The first light of morning crept slowly over the horizon, painting the sky with soft strokes of gold and pale orange. Nestled within a ring of towering mountains, the village began to stir as it always did. Thin streams of smoke curled upward from early cooking fires. The soft murmurs of families waking drifted through open windows, and faint, rhythmic footsteps echoed along the cobblestone paths as villagers prepared for another day of work and cultivation.
But even before the sun fully rose, a group of hunters had already returned home. They emerged from the forest like shadows blending into dawn, their movements quiet and practiced. Their clothes were torn in several places, streaked with dirt and dried beast blood. Yet despite their rugged appearance, their eyes held unwavering calm—because the night belonged to them.
These were the Light Eye Technique Hunters, a small but elite group within the village.
The Light Eye Technique, a specialized martial eye cultivation method, granted heightened visual sensitivity. Users could see through darkness as though it were a dim morning, their vision cutting through layers of shadow and catching subtle movement, silhouettes, and even faint aura outlines of beasts. With this gift, they hunted silently and lethally—even in places where most humans would walk blind.
Only those who mastered Light Eye dared to enter the forest after dusk. Ordinary hunters never stepped into the woods at night—it was almost guaranteed death. Most beasts possessed superior night vision compared to humans of similar cultivation, and many species grew more active and aggressive once the sun fell.
But with Light Eye, night hunters overturned that natural disadvantage.
To mask their scent from sharp-nosed beasts, they coated themselves in special herbal mud mixtures. And to disguise their tracks, they wore Hoof Shoes, footwear crafted to mimic the prints of common forest creatures. This deceptive tactic confused monsters and prevented them from noticing the hunters' approach.
Thanks to these strategies, Light Eye users often harvested three times the prey of daytime hunters. Some even managed to slay higher-ranked beasts when their ambushes were flawlessly executed—though usually only those with weaker physical defense. One misstep, however, could lead to disaster. If a beast detected them before they struck, retaliation was swift and deadly.
Despite its power, the Light Eye Technique had strict limitations. It could only be activated twice a day, each lasting one to two hours. However, if the technique wasn't forcefully deactivated, a skilled user could maintain it for up to four to five hours at the cost of immense spiritual exhaustion. Overuse left the practitioner drained and vulnerable.
The forest during its darkest hours was a place of opportunity and peril. The dense canopy blocked most moonlight, making visibility poor for low-level creatures—but not for those with high cultivation. Hunters often told stories of encountering terrifying, mutated creatures known as Unique Monsters.
Unique Monsters were feared aberrations. At the same cultivation level, they were many times stronger than ordinary beasts. Their senses were unnaturally sharp, their movements unpredictable, and their abilities varied wildly. More than ninety-nine percent of humans who confronted one head-on perished.
To survive such encounters, hunters relied on costly life-saving treasures. The most common was the White Spider Net—a delicate yet deadly web coated in powerful paralyzing poison. The more a beast struggled, the deeper the poison sank. These nets were woven from the silk of the White Grey Spider, a high-ranked species that had to be captured alive and bred within formation-protected cages.
Another trump card was the Red Sun Bomb, a devastating explosive capable of melting sand and ordinary stone within a thirty-meter radius. It was nearly twice as expensive as the White Spider Net, making it a rare purchase even for experienced hunters.
Despite the price, these tools saved countless lives. Hunters often spent thirty percent of their half-year savings to buy just one, balancing cultivation resources, weapon maintenance, family needs, and preparation for future hunts that consumed the rest of their yearly earnings. But thanks to these items, night-hunt mortality had dropped by almost ninety percent.
To support the hunters, the village chief and vice chief negotiated with the association that managed these tools. By trading high-grade beast corpses and bones, they secured a ten percent cost reduction for the village. It wasn't much—but for impoverished hunters, every coin mattered.
The only places that never closed were the pharmacy workshops. Healers and alchemists worked around the clock, tending wounds, supplying antidotes, and preparing medicines essential for survival.
Just as the hunters reached the village gate, the earth suddenly trembled beneath their feet.
The faint Light Eye glow still shimmered in their irises like dim morning stars. Because of this technique, they were more sensitive to aura fluctuations—and this tremor carried something unnatural, something overwhelmingly powerful.
