After flying across the long river, Li Yan concealed himself once more and began searching at low altitude.
The Demon Beasts grew fewer again, as though the long river were a dividing line. The spiritual energy here was even richer.
This struck Li Yan as rather strange. Logically, richer spiritual energy should have meant more Demon Beasts.
But he soon realized something: this was probably an area frequented by Human Race cultivators, so those Demon Beasts would not cross the river lightly.
Sure enough, after another two hundred li of careful searching, a village finally came into view.
There were quite a few humans in the village, but after examining them, Li Yan confirmed that they were all mortals.
The village appeared to contain a dozen or so households, but cries of anguish filled it now, and everything was in chaos.
Some thirty villagers, both men and women, were holding weapons and sheltering behind a long wall built of blue stone.
Most carried spears, though there were also a few sabers and swords.
What surprised Li Yan, however, was that several of them actually held talismans, seemingly ready to activate and launch them at any moment.
There were small holes between some of the stones in the wall, and the mortals were peering through them at the other side.
Occasionally, they thrust spears or longswords through those holes, stabbing straight out at whatever lay beyond.
On the other side of the wall, a Demon Beast shaped like a wild boar, but as large as an adult elephant, was roaring furiously and repeatedly charging the wall.
Judging by the power of its attacks, Li Yan could tell that it was also a first-tier Demon Beast.
Its body was covered in black bristles like arrow fletching. It resembled an enormous hedgehog clad