Beast Tides

Ever since four days ago, there had been intermittent spiritual beast waves attacking their village. The spiritual beasts' eyes were bloodshot red, enraged and widened.

So far, as it's only been four days, there haven't been any casualties. However, their weapons were close to breaking apart and their supplies were running out. A lack of food wasn't any problem, as the food kept coming right to them. The main problem was the exhaustion of the warriors.

Day or night, it didn't matter to the beasts. Due to this, most of the warriors were getting fatigued.

Only Wen Yingyu's husband and some others were still strong enough to not be held back by a lack of sleep.

As he made his way onto the frontlines, someone rushed toward them with a grave expression.

"Shu Dashou, hurry!"

Shu Dashou responded, "What's the matter?"

"A Tusked Leopard was sighted!"

Shu Dashou widened his eyes, his legs moving faster than before. Not long after, they arrived at the frontlines.

"Where is that beast?!"

"Right there, Kang Wai is engaged in a battle with it right now."

The tusked leopard leaped towards Kang Wai, before swiping its paw. Kang Wai sidestepped, blocking its paw with his sword.

As he struggled, he felt a whip on his side, launching him several meters away. He crashed onto ground violently.

Shu Dashou rushed towards Kang Wai.

"Kang Wai, I'll take it from here. Retreat for now."

Kang Wai said no words, responding with a nod before limping towards the village.

Shu Dashou gripped his axe and screamed loudly, startling both the villager warriors and the beasts for a brief moment. However, to the villager warriors, Shu Dashou's battlecry motivated them.

They started attacking with less fear and more aggression. Shu Dashou has arrived!

Meanwhile, Shu Dashou himself started to battle with the tusked leopard.

The tusked leopard lunged towards Shu Dashou. In response, he jumped backwards and smashed his axe downwards, accurately hitting the tusked leopard's head!

Bang!

Instead of cutting through flesh, Shu Dashou felt like he had hit some metal. He clicked his tongue as he rushed towards the stunned tusked leopard.

"For this, it would've been better if I brought my hammer instead."

Shu Dashou shook his head as he continuously launched attacks against the tusked leopard. As soon as it swiped its paw, Shu Dashou would dodge and counterattack!

He switched to using the blunt end of the axe. As expected, the tusked leopard started to get bruised. However, the tusked leopard showed no signs of retreating.

Tusked leopards were beasts that Shu Dashou had encountered in the forest dozens of times before. These beasts always knew how to judge the situation and run away when it turned dire. This time, the tusked leopard kept on attacking even as Shu Dashou easily crushed it.

After about ten minutes, the tusked leopard was defeated.

Shu Dashou felt unease as he saw the tusked leopard's figure lying on the floor. He paid attention to it no further and immediately jumped into action to help his fellow villagers.

As soon as Shu Dashou entered the battle, the load on the others were lightened considerably. He was killing spiritual beasts using seven or eight blows each, while everyone else was having a harder time, using thirty to forty blows just to eliminate a single beast.

Spiritual beasts, who were known for being extremely durable among mortals, were being chopped through like cake when against Shu Dashou!

If Shu Dashou's body was compared to a cultivator, it would be akin to being in the Body Tempering Realm. Even mortals could achieve this kind of strength without any cultivation.

Of course, he was still weaker than an actual Body Tempering Realm expert, as he could not utilize spiritual energy.

The warriors of the village gradually got the advantage over the beasts, reducing the latter's numbers one by one.

As the beast's numbers dwindled, Shu Dashou looked around the battlefield, and thought that the other warriors could handle the cleanup by themselves.

"I'll go back now, my wife is probably feeling lonely."

No one had any objections. Who dared to, with the contribution Shu Dashou had already made?

As he made his way back home, he couldn't help but miss his daughter again. Even now, he still had a tiny bit of hope that the cultivator was just caught up in something instead of having betrayed his promise.

.....

"Heh, what a naive village."

Jing Hei sneered as he observed the chaos from a distant cliff. He was sure no one would notice him spying on the situation.

In fact, the beast tide attacking the village was part of a plan he had devised!

He had gotten the idea after observing a wave of beasts exit the Great Order Sect's barrier a few days ago.

From there, he took out his Enraging Powder that made the beasts go berserk and sent them to the direction of the village.

"These villagers don't even notice that the spiritual beasts' rage is unnatural."

Normally, he wouldn't bother with these primitive people. It was only for the sake of his plan.

"The parents of that hidden cultivator's disciple are still alive, and live here. For the sake of his disciple, he should be willing to protect this village."

Jing Hei considered the possibility that the hidden cultivator would not care about the village and shrugged. Even if this was the case, he had nothing to lose. At most, he had wasted his time and some powder, and caused the destruction of a backwater village.

"No big deal."

On the other hand, if he were to succesfully lure the hidden cultivator away from the Great Order Sect's territory, Jing Hei would be able to infiltrate the barrier using the method that the hidden cultivator kindly demonstrated for him.

"The only problem after that is if there are more hidden cultivators inside the barrier itself. When we used it, the Life Unveiling Orb revealed that there aren't any beings with high spiritual energy inside the barrier, but that method has already proven itself to be unreliable thanks to the appearance of that cultivator."

Jing Hei clicked his tongue. If the hidden cultivator was any indication, then someone in the Core Formation Realm like himself surely wasn't enough to sneak in and out of the barrier.

"There should be some other people guarding the place, all of whom hid their presences from the Life Unveiling Orb like that hidden cultivator I've encountered. If my guess is correct, then all of them should be at the very least in the Core Formation Realm, like me."

As Jing Hei continued to think about it, the Great Order Sect's tenacity impressed him.

"To think that even while under the siege of the strongest sects, they still had the strength to look forward and hide a few of their members. Unfortunately for them, those people are too careless. Their existence is already exposed."

He sneered. He had already called over a higher realm cultivator to help him infiltrate the sect. By then, the comeback that the Great Order Sect so desperately wanted would never be achieved.

"We need to make sure that this time, all traces of the Great Order Sect are eliminated. We can't afford any unforeseen disasters before the ancient inheritance descends..."