Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Lost Beast

Countless cultivators who had escaped into Dragon Guard City ahead of time now watched the rapidly approaching horde of mystical beasts in the distance, roughly estimating their numbers to be well over three thousand. Along the way, countless houses, markets, stalls—everything was trampled flat, reduced to mud beneath their feet.

Within the City Lord’s Mansion, Chen Nanshan, both the commander of the city’s defenses and the city lord himself, hastily summoned his twenty-plus most powerful subordinates. Together, they soared into the air and sped out of the city to confront the incoming beast horde.

Among the many unaffiliated cultivators within the city, seeing Chen Nanshan take action, no fewer than several dozen plucked up their courage and followed him into the sky, out of the city.

“Stop!”
“All of you, stop right now!”
“I am Chen Nanshan, the City Lord of Dragon Guard City. May I ask, fellow cultivators, why you have broken the ancient agreement and suddenly attacked this human settlement?”

Chen Nanshan, displaying the full power of his early Nascent Soul cultivation, halted the beast horde ten meters before him. The beasts stopped abruptly, raising their heads and snorting angrily, glaring at Chen Nanshan.

“Hmph!”
Suddenly, after several simultaneous cold snorts, more than a hundred third-tier mystical beasts flashed into view above the horde, quickly surrounding the fifty human cultivators who had come forth. Apart from Chen Nanshan, who remained calm, the other Golden Core cultivators were drenched in cold sweat, their foreheads and palms slick.

“Fellow cultivators, please restrain your anger for the moment.”
“Could any among you tell me the reason for your actions today?”
“If you truly intend to tear apart the agreement between humans and mystical beasts, which has endured for thousands of years, I doubt you’ll find yourselves in a position to explain to your elders when you return.”

Seeing that the beast tide numbered only three thousand and was not growing, Chen Nanshan surmised this was not a campaign launched by the high-ranking mystical beasts of the Mystical Beast Forest, but rather an impulsive gathering of mid- and low-tier beast clans bordering human territory within the Endless Forest, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If he could successfully calm the nameless rage of this small beast horde, the day would be saved;
If not, and war broke out, few among their fifty would survive, and the news would likely provoke a conflict between the high-ranking cultivators of both races, unleashing a catastrophic beast tide...
The consequences would be unimaginable.

Of course, none of this was foreseen by the original instigator, Gu Xiaopang.

“Hmph!”
“Chen Nanshan, the eighty clans present today have been neighbors to Dragon Guard City for centuries.”
“Each city lord you’ve had has respected the boundaries, never interfering with us.”
“If you hand over the culprit today, we’ll withdraw without further incident.”
“But! If you dare protect them, don’t blame us for breaking the pact—we’ll raze your Dragon Guard City to the ground.”

“Culprit?”
“May I ask, fellow cultivators, did some human offend your clan’s taboos?”
“Do you have a description of this person’s appearance?”
“Are you certain the culprit fled in the direction of Dragon Guard City?”

The third-tier beasts on the other side pressed their accusations: “Culprit!”—each one demanding answers, leaving the surrounded fifty human cultivators bewildered.

“Hmph!”
“Are you trying to shelter them?”
“I don’t care—hand them over now! Or Dragon Guard City will fall.”

“Oh, fellow cultivators, sheltering? How could I dare?”
“But, even if you wish for me to hand over the culprit, you must at least tell me who it is.”
“If I simply surrender one of my comrades to you, not only would they be wronged, but you wouldn’t accept it either.”

“Besides, I truly couldn’t bring myself to do such a dishonorable thing.”
“And I must ask again—how exactly did this person offend your clans?”

By now, the third-tier beasts had calmed down somewhat, but they found themselves at a loss for words, embarrassed and unable to proceed.

Indeed, they had all rushed over in a frenzy, wreaking havoc along the way, venting their anger—but the culprit? None of them knew what he looked like...

As for how he had offended them?
How could they say it? Admit to the humans that all their lairs had been raided? That would be a disgrace—how could they ever show their faces in the Endless Forest again?

While the mystical beasts stood in awkward silence, unsure what to say or do next, suddenly the entire sky grew tensely oppressive. Everyone—human and beast alike—felt as if they were forcibly immobilized, unable to so much as lift a finger.

“Hmph! Have you caused enough trouble? Get back here, all of you, now!”
“Shameful!”

The rebuke came swiftly and departed just as quickly. Instantly released, the three thousand mystical beasts were terrified, fleeing without a backward glance, retreating along their path at three times their previous speed, vanishing once more into the Endless Forest, silent and still.

“Th-thank you!”

The fifty human cultivators left behind, only now recovering from the ordeal, were drenched in cold sweat. Led by Chen Nanshan, they bowed in unison toward the depths of the Endless Forest, as if escaping death.

...

Countless human cultivators who had been watching from the city walls erupted in cheers and laughter as the beast horde retreated in an instant, their voices shaking the heavens.

...