Chapter 894: Worse Than Reported

As though he had seen the uncertainty written on the disciples' faces, Zhang Lie smiled. "Don't worry. I've reviewed the list of rewards. Feel free to exchange your points for anything on the list—if you can obtain enough points, you can even get a dozen disaster-grade cores. I'll find them somehow. This I pledge to you all."

Zhang Lie's pronouncement reminded the disciples of the Zenith Dojo that the man in front of them, their dojo leader, was the king of Limit. He was the monarch of the sole and largest kingdom in the second realm, and he had the power to do as he wanted. Even though he had ascended to the third realm, he still had control of his kingdom in the second realm.

The disciples grew excited fantasizing about the rewards they would be able to obtain by slaughtering these bugs. They grouped up into parties as they discussed how they would take on these bugs.

The expedition to Mars was, by this point, more a hunt than a rescue mission.

Seeing the disciples' greedy stares, Zhang Lie cautioned, "Don't get overconfident. It's not as easy as you think to deal with these bugs. They've managed to take over half of Mars in a matter of days. It's clear that they have a strong leader and tactician, and even the foot soldiers will be stronger than anything you've faced to date."

Sun Mengmeng added, "It won't be easy to obtain these rewards—you'll need courage, and you'll have to risk your lives!"

The disciples of the Zenith Dojo stood up and thumped their fists on their chests.

Zhang Lie and Sun Mengmeng's words didn't dampen the hunters' enthusiasm; if anything, they were fortified by the challenge.

Zhang Lie led the hunters of Team Zenith and Hong Xi's four-hunter party to a private conference room.

"Hong Xi, the four of you will be responsible for leading the disciples of the Zenith Dojo into battle and protecting them. It's fine for there to be wounded, but you have to make sure they don't suffer too many casualties."

Hong Xi and the others nodded.

Zhang Lie turned to Sun Mengmeng. "Sun Mengmeng, I'll task you with protecting the Zenith Dojo's disciples as well. This won't be difficult for you, will it?"

Sun Mengmeng shook her head. "Leave it to me."

Just then, the titan-class shuttle's robotic voice rang out, "Warning! Warning! A large number of unidentified flying objects are approaching!"

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Zhang Hong grew alarmed. "A swarm of bugs?"

.

Zhang Lie led the hunters of Team Zenith toward the shuttle's command center, which had large screens from which they could see outside the shuttle.

There, they saw an endless swarm of bugs approaching them through the void of space, their frightening probosces clattering. The bugs were ridiculously large. Each was the size of an autobus, and the largest were even the size of cruise ships.

Those bugs that were strong enough to survive in outer space had to be at least four-star—the equivalent of peak-grade second-realm lifeforms, or mutated-grade third-realm lifeforms. Some of the largest bugs might even have strength on par with superior- or peak-grade third-realm lifeforms.

The crew that Zhang Lie had requested to pilot the ship opened a communications channel with Team Zenith. "A swarm of space bugs is approaching us up ahead. Your command, sir?"

Zhang Lie shouted, "Get ready for a skirmish—we'll barrel through their forces!"

By then, Mars was in terrible shape.

Hong Tianqi himself had told Zhang Lie that more than half of Mars had been taken over by the space bugs, but in truth, the situation was much worse than Hong Tianqi had described.

Hong Tianqi didn't hide any pertinent information; rather, the situation on Mars was deteriorating in real time, and it had been three whole days between when Hong Tianqi received the news and Zhang Lie set off. Quite a lot could happen in three days—by now, Mars was almost completely occupied by the space bugs.

Despite the grievous wounds that had been dealt to the Marshal of Flame Li Pu, the clans and hunters of Mars continued to resist the bugs' invasion, but to no avail. The bugs seemed to come in endless numbers, and the Martian clans were the first to retreat.

Because they retreated without informing the rest of the hunters, the painstakingly constructed defensive lines on Mars fell apart within moments, and huge swarms of bugs overwhelmed the Martian military. The situation was far more severe than anyone could have anticipated—and there was worse to come.

"Scram! I won't stay here like the rest of you to be turned into fertilizer for these bugs!"

As the situation on Mars grew worse and worse, the clans began to flee from Mars itself.

The Martian clans took the lion's share of the planet's resources for themselves and reveled in the power they wielded—but now that Mars was beset by an overwhelming crisis, their first thought wasn't to protect their planet, but rather to flee.

The Martian military tried to stop them. "If you leave now, Mars will truly be destroyed! There are still about a hundred million hunters in the various settlements, and a few hundred million people on Mars overall!"

"That's none of our business! Why should we hunters of the major clans give up our lives for the chaff?!"

The Martian military boasted little power to prevent their departure.

"Even the Marshal of Flame was heavily injured. If we stay, we'll die! Better to leave while we can."

The Martian commander himself appealed to the two clans. "The Yang and Gu clans have lived on Mars for centuries! Are you really going to flee as your homeworld gets destroyed?!"

The Yang clan head spoke first. "Of course I'm upset. Everyone is—but no matter how important our land and properties are, our lives come first! We can rebuild once the worst of the disaster is over."

