The Ni family's Gu Masters were doing everything they could to hold back the Shattered Gold River.
First, they used mortal Gu to construct a grand levee, then dug channels to divert a section of the river. The Shattered Gold River's water level, which had been rising steadily in recent days, gradually began to recede.
However, all manner of creatures also lived within the Shattered Gold River.
The Ni family army had encroached upon the territory of the fish and beasts in the river, and the diversion only heightened their panic.
All kinds of aquatic creatures surged to the surface to launch ranged attacks, while others simply charged onto land, roaring and shrieking as they rushed at the Ni family Gu Masters.
The Ni family specialized in the Earth Path, and their most basic Gu Insect was the First Transformation Mud Gu. The Earth Path excelled at defense, and the Ni family Gu Masters had formed layered defensive lines long in advance, standing ready and waiting.
But the aquatic beasts were not only vast in number — among them were also powerful and ferocious Beast Kings.
Under the frenzied onslaught of the beast army, the Ni family's defensive lines were broken through one after another.
"Hold the line!"
"Kill!"
"Avenge our clansmen!"
"Hold on to the end! Forge our clan's future!"
Mud and blood sprayed into the air together as the Gu Masters rotated in reliefs, resisting the savage assault of the aquatic beasts.
The Ni family clansmen had come to the Sovereign Immortal Aperture and secretly received Fang Yuan's cultivation support, so their numbers as Gu Masters were considerable. Moreover, the intense survival pressure within Little Huang Heaven had forced these Ni family clansmen to unite closely, rapidly fostering a clan culture of harmonious coexistence and mutual aid.
In this desperate defensive battle, the Ni family army displayed astonishing combat power and tenacious fighting spirit!
At last, the aquatic beasts grew sparse, and the Ni family army held on through.
The Ni family army began their counterattack.
The aquatic beasts had never possessed much internal organization, and now their situation deteriorated catastrophically. They collapsed across a wide front in short order.
The Ni family Gu Masters pursued and slaughtered them, leaving countless beast corpses in their wake.
These corpses were all Gu materials — bountiful spoils of war.
The Ni family Gu Masters fought their way all the way to the surface of the Shattered Gold River. Gu-powered attacks rained down upon the water, kicking up tens of thousands of brilliant golden splashes.
"We've won!"
"Hurry, hurry — set up the Gu Formation! Now is not the time for celebration."
"Exactly. We must get the Gu Formation deployed as quickly as possible, or new beasts will flood in from the main river."
The Ni family Gu Masters threw themselves into the formation work.
They had spent more than half a year meticulously preparing for this operation and already had a mature plan and deployment in place.
However, just as their Gu Formation was about to be completed, the entire surface of the Shattered Gold River — and even the cloud soil ground beneath their feet — began to tremble.
"What's going on? Are more beasts attacking?"
"Something's wrong! Something's very wrong!"
"Look up! Oh heavens!"
The Gu Masters cried out in alarm, one after another raising their eyes to the sky, and then every one of them froze stiff as stone.
They had seen the meteor shower descending from the heavens.
Some of these meteorites were only an acre across, while others were as enormous as mountains.
The meteorites were packed dense as a forest — tens of thousands of them!
Massive numbers of meteorites shrieked downward, trailing long crimson tails of flame, crushing the air before them, carrying an unstoppable momentum like the wrath of heaven, plunging earthward with cataclysmic force.
"It's over!" Countless Ni family Gu Masters turned deathly pale, every trace of color drained from their faces.
"Does heaven want to destroy our Ni clan?" In the deathly silence of the battlefield, an elderly Ni family Gu Master suddenly let out a grief-stricken wail.
"I refuse to accept this!" The current Ni family patriarch — also the current Mud Aspect — clenched his fist so hard his knuckles cracked. "Our plan was more than half complete. Our clan paid such a terrible price, and we finally got the flooding under control. A bright tomorrow was already waving to us. And now, on this very day, we are to be annihilated?"
Every heart was consumed by despair.
The might of heaven and earth was so terrifying that these Ni family Gu Masters had no way to resist. In that moment, they each felt their own insignificance — the deepest sorrow and helplessness of the weak.
But just then, the brilliant sky and earth, illuminated by the meteor shower, suddenly turned dark and somber.
Wooooo...
The Ni family Gu Masters all heard a series of mournful wails, as though drifting up from the deepest abyss of the underworld.
The air temperature seemed to plummet. Countless Gu Masters felt violent surges of heart-palpitating dread!
"Wh-what is that?!"
"Good heavens!"
"A black giant?!"
The Ni family Gu Masters were struck with horror, their eyes bulging as they stared in utter shock at the scene before them.
A colossal figure was slowly materializing, its entire body a pitch-black, abyssal darkness. Its form was so impossibly vast that when it bent its legs and stooped, it cast an enormous shadow across the ground.
The giant rose to its feet in a motion that seemed slow but was in reality terrifyingly swift, and its height grew even more staggering — truly a posture that held up the sky, shoulders resting among the floating clouds.
The black giant had two heads, each opening four ghastly spectral eyes that glowed with a fierce, eerie light. Black, fathomless radiance shot from those eyes like pillars, piercing straight through the firmament!
Its hundreds of arms were raised high, and its terrifying spectral claws spread wide, as though a malevolent black forest of horrors had taken shape in an instant.
One of the pitch-black giant's heads opened its mouth and vomited forth a river of black soul-force.
The soul river surged and roiled, raising tremendous waves that swept up vast numbers of meteorites.
The giant's other mouth inhaled with tremendous force. Many of the smaller meteorites were drawn directly into its belly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Its spectral claws and massive arms swept and slashed, catching meteorites as large as mountains with its bare hands!