One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

Everyone looked over.

Sure enough, on the rock face about a hundred meters away, there was a clearly visible entrance to a giant pipe with a metal frame around its edges. The metal frame was heavily corroded, its surface covered with orange-red rust, and in some places it had even rusted through, revealing a dark, gaping interior.

However, there seemed to be an unusually large number of monsters gathered near the entrance.

Not just a few, not just a dozen, but dozens. Rippers, shriekers, shapeshifters, bone-eating worms, blood-sucking leeches… like a massive gathering of monsters, they huddled together, blocking the entrance to the pipe. Their eyes gleamed with various colors under the dark red light—red, green, yellow—like will-o'-the-wisps.

Moreover… one could vaguely see crimson light flickering inside the entrance. That light wasn't coming from the outside, but rather shining through from within. This indicated that there were things inside the pipe, and not just one or two.

"No other choice! Charge!"

Nie Lingfeng forced the "Tyrant" back with a single strike—the Snow Drinking Blade struck the Tyrant's scythe claws with a loud "clang," sparks flying everywhere. The Tyrant was forced back two steps, and Nie Lingfeng used the force to retreat several meters.

Looking down at Xiaoyun, who was still unconscious in his arms but whose breathing had become more stable—her breathing was no longer rapid, but long and even, like that of an ordinary sleeping child. Her face was no longer ashen, but had a faint blush.

His eyes were resolute.

"Wang Ye, can you implement another large-scale control operation? Give us a chance to break through!"

Master Wang's face was as pale as paper, and a trickle of blood even oozed from the corner of his mouth. The blood was dark red, flowing down from the corner of his mouth and dripping onto his tattered Taoist robe, leaving a small, dark, damp stain.

His fingers were trembling slightly, a natural reaction to the excessive consumption of his Qi, not fear.

But he gritted his teeth, his cheek muscles bulging into a hard lump.

"Sure! But only for three seconds at most! And afterwards I'm afraid..."

"Three seconds is enough!"

Nie Lingfeng interrupted him. On the battlefield, three seconds is the difference between life and death. Three seconds is enough; three seconds can decide whether they leave alive or die here.

Then he looked at the people from the Eagle Country and the Cherry Blossom Country, as well as his own companions.

"Everyone, get ready! Wang Ye, unleash your magic and charge into the pipes! Chen Duo, stay close! Chu Lan, Ling Yu, Bao'er, clear the way!"

"clear!"

"receive!"

The British suit-wearing elite and Catherine exchanged a glance and nodded. Their eyes were complex—containing resentment, fear, but above all, a desperate will to survive. At this moment, no hatred, no profit, was more important than staying alive.

Fujiwara Sousuke gripped his kunai tightly. His one arm trembled—not from fear, but from blood loss. The bandage around his severed arm was soaked with blood, dark red blood trickling down his arm and dripping onto the ground. But he didn't fall; he was still standing, still able to fight.

Master Wang Ye took a deep breath.

He took a deep breath, so deep that his chest felt like it was about to burst, making a creaking sound. His ribs were groaning, his lungs were screaming, but he didn't stop.

Close your eyes.

The already dim Qimen formation beneath our feet began to spin wildly again, even emitting a creaking sound as it struggled under the weight. This wasn't a metaphor; there was a real sound—the groaning of rocks and soil as the earth's energy was forcibly stirred. The illusory image of the Bagua appeared and disappeared intermittently, its brightness flickering unstablely, like a light bulb with an unstable voltage.

His hand seals moved so fast that they left afterimages. His ten fingers flew, intertwined, and connected in the air at such a speed that the naked eye could not distinguish one finger from another; all that could be seen was a blurry, butterfly-wing-like afterimage.

He was muttering incantations, but not scriptures or spells—Feng Hou Qi Men doesn't require incantations. He was simply using those syllables to maintain his focus and prevent his consciousness from being overwhelmed by the excruciating pain and exhaustion in his body.

His aura fluctuated violently in an unstable manner. His Qi surged, expanded, and compressed in his dantian, like a pot of boiling water that might lift the lid at any moment.

"Feng Hou Qi Men - Luan Jin Tuo - Time Stop!"

As he uttered the last two words, Master Wang suddenly opened his eyes!

His eyes—those usually deep, smiling eyes—were now bloodshot. Not just a few bloodshot veins, but a dense network of bloodshot veins, like a spider web, covering his entire eyeballs, making his eyes look like two glass beads wrapped in red threads.

Two lines of bloody tears even flowed from the corners of his eyes! The blood did not come from the wound, but from his tear ducts—caused by the rupture of capillaries due to excessive intracranial pressure.

Bright red blood streamed down his cheeks, pooling into a drop at his chin before falling to the ground with a "plop".

He pressed his hands down hard!

"Buzz—!!!"

A force of time-space stagnation, far more domineering and unreasonable than before, erupted from him!

