Within the mists, the yellow-browed cultivator and his alliesâ vision were just as limited.
However, he was a cut above the rest of his comrades in level. His eyes were fixated on the waters, looking for any sign of unrest with his consciousness.
Everyone else found his sudden change of expression rather odd. They followed his gaze into the distance. Aside from the hazy tendrils that obscured their view, they could just barely make out a roiling wave upon the sea.
âWhatâs that?â someone asked curiously.
âA wave of some sort, but a rather strange one. Thereâs no wind around to whip it up, and it seems to be moving all by itself.â
The yellow-browed cultivator fell silent. After some more observation, he suddenly intoned in a low voice, âLook alive, everyone. There may be something more to this than meets the eye.â
His comrades bore a natural antipathy toward the yellow-browed cultivator. They didnât seem to care much about what he had to say.
âItâs just a wave,â someone openly disagreed. âWhat more could it be? At the most itâs some sea-bound creature making its way about its domain.â
The yellow-browed cultivator wasnât so optimistic. âThe way that wave is moving, it canât possibly be a normal sea creature. At minimum, it would be a god in its own right. No empyrean realm existence can possibly cause such a ruckus.â
âHeh, so what? We have six gods here, plus a large array of demigods. What can a sea monster do?â
âExactly, fellow daoist. Why the overreaction?â
The yellow-browed cultivatorâs lips trembled. His yellow brows pressed together.
His eyes were much better than a normal cultivatorâs. When the wave cut nearer and nearer, he yelped. âNot good! Thereâs something strange going on. Ready yourselves for a fight!â
Hardly anyone took him seriously. They believed him to be doomsaying.
âYellow-browed daoist,â one man laughed, âarenât you a bit overstressed recently? You think a sea creature can take on all of us gods at once?â
âBullshit!â
The yellow-browed cultivator swore. âWho told you that was only a sea creature? Are you all blind? Canât you see what it looks like? The airboats parked upon its back? Canât you see the cultivators hovering over it?â
That got everyoneâs attention.
Alas, when these described views came into focus for the others, they began to panic. The ten forefathers were already mobilized in flight as streaks of light.
Jiang Chen remained atop the Black Tortoiseâs back as the commander of the remaining experts. The hardest fighting would be left up to the divine forefathers.
Defense was more a priority for the rest of them. Who knew exactly how many forces had been mobilized?
At the same time, he keenly observed every detail around the exit.
As expected, there was a formation here â though the people who were supposed to be controlling it were lackadaisically slacking. This was a golden opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
âSeniors, attack according to what we decided. We break the formation first, then slay the enemies!â
Only by breaking the formation could they successfully escape. Neutralizing the enemy came second.
The formation barely had time to whir to life before being smashed to smithereens by the ten forefathers in the fullness of their strength.
When a gap opened up, the formationâs protectors finally snapped awake and scrambled to repair it.
Unfortunately for them, the forefathersâ fighting spirits ran at their highest. The defenders were undermanned and unprepared.
A bloody battle began near the exit.
As veterans of the offworld battlefield, the forefathers fought with nearly perfect teamwork and synergy. They had an obvious battle plan without verbally communicating.
As soon as the formation was broken, they focused fire upon two of the enemy gods.
These two had been especially careless earlier. They were woefully off-guard, and were targeted because of it.
At the exit, the ten sacred lands had a clear edge in manpower. Ten gods was decisively greater than six. Plus, their targeted assault yielded dividends very quickly.
The ten gods crushed the defenses of enemy two.
The other gods wanted to rush forward and help, but found they couldnât.
The two targeted cultivators were quite capable, but they were barely able to use a tenth of their powers before being cornered.
It was at this time that a white light suddenly surged upward from the waters. A waterspout swallowed up one of the divine cultivators.
A clear shriek rang from the heavens, heralding a streak of dive-bombing crimson. A humongous claw captured the remaining god, then crushed him into a storm of flesh and blood amid a howl of pain.
The Black Tortoise and Vermilion Bird had launched this joint attack in order to steal the divine brands of these two cultivators. Each god obtained their own brand when attaining divine realm.
It was difficult to guarantee where these two particular brands would end up if the field fell into chaos.
Jiang Chen mitigated this by being the quickest to land the final blow. The sacred beasts had taken advantage of a fleeting window.
The sudden demise of a third of the enemiesâ gods was astonishing, to say the least. The yellow-browed cultivator became the de facto leader of the rest in this spontaneous crisis.
The three other gods looked sadly toward their sharper-eyed fellow, no longer in doubt about his perception any longer. They hoped to find confidence from his expression.
Alas, their leader only snickered in response. âI warned you earlier, but none of you took me seriously. Now that things have come to this... best of luck!â