The dawn that broke over the Crimson Ridge Pass was not one of hope, but of despair. The first grey light illuminated a scene of almost unimaginable carnage. The second wave of the Beast Tide was a broken, twitching sea of corpses, but the cost had been staggering.
The allied army was a shadow of its former self, the surviving disciples standing on the blood-soaked earth like ghosts, their spiritual energy reserves scraped to the very bottom. They had survived the night, but the sun revealed a new, far more terrifying horror.
On the western horizon, the third wave advanced. It was not just a chaotic swarm or a disciplined army. It was a procession of kings. A hundred colossal, monstrous forms, each one a Rank 5 Tyrant Beast, moved with a slow, inexorable purpose. There were massive, eight-legged Earth-Ripper Scorpions, swift, saber-toothed Ice-Fang Tigers, and hulking, four-armed Stone-Fisted Apes. Each one was a walking natural disaster, a creature capable of single-handedly annihilating a small town.
And behind them, a single, mountainous shadow blotted out the rising sun. Its form was indistinct, shrouded in a swirling vortex of black, malevolent Qi, but its aura was a crushing, world-ending presence that washed over the pass. The psychic pressure was so immense that disciples in the Qi Condensation Realm collapsed to their knees, their minds overwhelmed, blood trickling from their noses and ears.
The Beast King had arrived.
"Core Formation experts, with me!" the Green Mountain Sect Master's voice was a golden bell that cut through the wave of terror, his own powerful aura a shield that protected the disciples. "Our battle is with the King! The rest of you, hold the pass! Hold it until your last breath! For our homes! For our future!"
Seven figures shot into the sky like brilliant, multi-colored suns. The five righteous Sect Masters, the stoic Mountain Wanderer, and the scholarly leader of the Myriad Graves Sect. They did not fly towards the advancing Tyrants. They flew over them, their target the single, mountainous shadow on the horizon. The final battle, the clash of kings, had begun far from the sight of the common disciples.
But their departure left the exhausted, battered army with a new, impossible task: to face down one hundred enraged Tyrant Beasts.
"Form sword arrays!" Feng Xuan's voice, though strained, was a rallying cry for the disciples of the Jade Spring Sword Sect. They moved with a desperate, practiced grace, their swords weaving together to form a massive, shimmering vortex of silver sword Qi, a river of steel against the coming tide.
On another front, Su Ling stood, her face as pale as the snow, her breath pluming in the cold air. "Domain of the Frozen Heart!" she commanded. A vast, circular field of absolute, biting frost spread out from her, the very ground cracking and freezing, a desperate attempt to slow the advance of the Tyrants.
The demonic sects were not idle. The White Bone Sect's master, his grey robes fluttering, raised his hands, and the tens of thousands of beast corpses on the battlefield began to stir. With a rattling, groaning sound, a new, makeshift army of skeletal beasts rose from the blood-soaked earth, their empty eye sockets glowing with a malevolent, green light. The Myriad Graves Sect disciples began to chant, their Yin-aspected Qi forming a series of dark, corrosive traps and debilitating curses.
But everyone knew it was not enough. They were too tired, too few. The hundred Tyrants were a force that would simply grind their desperate defenses into dust.
Li Yu watched from the reserve line, his battalion now regrouped, a small island of relative stability in the sea of exhaustion. He saw the despair in the eyes of the disciples, the grim, final acceptance of men who knew they were about to die.
His master's words echoed in his mind: You are a treasure to be protected. You are the future of our sect. He looked at the faces of his friends, at the loyal disciples of his battalion who looked to him as their commander, their hope. He looked at the vast, beautiful mountains and behind him out of view was his new home, now threatened with annihilation.
"Brother Kai," Li Yu said, his voice a low, calm rumble that cut through the rising tide of fear. "Your earth-attribute arts are the steadiest. You will take the defensive units of our battalion and reinforce the main line with the Iron Fist Peak. Create an earthen fortress. Be the anchor that does not break. Do you understand?"
"Sir Li!" Brother Kai protested, his face a mask of shock. "But your safety…"
"Our safety depends on the line holding," Li Yu stated, his voice absolute. "That is not a request. It is an order."
Brother Kai looked at the determined, unshakeable will in his young master's eyes and knew he could not refuse. He gave a sharp, solemn nod. "I understand. I will not fail you." He immediately turned and began barking orders, leading half of the Beast Taming Battalion towards the crumbling Central Front.
