Nightfall draped a gentle silver veil over the Li Clan estate, nestled safely beneath the protective illusion array Li Xuan had woven earlier that previous night. Within a modest courtyard home at the edge of the compound, soft laughter drifted into the air—warm, real, alive.
Li Zheng, now restored to his former power after Li Xuan's pill and spiritual formation treatment, looked decades younger, vitality surging beneath his skin. His meridians pulsed with reawakened energy, and he now stood tall, his Foundation Establishment cultivation stabilized and growing again.
His mother, Lady Mei, radiant in a moon-white robe, had tears in her eyes as she sat beside her husband. The magical pill Li Xuan had given her had ignited her dormant spirit veins, lifting her cultivation to the 5th Layer of Foundation Establishment. Her eyes sparkled with pride as she looked at her son.
Even Li Xioran, his spirited younger sister, had broken through the 9th Layer of Qi Refinement, her aura blazing stronger than ever. She clutched her new spiritual sword with awe, a divine weapon her brother had handed her moments earlier—along with talismans, resources, and defensive charms she could barely believe existed.
And of course, there was Yuan Fei, Li Xuan's disciple, dutifully helping prepare the meal under his master's watchful eye.
Above the flickering flames of the outdoor fire pit, Li Xuan grilled strips of tender spiritual beast meat—richly marbled cuts from rare snow-horned deer and wind-clawed boars. Alongside them, spirit rice steamed softly in golden lotus bowls, flavored with roasted herbs that boosted qi circulation and calmed the soul.
His phoenix companion, the Starling Flame, perched serenely on a nearby roof, eyes glowing as it hummed with contentment. Occasionally, it snatched up a crisp piece of fire-roasted beast meat tossed its way.
"This…" Li Zheng said, sipping spiritual broth with shaking hands, "…feels like a dream."
Li Xuan smiled faintly. "Then it's one I won't let end."
For hours, they talked.
But as the moon climbed higher and the laughter began to fade, Li Xuan's eyes turned solemn.
"Finally. "The beast tide is coming."
The table went silent.
"I've seen the signs—rifts in the forest, corrupted qi, abnormal migration patterns. It's not natural. Something… or someone… is stirring the wilds."
"But the clan—" Lady Mei began.
"I've already cast several layers of protective and offensive formations," Li Xuan said. "One over this estate. One above the entire clan. And another, hidden, over the town itself. No energy leaks. No danger to civilians. The people will sleep peacefully—none of them will know just how close disaster came."
And so,
The moon was full.
Then… it vanished behind a cloud of smoke and wings.
From the far reaches of the surrounding wilds, the beasts came.
Growling. Howling. Roaring.
An army of monstrous forms: lightning-tusked elephants, shadow-scaled leopards, bone-armored ravagers, even a mutated cloud wyrm—its corrupted breath poison to the land.
The beast tide was no myth.
It was a storm of living fury.
But the town never saw it.
Because before the first claw touched soil near the borders, the arrays triggered.
BOOOOM.
A dome of moonlight surged up into the sky—silent, invisible to mortal eyes, but as solid as steel. The leading beasts slammed into it and were instantly vaporized by arcane runes etched in the air.
From their hidden spot at the edge of the woods, Li Xuan stood tall, his disciple beside him and the Starling Phoenix hovering above.
The beast tide kept coming. Stronger, angrier.
A Spirit Beast King emerged—half-scorpion, half-bull, bristling with corrosive venom and crimson eyes. It struck the barrier with a scream.
Li Xuan raised a finger.
"Fall."
The glyphs above the town ignited.
A spear of silver-blue flame—Moonfire Essence, refined and deadly—shot down, impaling the beast king through its core. It let out a final screech… then disintegrated into stardust.
None of the townspeople woke.
None saw the tide broken.
None saw the hundreds of beasts burned, the corrupted energy sealed away.
But every single person survived.
As dawn approached, the tide had shattered.
The remaining beasts scattered like frightened animals—and the malevolent force that had driven them fell silent, retreating into the shadows once more.
Li Xuan stood unmoving, scanning the distant peaks. He felt it.
This was only a test.
A prelude.
He turned to Yuan Fei and said quietly, "Let's return."
And with that, they vanished—light as moonlight, swift as wind—back toward the Li Clan, where a quiet household waited, none the wiser of the storm their son had stopped at the edge of the town
The morning after the beast tide passed, the skies over the Jade Pine Region were clear—unnaturally so. No trace of blood, no shattered homes, no death.
And that terrified those who had been watching.
Far to the east, atop a cold obsidian spire within the Black Serpent Sect, Elder Mo Tian slammed his palm into a jade table, shattering it into dust. His expression twisted in disbelief as he stared into the glowing surface of a divination mirror.
"What do you mean it failed?! Not a single life lost in the town?!"
The hooded disciple before him trembled. "The formation… it blocked everything, Elder. The beasts were repelled as if the heavens themselves sealed the place."
"Impossible!" Mo Tian growled. "That tide was meant to overwhelm a Nascent Soul cultivator's domain. Are you saying a backwater clan like the Li managed to survive without losses?"
"There's more…" the disciple hesitated. "The corruption that was growing near the old ruins—the one you said would awaken during the chaos… it's gone. Sealed."
Mo Tian's face darkened like a storm. "Someone interfered. Someone powerful. Someone… ancient."
In the Mistshroud Peaks, a crimson-robed figure sat cross-legged beneath a tree that bled silver sap. His eyes opened slowly, revealing irises of shifting flame and shadow.
"So the Nine Heavens Moon Sect isn't as dead as we believed," he murmured, voice like rustling parchment.
Behind him, a spirit crow landed silently.
"They used Dome-Class illusion and attack formations. Complex. Elegant. Defensive pulses carried ancient signatures—fragments of Moonlight Sword Intent and... Lunar Flame Essence."
The man's lips curled. "That style vanished four thousand years ago. This means... the inheritance has awakened."
He stood, and the ground beneath him sizzled.
"Find him."
Within the Iron Wind Sect, the Sect Leader, Grandmaster Lei Rong, listened with furrowed brows as his scouting envoy reported.
"We arrived hours after the beast tide should have hit. There was nothing left. The earth was scorched—ritual-grade destruction. No signs of death or damage among the civilians. Even the beasts' corpses were burned to ash and scattered."
Grandmaster Lei leaned forward.
"And the Li Clan?"
"They claim nothing happened. When questioned, their elders expressed confusion."
He tapped his fingers slowly on the armrest of his cloudsteel throne.
"Then someone protected them... someone who wants to stay hidden. That's more troubling than open war."
Back in the town itself, rumors were already beginning to spread.
Though no one had seen the fight, cultivators sensitive to spiritual energy had awakened during the night with pounding hearts and trembling hands.
Some claimed the moon itself had pulsed once, dimmed, then shone brighter than ever.
A traveling merchant whispered of waking from a nightmare where a flaming bird screamed across the sky.
Children swore they heard a voice saying, "You are safe. Sleep."
And deep below the Li Clan's underground vaults, the remnants of a skeletal hand, once stirring with malevolent qi, now lay sealed beneath ten layers of Moonlight Arrays—each one branded with the mark of the Nine Heavens.
It could no longer move.
Nor whisper.
Nor call.
Within the Li Clan, Li Xuan meditated beneath a pine tree at his family courtyard, his phoenix companion perched quietly behind him.
He could feel it now.
The tide was only a prelude. A warning.
But more than that, his enemies were stirring—sect elders, hidden forces, perhaps even the remnants of those who once destroyed his new sect.
Good.
Let them come.
He would not run again.
Let them peer into the Nine Heavens… and find nothing but their own doom.
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