Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

After arriving at the walls Liu Zhu immediately checked on his squad and found that they were all, for the most part, alright. A couple of them had suffered minor wounds in the hurry to retreat, but they would heal very quickly. Managing to safely bring his men back in a situation where around one in seven of the cultivators were dead or severely injured made Liu Zhu proud. Luckily he had some understanding of tact and kept this to himself, simply thanking everyone for their efforts. It's not like he could brag about his "commanding skills" to them, they'd volunteered to fight with him. Anyways, his achievement could be attributed more to his stamina and durability rather than any exceptional abilities. As far as commanding went, this had been a good experience but he still had a long way to go.

Liu Zhu made some small talk with his squad before turning his attention back to the battlefield. As he did so he occasionally spoke with Feng Jun, who had already bandaged his wound. The bloody fields surrounding Wolfden Village were full of experienced, veteran cultivators at this point. For Liu Zhu, watching them fight was quite the spectacle. Sure, there were plenty of Acupoint Opening elders in the Liu Clan, and Zhu Chao was almost unrivaled within the Acupoint Opening realm, but Liu Zhu barely ever had the chance to see them fight. Even if he did, it wouldn't be them going all out. This beast horde provided him with the chance to see many cultivators stronger than him fight with all their strength, even if they were far weaker than his family's elders. Seeing life-death struggles of this caliber could be a valuable experience, although in the end how much Liu Zhu got out of it depended on his perception.

Ultimately Liu Zhu didn't get much out of watching the battle besides a certain appreciation for the fragility of human life. This wasn't a teaching session made for him nor a skillful battle between famous cultivators. It was a violent struggle between the working poor of cultivators and waves upon waves of bloodthirsty beasts. This, along with participating in the battle itself, helped instill Liu Zhu with a certain respect for fighting and war. The patriotism for Yutian Country and his enthusiasm towards war hadn't decreased, but he now had some understanding of how many lives it took. It may not have been a valuable lesson in terms of advancing his cultivation or helping him fine-tune his techniques, but just watched helped teach him quite a bit. Whether it would serve to be useful in the future was yet to be seen.

As the battle drew on even these experienced cultivators fell back, and eventually the many small groups turned into just a few, and by the end there was only one squad wandering about, slaughtering beasts far more terrifying than the one Feng Jun was injured fighting. There were still some weak beasts wandering about, but they were either slaughtered by pigs passing by the group of cultivators at the frontlines, or cleaned up by squads of cultivators standing by the walls. Eventually the few beasts the group was taking care of dwindled, and they had little to do. Just when it felt like the beast horde was about done with, all of the group besides two men left the battlefield and a terrifying beast entered into view of the cultivators protecting the village.

Beast hordes are usually triggered by some sort of natural event which either scares or excites beasts across a wide area, sending them into a prolonged, frenzied state. This mainly affects vicious beasts, and normal beasts, domesticated or otherwise, are generally spared. As the beasts are thrown into this bloodthirsty state, they swarm about, fighting each other. In this massive fight somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of them are culled, and a leader is decided. This leader stands at the top of the beast horde's pecking order, and chooses what direction the horde goes in. The chief of Wolfden Village and a cloaked cultivator were currently fighting against this beast horde's leader.

The leader of the beast horde was a terrifying mix between a snake and a spider. It rose far above the tree-tops, held up by eight scaly, hairy legs. In the middle of the legs was a massive snake wrapped in a greyish-white web, and it possessed the ability to spin and shoot webs from most of its body. It struck an instinctual fear into the men on the wall, and was a terrifying sight. Fortunately the two cultivators who went up to fight it weren't affected by its vile appearance, and immediately go to fighting it.

The final battle between the two sides dragged on, and there were many times where one of the two cultivators fighting the creature almost got caught up in its webs. It was tricky in deploying them, so the earliest stage of the battle was the roughest, as it took some time to discover all of the tricks behind when and how it could deploy it. However, eventually the two realized the range of the webs and the monster's attacks, and managed to take a careful approach. After nearly 20 minutes the beast, impatient, tried to charge past them, but this led to its downfall. One of its legs, unprotected, was sheered off by a combined strike between the two. This caused the beast to stumble, and with its defenses compromised, the rest of the battle went smoothly.

With the beast horde's leader death the last few stragglers ran away, their tails held between their legs. Wolfden Village, and by extension the surrounding villages, were safe. The civilians wouldn't be slaughtered by the approaching beasts, and they could carry on their way of living. Unfortunately, this wasn't without sacrifices. They'd spent quite the sum of money preparing the village and hiring cultivators to help defend, and this was only the monetary losses. In terms of human life, they'd lost nearly 20% of their cultivators. Whether this 20% was dead or severely injured didn't matter much to the villages. The crux of the matter was that they'd lost both powerful hunters and members of their militia, and that it would take decades for them to fully recover. The losses among the hired cultivators were comparatively lower, around 10%. Still, the goal of defeating the village had been achieved, and this was a far better outcome than the alternative. This wasn't just an indicator of superior skill, and showed that cowardice could be a virtue.

With the dark cloud of the beast horde removed from the village, the civilians began celebrating, preparing tables full of food and taking out their best drinks. The reaction among the cultivators was also to celebrate, but they did it in a vastly different manner. Namely, by swarming the battlefield and taking whatever materials they could lay a claim to so that they could sell it later. The warriors of the village were doing so both partially as a bonus and to help the village recover from their losses, while for the hired cultivators it was purely an extra source of income. Liu Zhu didn't need the money but went out anyways, soaking in the crowded but pleasant atmosphere.