Chapter 289: Crisis Approaches

The Beast Chaos had finally erupted.

The first to be attacked by the beasts were Taihe Mountain and Wuyuan Mountain; these two mountain ranges were the front line for Zheng Guo against the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Taihe Mountain possessed one Superior Spirit Vein and several lower-tier Third-tier Spirit Veins; the Taihe Laozu lineage had occupied this place for two hundred years.

The Taihe Laozu lineage had four Purple Mansion cultivators, and Taihe Laozu himself was a great expert at the Purple Mansion Ninth Layer, with three Purple Mansion subordinates and over a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators under his command; at the same time, there were dozens of loose cultivator Foundation Establishment practitioners in Taihe Market.

Along with thousands of Qi Refining loose cultivators, although some practitioners would leave once the great war began, even if a few Third-tier beasts brought their tribes to Taihe Mountain, it would be very difficult to break through the defensive line of Taihe Mountain.

As for the other side, Wuyuan Mountain, that was the absolute front line for the Yunyang Sect to resist the beast tribes; the original Third-tier Middle Grade Spirit Vein had been cultivated by the Yunyang Sect into a Third-tier Superior Spirit Vein.

For this mountain range, every time a great war occurred, five Purple Mansion practitioners would be stationed there, all to ensure that the defensive line here was built to be extremely secure.

The two defensive lines, one east and one west, were linked together.

They could, to the greatest extent possible, block the invading beasts outside.

Of course, it was impossible to block all the beast tribes outside these two mountain ranges; every time a great war occurred, many beasts would break through.

Fortunately, the Yunyang Sect had long been prepared; Laiyang County was the large border county behind these two mountain ranges.

When the great war arrived, the Yunyang Sect's general command would be arranged here, and the conscripted coalition army would also be stationed in Laiyang County.

Thousands of Immortal Cultivators would all be here, fighting against the beasts that had broken through.

It could be said that being stationed in Laiyang County was no safer than being in those two mountain ranges; sometimes, the Yunyang Sect would even have the cultivator army go outside the city themselves to fight the beast army.

The Su Family had already been conscripted to Laiyang County three months ago, but later, the Clan Leader sent word that they had been sent to Taihe Mountain to help the Taihe Lineage defend Taihe Mountain.

Although the Taihe Lineage were loose cultivators, their relationship with the Yunyang Sect was not too bad; in fact, the Yunyang Sect had always wanted to recruit the Taihe Lineage.

After all, the strength of the Taihe Lineage was not weak, being roughly one-fifth the strength of the Yunyang Sect.

Once they joined the Yunyang Sect, the latter's strength would also be greatly enhanced.

If Taihe Laozu could break through to the Golden Core Stage, that would go without saying; perhaps the Yunyang Sect could use this to increase the power of Zheng Guo by a few notches.

Among the Southern Wilderness Ten Kingdoms, because Zheng Guo was located on the periphery, its strength was not at the bottom, but it was still near the end.

For tens of thousands of years, the Yunyang Sect had never stopped wanting to expand, but the beast tribes of the Ten Thousand Mountains were not weak either.

It could be said they were extremely powerful; the Ten Thousand Mountains resisted the Ten Kingdoms, and every hundred years they could launch a beast invasion.

Sometimes, they could even break through human nations; for example, during the last beast invasion, Yan, a neighbor of Zheng Guo, had three of its mountain ranges occupied by beasts, all of which were Third-tier Spirit Veins.

The losses were immense.

After all, for small nations like Zheng Guo and Yan, Third-tier Spirit Veins were already considered Superior Spirit Veins.

For instance, the best Spirit Vein in the territory of Zheng Guo was only a Fourth-tier Superior one, and that was still just the current location of the Yunyang Sect's headquarters.

In these years, although the strength of the Yunyang Sect had been constantly increasing, wanting to expand—to expand toward the Ten Thousand Mountains—was not that easy.

