Outskirts of The Wandering Wood.The group from the Forest Clan arrived and one of their scouts met with them. They carried a lot of equipment.
"Patriarch!" The scout bowed, not expecting the Forest Patriarch himself to show up.
"Have you found them?" Patriarch Lin Huangfu asked without delay. A big and muscular middle-aged man, his face had traces comparable to Little Fu, yet much deeper and manlier. At his back, a huge heavy axe hung proudly.
The scout shook his head, "No. We searched for our bloodline but they seem to have gone deeper in. No way we can get past that many Spirit Beasts."
"How many are there?" This time the Second Elder asked. One of the three peak of the Spirit Sea Cultivators of the Forest Clan, along with the Patriarch. The remaining one stayed in the Clan in case the worst happened.
"On this part alone, over three hundred. The strongest seem to be at the peak of the middle Spirit Sea Realm. But… the other Spirit Beasts became agitated on the other parts of the forest. The other Clans are having trouble with them," the scout explained.
"Peak of the Sixth Layer? What about the Two-Headed Lioness Queen? The first report said the peak of the initial stage!" Second Elder questioned.
"That… was true before, but other beasts arrived. As strange as it sounds, they aren"t attacking each other."
"Patriarch… maybe we should wait. This looks strange," Second Elder interjected.
The Forest Patriarch shook his head, "Little Fu is inside. I don"t know if dead or alive! Do you want me to wait? Second Elder, you stay here, if anything happens you will lead our Forest Clan!"
"No, no, how can I? If Patriarch wants to go in, these old bones will follow!" The Second Elder voice ended and the rest of the twenty Cultivators from the Forest Clan all clasped their hands.
"We will follow the Patriarch!"
The Second Elder already lived for one hundred and thirty years, without hope of breaking through to the Spirit Gate Realm. Their Patriarch, a rare talent, brought the Clan hope of becoming a fifth-ranked influence.
Aside from the Patriarch and Second Elder, the other cultivators only reached the middle of the Spirit Sea Realm at most. High ranked Spirit Sea realm Cultivators made up the backbone of the Clan. Losing too many here would bring trouble.
When the group braced themselves to go in, another party rushed in from the northern section. The leader nodded to the Forest Patriarch from a distance. He wore heavy armor and carried a halberd with flaming runes. Besides him, a white-robed elder with pure white hair also nodded.
"Flame Commander of BlueCloud City and an elder from the White Clan!" Second Elder recognized them. The group had over one hundred people, and those two in the lead reached the 7th layer of the Spirit Sea Realm. While the Forest Patriarch surpa.s.sed them in Cultivation Base, their Clans and the City Lord possessed better techniques and resources.
"Good, they should be able to handle anything! Let"s go in as well!" Patriarch Lin Huangfu went in first and the rest followed. The scout led the way.
Not long after many Spirit Beasts rushed over, but not in groups. Random attacks with no coordination. The group had no trouble killing them.
"Patriarch, it"s up ahead!" The scout pointed forward from one of the highest trees.
"Everyone, get in formation! Be ready for a fierce battle!" They needed to break through this choke point no matter what. From every corner of the forest, dozens of Spirit Beasts poured in. Most at the Peak of the Body Tempering Realm, but a lot of them also in the Spirit Sea.
The Forest Patriarch liked to lead the vanguard, always the first to hack with his axe. He held it above his head, hacking down with great force!
[Forest Clan Axe Technique - Woodland Fury]
A Gra.s.s-Eating Monkey Spirit Beast had its body hacked away in two. The Second Elder did not fall behind either, striking with [Leaf]. With them at the lead, the other Cultivators fought and took little to no damage.
In reality, the Patriarch and the Elder did not exhibit might anywhere near what their Cultivation base could reach. Both their Cultivation Law and Techniques lacked power and quality. To reach power equivalent to the Peak of the Spirit Sea Realm spent a lot of Spirit Energy and thus reduced their capabilities in a prolonged fight.
More than enough to deal with those lower-ranked Spirit Beasts, but far from sufficient to handle the more powerful ones. After the first few waves of Spirit Beasts, stronger ones came out.
Furious Roaring Red Lizard, the peak of the Fifth Layer of the Spirit Sea Realm!
Triple Slashing Dragonfly, the peak of the Fifth Layer of the Spirit Sea Realm!
Both could distract the Patriarch and Elder for a while. The sheer amount of Spirit Beasts overwhelmed the rest of the Cultivators. The scout shouted in a hurry:
"Patriarch, no good! There"s a lot more of them coming then we predicted! Even I-" A Spirit Beast at the third layer of the Spirit Sea Realm pounced, forcing him to retreat to his fellow Cultivators.
"This… why are those beasts so fierce? Even the Spirit Traps we brought aren"t enough!" They prepared before coming here but still found themselves pushed back.
