Chapter 294 - The Beast Tide and the Hidden Trap

Chapter 294: Chapter 294 - The Beast Tide and the Hidden Trap

The first collision shattered the clouds.

Sword light crossed the sky and struck a torrent of demonic flame, while a crimson seal descended toward the righteous formation from above. Pale lotus radiance expanded beneath it, weakening the corrosive energy before the two forces collided and sent a shockwave rolling across the region.

Mountains trembled beneath the pressure.

The Nascent Soul cultivators watching from the mortal city immediately descended closer to the ground.

Even from such a distance, they had no desire to remain exposed beneath a battlefield containing fourteen Void-Shattering cultivators.

Li Xuanzong finally attacked.

His approach remained almost disappointingly simple compared to the destruction surrounding him.

He disappeared from where he stood and appeared beside one of the demonic cultivators just as the man’s attention shifted toward Jian Wushuang.

His palm moved forward.

There was no enormous spiritual manifestation and no brilliant light.

The space directly in front of his hand simply compressed.

The demonic cultivator reacted quickly enough to twist aside, but the edge of the force still struck him.

His body was sent sliding backward through the air.

Li Xuanzong did not pursue.

By the time the man stabilized himself, the Sect Master had already entered another exchange.

Su Bai watched closely.

Li Xuanzong was fighting differently now, but the underlying principle had not changed.

He never spent more energy than necessary.

Every movement achieved something.

Every attack forced an adjustment.

Even after the righteous side received reinforcements, he showed no intention of revealing the full extent of his strength.

Jian Wushuang appeared equally restrained.

His sword met the weapon of another Void-Shattering cultivator, and the impact sent countless sword lights scattering through the sky. Instead of forcing the clash further, Jian Wushuang withdrew exactly when the enemy committed more strength, drawing him slightly away from the others.

The movement looked natural.

But Su Bai knew better.

They were still arranging the battlefield.

The Sect-Scale Formation was complete now.

The only remaining problem was getting enough of the enemy within its effective range before they realized what had happened.

The other righteous cultivators quickly found their own roles in the battle.

The Zhuge Clan expert rarely met anyone directly.

Whenever one of the demonic cultivators built momentum, he interfered at the exact moment that momentum became useful. An attack aimed at the Glass-Lotus expert would suddenly be redirected several degrees, forcing its owner to correct it. A demonic cultivator trying to reinforce a companion would find his path blocked just long enough for the opportunity to disappear.

His movements were neither spectacular nor destructive, yet the demonic side repeatedly lost its rhythm whenever he approached.

The woman from the Glass-Lotus Holy See caused a different kind of trouble.

Lotus-shaped radiance followed her movements and spread through the surrounding spiritual energy. Demonic techniques entering that area became noticeably less stable, especially those relying heavily on corrosive or polluted Qi.

She could not erase the techniques outright.

She did not need to.

Forcing a Void-Shattering cultivator to spend more power maintaining every attack was already enough to make her deeply irritating.

One of the demonic cultivators struck at her repeatedly before finally shouting, "Must you hide behind that damned lotus every time?"

The woman calmly formed another hand seal.

"If it keeps upsetting you, I see no reason to stop."

The lotus light expanded again.

The man’s expression darkened.

Elsewhere, the Myriad Swords Sect and Scorching Sun Valley experts had fallen into a surprisingly natural rhythm.

Sword light forced their opponent into narrow paths, while scorching Yang energy filled the openings left behind.

Whenever the demonic cultivator attempted to break away from one, the other was already waiting.

Despite the scale of the battle, Su Bai gradually noticed something strange.

Nobody was fighting with everything they had.

The techniques were terrifying enough to destroy mountains, yet the cultivators themselves were still probing one another.

The righteous side did not know whether more enemies were coming.

The demonic side could not know whether more righteous experts were nearby.

Revealing one’s strongest technique too early in a battle between so many Void-Shattering cultivators could become fatal later.

The violence filling the sky was therefore only the beginning.

Li Xuanzong seemed especially unwilling to waste strength.

