Ye Zan watched the two injured cultivators leap back over the wall. The cheetah jumped after them, but the shield held, repelling it.

He struggled with what he’d just witnessed. Frankly, Yang Ru and especially Kang Lin had been lucky to escape the rank six beasts with their lives. In the right circumstances, Senior Brother could one shot a creature of that rank, but the matchup against two highly agile foes that focused on Speed was absolutely not the right circumstances.

Having there be two enemies both at the equivalent peak of Foundation Establishment versus three defenders who’d only recently advanced to that major realm made the situation extremely disadvantageous for the sect members. That factor combined with barely being able to hit either of the beasts created an unwinnable scenario.

Once the two injured cultivators had consumed a Healing Pill—major for Kang Lin and a regular one for Yang Ru—Ye Zan huddled up with the two of them, Yang Xiu, and Zou Tian.

“These are not foes that we can beat,” Ye Zan said.

Yang Xiu scoffed. “We should give up at that first sign of trouble? So much for challenging the heavens.”

“We should fulfill our mission, which is to keep everyone safe from harm. Staying behind the barrier and monitoring what happens outside accomplishes that goal just as well as killing the beasts.”

“Just as well? Really?”

“Scenario A—Master comes back and kills a bunch of high ranked beasts milling around outside the wall after he deals with the Big Boss,” Ye Zan said. “Scenario B—the beasts outside are dead but so are one or more of the sect members who attacked them. So really, my idea accomplishes the objective better.”

“Until enough of the beasts pile up outside to overwhelm the shield,” Yang Xiu said, “and we all die.”

Senior Sister had a very aggressive mentality, and he normally really respected that attribute of hers. It made trying to convince her to follow a more conservative route frustrating, however.

“That’s not a valid concern, and you know it. If any more beasts show up, they’ll be rank seven or higher, not something we can deal with. We’ll have to trust the shield either way.”

“Not to mention that you’re basically saying you don’t trust Master’s work,” Yang Ru said.

“Master doesn’t trust Master’s work. He urged us caution many times, calling it unproven in battle. It’s first test was the first wave of the tide!”

“Look, Senior Sister,” Ye Zan said, “I am quite willing to put my life on the line stepping between danger and the rest of the sect members. That’s my job. Right now, that extreme is not required of me or you or, more specifically, of Senior Brother and Kang Lin, who both could have easily been killed had things gone differently just a short while ago.”

Yang Xiu sighed, relenting somewhat from her aggressive stance. “I do not want to risk lives any more than you do, but there’s a big difference between coming up with a good, safe plan for killing the beasts and simply giving up. Surely, someone has an idea of how we can dispatch these foes without putting anyone in undue danger.”

Zou Tian tentatively raised his hand. “I think I might have something…”

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Each Quickstep made Benton more nervous.

He trusted his disciples to handle a couple of rank six beasts, but rank sevens were on a whole different level, a full major realm above the twins and Kang Lin in fact. They could not be expected to face even a single creature that highly ranked and survive.

That simple fact made it imperative that he not allow any of the seventh wave to slip past him.

Not allowing such a thing was a challenge. His spiritual sense was quite impressive for one of his realm, but it was not infallible. Neither was it omnipotent. It had limitations of range, as in beasts more than several miles away simply didn’t register at all. Creatures that were heavily Shadow aspected or had stealthy abilities could also hide from him unless he was very close to them.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

And finding the wave was merely the first obstacle. He’d never actually faced a beast higher ranked than six. Theoretically, defeating a creature at the low end of the realm while he was at the peak should be simple, but he wouldn’t know until he actually fought one.

He did have two big advantages. First, he expected the wave to be much smaller than the previous one, and since that one only consisted of thirty-one beasts, a total of less than twenty was likely. Second, his spiritual sense, while not perfect, was pretty darn good. Between his natural ability from advancing to the peak of his realm, his perk, and a perception technique at Mastery, his range likely exceeded any other Golden Core cultivator in existence.

The problem was the extraordinary distances involved. The span between the village and the mountain peak was several hundred miles, and given where each wave had appeared, he doubted that the respective staging areas were exactly at the peak. Which made sense. It must be difficult to exert control over so many beasts to prevent them from attacking each other. The more separation the Big Boss could create between them, the better.

