On the fifth day, as dusk crawled across the horizon, Xiao Fang called out, riding ahead atop her tiger mount.

  "One more day!" she announced, her voice cutting through the sagging spirits of the group.

  "If we maintain pace, we will reach the rendezvous point by sunset tomorrow. Reinforcements will be waiting."

  A muted ripple of relief passed through the entourage.

  But Xiao Fang’s face remained grim.

  She knew—this was when the real danger began.

  Three hours ter, they entered a stretch of bckened forest.

  The trees were wrong here—twisted and skeletal, their bark cracked and weeping sap that looked like old blood.

  The wind died completely.

  The caravan pressed forward.

  And suddenly, Zhang Tian felt it: a heaviness in the air, like the weight of unseen eyes dragging against his skin.

  The senior disciple riding with him stiffened.

  Zhang Tian felt the tension through the saddle before he heard the man's whispered words:

  "Something's wrong," the senior muttered under his breath, his hand drifting unconsciously to the sword at his side.

  Zhang Tian tensed, his heart starting to pound, but he didn’t speak.He trusted the senior’s instinct far more than his own.

  Ahead, Xiao Fang shifted slightly atop her mount, her hand brushing the talisman pouch at her waist—a silent, practiced motion.

  The scouts fanned wider around the caravan, their beasts moving at a faster, edgier pace.

  Still, no attacks came.

  Not yet.

  But the dread only grew thicker.

  Unseen among the bckened trees, an ancient trunk split open, revealing a gssy, slitted eye.

  It blinked once.

  And deep within the dying woods, masked figures stirred—their brown robes blending into the earth, their movements silent.

  Each bore a faint golden cw insignia hidden beneath their garments.

  The Golden Beast Sect.

  They had been shadowing the Water Serenity Sect’s retreat for weeks, waiting for exhaustion to thin their defenses. Now, as hope drew them closer to safety, they closed the noose.

  Orders were simple.

  Sughter the seedlings. Break the Water Serenity Sect’s future.

  Zhang Tian clutched the saddle harder, sweat slicking his palms.

  The senior beside him shifted again, muttering a quiet incantation under his breath, a barrier charm preparing at his fingertips.

  Ahead, Xiao Fang raised one hand—a subtle signal across the formation.

  Prepare.

  Weapons were loosened. Defensive talismans activated. Beasts snorted uneasily, hooves scraping against dead stone.

  Everyone felt it now.

  Among the dead trees, the ambushers began to move.

  Silent. Methodical. Predatory.

  And in the growing darkness, the forest itself seemed to hold its breath.

  Waiting.

  The sun dipped lower.

  The world turned red.

  The first movement flickered at the edge of Zhang Tian’s vision—a ripple of brown cloth darting between trees.

  Then—

  The forest exploded.

  Masked cultivators poured from the shadows, spirit talismans igniting in their hands, swords fshing with murderous light.

  The ambush had begun.

  The forest exploded into chaos.

  Masked cultivators surged from the shadows, spirit talismans fring with deadly light, bdes fshing toward the exhausted caravan. Screams tore the dying air as steel cshed with steel and the dull roar of battle swallowed the world whole.

  Zhang Tian barely had time to react. His senior yanked the reins hard, pulling their beast into a sharp turn as a fireball detonated where they had just been, showering them with hot sand and shards of wood. His heart hammered against his ribs, breath shallow, every muscle coiled in instinctive terror.

  Before the group could fully regroup, the air grew thick with killing intent.

  A figure hurtled from the shadows—fast, brutal, unstoppable.

  Yan Hu.

  His beast-cwed gauntlets shimmered with condensed spiritual energy, his robe reinforced for battle, his presence like a mountain crashing down on them. He roared, a deep, guttural sound that vibrated through the cracked earth.

  Without hesitation, Yan Hu lunged toward the heart of the caravan, aiming straight for two targets—Xiao Fang and Jin Yuan.

  Crush the head and the body dies, Yan Hu thought coldly as he closed the distance, his eyes gleaming with predatory certainty. He could feel the exhaustion dripping off the Water Serenity Sect’s defenses. They were ripe. Weakened. Vulnerable.

  Pinning their strongest cultivators would leave the seedlings exposed.

  He would be rewarded handsomely for this massacre.

  The golden cw insignia hidden beneath his sleeve burned hot against his skin, a silent promise of future glory.

  Yan Hu struck first.

  His right cw, wreathed in savage qi, collided with Jin Yuan’s bde in a blinding burst of green and gold. The force of the impact sent shockwaves tearing through the nearby trees, splintering dead branches. Almost simultaneously, his left cw swung toward Xiao Fang, who twisted mid-air with a burst of water qi that coiled around her arm like a living whip, parrying the savage blow.

  The ground beneath them cracked from the sheer force of the csh.

  Jin Yuan grunted, stepping back to absorb the pressure, while Xiao Fang nded lightly but not unscathed—blood welled from a shallow cut along her forearm. She barely gnced at it, already flowing into the next defensive movement, her water qi swirling tighter around her like armor.

  Yan Hu grinned beneath his beast mask. Bleed. Tire yourselves. I will bury you all here.

  But Xiao Fang was not one to be overwhelmed easily.

  Even as she fought, her mind remained razor-sharp, calcuting the battlefield with every passing heartbeat. She could feel the noose tightening. If they stayed pinned much longer, they would be surrounded completely—and then crushed.

