61: Chapter 61 The Demonic Tide Strikes, A Life-or-Death Situation

When that collision occurred, Lu Changyuan, inside the high pavilion of the inner city of Xingyan Grand Market, had not yet moved his fingertip from the military communication tablet.

Immediately after, a muffled sound, deeper than the previous military control alarm, exploded outside.

Boom!

The entire high pavilion swayed slightly.

Between the sea and sky outside the window, a cyan light screen that originally shrouded half of the market was forcibly dented inward by something, immediately erupting into large, distorted ripples.

Lu Qingyao's expression changed abruptly, and she stood up suddenly.

"This is not a disturbance in the outer perimeter."

"It is aimed at the city!"

Before her voice had even faded, a second collision followed in quick succession.

This time, Lu Changyuan saw it clearly.

Outside the defensive city Formation, it was unknown when it had become crowded with a dense mass of sea beasts. They seemed to have been driven mad by something; their eyes were turbid and black, and wisps of black Devilish Qi seeped from their carapaces and the gaps between their scales. The original Spiritual Qi of the sea monsters was dimmed by a layer of filthy Aura, yet when charging the Formation, they were fiercer and more desperate than an ordinary beast tide.

Some slammed into the Formation wall, breaking their tendons and bones on the spot.

But the sea beasts behind did not retreat at all, trampling over the corpses in front to continue pouncing upward.

The entire sea surface suddenly boiled over.

Layers of filthy black waves pressed one after another, pushing the entire water surface of the Xingyan Outer Port to turn black.

Outside the high pavilion, the military Cultivators were already in a state of chaos.

"The eastern Formation eye has cracked!"

"The third layer water screen of the Outer Port is unstable!"

"There are high-level Auras hiding behind the tide, at least two of them!"

Lu Qingyao raised her hand and grabbed; the long spear beside the table was already gripped in her palm.

The woman, who had originally carried a hint of sharp weariness, underwent a complete change in her Aura at this moment.

As her Spiritual Pressure rose, the entire hall felt as if it were being suppressed by a layer of tide-like sharpness.

"Pass the order."

"Inner city guards to the walls, the three spirit boat teams of the Outer Port are to take off immediately."

"Seal the central axis of the market; no chaos, no retreat."

"Whoever dares to collapse the inner lines at this time, I will kill them first!"

Several personal guards answered the order in unison and rushed out the door.

Lu Changyuan only took one look to know that what Xingyan Grand Market had run into this time was definitely not an ordinary test.

These devil-transformed sea beasts came too quickly.

And too uniformly.

More importantly, they were not charging at the scattered defensive lines of the Outer Port Pier, but heading straight for the weak points of the Formation and the spirit boat takeoff and landing points.

It was as if someone was pulling the strings from behind, forcing them to fill in layer by layer.

Lu Qingyao clearly understood this point as well.

She stomped her foot, and she had already rushed to the window; a large expanse of sea-blue Spiritual Qi rose outside her black-gold battle armor.

But before leaving the window, she actually turned back to look at Lu Changyuan.

"You stay in the inner city."

"Do not follow me out and seek death."

"As long as I do not die tonight, Xingyan will not fall."

These words were spoken firmly enough.

But Lu Changyuan caught a fleeting moment of deep intent from the depths of her eyes.

It was not panic.

It was the coldness of someone who, after encountering a tough nut to crack, had already weighed the cost in their heart.

Lu Changyuan nodded immediately: "Ninth Great Aunt, rest assured, this Junior will not cause trouble."

Lu Qingyao said nothing more; her figure leaped, transforming directly into a deep blue escaping light that burst out of the high pavilion.

The night sky outside was already illuminated half-cyan and half-white by the defensive city Formation.

At this moment, as she struck, the entire sky seemed to be split open by the spear momentum she brought with her.

Rumble!

The first Tier 3 Abyssal Beast that slammed into the inner Formation wall was pierced through by her spear in mid-air, its corpse, along with dozens of devil-transformed sea beasts behind it, exploding into a rain of blood.

"Form up!"

"Launch the spirit boats!"

"Suppress the tide!"

The military commands were passed down layer by layer.

Dozens of armored spirit boats took off from the inner city of the market, and the spirit cannons and heavy crossbows on the sides of the boats fired almost simultaneously. The entire sea surface was instantly blasted with columns of water and waves of blood, and the tide of sea beasts that had been charging madly was forcibly cut off.

But just at this moment, the sea surface in the deeper areas suddenly churned.

