The woman on the sword was far out over the sea, at least a mile away from the beach. But her voice reached Harry's ears all the same.
Her swords spun faster and faster, until the individual blades were no longer visible. It looked like a large, blue disc was spinning around her, like a circular saw capable of cutting through anything. Then the woman pointed forwards, and sword after sword shot towards the octopus.
One moment, the tentacles were closing in on the woman. The next, there was an arc of light, and three of the massive appendages were cleanly separated, falling towards the Swan Sea. A waterfall of inky-blue blood spewed out and poured into Swan Sea, dying it black.
Harry's eyeballs nearly protruded out their sockets. Not just Harry, but the Inner Disciples, and even the Elders, watched with expressions of awe.
The beast roared in pain, and whipped its remaining tentacles at the woman.
Swish!
The second sword shot through the air, even faster than the first. Harry only saw a shiny blur, and then five more tentacles were cut from the main body. They landed in the sea with a huge splash, sending a tidal wave radiating outwards.
The third sword left just a line through the air as it passed by, and right after, 10 of its arms separated.
The octopus let out an ear-splitting screech. It was so loud that even from afar, Harry leapt in pain and had to cover his ears. The octopus frantically turned and began sinking into the sea, trying to escape.
But the woman just pointed her hand out again.
The fourth sword, the fifth, the sixth – each severed a portion of the remaining tentacles, until all that was left was a floating head, a head floating in a pool of ink, blood, and severed limbs. This pool of blood and gore was spreading across a huge area of the sea.
The last sword slashed downwards, splitting the massive head in half. The two halves parted to reveal a dark red sphere floating on the top of the water.
This sphere was the beast's core, and it was the biggest Harry had ever seen, bigger than even his head. But compared to the original size of the octopus, it was like a peanut.
This beast must have lived for many decades, and all its energy and Qi were stored within that core. Any Heaven Grade Beast Core was an enormous treasure. It could be used as a source of energy, or as a cultivation resource, or even to concoct rare Heaven Grade pills.
If sold, it would fetch a price of an unimaginable number of Qi Crystals. Even 100,000 Qi Crystals was possible.
But, the woman on the sword didn't act like she had obtained any special treasure. She calmly used one of her blades to scoop the core out of the water, and float it towards her. Midway through the air, it vanished, presumably into a Space Ring.
With that done, she turned around on her sword and sped back towards land. It took only a few seconds for her to reach the beach, and then vanish into the depths of the sect.
The Heaven Grade beast was dead, and the invading Earth Grade beasts had long fled. For the first time, Harry witnessed an empty beach.
Empty, that was, of Magic Beasts. The beach was still full of craters, making it impossible for anyone to walk around. Instead, everyone was gathered by the medic tents, assessing the damage.
The Elders were fine, besides the one who's arm was nearly ripped off. Even for a Core Formation Realm expert like him, it would take many months of healing before he could use it again. Another was hit, however his injuries weren't so bad. But the same couldn't be said about the Inner Disciples.
Many of them were caught in the beasts' blasts, or the resulting shockwaves. At those high speeds, the Qi missiles could blow apart everything near the impact point. Even clumps of sand shooting through the air could pierce skin and cause injuries.
There were over 80 injured Inner Disciples, those unlucky enough to be targeted by one of the octopus's attacks. By some miracle, Harry was uninjured. But those Inner Disciples were all groaning in pain, nursing cuts and bruises, even some broken bones.
If that Heaven Grade beast actually arrived at the beach, every single disciple here would have died without a doubt. They were lucky the Elders were there to block most of the attacks, and the beast was still far out by the sea.
But, such was the way of life in the cultivation world. When they came to the Beast Surge battlefield, they knew the risks that were involved. In a battle, one could lose their life at any moment.
"This might look bad, but it was even worse last time," Slade muttered. "Last time, there were only 30 injured, but they were all severe ones. 10 disciples were left unable to cultivate, while another 10 lost limbs or other major body parts. This time, the Elders were prepared. Everyone here has relatively light injuries, and should be fine in a few weeks… except that idiot," he gestured to the legless Outer Disciple.
That man, along with his four friends, were huddled together, all cowering under the venomous gazes the Inner Disciples and Elders shot them. Harry didn't feel any pity for them.
