Chapter 380: 380, [One Person, One Sword]
The Fire Yan Sect, located outside the southern border of the West State, is a medium-sized sect. Its sect master Shang Haiqing is a great cultivator at the peak of the sixth level. His fire-oriented cultivation base has reached an incredible proficiency, making him a person of note beyond the borders of West State.

At present, he was looking solemnly towards the southeast, his right hand, which held a long halberd, slightly tightening.

“The catastrophe has arrived.” He sighed.

As a great cultivator at the peak of the sixth level, he had experienced too many storms. Although the situation was severe now, it didn’t unsettle his mind.

On the contrary, there was a sense of relief in his heart.

“It’s fortunate these foreign races appeared southeast of my Fire Yan Sect. If they had appeared behind us, the consequences would be unthinkable.” Shang Haiqing thought.

Behind the Fire Yan Sect is the first largest city in the nearby region—Fire Lotus City, which is also the most significant city within the power range of the Fire Yan Sect.

For hundreds of years, the Fire Yan Sect has been worshipped by mortals in the Fire Lotus City; therefore, under such circumstances, they should stand as a bulwark before Fire Lotus City.

Shang Haiqing sharply struck the ground with his halberd, and shouted, “Mountain Protection Array, arise!”

The sect’s large array started operating, and a red barrier began to extend in all directions.

Flames roamed over this barrier, like hundreds of meters long fire snakes.

The elders of the Fire Yan Sect stood beside Shang Haiqing, and the disciples gathered behind him.

Various disciples of Fire Yan Sect had various expressions.

Some were nervous, some excited, some serious, and some slightly timid…

However, the player characters from the Fire Yan Sect were more uniform, most of them were excited like crazy, their eyes practically shining.

“Red name monsters! So many red name monsters! These are all experience points!”

“Who cares about experience points? I’m mainly after contribution points!”

“If I manage to kill a few more, I might even make the contribution points leaderboard!”

“Come and kill me! If you dare, come and hack at me, once in, once out!”

Although the attitudes of the players seemed relaxed, it must be said that since the foreign races’ arrival, players have been the main force against them.

They had an endless supply of tricks up their sleeves, they could respawn after dying, all of which made the foreign races feel extremely troubled.

At the same time, with the large-scale arrival of the foreign races, the leveling speed of the players began to accelerate!

Killing foreign races would give them a hefty amount of experience points. Even if they were killed by the foreign races—to the point of dropping experience points—as long as they participated in the foreign races’ kills, they would barely make a loss because everyone had the main quest “Foreign Invasion” and could claim the quest rewards.

At this moment, a prompt message popped up automatically before all players.

“Ding! Assist Sect Master Shang Haiqing of the Fire Yan Sect in resisting the first wave of foreign invasions. If the task is completed, you can get 150,000 experience points as a reward.”

For the players at their current levels, 150,000 experience points was a fortune, not to mention they could gain more experience by killing foreign races!

At this point, they were so excited that they wanted to scream!

This indicated that the players would rapidly grow stronger in the battle!

However, when countless foreign races officially appeared within their field of vision, the visual impact implied was hard to describe.

From the player’s perspective, it felt like a beast tide.

A sea of red-named monsters, densely packed red-named monsters!

The foreign races in the front row all had a danger level of “Extremely Lethal”!

The battle had officially begun in the blink of an eye.

…

…

Looking at the numbers on both sides, the foreign races had the advantage.

However, considering that the players could respawn after being killed, this, to some extent, narrowed the gap.

But, in terms of top-level power, this batch of foreign races was much stronger.

The leading foreign race was comparable to the cultivators of the seventh level on the Heavenly Dust Continent, and there were two more at the peak of the sixth level following him!

Behind these three, there were a large number of foreign races comparable to the great cultivators!

The size of the altars that the foreign races built on the Heavenly Dust Continent varied greatly, as did the strength of the descended foreign races.

This indirectly resulted in the uneven distribution of power on different battlefields across the entire Heavenly Dust Continent.

This was especially evident in medium and small-sized areas like Three Thousand Mountains and the Fire Yan Sect.

In large areas like the West State, foreign races certainly pay more attention, while in these medium and small-sized areas, it’s quite random.

