Chapter 898: The Reinforcements Have Arrived

Li Pu explained, "When I saw the second five-star bug, I understood that the bugs had begun to evolve much faster than predicted. The fact that there were two five-star bugs present on the battlefield implied that there had to be a six-star bug somewhere, too."

The huge six-star bug rose into the sky and widened its maw at the titan-class shuttle, as though it were about to consume it whole.

The hunters present at the scene were so shaken by the appearance of the monstrous bug that they had frozen stiff, but Yang Ze remained calm. "Marshal Li, I believe you're mistaken about something."

Li Pu glanced at Yang Ze in confusion.

"I didn't come alone, you see." Yang Ze raised his head and looked toward the sky, where a shout could be heard from a distance.

A huge gale began to blow as a storm of genetic energy filled the air, destroying any airborne bugs. The skies suddenly darkened as a fish the size of a giant whale manifested above the ground.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!"

A wave soared into the air. As Zhang Lie punched forward, the fish slammed its huge tail on the ground and sent a torrent of water surging into the air. Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him.

The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, swamping the six-star bug that was the size of a skyscraper and knocking it down.

The waves burst apart, filling the air with ripple after ripple of genetic energy. A storm of water-attuned genetic energy flooded the battlefield, smothering the fog, smashing the ground, and utterly annihilating the bugs that were crawling all over. Bug shells, ichor, and appendages were sent flying.

The six-star bug the size of a skyscraper fell to the ground in a heap. Li Pu glanced at the scene from afar, his mouth agape. Just who was the hunter that had knocked a six-star bug down with a single punch?

"Who is that?!"

Yang Ze's head dipped in respect. "The leader of the Zenith Dojo, the king of the kingdom of Limit, the champion of the Void Cup, of mankind, and my mentor—Zhang Lie."

Li Pu's shocked expression didn't fade. "Zhang Lie!"

He now understood the source of Yang Ze's confidence. With Zhang Lie himself participating in the fight, this invasion of bugs was hardly a problem at all.

Yang Ze continued proudly, "I also work with a group of excellent hunters."

Earth-shaking sounds came from all over the encampment.

In the east, storm and lightning took to the air. A dragon of wind and tiger of thunder manifested in the skies.

To the northeast, golden radiance illuminated the skies, and a golden rain fell to the ground.

In the north, a brilliant white light scorched the air.

To the west, with a surge of vitality, a patch of forest grew out of nothing.

In the southwest, purple flames formed a bonfire that dyed the skies purple. Huge meteors fell from the skies.

To the south, a black sun and silver moon rose into the heavens. In the southeast, paired blades of white and black shot toward the ground.

Li Pu was shocked by the manifestations that had appeared all over the encampment.

"These are..."

Yang Ze smiled. "My companions, my team."

Tears suddenly fell from Marshal Li Pu's face.

Yang Ze's arrival had brought him hope. He knew that the bugs were far more difficult to deal with than they seemed, but as Yang Ze quelled more and more of his fears, Li Pu finally allowed himself to dream of salvation.

At the height of his despair, Li Pu believed that the entire galaxy had forsaken Mars. Only now could he recognize that the opposite was true. He hadn't cried even in the face of death, even against a five-star bug—but now, the moment he believed that salvation was truly here, Li Pu cried.

Yang Ze smiled sadly. Li Pu had had to shoulder too heavy a burden, one so heavy no one else could imagine its weight. He hadn't had a chance to rest since the start of the invasion—there were always more bugs to slaughter, more battles to win, more troops to command.

As the explosions rang out through the air, the swarm of bugs was forced to retreat. They fell back to avoid the slaughter.

The six-star bug slowly crawled back up. Zhang Lie's blow had heavily wounded the bug instead of killing it entirely—but the first thing the bug did was try to flee.

Yang Ze strode forward. "Rest well, Marshal. Leave this six-star bug to me."

Each step that Yang Ze took summoned crystalline lotuses around him. A horde of sharks appeared to his back.

"[The Boundless Blade: Shark Horde]!" As Yang Ze unsheathed his blade, the water-attuned genetic energy around him shot forward in a flood. The sharks followed the current toward the six-star bug, and the crystalline lotuses exploded on contact with its body.

Green ichor splattered the ground as a chain of explosions wrecked the six-star bug's body.

The pale-blue sharks ganged up on the prone bug and tore at its exoskeleton and the flesh beneath. They hindered its movement, slowing it down as Yang Ze's blade traced an arc through the air.

"[Argent Mirror]!" Yang Ze's sword swung down. A huge crack extended down the six-star bug's body from head to tail, less a sword strike than a crack splitting the surface of a mirror.

The crack propagated, and with the sound of shattered glass, the humongous six-star bug's body fell apart.

This was a brand-new technique that Yang Ze had intuited with [Reflected Sight, Refracted Vision] as the basis.

Once the six-star bug was killed and the other bugs retreated, the titan-class shuttle began to land. Zhang Lie jumped down from the shuttle as Yang Ze stepped forward and asked, "Are all the bugs in space dealt with?"

The shuttle had been beset by a swarm of bugs while heading toward Mars. Zhang Lie had leapt out of the shuttle and slaughtered a path through them.

He shrugged. "There were too many of them, and I couldn't kill them all before they ran off. I was a little worried about you, so I had the shuttle head here first."

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Zhang Lie had arrived just in time to prevent the six-star bug from attacking the titan-class shuttle. At the same time, the teleportation array on the shuttle flashed. Countless disciples of the Zenith Dojo surged forth toward Mars...