Chapter 2370: Chapter 2370 Monster Nest
The sheer number of monsters in the Zestrone Cliff was overwhelming. Eliminating them all to reach the bottom of the cliff was no easy feat.
Ye Liuyun was deep in thought when the guttural roars of beasts began echoing closer and closer.
The sounds didn’t just come from the tunnel, they reverberated from the cliff face itself.
The songstress rushed to the edge and peered down, her stomach lurching as she spotted hordes of monsters scaling the rock wall at terrifying speed.
"They’re coming up! They’re coming up!" The Songstress shouted frantically at Ye Liuyun.
Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun released the soldiers he had subdued earlier, directing them to form defensive lines. Some guarding the tunnel entrance, others positioned along the cliff to intercept the monsters.
Meanwhile, he and the Songstress boarded the Riftblade once more, lifting off from the Zestrone Cliff to attack the ascending creatures from a distance.
All across the mountain wall, countless monsters could be seen densely packed, rapidly climbing upward. The sight made the Songstress break out in goosebumps.
“Hurry up and kill these monsters. Just looking at them is disgusting,” the Songstress urged.
Ye Liuyun immediately activated the energy cannons, bombarding the swarming monsters to relieve the pressure on the defenders above.
Ye Liuyun and the defending troops held out for half a day before the number of monsters finally began to decrease.
"Just how many of these things are in this cliff?" The Songstress muttered in disbelief. "We must’ve killed over a thousand by now."
Ye Liuyun nodded grimly. "I’m pretty sure it must’ve been over a thousand and who knows how many more are there left in the tunnel."
Compared to the cliff, the tunnel was much easier to defend. The soldiers held long spears and blocked off the back of the tunnel, preventing the monsters from charging through.
The monsters weren’t actually very strong in terms of combat ability; their main advantage was their climbing skills, which gave them a clear edge on the cliff walls. But once on flat ground, without space to run or move around, the soldiers could easily defeat them.
But soon, all the monsters retreated completely, vanishing without a trace.
With their howls gone, the Zestrone Cliff fell into an eerie silence.
Ye Liuyun piloted the Riftblade, descending once more onto the mountain peak.
"Since they couldn’t break through our defenses, they must have switched to defending their territory."
He had no intention of charging recklessly into their lair. Seeing the situation had stabilized, he dismissed the soldiers guarding the tunnel entrance, ordering them to rest. Instead, he stood alone at the entrance of the tunnel, gripping his Demon Slayer, deliberately baiting the creatures to attack again.
Sure enough, after a while, the monsters sent someone to scout the situation. When it saw that only Ye Liuyun was at the tunnel entrance, it let out a roar to alert its companions and then charged at him but only to be sliced in half by a single strike from Ye Liuyun.
Soon, Ye Liuyun heard a rustling sound.
A horde of monsters surged forth from the tunnel.
Ye Liuyun remained calm and composed, striking toward the tunnel entrance one slash at a time, testing the minimum amount of force he needed to use.
Gradually, he realized that even his sword intention could slay three or four monsters in a single stroke.
Standing effortlessly at the tunnel entrance, he continued his relentless assault, one swing after another.
The monsters couldn’t break through his blade’s light blockade at all.
Eventually, they ceased their futile charges, retreating to a distance to watch Ye Liuyun warily.
Ye Liuyun also began to release his Divine Sense, probing the situation inside. He discovered that the entire mountain was hollow.
Encircling the interior was a spiraling staircase descending downward, likely leading to the bottom of the mountain.
Within the range of his Divine Sense, the steps were packed with monsters. Ye Liuyun estimated that there were at least one to two thousand monsters inside the cave.
Ye Liuyun also tried different methods to attack them. He used his Golden Phantom Eyes to release flames, setting one of the monsters on fire.
The monster was completely helpless. It didn’t use any effective method to extinguish the flames and was burned to death.
"It works!"
Ye Liuyun felt a surge of joy in his heart and immediately began to focus on setting more of the monsters on fire, continuing his attack.
The monsters were gathered together, with no way to avoid the flames. The monsters in the front could charge toward Ye Liuyun in a desperate attempt to fight back, but the ones in the back had no choice but to endure until they were burned to death.
"Eh?" Ye Liuyun suddenly noticed that these monsters had previously thrown the bodies of the slain monsters down the steps. But now, even though some were being burned to death, none of the monsters dared to jump down.
The bodies of those burned to death were only thrown down after the flames on them had completely extinguished, allowing the monsters to clear the path.
"Is there something below that they’re afraid of hurting?" Ye Liuyun thought to himself as he released the Vermilion Bird.
"Follow me and set fire below!" Ye Liuyun instructed the Vermilion Bird.
The Vermilion Bird wrinkled its beak, clearly disliking the smell of the place. However, it didn’t dare to disobey Ye Liuyun’s orders and had no choice but to follow him as they moved downward.
"Seal off the tunnel entrance and wait for me here." Ye Liuyun instructed the soldiers and the Songstress.
He led the way with flames, while the Vermilion Bird was responsible for spitting fireballs, burning everything below.
"Roar!"
A high-pitched shriek immediately echoed through the mountain.
All the monsters immediately went wild, scrambling up the cliffside and charging toward the Vermilion Bird and Ye Liuyun.
"There are no restrictions on flight here. Fly up into the air and start spraying fire down."
Ye Liuyun sensed the area and found that there was no anti-flight suppression, so he instructed the Vermilion Bird to give it a try.
The Vermilion Bird, surrounded by flames, flew into the air. Sure enough, there was no anti-flight suppression.
However, those monsters couldn’t fly. They could only scream at the Vermilion Bird.
The Vermilion Bird immediately released two fireballs downward, causing all the monsters to scream in response.
Some of the monsters, disregarding their lives, kicked off the cliffside and jumped toward the Vermilion Bird, attempting to reach it.
For a moment, all the monsters focused their attention on the Vermilion Bird, completely ignoring Ye Liuyun.
The Vermilion Bird dodged skillfully in the air. Even when some monsters managed to reach it, they were immediately set on fire. In fact, some of the monsters, after catching fire, fell back down.
At this point, the monsters became hesitant and no longer dared to pounce on the Vermilion Bird.
"There must be something they are guarding below that is afraid of fire!" Ye Liuyun thought.
He held his fire, halting the Swift Sparrow mid-flight while keeping the energy cannon trained on the beast.
"Aw, aw..."
The monsters screamed as they chased after the Riftblade.
But without the anti-flight restrictions, the Riftblade’s speed was much faster than theirs.
With his Golden Phantom Eyes, Ye Liuyun finally saw what lay beneath the mountain.
There was a massive monster submerged in a huge blood pool. Ye Liuyun immediately fired an energy blast at it.
But due to the distance, the monster managed to dodge the attack. Its speed in the blood pool was surprisingly fast.
But soon, Ye Liuyun’s warship was about to reach the bottom of the mountain.
The monster surprisingly leaped out of the blood pool in panic, pointed toward a cave, then raised its hands in surrender!
"Is it surrendering?"
Seeing the monster’s gesture, Ye Liuyun couldn’t be sure whether it was truly surrendering.
He didn’t attack with the energy blast again. Instead, he controlled the Riftblade to stop and aimed the energy cannon at the monster.
The monster pointed at a cave again, gesturing with its hands.
Ye Liuyun wasn’t sure what it meant, so he used his Divine Sense to probe inside. To his surprise, he detected an exceptionally powerful energy fluctuation.
"Power of Origin?"
Ye Liuyun thought to himself that such a powerful energy could only be emitted by the Power of Origin.
