Chapter 384: The Orcs Trapped Luke With Millions of Cultivation Resources?!

Their remains were gathered by the strange power, compressed into small crimson pills, and drawn through the dusty battlefield toward Luke’s main body.

FWHOOOSH!

One after another, the Blood Essence Pills disappeared into his Titan form, adding to the energy he had accumulated throughout his earlier raids.

Unfortunately, Luke was far more concerned about the formation overhead.

As the dust gradually settled, he raised his head toward the sky.

The crimson dome was still there.

Its surface had regained its previous stability, and the ancient markings continued rotating as though the terrifying impact had accomplished almost nothing.

"..."

Luke’s expression became ugly.

’Tch! It didn’t break!’

Meanwhile, the surviving Orcs began emerging from the dust, several of them looking upward with visible relief.

"THE FORMATION HELD!"

"HE COULDN’T BREAK IT!"

Their excited shouts quickly spread, although the warriors closest to Luke remained unusually cautious.

After witnessing an attack capable of destroying part of their army through its aftermath alone, many had lost the confidence they displayed earlier.

Several even retreated when Luke lowered his gaze toward them.

However, the reactions of the three A-Rank leaders outside the dome were considerably different.

"IS THAT REALLY SOMETHING A D-RANK BODY CAN CONTAIN?!" Gorzak exclaimed, staring at the devastated region beneath the barrier.

The earlier attack had reached a level comparable to Peak B-Rank, something that seemed completely absurd for a Hero whose true cultivation was still D-Rank.

Even the talented warriors belonging to the royal Orc tribes rarely displayed such ridiculous combat ability while remaining so far below their opponents.

Gorzak slowly turned toward Kroghar.

"Are all the puppets of those gods this strong?"

Unfortunately, Kroghar didn’t answer, since he was also examining Luke with a troubled expression.

Vradok, meanwhile, felt increasingly relieved that he had prepared the ancestral dome, although the Hero’s repeated displays were beginning to irritate even him.

’First those strange transformations, then the coffin, the clones, and now this attack...’

He looked toward Luke’s seventy-foot Titan body.

"We never received any reports about this particular transformation."

That wasn’t especially surprising, considering the Hero’s previous opponents had generally been weaker than the commanders currently gathered here.

Most of them had never possessed enough strength to force Luke into revealing his strongest abilities.

However, the Great Shaman was beginning to wonder how many more unexpected techniques the young Hero might possess.

Down below, Luke continued staring at the intact dome for another moment before finally shifting his attention toward the surrounding Orc army.

’All right, that didn’t work.’

He wasn’t particularly interested in repeatedly wasting his energy against a formation capable of withstanding Heaven’s Palm.

However, the destruction caused by his previous attack had revealed something useful.

Several Orcs had died from the shockwave, and the Blood Essence they provided had already increased his cultivation progress.

’So... why don’t I farm them first?’

A smile gradually appeared on his face as he looked toward the thousands of ancestral phantoms surrounding the outpost.

After all, the lower-ranked warriors had gathered themselves into gigantic bodies, making them considerably easier to target than millions of individuals scattered across the forest.

’Perfect. I’ll reduce their numbers before dealing with anything else.’

With that thought, Luke slowly floated upward, rising above the devastated clearing while the golden-white halo behind his head continued supplying Cosmic Energy.

His two clones remained occupied with the hundred B-Rank warriors, leaving his main body free to focus on the lower-ranked army.

Several Orcs noticed him rising into the air and immediately became uneasy.

"WHAT IS HE DOING NOW?!"

"EVERYONE, WATCH HIS HANDS!"

Luke ignored their shouts and looked toward a densely packed section of the battlefield.

Then he raised his right arm.

"Heaven’s Palm!"

OHHHHMMMM!

This time, he didn’t summon the spectral Azrion behind him.

Instead, Force gathered directly above the targeted region, rapidly condensing into another gigantic hand approximately one kilometer across.

The enormous palm appeared over the clustered ancestral phantoms, its five fingers spreading as the pressure beneath it increased.

The nearby Orcs immediately recognized the technique.

"IT’S THAT HAND AGAIN!"

"RUN! GET AWAY FROM THERE!"

The warriors sustaining the phantoms attempted to retreat, but their enormous bodies were packed too closely together, making it difficult to escape the descending attack.

Moreover, the B-Rank strength provided by their formation wasn’t equivalent to the genuine power of a naturally cultivated B-Rank existence, especially when it came to resisting an attack that had already demonstrated Peak B-Rank destructive force.

Luke looked down upon the scrambling Orcs.

’Hah!’

He brought his hand downward.

FWHOOOOOOOOOSH!

The gigantic palm descended, its pressure crushing the air beneath it and causing the ground to sink even before the manifestation reached the targets.

Several Orc phantoms raised their arms in a desperate attempt to resist.

"STOP IT!"

