"I really wanted to go and see the auction hosted by the Myriad Worlds Mall Alliance, but now wasn't the right time. Before I had the strength to protect myself, it was best to avoid meeting offline. It never hurt to be cautious..."
Yue Ming naturally wanted to take a look at the auction. Even if he had no Origin Points and could not afford any treasures, broadening his horizons would do no harm. However, he had his reservations, so after careful consideration, he decided to decline Li Shanhe's invitation.
To put it bluntly, his strength was too low, leaving him without any sense of security. Yue Ming was probably not the only one with such concerns and unwilling to meet offline for now. Liu Ming was likely thinking the same thing, which was why he had declined the invitation just like Yue Ming.
[Swallowed Star] Yue Ming · Tier 1: [I might have to log off first. A Beast Tide seems to have broken out ahead, and it appears to be quite large. This is the first time I've encountered a Beast Tide since transmigrating into the Swallowed Star world.]
[A Realm of Gods] Li Shanhe · Tier 5: [Then go deal with it first. We can chat when you have time. With your current strength, and now that you've comprehended a domain, there are only a few people on Earth who can rival you. You don't need to worry about your safety...]
Yue Ming was not making excuses. He had truly encountered a Beast Tide. In the Wilderness Zone ahead, several hundred martial artists were fleeing desperately. Behind them came an endless horde of monsters, a vast black mass surging like a tide.
The monsters were not large, only around thirty centimeters long, and resembled rats. They were extremely weak, merely the most ordinary kind of monsters. But their numbers were simply too great. As far as the eye could see, they covered the wilderness, seemingly endless.
Hovering in the air, Yue Ming looked down from above and found that the Beast Tide covered nearly a hundred miles in every direction. Many martial artists who ran too slowly were swallowed by the tide in an instant. Before long, all movement ceased, their bodies devoured by the monsters without even bones left behind.
Watching the scene before him, Yue Ming let out a soft sigh and dove from several thousand meters in the air. He was no saint, but neither was he cold-blooded enough to watch people die without helping. Naturally, that was only if it did not endanger his own safety.
"Bzzzz~"
A ripple of watery blue spread out from Yue Ming's body, covering a hundred-meter radius in the blink of an eye. Everywhere Yue Ming flew, within the range of his domain, every monster either exploded or was crushed into a pulp.
In less than a minute, Yue Ming had cleared nearly a tenth of the Beast Tide that had flooded the entire Wilderness Zone. This was the terror of a domain—it possessed absolute suppressive power over those at lower levels. Before a domain, they could only be crushed!
"Flying through the air—it's a Councillor-level powerhouse taking action!"
"Luo Feng, we're saved!"
"So this is a Councillor-level powerhouse? His strength is terrifying..."
"One day, I'll become a Councillor-level powerhouse too!"
The several hundred martial artists Yue Ming had saved looked at him as he flew overhead, their hearts filled with gratitude. If Yue Ming had not rescued them, the Beast Tide would have caught them sooner or later, and they likely would not have escaped death.
"Luo Feng?"
To kill the monsters precisely without harming the human martial artists, Yue Ming had devoted nearly all his focus to controlling his domain. Yet he suddenly heard the name Luo Feng, causing him to pause slightly in midair and turn to look.
Among the hundreds of martial artists was a youth of around eighteen. He was breathing lightly, lean in build and about 1.75 meters tall, with a somewhat youthful air about him. He was none other than Luo Feng, the protagonist of the Swallowed Star world.
Yue Ming had not expected to encounter Luo Feng under such circumstances. However, after merely giving Luo Feng a glance, he continued clearing the monsters without any intention of approaching him. Slaughtering his way through the horde, Yue Ming soon arrived at the center of the Beast Tide.
At the center of the Beast Tide, a figure was battling the monsters. Having just encountered Luo Feng, Yue Ming could not help recalling a scene from the original story. If he was not mistaken, the person surrounded by monsters was Lu Gang.
Yue Ming had a fairly good impression of Lu Gang. In the original story, Lu Gang had risked his life to cover the retreat of the other martial artists, voluntarily drawing the Beast Tide's attention. As a result, he had been surrounded by the horde and eventually died of exhaustion, his corpse eaten by the monsters.
"Could this really be inescapable this time?"
As time passed, Lu Gang's situation grew increasingly dire. Every swing of his blade killed a large swath of monsters, but there were simply too many of them, endless and impossible to finish off. Moreover, the monsters feared no death. He probably would not be able to hold on much longer.
As his stamina steadily drained away, Lu Gang's face was full of exhaustion, yet he did not dare relax in the slightest. Looking at the endless black tide surrounding him, even with his resolute will, he could not help but feel despair.
Just as despair rose in Lu Gang's heart, a figure flew in from the sky. Yue Ming had finally arrived. As his domain spread outward, countless monsters were shredded apart. Seeing Lu Gang still standing there like an idiot, Yue Ming immediately frowned.
"Are you standing there waiting to feed the monsters?"
Lu Gang's old face instantly flushed red. He was a battle-hardened veteran, and he should not have lost focus in combat. But Yue Ming's entrance had been too shocking. The moment his domain unfolded, hordes of monsters died in an instant. Lu Gang had been so stunned that he froze.
"Thank you for saving my life. May I ask your honorable name? I will surely repay you generously someday..."
Lu Gang was curious about Yue Ming's identity. Judging from the strength Yue Ming had displayed, he was undoubtedly a Councillor-level powerhouse. But when had such an expert appeared on Earth? Lu Gang knew more or less every powerhouse in the Warlord Palace, but he could say for certain that this man was not among them.
"There's no need for repayment. Just don't tell anyone about me. I only want to cultivate quietly and don't wish to be disturbed."
Yue Ming ignored Lu Gang after that. Once he finished speaking, he flew away through the air and continued clearing the monsters. After another five or six minutes, he had killed every monster in the entire Wilderness Zone. The Beast Tide had finally been completely suppressed.
"Someone's coming?"
Yue Ming suddenly sensed a fighter jet rapidly approaching his location. It was clearly headed for him. It might have been the military, or perhaps some other faction. Their purpose was nothing more than to recruit him.
However, Yue Ming had no intention of meeting them, since he did not plan to join any faction. He immediately flew in the opposite direction, then spent several minutes making a detour back to Jiangnan Base City.
After returning to Jiangnan Base City, Yue Ming found a hotel. He first took a long, comfortable bath, then collapsed onto the bed and fell sound asleep. After cultivating in seclusion in the Wilderness Zone for over half a year, he had not had a proper rest.
What Yue Ming did not know was that while he slept soundly, the outside world had been thrown into an uproar because of him. News that a Beast Tide had erupted in County 0231 and been quelled by a passing, unfamiliar Planetary-level powerhouse quickly spread throughout the upper ranks of humanity across the entire Earth.
Before you continue