"Take out the Spirit Crossbows!" A few Cultivators took the Crossbows from their backs and shot. First Rank Crossbows, often used on hunting. For a Clan like the Forest Clan, a treasure.
Although the Crossbows held them back for a while, the Spirit Beasts kept coming.
"This is endless! It"s as if they are trying to keep us here… they won"t let us go any further! Something important is up ahead!" Patriarch Lin Huangfu shouted. Tired and wounded bodies kept increasing, but the Spirit Beasts would not retreat.
**
"Senior, we shall meet again someday!" Ming Ren clasped his hands together and bowed to Jana. Lin Qiang and Lin Dong did the same.
"Hahaha, you are my hope, we will," Jana always felt surrounded by darkness. But now the light arrived at its doorstep, "Little humans, you can always come here to chat. I made it so the formation recognizes you two as well!"
"We will, Senior!" They both felt a strong connection to Jana due to their bloodline induction. It wouldn"t be weird to call them family.
"Aren"t you going to wake them up?" Jana pointed to the rest of the group.
"After we leave, they"ll wake up anyway. It would take too long to explain and they would faint," Ming Ren said.
After a double-hour, Lin Qiang and Lin Dong mastered enough of the formation to use in battle. Thanks to Ming Ren"s guidance they also consolidated their realms and even advanced further on their Martial Arts, reaching the Middle Succes Stage. They could do nothing else for now, so the group said goodbye to Jana and headed out.
In fact, Jana threw them to the outside. As expected, the Twin-Headed Lioness Queen and her army stood there waiting for them. She roared and the other beasts trembled.
"Lin Dong!" Shouted Ming Ren.
"I"m going!" Lin Dong went forward with [Unmovable Forest, Middle Stage Success] and each step seemed like a deep-rooted tree walked. Firm, but never slow.
The Queen commanded and her army moved to attack. A Wild Ape at the peak of the Third Layer of the Spirit Sea Realm reached Lin Dong first and pounded at him. Lin Dong met fist with a fist, revolving the [One With The Wood] cultivation law and bringing his might to the extreme.
Comparing Lin Dong with the Forest Patriarch, the former used his Spirit Energy more efficiently. Although [One With The Wood] was a Body Tempering Realm base Cultivation Law, its heaven-grade transformed it completely.
A Cultivator could not use that Law to bring his might to cross higher realms at the Spirit Sea but reaching the Peak of the Body Tempering Realm and even the first two layers of the Spirit Sea Realm took no effort at all. Its Qi Distribution lacked nothing even when compared to Spirit Gate Cultivation Base Laws.
From there to above a lot more Spirit Energy needed to be spent to cross realms but compared to the low-grade Cultivation Law from before it was like heaven and h.e.l.l.
Not only that, Lin Dong"s heaven-grade techniques could now generate might equivalent to the Eight Layer of the Body Tempering Realm with ease.
Fist collided with a fist, and the Wild Ape screamed in pain as its fist crumbled. Lin Dong linked [Leaf] after, and the mighty chop crushed the enemy"s chest. The other Spirit Beasts halted in awe.
Seeing her underlings hesitate, the Queen went mad. It roared once again and rushed forward, tearing its own allies apart in a rage.
"Get into formation!" Ming Ren shouted, and Lin Dong nodded. His attention peaked. Against the Queen, no mistakes allowed.
With a flick of his wrist, the First Rank sword appeared once again at Ming Ren"s hand. Lin Qiang drew her favored thin sword and focused on summoning. The pinkish energy floated once again.
To her left, Saber-Toothed Cat, second-layer of the Spirit Sea Realm.
To her right, Flood Mantis, first-layer of the Spirit Sea Realm.
They both followed behind Lin Dong, flanking the Queen. Lin Qiang gave them orders by thought, so she positioned herself behind Ming Ren to support. The formation looked like a trident, with Lin Dong and the Spirit Beasts as the p.r.o.ngs.
The Queen attacked Lin Dong with her claws but the Flood Mantis moved to slash her legs on the left, and the Saber-Toothed Cat jumped on the right. Instead of running away, Lin Dong met the claw, crossing his hands to block.
The three of them revolved their Cultivation Laws and joined their Spirit Energy together, activating the Battle Formation. The biggest merit of this formation was allowing them to focus the Qi in a specific cultivator with ease. With all the Qi around Lin Dong, he could use might much higher than his current realm and with minimum strain.
The formation shared the burden the same way it shared the power!
Although the Twin-Headed Queen had the might of the Peak of the Fourth Layer and two monster cores, Lin Dong at the peak of the Third Layer of the Spirit Sea Realm didn"t lose to it at all.
In fact, he stopped the paw with ease.
With the help of Ming Ren"s Dragon Light Divine Body activation, the formation allowed him to reach the peak of the Sixth Layer of the Spirit Sea Realm!