That force wasn't pushing outwards, but rather like ripples spreading across the water when a boulder is thrown in. But it was faster, stronger, and more unreasonable than ripples. It didn't "push," it "stabilized"—wherever it passed, everything settled down.

This time, the scope was narrowed down to the straight path leading to the pipe entrance—a corridor about 100 meters long and 10 meters wide—but the intensity was pushed to the limit!

All the monsters along the path, whether they are the "Rippers" and "Shapeshifters" on the ground, the "Screamers" in the low sky, or even the swarms of insects flying in the air—

It was as if the pause button had been pressed!

A "Ripper" has raised its scythe claws high, ready to strike, the claws frozen in mid-air. You can see the bloodstains on the blade, still congealed in mid-air, not dripping.

A "shrieker" had its mouth open, and a sound wave was still gathering deep in its throat. The distorted patterns of the sound wave in the air were clearly visible, like an expanding bubble.

The swarm of insects froze in mid-air, each insect's wings maintaining the same flapping angle, some upward, some downward, like a painting suddenly frozen in time.

Only a few colossal monsters of the "Tyrant" and "Nest Guardian" levels trembled violently, still struggling to break free from this terrifying time-stopping constraint. Their muscles throbbed violently beneath their skin, their bones creaked and groaned, and their claws dug deep furrows into the ground.

But the movements were as slow as a tortoise crawling.

"Now! Charge!!!"

With a shout, Nie Lingfeng grabbed Xiaoyun and dashed out like an arrow!

He moved so fast his feet barely touched the ground—each step he took landed for only a fraction of a second before he sprang back up. His footsteps left shallow craters in the ground, sending pebbles flying behind him.

Zhang Chulan, Zhang Lingyu, and Feng Baobao followed closely behind!

Lightning, dark thunder, and blade flashes cleared a path, smashing and shattering the monsters frozen in place by time!

Zhang Chulan's body crackled with lightning, transforming him into a human-shaped ball of lightning that crashed directly into a group of immobilized "Rippers." "Boom—!" The lightning exploded, sending the monsters flying in all directions like bowling balls. Some crashed into rock walls, some slammed into the monster horde, and some shattered in mid-air—blown apart by the lightning.

Zhang Lingyu's black lightning spread out along the path like a black carpet. The monsters covered by the black lightning, before they could even move after the time-stop effect ended, were eroded, solidified, and disintegrated by the black lightning, turning into black statues.

Feng Baobao's katana drew silver arcs through the air. Each strike precisely targeted the monster's vitals—throat, heart, eyes. With a flash of light, a thin, clean cut appeared on the monster's body. Blood only began to spurt from those cuts after the time stop ended.

Chen Duo, supporting Bald Bear, struggled to keep up. Bald Bear's cane pounded on the ground with a rapid, drum-like sound. His leg ached so much that his face contorted in pain, and sweat streamed down his forehead, stinging his eyes and making him blink repeatedly, but he didn't stop.

The three from the Eagle Country and the Cherry Blossom Country did not dare to slack off and used their last bit of strength to rush forward.

The suited elite tucked his energy pistol back into his waistband—he was out of bullets—and picked up a scythe claw that "The Ripper" had dropped from the ground, using it as a weapon. The scythe claw was heavy, and his arm trembled, but he still held it up.

Catherine staggered as she ran, needing to grab the wall for support every few steps. Her face was as white as paper, her lips were purple, and she looked like a snowman on the verge of falling apart.

Fujiwara Sousuke supported the unconscious Hattori Chizo—no, Hattori Chizo had already died in the earlier melee. He was supporting… no, he wasn't supporting anything, he was just a person. His one arm hung limply at his side, the gauze at the severed arm was already soaked with blood, but he was still running.

A hundred meters is a distance that would normally be covered in an instant, but at this moment it felt like the ends of the earth.

The time-stop effect only lasts for a short three seconds.

Moreover, as the group charged into the monster horde, the time-stopping domain began to fluctuate violently and collapse. The monsters that had been "frozen" began to tremble uncontrollably, as if something was breaking free from their restraints from within.

The first second.

The group rushed forward fifty meters.

Zhang Chulan took the lead and had already reached the front of the group. His lightning exploded ahead, blasting away the last batch of insects blocking their path. The entrance to the pipe was in sight, less than fifty meters away.

The second second.

There are still 30 meters to the pipe entrance.

The edges of the time-stopping zone began to collapse. The outermost monsters, those that hadn't been completely "frozen," began to regain their movement. They seemed to have suddenly woken from a nightmare, their eyes snapping open, letting out a bewildered yet furious roar.

Then—they pounced on him like crazy!

Monsters from both sides and behind surged in from the edge of the time-stopped realm like a flood bursting its banks. There were so many of them that they were beyond counting; all that could be seen was a black, surging wave that roared deafeningly.

The third second.

Ten meters from the entrance!

The Time Stop Domain is completely shattered!