Scourge Messenger

Chapter 359 Chaos
Yan Qing did not use the "Confront the Demon of Freedom and Innocence" transformation card to teleport directly there.

Although it's highly likely they'll be teleported directly into the Baibao army's formation to disrupt their plans, fighting in terrain chosen by the enemy is like a female knight deliberately running into a goblin's lair—it has a kind of naive foolishness.

Moreover, could the Hundred Guards under the command of "All Hearts" really be ambushed? For an army that can instantly switch between front and rear lines, being teleported in would simply turn a 'battle of positional warfare' into a 'battle of encirclement'.

Therefore, Yan Qing chose to approach from the rear, making it appear as if he and the Hundred Guards were attacking the True Demon from both the front and rear. Before the actual battle, he took one last look at his puppet lineup:
First is "Qiongqi", with 592500 attack power and 534200 health points.

"Ascension to Six Ears", attributes ignored.

"The Wrongfully Killed Ghost" has the characteristic of being "haunted by vengeful spirits".

And Yan Qing's long-treasured special combination: "Steam Strategist", "Steam Tomb Keeper" and "Killing Doctor".

"Three-Transformation Mechanism: Steam-Powered Military Strategy"

"Attack power: 15300" (These values ​​are after Blood Sacrifice enhancement)
Health: 18400

"Traits: Holy Shield, Attack, Recruitment: Each time this golem attacks, it summons a 300/300 [Steam Warrior] and grants this effect to all mechanical golems."

/
"Triple-Turn Mechanism: Steam-Powered Tomb Keeper"

Attack Power: 14100

Health: 17200

"Trait - Holy Shield - Mechanical Reassembly: Whenever a mechanical golem dies, another mechanical golem gains a Holy Shield."

/
"Fourth Job Advancement: Killer Physician"

Attack Power: 14000

Health: 16900

"Trait - Kill and Protect: In battle, whenever a summoned creature appears on the battlefield, it will be immediately destroyed. This puppet and a random friendly puppet will gain the summoned creature's attributes (limited to this battle)."

This is a very interesting puppet combination. First, the Steam Tactician's attack triggers the 'Attack' effect, summoning a Steam Warrior and granting this Attack trait to all mechanical puppets. However, the instant the Steam Warrior is summoned, the Assassin will destroy it and acquire its attributes, while simultaneously triggering the Steam Gravekeeper's 'Mechanical Reorganization' trait, granting the mechanical puppets a Holy Shield.

Attack → Summon → Destroy → Holy Shield → Attack...

Therefore, these two steam golems can act as meat shields in front of the enemy. As long as this cycle is not interrupted, they can only keep generating holy shields to absorb damage!
This also gives a glimpse into the splendor of a fully-fledged mechanical lineup: health is meaningless for this race, because they can continuously generate holy shields to absorb damage, and even if you are killed, they may still be unharmed.

Because today is the decisive battle, the stats of "Bai Ze" and the ordinary "Six-Eared Macaque" were all transferred to "Qiong Qi" through "Accumulated Avalanche," otherwise they wouldn't have been able to reach a stat value of nearly 600,000. In terms of numerical value alone, this far surpasses a sixth-rank demon, and even a normal attack can break through the conventional defense of a seventh-rank immortal lord.

Now is the time to test the strength of his lineup!

As Qiongqi entered the ten-step range of the True Demon of Otherworldly Freedom, the battle was triggered immediately. As the True Demon issued a battle declaration, "Double Strike" and "Peerless Blade of Heaven and Earth" also took effect.

First, blade patterns appeared on Qiongqi's body, then two identical Qiongqi appeared. Immediately afterwards, the "Ascension to Six Ears" [True and False Monkey King] effect took effect, and three monsters with body attributes close to 600,000 appeared on the field at the same time! In addition, all Qiongqi have Wind Fury, which means that in the first round alone, they caused nearly 3 million points of damage! If converted using the Mountain Heart Mirror, this is enough to kill Yan Qing three thousand times. The so-called numerical collapse is nothing more than this, but the Demon Gathering Land is a chaotic battle of numerical collapse, and Yan Qing has not yet exhausted the limits.

Such terrifying destructive power even shook the True Demon, whose shadowy demonic body was shattered, leaking out a great deal of molten lava and flames. But the True Demon's counterattack was also extremely fierce; the black sun in its palm fell, actually causing area damage. Because they had no time to dodge, both Qiongqi were affected.

Yan Qing looked up at his bracelet and saw that each of them had lost 10,000 HP. This wasn't a serious blow to the Qiongqi; they could still last for dozens of rounds. But how much HP did the True Demon, which required all the players of the Demon Gathering Land to defeat, actually have? He really had no idea.

Therefore, Yan Qing quickly withdrew the three demon generals and sent the two steam generals to absorb the damage, while the killing doctor and the wronged ghost stayed by their side to protect them.

Just as they were methodically defeating the true demon, Murong Hui, wearing "goldfish-eye glasses," warned them, "They're here."

