Chapter 167 - Beginning of the Collaboration

"HE FEN!" Hei exclaimed as he noticed the danger that Hu Jie was facing.

He Fen immediately understood what Hei meant and threw one of his two wheels of wind and fire towards the headless cockroach.

Sizzle!

The disc-like weapon vertically cut the cockroach in half. The bodily fluids of the spirit beast fell on the diamond-skinned young man.

"Scram!" Hu Jie said, irritated as he didn't like to be covered by that sticky liquid. Then he nodded to thank Hei and He Fen. Although his diamond skin would surely protect him, it wasn't indestructible. There was a limit of endurance, and in front of all these enemies, it was essential to keep the received damage at a minimum.

"Cockroaches are resistant creatures. Don't aim at the head because they can remain active even without it. Aim for the legs or destroy their abdomen. Don't think about killing them but focus on incapacitating them." Hei suggested. After all, he knew the general characteristics of cockroaches.

At that point, Hei and the others also landed on the ground. With their weapons in their hands, they charged against the cockroaches. Even though they were surrounded, their luck was that most of the cockroaches were only first level spirit beasts. The few second-level specimens were comparable to the early stages of the spirit soldier rank. If they had all been on the second level, the situation would have taken on an even more desperate tone. But although they were mostly first-level spirit beasts, the number of cockroaches easily exceeded hundreds, so their situation remained serious. Thus, soon the clash became pure chaos as humans and spirit beasts challenged that group of cockroaches.

"Snake Whip + Spider Leg, Spider Cut!"

Hei combined two of his techniques to create a move that allowed him to attack while maintaining the position he was. Snake Whip allowed him to displace the bones of his shoulders to increase the range of action of his arms. Joining him with Spider Leg, Hei's arms had become like two sharp blades that cut everything they came in contact with.

"Intent of the Ribbon, Law of Wood, Whip Attack!"

Lian, who was beside Hei, was no different. This time instead of focusing on defense, she was attacking too. Her ribbons had hardened to such an extent that it was difficult to think they were made of silk. A further layer of bark created by her spirit power covered the two ribbons, increasing the heaviness of her blows.

Slam! Crack!

Each cockroach hit by ribbons similar to heavy metal whips was crushed, and their abdomen destroyed until all body fluids were released to the ground. Some specimens, however, when their abdomens were destroyed, would let out the eggs they contained inside, thus freeing cockroach babies.

"Cockroaches put their eggs in a special egg sack called ootheca. Some specimens leave the ootheca outside before hatching, while others prefer to keep the ootheca inside them and let the young ones out once fully developed. Being newly born, they don't pose a danger to us, but don't let you be distracted if you see this. Just focus on the adult cockroaches." Lang said while she cut the legs of a cockroach.

As a member of one of the Beast Families, she, too, was well informed about the characteristics of the various species of spirit beasts. Beside her, Fenrir was rampaging like never before, unleashing the ferocity of the wolves. Each blow of his claw would cut off the legs or heads of the cockroaches while his fangs would instantly destroy the hard exoskeleton.

"Understood!" Leon replied while waving his sword with all his might. The weapon cut through the air as if it weighed nothing. However, the roar that it emanated when crashing into cockroaches was a sign of the weight the weapon had. Beside him was He Fen, who was spinning his wind and fire wheels left and right without resting for a moment.

As for the four supporting martial artists of Hei's team, Mareo, Haruno, Lilian, and Mia, they were engaged in fighting cockroaches as well. The number of enemies was too high to leave even one of them to support the others. Furthermore, the goal of their plan was to thin out the numbers and then create a gap in that black sea.

'Make space! The cockroach hunter YE has arrived!'

'It isn't true that you are a hunter of cockroaches. Besides, when we were little, you had difficulty eating them.'

The two divine beasts, Ye and Xing, were raging near where the four supporting martial artists were fighting. Since their body had reached three meters in length, they could block the flow of enemies with their bulk and make the fight easier for Mareo and the others who weren't adept in fighting like the others.

"Tongues of Fire!"

"Ice Daggers!"

On another side of their line-up, Feng Chen and Huli Xieren were combining their powers. Their harmony was so perfect that they didn't need to communicate with each other at all. They could always understand what to do to help the other.

"Tiger Jab"

Hu Jie was fighting alone instead. His muscular body was as graceful as a feather as he hopped on his toes. Quickly he approached his target before punching him. Each time his punch landed, a hole would be created in the body of the cockroach.

As for the four Long Tian's guards, Dae-Won, Hide, Xinya, and William, they were still in the air to prevent the cockroaches in the sky from swooping against Long Tian and all the others. As bodyguards selected from a young age, their coordination was perfect, and so no one else was with them in the sky. In this way, there would be no disharmony in their formation.

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The Imperial Prince was, therefore, fighting on the ground with everyone else. His two twin hook swords crossed the air with high speed. Yet each of his blows contained a heaviness similar to the blow produced by Leon's greatsword. And this was true despite Long Tian's hook swords not having a third of the weight of Leon's sword.

"Repel!"

A second-level cockroach tried to hit Long Tian from behind. However, it was enough for the Imperial Prince to point one of his swords at the enemy. The cockroach that attempted to hit him was thrown back meters away.

"Crush!"

Another cockroach that was about to hit him by surprise was suddenly crushed to the ground by an enormous pressure. Such pressure was so intense that the cockroach's exoskeleton was destroyed.