The Yang clan was among those clans that were departing from Mars.

"Enough." Li Pu walked out of the military encampment, grimacing as he clutched his wounds. "If they want to leave, let them leave. I'll stop these damned bugs myself!"

The soldiers had no choice but to hold Li Pu back.

"Marshal, you can't go!"

"Your injuries are too severe to allow you to fight. The situation on Mars is bad enough—if we lose you too, this will truly be the end!"

Li Pu cried out, "If I don't stop the invasion, who will?"

Just then, a huge crash shook the entire settlement. The hunters turned to the source of the commotion. Their faces turned pale; their eyes widened with shock.

"This is the end..."

A gigantic black bug emerged from the ground. It had the body of a python—a long, sinuous body, with an engorged head that faced the sky. The exposed portion of its body alone was over five hundred meters long.

The hunters, who had had to fend off countless waves of bugs over the last few days, could immediately identify that the bug that had just emerged was a five-star one.

Li Pu's face turned pale. "For the bugs to have evolved so quickly..."

The bugs hadn't been too dangerous at the start of the invasion. As time progressed and they devoured the planet's resources and lifeforce, however, they began to evolve from one-star to two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star—a five-star bug was one that Li Pu would have trouble defeating even at peak strength, let alone in his current severely injured state.

The fifth-star bug had destroyed the encampment's underground security measures. With their defensive perimeter down, a swarm of bugs bore down on the encampment like a black wave filling the horizon.

Li Pu stepped forward. "All of you, leave! I'll try to get you as much time as I can!"

The soldiers called out, "No, General, you can't! You're our last hope!"

Li Pu's face was stoic as he shouted, "This is an order from your marshal!"

Despite their unwillingness, the soldiers immediately saluted him.

"Yes, Marshal!"

The Yang clan head rushed back. "We're trapped by bugs from all over! They're swarming toward us—they want to take us down in one fell swoop!"

Li Pu strode forward. "No need to panic. I'll hold back their assault. The rest of you should form a vanguard and evacuate as many of the civilians sheltering in the encampment as possible."

The Yang clan head frowned. "Most of those civilians are ordinary citizens with no combat ability whatsoever. If we try to escort them out, we'll all die!"

The Gu clan head advised, "Marshal, think carefully about the situation. It'll be difficult enough for our clans and your soldiers to push through this endless swarm of bugs. If we have to evacuate the civilians as well, everyone will die!"

The Yang clan head continued, "Li Pu, Marshal Li, do you really not care about the fate of your soldiers?"

The Gu clan head chorused, "Li Pu, think carefully about your brothers-in-arms! You have to be responsible for their lives."

The Yang clan head advised, "Li Pu, there's no need to risk your life or your soldiers' lives for people you barely know."

Li Pu grabbed both clan heads by their collars. "Don't be ridiculous," he spat out. "I'm a soldier, and my duty is to protect everyone on Mars. Among the civilians in the encampment are my soldiers' families. If you don't want my soldiers' help, feel free to try to break out of the bugs' enclosure yourself!"

The clan heads' faces turned ugly. Even with the clans' full strength, they would be hard-pressed to survive under such dire odds.

The Yang clan head struggled to detach himself from Li Pu's grip. "Calm down, Li Pu, calm down!"

Li Pu snorted as he threw both clan heads to the ground. "Neither of you should have run while the military was setting up a defensive perimeter. If your clans hadn't fled, we wouldn't be in such dire straits, and my soldiers wouldn't have perished! When I heard about what you two fools did, I had half a mind to court-martial you all—and I would have done so if not for these exceptional circumstances!"

Desertion was a crime punishable by death, and Li Pu hated the idea of deserters.

Li Pu shouted, "As soldiers, our first responsibility is to the civilians of Mars. What say you, soldiers?"

"Yessir!" The soldiers remaining in the encampment stomped on the ground with their right boot, sending a tremor through the battlefield.

"Do as you will!" Li Pu commanded the two clan heads, then soared into the sky.

The two clan heads talked it over before coming to the inevitable conclusion that they had no choice but to agree to Li Pu's terms. This was their only chance at survival. If they were to try to break out of the bugs' enclosure themselves, they wouldn't be able to succeed.

The clan hunters' faces were as pale as ash. "We should have fled long ago."

The Yang clan head consoled his family, "There's no need to make such expressions. The situation isn't as bad as you expect."

The Meng clan head asked, "Oh? Could it get any worse? We're hemmed in by a swarm of bugs, and there's no way we'll be able to break out. If we have to protect these civilians at the same time..."

The Yang clan head's eyes glinted maliciously. "If we have no choice, we can use those civilians as bait. Feed them to the bugs."

The Gu clan head reared back. "What would the soldiers say?"

The Yang clan head snorted. "Do you really think Li Pu's working for the good of the common people? He's just making a show of it! Don't you see that he's indirectly signaling what his forces should do? He's telling them to use the civilians as bait—do you really think a simple-minded person could become the Marshal of Flame? Everyone in his position has trodden on the dead to get where they are. Their hands are fresh with blood!"