"If not, I'm afraid you'll leave this Seven Sect Trial empty-handed!" The Qi Sect representative burst out laughing.
At this moment, Lin Li stood up, pulled out a handful of glowing life tokens from his chest, and counted aloud: "One, two, three... five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!"
"I have ten life tokens. How could I leave with nothing?" Lin Li said with a faint smile.
"What?!"
The nine representatives from Xuantian Sect were all stunned.
The arrogant Qi Sect representative's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he exclaimed, "How is this even possible?!"
"We've been nine people working together and only found four life tokens! And you, by yourself, managed to collect nine?! What incredible luck!"
Indeed, he assumed that aside from Lin Li's original token, the other nine were simply found by chance.
After all, Master Guangzhi had scattered fifty life tokens throughout Red Maple Valley for the lucky to discover. The Qi Sect disciple could not believe that Lin Li, acting alone, had fought and defeated other sect representatives to obtain them.
However, a representative from the Alchemy Sect, along with Ge Hao from the Sword Sect, noticed something unusual. Several of the life tokens in Lin Li's hand were stained with dried blood.
"Senior Brother... It seems like Lin Li's tokens weren't found by chance..." the Alchemy Sect representative hesitantly remarked.
"Yes," Ge Hao added. "Some of those tokens look like they were won in battle."
"What?!" The Qi Sect disciple blinked in surprise before laughing again. "Hahaha! Impossible! Stop joking around!"
"He's just one person. How could he have beaten entire groups from other sects?"
At that moment, the ground began to tremble slightly.
"What's going on? What's happening?!" Two Equipment Sect representatives, who had been silent until now, looked around in alarm.
"Roarrr!!!"
Suddenly, a deafening dragon's roar echoed through the sky, causing everyone's faces to go pale with fear. A sense of terror gripped their hearts.
"That sound... it's a dragon's roar!"
"A dragon?!"
Everyone was shocked.
"Dragons are ancient mythical beasts!"
"Stay calm! Don't panic!" The Qi Sect disciple shouted. "It can't really be a dragon. Dragons are creatures far more terrifying than even the legendary Nascent Soul ancestors! True dragons are said to be akin to immortals! There's no way an ancient true dragon would appear in Red Maple Valley, the site of the Seven Sect Trial."
"I think that roar came from a beast with dragon blood in its veins, but even so, it's not something we can handle!"
"What should we do?"
"No need to worry! This is Red Maple Valley, where many Core Formation stage elders from the Seven Sects are stationed. They'll surely step in to suppress any threat. We should focus on the trial and carry on as usual," the Qi Sect disciple reassured them.
"That's right!" Ge Hao agreed. "Everyone, stay calm. No need to panic!"
"But... why is the ground shaking like this?!" The two Equipment Sect disciples remained uneasy.
Suddenly, a massive tree nearby was violently uprooted and fell with a thunderous crash!
A gigantic demonic ox, standing five to six meters tall like a small mountain, burst through the forest, charging straight toward the group.
"Moo!!" The demonic ox bellowed.
"Don't panic! It's just a ninth-tier demonic ox!" The Qi Sect representative tried to maintain order. "We are ten Qi Refining Peak cultivators..."
Before he could finish his sentence, three wild boar-like beasts with tusks over a meter long charged out from behind the demonic ox.
"Seventh-tier tusked wild boars?!"
And right after them, a colossal twenty-meter-tall elephant stomped into view.
"A mammoth?!"
Next to the mammoth, a massive ten-meter-tall tiger with enormous fangs emerged.
"My heavens! A saber-toothed tiger!"
"These beasts... they shouldn't be coexisting peacefully like this."
"How are they all appearing at once?!"
The ground shook even more violently as an unending horde of demonic beasts began to pour out of the forest behind them. Small demonic rats, mid-sized leopards, herbivores, carnivores... even omnivorous beasts like the black bear demon surged from the trees in overwhelming numbers.
"This... this is a beast tide!!!"
At last, everyone's composure shattered.
"Oh no! Why is there a beast tide here?!"
"This is a disaster!"
"We're doomed! Somebody help us!"
The representatives from the Equipment Sect, Alchemy Sect, and Talisman Sect all panicked, their resolve crumbling in the face of the beast tide.
Meanwhile, the Qi Sect disciple tried to hold the line, launching an attack at the first demonic ox to appear. However, while he managed to push the ox back, the three tusked wild boars immediately charged at the two Qi Sect representatives.
To their credit, the two Qi Sect disciples were the main representatives from Xuantian Sect's main peak. Their strength even surpassed Ge Hao's. Despite the sudden attack, they could defend themselves, but just barely.
However, as more and more beasts appeared, they found themselves struggling to hold their ground. They were quickly becoming overwhelmed, leaving no room to protect the less combat-oriented representatives from the Alchemy Sect, Equipment Sect, and Talisman Sect.
"Run! We need to run!" Ge Hao shouted in panic. "We can't stand against a beast tide!"
At this moment, Lin Li's breathing grew heavier.
"Huff... huff..."
While killing humans, especially fellow disciples from righteous sects, weighed on Lin Li's conscience, the situation now was different.
His fellow sect members were in mortal danger due to this beast tide.
The beast tide seemed vast in scope, far beyond the immediate area. Otherwise, the tremors in the ground wouldn't be so severe.
In fact, the tide already extended hundreds of meters in every direction.
"For the sake of saving my fellow disciples..."
"For the sake of upgrading the Blood-Drinking Sword..."
"For the sake of receiving the energy feedback..."
Lin Li's eyes turned wild and frenzied.
"I can..."
The Xuantian Infinite Breathing Technique began to circulate within him. The boundless spiritual energy of his Qi Refining Peak cultivation surged through his meridians and flowed into Ye Fan's sword.
The sword's passive bloodlust and its active Slaughter ability merged, driving Lin Li into a fevered state.
His breathing grew rougher, and the overwhelming desire to slaughter every living thing took hold of him. His vision turned blood-red, and his gaze on the surrounding beasts became fierce and murderous.
"Ah!"
At that moment, the Alchemy Sect representative who had earlier offered Lin Li the Small Rejuvenation Pills was struck by a tusked wild boar. He cried out in pain, barely managing to grip the boar's tusks with both hands, avoiding a fatal blow.
"Don't worry!" Lin Li rasped, his voice hoarse and filled with a sinister tone. "I'm here to save you!"
With that, Lin Li swung his sword at the tusked wild boar, now wreathed in dark purple and blood-red energy.