“How far you spread your [Observation]?” Wukong asked as the fal hovered above the clouds so as not to alert the soldiers below to their arrival.

  “A kilometre and a half,” Aswered holy.

  “ you sense any magical beasts?” Wukong asked, ign the shock of Ace’s ridicule of perception.

  “No, none,” Ace replied.

  “Isn’t that a good thing?” Ace asked, not uanding Wukong’s frown.

  “A beast tide is a pretty regur occurrence around here. Once or twice a year, the Forest of darkness over there will bee overpoputed with beasts. As a result, the stronger beasts in the depths of the forest force the weaker oo attack the humalements that touch the borders of the forest.

  It's not usually too hard to withstand, though, as the stro beasts that e out tend to be of the seventh hth ranks, with there rarely beis of the ninth rank.

  But the most important thing to remember is that a beast tide operates almost like that of a ripple. Whether it’s a seventh, eighth or even ninth ra leading the tide, until those stronger beasts reach the periphery of the forest, the weaker beasts that generally reside there would still be there.”

  “So where are the weaker beasts now?” Ace asked, still not pletely uanding the problem.

  Wukong didn’t seem to hear Ace as he silently gazed at the forest of darkness with a dignified expression. “Take us down.”

  Hearing Wukong’s order, the giant fal desded slowly.

  Ace’s body tehinking that the archers standing on the walls might fire at them, thinking the fal art of the beast tide, but it seemed he was overthinking. In fact, it almost looked as if the archers felt relief when they saw the bird.

  “Here, take this to first brother and hurry!” Wukong ordered the bird as he tossed it a o catch with its beak before lifting Ace with one arm and jumping off its bading outside a rge manor stationed in the tre of the city.

  “Would it have killed you to give me a heads-up before doing that?” Ace asked, clearly not a fan of being manhandled like that.

  But before Wukong could respond, Ace sehe emergence of several powerful individuals exiting the rge manor.

  ‘Five Warriors and two mages, but all of them are at least of the sixth rank, and one’s actually at the eighth rank like Wukong.’ Aoted.

  “Ahh, thank God you made it in time!” The man in the tre of the group said in relief.

  It wasn’t hard for Ace to guess that he was the one in charge. Not only because he was the stro but also due to the looks of respect he got from the others.

  The man had long sandy brown hair tied in a ponytail and emerald-greehat shoh an innate fidehat was hard to fake. He was dressed in a simple, lightweight silver armour that only seemed to add a yer of elegao his valiant aura.

  “Haha, how is this king’s favourite Brother-In-Law?” Wukong asked as he gave the man a bear hug.

  “Put me down, you brat. You’ll ruin my image in front of my people.” Even though he said that, from where Ace stood, it looked as if there was nothing the man could say or do that would make the others even begin to think any less of him.

  “And who do we have here?” He asked whilst looking at Ace.

  “Ahh yeah, Ace, this is Venerin Lilt, also known as Lord Silverlight. Ahet he got because fshing lights of silver are all you see when his sword moves.” Wukong introduced.

  “When an expert like you says that, it only feels like you’re mog me!” Venerin interjected with a wry smile.

  “Haha, you think too much!” Wukong replied. “Ooh, and this is Ace, one of the talents this king recruited to join the Pavilion.”

  “To be called a talent by little Kong, you must really be quite the talent,” Venerin said as he extended his hand to shake the Ace’s.

  “Little Kong?” Ace asked, looking back with a mischievous smile.

  “Don’t even think about it, you snot-nosed brat!” Wukong said as he gred at Ace.

  Ace smirked slightly but didn’t say anything more oopistead, he raised his hands to meet the handsome city lords. “o meet you too.”

  Venerin the boy before turning back to Wukong. “But why did y him here? This is no pce for a child!”

  “He’s here because this is his opportunity to prove himself,” Wukong expined.

