Lin Ran, who had disappeared from their sight, had just used an illusion array as cover and a teleportation portal from the Heart of Nature to reach the location of one of the magnetic energy arrays.
Upon entering, he immediately spotted an eighth-tier Gale Element Lord leading a group of smaller gale elements, infusing the magnetic energy array with magic.
At the same time, it was busy projecting its illusions onto the battlefield ahead.
This frantic activity left it with little attention to spare, and it didn't even notice a death god descending behind it.
Lin Ran almost laughed out loud.
Were these beings so confident in the secrecy of their arrays? Didn't they consider the possibility of the array's location being discovered?
Or perhaps his Eternal Kaleidoscope was so powerful that there was no other existence in this world capable of tracking them so precisely.
Regardless, since he was here, he would definitely give these gale elements a proper send-off!
Lin Ran thrust his spear forward, lowering the tip slightly.
Golden Soaring Dragon Dance!
A golden dragon, burning with golden dragon flames, materialized at the spearhead. It soared from the ground and shattered into pervasive, scorching dragon breaths, surging towards the gale element group from all directions.
These dragon breaths caught the gale elements completely off guard. They were immediately engulfed in flames, crying out in pain one after another.
At this moment, the Gale Element Lord finally sensed something was amiss. As it turned its head, Lin Ran's Golden Dragon Spear was already at its face.
*Clang!*
The invincible sharpness of the Golden Dragon Spear pierced directly through the Gale Element Lord's soul, pinning it firmly to the ground and greedily devouring its life, energy, and magic.
The Gale Element Lord, in pain, counterattacked, unleashing a hurricane powerful enough to shatter mountains and stones, intending to blow Lin Ran away and escape.
Unfortunately, Lin Ran was completely unfazed. With his Kenbunshoku Haki, he had long seen through the Gale Element Lord's trickery. He decisively dropped his spear, moon-stepped backward, then unleashed Amaterasu, summoning dozens of Gates of Babylon to sweep away the other smaller gale elements.
As the hurricane was about to hit him, he activated intangibility to dodge, ignoring the wind and reappearing before the Gale Element Lord.
Despite its eighth-tier status, this Gale Element Lord was surprisingly weak.
After all, most of its magic had been used to supply the magnetic energy array, and the remaining portion had been projected to the front lines as illusions.
The magic left in its main body was meager, how could it possibly face Lin Ran in his prime?
The hurricane it had painstakingly conjured had been dodged by Lin Ran using intangibility.
It had expected an eighth-tier attack to heavily injure the fourth-tier Awakener Lin Ran if it landed, but it had missed!
Completely panicked, the Gale Element Lord finally couldn't help itself and activated its elemental form, attempting to flee.
However, it was once again intercepted by a well-prepared Lin Ran.
Haki Infusion!
Lin Ran activated Armament Haki, wrapping it around his left and right hands and the Golden Dragon Spear, then thrust the spear into the waist of the elementalized Gale Element Lord.
The Gale Element Lord initially scoffed.
Wasn't Lin Ran's action like drawing water with a bamboo sieve?
But in the next second, it could no longer laugh.
In Lin Ran's hand, the Golden Dragon Spear seemed to possess magical power, piercing through the elemental barrier and impaling the elementalized lord.
This powerful thrust nearly knocked the Gale Element Lord unconscious.
The strong absorption effect of the Golden Dragon Spear, combined with the Amaterasu that clung to it like a parasite, completely stripped the Gale Element Lord from its elemental form.
Without releasing the Golden Dragon Spear, Lin Ran extended his left hand, using Armament Haki, and gently grasped the core of the Gale Element Lord, activating the absorption ability of the Rinnegan.
At this point, the Gale Element Lord was utterly unable to struggle.
The dual absorption of the Golden Dragon Spear and the Rinnegan, coupled with its depleted magic, left it powerless.
The Amaterasu, which had been burning fiercely on its body, became even more aggressive as its life force weakened.
Within half a minute, it was on the verge of death.
"Rest in peace..."
"Soon, I will send your brethren to join you."
"That way, you'll have companions on the road to the underworld, won't you?"
Lin Ran smiled and delivered the final mental blow to the Gale Element Lord with Tsukuyomi, causing it to perish on the spot.
Meanwhile, the remaining small gale elements in the cave had already been completely incinerated by Lin Ran's earlier golden dragon breaths.
After collecting the soul armor and core crystal of the Gale Element Lord, Lin Ran approached the magnetic energy array and inspected the completeness of its life box.
As expected, it was just missing the final step.
The array was currently set up to collect the life force of fallen external units and dispersed magic. He would leave it here for now.
He still had to hurry and eliminate the remaining seven Element Lords!
Once all seven Element Lords were eliminated, the eight life boxes would naturally be his, easily obtained.
Moreover, the other Element Lords were likely in similar states to this Gale Element Lord, making their elimination child's play.
The only thing to be careful about was not to damage their soul armor and cores during the fight.
These items were excellent materials for refining puppets.
Even if they couldn't compare to puppets made from the hero-grade unit Destructive Razor, they would still be far superior to others.
Teleportation Portal, open!
After locating another magnetic energy array, Lin Ran activated his teleportation portal once more.
...
Half an hour later.
At the ramparts, the battle raged on as fiercely as ever.
Exploded ruins, scattered energy fragments, pools of blood, and scattered remains of corpses almost covered all the land outside the ramparts.
Luo Qingyan continued to spread her black and gold wings, chanting for the descent of meteors.
She felt that her entire body was numb.
Although, with Lin Ran's magic supply, she had no lack of magic and could use it lavishly.
However, the mental exhaustion and fatigue from repeatedly emptying her body to unleash ultimate moves, even when replenished, lingered and could not be dispelled.
This was where the benefits of puppets and sword souls became apparent.
Gan Jiang, Mo Ye, and Ye Luosha, these three fierce generals, showed no signs of weakening and continued to fight on the front lines.
However, the situation for the Element Children filling the ramparts was not optimistic, with most of them nearing their limits.
Therefore, the overall defensive strength of the rampart line had significantly decreased.