The forest near Alliance Headquarters, Day 50

Thud!

A spider carcass fell to the ground. It was one of the corpses in the mountains of corpses that surrounded him.

As usual, Grim came to the forest at midday and disposed of the corpse.

Grim was expecting the arrival of the hordes, and having mountains of corpses would be suspicious. So he made sure to come regularly and dispose of them- racking extra one million Evo points.

Later at night, the clone sensed large vibrations in the forest. He had a clear idea of the cause behind the disturbances.

'Distort'

The clone concealed himself and advanced toward the hordes. Once at the top of a mountain, he got a clear view of hordes.

Even the clone was shocked by the sheer number of beasts. There were beasts as far as his eyes could see.

'Aerial'

The clone disappeared from the spot.

The wyvern sensed a sudden movement and yelled. "Who dares to sneak on me?"

His voice alerted everyone. However, it was too late. The clone had assimilated into the crowd already.

Guo Min arrived near the wyvern and asked. "Is there a problem, Lord?"

The wyvern replied. "Someone just infiltrated our army. Go, find the person."

"Yes, Lord."

Soon, Guo Min gave the order to point out anyone suspicious.

***

Everyone was on the hunt for the clone. He knew there was no going back. So, he decided to deal a heavy blow to the horde.

'Energy Burst'

An orb started forming in front of him, alerting everyone around him.

Usually, the orb would take two minutes to develop. However, he didn't have the time. So he forcefully injected his entire Qi into the orb as a last-ditch effort which left him weak.

The orb grew at a visible rate. The transformation stopped when the orb reached the size of a meter.

The wyvern noticed the bright orb and yelled.

"Stop him."

The beasts rushed toward the weakened clone. But it was too late.

'Detonate'

In a millisecond, the orb turned into a ball of plasma. The plasma grew into a fireball and covered an area of 1.5 kilometers across(0.9 miles).

Everything within a radius of 1.5 kilometers(0.9 miles) was evaporated instantly, and everything within 4.5 kilometers(2.7 miles) caught on fire.

Soon, it released a flash followed by a shockwave. The shockwaves and soundwaves started spreading.

'Ice Domain'

Instantly, the domain spread across 5 kilometers(3.1 miles).

'Ice Coffin'

Soon, an equivalent force clashed with the shockwave.

A few minutes later, both forces disappeared.

Silence fell on the ground.

***

The Wyvern was in the sky.

It saw the aftermath of the sneak attack, and calling it devastation would be an understatement.

There was a massive crater at the center of the explosion. It was 1.5 kilometers(0.9 miles) wide across and 100 meters(328 ft) deep.

Around 10,000 beasts were either dead or injured, which was 20% of the attack force.

There was a troubled expression on the face of the beast. The attack was enough to injure the wyvern. But it was not enough to deal a deadly blow.

The wyvern roared. "Guo Min, come here right now."

Guo Min rushed in front of the wyvern. "I'm at your service, Lord."

The wyvern snorted. "Are you hiding something from me?"

Guo Min stated. "I had no idea about it as well, Lord. It must be the divine treasure our spies mentioned. I think it is a one-time use treasure."

The wyvern yelled. "It better be the case, or you'll end up in my stomach."

Guo Min stammered. "Y..Yes, Lord."

The wyvern commanded. "Go, organize the troops. Let the injured wait here. Tell them to kill anyone that appears here."

Guo Min left and delivered the command to the griffin as well.

Soon, both started organizing the troops under them. Their plan of a surprise attack at night had been foiled.

***

Alliance Headquarters.

The sudden appearance of a giant yellow ball in the distance alerted everyone. A panic ensued within the alliance headquarters.

Suddenly, Grim lost the connection with the clone and received 8,000,000 Evo points simultaneously. He went out of the mansion and saw the giant yellow ball.

Immediately, he flew toward the Alliance Headquarters.

He arrived at the headquarters a minute later. However, he was greeted by a chaotic scene.

The alliance leaders were arguing among themselves while the staff was running everywhere.

They noticed the arrival of Grim and ran toward him.

Grim said. "I know what you want to ask. Yes, the beasts have arrived. But the yellow ball wasn't their doing, it was my trap. Go and assemble everyone, we have an hour or two before they arrive."