  Through gritted teeth, she snapped out orders, her voice slicing through the chaos with commanding force.

  "Senior disciples! Shield the seedlings! Break through the encirclement—immediately! If we stay boxed in, we'll be sughtered before reinforcements arrive!"

  Across the battlefield, Water Serenity Sect disciples responded with trained precision.Tightening their defensive rings around the immortal seedlings, they poured their qi into protective barriers and counterattacks. Water exploded from their hands in sharp, cutting arcs—liquid whips shing at masked assaints, forming walls of mist and force.

  Beasts reared and roared. Talismans ignited with brilliant fshes.The air became thick with cshing qi, howling wind, and the metallic tang of blood.

  Zhang Tian gripped the saddle tighter, his knuckles white, eyes wide. He fumbled to draw a basic defensive talisman from his pouch, his hand shaking as he pressed it against his chest. Around him, the world seemed to break apart—screams, explosions, roars—the storm of battle drowning every other thought.

  And in the midst of it all, Yan Hu pressed forward like a force of nature.

  He battered against Jin Yuan and Xiao Fang simultaneously, each strike calcuted, brutal, unrelenting.Yet for all his strength, the two cultivators refused to fall. Jin Yuan's sword fshed in controlled bursts of green water light, parrying and redirecting Yan Hu's heavier blows. Xiao Fang moved with fluid grace, her strikes weaving between offense and defense, her mind never leaving the rger battlefield even for a second.

  Yan Hu's frustration simmered beneath the surface.They’re tougher than they look, he admitted grudgingly.But it didn’t matter.The seedlings were pinned. Time was on his side.

  In the woods surrounding them, more Golden Beast Sect cultivators advanced, slipping through the broken terrain like shadows with bdes. Their talismans fred again, aiming to crush the formation from the outside in.

  Xiao Fang’s jaw tightened. She could see it happening—the trap closing.They had only moments left to act.

  Her eyes darted across the field, catching sight of Lang Chufeng, Ming Li, Zhang Tian—all huddled behind their protectors, all faces pale but determined.

  I will not let them die here.

  Calling upon a deeper well of qi, Xiao Fang formed a rapid series of hand seals, and a roaring torrent of water spiraled upward around her before crashing outward in a directed wave—throwing back a ring of attackers that had been creeping too close.

  "Move!" she shouted, voice raw with urgency."Form wedge formation! We carve a path through them now!"

  Senior disciples bellowed confirmations, herding the seedlings toward a tighter point at the center.

  Yan Hu snarled behind his mask, sensing their shift.He surged forward, cws ripping into the earth, trying to catch Xiao Fang before she could rally them fully.

  But Jin Yuan smmed into him, his sword glowing brighter, pushing the beastman back step by furious step.

  Zhang Tian barely understood what was happening. He only knew one thing: if he stayed frozen, if he hesitated—he would die here.

  His legs trembled, but he moved, following the formation, clutching the defensive talisman like a lifeline as the storm of death closed in around them.

  And above it all, the crimson sunset bled into the sand and stone—as the battle for survival truly began.

  The battle raged, chaos rolling like a tide over the dying forest.The Water Serenity Sect’s forces, battered but unbroken, pushed toward the weakening outer edge of the Golden Beast Sect’s encirclement.

  Yan Hu roared again, a savage bellow, tearing toward Xiao Fang and Jin Yuan, refusing to relent.

  The seedlings pressed together, the seniors shielding them, water qi and steel cshing against the Golden Beast Sect’s brutal charge.

  Victory—or survival—seemed just within reach.

  Until—

  A sound tore through the sky.

  A deep, resonant, unearthly cry—not human, not beast, something far older, far more terrifying—rolled across the battlefield, shaking the very marrow of every cultivator present.

  The entire forest froze.

  Swords stilled mid-swing.Talisman light flickered and dimmed.Even the beasts beneath their riders trembled.

  Every head turned upward.

  High above, piercing through the clouds of dust and sand, a colossal shadow descended.

  A massive bird, deep reddish in color, with three burning crimson eyes, three long, powerful legs, and a bckened horn protruding from its forehead, swooped in with terrifying speed. Its feathers shimmered with heat, each beat of its wings scattering molten embers across the sky.

  Without warning, one of the Golden Beast Sect cultivators—too slow to react—was snatched up in the blink of an eye, his scream fading into a gurgle before being hurled lifelessly to the ground.

  The battlefield inhaled collectively—a sharp breath of horror.

  Several more shadows streaked through the sky.

  More birds.

  A whole flock.

  Each a fming, demonic monstrosity.

  They dove in sharp arcs, sniping cultivators from both sides indiscriminately, picking them off like insects caught in a storm.

  Xiao Fang’s heart dropped as she recognized them instantly.She muttered under her breath, barely more than a growl:

  “Shit. Fming Desote Demonic Birds... and a whole flock. They must have been carried here by the storm...”

  Her mind raced.

  Late Rank 1 Demonic Beasts.

  Each one strong enough to require three te-stage Qi Condensation cultivators working together to bring it down.A single bird was already a disaster.An entire flock descending at once was nothing less than a death sentence.

  Only the presence of the rger Golden Beast Sect force—those who had gathered greedily to hunt seedlings—spread the attention of the birds thinly enough that there was still hope.