Before anyone was able to speak out, the beasts had already arrived. The front was headed by a pack of red-eyed Barbarian Buffaloes that were built like small hills, their twin horns shaped like two sharpened spears. They dashed towards the disciples, and although this pack of Barbarian Buffaloes did not have a very strong overall combat prowess at just tier four, they did possess some extreme raw strength. With the power of their charge, their momentum was astonis.h.i.+ng.

The disciples would only need to simply avoid the charge under ordinary circ.u.mstances, but such a thing wasn’t possible this time. Now that the disciples had been surrounded by various beasts, the best option was to stand back-to-back with one another in a circle in order to band together and face their mutual enemies. In this manner, not only would it prevent any sneak attacks from the flank, but it would also allow them to demonstrate their greatest potential. Alchemy, talismans, formations, and weaponry would allow them to improve their strength, recovery, and healing while together, but if they were separated, this effect would be greatly reduced.

If such a thing happened, not only would they not receive the added benefits, but they would also be more vulnerable to the beasts’ attacks. Because of this, no matter how powerful the charges from these Barbarian Buffalo, their only option was to endure.

As the Barbarian Buffaloes drew closer, three disciples from the Duanzhen Valley with s.h.i.+eld-like spirit weapons signaled with their eyes and jumped in front of the group with their s.h.i.+elds held in front. Even they did not know whether it would be enough to block the first round of collision from these buffaloes, but there was no other choice. Since they owned defensive-type weapons, it was imperative that they now stood forward; this was no time to hide.

It was not that the disciples weren’t afraid of death, it was just that if they didn’t stand forward at times like this, not only would their reputations be ruined, but the overall evaluation of this Duty Talisman mission would also be hindered. The disciples from the other branches might also refuse to help them in return in the future. Thinking on it, if they hadn’t been able to obtain the pellets from Danxia Valley, the talismans from Shuwen Valley, or the geographical aid from Shanhe Valley, wouldn’t every step in this place have been deadly? It was precisely because of this that—despite knowing how much danger they were putting themselves in—they had to accept the responsibility they had been given as a member of the group.

"Back off, you guys!" Fang Xing yelled deeply at that exact moment, his brows creasing. He knew that the three of them alone would not be able to fend off such an attack. These three Duanzhen Valley disciples, for their part, looked at him in confusion; did Fang Xing seriously want them to hide behind someone else? As disciples from the Duanzhen Valley, how could they be so irresponsible?

Woooosh….

There wasn’t any time for explanations. Fang Xing immediately held up his [Saber of Azure Dragon] and leapt out to the front where the buffaloes had already arrived. Their eyes were red like blood, their horns as sharp as spears, and their howls like that of thunder. Their force was unblockable.

But Fang Xing did not try to block any of it. He immediately jumped into the front with a single movement and—once Qi had been poured into the saber—he held his weapon with both hands and turned his body like a spinning top, slas.h.i.+ng straight into the pack. In moments, only the white specks could be seen along the blade’s afterimage.

Accompanying the blade light was the blue-colored malicious energy and the gold-colored flame.

The Barbarian Buffaloes seemed to be intimidated by the saber’s blue malicious energy and their dashes seemed to slow somewhat. The saber Fang Xing had been swinging around suddenly arced towards the buffaloes and—along with a ‘woosh’ sound—the blade light followed a curved path towards the buffaloes at the front. All seven of them could only let out low grunts before their blood was splattered, their flesh flying in all directions.

Seven fourth-tier Barbarian Buffaloes were killed together in the exact same moment.

The Duanzhen Valley disciples inhaled sharply in surprise. These fierce buffaloes had been killed with only a single strike of his blade? Although these buffaloes were only just fourth-tier beasts, if seven of them charged together from afar, the combined force of the charge alone was frightening. Yet Fang Xing had faced and killed all seven of them with a single strike; such a display of power was much more than the average sixth-tier cultivator.

As for the three disciples with their s.h.i.+eld-like tools, they were extremely grateful. The closer these buffaloes had gotten to them, the more pressure they had felt. They all clearly knew with this that there was no way they could have fended off the force of the charge with just the three of them, and it was highly likely that the first strike would have left them wounded or—even worse—dead. Simply put, Fang Xing doing this was the same as him saving their lives.

"Alright, kill it!" Once Fang Xing had broken through the first wave of danger, he dropped back with his saber in hand. The Duanzhen Valley disciples immediately parted for him and moved to protect Fang Xing in the middle.

"Nnngh…." Behind these Barbarian Buffaloes were numerous other beasts, but they didn’t pose a threat to the disciples’ formation.

"Duanzhen disciples, ready your weapons! Kill!" Wu Xiangtong commanded in a loud voice and summoned his Flying Sword at the same time. In an instant, an uncountable number of Flying Swords were summoned into the air with equally innumerable defensive tools activated as well. Blood and flesh filled the entire area in mere moments, and everyone had no choice but to entangle themselves in battle with the beasts.

It was a war. The battleground was filled with carnage.

The beasts were just as ferocious in front of the other branches, but each branch fortunately had the protection of their strongest lead disciple who would always resolve any situations where their formation was put in danger. It didn’t take long before they were all involved in close-range combat.

Every Qing-Yun disciple here aside from Fang Xing had a cultivation level of at least tier five, and there were at least ten that were in tier six. The leading disciples—Shanhe Valley’s Feng Qingwei and Shuwen Valley’s Pi Junzi—were even at the peak of tier six, literally a Nirvana Pellet away from tier seven; their abilities were even higher than Ye Tianlong. As for Xu Linyun, there was not much that needed to be said; she was well above everyone else and already in tier eight.

