Chương 76: The Crimson Ridge Pass

The three days of preparation were a blur of grim, focused activity. The Deepwater Menagerie, a place of peaceful growth, transformed into a military staging ground. Hu Jian and Lin Tao moved with the swift efficient authority of true marshals. They were selecting the strongest and most disciplined of the sect's combat beasts—the Armored-Shell Turtles for defense, the Swift-Fin Barracudas for flanking maneuvers and the powerful draconic-blooded River Wyrms for direct assaults.

They worked with the other Beast Taming Hall disciples, their shared purpose burning away any lingering factional lines. Li Yu, in the quiet of his pagoda, made his own preparations. He sent his three friends to the sect's armory with a requisition order, allowing them to be outfitted with the finest Earth-grade defensive artifacts the sect could provide. His new path was one of overwhelming power and he would ensure his friends were as well-equipped as possible. For himself, however, he had a different plan.

He entered a private chamber that was heavily-warded and next to the main pagoda. He laid out the massive, shield-sized slabs of raw Deep-Sea Spirit Iron from the source he had discovered with Lucky. They were incredibly dense but too crude to be used as effective weapons. He had no skill as a refiner, but he had a power that transcended skill. He sank his consciousness into the Koi's Sanctuary.

"Khaos," he projected, his voice firm.

"I need your help. I need a weapon." A wave of ancient, arrogant amusement washed over him.

"You possess a body of profound strength, yet you seek an external tool? The path of a true sovereign is to make their own flesh their greatest weapon."

"My flesh is my final defense," Li Yu countered.

"I need something I can hit with, my fists are not like your claws" There was a long, silent pause.

"Your logic is… acceptable," Khaos conceded.

"Show me the material." Li Yu focused, projecting the image and aura of the Deep-Sea Spirit Iron into the sanctuary. He felt a flicker of genuine interest from the ancient beast.

"This ore… it contains very thin traces of the primordial void. It is crude but it is of a decent quality. Very well. This will be a lesson in the nature of true power." A pinprick of absolute darkness, the miniature form of Khaos, appeared in the room. It floated over the massive slabs of ore, its cold, dead eyes regarding them with a detached air. It slowly raised one of its tiny crystalline pincers. It did not strike. It simply… squeezed. The space around the ore began to warp and distort.

The laws of the world themselves seemed to bend to the creature's will. The massive slabs of ore began to groan, to compress, to fold in on themselves as if being crushed by the weight of a dying star. There was no sound of hammering, only a silent, terrifying process of absolute, irresistible compression. Li Yu watched, his heart pounding, as a mountain of raw material was crushed down into a single, small object.

When it was finished, the miniature Khaos vanished, a final, disdainful thought echoing in Li Yu's mind.

'A crude, but serviceable, stick. Do not embarrass me with it.' Floating in the air where the mountain of ore had been was a single, unassuming rod. It was about six feet long and as thick as a man's wrist, a perfect bo staff. Its surface was a deep, matte black that seemed to exist but not exist, without a single seam or imperfection. It looked like a simple, heavy piece of iron. But when Li Yu reached out and took it, he nearly dropped it. It weighed more than the entire Sky-Swimmer Turtle.

Its density was a concept that his mind could barely grasp. He held it in his hands, feeling the immense, dormant power within it. He had not learned any new staff techniques over this year. He no longer needed to. His new combat philosophy, one greatly influenced by Khaos, was one of absolute, overwhelming force. He would not need to redirect or parry. He would simply smash. This new weapon was the perfect embodiment of that philosophy. On the final night, he entered his Koi's Sanctuary.

He stood before his hidden army, his spiritual avatar a beacon of calm authority.

"This will be the greatest battle of our lives," his mental voice echoed through the misty, inland sea.

"Some of you might not return. But we do not fight for glory or for treasure. We fight for our home. We fight to protect the land that has nourished us." He looked at each of his companions, his bond with them a tangible, living thing. Crimson, his first companion, let out a deep rumbling roar of agreement. Lirael, the elegant Naga, coiled gracefully, her golden eyes burning with a cold, killing intent. Volt and Jolt, the twin eels, crackled with a barely contained lightning, eager for their first true battle.

The other beasts, from the defensive crabs to the monstrous Maw-Lurkers, responded with a silent, unified wave of readiness. On the third day, the great bells of the Green Mountain Sect tolled, a deep, somber sound that echoed through every peak and valley. It was the call to war. Li Yu, Hu Jian and Lin Tao, clad in the sect's formal, silver-trimmed battle armor, flew from their valley. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The main plaza was a sea of cultivators.

Thousands of disciples, from the newest Qi Condensation juniors to the most ancient Foundation Establishment elders, stood in disciplined, silent formations. The air was thick with a mixture of fear, determination and a fierce unyielding pride. Li Yu saw Su Ling, her face a mask of cold, beautiful ice, leading the disciples of the First Elder's lineage. He saw Tie Gang, the warrior from the Iron Fist Peak, his massive frame a tower of pure, unadulterated battle lust.