It was not waves churning.

It was that some behemoth from the seabed was pushing up from even deeper down.

Two Demonic Qi Auras, nearly at the False Core level, broke out of the sea without any concealment!

Those were two giant beasts that had already been semi-devil-transformed.

One was like a Rift-Armor Sea Lizard covered in black thorns, its spine raised high; every flick of its tail could drag out long trails of filthy black water.

The other was like a Ghost-Faced Ray King with half its skull torn open; after its fleshy wings under its belly spread out, it almost covered a small half of the sea surface.

As soon as they appeared, the previously chaotic and forward-pouncing tide of devil-transformed sea beasts immediately seemed to have found their backbone, and the direction of their charge became visibly organized.

Lu Changyuan stood by the window, his eyes slightly darkened.

False Core level semi-devil-transformed Abyssal Beasts.

Plus this tide of cannon fodder that did not care about life or death.

Tonight's attack was simply aimed at tearing open the Xingyan defensive line.

And what really made him frown was not these two things.

It was that cold and gloomy Aura deep in the sea that had not stopped after they appeared.

It was like a more venomous snake still coiled in the back.

Lu Hu had by now returned from the outside, rushing into the hall with a dark face.

"Master!"

"The people outside are in a complete mess. Should we go to the wall base and guard there? There is a blind spot in the Formation at the west corner of the inner city; hiding in there is the safest."

Lu Changyuan turned and walked away.

"Let's go."

"This level of battle is not something we can get involved in."

"Stay alive first."

The two of them passed through the corridor behind the high pavilion.

Along the way, there was a stream of people retreating into the inner city.

There were shopkeepers, Loose Cultivators from the market, and foreign merchants temporarily trapped in the city. Most people's faces were pale, but they dared not really flee outside.

Because everyone knew that leaving the defensive city Formation at this time meant dying faster than staying in the city.

Lu Changyuan did not pay attention to these things.

He only took Lu Hu and cut all the way to the back of a half-collapsed stone building on the west side of the inner city.

This was originally a loop-shaped alley next to the old Formation hub, with ruined walls in front and a secondary Formation Plate hidden slot in the back; it was neither on the main line of fire nor was it unable to see half of the main battlefield.

It was stable enough.

And it was enough to see.

As soon as Lu Hu squatted down, he couldn't help but peek outside.

"This battle Formation is much more ruthless than that time we defended Blue Moon Island."

Lu Changyuan did not respond to this.

Because the next moment, the main battlefield had already changed.

After Lu Qingyao forced back the Rift-Armor Sea Lizard with a spear thrust, she took advantage of the momentum to soar into the air, the spear tip carving a long blue mark in the night sky.

She did not retreat; instead, she directly pressed to the very front of the tide.

The spear thrust out like a tide, and walls of water dozens of zhang high exploded one after another on the sea surface.

Every time the spear fell, a large area of devil-transformed sea beasts was shattered or sent flying.

If one only looked at this scene, it was as if she were suppressing the Outer Sea of a city all by herself.

But just when her Aura was at its peak and all the military Cultivators had their courage boosted by this wave of counter-suppression, those two False Core Abyssal Beasts moved simultaneously.

The Rift-Armor Sea Lizard lunged fiercely from the low tide position on the left.

The Ghost-Faced Ray King, taking advantage of the blood mist exploding across the sky, skimmed directly along the sea, cutting in diagonally from below.

One on the left, one on the right.

What they were pinching was not a person.

But the moment after Lu Qingyao's spear thrust, when her spiritual momentum was about to be exhausted but not yet entirely spent.

Lu Changyuan's eyes turned cold.

This was not a coordination that sea beasts could perform.

This was someone watching Lu Qingyao's rhythm from behind, calculating the gap in her spear thrusts, and specifically using these two things as blades.

Sure enough.

Just as Lu Qingyao flicked away half of the Ghost-Faced Ray King's fleshy wing with a spear thrust and was about to take advantage of the momentum to return her spear and suppress the Rift-Armor Sea Lizard, a harsh, strange laugh suddenly rang out over the sea.

"The people of the Lu family are truly, one tougher than the other."

"But the tougher they are, the more flavorful they are when smashed."

As the voice faded, a giant claw made of ghastly white bones reached out from the night sky that had been torn open by the black tide.

That was not a monster claw.

It was a Magical Artifact.

The claw tips were pitch black, and the joints were wrapped in wisps of Devilish Qi that squirmed like living things; as soon as it appeared, it caused the Spiritual Qi within dozens of zhang nearby to become filthy.

