A colossal roar, like the sound of a mountain collapsing or a tsunami crashing, erupted from beyond the city walls.

As this sound suddenly exploded, the thousand-year spirit beast locked in combat with Yi Zhongtian and Xu Jun atop the rampart shuddered violently. It opened its massive maw, within which a discernible mass of cyan energy began to coalesce.

Yi Zhongtian and Xu Jun inwardly recoiled; they understood the devastating power of a spirit beast’s breath attack, and more acutely, they knew they were facing a genuine thousand-year spirit beast.

Spirit beasts were the supreme entities within the entire beast hierarchy.

Generally speaking, spirit beasts under five hundred years, despite possessing considerable strength, could usually be managed by a coordinated assault from several seasoned Postnatal cultivators.

However, once a spirit beast reached the five-hundred-year mark, its very physique would mutate, transforming it into a far more potent Congenital Spirit Beast. Within these creatures, a Congenital Inner Elixir would have already condensed, allowing them to automatically absorb the world's elemental energies to sustain their power and continuously accumulate life force while awaiting further evolution.

After a millennium, a spirit beast’s might became exponentially greater, and the power housed within its Congenital Inner Elixir grew increasingly unfathomable.

At this level, their strength rivaled that of humanity’s foremost Heaven-Piercing realm experts. Crucially, the breath attack capability of these beasts was vastly enhanced—no longer comparable to the standard Congenital Spirit Beasts that needed half a day to recover from a single exhalation.

And standing before them now was precisely this formidable, thousand-year Congenital Spirit Beast.

If not for Xu Jun being an envoy of the Ice Palace, having been bestowed a pair of divine artifacts by the Elder Council—weapons supposedly usable only by a Venerable Lord—the two of them would never have managed to hold this beast in check.

Yet, at this moment, the beast was clearly enraged and resorting to its full might.

The two men instinctively leaped backward simultaneously. Their movement technique was bizarrely complex; as they retreated, they swayed sharply left and right, giving the impression they might dart off in an entirely different direction at any second.

In that instant, they pushed their Lightness Skill to its absolute limit. Even should the spirit beast’s breath erupt, they held better than a seventy percent certainty of evading it.

However, at that precise moment, the beast did something that defied their comprehension.

The mass of cyan light in its mouth did not discharge. Furthermore, its immense body did not surge forward; instead, it actually retreated backward in kind. The speed it demonstrated was utterly disproportionate to its colossal size.

Yi Zhongtian and Xu Jun were momentarily stunned, completely unable to fathom the thousand-year beast’s bizarre maneuvering. But before they could process it, the body of the great bear abruptly halted in mid-air, as if a massive, unseen wall had suddenly materialized, sealing off its retreat and locking it suspended in the void.

A sound blending fury and terror issued from the beast’s throat, and then, the cyan breath attack—the very sight of which struck fear into countless hearts—was finally spewed forth.

Compared to the five-hundred-year Congenital Spirit Beasts, the power of the thousand-year beast’s exhalation was undeniably superior. A swirling vortex of cyan light erupted from the bear’s mouth, hurtling towards the two human Postnatal experts at an unimaginable velocity.

The beast itself did not know what was happening; it had merely responded to an urgent summons from the Bear King and sought to depart at all costs. But upon reaching the edge of the rampart, its entire body was suddenly fixed in place by an overwhelming force. Unable to struggle free, its terror and rage exploded in an instant, intensifying the power of its breath attack.

While Yi Zhongtian, Xu Jun, and the thousand-year spirit beast fought, everyone else had long since retreated to a safe distance. They all knew such a confrontation was beyond their scope; getting inadvertently caught in the crossfire meant certain, needless death.

The cyan light swept over them, and for a moment, the entire area before their eyes seemed to dissolve into a monochromatic blue world.

Yi Zhongtian and Xu Jun were prepared. They remained hyper-focused on the beast, and the instant the breath erupted, they moved with maximum speed toward the rear and side, vanishing almost instantaneously.

Yet, an even more perplexing event unfolded.

This beam of cyan light did not continue its outward expansion. When the breath reached an approximate distance of three zhang, it paused abruptly, and then, under the astonished gaze of every onlooker, it abruptly reversed its course.

A spirit beast’s breath attack was absolutely their ultimate weapon; once released, even the beast itself found it difficult to resist. Moreover, this retaliating cyan light now carried a divine weapon—something entirely invisible to human eyes.

A screech, wild and wracked with agony, burst from the thousand-year spirit beast. Its body could finally move, and it staggered forward, stumbling uncontrollably. Its gait was ragged, suggesting it had been grievously wounded by the counter-attack of its own cyan breath, leaving it unable to maintain balance.