There might be hidden complexities within this as well.

Looking at the current situation, Fire Yan Sect’s luck was not good. As a medium-sized Sect, the foreign forces they were facing had somewhat exceeded what they could bear.

For this reason, before the battle against the foreign race started, Shang Haiqing decisively began recruiting reinforcements, sending a message via flying sword towards the West State, requesting the support of the sword cultivators from the two major Sword Sects.

The Fire Yan Sect is not far from the two major Sword Sects, and though they wouldn’t say their relationship is deep, they have been neighbors for many years and have shared numerous interactions.

More importantly, for the southern border of West State, the Fire Yan Sect serves as the frontline of defense. The saying – ‘when the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold’ – is well understood to mean the importance of mutual support.

However, when the battle began, Shang Haiqing couldn’t care about these anymore.

Although the Mountain Protection Array deterred the foreign race, the sheer number of enemies made it difficult. There were not a few with high cultivation bases and under their relentless assault, the Mountain Protection Array couldn’t hold for long.

Just as the array was about to shatter, Shang Haiqing swung his long halberd, inciting a gust of energy which clashed with the leading foreign man.

This foreign man, comparable to the seventh realm, surprisingly had heterochromatic eyes.

His left eye was dark purple, while his right eye was dark red.

His hands were covered in black scales. He caught the oncoming energy bare-handed. With a slight force exerted through his fingers, the scales curled up. With a firm grip, he crushed the energy.

He lightly patted a cloth bag wrapped around his waist. When the bag opened, a tiny bug flew out. It grew in an instant, it’s body length near a hundred meters, covered in spikes, and flew towards the crowd.

A beast comparable to the sixth realm!

Shang Haiqing’s face sunk, but he was powerless.

With his peak sixth realm cultivation, he already found it difficult to fight this foreign race alone, let alone having to deal with this insect-like beast.

Actually, now, all the Elders of the Fire Yan Sect were entangled with the high-level foreign races. Regardless of whether they had the advantage or not, they were all tightly engaged and couldn’t free themselves to deal with this beast!

If it were to charge into the back, the consequences would be unimaginable!

No one among the Fire Yan Sect disciples would be able to withstand a blow!

An Elder who was in an advantageous position quickly resolved his opponent and attempted to chase after the beast, but it was already too late.

The beast moved far too quickly, and in a moment, it was in front of the crowd.

Every spike on its body radiated a dark purple glow. All it needed to do was rush into the crowd, and it would reap the lives of these young people!

The Elder tried his best to catch up and could already foresee that those disciples nearest to the beast had little hope of survival.

In front of the beast, two female disciples turned pale, suffocated by the terrifying aura of the beast.

The moonlight and starlight were completely blocked by it. It seemed like within its scope, only the purple light from its body remained.

No, not just purple light!

A sword light appeared out of nowhere!

A dazzling sword Qi crossed the night sky at an extreme speed.

By the time you react…

—— the sword Qi is already near!

This is the fastest sword on the Heavenly Dust Continent. As for this sixth-level beast, naturally, it didn’t have time to react.

After the sword Qi had split it in half, it continued to sweep through, killing nearly a hundred low-level foreign races behind it!

The surging wave generated by the sword Qi rolled in both directions. Whether it was the foreign races flying in the sky or the Heavenly Dust Cultivators controlling their magic tools, none of them could stabilize themselves in this wave.

They were all blown to the sides, thereby clearing a path in the sky!

A man dressed in a black robe and wearing a bamboo hat flew from a distance into this cleared path.

A sword emanating a terrifying aura floated beside him.

“Is it a sword cultivator from West State? Has a West State sword cultivator come to our aid?”

“But why has only one person come?”

But for some reason, even though it was just one man with one sword, it brought a great sense of security.

The Fire Yan Sect Elder that was chasing the beast took a glance at the newcomer, quickly said: “Thank you for your assistance, the Fire Yan Sect is most grateful with immense respect, may I know your name?”

The man dressed in a black robe, donned with a bamboo hat, and holding a sword sheath calmly spoke. His voice spread across the entire battlefield, he only uttered four words, but they provided everyone with immense reassurance.

——”Demon Sect’s Lu Xun.”

…

(PS: The first update, request for monthly votes!)