"Did you feel that?" one murmured.
"It's too early for the miners," another replied. "And mountains don't just… shake."
They continued forward, tension tightening their expressions.
Then—
Another tremor struck, stronger than before.
A potter opening his shop stumbled, clay bowls clattering to the ground.
"An earthquake?!"
A woman fetching water almost dropped her bucket.
"The mountains—they're shaking!"
Impossible.
The mountain bases surrounding the village were formed of Formation Rock, one of the toughest natural materials in the region. Mining it was nearly impossible—too much effort for too little yield. Instead, formation masters engraved thousands of detection lines across their surfaces, turning the peaks into an enormous natural fortress.
Together, the rocks and the formations created an invisible defensive barrier stretching one kilometer beyond the mountain bases. Anything—beast, bandit, or even bird—that crossed the boundary was instantly detected.
To the villagers, these mountains symbolized absolute safety.
Which was why tremors were unthinkable.
And yet—
Boom.
The ground lurched violently. Pots shattered. Dogs barked madly. Parents clutched their children.
"The barrier—look!"
A faint ripple shimmered across the sky. Normally invisible, the barrier flickered like disturbed water.
Hunters dropped their prey, faces darkening.
"This pressure…" one muttered.
"That's aura," another said. "But whose aura could suppress the whole village?"
A third hunter stiffened.
"Wait. I know this feeling… it's the chief. And the vice chief."
The others stared at him.
"You're certain?"
"I trained under the chief. I'd recognize his spiritual pressure anywhere."
Villagers overheard—and panic ignited instantly.
"The chief and vice chief are fighting?!"
"That can't be!"
"What could force them to release so much power?!"
Another tremor rolled through the village. Cultivators under mortal realm 7th Rank collapsed to their knees, gasping under the suffocating aura.
A formation cultivator stumbled out of the command center, pale and trembling.
"This isn't just their energy," he rasped. "There's… a third aura. Vast. Predatory. Ancient."
Silence swept through the crowd.
"T-three auras?!"
"One matches the chief's… one the vice chief's…"
"And the last… it feels like a Beast King!"
Faces drained of color.
A little girl whispered, her voice trembling, "Mama… are we in danger?"
Her mother hugged her tightly. "No, sweetheart… the chief is strong."
But even she could not steady her voice.
The hunters sensed the truth immediately.
"That beast's aura… it's not weaker than the chief's."
"No… it might be Body Refining 7th or even 8th Rank."
"That's impossible! A beast that strong shouldn't be anywhere near the village!"
The ground trembled harder. Dust slid off rooftops. Pebbles tumbled down the mountain slopes.
A farmer shielding his goats shouted, "Is the earth tearing apart?!"
A child pointed at the mountains.
"Look!"
A colossal pillar of spiritual light shot into the sky—white, purple, and crimson swirling like a violent storm. A massive roar swept across the forest, surging toward the village. The barrier flared with brilliant blue light, repelling most of the destructive energy—but a small portion leaked through.
Birds scattered instantly, fleeing in terror.
The pressure slammed into the village again—windows cracked, weaker cultivators coughed blood, and homes rattled violently.
"This isn't normal!" a cultivator gasped. "This is war!"
"The chief must be fighting something terrifying…"
An elderly man whispered:
"No… they are fighting someone. A being whose power rivals—or surpasses—theirs."
Inside the Holy Bungalow
While panic spread outside, in a secluded bungalow near the radiant white tower, the teacher's eyes snapped open.
His spiritual sense expanded instantly, stretching thousands of kilometers toward the battle. As his sense discovered the silver bell cat, the beast released a spiritual energy to prevent the teacher spiritual sense from inspecting his body, but it was too late, the teacher had camouflage his energy with the beast energy making his spiritual sense undecetable until the last moment, the teacher had finished the inspection of the beast before the beast could realise. But the teacher surfer a little resistance.
The aura from the silver bell cat hit him like a spiritual wave—Ancient, fierce, powerful. The walls vibrated, shaking the Holy Martial Cultivation Book in his hands.
In the midst of the battle the village chief and the vice chief, frown slightly.
"This is Brother Dádào Yǒnghéng's spiritual sense," the vice chief murmured.
He slowly stood, jaw tightening
"So… it has begun," he murmured.
