The Dark Green Malevolent Eyes — Beast Tide Erupts

The massive Boss Grade Black-Scale Demon Wolf fell dead. The other — the one that had nearly torn the wooden decoy to pieces — witnessed this and let out a furious roar.

With one swipe it shattered the decoy and charged straight at Lu Yuan, its deep-blue eyes blazing with killing intent.

Every Black-Scale Demon Wolf that had been swarming Squad 8 abandoned its target and wheeled toward Lu Yuan — dozens of them, surging forward like a dark tide.

Lu Yuan's expression didn't change. He lifted his greatsword and went to meet them.

Groat and the others felt their hearts lurch.

"Damn it! Support Lu Yuan!"

They cut down the wolves blocking their path and raced toward him.

Elite Grade Third-rank Black-Scale Demon Wolves closed in from all sides, black spirit light swirling across their bodies as they lashed out with concentrated claw strikes.

Lu Yuan made no move to defend. His greatsword swept in a wide arc, tearing through several wolves and spattering blood across the ground — but claw strikes caught him in return, one after another. A series of sharp clangs rang out as they struck his body. Not a single mark was left.

Groat and the rest stared wide-eyed.

Yang Qiu was sweeping his Staff in broad strokes, sending pale cyan wind blades several meters long slicing into the pack. "They couldn't even dent him?!" he called out in disbelief. "*What* kind of defense is that?!"

Stacie had already channeled Spirit Power to heal Lu Yuan, but her hands went still.

*I thought his raw power was already his greatest weapon,* she thought. *But his defense is something else entirely.*

Groat's shock lasted only a moment before his eyes hardened. "While Lu Yuan has their attention — wipe them out! Don't let a single one escape!"

With the majority of the pack fixated on Lu Yuan, hell-bent on avenging their fallen leader, the pressure on the rest of Squad 22 dropped to almost nothing. They tore into the wolves without restraint.

The second Boss Grade wolf reached Lu Yuan and swiped furiously. But Lu Yuan noticed immediately: this one was a notch weaker than the first. *The stronger one couldn't scratch me. What chance does this one have?*

Tanking the surrounding Elite wolves' assault without flinching, he traded two brutal exchanges with the Boss Grade, then drew his greatsword across its throat and put it down.

With both pack leaders dead, the remaining Elite wolves couldn't threaten Lu Yuan even slightly. They fell one after another. When barely ten were left, survival instinct finally broke through their rage and they bolted — but Lu Yuan and his squadmates gave them no such mercy, running them all down.

For dozens of meters in every direction, the ground was carpeted with Black-Scale Demon Wolf corpses and soaked with blood. The surrounding forest was a ruin: tree trunks raked with claw marks, some of the smaller trees snapped clean off and lying across the ground.

Lu Yuan flicked the blood from his greatsword and let out a slow breath.

He had killed the most out of anyone, and even for him the Spirit Power expenditure had been considerable. But he'd come prepared with Spirit Crystals, maintaining full reserves throughout. He felt no fatigue.

He turned toward the others and walked over.

"Captain, are you all right?"

They all looked at him with something like shell-shock still in their eyes. Groat gave him a single nod, clapped him on the shoulder, then turned toward Squad 8. "Help them first!"

Lu Yuan and the others followed.

Getting closer, he could finally see Squad 8's full state.

Two of their members lay on the ground. One wore battle armor, a massive shield at his side, his head drenched in blood. The other wore leather, one arm torn away entirely, his chest ripped open. Both were clearly dead.

The survivors all bore wounds. They sat pale and spent on the ground.

The middle-aged man who had summoned the wooden decoy was the least badly hurt. The most serious case was a man in blue robes — three deep claw furrows across his chest and his left hand shattered.

Stacie moved to them, her expression grave. "You're all seriously injured. I'll treat in order of severity."

"Do you have enough healing medicine?" Groat asked.

The middle-aged man at their head nodded. "Already taken them."

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, glanced at the two bodies on the ground, and his jaw worked for a moment before he could speak. "Thank you, Groat. If you hadn't arrived when you did, we'd be lying there with them. What a waste — Old Lin and Bamu."

Groat shook his head. "It's what we're here for. Rest now."

