Chapter 37: The Defenses Fall

Everyone listened to Xu Ziyan’s words and looked as far as they could down the mountain path. Indeed, they couldn’t see a single trace of Monster Beasts. Everyone wondered in their hearts where those Monster Beasts had gone. Could it really be, as Xu Ziyan said, that they all went to Changri Valley? But Changri Valley was a place easy to defend and hard to attack! The easiest place to attack was still Tongyou Valley, which their own clan was guarding!

No one could figure out why this was. It wasn’t just the disciples at Xu Ziyan’s fork in the road; the disciples at the other fork were also staring confusedly at the mountain path ahead. Yesterday, they had also suffered attacks from Monster Beasts. They originally thought there would be even fiercer Monster Beast attacks over the next few days, but it was already almost noon, and they still hadn’t seen a single Monster Beast’s shadow.

While the Xu Clan disciples were bewildered, the remaining members of the City Lord’s Manor, the Xiao Family, and the Wu Family were only feeling frustrated. Originally, the City Lord’s Manor should have been the most at ease, but now it had become the most dangerous place. Based on past experiences with Beast Tides, Li Wanpeng knew that Monster Beasts almost never came by the Imperial Highway, so he had rushed to choose to guard the Imperial Highway.

But what he never expected was that, as noon approached, an endless tide of Monster Beasts charged down the Imperial Highway towards the people from the City Lord’s Manor stationed there. The Imperial Highway was open ground, with absolutely no natural defenses to rely on. Instantly, the City Lord’s Manor’s defenders were scattered and thrown into disarray. Li Wanbao’s face turned completely pale with fear. He even felt a wet sensation in his trousers. He turned and fled in panic towards Zhongdu City. By the time he escaped back to Zhongdu City, only a little over a hundred people remained from the original thousand of the City Lord’s Manor.

Meanwhile, on Luofeng Ridge, the Wu Family was stationed there. At this moment, Wu Yue stood atop Luofeng Ridge, looking down at the Beast Tide below. From the ridge, he could see the Monster Beasts forming a line, charging towards the ridge pass. Because the pass was very narrow, only allowing one Monster Beast to pass through at a time, even though from the ridge the line of Monster Beasts stretched far into the distance, seemingly endless, the pressure on the Wu Family wasn’t actually that great. A group of them gathered at the valley mouth, facing the mountain pass where only one beast could emerge at a time. They killed them without much difficulty.

However, occasionally there were Flying Demon Beasts that flew over from the sky. Luckily, there weren’t many Flying Demon Beasts. Although they could injure some Wu Family Disciples and cause some fluster, the Wu Family still held Luofeng Ridge firmly.

The situation at Changri Valley was a bit worse than at Luofeng Ridge. The reason was that Changri Valley could allow three Monster Beasts to charge through at once. Added to the occasional attacks from Flying Demon Beasts, although the Xiao Family still held Changri Valley firmly, their casualties were somewhat heavier than the Wu Family’s.

At this moment, Wu Yue and Xiao Ruxing were thinking the same thing: why were there so many Monster Beasts at the places they were guarding? Did it mean that this Beast Tide wasn’t a medium-scale one, but a large-scale Beast Tide? If it was a large-scale Beast Tide, even if they could hold the key passages, could the Xu Clan hold theirs?

Wu Yue and Xiao Ruxing thought this way not because they were worried about the Xu Clan. What they worried about was this: if they themselves faced endless Monster Beasts, then there must be even more Monster Beasts at the Xu Clan’s Tongyou Valley. And that place was easy to attack but hard to defend. They suspected that the Xu Clan’s thousand people probably couldn’t hold it.

Whether the Xu Clan members lived or died had nothing to do with the Wu Family or the Xiao Family. They didn’t care, and in their hearts, they even wished for all thousand Xu Clan members to die in the mouths of the Monster Beasts. The three clans lived together in Zhongdu City. Over thousands of years of inheritance, the accumulated grudges and hatred had built up to a critical point, ready to erupt. So, even if the Beast Tide didn’t finish off the Xu Clan now, they had already planned actions against the Xu Clan.

What they were truly worried about was this: if the Xu Clan were all killed by the Monster Beasts, then the Monster Beasts would pass through Tongyou Valley and come up behind them, cutting off their connection to Zhongdu City. At that time, they would be attacked from both front and behind. The most critical point was that there were no defensible positions behind them. If the Monster Beasts really attacked from their rear, probably very few of the people they brought this time would make it back to Zhongdu City.

Time passed in the midst of battle. Suddenly, at the mouth of Changri Valley and atop Luofeng Ridge, Xiao Ruxing and Wu Yue both shuddered. They turned their heads to look behind them. From far behind them came the sound of rumbling thunder. The vast snowy plain remained empty, with no trace of any living creature. But the thunderous sound grew louder and louder, and the very earth began to shake.

Suddenly, on the empty snowfield, a mass of black dots abruptly appeared. This mass of black dots formed a line. When they first appeared, they seemed to be at the edge of the sky. But in an instant, they continuously grew larger, filling the field of vision of the Xiao and Wu Family Disciples.

It was an endless tide of Monster Beasts, charging wildly across the open ground towards them. These were exactly the Monster Beasts that had come from the Imperial Highway. After killing most of the City Lord’s Manor forces, these Monster Beasts had found that Beast Luring Talisman. But this talisman immediately caused a mad scramble among the Monster Beasts. In just an instant, the Beast Luring Talisman was torn to shreds by the crowd of beasts fighting over it.

The torn Beast Luring Talisman quickly lost its effect. In less than a quarter of an hour, the scent of the Treading Void Grass disappeared completely. All the Monster Beasts looked around in confusion, sniffing the air constantly, trying to find the source of the Treading Void Grass scent.

Therefore, these Monster Beasts soon discovered that the source of the Treading Void Grass scent was in the direction of Luofeng Ridge and Changri Valley. All the Monster Beasts immediately became excited. With howling cries, they pounced towards Luofeng Ridge and Changri Valley.

And so, the Wu Family and Xiao Family met a tragic fate. The two leaders absolutely never imagined that these Monster Beasts had come charging from the direction of the Imperial Highway where the City Lord’s Manor was stationed. Instead, in their hearts, they both firmly believed the beasts were charging from the direction of Tongyou Valley, where the Xu Clan was stationed.

Wu Yue and Xiao Ruxing were both decisive people. They immediately realized it was impossible for them to hold their positions any longer. So, they immediately ordered their clan disciples to break through towards the direction of Zhongdu City. In their minds, since the Monster Beasts were charging from the direction of Tongyou Valley, then as long as they broke through towards Zhongdu City, they would surely be heading towards the weakest point of the Beast Tide.

But reality was cruel. The direction they chose to break through was precisely where the Monster Beasts were most concentrated, because the beasts had come from the Imperial Highway. By the time the Wu and Xiao Families managed to disengage from the Monster Beasts and flee in defeat towards Zhongdu City, the mighty force of over a thousand people they had brought was now reduced to just over a dozen members per clan. This was even fewer than the number of people remaining in the City Lord’s Manor, who had fled at the first sight of the beasts.

Back in Zhongdu City, within the Xu Clan compound, Xu Haoran had already regained consciousness and made a full recovery. Xu Haoliang stood before Xu Haoran, his face pale, listening as Xu Haoran yelled furiously at him.