Chapter 258: Lord of Ten Thousand Swords Mountain

"What?"

"A beast tide?"

Li Rui, hearing the news from the front, was taken aback.

According to the military report, the garrisons of Anning Guard and Yunzhou Guard had been attacked by a beast tide days ago, and one garrison commander had died in the battle.

The southern frontier was full of beast beasts; encountering a beast tide was common.

But Yu State had prepared for this long before launching the campaign, equipping its troops with aura-observers who could detect beast movements.

This shouldn't have happened.

Casualties exceeding two-tenths were the heaviest since entering Wu State.

The matter had drawn the attention of Governor Yuan.

Cao Wei and Lei Yong must be under immense pressure now.

In comparison, Jiang Linxian, who had stayed behind in Anning Guard, had avoided this needless disaster. It was said Cao Wei had gone to great lengths to secure command of this expedition—no telling how he felt now.

A single beast tide had erased all his prior achievements.

Tan Hu was also puzzled: "Out of nowhere, how did they run into a beast tide?"

As Li Rui and Tan Hu pondered this, a young Huaqing Sect disciple hurried to the Anning Guard's trade office.

"Lord Li, Elder Jiang requests your presence."

Li Rui looked at the familiar Huaqing Sect disciple at the gate, his brow slightly lifting.

Just as they spoke of it, it appeared.

No need to guess.

Jiang Linxian had summoned him for the beast tide.

"Alright."

Li Rui gave Tan Hu a few instructions, then mounted his horse and rode swiftly back to Anning Guard with the Huaqing Sect disciple.

When he entered the Deputy Commander's hall.

Guan Xinrong and Lu Jun were already seated. Li Rui bowed to Jiang Linxian, who sat at the head: "Elder Jiang, your servant is late."

Jiang Linxian waved a hand: "Sit."

Once Li Rui was seated, Jiang Linxian spoke slowly: "You've all heard of the beast tide."

All three nodded.

As expected.

Jiang Linxian had summoned them precisely because of the beast tide.

"The beast tide has stirred the beasts of Ten Thousand Swords Mountain. Urgent reports suggest Wu State's beasts may cross Ten Thousand Swords Mountain and enter Yunzhou territory."

Li Rui's gaze sharpened.

The impact of this beast tide was larger than he'd imagined.

"Lord Li, Lord Guan, each of you will lead a hundred men and accompany me immediately to the border to suppress the beast unrest and prevent these creatures from ravaging our realm."

"Yes!"

Li Rui and Guan Xinrong rose together.

Lu Jun watched this, silently sighing inside.

Logically, as garrison commander, he should have been the one sent to suppress the beasts, while Li Rui, a trade captain, remained behind. Yet Jiang Linxian chose Li Rui.

Why?

Because Li Rui could fight and get things done.

And because Jiang Linxian favored him.

As for Guan Xinrong, Jiang Linxian simply didn't want to leave Anning Guard in the hands of an outsider.

Normally, Jiang Linxian might have considered Lu Jun's feelings—but now, with urgency, if this was mishandled, Jiang Linxian himself might face punishment. He had to choose those he trusted to get the job done.

Lu Jun felt a sudden wave of melancholy.

'I'm old.'

Then he realized it made no sense—Li Rui could be his grandfather in age.

'Don't belittle yourself!'

'Since Elder Jiang has assigned me to stay behind, I'll do my duty well. No merit is better than no effort.'

Think of Li Rui—he'd earned Jiang Linxian's trust by steadily completing task after task.

Not long after.

Two hundred-man squads were assembled.

Anning Guard had only a thousand men total.

Cao Wei had taken seven hundred; these two hundred were nearly all who could still fight.

Of the two hundred, most were visibly excited.

Like they'd been injected with bloodwine.

Many had heard of their comrades' battlefield achievements and regretted missing out—now, finally, they had their chance.

Of course, there were plenty who were terrified.

Anning Guard wasn't frontier troops; among them, fewer than one in ten had ever seen real battle.

Li Rui glanced at the youthful soldiers behind him, brimming with morale.

His heart stirred.

'Too young.'

They were going to suppress beast unrest—to face beasts head-on. One misstep, and they'd become beast food. Don't end up earning military merit but dying before spending it.

He didn't want to go.

But since it had happened, and he was already a mid-level captain of Anning Guard,

running away wasn't an option.

What could be avoided, was avoided. What couldn't, was accepted calmly.

Li Rui took it in stride.

Mostly because he was strong enough to rely on himself.

And Jiang Linxian, to outsiders, was fifth-rank—but had long surpassed into fourth-rank. Unless a terrestrial immortal struck, he couldn't die easily.

