Generally, when that occurred, it marked the beginning of the first wave. A demonic beast tide could contain multiple waves, each varying in strength. But one thing never changed—there was always a pause between two waves, a gap of at least a few days at the shortest.
And Mikael fully intended to take advantage of that opening to gather as many precious resources as possible. Once the second wave arrived, he would either hide in a safe place and wait for it to pass before resuming his looting—or he would leave the Savagefang Mountain Range entirely. That decision would depend on the situation at the time.
These thoughts flashed in Mikael's mind like a thunderbolt as his gaze stayed on the chaos that was happening all around him. He caught sight of small groups of demonic beasts running away from the Savagefang Mountain Range, heading closer to the outskirts—some even potentially leaving it entirely.
But these events were only happening in small groups, not in a single large unified movement, which signaled that while the mountain range was in chaos and the demonic beast tide could be considered to have begun, the first wave still hadn't formed.
'No matter. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours before it begins,' he thought to himself, settling into a pensive posture as he continued to observe the chaos below.
Time passed slowly, and under Mikael's watchful gaze, the mountain range descended into deeper chaos. More and more demonic beasts could be seen fleeing the Savagefang Mountain Range, their numbers rising sharply.
It wasn't long before their numbers grew further—snowballing from small groups to tens, then hundreds. And with hundreds of demonic beasts running together, any creature caught in their path could only join the forming tide… or be crushed beneath it.
Under these conditions, it didn't take long for the forming tide to swell from hundreds to thousands—and then to tens of thousands.
Tens of thousands!
It was an unimaginable number—enormous demonic beasts, each one a colossus several meters tall and wide, all charging together in a single unified march of destruction.
RUMBLE.
Earth rumbled as the stampede unleashed a deafening fracas that Mikael could feel even from tens of kilometers above. Everything in the wave's path was annihilated—trees torn out, rocks shattered and flung. Nothing remained intact before it.
Whether on land or in the air, everything was overrun by tens of thousands of demonic beasts, their power ranging from the Early Body Forging Realm to the Late-stage of the Spiritual Foundation Realm.
Mikael's eyes remained fixed on this march of destruction as a thought struck him. 'Why are they so slow? Some of these demonic beasts should be moving at speeds tens or even hundreds of times faster than this… but—'
His gaze followed the demonic beast tide. Every beast, regardless of power, seemed to move at the same sluggish pace. 'They're matching their speed with the slowest among them… but how?' he thought, genuinely intrigued.
A more 'normal' person would have found the spectacle of tens of thousands of colossal beasts moving together utterly terrifying. Mikael found it fascinating… he was built differently.
Rustle.
His back pressed against the stone wall of the alcove with a faint rustle as he adjusted his posture, folding his arms loosely across his chest. From here, he could continue observing the flow of the demonic beast tide.
As far as the eyes could see, there were demonic beasts everywhere. Yes, this he knew. But he noticed something else. While a large demonic beast tide was heading toward Savagefang City, it wasn't the only one—he also spotted other tides moving in different directions.
Which was only logical. After all, they were 'running' from the inner layers of the Savagefang Mountain Range, so only heading toward Savagefang City wouldn't make sense. They were fleeing—no matter the direction. In this scenario, Savagefang City should be able to survive because of the numerous cultivators stationed there, but it was a different story for mortal settlements caught in the wave.
For them, it would be an unexpected, unasked calamity. No running. No escape. Only despair—and death.
Mikael took it all in with detachment. Even as he knew that numerous mortals would die from this tide, he didn't give a fuck.
His cold gaze followed the demonic beast tide as it spread in all directions—each moment drawing it farther from his perch and closer to the outskirts of the Mountain Range.
'At this rate, it won't be long before I can enter the deeper layers of the Mountain Range… and then—precious cultivation resources will be mine,' he thought, a flicker of excitement surfacing.
THRAK-KOOM.
HOWWWWL!
The sound of thunder and howling wind resounded in his ears but he didn't care about the storm. His attention focused on the demonic beast tide that had passed his position and was gradually moving away from him.
In this way dozens of minutes passed, the previous intense earth shaking movement of the demonic beast slowly growing fainter as they moved farther from him. To 'counterbalance' and make sure that his ears were never peaceful the howling and thunder sound from the storm high in the sky picked up in intensity.
"Can you please shut the fuck up—" he cursed while looking up toward the sky but stopped mid-sentence, as the darkened storm reentered his view.
He didn't know why, but the darkened sky gave him an eerie feeling. It was just a tempest… wasn't it?
He watched the sky, his gaze serious. Earlier, he had dismissed the storm, too focused on other things to care. But now…
His gaze remained fixed on the sky, searching for anything that might explain the feeling. But aside from the absence of rain, it looked like any ordinary storm.
'Maybe it's some kind of cultivator storm? A natural calamity… one that can threaten even cultivators?'
The moment the thought crossed his mind, he couldn't let it go. Especially when, moments later, his Foresight of Heaven's Mandate sense activated and a faint pulse of danger emerged.
