I run a casino in the immortal realm.

Zheng Yifei took the lead, his Embroidered Spring Blade transforming into a black blade of light several dozen feet long, slashing fiercely into the dense horde of sea beasts ahead.

"boom--"

A violent burst of spiritual energy exploded, instantly tearing more than a dozen giant sea crabs, each the size of a small mountain, into pieces, their foul-smelling blue-green blood shooting into the sky.

"kill!"

Following behind him were four hundred Nascent Soul stage cultivators who had formed a cone-shaped battle formation.

These four hundred people did not fight individually, but formed small groups of five and large groups of fifty, with their spiritual energy linked together.

In mid-air, the auras of these four hundred people converged into an invisible giant dagger, directly piercing through the frontal defenses of the sea monster army.

This was a one-sided massacre with no suspense whatsoever.

Although the number of sea beasts is as high as tens of millions, the vast majority of them are low-level first- or second-tier demon beasts that have not yet developed intelligence, relying only on instinct and size.

Faced with four hundred well-armed and perfectly coordinated Nascent Soul stage cultivators, the scales and hard shells that these low-level sea beasts were so proud of were no better than paper in the face of the Embroidered Spring Blade and magic weapons.

Li Jianfeng, Ouyang Zhan, and Wang Changsheng each led a hundred men, like three steel combs, sweeping through the dense formation of sea beasts.

Wherever it went, severed limbs and broken arms fell like raindrops.

At the same time, Xu Tianyang and his son led 150 elite troops to break in from the flank.

They don't fight tough battles; instead, they target the large, third- and fourth-tier sea monster leaders who are trying to organize a counterattack.

A single, fatal blow, without hesitation.

In just half an hour, mountains of sea beast corpses floated on the sea outside Yuanyang Prefecture.

The originally murky seawater has been completely dyed a glaring dark red.

The pungent smell of blood, carried by the sea breeze, wafted into the city, making people nauseous.

Without the command of the mid-level leaders, and fearing the mass slaughter of their kind ahead, the lower-level sea beasts' instincts finally overwhelmed the orders that drove them to attack the city.

"Waaah—"

One of the sea beasts let out a mournful cry, and the sea beasts in the front row began to turn and flee.

This rout spread rapidly like a plague, and the sea monster army that had surrounded Yuanyang Prefecture City like an iron barrel collapsed with a roar.

Tens of millions of sea creatures desperately retreated towards the East China Sea, and countless ones trampled each other to death.

As the sea monsters retreated, the flooded seawater lost the support of demonic power and began to flow back eastward along the terrain.

The floodwaters that had blocked Yuanyang Prefecture receded at a visible speed, revealing a devastated landscape.

"We won! We're conceding!"

On the city wall, the defending soldiers erupted in a deafening cheer.

But Zheng Yifei did not back down.

He hovered in mid-air, his gaze fixed on the east.

The communication jade slip of the Night Owl lit up before half an incense stick had burned, locking onto the true commander of this sea monster tide.

"Leave one hundred men to assist in defending the city and cleaning up the mess. The rest of you, follow me!"

Zheng Yifei changed direction and led three hundred elite Nascent Soul cultivators, skimming along the receding seawater, sped eastward.

Three hundred li east of Yuanyang Prefecture, there is a huge reed marsh with a radius of several hundred li, called Heitiandang.

This place was originally a freshwater lake, but it has now been completely submerged by seawater.

Deep within Heitiandang, the water's surface was eerily calm.

Ouyang Tian and Wang Changsheng were leading dozens of array masters, lying in ambush in the mud and water.

Within a radius of dozens of miles around them, one hundred and eight black array flags had been driven deep into the ground, their array patterns hidden beneath the water.

This is the sixth-order killing formation, the Dragon Trapping Formation.

"They're here."

Ouyang Tian's eyes narrowed, and his hands quickly formed a hand seal.

On the distant water, a black line of water was rapidly approaching this side.

Ahead of the waterline, the owl, like a black phantom skimming the water's surface, was frantically fleeing. He had a deep, bone-revealing wound on his left arm, from which blood dripped continuously.

