Beast Tide!

Time slipped by, and another two years passed.

On this day, Li Qingshan slowly finished his cultivation in the stone house. The surging aura around him ebbed back into his body like the tide, then was transformed by the Turtle Breath Technique until only the faint fluctuations of a third-layer Qi Refining cultivator remained.

He opened his eyes. Divine light lay hidden within them, like a deep, ancient well whose bottom could not be seen.

"Have I really lived to be a hundred and five?"

Li Qingshan murmured to himself.

Today was his hundred-and-fifth birthday.

No one offered congratulations. There was no wine or feast. Only he remembered this number—nothing short of a miracle to a mortal, yet merely a starting point for a cultivator.

After two years of arduous cultivation, thanks to the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd's steady supply of supreme-grade pills and the power of the Longevity Technique, his cultivation had quietly broken through to the ninth layer of Qi Refining!

The Longevity Mana in his dantian was as vast as a lake, pure and condensed. Its sheer power was already no weaker than that of an ordinary cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Early Stage!

Once he had stabilized his cultivation a little more, he could attempt to break through to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining.

"In another two months, my assignment will be over, and it'll be time to return to the sect." Li Qingshan murmured, unconsciously tapping his fingers against his knee. "Zhang Hongxiu... I wonder what her cultivation is like now. Has she reached Foundation Establishment? When I return, whether it brings fortune or disaster, we'll have to settle things once and for all."

He already had several strategies in mind: he could use the situation to his advantage, flee, or... strike back with thunderous force!

He would have to wait until he returned to the sect and act according to the circumstances.

As he pondered, hurried footsteps and panicked cries suddenly sounded outside, shattering the courtyard's tranquility.

"Steward Li! Steward Li! Something's wrong! Something terrible has happened!" It was the young disciple named Wang Hai. His voice trembled with fear.

Li Qingshan furrowed his brow, swiftly hiding the calm of a powerful cultivator and replacing it with the slightly bewildered, deferential manner of an old man. He pushed open the stone door.

"Junior Brother Wang? Why are you in such a panic?" he asked hoarsely, looking toward the courtyard.

Wang Hai's face was deathly pale. Panting hard, he pointed toward the market's outskirts and stammered, "A b-beast tide! So many demonic beasts! They've surrounded the market! The formation... the formation's about to give out!"

Li Qingshan's heart lurched.

A beast tide?

Qingyang Market lay in a relatively safe area. Demonic beasts occasionally harassed it, but an encirclement on the scale of a tidal wave was exceedingly rare.

He immediately followed Wang Hai at a brisk pace toward the palisade wall at the market entrance.

By now, many people had gathered on the wall, including Steward Zhao Kun and the four outer-sect disciples, as well as several Rogue Cultivators who had been summoned. Every face was grave, every person braced for battle.

Li Qingshan looked outside, and even with his century-old composure, he couldn't help drawing a sharp breath!

Beyond the market, a vast, dark mass had gathered: several thousand low-tier demonic beasts of all shapes and sizes!

Green Wolves, Demon Foxes, Iron-Hide Boars, Venom-Drool Pythons... They ranged from low-grade first-tier to high-grade first-tier. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they roared and hissed in deafening, frenzied waves as they battered the market's thin barrier of spiritual light.

The barrier's radiance flickered violently, brightening and dimming without warning. It let out a strained hum, clearly at its limit.

"How did so many demonic beasts appear all at once?" Li Qingshan squeezed over to Zhao Kun and asked, feigning alarm.

Zhao Kun's face was ashen as he stared at the beast horde and ground out, "I don't know! There was no warning! It's as if something drove them here or drew them in! And look at their formation as they attack. It's chaotic, but there's some order to it. This isn't the work of an ordinary horde acting on instinct!"

He paused, his voice heavy enough to drip water. "A second-tier demonic beast must be driving them from behind! Otherwise, there's no way a beast tide of this scale could form!"