"Who was that woman?" Harry asked his friends.
"That was our Sect Master," Shaun answered. "Her name is Gwenog Jones. I've heard she's at the 6th, maybe even 7th, level of the Core Formation Realm. In the Swan Sea Sect, she's the strongest person."
'6th or 7th level of the Core Formation Realm?' Harry was startled.
He knew all the other Elders were at the low-level Core Formation Realm, or high-level Qi Absorption Realm. And although he had no way to verify this, he felt that the octopus was at the middle-level Core Formation Realm, which would explain why the Elders couldn't put up a fight. But the Sect Master, she was actually at, or almost at, the high-level!
'Worthily the head of a Tier 2 Sect,' Harry thought to himself.
With that sort of power, the Sect Master was practically invincible. She showed up, killed the beast, and left. It didn't even take her five minutes. How was anyone supposed to stop those nine sword slashes?
At that moment, the Exalted Cat's words flashed through his mind.
'Boy, there is always someone better than you. As Slughorn likes to say, beyond every expert is another expert.'
It was true. There was always someone better, someone stronger. What seemed impossible to him, was just a slight effort for the Sect Master.
"Never say this in front of her or the Elders," Scott whispered, "but her nickname is the Swan Sea Harpy."
"Harpy?" Harry questioned. "Like the mythical bird women?"
"Right, harpy. Apparently, our Sect Master has a really bad temper," his voice dropped down to barely audible levels now, as if he were afraid the subject of their discussion would hear.
"She was once a disciple of the Swan Sea Sect just like us, except she managed to join the Tier 1 Sect of our empire. Around 20 years after, she came back here to become the Swan Sea Sect's Sect Master. The story goes that a few days after she returned, one of the local clans insulted her and her teacher. She flew into a rage and slaughtered every single person in that clan. Nobody was spared. Combined with how she's always on that flying sword, she got the nickname Swan Sea Harpy that day."
"She massacred an entire clan? Due to an insult about her teacher?" Harry whispered back.
"Well, that's how the story goes. I was just a baby when that happened, so it's not like I saw it or anything. Apparently, her teacher was met with an accident and passed away, which is why she returned to the Swan Sea Sect. Then one of her old rivals insulted her teacher, not realizing how much stronger she became. And as a result, his entire clan disappeared overnight."
"What an idiot," Harry muttered, and his companions nodded in agreement. There was no limit to human stupidity. Even he wouldn't dare to insult the Sect Master like that. That would be the stupidest way to cause the destruction of a clan.
Shaking his head, he focused his attention on the Outer Disciple he had saved. Using a variety of pills and healing techniques, the Healers stopped the flow of blood, and managed to stabilize his condition. But as for his legs…
With Healing Pills, one could straighten bones, close wounds, recover blood loss, and perform many other miraculous feats. But re-growing a leg was simply impossible. There was just no such pill or method with that kind of magical effect.
There was no question the Outer Disciple would be crippled for the rest of his life. Furthermore, his cultivation would stagnate, never able to enter the Qi Absorption Realm. How was he supposed to open his 9th meridian, the Skeletal Meridian, when he was missing half the bones in his body?
For all intents and purposes, his future was already over.
"Expel this fool from the sect," one Elder coldly said. "He'll never become an Inner Disciple, and without his legs, he can't stay as a worker. Send him back to his family or clan."
The legless disciple's face whitened even further. As if losing his limbs wasn't bad enough, he was also going to be kicked out the sect… how was he supposed to explain this to his family?
But in the end, the only person to blame was himself. It was his own actions that led to this entire mess. All he and his friends wanted was to obtain one of the Purple Qi Fruits. He never thought they would end up provoking such a huge disaster.
"And you four," the Elder turned to point at his accomplices, "I won't expel you, but you'll be punished, for disrupting the battle and causing unnecessary casualties. Take them to the whipping post. 5 lashes each."
Even Harry winced at that. That punishment would be administered by an Elder, and undoubtedly be painful.
"But, that's not fair!" one of them tried to plead. "It's not like we caused that Heaven Grade beast to appear!"
"No?" the Elder whirled around and bore down on the Outer Disciples.
