I'll make you the furnace and the cauldron, so you can refine Yin and Yang and prove the Great

Within the short time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the sea changed from dark blue to churning ink. The waves surged and churned like boiling water, and at the crests of the waves emerged dense, dark outlines—the backs and heads of sea monsters, rising layer upon layer from the deep sea, like a churned black carpet spreading out towards the islands.

The first to rush ashore were a large number of crustacean sea beasts the size of calves. They waved their sickle-shaped forelimbs and climbed the reefs like surging tides. Each of them exuded a demonic aura comparable to the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

Following closely behind was a group of even larger serpentine sea beasts. They raised their heads from the waves, their mouths filled with dark blue water. Each spit drew an arc as it landed on the surface of the island's defensive array, creating concentric ripples.

Shen Yun's voice, amplified by spiritual energy, resounded throughout the entire island: "Defensive formation! Lightning spells prioritize attack, talisman masters prepare support, do not linger in battle!"

Her voice pierced through the sea breeze and the roars of beasts, like a steel needle hurled and precisely piercing the eardrums of every disciple.

Dozens of disciples from the Purple Thunder Pavilion quickly dispersed on the stone fortresses and towers around the island, each taking up their pre-assigned defensive positions.

Shen Qingyue was assigned to the tower in the southeast corner of the island, where the view was expansive, covering most of the eastern reef. Li Hanshan stood beside her, holding a standard-issue flying sword he had taken from his storage ring, suppressing his cultivation to the mid-Nascent Soul stage.

The first wave of the beast tide crashed into the edge of the defensive formation.

The forelimbs of the shelled sea beasts struck the array wall with dull thuds, like hailstones pounding on thick wooden planks. Simultaneously, the disciples of the Purple Thunder Pavilion unleashed their first wave of spells from the windows of the stone fortress and tower—dark purple lightning, like ignited vines, rapidly spread along the surface of the array wall, engulfing the climbing shelled sea beasts in an electric net.

Wherever the lightning passed, the sound of shells shattering was as dense as raindrops, and pieces of charred debris peeled off the array walls and crashed into the surging waves below.

Li Hanshan also made his move, his flying sword transforming into a streak of purple-gold light, cutting into the densest area of ​​the beast tide from the side of the tower. Wherever the sword light swept, the heads of sea beasts fell one after another like severed blades of grass.

He maintained continuous damage output with minimal spiritual energy consumption, his flying sword cutting into the weakest point of the monster, like an experienced butcher dissecting an ox.

Not far from him, on a reef, an exceptionally large crustacean had just climbed to the edge of the defensive wall, its scythe-shaped forelimbs already touching the weakest point on the surface of the wall.

Li Hanshan's flying sword silently cut in from the side, precisely piercing the gap in the soft armor between the sea beast's forelimbs and torso.

The sea beast let out a short hiss as its massive body slid off the array wall and crashed into the surging waves below, creating a splash. The entire attack and its resolution took no more than three breaths.

Shen Qingyue's gaze caught the purple-gold sword light. She watched as Li Hanshan retrieved his flying sword from beside the giant sea beast with clean, swift movements, as if he were merely brushing away a speck of dust from a windowsill. Her voice carried a hint of astonishment that she herself couldn't fully conceal: "Senior, that sword strike you just unleashed... was that the kind of effect a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator could produce?"

Li Hanshan landed back on the rocky platform at the edge of the tower, his flying sword hovering beside him, trembling slightly. "Luckily, that sword strike landed precisely on the thinnest part of its carapace."

He didn't offer any further explanation, his gaze already fixed on the next surging wave of beasts. Shen Qingyue glanced at him, not pressing for answers, but a thoughtful glint flashed in her clear eyes.

Just as she was preparing to rejoin the battle, a deafening roar came from the eastern sea. A sea beast covered in dark blue scales and shaped like a giant crocodile rose suddenly from the waves. It was several times larger than the surrounding sea beasts, and the demonic energy swirling around it was as thick as a mountain. Every breath it took carried a strong water elemental power that evaporated into white mist in the air.

Its cultivation had suddenly reached the threshold of the mid-stage of the fifth rank (Nascent Soul), and dark blue demonic power flowed endlessly around it, like a reef that had been moved from the seabed. It opened its huge mouth, and a dark blue beam of light as thick as a water tank shot out from its mouth, directly hitting the highest defensive array eye in the center of the island.

Shen Yun's figure cut in from the side of the path of the dark blue pillar of light, her deep purple dress fluttering in the sea breeze.

She wasn't holding a sword, but rather a talisman that crackled with dark purple lightning, which she activated the moment she approached the giant crocodile.

