Six hours later, a dark red tide appeared on the horizon.
It was not water, but Aberrants.
Densely packed and blotting out the land, they were like a swarm of ants surging out of hell.
Two hundred thousand Aberrants deployed across the plains outside the Rust Mine.
They crowded every inch of the earth. From above, it looked like a writhing, dark red carpet stretching to the very edge of sight.
Jiang Lin stood at the edge of the pit, his golden eyes reflecting that terrifying ocean.
His expression remained calm, but his right hand unconsciously tightened.
“Come then,” he whispered.
The Aberrants moved.
It was no tentative probe by small units, but an all-out assault across the entire front.
Two hundred thousand Aberrants advanced simultaneously, surging toward the Blood Demon defensive line like a tsunami.
The earth trembled, the air shrieked, and the dark red light of the sky was obscured by that writhing sea.
“First line, prepare for engagement,” Jiang Lin commanded through the Bloodspeaker.
Two hundred Bloodblade Butchers stood at the very front, their four arms hanging low, bone blades gleaming coldly under the dark red sky.
Behind them, the perimeter of the mine was empty, appearing completely defenseless.
The Aberrant vanguard reached five hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
“Release.”
At Jiang Lin’s command, the two hundred Bloodblade Butchers moved in unison.
They did not meet the charge; instead, they scattered to the sides, revealing the seemingly empty land behind them.
The Aberrants swarmed in, trampling over that ground.
Then, the earth exploded.
These were the blood crystal traps Jiang Lin had spent the last three days setting.
Hundreds of blood crystals, refined from Aggregate cores, had been buried underground. Each one contained enough energy to level a small hill.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Successive explosions shook the entire mine.
Dark red flames shot into the sky, and shockwaves tore the surrounding Aberrants to shreds.
The blood-colored mist released by the exploding blood crystals was highly corrosive. Dense blood-colored patterns rapidly surfaced on the bodies of the Aberrants caught in the mist before their forms burst, turning into viscous black pus.
In just ten breaths, over ten thousand Aberrants were annihilated.
But more Aberrants surged forward from behind.
They trampled over the remains of their kin, pressing on one after another like a never-ending tide.
“Second line, engage.”
Jiang Lin raised his right hand and pointed toward the mine’s perimeter.
A thousand Bloodblade Butchers charged from their hiding places, their four arms whirling like wheels. Wherever their bone blades passed, Aberrants fell like wheat before a scythe.
Crimson claw-wings dove from the high points above the mine, their bone wings folded as they tore through the sky like a dark red meteor shower.
Their targets were the Piercers and Mental Polluters at the rear of the Aberrant swarm. Each dive claimed the lives of dozens of Aberrants.
The battle instantly reached a fever pitch.
The Aberrants were too numerous.
At two hundred thousand, they outnumbered the Blood Demons ten to one.
No matter how fierce the Bloodblade Butchers or how agile the crimson claw-wings, they could not stop that tidal surge.
The first line collapsed after holding for fifteen minutes.
Of the two hundred Bloodblade Butchers, fewer than fifty retreated alive.
Half an hour later, the second line also began to waver.
The thousand Bloodblade Butchers had lost over thirty percent of their strength, yet the number of Aberrants seemed not to have decreased at all.
Jiang Lin stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at the meat-grinder of a battlefield below.
It was time.
“Third line and reserves, all in. Cursed blood bone dolls, all units, attack.”
Twelve thousand Bloodblade Butchers surged from the depths of the mine, crashing into the Aberrant line like a steel torrent.
The bone spikes on their backs fired continuously, and blood crystals exploded deep within the enemy ranks, tearing everything within dozens of meters to pieces.
At the same time, five thousand cursed blood bone dolls rose from the depths of the mine.
Their tiny bone fingers lifted simultaneously, tracing the same path in the air.
A massive blood-colored rune over a hundred meters in diameter appeared above the densest concentration of Aberrants. The rune rotated, glowing with intense light.
Vreeee!!!
Amidst a bizarre humming sound, thousands of Aberrants below froze simultaneously, dense blood-colored patterns surfacing on their bodies.
The patterns spread and intertwined, eventually merging into a single mass.
Splat!
The bodies of those Aberrants burst at the same time, turning into a spray of black pus that splattered onto their nearby kin.
This single strike eliminated at least five thousand Aberrants.
The Aberrant offensive finally stalled.
It was not because they were afraid, but because their front line had been completely shredded by the Blood Demon Legion, and the following units needed time to fill the gap.
Jiang Lin seized this opportunity, raising his right hand with his palm facing down.
The Sea of Blood surged.
The remains of all fallen Blood Demons on the battlefield, all the shredded Aberrant corpses, and all the black pus and dark red blood flowing through the ruins were drawn by him, converging beneath his feet.
