Those burning humanoid figures gathered from all directions, leaving a trail of smoldering footprints beneath them, while the air temperature around them rapidly increased, causing even plants several meters away to visibly wither.

This was the first time Hao Ren had personally seen these suddenly appearing "unidentified lifeforms" after receiving Nolan's report on them.

They were not much different in size from ordinary humans, and they also had obvious divisions of limbs and torso. However, apart from the constantly burning flames, the insides of these monsters were empty, as if an invisible person was wearing a flaming cloak—except that the scan results from the Data Terminal showed that there was no invisible person there, and the inside of the flames was indeed hollow.

"Hollow humanoids..." Hao Ren revealed a thoughtful expression when he saw the monsters, as if what he saw before him had validated some bold guess. Beside him, Leah nervously gripped the iron staff in her hand: "What are these monsters!"

The great scholar, mage, and martial arts master, Miss Leah, swore to the heavens that she had never seen such bizarre monsters in those piles of books!

"Monsters suddenly emerging from the ground, their goal is most likely to destroy the world," Hao Ren said quickly. "What we're seeing now should be the small fries wandering around the periphery. More monsters are probably besieging White Maple Leaf City right now."

"How do you know?" Leah first looked at Hao Ren in surprise, but soon the flaming monsters rushing towards her made her unable to ask about these minor details. "Wow—they're coming!"

"Boom!!"

Accompanied by a loud noise, a fireball the size of a washbasin was forcefully thrown out by Elizabeth. The fireball exploded in mid-air, and the three burning monsters that were rushing over were instantly torn apart by the shockwave, turning into ashes in the sky.

Although these monsters looked like they were burning fiercely, they didn't actually have the "flame creatures immune to flame damage" setting.

But to be honest, even if these guys were immune to flame damage, it wouldn't be of much use. The demon loli's fireball technique never relied solely on high temperature to kill enemies. There was a stone core filled with evil energy inside that thing. When it smashed into something, at least sixty percent of the damage was physical...

Hao Ren also waved the God Spear Gungnir and the plasma battle blade to cut a rushing monster into pieces, while shouting loudly: "Don't just stand there, kill these guys first!"

The group retreated while fighting. Although the seemingly frightening flame monsters were deadly to ordinary people, they were not too difficult to deal with for Hao Ren's experienced team and Miss Leah, who could kill a cow with one punch. However, the Black Forest, which had gradually ignited a forest fire, was not a place to stay for long. They broke through the monster encirclement as soon as possible and rushed to the plain outside the forest.

And this plain was already unrecognizable.

The earth was suddenly torn apart, and a terrifying rift hundreds of kilometers long appeared out of nowhere on the plain. Smaller-scale rifts spread out like spider webs, cutting the entire plain into pieces. All Hao Ren saw before him was fragmented land. The once vibrant plain vegetation had turned into ashes under the scorching heat of the flames, and roaming wildfires replaced the herds that originally ran on the plain. Raging flames spewed out from the ubiquitous cracks in the ground, making people unable to help but think of the inferno burning with unquenchable fire in myths and legends.

Izaks couldn't help but think of his hometown when he saw this scene, but looking at the terrible expression on Leah's face, he was too embarrassed to smile.

The plain not only had ubiquitous cracks and wildfires, but also those humanoid monsters covered in fire, and compared to the three or two small fries that ran into the Black Forest, the number of monsters wandering on the plain was significantly higher.

Hao Ren and his party quickly attracted the attention of several groups of monsters. The burning humanoids let out silent roars and rushed over from all directions.

Although Leah still had a belly full of questions at this time, she was not a person who lingered on details, especially in this situation. The mage immediately threw the various questions in her heart aside, gripped her staff, and prepared to solve the immediate problem first.

But before she launched her charge + jumping slash, Hao Ren grabbed her: "We'll never finish if we fight like this. Let's just rush through."

Leah was stunned and was about to ask how they could rush through this place full of burning cracks and monster groups, when she saw the other party turn his gaze to the werewolf greatswordswoman named Lily.

"What?" Lily was stunned by Hao Ren's gaze and didn't react for a moment. She even looked down at her tail. "Is there something stuck on my tail?"

Hao Ren and Vivian said in unison: "Spicy sticks!"

Lily was stunned for a moment before she remembered that the alloy giant x1024 sword in her hand was actually just a decoration. She also remembered the Iron Garuru suit that she had just made before departure, and immediately smiled. Then she took out a bag of spicy sticks from her pocket, tore open the package, and stuffed it into her mouth: "Watch me!"

While Lily was stuffing spicy sticks into her mouth, Nangong Sanba couldn't help but lean close to Hao Ren and whisper: "Landlord, is it really okay to let Lily transform? What if the werewolves in this world don't..."

