It was truly like splitting bamboo with overwhelming force.

Currently, Mei City concentrated eight level nine lifeforms: Little Tiger, the Talking Lady and Black Cat, Liang Chuyin, Red Hair and the Undead Dragonfish, the Death King Tree, and Mo Ye. There should also be a nine-star evolved from Chameleon present. Except for the heavily injured Yangos, who could no longer fight, such a small city concentrated so many top-tier lifeforms. One could imagine the terrifying, destructive power they would unleash.

After over an hour of battle, it had shifted from mutual attacks to one-sided slaughter.

It wasn't that the parasites didn't resist; their resistance simply became ineffective.

The continuous shrinking of the encirclement made Cloud Peak's numerical disadvantage even less apparent. Led by top-tier lifeforms, they constantly assaulted the parasite battle lines, employing various tactics and skills to divide, encircle, charge, and break the enemy.

"It's too late to come out now."

Seeing this scene, Guangyao whispered.

The current situation was almost impossible to reverse because after Cloud Peak's air force withdrew, the magic crystal cannons roared again. The parasites compressed into the city center suffered near-devastating strikes.

After the second round of magic crystal cannon bombardment, Cloud Peak's teams followed up, killing as they advanced. Everyone fought bravely, eager to earn merits, as each parasite meant rewards after the battle.

Even Little Tiger and others became caught up in the killing, leading teams to assault the already chaotic parasite camps constantly.

Only the Talking Lady and Black Cat leading the zombie horde withdrew. It couldn't be helped; it didn’t matter previously when parasites surrounded them from all sides earlier. But once evolved were nearby, killing indiscriminately in the heat of battle would weaken their own forces.

So, Xia Lei had the Speechless Woman and Black Cat withdraw with the remaining several thousand zombies, stationing them not far from Xia Lei's location.

Because the Talking Lady hadn't shown any signs of slacking earlier, Mo Ye didn't take action, and the nine-star evolved from Chameleon didn't appear either.

Yellow Ball growled twice, clearly wanting to go down and join the slaughter. Xia Lei hesitated, then patted Big Yellow’s body and said, "The flesh and blood of these creatures are stinky; better not get involved."

Yellow Ball could only lie on the ground, watching Cloud Peak warriors fight below.

Yangos, already pulled nearby to recuperate, laughed unscrupulously, "Big Yellow, they really are stinky. Although I dislike bathing the most, later I'll have someone wash my relatively intact scales; it's too smelly."

Big Yellow gave the evil dragon a disdainful look, not bothering to communicate with an idiot.

"It's over." At this point, Xia Lei reached the same conclusion as Guangyao.

With the battle at this stage, there was basically no suspense anymore.

Earlier, she had already sent the Battle Rat Legion to conduct large-scale underground reconnaissance. There were indeed no other parasites, meaning only those trapped in the central area of Mei City remained.

Regarding the sudden disappearance of a million green-skinned monsters, Xia Lei naturally felt very strange and puzzled, with lingering unease.

But if they truly disappeared, what could be done?

Looking from another angle, it was actually good for Cloud Peak. After all, the enemy count was reduced to four point five million. Even if victory was certain now, it would still take one or two days to kill them all. During this process, there would always be resistance; resistance meant casualties. Having one million fewer enemies meant Cloud Peak could save many lives.

Since victory was assured, to reduce casualties, Xia Lei thought they should adopt a rotating attack method. This could ensure attack intensity while also establishing a second defensive line on the periphery to prevent some parasites from breaking out and escaping.

Escape?

When Xia Lei thought of this, she suddenly froze.

Logically, these parasites also had considerable intelligence. They couldn't not know what situation they were in after nearly two hours of battle.

So why didn't they flee? Not even showing signs of breaking out?

Were they truly fearless of death?

Xia Lei didn't believe that. Seeking advantage and avoiding harm was the instinct of all life. These parasites weren't stupid; they certainly wanted to live, too.

So why continue this hopeless battle?

Xia Lei felt restless, always feeling she had overlooked something.

She focused more intently on the battlefield. Indeed, Cloud Peak had a great advantage, almost surrounding the enemy, constantly cutting away the parasites' flesh and lives like knives.

No matter how she looked, she couldn't see any possibility for the enemy to turn the tables.

Not on the ground, not underground—the Battle Rat Legion had already scouted...

Xia Lei's expression grew serious; the bad feeling intensified.

Outside?

The Black-hearted Queen's gaze began scanning the surroundings. That shouldn't be possible either because Cloud Peak had been here for some days. They might not know every blade of grass, but they were quite familiar. Where around here could hide a million enemies!

However, the bad feeling in Xia Lei's heart couldn't be dispelled.

"Dispatch two Exquisite Floating Balls to scout the surroundings. Don't hesitate to go farther; see if there are any abnormalities."

"Have the Battle Rat Legion spread out, investigate underground around Mei City, see if there's anything unusual."

Issuing two consecutive commands slightly alleviated Xia Lei's unease. After thinking, she said to the command center members behind her, "Send messages to both Cloud Peak and the East Sea, inquire if everything is normal, and have them strengthen precautions to prevent unexpected situations."

The subordinates, though not understanding why Xia Lei did these seemingly useless things, obediently carried them out.

"Everyone, pay attention; see if there are any abnormal places. Report immediately upon discovery."

Xia Lei reminded important Cloud Peak members wearing the Battle Contribution Badge, hoping those on the battlefield might notice something she overlooked.

After about half an hour, feedback came from all aspects: no abnormalities found.

Xia Lei slightly sighed in relief, thinking she was too suspicious.

She refocused her entire mind on the battlefield. By now, the battle had lasted almost three hours. At least 1.5 million parasites were eliminated, an incredibly high efficiency. However, she could also see that, although the battle continued and the advantage kept expanding, the attack speed and the enemy kill rate had slowed. Firstly, many skills entered cooldown periods. Secondly, weapon and equipment damage couldn't be effectively replenished. Even with Cloud Peak's vast resources, they couldn't supply these indefinitely. Just in this short while, Cloud Peak had provided at least two million various weapons and equipment, among them hundreds of thousands of green-grade items!

Even a wealthy household couldn't sustain this.

Simultaneously, everyone's stamina and morale reached a node; it was time for rest.

Seeing all this, Xia Lei thought that if she were the enemy commander, now would undoubtedly be the time for a counterattack.

She was about to mock her own wild thoughts when her expression suddenly changed. She and Yellow Ball beside her almost turned to the rear simultaneously!