Little Yiselie frowned in his sleep, distressed by the pressure outside. Enhui shifted uneasily. The small beast curled beside them trembled even in its dreams.
Though the barrier surrounding the garden is stronger than the barrier surrounding the village a little still passed through, discomforting the kids and the little beast.
The teacher approached the window.
In the distance, the sky over the mountains pulsed with shifting light.
"Three immense auras," he whispered. "The chief. The vice chief. And a beast whose intelligence… equals its savagery."
But if they are able to defeat it the ancient formation structure on it's body should do us great good.
The bungalow vibrated as another tremor swept through the village. Even the holy tower behind him emitted a faint hum.
"This is no ordinary battle," he said quietly. "This clash will shake the foundation of our village."
He whispered a prayer.
"Eternal God Spirit… shield them. And may the chief's and the vice chief path avoid death today."
---
Back in the Village Square
The villagers crowded together in fear.
A blacksmith ushered apprentices into his workshop. Merchants hurriedly secured carts. Parents rushed children into their homes. Elders lit incense and muttered prayers.
A young cultivator pointed at the shimmering barrier.
"It's barely holding!"
The barrier flickered again.
A formation master shouted, "If the pressure increases further, the outer barrier will collapse!"
"Collapse?!" someone screamed.
"It will reform after a short delay—just stay calm!"
"Calm?! With a monster fighting our chief?!"
Another wave of aura slammed into the village, suffocating even advanced cultivators.
But despite the growing panic, no child or weak cultivator collapsed—not even those below the mortal realms fifth Rank. This was no coincidence.
Before the village chief and the vice chief left to confront the mysterious threat, they had made thorough preparations. Knowing that their auras alone could crush low-level cultivators, they had personally activated a protective blessing over the village.
A soft but powerful golden veil—formed from the chief's "Mountain Heart Guard" technique—and a secondary layer of blue spiritual energy from the vice chief's "Flowing River Shield" spread quietly across the homes and communal quarters. Every cultivator below the 5th Level of the Mortal Realm was enveloped in this invisible barrier.
It wrapped around their bodies like a warm, protective embrace.
It dulled the suffocating pressure of the auras.
It shielded their organs from being shaken apart.
It prevented their meridians from bursting.
Most importantly—
It kept the children safe.
Even as the oppressive waves of battle aura swept through the mountains, even as houses trembled and dust fell from rooftops, the protected villagers felt only a faint heaviness in their chests—nothing dangerous, nothing life-threatening.
Some children blinked in confusion, unaware of the true danger.
Some elderly cultivators breathed shakily, but their bodies remained steady.
Young disciples who should've fainted remained standing, only sweating lightly.
The village formation master realized this and shouted in relief:
"The chief and vice chief—they protected us before they left! That's why no one below the fifth level is collapsing! The protective veil is still active!"
A wave of reassurance washed through the villagers.
Parents hugged their children closer.
Elders sighed and offered gratitude to the heavens.
Even the hunters felt their hearts lighten slightly.
Yet…
As another violent fluctuation rocked the barrier and spiritual light tore through the sky, the fear returned just as quickly.
Because protection or not—
Nothing could fully shield them if the chief and vice chief were defeated.
And so the villagers continued to watch the mountains with trembling anticipation, praying that their leaders—men strong enough to worry about protecting the weak even in the face of a Beast King—would return alive.
"It feels like… mountains crashing together," an elder muttered.
"No," a hunter said. "Three mountains."
Silence fell.
Then someone whispered the fear in everyone's heart:
"If the chief and the vice chief falls… who will protect us…?"
No one answered.
The villagers stared at the mountains, where flashes of light danced like lightning.
Hope mixed with terror.
And all they could do—
Was wait and pray to God for protection for their leaders
If you find flaws in the story please comment on it, you know, it is not easy to write a novel
2."I'll be posting two chapter per day since I have missed more than a week of posting stories
3. "If you're enjoying the story, just drop a comment saying 'I love the story!' Your support means a lot and gives me the confidence to keep writing. Thank you for being part of this journey!".
4. you find any mistakes in the story, tell me. Then come back in 24 hours—I will have corrected them by then."
The next two chapters will be pure battle and no diversion.