Humanity’s Great Sage

ng fog all over it.

 

From the distance, the half globe was covered in massive patches of green.
Every affected area was flashing erratically and sizzling like a frying pan.
As a result, the Grand Defensive ward was going through its reserves like crazy.

 

Had the Great Serpent stuck with its original tactic, and assuming that the Grand Defensive Ward could repair itself faster than the damage could stick, it could’ve hammered away for a century and still failed to make a breakthrough.
After all, the ward was constantly replenishing its reserves as well.

 

The green fog was a completely different story.
Because it dealt massive, continuous damage to the Grand Defensive Ward, it was losing Spiritual Power much faster than it was replenishing it.
It was like multiple floodgates had been opened on their reserves.

 

“We’re not going to last much longer, Brother Zou.” Yu Hongbao rushed to Zou Qi’s side with a severe look on his face.
“If we do not stop the Great Serpent soon, the Grand Defensive Ward is going to use up more and more energy.
According to Zhang Hai, we’re going to run out of Spiritual Power in six or eight hours at best.”

 

“Six to eight hours!?”

 

Zou Qi’s eyes were bloodshot.
Even now, he still had no idea what the fuck had triggered the Great Serpent to come all the way here and and attack them.
Their Grand Defensive Ward was powerful enough to withstand the full might of the Silverlight Island for an entire day or two, but this goddamn snake was going to bring it down in just a couple of hours.
It was infuriating to put it mildly.

 

Zou Qi glared at the Great Serpent and said through gritted teeth, “We wait.”

 

Against a gigantic monster like this, he could mobilize every man and woman in the Outpost to fight it, and it would be a one-sided slaughter.
At the very least, they would incur an unacceptable amount of casualties.

 

It wasn’t hopeless though.
One thing he noticed was that each time the Great Serpent spat out a puff of green fog, its aura would weaken a little.
This meant that it couldn’t produce the fog infinitely.

 

In other words, they must wait until it had weakened itself to a manageable extent before fighting it.
Any other option was suicide!

 

Nothing happened for a while after that.
The Great Serpent needed time to breach the Grand Defensive Ward, and the Sky Pillar Sect’s cultivators could do nothing but wait for it to weaken further.

 

Two hours passed, and the Great Serpent’s aura had become much weaker than before.
Unfortunately, they could not afford to wait any longer.
Yu Hongbao came back and reported that they were almost scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The Great Defensive Ward would last another two hours at most.

 

Zou Qi knew that it was time to make his move.
He had already mobilized everyone into formation a while ago, and now he raised his arm and yelled, “Open the ward! Prepare to engage the enemy!”

 

At his command, an opening slowly appeared on the Grand Defensive Ward.
At the same time, the cultivators rushed out to meet the Great Serpent.

 

Body tempering cultivators wearing all sorts of defensive Spirit Artifacts stood at the forefront of the formation.
The combat cultivators and ghost cultivators were further back, and the spell cultivators were at the rear of the formation.
As for the medicine cultivators, they were standing by to treat their fellow cultivators at first notice.

 

It was as if the entire sect had come alive in an instant.
Spells and flying weapons were the first lights to cross the sky; colors of all sorts slamming into the Great Serpent’s body with great power and fury.
Almost surprisingly, it was effective.
Metallic sparks exploded all over its body as the Serpent visibly flinched away from the ferocious assault.

 

The second wave of attacks began before the first wave had even ended.
The Sky Pillar Sect had clearly hunted gigantic Spirit Beasts in the past because they knew not just how to encircle the target, but also maintain a constant stream of attack.
Slowly but surely, the Great Serpent was actually being pushed back by the unrelenting assault.

 

Zou Qi was clearly a competent Legate.
Had he chosen to launch an attack when the Great Serpent was still at peak form, it would’ve been all too easy for it to crush them.
But now, it had used up so much energy that even ants like them could hurt it.

 

The Great Serpent hissed violently as it twisted its body around.
The energy covering its body had thinned to the point where even a Seventh or Eighth-Order cultivator’s flying weapons and spells could scratch it.
Individually, a scratch was just that, a scratch.
But hundreds of them? It was the point where quantity became a quality of its own.

 

The Great Serpent’s powerful scales were ripped off to reveal the tender flesh beneath.
They began bleeding earnestly after just a couple more barrages.

 

There were a few times the Great Serpent tried to open its mouth and hit its enemy with a puff of deadly, corrosive fog, but the spell cultivators were always able to throw a barrage of well-timed spells into its mouth.
It had no choice but to keep its mouth shut.

 

Not far away, Lu Ye was frowning deeply.
The Great Serpent had turned out to be weaker than he expected, so much so that it seemed completely helpless before the might of the Sky Pillar Sect. 

 

At this rate, the Sky Pillar Sect was going to slay the beast and claim its body for themselves.
‘Please tell me that I haven’t worked all night to benefit the Sky Pillar Sect.’

 

It couldn’t be helped.
Even Zou Qi, the man commanding the battle, was thinking the same thing.
If he had known that the Great Serpent was this weak, he would’ve rushed out to engage it much sooner.

 

They were all wrong.
Snakes were naturally cold, ruthless creatures, much less one that had transformed into a powerful Serpent.
They had all underestimated its cunning.

 

When the Sky Pillar Sect’s cultivators had pushed back the Great Serpent about a hundred meters away from their Outpost, it suddenly dropped its head without warning and channeled lightning from its meaty horn.
The next thing they knew, a bolt of blue lightning about a full arm wide struck the spell cultivator group at the back dead on.

 

The spell cultivators at the center of the impact were turned into bloody mist instantly.
Not only that, the lightning spread around and caused the large majority of the group to shake violently like they were experiencing a seizure.
They had no choice but to cancel their spells mid cast.

 

BOOM BOOM BOOM…

 

It would’ve been manageable if that was the end of the surprise attack, but no, the Great Serpent continued to shoot more lightning bolts out of its horn.
Twenty to thirty spell cultivators were dead in an instant, and the lucky survivors could hardly cast a spell while they were running for their lives.

 

Zou Qi’s triumphant expression became frozen in an instant.
His joy had been completely shattered by lightning bolts.