Chapter 215: 208 The Fierce Beast Comes from the Sea

Having his identity exposed directly, the injured Qiao Nanshan was only flustered for a moment, but he quickly adjusted himself. He walked to the pine tree in two or three steps, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Zhang Shousong, stroked his beard, and said, "As expected of the Beichen Hall Master, you can keep your cool. It seems you all are well-prepared."

Beichen no longer sat still; he stood in the arena with his large sleeves fluttering, his expression indifferent. He said, "It is not that we are well-prepared, but that you are acting against the Dao and are bound to fail. How dare you brazenly repeat the same trick after using that Sword Technique from FeilaiPeak at Jiu Yuan? Did the Turtle Bandits take your brains? As things stand, I might as well tell you: all your plans are within my grasp, and you are all mere clowns. The outcome is decided; do you still wish to put up a desperate fight?"

Qiao Nanshan chuckled and said, "The outcome? The great Momentum flows like a vast ocean. Some people guard a pool of stagnant water thinking it is the sea; who is to say who is acting against the Dao? Since you are all here, there is no need to find you one by one. Let us all surrender; it is not the first time Long Yuan has changed its allegiance, so what harm is there in doing it again?"

Beichen stood with his hands behind his back, watching the two. Polaris flickered above his head, its rhythm like a slow heartbeat, while his gaze wandered over their faces.

Even with his hundreds of years of shrewd experience, he could not find the expected terror on them. Their demeanor at most suggested they found the enemy unexpectedly strong and troublesome, with not a hint of the despair one feels when driven to a dead end.

The declaration just now did not sound like the clamor of someone facing impending doom, but rather like a genuine attempt to persuade them to surrender.

Could it be that they were still confident in the situation?

Could it be that they still had a way out?

Beichen said coldly, "Have Donghai and Fuquan come as well? I advise them not to show themselves. With only the two of you here, one could still say your sect is lax and occasionally produces rebels, but if all four arrive, the Kun Yu Sword Sect will be rebels beyond redemption. Do you wish to implicate your entire sect?"

The two old men with crane-like hair and youthful complexions opposite him smiled at each other. Qiao Nanshan said, "Indeed. Donghai... there is a sea here; is this a place for you to act so presumptuously?"

"Woo—"

As if echoing his words, a long, ethereal howl that seemed to come from ancient times drifted over.

Beichen looked up solemnly and discovered that fog had risen on the sea.

The slaughter on Jianzhou Island was still continuing, and it remained noisy, but the loudest part now originated from the seaside; in other words, the battle line had been pushed to the coast.

From this point of view, the allied forces of Long Yuan and the Snow Mountain King undoubtedly had the upper hand. They were the ones defending the island, fighting from the inside out. The invaders from outside were fighting from the outside in; now that the battle line had reached the sea, the defenders had naturally pushed them back into the water. If the attackers had won, they should have been surrounded in the great mountains at the center of the island. As for the high-level combat, Beichen and General Mei also had the upper hand. Just as Beichen said, the situation was already clear.

This was inevitable, not only because Long Yuan had gained the initiative, discovering several clues and deducing the enemy's identity, but also because the power they held was formidable.

This included the power Long Yuan had accumulated over a hundred years of closing its gates, as well as the power the Snow Mountain King had cultivated through years of governing and training troops in Kungang. With the two forces combined and waiting at ease, they had no fear of the Kun Yu Sword Sect, let alone the legendary Turtle Bandits.

However, the sea was not under Long Yuan's jurisdiction!

Standing in the middle of the island, Beichen could only see the thick fog rising and, within that fog, a massive figure gradually emerging.

"That is... are you actually willing to sacrifice that?"

But on the seaside, the SevenStarHead and another Snow Mountain general, General Yulong, who were fighting hard, witnessed the great terror with their own eyes!

Under the thick fog, the previously calm and blue sea surface suddenly surged with waves, and muddy swells filled the sky!

The once clear seawater became murky and dark, almost like black water. The pitch-black waves roared, raged, and thundered as they crashed against the beaches of Jianzhou Island.

The docks of Jianzhou Island were instantly shattered, turned into debris, and swept into the sea. The white sand beach was also swallowed by the waves, eroding all the way to the edge of the venue. Personnel from both sides who failed to react in time were immediately swept away by the wild waves, their fates unknown.

Besides the waves, there was the gale!

The gale rolling in from the sea was almost like a tornado, something beyond what people on land could imagine. Wherever the gale passed, mountains, rocks, and trees were all destroyed and swept into the wind. The meticulously designed flower beds were no better than paper before the gale, and more magnificent sights like rockeries and fountains were instantly destroyed.

The grand Rune Sword conference that Long Yuan had meticulously prepared could not even announce its closing on the final day before it was reduced to a wasteland.

But these were all just a small prelude. No matter how fierce the gale was, it could not blow away the thick fog on the sea; the fog almost condensed into a water curtain, adding a layer of Floating sea above the ocean.

What truly shocked and terrified everyone was the figure rising from the sea.

That figure was so massive that it seemed the sea area created by the Immortal Sword was not enough to contain it; a piece of its back emerged from the waves, already no smaller than the island of Jianzhou itself.

For every bit it rose, the whirlpool on the sea grew larger, and the fog grew thicker. Within the black-water-like fog, two huge and terrifying heads could vaguely be seen.

"A turtle... and a snake! It is the Black Tortoise! It really is the Turtle Bandits, those damned Turtle Bandits!" Qi Yuheng was on the beach, covered in blood, having just slaughtered a team of enemies. At this moment, he looked up at the sea, his voice hoarse.

