Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless blazing fireballs shot out, deeply burying themselves into the insect cloud before explosively detonating.

In an instant, myriad white flames rapidly spread throughout the insect cloud, igniting vast swathes of it into huge flames that illuminated the dark skies around.

After this extreme outburst, the brightness of the defensive light shield quickly dimmed, beginning to flicker unsteadily.

Although this strike cleared out most of the insects, Zhao Sheng knew it was only a temporary solution, not a cure.

Sooner rather than later, the demon insect tide would return, as the Southern Border's Gu Worms could never be completely eradicated.

As for using a formation to block the incoming insect cloud, Zhao Sheng had never even considered it.

Facing the relentless assault of the endless insect tide, even with a spirit mine at home, the Zhao Family couldn't afford to keep a Second Order Formation at full power all day and night due to its immense consumption!

Formations, as good as they are, just burn through too many Spirit Stones!

Zhao Sheng waved his hand, and twelve Red Cloud Banners immediately flew out, evenly inserted atop the wall.

Seeing this, all the clansmen, without needing a reminder, immediately gathered towards Zhao Sheng.

Once all the clansmen had returned, Zhao Sheng's thoughts prompted the Red Cloud Banners to automatically generate large swathes of pink, sweetly cloying mist that quickly spread out, shrouding the entire stone wall.

"Quick, retreat! Everyone, temporarily take cover in the stone caves!"

At Zhao Sheng's command, everyone, including Zhao Jijian, without asking why, immediately withdrew from the stone wall and retreated towards the stone caves.

After everyone had left, Zhao Sheng shut down the formation and extinguished all lights.

After applying an Invisibility Talisman and a Concentrating God Talisman to himself, he quietly retreated into a stone room to secretly observe the situation.

Before long, the sky began to drizzle with a rain of insects, countless bugs attracted by the scent emitted by the peach blossom miasma, rushing into the Red Cloud like moths to a flame.

At that time, wild beasts and demon beasts gathered at the foot of the mountain also began to climb over piles of corpses to scale the wall, and under the hallucinogenic effects of the Red Cloud, they began to ferociously slaughter each other, creating an extremely bloody and brutal scene.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Why hadn't Zhao Sheng used such a powerful tool from the start?

It was because, though marvelous, the Red Cloud was not infinite.

As time slowly passed, the air became thick with the scent of blood, and the ground was layered higher and higher with the flesh and blood of corpses, eventually almost reaching the height of the three Zhang high stone wall.

Correspondingly, the Red Cloud was also significantly depleted, its concentration fading gradually, thinning out.

By the late hours of the night, the potency of the peach blossom miasma was so diminished it nearly lost its hallucinogenic ability.

Zhao Sheng quietly recalled the Red Cloud Banners, heart aching terribly.

At this moment, the Red Cloud on the banners had been reduced by more than half, each one barely holding a few clusters.

Not knowing how long the beast tide would last, with the Red Cloud Banners already mostly spent from the first day, there was much to endure in the future.

As dawn broke, the insect cloud gradually dispersed. The demon beasts that survived were few, and even fewer ordinary animals were left intact.

A faint shadow of a sword flashed by!

Sizzle!

A waterfall of blood suddenly spurted from the neck of a black, twin-tailed tiger.

This heavily scarred demon beast collapsed to the ground with a thud, twitching a few times before quickly dying.

Thump, thump, thump!

The Invisible Sword morphed into an unseen specter, mercilessly reaping the lives of one demon beast after another.

These exhausted and often severely injured beasts had their spiritual sense greatly weakened; they had barely reacted before their lives were taken by the Invisible Sword.

However, there were exceptions; two Second-order Demon Beasts managed to survive the ordeal.

One Golden Armored Giant Python had an extremely strong defense and managed to block the cutting of the Invisible Sword with its scales.

Meanwhile, the other was a Second Order Wind Falcon, which reacted as swiftly as lightning. Before the Invisible Sword could strike, it swiftly vanished and reappeared high in the sky, a hundred yards up.

The Golden Armored Giant Python raised its head high, flicking its tongue to sense its surroundings, yet it failed to detect Zhao Sheng's presence.

Suddenly, the Second-order Demon Python thrashed its body, slamming its thick tail against the stone wall with a loud bang.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Its tail whipped wildly like a divine whip. In an instant, the ground trembled, carving deep trenches. Flesh flew in all directions from the sky to the ground, and the stone wall was cracked open with countless fissures.

After a while, the Golden Armored Giant Python destroyed seven or eight houses in succession. After venting its rage, its body suddenly stretched and twisted, and in a flash, it soared down Lush Peach Mountain and burrowed into the boundless Mang Forest in a couple of leaps.

After a while, once sure that the giant python had left, Zhao Sheng breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out from his hiding spot.

Only now did he realize, as the Golden Armored Giant Python displayed its formidable combat power,

that it had approached the strength of a Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer Cultivator, nearly a third-tier.

All together, the Zhao family was far from its match.

After sending a Communication Token, Zhao Sheng looked at the gruesome scene in front of him, filled with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and grew greatly worried.

With such fierce fighting in just one day, what would follow could only be even more brutal!

Most importantly, had the beast tide passed?

While thinking, Zhao Sheng tossed fireballs onto the mountains of animal and insect corpses.

He was burning the bodies to prevent the scent of blood from spreading and attracting more demon beasts and insect tides. Read the latest on empire

Moments later, Zhao Jijian and Zhao Keru, leading their kinsmen, swiftly arrived at the site.

Upon seeing such a dire scene, everyone gasped in shock, and several of the younger members turned deathly pale, almost vomiting.

After a short period of shock, the elder family members like Zhao Jijian quickly got busy as well.

The dead demon beasts were dragged to the side, and their fur, claws, scale armor, and eyeballs among other useful parts were cut off.

The remaining unwanted scraps and insect corpses were burned along with ordinary animal remains.

Sometime later, black smoke billowed over Lush Peach Mountain, like a volcano erupting.

The sun broke through the mist, gradually climbing high into the sky.

For dozens of miles around Lush Peach Mountain, the air was filled with the scent of meat and the smell of burning.

What slightly reassured Zhao Sheng that day was that the scale of the beast herd was only a tenth of the day before, and the number of insect clouds had also greatly decreased.

On the third day, the scale of the beast herd and insect clouds diminished even more.

Everything seemed to be improving, as if the beast tide had indeed passed.

On the fourth day, the sky was gloomy, covered with dense clouds, looking like rain was imminent.

But contrary to the gloomy weather, Zhao Sheng's mood was quite good.

After three days of fighting, the family had lost only one member, which was far better than his initial expectations.

And much of this was thanks to Zhao Keru.

A few days before the beast tide, Zhao Keru fortuitously managed to refine a batch of Life Elixirs using the characteristics of Stone Fire.

Life Elixir was a Second Order Spirit Pill primarily for healing, providing a massive amount of pure Vitality Power.

As long as the Divine Soul wasn't injured, one could sustain even the seriously wounded, keeping their last breath from escaping for a full day.

However, Zhao Sheng's good mood lasted only a short while before it was disrupted by a sudden anomaly on the horizon.

Gazing into the distance, a faint red first appeared at the edge of the sky, then turned into a swath of red. Soon, the red spread toward Lush Peach Mountain, gradually "submerging" the dark clouds in the sky.