Demon Beast Uprising in the Great Maple Mountain Range!

Shi Jian was very satisfied with everything as it stood.

Sun Changping and his grandson Sun Mao held down the Alchemy Chamber, Sun Wanqing managed the Talisman Court, Sun Caiya was in charge of the herb garden, and Sun Bo'an personally led the beast-taming branch.

The market's Spirit Stone income was growing steadier month by month.

Everyone attended to their own duties, and everything was in good order.

These days, the biggest thing he, the ancestor, had to do was find a large rock to lie on and bask in the sun, losing himself in cultivation.

Life was comfortable.

Shi Jian shook his whiskers and fur, a rare look of contentment showing on his face.

If they kept saving at this rate, in another eight or ten years, the Spirit Stones in the storehouse would add up to a considerable sum.

Then they could spend a fortune buying a few rare spiritual treasures from outside, and he could try to break through the shackles of his bloodline. It was not something to rush, but they were on the right path.

One step at a time.

Unfortunately, the heavens had no intention of letting him enjoy himself for long.

Three days later, a streak of crimson sword light slashed across the sky at an absurd speed, trailing a dazzling tail in its wake.

Before the Sun Clan's mountain-protecting formation could even react, the sword light broke through and hovered above the council hall!

The sword light faded, dropping a token.

The token was three inches square and bronze all over, with a cloud pattern carved on the front and the character for "summon" on the back. Spiritual power rippled out from it without cease, pressing down on the council hall's roof tiles until they trembled...

Sun Bo'an had just hurried back. The moment he lifted the token in both hands, his face turned white!

He recognized it.

A summons token from the White Cloud Temple.

The last time he had seen one was back in his grandfather's generation.

Without a moment's hesitation, Sun Bo'an clutched the token and ran for the back mountain. He even tripped halfway there, but he scrambled up and kept running, leaving one shoe behind. There was nothing dignified about this cultivator now.

"Ancestor! Something terrible has happened!"

Shi Jian had been dozing on the back mountain. The shout made his ears prick up.

"Tsk."

He sat up on the rock and shook the dead leaves off his body, his slit pupils full of impatience. "What are you panicking for, you old coot? Has the sky fallen?"

Still seething at being woken, he truly wanted to slap Sun Bo'an to death.

Sun Bo'an was gasping for breath, his knees still covered in dirt from his fall. He raised the token over his head, his voice tight.

"P-Pingyang County... is gone!"

Shi Jian's ears twitched.

"The Demon Beasts in the Great Maple Mountain Range have risen in revolt. A beast tide is pressing south. Pingyang County was first in its path, and the county city's grand formation fell in less than half a day."

Sun Bo'an swallowed, beads of sweat striking the ground one after another. "The Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Li and Wang Clans stationed in Pingyang County died on the spot. Countless mortals and Rogue Cultivators in the city were killed or wounded."

"The entire city... was slaughtered."

Shi Jian's pupils narrowed to thin slits. He said nothing, but his tail tightened involuntarily.

The Great Maple Mountain Range.

That was where he had become a Demon Beast. Mingqiu Mountain lay on the outskirts of the Great Maple Mountain Range, merely a little peak without even a name.

He knew that mountain range all too well!

The Demon Beasts there were formidable and fiercely territorial, readily coming to blows and drawing blood over a single spiritual herb or Spirit Vein.

But for that very reason, the Demon Beast populations were interlocked like a dog's teeth, none willing to submit to another. There was no possibility of them acting in unison...

A beast tide?

The Demon Beasts never finished fighting among themselves, so where had a beast tide come from?

Unless... something had forced them out, or something had gathered them together!

Shi Jian suppressed the trace of unease in his heart and asked in a grave voice:

"How large is the beast tide?"

"I don't know."

Sun Bo'an shook his head. "The token contains only the summons, no detailed battle report. But two Foundation Establishment Lineages were stationed in Pingyang County, and even with the county city's grand formation, it fell in half a day..."

He did not finish, but his meaning was clear enough.

It could not be small.

There might even be a level-five or higher Golden Core great demon causing chaos!

"The White Cloud Temple has issued a summons."

"All Foundation Establishment Lineages and minor Qi Refining clans in the nine counties under its rule are ordered to immediately dispatch their elites to assemble at the Cangshi Valley defensive line."

Sun Bo'an paused, then added, "Anyone who disobeys will have their clan exterminated."

Shi Jian sneered.

The White Cloud Temple had had its tail stepped on and seemed a little desperate...

The slaughter of Pingyang County was not merely a matter of lives lost. If they could not contain the situation and the beast tide swept through the whole of White Cloud Commandery, leaving it unable to pay its spiritual taxes in full,

the great Nascent Soul sect above them would not listen to explanations. When the time came, the White Cloud Temple itself would be skinned alive and left half-dead...