He even saw a group of disciples from Elder Jin's now-disgraced faction, their faces grim, their loyalty to their sect overriding any past grievances. The Sect Master and the council of elders stood on a high platform, their auras a calming, unshakable presence. The Sect Master's gaze swept over the assembled army, finally coming to rest on Li Yu.

"Disciple Li Yu," his voice boomed, imbued with a spiritual power that reached every corner of the plaza.

"I am appointing you as the Field Commander of the Beast Taming Battalion. You will have full authority over those beast tamers and their companions on the battlefield. You will answer only to the Elder Council." A murmur of unanimous approval went through the assembled disciples.

Li Yu was no longer just a young kid, he had a reputation for being good with beasts, making good choices and most importantly of all he was strong, his public 3rd level Foundation Establishment put him on the same level as many of the weaker elders.. He stepped forward and bowed deeply.

"This disciple will not fail the sect." He turned and walked to the designated gathering point for that team, a contingent of over two hundred disciples, each with their own contracted beast. They looked at him, their new young commander, with a mixture of feelings. The Sect Master raised his hand.

"The tide is coming. But we will not wait for the storm to break upon our shores. We will meet it in the pass. We will show the beasts of the wilderness the true, unshakeable might of the Green Mountain Sect!" He brought his hand down.

"MARCH!" A thousand flying swords, a hundred flying artifacts and a dozen massive flying beasts, including the sect's hawk-shaped warship, rose into the air. It was a magnificent, terrifying sight, an entire sect moving as one. Li Yu, standing at the head of his battalion on his Silver-Winged Flying Swordfish, looked out at the vast, united army. He was taking in the moment, the view of this entire event. He had never seen anything like it in his entire life. It was staggering.

He had spent his entire life hiding, trying to survive. He had now built his strength in the shadows, all for the purpose of survival. But now, he was no longer just fighting for himself. He was fighting for his home, for the thousands of people who had given him a place to belong and now for those people that were like him before. The journey to the Crimson Ridge Pass was a swift, two-day flight. There was no casual conversation, no idle chatter. There was only the grim, silent focus of an army on the march.

They flew in a massive V-shaped formation, the main warship at the front. The elders and their disciples forming the wings, a river of steel and spiritual power flowing through the sky. When they arrived, the sight that greeted them was one of both inspiration and profound dread. The Crimson Ridge Pass was a massive, natural fortress, a single, narrow gap in a long mountain range whose peaks were stained a permanent, blood-red from some ancient, forgotten battle.

And at the base of the pass, a great, sprawling city of military tents and defensive fortifications had already been erected. This was the staging ground for the coalition of the righteous sects. The banners of a dozen different powers fluttered in the wind: the twin swords of the Jade Spring Sword Sect, the flaming cauldron of the Crimson Cauldron Sect and the golden sun of the Radiant Sun Temple. Thousands of cultivators, a sea of different robes and auras, moved with a grim, purposeful energy.

As the Green Mountain Sect's forces descended, a delegation of elders from the other sects came forward to greet them. Li Yu recognized one of the leaders of the younger generation of Jade Spring Sword Sect's forces immediately. It was someone who he knew, Feng Xuan. The handsome, righteous swordsman's face broke into a wide smile when he saw Li Yu.

"Brother Li!" he called out, striding forward and clasping Li Yu's arm in a warrior's greeting.

"It is a good day, now that the strength of the Green Mountain Sect has arrived! I heard you were coming. It is a comfort to know we will be fighting alongside a man of your character."

"It is good to see you too, Brother Feng," Li Yu replied, a genuine warmth in his voice.

"Though I wish it were under better circumstances."

"Indeed," Feng Xuan's expression turned grim. He gestured to the west, towards the vast, dark expanse of the Untamed Wilderness that stretched out beyond the pass.

"The scouts have returned. It is worse than we thought. The tide is not just a single, mindless swarm. It is organized. It is an army." He led Li Yu and the other elders to a command tent, where a massive, sand-table map of the region was laid out.

"The tide is moving in three distinct waves," Feng Xuan explained, pointing to different sections of the map.

"The vanguard is a swarm of millions of Rank 1 and 2 beasts, a wave of flesh designed to exhaust our spiritual energy and break our formations. The second wave is the main army: hundreds of thousands of Rank 3 and 4 beasts, the true fist of the tide. And behind them…" He paused, his expression turning grave.

"Our deepest scouts have reported a third wave, a contingent of at least a hundred Rank 5 Tyrant Beasts. And at their head… something else. Something they could not get a clear look at, something whose aura alone was enough to cause their own Rank 4 flying beasts to plummet from the sky in terror." A heavy, chilling silence fell over the command tent.

"A Beast King," the Sect Master of the Green Mountain Sect whispered, the words like stones in the silent air.

"The tide has a leader. This is not a natural disaster. This is an invasion." Li Yu looked at the map. He could feel it, even from this distance. A faint, almost imperceptible psychic pressure that was washing over the pass, a feeling of ancient, malevolent intelligence. He walked to the edge of the encampment and looked out at the dark, sprawling wilderness. He could see it now.

A dark line on the distant horizon, a smudge of black that was not a shadow, not a cloud, but a living, moving ocean of flesh and fury, an endless tide of monsters that was coming to drown their world. The war had arrived.