Chapter 2246: Century Passes in the Blink of an Eye, Massive Beast Tide Erupts

Over a hundred years passed quickly.

Ten thousand fathoms beneath the sea, in the northwest corner of the Xuanling Continent, a dozen or so entirely blue whales, each over a hundred zhang long with a several-foot-long golden horn on its head, were chasing each other on the seabed at a leisurely pace.

Inside one of the blue whales, a resolute-faced young man in a blue shirt was controlling a whale puppet as it moved forward. The young man was tall, with bright and piercing eyes. This was Wang Lihai, an early Nascent Soul cultivator.

He was in charge of leading a patrol on the seabed. Sea beast puppets were highly deceptive, easily fooling demonic beasts, whereas patrolling on the surface could lead to attacks by demonic birds. For this reason, the Wang family increased their efforts in training puppeteers and created various sea beast puppets. Sometimes, the Wang family's patrol teams were even hunted by their own clansmen, mistaken for demonic beasts, but fortunately, no accidents occurred.

Every thousand years or so, a large-scale beast tide would erupt in this sea area. As time went on, the next beast tide drew nearer, prompting human factions to withdraw their personnel and strengthen their defenses. Wang Lihai was ordered to lead the patrol, primarily to detect the beast tide in advance and facilitate early warning.

A strange roar interrupted Wang Lihai's thoughts. Ahead, a large number of low-level demonic beasts appeared—sea lions, seals, and sea crabs—their sheer number enough to make one's scalp tingle.

"Oh no, it's a beast tide!" Wang Lihai exclaimed. "Retreat quickly and warn the clan!"

Wang Lihai turned pale with fright, quickly sent a message to his clansmen, and controlled the whale puppet to return the way they came.

In a certain vast, boundless sea, a flying boat gleaming with green light swept across the high sky at an exceptionally fast speed. A team of cultivators stood on the green flying boat. Their clothes, embroidered with lotus patterns, clearly indicated they were disciples of the Wang family from Qinglian Island. Their leader was Wang Xiangrong.

The Wang family had five shops in Xueyan Market, mainly selling puppet beasts. Wang Xiangrong was responsible for escorting a batch of puppet beasts to the market for delivery and also purchasing some cultivation resources to bring back. The large-scale beast tide might arrive soon. The clan's Soul Transformation cultivators were either cultivating, strengthening defenses, or guiding younger generations. Thus, only Wang Xiangrong could make the trip.

A huge booming sound rang out, and the sea surface churned violently, sending up massive waves. Wang Xiangrong was startled. He looked up at the sky, where dense black shadows appeared, obscuring the sun. A large number of demonic beasts emerged from the sea, including sea crabs, sea lions, sea pythons, and more.

"Oh no, it's a beast tide!"

Wang Xiangrong formed a hand seal, and the green flying boat immediately burst forth with green light, flying towards Xueyan Market. Wang Xiangrong raised a hand, and a streak of green light shot out, flying towards the distant horizon.

A large number of cultivators flew in from the distance, their expressions panicked. Some cultivators were overtaken by the demonic beasts, leaving nothing but dust in their wake. As soon as they approached within 50,000 li of Xueyan Market, the Rainbow Bridge suddenly came alive, swiftly coiling and drawing them back into the market. Don't underestimate 50,000 li; it was enough distance for a fifth-rank demonic bird to catch up.

Tens of millions of demonic beasts attacked from all directions, and the alarms in Xueyan Market blared loudly as the Cold Flame Sect activated some of its restrictions. Almost simultaneously, large numbers of demonic beasts appeared from the seabed or the horizon, attacking the islands inhabited by humans. Those protected by formations fared well, but cultivators without such protection had a very low survival rate.

Qinglian Island, Qinglian Peak.

In a secret chamber, Wang Changsheng sat cross-legged on a blue futon, holding a light blue orb. Tiny electric arcs flickered on its surface, emitting a wild and violent aura. It was a Heavy Water Thunder Pearl, equivalent to a full-force attack from a Void Refinement cultivator.

He had obtained a World Transformation Stone from the Qianmu Sect's spiritual herb garden. Although he transplanted ten Golden Magnetic Spirit Woods back and even used Creation Divine Water and Myriad Spirit Jade Liquid, two still withered and died, making them only suitable for artifact refining. The Wang family had traded one withered Golden Magnetic Spirit Wood with Zhenhai Palace for a batch of cultivation resources, which included another World Transformation Stone and some sixth-tier artifact refining materials.