"EVERYONE, POUR MORE ENERGY INTO THE FORMATION!"

Unfortunately, their hurried resistance accomplished very little.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Heaven’s Palm crashed into the densely packed phantoms, releasing a devastating explosion that immediately swallowed a large section of the battlefield.

KRRRRAAAACK!

The earth fractured beneath the impact, and deep trenches spread outward as the force tore through the ground, throwing broken stones and enormous quantities of soil into the air.

Several ancestral phantoms attempted to withstand the attack, their crimson bodies trembling as the pressure pressed down upon them.

However, within fractions of a second, their manifestations shattered.

BOOM! BOOM! KRRRRAAAK!

One after another, the gigantic Orc bodies collapsed beneath the palm, dragging the warriors sustaining them into the destructive impact.

The surrounding terrain was torn apart, leaving deep depressions and fractured trenches where the phantoms had previously stood.

By the time the destructive force finally subsided, an entire section of the Orc army had disappeared.

"..."

The surviving warriors stared toward the ruined battlefield, several of them unable to comprehend how so many of their kin had been destroyed in a single attack.

Unfortunately, the horror wasn’t over.

FWHOOOSH!

Within the devastated region, a strange crimson radiance suddenly appeared.

Blood and fragments of flesh belonging to the fallen Orcs began emerging from the surrounding space, gathering together as the power of Luke’s cultivation technique reconstructed their remains.

For a brief instant, thousands of bloodied figures appeared amid the destruction.

Then their screams erupted.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

The horrifying cries spread throughout the dome, causing nearby Orcs to recoil in terror as they watched their fallen companions seemingly return from death, only to suffer another terrible moment before being converted into cultivation resources.

"What kind of demonic technique is that?!"

"HE’S DEVOURING THEM!"

Several warriors instinctively retreated, their expression turning into horror as the crimson figures compressed into small Blood Essence Pills.

FWHOOOSH!

The pills immediately gathered into streams of red light and flew toward Luke, disappearing into his body one after another.

Meanwhile, the System displayed his steadily increasing cultivation progress in the corner of his vision.

[2.50%]

[3.00%]

[4.00%]

Luke’s eyes brightened upon seeing the numbers.

’Finally!’

After spending so much time destroying smaller outposts with disappointing results, he was genuinely pleased to see his progress increasing at such a satisfying rate.

He lowered his gaze toward the remaining Orc army, a happy smile gradually appearing on his face.

Unfortunately for the Orcs, that smile only made the situation more frightening.

"H-He is smiling..."

"Why is he looking at us like that?!"

Several warriors began backing away, clearly unwilling to become the next targets of Heaven’s Palm.

Even Emberlyn, who had been anxiously observing the battle, finally felt a trace of relief.

Although Luke was still trapped inside the ancestral dome, the sudden reversal had shown that he possessed enough strength to resist the assembled army, at least for the moment.

’Good...’

She exhaled softly, hoping he would find an opportunity to escape before the A-Rank leaders decided to intervene.

However, in their relief, both Luke and Emberlyn had temporarily overlooked something important.

The eight Peak B-Rank commanders.

"AAAAARGHH! HOW DARE YOU!"

An enraged roar suddenly erupted from the southern side of the clearing.

Luke immediately turned his head.

There, the crimson tattoos covering the eight commanders had begun blazing with renewed intensity, while the weakened chains restraining their wrists trembled beneath their combined resistance.

KRRRRKKK!

Kiki attempted to tighten the bindings, driving its numerous legs deeper into the fractured ground as the commanders exerted their full strength.

"KIKIIII!"

Unfortunately, the restraints had already lost too much energy.

KRRRRAAAAK!

The first pair of chains shattered.

SNAP! CLANK!

Another pair broke, followed almost immediately by the remaining bindings as the eight commanders finally freed themselves.

THAAAAM!

The sudden release of force threw Kiki backward, its crimson coffin body scraping across the ground before crashing into a pile of shattered timber and stones.

KRRRSH! BOOM!

Dust rose around the impact point, while the commanders immediately began activating their ancestral techniques.

OHHHHMMMM!

Their crimson tattoos flared, releasing powerful waves of energy as eight ancestral Orc phantoms materialized around their bodies.

Unlike the earlier manifestations, these phantoms reached two hundred feet in height, towering over the surrounding battlefield while carrying the same weapons used by their original bodies.

Gurvak’s phantom possessed thick, muscular arms suited for crushing and grappling, while Brakka’s carried two enormous battleaxes that gleamed with concentrated energy.

Uzgor’s ancestral form held a long spear, Drukon’s body radiated ritual energy, and the remaining commanders manifested their own distinctive weapons and combat characteristics.

The combined pressure of eight Peak B-Rank existences immediately spread across the clearing, causing the surrounding debris to tremble as their gigantic bodies settled into position.

"You will pay for killing our kin!"