The cultivator’s faces twisted in fear as the spirit beasts rushed in from the forest. Death was only a few steps away. The flood mantis growled in fury, raising the remaining claw to strike. As it descended, one of the new spirit beasts pounced at him, throwing the mantis to the ground a few meters away. Everywhere, the newly arrived spirit beasts fought against other beasts instead of the cultivators. Most of them were only at the seventh layer of the Body Tempering Realm, some reaching the ninth. They fought ferociously and kept coming in.
“What is going on…?”
“These spirit beasts are on our side?”
The pressure on Lin Qiang, Lin Shu, Lin Yin, Little Fu, and Red Leg lessened right away. Elder Lin Dong already passed out, thinking death arrived for him, but it was not his time yet. A green-eyed, long black-haired youth form flickered, appearing near the flood mantis, training robe torn after tough battles before coming.
As the mantis tried to get up from the ground a slash came from the wounded arm side diagonally, severing it in two. The first rank sword looked spotless even after the cut, its sharpness incomparable to the unranked one.
This low-grade first rank sword was equal to the second layer of the Spirit Sea Realm in quality. In Ming Ren’s hands, the sharpness went beyond what the mantis could resist. He flickered again with incredible speed, cutting several Body Tempering spirit beasts and landing near the elder. Ming Ren moved like a ghost, his presence barely noticeable. Bright Eyes activated silently and his spiritual sense scanned the fallen elder.
“Right arm almost destroyed, meridians wounded but still in one piece,” Ming Ren breathed in relief. The situation wasn’t good but nothing unsolvable, “I’m sorry, elder. I was late.”
“Brother Ming Ren!” Little Fu and the others closed in. Lin Yin’s eyes rested on the sword before moving away.
“Is that your doing?” Lin Qiang pointed to the beasts.
Ming Ren nodded. He couldn’t fend off hundreds of strong spirit beasts alone with his current power and beast taming was nothing new to him. He lacked the raw power to make them submit directly, and time to befriend them calmly, but his time inside the scripture provided two powerful weapons: strengthened soul and aura.
Not even cultivators at the Spirit Gate Realm would resist a soul attack from him. Unfortunately, his own body wouldn’t either, as even controlling the power of the soul was hard. He could only attack with the soul if willing to die with the opponent.
But, to spirit beast taming, those weapons were heaven-sent gifts. With powerful instinct and senses, spirit beasts respected and feared strong beings. Ming Ren only released his aura for a split second and directed it to the target, making most beats tremble uncontrollably and submit. Since adjusting the power was hard, some still attacked, but it helped him tame many beasts in little time.
“We have no time,” Lin Qiang became interested in his taming skills, but they had to hurry, “Brother Little Fu, you carry the elder. We need to move deeper into the forest!”
“D-deeper?” Lin Shu looked shocked. With the pressure weakened, the other cultivators joined to kill the wild ape. After a fierce struggle, Red Leg and the others overcame it, and he had just finished the beast when he heard Ming Ren.
“No, we must break through to the east side and leave, going deeper is madness!” Red Leg shouted. He guessed this youth had something to do with the spirit beasts helping them yet he was only at the peak of the fifth layer and didn’t look experienced at all.
Ming Ren shook the head, “It’s no use, there’s even more coming. We need to go deeper, there’s a chance they won’t invade the other territories.”
That wasn’t the only reason Ming Ren wanted to go deeper. It wouldn’t be possible to survive going outside even by sacrificing many people. The frenzied spirit beasts came from all sides. He had the confidence to open the damaged mysterious formation even without knowing what waited inside, a much better opportunity than waiting here for certain death. But who would believe a boy could manipulate a formation that shouldn’t even exist in that place?
His words carried no weight.
“Boy, if you want to die, go alone!” Red Leg had no time to bother with Ming Ren and pointed to Lin Yi’s group, “You should take Lin Dong and come. We’ll take this opportunity and go east right away.”
Lin Yin hesitated. He didn’t know Ming Ren’s secret like the elder. He liked the guy, but how would he trust him over someone experienced like Red Leg?
“We’ll go deeper! Lin Fu, you carry the elder, we’ll protect the rear!” Lin Qiang didn’t hesitate and left no room for discussion. She also felt a strange connection with Ming Ren and always believed in fate. This time it would be no different.
“Don’t call me Lin F-! Oh, wait…”
Lin Qiang spoke, Lin Yin, and the others didn’t argue. Little Fu princess carried the elder in his arms and the others raised their guards. They had little time to prepare as it was clear the spirit beasts on their side would lose.
“Senior, come with us, there might be an opportunity to survive!” Ming Ren said with little hope.
Red Leg hesitated in front of this mysterious youth, but shook the head, “We go east! Everyone, follow me!”
The other cultivators followed Red Leg and another ferocious battleground started. The already tired and hurt group fought with all their might to break away. Ming Ren looked around and then pointed somewhere, “Go that way. Don’t stop, no matter what! I’ll catch up soon!”
Lin Qiang and the others nodded and ran. Ming Ren gave orders to some spirit beasts to follow and protect the group. He had one more thing to do, and jumped into the battlefield, rushing from side to side and scanning the surroundings with spiritual sense.
While moving around, Ming Ren searched for precious items and monster cores. He dodged attacks and cut spirit beasts without stopping. Spiritual sense allowed him to jump to a location, grab anything precious, and move away. Many fallen cultivators left behind pills, cores, and other useful items. The dead spirit beasts, such as the wild ape and flood mantis, also had cores. The others were too busy running away to bother with it, and they didn’t even carry a spatial ring.
Ming Ren felt bad about taking things from the dead but had to increase their survival odds. Why would he choose the dead over the living?
An intense pressure came forth from the east and his whole body shivered. It came from the edge of his spiritual sense’s limit. A ferocious roar echoed through the forest, and Red Leg’s group came under attack once again. A four meters tall twin-headed lioness with two long and sharp fangs, scales in the body, and a three-pronged tail, led the charge. Twin-headed ferocious lioness, the queen of this part of the forest, cultivation base at the peak of the fourth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm!
Ming Ren activated the Bright Eyes art through his spiritual sense, noticing right away why the lioness became queen. Common knowledge dictated spirit beasts condensed their cores at the Spirit Sea Realm, and yet some spirit beasts condensed two or even multiple cores. Some referred to those as mutations, others as rare species. Having over one core had clear benefits: another space to purify spiritual energy and more space to stock it.
A common fourth layer Spirit Sea Realm beast would be strong but still manageable, even Red leg could survive for some time. But a queen, the strongest of its territory, with two monster cores?
Ming Ren had no choice. He couldn’t save everyone. A frenzied beast would not stop until every single human cultivator in the area died. He had to get away as fast as possible, dashing to find Lin Qiang and the others as soon as he collected everything useful.
Red Leg chose his own fate.
The twin-headed queen struck everywhere, claws and bites tearing limbs and organs apart at will. The tail attacked like a trident, piercing two cultivators at once. Red Leg attacked with the flame spear, but couldn’t even scratch the scales. The lioness roared and tore his head off effortlessly with a single bite. The entire group died in a few breaths.
The spirit beast gazed in the direction Ming Ren had gone and roared again, hatred filling its eyes. The few tamed spirit beasts still alive ran away in fear. They would also have joined the enemy if Ming Ren’s control was any weaker.
The queen sprinted, an army at her back. It was time to hunt.