From the start, the guard never considered Liu Wuxie and He Yingwu a threat.
However, the sudden attack caught him entirely off guard, and by the time he reacted, it was already too late. A fierce blade aura tore through the astral wind and slashed toward him with unstoppable force.
He raised his sword in a desperate attempt to block, relying on his advantage as a sixth-level Transcendent Realm cultivator.
The instant the Heretic Blade met his sword, however, his expression changed. In that brief moment, he realized that he had gravely underestimated Liu Wuxie's combat strength and the terrifying quality of the Heretic Blade.
With a sharp crack, the sword in his hand shattered into a spray of fragments. The blade aura did not slow; it continued its descent, cleaving through his neck in a clean, merciless stroke. Blood sprayed into the air as his body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
One strike had ended him. Few believed someone at the sixth-level Heaven Profound Realm could decisively slay a sixth-level Transcendent Realm expert.
He Yingwu stood frozen in shock. He had always known Liu Wuxie was strong, but this display proved that his strength was already comparable to the higher levels of the Transcendent Realm in both true essence and mastery of laws.
"We're going to the warehouse," Liu Wuxie said calmly, stripping the guard's body of energy and laws as it shriveled into a pile of skin.
They took the key and the interspatial ring, moving without hurry toward the warehouse where they stored the raw stones.
Yu Wentai usually sent men each month to collect the stones, but with the beast horde approaching, no one had been coming here. As a result, nearly ten thousand raw stones filled the building.
With a wave of his hand, Liu Wuxie swept them all into his ring. Once cut, they would yield over a hundred thousand astral stones, a fortune even in the Astral Domain.
With their spoils secured, the two left for the surface. The beast horde was about to begin.
Back above ground, He Yingwu's gaze drifted toward the swarming astral beasts, a trace of unease in his eyes.
"Wuxie, what now? The beast horde will last about four hours, and by the time we walk back, it'll be over," he said, uneasy. They could never match the Astral Moon Birds in speed.
Liu Wuxie had already anticipated that. He brought two fingers to his lips and blew a sharp whistle. From a distance, the Astral Moon Bird he had tamed days ago appeared, its massive wings cutting through the air as it descended toward them.
"Let's go!" Liu Wuxie called, leaping onto its back.
He Yingwu followed, clutching tightly at its feathers. The bird, waiting for Liu Wuxie's command, rose swiftly into the sky. Astral winds buffeted them, forcing He Yingwu to squint against the rushing air.
After dozens of minutes in flight, the outline of the camp came into view. Below, a horde of astral beasts had breached the defenses and now wreaked havoc within.
Over the years, Yu Wentai strengthened the camp to resist ordinary astral beasts, but the Astral Moon Birds were different; they could soar over the walls with ease.
"Shoot them down!" Yu Wentai roared. Arrows hissed upward, their sharp points more than capable of piercing the birds' bodies. The air turned into a standoff—Astral Moon Birds circled in the skies while the Silverthunder Ant Beasts pressed their attack on the ground.
Tens of thousands of slaves fought desperately, weapons clashing and blood spraying as hundreds fell in the first exchange.
Fifteen minutes later, Liu Wuxie guided his bird into the camp's airspace.
"Yu Wentai reinforced the defenses. The beast horde this year won't be able to do much damage," He Yingwu said with a frown.
In the past, the horde inflicted heavy losses on the camp. Now, reinforced structures, spiritual arrays, and the slaves' efforts allowed them to hold their ground.
Yu Wentai stood on the castle walls, nearly a thousand crossbowmen arrayed below him with their weapons aimed skyward. The powerful bolts punched clean through an Astral Moon Bird's body.
But if the standoff dragged on, the beasts would retreat, ruining Liu Wuxie's plan. Once Yu Wentai learned of the guard's death at the Northern Foothill Mines, neither he nor He Yingwu would live.
Liu Wuxie began speaking in the beast language he had learned over the past few days, true beast taming through understanding rather than brute force.
The Astral Moon Birds froze mid-flight, hovering as they all turned their gaze toward their king. On the ground, even the other astral beasts paused to look up. The birds formed the aerial force, while the Silverthunder Ant Beasts and other creatures made up the ground troops, their movements perfectly coordinated.
