However, Lin Song and his companion were quite satisfied that Xu Lai knew his place. Otherwise, as two Sixth Grade Martial Artists, they would have no way to deal with Xu Lai, a Martial Ancestor. Surely they couldn't be like an egg hitting a rock and seek their own deaths, right?

Even though they couldn't beat him, they weren't afraid. After all, in a hotel a hundred nautical miles away in East Sea City, there resided a powerful expert of the Lin Family! That was a Ninth Grade Realm Great Grandmaster, who could handle a mere nobody like Xu Lai by simply lifting his little finger. This was the true source of Lin Song's confidence in coming to the island. With a Ninth Grade Great Martial Sect covering them from afar, what was there to fear, even in a sea of flames and hills of blades?

「...」

Leading Xu Lai away from the guesthouse, they arrived at the seashore. With his hands clasped behind his back, Lin Song's face was icy as he thundered, "Xu Lai, do you realize your crime!"

Xu Lai looked at the two men and remained silent for a long while.

Who was the last person to speak to him in such a pompous manner? Oh. He remembered now. It was Xiaoyao Sanren from the Xiaoyao Immortal Palace. Sanren had personally witnessed the Goddess of the Angel Clan—a woman he had fruitlessly pursued for nearly three hundred years—enter Xu Lai's abode and not emerge for a full thirty days. A man and a woman, alone in a room for a month. What the hell else could they have been doing? The mere thought had made Xiaoyao Sanren, who had been staking out the outside of the abode for half a month, see red. In a furious rage, he had assaulted the abode's protective Formation and loudly demanded if Xu Lai 'realized his crime of defiling the Goddess.' Now, tens of thousands of years later, the grass on Xiaoyao Sanren's grave must be over ten thousand meters high. Nourished by Spiritual Energy, that grass has long since become Spirit Plants; who knows which lucky Cultivator would be fortunate enough to pick them.

Amused by the memory, Xu Lai couldn't help but let out a light chuckle.

「...」

The red-haired man was named Luo Yi. He wasn't a member of the Lin Family by birth but a Martial Artist who had married into it. This son-in-law of the Lin Family spoke with a sardonic twist, "Lin Song, has our Grandmaster Xu been scared out of his wits? He seems so amused."

Lin Song frowned. He sensed that Xu Lai wasn't the slightest bit panicked. Although he was smiling, his eyes hid a chill that made Lin Song's heart inexplicably skip a beat. That look… it was as if he were staring at two dead men. And why would one need to answer dead men?

Realizing this, Lin Song felt goosebumps erupt over his skin, and he said with forced bravado, "We are emissaries of the Lin Family! If you dare to kill us, the Lin Family will not let you go!"

Xu Lai cocked his head. He still didn't speak, instead suddenly casting his gaze toward the ocean.

There were always people, or demons, who didn't know their place and came courting death. Good. He would just take care of this trouble today and save Sea Temple Island from any future messes. This place was, after all, the source of the betrothal gift for marrying Ruan Tang! Though, the income from Sea Temple Island for the next ten years was set to be transferred into a bank account, and that bank card was in Ruan Tang's hands.

At this thought, Xu Lai suddenly felt a pang in his gut and couldn't help but frown.

Seeing Xu Lai frown, the unease in Lin Song's heart intensified, feeling like a massive boulder was hanging over him. He took two steps back, his expression wary as he spoke quickly, "Xu Lai, my Lin Family is the premier Martial Dao power in Jiangbei and has stood strong for three hundred years! Our protection over Jiangnan's Sea Temple Island has lasted for two hundred of those. You may have only just become a Martial Ancestor and are unaware of the situation here, but beneath the island...

"lurk countless ferocious Sea Demons! Many of them have power comparable to a human Seventh or Eighth Grade Martial Artist. Without my family's protection, the residents of Sea Temple Island and everyone along the East Sea coast would be doomed."