Jiang Linxian scanned the group and shouted:

"March!"

Wubei City received a thousand-man force, many wounded, morale low.

The city's governor had already arranged physicians to carry the injured indoors and begin treatment.

Ning Zhongtian walked among the troops, glancing at the young general beside him.

"Lord Duan, your wound needs at least a month's rest. I have some healing medicine here—it might help."

Duan Yu's face was pale, a large bloodied wound on his right shoulder still oozing—beast injuries didn't heal quickly.

"Thank you, Lord Ning, but I have my own medicine."

Duan Yu politely declined.

Ning Zhongtian nodded and dropped the matter, scanning the battered army.

The eastern army, composed of Anning Guard and Yunzhou Guard, had suffered the heaviest losses in this beast tide.

Two to three hundred dead—nearly two-tenths of their force.

This was a devastating blow to morale; once an army lost morale, collapse came swiftly.

With no choice,

Cao Wei and Lei Yong abandoned their camp and retreated to Wubei City to recuperate.

In their current state, if the Manggu City army marched out, they'd be crushed without doubt.

Recalling that night,

Ning Zhongtian shuddered.

The sight: an endless sea of beasts, nearly drowning the army.

Only the camp's strong defenses and the presence of two top experts had prevented far greater casualties.

Even Ning Zhongtian, well-traveled and experienced, had to admit: compared to southern frontier beast tides, Yu State's were child's play.

Not even a brook—certainly not a raging flood.

By all accounts, young Lord Duan was unlucky—he'd come to Anning Guard merely to gain experience, yet stayed three days and got caught in this.

When he returns, his minister father and general father-in-law will grieve for a long time.

Even the quiet young Lord Duan had fallen silent.

Duan Yu walked into Wubei City in silence.

The scene of that night flashed in his mind.

I've messed up badly!

He'd come to Anning Guard to gain prestige—that was his father and father-in-law's wish—but his ambitions went beyond that.

Gaining prestige was expected, but if he could accomplish something that would shock both elders, that would be true ability.

So he approached Li Rui—and Zhao Bo, now dead inside a beast—both to capture the Feathered White-Scaled River Dragon.

The Feathered White-Scaled River Dragon had noble bloodline.

The Dragon Throne's ruler claimed to be true dragon—presenting this as tribute to the Emperor would surely earn rewards.

But he never imagined it.

That feathered, white-scaled dragon was of immense lineage—it was a descendant of a Demon Lord.

Demon Lord.

That was a beast rivaling a terrestrial immortal—the sovereign of all beasts!

This beast tide was stirred up by that very Demon Lord.

Fortunately, Zhao Bo took the blade for him; otherwise, the dead fifth-rank official would have been him, and all the beast-hunters he'd hired from the Witch Kingdom at great cost would have ended up in the beasts' bellies.

"Terrible, terrible."

Duan Yu knew he had stirred up a massive trouble.

The only consolation was that everyone who knew the truth was already dead, and the beasts couldn't speak, so there was no risk of the news leaking.

Otherwise, Cao Wei and Lei Yong would be the first to peel his skin off.

"Leave this place of chaos at once."

"Lord Jiang, you've finally arrived."

In front of the border fortress between the Yu and Witch kingdoms, the scene was unusually bustling.

In a single glance /p>

The garrison commander, General Wang, spotted Jiang Lin and ran forward to greet him.

He was a sixth-rank official; encountering his fifth-rank superior, Jiang Lin, he had to treat him with utmost care.

"Hmm."

Jiang Lin nodded.

He gave General Wang no chance for pleasantries or flattery, cutting straight to the point: "Tell me—what's the current situation with the beasts?"

At this, General Wang's expression turned solemn: "My scouts report the beasts have appeared ten li beyond the pass."

Ten li.

Hearing this number, Jiang Lin and Li Rui both frowned.

Ten li was not far for mortals, let alone for beasts—it would take them less than half an hour to reach here, meaning the beasts had already come right under their noses.

Jiang Lin: "Do you have a plan?"

General Wang grew awkward: "Lord Jiang, you know well—the pass serves only as an early warning. The Ten Thousand Mountains are vast, and we have fewer than a hundred men—we simply can't stop them."

In just a few words, he had already distanced himself from responsibility.

Jiang Lin had no intention of arguing with General Wang; he turned to the two men behind him.

"What do you think?"

Guan Xinrong chose silence.

As General Wang said, the Ten Thousand Mountains were too vast; even three hundred men scattered within would make no difference.

The imperial court could do anything because it was willing to spend heavily.

