"Nonsense! Moye is our nephew. Naturally, we cannot allow anything to happen to him! And you are our brother, so you must not be harmed either!" Dongfang Wenjian glared, his tiger eyes wide.

"Why wouldn't I want that? However, on the road here, I received several urgent dispatches from the Military Department; although the cause of this Profound Beast Tide remains unclear, its sheer scale and potential for devastation are unprecedented! Rumor has it that the King of Heavenly Punishment has flown into a rage and, half a month ago, suddenly ordered: all Profound Beasts above the fourth tier must leave the Heavenly Punishment Forest and join this battle!"

Jun Wu Yi smiled faintly, looking at Dongfang Wenqing, "One of the oaths of your Dongfang family has been inexplicably broken by more than half."

"Profound Beasts leaving the Heavenly Punishment Forest entirely—hasn't that already fulfilled it? How can there be half remaining?" Dongfang Wenqing was initially pleased, but then a flicker of doubt crossed his face.

"Because it's now confirmed that this war... the Third and Fourth Beast Kings of the Heavenly Punishment Forest..." Two great beasts took a deep breath. "That's the newest intelligence. But I estimate that as the war erupts and powerhouses from across the continent arrive, the Profound Beasts of the Heavenly Punishment Forest will inevitably be unable to hold the line. At that point, the great boss of Heavenly Punishment will certainly have to intervene! I am absolutely convinced of this! Therefore, the Dongfang family's oath is basically left with only one remaining clause: the collapse of Sword Peak and the snow mountain."

"So that's how it is."

Jun Mo Xie's heart stirred: What kind of place is that Sword Peak? If I ever have the leisure, big brother will go and flip it over, ha.

"Moreover, as the scope of the Profound Beast Tide expands, the Divine Blessing Empire and the Yu Tang Empire have also dispatched armies to assist, bringing numerous high-level experts with them! Even the Grassland Royal Court has sent ten thousand elite Iron Cavalry! This is reliable news from the Military Department, already confirmed; the Three Great Empires have long harbored deep grudges, and it is foreseeable that they will inevitably undermine each other during the fighting. Furthermore, the contingent from Wind and Snow Silver City is led by Xiao Buyu, one of the two grand elders of the Xiao family, composed entirely of the Xiao lineage. They bear a deadly hatred for my Jun family; Xiao Han, in particular, has an unforgivable feud with me, so conflict is guaranteed."

"In addition, the Blood Soul Villa also has lingering issues with my Jun family; we must guard against them!" Jun Wu Yi finished speaking in one breath and let out a long sigh, utterly exhausted. "The situation is dire; it has reached a point where even I am starting to lose heart!"

"Among the Eight Supreme Beings, excluding the First Supreme Being Yun Biechen, the Third Supreme Being Han Fengxue, the Heaven Seeker Supreme Being Mo Wentian, and the Azure Supreme Being Meng Hongchen—the remaining four have all arrived!" Jun Wu Yi's voice was heavy, but his eyes blazed with fervor.

Being able to witness the presence of these Supreme powerhouses up close was something Jun Wu Yi keenly anticipated.

"Perhaps there is one more person you don't know about," Dongfang Wenqing stated gravely. "The Gale Sword God Feng Juanyun, who has been fiercely vying with the Divine Hawk Supreme Being Ying Bokong for the position of the Eighth Supreme Being, is already on his way, or perhaps has already arrived."

"Feng Juanyun..." Jun Mo Xie, who had been listening silently from the side, gently raised an eyebrow; that fellow shouldn't be a match for Ying Bokong now that the latter has successfully broken through, right?

"Aside from Wind and Snow Silver City and Blood Soul Villa, other major martial world factions across the continent have also sent representatives! The most notable among them are the Baili Family, the Duanmu Family, the Beigong Family, the Wenren Family, the Sikong Family, the Zuoqiu Family, the Fifth Family, and the Ouyang Family—plus our Dongfang, making the Nine Great Families gathered in the South! Although the number of people each family sent isn't huge, they are all genuine heavy hitters! Especially the Duanmu Family; even the family head, Duanmu Chao Fan, has come."

"Duanmu Chao Fan?" Jun Mo Xie snorted, "That name is certainly deeply etched in one's memory."

Dongfang Wenqing also smiled and explained, "The head of the Duanmu Family is Duanmu Chaofan; but this man stutters slightly, and whenever he reports his name, he tries to sound imposing and grand, drawing out the syllables. But the longer he draws it out, the more it sounds like 'Chao Fan' [Fried Rice]. So, during one meeting of the Nine Great Families, they simply started calling him 'Duanmu Fried Rice.' Over time, his real name was almost forgotten."

"Very fitting!" Jun Mo Xie said solemnly, "Pots are mostly made of wood. 'Duanmu Fried Rice'—ah, holding a wooden frying pan actually has quite a history!"

"Haha!" Everyone burst into laughter. Dongfang Wenqing continued.

"Furthermore, Golden Soup Fortress, Seven Dragon Mountain, Soul Severing Palace, and Haotian City have also sent people. Besides these organized groups, there are countless lone, high-level Profound Practitioners and hidden hermits!" Dongfang Wenqing offered a wry smile. "This was secret information revealed to me by Li Jue Tian before I left. As for how many more have arrived since then, that I don't know."