He continued moving between opponents, forcing reactions without allowing himself to become trapped in any prolonged exchange.

Little by little, the battlefield shifted again.

This time the demonic cultivators noticed much sooner.

One of them abruptly retreated when Li Xuanzong changed direction.

Another refused to follow Jian Wushuang deeper toward Radiant Sky Sect.

Their earlier mistake had taught them caution.

Unfortunately for them, six righteous cultivators now occupied the battlefield.

The Zhuge Clan expert interrupted one retreat.

The Glass-Lotus cultivator forced another enemy sideways.

Myriad Swords Sect closed an opening while Scorching Sun Valley pressured the cultivator nearest it.

What Li Xuanzong had struggled to accomplish alone became much easier once the others understood what he wanted.

The demonic cultivators were not being forced directly toward Radiant Sky Sect.

They were being given fewer and fewer useful directions to move.

Su Bai watched the distance carefully.

They were entering the formation’s outer range.

Jian Wushuang noticed it too.

His eyes briefly met Li Xuanzong’s.

Li Xuanzong shifted toward the black-robed cultivator who had marked Su Bai.

The man immediately responded, unwilling to let the Sect Master dictate the battle again.

That reaction was exactly what Li Xuanzong wanted.

Their exchange carried both of them several hundred feet closer to Radiant Sky Sect.

Two other demonic cultivators adjusted to support their companion.

Jian Wushuang moved with them.

It was then that the Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Plate appeared in his hand.

Highest-Grade Spirit Stones had already been prepared around the central formation core.

Jian Wushuang did not activate it immediately.

He waited.

The battle continued for several breaths.

Li Xuanzong avoided a strike that tore a long black scar across the sky.

The black-robed cultivator followed.

Another demonic expert closed from Li Xuanzong’s left, hoping to trap him between them.

Li Xuanzong finally stopped retreating.

His gaze shifted toward Jian Wushuang.

Jian Wushuang pressed his palm against the Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Plate.

The Spirit Stones surrounding it began losing their light at a terrifying rate.

At first, nothing else happened.

A moment later, a roar spread across the region.

Every cultivator in the sky paused instinctively.

The sound did not resemble any single beast. It carried too many voices.

Deep roars overlapped with shrill cries, hisses, howls, and ancient bellows until the combined sound rolled across the mountains like an approaching tide.

The Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Plate lit up in Jian Wushuang’s hand.

The innumerable beast-shaped inscriptions carved into its surface began separating from one another.

They expanded as they rose.

At first, only vague silhouettes appeared across the sky, but those silhouettes rapidly gained form.

Massive beasts descended onto the mountains surrounding the battlefield. Winged projections spread across the heavens, while serpentine creatures coiled through the air as though it were water. Heavy quadrupedal beasts landed on empty space and caused spiritual ripples to spread beneath their feet.

More continued appearing.

The sky above Radiant Sky Sect gradually filled with them.

Some resembled ordinary spirit beasts enlarged to terrifying proportions, while others possessed forms so strange that even Su Bai could not immediately identify what species they had once belonged to.

None were truly alive.

Every beast was a projection sustained by the formation.

That distinction did little to make the sight less overwhelming.

The battle slowed.

Several Void-Shattering cultivators stopped attacking completely.

Their reaction had little to do with the actual strength of the projections.

What disturbed them was the scene itself.

Thousands upon thousands of beasts had appeared across the mountains and sky, all gathered beneath a single controlling formation.

For cultivators who had experienced the Great Fissure, the resemblance was impossible to ignore.

The woman from the Glass-Lotus Holy See stared upward, and for the first time since arriving, her calm expression changed.

The Zhuge Clan expert also stopped moving.

Across the battlefield, two demonic cultivators instinctively drew closer together.

Someone quietly spoke the thought shared by many of them.

"This looks like... the Animal Realm."

Jian Wushuang glanced down at the formation plate in his hand.

The final beast projections were still emerging.

Su Bai watched from Radiant Sky Sect as the Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Formation spread across the battlefield.

For everyone else, the sight had awakened an old nightmare.

For him, it meant something much simpler.

The trap was finally ready.