Chapter Twenty-Eight: What to Do When You Can’t Break Through the Defense

“If you’re so eager to fail again, I’m quite happy to oblige. But compared to this war chariot-class fiend, I’m actually more interested in tracking down the upper-tier evil god lurking nearby.” Without hesitation, she accepted Wen Hui’s challenge. Zhuang Xiaoyuan pressed her foot to the ground, and her speed surged.

“Hah, I’m curious about that pretentious creature as well. Let’s see who finds both first. But I’ll be taking the lead!” Wen Hui’s clear voice echoed where she had stood, but propelled by the Verdant Wind, she was already closing in rapidly on the war chariot-class fiend.

In pure speed, Zhuang Xiaoyuan, transformed into the immortal maiden Huang Xiaoyan, was no match for Wen Hui, goddess of storms. Yet speed alone was hardly the deciding factor in their contest.

With a powerful push off the earth, Zhuang Xiaoyuan found herself drawing closer to the fiend without even realizing it.

Only when she stood before the war chariot-class fiend did she grasp the enormity of its body.

Compared to this monstrosity, Zhuang Xiaoyuan was as a mouse before an elephant, liable to be crushed with a single step. The armored warriors circling in the sky resembled fledgling hawks orbiting the great beast.

As Zhuang Xiaoyuan and Wen Hui prepared to join the fray, the grenade launchers at the waists of Number Two and Number Three discharged their shells. Yet the grenades—capable of obliterating soldier-class fiends—left not the slightest mark upon the war chariot-class fiend. All explosions were absorbed by its steel head, and it pressed onward without pause, maintaining its original speed. Number Two and Number Three could only retreat, unleashing futile attacks while keeping a safe distance.

“Wind, destroy my foe! Cyclone Lance!” Wen Hui, who had reached the fiend first, launched her assault. Gripping the Lance of Hurricanes tightly, she charged at its right thigh, wielding the same technique that had severed the hand of a mid-tier evil god. The Verdant Wind enveloped her lance as she thrust at the war chariot-class fiend.

A sharp metallic clang rang out—the attack was deflected outright.

Though the fiend’s body was massive, its movements were unexpectedly agile. As Wen Hui’s attack neared, the fiend turned its head ever so slightly, and the fan-shaped shield beside its iron skull intercepted the Cyclone Lance.

Even the divine Lance of Hurricanes, wielded against the fiend’s head shield, could gain no advantage. Only a faint white mark was left on the black shield—so slight it scarcely needed repair.

“So tough,” Wen Hui murmured, her hands trembling—the recoil from the collision left her numb, nearly unable to hold her lance.

“My turn. Spirit Talisman Array: Commanding Talisman, Million Talisman Array!” Sheets of yellow paper talismans flew toward the fiend, accompanied by roaring explosions. The fiend’s advance finally slowed.

Yet the blasts of the Commanding Talismans, though reducing its momentum, still left no wound upon its shield. “In that case—Talisman: Shift.”

With a flicker of her immortal seal, Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s talismans arced gracefully through the air, targeting the fiend’s back. Another series of thunderous explosions erupted. At last, her assault left traces upon the fiend.

With the blasts, fine scars crisscrossed the fiend’s body. The Million Talisman Array, which could pulverize general-class fiends, could only carve such minuscule wounds upon the war chariot-class fiend. How formidable was its defense!

Seeing how little effect her attack had, Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s expression darkened. The higher-tier fiend was indeed a different beast. Judging by her own abilities and Wen Hui’s display, they likely lacked the power to vanquish the war chariot-class fiend.

Should she use her trump card? Thinking of its aftereffects, Zhuang Xiaoyuan hesitated; besides, an upper-tier evil god could be lurking nearby, watching. But without that move, even the fiend before her would remain unresolved—let alone the hidden evil god.

It was true: every fiend’s advancement brought tremendous improvement. A general-class fiend could not withstand even one of her attacks, yet the war chariot-class fiend seemed to shrug off her talisman techniques.

Though the power levels of humanity’s divine-armored warriors corresponded with the fiend’s ranks, there remained a wide gulf between human and fiend at each tier. Humans subdivided every rank into upper, middle, and lower levels, but fiends did not.

When humans advanced from upper Faith to Prayer rank, they began anew from lower Prayer rank and continued to grow. Fiends, however, were different: a soldier-class fiend that advanced to general-class could directly contend with a peak Prayer-ranked divine-armored warrior, and a general-class fiend that advanced to war chariot-class was already equivalent to humanity’s peak Divine Descent rank.

The same pattern continued at higher tiers. Thus, facing fiends of their own tier, ordinary divine-armored warriors who had just advanced often needed several comrades to stand a chance.

But herein lay a fatal issue: fiends far outnumbered humans. In every demonic tide, humanity faced foes many times their own numbers. This was the root of their continual retreat.

Yet humans possessed advantages as well—namely, the diversity of guardian gods. Among divine-armored warriors, the most numerous were those of the Elemental and Racial gods, mainstays in the battle against fiends.

Next came the Item and Talent gods, whose numbers were not insignificant. Most provided support through logistics, though a few possessed power rivaling the Elemental and Racial gods.

The rarest were the Martial gods, whose guardians endowed them with superlative combat prowess and instincts far above ordinary warriors. Martial gods boasted the highest survival rates; most had innate danger sense, giving them an edge against evil gods and fiends, especially when outnumbered. Among divine-armored warriors who could triumph over stronger foes of the same tier, most were Martial gods.

Rarest of all were the Rule gods. In fact, those familiar with divine-armored warriors believed Rule gods to be the strongest among guardian deities—not necessarily for their raw combat power, but because their abilities were stranger, and those they guarded usually possessed the greatest potential.

Just like Feng Xiaoxuan, daughter of Feng Guoqing—a divine-armored warrior guarded by a Rule god, the Solar Deity.