I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 924: The Tug-of-War

Half a year later.

Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!

To the shrill buzz of the alarm, Anvil Base sprang to life once again.

The people in the base had long since grown used to this rhythm. They quickly set down whatever work was in their hands, took up their weapons and ran for their posts.

The teachers led the children in good order into the various protective shelters, while the old people stayed in the rear to handle medical care and logistics.

Those capable of fighting went up onto the base’s perimeter wall and opened fire on the oncoming enemy with artillery and the energy firearms Jie Ming had modified.

As the leader, Jack held the key corridor on the east side of the base.

This corridor was the only route between the outer perimeter and the core area; it could fairly be called the chokepoint of the entire base.

He gripped the short blade in his hand. His battle armor still bore the dark stains left by the last fight.

After so long a period of strengthening, his perception had risen to a new level. Even without deliberately extending his mental energy, he could easily catch every faint movement anywhere in the corridor.

Suddenly, Jack’s gaze swept toward one spot.

Although nothing could be seen there, Jack’s perception could clearly sense an insect-man trying to slip in under cover of invisibility.

His blade flashed out and severed the insect-man’s head in a single stroke. Green bodily fluid splattered across the wall, and the invisible insect-man’s true form was revealed.

It was an insect-man of no great size, its jointed limbs covered in fine, dense down. It could mimic the colors of its surroundings and absorb sound, and under normal conditions it was almost completely invisible.

Another presence came at him from the side. Jack sidestepped it and struck backhanded in the same motion, and so a second insect-man trying to sneak in had its chest run through. Its six jointed limbs twitched a few times, and then it moved no more.

Sensing more presences coming from the corridor entrance, Jack drew a deep breath and set himself in a fighting stance.

But what appeared this time made him frown despite himself. It was a pack of lizard-men… or rather, as they themselves would put it, they ought to be called dinosaur-men.

They were about as tall as humans, their skin covered in rough scales and their limbs long and powerful, with heads formed of flat, dinosaur-like skulls.

Looking at Jack blocking their way, the dinosaur-men’s slitted pupils burned with a savage light.

There was no doubt that in head-on combat strength, these dinosaur-men had the edge over the insect-men.

Before the enemy could form up, Jack took up his blade and charged to meet them without the slightest hesitation.

His speed and strength both exceeded theirs, but the dinosaur-men were no fools. They even worked together with considerable understanding.

They attacked in groups of three, taking turns, and steadily wore down his stamina.

Jack had struggled through to cut down two groups of dinosaur-men when he suddenly sensed a dangerous presence coming at him from behind and to one side!

On instinct he brought his short blade across his body, and a beam of blue-green light slammed straight into its flat.

The enormous impact sent him flying, and his back crashed hard into the corridor wall.

“Shit!”

Jack raised his head, looked at the scene in front of him, and could not help swearing under his breath.

A humanoid creature made of vines was walking slowly toward him from the other end of the corridor.

Its body was formed of countless thick vines twisted together, and every one of those vines bore sharp barbs.

It had no facial features; in their place was a half-open purple flower.

Jie Ming had been right back then. Ever since Anvil Base became the only human settlement left in the northwestern region, it had been the target of many alien races, and hardly a day passed without some alien creature launching an attack.

And because of the formidable combat strength the base had shown, as time went on these alien creatures had begun to lean toward cooperation.

The insect-men and dinosaur-men just now, for instance, were races that often fought together.

Jack’s expression darkened.

Now there was yet another race here, which meant… yet another race had joined the alliance!

Crash!

As the ceiling caved in, a commander-level insect-man several times the size of an ordinary insect-man dropped down from above, its six jointed limbs slamming into the metal floor with a dull thud.

At the same moment, an equally huge dinosaur-man appeared at the other end of the corridor, gripping a giant blade taller than Jack’s entire body.

Clearly, the commanders of all three races had arrived at once.

Yet although on the surface the three races already held an absolute advantage in combat strength, the mental fluctuations they gave off held something besides the will to fight: an unmistakable trace of unease, which could even be called fear.

The dinosaur-man commander took one look at the situation and roared at its subordinates, “You lot pull back first. The losses are too heavy!”

On the other side, the insect-man likewise sent a retreat order to its subordinates through the mental network.

So the dinosaur-men and insect-men, who had still been on their guard, immediately abandoned the attack and turned to flee toward the base’s outer perimeter.

Just then, a dazzling energy cannon beam blasted out from deep inside the corridor!

The beam was so thick it very nearly filled the entire corridor. Wherever it passed, the air was scorched into plasma, and the metal plates on the corridor walls melted and peeled away in the heat.

Before the beam fired, Jack had already received the message and leapt into a secret passage beside him.

A moment later, when the beam had dissipated, the air throughout the corridor was warped by the heat.

Yet at the far end of the corridor there was a dense mass of vines. They were covered in charred black burns, but they soon squirmed and healed.

The vine-man had blocked most of the attack with its own body.

Feeling the might of that single shot, the insect-man and dinosaur-man commanders looked as grim as could be… although the insect-man did not really have an expression to speak of.

“Just as I thought… this again!” The insect-man let out a shrill mental resonance.

Over this half year they had launched countless attacks, and every one had come back empty-handed.

They had thrown in vast numbers of troops and brought every kind of tactic and method to bear, only to get the same result each time.

They were hardly some lower life form, and naturally they had soon seen that this so-called “tug-of-war” was, in essence, something the other side was deliberately keeping going!

In other words, there had to be some unknown secret deep inside this base, one worth the other side spending so much effort to conceal.

And judging by the overall situation now, that secret was surely very dangerous!

For this reason, the insect-men and dinosaur-men had this time even ceded part of their own interests of their own accord, and invited a new race to help: the vine clan beside them.

These creatures did not have much killing power, but they had extremely strong regeneration and adaptability, which was more than enough for a supporting role.

The dinosaur-man tightened its grip on its great blade and bellowed, “Fight our way in! Whatever it costs, we will see what the devil they are up to in there!”

The three commanders unleashed their power at once and charged recklessly into the depths of the base!