Chapter 469: Cruel War
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The Myriad Beasts Domain was a dead world that the Heavens had refined into a Hidden Realm for the purpose of honing the cultivators of Jiu Zhou via inexplicable means. This meant Bilandia had fallen to the Spirit Beasts in the original history.
In this reenactment though, things were slightly different thanks to the participation of the cultivators of Jiu Zhou. At least hundreds of Cloud River Realm cultivators had entered this Hidden Realm after all. Not all of them were high level cultivators, but they were still a powerful force that could not be underestimated.
Right now, the cultivators of Jiu Zhou were guarding the walls and working together with the natives to resist the Spirit Beasts.
On the Section Jia-Three wall, a thunderous boom rocked the world once more. A dazzling beam of light plowed into the area with the greatest number of Spirit Beasts and evaporated everything within its path. When it faded, it left behind a smoking trail that was a kilometer long at least. It was Howling Thunder making short work of the Spirit Beasts of course.
The Myriad Beasts Sect and Inferno Battalion cultivators were doing their best to thin the horde as well. Flying weapons and spells dropped countless Spirit Beasts before they could get close enough to attack.
By now, the carcasses beneath the walls had grown tall enough for most Spirit Beasts to use them to climb up to the walls. They kept coming no matter how many of them were killed.
Lu Ye had swung his saber so many times that his weapon arm had turned completely numb. Lan Ziyi and Kitty Shen were pale-faced panting heavily.
The battle was so intense that even Cloud River Realm cultivators could not hold out for long. Worse, the Spirit Beasts were invading just as fiercely as before when even a Ninth-Order cultivator like Xia Qianqian was slowly but surely slowing down. It was as if their numbers would never end.
The defenders were almost at their limit already. If nothing changed, then this section of the defense line was going to collapse in less than an hour.
Thankfully, Bilandia had already prepared for this scenario.
Some time passed, and the defenders suddenly heard a rumble from inside the city. Then, Fang Zhuns voice reached everyone. Hang on, everyone! The ward cultivators are closing the gaps on the wards now!
Lu Ye shot a glance at the gap in front of the Section Jia-Three wall. It was slowly but surely growing narrower and narrower. Someone was clearly controlling the grand ward.
As the gap shrank, the area the cultivators needed to defend grew smaller as well. It made it so much easier to defend against the enemies.
In the end, the gaps were completely shut, and the Spirit Beasts were fully blocked out by the grand ward. It was just a temporary reprieve, but for now, the battle was finally over.
The defenders on the Section Jia-Three wall relaxed and collapsed to their feet in relief. There was no time to rest, however. They hurriedly shoved a handful of Spirit Pills into their mouths and focused on recovering their strength.
At the same time, a new gap opened in front of the walls right next to the Section Jia-Three wall. The fresh defenders of that wall fought against a new tide of Spirit Beasts!
Against such numbers, Bilandia was well aware that it was better to lead the enemy down planned kill lanes than to block them out completely. They could activate the grand ward in full, but such folly would only shorten its lifespan and hasten Bilandias demise drastically.
This was the solution they had come up with to handle the endless tide. By opening gaps on the walls periodically and systematically, they ensured that their defense would be more effective.
For example, the defenders next to the Section Jia-Three wall were resting while they were battling against the horde. Now, it was their turn to fight while the defenders of the Section Jia-Three wall rested.
Alternating defenses this way not only allowed for greater margins of error, but also ensured that the cultivators would last as long as possible both physically and mentally. Whoever came up with this arrangement clearly had a knack for seeing the bigger picture.
Right now, nearly everyone on the Section Jia-Three wall was meditating and recovering their strength. Lu Ye was the only one who was sitting in front of Howling Thunder and examining the wards around it curiously.
It was clear that whoever created the wards surrounding Howling Thunder was a much better ward cultivator than him. Although he was capable of setting up the same wards, the finer details in certain areas wouldve been much rougher.
Besides that, he was extremely interested in the offensive ward. He had never seen one that used a Spirit Treasure as the core, and Howling Thunder had more than proven its worth during the battle. The weapon was easily one of the main reasons the Section Jia-Three wall was able to hold out until their shift was over.
He was still studying the ward when Xia Qianqian sat down beside him. What are you doing? You should focus on recovering your strength.
Im just indulging in a bit of curiosity.
What he didnt say was that he didnt need to focus to recover his strength. He could be sleeping right now, and his body would still automatically digest the Spirit Pills he consumed and pull in the surrounding World Spiritual Qi.
Conserve your strength. You will need it later, Xia Qianqian advised.
What do you mean?
I dont know if youve noticed, but this city was doomed from the start. Its only a matter before its overwhelmed. Have you thought about what to do after the city is breached?
What do you advise, Fellow Cultivator Xia?
Xia Qianqian shook her head. Do I look like an intellectual to you? Im just telling you to prepare for the inevitable escape after the city is breached.
Lu Ye frowned. But this entire Cultivation World is already dominated by the Spirit Beasts. Where can we go even if we make a run for it?
That is why we need to escape before the city is breached! Xia Qianqian sighed. Ive experienced plenty of Hidden Realms in the past, but I gotta say that this one feels especially impossible.
