"On the ten islands of Xingchen, there are such marketplaces." Hongchen Xiānzǐ explained to Zhao Di: "The entire Xingchen marketplace is controlled by one of the four major commercial alliances of Xīngchén Hǎi, namely Wài Hǎi Shāngmèng. This includes the security maintenance, transmission arrays and market stalls on these ten islands, all of which were opened up and monopolized by Wài Hǎi Shāngmèng."

  "This market may not be large, but it is very convenient. There are mainly shops that collect and sell various demon beast materials and demon pills, as well as jade slips that sell maps of the nearby ocean terrain and demon beast data. There are also some magical instruments, arrays, and talismans for sale. Although small, this market has everything one needs. Many cultivators find it convenient to directly sell their unused demon beast materials to the Outer Sea Merchant Alliance's shops in the market. The people from the Outer Sea Merchant Alliance will then resell these materials at a slightly higher price in the Inner Starry Skies, thus earning a considerable profit."

  Hongchen Xianzi was speaking, when Xi Feng arrived at a shop and asked an attendant: "I want a map of the nearby sea area, as well as detailed information about the demon beasts."

  "This fellow is also a Qi Foundation stage cultivator, he replied quickly: 'A simple sea map costs 50 spirit stones, a detailed one costs 200 spirit stones, and information about demon beasts costs 100 spirit stones.'"

  Not cheap at all! Zhao thought to himself.

  Xi Feng didn't mind at all, and with a refreshing attitude, he took out 300 low-grade spirit stones to buy two jade slips that recorded a detailed map of the sea area and information about the demon beast.

  After walking to a place with fewer people, he took out several blank jade slips and copied the information on them into several copies, giving one to each person.

  Then the five of them immersed their divine consciousness into the jade slips, where the graphic and textual information was stored.

  Half an hour later, a heavy expression appeared on everyone's face.

  "Unexpectedly, the rumors of the beast tide seem to be true. The information on this shows that in the past two or three years, the number of demons nearby has increased significantly."

  "What's going on with this beast tide?" Zhao Di asked in confusion.

  "The reproductive ability of the demon beasts far surpasses that of humans. Although many demon beasts are killed by cultivators every year, even more are born and grow up, making it impossible to kill them all! It is said that every thousand years or so, a so-called 'demon beast tide' will erupt. At that time, a large number of high-level demon beasts will appear in groups in the oceans of various planets. According to records of previous beast tides, seventh-level demon beasts will appear in groups outside of Five-Island and will actively attack islands occupied by human cultivators, causing all areas outside of Five-Island to be closed off, forcing human cultivators to retreat to Four-Island. In a particularly severe beast tide, it extended all the way to Three-Island, with countless cultivators being slaughtered along the way. Recently, there have been rumors that the thousand-year beast tide will erupt in just a few decades or at most a hundred years! At that time, cultivators on other planets will only be able to protect themselves and won't dare go out to hunt demon beasts! Because even if it's a senior cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage, if they're surrounded by hundreds of third- or fourth-level demon beasts, they'll have no choice but to fall! Only after waiting patiently for forty or fifty years will the beast tide gradually subside." Hongchen Xiānzǐ said with a serious expression.

  "I don't know if the prediction of this beast tide is accurate, but in recent years, the number and density of demonic beasts have increased significantly, which is an undisputed fact. This way, we can find demonic beasts more easily, as for possibly encountering high-ranking demonic beasts, just be careful and stay far away." Xi Feng said.

  "Not bad! Big brother is right. We've come all this way, can't go back empty-handed!" Sanji chimed in agreement.

  "Kill!" Di Er said only one word, clearly indicating his attitude.

  Hongchen's face showed a hint of hesitation, but after a moment she also agreed to continue.

  Zhao Di naturally did not object, but secretly guarded against some things in his heart.

  "Let's go, first head northwest, there are fewer fifth-grade demon beasts there. Once we're familiar with each other's moves, we can then head east to search for more fifth-grade demon beasts."

  Xi Feng took out a small, curved, quadrangular shield that resembled a half bamboo tube, held it horizontally in mid-air, and transformed it into three or four zhang in size.

  Judging from the spiritual energy emitted by this artifact, it should be a top-notch defensive artifact.

  Xi Feng took the lead, jumping onto the shield and saying: "Everyone come up, using this defensive artifact to fly may not be fast, but it can protect us from being ambushed by sea monsters."

  Zhao Di and several others also flew onto the shield. This arched shield emitted a layer of pale golden light, covering everyone within it.

