Chương 170: Beast tide

The Million Flowers Valley was not a huge sect, not when compared to the real big sects of the Central Continent. That being said, the sect's surface was larger than the entire planet Earth from Pef's memories, and as such it contained numerous fields, mines, spirit fields, mountains and lakes.

The Jade Outpost protected all that from the Northern menace in the Jade Forest, aided by detection and warning Formations, plus the protective arrays of the Outpost itself, thousands of Tier 6 arrays plus a few ancient Tier 7 Formations that have degraded a lot over millions of years of unskilled maintenance. Luoli took charge of repairing and upgrading those Tier 7 Formations while we waited, which in hindsight was a very good idea.

A couple of weeks after our daring liver heist, the alarm Formations lit up over a wide area, as numerous beasts began rushing southwards.

"We triggered a beast tide?" Petunia said with a deep frown.

"It was an expected outcome, to be fair. But no, it wasn't us who triggered this tide." Luoli answered after playing her fingers over the touch-screen controls of the Outpost.

"It will be a good training ground for the Army. And I can also polish my Sword skills." I commented with a casual voice.

"Nice! I get to fight beside Master!" Tomoe perked up, and kissed me hard before rushing to get herself equipped for battle. Although most cultivators loved to fight unarmored, I wasn't so keen on that. While cultivator robes were quite durable in general, they would need to be Tier 7 robes to act as proper armor. A few elite duelists or precious core sect disciples might get the chance to wear such rare robes, but the majority of cultivators would not.

Even if you could afford to buy such items, they were too rare and difficult to make. Instead, our Flower Army used beast leather armor covered in mail or metal mesh, or metal shields covered in leather. It didn't look so pretty as a nice and elegant set of robes, but it did the job. Blue Rose licked my dick and stood up, looking around with her advanced Dao King senses.

"I'll go and bring a hundred Armies then, plus a dozen Sages to oversee the battle. Should I also bring Soul Transformation Flowers?" she asked a bit cautious. I shook my head.

"All Tier 5 beasts are body cultivators, Rose. Ideally we would use only Unity realm disciples to fight a beast tide, but your sect has too few of those, for a front this wide. There will be a bit more of them after this tide." I answered with a grin, and flew out to stand in front of the Outpost as the first spirit beast showed up. Tomoe landed beside me, sword in hand and eyes glowing with excitement.

"You really think a beast tide is only a training fight, Master?" she asked while scanning the ever-increasing number of beasts. Compared to lots of the wars that Tian had seen and fought in, this was indeed a mock fight. Not that the beasts would not kill you if you weren't serious. I jumped forward and kicked a Tier 5 pangolin that was rolling towards me, turning it into a bowling ball, that crushed hundreds of Tier 4 beasts that lagged behind.

The beast growled and rolled back in, only to lose its head and get stored in my ring. Some people thought that pangolins were reptiles, because their skin was covered in scales, but they were mammals with a strange evolution path. Due to my body cultivation pills, my skin was already immune to any Tier 4 beasts, so I kinda ignored them, and even conserved my qi by using my Sword Domain to harvest the Tier 5 beasts.

It was easy and rewarding, but the problem with a beast tide was they kept coming, flowing around and over me like water. To counter such numbers, one could use large area spells, killing Formations or also numbers. We used all three, as the Flower Armies began to arrive and line up in shield walls, trying to stop the beast tide at the border. It worked as bad as you imagine, since our numbers were not sufficient to block the entire tide.

Thus, more Armies landed behind, forming a second line of defense, which was soon breached at well. Then a third line, and a fourth. Luckily for the Million Flowers, their numbers had grown quite a bit in the recent decades, and aided by my hard work in spilling milk, they also gained a million extra Body Integration Soldiers. Yes, they were not elite disciples with thousands of years of autistic sword training, but they had armor, shields and organization, plus long polearms to fight the beasts on equal grounds.

If this was all a beast tide could offer, it would be easy training. But of course, the Jade Forest didn't have only Tier 4 or 5 beasts. Tier 6 and Tier 7 beasts were quite smarter, and much stronger. So strong that only a Great Sage was their equal. Luckily for me, I was already Great Sage too, and I also had 50000 years of Tian's Sword training and skills. Quite useful right now, I admit. I often made fun of Tian's monodominant focus on the Sword, and Sword alone. But there was a simple truth beneath his focus.

Killing power was absolutely necessary in a cultivation world. I slid beneath the swiping claws of a Tier 6 Verdant Bear, and cut off its head, then kicked a Tier 6 panther that was about to maul my less skilled disciple. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Thanks, Master!" Tomoe yelled and took advantage of my strike to decapitate said panther with a downward murderstroke. I sighed inward and kept fighting, my Sword Intent singing in my blood and asking for more kills. Buddy, there a billion beasts in front of us. You'll get bored with killing soon enough. A cone of Bluefire lit up the horizon, reducing the incoming beasts by a few thousands. I smiled to myself and kept slicing and dicing the roaring beasts. Look, an Iron Boar!

The smaller cousin of that Hedgesteel Boar I struggled to kill a few weeks ago. My Tier 7 Sword formed an atomic razor that sliced the beast's head off, and I stored the precious corpse before it even realized it was dead. Then I looked around, and found a kilometer-wide circle devoid of beasts, as if they were all dead or avoiding me. Probably both. If was a beast, I wouldn't want to enter the murder-blender zone either.