"A second-tier demonic beast?!" Several disciples nearby blanched at the words, despair filling their eyes.

First-tier demonic beasts were on par with Qi Refining cultivators. A second-tier demonic beast, however, was as powerful as a human cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm!

For stewards like them, whose highest cultivation was only the eighth layer of Qi Refining, and disciples in the middle stage of Qi Refining, the Foundation Establishment Realm was an impassable chasm!

"We've already sent an emergency talisman message to the sect!"

Zhao Kun forced himself to stay calm and shouted, "But who knows when reinforcements will arrive! Everyone, follow orders! Hold the formation nodes and pour in your mana. Every moment we hold is precious. Wait for rescue!"

At his words, everyone gritted their teeth and rushed to the various formation nodes, pouring their mana into the formations beneath their feet without holding anything back.

Li Qingshan joined them, heading to a remote formation node where he pretended to channel the feeble mana of a "third-layer Qi Refining cultivator." All the while, his sharp gaze swept across the chaotic beast horde.

His spiritual sense far surpassed the others'. As he scrutinized the scene, he indeed sensed a vast demonic aura behind the beast horde—subtle, yet chilling enough to make his heart quiver!

That aura was cold and savage, carrying the majesty of a king as it commanded all the surrounding low-tier demonic beasts.

The market's barrier flickered and shuddered violently, struggling to hold on.

"Awwoooo—!"

A long, domineering howl that seemed to pierce metal and split stone suddenly rang out from behind the beast horde!

The pressure within that cry instantly drowned out the roars of every other beast, making even the market's palisade tremble.

At the sound of the howl, the frenzied beasts' attack faltered, as if they had received an order. They parted to either side, opening a path.

A magnificent giant wolf, nearly the size of a calf, slowly emerged.

Its fur was silver-white, glimmering like moonlight. A tuft of golden fur on its forehead formed the vague shape of a crescent moon, and its green eyes were deep and cold, brimming with intelligence and cruelty.

The demonic power radiating from it was as imposing as a mountain. It was unmistakably a low-grade second-tier demonic beast!

It was the king of this beast horde—the Moon-Howling Wolf King!

More than a dozen slightly smaller but equally savage high-grade first-tier Moon-Howling Wolves surrounded it, serving as its guards.

The Moon-Howling Wolf King's green eyes swept indifferently over the market's tottering barrier. A trace of personified disdain flashed through them.

It lifted a forepaw and casually swiped at the barrier of spiritual light!

A tightly condensed, crescent-shaped blade of silver demonic power ripped through the air in an instant. With a piercing whistle, it struck the barrier at its weakest point with pinpoint accuracy!

"Crack—BOOM!!"

Like shattered glass, the market's already crumbling defensive formation let out a strained wail beneath the strike—equal in force to a full-power blow from a Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator—and burst apart, scattering into a shower of light.

"It's over..."

"The formation's broken!"

"A second-tier demonic beast... We're doomed..."

Desperate cries and wails rang out from the market. Fear and despair were written on every face.

Without the formation's protection, they were lambs awaiting slaughter before thousands of frenzied demonic beasts and a second-tier Wolf King.

Zhao Kun's face was also deathly pale, but he still forced himself to summon his magic artifact and shout hoarsely, "Form up! Defend yourselves! Fight these beasts to the death!"

After a brief lull, the beast horde erupted in an even more frenzied roar. Like a flood bursting through a breached dam, they surged toward Qingyang Market, now stripped of its protection!

The foul wind swept over them. The stench of death engulfed the entire market.

Amid the chaos, Li Qingshan watched the beast tide rushing toward them and the Moon-Howling Wolf King standing proudly behind it, looking on with cold indifference. Deep in his eyes, however, lay nothing but icy calm.

A second-tier demonic beast?

He clenched the fist hidden in his sleeve, feeling the Longevity Mana thundering through him—far surpassing that of an ordinary ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator.