The soldiers of the Empire saw their hope to escape that dangerous situation vanish in a few instants.

What had appeared in front of them was a rank 5 magical beast, even their powerful sh.i.p.s could do nothing against that ent.i.ty.

Meanwhile, the Giant octopuses behind them began to catch up, their tentacles cracked in the air as if they were wh.i.p.s as they resumed to attack the soldiers.

Cultivators started to die again, the a.s.sault of magical beasts in the middle tier of the fourth rank wasn't something that rank 2 cultivators could handle and those in the third rank were busy defending themselves to mind anyone else.

The truth was that there was still a glimmer of hope in their minds, something that they knew would be able to face the mighty creature in the sea.

"Enough."

A voice filled the island, the air seemed to stop, the Giant octopuses on the ground shook, only the huge tentacle wrapped in the remains of the s.h.i.+p was unaffected.

A middle-aged man wearing a plain expression appeared in the air and walked toward the pack of magical beasts.

He had short black hair, no beard, and a pair of dark eyes, he slowly waved his hand in a horizontal motion and, all of sudden, the ground shook again.

The terrain under the Giant octopuses began to tremble, a series of snakes made of sand rose from the ground and tangled themselves around the creatures.

The octopuses tried to use the soft capabilities of their bodies to escape the bindings but more and more snakes rose from the ground as time pa.s.sed, at least one hundred of them were created in less than a minute.

Then, the snakes began to retreat in the ground, carrying the bound magical beasts with them, the pack of Giant octopuses was slowly buried alive, leaving no traces of the beasts.

The soldiers of the Empire began to cheer while unsightly expressions appeared on the faces of the cultivators of the Hive, only Noah remained calm at the sight of a heroic cultivator defeating the pack of rank 4 creatures.

He had seen the power of a rank 5 magical beast and he knew that even a patriarch of a medium-size n.o.ble family hadn't been able to defeat it, he didn't know the specifics about their power but he was sure that it wouldn't be easy to defeat the mighty creature on the sea.

The huge tentacle didn't seem bothered by the appearance of the heroic cultivator and simply went for another s.h.i.+p, coiling itself around it.

"Know your place, beast."

The heroic cultivator appeared in the trajectory of the tentacle and stretched a hand to block it.

The tentacle was huge, it didn't seem possible for someone that small to be able to block it.

Yet, when his hand touched the limb of the rank 5 creature, the tentacle stopped.

A proud expression appeared on the face of the heroic cultivator and the cheers of the soldiers on the sh.o.r.e further improved his mood.

However, his expression suddenly froze when he heard a deep cry coming from the bottom of the sea.

Waves rose at a short distance from the sh.o.r.e, it seemed as if the sea had resonated with the cry of the rank 5 creature and was conveying its anger!

The soldiers retreated when they saw the tall waves reaching for the sh.o.r.e, their expressions became worried when they raised their heads to the sky and saw that their savior was slowly being pushed back by the tentacle of the beast!

The man in the heroic ranks stopped playing around and decided to become serious.

Hundreds of snakes made of sand rose from the sh.o.r.e and reached for the tentacle that was pus.h.i.+ng him back.

The snakes coiled themselves around the tentacle, some of them directly broke under the pressure that it applied but the man simply created more of them.

Little by little, more than a hundred snakes bound the tentacle and stopped its advance, the heroic soldier heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that he had completely blocked the limb of the powerful creature.

Just as he was about to retract his hand though, two more huge tentacles rose at high speed from the sea and directly slammed on him!

The heroic cultivator couldn't react in time, the newly arrived tentacles were too fast, it seemed impossible to reach that speed due to their size.

Nevertheless, the heroic cultivator was. .h.i.t by both limbs and was sent flying in the distance, the sand snakes around the third tentacle broke after that.

The soldiers on the sh.o.r.e felt as if their legs had lost all their strength, most of them fell powerlessly on the ground when they saw their last hope vanish in the distance.

The three tentacles then went for a s.h.i.+p each, the silver s.h.i.+elds slowly crumbled as the beast focused the inscribed sh.i.p.s.

'As expected, he wasn't enough to deal with the creature, he must have been just in the fourth rank.'

Noah judged from his safe position on the other side of the island.

The power of those in the heroic ranks was a mystery to him but he knew that beasts in the fifth rank weren't something that could be faced easily.

'Maybe one needs to be at the peak of the fourth rank to beat them… I don't really know the difference though.'

The reason why he was so focused on trying to understand the cultivation level of the heroic soldier was linked to his personal vengeance.

The Balvan family had one heroic cultivator that he was sure of but he still didn't know his actual level.

Noah was set on avenging his mother but he wouldn't do so by sacrificing his life, he wanted to be sure that he could deal with the entirety of his family before planning an a.s.sault to Balvan mansion.

Then, his thoughts were interrupted since another figure appeared in the air.

It was another man with long gray hair and a short gray beard, the heroic cultivator from before was unconscious in his grasp, he simply let him hang from his hand as he carried him by his robe.

His gaze wasn't on the rank 5 creature nor the soldiers below him, he seemed to stare at some place in the distance with a stern expression.

Then, he spoke and his voice filled the archipelago.

"The Empire is ready to talk."