Outside Flying Cloud City, the roars of countless beasts echoed in the air.
Zhang Ling refocused his thoughts and looked out to see a white expanse outside the section of the city wall he was responsible for.
It was a herd of several hundred unicorn bulls, each about two zhang tall. Although their spiritual pressure wasn't strong, mostly only at the third or fourth rank, these unicorn bulls were a type of fossilized beast.
This was an earth-attribute beast with strong defenses, able to cover themselves with earth and stone to form thick stone armor. With these fossilized beasts at the front, attacks from low-level cultivators couldn't break through them for a time.
Behind the fossilized beasts followed various other beast groups, including piles of cyan wind wolves, vast numbers of snakes, and other different types of wild beasts.
These wild beasts frequently fought amongst themselves, creating a chaotic scene. However, compared to the overall beast tide, the losses were minimal, and the entire beast horde was still rapidly advancing towards the city wall.
When the beast tide approached within three or four li of the city wall, the city's defenders began their attack.
Black arrows shot out from the arrow towers on the city wall sections, and a wave of arrow rain killed many of the closest wild beasts.
Giant rocks fell from the sky, exploding upon impact within the beast groups, killing many more wild beasts. Fireballs, wind blades, ice spikes, and other spiritual light attacks flew out, igniting the great battle.
"Judging by the scale of this beast tide, it's mostly composed of third and fourth-rank wild beasts. Although the numbers are slightly higher than the second wave, we can handle it with the preparations we've made."
In the blockhouse at the mid-section of the city wall, Sect Leader Sun and several other elders watched the approaching new wave of the beast tide, estimating its scale.
In front of the blockhouse, on the city wall section, was an open space where several cultivators sat cross-legged. Their auras were astonishing, all being Golden Core middle-stage experts or higher, and were core elders of Flying Cloud Sect.
Among them, a middle-aged man and woman had a dozen black jade bottles placed in front of them, emitting a layer of bloody light, looking quite eerie.
A scroll several zhang long floated before them. This scroll looked quite cruel, with a large portion on the left side incomplete, seemingly burned by fire.
Upon closer inspection, the back of the scroll was jet black, while the front was a blank white, like a clean sheet of paper, without any drawings.
The man held a giant black brush with a solemn expression, while the woman cast a spell on a jade bottle.
A black jade bottle began to rotate, then suddenly burst, transforming into a cloud of blood mist. It quickly spread across the entire scroll, dyeing it blood red. Immediately, a bloody aura enveloped the surroundings.
The bottles contained the essence blood of wild beasts collected previously, now put to use.
The man wielded the giant black brush, writing and drawing on the blood-red scroll, as if creating a painting.
After a moment, the bloody light disappeared, and patterns of demonic beasts appeared on the scroll. There were ferocious white wolves, giant apes howling at the sky, and flood dragons emerging from the water, among a dozen different demonic beast patterns.
Then, the man and woman simultaneously opened their mouths and spat out a mouthful of essence blood, which entered the painting. Their hands rapidly formed corresponding hand seals, which they struck onto the scroll.
Within a few breaths, the scroll moved without wind, making a rustling sound, and several illusory giant white wolves rushed out.
Under the urging of their spells, the illusory figures directly rushed outside the grand formation, combining in mid-air into a giant white wolf over ten zhang tall. It looked like a real demonic beast, emitting the aura of a sixth-rank demon beast.
The giant wolf opened its mouth and spat out a ball of cyan light, which transformed into two giant light blades. With a cross, it killed a giant snake with fifth-rank strength.
Then, it transformed into a stream of light and rushed into another beast group, instantly killing hundreds of low-rank wild beasts.
Soon after, the giant wolf was besieged by several high-rank wild beasts in the beast group, but strangely, the giant wolf only continued to release attacks, annihilating large swaths of wild beasts, without caring about its own injuries.
And when numerous attacks landed on its body, they only caused the giant wolf's size to shrink continuously. It seemed to have no fatal wounds.
Until the giant wolf shrunk to only a zhang in size, it transformed into a white light and returned to the city wall, disappearing into the painting.
This illusionary giant wolf only existed for a short period, but it killed thousands of wild beasts, including five or six high-rank wild beasts.
Then, the two Golden Core cultivators used another bottle of essence blood to draw a tall giant ape on the scroll, which was filled with bloody aura. It also displayed the strength of a sixth-rank demon beast, rushing into the beast group to wreak havoc.
The giant ape's existence was also not long, and it also killed a large number of wild beasts.
Next, the two people successively drew a flame bird and a cyan flood dragon, both of which were also extraordinary.
The giant brush and scroll in their hands were a treasure passed down by Flying Cloud Sect, the Cloud Beast Diagram, which could conjure various high-rank demon beasts with a large amount of essence blood.
The conjured demon beasts were called Cloud Beasts. They had no weaknesses, could not die, and would return to the scroll on their own once their spiritual power was exhausted.
At its highest, it could conjure Cloud Beasts comparable to seventh-rank strength, capable of exerting continuous combat power.
Not far from the two, there were also two tall stone statues. One statue was a giant snake with three eyes.
If Zhang Ling were nearby, he would recognize the other statue as the winged tiger statue that Sect Leader Sun had taken out during his visit.
Beneath each statue stood a Golden Core Elder. Standing beneath the winged tiger statue was Senior Brother Qi. This person formed hand seals with both hands, striking spells onto the winged tiger statue.
The statue shook, and the originally stone statue emitted a black-gold light. A heaven-shaking tiger roar came from within.
The statue came to life, transforming into a black tiger with wings on its back, rushing into the beast group, slaughtering like a wolf among sheep.
The winged black tiger was extremely fast, and several high-rank wild beasts were killed in an instant. Even the seventh-rank wild beasts in the beast group could not capture its figure.
At the same time, the other statue transformed into a three-eyed giant snake. This beast flew in the sky, and the three snake eyes on its forehead radiated spiritual light, shooting out a large patch of green light.
When illuminated by this light, other types of wild beasts did not show any abnormalities. Only the snake-type wild beasts seemed to be controlled by the three-eyed black snake.
The black snake instantly controlled three or four high-rank snakes, throwing part of the beast group into chaos.
Just the Cloud Beast Diagram and the two talisman puppets used by these Flying Cloud Sect elders restrained a portion of the beast group.
However, most of the beast group still approached the city wall, attacking fearlessly. Some of the larger beast groups in the beast tide were not only numerous, but also had many high-rank wild beasts among them.
On the eastern side of the city wall, the Golden Core expert guarding the area was a bald-headed man with Golden Core middle-stage strength.
He had just killed a fifth-rank wild beast and was feeling proud when he saw the protective light barrier not far away shatter with a loud bang, and two high-rank wild beasts rushed in. They were two purple beasts that looked a bit like mice, only about a foot in size.
Just as the man was about to rush over to kill the two wild beasts, he saw one of the purple beasts suddenly swell up, transforming into a zhang-sized sphere, and spewing out a large cloud of dense purple light spots.
These light spots were very small, like the light of fireflies. They quickly spread across a hundred zhang area, and then a series of booming explosions occurred, instantly killing hundreds of nearby cultivators and mortals.
