A World Worth Protecting

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Wang Baole neared in an instant. He grabbed the beast’s tooth and was about to break it off when the beast released a bolt of lightning from the tooth in its struggle. It shot into Wang Baole and loosened a splinter off the crystallized Spirit Qi within his body.

The lightning, when compared to what he had suffered at the hands of Little Missy Black Mask, was insignificant to the point of being negligible. His body pushed on without pause, and with a straight pull, he extracted the beast’s tooth.

Wang Baole felt the warm sensation of smug satisfaction. He took a look at the battlefield; more than half the beast horde had been decimated, and many beasts were already retreating. The end of that round of the Beast Tide was nigh. It was then that a series of quakes shook the earth. In the distant skies, a heaven-splitting tornado ten times the size of the previous one appeared abruptly!

The tornado was formed from the stirring of dust and earth and the flocks of beasts in the skies. They shadowed the earth and blanketed the heavens. As the tornado approached at a rapid pace, the tremors grew stronger. No warrior or cultivator remained unshaken. As they stood, stunned and awed, a whistle sharper and more piercing than the first alarm sounded from the stronghold.

Big-bearded commander-in-charge’s voice carried a tone of hastiness and gravity that hadn’t been present earlier. His words traveled across the battlefield.

“The First Army and all cultivators, fall back immediately!”

“Activate the array formation!”

“Fire God Armament Soldiers, prepare for five salvos of cannon shots!”

Wang Baole could feel a strong sense of foreboding and danger as he heard the chain of orders being barked out. He retreated speedily, pulling along other warriors as he passed them.

Everyone fell back quickly under the crowd’s nervous watch. Wang Baole and Chen Yutong stood together on the stronghold, with their eyes fixed on the distant lands. No matter how accustomed he grew to that place, he was still taken aback by the sight.

In the distance, between heaven and earth, the Beast Tide rose once again. The scale of it dwarfed the first tide by at least ten times, and as it rushed forward, the hundreds of thousands of beasts spread across the horizon, seemingly without end. The sight was enough to drive fear deep into all those who were watching and stun them beyond belief.

Strong winds carrying the smell of blood surged forward; the earth itself seemed to move, its mountains waver. Within the Beast Tide stood countless beasts towering twenty-odd meters tall. A hundred-meter-tall beast could even be seen—a true blue giant beast—dragging boulders along as it charged at the stronghold.

If that had been the end of it, it might not have been so bad, but behind the endless Beast Tide rose seven individual Spirit Qi. They rose up into the heavens and exuded power clearly beyond the True Breath realm—possibly leaving the True Breath realm in the dust. The Spirit Qi formed a howling hurricane in their approach.

What was within the hurricane couldn’t be seen clearly. Though, on its edges floated seven fearsome beasts. The seven beasts had strange and extraordinary physical appearances, and inscriptions flashed and glimmered on their bodies. They stood in mid-air, on stone-like structures. The stones seemed extraordinary; they were like Dharmic treasures and gave off a strong imposing aura.

The fearsome and imposing aura that rose from all seven creatures shook everyone to their core.

“Foundation Establishment realm!” Chen Yutong, who stood beside Wang Baole, breathed heavily and spoke in a low voice.

Upon hearing the two words, “Foundation Establishment”, Wang Baole’s pupils contracted. He had already been aware that beyond the True Breath realm lay the Foundation Establishment realm!

The power of the Foundation Establishment realm was too great; the chasm separating it from the previous realm was far wider than the gap between the Ancient Martial realm and the True Breath realm. It could even be said that beyond the Foundation Establishment realm, the True Breath realm was only marginally stronger than the Ancient Martial realm. Those of the True Breath realm weren’t ants, but to crush them would be an easy feat.

The chasm in power wasn’t something that sheer numbers could overcome. Even if a group of True Breath realm cultivators launched a unified attack, a Foundation Establishment realm opponent would decimate them!

An overwhelming sense of danger rose within Wang Baole. He couldn’t have guessed that the scale of that round of Beast Tides would be so great. The enemy even had seven Foundation Establishment realm beasts!

“This is just a minor stronghold, and we’re already facing such a Beast Tide. What about the other strongholds… and the primary stronghold—does it mean the Beast Tides they are facing are on an even greater scale?” Wang Baole sucked in a deep breath. He took out the glove that he had refined into a Numinous Treasure and put it on without thinking.

Wang Baole wasn’t the only one experiencing a shift in his emotions. A serious look also fell over the faces of the warriors who were stationed at the stronghold year round.

As the tense atmosphere permeated the entire stronghold, and as the frenzied Beast Tide approached steadily, the entire stronghold suddenly quaked. Numerous inscriptions appeared on the exterior of the metal stronghold walls. The inscriptions shimmered, and a translucent protective barrier appeared suddenly.

The barrier surged outward with explosive force. Where it swept past, the surviving beasts that roamed outside the stronghold trembled and instantly burst apart.

Wang Baole’s pupils contracted upon witnessing the barrier’s destructive capabilities. As a Dharmic Armament cultivator and based on his understanding of Dharmic Artifacts, he knew that such grand-scale protective barriers couldn’t be sustained for long periods of time. As such, they were only activated in moments of extreme necessity.

It was clear that the big-bearded commander-in-charge of the stronghold had decided that it had reached a point where it was necessary to activate the barrier. Wang Baole watched as the barrier roared outwards, pushed itself out three thousand meters and beyond, then stopped—forming the first shield against the Beast Tide!