To hope for a small force to achieve great results?

Even a god would struggle.

Li Rui also shook his head: "Lord Jiang, do your best."

Jiang Lin nodded—he was only asking, and never expected three hundred men to hold back beasts from all directions of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Failing was acceptable; the key was to take it seriously.

Immediately,

he ordered Li Rui and Guan Xinrong each to lead fifty soldiers into the Ten Thousand Mountains to clear out the beasts first.

They accepted the order.

Li Rui led Tan Hu and five others straight into the forest.

In the dark, primeval forest, the group struggled to hack through thorns.

"Aren't the beasts supposed to have arrived? Why haven't we seen a single trace after searching so long?"

Tan Hu whispered.

They had searched for an hour and seen only wild animals—not a single beast.

Li Rui: "Huizi, be patient."

Beasts were as rare among animals as cultivators were among humans—they could never be numerous.

Spread across the vast Ten Thousand Mountains, their density was even lower.

If beasts were visible everywhere, the headache wouldn't be just Li Rui's—it would have had the Yuan Governor himself pulling his hair out.

Li Rui divided the five men into squads.

Ten squads in total.

Each squad spaced ten zhang apart—this balanced efficiency, and if trouble arose, he and Tan Hu could reach them in time.

Tan Hu: "Brother Li, I keep thinking this beast tide feels off the more I ponder it."

Li Rui looked at Tan Hu in surprise:

"Huizi, you've improved!"

Tan Hu grinned and scratched his head: "I feel the same way. Ever since following Brother Li, my mind's gotten sharper."

"..."

Li Rui had no choice but to continue: "I feel the same."

"Exactly!"

Tan Hu, thrilled his thought was validated, pressed on: "Brother Li, so you know what's going on?"

Li Rui rolled his eyes:

"I'm not the Star Lord of Fate—I can't know everything."

"Oh."

Tan Hu nodded.

Li Rui fell silent, carefully scanning the forest ahead.

The beast tide was certainly strange.

Others didn't know, but he chatted daily with the Witch Kingdom's envoys—he understood clearly: such a massive beast tide was a once-in-a-decade rarity for the Witch Kingdom.

Humans feared beasts, but beasts feared humans just as much.

Saying beasts lack intelligence is human arrogance—all things possess spirit; they merely think differently.

But one truth holds universally: whether human or beast, none wish to die.

Would beasts, well-fed and idle, launch beast tides day after day?

There must be a reason behind it.

But with too little information, it was impossible to know.

Given the scale of this tide, if his guess was correct, a Demon Lord must be driving it.

At that moment,

a commotion broke out nearby on the left, accompanied by soldiers' cries of alarm.

"Something's happening!"

Tan Hu perked up instantly, charging into the forest like a wild bull.

Li Rui stepped lightly and followed close behind.

Soon,

they saw five soldiers wielding spears and swords, facing off against a white-furred monkey, half a man's height, with a flame mark on its brow.

"Flame-Browed White Ape?"

Li Rui recognized the beast at once.

"Hah!"

Tan Hu reached out, grabbing the Flame-Browed White Ape's head.

The brute power of his innate Golden Body showed.

Though the Flame-Browed White Ape was also seventh-rank, like Tan Hu, it was utterly suppressed.

Meanwhile,

a chorus of chittering screeches erupted around them.

Li Rui moved like a kite hawk, rolling onto a branch; within moments, he saw seven or eight Flame-Browed White Apes drop from the trees, all lifeless.

Seeing this, the soldiers were awestruck.

Lord Li is mighty!

By the time Li Rui sheathed his blade, Tan Hu's battle was nearly over.

At that moment, Li Rui's voice came: "Huizi, keep it alive."

Hearing this,

though Tan Hu didn't understand why Li Rui wanted the monkey alive, he held back his strength, grabbing the exhausted beast by the nape of its neck and lifting it up.

At this, other soldiers drawn by the noise gathered around.

Li Rui stared at the chattering Flame-Browed White Ape, narrowing his eyes.

"You shameless humans! How dare you ambush the Demon Lord's son? You all deserve to die!"

"The Demon Lord will punish you."

"Kill, kill!"

The Demon Lord's son?

Li Rui caught the key phrase.

From just a few sentences, he could infer that someone had struck at the Demon Lord's son, angering the Demon Lord and triggering the beast tide.

The Demon Lord did not choose any other place—yet he chose precisely the camps of Anning Wei and Yunzhou Wei.

This was highly suspicious.

The truth was likely only one: the one who struck at the Demon Lord's son was a Yu Kingdom soldier!

(End of Chapter)