Suddenly, Zhang Ling's expression shifted slightly. He retracted all of his scattered divine sense and probed forward into the turbid mist.
The wind pressure outside was strong, which also had some impact on his divine sense. However, his divine sense was much higher than that of other cultivators of the same rank. Although he was currently suppressing his cultivation to only show the level of a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator, he could still explore an area of more than thirty miles outside the city wall by only probing one direction in the turbid mist.
At this moment, his divine sense detected a large number of wild beasts gathered more than ten miles away from the city wall. The number was so large that even without divine sense, he could slightly sense the savage aura of this group of wild beasts.
With a sweep, he discovered that the area was filled with a dark mass of wild beasts, he didn't know how many. Moreover, most of them were the same kind of wild beast.
Another group of pack animals, Zhang Ling thought to himself. Actually, this was common.
He also saw clearly that the group closest to their section of the city wall were strange rats with black fur. Each of them was huge, about ten feet in size, and their strength was above the second level.
In addition to a large number of low-level strange rats, there were three giant rats at the lead, each seven or eight feet tall. Two of them had fifth-order strength, and the largest one had sixth-order strength.
This group of monsters was marching towards the city wall with heavy steps.
Although these wild beasts were also affected by the turbid storm, many were blown to the side, and some that did not reach the second level were directly rolled into the sky and torn to pieces by the wind pressure, but there were still at least several thousand black-furred strange rats remaining.
"Everyone, get up! The first wave of wild beasts has arrived and will approach the city wall in less than half an hour," Zhang Ling said softly as he stood up in a flash.
His voice contained spiritual power. Although it was not loud, the mortals and cultivators on this section of the city wall could hear it clearly. Immediately, these people became agitated.
However, more cultivators, led by Lin Yan and several other captains, were armed and ready, preparing for battle.
Zhang Ling ignored these cultivators and mortals, standing on the city wall and coldly watching the situation outside.
After a while, a series of sounds rang out from all directions. The booming sound of huge drums and the 'du du' sound of horns echoed around.
This meant that other sections of the city wall had also discovered traces of the beast tide. The drums and horns represented the arrival of the beast tide.
"Fellow cultivators, regardless of whether you are mortals without spiritual roots, rogue cultivators, or sect cultivators, the beast tide has arrived. We must work together to protect the human race, protect Flying Cloud Island, protect…" A deep, vicissitudinous voice rang out from the sky.
Hearing this voice, Zhang Ling couldn't help but show a strange expression. This was the voice of Sect Leader Sun. He didn't expect this Sect Leader to say such inspiring words. Regardless of whether this person was sincere or not, the mortals and cultivators here were indeed on the same front now.
After the Sect Leader finished speaking, the entire defensive formation of Flowing Cloud City also changed. The white mist shield in front of them flowed rapidly, becoming thinner and thinner. In a few breaths, it turned into a huge bubble, covering the entire Immortal City.
Amidst the vibrations of drums and horns, Zhang Ling saw a huge pillar of spiritual light, more than ten feet wide, rising from each section of the city wall.
There were also more than a dozen huge pillars of spiritual light rising into the sky from the turbid mist outside. These light pillars were bright white and struck the sky, rippling circles of white mist.
The sky, which had been covered by the turbid storm and turned grayish-yellow, became as black as ink under the impact of the clouds, like dark clouds. Countless blue lightning bolts shuttled through the clouds. A rumbling thunder sounded continuously, and thick lightning bolts fell from it. Accompanied by the sound of rushing water, it actually began to pour rain.
This bizarre scene caused many cultivators to look sideways.
Zhang Ling narrowed his eyes as he watched all of this, but he keenly felt that these suddenly falling raindrops were not ordinary rainwater. They contained a lot of spiritual energy. It seemed to be some kind of spiritual water, which was urged into rainwater by the power of the formation.
This rainstorm came quickly and went quickly. In a short time, the rain gradually decreased.
After the rainstorm, the dark clouds in the sky dissipated, and even the dim yellow turbid mist dissipated a lot. The turbid storm outside the city wall also weakened, allowing people's vision to suddenly become much clearer.
For a time, the surroundings seemed to be silent. But then, the howling of beasts constantly resounded throughout the world.
The people on the city wall came back to their senses and looked outside the city wall. They immediately saw countless shadows appearing in the thinning turbid air. They were either tall or short, and their numbers were extremely alarming, already only a few miles away from the city wall.
Attack!
Someone shouted, and the people on the city wall became busy. For a time, they were both chaotic and uniformly busy.
The mortal teams, in groups of three, began to move. They pressed pieces of spirit stones onto the stone pillar-style magical instruments. The magical instruments launched attacks such as fireballs, ice cones, golden light, wind blades, and wood thorns.
Some of these mortals had solemn faces, some had nervous expressions, and some were terrified. Fearful or serious expressions appeared on different people's faces. The cultivators were the same, not much better than these mortals.
Even some Golden Core cultivators couldn't help but have solemn faces when they saw the dark mass of wild beasts outside the city wall.
But no matter what the mood of the crowd, the beast tide had arrived. The sound of roaring and various spiritual lights were fired from each section of the city wall.
As the beast tide attacked, the many cultivators and mortals on the city wall began their offensive. In the sound of drums and inspiring horns, waves of attacks of various colors were fired from the city wall.
"This first wave of the beast tide is so fierce, much fiercer than the previous beast tides. It looks like there are as many as 100,000 of them."
Inside a turret in the middle section of the city wall, several extraordinary cultivators were standing. One of them, an old man with a hunched body and white hair, stared at the beast tide, which was only a few miles away from the city wall, with a gloomy expression.
"Senior Brother Wang doesn't need to worry." Although Sect Leader Sun next to him frowned slightly, he said with confidence.
"Although the first wave of the beast tide is quite large, it is not strong overall. It is basically dominated by second and third-order wild beasts. There are not many high-level wild beasts above the fifth order. These can only be regarded as cannon fodder. Our Flying Cloud Sect has accumulated enough defensive offensives over the past thousands of years to cope with it. Let's leave this first wave to the low-level cultivators and mortals to deal with. We must maintain our strength in order to deal with the many high-level wild beasts that may appear at any time."
"Hehe, what the Sect Leader said is true, these cannon fodder are enough for the low-level cultivators. Moreover, the twelve junior brothers in the sect have skillfully mastered the Flowing Cloud Great Formation. There is also Elder Lü sitting in the sect, which is enough to deal with all the troubles."
