Chapter 296 - The Beast Tide and the Old Witch

Chapter 296: Chapter 296 - The Beast Tide and the Old Witch

The charge of thousands of beasts transformed the battlefield in an instant.

Jian Wushuang stood at the center of the Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Formation. His spiritual sense spread throughout its enormous structure as he directed the projections toward the demonic side.

The beasts did not simply rush forward as an uncontrolled mass.

Jian Wushuang guided them.

Winged creatures descended from above while heavier projections advanced through the mountains below. Serpentine beasts moved between them, filling gaps as soon as they appeared, while smaller and faster projections circled toward the flanks.

The combined pressure rolled toward the battlefield like a living wall.

Even the righteous cultivators instinctively withdrew.

They had no desire to remain mixed among thousands of projections whose controller was already struggling to divide his attention across an entire Sect-Scale formation.

The Zhuge Clan expert retreated first and immediately understood Jian Wushuang’s intention.

"Give him the field."

The others followed.

Li Xuanzong left last.

Several demonic cultivators tried to follow the righteous side before the formation closed around them, but the beast projections arrived from too many directions.

A massive winged creature plunged between one demonic cultivator and the route he intended to use.

He struck without hesitation.

His technique tore through the projection’s body and dispersed it into spiritual light.

Before the remnants had even vanished, three more beasts occupied the opening.

The man cursed and retreated.

Another demonic cultivator released a wave of corrosive energy that swallowed dozens of projections at once.

For a moment, an empty region appeared around him.

Jian Wushuang’s hand seal changed.

More beasts immediately flowed into the space.

The demonic cultivator’s expression darkened.

The projections were individually far weaker than Void-Shattering cultivators.

That became obvious almost immediately.

Powerful techniques could destroy them by the dozens, and a precise strike delivered at the moment their formation structure became unstable could disperse them with surprisingly little effort.

The problem was never the strength of a single beast.

There were simply too many of them.

Every time one route opened, another group closed it.

When a demonic cultivator rose higher to escape the beasts approaching from below, winged projections descended from the clouds.

When another tried to break through horizontally, serpentine creatures crossed his path and forced him to slow down long enough for heavier beasts to arrive.

The Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Formation did not need to defeat eight Void-Shattering cultivators directly.

It only needed to control where they could move.

...

Su Bai watched from Radiant Sky Sect with growing appreciation.

The original creator of the formation had understood that principle very well.

Ten thousand weaker beasts were not terrifying because each one could threaten a top cultivator.

They were terrifying because together they could erase almost every convenient choice.

The Nascent Soul cultivators in the mortal city seemed to reach the same conclusion.

Several had their mouths slightly open as they watched the beast tide flood the region.

One elder finally swallowed.

"This is a Formation?"

Naturally, nobody answered him.

Su Bai pretended he had not heard.

Some information was healthier when kept private.

...

The demonic cultivators recovered from their initial surprise quickly.

Once they understood that the beasts were projections rather than true living creatures, their reactions became much more efficient.

They stopped wasting enormous techniques on individual targets.

Instead, they watched the rhythm of the formation.

One demonic cultivator waited until a charging beast fully condensed before striking the point where its spiritual structure was weakest.

The projection dispersed instantly.

He repeated the method against another.

The others learned quickly.

Soon, the demonic side was destroying projections with considerably less effort than before.

One of them laughed.

"They’re hollow!"

Another demonic cultivator tore through two winged beasts and immediately understood.

"Do not waste strength. The formation cannot maintain this many forever."

Jian Wushuang heard them.

His expression did not change, but the slight pallor on his face had become more pronounced.

The Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Plate was already reaching its limit.

The Highest-Grade Spirit Stones surrounding its core had lost most of their brilliance.

Several of the beast projections flickered.

The demonic cultivators noticed.

Their confidence immediately returned.

A black-robed man destroyed another projection with a casual strike before retreating from the next wave instead of meeting it.

"Stop fighting the beasts," he ordered. "Let the formation exhaust itself."

The others understood immediately.

Their tactics changed.

