129 Red Bamboo Aflame II (1/2)

The Beast God Sanctum and the eastern frontier had experienced monster invasions for as long as people could remember. It was a fact of life. It was like clockwork. Every twenty years, there would be one without fail. Sometimes it would be serious but most of the times it was manageable.

This year was the first time in recorded history where everything was different. It had only been fifteen years since the last recorded monster invasion. The number and ferocity of monsters were also at an all time high. In some areas, it was than ten or twenty times more than ever before.

What was clear was that this time the three beast kings were not playing around. They were truly enraged and going all out. The commands to their underlings were equally as harsh and extreme.

Monsters were intelligent, especially demons and immortal wisdom beasts. They would not sit by and do nothing while their hard-earned gains were slowly wiped out by the human alliance. They were conserving their forces and preparing a surprise.

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The first attack came in the darkest hour of a moonless night. All three camps of the different immortal sects were attacked at the same time. A black cloud of vampire bats, a sea of steel clawed rats, an army of green goblins, and many more flooded over. The Glacier Sect's camp was especially hard hit, because even monsters recognized that the most tender and tasty prey were virgin women…

The camp of around five hundred women was immediately surrounded and the storm of battle soon engulfed everyone.

”Lanyi!” Li Yuechan yelled into the darkness as she emerged from her tent.

She slashed apart two rats the size of dogs that were about to gnaw her legs. She looked around and saw familiar face.

”I'm here!” Xu Lanyi came into sight, with the twins and the four junior sisters in tow.

”Let's go, Wushuang went in that direction towards Sister Long.”

They nodded and followed Li Yuechan, forming a shield around the junior sisters who were only at the upper levels of the Mind Focusing Realm. Although only about a hundred Glacier Sect disciples were actually participating in the competition, they, like other sects, brought a lot of weaker disciples as support staff to setup camp, cook meals, and gather supplies. While the competitors were powerful and could handle themselves during this attack, these weaker disciples were now in the most danger.

The juniors watched in awe as four sisters and four sets of sword blades cut a bloody path through the sea of rats that were tearing apart the camp, eating everything in sight including the steel pots and plates. All five of the sisters had in fact chosen the sword as their weapon, much to Chen Wentian's annoyance. They could not get used to the myriad of strange and fantastical weapons in his inventory. He also did not have any other immortal swords on hand so they had to make do with top level Spirit Initiate Realm swords. But this level of sword against the enemy tonight more than enough…

”On your left!”

”Sis!”

”Take this!”

They fought their way towards the center and the source of the most intense fighting.

Their combat style had now changed into an amalgamation of both fist and sword arts. They used a rudimentary First Movement from Dugu's 10th Sword to keep enemies at bay and employed their palm arts when they got too close. Chen Wentian didn't teach them this, it was merely a habit that formed from necessity. It could also be blamed on him for paying them enough attention. His focus in the past month was on Jasmine first and his first three disciples second. He hadn't even visited them in almost four weeks... what an irresponsible master.

”Wushuang!” Li Yuechan yelled as they approached the center of the camp.

She could see hundreds of white clothed Glacier Sect disciples in a battle line, holding back wave after wave of green goblins. Rays of light illuminated the battlefield as icicles and hail stones shot towards the black cloud of bats in the sky.

”Yuechan!” Song Wushuang rushed over, ”I was worried.”

”We're fine.” Li Yuechan said, ”What's going on, where is Sect Master Murong?”

”Sister Long said the sect master flew off right before the attack, saying there was an immortal beast nearby. It was probably directing the attack. We managed to form a defensive line in time. They aren't too strong but there's just too many of them!”

Li Yuechan listened intently as she ran and finally reached Long Yifei. The Snow Fairy still looked ethereal and beautiful as always, even in this dire situation with disciples falling under the fangs and claws of monsters. The fairy was in in her element, commanding the entire contingent of women with full authority as the first disciple. Li Yuechan wondered if anything could possibly make this woman flustered or agitated.

”Sister Long.” Li Yuechan greeted her.