Chapter 316 – Beast Tide
Liu Yueshan looked at Lin Ming nervously. If he were to do such a thing, it was likely that he would be scolded and punished. Currently, danger and mayhem had erupted within the entire Seven Profound territory. He had heard rumors that some great Demonic Sect had risen up, and wanted to take over the entire Divine Phoenix Province. Right now, he was just a tiny relay station deacon. He didn’t even have the qualifications to use a long distance sound transmission array, much less request the Seven Profound Valleys to send men to help defend a small country.
“This… Sir…”
Lin Ming didn’t have time to listen to Liu Yueshan’s malingering complaints. He straightforwardly said, “You tell them that Lin Ming requests help.”
“Lin Ming?”
Liu Yueshan paused. So the direct disciple in front of him was Lin Ming. Although he hadn’t visited the sect for a long time, the great name of Lin Ming still resounded in his mind like thunder. A common martial artist of the 36 countries had actually become champion of the 36 countries; how could he not have heard such an exaggerated matter? He probably would have even if he were deaf.
Come to think of it, wasn’t Lin Ming from Sky Fortune Kingdom? No wonder he had this sort of request. According to Liu Yueshan’s information, Lin Ming had already become a heaven-step talent that Divine Phoenix Island was training. His status was naturally not equal to an ordinary sect disciple. Even if the sect couldn’t afford to send help, they still wouldn’t ignore Lin Ming’s homeland.
Thinking this, Liu Yueshan immediately replied, “This subordinate will immediately request help.”
As he spoke, Liu Yueshan turned and began to activate the long distance sound transmission array. Lin Ming saw that the sound transmission array began to mobilize, and he quickly jumped onto the Winged Flood Dragon.
Lin Ming was strong, but it was impossible for a single person to defend against an entire beast tide. He needed an army to back him up, and other masters at his side. It was pointless for the Seven Profound Valleys to keep Pulse Condensation martial artists around as protection. In front of a Revolving Core master, they weren’t even ants. With Lin Ming’s current status, it wouldn’t be asking too much to request some defenders for Sky Fortune Kingdom.
The Winged Flood Dragon shot forth with lightning speed. As Lin Ming rode on its back, he was able to cross 2000 miles in a single hour.
“Mm? Those black spots in the air are vicious beasts?”
The Winged Flood Dragon was amazingly quick. In just a few breaths of time, those black dots became clear. There were countless fire falcons, flying leopards, man-eating birds, and countless other bizarre and fantastical vicious beasts that Lin Ming didn’t know the name of. There must have been tens of thousands in the dense cloud they were gathered in. And this was only in the air – there were probably many more on the ground.
Lin Ming gasped. As he was flying, this was the first time that he had witnessed the beast tide. Although these vicious beasts in front of him were mostly first-level, second-level, third-level, and other low ranking vicious beasts, this was a case of quant.i.ty over quality. A ma.s.s of them could eventually overwhelm and pile over a master.
It was hard to imagine what sort of supernatural power was used to stir up all of the vicious beasts in the ma.s.sive several million mile wide land of the Divine Phoenix Province, causing beast tide eruptions on such a terrifyingly large scale!
This demonstration of the South Sea Demon Region’s power was to force the 18 leftover third-grade sects to yield to their power. Now, the only way the 18 sects could face the South Sea Demon Region was if they gathered together all of their Revolving Core masters. But what sect would possibly do this? Who would willingly give up the land that they had ruled supreme over for so many years?
If they remained scattered, they could either surrender or die. But if they came together, the price they had to pay was too steep.
This move of the South Sea Demon Region was truly ruthless.
After the rioting vicious beasts discovered Lin Ming, they rushed over to him. Lin Ming took out the Purple Comet Spear from his spatial ring and thrust out. True essence stirred the power of fire within the Heretical G.o.d Seed, and a flaming red line slashed through the air as if it were dancing in the wind. Everywhere it went, vicious beasts would turn into charred corpses, falling from the sky like bugs.