  Ace merely shinking Wukong was mogly referring to his approag deadlio prehend oh the give. Still, the city lord looked wide-eyed at the child, then back at his brother-in-w, seeming to have uood something.

  Before he could say anything oter, Venerin’s gaze turned serious as he spun his head to face the gates where the sound of a gong being hit inated.

  Venerin and his men ran in the dire of the wall, with Wukong and Ace following beside them.

  “How much do you know?” Wukong asked.

  “I know that the weaker magical beasts that used to roam the periphery of the forest of darkness seem to have disappeared,” Venerin replied. “Something like this has only happened once before.

  I ’t be sure, but the st time it happened, it was because a saint-level magical beast was leading them.”

  “Saint?!” Ace blurted out in shock.

  Seeing Ace’s shock, Wukong decided to expin. “Magical beasts have lower levels of intelligehan humans, but their intelligencreases with every rank. By the time they reach the seventh rank, their intelligence already matches that of the average child, but as saints, their intelligence is no worse than an adult human.

  Typically the beasts would just charge at the humalements in masse, hoping to crush it, but if a saint-level magical beast were to take trol, with their mental dexterity, they’d be able to implement tactiake the tide far more dangerous.”

  “And that’s ign the fact that we don’t even have a saint of our own,” Venerin added. “Do you know if Matthias will be able to make it?”

  “I gave a o Elsie to get to him, so hopefully, he should be able to make it in time,” Wukong replied.

  “Good, that’s very good!” Venerin said with a hint of hope and relief in his voice.

  When they made it to the wall, the archers and soldiers statiohere immediately bowed and moved out of the way of Venerin and his party.

  “What’s the test?” Venerin asked a man Ace could sense was a mage of the fifth rank.

  “Milord, I just got back from doing a preliminary scout, and using the spell Windscout, I could sehe emergenagical beasts. There were too many for me to t, so I came back.” The mage expined.

  Having heard that, Wukong g Ace, who merely nodded what Wukong wanted. Within seds the ape-like warrior saw the genuine sho Ace’s face.

  “There are a few hundred beasts about a kilometre out, all between the sed and sixth ranks. None of them are moving; they just seem to be waiting for something.” Ace quietly expined so only Wukong could hear.

  Wukong uood that Ace wao keep his abilities private for now, and he respected his decision, but the most crucial issue right now was the magical beasts. ‘It looks like I might’ve been right.’

  “OPEES!” Venerin roared.

  As the gates opened, hundreds of warriors swarmed out in a surprisingly orderly fashion before taking position in front of the walls.

  He didn’t know if it was because they were about to battle with an army of magical beasts or if they knew something more was ing, but Ace could sehe fear exuding from the soldiers below.

  “Every year we face the beast tide, and every year we remain standing.” With his battle qi, Venerin, who wasn’t speaking particurly loudly, could be heard clearly even by the soldier’s standing furthest away as if he was right beside them. “This will likely be our toughest challeo date, but I promise that tomorrow…

  SILVERLIGHT CITY WILL STILL STAND!”

  One of the rank seven warriors who had been following Venerin sihey left the manor, a rge nce-wielding woman, stepped forward and roared. “FOR SILVERLIGHT CITY!”

  “FOR SILVERLIGHT CITY!” Without fail, every foot soldier, mage, and archer all roared ba unison.

  And just like that, the nerves ahe soldiers were feeling were reduced drastically. Every soldier stood with their backs straight and eyes bzing with an unwavering will.

  “Sometimes a good leader is more important than a strong one,” Wukong said as he watched that se with admiration.

  Hearing that, the image of a certain muscur back came to mind. It was a back that radiated an indomitable aura, a back that made his enemies cower but brought strength to his allies.

  “You’re right about that!” Ace said as a wistful smile suffused his lips.

  His rea didn’t go unnoticed by Wukong but now was her the time nor the pce to get distracted.

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  Patreon./ACoilingDragon: Book 2 - Chapter 14