About three thousand years ago on the Canglong Continent, Dark Beasts once held absolute dominance, and the Human Race, under the oppression of the Dark Beasts, could hardly survive.
However, since the rise of the Dark Practitioners on the continent, and particularly with the establishment of the two great powers, the Human Race reached an unprecedented state of strength and unity.
For the sake of cultivation and national stability, powerful Dark Practitioners formed the Beast Slaughter Team, entering the Dark Beasts’ territories in groups. They overcame High-level Beast Kings, dividing up the Dark Beasts’ Dark Pills and wealth. Although they successfully deterred the beast hordes and forced them to retreat from the Human Race’s territories, they also sowed eternal blood feuds with the Dark Beasts.
This enduring hatred caused the Dark Beasts from various regions to periodically unleash a beast tide. Beast tides take many forms; those near mountains create a Mountain Beast Tide, near seas a Sea Beast Tide, and near skies a Sky Beast Tide. Of these, the Mountain Beast Tide occurs most frequently and triggers the most often.
The two great calamities of Fengdan County are, one, a human disaster, referring to Viscount Mo’er and his wolf-like Bailu Army.
The second is a beast disaster, assaults from the Xuan Beast Ridge, each one causing countless deaths and injuries in Fengdan County.
Fengdan County, located adjacent to Xuan Beast Ridge, was renowned as a mountain county precisely because of this. But with the decline of the Duke Mansion and the dissolution of the County Guard Army, Fengdan became an unprotected piece of fat meat, constantly attracting the Dark Beasts from the mountains.
According to the village head, even before the arrival of the people from Jingxin Courtyard, there were occasional Mountain Beast Tides in Fengdan County.
Since Yue Jinghua arrived, perhaps it was due to the big snow sealing the mountains or the ice sealing thousands of miles, the beasts on the ridge seemed to quiet down a lot.
But for some reason, tonight, the mountains trembled, as if thousands of low-level Dark Beasts charged towards the village.
Yue Jinghua felt the ground shake and the previously pure white snow seemed to be sprinkled with sesame seeds, filled with countless black spots.
The black spots were numerous and dense, continuously moving initially in lines but soon melding into a mass. At a glance, it looked like countless fleas, causing one’s scalp to tingle.
Upon closer inspection, Yue Jinghua realized it was a large number of Stone-eating Fragrant Pigs approaching. These beasts, being low-level Dark Beasts, are the size of ordinary Moxiang Pigs, only a bit smaller than two palm widths, yet they possess a pair of ivory-like pig tusks.
These tusks are extremely sharp, capable of slicing through ordinary leather armor, piercing human chests, and even breaking arrow bamboos as thick as a wrist.
Stone-eating Fragrant Pigs are omnivores that consume various crops and even tree bark and grass roots. When unable to find food, they will swarm into crop fields, overturning soil to dig up wheat seeds planted before winter and devour fruits of spirit wood, as well as freshly sprouted winter bamboo shoots.
If Fengdan County experiences this Mountain Beast Tide tonight, then the following year will undoubtedly yield no harvest.
Thinking of this, Yue Jinghua’s gaze towards the pigs turned cold.
The pigs, as if entering an uninhabited area, charged down from the ridge with alarming speed, like a tide, turning over rocks and bushes in their path.
The situation was very grim, and Yue Jinghua, not some hot-blooded lord, quickly calmed down. She did not act rashly; she was in her Second Primordial Spirit state, particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the world’s energies.
Just now, when the Mountain Beast Tide suddenly erupted, while hearing the rampaging of wild beasts, she also heard an ancient and familiar sound, emanating from the depths of Xuan Beast Ridge.
That sound, like a summons or a command, was a vibration that only high-level Dark Beasts, or even a Beast King, could emit.
Facing a village on the verge of collapse, which could be engulfed by snow at any moment, why would the beast horde invade repeatedly?
This mountain beast tide is not simple; Yue Jinghua suspects that this tide is likely not coincidental and recklessly intervening may provoke retaliation from the mysterious power deep within the ridge.
The commotion caused by the Stone-eating Fragrant Pigs made Fengdan County, surrounded by mountains, tremble.
Villagers, who were originally asleep, ran out of their wooden houses in a panic like frightened birds, and the village chief said in a terrified voice, "It’s a pig tide, we’re doomed, why does God treat us this way, heaven wants to destroy Fengdan."
Hongling and Hong Yao also dressed and came out, while Teng Wu immediately jumped onto a big tree at the entrance of the village to assess the scale of the beast tide.
Shalman released the Five-colored Spider to guard several critical positions in the village.
Having just arrived in the village, Helian Sheng stood quietly together with the villagers, noticing that the mysterious boss had not appeared.
It’s hard to say whether his luck is good or bad; he had just arrived in Fengdan County and encountered this rare beast tide.
"Should we wake up the boss?" No movement from Yue Jinghua’s wooden house yet, Hong Yao asked in a low voice.
"No need," with such a loud commotion and the lady not waking up, there must be some special reason. Moreover, Hongling sensitively noticed that at the moment the beast tide erupted, the several little creatures that usually accompanied Yue Jinghua had all disappeared.
Teng Wu leapt down from the tree, speaking gravely: "It’s Stone-eating Fragrant Pigs, roughly a few thousand. These creatures are very gluttonous and have strong ability to charge at Dark Arrays. Even if there’s a Middle-level Defensive Dark Array in the village, if several hundred mountain pigs fiercely collide together, the Dark Array will definitely be breached."
"What if we just run for our lives? At worst, we can come back after the mountain beast tide is over," pleaded the village chief. Only then did Hongling notice that when the villagers came out from their houses, they all brought their personal valuables, clearly prepared to flee.
All these villagers were the elderly, women, and children but had rich experience in escaping. Every time they encountered a beast tide, unable to resist, they would only flee.
Such a tragic scene was indeed heartbreaking to watch.
"Why run? You can’t outrun the wild pigs, running with two legs against four is just seeking death," Yun Luo sneered, she was not afraid of any mountain beast tide; with Teng Wu there, a practitioner of the Heavenly Dark Realm, if things got too bad, he could always carry her and run away.
"That’s right, you may escape once but not a second time," suddenly, not far away, the door of a dark wooden house burst open, and a slender, young lad walked out.
The young lad spoke while glancing around at the villagers.
Upon closer inspection, Helian Sheng saw that the young lad’s voice was firm and strong, and his eyes shone in the dark night, seemingly carrying an inexplicable power. Everyone who made eye contact with him felt the restlessness in their hearts calm significantly.
Hearing the different titles, Helian Sheng had confirmed the identity of the newcomer, yet he was curious how this seemingly young lad would deal with such a massive scale mountain beast tide.