The clash lasted for almost half an hour. The use of spirit power from earlier began to affect Hei and the others. The energies provided by Haruno's meal had now been exhausted, and even the restored quantity by cultivation was being consumed at high speed. Fortunately, however, the cockroaches, realizing the number of fallen comrades reached, chose to retire. As it had come, that black sea of insects went away from that place.

'Yes, never come back, or the huntress Ye will come to visit you.'

'I don't think they'll give up attacking just to keep you from visiting them.'

Ye and Xing, happy for the victory, started fighting each other. Although it could not seem so, they were just playing.

"It's finally over." Leon sighed as he sat on the ground to catch his breath. The others were also visibly exhausted.

"Indeed. Thanks for your help, Long Tian. Without you and the others, we wouldn't have been able to push them away." Hei said as he appeared rather pale from the consumption of spirit power.

"You don't need to thank me. We fought together to survive. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to do it either." Long Tian replied as he pulled out a waterskin to quench the thirst that such a confrontation had caused in him.

However, while Hei and the others finally became able to relax their nerves after repelling that mass attack, their face soon darkened even more than before. From multiple points in the forest, black moving clouds could be observed going towards a specific point more in-depth in the forest than where they were.

"What?!" they all exclaimed, unable to conceive what their eyes were seeing.

The number of specimens in the sky was far higher than the group that attacked them. This number reached thousands or perhaps tens of thousands.

"What the hell is going on?" Hei cursed as he couldn't understand the behavior of the cockroaches.

"What do you mean?" Long Tian asked, realizing that there was something wrong with the way Hei pronounced his curse.

Hei sighed deeply before reporting what he knew, "Cockroaches are creatures that live in groups, but they don't have a structure as advanced as other spirit beasts. They don't have a king or queen or any kind of leader. Their actions are based on a sort of collective consciousness that guides the group's actions. It isn't strange to find cases of cockroach colonies that separate themselves in order to have more food and space. However, the behavior of these cockroaches is unusual. If they really had the good of the group in mind, they wouldn't divide their numbers like that.

Furthermore, the cockroaches we dealt with are of a different species than those in the sky. No, each group is different from each other. It isn't impossible to find two groups of different cockroaches living together, but there would always be competition. Instead, all of them are acting by mutual agreement, as if they were following a specific order given by someone or something."

When Hei finished speaking, silence fell. Nobody knew what to answer because they didn't know the behavior of cockroaches. The only one who knew the matter was Lang, but she too found herself without an answer to provide. The behavior of cockroaches was outside the standard behavioral patterns.

Long Tian eventually made his decision and communicated it to the others, "Dae-Won, go with Hide, Xinya, and William. Each takes a different direction, but be careful."

"Boss, you don't want to..." Dae-Won tried to ask with a surprised expression. He knew what Long Tian was going to ask him, but he didn't think that the situation had deteriorated up to that point.

"Yes. We will activate the Imperial Horns."

Long Tian's voice was steady and left no room for second thoughts. At hearing his words, even Feng Chen and Hu Jie seemed utterly amazed.

"Long Tian, are you sure?" asked Hu Jie, who couldn't refrain himself.

"Normally, I wouldn't rely on reasoning without proof. But you have all seen Hei's skill and knowledge. I, therefore, want to trust his feelings. If there is someone or something which is commanding all those cockroaches, then it isn't just us who are in danger. We have to gather as many people as possible. Next time it could be an entire army of second-level cockroaches, and if they should attack in waves, even we won't get out alive."

Hearing what Long Tian said, Hu Jie understood the extent of the danger they could face. If it had happened something like that, then, no matter how hard his body was, not even he would have left this forest alive.

Without wasting any more time, Dae-Won led the other three to carry out the order of their leader. In their hands, they each had a small wooden horn engraved with strange symbols. As soon as they blew in these horns, a kind of specific noise was emitted outside.

"What are those?" Hei asked. He didn't know the function of these instruments but knew that they had to be something important.

To Hei's question, Feng Chen replied, "They are Imperial Horns. They are musical instruments, but their purpose is not to produce music. They serve as signals of communication for the army during a battle. Each order corresponds to a specific sound. In this case, it is an assembly order. Every child of the Empire learns to recognize these sounds as a child. But I guess that coming from the Forgotten Ocean is normal that you don't know them."

"Assembly? You mean...?"

"Yes," Long Tian replied before continuing, "I am summoning our other classmates. In total, nearly five thousand people have entered. If we want to have even some semblance of possibility, we must reach at least a thousand people. I know that you are tired, but I ask all of you to collaborate. Especially you Hei and your spirit beasts. We must build an emergency fort while the others gather the rest of our classmates."

When the others heard Long Tian's plan, each of them had different thoughts. Some agreed while others weren't so convinced. As for Hei, he thought within himself that it wasn't a senseless plan.

'Building a fort means becoming an easy target, but it also has its advantages. We will be able to defend ourselves more easily. If I want to take my family out of this forest alive, I have to collaborate with Long Tian. Being an Imperial Prince, the others will follow him without a doubt. And in this situation, having a leader who has a firm grip on the soldiers is essential.'

"All right, Long Tian. We will follow your plan. But remember that my priority is the survival of my companions."

"Sure. I promise you that I will do everything to get us out of this damned forest."

At that point, Hei and Long Tian exchanged a handshake to seal their collaboration towards that mortal danger. It was no longer possible to retrace their steps. They had to proceed with Long Tian's plan and hope that it was the right choice to survive.