"Mo Yue, that leg's not going to be easy to deal with!"
Mo Yi, for once, exhaled sharply onto his own palm. Even so, the biting chill clinging to his hand refused to dissipate.
Mo Su didn't answer. He spread his spiritual sense, sweeping the area inch by inch with painstaking care.
Mo Qi stomped lightly, shaking out her limbs to loosen her body. They were about to launch into action. If she went in stiff, they'd be doomed before the fight even began.
"Obviously. Otherwise they wouldn't have sent us in. The Ming Beasts could've handled it on their own."
Jian Dan responded to Mo Yi while mimicking Mo Su's caution, eyes locked on the terrain, scanning for any openings.
The insectoid leg before them stretched a full sixty meters. Its forelegs were shaped like massive scythes, gleaming with murderous sharpness. Any Ming Beast that charged in without reaching the spatial rift was instantly sliced in two. The upper portion of the leg was visibly thicker, bristling with barbed spikes that flashed with a cold gleam.
"What if we sever the sliding foreleg? Would the rest of the limb retract on its own?" Jian Dan posed the theory aloud, already considering the possibility of execution.
"That might work," Mo Yi replied, stroking his chin, "but how do we guarantee we'll cut through in one strike?"
"Use the attack talismans gifted by the Zhēnzūn," Mo Qi suggested bluntly.
"But the timing has to be perfect. Otherwise, we'll end up helping the enemy widen the spatial rift instead of crippling it," she added quickly.
"Exactly, that's the key point." Mo Yi nodded, then turned to Mo Su. "What about you? Have you found a weak spot?"
Mo Su retracted his spiritual sense and frowned, voicing his findings. "Right now, the Ming Beasts and the insect leg are maintaining a delicate equilibrium. If we jump in recklessly, we'll shatter that balance. So, we must strike with absolute precision."
"That's just empty talk. How do we land a guaranteed strike?" Mo Yi asked.
"We use the charging Ming Beasts as cover," Mo Su explained. "While they draw its attention, we climb the leg and plant three attack talismans—at the front, middle, and base of the limb. When triggered, they'll snap the leg into three clean sections."
Jian Dan thought the strategy sounded viable, though the details needed refinement.
Surrounded by Ming Beasts, the four of them took three full days to finalize the plan. Jian Dan then used her own scales to communicate with a raptor-like Ming Beast, one she'd bonded with through shared blood.
The beast understood that these tiny human cultivators were here to help. It agreed to cooperate.
The four changed into matching black narrow-sleeved robes and clung to the side of the raptor beast, silently awaiting the right moment. When the beast leapt into the air, not a trace of magic leaked from them. They soared through the freezing winds, heading straight for the sky-high limb.
As the beast blocked the rift, the massive leg loomed even larger. At that crucial instant, all four detached from the beast in perfect coordination, avoiding the risk of being sucked into the rift.
Jian Dan cast out the threads from her pinky, latching them tightly to the foreleg and suspending the group in the air. With the spatial rift temporarily blocked and no pull from the void, they scrambled up the insect leg using their ropes.
But their intrusion hadn't gone unnoticed. The limb twitched twice, slicing open the sealed rift again. The spatial force bleeding through made the hairs on their backs stand up.
Jian Dan immediately reinforced her anchor. One misstep and they'd be swallowed whole. Mo Su and the others pressed low, anchoring themselves as best they could.
A nearby sword-spined Nether Beast let out a shriek, swinging its tail as it hurled itself into the breach. Using its own body, it plugged the rift again.
Jian Dan exhaled silently. With the way cleared, the four began climbing toward their assigned targets. Jian Dan aimed for the point nearest the spatial rift. Mo Su and Mo Yi took the joints, while Mo Qi went for the middle of the scythe-shaped foreleg.
None of them dared use even a sliver of demonic energy. They feared alerting the creature. At this moment, they were no more than ants crawling along the branch of a vast tree.
Jian Dan's body, strengthened through cultivation, held up better under the strain. But even she felt as if her skin were being scraped raw with blades whenever the rift reopened. Her back, arms, and legs were marked with long, bloody cuts. Even with her body's strong healing, this was a first.
She bared her white teeth in a silent grimace, then used the Thousand Threads of Return to bind herself tightly to the leg. Bit by bit, she crawled toward her objective.
They'd also factored in the attack radius of the talismans bestowed by the Zhēnzūn. After calculating the potential damage, they decided to place two talismans at each location and keep two in reserve.
All the while, they remained vigilant. Insects kept squeezing through the rift. Whenever a massive one appeared, the group suppressed their auras and clung to the leg, avoiding detection.
Their greatest hazard came when a broodmother forced her way in, trailing black-armored hatchlings. At those moments, silence was their only defense. Half a day of stillness was the bare minimum to avoid being noticed.
The Ming Beasts proved reliable allies. During those dangerous intervals, they would spring into action—dragging the broodmother away and freezing it in place. The swarm of hatchlings would be scattered, some frozen, others slowly pushed back.
The four cultivators had never endured such stifling conditions, but this was the best approach they could devise.
On the fifth day, Jian Dan reached her destination. With utmost care, she drew out a talisman and fixed it in place using spider silk. She waited for the rift to momentarily reopen, then swung across to the opposite side and placed the second talisman there.
Then she pulled out her message orb and sent a short note: "Placement complete." At the end, she added a crescent moon symbol to indicate her identity.
Moments later, the same message appeared from the other three. Jian Dan realized they'd likely finished ahead of her but had stayed nearby, worried she might run into trouble.
The real challenge now began.
They remained clinging to the leg for another day as it slid back and forth in the sky. The rift sealed and tore open in a ceaseless rhythm. A Ming Beast that jumped too early was sliced clean in two.
That was their chance.
The four of them let go and dropped onto the corpse of the failed Ming Beast. Jian Dan didn't dare use spells. She flung a thread and latched onto the beast's tail, letting it drag her downward. Once she was clear of the limb's range, she sent a voice transmission.
"Trigger the talismans!"
All four activated their talismans in unison as they fell.
The talisman sites lit up with a massive halo of destruction. The combined might of two Zhēnzūn shattered the limb into four massive chunks. They'd done it.
The resulting force slammed all four of them toward the earth, but their defensive talismans, gifts from Mo Xaun Zhēnzhūn, absorbed the brunt of the impact.
The creatures below weren't so lucky. They were instantly turned to pulp. The surviving Ming Beasts let out triumphant howls and began retreating from the valley.
Before they could even catch their breath, the ground trembled.
The severed limb was pulled back through the rift. Then came a screech so sharp it pierced their bones, followed by another massive leg stabbing through the unsealed tear in the sky.
Jian Dan nearly cursed aloud.
How many legs did this damn thing have?
They weren't going to have to blast all of them, were they?!