So this summons was less a call to arms than a threat.

Go, and they might die.

Refuse, and they would certainly die!

"Get the people ready. We can't avoid this."

"From our clan, only you, Sun Kezheng and Sun Xing will go. Pick another forty immortal slaves, and have each of the eight minor clans under our rule on the market side send ten people."

Sun Bo'an stared. "Ancestor, you're going too?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

Shi Jian jumped down from the bluestone, landing without a sound. His four paws left shallow prints in the dirt. "A bunch of little Qi Refining Realm cultivators like you wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth at the Cangshi Valley defensive line."

"If I don't go, the little foundation the Sun Clan has struggled to build will all be lost."

"Besides, would I dare not go?"

He spoke matter-of-factly, but Sun Bo'an heard a hint of bitterness.

In the White Cloud Temple's eyes, a Foundation Establishment Lineage was worth less than a dog. Once the summons came, you had to go running with your tail wagging.

No asking why, no thought for life or death.

That was the cultivation world: each cultivation realm was a heaven apart...

Such was the helplessness of the weak, forever.

Sun Bo'an asked no more questions and turned to make arrangements.

That night, lights blazed throughout the Sun Clan. People came and went from the storehouse, carrying out talismans, pills and Spirit Stones by the boxload.

Sun Wanqing worked through the night making talismans of every kind, her eyes bloodshot from staying up, while Sun Changping worked overtime refining pills in the Alchemy Chamber.

Together with Sun Tieshan and Sun Yacai, the four possessed skills that were the foundation of the Lineage, so Shi Jian was unwilling to send them to their deaths on the front line.

That night,

Sun Mao came running to the back mountain to find Shi Jian, carrying a wooden box in his arms. He said it held six freshly refined pills for the ancestor to keep on the journey.

Shi Jian looked down at the box, then at Sun Mao.

"Get back to bed."

Sun Mao put the box on the ground, turned and ran.

After a dozen or so steps, he looked back and shouted, "Ancestor, you must come back!"

Shi Jian ignored him, but quietly nudged the box to his side with a paw. Though the pills were nothing special, they were still a token of the child's filial devotion.

Early the next morning, the group assembled outside Hongtian City.

Dawn had yet to fully break, and morning mist still drifted close to the ground. At the front of the group was a beast-drawn carriage pulled by two First-Tier Inferior-Grade Azure Wind Oxen.

The carriage was spacious, with simple soundproofing formation patterns carved into its four corners.

Shi Jian lay inside with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep. He was still thinking about the Great Maple Mountain Range.

Sun Bo'an rode a Scale Horse beside the carriage. The group also brought thirteen enormous Spirit-Seeking Rats.

They were split into three groups and spread out along the flanks and ahead to keep watch and scout the road. This was the first time the beast-taming technique had been put to use in actual combat...

The forty immortal slaves marched on either side. They had no Law Artifacts, and their only means of fighting were a few minor low- and mid-tier Law Techniques.

The people from the eight minor clans trailed behind, stretching the group into a long line.

No one spoke.

The closer they drew to the front line, the more desolate the scenery became. Many ruined walls and broken buildings appeared, along with countless displaced people...

Several days later, Cangshi Valley.

From a distance, the cliffs on either side stood facing each other. Not a blade of grass grew on their gray-white rock faces, which resembled two walls hewn out by a blade.

The valley mouth faced east and was about thirty zhang wide, one of the few main routes from the Great Maple Mountain Range into the human heartland!

At that moment, tents stretched across the flat ground outside the valley mouth, with flags of every color planted close together. The light of formations crisscrossed and overlapped amid shouting and the neighing of horses.

Shi Jian lifted the carriage curtain and glanced out.

There were quite a few people.

The Lineage cultivators from all nine counties of White Cloud Commandery had nearly all arrived, along with many Rogue Cultivators who had been forcibly conscripted, forming a vast, dark mass.

By a rough estimate, there were just over three thousand!

But Shi Jian's senses were more useful than his eyes.

Among the three thousand, fewer than thirty presences belonged to the Foundation Establishment Realm. The rest were all Qi Refining Realm cultivators, mostly in the middle layers.

Use these people to block a beast tide?

Shi Jian lowered the curtain, his expression unchanged.

As the group approached the camp gate, two cultivators guarding it stepped forward to block them.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

The one in the lead was at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, with an iron ruler tucked at his waist and a booming voice. One look was enough to tell he was someone else's errand runner and gatekeeper.

"The Sun Clan of Hongtian City. We have come to assemble in response to the summons."

"How dare you block the ancestor's carriage? Stand aside!"