Beasts Fleeing in Panic! Was It Clearing the Field, Waiting for Me to Enter?

The ground was shaking.

It was not a steady tremor, but chaotic, frenzied impacts—as if hundreds of war drums had been smashed at once, their drummers already driven mad.

The rotting leaves beneath Su Chen's feet bounced, and an aura of terror seeped from the cracks in the soil.

The images relayed by the Shadow Leopards exploded in his mind: to the due north, a "flood" half a mile wide was brutally sweeping toward them.

It was not water. It was beasts.

Hundreds of thousand-year soul beasts were crammed together. Ironspine Wild Boars' tusks tore through Scarletflame Python scales, while Rockhorn Rhinos' heavy hooves snapped their companions' tails.

These predators, who normally fought to the death, had completely lost all sense of territory.

Their eyes were bloodshot, and only one thought remained: flee south.

They did not even spare Su Chen a glance.

That was the most chilling part.

"Beast tide." Yan Wuji abruptly rose to his feet, a crack appearing in his usual refined facade. "No, this is a rout!"

A true beast tide was an invasion, a force that destroyed everything in its path.

But in the eyes of these creatures, only one word remained—life.

Su Chen made his judgment in an instant.

"Everyone move west and stay tight against the cliff! Fearclaw Bears, form up on the left flank! Thunder Eagles, take to the sky!"

Thirty spiritual links trembled at once.

The Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears moved with a roar. Ten colossal beasts formed a thick arc, pinning the group between the cliff wall and the wall of bears.

The Purple Lightning Thunder Eagles beat their wings and soared higher. Lightning burst between their feathers above the canopy, illuminating the chaos below.

The beast tide came too quickly, too broadly.

When the first wave struck, Iron Wall planted all four limbs firmly and slammed both paws into the earth.

A dark-golden wave of energy erupted from its palms, forcibly knocking three leading Rockhorn Rhinos off course.

The Fearclaw Bears beside it exerted their strength at the same time, their dark-golden force fields joining together like a reef that split open a gap in the beast tide.

Soul beasts surged past them on both sides like rushing water.

Su Chen's gaze swept rapidly across the formation, his eyes turning cold.

Two people were missing.

"Jiang Tieyi! Chu Yao!"

Ye Linglong's crimson eyes glimmered faintly as she pointed southeast. "They were swept into the canyon. Three hundred zhang away. Their auras are still there."

Three hundred zhang.

Su Chen held two fingers together like a blade, and five spiritual chains shot from his fingertips, locking precisely onto five Nether Shadow Leopards.

"Numbers Three, Five, and Seven, enter through the canyon's northern entrance. Numbers One and Nine, circle around to the southern entrance. Bring them back within fifteen breaths."

The Shadow Leopards vanished.

They melted directly into the shadows on the ground, leaving not even a ripple behind.

"The rest of you, come with me."

Su Chen raced along the cliff wall, his spiritual power split to its limit: half maintained his own route, while the other half synchronized with the Shadow Leopards' vision.

The canyon was not deep, but it was astonishingly narrow.

The stone walls pressed in from both sides, leaving only four zhang of space. Once the surging beast horde poured in, the rout became a brutal stampede.

A Scarletflame Python was knocked over, its massive body lying across the middle of the canyon and oddly creating a pocket of empty space behind it.

Jiang Tieyi was crouching in that gap.

He pressed one hand against Chu Yao's shoulder, shielding her tightly behind him, while his other hand clenched his martial soul.

The phantom of a Savage Ancient Ape emerged behind him, every strand of its dark-brown fur standing on end.

The ground beneath his feet had sunk half an inch, evidence that his gravity field was operating beyond its limit.

"Miss Chu, are you all right?"

"If you don't take that hand away, I'll make sure you're not."

Jiang Tieyi gave a dry cough and awkwardly withdrew his hand.

The Scarletflame Python had been enraged by the trampling. Its tail swept wildly, smashing an Ironspine Wild Boar until its bones shattered and flesh burst apart.

But the moment it turned over, it exposed the shadows beneath its belly.

A crystalline giant pincer stabbed out from the rubble.

A Millennium Amethyst Venom Scorpion.

This vicious creature had clearly been driven mad by the crush as well. Purple venom dripped from its tail hook onto the ground, and the rocks instantly began to emit foul, smoky vapor.

The venom scorpion did not care about reason. Right now, it only wanted to kill everything in front of it.

"Move."

Chu Yao stepped past Jiang Tieyi, her tone cold as ice.