"First of all, don't worry about so many details in the face of this kind of disaster, and secondly..." Hao Ren watched a stream of air gradually swirl around Lily, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. "If my guess is correct, we won't have to consider the 'setting problems' of this world soon."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lily was surrounded by a tornado that soared into the sky. Everyone quickly retreated and propped up various defenses. From the eye-blinding air currents and dust, came a loud howl: "Spicy spicy spicy spicy—"

Except for Leah, everyone else on the team instantly showed a dumbfounded expression. They had seen Lily transform more than once, but every time they heard the signature howl, it was just *ao wu wang*. This was the first time they heard human speech, but they didn't expect it to be this.

Vivian couldn't help but look at Hao Ren, who slapped his forehead: "Dog communication device... So that's what she shouts after every transformation."

Everyone then understood, and then lamented that it was better to shout black magic transformation—anyway, the degree of embarrassment was the same, and the second slogan could still be related to a beautiful girl...

But Leah couldn't bother to sigh about anything. She could only stare blankly at the majestic figure that was emerging from the storm: a husky that was five meters tall, covered in advanced armor, and armed to the teeth and tail.

The flame monsters that were pouring in from all directions had already been slowed down by the sudden gust of wind when Lily began to transform, and at this time, Lily completed her transformation. The monsters, which did not seem to have any fear at all, immediately let out empty roars again and launched a chaotic and violent charge.

Then, like most qualified soldiers, they would die on the road of charge.

Lily shook her head handsomely, and the composite tactical goggles composed of four lenses deformed and covered her face. From the dog communication device came her imposing voice: "Titan armor activated! Decisive battle fire control platform activated, lock all hostile targets, beam weapons... Hey hey hey, I haven't finished speaking yet, why are you firing!"

The husky elf's chuunibyou lines were only halfway through when the high-energy beam platform installed on her back and sides had completed all the activation and target acquisition processes. Then, under the control of the tactical Ai, countless lasers filled with destructive energy had already swept toward the rushing monsters.

There was no way, these were fast-response weapon platforms. The interval from activation to firing was so short. After Lily issued the command to fire at will, these weapons began to operate on their own. It would take two rounds of laser cannon fire to get through her set of chuunibyou lines...

Besides, at the speed of those monsters, the enemies would have almost run up to her by the time she finished her chuunibyou...

While Lily was regretting that her handsome appearance was ruined, Hao Ren kicked her... paw (there was no way, the five-meter-tall husky was too big, he had to jump hard to kick her knee) with a smile: "Stop being a fool! Take us to White Maple Leaf City!"

As he said that, he took out a remote control from his portable space and pressed it once. A "beep" sound came from inside Lily's armor. He pressed it again, and the armor on Lily's back opened, and the cockpit and passenger protection panels rose from inside.

While Hao Ren and his party were dragging the dizzy Leah onto his back, Lily couldn't help but shake her head and mutter: "Landlord, to be honest, I still think this thing is weird..."

"I'll stew ten pounds of ribs for you to replenish your strength later."

"Okay! Everyone hold on tight! I can accelerate to 100 kilometers in half a second!"

Lily dropped these words, and then stepped, twisted her waist, and stomped her hind legs. The whole... dog shot out like a wild horse—a few flame monsters blocked her path, and she didn't even use the close-in fire cannon. She directly crushed them into sparks and ashes by stepping on them and bumping into them.

Ordinary flame monsters were not Lily's opponent in this state at all. Not to mention resisting the powerful artillery system, even the fireballs thrown by those monsters could not break through the protection of even the thinnest armor plate on Lily's body.

But that was a one-on-one situation.

The entire great plain was full of cracked great rifts. Hot flames continued to rise from those rifts, and along with the flames were those hollow humanoid monsters. Wherever the fire burned, they spread. This only meant one thing.

A huge number.

So after being mighty for a while, Lily entered a densely populated area of monsters and encountered 10,000 monsters throwing big fireballs at her at the same time. Even the husky girl equipped with advanced armor couldn't help but exclaim: her cowardly side was about to go online.

"Turn on the breakthrough mode and use the navigation radar to lead the way," Hao Ren pointed out from the seat on Lily's back how the husky girl should use this set of complex and advanced armor. "This way, you can try to avoid the places with the most monsters."

While Lily used the close-in defense cannon to eliminate the nearby flame monsters, she turned on the navigation system according to Hao Ren's instructions. But after running for a while, she exclaimed again: "Landlord! Why do the surrounding monsters always seem to know where I want to run and surround me?!"

Hao Ren was stunned, stretched his neck and glanced, and saw that a light on Lily's shoulder was flashing. He immediately shouted: "Turn off your turn signal!"

"So why did you design a turn signal for me, Landlord!" Lily shouted while frantically (operating in her mind) switching the system. The next second, the windshield wiper on her radar dome started moving...

Hao Ren couldn't see the situation of the radar dome, so he just answered Lily's question loudly: "It's because you stepped on me six times when you were testing the armor last time! It's too dangerous not to install a turn signal for you!"

Leah had been so stunned that she lost her expression, and just sat in her seat mumbling to herself: "So who can tell me... what exactly is happening?"

Anyway, the galloping armored husky still broke out a burning path on this land full of flames and monsters, and White Maple Leaf City was ahead.