CHAPTER 233: CALAMITY 2

Chapter 233: Calamity 2

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In Qiyan, inside the main building of Qingyun Academy, Long Huoyan, the academy’s headmaster, was buried in yet another stack of documents.

It was already afternoon, and yet, unlike the rest of the academy, he was holed up in his office, dealing with paperwork that showed no signs of ending anytime soon.

His expression was frustrated, especially since the number of things he had had to handle in the last period had increased significantly, so much that he could no longer even remember the last time he’d had proper time to rest.

Being a cultivator at the Spirit Realm, he could ignore sleep entirely, but that didn’t mean his brain wouldn’t grow tired over time.

He finished reading and signing one of the pages before sighing and looking toward a framed photo showing him standing next to two individuals, a woman with an elegant appearance, and a young boy half his height, yet with sharp eyes like his, full of life.

It was his family, a family he had been lucky to have, considering cultivators of his level rarely enjoyed such a luxury, but even so, it was as if he didn’t have one at all, since he never had time to spend with them.

He tried to think back to the last time he had been able to visit them, and as luck would have it, it had been almost a year.

"Tch, at this rate I’ll end up single all over again," he muttered to himself as he prepared to grab another sheet from the stack beside him, but his hand never reached it, freezing halfway through.

Just like his hand, the rest of his body stiffened, his eyes widening, a sharp glint flashing within them as he suddenly expanded his spiritual sense far and wide.

He had just sensed a trace of a strange, malignant, dangerous energy, one he knew very well.

He thought it was fatigue playing tricks on him, but as fate would have it, that wasn’t the case.

His spiritual sense engulfed the entire city in an instant and spread even farther for a while, until he felt it again.

His gaze lifted as he turned toward a specific direction, and without hesitation, he vanished from the office.

To the east of Qiyan City, beyond the Chijing Mountain, black smoke could be seen rising in the distance, while the trembling of the ground could be felt, clear signs that something massive was approaching.

The Lushan Province, one of the northernmost provinces of the Human Empire, was close to the mountain range that divided the Frozen Lands from the three empires.

This proximity meant they were the first to notice the anomaly and alert the beings in the area.

And indeed, in the skies above the forest below, three figures appeared, all of them emanating powerful auras.

One of them was Long Huoyan, while the other two were cultivators at the peak of the Mortal Realm.

All of them were part of the forces the Human Emperor had left behind to guard his territories in case any disorder or other needs required their presence.

All three emperors had done the same, ensuring that at least one Spirit Realm cultivator remained behind while the rest of their forces departed for the expedition.

But who would have thought that even such forces wouldn’t be enough?

The expression of the three was ashen as they used their enhanced sight to look at the distant massive tide of beasts heading in their direction.

It wasn’t hard to understand their objective, but precisely because they knew, their expressions were grim.

"In the name of the heavens, where did so many powerful beasts come from?" one of them muttered as he sensed the auras of various third, fourth, and even fifth-stage creatures among the enormous beast tide.

Even those alone would give cultivators of his level a hard time, not to mention what appeared to be their leader.

All three of them could sense it, a beast at the Spirit Realm, and not at the initial stage, but stronger.

At least at the peak of the second stage.

The same scene unfolded in the other two empires, where the forces that had remained behind to guard their own territories now found themselves facing these beast tides, all of them led by Spirit Realm beings, beings of great power.

It didn’t take a genius to understand that the timing of this attack was too convenient, for the beasts. It was clear that whoever was behind this had waited for this moment, the moment when the three empires were without their strongest forces.

But as precarious as the situation was, everyone realized this wasn’t the time to fall into despair.

The beast tide was approaching, and the villages near the borders were already doomed.

No one wasted time, and they began calling for cultivators from other areas for support.

They had confirmed that there were no attacks in other cities or borders, so the forces stationed there were needed here, at the edge of the mountain range.

The time they had at their disposal was shorter than expected, and indeed, by the evening of that same day, the first clashes had already begun.

If despair hadn’t been enough before, after the first exchange of blows it certainly was, the enemy’s numbers were too great, and the forces on their side weren’t enough.

They managed to greatly slow the advance of the beast tide, but at what cost?

They had no way to ask for help from the other empires, since it soon became clear that they were in the same situation, and worse still, they could not communicate with the expedition team, as even powerful communication talismans didn’t work beyond the mountain range.

In short, they were alone, facing this walking disaster, one that they soon discovered was even more dangerous than they initially estimated, because the beasts they were dealing with weren’t normal beasts, but something different, stranger, more dangerous.

They were as if they had gone mad, attacking with full force without the slightest regard for their own safety, taking damage from everywhere, but that did little to help, given their vast numbers. And with all of them attacking so fiercely, the defenders’ lines were beginning to give way.

For those who recognized the peculiar energy that seemed to seep from these beasts, such a result was to be expected, while for those who had never encountered this corruptive energy before, they were now getting to know it, in the harshest way possible.