The Hundred Guards bypassed the True Demons' encirclement, maintaining a distance of at least ten paces. However, they would stop and regroup as soon as they got closer, only daring to fire arrows from a distance, posing no real threat to the puppets and only causing them to lose a little health.

This is the biggest weakness of the Hundred Guards: they are not good at skirmishes. They can easily evaporate the Eight Demons' millions of HP, but if the battlefield changes, they can hardly deal even one percent of the damage. This is why Yan Qing directly attacked the True Demon. Being attacked by both the True Demon and the Hundred Guards at the same time might be troublesome, but challenging the Hundred Guards first would definitely be a sure way to run into a brick wall.

But is it really possible to be attacked from both sides?
As the Hundred Guards rapidly approached, the density of the arrow rain surged dramatically, even affecting Yan Qing and his two companions who were overseeing the battle from afar. However, Yan Qing and the others were prepared. They not only hid behind walls, but also used the Killing Physician and the Wrongfully Dead Ghost as human shields. These two puppets were not qualified to participate in the True Demon Battlefield, but they were more than enough to absorb damage.

Just then, the true demon let out a boiling roar:

"Don't even think about getting what you want!"

With a flick of its finger, an illusory line connected all of Yan Qing's puppets.

"I will confiscate your souls!"

Like a volcanic eruption, flames rose from the shadowy body of the true demon, its hands reaching upwards as if drawing upon unseen energy.

Boom! The first shadow pressure bombarded the steam twin generals, and the pitch-black shadow fell like a waterfall, but the holy shield shattered to protect the mechanical creation.

Boom! The second shadow pressure bombarded Qiongqi. Even though Yan Qing had deliberately separated them, the range of the shadow bombardment was too large. Qiongqi and the Ascended Six-Eared Macaque were still hit, each losing 30,000 HP. However, the connection line that the True Demon had descended earlier reappeared, causing the other puppets to suffer tens of thousands of points of chain damage! The three demon generals were still unharmed, but the other puppets' HP was almost at the critical point!

Boom! The True Demon turned slightly, and the third shadow pressure bombarded the Hundred Guards not far away! The Hundred Guards were unable to dodge in time, and a total of ten Hundred Guards were affected. At the same time, the defensive barriers of all the Hundred Guards rippled, and they steadily withstood this wave of attacks totaling 300,000 points.

If it were a couple of days ago, they might not have been able to withstand it, but Ying Le sent more people in. Three hundred people sharing the 300,000 damage would only result in 1,000 points of damage per person, which even a slightly better defensive barrier could withstand. But this certainly did not reassure the Hundred Guards. On the contrary, their actions became even more aggressive. Facing Yan Qing and the others who could dodge and had a smaller area of ​​attack, they chose to concentrate all their forces to attack the three generals and two star generals who were attacking the True Demon!
It seems the commander on the other side has realized this, Yan Qing thought to himself.

As a co-op boss in the Demon Gathering Land, the True Demon's attack logic isn't hard to predict; it will undoubtedly be a wide-area, low-damage AoE attack, designed to test players' team compositions to the fullest extent. The AoE damage won't affect Yan Qing much, but it will be extremely difficult for the well-organized, densely packed Guardians. Even if they don't attack the True Demon, its AoE attacks alone could wipe them all out.

Rather than hunting down Yan Qing, their priority was to eliminate the puppets currently engaged in battle, preventing them from further enraging the True Demon. This is why Yan Qing directly attacked the True Demon; compared to the puppets with limited attack range and slow movement speed, the True Demon was the greatest asset in eliminating the Hundred Guards!
However, Yan Qing still miscalculated one thing, namely that the damage chain inflicted by the True Demon could also be triggered by the Hundred Guards!

As the three demon generals took more and more damage, the health of the doctor who kills and the ghost who dies in vain plummeted. However, it seemed that the chain of damage could not kill them. They remained in a half-dead state, just one step away from being killed.

Damn it, why didn't you add a damage chain to the Hundred Guards? Yan Qing was quite curious to see if there would be a bug. It is known that the Hundred Guards have damage sharing. If a damage chain is added, wouldn't it create an infinite loop of damage sharing → damage sharing chain → chain damage sharing? In addition, the minimum damage value is 1 and will not be 0. The infinite loop will still deal damage in the end. Maybe one touch will cause all the Hundred Guards to explode.

So far, the two Steam Generals have absorbed countless amounts of damage. Every extra round the Killing Doctor survives increases their margin for error. Unfortunately, the hiding place that Yan Qing and the others temporarily chose is almost destroyed by the rain of arrows. Now it's their turn to use their bodies as shields to cover the puppet's relocation.

Just as they left the cover and were exposed at the crossroads, Murong Hui shuddered, goosebumps rising all over her body. A familiar shiver ran through her entire being. This was the sudden impulse of a third-level messenger, the last struggle of a powerful creature facing death!
The black spear that pierces through life and death is already aimed at her chest!
But in that split second, Murong Hui thought to herself: Just as Huang Quan said, today's battle... will resolve all the troubles!
(End of this chapter)