"If it weren't for your idiotic actions, would the Elders have killed the crocodiles to save your lives? Would the Heaven Grade octopus beast have emerged? Would chaos have broken out along the beach? Would all these Inner Disciples and Elders be injured? Would the Sect Master herself be disturbed and have to save us?"
Each pointed question was like a knife being driven into their bodies. Under the bombardment, the disciples just sank lower and lower.
"But we only took the risk because of the reward in the Missions Hall!" another disciple protested. "That mission is basically telling us to attack these Magic Beasts! And if we didn't try, then James would take all the rewards for himself!"
He ended his argument by pointing an accusing finger at Harry, who just glared back. Didn't this fellow know anything about gratefulness? If it weren't for him, perhaps he'd be in the belly of a crocodile.
Before he could open his mouth and speak his mind, the Elder beat him to it.
"Hmph. I have been an Elder of the Swan Sea Sect for 12 years now, and I've never seen such a shameless Outer Disciple like you. You're actually trying to blame your savior here? It almost leaves me with disbelief."
"And if you have a complaint about the task, you can take it up with the Sect Master. She was the one who created the task and provided the rewards. Feel free to seek her out and criticize her. Now take them away."
The Outer Disciple quickly shut his mouth, and let himself be marched away. Criticize the Sect Master? He wouldn't do it if he had a hundred times the courage.
The next day, Harry was back at the beach, resting and waiting for Burning Blood to recharge. Due to yesterday's events, he didn't get a chance to obtain more Beast Cores, and reluctantly had to wait another day.
Though only a single day passed, the beach looked like yesterday's battle never happened. The tide came in, smoothing over the craters in the sand, and with the tide came in more beasts. After the Elders had killed some of the crocodiles, and the octopus started attacking, the rest of the crocodiles fled into the Swan Sea. But overnight, they all came back out, and now hundreds could be seen tanning on the beach again.
'Beast Surges… the number of beasts down in the sea must be uncountable,' he thought. These events occurred when there were too many beasts but not enough space. In those situations, wars between packs of beasts broke out, not unlike humans. The beasts invading the Swan Sea Sect were actually the ones driven out their homes, and the true number of beasts had to be many times more.
Even the giant corpse of the octopus was gone, swallowed up overnight by thousands of hungry beasts who could smell the blood. If anything, the corpse only attracted more beasts, and made the Beast Surge worse.
He was relaxing for a bit in the Sun, and trying to not think about the pain he'd experience tonight. Instead, all he could think about was yesterday's events. That image of the Sect Master butchering the Heaven Grade beast was burned into his mind. It replayed itself over and over. Whenever Harry closed his eyes, he saw the Sect Master's blades effortlessly slicing through the beast.
For Heaven Grade beasts, their skin and flesh could be as tough as stone, and their body parts were considered as precious materials. The single beast was overwhelming so many Core Formation Realm Elders, but was then slaughtered by the Sect Master. Her strength was beyond his understanding.
Suddenly, a huge commotion jolted him into alertness.
"It's the seahorses! They're here! Run! Run!"
"Retreat! The seahorses are here!"
"Fuck, the octopus yesterday, and the seahorses today! How can our luck be so bad?"
Harry shot to his feet. The Inner Disciples were fleeing the beach in a panic, like they were running for their lives. From just a glance, he could see all thoughts of fighting were abandoned. They actually looked even more panicked than yesterday.
'Seahorses?' Harry thought dumbly. He looked to the shoreline, expecting to see cute little animals emerging from the beach, but saw nothing.
'Where?' he wondered, and then he heard it.
It was a galloping sound, like a herd of horses thundering through the plains. Around a kilometer from the shore, a massive wave of water, like the tide, rose from the sea and approached the beach.
As the tide got closer, Harry was able to see it more closely. Strangely, the tide seemed to be made up of hundreds of watery things, combining to form a tall wall of water racing to the beach.
Then the tide got closer, and his eyes widened.
Those things were actually horses, enormous horses, with translucent bodies formed of water. They galloped along the surface of the sea, and with so many of them packed together, it was no wonder they resembled a tidal wave coming in.
'It's not a seahorse, it's a sea horse! That name is way too confusing!'
