The Beast Tide Subsides

As the morning sun rose, the beast tide at the mines retreated first, and Elder Yu immediately hurried back to the Yang Family.

Seeing that the situation outside had stabilized, he prepared to enter the deep mountains in search of Patriarch Yang Guanfeng.

But at the very instant he set off, his mind suddenly trembled, and his expression changed drastically.

"This is bad!"

Sensing the fox demon's appearance—and that it was atop the cliff—Elder Yu's heart fell into chaos.

The two children were still up there. Even with that Exotic Stone, they were no match for a Sixth Level of Qi Gathering demon beast. This was terrible!

He pushed his spirit power to its limit. In several leaps, he vaulted over the crowd and courtyards, arriving at the cliff.

Spotting the two children from afar, he hurriedly took out a dharma disk and cast a technique, pulling them through the air behind him.

He raised a hand to examine them. Finding that the children had merely overexerted themselves and exhausted their bodies, with no other serious injuries, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When he turned around and was about to cast a technique to fight the fox demon, he was shocked to discover that it was already dead!

That powerful aura had yet to completely disperse, indicating that it had only just been killed.

Elder Yu stepped closer and saw a blood hole as thick as a finger piercing in through the fox demon's brow, blasting through its entire body before emerging from its tail.

Other than that, the fox demon had no other wounds, meaning it had been killed in a single strike.

Elder Yu naturally recognized such an obvious display of Spirit Power Impact.

Yet he could not understand it. The highest cultivation among the two children was only the Second Level. How could they have instantly killed this fox demon in one blow?

As he pondered in confusion, Lingqing and Linghu also walked over.

"Ancestor Yu, the Exotic Stone killed this demon beast."

As Yang Lingqing spoke, she handed Chen Yang, still somewhat hot to the touch, to Ancestor Yu.

She then told him about Wang Lie breaking into the Forbidden Ground earlier, as well as how, during this beast tide, the Exotic Stone had continuously released spirit energy fluctuations to warn them.

"Such a thing actually happened!"

Ancestor Yu wore an equally incredulous expression. He stared at Chen Yang for a long while in thought, distant legends he had heard in his sect when he had first stepped onto the path of cultivation surfacing in his mind.

"This thing is so extraordinary. Could it truly have an immense origin?"

After this series of events, Ancestor Yu became increasingly convinced that Chen Yang's origins were far from ordinary. It was likely much more than a rare Exotic Stone.

But the remnants of the beast tide still remained, so this was not the time to discuss such matters.

Ancestor Yu brought the two children down the cliff, dealing with several beasts that had broken into the Yang Family and hidden themselves along the way.

With Ancestor Yu joining the battle, the situation at the front instantly became one-sided.

The dharma disk in his hand shone with dazzling light. Elder Yu traced several strokes through the air with his fingers, and the beasts before him were flattened into meat patties by an immense force of gravity.

Seeing this display, the other beasts came to their senses and fled toward the deep mountains with their tails tucked between their legs.

Thus, the beast tide attacking the Yang Family was completely quelled.

Though the casualties were severe and great swathes of houses and rice fields had been destroyed, they had endured it in the end.

Elder Yu left the family's aftermath to Yang Feiyun and Yang Xiaolei, then instructed San Ling to bring all the demon beast corpses back to the Forbidden Ground.

He himself did not delay any longer, crossing Little Pine Mountain to search for Yang Guanfeng, who was killing demon beasts in the deep mountains.

"Patriarch!"

After traveling for half a day, he found Yang Guanfeng returning with injuries.

Yang Guanfeng looked utterly miserable at the moment. A claw wound across his chest was deep enough to expose bone, and a large chunk of flesh had been bitten off his shoulder.

Elder Yu hurried forward, only to discover that Yang Guanfeng's aura was not weak at all. On the contrary, it was exceptionally profound.

"This!"

The moment Elder Yu placed a hand on him, irrepressible delight appeared on his face.

"Patriarch, you've broken through!"

Yang Guanfeng's cultivation had broken through once more, reaching the Sixth Level of Qi Gathering!

Yang Guanfeng smiled at Elder Yu. "Heh heh, these worthless old bones of mine show no movement when I cultivate peacefully. Only when a demon beast claws and bites me do they finally feel comfortable."