And it was. Humanity itself was at the brink of extinction. There was only so much an individual could do considering the circumstances.
What are the other Hidden Realms like? Lu Ye asked curiously. Unlike Xia Qianqian, he was just a Second-Order. It would be a long time before he graduated from the Cloud River Battlefield. Any advice he could pry from Xia Qianqian would surely aid him in his survival.
No two Hidden Realms are the exact same. For example, none of the Hidden Realms Ive experienced so far has pitted me against a Heavens damned extinction-level threat until now.
You mentioned that the objective of a Hidden Realm like this is to train the cultivators to solve the root of the problem, resolve the crisis its facing and save the world, didnt you?
Sure, but we dont even know what made the Spirit Beasts go insane in the first place. And trust me, Ive already tried to investigate this. How can we solve the problem if we dont even know what it is?
It was a good point. Why had the Spirit Beasts gone insane? The disease had spread like wildfire too. In just a year, countless Spirit Beasts across the entire Cultivation World abruptly went insane and began attacking the Humans.
Logically speaking, the disease that drove most Spirit Beasts insane had to come from somewhere. The only way to stop this was to find the source and destroy it.
But where was the source? What was the source, for that matter?
The cultivators of the Myriad Beasts Domain never found out the truth before they were wiped out. They were eventually subsumed by the Heavens and transformed into a Hidden Realm.
It wasnt like they were completely clueless, of course. For one, they knew that the disease was incredibly infectious, but strangely it didnt look like the disease was spread via contact. He knew this because the Myriad Beasts Sects cultivators had been fighting alongside their Spirit Beasts and none of them showed any signs of derangement so far.
Amber was perfectly fine as well.
Theres no point in thinking too deeply into it. Considering the circumstances, the best we can do is to see what happens and improvise on the fly. Anyway, we really should stop talking and focus on recovering our strength, Xia Qianqian replied before taking her own advice.
Lu Ye tossed two Vital Spirit Pills into his mouth and chewed slowly.
Over two hours later, Fang Zhun let out a hoarse yell, Its time, people! Get ready for battle!
The Inferno Battalion and Myriad Beasts Sect cultivators hadnt fully recovered yet, but they immediately got to their feet and rushed into position. The cultivators responsible for charging the Howling Thunder also assumed their positions and channeled their Spiritual Power into the ward immediately. It hummed in response to the energy.
The gap in front of the neighboring wall began to close slowly at the same time that one was opened right in front of the Section Jia-Three wall. A swarm of Spirit Beasts immediately rushed through the gap, and the battle was engaged once more!
The alternating defense gave the defenders the opportunity to catch their breaths every two to four hours or so, but their stamina and Spiritual Power still declined over time. Two to four hours wasnt enough time for the cultivators to recover back to full strength.
Worse, the flood of Spirit Beasts truly seemed to be unending. They had begun besieging the city since noon, and they did not stop even when the next dawn came
The Section Jia-Three wall defenders and their neighbor had alternated shifts at least six times throughout the period. However, the intensity of the siege did not lessen in the slightest.
The battle lasted so long that even the ward supporting Howling Thunder had worn out enough to suffer a temporary breakdown, forcing Lu Ye to perform some emergency repairs to get it running again. Thank goodness he had observed the ward beforehand, or he wouldnt even know how to begin to repair it.
It took an entire hour before he finally repaired the ward and enabled the weapon to let out its thunderous roar once more.
The gap in the grand ward closed a moment later. It was finally their neighbors turn to hold back the tide.
Lu Ye collapsed to the ground immediately after the burden was lifted off his shoulders. It had been too close. During the hour he was repairing the offensive ward, the Spirit Beasts had nearly broken through their defense line multiple times. It was only thanks to the defenders selfless sacrifice that they were able to hold out until the end.
Suddenly, Lu Ye realized that he hadnt heard anything from Fang Zhun. Every time it was their turn to rest, the battalion commander had never failed to bark out the command until now.
Lu Ye looked left and right until his gaze fixed on a Spirit Beasts carcass about thirty meters away from him, laying on a cultivator. It looked like it had crushed the top of his head between its jaws before someone had managed to kill it. The unfortunate man was none other than Fang Zhun!
The Inferno Battalion battalion commander wasnt the only one who had died during the defense. The Inferno Battalion had lost over half of its numbers since the battle began. The Myriad Beasts Sect cultivators had been reduced to just six as well.
No one in Lu Yes group of four had died, but they were all injured to a certain extent. Kitty Shen especially was lying on the ground and staring at the sky blankly. Her face was deathly pale, and her shirt around the abdomen area was drenched in fresh blood.
The woman had encountered plenty of dangers throughout her journeyshe was a Fifth-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator after allbut this was easily the worst battle of her life.
This defensive war far surpassed any crisis she had ever encountered.
Suddenly, Amber started twisting its body restlessly and letting out a strange growl. Lu Ye was just about to ask what was wrong when a hint of red flashed through its pupils, and it hurriedly jumped off Lu Yes shoulder.
Mutant energy rolled off its body as it manifested its true self. When it looked up, Lu Ye saw that its eyes had turned scarlet.
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