After all, the number of beasts in the Ten Thousand Mountains was simply too great, and there were many tribes.

Over these few hundred years, it was thanks to the arrival of Taihe Laozu that a new Third-tier mountain range had been conquered.

It was precisely because they saw the strength of the Taihe Laozu lineage that the Yunyang Sect had always been trying to find ways to pull the Taihe Lineage into their sect.

Therefore, every time a great war occurred, the Yunyang Sect would send a portion of their cultivators to Taihe Mountain to help Taihe Laozu and his people defend against the attacks of the beast army.

"The Clan Leader and the others have gone to the Taihe Mountain Range; I hope they can return safely."

These days, when Su Fan had nothing to do, he would go to patrol Baiyun Feng to ensure that it would not suffer any invasions.

With the great war imminent, the entire Yu County had become extremely grim.

Although human practitioners should be united in the face of a beast invasion, human hearts are unpredictable; on the side of the human practitioners, there was still the hostile force of demonic cultivators watching like tigers eyeing their prey.

At the same time, there were some dark rats who liked to fish in troubled waters; taking advantage of the fact that most of the Immortal Cultivator families had their people conscripted to the front line, they would launch sneak attacks in the shadows.

They would then quickly leave Zheng Guo, not fearing retaliation from the Yunyang Sect afterward.

After all, although the Yunyang Sect was powerful, it was only within Zheng Guo; once outside Zheng Guo, their reach would not extend that far.

Besides, as long as the job was done cleanly, it would be very difficult to find out who the culprit was afterward.

Such things had not failed to happen before.

Therefore, every time a great war arrived, even the Immortal Cultivator families in the counties within Zheng Guo were very nervous; they were not only afraid that beasts would break through, but also guarded against those 'bandits.'

In these twenty years, the Su Family had produced two Foundation Establishment practitioners, and their strength had increased quite a bit, but the number of low-level Qi Refining practitioners had not increased much.

Because the base of mortals was not large, the number of Spirit Roots born was naturally not high.

Now there were barely fewer than one hundred and thirty, and among them, thirty were under twenty years old.

Practitioners under twenty years old had almost no combat power; after all, not everyone was like Su Fan, who had cultivated to the middle-to-late stage of Qi Refining by age twenty.

Most practitioners with poor Spirit Roots were only at the early stage of Qi Refining at twenty.

And just as Su Fan was patrolling every day, he did not know that a crisis for the Su Family was quietly approaching.

In a dark room, there were several people in black robes and masks.

"It has been investigated clearly; at Yunwu Shan, Su Laogui and the Great Elder of their Su Family have already been conscripted by the Yunyang Sect."

"Now, the ones left in the Su Family are the two newly broken-through Foundation Establishment practitioners."

"I didn't expect that in these years, the Su Family's strength would increase so quickly, actually breaking through to Foundation Establishment one after another."

"I remember that the Su Family only purchased one Foundation Establishment Pill from Taihe before, right?"

"Hmph! Mu Old Man, do you not allow people to break through to Foundation Establishment on their own?"

"Furthermore, that Su Laogui's strength is not simple; it is not impossible that he exchanged for another Foundation Establishment Pill from the Yunyang Sect."

"After all, during the last beast invasion, this old ghost made no small contribution in the great war, and it is said that his relationship with an Elder of the Yunyang Sect is very good."

"Alright, regardless of how the Su Family's newly promoted Foundation Establishment practitioners broke through, now Su Laogui and Su Shi'an have left."

"Yunwu Shan is left with only these two newly broken-through Foundation Establishment practitioners, which is good news for us."

"That Su Laogui dared to kill our people from Black Abyss; this time we will exterminate the Su Family and let him know that our Black Abyss is not to be trifled with."

"Moreover, this old ghost obtained that cave dwelling; there must be many good things inside, especially the alchemy Inheritance. We can just loot it, and then we can leave Zheng Guo."