Chapter 007
Chapter 7: Beast Tide
Wang Jie’s lips curled upward, his fingers lightly flicking as a spiral qi force tore Uncle Ling’s arm in half midair. Before Uncle Ling could react, Wang Jie struck him on the shoulder with a backhanded blow, sending him and Young Master Zhao toward the direction of the moon plant, with a massive green leaf looming behind them.
Young Master Zhao’s desperate scream echoed through the air.
Uncle Ling’s eyes locked onto Wang Jie. Impossible—this kid’s finger technique was so powerful, even his six-seal cultivation couldn’t block it. The pain from his severed arm surged, and as he turned his head, the massive green leaf closed in, swallowing Young Master Zhao whole.
With a swift turn, Uncle Ling kicked Young Master Zhao towards the leaf and used the momentum to change direction, fleeing.
The last agonizing scream from Young Master Zhao was drowned by the leaf’s voracious hunger.
Sweat poured from Uncle Ling’s forehead as he clutched his severed arm, charging in the opposite direction. However, he underestimated the moon plant. At such a close distance, the green leaf that consumed Young Master Zhao now engulfed him as well.
Darkness descended completely. He glanced into the distance and saw Wang Jie, fleeing in the shadows, a face strangely familiar.
Suddenly, Wang Jie’s image merged with the face of the top bounty on the reward list.
Sixteen to twenty years old.
It was him.
In the distance, Wang Jie’s figure flickered rapidly, and soon he broke free from the moon plant’s reach. Turning back, he saw the ground being swallowed by green leaves. Under the moonlight, the enormous creature was terrifying beyond measure.
Breathing heavily, Wang Jie looked at his wrist. His injuries were serious. The six seals were indeed powerful. Uncle Ling was like that, but Feng Yu would only be stronger. Thankfully, he had taken a careful approach earlier, or it wouldn’t have been so easy to deal with.
Now, things had gotten complicated.
As a guide, he had brought the Zhao clan out, but now the entire Zhao clan had been wiped out. What would happen to him? He would surely bear the wrath of the Zhao clan. He coughed lightly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as old injuries flared up.
He needed to rest for the night.
At the moment of Young Master Zhao’s death, Golden Hill Base, the Zhao clan’s stronghold, learned of it.
“Young master’s life signal has disappeared. Before his death, he encountered an extraordinary force, surpassing the Five Extremes. It should have been the moon plant, as we observed the moon plant’s emergence just now.”
A middle-aged man stood with his hands behind his back, his expression dark. “How could they have encountered the moon plant? The appearance of the moon plant isn’t without warning. With A’Ling’s strength, he should have been able to lead him to safety.”
“Check if anyone else survived.”
“Understood, Patriarch.”
Wang Jie distanced himself from the moon plant, finding a high-rise building on the outskirts to rest.
From here, he could still see the moon plant’s monstrous form clawing at the moonlit sky as it hunted.
The severed finger of an evil person was now in his possession—the one belonging to Uncle Ling.
This man had tried to use him as bait, clearly no good. But in this apocalypse, how many good people were left? Including himself.
He walked into the gray world, placing Uncle Ling’s severed finger inside a second green sprout. The sprout closed around it, proving to be useful.
Now, only the tears of a broken-hearted young girl were needed.
He still didn’t know if the gray claws were dead.
Leaning against the window, he slowly closed his eyes to rest.
How long he had been resting, he wasn’t sure. Suddenly, the building shook violently, and Wang Jie’s eyes snapped open as he looked downward. Below, a mass of dark figures was rushing toward him.
A rat tide?
A chill ran down his spine.
The most terrifying encounters in the wild were with terrifying mutated creatures that were impossible to resist, and the second were the beast tides.
Among them, the rat tide was undoubtedly one of the most horrifying disasters.
These endless mutated rats were fearless, charging forward wildly. If you couldn’t escape immediately, you would be buried alive.
Wang Jie couldn’t understand why a rat tide had come to this place.
Luckily, the mutated rats weren’t after him—they were simply passing through.
The endless mutated rats squealed as they rushed past the building, heading into the distance. Behind them, a shadow flashed. Wang Jie turned and saw the black figures pass by the back window.
Hurrying to the back window, he looked out.
The sky was equally dark, heading in the same direction as the rat tide.
Not good. That was Golden Hill Base.
The beast tide had begun.
In the ten years of the apocalypse, Hua Xia had established more than five bases, but most of them had been destroyed—some by powerful mutated creatures, but the majority had fallen to beast tides.
Golden Hill Base had also faced beast tides before, not once, but multiple times. Fortunately, Hong Jian, one of the Five Extremes, had united with the base’s cultivators to hold the line.
Now, another beast tide was upon them.
Wang Jie took a deep breath, his face grim, and looked back at the moon plant. It had grown even larger. Coupled with the mutated peacock, he felt that these creatures were undergoing some kind of change.
Just as he was thinking, a sharp howl pierced the air, forming a visible shockwave that swept across. In an instant, all the glass shattered.
Wang Jie felt like his brain was struck by something heavy, nearly fainting.
He leaned against the wall as the entire building shook, on the verge of collapse. Through the shattered glass, he saw a giant bird with fiery wings hanging in the sky, its body thrumming with power. It let out another deafening scream.
The howl came again.
Was it that mutated eagle?
