Chapter 0534: The Plan
"That son of a bitch! Or is it the daughter of a bitch?!" Li Luo swore. Watching the human vessel farming going on before him was gory.
The humans could only lie there numbly as their stomachs were repurposed for another round of farming. They had become desensitized to such horrors after many cycles.
They had lost all hope, all resistance. They simply lay there, resigned to their fates.
"An abomination of a bitch." Li Luo concluded his swearing.
It made his skin crawl.
It was the first time he had seen this level of cruelty and gore from Others.
People being used in factory farming.
Jiang Qing'e and the First Princess were looking a little ill as well. Despite their strong constitutions, this was truly a little too unpalatable. Not even in the Umbra Cave had they seen something of this level.
The First Princess took a deep breath to steady herself. "From what I sense, the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent is indeed a bit stronger than what Commander Huang Lou told us. By my estimation, it is probably a seven-pearl Heavenly Pearl in strength. That's about as strong as I am. I would be able to hold it down, but beating it will not be easy."
"The problem is the army of Disaster-class and below minions that are ready to jump on us." Li Luo frowned. "The Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent is no fool—it will call reinforcements to overwhelm us."
The First Princess nodded uncomfortably. There were only three of them. It was not a good situation.
Jiang Qing'e was silent for a moment before she said, "The Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent is the key to control the entire city. If we strike, we must strike at the head, swiftly and with deadly force. If we can just take down the head, the rest will not be a problem."
"Strike at the head..." the First Princess repeated doubtfully. "It will require you and me to go all out.
"But if we're dealing with the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent, what about the rest of the minions? Without you on crowd control, they'll come for us very quickly." She looked over at Li Luo. "We can't really leave it to this guy," she said jokingly.
Li Luo wanted to feel angry at being dissed, but there was indeed no disrespect in the remark. It was a fact that he couldn't even beat a single snake creature, let alone multiple of them. Unless he pulled out the three-tailed heavenly wolf trump card.
"We might really have to leave it to that guy," Jiang Qing'e said with a small smile.
"Eh?" The First Princess stared at her.
"I have a plan," Jiang Qing'e explained calmly. "Your Highness, you will fight the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent first and hold it fast. I will use World of Light to control the field, trapping the Earthly Disaster-class creatures within. Li Luo will place the cleansing dew and form a barrier that should hold down the Others for a while. When that is done, I will come to you and we will take down the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent together.
"If we can use that window of opportunity to take down the boss, then the rest of the cleanup should go very smoothly. Of course, the difficult part of this plan is that I can only trap the strongest snake creatures within my World of Light. I cannot possibly capture all the Eroding-class Others as well. Li Luo will have to deal with them by himself.
"Also, there is a time limit to how long my trap will last. The snake creatures will gradually shrug free of my World of Light. Before that happens, Li Luo must successfully establish the cleansing barrier, or we will be overwhelmed."
"Sounds like a good plan," the First Princess said with admiration. "Li Luo, can you do it?"
Li Luo turned to Jiang Qing'e indignantly. "Qing'e, she thinks I'm a baby!" he whined.
Jiang Qing'e rolled her eyes at him. "Well, if that's settled, let's give it a try. Li Luo, if you cannot finish the cleansing in time, retreat without hesitation. Her Highness and I will break away and follow."
"We'll give up on it?" Li Luo asked.
"We won’t give up," the First Princess answered. "But we would scout for other squads in the surrounding area and work with them to clear this city. We would just have to split the points with them."
Li Luo frowned. If they wanted to win, they could not be running around splitting points. Their plan B would lead them away from championship glory.
"I'll do my best," he vowed.
It looked like the coffee-carrying back scratcher of the squad had an important job after all.
"I believe in you," Jiang Qing'e said simply.
The First Princess' lip twitched. "I believe in you too, Li Luo."
"Don't worry missuses," Li Luo said stoutly. "I will always protect beautiful ladies like yourselves."
"Ah, such a honeyed tongue." The First Princess laughed.
She pulled out a jade-green scepter marked with a golden eye at one end. Gripping it with two hands, she began to gather prodigious power to her.
The jade scepter was a gold-eye treasured artifact, and what looked to be an upper as well.
At the same time, a pale, green battle armor shimmered into view, snug about her voluptuous body. She transformed from an adventuress into a knight in a flash.
"Qing'e, I'm off."
She shot off with an explosion of green energy, propelled by her resonant power.
Straight to where the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent was walking.
The sudden explosion of power got its interest, of course. With a sweep from its powerful tail, it leveled the building standing between them, locking on to the fast-approaching First Princess.
It was not expecting such a strong human to appear in the middle of its territory.
And charging at it.
It could sense that this was a powerful opponent, one not to be underestimated.
Its hiss rent the air, and Riverguard City stirred to life. All forms of Others heeded the call, rushing over to their master.
The snake creatures in particular were the strongest and first to arrive.
"World of Light!
Weng!
The blaze of light spread out around her.
The luminous enclosure sent the darkness scattering, and the entire area around them was purified.
Some of the smaller Others were instantly destroyed.
The Earthly Disaster-class Others were frozen in mid-air, the light holding them firmly in place.
Jiang Qing'e stood on top of a weathered building, her sword held erect as her eyes darted out across the landscape. Once she ascertained that all of the snake creatures had been caught, she gave Li Luo a look.
His stomach lurched with nervousness, but he sucked it up and carried on, sprinting out of the inn and onwards to his goal.
Up next, the Li Luo part of things.