Anomaly

Jiang Lu shouted to the two spirit beasts.

Cangchen and Chi Li nodded, pinning down the beast's movements from either side.

The sword in Jiang Lu's hand flashed with red light, several crimson streaks carving across its blade.

With several swishes, they struck the beast's body.

Pain flared, and the beast let out a howl, its body unable to stop itself from growing even more frenzied in its attacks.

Its bloodshot eyes locked onto Jiang Lu. Its claws scraped backward several times, and even its teeth trembled.

Damned human!

It wanted her dead!

Then it charged at Jiang Lu with a sudden burst of speed.

Its massive body was nearly twice Jiang Lu's size. Her heart jolted, and the fireballs and wind blades behind her flew toward it in unison.

Holding her sword, she used the two spells as cover. With several leaps, she arrived above the beast. She flipped in midair, and her sword light shot straight for its neck.

With a ripping sound.

A bloody gash appeared on the beast's hide.

Jiang Lu gritted her teeth and continued dragging her sword upward, where it struck something hard.

The beast's crystal core, carrying a faint red glow, appeared before her eyes. With a thought, she stored the core in her spatial storage.

Then the beast crashed to the ground.

Seeing this, Jiang Lu no longer paid attention to the beast beneath her feet.

She immediately went to help the other disciples. Yet the other beasts had no crystal cores at all; once their necks were severed, they lost their lives.

Jiang Lu was slightly puzzled, but her sixth sense told her that no one could learn of this matter. When she had seen the crystal core just now, she had not dug it out with her hands. Presumably, no one had noticed.

The entire day passed in slaughter. Looking at the devastation strewn across the ground, everyone let out a breath.

After beheading the last beast, they immediately sat down to meditate, repairing their injuries and restoring their spiritual energy.

Gu Miao led several Late Qi Refinement cultivators to quickly collect the beasts. The bloody stench here was far too thick; disciples with wind spiritual roots were needed to disperse it.

During the slaughter, everyone had fought while taking pills. Fortunately, they were all disciples of the Medicine King Pavilion and had enough pills.

From this, it was clear that disciples from other forces had likely suffered even more grievous losses.

"You injured ones, hurry and take an Essence-Stabilizing Pill and a Healing Pill."

Gu Miao walked over and distributed pills to the severely injured disciples. These pills had all been provided by the City Lord's Manor; however much they used would be deducted from their gains.

After all, they were disciples of the Medicine King Pavilion. So long as someone could still be saved, they would never be abandoned.

Jiang Lu felt the depleted spiritual energy in her dantian slowly filling again, and she let out a breath.

Over the past few months, she had already learned to control the speed at which her body absorbed spiritual energy. During cultivation, no massive vortices of spiritual energy formed around her.

Now that everyone else was cultivating as well, no one noticed the changes in her.

She felt that when her spiritual energy was exhausted, cultivating again to refill her dantian seemed to make her feel better. Perhaps this would allow her strength to rise faster.

Moreover, she seemed to possess far more spiritual energy than the others. Even the Late Qi Refinement disciples had exhausted their spiritual energy and taken several pills, while she seemingly had no need to do so.

She lowered her head, concealing the gleam in her eyes. Whether that was true or not, she would find out after testing it over the next few days.

When Gu Miao saw that everyone had mostly recovered, he led them to join up with the other teams. The second wave of attacks would not come so quickly.

Taking advantage of this chance, they needed to report the matter at once. The plans going forward would certainly need to change.

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Jiang Lu did not ask why. She only needed to see Gu Miao's furrowed brows to know that this matter was far from simple.

She lowered her head and followed behind. A dispirited air hung over everyone; none of them retained their earlier eagerness to try.

If they still did not realize that there was something wrong with this Beast Tide, then they had lived all those years for nothing.

"Fellow Daoist Gu, you've finally arrived."

Upon seeing Gu Miao's group, the bedraggled cultivators opposite them immediately came forward to greet them.

Seeing their wretched state, Gu Miao was secretly alarmed. Their own group consisted almost entirely of cultivators with offensive spiritual roots.

Yet these people looked more than twice as miserable as they did. They had likely been caught completely off guard.

His gaze then fell on Jiang Lu. It was all thanks to her reminder; otherwise, without preparation, their insufficient strength would only have led to a far more disastrous outcome.

Keeping everything in his heart, he swept his eyes over the other teams and saw West River City's City Lord, Chi Yan, surrounded by everyone.

He possessed Early Golden Core cultivation.

He sat in the seat of honor, his expression stern and carrying a trace of inscrutability.

A circle of cultivators surrounded him, their faces filled with anxiety as they chattered all at once about something.

The captains walked over and reported their experiences one by one. After hearing them, everyone fell even more silent.

The captains of the later waves, in particular, looked somewhat flustered upon hearing this.

Even the disciples of these great forces had ended up in such a miserable state, let alone them.

They looked toward the man seated in the place of honor, wanting to speak but hesitating, waiting only for his orders.

"City Lord, this Beast Tide seems even more severe than before. If every wave has such numbers, our losses will be devastating."

"That's right. The number of beasts has doubled. We do not have enough people, and it will be difficult to hold them back."

"Exactly, exactly."

"..."

Chi Yan glanced at everyone and raised a hand slightly. They immediately fell silent, all eyes turning toward him.

After pondering for a while, he said,

"In that case, combine the teams of two waves into one and send them out together. The remaining waves will follow behind in order, with both sides stationed ten li apart."

"Additionally, the Medicine King Pavilion's alchemists and cultivators from the various forces who can refine pills will no longer participate in the fighting. Instead, they will be distributed among each team to provide pills."

After speaking, he swept his gaze around the crowd, taking in everyone's expressions.

"Do any of you have objections?"

Everyone shook their heads. So long as there was support, it was enough. Combining two teams into one would undoubtedly share the pressure, and Medicine King Pavilion alchemists would accompany them. If they were still dissatisfied, they would truly be unable to tell good from bad.

After Gu Miao returned to the team, he immediately made the arrangements. In truth, there were not many alchemists who had come to fight; most were disciples who only knew some basic processing of spirit plants.

But once the various forces were all included, the number was no longer small.

Jiang Lu had not told anyone that she could refine pills. Gu Miao directly passed over her, which was exactly what she wanted.

She still planned to train herself properly and confirm whether her guess was correct. If she stayed behind refining pills, she would receive the same resources in the end, but it seemed to be of little use to her.

She trusted her sixth sense. Since it leaned toward training, then she would train.

Because the teams had been reorganized, they traveled together with another team.

Though the two sides were unfamiliar with each other, they were disciples of the Medicine King Pavilion, and the other side did not try to put them in their place. They were quickly accepted.

After all, not being able to refine pills now did not mean they would never be able to in the future. Never underestimate the benefits an alchemist could bring.