Outside Golden Hill Base, there were several powerful mutated creatures not to be trifled with—the moon plant was one, the mutated eagle another. But the mutated eagle was never as powerful as the moon plant. Yet, from that last glance, Wang Jie saw that the mutated eagle had grown twice its original size.
At such a size, even though the mutated eagle might not match the moon plant, it was still an immense threat.
It was clearing its territory.
Another sharp scream swept the area. Centered on the mutated eagle, mutated creatures within dozens of miles charged toward Golden Hill Base.
Had the mutated eagle initiated this beast tide?
Wang Jie gasped, trying to steady his breath.
In the sky, the massive shadow of the mutated eagle moved, heading straight for Golden Hill Base.
Wang Jie watched its retreating form, worry in his eyes. Could Hong Jian stop this mutated eagle? It seemed uncertain.
His gaze flickered. Reflecting on the eagle’s previous actions, to drive away the beast tide, a single howl would have sufficed. But it had sounded three times. There could only be one explanation—it wanted to ensure that no mutated creatures remained in its territory.
It was guarding something.
Wang Jie looked toward Golden Hill Base, his eyes sharp. He headed in the opposite direction, toward the area where the mutated eagle had been moments before.
Meanwhile, the mutated eagle’s howl set off alarms all over Golden Hill Base.
By the Mysterious Lake, Hong Jian’s face was grim as he stared eastward. “Level one alert, activate.”
“Get everyone inside the base. Women, children, and the elderly first into the bunkers, cultivators in the front, civilians in the back…”
Lights flickered throughout Golden Hill Base as the gates swung wide open. People who had been outside the base rushed in like mad. Cultivators stepped out, standing in neat rows, eyes fixed on the eastern horizon.
Drones launched and flew toward the east.
Zhao clan’s cultivators, who were about to leave the base, were stopped.
Level one alert meant a beast tide was coming—life and death were at stake.
At this moment, even if they weren’t stopped, they wouldn’t go out. That would be suicidal.
The earth shook.
One by one, drones lost contact.
Golden Hill Base displayed the full strength of the five major bases in Hua Xia, as hundreds of thousands of cultivators readied themselves. The walls were packed with people.
Even so, it did little to calm the citizens within.
A vortex appeared at the center of the Mysterious Lake. Hong Jian looked on—was it due to the mutated eagle’s howling? Even the mutated beasts in the lake were affected.
He raised his arm and slashed.
The wind in the sky condensed into a visible blade, splitting the vortex in the Mysterious Lake in two. Soon, crimson blood spread from the lake’s center, with hideous little fish leaping to devour the blood.
With a casual wave, Hong Jian’s wind blade cut through the fish, smashing them into pieces.
The lake returned to calm.
Eight wind-breaking slashes—an overbearing sword technique.
In the clean area, Old Five and Old Nine sat by the window, staring into the distance, seeing nothing.
“Boss hasn’t come back yet.”
“At times like this, it’s safer outside than here.”
On the streets, cultivators continued to run, and in the materials area, various cataclysm materials were being moved out, to be distributed once the war ended, with Golden Hill Base handling the settlement.
The ground trembled even more violently.
“Look at the sky.” Someone cried out.
In the distance, darkness approached like a cloud, and the next moment, countless black feathered arrows shot toward Golden Hill Base.
“Defend!” a man in black leather, wearing a huge gold necklace, shouted.
The iron nets on the city walls rose, clanging as sparks flew.
Though the high-tech weapons had been destroyed twenty years ago, technology had not ended. The ancient walls of Golden Hill Base were reinforced with modern tech, and thick iron nets rose up to defend against the black feathers.
The ground was swarming with mutated rats. Less than a thousand meters from Golden Hill, they began digging. Behind them came larger mutated beasts, many of which were unrecognizable.
Yellow fireballs shot from the distance. From a group of mutated toads, with dark yellow lanterns hanging from their foreheads, these fireballs came from the lanterns.
Another direction was filled with mutated plants. Mutant vines twisted under the ground, surging toward the city wall.
Feng Yu’s eyes were fixed on the ground. “It’s here. Strike.”
A mutant vine shot up from the ground, crossing the wall into the city. Feng Yu’s dart sliced through it.
Behind him, a group of cultivators pressed their hands to the ground, releasing battle techniques, sending powerful forces into the earth, causing the walls to shake.
Green rain began to fall from the sky, coming from the distance, carried by the wind.
“It’s acid fish. Send the drones to locate them.”
“They’ve been located, thirty miles northeast in an artificial lake.”
“Form an assault team, kill them first, and stop the acid rain.”
These green raindrops could corrode even stone. Within the city, countless people were drenched, their flesh melting away in a horrific scene.
At the northwest gate, a burly man, a cigar in his mouth, grinned excitedly. “Finally, a big one’s here. It’s been too boring watching over this place every day. Brothers, let’s go.”
Behind him, a team of twenty cultivators followed, charging toward the northwest.
Ahead of them, thirty miles away, a small lake sat, filled with green fish floating on its surface, spitting at the sky. To the east of the lake, dozens of enormous birds flapped their wings, stirring up a whirlwind that blew the fish’s green spit toward Golden Hill.
The war had arrived without warning.
The moonlight was blocked, bringing forth darkness.
Each beast tide, whether for cultivators or civilians, was a torment.