Chapter 992 - 435: Ecological Spread_2

Hearing this, Chu Xiu stopped asking questions.

Next, the offensive of the Blood Demon Army grew even more ferocious. For the sake of forming a complete ecology, they were literally throwing their Servants forward to madly charge without caring about lives.

Yet even so, their advance wasn’t fast, because Zhao Jie quickly redeployed a large batch of unmanned gun turrets to the frontline defenses, and after sniping off the Blood Demon Giants one by one, the Titan Giant Mechanisms began switching their kinetic shells over to high-explosive grenades.

What these grenades carried inside wasn’t shrapnel, but a kind of high-temperature chemical fuel similar to white phosphorus that could burn for an extremely long time. The "boom boom boom" sounds never stopped as the Titan Giant Mechanisms poured out these large grenades at a rate of over a thousand per second. The grenades fell from the sky like burning oil drums hurled by catapults, and as they reached the frontline, they detonated with a violent blast!

In an instant, the high-temperature chemical fuel was ignited and spread outward like an oil film, directly forming a burning zone with a diameter of over a hundred meters! The Blood Demon Servants within were splashed by the fuel and immediately let out shrill wails, but no matter how they ran, jumped, or rolled, they couldn’t extinguish the burning substance on their bodies at all!

Not only that, once the number of burning zones built up to a certain level, the heat they generated began to interact, directly triggering flashover throughout the forested area! The blaze spread with the wind at a terrifying speed, and in less than half an hour the entire outer perimeter of the camp was linked together, forming a massive ring of fire hundreds of kilometers long and more than ten kilometers wide!

Even for Chu Xiu, it was the first time seeing such a spectacular sight; with the help of the high-explosive incendiary grenades, the spread of the sea of fire far exceeded his expectations!

At first he was worried the flames might burn their way over, but using the perception of his Civilization Domain he quickly found that the surface of the tree-wall of the second line of defense had undergone special treatment, and its core material was heat-resistant, simply not prone to burning. Clearly, the government had long since made preparations.

"So that’s it. They’re planning to use the fire to counter the ecology."

Since it was an ecology, it definitely wasn’t just a simple environmental change, but the combined interaction of environment and living organisms. Those tendrils sprouting from underground to absorb the Life Energy of corpses were one such kind of organism.

And any organism, by definition, fears high temperature. In nature there are lives that can survive briefly in outer space, yet none that can live in temperatures above one hundred and thirty degrees.

Moreover, the larger the organism, the faster it absorbs heat, and the more it fears heat!

However, Chu Xiu’s expression quickly shifted to confusion, because he realized the enemy’s offensive hadn’t been halted by the raging fire at all; instead, they were charging into the flames like mad!

"Isn’t this just throwing themselves into death?"

In this gigantic ring-shaped fire zone, even if they didn’t touch the flames directly, the average air temperature was likely over five hundred degrees, not to mention the denser, higher-temperature, more lethal smoke! Even Warrior Tier Blood Demon Servants absolutely couldn’t endure for long in such heat!

And soon he noticed something else was off.

Though the blazing inferno was spectacular and was indeed spreading toward the Blood Demon encampment, under the perception of his Civilization Domain, the Power of the ecology wasn’t being affected much at all.

Those bright red tendrils merely retracted underground; at a depth of dozens of meters, the fire could hardly touch them.

And the bodies of the Blood Demon Servants that were being burned by the flames still had Life Ability seeping downward into the ground!

Just like how scorched straw can actually nourish the soil after Burning, these Blood Demon Servants scorched by the blaze seemed to be feeding Energy into this patch of dark-red land!

Chu Xiu immediately voiced his discovery, but Zhao Jie remained calm, only giving him a reassuring look.

On the other side, the five Blood Demons seemed to have anticipated that Chu Xiu’s side would rely on flames to halt the spread of the ecology, and instead decided to use the fire itself as cover to directly fully construct the Sea of Blood ecology. After quickly clearing an isolation belt, they began pouring Blood Demon Servants into the fire zone without pause!

The stench of charring and the screams of Blood Demon Servants in the flames wove together into a Purgatory-like scene. The blaze burned for a full hour before it finally began to subside, and during that hour no one knew how many Blood Demon Servants it Devoured.

Five hundred million? One billion? Two billion? Or even tens of billions? Hundreds of billions?

No one could keep count anymore.

They only remembered that the Titan Giant Mechanisms roared without rest, that the unmanned machine guns emptied crate after crate of ammunition, with fresh detachments constantly rotating up to the frontline.

