The Young Lord of a secluded clan.
With experts as numerous as clouds under her command.
The two major sects of the Eastern Region had joined forces, yet failed to gain any advantage over her, and in the end, even the two sect masters had died mysterious deaths.
Xiao Cen carefully sized up the female cultivator before her.
Her age, cultivation, and demeanor all perfectly matched the rumors.
The person in front of her was undoubtedly that Yun Heng.
“So it is Young Lord Yun.”
“I have long heard of your great name.”
Xiao Cen spoke again.
“I am the Third Prince of the Eastern Region Imperial Family, Xiao Cen.”
The System's voice chimed in Yun Heng's sea of consciousness right on cue.
【Host, this Third Prince is no simple character.】
【The First Prince and Second Prince of the Eastern Region both died by her hand.】
【She is a ruthless one.】
Yun Heng raised an eyebrow slightly.
She looked at Xiao Cen.
“The Third Prince knows of me?”
“Young Lord Yun became famous across the Taiyan Continent five years ago.”
“There is no one in the entire Eastern Region who does not know of you.”
Just as Xiao Cen finished speaking, another commotion echoed from the distance.
The ground, which had just regained its calm, began to vibrate once more.
Clearly, the next wave of the beast tide was coming.
This beast tide was simply endless.
Yun Heng quickly contacted the System in her sea of consciousness, asking it to send Yun Zhao and the Shadow Guards to a nearby spot where no one would notice them.
Before long, several figures appeared in the distant sky.
The leader, clad in dark robes, was none other than Yun Zhao.
Xuan Yi through Xuan Shi followed closely behind.
The eleven flew through the air, bypassing Yun Heng and Xiao Cen entirely as they charged toward the approaching beast tide.
A powerful pressure descended simultaneously.
The spirit beasts charging at the very front abruptly stiffened.
Immediately after, Yun Zhao and the ten Shadow Guards struck at the same time.
Looking at the group arriving from afar, Xiao Cen immediately guessed their identities.
These must be the clan experts Yun Heng had brought with her.
Yun Zhao and the Shadow Guards had already charged into the beast tide, and Yun Heng also gripped the Tianheng Sword and rushed forward to join them.
Seeing this, Xiao Cen refused to be outdone.
She took out a pill to restore her spiritual energy, swallowed it, and after catching her breath slightly, she gave chase with her sword.
She was, after all, the Third Prince of the Eastern Region Imperial Family.
She could not let others think that she needed protection from an outsider like Yun Heng.
And she certainly could not lose to her.
The group fought with great vigor amidst the beast tide.
With Yun Zhao and the ten Shadow Guards joining the fray, the battle ended much faster than before.
After the last spirit beast fell, Yun Heng stood in place, looking at the corpses of spirit beasts littering the ground, and finally realized something was amiss.
Her purpose in coming to the Northern Wilderness this time was to subdue spirit beasts and fill the Spirit Beast Peak.
If she kept killing them wave after wave like this, how was she supposed to contract spirit beasts and bring them back to the Guiyuan Spirit Domain?
This could not go on.
She had to deal with the source of the beast tide first.
Just then, a large number of cultivators appeared from the direction of Shuolin City.
The reinforcements from the City Lord's Estate had arrived.
Yun Heng turned to look at Xiao Cen beside her.
“You stay here and deal with the beast tide.”
“I'm going ahead to take a look.”
Before Xiao Cen could speak, Yun Heng had already flown into the air with Yun Zhao and the ten Shadow Guards, rapidly heading toward the direction where the beast tide had appeared.
In just a brief moment, their figures vanished into the vast expanse of yellow sand.
The City Lord arrived at the battlefield with the cultivators from the City Lord's Estate, quickly landing beside Xiao Cen.
“Third Prince.”
“How is the situation?”
Xiao Cen sheathed her longsword.
“We have already dealt with several waves of the beast tide.”
“Everything is temporarily fine now.”
