Chương 78: The Reddened Pass

The air grew thick and heavy, charged with the collective primal killing intent of a million beasts. The psychic pressure from the distant Beast King was a constant, low hum at the edge of their consciousness, a promise of the overwhelming power that was to come. Li Yu stood with his Beast Taming Battalion in the reserve area behind the Central Front. He had spent the time in quiet preparation.

He had walked among his two hundred disciples, offering quiet words of encouragement, observing their beasts and using his unique affinity to soothe their pre-battle jitters. He was their commander and his calm became their own. On the morning of the third day, the ground began to tremble. It started as a faint, distant tremor, the kind one might mistake for a minor earth-quake. But it grew, steadily, relentlessly, until the very mountains of the Crimson Ridge Pass seemed to vibrate in terror.

The dark line on the horizon finally broke, not into a disorganized wave of flesh but into a terrifying organized vanguard. Leading the charge was a wave of five hundred monstrous behemoths. They were Rank 4 Earth-Shattering Gorillas, massive apes covered in thick, rock-like plates of armor. They carried enormous, uprooted trees as crude battering rams, their roars a thunderous chorus that shook the heavens.

Behind them, a hundred sleek serpentine beasts slithered, each a Rank 5 Breaker Wyrm, a single, glowing horn on their heads pulsing with a destructive arcane energy. And behind them, the true ocean of flesh, the millions of Rank 1 and Rank 2 beasts, waited, a wave poised to crash through the breach the vanguard would create.

"Hold the line!" The Sect Master's voice boomed from the command warship, his Core Formation aura a golden, stabilizing sun in the face of the coming darkness.

"Activate the Grand Formation!" With a deep, humming sound, a massive, semi-transparent barrier of golden light shimmered into existence, sealing the entire Crimson Ridge Pass. It was the combined work of a hundred formation masters, a wall of pure spiritual energy designed to withstand a siege.

"Prepare long-range arts! Weaken the vanguard!" an elder shouted. A wave of a thousand disciples, masters of long-range techniques, unleashed their power. Brilliant fire base arts, sharp wind blades, and massive earthen spikes rained down upon the charging gorillas. The volley slammed into the vanguard. While many found their mark, the beasts' incredible defenses and sheer momentum meant that only a few dozen were felled, a negligible loss.

The remaining gorillas reached the barrier and slammed their massive tree-trunks against it. The golden shield groaned, spiderweb-like cracks spreading across its surface. It was a brutal, intelligent, and terrifyingly effective strategy to weaken the formation. Before the formation could stabilize, the hundred Breaker Wyrms struck. They acted as one, a single, unified will guiding them.

Their horns began to glow with a blinding, purple light and a hundred beams of pure, corrosive energy shot out, converging on a single point of the Grand Formation. With a final, shattering groan that echoed like the sky itself breaking, the Grand Formation collapsed. The vanguard, their purpose served, roared in triumph and charged into the pass. Behind them, the true Beast Tide, the endless ocean of lesser beasts, surged into the breach.

"ENGAGE!" The front line of the righteous sects met the tide head-on. The disciples of the Iron Fist Peak became a wall of unshakeable earth, their fists meeting the charge of the gorillas in a brutal, earth-shaking melee. The swordsmen of the Jade Spring Sword Sect became a river of flashing, silver light, carving a path through the lesser beasts that swarmed around the battling behemoths. The battle for the Crimson Ridge Pass had begun.

Li Yu watched from the reserve on the back of his swift, elegant Silver-Winged Flying Swordfish. He was a mobile command center, his eyes scanning the entire Central Front. This was not a mindless swarm; this was an army. He didn't wait for an order. He saw it himself. A section of the Jade Spring Sword Sect's line, elegant swordsmen who excelled in one-on-one combat, were being systematically overwhelmed by the sheer, unending numbers.

They were forming small, isolated pockets, their defensive Qi being worn down with every passing second. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. But he also saw something else. He saw a battlefield saturated with an unimaginable amount of life essence and raw spiritual energy. Every fallen beast, every drop of spilled blood, was a treasure trove of power just waiting to be claimed. This wasn't just a war; it was also a feast.

"The thirty-seventh quadrant is about to break!" Li Yu's voice was a calm, sharp blade that cut through the roar of the battle.

"Defensive units, with me! We form a new line! Vanguard units, prepare to attack on my signal!" He led the charge himself. The Swordfish shot forward like a silver comet, diving into the thickest part of the melee. As he descended, he opened the portal to his Koi's Sanctuary.