They no longer tried to destroy every projection blocking them.

They evaded whenever possible and attacked only when a beast completely sealed their route.

It was efficient.

Jian Wushuang could not maintain the formation indefinitely, and everyone present could see it.

The beast projections began flickering more frequently.

A massive creature crossing the mountains vanished halfway through its charge.

Several winged beasts lost their forms moments later.

The demonic cultivators continued retreating.

One of them looked toward Jian Wushuang and laughed.

"Was that your great plan?"

Jian Wushuang remained silent.

That only seemed to amuse the man further.

"Waste all those resources if you wish. Once this thing disappears, we will still be standing."

The demonic cultivators continued giving ground.

Their retreat became increasingly relaxed as the formation weakened.

What they failed to notice this time was where Jian Wushuang was allowing them to retreat.

...

Su Bai watched the eight cultivators move farther across the mountains and slowly understood what was happening.

The Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Formation had never needed to defeat them.

Jian Wushuang had inherited Li Xuanzong’s earlier task.

He was herding them.

The beasts filled every route except the ones the demonic cultivators were allowed to take.

Whenever one of them attempted to retreat in another direction, several projections concentrated there until he changed course.

The chosen paths appeared easier, safer, and more natural.

The demonic cultivators thought they were preserving strength by taking them.

Little by little, all eight moved deeper into the area surrounding Radiant Sky Sect.

One of the demonic cultivators crossed the invisible boundary without noticing it.

Another followed a moment later, still focused on the weakening beast projections around him. The others continued retreating along the same seemingly safer route, each step carrying them deeper into the area Jian Wushuang had been guiding them toward.

Nothing happened.

That only made their confidence grow.

The projections were flickering more often now. Several of them vanished before they could even complete their charge. To the demonic cultivators, it looked as though the formation was finally reaching its limit.

One of them laughed.

"They cannot maintain it."

Another was about to answer when something made him glance back.

At first, he saw only the scattered remnants of the beast tide and the distant outline of Radiant Sky Sect.

Then his gaze settled on a lone figure standing far behind them.

A woman had been waiting there the entire time.

She had not joined the earlier confrontation.

She had barely moved while everyone else fought.

Shen Youran stood in the distance with her hands resting calmly behind her back.

The remaining visitors from the righteous factions were much farther behind her near the mortal city, wisely keeping themselves out of whatever was about to happen.

The demonic cultivator who noticed her went rigid.

A second followed his gaze.

His face changed as well.

The robed cultivator connected to Su Bai’s Mark narrowed his eyes.

Only one of them reacted verbally.

Unfortunately for him, he chose the worst possible words.

"It’s that Old Witch!"

Far behind them, Shen Youran heard him.

Her eyebrow moved slightly. The motion was so small that most people would never have noticed it.

Lu Canghai noticed.

His face immediately brightened with the unmistakable expression of a man who had just witnessed someone else make a mistake he himself had learned from repeatedly.

Shen Youran raised one hand.

The beast projections were already collapsing across the battlefield.

The demonic cultivators had been so focused on surviving the tide and waiting for it to disappear that none of them noticed the faint changes beneath the mountains.

The distributed command nodes throughout Radiant Sky Sect awakened.

Energy flowed through the Sect-Scale Formation for the first time as a unified whole.

The completed Large-Scale array at its center responded immediately, passing power outward through the newly connected suppression sections.

The network extended beyond the inner peaks.

It crossed the Outer Sect, followed the surrounding mountains, and reached deep into the territory where the eight demonic cultivators now stood.

Shen Youran’s spiritual sense connected to the authority Huo Yan and the others had entrusted to her.

The formation recognized its controller.

Another deep sound traveled through the mountains.

Click.

The eight demonic cultivators stopped retreating.

For the first time since arriving at Radiant Sky Sect, several of them looked genuinely alarmed.

Shen Youran’s expression remained cold.

The man who had called her Old Witch suddenly seemed to regret having such a clear voice.

Her fingers lowered.

The Sect-Scale Suppression Formation activated.