A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Chapter 463 Strange Movements of the Demon Clan

Crimson Flame Immortal—he attempted to activate the island's protective array, but was surrounded and attacked by three transformed demon cultivators. Outnumbered, he was already—

"They've already perished!" The old man's voice trembled as he finished speaking, his eyes filled with fear.

"A golden dragon? A member of the dragon clan?" Jin Kui's eyes flashed, and he pressed, "Are you sure? Are you sure it's a golden dragon? What other demon clans are involved?"

"Yes—yes, this junior could not have been mistaken. That golden dragon was a hundred feet long and its power was overwhelming. In addition to the dragon, there were also a large number of poisonous dragons, turtle demons, sea apes, and countless low-level sea beasts—they cooperated perfectly, as if they had planned it all along." Another Core Formation cultivator who escaped added.

Jin Kui and the Yin-Yang Elder not far away exchanged a glance, both seeing the solemnity in each other's eyes.

The Jiaolong clan is one of the royal families among the alien sea monsters, possessing formidable strength. However, their main habitat is in the distant "Black Abyss Sea," near the edge of the legendary "Sea Abyss," extremely far from the area where Thunder Sky Island is located. How could they suddenly appear here in such large numbers?

The Yin-Yang Elder spoke in a clear, cold voice: "Before I came here, I also received news that several small islands hundreds of thousands of miles north of Silver Shark Island were also attacked by an unknown demon race, resulting in heavy casualties. But strangely, the attacks were concentrated in the northern sea area, while the eastern and southern areas remained calm."

"If it were truly a full-scale holy war launched by the demon race, it should have spread in all directions and advanced simultaneously. The current situation—it seems more like something extraordinary has appeared or some unforeseen event has occurred in the waters near Thunder Sky Island, prompting the dragon race to travel across the ocean to clear the area."

Jin Kui nodded slowly, taking over the conversation in a low voice: "Fellow Daoist Yin Yang is right. The demon race's actions are far from ordinary looting. They seem to be searching for something, or—covering up something. We must find out what exactly happened on Thunder Sky Island!"

In the following days, the atmosphere on Silver Shark Island grew increasingly tense. Scattered cultivators who had fled from the waters around Thunder Sky Island brought more fragmented but chilling news: the demon army had not immediately marched south after capturing Thunder Sky Island, but seemed to be entrenched in Thunder Sky Island and the surrounding waters.

Occasionally, spies sent by the Star Palace and the Reverse Star Alliance would go to investigate, but most of them disappeared without a trace.

Panic gripped the island. If it weren't for the presence of three Nascent Soul cultivators—Jin Kui, the Yin-Yang Elder, and Luo Ming—as well as Yuan Yao, whose aura had stabilized after successfully forming her Nascent Soul and emerging from seclusion, many cultivators would have already been unable to contain themselves and wanted to flee this dangerous place, heading towards the Inner Star Sea.

Time flies, and half a year has passed.

The anticipated massive southward advance of the demon army did not occur; instead, the northern seas fell into an eerie calm. But this calm was all the more unsettling. Several elite spies dispatched by the Star Palace and the Reverse Star Alliance had all disappeared without a trace.

On this day, in a makeshift, simple cave dwelling in the central part of Thunder Sky Island, filled with demonic energy.

A short, stout man, less than five feet tall, with an unusually large head and eyes like copper bells, was sitting cross-legged on a rough stone bed.

He had just tossed a golden pill the size of a pigeon egg, gleaming with golden light and faintly showing tiny, distorted, wailing faces, into his mouth. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed it. Then he closed his eyes, a faint blood-red light emanating from his body, and began to refine it.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, licked his thick lips, and a cruel and satisfied smile appeared on his face: "Tsk tsk, it's still more refreshing to directly devour the golden cores of these human cultivators! It's a pity that the human cultivators on this island have been almost all eaten up, and what's left are all ugly and deformed ones—" A trace of greed and expectation flashed in his eyes.

"I heard that Lord Golden Flood Dragon King is planning to attack Silver Shark Island? Hehe, if we can conquer Silver Shark Island, there are many human cultivators there, and maybe—maybe I can break through the bottleneck and advance to level nine!" Thinking of the wonderful idea, he couldn't help but chuckle.

This short, stout, and burly man was none other than the giant octopus demon cultivator who had fought Luo Ming when he first entered the outer star sea, and who had been severely injured by Luo Ming's thunderous methods, but who had ultimately escaped using a secret technique! Judging from his aura, he seemed to be stronger than before, having reached the peak of the early stage of transformation.

Just as he was immersed in the fantasy of devouring human golden cores and advancing to the ninth level—

The savage grin on the short, fat, and burly man's face suddenly froze, his copper-bell-like eyes widened abruptly, and a chill ran from his tailbone straight to the top of his head!

"Human cultivators?! Such powerful divine sense! Could it be that Silver Shark Island has sent spies again? No—this level of divine sense—" He instantly realized that this was no ordinary spy!

"Run!" Without the slightest hesitation, the short, stout man shot into the sky like a cannonball, crashing through the cave's roof, about to transform into a streak of blue light and flee into the deep sea. Whoever came, someone possessing such terrifying divine sense was definitely not someone he could handle!

However, he had just rushed out of the cave and was still in mid-air when he was abruptly stopped.

Three figures were now silently floating in the sky outside his cave.