  This defensive artifact is used for flight, and indeed the speed is not fast. Compared to the flying speed of a foundation-building period cultivator, even if they don't ride any artifacts, it's still faster than now. If Zhao Di were to use the Wind Chasing Dragon to fly at full strength, he could easily leave me far behind.

  A group of people flew slowly northwest like this. The five people took turns injecting spiritual power into the shield, maintaining a pale golden defensive light screen. If they saw an uninhabited island, they would stop and sit for a while to replenish their depleted spiritual power.

  Half a month later, the five of them discovered a giant clam spirit beast, several meters in size, on a reef island hundreds of feet away, savoring a stone block covered with red moss.

  Judging from the spiritual energy emanating from its body, it should be a third-grade conch spirit beast. This demon uses two giant shields-like bright red conch shells, as if with just one clip, it can grind a stone block of over one foot square into powder, and then stretch out a pair of two-foot-long, white jade-like flesh feet to sweep these powders into its mouth.

  "This is a third-level demonic beast, Blood Fog Clam. Apart from being able to spray some toxic red smoke, its attack power and agility are quite ordinary. However, the two clamshells are extremely sturdy, even top-grade artifacts would find it hard to break them. Di Er, Si Mei, you two sneak around to the back of the clam spirit, be careful in case it tries to escape. Xun San, when you find an opportunity, insert the Rolling Wave Halberd between the two clamshells, making it reveal a gap. With the material of the Rolling Wave Halberd, it won't be damaged by this clam spirit. Zhao Wu, as soon as this clam spirit reveals its weakness, immediately use the Flying Needle artifact to stab towards the soft body inside the clam spirit, be careful not to hit that pearl-like internal dan. I'll take care of attacking this clam spirit from the front, forcing it to reveal its weak point." Xi Feng seemed extremely familiar with this demon, smoothly assigning tasks to each person.

  Several people nodded in agreement. Di Er and Hong Chen flew away from the left and right, slowly surrounding the Clam Spirit.

  The spiritual intelligence of the third-level demon beast is not much higher than that of ordinary birds, beasts, insects and fish. The two fist-sized eyeballs of the Blood Fog Clam had already seen several human cultivators a hundred meters away, but it did not know the danger and continued to enjoy its food.

  Until the five of them slowly approached, forming a circle of more than 20 meters to surround it, it stopped eating and its two big eyes vigilantly looked around.

  "Take action!" Xi Feng lightly shouted, his hands suddenly waving, a golden light flashing, about one zhang long, covered with foot-long sharp thorns, the meteor hammer flew out with a fierce gust of wind.

  Xun San's blue long spear also refused to fall behind, painting a blue light and fiercely slashing down.

  Di's hand suddenly produced a red paper fan, which was gently swaying. Hongchen also took out two yellowish-brown flying knives, cutting off the conch spirit's retreat.

  Zhao Di shook his sleeves, and seven or eight red light spots flew rapidly towards the clam spirit, with the later ones arriving first to attack the clam spirit.

  The clam spirit was greatly shocked, emitting a "moo" like cow cry, a jet of bright red blood mist sprayed out, covering its body shape, at the same time the two clam shells closed tightly, protecting its whole body inside, without revealing any weakness.

  Two clear and crisp sounds, the flying needle indeed could not pierce through the clamshell's defense, but only left a half-inch deep mark on the shell.

  Immediately following the meteor hammer, blue long spear, and two yellow flying knives all struck the clamshell, none of which broke through the clamshell's defense, only that the meteor hammer's power was too great, causing the clam spirit to let out another "mooooo" of miserable cries.

  Although everyone has a defensive light shield, they are not afraid of the blood mist sprayed by the clam spirit, but the body shape of the clam spirit is covered by the blood mist and cannot be seen clearly.

  Di Er waved the paper fan in his hand at Bao Jing fiercely, and a strong gust of wind blew out from the fan, instantly dispersing the bloody mist. Bao Jing's body was once again exposed to everyone's eyes.

  Xi Feng brandished the Flowing Star Hammer and struck again, creating a shallow pit about a foot deep in the clamshell. The clam spirit felt pain and slightly opened its two shells, and Xun San, who had been waiting for an opportunity, immediately grabbed it and inserted the Rolling Wave Halberd between the two shells, preventing them from closing.

  Zhao Di naturally wouldn't waste such a good opportunity, several red light spots poured in from the gap between the two clamshells, stabbing randomly at the soft and weak body of the clam spirit.

  The clam spirit let out a few mournful cries like a cow's lowing and immediately died.

  (Update 2! Update 3 will be around 9 pm.)