He said nothing more and turned to his own squad. "Stay on watch until they can move. Tang Ji."

Tang Ji gave a nod and vanished, dissolving into the forest to maintain perimeter watch.

Lu Yuan glanced once more at the bodies, then turned his attention outward.

Gene Warriors were resilient, and with the healing medicine already working alongside Stacie's treatment, recovery came faster than it otherwise might. In barely ten minutes, color had returned to the survivors' faces. They were on their feet, with limited but functional mobility.

Once upright, the middle-aged man produced two large black body bags. In silence, the Squad 8 survivors lifted their fallen teammates and placed each into a bag. When the bags were sealed, the middle-aged man stored them in his Battle-mark Space.

The whole process unfolded in oppressive silence. Squad 22 watched without a word.

When it was done, the middle-aged man let out a quiet breath.

"You're in no shape to keep patrolling," Groat said quietly. "Go back and get treated. We'll escort you."

"Yeah."

The middle-aged man gave a short nod.

Squad 22 escorted them toward the defensive camp. The outward journey had taken barely two minutes at a sprint. The return took nearly twenty, paced for the wounded.

Once Squad 8 was safely handed off, Groat's brow creased, his expression turning dark.

"Rough break for Squad 8 — two dead on a single patrol. If they can't fill those slots, the next assignment's going to be even harder. The Beast Tide's almost here."

"No question. The Feral Beasts have been getting stronger every day. Black-Scale Demon Wolves are supposed to live much deeper in the range. The fact they've pushed this far out..."

"If packs like that are being displaced forward, the front lines must already be under serious pressure."

"The Beast Tide's going to break any day now. If things keep escalating, vanguard waves could punch through the front line entirely and spill into our sector. That's when it gets truly dangerous."

"Don't overthink it. We're Scout Unit — gathering exactly this kind of intelligence is our job."

Groat shook his head. "Move out. Zone 6."

They pressed back into the forest.

For the next full day, Squad 22 patrolled through the forest.

By all accounts, this zone should have been predominantly Second-rank Feral Beasts. Yet across a single day-and-night rotation, they encountered Third-rank beasts multiple times. Some were genuinely dangerous — worst of all, a Third-rank low-level Chief Grade beast: a One-Horned Savage Bear, its raw strength so terrifying that even Lu Yuan had come close to having his defense breached.

By noon the following day, exhaustion was plain on every face.

The number of powerful Feral Beasts in the zone had kept climbing, and they had been fighting almost without pause. There'd barely been time to catch their breath.

Groat checked the device in his hand, exhaled slowly, and let a small smile of relief cross his face. "Handoff time. We can head back."

A visible wave of relief passed through the group.

Yang Qiu rubbed his wrist. "So many Third-rank beasts. I'm dead on my feet — my Spirit Power is practically scraped dry."

"Tell me about it. Today was worse than yesterday." Ding Wen shook his head. "Thank the stars Lu Yuan was here, or this patrol would've gotten ugly. That One-Horned Savage Bear was something else."

The others nodded, unease still flickering in their eyes.

Groat glanced at Lu Yuan, and his mouth twitched. "You got stronger again. A Third-rank low Chief Grade and it still couldn't crack your defense."

"Well, with the Beast Tide coming, I figured I should push a little harder." Lu Yuan scratched the back of his neck. "Bulk up where I can so I can pull more weight when it counts."

The truth, of course, was simpler: with resources no longer a bottleneck, his cultivation speed translated directly into rapid gains over very short spans.

"...You think 'working hard' explains why you improve that fast?" Yang Qiu muttered. "What species are you, exactly?"

"Come on, let's go. Proper rest for everyone."

Back at the defensive camp, Groat split from the others — as squad captain, he had a patrol report to file.

Tang Ji, Yang Qiu, and Ding Wen were planning a walk through the general area and initially tried to drag Lu Yuan along. He turned them down. His Land of Origin cooldown was nearly up.

As his cultivation had grown stronger, his sessions inside the Land of Origin had grown longer — which in turn extended the recovery time required outside. By his estimate, roughly two days between entries. It had been almost two days since his last exit.

He returned to his room, rested briefly, and watched the Light Gate restore itself.

Lu Yuan stepped through without hesitation.

Two days later.