Although the beasts’ numbers were so great that it was frightening, their tiers were not very high. Most of them were in the fourth tier, with a mix of a few in the fifth and sixth. There were only a couple seventh-tier beasts at most, so the threat they posed was not too extreme. After the initial panic had diminished, the Qing-Yun disciples quickly calmed down and cooperated with the different branches to summon and activate spells, skills, weapons, and tools towards these beasts to completely change the flow of battle.

As for Fang Xing, after he helped some of the disciples kill a few sixth-tier beasts, he took his saber and returned back to the center where it was a lot safer. He grabbed the gourd from his waist for a mouthful of spirit wine to recover his Qi while sending his gaze to the depths of the forest where there seemed to be an unlimited number of beasts pouring out. He could feel that something was not quite right and began to plan.

In the center of the formation were mostly the female disciples of Danxia Valley. As soon as the beasts had appeared, they had been given the safest location in the center so they could help with defensive support and healing without facing these beasts head-on. In other words, they were being protected.

When the Danxia Valley disciple Fang Xing had called "crater face" saw him come to the center, she put away her Flying Sword and spoke with a sense of righteousness, "What are you doing backing off in here without fighting the beasts? Are you afraid of death?" Her eyes were filled with disdain, believing Fang Xing must have been scared and had run back to the center for safety.

Fang Xing rolled his eyes. "Since you’re not afraid of death, why don’t you go to the front of the formation and join the fight? What are you doing hiding inside?"

"I’m a woman!" Crater Face replied in anger.

"You call yourself a woman when you have a face like that?"

Crater Face grew angry and embarra.s.sed. "You’re shameless! As someone from Danxia Valley, I’m ashamed to even be in the same sect as you!"

"It’s not like I want to be in the same sect as someone with dents in their face!"

Crater Face gritted her teeth in hatred and held up her sword, as if she were about to slice down at Fang Xing before she was stopped by a male Danxia Valley disciple. The male disciple looked coldly at Fang Xing before speaking, "s.h.i.+jie Sun, there is no need to trade barbs with such a person. Right now, it’s more important to fend off these beasts."

"That’s right, we’ll fend off these beasts and then we’ll let all the other brothers and sisters know about his disgusting behavior. We’ll see if he’s still thick-skinned enough to be the leader of Duanzhen Valley then…." The rest of the Danxia Valley disciples spoke with raised voices, intentionally making it so it was clearly heard.

Fang Xing didn’t respond to this, instead smiling coldly and turning his focus to what he had been observing before. He didn’t bother trying to explain anything. In fact, although his Qi might be much more concentrated and pure than anyone else present, it was only the quality that was greater; its quant.i.ty was actually much less than everyone else’s in comparison. Although he might be able to show greater power in quick, short bursts of combat, if the situation stabilized into a more prolonged war—as it had now—he would just be wasting his Qi.

Furthermore, Fang Xing could already somewhat sense that the appearance of these beast packs was a little strange. When these beasts normally met with one another, they would always fight each other first, nevermind actually forming an alliance. This made him feel that something was definitely off. These beasts didn’t seem to be attacking based on their nature, but were instead being controlled by something far more sinister. Under the beasts’ constant a.s.sault, Fang Xing had to preserve his Qi in case of an emergency.

In truth, his guess wasn’t far off. Just as the situation started to stabilize, the sounds of snapping trees and branches could be heard from the forests. Burning flames could be seen from afar, and before the beast had even shown itself, its pressure could already be felt. After only three breaths, the earth began to violently shake as a snake as thick as a large bucket dashed out from the forest, its body s.h.i.+mmering with a flame-like poisonous mist.

The body of the giant snake was at least one hundred feet long with a strange horn growing on top of its head. Not only did it look ferocious, but its speed was also extremely fast. As soon as it dashed out from the forest, it swept its tail before riding on the current of wind it had created to swim towards the Qing-Yun disciples. Before it reached its destination, it opened its mouth and released a black smog-like poisonous flame—like a cloud of ash—towards the disciples.

Between the giant snake and the Qing-Yun disciples were still a few other beasts. The beasts unfortunate enough to come into contact with the poisonous flame immediately began to s.h.i.+ver, only to shrivel up once the water within their body was sucked dry. They were turned into dried, curled up prunes before dying.

"Sh*t! Get away from it!" the disciples shouted in astonishment. This was especially true for the person right in the front who had just witnessed all of this; his face was filled with nothing but terror.

The snake had come too quickly for them to run. With the strange poisonous flame heading in their direction, the only thing they could do now was close their eyes and pray for a quick death.

SWOOSH

It was at this exact moment that a white silhouette flashed in front of them. Xu Linyun was atop her giant white crane and slightly lifted her hand to form a giant pale-yellow barrier. As she pushed it forward, the barrier expanded out to an area of thirty square feet, positioning itself right in front of the poison flame and blocking it off completely. "Do not panic. I shall kill this beast!" Xu Linyun’s voice was calm as she flew up with her crane once more and headed directly towards the giant snake.

Those that had nearly died from the poisonous flame let out a sigh of relief. "Thank G.o.d for s.h.i.+jie Linyun…." After seeing such a strange and powerful snake so easily fended off by Xu Linyun, their confidence was given another huge boost.

Amidst all the people, only Fang Xing knitted his brows together when he saw Xu Linyun head straight for the snake on her crane. "You might be able to fend off one seventh-tier Fiery-Scaled Serpent, but will you be able to do it again when there’s three?"