The appearance of the Soul Destroyer Todelia made everyone in the area draw a sharp breath.
A Regional Lord was already close to a World Boss in strength—let alone the Regional Lord of the Destruction Mountain Range. Its power probably wasn't far off from a World Boss in the outside world...
"So this is the terror of humanity's forbidden zone?" Mu Lingsha couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Only now did she begin to understand why expert teams from all the major superpowers had never returned from the Destruction Mountain Range alive.
It would be a miracle if anyone got out of here alive!
Not only had over half their team already been killed or wounded, but they now had to face a massive wave of Soul Devourers. While the Soul Devourers' combat strength wasn't particularly impressive, they themselves couldn't unleash their full power either.
The Soul Devourers weren't great fighters, but their mental shockwaves were astonishingly powerful. Even after players broke free from the shackles of mental magic, the mental assault persisted, constantly battering their minds with a faint, piercing pain. It prevented them from executing many of their finer maneuvers, and everyone's combat effectiveness had dropped by at least two full tiers.
Experts who had reached the True Void Realm could only perform at the Perceptive level at best, while those who had mastered the Domain could only fight at the Flowing Water tier.
The Soul Devourers, however, fought at the level of the Trial Tower's sixth floor—absolute first-rate experts, not at all inferior to players who had advanced to the third tier of their Class.
Now, with a Regional Lord added to the mix, they had absolutely no chance of survival.
Only Jing Wuming, Gu Jiuji, Yan Ya, Mu Xiaoxiao, and a handful of others remained relatively calm, methodically rescuing the wounded and swiftly cutting down the Soul Devourers.
"Jiuji, you, Jing Wuming, and Yan Ya—hold off the boss for fifteen seconds!" Shi Feng said, looking at the three of them after pulling another person to safety.
When Shi Feng finished giving his orders, Huan Yu, Immortal Warheart, and the others on the field felt like they must be hallucinating.
They were actually going to fight?
With several hundred Soul Devourers and a Regional Lord on top of that, the only thing they should be doing right now was running.
One had to realize that at Todelia's level, it could recover 2% of its health every five seconds—that was 410 million HP. Meaning they would need to take down a Grand Lord of comparable level within five seconds, otherwise they couldn't even drop Todelia's health below 98%...
Yet they only had a little over thirty people left, more than ten of whom were in a weakened mental state and completely unable to fight.
On top of that, with Todelia's High-tier Legendary defenses, their meager numbers probably wouldn't even amount to a good scratch...
"Fifteen seconds, huh?" Gu Jiuji did a quick calculation and nodded. "No problem. But only fifteen seconds—I really can't hold on any longer than that."
It wasn't that he lacked confidence. The Soul Destroyer Todelia's mental assault was simply too devastating—even he was finding it hard to endure.
"Don't worry—if you can't hold, I'll step in!" Jing Wuming gazed at Todelia approaching from the distance, a sharp gleam flickering in his eyes.
Before, hunting monsters in the outside world to grind levels had been incredibly boring for him. Those creatures couldn't offer him any real improvement. He was just leveling up for the sake of leveling up.
But ever since stepping into the Destruction Mountain Range, he had finally felt what true combat was like.
That exhilarating thrill where a single strike meant life or death—before, he could only experience it when facing top-tier experts. Now, even battling Soul Devourers gave him that rush. It was absolutely incredible.
Now, finally facing an existence that even he dreaded was something he had always wished for but never expected to find.
"Alright, let's get moving too! If the boss gets here, it'll put the others in danger!" Yan Ya watched the excited Jing Wuming and couldn't help but feel a slight headache coming on.
With that, both Jing Wuming and Gu Jiuji activated their Dark Power, causing all their stats to surge dramatically. Each of them was now comparable to a fourth-tier Legendary player.
The two streaked forward like twin beams of light, while Yan Ya, the Druid, began chanting incantations and flew over in a half-hovering manner, simultaneously layering both of them with a Life Guardian shield that could convert absorbed damage into health.
Roar!
Watching the two ants charging at it of their own accord, the Regional Lord Todelia let out a furious roar that echoed throughout the outermost reaches of the Destruction Mountain Range.
And as the sound spread, an invisible wave of mental force swept over everyone present.
Everyone in the area, Shi Feng aside, couldn't help but let out a pained grunt.
"Impressive! It really is powerful!"
Jing Wuming looked up at Todelia—over thirty meters tall, like a building more than ten stories high. His face was deathly pale from the constant mental bombardment, even more intense than what the Soul Devourers had dealt, yet the fighting spirit burning in his eyes blazed even brighter.