Yi Zhongtian and Xu Jun were ecstatic. Though they had no clue what had transpired, or why the beast’s own breath had turned against it, this situation was undeniably the most advantageous turn possible.

Without hesitation, their great saber and twin swords simultaneously slashed toward the giant bear.

Light flickered repeatedly in the air, and then, a massive head soared into the sky—it was Yi Zhongtian, having cleaved the bear’s head clean off with a single strike.

Stepping back several paces, Yi Zhongtian stared in disbelief at the long saber in his hand, his eyes filled with confusion.

He knew his weapon intimately. While this broad saber was certainly a top-tier armament, it was significantly inferior to the divine artifacts wielded by the Venerables. A thousand-year spirit beast’s hide was hard as iron, its bones like steel; even if it stood motionless to be hacked at, he doubted he could sever its head within the time it took one stick of incense to burn.

In fact, forget him—even Xu Jun, wielding a divine artifact, could not decapitate a thousand-year spirit beast in one blow.

Their martial cultivation was simply too low to unleash the true might of those divine implements. Hence, the twin swords only served to make the bear wary, but were insufficient to tip the scales of victory.

Yet, the most inconceivable thing had just occurred.

He had merely delivered what felt like a casual sweep, but the blade passed, and the great bear’s head was gone. This result far exceeded anything his capabilities could account for.

“Brother Yi, congratulations,” Xu Jun stammered, gaping at the fallen thousand-year spirit beast. Though he struggled to process it, the scene before him was undeniable: the beast’s head was indeed missing. He took a deep breath and said solemnly, “Brother Yi’s cultivation has advanced greatly! Slaying a thousand-year spirit beast with one strike—I shall certainly report this to the Elder Council and request commendation for you.”

Yi Zhongtian flushed, quickly waving his hand. “Brother Xu, there is something strange about this. Let us discuss it later.”

With that, he turned his gaze, and where his eyes landed, he paused slightly.

Although skirmishes were still occurring in several spots along the ramparts, what surprised them was that the giant bears currently engaged with the humans were all merely common spirit beasts. Not a single one of the five-hundred-year or older Congenital Spirit Beasts they had feared remained in sight.

Moreover, at another section of the rampart, Zhang Bailin and his two companions stood staring blankly at their weapons. Before them lay four Congenital Spirit Beasts, all decapitated—the clear work of the trio.

If it were merely hard to accept that these three had jointly slain four Congenital Spirit Beasts, it was not entirely impossible. After all, since the two of them had inexplicably managed to kill a thousand-year beast together, it seemed almost logical that three human Postnatal experts could dispatch four Congenital ones.

But they distinctly remembered that there had been six five-hundred-year Congenital Spirit Beasts initially. Where were the remaining two?

Throughout the earlier battle, Yi Zhongtian and Xu Jun’s focus had been entirely fixed on the thousand-year beast before them, leaving them no capacity to monitor the rest of the battlefield. The enemy they faced was far superior in strength; even the divine weapons had only instilled caution, failing to close the immense gap in their power. To have been distracted at that time would have been suicidal.

Therefore, they were unaware of the bizarre events unfolding across the entire battlefield.

“Brother Zhang, Brother and Sister Chen demonstrate formidable skill,” Xu Jun praised sincerely.

Zhang Bailin and the Chen couple exchanged wry smiles, all three feeling a chilling strangeness to the entire affair. Nevertheless, having eliminated their formidable enemies meant they had saved the town and secured the Congenital Inner Elixirs—tangible benefits they couldn't ignore.

Yi Zhongtian’s eyes shifted, and he suddenly murmured, “Senior He…”

Everyone followed his gaze. On the distant battlements, that mysterious young man stood upon the crenellations, gazing out toward the horizon.

A profound sense of bizarre wrongness washed over them all. This was a battlefield where life and death were decided in an instant, where they faced powerful spirit beasts, yet this seemingly young expert acted as if the entire conflict were utterly inconsequential. His attention seemed fixed far beyond, upon the ranks of giant bears that had suffered heavy casualties, including the loss of most of their own kind.

In the distance, a roar like crashing mountains and surging tides sounded once more.

As this sound boiled forth, utterly unrestrained, the entire rampart seemed to tremble.

A deafening hum filled every human mind. The few remaining common giant bears abandoned all pretense, sprinting toward the city walls, scrambling over the parapet, and fleeing toward their main force with extreme, undignified haste—as if pursued by an unseen terror, moving at top speed.

“Sacred Beast…” Yi Zhongtian’s face drained of color again, the brief joy he felt instantly replaced by sheer terror.

At that moment, a faint luminescence began to emerge slowly on the distant horizon. The first rays of light finally spilled across the land, spreading outward.

Daybreak had arrived!