"Yes, brother Grim."

The trio scattered and informed their respective alliance about the upcoming battle.

All of a sudden, the peaceful night turned into the bustling one.

All the soldiers in the army geared up, the traps were activated, the number of troops in the gate had doubled, and all the dominion realm cultivators were on standby.

***

Grim returned to the academy and assembled everyone in the courtyard. Afterward, he informed everyone about the possible attack-alarming everyone.

Then, he suggested everyone stay at the academy since it was relatively safer than other locations.

Yuan Chang asked. "Are you going to take part in the war, brother Grim?"

Grim replied honestly. "Yes."

"Then, I'm going too," replied Yuan Chang with determination.

"I'm going too."

Ren Dan and Gu Lan joined as well.

Soon, more than half disciples agreed to take part in the war.

Grim tried to dissuade them.

"We'll join as well. We can't just sit back and watch as our disciples put their lives at risk."

The remaining instructors and the principal also joined in, leaving only staff at the academy.

Grim wanted to stop them. But he gave up since most of the instructors and the disciples were in the peak-evolution realm, which increased their chances of survival more than most of the soldiers.

Even Meng Rong, and Teng Guo, his first friends were in the early-evolution realm.

***

The next morning.

Everyone assembled following the command of the higher-ups and waited the entire night for the beasts to arrive. However, the beasts had yet to arrive-resulting in dissatisfaction among some soldiers.

One of the solider at the wall complained. "Why would they deploy us when there are no beasts in sight."

The other soldier said. "Shhh. Lower your voice. You'll be severely punished if the higher-ups hear it."

The soldier was in the middle of a sentence. "I don't ca..."

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

The ground began to tremor.

Soon, the beasts also came into view.

They were marching toward the headquarter, and there was no end to them.

One of the scared soldiers yelled. "We are supposed to fight against them? There is no end to them."

However, he was shut down by the captain. "Everyone, prepare your skills and weapons. We'll attack once they come within two kilometers of the wall."

The troops hollered.

"Yes, Captain."x20000

***

The army camp.

Grim and 21 other dominion realm cultivators were in one of the larger tents. Luckily two of the cultivators had managed to break through before the war.

Zhao Jing said. "Brother Grim, they are here."

Grim replied. "Send four dominion realm cultivators at the wall and let them handle it. The boss won't show up this early. The wall isn't that far from here, so we can rush there in case of an emergency."

"Ok, brother Grim."

"You, you, you, you, go to the wall and help the soldiers. We'll rush there immediately if needed. " Zhao Jing pointed at four cultivators.

"Yes, sect leader." The cultivators followed the command and flew away.

"You lot make preparations as well and wait here. I need to make some preparation as well." Grim walked out of the tent and went to a temporary tent assigned to him.

'Polyp'

His Qi was almost empty. A clone was formed in return.

'Distort'

The clone sensed his thought and hid.

'Moonlight storm'

Grim started absorbing Qi to replenish the remaining 80%.

***

Soon, the beasts crossed the two-kilometer mark.

The captain gave an order. "Everyone, start attacking. Attack everything that moves."

Immediately, everyone began attacking.

Ice, rocks, lightning bolts, and fireballs were hurled toward the beasts.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The bombardment continued, halting the advancement of the beasts.

The bombardment tore apart the average beasts. So the beasts swapped frontlines with armored ones, and it worked for some time- enabling the beasts to advance further again.

However, their progress came to a halt at a distance of a kilometer.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, the armored beasts started dying in a group-the reason being the traps that had been laid before. Most of the bodies of the armored beasts were guarded, and their only weakness was the abdomen. The traps struck at their weak spot, killing them in an instant.

After the armored beasts were down, the rest of the beasts were taken care of by the bombardment.

Soon, the four dominion realm cultivators also joined the fray. Even armored beasts became useless in front of their attack.

The standstill lasted for an entire hour.

Screech!

Suddenly, a noise pervaded everyone's ears.

They glanced in the direction of the noise and saw a massive bird heading toward them at a neck break speed.

The scene left everyone paralyzed.

[Evo Points Left: 10,444,750]