With a grin, I flew in an arc and landed beside Weili, who was commanding the first Flower Army.

"Hey, my love! How are things going with your army?" I asked while counting the Soldiers at speed. Three were missing.

"Pef Tian! We had three serious injuries, but they vanished before I could see how bad. I guess a Dao King took them away." Weili said while gasping for air. I nodded and stole a kiss.

"You're doing great! Everyone, good job!" I yelled at the tired Soldiers, then flew back to the Outpost. Tomoe looked after me, then sat down beside Weili to eat a few pills and recover. Good! She got the point even without me asking for it. As a Sage, Tomoe did get some insight directly from the Dao, but with my training and daily milk doses, she was getting closer to the Great Sage realm.

Inside the Outpost, hundreds of injured, maimed and bleeding Flowers Soldiers were laid out on beds and stretches, while a few were possibly too far for recovery. I couldn't grow back a head, if someone got her head bit off.

"Don't keep the girls with missing heads around. I am a good doctor, but not that good." I asked the nurses, who nodded at me with bleak eyes. I began doing my rounds as a Fairy Doctor, dispensing drug-laced wine and Rebuild pills, and in one hour most of the injured Soldiers were back and ready to fight. Sadly, the empty beds filled with more injured as Blue Rose and Petunia recovered the newly injured women from the battlefield and brought them to me to get healed.

To be fair, using only Body Integration and higher realms in the Army did reduce the numbered of injured by an order of magnitude, and the shields and polearms also helped. If we used the old doctrine used by most sects, there would be half a million injured Flowers already, because Soul Transformation disciples were lacking both the strength and the training of stronger disciples.

I didn't return to the battlefield, instead staying in my role as a Fairy Doctor, healing the injured women as they came, sometimes twice or thrice in the same day. A beast tide had enormous numbers, if not the actual skills and techniques of a human cultivator. As long things remained like this, the beast tide will become quite profitable. I drank some Indigo Wine and smiled as my maid Ruo appeared on a bed, with four long gashes over her face and chest.

"Does it hurt?" I asked my maid while pouring wine and pills into her mouth. She nodded and blinked away a few tears.

"Then dodge or use a shield, next time." I grumbled and spanked her ass as the wounds closed and the love drugs converted pain into pleasure. Ruo moaned and looked at me with lovey-dovey eyes.

"Young Master..." she muttered before she vanished. Green Willow appeared beside me and hugged my arm.

"We're rotating the Sages and Saints with fresh ones, and Blue Rose went back to rest and recharge her qi. Do you need some time off?" she asked in a warm voice, while pointing at some empty beds and bringing new patients. I smiled and grabbed her ass for a second.

"I'm good for a month at this rate. But, the Rebuild pills are slowly running out. Tell the Armies to keep a thigther shield wall, and bring more Saints if available. We need to reduce the numbers of injured." I asked in my medical voice. A qi cascade laced with snow bounced off my Sword Domain, as Snowdrop appeared over the battlefield.

"Snowdrop is helping too, slowing down the beasts. But if you say more Saints, you got it." Willow said with a smile and vanished. However, this time I almost saw her move, likely a sign I was also getting stronger. Probably I needed two more levels to my cultivation until I could truly match a weak Dao King, but I was getting closer. I kept doing my rounds, passing by each sick bed to offer healing, and sometimes grab a boob by accident. Perks of the job, of course.

"Fairy Doctor... my arm!" a maimed woman yelled, showing me her bit off left arm. I stepped beside her and fed her some love wine, washing away the pain. Then I tried to take out a Rebuild pill and found nothing. Damn.

"Sit back and relax, Soldier. You're not going back to fight for now. No more Rebuild pills." I said with a sad voice, then handed over a hundred wine jars the the nearest nurse.

"Only wine for now. Use healing pills to stabilize the wounds, or just burn them closed."

"Yes, doctor!" My Saint nurse spoke with a grim voice, as I walked into an empty room and took out my Alchemy cauldron. Should have prepared more Rebuild pills, to be fair. I focused too much on new and experimental pills, but in truth my Flowers needed millions of Rebuild pills for their basic Soldiers. Lesson learned. Luoli appeared beside me and read the situation with a single glance. Then she sat down and began refining pills as well.

"You can't save everyone, Pef Tian. To be honest, for a beast tide of this size, the loses are miniscule already." my wife whispered while slicing off a Tier 5 beast's spine and preparing herbs nearby for her own Rebuild pills. She was right, but I could have done better.

"We'll need millions of those pills. Luckily, there are millions of Tier 5 beasts around as well." I muttered while focusing my attention on the cauldron. We kept making pills for weeks, until Luoli yelped.

"A Supreme pill! Husband, look! I also made a Supreme one." she gloated loudly. Ding! My cauldron chimed too, but the smell was nicer. Purer. I opened the lid and held out 17 Supreme and 2 Pure-grade Tier 5 pills.

"Look wife! Two Pure-grade pills! I must be getting better with all this practice." I said with a bit or sarcasm. Luoli growled and went outside to heal some unfortunate Soldier. Or just cry without being seen. Maybe both.