Harry turned around and joined the disciples in fleeing.
"Don't attack the sea horses!" the Elders were yelling instructions. "Wounded horses will secrete a fluid that sends the entire herd into a frenzy! If you injure one, they'll all target you! Just run!"
'Who is dumb enough to attack them?' Harry scoffed as he ran. It was no wonder everyone abandoned the battle. How could they fight against such a huge pack of Magic Beasts? This was a job that disciples couldn't handle, and better left for the Elders.
Besides, these beasts looked like they were made out of water. How was he even supposed to wound water?
But wait… if these creatures were made out of water, surely their Beast Cores contained Water Qi?
And at that exact moment, another crazy plan began forming in his mind.
'No, no, no, no, no!' he yelled at himself. But even as he tried to talk himself out of it, his movements slowed, and he looked back towards the incoming tide.
As soon as the idea came to his mind, it took hold, like a stubborn weed that refused to be unrooted. In that moment, he already knew what he was going to do.
'I'll need Water Qi eventually. May as well get it now.'
'Forget it, it's way too dangerous,' the rational voice in his head told himself.
'But there are huge rewards this time,' a tempting voice persuaded himself.
Torn with indecision, Harry looked towards the approaching tide, then to the fleeing disciples, then back towards the horses.
'One day, my greed will be the death of me,' he sighed. Then he stopped in his tracks, turned around, and sprinted towards the Vicious Freshwater Crocodiles.
Some of the Inner Disciples and Elders noticed his actions, and cried out in alarm.
"Why's James running back to the crocodiles?" one of them blurted out. Even now, James was thinking about getting Beast Cores?
"Get back here!" they started yelling, but Harry just kept running.
"Ah, shit," Shaun swore, then chased after James to drag him back. Over the last week, he'd grown to like James. But he found his way blocked by Matthew.
"Matthew, get out of the way!"
"As one of the team leaders, I can't permit you to chase after James. If you do, either the crocodiles or the sea horses will kill you."
His words sounded like he was worried for Shaun, but the nasty smile on his face belied his bad intentions.
"You – you – do you want James to die?"
"How can you say that? I am concerned about your safety," Matthew laughed. "As for James, running off was his own choice. Since he's determined to seek death, there's nothing I can do."
A similar scene was playing out among the Elders. Today, two of the Elders stationed here were originally from the Ivory Fist Clan. Seeing James running off towards his own death, their eyes lit up and they blocked the other four from interfering.
"Elder Edmund, where do you think you're going?" one heavily muscled man asked. "We need to stay here, and protect the Inner Disciples."
"Elder Magnus, move aside! Or do you think you two can beat the four of us?"
"Of course, the two of us can't beat the four of you. But to just stop you for a minute is no trouble at all, heh heh," he chuckled meanly.
Elder Edmund's face sank. Those words were true. By the time they fought past the two Elders, James would already be dead.
"Elder Magnus, are you an Elder of the Swan Sea Sect, or are you an Elder of the Ivory Fist Clan? If you don't move, I'll report your actions to the Sect Master!" Elder Edmund threatened.
"Go ahead and report me. We are on the right side here. With the incoming Misty Cape Sea Horses, all the disciples' lives are in danger, unless we protect them. How can you risk their lives just to protect a single Outer Disciple?"
"Right, we are on the moral side here," the other Elder agreed. "You should look at the big picture, and keep the safety of everyone in mind. Don't tell me you already forgot what happened yesterday?"
One of the Elders who wanted to save Harry scowled and made a move, using his power to remotely drag Harry back. But it was intercepted by Elder Magnus.
"Elder Magnus, you're going to far!"
"Ah, excuse me. My hand slipped," he chuckled shamelessly. He had orders to make James' life difficult. And with James running off to his own death, this was the perfect chance.
The four Elders glowered, but didn't make further movements. The two Elders blocking their way had a point. It would be irresponsible for them to abandon all the Inner Disciples just to save a single Outer Disciple. Even if they reported the two Elders, they could make a convincing case for their actions. And besides, in the time they spent arguing, James was almost caught up to the fleeing reptiles. It was already too late.
"This boy, he's actually crazy," one of the Elders helplessly muttered. At this point, they could only watch.