Chapter 745: Gloom Death Knights!
In terms of individual strength, the Gloom Death Knights were actually inferior to the Dark Rampage Bears. Their attack power was average, and their defense was also average. They had no obvious weaknesses, but they also had no outstanding strengths.
In reality, however, the Gloom Death Knights were even harder to deal with than the Dark Rampage Bears.
The most terrifying thing about them was that they were extremely skilled at coordination. Furthermore, they possessed a special method to link their auras together, exerting a power where one plus one became greater than two.
A single Gloom Death Knight was not terrifying.
Ten Gloom Death Knights were also not terrifying.
But one hundred Gloom Death Knights were an existence on a completely different level.
Despite only possessing strength at the 8th level of Heavenly Core Realm, the combined charge of one hundred Gloom Death Knights was something even an ordinary cultivator at the 9th level of Heavenly Core Realm would find difficult to withstand.
The leading Gloom Death Knight suddenly raised the cold black spear in its hand and uttered strange syllables.
After that, all the Gloom Death Knights behind it raised their spears at the same time and let out a roar.
Then, led by the foremost Gloom Death Knight, all one hundred Gloom Death Knights raised their spears high and launched a charge toward Li Yun and the others.
An extremely terrifying aura erupted instantly.
This charge was like a dam bursting and a tidal wave exploding. It was vast, mighty, and unstoppable.
"Falling Leaves Linking Cities."
"Wind Spirit Barrier."
"Quicksand Wall."
The three people from Bei Tianque’s side attacked at the same time.
Sword Qi whistled, quickly forming three barriers in front of the group.
The first barrier was made from gathered quicksand. The dense quicksand was a full zhang thick. Although it was sand, once condensed together, it appeared indestructible and difficult to break.
The second barrier was formed from wind. Fierce winds howled and swirled continuously, strangling everything within.
The third barrier was unleashed by Bei Tianque and was relatively the most powerful. Willow-leaf-like Sword Qi continuously emerged, numbering in the hundreds and thousands in an instant. They gathered together like a thick city wall.
After deploying the three barriers, Bei Tianque and the other two showed expressions of confidence.
Clearly, in their view, it was impossible for the Gloom Death Knights to break through the defensive line they had set up.
However, after only three breaths, their expressions all changed.
The Gloom Death Knights charged forward like a dark torrent and did not even seem to care about the triple barrier.
Only when they neared the first barrier did they suddenly level their spears and thrust forward.
After holding for only a single breath, the quicksand barrier was directly smashed to pieces.
It was like dry weeds before a sickle. Before the Gloom Death Knights, it had no resistance at all.
Immediately after, the Wind Spirit Barrier and the barrier composed of Sword Qi were also directly destroyed by the spears in the hands of the Gloom Death Knights.
Compared to the quicksand barrier, they fared no better.
Three breaths.
Every breath, one barrier shattered.
In the blink of an eye, the barriers set up by Bei Tianque and the other two had been completely destroyed, yet the speed of the Gloom Death Knights had not slowed in the slightest.
"Five Elements Wind and Thunder Sword."
At the critical moment, Li Yun acted.
He swung three consecutive sword strikes, and three incomparably sharp streaks of Sword Qi collided with the Gloom Death Knights almost simultaneously.
A massive booming sound erupted.
The violent collision caused sparks to fly from the armor of the leading Gloom Death Knights, which then directly caught fire. Under the obstruction of the three streaks of Sword Qi, the charging speed of the Gloom Death Knights finally slowed down.
At the same time, Li Yun’s figure was knocked back dozens of meters.
However, his reaction was extremely fast.
The moment he landed, an azure gourd appeared in his hand.
Then, exactly one thousand precious swords whistled out simultaneously.
"Divide the battlefield and kill them all."
His voice rang out sternly.
The most terrifying thing about the Gloom Death Knights was their combined charging power. Conversely, their individual strength was not that great. As long as they were divided, they could be killed easily.
And when it came to dividing the battlefield, the most suitable method was naturally Sword Control Art.
A full thousand precious swords transformed into ten sword formations.
Each sword formation was composed of one hundred precious swords, and their auras were sharp and fierce. In an instant, they split the group of Gloom Death Knights into ten sections.
"Kill."
Ye Qingxue and the others immediately attacked.
Once divided, the threat of the Gloom Death Knights was greatly reduced. Soon, they were all slain by the group.
"Senior Brother Li’s methods are truly formidable."
Ye Qingxue and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling even more convinced of Li Yun’s prowess.
Being able to manipulate one thousand precious swords simultaneously required extremely powerful soul strength. Otherwise, the first person to be injured would be the user himself.
Clearly, the methods Li Yun mastered were even more numerous and powerful than they had imagined.
This gave them greater confidence for the challenges ahead.
"Hurry up and rest."
Li Yun did not think too much about it.
With a wave of his hand, half of the crystal cores dropped by the Gloom Death Knights fell into his grasp.
After absorbing these crystal cores, along with all the crystal cores dropped by the Dark Rampage Bears earlier, his strength advanced further, reaching the mid stage of the 2nd level of Heavenly Core Realm.
Although the increase was not large, this was only the twelfth round.
He would have many more opportunities to increase his strength later.
Soon, fifteen minutes passed.
A swarm of cyan mantises quickly flew out from the Endless Demon Cave.
Each of these mantises was ten meters tall with cold eyes and six forearms. Each forearm was like a hay cutter, reflecting cold and sharp light.
"Six-Armed Mantises."
Upon seeing these creatures, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
These Six-Armed Mantises looked terrifying, but among all demon beasts, they were actually one of the easier types to deal with. They were far less troublesome than the Dark Rampage Bears or the Gloom Death Knights.
This type of demon beast was essentially a free round.
Barring any accidents, no one would lose to such creatures.
Indeed, without much effort, Li Yun and the others easily killed all the Six-Armed Mantises. During this process, Li Yun barely needed to act.
After absorbing this batch of fifty crystal cores, Li Yun’s strength increased once more, though there was still a significant gap before reaching the intermediate accomplishment stage.
Soon, the fourteenth round of demon beasts appeared.
These demon beasts were thumb-sized beetles. They had a ring of silver-white patterns on their backs, and they emitted a piercing buzzing sound as they flew.
"Silver-Patterned Beetles."
Everyone’s mood grew tense.
These Silver-Patterned Beetles were also an extremely difficult type of demon beast to handle. Their level of difficulty even surpassed that of the Dark Rampage Bears and the Gloom Death Knights.
The most terrifying thing about this type of demon beast was that it could turn invisible.