The talisman shattered in her palm, transforming into a silver-purple lightning bolt several times thicker than her body. Enveloped in the pure lightning power unleashed by a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, it struck precisely inside the giant crocodile's open mouth. The lightning bolt pierced through the crocodile's mouth, exiting from the back of its head, leaving a straight silver-purple trail in the twilight before dissipating on the sea surface hundreds of feet away. The giant crocodile's massive body froze in place for a few breaths, then tilted forward like a felled tree, crashing into the sea and creating waves tens of feet high. Its dark blue scales cracked and scorched like spiderwebs under the impact of the lightning bolt.

After defeating the giant crocodile, Shen Yun was about to retreat back into the formation when three more figures, just as large as the giant crocodile, suddenly rose from the sea and rushed towards her location from three directions in a fan shape.

The dark blue beams of demonic energy intertwined with the dark green venom to form a dense attack net, sealing off all her escape routes.

Standing atop the tower, Li Hanshan's Void Refinement level divine sense clearly perceived the weight and speed of the three auras. His fingers tightened slightly on the hilt of the flying sword, then loosened again.

He suppressed the urge to strike, but his gaze remained fixed on Shen Yun, like a bowman holding a bowstring but not releasing it, waiting for the right moment to make his move.

Just before the three attacks were about to converge, Shen Yun simultaneously took out two sixth-order purple lightning talismans from her sleeve, one in each hand, and activated them at the same instant.

Two silver-purple lightning bolts, like fuses lit simultaneously, crossed and exploded in front of her, blocking all three attacks. The collision of lightning and demonic power unleashed a blinding shockwave, sending waves dozens of feet high into the sea, sweeping away all the low-level sea beasts climbing the defensive array. Using the force of the shockwave, Shen Yun leaped backward dozens of feet, landing inside the defensive array. Fine arcs of electricity, scorched by lightning, still lingered on the edge of her deep purple skirt, flickering a few times in the twilight before extinguishing.

After she regained her footing, she looked at the sea, a growing sense of solemnity flashing in her eyes.

The beast tide not only didn't decrease, but instead surged forward at an accelerated pace, like a disturbed tide. Those sea beasts that had been driven back continued to climb through the gaps between the corpses of their companions, one after another, seemingly without end. Her voice carried on the wind: "This beast tide is more ferocious than any before; its density far exceeds the normal patterns of beast tides."

Before she could finish her judgment, a deep, almost shattering hum came from the depths of the sea. The hum did not come from the mouth of any particular monster, but rose simultaneously from beneath the entire sea surface, like an invisible tide sweeping over the boundaries of everyone's hearing.

Li Hanshan felt the sword of divine souls in his sea of ​​consciousness tremble violently. The silvery-gray halo of light shone slightly when it touched the edge of the buzzing sound, like fine ripples spreading across the surface of a lake after a stone has been thrown in. However, his protective aura only flickered for a moment under the impact of the buzzing sound before stabilizing.

He turned to look at Shen Qingyue beside him. Her body had gone limp in that instant, her eyes barely open, but she could no longer stand.

She swayed and leaned against the edge of the tower's stone wall, trying to grab something to steady herself. Her fingers traced a few weak marks on the stone surface before falling to the ground. Li Hanshan reached out and supported her shoulders, gently laying her flat on the rocky platform inside the tower. After confirming that she had only been knocked unconscious and was not in mortal danger, he turned around again.

The disciples fighting on the island fell in droves like felled wheat. The light of the defensive formation flickered under the continuous, buzzing impact, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on its surface as it disintegrated at a visible speed.

Shen Yun stood at the center of the formation, her deep purple dress clinging to her body from the impact of the sound waves. Her face was as pale as paper, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. The spiritual light of the sixth-order purple lightning talisman in her hand, which had not yet been activated, had dimmed by more than half, but she still maintained a defensive posture.

Li Hanshan leaped down from the tower and landed beside her. He could sense the direction from which the sound wave came—a shadow was slowly rising in the center of the sea, like a volcano rising from the depths of the ocean. The pressure of the Void Refinement level had been released without reservation from its outline, forcing the surrounding waves to retreat to both sides, revealing a dark seabed that was churning.

The shadow's outline resembled a moving black mountain, with three pairs of scarlet eyes on its head, each blink causing a visible ripple in the surrounding air.

"A sixth-tier demonic beast!"

A look of deep surprise appeared on Shen Yun's face.

The beast tide hadn't even started for long, yet sixth-order Void Refinement level demonic beasts had already appeared!