A red pincer narrowly scraped by Liu Zhu's face, a small gust of wind from the blow stirring up the dusty soil underneath him. Despite his best attempts to dodge the blow, an extrusion on the pincer scraped away at the skin on his cheek, drawing blood. In response to the blow Liu Zhu stabbed his guandao towards a joint on the creature he was fighting. Unfortunately it was oddly agile for its size, and moved slightly, trying to block the attack with its hard exterior. In response Liu Zhu slowed down slightly and put more force behind his blow, but even then it only left behind a crack on its shell. His fight against the mutated Banchian would be a long one.

The force behind the creature's blows was stronger than Liu Zhu's and its speed wasn't lacking either. As the pincers went towards him he could only barely dodge, and he was forced into positions unfavorable for attacking while doing so. This made it hard to counterattack, and he was forced on the backfoot. This continued on for around ten rounds. At this point he was in a hurry to finish the battle, because if it dragged on for too long then there was a decent chance that another beast nearly as powerful would show up and join in on the fight. He needed to finish this up and meet up with Feng Jun before he was flanked.

Liu Zhu tried to think of something as the Banchian launched its next blow and suddenly had an idea. Instead of dodging he stayed in place, digging his heels into the ground. He gripped his guandao tightly and sent it flying towards the inside of the creature's pincer. If he won out in this exchange he could disable the creature and create a spot to wound it further from, and if he didn't he'd be severely injured. Even if it wasn't a life or death gamble, it was a risky move- if he lost out here then he'd be forced to fall back to the village walls. His guandao flashed out in four directions as he used his trump card, 4 Desires.

The pincer pushed Liu Zhu back as it advanced forward, nearly knocking him down. Luckily the force of four attacks was enough to bring its attack to a stop, and when Liu Zhu glanced at the pincer he saw that it was half-destroyed. Viscous, green blood covered the blade of his guandao, and the plates of chitin making up its exterior were shattered into pieces that were now scattered upon the ground. If it attacked with that pincer again, it would immediately lose it. Since his gamble worked Liu Zhu wasn't going to waste the chance he made for himself, and he swiftly pushed forward. He was able to cut off the pincer he injured after a few more blows, and once that happened the pressure on him was greatly lessened. With the beast injured and looking for a chance to retreat, he found a chance to jump on top of it and try to stab its vitals through one of the joints. This took a few tries since he wasn't sure where its vitals were, but in the end it went well.

With the giant Banchian dispatched, Liu Zhu needed to group up with Feng Jun. As he looked around he saw Feng Jun with the two other squad leaders about 150 feet away, engaged in combat with a what appeared to be a six-legged tiger. It had a steely-grey fur, and a tail covered in bone spurs. Liu Zhu crossed the distance in an arc, aiming to land a blow from behind the vicious beast while the others distracted it. When he was 30 feet away he dashed towards it and the six-legged tiger immediately reacted, sending its tail towards his neck without looking. Its speed was above Liu Zhu's, and he would have been sent flying backwards with a damaged throat if it weren't for the others attacking the tiger at the last second. It was forced to fall back and abandon its attack against Liu Zhu to avoid being injured, and he met up with the group without injury.

The four dispatched the tiger within 20 seconds, and then Feng Jun addressed everyone. "The three of you will be out here for an hour or two, so conserve your strength if possible. Stick close together, and don't attack on your own." As Feng Jun said this, he threw a glance towards Liu Zhu. "You know the hand signals, so I don't have to go over that. Let's get to it, and... don't die I suppose."

After that there wasn't much to say, so the four got to work. Most of the beasts they fought were as strong as a Bone and Marrow Tempering cultivator, and Feng Jun was able to make easy work of them while the three squad leaders kept them occupied. Occasionally they'd stumble upon something stronger, equal to something between Bone and Marrow Tempering and Blood and Viscera Tempering, or occasionally at Early Blood and Viscera Tempering. Since Feng Jun was at Late Blood and Viscera Tempering he still had little difficulty killing them, but the fights took longer. At the same time the three squad leaders were forced back, as they'd risk death or injury if they took a stray blow.

The other squad leaders grew visibly tired after half an hour, and Liu Zhu realized that even he would start to be exhausted if this dragged on for a few more hours. Unlike before, he was frenziedly using all of his strength against each and every beast and was in a state of constant tension. Luckily the battlefield was far less crowded than before, and there were less than 10% of the beasts there were before. If he had to face a massive wave of beasts like before, he wasn't sure how he'd handle them when they were this strong.

After an hour had passed, the remaining beasts were even stronger than before. The weaker ones had been picked off, and the only ones left were as strong as Blood and Viscera Tempering cultivators. Feng Jun's group was slowing down, and they took out at most a few beasts a minute. As they were continuing their sweep across the battlefield, Feng Jun suddenly stopped moving. Liu Zhu and the other two squad leaders stopped, confused. Feng Jun let out an annoyed grunt before he turned to them. "Follow me but keep back. The boss is fighting some massive snake and it seems to be a hard fight. If you can contribute do so, but if you can't just stand around and watch the perimeter."

Liu Zhu was wondering if Feng Jun was over exaggerating how dangerous the situation would be, but as the snake entered his field of vision he realized that he hadn't been exaggerating at all. It was massive, at least 30 feet long, and covered in metallic looking purple scales. Comically large fangs protruded from its mouth, dripping poison, and it looked like it could swallow a man whole. Two cultivators at Meridian Opening were currently fighting it, rapidly alternating between who attacked and who defended.

Liu Zhu felt like the snake was watching them as their group drew nearer, even though it seemed to have its hands full fighting. Still, it didn't act against them. It stayed a standstill with the two Meridian Opening cultivators, occasionally threatening to crush one of them with its massive body before being forced back by the other. Once they were a couple hundred feet away Feng Jun gestured for them to stop and dashed forward. "Only help if you can." He approached the battle after saying this, beginning to harass the snake from behind.

The scales were tipped in the cultivators' favor after Feng Jun was added to the fight, and within a few minutes two more Late Blood and Viscera Tempering cultivators had shown up. The fight proceeded more cautiously at this point, and Liu Zhu only watched it out of the corner of his eye while clearing out weaker beasts in the area nearby. The cultivators would force the snake to attack, protect the one acting as bait, and then aim for a major wound. They didn't always succeed at leaving a wound, but they always saved the bait. This tactic caused two large holes to be bored into the snake within five minutes, which were used as a way to inflict internal wounds. Eventually the snake slowed down as it bled out, and the two Meridian Opening cultivators managed to decapitate it. As they cut through it it thrashed about in a final struggle, and Feng Jun and another Blood and Viscera Tempering cultivator were sent flying backwards by its writhing body. They weren't fatally injured, but they were in bad enough condition that it wasn't an option to continue fighting.

Feng Jun walked back to the three slowly, gripping his side. "We're pulling back now. I'm injured and according to the boss there's a few more beasts like that. They'll probably make the official retreat order in a few minutes anyways." With that said the four made their way back to the wall, carrying Feng Jun with them. He was injured and they needed to move quickly in case they ran into anything past Bone and Marrow Tempering. Luckily they made it back to the wall without trouble, and as Feng Jun had predicted, within a few minutes an order was called for everyone at Early Bone and Marrow Tempering to retreat. This would slowly scale up over the next 15 minutes, and within half an hour this battlefield would only be home to experts.