Pursuing relentlessly behind the night owl was a terrifying monster over thirty feet long, with six thick arms, a human-like upper body and a snake-like lower body.

A sixth-tier sea beast, a six-armed Naga of the deep sea, this monster's aura has already reached the early stage of the Void Refinement realm of a human cultivator.

"Charge!"

The moment the owl rushed past its designated position, Ouyang Tian roared and slammed his hands down.

"boom!"

One hundred and eight array flags simultaneously burst forth with dazzling yellow light, and a semi-transparent, earthy-yellow light shield shot into the sky, like an inverted bowl, completely sealing off the waters within a ten-mile radius.

The six-armed Naga slammed into the light barrier, unleashing a deafening roar. The barrier shook violently, but managed to hold its ground.

"Let's do it!"

Zheng Yifei, Li Jianfeng, Ouyang Zhan, and Xu Tianyang, who had been lying in ambush, launched an attack from four directions at the same time.

Li Jianfeng's blade, Ouyang Zhan's spear, and Xu Tianyang's flying sword, carrying the full power of the late-stage Nascent Soul realm, slammed into the back of the six-armed Naga.

"roar--!"

The six-armed Naga let out a painful roar as large chunks of flesh on its back were blasted open by the scales.

However, the sixth-order demon beast was extremely resilient. It suddenly turned around, its six thick arms wielding six giant tridents formed from deep-sea cold iron, whipping up a sky full of water blades as it counterattacked the four.

This was an extremely brutal close-quarters combat.

Zheng Yifei did not use any magic. He gripped the Embroidered Spring Blade tightly with both hands, pushed the Five Elements Primordial Technique to its limit, and charged head-on at the six-armed Naga.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The blade and the trident clashed violently. With each strike, Zheng Yifei felt his arms go numb and his blood surge within him.

The power of a sixth-tier demon beast is terrifying. If he hadn't been constantly using top-grade resources to temper his body, an ordinary mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator would have had their internal organs shattered long ago.

The battle lasted for a full hour.

Li Jianfeng and the other two were all injured, and the Six-Armed Naga was covered in blood, with two of her six arms severed.

Zheng Yifei's condition is the worst.

His spiritual energy was greatly depleted, and the mouth of his hand was completely split open. But the light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

While enduring the relentless attacks of the six-armed Naga, the stagnant Five Elements spiritual power within his body, under the immense pressure of life and death, began to spontaneously compress and rotate wildly.

He suddenly realized something.

Breakthroughs in developing the five spiritual roots require more than just a vast amount of resources. Secluded meditation and absorbing countless amounts of spiritual energy only achieve quantitative change. To achieve qualitative change, this spiritual energy must be tempered and refined in extreme circumstances, using the pressure of life and death to forcibly break through that barrier.

Fighting is the only way for him to break through!

"Again!"

Zheng Yifei laughed wildly and advanced instead of retreating. He abandoned all defense and poured all the spiritual power he had compressed to the limit into the blade.

A cruel glint flashed in the eyes of the six-armed Naga, and the remaining four tridents simultaneously pierced towards Zheng Yifei's chest.

Just as the trident was about to pierce Zheng Yifei.

"Buzz—"

A powerful aura, several times stronger than before, suddenly erupted from Zheng Yifei's body. The surrounding spiritual energy seemed to be drawn towards him, forming a huge vortex of spiritual energy above his head.

Late stage of Nascent Soul!

The spiritual energy boost from the breakthrough in battle instantly repaired his damaged meridians.

Zheng Yifei's speed suddenly doubled, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow, and his body moved like a ghost into the arms of the six-armed Naga.

"die!"

The Embroidered Spring Blade transformed into a black streak, piercing upwards and directly into the six-armed Naga's soft ribs, where there were no scales, reaching straight to her forehead.

The violent blade energy exploded inside the six-armed Naga's head.

Its massive body stiffened for a moment before crashing heavily into the water, creating a towering wave.

The sixth-tier sea beast is dead.