Lin Song paused before continuing, "Therefore, I can make an executive decision. If you go to the Lin Family now and kneel before the Family Head to beg for mercy, the old master will surely forgive your disrespect!"

"That's right, this is your last chance! If you continue to be obstinate, you will become a criminal in East Sea City, just like the Su Family of Hangcheng and the Jiang Family of Liu City!" the son-in-law, Luo Yi, gloated. "By then, you might just be spending the rest of your life in prison."

Xu Lai finally spoke, asking seriously, "This beast tide you're talking about, what does it look like?"

Luo Yi looked at Xu Lai as if he were an idiot. A beast tide. As the name suggested, it was an attack by a myriad of beasts! Unless one is a peak Eighth Grade or a Ninth Grade Great Martial Sect, every other Martial Artist who has experienced a beast tide has died. The two of them were merely Sixth Grade; they had never experienced one! However, the specific time the seal would break could be predicted, as the Lin Family didn't want any trouble either.

Luo Yi mocked, "You want to see the beast tide? Don't be anxious. It'll appear in five days at most."

"The beast tide you speak of... are you talking about these?" Xu Lai pointed toward the sea behind him.

Under the blanket of dark clouds, no moonlight could touch the surface of the sea, making it look as black as an abyssal maw. Both Luo Yi and Lin Song felt their hearts jolt.

The beast tide?!? Impossible. The seal couldn't possibly break now; otherwise, they wouldn't have dared to come to Sea Temple Island.

They stared intently at the water. It was as calm as ever. There was nothing there.

Just as Luo Yi was about to mock Xu Lai for his theatrics, a pair of blood-red eyes suddenly opened within the sea. Accompanying it was a pungent, fishy odor.

"It's a Sea Demon!" Luo Yi's pupils shrank. After carefully confirming there was only one, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Thank goodness, it's just one. It shouldn't be the beast tide."

Lin Song also breathed a sigh of relief. The beast tide couldn't erupt ahead of schedule, and even if it did, there wouldn't be just a single creature here. It must be a Sea Demon from the deeper waters nearby, likely not of a very high Boundary.

"Just one? Lin Song, let's team up and kill it," Luo Yi proposed, his previous fear gone as he rubbed his hands together. "A Sea Demon is a treasure trove from head to tail. If it has formed an inner core, it could sell for a fortune!"

"One?" Xu Lai's mouth suddenly curved into a brilliant smile, like that of a laughing devil.

He waved his hand.

The dark clouds dispersed, and the bright moonlight poured down onto the sea's surface. Then, Luo Yi and Lin Song were completely dumbfounded.

Around the first red-eyed Demonic Beast that had appeared, pair after pair of eyes began to gleam.

One pair.

Two pairs.

Ten pairs.

A hundred pairs!

Luo Yi turned deathly pale. A hundred Demonic Beasts? Even if they were of low Boundaries, comparable to human Fourth or Fifth Grade Martial Artists, they could still wear him and Lin Song down to their deaths.

But this was only in the sea directly in front of them.

To the left and right, the sea's surface suddenly erupted with all sorts of dazzling lights. As far as the eye could see... there were only eyes! They dotted the ocean surface, dense and countless. There were not merely a hundred, but thousands, tens of thousands!

Under the clear moonlight, Lin Song and Luo Yi could even make out the appearances of the Demonic Beasts. Some were Jiaoren. Some had the head of a fish and the body of a man; others had the head of a man and the body of a fish. And there was an octopus with eight tentacles colored red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and white. Its massive body was like an apartment building! Its head gradually emerged from the sea, its mouth splitting open into a black-hole-like grin.

"..."

Luo Yi stood with a vacant gaze, forgetting even to run. As for his earlier talk of "hunting Sea Demons," it was completely thrown to the back of his mind. The Lin Family son-in-law had already collapsed limply to the ground out of fear. He said miserably, "It's over... the seal beneath Sea Temple Island has shattered. The beast tide... it's here early!"

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