57

The groups traveled quickly. Cheng Yang let his soldiers take care of the scattered monsters that appeared and stepped in to use Petal Blizzard against larger groups. After several days, their coordination had improved by leaps and bounds, allowing them to defeat any horde they encountered with ease.

When they arrived outside the Forgotten Grave, the group started another run. Since they were able to clear the instance in less than half an hour, the hunting efficiency inside couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as hunting normally.

When they left the instance, the group had almost a dozen pieces of equipment they didn't have when they entered. Even so, the quality of the loot was much lower this time. There weren't any special treasures and only two pieces of Black Iron equipment.

The soldiers were disappointed but Cheng Yang didn't care. He knew that if you wanted good loot, you needed to clear Hard Difficulty instance dungeons at minimum.

After wards, the group set off for the last marked location on Cheng Yang's map that wasn't a bridge nor in the city center.

Along the way, the group searched several search and rescue locations.

Unless a horde had long range attack capabilities they were helpless in front of Cheng Yang and his soldiers no matter how big they were.

After three and a half hours the group arrived at the marked location.

In between the gaps of the crumbling buildings a massive horde could be see. Cheng Yang estimated that there were at least one thousand five hundred monsters here, more here than there were guarding the bridges. Worse than that, if Cheng Yang's memories from his past life were still accurate there would be two Elite High Grade monsters in this horde.

Monsters hordes would only gather in one spot when something useful to humanity was nearby. These hordes were assigned as guards and the size of this particular group rivaled that of the guardian horde for a Territory Altar. Relatively speaking, the value a Territory provided to humanity was far greater than any mere treasure but since it was seen as a necessity, god was merciful and reduced the perceived value to monsters.

Even so, this treasure was deemed just as valuable as a territory in the eyes of the monsters present. This was especially obvious when you realized that not even his unique skill warranted the creation of two Elite High Grade guards.

You can only imagine how powerful the treasure they guarded was.

Cheng Yang, however, did not. He knew exactly what was hidden in the depths of that horde and was desperate to obtain it before the day after tomorrow. On that day, the tenth day after the apocalypse, the first Mass Monster Evolution would occur. Five percent of all Low Grade monsters would spontaneously level up to Standard Grade, creating a second crisis for humanity.

At that time this horde would have seventy five new Standard Grade monsters or more. Although Cheng Yang was confident he and his soldiers could still exterminate it, he couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be heavy losses.

"Koko, take the others and find somewhere to lie low nearby. I'm going to kite them for a little bit and try to lure out the commanders. If I don't manage to do that I can at least cull a few of them." Cheng Yang said.

"My Lord, you don't need to shoulder all of the danger by yourself. Let's find an intact building to use for protection, then you can use Sacrificial Blood Cloud and we'll face the horde directly."

"Hiding in a building ins't a safe thing to do. Take that one for instance, although we could stand on the second floor and the normal monsters wouldn't be able to do anything the commanders would just demolish the building directly." Cheng Yang said, "It's actually safer for me to go alone. I'm faster than the monsters so I wont get surrounded by those below High Grade. If they follow me away that's even better. You can come out of hiding and grab the treasure while they're gone."

Liu Hau was persuaded so he took the group of soldiers to hide some distance away.

As they were leaving, Cheng Yang carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain. He was able to see quite a few spots he could use.

He chose to fight in a narrow passage that used to be an alley. Although the buildings had collapsed, the concrete walls were still intact enough to block monsters from going through them.

Bestial monsters were usually quite stupid and the horde in front of him was no exception. As long as there was an unblocked path towards their enemy, those monsters wouldn't bother to create their own. They would continue to pour down the alley until it was choked with corpses.

After making sure that the walls wouldn't randomly collapse Cheng Yang rushed out to confront the horde.

There was only a single type of monsters in this horde since it was a naturally forming one. The Imperator Sarcosucus were massive crocodiles with a length of eleven meters and a height of two. Despite it's intimidating appearance these horrors were still just Low Grade monsters.

Of course, they were still among the most powerful and dangerous of all Low Grade monsters.

In addition to their massive size these monsters had forty health, three Physical Defense and two Magic Defense. In exchange, their speed was a measly point five. They were textbook meatshields.

Gods new rules allowed these creatures to live outside of the water indefinitely. The fact that god was merciful enough not to allow sharks to swim through the air caused several people to begin serious worship in Cheng Yang's past life.

When he appeared, Cheng Yang immediately attracted the attention of those vicious creatures. Their massive jaws opened with the expectation of fresh meat but their little legs constantly waddling ruined the image.

Cheng Yang rushed into range and ran back immediately after casting Icicle Blast. A shard the size of a lance shot forwards and penetrated the skull of a Standard Grade Imperator Sarcosucus. The enemies movements slowed to a snails pace as its entire body was covered in a layer of ice. The magnificent ice sculpture was shattered to pieces as the other crocodiles trampled over it to reach Cheng Yang.

Every now and then when Cheng Yang turned a Low Grade monster into a corpse its body froze and was stomped to pieces.

Cheng Yang was only able to kill a dozen monsters before reaching the alley. When he did, Cheng Yang stopped attacking and rushed inside. No matter how strong you were, being surrounded by over a thousand monster meant certain death.

The alley was only able to accommodate three of the massive beasts as it was only two meters across. Despite that the monster were climbing over each other to fit as many into the alley as they could.

Cheng Yang smirked, how could he allow such a good opportunity to pass? Suddenly hundreds of razor sharp petals appeared out of nowhere, dicing at the monsters flesh. Since the Imperator Sarcosucus were densely packed into the entrance of the alley Cheng Yang was able to hit eight of them with his AOE skill.

When ever an Imperator Sarcosucus managed to break free from the group to bite Cheng Yang, he would send an icicle down it's throat, killing it. These monsters were simply too slow, they would never be able to catch Cheng Yang in their jaws. Maintaining a constant distance of seven meters Cheng Yang calmly fought.

Even as the monsters in front died, those in the back pushed forwards like a writhing mass of snakes. Whenever he had the chance Cheng Yang would use the Petal Blizzard skill to creating a large pile of corpses.

This alley had turned into a mass grave. Every three or four meters a large pile of dead Imperator Sarcosucus could be seen. The alley was two hundred and fifty meters long so by the end, the strength of the horde would have be greatly diminished.

Even so, the number of Imperator Sarcosucus was just too high. Even if ten were killed another ten would squeeze their way into the alley.

As Cheng Yang neared the end of the alley he estimated that he must have killed at least four hundred monsters. Before he could celebrate s scratching noise behind him wiped the smile off of his face.

The end of the alley had been blocked off by a horde of monsters! Behind him, twenty Graveseekers had rushed down the other end of the alley.