Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 162: Chapter 119: Taohuang, Tier Five Exotic Beast

Li Chang’an closed the group chat.

He silently opened the Linjiang Map and glanced over it. Cangxuan City was southwest of Bajia City, not too far away, with a Reincarnator city named Panhu City situated between them.

’I hope that so-called tree shadow is just a special Extraordinary Beast in a somnambulant state,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, Cangxuan City will be in its potential attack range.’

Special Extraordinary Beasts crawled up from the Caves.

Some of them were in a conscious state, possessing strong awareness. A rare few with high evolutionary levels even had a degree of intelligence.

These conscious special Extraordinary Beasts were extremely aggressive and would attack cities at any moment.

Just as there were conscious ones, there were also sleeping ones.

The timing of each Exotic Beast Tide was never completely fixed, so whenever the Dark Energy erupted and a tide began, many Exotic Beasts were still in a dormant phase.

Guided by the Dark Energy, their bodies would charge out of the Caves.

However, their consciousness was still asleep. An Extraordinary Beast in this condition was known as being in a “somnambulant” state.

Somnambulant Extraordinary Beasts would wander about aimlessly. As long as they weren’t attacked by Reincarnators, they generally wouldn’t initiate an attack.

This was why Su Ruobing had previously told everyone in the group chat not to act rashly if they spotted a special Extraordinary Beast outside their city that wasn’t actively attacking.

BOOM! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

In the distance, from the direction of the Exotic Beast Cave, another wave of Dark Energy erupted.

The second Exotic Beast Tide had begun.

A horde of Exotic Beasts several times larger than the last pulled Li Chang’an’s thoughts back to the present.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three Energy Particle Beam Cannons fired simultaneously. The projectiles bloomed into dazzling white lights amidst the Exotic Beasts, tearing their charging formation to shreds.

On the city walls, soldiers held their Electromagnetic Pulse Guns.

They picked off the remaining Exotic Beasts one by one.

In truth, if not for the need to conserve ammunition, Cangxuan City’s current defensive weaponry could have laid down continuous suppressive fire. Ordinary Exotic Beasts wouldn’t have even gotten close.

There would have been no need for Li Chang’an to act personally at all.

…

Time ticked by, second by second.

Wave after wave of Exotic Beasts surged toward Cangxuan City like a tide, and the number of Energy Particle Beam Cannons committed to the battle grew.

It had to be said, the pressure from a level 7.0 Exotic Beast Tide was immense.

Cangxuan City wasn’t even on the front lines, and Li Chang’an had deployed ten enhanced Particle Beam Cannons. Even so, a few scattered monsters still managed to charge to the base of the walls.

One could only imagine the state of the other cities.

Li Chang’an had checked the group chat earlier. Many cities were already on the verge of collapse, and scores of Reincarnators were desperately pleading for help.

’Looks like our fire coverage still isn’t thorough enough!’

Li Chang’an sighed. He’d had too little time to prepare. Otherwise, he would have forged Cangxuan City into an impenetrable fortress.

…

Defending the city walls was a tedious affair. Just as Li Chang’an was wondering if he should go down and stretch his legs…

A new message suddenly flashed in the group chat.

Before Li Chang’an could open it to check the content, a call came through from Su Ruobing.

On the other end of the communicator, Su Ruobing’s voice was frantic. “Chang’an, the City Lord of Panhu City is dead! Panhu City has fallen! That Plant System special Extraordinary Beast’s strength has likely surpassed Tier Five! It’s probably on its way to Cangxuan City right now!”

“It’ll take me about an hour to get there and help you! If things go south, you can abandon Cangxuan City and retreat to Linjiang for safety!”

Su Ruobing had always projected a rather cold and aloof image, but now she was clearly flustered, so much so that she’d forgotten all about her composure.

The sudden fall of Panhu City had caught her completely off guard, but the loss itself wasn’t an unacceptable price for her to pay.

After all, it was all too common for a few Reincarnators to die during an Exotic Beast Tide.

Especially one of this magnitude.

The reason she was so anxious was that Li Chang’an was far too important, not just to her personally, but to all of Linjiang. If something happened to him, the cost could be greater than the fall of ten, or even dozens, of cities.

After hanging up, Li Chang’an suddenly felt invigorated.

He realized he could smell a strange peach fragrance.

Looking up, he saw that a peach tree nearly a hundred meters tall had appeared outside Cangxuan City at some unknown time.

The peach tree was lush and green, its branches hung heavy with rotting, pus-filled peaches. Countless faces with varying expressions grew on its thick trunk. And where its roots should have been, massive pythons, each dozens of meters in diameter, grew instead.

The peach tree had appeared silently outside Cangxuan City, less than fifty meters from the wall.

The pythons below, like tentacles, slithered around to probe the surroundings before suddenly lunging toward the sky above the city.

Because everything had happened so suddenly, everyone on the walls of Cangxuan City was stunned.

They could only watch helplessly as the pythons broke apart in mid-air, transforming into thousands of tiny roots that formed a massive, sky-blotting net descending upon Cangxuan City!

A special Extraordinary Beast!

Li Chang’an was the first to react.

’How did such a massive peach tree appear so silently outside the city?’ he wondered, though it hardly mattered. Special Extraordinary Beasts were just like that. Even after years of research, the Rebirth Association still hadn’t figured out what set of rules they followed.

’Based on Su Ruobing’s warning, this peach tree’s Cultivation has most likely reached Tier Five Extraordinary.’

’With my current strength, it would be extremely difficult to kill something a whole Realm above me.’

’However, Cangxuan City still has ten Super Electromagnetic Cannons prepared as our ultimate trump card!’

’The tree is huge and moves slowly. If I can just stall for a bit until the Super Electromagnetic Cannons are fully charged, I’m confident I can heavily wound or even kill it!’

’As for abandoning Cangxuan City and fleeing?’

’I’ll never do that unless it’s the absolute last resort.’

…