Listening to these illustrious names, Jun Wu Yi's brow furrowed tighter and tighter! The more reinforcements arrived, the more it demonstrated the terrifying nature of the Profound Beast Tide!

"Damn! So many people?" Jun Mo Xie couldn't help but whistle. "Since such formidable strength is gathered here, why not just flatten the Heavenly Punishment Forest? Everyone can grab a few Profound Beasts to take home as pets! Is it really worth this massive mobilization? These people must have too much time on their hands!"

"Shut up!" The four others roared in unison. Eight fierce eyes fixed simultaneously on the presumptuous young man.

"Mo Xie, you simply lack experience and don't understand the peril involved. That Heavenly Punishment Forest spans tens of thousands of miles, covering nearly one-third of the continent! How many Profound Beasts are in there? At the very minimum, there must be tens of millions! And that's only counting the Profound Beasts above the fourth tier that possess combat strength! If we truly face them all head-on, these experts might not even be enough to tickle their gums! To put it bluntly, even one drop of Profound Beast saliva could drown all these so-called masters."

Dongfang Wenqing was genuinely angry, undertaking the task of educating his nephew about his ignorance.

"But you yourself said that's IF they encounter them all at once, and they would need such a massive space! Even on the great plains, tens of millions of Profound Beasts would cram each other to death, wouldn't they? Let alone being in the mountains,"

Jun Mo Xie shook his head with disdain: "Fighting wars isn't about which side has more people; it’s always about fighting small skirmishes one by one. Many small-scale battles linked together constitute a campaign. Many campaigns linked together form what is called a war. And only after many wars are fought does peace arrive."

Seeing Dongfang Wenqing on the verge of snapping again, Jun Wu Yi quickly stepped in to mediate, frowning:

"Precisely because there are so many people, it's troublesome! If it were just the armies of the Three Great Empires and the Grassland King, perhaps even adding the two forces of Blood Soul Villa and Wind and Snow Silver City, it wouldn't be so difficult to handle; after all, these people understand the bigger picture and can fight with restraint; there would certainly be room for negotiation. But with so many factions gathered, all of them established with deep roots and long histories, their intertwined grudges are so numerous that even the wisest person couldn't untangle them. Perhaps a casual spat between any two factions could ignite a large-scale conflict. Aren't there allies and friends? Martial practitioners in the Jianghu simply cannot be compared to disciplined armies."

"This... this problem is indeed vexing." Dongfang Wenqing and the other two nodded in agreement.

"Moreover, with so many people, a unified commander is essential, at least a supreme commander in terms of overall command. Only then can everything be coordinated for battle; otherwise, if they all rush forward impulsively, wouldn't that just be feeding the Profound Beasts?" Jun Mo Xie added. The first half of his statement earned unanimous praise from the four elders, but the latter half—'feeding the Profound Beasts'—successfully drew eight disapproving glares.

"That's an obvious realization, but this commander position is truly thankless, troublesome, and likely to spark endless disputes—a necessary evil, practically! At the very least, the military commanders from the Three Great Empires plus the Grassland forces will never tolerate submitting to anyone else, because here, they represent their respective nations."

"This issue, comparatively speaking, is easier to resolve; soldiers follow orders as their duty. As long as the higher echelons reach a unified consensus, everything can be solved smoothly. But the truly most difficult people to manage are those from the wild martial world; these individuals are inherently undisciplined and accustomed to freedom. Not only does no one respect the other, but almost none of them possess the talent for large-scale military command! Based on the prestige of the major factions, practically no one can accept the command of an ordinary general! This is the Alliance Army's biggest problem."

Jun Wu Yi frowned deeply: "But the Profound Beast Tide War is imminent—sigh..." He let out a deep, helpless sigh. "In my half-life dedicated to military service, I have fought many great wars, and in terms of the strength commanded, none could compare to the grandeur of this assembly; in fact, perhaps combining them all wouldn't measure up. But never before has a war left me seeing absolutely no hope of victory before the fighting even starts! This time, we lack even a sliver of a chance!"

"But this time, our opponents are Profound Beasts. You must know that the strict hierarchy among Profound Beasts is beyond imagination, especially in a large-scale war initiated by the Beast Kings themselves. Orders are absolute; one long howl, and the entire force attacks; the very same howl, and they retreat like a tide!"

"Bad omens abound," Jun Wu Yi, Dongfang Wenqing, and the others exchanged glances, reading those four words in each other's eyes.

"We've already come this far; are we going to turn tail? We'll take it one step at a time. Saving people is a good thing, but it's meaningless to throw away our entire group just to save others! If you ask me, ensuring the safety of our own people is enough. As for the fate of everyone else... what business is that of ours?" Jun Mo Xie laughed carelessly.

If anyone in this sudden, bizarre Profound Beast Tide conflict was the most certain and self-assured, it could only be the young master Jun. It could be said that if the forces were divided into three or more prongs, Jun Mo Xie could almost guarantee his own troops would emerge unscathed while the others might suffer total annihilation—

If all else fails, we can just go out, show off a bit, and call it a day. Why is everyone looking so glum right now? (To be continued) Read the latest chapters on [Insert specific novel reading site details here, if applicable, based on original text's placeholder]