With a single spear strike, dozens of vicious beasts would die. The surrounding vicious beasts were overwhelmed by this spear and were frightened of flying forwards. Lin Ming thrust out several times with his spear, planning on tearing his way through this ma.s.s of vicious beasts and using the speed of the Winged Flood Dragon to break through.
At this moment, Lin Ming suddenly heard a loud roar, and a large vicious beast approached. It had the body of a hawk and the head of a lion, and its wingspan was 50 feet wide. The lion hawk beast shot towards Lin Ming. This vicious beast was the leader of this flying beast tide.
“Fourth-level vicious beast?”
Lin Ming gave it a side glance, thrusting out his spear like usual.
Peng!
The lion hawk beast was slaughtered by the spear without any resistance.
Lin Ming relied on this spear strike and directly broke out of the encirclement, soaring away…
At this time, in Sky Fortune Kingdom –
The news of the beast tide outbreak had already spread through the entire country. Every city that was near a forest or mountain was on edge, everyone fearing that they would be the ones rampaged over.
From yesterday until now, they had heard of cities in surrounding countries that had been annihilated under the flood of vicious beasts. In particular, the Eastern Sun Country who lived terrifyingly close to large swathes of forests had suffered the most; countless civilians had perished.
The beast tide had come so suddenly that the Eastern Sun Country didn’t even have time to mobilize their army. Over half of the country had been swallowed up within the endless beast tide.
Compared to the Eastern Sun Country, Sky Fortune Kingdom was much more fortunate. Large tracts of their kingdom were plains which usually only had a few tigers. And they only had a handful of cities that were close to the mountains or forests.
The greatest of these were Sky Fortune City which was near the Zhou Mountains, as well as Green Mulberry City which was near the Green Mulberry Mountains.
Regardless of whether it was the Zhou Mountains or the Green Mulberry Mountains, they stretched for thousands of miles. In the depths of mountains were countless extremely horrifying vicious beasts.
However, Sky Fortune City was in a much better situation than Green Mulberry City. This was because the Seven Profound Martial House was located at the greatest mountain within the Zhou Mountain range. The Seven Profound Martial House was a super s.h.i.+eld to keep off any beast tide, this caused everyone behind them to feel much more at ease. Even if a beast tide were to occur, it had to get past the Seven Profound Martial House before reaching Sky Fortune City.
In addition, this was also the capital of Sky Fortune Kingdom. It had a large army guarding it, so the aristocrats within were relatively calm.
The Four Majors of Sky Fortune City’s four Royal Guard Forces were usually unimportant, only playing a symbolic role. But now, they had become heroes of Sky Fortune City, with an extremely high and mighty status.
The army that guarded the frontier was already quickly rus.h.i.+ng towards the capital. But how could the speed of an army compare with a beast tide? Until the army returned, Sky Fortune City had to rely on the four Royal Guard Forces as well as the Seven Profound Martial House to defend.
Zhang Danian was the major who commanded the western Royal Guard Force. These past days, his family household’s door had nearly been worn down from knocking. There had been many n.o.bles and aristocrats with statuses higher than his that had been abnormally polite. They gave him rich presents, requesting for the Royal Guard Force to take care of their families.
To these n.o.bles, their properties and the lives of their family were much more important than gold.
Zhang Danian liked this feeling very much. He had commanded the western Royal Guard Forces for many years. As long as he didn’t do something extremely stupid or crazy, he would remain the commander, and the western Royal Guard Forces would remain under his control. Zhang Danian was considering whether or not he should send troops to the Seven Profound Martial House and work with the masters there on the battlefield. Like this, they would be safe from danger.
But at this time, they received a shocking piece of news that left everyone stunned.
During the morning, they learned that Qin Ziya had withdrawn all of the Houtian realm martial artists from the Seven Profound Martial House, and even most of the Pulse Condensation period martial artists. Qin Ziya and his group had left on Heavenly Wind Eagles, flying towards Green Mulberry City. As for the disciples of the Seven Profound Martial House, they had been sent towards the very safe Moonlight City. Now the entire Seven Profound Martial House had been deserted.
Zhang Danian was frightened out of his wits. What was happening? Qin Ziya had abandoned the Seven Profound Martial House?
