The entire Devil Abyss shook. The channel ahead grew explosively once more, widening by several times. A horde of devil creatures poured forth.

This time, dozens of new kinds of devil creatures appeared. There were leopards, tigers, snakes, and all kinds of other creatures the size of small mountains.

“The third eruption.”

Gu Yang’s heart was a bit heavy as he witnessed the horde of devil creatures pour forth. In the past, the Devil Abyss would only erupt twice before ending. But now, a third eruption had occurred.

These new devil creatures were even stronger. In a one against one, even most rank nine Celestials would find it very difficult to fight them. Furthermore, with the current proportion of humans to devil creatures, one person was fighting dozens of them at once.

“No wonder boss wanted us to put up more forts.” Li Qi and Song Mingyuan exchanged a glance. Long Chen had known that even more terrifying devil creatures were coming.

“Everyone, work together with the forts. Your mission is no longer to kill devil creatures, but to make sure your necks stay attached,” shouted Long Chen to the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples. After so much fighting, their numbers had dwindled to under one hundred and thirty thousand. It could be seen how bitter this fight had been.

This was the cruelty of cultivation. Even if you were talented, even if you were determined, even if you weren’t afraid of dying, the Heavenly Daos would ensure some were mercilessly eliminated no matter what. No one could change this reality.

However, not one person had died in the Dragonblood Legion. Let alone deaths, none had even been injured yet. This showed just how terrifying the combat power of the Dragonblood Legion was. There was a giant gulf between them and the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples.

“Dragonblood warriors, hear my orders! Switch to the defensive circular arc formation. Don’t focus on killing more devil creatures. Conserve your energy and make sure you stay alive!” ordered Long Chen.

“Boss, they still have plenty of energy. Isn’t this too conservative?” asked Gu Yang.

After all, the Dragonblood Legion had been completely transformed after using the blood essence stone and blood soul stone. Whether it was in terms of their physical bodies or their Yuan Spirits, they were completely different. Even the Dragonblood warriors themselves didn’t know just how strong they were right now, and so they wanted a battle that would take their full power in order to test themselves.

However, Long Chen had made them hold back their strength from the start. The huge tide of devil creatures had just made their eyes light up when he told them to focus on defense.

“This eruption is on a level beyond anyone’s expectations. Each bit of power we can preserve is another trump card protecting our lives. When lives are compared to showing off, which one is more important?” demanded Long Chen.

“Sorry boss, it wasn’t to show off. I just-”

“I know. Don’t worry about it, this will definitely be a bitter battle. In the end, you won’t be able to hold back even if you want to. Fight steadily.”

“Yes.”

Gu Yang rushed to the front of the battle, and his Empyrean manifestation appeared behind him. His spear unleashed a huge spear-image that pierced through the devil creature army.

Flesh and blood flew through the air. What shocked people was that Gu Yang’s attack had lost effect. Before this, any devil creatures struck by his attack would instantly die. Gu Yang’s attacks didn’t cover a huge area, but because their power was concentrated, they were extremely powerful. However, now, only half of the devil creatures died. The other half were only injured.

“The devil creatures have gotten even stronger.”

The Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples couldn’t help but feel fear. In all of history, there had never been a third eruption. The auras of these devil creatures sparked despair. Even the Empyreans felt afraid.

Furthermore, looking up at the Devil Slaughter Rankings projected in the air, they saw many names that flashed a few times and then dimmed. That meant that powerful heavenly geniuses were dying.

Anyone capable of getting into the Devil Slaughter Rankings was a top genius. Even experts like that were unable to keep themselves alive. For them to feel afraid was normal.

The only thing that comforted them was that from start to finish, Long Chen’s expression was extremely calm. It was like everything was within his expectations.

Furthermore, once Long Chen ordered a switch to a defensive formation, they felt even safer. Their confidence grew. Long Chen was like a mental pillar for them. As long as he was here, they would be fine.

Following the third eruption, Meng Qi also went out to fight. The Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples had already taken a position of absolute defense, and no longer needed her.

Before this, Meng Qi’s defense had been limited to any large number of devil creatures that broke through the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples’ defense. In such a large-scale battle, even she was unable to look after each and every person.

Now, she no longer needed to look after them and went out to fight just like Chu Yao, Tang Wan-er, Liu Ruyan, Cloud, Li Qi, and Song Mingyuan.

They were all skilled in long-range wide-area attacks. As they were all attacking their own regions, only a portion of the devil creatures was able to squeeze past the cracks between their attacks.

Then they faced the defensive line of the Dragonblood warriors. Only a few fish that escaped the net would be able to reach the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples. By that point, those disciples were easily able to kill them.

“Boss, my ranking keeps falling!” cried Guo Ran, looking over at Long Chen.

