Almost at the exact moment Han Feng’s shout rang out.

The runway beneath his feet suddenly buckled upward.

The solid concrete was torn apart by an immense force.

BOOM!

With an earth-shattering roar, dust and debris shot into the sky.

A massive chasm, over a hundred meters long and nearly five meters wide, appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the runway.

Several enormous "Earthworm Demon Insects" crawled out of the fissure.

They waved their scythe-like forelimbs, wildly destroying everything around them.

One unlucky pilot’s fighter had just finished refueling and was preparing to taxi.

He had no time to evade.

Its landing gear plunged directly into the newly formed pit.

The wing slammed into the ground with a gut-wrenching, metallic screech.

"My plane!" the pilot shrieked in despair.

"Enemy attack! The airfield is under attack!"

An even more piercing alarm blared through the night sky.

The automated turrets surrounding the airfield immediately opened fire.

But the bullets only sparked off the Earthworm Demon Insects’ hard carapaces.

"Damn it!"

The expressions of Gu Yun, Wang Meng, and the others who had already landed changed drastically.

The runway was destroyed!

This meant their fighters, which had just finished rearming, were completely unable to take off again!

They were all just grounded lumps of iron!

The entire apron descended into chaos.

"Heavy fire support! The airfield is under attack!"

"I repeat, the airfield is under attack!"

A ground crew member scrambled to dodge flying chunks of concrete, screaming himself hoarse into his communicator.

The shrill alarm was loud enough to rupture everyone’s eardrums.

In the center of the farm, inside the fifty-meter-tall Command Tower.

Deputy Director Zhou Ping’s fleshy, round face trembled in shock.

He stared intently at a split-screen display on the main monitor.

On the screen, his prized special-concrete runway had a huge chunk bitten out of it, leaving a hideous fissure.

"Airfield defense team! Are you all dead?!"

Zhou Ping grabbed the communicator, spraying spittle all over the screen.

"Didn’t you hear the attack alarm?!"

"Copy that, Director Zhou! Target is on the ground!"

Around the airfield, four "Fire Rain" close-in weapon systems, whose barrels were originally pointed skyward, immediately reacted.

Their dark, six-barreled rotary cannons began to spin at high speed.

The turrets let out a grating, metallic screech as their barrels swiftly lowered.

They aimed at the rampaging Earthworm Demon Insects on the runway.

"Fire! Blast those damn worms to smithereens!"

WHIRRR—

A metal storm descended in an instant!

The four turrets simultaneously spewed destructive tongues of flame.

Thousands of 20mm Spiritual Energy Armor-Piercing Bullets per minute formed a kill zone with no blind spots, firing from four different angles.

Before this dense hail of bullets, the Earthworm Demon Insects’ tough carapaces were instantly rendered useless.

THWIP THWIP THWIP THWIP!

The sound of warheads tearing into flesh became a continuous roar.

Green bodily fluids and shattered carapace fragments flew everywhere.

In just over ten seconds,

the seemingly invincible Tier Two Demon Beasts were torn to shreds.

Only steaming, disgusting puddles of mangled flesh remained on the runway.

"Target confirmed eliminated..." the turret operator’s voice reported.

But Zhou Ping wasn’t happy at all.

He looked at the utterly ruined runway, his heart aching so much he trembled.

"Fuck!"

Wang Meng slammed his fist on a nearby ammunition box.

"These bastards, their timing is fucking perfect!"

Zhang Hao quickly walked to the edge of the chasm and squatted down to inspect it.

The chasm was bottomless, cleaving the flat takeoff area in two.

Only a short section near the hangars remained, visually estimated to be no more than 120 meters long.

"Captain, at 120 meters, not even a trainer jet could take off."

Old Liu’s expression was grim.

Their modified "Hunting Falcon" fighters, fully loaded with ammo and fuel, required a runway of at least 300 meters to take off.

Now, it was completely hopeless.

"Something’s not right."

Han Feng, his Spiritual Vision active, furrowed his brow.

"That evil energy fluctuation... it’s gone."

He squatted down and touched the dirt at the edge of the chasm.

In his Spiritual Vision, the cold, sinister energy controlling the Earthworm Demon Insects had slipped away the moment the creatures died.

It vanished without a trace, deep underground.

"That Evil Cultist isn’t dead. He escaped."

Han Feng stood up and stated his conclusion.

Zhang Hao’s expression grew even darker.

This meant a Blood-Feeding Cultist capable of controlling Tier Two Demon Beasts had already infiltrated the farm’s underground.

No one knew where he might pop up next.

...

「Meanwhile, on the main western battlefield of the farm.」

ROAR!

Lei Zhen’s [Black Bear] Battle Armor smashed the head of a Tier Two Iron Armor Rhino with a single punch.

Foul-smelling blood splattered across half of the mech’s chassis.

He glanced at the dense cluster of red dots on his radar, then checked his Battle Armor’s remaining energy.

His one eye was filled with cold killing intent.

Although the beast tide was ferocious, it was nothing more than a futile suicide charge against his Iron Armor Camp and the Ground Guard led by Wang Defa. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

An attack of this magnitude was nowhere near fatal.

’What the hell are these Evil Cultists trying to do?’ Lei Zhen couldn’t figure it out.

’Are they trying to take my Golden Ears Farm with just these numbers?’

’Are they insane or just stupid?’

Just then, an image appeared on his wide-area surveillance screen that made Lei Zhen’s eye nearly pop out of its socket.

Orange-red flames shot up from the Purple Crystal Wheat Fields on the farm’s perimeter.

"Report! Fire detected in wheat field sectors three, five, and seven!"

"Report! Multiple hostile targets detected using Flying Demon Beasts to drop incendiaries over a wide area on the farm’s perimeter!"

On the main screen, several split-screen feeds simultaneously flared with a blinding orange-red glow.

Clumps of fire erupted in the fields of Purple Crystal Wheat that had not yet been harvested.

Fanned by the night wind, the fire spread rapidly.

From the high-altitude perspective of a drone feed,

the black-robed Cultists could be seen riding some kind of Flying Demon Beast, weaving back and forth along the defense line several kilometers away.

They didn’t get close at all.

They merely swooped in an arc through the air, casually tossing lit torches or firebombs.

After dropping their payload, they would immediately pull up and fly away.

"Goddammit!"

Lei Zhen’s eyes turned red as he watched swath after swath of the purple wheat waves go up in flames.

That Purple Crystal Wheat... every single stalk was money, Contribution Points, and food for countless people in East Sea City!

"Where’s our anti-air?! Shoot those feathered bastards down!"

Lei Zhen’s roar echoed through the battle channel.

"It’s no good, Director!"

Wang Defa’s urgent voice came from the top of the wall.

"They’re too far away, and they’re flying too erratically! Our fixed gun emplacements can’t get a lock!"

This was a blatant, undisguised scheme.

The pilots on the apron also saw this scene unfold on their tactical tablets.

"Frustrating! This is so fucking frustrating!"

Wang Meng kicked one of the thick tires of his "Gray Donkey," producing a dull THUD.

"If I could just fly, I could turn those bastards into pulp with one burst from my cannons!"

This time, Gu Yun didn’t argue.

He leaned against the fuselage of his beloved "Alice," his expression so dark it looked like it could drip ink.

He hated this feeling of being powerless despite having all the strength he needed.

Lei Zhen, of course, knew this was a tactic to lure the tiger away from the mountain.

He also knew their target was most likely the now-vulnerable core area.