When the inferno was finally smothered by sheer masses of flesh, all that was left were charred corpses and scorched earth.

But suddenly, a tender tendril sprouted from the ashes—then another, and another! The tendrils grew more and more numerous, denser and denser, like a Sea of Life being born out of the ruins!

"Roar!!!"

Suddenly, from the rear ranks of the Blood Demon Army came a deafening bellow, and in the next instant the entire Blood Demon Army grew restless again!

Countless Blood Demon Servants launched another Charge! But this time, as they stepped onto the dark-red soil, it was as if they’d been injected with stimulants—the blood light on their bodies flared, their auras surged, and their physiques visibly swelled larger by an entire size!

"These bastards are coming to die again... wait, no, this is bad!"

An Awakened was seated on top of the hundred-meter-tall tree wall, remotely controlling over a dozen auto-aim turrets nearby to reap lives. He’d assumed this wave would also be easy, that he could casually shred these "small fry" to harvest Experience Points, but he hadn’t expected that bodies which used to be blown apart by two or three rounds were now tanking more than a dozen large-caliber shells and still staggering forward like unkillable zombies!

Not only that—among these small fry, a mass of Blood Demon Giants and Blood Demon Followers also appeared! Their numbers were on a completely different level from the earlier direct assault!

"Screech!"

Before he could react, the whole sky was swallowed by shadow. Looking up, he saw thousands upon thousands of Blood Wing Demons spreading their wings, diving toward the lines behind!

One had to remember: these Blood Wing Demons were at baseline Fierce Tier, and among them were no small number of General Tier and King Tier monstrosities!

"Gulp!"

The soldier swallowed hard as he recalled the pre-battle orders; without the slightest hesitation he triggered the retreat plants and bolted toward the Titan Giant Mechanisms.

This scene was far from unique. After the Awakened pulled back, the unmanned turrets held out for a while, then were swiftly submerged and erased within the Blood Demon tide.

The Blood Demon Army was breaching the outer defenses at an astonishing Speed!

"So this is the Power of ecology?"

Even Chu Xiu was shaken. Through his Civilization Domain’s senses, he could clearly feel how immense that Power was! Even the Blood Wing Demons Flying in the sky were being significantly amplified!

Trading some insignificant cannon fodder for such a territory-wide boost—it was a total Blood Energy profit!

"When the government was surveying resources earlier, they discovered that beneath our feet lies a dense network of underground rivers and a great many mineral deposits."

"Within these resources is an abundance of Blood Energy, enough to fuel your civilization’s development for decades. Once the ecology is complete, that Blood Energy in the natural environment will be extracted by this terrifying Divine Technique and used to strengthen this army."

"That is why the Blood Demons can wage war in all directions and remain unbeaten."

Zhao Jie’s words made Chu Xiu frown once more. If the Sea of Blood ecology was truly this formidable, then even with his Ghostly Legion combined with the Titan Giant Mechanisms, there was no guarantee they could hold the line!

Especially against that sky-darkening mass of Blood Wing Demons—modern Technology had no truly effective counter for such highly agile aerial creatures, leaving only the Ghostly Legion to brute-force them!

Chu Xiu certainly had enough confidence in his Ghostly Legion, but if the ecology’s Power kept flowing without end, then no matter how strong the Ghostly Legion was, it would eventually be worn down and annihilated!

Yet Zhao Jie still looked utterly self-assured.

"Bang bang bang!!!"

By now, the Blood Wing Demons had already flown past the firewall and the tree wall. The anti-air positions hidden in the dense forest immediately opened fire, the roar of the AA cannons tearing through the skies. However, these powerful creatures merely raised their Flying altitude slightly, and those cannons became all but useless.

Explosions powerful enough to shake the ground erupted on the surface as well—indeed, the Blood Demons on the ground had run into the minefield defenses, and a great many were blown apart. But bizarrely, as long as they had one last breath, no matter how grievous the injuries, their wounds regenerated at frightening Speed!

With this simultaneous advance by land and air, the vast Blood Demon Army met virtually no effective resistance and pressed up to the core thirteen tree walls!

And as the army advanced, the ecology spread in tandem. Countless blood-red threads crawled over the surfaces of all living things like tangled mycelium; wherever they passed, trees withered, vitality vanished, and only a strange scarlet sheen remained on the surface.

Just as Chu Xiu was reaching the limit of his patience, even secretly wondering whether Zhao Jie was some undercover traitor deliberately sabotaging him, Zhao Jie finally moved.

"It’s time."

He tapped the comm device twice and spoke calmly: ""