Staring directly at the Black Tortoise from a few hundred paces away, one could not help but feel terror in their heart.

Hu Yaoguang had just finished off the enemies in front of him and rushed over, saying, "Should we... ask the Hall Master?"

Qi Yuheng swallowed hard and said, "The Black Tortoise is beyond our ability to control. If we don't ask now, could we possibly... ah, General Yulong!"

In front of him, a tall and straight female general shouted, "You all step back, I will fight it!"

Qi Yuheng felt a headache: this female general, famous in Kungang, was certainly powerful, but how could she compare to the Black Tortoise? Even if this Black Tortoise was not the genuine article, it was not something her status as a Sword Guest could match. He could not afford to be polite and said, "General Yulong, that is the Black Tortoise, please look up—"

General Yulong looked up and gasped, "A dragon?"

Qi Yuheng followed her gaze and saw a divine dragon coiled in the clouds in the sky, and the dragon itself was also condensed from clouds. Through the gloomy sky and the thick, dark fog, it hovered above the sea!

In fact, the scattered young Talisman Sword Masters fighting chaotically on the coast all recognized it; this was the dragon in the clouds that had circled above White City, symbolizing Long Yuan, when they first arrived there. Now, it had traveled thousands of miles to reach above Jianzhou, using its form as a Cloud Dragon to suppress the other giant beast in the thick fog.

As a SevenStarHead of Long Yuan, how could Qi Yuheng not recognize it? In pleasant surprise, he shouted, "DragonLord, the DragonLord has come!"

Outsiders only knew that Seven Star Long Yuan had a Beichen Hall Master and a SevenStarHead; how could they know that the reason Long Yuan was called Long Yuan was because there was another lineage of experts? It was just that they were not Sword Smiths and prioritized martial power, so they were not well-known among the sword-casting factions. But the true combat power of Long Yuan still rested with the DragonLord's branch.

As the Cloud Dragon passed overhead, its massive body was even larger than when it had displayed itself above White City, not inferior to the Black Tortoise half-submerged in the water. In fact, this was condensed from white clouds; as it drifted across the ocean, the shadows of the white clouds floating in all directions converged into the Cloud Dragon, making the dragon's body increasingly massive. Once it arrived, even the fog was completely obscured.

However, clouds are just clouds—clouds that drift and gather and disperse unpredictably. Could they really confront a Black Tortoise as majestic as this head-on?

Everyone, including the Long Yuan heads, had the thought that the Cloud Dragon was vulnerable.

And above the Cloud Dragon, a person with a young face but some wrinkles at the corners of his eyes stood on the clouds. A layer of shimmering Golden Scale floated on his body. Looking down at the Black Tortoise in the fog, he could not help but sneer, "What divine beast? What Four Symbols? It is nothing but a condensed illusion. It is just a Spirit Official changing their Spirit Image. After all these years, the Turtle Bandits still use these low-class tricks. Since you have come, why not have a battle!"

He pointed his finger, and the Golden Scale opened in unison!

The Cloud Dragon seemed to understand his command, lunged forward, and descended from the clouds!

The dragon flew out from the clouds, complete with head and tail. It was a true dragon form without a single Wuxiacie; the talk of it having a head but no tail was merely the groundless speculation of idle people. The dragon that revealed itself from the clouds was not only massive in size but also possessed a majestic dragon aura, opening its mouth to let out a dragon roar that shook the nine heavens!

"Roar—"

At the same time, the Black Tortoise in the water also roared. A black whirlpool swirled on the sea surface, and countless overlapping waves lifted its massive, turtle-and-snake-combined body out of the water bit by bit. If anyone dared to get close and look carefully, they would indeed notice a layer of Micro Light floating around the Black Tortoise's outline, still having a barrier with the surrounding environment, as if it were not a true physical entity.

At this point, two divine beasts that could only exist in legends revealed their true forms in their respective states, confronting each other on the battlefield between sea and sky, and then—the battle began!

In an instant, the heavens were overturned and the seas were roiled!

"Stop, stop!" The Heaven District was in the very center of the island; at this moment, it was trembling slightly from the aftermath, though not yet struck by the storm. Beichen's expression changed abruptly, "The Turtle Bandits fear nothing but peace, Xiaolin, how can you be so ignorant of the big picture! The intensity of this battle exceeds the tolerance limit of Jianzhou; in a moment, the Immortal Sword will inevitably come out to clean house. Can you still—"

Speaking to this point, his expression changed drastically, and he stared at Zhang Shousong and Qiao Nanshan: "So this is your goal? You actually dare to covet the Immortal Sword? Are you insane?"

Zhang Shousong and Qiao Nanshan laughed together. Qiao Nanshan clapped his hands and said, "As expected of the Beichen Hall Master, an old fox of many years. You actually saw through it. That's right, whether it is your Long Yuan or the Snow Mountain King, although you are our targets, you are only secondary targets. What are you people worth to have my master specifically summon the East Pillar of State to deal with you? Today you are indeed going to die, but you are not being specifically executed; you are merely poor fish in a pond caught in the crossfire."

"Our goal is only the Immortal Sword!"

"Come, don't you want to make a move? Go ahead! Let the four of us Sword Heroes and Sword Guests fight with all our might right here, and no one needs to deliberately hold back. As long as we fight, it will only add fuel to the fire to trigger the Immortal Sword."