Wang Changsheng had used these materials to refine a total of four Heavy Water Thunder Pearls. He had distributed them to Wang Qingshan, Wang Qingfeng, and Wang Mengbin, and the one in his hand could be given to Wang Qingcheng. He currently possessed two World Transformation Stones, allowing him to cast the spell twice.

Wang Changsheng couldn't guarantee a successful descent to the lower realm, but almost all necessary preparations had been made. The wisp of split soul nurtured by the Seven-Star Soul Nurturing Lamp was already very powerful and could be used to cast the spell. Even if it failed, it would have little impact on Wang Changsheng. However, if the spell failed again, he would need to recuperate for several centuries. This was despite his powerful divine soul; for other Void Refinement cultivators, one failure would require over a thousand years of recuperation to recover the lost split soul.

He planned to wait until the large-scale beast tide ended before using the World Transformation Stone to descend to the lower realm. By his calculations, the beast tide was not far off.

Wang Changsheng put away the Heavy Water Thunder Pearl and walked out.

Wang Ruyan sat in the stone pavilion, her face beaming with smiles. She had spent over three hundred years successfully refining four sixth-tier talismans and one fifth-tier talisman weapon. Practice makes perfect; when she first started refining sixth-tier talismans, Wang Ruyan's failure rate was very high. If given another batch of materials and three hundred years, she was confident she could refine more sixth-tier talismans. The four sixth-tier talismans included two Seven-Star Spirit Control Talismans and two Nine-Origin Spirit Concealment Talismans.

"Wife, you've emerged from seclusion?" Wang Changsheng said with a smile, noticing Wang Ruyan's expression. "It seems you've successfully refined a sixth-tier talisman."

"I've refined two Seven-Star Spirit Control Talismans and two Nine-Origin Spirit Concealment Talismans," she explained. "The Nine-Origin Spirit Concealment Talismans are primarily for concealing one's presence, while the Seven-Star Spirit Control Talismans can control demonic beasts or cultivators. However, the wielder must be stronger than the target, otherwise, control may not be maintained." Wang Ruyan explained that with her early Void Refinement cultivation, controlling a sixth-tier demonic beast with this talisman was not an issue, provided the beast was already injured. If it were at its peak, the Seven-Star Spirit Control Talisman would be useless. The Seven-Star Spirit Control Talisman was limited to controlling cultivators below the Integration stage or demonic beasts below the seventh tier. It could not control Integration cultivators or seventh-tier demonic beasts. Even so, it was still very formidable.

Wang Changsheng nodded with a smile. Just as he was about to say something, a massive alarm sounded, accompanied by a deafening dragon roar.

"A large-scale beast tide?"

Wang Changsheng frowned. Several beast tides had erupted in recent years, but they were not large-scale. However, the looming threat of a true large-scale beast tide made the Wang family cultivators overly nervous, causing any eruption to be treated as a major one. There had already been several false alarms, but the clansmen were merely more tired, with no major losses.

Wang Changsheng seemed to sense something. He took out a gleaming spell disc, cast a spell into it, and Wang Qingcheng's anxious voice suddenly rang out: "Father, this is bad! A large-scale beast tide has erupted! Dozens of outer islands have already been breached by demonic beasts, though personnel losses aren't very large. At least tens of millions of demonic beasts are attacking Qinglian Island, along with many demonic birds. The number of sixth-tier demonic beasts is unknown."

"Immediately issue orders," Wang Changsheng instructed with a stern tone, "for people from affiliated forces to relocate to the seven sub-islands. Abandon the outer islands; just defend the seven sub-islands and Qinglian Island."

"Yes, Father," Wang Qingcheng replied. "I'll issue the order now."

Wang Changsheng put away the compass and said to Wang Ruyan, "Wife, we need to go block the demonic beasts to buy some time for the low-level cultivators to retreat." If no one obstructs them, very few low-level cultivators would be able to escape at the demonic beasts' current speed.

Wang Ruyan nodded, then left Qinglian Island with Wang Changsheng, flying towards the distant horizon.