Everyone dropped what they were doing.
Mist Eye Sect disciples were already forming ranks near the rear wall. Han Yu joined others scrambling up to vantage points. Through a crack in the barricades, he saw them—dozens of fire beasts pouring from the mist and smoke. Their forms distorted by heatwaves, glowing like embers given legs.
Fla Prowlers. Lava Crabs. And worse—four-legged behemoths with magma-dripping fangs and rock-like armor plating.
A full stampede.
The disciples shouted incantations and surged forward to et them, qi flaring like a sea of colored light. Fire t water, wind t stone. The clash was imdiate, violent, and terrifying.
They used the illusory skills, but they were either too weak too affect these beasts, or simply ineffective against the frenzied beasts who only had slaughter on their minds. No matter how well they fought they were outnumbered.
Even with formations activated and reinforcents sent from the inner buildings, the beasts pressed forward relentlessly. The front line was beginning to bend, shields cracking under claw and fla. Defensive arrays shimred with strain, pulsing as they fought to absorb the raw impact.
The barricades near Han Yu shook under the concussive blasts.
Just as the line seed ready to break—just when it looked like the beasts might surge over the walls and into the heart of the outpost—a new presence descended.
Quite literally.
A ripple passed through the air as a figure in flowing black robes landed atop the rear wall. His sleeves flared. His presence hit like thunder. Cultivators, guards, even the fire beasts froze for a heartbeat as the oppressive aura of the Nascent Soul Realm blanketed the battlefield.
Elder Wei had arrived.
His robes shimred with protective talismans. His hair was streaked with silver, and his hands, though folded calmly behind his back, radiated lethal energy.
He raised one hand slowly.
And with a single sweep, he carved a half-circle arc through the air.
Shuaaah—!
The air ignited. A black-gold fla surged forward, sweeping across the front lines in a tidal wave. It did not touch the disciples—it passed over them like a breeze—but every beast caught in its path howled, burned, and fell.
A dozen Fla Prowlers died instantly. A Lava Crab cracked apart with a hiss. The behemoths scread before they were reduced to smoking skeletons.
The earth quieted.
Only the crackling of burnt grass and the sizzle of molten blood remained. Such was the power of the man. He burned burning beasts with even stronger flas!
Han Yu, like everyone else, stood frozen in awe.
No one spoke. No one cheered.
Because when power like that was revealed—true, unfiltered Nascent Soul Realm power—it didn’t invite applause.
It reminded them how small they were.
And for Han Yu, it was a chilling realization.
He clenched his jaw and lowered his gaze.
’I need to be careful. I’m playing with dragons.’
The flas died down.
The ash settled.
And with it, the outpost fell into a cautious calm.
Though the ground was still warm and the scent of charred flesh lingered faintly in the air, there were no more howls, no more beasts pounding at the walls. The imdiate threat had passed.
Han Yu remained where he was, his hands still tight around a wooden spike he hadn’t managed to hamr in. His arms trembled slightly—not from fatigue, but from the lingering echo of power.
Elder Wei’s arrival was sothing he wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life.
That single, casual sweep of the elder’s hand had annihilated a stampede of fire beasts. Not rely scattered or injured them—annihilated them. In one motion, creatures that had overwheld the outer Sect disciples and broken through formation defenses were reduced to nothing more than scorched corpses and molten puddles.
Han Yu had seen strength before. His own sect, the Twin Leaf Peak, was no backwater. He had witnessed formidable elders, seen sect elders cast spells that turned valleys upside down in demonstrations.
But this?
This was different.
This was true power.
"If he had noticed at the caldera that day... I’d be dead," Han Yu thought grimly, his mouth dry. ’Not in ten strikes. Not in one. I’d be ash before I even blinked.’
It was a sobering thought. His boldness back in the Caldera—his half-mad decision to wander in and kill the fireborn beasts to get thier ashes—suddenly seed laughably reckless.
He could only thank the heavens that Elder Wei hadn’t been there for long at the ti.
The elder hadn’t even broken a sweat.
That realization planted sothing cold in his chest. Not fear, exactly. More like clarity. He was a frog peeking into the ocean, finally seeing the vastness beyond his little well.
"I need to be more careful," Han Yu muttered under his breath as he shoved the stake into the soil. "A lot more careful..."
His ambitions, investigations, and sches could wait. Especially now that Elder Wei was personally present and erecting formation arrays across the periter of the outpost.
Han Yu dropped all pretense of snooping for information. He spent the rest of the day doing what he was told—carrying planks, moving crates, filling water barrels—and kept his eyes down and ears shut. If soone told him to scrub latrines, he’d have done it without a word.
That night, the tension slowly eased.
The elder had activated several new protective arrays, including a large barrier formation that wrapped around the outpost like a shimring do. Misty threads of spiritual energy weaved through the air, pulsing with steady rhythm, proof of a high-grade formation crafted by a Nascent Soul master.
No beasts approached after that.
So had remained at the outskirts earlier, their silhouettes visible beyond the reach of the torches. But Elder Wei had taken care of them before dawn. When the caravan mbers woke up the next morning, the land outside the outpost was clear, and the air, while heavy with smoke, no longer vibrated with impending danger.
It was ti to move again.
Han Yu helped load the carts. The wagons rattled as they were re-packed with crates—mostly now-empty containers, spare supplies, and a few scrolls ant for delivery elsewhere. The ox beasts were sluggish from the heat but cooperative.
User Comments
0 comments from readers