Beyond the front line of the southern defense network, deep within the Endless Mountain Range — impossibly far from any human presence.

Through the unbroken ridgelines, Feral Beasts roared and howled, their cries shaking the very forest. Vast numbers were converging, all moving in the same direction: toward a great valley at the heart of the range.

At the valley's end sat a cave. Strange sounds drifted from within at irregular intervals, and tendrils of black mist curled outward, spreading across the valley floor.

Inside the valley, countless Feral Beasts lay prostrate on the ground, their eyes alight with something like rapturous devotion. Their power levels ranged enormously — some radiated auras matching a Battle King, or even a Battle Emperor; others were barely First-rank or Second-rank. Creatures of wildly different strength lay side by side, and among them reigned absolute, unnatural harmony.

Then the black mist inside the cave surged. Tendrils poured outward and sank into the bodies of the beasts below.

In an instant, every beast rose with a roar. Their eyes flushed blood red, and wisps of black mist began seeping from their forms.

Deep within the cave, barely visible in the darkness, a pair of strange dark-green eyes gleamed — eyes dense with malevolence.

A low, resonant roar rolled out from the depths. Every beast reacted as one, as if receiving a direct command, and surged out of the valley in a single wave.

One of them — a white elephant a hundred meters tall — bellowed and brought one foot down on a mountain peak, shattering it. A pitch-black serpent over a kilometer long wound between the peaks. A cyan leopard, sleek and small at barely two or three meters, flickered — and appeared a kilometer away — flickered again — and vanished beyond the horizon.

And more. Many more.

Roar after roar rolled through the Endless Mountain Range as the horde poured outward. Beasts converged from every direction, forming a dark, numberless mass that stretched beyond sight. Together they charged toward the Red Maple Empire.

Endless Mountain Range. The outermost ring of the southern defense network.

In the conference room of a massive fortress, dozens of powerful individuals had assembled — Guard Corps officers in uniform alongside a contingent of Talent Camp instructors. Si Tingyu was among them.

At the head of the table stood a stern-faced blond man whose bearing carried natural authority. His gaze swept the room, expression grim.

"I've called you here because the satellites have detected something."

He touched the display panel before him. A holographic projection bloomed above the conference table.

In it: the Endless Mountain Range. A White Jade Celestial Elephant several hundred meters tall moved through the peaks with heavy, methodical steps, shattering summits, crushing forest, grinding steadily toward the defense line. Then it raised its enormous head and glanced toward the sky. Its eyes were blood red.

On another peak, a massive ape armored in black scales — a hundred meters tall — crouched and launched itself into the air. The mountain beneath it crumbled under the force. Its body cleared several kilometers in a single bound and came down on another peak, crushing its summit flat. It threw back its head and roared, beating its chest with both arms. Its eyes were blood red.

A jet-black serpent a kilometer long wound between the ridgelines, tongue flickering, its crimson eyes glacially calm and murderous.

In the forest below, vast numbers of beasts — ten meters tall, some several dozen — followed in the wake of the great ones, all moving toward the defense line. Wherever they passed, mountains fractured and ancient trees fell. And in the depths of the vast forest, smaller silhouettes flickered at intervals — too fast even for satellite imaging to resolve.

The conference room fell into absolute silence.

The blond man spoke slowly. "The White Jade Celestial Elephant. The Heaven-Reaching Ape. The Night Demon Python. These are Emperor-tier peak Feral Beasts that have never left the deep range — until now. They are advancing on our lines, leading countless beasts behind them. They mean to fight."

Beside him, Elder Yu's brow creased. "Look at their eyes. That shade of blood red — it's wrong. Something is off."

"We've been running into blood-eyed beasts for a while now," someone said. "This Beast Tide is unlike anything we've seen before."

A heavyset man with dark skin crossed his arms. "Hmph. Whatever the reason — if the Beast Tide is here, we kill until there's nothing left. Those Emperor-tier beasts hid deep in the mountains for years. Maybe we couldn't reach them there. But if they dare come out?" He snorted. "Then they'd better be ready to die. Do they really think humanity is something to be trifled with?"

"If we're going to war," the blond man said, "let's discuss how we hold the line."

Around the table, the assembled commanders bent their heads together and began to plan.