He had already dropped to rank sixty-seven. The fighting for the higher rankings was too vicious, and each of the experts was monstrous. Six hours after the third eruption, Guo Ran’s name was being trampled.

“You deserve it. Didn’t I tell you the real fight started at the end? But you just had to show off early. If you had kept those things until now, first place would definitely be you,” said Long Chen irritably.

Guo Ran’s shrapnel bombs were killer, and Long Chen had told him to save them and rely on his sabers instead. There was no need to rush his showing off.

However, Guo Ran’s heart had been itching, and seeing others show off, he hadn’t been able to hold it any longer. He completely forgot Long Chen’s instructions.

These items that came from Purgatory definitely had terrifying offensive power. However, their energy was not limitless.

When those fragments stabbed through a person’s body, it would cause immense pain, but each time they activated, it would cost some of their energy. Eventually, they would turn to scrap.

Although the fragments had yet to turn to scrap, Guo Ran had used them thousands of times now. Their effect was already greatly reduced.

Now, each bomb would only kill a portion of the devil creatures caught in the center of the explosion. As for the fragments that flew in every direction, the devil creatures struck would just roar a bit and then keep going.

So although Guo Ran was still doing his best to indiscriminately bomb the devil creatures, his ranking continued to fall. It was falling so much that Guo Ran was starting to question his life.

As for Long Chen’s ranking, he hadn’t attacked again, so his first place ranking had already fallen to twenty-three. After the third eruption, his ranking continued to tumble down.

Xia Chen had taken back his first place on the Devil Slaughter Rankings, holding steady with five billion three hundred million kill points.

Second was Di Xin, with four billion eight hundred million kill points. He was putting in work with the third eruption.

Third place was Zi Yan. Her attacks were truly terrifying. She was close to surpassing Di Xin. Their kill points were less than a hundred million apart.

However, Mo Nian, Hu Feng, the Pill Fairy, and Ye Zhiqiu’s names had fallen out of the top ten. They were completely replaced with experts from the Central Xuan Region.

Long Chen was first startled, but then realized that these people were either comparatively low-key or had been preserving for their strength for a final burst. That, or they were like him, and needed to look after other experts, meaning they couldn’t fight freely.

After all, not everyone was like Di Xin, simple-mindedly caring only about his ranking.

“Boss, take a look. Don’t you think…” Guo Ran suddenly smiled in a strange way.

“Scram! Are you starting to get itchy again? You’ve already finished your showing off, so you better behave now!” warned Long Chen.

“Boss, just look! Not one of us is in the top ten. If you don’t want me to use that, then you can just attack instead. Take back first place, or you’ll just be bored,” cajoled Guo Ran.

Guo Ran was truly powerful, but compared to the most powerful existences on the Devil Slaughter Rankings, his mass killing techniques were still lacking.

Take Gu Yang for example. He had killed so many devil creatures, but his name had yet to appear on the Devil Slaughter Rankings at all.

So Guo Ran knew that if he didn’t use some trump cards, he wouldn’t be able to get into the top ten again. However, Long Chen didn’t let him use those trump cards. Killing these devil creatures one at a time was too slow.

“You want to get a high ranking this much?” Long Chen suddenly eyed Guo Ran.

“Of course. I’m fighting for the glory of the Xuantian Dao Sect, the Dragonblood Legion, and of course for you,” said Guo Ran solemnly.

“If your eyes weren’t so wretched, I might believe you. We don’t need you to fight for our glory. Fight for yourself. I have a method that can allow you to quickly get in the top ten, but it might be a bit dangerous. Do you want to try it?”

“In this world, there is a responsibility, a duty that cannot be shirked. For the Xuantian Dao Sect, the Dragonblood Legion, for boss…”

“Alright, is there any need to act like that when there aren’t outsiders around? This might be a bit dangerous, but I feel like you shouldn’t have a problem with your armor. However, you must promise me that unless your life is threatened, you won’t use your trump cards to show off,” warned Long Chen again.

“Yes, boss!” Guo Ran smiled excitedly.

“Come with me.”

Long Chen brought Guo Ran through the sea of devil creatures. Golden flames were around him, setting anything that came close to him ablaze. However, these devil creatures didn’t die and instead ran away from him.

At the end, where the spatial channel was, Long Chen came to a pause.

“Boss, are you going to unleash another big move?” Guo Ran looked at him excitedly. The devil creatures were the most concentrated here. If he could kill them all, he would definitely rise in ranking.

“Yes, I am. Summon your armor and activate its strongest defensive state. I’m going to unleash a big move.”

“Alright.”

Guo Ran directly summoned divine runes that revolved around his golden armor, protecting him.

“Prepare yourself. Here comes my big move!”

Long Chen ruthlessly kicked Guo Ran in the butt. Guo Ran yelped as Long Chen’s kick sent him flying into the spatial channel.