Chapter 144: Shadow Strike

"Awooo!"

Hundreds of lithe leopards stepped onto thick branches with exceptional agility, darting forward. Their sharp claws dug into the giant turtle's rough carapace, and with a few bounds, they scrambled onto the city walls.

Old Man Gui stood atop the watchtower, his face gloomy and unsightly. He forcefully massaged his temples in silence.

The defensive witchcraft formation of the caravan's city had not been activated. Looking out, the dense, boundless sea of beasts consisted entirely of ordinary fauna, with not even a few ferocious beasts at the lesser-witch level. Such a horde was a waste for the caravan's guards—who were of the major-witch level—to slaughter, let alone wasting expensive jade blocks and spirit crystals to activate the defensive witchcraft formation.

"Everyone, take up your weapons and hack these maddened beasts to death!" Old Man Gui shouted listlessly, then lowered his voice and spoke in a low tone to the several guard captains standing behind him: "Something is wrong. Maintain strict vigilance."

Ji Hao stood on the city wall, activating his innate divine ability, the Golden Crow Celestial Garment. Hundreds of dim, feather-like runes clung tightly to his skin, and a ball of raging fire encircled his entire body.

Before the dozens of leopards lunging at him could even get close, the terrifying high temperature ignited their fur, turning them into a pack of galloping fireballs. Screaming in agonizing pain from the scorching flames, the leopards ran and jumped about wildly, setting even more of their companions ablaze.

Footsteps sounded behind Ji Hao as a large crowd of caravan servants, maids, and even cooks and grooms swarmed up. Wielding various strange and bizarre weapons, they hacked and slashed indiscriminately at the beasts charging onto the city walls.

Blood splattered everywhere, and countless shattered beast limbs rolled down the city walls, slowly piling up on the giant turtle's dorsal shell.

Whenever the pile of beast corpses grew too large, the giant turtle would gently shake its body, and vast patches of messy flesh and blood would scatter in all directions, leaving not a single drop of blood on the turtle shell.

The mighty, surging beast horde surrounded them from all directions. By Ji Hao's eyesight, he could not even see the edge of the horde; the horde of these frantic beasts was at least hundreds of miles wide.

Yet Ji Hao could not understand these feeble beasts. It was utterly impossible for them to cause any harm to the caravan! Let alone these beasts that had not even reached the lesser-witch realm, even ferocious beasts at the major-witch level could not harm a single hair of the giant turtle!

The caravan's elite guards stood ready in strict formation within the city, guarding all crucial strongpoints. Those who stepped onto the city walls were ordinary servants and underlings. Although they were not the caravan's main combat force, having traveled in and out of the Southern Wasteland with the caravan, even the weakest maid among them possessed strength above the seventh layer of the Witch-Person realm. In any Southern Wasteland tribe, they would be considered elite warriors.

And those beasts were merely beasts.

Blade lights flashed as large numbers of beasts wailed and plummeted headfirst from the high city walls. Blood flowed along the walls. Gradually, even the giant turtle's occasional shaking could not clear away the blood in time, and rolling pools of gore accumulated on the shell, dyeing the giant turtle entirely in crimson.

"Are these little fellows here to throw their lives away?" The giant turtle lowered its head in a somewhat puzzled manner, looking blankly at these frenzied beasts. Countless beasts surrounded its four massive legs, frantically tearing and scratching, sending up countless sparks.

However, the giant turtle was a terrifying entity of the Witch-King level, and the physical strength of its body had surpassed the limits of normal creatures. The frantic scratching of these beasts had no effect whatsoever; the giant turtle didn't feel a thing, and not the slightest mark was left on the thick calluses of its limbs.

"Old Man Gui, I want to stretch my limbs." Old Ghost narrowed his eyes, turned his head, and made a very serious suggestion.

Old Man Gui's face suddenly turned pale, and he hurriedly said, "Absolutely not, Ancestor Turtle. You have just broken through and cannot yet control the witchcraft power within your body. If you smash up the flowers and plants of the Southern Wasteland with a single move, our caravan will have to pay compensation. Compensation! If you, old fellow, destroy the mountains and forests within a radius of a thousand li, you will only be eating vegetarian food for the next ten years!"

The giant turtle froze, let out a resentful grunt, and slowly set off on its way.

A single stride of the giant turtle could cover dozens of li, and with two or three steps, it surged nearly a hundred li forward. Yet all around, endless numbers of frantic beasts were still crawling, rushing, and leaping up its legs. Countless beasts attacked the giant turtle and the city on its back as if possessed.

Gradually, massive flocks of birds filled the sky. They flew in, blotting out the sun and sky, sweeping in from all directions with piercing cries. The sky turned pitch black, and not a single ray of light could filter through anymore. The air was filled with the frantic flapping of wings, and a ceaseless downpour of feathers and bird droppings.

The group of caravan servants on the city wall descended into chaos. Some servants wailed as they were completely enveloped by thousands of sparrows; unable to see their surroundings, they tumbled headfirst into the city, refusing to retreat no matter how wildly the servants flailed and beat at them.

Others were unlucky enough to have their eyes gouged out and their facial features clawed apart by sharp beaks. Screaming in agonizing pain, they jumped up and ran haphazardly into the city.

There were those even more unfortunate ones upon whom hundreds of thousands of large and small birds simultaneously expelled excrement from the sky, instantly encasing them in a thick layer of bird dung with a wet squelch... Watching that scene, Ji Hao felt a chill run down his spine, and he hurriedly increased the witchcraft power output of the Golden Crow Celestial Garment.

Chaos reigned on the city wall as the surging beast horde finally broke through the defense line formed by the servants, charging into the city and streaming wildly along the paths a dozen feet wide toward every corner within.

Old Man Gui finally let out a sigh: "Activate the defensive witchcraft formation and block these damn things outside the city!"

The metal city walls, several zhang high, shifted slightly, and the runes carved upon them lit up one by one. The chaotic flocks of birds flying in the sky suddenly stiffened, their flight speed dropping by more than half. Some of the weaker birds could no longer maintain altitude and plummeted heavily like stones.

The running speed of the beasts also dropped abruptly. Many beasts could no longer rely on their agility to leap onto the city walls and slid miserably down the turtle shell onto the ground.

While the other servants on the city wall were surrounded by dense swarms of beasts and birds, only Ji Hao's vicinity was completely empty. In a section of the city wall fully ten zhang wide, not a single hair remained; all beasts and birds that approached Ji Hao were instantly burned to ashes by the intense heat radiating from the Golden Crow Celestial Garment.

Just as the defensive witchcraft formation was gradually activating and its power steadily increasing, a fierce tiger darted past behind Ji Hao. From the shadow of the fierce tiger, a malevolent dark shadow suddenly lunged out.

The thin shadow hugged the ground closely, shooting rapidly toward Ji Hao. As it was about to reach him, the shadow suddenly stood upright, transforming into a bizarrely twisted rune that slammed into Ji Hao's back with a hazy blood-red glow.

"Honored guest, watch out!" Old Man Gui witnessed everything and let out a shrill scream.

Ji Hao turned around in a panic, watching helplessly as the blood-drenched rune fiercely struck his chest. (To be continued.)