That flesh and blood energy was like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, pouring into that crimson void to be reshaped.
One thousand, three thousand, five thousand...
By the time the seven thousandth new Blood Demon struggled out of the Sea of Blood, Jiang Lin’s face was again as pale as paper.
But he did not stop.
Ten thousand.
Twelve thousand.
When the final Blood Demon surged from the Sea of Blood, the number of the Blood Demon Legion had not decreased but instead skyrocketed from the previous low of twenty-four thousand to thirty-six thousand.
Thirty-six thousand against two hundred thousand.
The numerical gap between the two sides was narrowing.
The Aberrant offensive came to a complete standstill.
It was not out of fear, but because the front line had been utterly torn apart by the Blood Demon Legion, and the following units simply could not break through.
Jiang Lin stood at the edge of the pit, gasping for air.
The mental exhaustion from the continuous large-scale summoning far exceeded his limits, but he did not fall.
The battle was not over.
There were still at least one hundred and fifty thousand Aberrants left, while his Blood Demon Legion had only just over thirty thousand.
This was a war of attrition to see who could hold out until the end.
“Continue,” he ordered.
“Leave them all here.”
The battle at the Rust Mine lasted for a full day and night.
When the final Aggregate was pierced through its core by the Shadow of Blood’s sword, and the last roar faded above the mine, the entire land fell into a deathly silence.
Jiang Lin stood amidst the mountain-like piles of Aberrant remains, his long golden hair matted with blood, his clothes long since losing their original color.
His face was terrifyingly pale, his eyes sunken, and his lips cracked, yet those golden eyes remained bright.
Of the thirty-six thousand Blood Demons, only twelve thousand ultimately survived.
As for the two hundred thousand Aberrants, they were completely wiped out.
The site was left with massive piles of Blood Demon and Aberrant flesh.
These would be the raw materials for future Blood Demon summonings.
It was just that he currently lacked the mental strength to support any further summoning.
Throughout the battle, he had been continuously summoning new Blood Demons to join the fray.
Unfortunately, the speed of his summoning sometimes could not keep up with the rate at which the Blood Demons died.
Fortunately, that situation did not last too long, and in the end, the Blood Demon army finally defeated the Aberrants in the war of attrition.
“Report casualties,” Jiang Lin transmitted the order to the Bloodspeaker.
The Bloodspeaker silently relayed the statistical results.
The crimson claw-wings suffered the most, plummeting from eighteen thousand to six thousand.
The Bloodblade Butchers fared slightly better, dropping from twelve thousand to four thousand.
The cursed blood bone dolls, having remained at the rear, suffered the least; two thousand remained out of five thousand.
Twelve thousand Blood Demons—this was all that remained of the Rust Mine defense force.
Jiang Lin took out the communicator from his spatial ring.
“What is the situation on the west and east routes?”
The silver-haired woman’s voice came through the communicator, exhausted but carrying a hint of excitement:
“The west route Blood Swamp defense line: approximately eighty thousand Aberrants have been repelled.
“The Fifth and Sixth Squads suffered heavy losses, but the line held.
“The east route Rust Iron Wasteland: approximately sixty thousand Aberrants were drawn into the ambush zone and annihilated. Our losses are about thirty percent.”
Eighty thousand on the west, two hundred thousand in the center, and sixty thousand on the east.
A total of three hundred and forty thousand Aberrants had been crushed head-on by the Blood Demon Legion.
But the price was heavy.
Out of fifty thousand Blood Demons, over thirty thousand were lost, leaving fewer than twenty thousand.
“Tell headquarters to send engineering teams.
“The Rust Mine defenses need to be rebuilt, and the construction of the breeding farm must be accelerated.”
“Understood.”
The silver-haired woman’s voice was low.
“Mr. Matthew... are you alright?”
“I am fine.”
Jiang Lin cut the communication and looked up toward the deeper dark red horizon to the southwest.
Three hundred and forty thousand Aberrants were just the beginning.
Deep within the Corrupted Plains, millions or even tens of millions of Aberrants still lurked.
And the evil god Mozos had yet to show its true face.
“The road is still long,” he whispered to himself, standing up from the pile of remains. His body swayed slightly before he steadied himself.
Twelve thousand Blood Demons stood silently among the ruins, their crimson eyes all fixed on their master.
In that silent gaze, there was no fear, no fatigue, only a pure and unreserved obedience.
Jiang Lin took a deep breath and turned to walk toward the depths of the mine.
...
Three days later.
Amidst the ruins of the Rust Mine, rows of temporary barracks had risen.
The engineering teams worked day and night, constructing even sturdier fortifications around the mine’s perimeter.
The construction of the breeding farm was also accelerating. The first batch of fodder crops had sprouted, their tender green leaves appearing exceptionally fragile yet remarkably resilient under the dark red sky.