"Are you crazy? That's a millennium venom scorpion! One strike from that hook could pierce through my—"

"Shut up."

Chu Yao raised her right hand. A thumb-sized emerald-green gu insect rested in her palm.

The phantom of the Myriad-Poison Gu Mother quietly bloomed behind her like a dark-purple demonic flower flourishing in an abyss.

The venom scorpion's tail hook stabbed toward her in a blur.

Chu Yao neither dodged nor retreated.

She raised her left hand, spreading her five fingers through the air.

Third Soul Skill—Hundred Poisons Return to Origin.

The purple venom froze strangely when it came within three inches of her palm.

It was not being blocked. It was being devoured.

The deadly poison condensed into a thin thread, slipping between Chu Yao's fingers and into her palm, where the gu insect greedily sucked it into its belly.

The venom scorpion froze for an instant.

It frantically spewed out even more toxic mist, its concentration instantly multiplying several times over.

A strange flush appeared on Chu Yao's face.

It was pure energy fed back to its host after the gu insect digested the poison.

The meridians damaged by the collision were rapidly healing.

The millennium venom scorpion emptied the poison it had accumulated over months, only to discover that the human girl before it had not collapsed—instead, she looked even healthier.

It turned and ran.

After two steps, it stumbled over its own massive pincers.

Chu Yao looked down at it from above, disdain in her eyes. "That's it?"

Jiang Tieyi leaned against the stone wall, looking as though he had seen a ghost. "Miss Chu, that martial soul of yours... do poison-type soul beasts have to kneel and call you ancestor when they see you?"

"Say one more word, and I'll feed you next time."

"I'll shut up."

A sharp whistle of wind came from overhead.

Three black shadows leaped down from above the canyon. The Shadow Leopards landed before Chu Yao and meekly lowered their backs.

Chu Yao flipped onto a leopard's back with crisp, efficient movements.

Jiang Tieyi looked at the remaining two Shadow Leopards, then at his own six-foot-three burly frame.

The Shadow Leopards disdainfully turned their heads away.

"...Fine. I'll run myself."

The beast tide lasted for half an hour.

Su Chen commanded the Fearclaw Bear pack to form up at the cave entrance, forcibly withstanding the scattered impacts.

By the time Jiang Tieyi and Chu Yao returned to the group, the tide was already nearing its end.

Su Chen examined the two of them, then gave a slight nod when he saw they were unharmed.

"Are you injured?"

"Just superficial wounds." Jiang Tieyi patted his chest. "The ancient ape's hide is thick. I can take it."

Su Chen looked at Chu Yao. She turned her head away. "What are you looking at? My martial soul isn't as obedient as your bears."

Su Chen withdrew his gaze without paying it any mind.

Ye Linglong leaned close to his ear and lowered her voice. "She drained a millennium venom scorpion dry. Her gu insect evolved."

Su Chen understood.

The Myriad-Poison Gu Mother used poison to nurture gu. The toxic creatures in this forest were death sentences to others, but invaluable nourishment to her.

"What do we do next?" Yan Wuji crouched at the cave entrance, drawing a simple map in the mud with his fingertip.

Su Chen walked over. His gaze swept across the map before turning north, toward where the beast tide had retreated.

Hundreds of thousand-year soul beasts had fled south without a shred of dignity.

There was no hunting, no fighting—only pure terror.

He looked into the depths of the forest.

The sky there was unnaturally dark, and the air seemed to have grown viscous as it continuously sank.

The "wall" his spiritual power had touched earlier was in that direction.

"It is clearing the field," Su Chen said slowly.

Yan Wuji's hand froze.

Mo Qianye opened his eyes, his tone grave. "Clearing the field? For what?"

Su Chen did not answer.

But he knew very well that something capable of making hundreds of thousand-year soul beasts flee together was actively driving every creature from its territory.

It was not hunting, nor was it making a display of power.

It was making room.

Making room for an absolutely silent battlefield, free from any interference.

It was waiting for an opponent worthy enough.

Su Chen raised a hand and gently brushed it over Iron Wall's cold, heavy dark-golden claws.

"Rest for two hours."

Su Chen leaned against the stone wall and closed his eyes.

"Then we head north."

Jiang Tieyi swallowed and muttered softly, "Big brother, you really aren't afraid of dying."

Su Chen did not open his eyes, his tone calm as still water.

"Those who fear death have no right to enter this forest."

Outside the cave, the last aftershocks faded, and the forest sank into deathly silence.

Within the darkness to the north, that presence was still waiting patiently.