One of the men, dressed in the robes of a Star Palace elder, had a dignified face and an aura as deep as the sea; it was Jin Kui.

A young man in a green robe fluttered in the wind. His calm eyes carried an invisible pressure. It was Luo Ming, whom he both hated and feared to the core.

There was another person, dressed in white robes, with an exceptionally beautiful appearance and captivating charm in his eyes, yet he exuded a spiritual pressure no less powerful than the previous two, which was none other than the Yin-Yang Elder.

"Jin—Jin Kui! Luo Ming!" The short, fat, and burly man instantly recognized two of them, his face turning deathly pale in an instant, as if his soul had left his body!

Elder Jin Kui's reputation was renowned among the demons of the outer seas; and Luo Ming had left him with a deep psychological scar.

As for that beautiful female cultivator, although he didn't know her, her immense spiritual pressure was undeniable, making her another formidable figure he couldn't afford to offend!

How did these three manage to sneak up on his hideout so quietly? The short, fat, and burly man was terrified, his body flashing with blue light, ready to use his Blood Escape Technique to escape at any cost.

"Hehe, fellow Daoists, how about I play with this little octopus? It's been a long time since I've come to this open sea to stretch my muscles. Today is a good day to loosen up my bones." The Yin-Yang Elder covered her mouth and chuckled coquettishly, her voice sweet and seductive, yet her movements were as fast as a ghost.

With a seemingly casual wave of her snow-white sleeve, three streaks of blood-red light shot out like serpents emerging from their holes!

Those were not magical artifacts, but rather three incredibly solid, malevolent, and life-giving phantoms of blood pythons. They were incredibly fast, ignoring the protective demonic light hastily erected by the short, fat, and burly man, and directly entered his body as if they were illusions!

"Ugh—!" The short, fat, and burly man trembled violently and let out a shrill scream. His demonic aura instantly dissipated, and the blood escape light that had just lit up went out like a candle that had been extinguished.

A moment later, the giant octopus demon cultivator, who had been so ferocious just moments before, fell to the ground like a lump of mud. His aura was extremely weak, his eyes were dull, and most of his once powerful blood and energy had been lost in a short period of time!

"Alright, this little fellow has been subdued by my Three Yin Blood-Devouring Curse. His qi, blood, and soul have all been eroded by the curse's power, so he won't wake up for a while and can't pull off any tricks. I'll leave the soul-searching to you two."

The old man clapped his hands, as if he had only done a trivial thing, and said with a smile.

Looking at the pitiful state of the short, fat, and burly man on the ground, Luo Ming felt even more apprehensive about the Yin-Yang Elder's unpredictable and vicious methods.

Jin Kui's gaze also narrowed slightly as he gave the Yin-Yang Elder a deep look before walking up to the dying giant octopus demon cultivator with a grim face. He then placed his palm on the crown of the man's head and began the soul search.

A moment later, the information obtained through soul searching revealed the truth about the beast tide to the three of them.

The incident began a year ago. A demon cultivator from the Jiaolong clan, who had transformed into human form, accidentally discovered traces of activity by several human Core Formation cultivators near an inconspicuous deserted island in the extremely remote sea area north of Thunder Sky Island.

Driven by curiosity, they secretly followed the island and discovered that beneath the deserted island lay a spirit stone mine with astonishing reserves and extremely high quality!

The dragon clan immediately set their sights on monopolizing it. Spirit stone mines, especially those that are likely mid-grade or even high-grade, are an irresistible temptation for any power.

They immediately took action, intending to silence them and seize the mine. Unexpectedly, among the human Core Formation cultivators, one was exceptionally slippery, possessing some rare escape technique or unique long-distance escape magic treasure. He managed to escape from the pursuit of the early-stage Transformation stage demon cultivator and fled south all the way back to Thunder Sky Island, where a human Nascent Soul cultivator was stationed.

Seeing that their secret might be exposed, the Flood Dragon Clan acted decisively, no longer concealing their actions. They mobilized all the high-level demon forces they could muster from the nearby seas and launched a thunderous attack on Thunder Sky Island! Their goal was not only to silence witnesses but also to completely block the news, slaughter all possible humans in the area who might know about it, and buy themselves time to monopolize and secretly mine the giant spirit stone mine!

The Yin-Yang Elder's beautiful eyes flashed with cold light, and her voice was icy, "In order to monopolize a mine, they actually went so far as to launch such a large-scale purge, even causing the Red Fire Master to fall—it seems that the reserves and quality of that mine are probably more astonishing than we imagined."

Jin Kui nodded slowly and said in a deep voice, "Judging from the fragments of this demon cultivator's memories, a lot of mid-grade spirit stones have been found in that mine, and even—there are traces of high-grade spirit stones. This is rare in the Chaotic Star Sea in the past thousand years. No wonder the Flood Dragon Clan is so crazy."

Listening to their analysis, Luo Ming sighed inwardly. That mine—he knew its details better than anyone else. It was the very rich mine he had secretly mined years ago!

Over the years, he had either been in seclusion or trapped, and with an abundance of spirit stones, he hadn't paid any attention to it. Unexpectedly, the demon race eventually discovered him, leading to such a calamity.

"Such a large piece of fat meat cannot all end up in the bellies of the demon race," the Yin-Yang Elder said with a glint in his eyes.