A middle-aged Devil Cultivator draped in a black robe slowly appeared from the night sky.

Half of his face looked as if it had been burned by something, revealing dark red muscle and a yellowish eyeball.

The other hand, however, steadily held a pitch-black bone bead, with Devilish Qi surging inside the bead, as if it were confining a tiny, filthy sea.

Golden Core.

And it was clear at a glance that he was not the type of "watery" goods who had just broken through the realm and had not yet established a firm footing.

As soon as this person appeared, even the military spirit boats behind Lu Qingyao experienced a momentary stagnation.

Lu Hu's throat tightened: "Master... this ghost thing is coming for Ninth Great Aunt."

"Nonsense."

Lu Changyuan stared at the night sky, his voice pressed extremely low.

"Tonight, these sea beasts are all a decoy."

"The one that is truly fatal is this person."

As the words fell, the Devil Cultivator had already raised his hand and pressed down the bone bead.

A large expanse of pitch-black Devilish Qi, like a released tide, instantly flooded half the night sky.

Lu Qingyao swept away the two Abyssal Beasts in front with her spear, but was ultimately covered head-on by this surge of Devilish Qi. The layer of sea-blue Dharma Image outside her body, which had been extremely stable, was corroded on the spot and trembled violently.

"Zhenhai Army?"

"Tonight, I will start by operating on you, the Great General of the Garrison."

Before the Devil Cultivator's strange laughter had faded, the giant bone claw had already torn through the Devilish Qi, straight toward the top of Lu Qingyao's head.

Lu Qingyao backhanded her spear upward; the spear tip collided with the bone claw, and a visible circle of black-blue air waves instantly exploded in the night sky.

But those two False Core Abyssal Beasts also pounced together at this moment.

The Rift-Armor Sea Lizard bit onto the tail of the spear, dragging it.

The Ghost-Faced Ray King used the chaotic tide to pin down her retreat path below.

The spear momentum, which could have been unleashed in one go, was forcibly stuck by these three forces.

Lu Qingyao let out a muffled groan, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth on the spot.

She was, after all, only at the Golden Core Early Stage.

To be able to suppress half of the tide alone was already strong.

But what she was facing at this moment was a Golden Core Devil Cultivator who had hidden until now, plus two False Core Abyssal Beasts that had been forcibly dragged up by Devilish Qi.

The situation was instantly reversed.

On the city wall, the military Cultivators desperately raised cannons, fired crossbows, and urged the Formation.

But the Devil Cultivator seemed to have already calculated everyone's reaction; the bone bead shook, and another large expanse of Devilish Qi rolled down, specifically pouncing on the spirit boats and the Formation line on the city wall.

Within a few breaths, he had actually created a dead end.

No matter how strong Lu Qingyao was, she was forced to retreat all the way.

In the final step, she actually retreated directly into the brightest part of the Formation light above the market.

And what the Devil Cultivator was waiting for was clearly this step.

"Now, shatter for me."

With a sharp shout, the giant bone claw in his palm suddenly surged, its five bony fingers like propping up the sky, heavily locking onto the layer of protective Dharma Image outside Lu Qingyao.

Crack!

That sea-blue Dharma Image was actually torn with large cracks by this claw.

Lu Qingyao could no longer suppress it; a mouthful of blood sprayed out, and her figure plummeted suddenly.

The entire battlefield suddenly fell silent at this instant.

Lu Hu's expression changed.

"Master!"

Lu Changyuan did not speak.

His hand was already pressed on the Storage Pouch.

The small white jade sword left by Luo Qingcheng was firmly gripped in his palm.

Cold.

But not heavy.

But Lu Changyuan knew that once this little thing was crushed, what would go out was not a wisp of Sword Qi.

But the true killing intent left behind by someone like Luo Qingcheng.

Outside, Lu Qingyao had been forced to the lowest point in mid-air.

The two False Core Abyssal Beasts were dragging her spear momentum tightly.

The Golden Core Devil Cultivator, stepping on a cloud of filthy black Devilish Qi, slowly pressed down the final claw.

He smiled extremely uglily.

"The Lu family?"

"Tonight, I will use you to sacrifice to the tide first."

The giant bone claw was only the last inch away from the top of Lu Qingyao's head.

And at this instant.

Lu Changyuan finally tightened his five fingers.

A cold and indifferent sigh suddenly rang out over the battlefield.