The blood mist drifted slowly through the sky, settling on the faces of the front-row wolf soldiers.
Though still warm, it felt cold to the very marrow of their bones.
Dead?
Their Eclipsed Moon Wolf Lord, who had always been invincible and ruled over the pack... was just slapped out of existence by the human before them as if he were swatting a fly?
Qi Zhimu landed and withdrew his palm. Standing tall, his indifferent gaze swept across the wolf pack ahead.
He didn't say a word.
Yet it was this calm stare that became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Fear pierced through their bloodthirsty instincts. It was unknown which wolf soldier was the first to let out a terrified wail.
The Borisin army, which had surged forward like a tide, now retreated in terror like the ebbing sea.
Shoving, trampling, routing... they weren't just retreating.
They were running for their lives.
Fleeing from the monster in human skin they saw before them.
Countless Borisin scrambled out of the primeval forest, vying to be the first to climb onto the Beastships and flee into the sky in disgrace.
Qi Zhimu had no intention of pursuing them.
Only the Eclipsed Moon Hunting Pack had fled; there were still wolf soldier legions like the Bloodwind Hunting Pack, the Blackclaw Hunting Pack, and the Zaochi Hunting Pack.
There would always be some who didn't believe in the impossible.
The facts were just as he expected.
Once the Eclipsed Moon Hunting Pack fled, the Bloodwind Hunting Pack followed close behind.
The Bloodwind Hunting Pack consisted of the finest beast-tamers and astrologers among the Borisin. They possessed the largest fleet of Beastships, allowing for the rapid migration of their entire tribe.
Their exceptional mobility made it nearly impossible for the Alliance to accurately locate their home base,
while they could harass and plunder the Alliance's expeditionary teams or merchant convoys from time to time.
But unfortunately... this massive primeval forest did not allow the Beastship fleet to control the skies.
The Bloodwind Hunting Pack's fleet clearly understood this and chose not to pit their weaknesses against the enemy's strengths.
Above the primeval forest, the Bloodwind Hunting Pack's fleet chose to open fire directly, conducting carpet bombing on the area below.
Qi Zhimu had long anticipated that the enemy might use this tactic and had ordered the Cloud Knights to hide under the giant trees in advance.
The Bloodwind Hunting Pack's long-range attack methods mostly originated from the Gene-shamans of the Zaochi Hunting Pack.
The Cloud Knights were all aware of this. They executed orders extremely quickly, skillfully using the environment to evade the attacks.
The trees in the primeval forest were simply too massive for the Bloodwind Hunting Pack to level them quickly.
Before they could, it was enough time for Qi Zhimu to treat the Beastships above as sitting ducks.
Countless hovering flying swords turned their blades toward the sky in unison. In an instant, they vanished from the spot, ascending thousands of meters.
Puchi—
The sound of flesh being pierced was continuous. The multiple brains within the massive bodies of the Borisin Beastships were all accurately skewered by the flying swords.
Once all the brains died, the Beastships lost control completely.
For a moment, dense black dots fell from the sky, crashing madly into the primeval forest like dumplings into a pot.
Falling from a height of thousands of meters, even the physically strongest Eclipsed Moon Borisin would die in droves, let alone the relatively weaker Bloodwind Borisin.
In less than ten minutes, the Bloodwind Hunting Pack's Beastship unit, which had once blotted out the sun, was wiped out, except for a few remnants that managed to pull up in time and escape.
This scene completely intimidated the other major hunting packs, such as Blackclaw and Zaochi, who had already reached the outer orbit of Sipusa Star and were preparing to claim a share of the spoils.
Reading the memory images from the brains of the Eclipsed Moon wolf soldiers, they saw the man standing with his hands behind his back, downing the Bloodwind fleet with swords that moved with his thoughts. Chills ran down everyone's spines.
Attack?
Who dared to attack?
The Eclipsed Moon Great Nest Father had just met him and was slapped into a blood mist. The Bloodwind main fleet's losses were also incredibly heavy.
How was this a cornered prey?
He was clearly a behemoth in sheep's clothing, opening its maw and waiting for them to deliver themselves one by one!
But if they retreated now, the Borisin would completely lose their say in this war and would be ridiculed by other Followers of Abundance groups.
Thus, the Borisin chose the most conservative and foolish strategy: a siege.
Innumerable Beastships circled outside Sipusa Star, attempting to use time to wear down this hard bone.
They didn't expect that this 'wearing down' would last for over twenty days.
They had once again underestimated the short temper of the Yaoqing Xianzhou and overestimated their own luck.
"Report—to the rear, to the rear! Imaginary Energy reactions from the Yaoqing Xianzhou fleet have appeared!"
"How many large Marching Battleships? If there are fewer than a hundred, we'll just devour them!"
"No... no... the number is uncalculable! The radar is completely red! It's estimated to be no less than ten thousand ships!"
"???"
Before the high-ranking Borisin leader could react, countless brilliant lights suddenly lit up in the deep space of the universe.
Those weren't stars, but twenty million Cloud Knight elites.
Tens of thousands of heavy marching ships simultaneously deactivated their Imaginary Energy concealment barriers, their engines running at full power.
Led by five Vanguards, their banners blotted out the sky, and their killing intent was almost tangible.
At this moment, all talk of wolf pride or sieges was thrown out of the window.
"Retreat! Retreat quickly!"
It was too late.
The moment the Yaoqing support fleet appeared, it meant the hunting net had been successfully spread.
The five Vanguards had already completed the encirclement. How could they allow these Abominations, who had driven the expeditionary team to a desperate situation, to escape easily?
On the ground, Jingliu struggled to look up.
She saw the dark sky, originally obscured by Beastships, being torn apart by countless energy beams descending from beyond the planet.
From the familiar main cannons of the marching giant ships.
Outside the atmosphere, brilliant and silent fireworks were blooming.
Every blooming firework represented a Beastship full of Borisin being completely turned into cosmic dust.
Debris streaked across the sky of Sipusa Star like a meteor shower.
Before the firepower of the most elite Cloud Knight units, this massive temporary Borisin coalition was fragile.
Qi Zhimu withdrew his gaze from the direction of the universe, slowly reining in his sharp killing intent, and turned to look behind him.
Jingliu still maintained her posture of leaning on her sword, covered in blood, her battle armor shattered.
Meeting her Master's emotionless gaze, she still couldn't see a hint of approval, nor a hint of blame.
But she would rather... her Master not look at her with such eyes.
Her nerves, which had been taut for dozens of days and had long since reached their limit, finally snapped completely at this moment.
Jingliu's vision went black, and her body slumped backward.
In the last second before her consciousness faded, she felt herself fall into a familiar yet unfamiliar embrace.
Qi Zhimu stepped forward and looked at his disciple lying in Clear Cold's arms, his heart full of complexity.
He would rather have double standards for his disciple just to give her more time to grow as safely as possible and slowly become stronger.
But what was the reality?
Forget medium-scale battles; even small-scale battles could face sudden changes, bringing one to the brink of life and death.
"In this cataclysmic battle, you have done well enough."
His fingers brushed against Jingliu's cheek. Qi Zhimu's softness toward her only revealed itself at this moment.
This period could be considered the first time he had fought alongside her, holding out until reinforcements arrived and witnessing the will and tenacity she displayed on the battlefield.
"Sleep well... Master is here."
At least for now, he was still here.