As soon as the protective shield appeared, the formidable Beast Tide charged towards it, thundering. Savagery and violence were the essence of their nature. Without a hint of hesitation, the beasts bashed into the barrier, crimson-eyed and thirsting for blood.

Thunderous roars resounded through the air. Regardless of the level of their cultivation, every beast that touched the barrier collapsed in a pile of blood and mangled flesh. Bright red blood spilled across the land, but more beasts charged forward, fearless of death. The barrier trembled and blood splattered across it.

Waves of emotions swept through Wang Baole as he witnessed the madness. It was then that the Fire God Cannons started firing rampantly. The loud cannon shots sounded as if the heaven and earth roared in unison. Each cannon fired five blasts, forming five salvos of cannon shots—five waves of killing shots!

Each wave was a hundred-odd beams of light shooting across the skies. The sunset skies lit up in a fiery instant. The beams of light fell like rain, shooting through the protective shield and landing on the Beast Tide.

The earth trembled, its quakes rippling outwards without pause. Hordes and hordes of beasts were torn apart instantly and turned to dust. The explosive power of five hundred cannon beams decimated half of the Beast Tide outside the barrier.

Seas of blood and mountains of corpses spanned as far as the eye could see!

However, within a blink of an eye, the next wave of Beast Tide surged forward and took over. Hordes of beasts gathered without rest in the distance. Their numbers seemed to grow, and they charged at the shield without pause. The shield warped and bent under the attack as if it couldn’t withstand such force for much longer.

In the skies, the hurricane approached. The seven Foundation Establishment realm beasts at the edge of the hurricane neared steadily, and the suppressive aura exuding from them seemed to grow ever more vicious.

Big-bearded commander-in-charge narrowed his eyes and cursed, “Didn’t the Federation predict a small-scale Beast Tide? Screw that. This is the first time I’m seeing a Beast Tide of such proportions!”

In a moment of haste, big-bearded commander-in-charge sent a plea for aid to the primary stronghold. However, the situation at the primary stronghold was equally dire. In fact, every stronghold was currently facing an unprecedented Beast Tide; the primary stronghold especially, because a Core Formation realm Beast King had made an appearance!

Upon hearing the sighting of a Beast King, big-bearded commander-in-charge inhaled sharply. He watched with reddened eyes as fractures appeared in the protective shield under the assault of the beast hordes. Viciousness flashed through his eyes. He raised his hand abruptly and barked out an order.

“Self-destruct the barrier. Let’s give these wretched creatures one hell of a blow. Fire God Cannons, ten salvos of cannon shots! Array Formation troops, activate the array formation inscription. The Second Army, the Flying Sword Rites!”

Big Beard issued his commands. Soon after, the collapsing barrier holding off the Beast Tide exploded and caught the beasts unaware. Its sudden explosion was like a huge scimitar; it swept across the land, amidst the screams of beasts, slicing their bodies into clean halves!

It was then that thousands of cannon beams exploded from the Fire God Cannons in ten consecutive shots. The earth quaked, and waves of air rose into the heavens. The beams fell alongside the virtual scimitar, and triggered another wave of slaughter!

The decimation of a huge horde of the beasts still didn’t put a dent in the sea of beasts. The growing number of beasts, eyes red with rage and howling for blood, was like a flood surging into the three-thousand-meter distance separating it from the stronghold. They rushed towards the mountain peak where the stronghold sat in a mad frenzy.

If one were standing atop the highest point in the stronghold with their gaze lowered, they would see ferocious-looking beasts charging forward in hordes. Their numbers were uncountable and stretched into the distance with no end in sight under the darkening sunset skies…

Within the seventh primary stronghold’s sphere of jurisdiction, all minor strongholds were faced with the same predicament at that moment. The Beast Tides they faced were all beyond the scale expected by the Federation!

That was especially so for the seventh primary stronghold, where the Beast Tide was overwhelming to an extreme and included the presence of a Core Formation realm Beast King. The Foundation Establishment realm beasts under the Beast King’s command were equally dangerous, and they mobilized a grand army of beasts. Even the seventh primary stronghold faced the threat of danger.

The entire seventh line of defense raised the alarm—it was an emergency!

At the same time that a great army of beasts assailed the seventh line of defense, the first to sixth primary strongholds in the Federation—and the areas under their commands—were also defending against huge beast armies beyond their wildest imagination!

The fourth primary stronghold, especially, was at the brink of being broken through. The beast armies targeted it as the main breaching point, mobilizing eight Beast Kings!

No one knew why the round of Beast Tides had arrived so suddenly and with such vehemence.

The Federation did respond as soon as they could. However, the battlefields spread across too many locations, and the aid they could render wouldn’t be able to reach everyone. They could only prioritize military aid to the fourth primary strongholds.

The four Great Dao Colleges were activated as well, as were the senators and the various factions. They weren’t headed towards the battlefields outside the strongholds though. That, to their mind, would be meaningless.

Under the Federation’s secret orders, the highly skilled from the various political forces would—using the opportunity presented to them from the surging Beast Tides—leave the Federation and infiltrate the primordial jungles. Their target… the sea of beasts within the primordial jungle land!

It was where the base of the beasts sat!

The strategy had the intention of setting up an ambush on one hand and, on the other, the aim of launching an attack from behind. They planned on forcing the enemy to retreat from their own forward assault to deal with the split attacking forces. Of course, the success of the strategy rested on the seven primary strongholds standing strong against the enemy forces!

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