Published: February 12, 2025
Everyone's gaze was focused on the Mechanical Genius.
At the first step, the affiliation of the Bright Star was unclear; this was only revealed through spatial hints, a frustrating behavior that evolvers had long grown accustomed to.
Of course, this way of doing things reduced the value of being one step ahead by half. However, since the Ogre Chain didn't care about the Mountain King Plateau, it wasn't a big deal.
It was evident to everyone that they were close to Cloud Summit Villa, and now that they were at the Mechanical Genius's Bright Star, everyone was eager to see what would happen next.
After the Ogre Chain struck the Soaring Crystal, the third Bright Star, which belonged to the Mechanical Genius, lit up. In the area where everyone stood, a massive light barrier appeared, in which a large expanse of flat grassland occupied most of the screen. A giant beast lay there, seemingly aware of something, as it lifted its head to look at the sky.
Because the image was shot from above, it looked as if the beast was staring at the six teams.
"The eighth row, fifty-sixth one." Many people recognized the beast's position on the Crystal Plate as soon as they saw it. Obviously, it wasn't a particularly strong Guardian Beast; they just didn’t know if it had leveled up or not.
Previously, for individual evolvers, Guardian Beasts were indeed quite impressive. Even the ones at the back of the line, even the eight-star evolvers, found them difficult to deal with.
However, it was uncertain whether they could choose to fight collectively this time.
Fortunately, after playing with ten types of cards and manipulating everyone's space, the answer given this time was somewhat less despairing.
Challenges could be fought collectively, and doing so wouldn't cause the Guardian Beast to level up. However, if they won the collective battle, the maximum distance they could cover when striking the Soaring Crystal in the next round was limited to below two Bright Stars.
This meant they could only move a maximum of two Bright Stars before they had to stop.
Clearly, for factions aiming for the ultimate reward, every round in these ten rounds was crucial. Missing even a few Bright Stars at this stage might lead them to lag behind by the same amount in the end.
The roulette space seemed to lower the difficulty but increased the dilemma, making each faction face a choice.
It was a matter of strategic selection, and one misstep could lead to their downfall.
Wu Xiu nodded at Ye Zhongming, her eyes betraying a hint of apology.
The King of Cloud Summit understood that Wu Xiu didn't genuinely feel sorry; she merely thought it would make both sides more accepting of the situation. They would definitely choose to fight collectively, which meant in the next, or the next next, rounds—third, fourth, and so on—they would only advance two Bright Stars.
After ten rounds, this would only be twenty-one Bright Stars.
The journey of over a hundred Bright Stars afterward needed Cloud Summit to navigate on its own.
Ye Zhongming could understand this choice and found it reasonable for the Ogre Chain to act this way.
After all, helping doesn’t mean fighting to the last breath or sacrificing the lives of subordinates or even oneself.
Every team leader and everyone present was deeply contemplating how to proceed when it was their turn.
With so many cards, so many Guardian Beasts, so many Bright Stars, too few rounds, and insufficient strength… all these factors led to one outcome: there would be too many surprises!
No one liked surprises. Good surprises were called delights, while bad surprises were called shocks or even terrors. Clearly, the surprises here belonged to the latter category.
The entire Ogre Chain team vanished from sight and appeared in the light barrier after a moment.
Two kilometers away from the Guardian Beast, the ogre's formation began to take shape; the terrain was open, and both sides immediately spotted each other.
The Guardian Beast howled and stood up.