"Crimson! Lirael!" With a furious, draconic roar, his Rank 4 Flood Dragon appeared, its jade-scaled form a bulwark of power. Beside it, his Rank 5 Naga materialized, a silent, ghostly shadow of midnight blue. The three of them crashed into the Beast Tide like a trident. The sudden appearance of two powerful, draconic beasts sent a wave of confusion and fear through the lesser creatures. Li Yu leaped from the Swordfish's back, landing in the midst of the chaos.

In his hand was his new weapon, the impossibly heavy Star-Iron Rod. A massive, bear-like Rank 3 beast charged him, its claws extended. Li Yu's expression did not change. He met the charge head-on, swinging the Star-Iron Rod in a clean, horizontal arc. Rod Smash. The staff, moving with a speed that defied its incredible mass, struck the bear mid-charge. There was no meaty thud. There was only a soft, wet crunch.

The beast's entire torso imploded, its bones, organs, and spirit core pulverized into a fine paste by the sheer weight of the weapon. Li Yu has been influenced by Khaos through all of their training. His so-called "fancy" techniques were no match for the overwhelming power of simple moves that Khaos was using but with sheer force. This made him unconsciously move towards simpler techniques, focusing on his body's power and he found his combat effectiveness soar.

He was able to spend more time cultivating and body refining without having to practice and hone special techniques which he was slower at learning. This allowed him to tap into some of the strengths that his Koi spirit afforded him. He moved through the battlefield like a phantom, his «Abyssal Dragon's Shadow» carrying him through the gaps. His every swing of the Star-Iron Rod was a simple, brutal and overwhelmingly effective display of power.

A Rod Slam from above would turn an armored crocodile into a flat paste. A simple thrust would obliterate a charging wolf's skull. He cleared a space ten feet wide around him, leaving a trail of broken, pulped and utterly annihilated beasts in his wake. At the same time, some of the flesh and blood was being brought into his sanctuary, acting as food for his beasts inside. How could he pass up the free things given to him openly. While he carved a path, his companions became a whirlwind of destruction as well.

Crimson was a living battering ram, its venom and brute force tearing through the lesser beasts. Lirael was a ghost, her every strike a precise, debilitating blow that shattered a creature's leg or blinded its eyes, turning it into a rampaging liability for its own side. The pressure on the Jade Spring Sword Sect's line immediately eased. Feng Xuan, his handsome face now grimy with blood and sweat, shot Li Yu a look of gratitude before continuing his own fights. But Li Yu's greatest contribution was invisible.

As the battle raged, the blood-red Koi spirit in his sanctuary began to spin like a divine whirlpool. A vast, silent and irresistible suction force spread out from Li Yu, a domain of hunger that targeted every single enemy aquatic and semi-aquatic beast on the battlefield. The wild Swamp-Serpents, the armored River-Crabs, the vicious Shark-Toothed Pikes—they all felt a sudden, inexplicable weakness, a draining of their spiritual energy that made them sluggish and their attacks weaker.

Since they were enemies under the control of the Beast King, he showed no mercy, going all out on his technique. Their lost energy, a river of chaotic mixed Qi, flowed into Li Yu, where it was instantly purified and devoured by his spirit. It was not just replenishing the energy he was expending; it was actively nourishing his foundation, pushing his real Sixth Stage cultivation base slowly but surely towards the next level. He was getting stronger with every passing second of the battle.

He focused his senses, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic sea of beasts as he battled on, looking for his catch. He saw it: a strange, crab-like creature, no bigger than a large dog. It was only a Rank 2 beast but its shell was a beautiful, swirling pattern of obsidian and sapphire and it was exuding an aura of spatial energy. It was a juvenile Void-Hopper Crab, a rare variant that could teleport short distances. It was a creature with unique potential.

In the chaos of the battle, it was injured, one of its legs crushed by a stray attack. It was trying to scuttle away, to find a place to hide. Li Yu moved. His staff became a blur, smashing two wolf-like beasts that stood in his way. He appeared before the small, injured crab. It looked up at him, its beady eyes filled with fear. He did not kill it. With a thought, the portal to his Koi's Sanctuary opened for a fraction of a second taking the crab in.

The injured crab and its rare spatial-aspected bloodline was silently devoured. At the same time, the pulverized remains of the beasts he had just smashed with his staff were also drawn into the tiny vortex, disappearing from the battlefield to become nourishment for the thriving ecosystem within his spirit. His first catch of the day. He looked up, his expression unchanged, his gaze already sweeping the battlefield for his next target. The battle for the pass raged on, a brutal, grinding war of attrition.

But for Li Yu, the hunt had just begun.