the base's barriers.

Truth be told, if they had fired off the attack sooner—even if it nicked a few White Emperor Sect cultivators—the outcome would beat the mess they faced now.

He had just spotted that one more round of coordinated spell fire could shatter the Hell Creatures Formation's shield, and it might even inflict heavy harm on the Hell Creatures themselves.

Dwelling on that now was pointless; with any luck, the Great Cultivators wouldn't repeat this blunder moving forward.

He soared back to join the Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion team, his role in healing wrapping up without ever starting.

Great Cultivator Lou and Grandmaster Wu teamed up for Sword Escape, while all the Nascent Soul Middle Stage Sword Cultivators trailed them using Sword Escape, drawing on the speed from those two leading Sword Cultivators.

This let the Nascent Soul Middle Stage Sword Cultivators briefly tap into the swift Sword Escape pace of the pair ahead.

Li Yuanba activated his own Sword Escape too, but his velocity matched or beat the two Sword Cultivators', so he didn't require any boost to stay with them.

Every superpower unleashed their special techniques, each with their own tricks for speeding up, and under the guidance of two Great Cultivators, they swiftly widened the gap from the Hell Creatures Formation.

Still, some didn't make it clean; two Great Cultivators from the White Emperor Sect bore grave wounds, barely hauling their team to the base, only to see it crumble before they could recover.

Lacking Li Yuanba's healing touch, they scraped together whatever energy they had left to fall back far away.

By now, they couldn't spare attention for their own people anymore, each one escorting just two vital cultivators—that was their final push.

The Hell Creatures Formation stormed the base, catching the leftover White Emperor Sect cultivators before they could slip away, and swallowing them whole amid the two thousand-strong Hell Creatures Formation.

These Nascent Soul Middle Stage Practitioners, famed for their overwhelming strength across the Cultivation World, didn't even stir the waters before vanishing completely against the two thousand Hell Creatures.

The Hell Creatures Formation turned its gaze to yet another squad, one that lagged noticeably behind.

This bunch belonged to the Yuqing Sect team, where Thunder Cultivators usually boasted top speeds, but not this round—they were lugging along a hurt Great Cultivator plus a handful of battered cultivators.

This dragged them to near the bottom in the withdrawal among all the superpowers.

The Thunder Cultivators shielding the wounded Great Cultivator abruptly sensed a bone-chilling dread.

It signaled deadly peril ahead; they yearned to accelerate, but the foe closing in moved far too fast.

The Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Horse Head Spirit, hovering near the edges of the Hell Creatures Formation, had bided its time for exactly this moment.

It zeroed in on the Great Cultivators above all, knowing that taking out the mightiest foes would neutralize the danger.

This revealed a major evolution in how these Hell Creatures waged war.

Li Yuanba pondered whether the unusual surge of Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Creatures over recent days was on purpose, assembling this formation to thwart the cultivators.

Should that hold true, the intelligence of the Artifact Spirit overseeing the Hell Creatures must rank extraordinarily high.

As this crossed his mind, he couldn't resist shooting a look at the tower, figuring it tied back to the Artifact Spirit somehow.

Regrettably, destroying the tower proved impossible, or else the Artifact Spirit might lose its grip on commanding these Hell Creatures.

Over on the Yuqing Sect's front, the abrupt strike from the Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Horse Head Spirit caught the two Thunder Cultivators off guard, swiftly breaching the guard around the injured Thunder Cultivator Great Master.

In a flash of dark light, the mission's very first fallen Great Cultivator appeared.

Thanks to Li Yuanba's boosted ‘Innate Wood’ divine abilities, he excelled at mending Great Cultivators, and even with heavy tolls on Nascent Soul Middle Stage Practitioners, no Great Cultivator had dropped in this grand operation up to this point.

The Yuqing Sect's Thunder Cultivator Great Master became the pioneer in that grim tally, filling every onlooker cultivator with a shared sense of looming disaster.

“No!” wailed the other Thunder Cultivator Great Master from Yuqing Sect, his voice raw with agony.

After centuries of close bonds, forged through battles and perils, their connection ran deep.

Li Yuanba caught this Thunder Cultivator Great Master, in his rage, casting a quick glance his direction, and from it, Li Yuanba read a seething, unshakeable grudge.

This meant pinning the Thunder Cultivator Great Master’s death squarely on him.

The Hell Creatures Formation bore down on the Yuqing Sect team, shrugging off the Yuqing Sect's lightning barrages, while firing back volleys of dark energy orbs from the Hell Sheep Head Beings, capped by two Fourth Grade Late Stage Hell Bull Spirits spearheading a rush straight into the Yuqing Sect group.

“Leave the wounded behind, break formation and run!” the Thunder Cultivator Great Master barked out his desperate, last-ditch order.

He cursed his earlier choice to haul the injured cultivators, which slowed their getaway and landed them in this nightmare.

Dispersing the team sucked, but it stood as their sole path out.

The Thunder Cultivators broke apart, a few channeling Thunder Escape to break free, dodging the Hell Creatures Formation's engulfing tide.

The Thunder Cultivator Great Master loosed one final lightning strike before morphing into a streak of electric light, pulling away at breakneck speed, steering clear of other superpower groups and aiming straight for the entrance.