She answered the City Lord, but her gaze remained fixed on the direction in which Yun Heng had left.
This Young Lord Yun was indeed no ordinary person.
Yun Heng led Yun Zhao and the ten Shadow Guards deeper into the Northern Wilderness.
The further in they went, the more desolate the surroundings became.
Initially, they could still see some low-growing vegetation, but later, there was nothing left but vast expanses of exposed permafrost and grayish-white rocks.
Traces left behind by fleeing spirit beasts were everywhere on the ground.
Occasionally, they could also spot a few spirit beast carcasses.
The System kept guiding Yun Heng in her sea of consciousness.
【Continue north.】
【Host, a bit more to the left.】
【The desolate beast causing the beast tide is moving. It's not far now.】
As the distance steadily closed, the vibrations from the ground became clearer and clearer.
Even though Yun Heng and the others were flying in midair, they could still hear the heavy thud of footsteps coming from the distance.
One after another.
It was as if some colossal creature was trampling the earth.
【Right ahead, Host.】
Hearing the System's reminder, Yun Heng gradually slowed down.
She stopped in midair and raised her head to look ahead.
In the next moment, she finally saw the colossal creature deep within the Northern Wilderness.
That desolate beast's body was even larger than a small hill.
With every step it took forward, the ground beneath its feet shook violently, and large swathes of the nearby permafrost shattered.
A Nascent Soul Realm spirit beast was pinned under its claw. Without even a chance to resist, it was swallowed directly into the beast's mouth.
The chewing sounds made during swallowing could be heard from a great distance.
Looking at the scene before her, an inexplicable chill ran down Yun Heng's spine.
She was already a late stage Soul Transformation Realm cultivator.
Ordinary Nascent Soul spirit beasts posed almost no threat to her.
Yet, facing the giant beast in the distance, she could not help but shiver.
That was not a simple suppression of cultivation realms.
Rather, it was the instinctive dread a prey felt when facing its predator.
【Host, this is the Spirit-Devouring Desolate Lizard.】
【Its cultivation is at the peak Void Refinement Realm.】
“Peak Void Refinement Realm...”
Yun Heng stared at the giant beast, her expression growing increasingly solemn.
Such a powerful desolate beast, when engaged in actual combat, would probably be equivalent to a human Body Integration Realm grandmaster.
No wonder she had barely been able to muster the thought of resisting even while standing so far away.
The surrounding spirit beasts stood even less of a chance against it.
They had no other choice but to flee for their lives.
【The Spirit-Devouring Desolate Lizard usually slumbers in the underground cold veins, awakening only once every ten thousand years.】
【Each time it awakens, it devours a large number of high-grade spirit beasts until it accumulates enough energy, after which it returns underground to sleep.】
【This time, due to an anomaly in the underground cold veins, it awakened ahead of schedule and began devouring the high-grade spirit beasts in the vicinity.】
“So that's how it is.”
Yun Heng finally understood how this beast tide had come to be.
After the Spirit-Devouring Desolate Lizard woke up, it began preying on the high-grade spirit beasts deep within the Northern Wilderness.
Sensing danger, those spirit beasts could only flee southward en masse.
As more and more spirit beasts fled, it eventually formed a large-scale beast tide.
As long as this Spirit-Devouring Desolate Lizard continued to hunt, the beast tide would not stop.
Looking at the giant beast, a bold idea suddenly popped into Yun Heng's mind.
“System.”
“Can I contract it?”
After asking this, even Yun Heng herself found it a bit laughable.
A peak Void Refinement Realm Spirit-Devouring Desolate Lizard.
She, a mere late stage Soul Transformation Realm cultivator, actually wanted to contract it.
The System's voice carried a hint of helplessness.
【Host, you can try.】
Yun Heng shook her head decisively.
“Never mind.”
There had to be a limit to wishful thinking.
She would already be thanking the heavens if she could just deal with this Spirit-Devouring Desolate Lizard.
Rate on N.U.