Jiang Lin sat cross-legged on a flat rock platform at the edge of the pit, his three breathing techniques operating simultaneously as holy light magic essence and ice soul power circulated through his body.
The internal injuries from the fierce battle three days ago had mostly healed, and the sharp pain in his sea of consciousness had largely subsided.
Before him lay mountains of Blood Demon and Aberrant flesh.
Blood Demon remains, Aberrant corpse parts, solidified black pus, and dark red blood—everything had been collected from the battlefield by the engineering teams and piled onto this specially cleared open ground at the edge of the mine.
They emitted a thick stench of rot and the sweet metallic tang of rust, standing like a silent monument under the dark red sky, telling the tale of that brutal day-and-night slaughter.
He estimated the total volume of flesh here to be equivalent to about twenty thousand Blood Demons.
Coupled with the massive amount of remains yet to be collected from the battlefield and the surplus stored by the Blood Demon Legion itself...
This was enough to push the number of Blood Demons to an unprecedented height.
“Let us begin.”
Jiang Lin stood up and leaped down from the rock platform.
The moment he landed, the Sea of Blood surged out from beneath his feet, the viscous blood energy spreading like a living thing, rapidly covering the small mountain of flesh.
The devouring began.
Under the erosion of the Sea of Blood, the remains dissolved quickly, turning into the purest flesh and blood energy, pouring into that crimson void like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
Jiang Lin could clearly feel that energy accumulating, compressing, and waiting to be reshaped deep within the Blood Realm.
He was in no hurry to summon; instead, he sat cross-legged in the center of the Sea of Blood, operating his breathing techniques to allow his mental strength to recover slowly.
The mental exhaustion of large-scale summoning far exceeded the physical toll. He needed to be meticulous, using every bit of mental strength where it mattered most.
The Sea of Blood churned, countless bubbles rising from the depths and bursting to release crimson mist.
Within the mist, blood-colored figures began to coalesce.
Crimson claw-wings struggled out of the Sea of Blood, their bone wings unfurling with piercing shrieks.
As soon as they were born, they flew to the high points above the mine under the Bloodspeaker’s direction, taking over the sentry posts that had been depleted during the battle.
One hundred, three hundred, five hundred...
Jiang Lin controlled the pace of the summoning, steady and unhurried.
After summoning each batch, he would stop to operate his breathing techniques, allowing his mental strength to recover slowly.
After about an hour of summoning, the number of the Blood Demon Legion had recovered from twelve thousand to twenty-four thousand.
Jiang Lin stood up and stretched his stiff limbs.
Because he had not summoned a massive amount all at once and had recovered while summoning, his mental strength was currently at its peak.
“Continue.”
Soon, Jiang Lin sat back in the center of the Sea of Blood.
This time, he picked up the pace.
Five hundred, one thousand, two thousand...
The number of the Blood Demon Legion expanded at a staggering rate.
Crimson claw-wings filled the sky above the mine, their unfurled bone wings like a moving dark red cloud.
Bloodblade Butchers formed ranks at the mine’s perimeter, their four arms hanging low, the bone spikes on their backs gleaming with a dangerous light in the morning glow.
Cursed blood bone dolls hovered deep within the mine, their tiny skeletons making slight clicking sounds in the air.
Soon, the total number of the Blood Demon Legion reached fifty thousand again.
At this point, Jiang Lin began attempting to summon more 3rd-rank elites.
He closed his eyes, his mind sinking deep into the link with the Blood Realm.
There, countless blood-colored figures wandered, shrieked, and devoured each other in the void.
He could "see" the existence of those 3rd-rank Blood Demons; they were far more powerful than the 2nd-rank ones, like tigers among a pack of wolves.
He selected one and began the summoning.
The Sea of Blood churned violently, far more turbulently than before.
Viscous blood energy erupted like a fountain, coalescing, compressing, and shaping itself in the air.
A blood-colored figure far larger than a crimson claw-wing slowly rose from the Sea of Blood.
It was a Bloodblade Butcher, but it was vastly different from the 2nd-rank ones.
It was twice the size of a normal Bloodblade Butcher. The ends of its four arms were no longer bone blades but blood-colored crystal blades like greatswords.
The bone spikes on its back were also thicker, each tipped with a fist-sized blood-colored crystal that pulsed with a crimson light like a beating heart.
The blood-colored glow on its body was so intense it was almost physical, looking like a burning flame under the dark red sky.
3rd-rank elite Bloodblade Butcher.
Jiang Lin could clearly feel that this Bloodblade Butcher’s aura was at least five times stronger than a peak 2nd-rank one.
It stood silently in the center of the Sea of Blood, its four arms hanging low, its crimson eyes fixed on Jiang Lin as it awaited its orders.
...
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