Li Yu then turned to Hu Jian and Lin Tao. "The two of you will take the rest of the battalion and reinforce the main lines. Spread your forces out. Support the Jade Spring Sword Sect, aid the Myriad Graves Sect. Be the shield that allows them to hold the line. That is your duty as the mobile reserve. Do you understand?"
Seeing their commander preparing to face the tide alone, Hu Jian and Lin Tao roared in fury and protest. "Sir Li, we will fight with you!"
"No," Li Yu's voice was cold iron. "Your duty is to the sect. My duty is to draw the attention of their kings. Go! That is an order!"
Reluctantly, but with a fierce, unwavering loyalty, his two friends bowed and turned, leading the remaining beast tamers in a desperate, loyal charge to reinforce the crumbling defenses across the pass.
Li Yu, now standing alone on his flying swordfish, watched them go. He took a deep breath and leaped, landing on the highest peak of the mountain of corpses. He stood, a single, solitary figure, and faced the advancing tide of kings. He had to draw their attention, to become the single, most enticing target on this battlefield.
He relaxed the suppression of his «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art». His aura, which had been a calm lake at the Third Stage of Foundation Establishment, erupted into a raging, abyssal ocean. The full, terrifying might of his true Seventh Stage Foundation Establishment power washed over the battlefield.
The charging Tyrant Beasts, intelligent creatures driven by instinct, faltered. Their attention, which had been spread across the entire defensive line, now snapped to this single, unbelievably potent source of power that had appeared out of nowhere.
"That is Commander Li!" a disciple screamed in disbelief. "Seventh Stage? How is that possible?"
Li Yu did not give them time to think. He did not wait for the Tyrants to reach them. He led the charge. He was a black comet, a solitary warrior who leaped from the mountain of corpses and shot directly towards the center of the hundred charging kings.
"For the sect!" he roared, his voice a thunderclap that shook the heavens and rallied the spirits of every disciple.
The hundred Tyrant Beasts, their predatory instincts now completely focused on this single, powerful challenger, ignored the weaker disciples and converged on him like a tidal wave of claws and fangs.
Li Yu, now the sole focus of the Tyrant army, smiled. They took the bait. In the air, as the first Ice-Fang Tiger lunged at him, he opened the portal to his Koi's Sanctuary.
He did not just summon one or two beasts. He opened the floodgates.
A wave of pure, overwhelming power erupted from the shimmering, crimson-gold vortex. First came the shields. Aegis, Bastion, and the two Rank 5 Coral-Fortress Crabs. They materialized and formed a massive, four-beast wall of unbreachable defense that crashed into the ground, intercepting the charge of a dozen Tyrants.
Next came the vanguard. Crimson, his Flood Dragon. Fury and Rage, his two Azure-Clawed Hydras. And finally, with a dark, hypnotic pulse of power, the two colossal, Rank 6 Stygian Maw-Lurkers emerged, their cavernous mouths a promise of absolute destruction.
Then came the assassins and controllers. Lirael, his Naga. Volt and Jolt, his twin Spirit Eels. And the two Rank 5 Mind-Weaver Squids, their forms shimmering as they became one with the air itself.
The sudden appearance of a new, fresh army of over a dozen powerful beasts, including two at the Hegemon level, sent a wave of pure, dumbfounded shock through the entire battlefield. The disciples, who had been preparing for their final, desperate stand, could only stare, their minds unable to process the miracle unfolding before them.
Li Yu stood at the head of his personal army, his Star-Iron Rod held loosely in his hand. "Today, we do not just defend!" he roared to the empty air and his own soul. "We attack! We will meet this tide of kings, and we will break it!"
He led the charge from the front. He was a black comet, his staff a weapon of conceptual weight. His army was a wave of monstrous power, a perfectly coordinated engine of war. The two Maw-Lurkers, with their hypnotic lures, immediately sowed confusion among the charging Tyrants. The hydras and eels became a storm of venom and lightning. The crabs and turtles were an unbreachable, moving fortress.
Li Yu himself met the first Rank 5 Ice-Fang Tiger head-on. He did not bother with techniques. He simply swung his Star-Iron Rod. The tiger, a king of its own domain, was pulverized into a fine, red mist, its powerful body and proud spirit utterly annihilated by a power that was simply beyond its comprehension.
The battle for the Crimson Ridge Pass had entered its final, most desperate stage. It was no longer a war of sects and armies. It was a war of monsters. And Li Yu, the quiet, unassuming boy from the fish ponds, was the greatest monster of them all.