"Ah," the remaining two Mahayana-stage giants, seeing their companions instantly turn to dust, were stunned.
Before they could recover, they suddenly felt a powerful killing blow descend from the sky.
The two looked up, only to see hundreds of giants in the sky transforming into a sharp sword, piercing straight down at them.
"How could this be? How could this be?"
The two Mahayana-stage powerhouses were dumbfounded, seemingly unable to believe it was real.
However, they were indeed Mahayana-stage experts. They immediately regained their senses and with a single palm strike, which was like crushing dry weeds, turned the hundreds of giants above them into nothingness.
Zhou Hong's heart sank. As expected, his Zhuxian Sword Formation was weaker than he anticipated and couldn't deal with Mahayana-stage cultivators. If this continued, many of the hundred thousand giants would likely be killed. Once the numbers dwindled too much, the Zhuxian Sword Formation would collapse.
"What can we do? I didn't expect its power to be so much worse than I imagined," Zhou Hong said, a little anxious.
Zhou Hong's grandfather replied, "I also didn't expect the Mahayana-stage powerhouses of the Giant Clan to be so strong."
"What do we do now? If they keep killing us like this, the Zhuxian Sword Formation will soon disintegrate."
"There's no other way. We can only concentrate all the giants for a final, desperate attack. If we can repel them, we might still have a chance to survive. If we still can't repel them, then we can only flee."
"Flee? What about the hundreds of humans here?"
"If you're about to perish, why bother with these humans?"
Zhou Hong was helpless and could only hope for divine intervention. He immediately made preparations for a desperate attack. This attack would gather at least fifty thousand giants, unleashing their full power. The remaining fifty thousand giants would maintain the Zhuxian Great Formation. If this single attack failed to repel the two Mahayana-stage cultivators, they would have to flee.
Meanwhile, in mid-air, the two Mahayana-stage giants were not as relaxed as they appeared. Their hearts were filled with shock, and they wondered if they were dreaming. How could such a lowly human control so many giants? Of course, they knew nothing of the Zhuxian Sword Formation and thought Zhou Hong was controlling the giants.
Just then, the complexions of the two giants changed.
"Not good." They looked up and saw a dense mass of at least tens of thousands of giants forming ten weapons in the sky. These weapons included axes, swords, and sabers, attacking them from all directions, leaving no escape.
"Boom!" The two Mahayana-stage powerhouses immediately fought back with all their might.
However, one of the Mahayana-stage cultivators, who had likely only recently broken through to that stage and was weaker, was instantly blown away. His body then turned into fragments, and even his Nascent Soul couldn't escape. He exploded in the sky with a bang like a nuclear bomb.
"A Liang," the other Mahayana-stage cultivator roared. However, his strength was clearly superior. Zhou Hong's desperate attack had not killed him, though he had indeed exerted great effort to block it.
"Retreat!" The remaining Mahayana-stage cultivator, unaware that Zhou Hong's Zhuxian Sword Formation was at its limit, panicked and fled. If he had known that Zhou Hong's sword formation could no longer hold on, he would not have fled and could have easily captured Zhou Hong.
Seeing the Mahayana-stage cultivator escape, Zhou Hong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As Zhou Hong relaxed, the Zhuxian Sword Formation instantly disintegrated. Although not many of the hundred thousand giants were killed, they were still living beings, and their consumption was immense, especially the fifty thousand giants who had launched the desperate attack. They fell from the sky, seemingly devoid of all strength.
Zhou Hong quickly gathered them into his inner world, allowing them to rest. However, Zhou Hong knew that even if they rested, they would not be able to deal with Mahayana-stage cultivators again by forming the Zhuxian Sword Formation.
"Zhou Hong, that's great, we finally repelled them," Lu Qianqian said happily.
However, Zhou Hong shook his head and replied, "Don't celebrate too soon. If two more Mahayana-stage cultivators had come, we would all be dead."
Hearing Zhou Hong's words, everyone felt a wave of worry.
"Everyone, for safety's sake, you should return to the Tianyang Continent first. After I resolve matters here, you can come back."
An elder asked, "Senior Zhou Hong, how will you resolve it? If you can't resolve it, will the lives of so many humans be in danger?"
"To be perfectly honest, if I can't resolve it, the humans on the Tianyang Continent will be utterly crushed, like ants."
Everyone fell silent, and some seemed to inwardly resent Zhou Hong, feeling that humanity would not have reached this point if not for him.
"Alright, make your own decisions. I don't have time to waste." Zhou Hong immediately took flight.
Zhou Hong needed to quickly go to the Giant Kingdom, find a city at random, and then control a large number of giants.
If Zhou Hong could capture a million giants, forming a million-strong sword formation, then Mahayana-stage giants would also be instantly annihilated. Zhou Hong was confident about this.
The human powerhouses at the base camp packed their belongings and descended through the passage, returning to the Taigu Academy.
However, when the students and teachers of Taigu Academy saw so many senior figures from Taigu Academy descending with pale faces, they seemed to sense something, a feeling of impending doom.
Zhou Hong soon arrived at a city in the Giant Kingdom, a city that housed at least several million giants.
However, among so many giants, not all were suitable for forming the Zhuxian Sword Formation. Zhou Hong needed to find those at or above the Soul Transformation stage. Among these millions of giants, only about fifty thousand would meet Zhou Hong's requirements. To gather a million giants, Zhou Hong would need to find at least eighteen more such cities, which was indeed a very difficult task. Most importantly, Zhou Hong might not have that much time.
If his guess was correct, the escaped Mahayana-stage giant would definitely return to the Giant Kingdom immediately to report to his superiors. At that point, they would certainly send a large number of powerful cultivators to the base camp. If they found no one at the base camp, they could instantly jump to the Tianyang Continent and, in just a few minutes, annihilate all the humans on the Tianyang Continent.
Therefore, Zhou Hong had to race against time, gathering a million giants as quickly as possible.
But Zhou Hong had another headache: even if he gathered a million giants, they would still need several days of training. They couldn't form a sword formation immediately upon being assembled.