In the Foundation Establishment battlefield, a single exchange left countless demons dead amidst flying sword-light and berserk spells. In contrast, the human side suffered almost no casualties, save for a few who fell under extreme, accidental circumstances.
As the war continued, the disparity grew more obvious. The demon army, lacking flexibility and strategy, was rapidly cut apart and devoured. Under the battle arrays that the Star-Sea Formation Masters had refined for years specifically to target demonic traits, the demon army couldn't organize an effective resistance. They could only be divided and consumed.
In fact, the moment the formations were established and the tempered geniuses gained crushing power, the fate of the demon army was sealed. At this stage, the only chance for the demons was a mass swarm; if they succeeded, they could still use their numbers and individual strength to shatter the arrays!
But unfortunately, under the grand array's enhancement, the humans within the sub-arrays not only saw their combat power and defense skyrocket, but their movement speed also became exceptionally fast, allowing them to rapidly divide, disengage, and consume parts of the battlefield.
Under the slaughter of the ever-changing battle arrays and the peerless geniuses, the demonic horde was crushed from its weakest points, falling like wheat before a scythe. As the slaughter continued, more than a third of the demons were slain! The center of the battlefield was piled with layers of corpses, and the different colored blood pooled in the low ground to form a vast ocean, with countless limbs floating on top—a truly shocking sight!
However, at this point, human casualties began to rise. Some demons entered a state of absolute frenzy, utilizing their own bloodline-linked enhancements that rivaled formations. Furthermore, as the slaughter continued, the human side's consumption of energy grew massive.
Although the array could absorb various energies to replenish spiritual power, it was difficult to fully restore it amidst such high-intensity warfare, even if vast resources were thrown into the formation. Moreover, under high-intensity consumption, the formation's strength began to decline slowly. The base of the array would suffer wear and tear, and once the power was over-exhausted, the strength dropped, making it easier for certain points to be breached.
It was under these circumstances that by the time half the demons were slain, nearly ten percent of the humans had fallen. Most of these were the older Foundation Establishment cultivators who were weaker than the young geniuses; their potential was already at its limit, and even with the boost from Providential Power, they faced an inescapable disadvantage against such numbers.
A ten-percent casualty rate for the humans against fifty percent for the enemy was an incredible result! But everyone knew the truly cruel stage of the war was just beginning.
By this point, most were no longer at their peak. They had achieved the feat of slaying those demons so quickly by utilizing power that couldn't be rapidly replenished. They had already killed many powerful demons; in a human internal war, such results would be legendary.
But there were simply too many demons! For every one slain, more rushed forward. No matter how many they killed, the demons came in wave after wave! Furthermore, the remaining half of the demons were the "hard bones"—tougher enemies whose defeat would cost more "teeth"!
The demon commanders were not brainless; they were strategic minds born to lead. Although the human warfare was sophisticated, after the death of so many demons, they had grasped the pattern. Their countermeasure was simple: they had more troops, and their troops were strong! Though still not enough to fully counter the humans, they were no longer as easy to divide and devour, and they found more ways to strike back!
As the demons executed a retreat at the cost of heavy casualties and regrouped into a new formation, the battlefield entered a new phase. The humans, having finished off the demons left behind to harass them, did not choose to pursue. Instead, they retreated rapidly and began consuming massive amounts of pills to recover... and they ran!
Yes, a somewhat comical scene occurred: the mother-formation shifted all its enhancement into speed, leading the humans in the sub-arrays to zip through a gap and vanish from the decisive battlefield. This sudden transition from a fight-to-the-death to a full-speed retreat happened in an instant... it was quite absurd!
The demon commanders were stunned. 'You can do that?' They had prepared their new tactics to take down these gradually exhausting humans.
The young human geniuses who had escaped breathed a sigh of relief and began refining pills to restore their stamina and spiritual power. This wasn't because they feared death, but because they feared dying from exhaustion in a winnable fight, which would lead to the total defeat of the Star-Sea World.
The effect was significant. Without the constraints of high-intensity combat, their energy began to recover rapidly. At this moment, they couldn't help but admire the Star-Emperor. He was a genius, an incarnation of wisdom, specifically adding an ultra-strong auxiliary escape mechanism to the formation—it was a god-tier tool for handling a war of attrition!
Slowly, while fighting and retreating, the Star-Sea warriors recovered to eighty or ninety percent of their peak. To ensure victory in the final battle, the Star-Sea side made new strategic deployments and, after finalizing their countermeasures, once again clashed with the prepared demonic horde!
This time, with both sides prepared and unleashing their full power, an even more tragic slaughter erupted. Blood and limbs fell like a torrential downpour, quickly accumulating into a thick layer on the ground.
This time, the human cultivators fell at a faster rate, which was expected and inevitable. They had already pushed their power and conditions to the limit; demons were not so easily defeated.
However, credit was due to these young geniuses whose potential and talent were truly horrific. Under even more terrifying pressure and desire, their combat power was refreshed time and again! This breakthrough finally led to several individuals awakening their skills and talents to the Great Success stage. With a mere gesture, they could easily slay demons without wasting much effort!
As more and more geniuses completed their breakthroughs, the demon commanders finally looked on in despair as their demon army was slaughtered to the last—including themselves!
Until the moment of their death, they could not understand why they had lost when they held such an advantage in numbers and combat power.
These humans were far more terrifying than the ones they had encountered in other cultivation worlds.