Yu Wentai turned at the strange sound and narrowed his eyes when he spotted a familiar figure—Liu Wuxie, seated calmly atop the great bird.
"It's Liu Wuxie! How is he with the Astral Moon Birds?" Several slaves cried out in shock.
Chen Gang staggered at the sight. He thought Liu Wuxie was dead after more than a year in the mines. Yet here he was, stronger than before, commanding the Astral Moon Birds themselves.
"Kill him!" Yu Wentai roared, regret flooding his voice. He ought to have ended Liu Wuxie when he had the chance a month ago.
A volley of arrows hissed into the air, all aimed directly at Liu Wuxie. The deadly barrage formed a curtain so dense that escape seemed impossible.
At that critical moment, the Astral Moon Birds' king let out a commanding cry. Instantly, every bird in the flock gathered together, their wings beating in perfect unison.
The air erupted with a deafening roar as they unleashed a single, overwhelming gust of wind.
The birds had been flying in a loose formation, and their movements were uncoordinated. Now, their synchronization was flawless, and they created a storm so powerful that it swept toward the ground like a crashing wave.
"This is bad!" the guards shouted, realizing the danger far too late. The violent wind caught the arrows mid-flight, whipping them back toward the walls. The rain of steel tore through armor and flesh alike, felling guards where they stood.
In the span of heartbeats, half the defending force lay dead or writhing on the ground. The camp had never before seen such devastation.
Astral beasts typically fought in chaos, their low intelligence preventing organized assaults. But under Liu Wuxie's command, the Astral Moon Birds moved as one, an army in the sky.
Logic dictated that these creatures ought never to obey a human, but with their breeding season approaching and the prolonged battle taking its toll, they faced extinction if they failed to gather enough astral stones.
Though they guarded their mines, their beaks could not break raw stone, and improper excavation often triggered deadly cave-ins. Many had perished in such attempts.
Liu Wuxie had promised their king, speaking to it in the beasts' language, that he could help them secure the stones they needed. The king, not cunning in the way of men but still intelligent in its own right, accepted the offer without hesitation.
Directness appealed to the Astral Moon Birds, and Liu Wuxie's terms were simple as well as direct for them.
Seeing their attacks strike true, the flock cried out in unison, ready to follow his lead without question.
On the ground, the slaves began to pull back from the fighting. The deaths of so many guards sparked a dangerous hope. They could probably escape Anlu Star altogether.
"Those who don't want to die, pick up a weapon and fight!" Liu Wuxie's voice boomed across the battlefield. With a sweeping motion, he summoned thousands of weapons from the sky, plunder taken from dozens of interspatial rings in the Northern Foothill Mines.
The slaves hesitated. Years of servitude had dulled their will, and they feared Yu Wentai's wrath if he somehow managed to repel the beasts, yet a spark remained in some.
"What are you all hesitating for? Fight your way out!" a Heaven Profound Realm slave roared, seizing a longsword and charging straight for the castle gates. His cry ignited the others, and chaos exploded through the camp. Tens of thousands of slaves united and became a force capable of challenging the garrison.
With guards dead or occupied fighting the Astral Moon Birds, none spared attention for the uprising. The remaining soldiers retreated into the castle, bolstering their defenses and planning to crush the slaves only after the beast horde had passed.
The raw stone warehouse stood along the castle's flank, and over the years, they had heavily reinforced it to withstand even powerful beast assaults. To take it, the slaves would first have to seize the stronghold itself.
Hidden guards loosed occasional arrows from the shadows, but the birds' relentless gales made their efforts futile.
Several massive Astral Moon Birds attempted to smash through the castle walls, but Yu Wentai and his elites drove them back, and their agonized cries echoed loudly as they crashed to the ground.
Meanwhile, the gates groaned under the pounding of powerful astral beasts. Layered spiritual arrays and rare, resilient stone kept them standing. Slaves scaled the walls in desperate bids for entry, but arrows from above shot them down.
From his vantage in the sky, Liu Wuxie surveyed the battlefield with a cold gaze. His hands moved through intricate seals, summoning divine mythical force. A chilling power surged from the heavens, flooding the air around him.
Since refining the Divine Fruit, he could barely wield the Frost Mythical Art, and now, the battlefield below was about to feel its bite.