"Hahahaha! Breaking through in battle—this old man truly admires the Patriarch's talent as well."

As he spoke, he returned to an old topic. "Ah, if someone had guided the Patriarch in cultivation earlier, not to mention Late Qi Gathering, even Qi Gathering Perfection would have been there for the taking."

Yang Guanfeng shook his head with a self-mocking smile.

"Such are the times, such is fate. Now that the younger generation of the Yang Family is so promising, I have nothing else to ask for."

After taking a healing pill, Yang Guanfeng returned home with Elder Yu.

After counting the losses, the Yang Family had suffered a total of four hundred and eighty-four deaths in this calamity, including family members, Clan Soldiers, the original villagers at the foot of the mountain, and the refugees who had fled there.

After Yang Guanfeng returned, he spent five days organizing everyone to clear the battlefield.

At the same time, he and Elder Yu opened up a vast graveyard halfway up the western slope of Little Pine Mountain, burying all the people who had died in this beast tide there.

On the day of the burial, all the surviving people followed the Yang Family up the mountain to pay their respects.

The line of mourners stretched from the mountainside all the way to the foot of the mountain.

Yang Guanfeng stood before the four hundred and eighty-four graves and addressed the crowd in a clear voice.

"This battle was the battle upon which my Yang Family established its footing after becoming independent from Willow Leaf City!"

"If we had lost this battle, my Yang Family would have ceased to exist!"

"Fortunately, we had warriors! We had heroes! We had all of you!"

"This victory is not the Yang Family's victory—it is everyone's victory!"

"We defeated the beast tide! We defeated peril and hardship! And we defeated that numb and heartless bastard heaven that treats all living things as straw dogs!"

He paused slightly and lifted a jar of wine from beside him.

"I, Yang Guanfeng, offer a toast to all of you!"

After draining it in one gulp, he raised another cup of wine, turned toward the four hundred and eighty-four graves, and shouted, "To the warriors! To the heroes!"

His voice was deep and resounding, audible throughout all of Little Pine Mountain.

Behind him, men and women, young and old alike, raised their cups and scattered the wine in their hands over Little Pine Mountain together with Yang Guanfeng.

That night, the Yang Family courtyard gates were thrown wide open as they hosted all the people who had endured this disaster.

Some raised their cups in celebration, some embraced one another and wept, some were filled with heroic fervor, while others stood mute and dazed.

The myriad faces of life all melted into wine, into tears, into the night.

The battle against the beast tide allowed the Yang Family to firmly establish itself on Little Pine Mountain. At the same time, it bound the fates of the mortals at the foot of the mountain who had survived this calamity to the Yang Family for generations to come.

As for the other forces in the Eastern Region's mountain forests—

Every village had been completely destroyed, and not a single villager survived. It was said that even their bones had been chewed to pieces and swallowed, leaving nothing behind.

Willow Leaf Town's army was nearly wiped out, and a Qi Gathering Cultivator had died as well. Yet the town had not fallen, so it was barely considered acceptable.

But White Stone Town on the other side was not so fortunate.

On the night of the beast tide, a Late Qi Gathering demon beast appeared and attacked the town.

Even though the town mayor broke through his cultivation in the midst of battle and reached the Sixth Level of Qi Gathering, it was of no use. In the end, he became food in the demon beast's belly.

After the town gates were breached, the beast pack surged into the town and slaughtered at will. The townspeople let out cries of despair. The sight was like purgatory, too horrifying for anyone to look at twice.

In the end, it was said that a streak of light flew in from the horizon, its true form a green flying sword.

The flying sword darted through the town several times, slaughtering every demon beast, including that Late Qi Gathering demon beast.

Later, two talismans descended. Dharma light enveloped the entire town, and the beasts within seemed to have their blood drained dry in an instant, turning into desiccated corpses that scattered at the slightest touch.

After the beast tide ended, White Stone Town had less than thirty percent of its former population remaining. Many families were wiped out, and few cultivators remained in the town.

Wang Xiong miraculously survived, but his son Wang Weiyang died at the hands of that Late Qi Gathering demon beast. The Wang Family that he had painstakingly built with his own hands was also destroyed in this great calamity.