He felt like he was going crazy. Qin Ziya had actually decided to give up the entire Seven Profound Martial House! Even if most of the resources could be moved away, what about the seven major killing arrays, the Exquisite PaG.o.da, or the Ten Thousand Killing Array? These treasures were all worth millions of gold, or even tens of millions of gold, and yet they had been so easily abandoned?
But these questions were not what he was concerned about. The crux of the issue was, now that Qin Ziya had abandoned the Seven Profound Martial House, how would their Sky Fortune City manage? Without masters, how would the Royal Guard Forces defend the city?
It wasn’t just Zhang Danian, but all of the high-level characters within Sky Fortune City felt like they were just waiting in a frying pan. Their root was Sky Fortune City, their everything was in Sky Fortune City. If it wasn’t a last and final resort, no one was willing to leave their home and abandon their family foundation.
“What!? Qin Ziya has snuck away at this life or death moment?” The emperor’s younger brother smashed the cup in his hand against the ground. “Outrageous! How dare he! That Qin Ziya only cares about escaping himself, he doesn’t care about anything else! He cannot see the greater picture here! Hurry up and contact that Qin Ziya! I want to personally interrogate him!”
After Qin Ziya had had left the Seven Profound Martial House, the news had quickly spread. At this time they hadn’t flown too far, and a sound transmitting talisman was still able to reach him.
As Qin Ziya stood on the Heavenly Wind Eagle, he received a message from the emperor’s younger brother asking why he abandoned them, ignoring the greater picture, sneaking away at such a critical time.
Qin Ziya pinched the sound transmitting talisman, he didn’t even bother replying.
Ignoring the greater picture?
This so-called greater picture was nothing more than the situation of the Royal Family and the other ruling cla.s.s individuals. Qin Ziya was not a general of Sky Fortune Kingdom, so he had no obligation to protect the Royal Family.
The command to give up the Seven Profound Martial House and retreat to Green Mulberry City was issued by him. The Seven Profound Martial House was located in the middle of the Zhou Mountains. Once a beast tide erupted, they would easily be sieged from all sides by vicious beasts. The Seven Profound Martial House didn’t have the high walls that a city did, and if they stubbornly stayed, they would certainly suffer extremely heavy losses, and those disciples that were too weak would die without a doubt.
So the only path they could take was to abandon the Seven Profound Martial House.
Compared to life, things like buildings and arrays were nothing at all.
Qin Ziya was not an official of Sky Fortune City, so he did not need to s.h.i.+eld them.
Since they had to retreat, the choice of where to retreat to was up to him. Green Mulberry City was Qin Ziya’s first choice. This was Lin Ming’s hometown, and he owed a great favor to Lin Ming. This favor, Qin Ziya would naturally not forget.
The following morning, the sun dawned on the horizon. From the start of the beast tide eruptions until now, a total of two days and nights had pa.s.sed. Green Mulberry City had entered into a state of extreme readiness, and all of the city’s sergeants and commanders were incomparably nervous. Green Mulberry City was a major city, but because they were in the southern hinterlands of Sky Fortune Kingdom, they didn’t have much of a garrison. There was just around 10,000 soldiers. It was impossibly difficult to depend on this army to block the vicious beast tide.
The requests for military rescue had already been sent out. But at this time, every other major city in Sky Fortune Kingdom was feeling insecure; none of them were willing to deprive themselves of manpower in order to help Green Mulberry City.
If help came, it would be from the armies of the frontier. But this was just too far, several thousand miles away. By the time the army arrived, Green Mulberry City might already be trampled flat by vicious beasts.
In this situation, there were already those who were frightened beyond their minds and decided to give up their family roots. They took their money and valuables, and fled to other regions.
While a small family could do this, it was much more difficult for a large and prominent family to abandon their foundation; their losses would simply be monumental. Not even mentioning the property, business, possessions, or farms, but the problem was the family itself. A large family could have thousands of individuals. They had the elderly, and also young children. Under the threat of a vicious beast tide, bringing thousands of weak and defenseless individuals safely to another city was easier said than done.