Instinctively, Mikael took steps backward. The threat seemed to come from the storm overhead, so logically, being deeper under the cover of the rocky alcove should offer more protection…
Or at least, that's what he thought. But the moment his back hit the cold stone wall at the rear of the alcove, his expression didn't ease. On the contrary—it turned grim.
'The sensation of danger isn't diminishing as it should… On the contrary, it's worsening with each second!'
Mikael flashed, and in an instant, reappeared at the edge of his perch. The sky above, which had been relatively 'calm' just moments ago, now seemed to stir awake. Strands of thunder began to writhe between the clouds, illuminating the dark sky in flickers of dangerous yellow.
"Thunder Qi…" he murmured.
What caught his attention wasn't just the threat of thunderbolts ready to be unleashed, but the Qi itself. In the air—and especially in the heart of the storm—he could feel a growing concentration of Thunder Qi.
And that concentration was rising with each breath. Its lethality and volume surged rapidly, in tandem with the danger that Foresight of Heaven's Mandate was broadcasting into his mind.
For a moment, Mikael stood frozen, unsure of what to do. With the power gathering above, the logical decision would be to escape the Savagefang Mountain Range as fast as possible. But he hesitated.
'If I leave now, I'll have to break through the demonic beast tide… which means I won't be able to re-enter the Mountain Range without fighting my way back in. Even if I go all out, there's no guarantee I'll make it through again. Damn it,' he cursed internally, frustration bubbling up.
'Which means all these last days of waiting would've been for nothing. Worse, this unique opportunity to collect cultivation resources without much danger would vanish completely!'
These thoughts swirled in his mind, making the idea of retreating feel like betrayal.
The danger in the air continued to rise—steady and unrelenting—mirroring the climbing intensity of Thunder Qi above. His fist clenched as indecision tore at him, and then—
BOOM.
Mikael's fist slammed into the rocky alcove wall with immense force, unleashing a deafening explosion. The impact caused the entire mountain peak to tremble. A moment later, fractures split across the alcove's walls before the structure collapsed entirely—but Mikael was already gone.
Weightless Wind–Explosive Style.
Cloudbreaking Stride.
His figure had already vanished into the distance, cutting through the air as a black-and-silver blur cloaked in green. He moved with the speed of the wind and the grace of the clouds.
The vast terrain of the Savagefang Mountain Range blurred beneath him. To his vision, the ground was nothing more than a streaking smear of color as he flew at incomprehensible speed. But despite his current velocity that should have brought him far from the danger, Mikael's expression didn't ease. If anything, it grew darker.
Occasionally, he threw upward glances toward the darkened sky. With each passing instant, he felt the electric tension in the air increase—rising at the same pace as the danger he was perceiving.
The danger had already reached a level approaching what he had felt when clashing against the Shadowfang Panther, and it was still rising—and quickly at that.
'In a couple of seconds it will reach the level from when I fought that Panther-type Mid-stage demonic beast, and then surpass it, and then—I'll be fucked,' he grimly thought as he pushed himself further, forcing his speed to the maximum he could endure.
His aura core and his meridians were under extreme strain as he pushed harder than ever before. At this instant, his speed had reached that of a 6th-layer Core Formation cultivator.
But even then, it didn't seem to be enough. As far as his enhanced eyesight could see, the same storm clouds—now carrying deadly pressure—stretched endlessly across the sky. Even with this speed, it felt like escape was impossible, like a fish flailing uselessly in a fisherman's net, unaware that its fate was already sealed.
This situation was truly despair-inducing. He could feel the cold breath of death trailing behind him—close, oppressive, and real. Enough to make a lesser man panic.
But Mikael forced himself to stay calm, to keep thinking, to find a way out. Ideas spun in his mind, calculations forming—until his expression, locked in intense reflection, suddenly shifted. A trace of joy and pleasant surprise appeared on his face.
The reason?
At that moment, his Foresight of Heaven's Mandate sense activated again. If earlier it had been feeding him an ever-increasing sensation of danger, now it also transmitted the sensation of fortune—something undeniably tied to the very danger itself.
'Where is this fortune coming from?' Mikael didn't slow down as he looked upward. 'It should be related to the storm in the sky, right? In that case, maybe it's some kind of lightning body tempering or—'
He stopped mid-thought. The moment he considered tempering himself with the lightning in the sky, the sensation of death that wrapped around him suddenly intensified to an insane degree. Not in the sense that it would be extremely dangerous and he might die if he tried it—but in the sense that if he dared to touch that thunder, he would die.
Instantly, he shelved the idea that the lightning was the origin of the fortune. 'Then what is this sensation of fortune? And more importantly, how am I supposed to escape from this fucking storm!?' he thought, anxiety growing by the second, a bead of sweat trailing down his temple.
Roar.
Mikael was pulled from his thoughts by loud roars. Looking ahead, he realized he had caught up with the demonic beast tide. Tens of thousands of land-based demonic beasts ran in tight formation, side by side. None of them looked afraid, anxious, or even remotely uneasy—which he immediately found strange. Given the intensity of the danger radiating from the storm, it was obvious that it wasn't just a threat to him, but to all living creatures in its path.
And yet, they didn't act like it.
Author Note:
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