Published: February 12, 2025
As the sky grew darker, Xingzhou City gradually settled down.
The Cloud Summit team had retreated several miles away, setting up camp on a series of connected barren hills.
Within the camp, campfires flickered, and several pieces of equipment and beads obtained from the roulette and posthumous children illuminated the area, making it as bright as day.
Thick trees formed a fence around the camp, shaping a simple village that even included a gate and watchtower.
For every evolver, these tasks were easy and could be completed in just a few hours.
Behind these fences stood the embodiment of Cloud Summit's technology, with dark magic crystal cannons and Thunderstorm Towers emitting a dangerous and even deadly aura, deterring many mutated beings lurking nearby from approaching.
The battle for Xingzhou City had ended, concluding with a decisive victory for Cloud Summit.
After Ye Zhongming killed the Ghost Wolf with the Bone Shattering Staff, there were no more level eight beings left in Xingzhou City, and the absence of leadership left the remaining mutated beings in the half city without direction.
Faced with the solid defense of Cloud Summit, along with the ranged weapons and troops behind the lines, not to mention the wounded but still operational Yangos, the fully functional Ye Zhongming, and the Yama Tree, the mutated beings found themselves powerless.
Those indigenous inhabitants of Xingzhou City, who were already in a state of mental disarray and disunity, couldn’t inflict any substantial harm on Cloud Summit’s formation.
Especially when the Yama Tree, Ye Zhongming, and Red Hair began utilizing their skills and area-of-effect weapons, the sight of even level seven beings being instantaneously killed sent chills down the spines of many mutated beings, causing their psychological defenses to collapse completely.
This chaos spread rapidly, compounded by Ye Zhongming organizing several strike teams composed entirely of core members and high-level battle beasts to raid key areas, causing even quicker disarray among these beings.
Although the fighting continued over a prolonged period, with occasional hordes of mutated beings coming from the outskirts and wilderness to join in, their numbers were not enough to threaten Cloud Summit.
Detailed and comprehensive intelligence constantly monitored them; whenever a group showed signs of gathering around the battle formations, Cloud Summit would immediately dispatch troops to attack them.
The goal was not to eliminate them but to disperse them.
The battle concluded before nightfall, with a small number of mutated beings still harassing Cloud Summit's formation. However, the objective of the battle had been achieved, and after clearing the battlefield, the Cloud Summit warriors began to retreat in succession.
In the past, cleaning up the battlefield wouldn’t have been so quick, but now there were plenty of Cloud Summit soldiers, and during the cleanup, they only needed magic crystals and high-level materials, with each person responsible for ten to twenty bodies.
At the center of the camp, on a hill, there was a large bonfire where Ye Zhongming and the core members not on duty gathered. Surrounding them were the posthumous children and leaders of the major factions in Ying City who had participated in this battle.
On the bonfire sat a large pot, and those in the know recognized it as the Water and Fire Cauldron, a coveted cooking tool from Cloud Summit.
The bubbling bone soup, after the addition of some seasonings and vegetables, emitted a fragrant aroma that made the battle-hardened warriors, who had been tense all day, drool.
Of course, the rich bone soup didn’t attract the attention of the various team leaders and prominent figures who were used to finer things; their eyes were fixed on the towering piles of magic crystals and materials nearby.
Many people were seeing so many magic crystals for the first time.
Many evolvers also knew that the materials piled up nearby were worth just as much as the mountain of magic crystals; each mutated being had only one magic crystal, but there were many parts on their bodies that could be utilized, with each one being equally valuable in the hands of those who needed them.