Probably, anyway. Benton really didn’t know, but that conclusion made sense and fit his observations.

If he Quickstepped to a location more than a few miles laterally from the seventh wave, he could easily miss the entire group, especially if they traveled tighter than the sixth one had.

His only solution was to waste time and qi hopping around back and forth, making his journey toward the peak haphazard at best, and stop to do a detailed sweep to the extent his sense would allow. Even with all those precautions, each minute where he didn’t detect the beasts added to his anxiety.

He Quickstepped again, stopped, and reached out with his sense.

Nothing.

Again.

He sighed. If he screwed up and let the wave get past him, the shield would hold.

Definitely. Probably. Maybe. Possibly.

Ugh.

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Ye Zan looked to his left. Yang Xiu waited with her bow ready.

He looked to the right. His four best archers other than Senior Sister were likewise ready. Each had nineteen of the special arrows Master had created ready in a bucket in front of them. Each also had a twentieth of the munitions nocked and ready to shoot.

“Everyone ready?” he said.

“Yes, Guard Captain,” the four said.

Yang Xiu nodded, as did Senior Brother and Kang Lin.

As plans went, the one Zou Tian came up with was quite safe. If it didn’t work, there was no reason for the two melee oriented Foundation Establishment cultivators to every jump down from the wall, and if it did, hopefully the beasts would be in bad enough shape that they’d be easy prey. The two creatures might even be killed outright without the need for Yang Ru and Kang Lin to endanger themselves at all.

“On my mark,” Ye Zan called. “Three. Two. One. Go!”

The four guard archers drew back their bowstrings.

Yang Xiu shot the fastest arrow she could manage at the cheetah. It calmly hopped up, allowing the missile to go right past it without so much as scratching it.

That was okay, though. All part of the plan.

At the apex of its leap, the four archers loosed. Four arrows charged with Void aspected qi from a high realmed cultivator with a Concept launched toward the beast. But not directly at it.

Instead, the arrows bracketed the cheetah. One was aimed in front of it, one to the right, one to the left, and one behind. Slightly, that was. Less than half its body length from it.

The beast had no idea what it was in for if one of them hit.

Master had instructed them to use Void qi on a creature after its qi shield had been disrupted, but the disciples were disobeying that directive for a very good reason—Void qi erupted in a sphere as it detonated, making it was Master called an area of effect weapon. That trait was what made it perfect for hitting the fast and agile cheetah, especially since any qi charged by Master was likely to overwhelm a mere rank six beast.

The big cat twisted its body to avoid the arrows, and to its credit, it succeeded. Each of the four shot past it, and Ye Zan imagined a smug look on the beast’s face.

If so, the expression was wiped off soon enough.

When the arrows slammed into the ground, Void qi erupted from each of them. Three of the four spheres buffeted the cheetah. Sections of its body simply disappeared wherever the energy impacted it.

The best case scenario was realized as Kang Lin and Yang Ru’s services weren’t even needed.

“Next target,” Ye Zan yelled. “Three. Two. One. Go!”

It was imperative to hit the mongoose before it processed what had happened to its ally.

The sect members succeeded again. Just like with the cheetah, the mongoose couldn’t prevent large spheres of Void qi from touching it, and with each point of contact literally dissolving large chunks of it into nothingness, it didn’t survive the process.

Ye Zan looked a Zou Tian, who grinned widely. Yang Xiu did the same.

With the slaying of the two beasts of the sixth wave, they all had every right to believe that the tide was over. Master was going to be very proud of them for the way they handled the village’s defense.

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Shadow clung to the badger as it watched the cheetah and the mongoose assault the village. The wood was tough as the powerful cat’s claws did not so much as scratch it. Even more worrisome was that some force prevented the beast from simply jumping over the wall.

The attacks of both the mongoose and the cat proved the humans were weak. If the badger could get past the defenses, it would feast.

As it watched, though, the humans used fearsome weapons to kill its allies of convenience.

The badger wasn’t all that worried, though. The events simply proved what it had known all along—a frontal assault was stupid.

It wondered is the force extended under the ground like it did through the air. Only one way to find out.

The badger began digging.