The beach quickly became crowded with battles, it was quite literally a 'tide' of a beasts, they crawled and crept up the sand stumbling over one another as they seemingly attempted to run away in a crazed state, their beady black eyes and sensory organs lacking conscious as they flipped about wildly at anyone that stood in their way.
But most of them were simple sea creatures that were only slightly stronger than a normal animal, they barely existed as a threat to the cultivators lining the beach, either becoming fodder or squeezing through the sieve-like formation of camps.
The valuable prizes were the larger beasts – the spirit beasts that managed to escape the arrowhead of the Everlasting Ocean Sect because they weren't quite strong enough to be considered a delicacy, one such beast was a large crayfish that donned a black carapace and stood a couple meters tall, it crashed through the frontlines knocking back multiple cultivators as its shell deflected multiple techniques and its claws protected its vital parts.
"Restrain it!" one man yelled as the disciples in purple robes near him rushed out and acted in perfect sync, their sleeves swished as they performed a hand sign as black seaweed flew out tightening around the crayfish's limbs while criss-crossing and reinforcing one another.
The crayfish struggled as the disciples were tugged, they wouldn't be able to hold it for more than 10 seconds! But that was enough, the thick browed man clapped his hands as his Qi burst, an eerie purple colour surrounded his body before images of spine bones surrounded him, a total of six!
"Surround!" He shouted as his index finger pointed at the crayfish, the bones flew and circled it. "Pierce! Six Violet Spines!" a violet aura seemed to grow from the bone pieces as it shot out in a line and pierced between the carapace's gaps, the crayfish screeched in pain while bubbling at the mouth before turning still.
"As expected of Senior Brother! One move was all it took!" One of the disciples praised as they moved to shift the body of the crayfish, they had attained a great gain right from the get-go!
"Don't get distracted, we're only starting!" The thick browed man replied, yet the smile on his face gave away his joy.
"That's the Violet Spine Sect's namesake technique… he must be their core disciple Yi Yijun!" a camp close to them had someone murmur.
"Such a terrifying technique, I hear their sect master created it after observing the spine of a great poisonous beast for years!".
The praise was like music to Yi Yiyun's ears as his pace increased, cutting down beasts even faster than before.
'That's right, praise us more, our sect will rise to the top!'
…
Over in the distance, at the back of the beach, a pair of figures were sat comfortably on the root of a large tree, the chaotic wind swept their pink and white hair as they idly waited for everything to run its course.
"A little disappointing… if they were at the front it would be fun, but at the back…" Na Xue sighed as she glanced at the camp where Shu He and Ren Hai was, they were barely engaging a few small creatures and easily dealing with them, Shu He and Shu Xue didn't even need to do a thing and were just standing still.
"How boring…" she sighed again.
"If you really want to fight, couldn't you just go kick one of the others out of their spot? You're a core disciple for a reason, no?" Bai Lian replied as she twirled her long white hair in thought.
Na Xue laughed lightly "I could, but Shu He is holding back, so I should too" she then glanced at Bai Lian from the side "What about you, little princess? Too much work? You've been rather inactive throughout this trip despite asking a favour from him".
The two matched stares as Bai Lian's eyes narrowed "I've… been distracted".
Despite how the two of them had been 'getting along' so far, the fact was there was a wall between them, a wall created from their origins.
"And, can you please stop calling me that?" Bai Lian's brow creased even further, clearly displaying her annoyance.
Na Xue's face showed a hint of surprise "You're actually complaining? What a surprise, you normally just accept it".
"Accept? There's just no need to bother with complaining, but being called It right now…" her glance fell on a figure in the distance.
Ne Xue matched her glance, but no smile crept up her face, in fact it was the opposite, pure apathy appeared. "You realise there's a reason you're called that, right?" Her tone dropped.
Bai Lian stood up, her face tinged with anger "That's nonsense, I try my best as well! I push myself as hard as I can!"
Na Xue's eyes narrowed "Yeah, I'm sure you do; For a second daughter."
Bai Lian's eyes widened as those words echoed in her ears as she clenched her fists "I… I'm not…" you could hear her teeth grinding against one another as she struggled to get the words out.
"Not what?" Na Xue couldn't help but sigh "I can tell that you want to get stronger, I don't know why, but you have a reason, right?".
Bai Lian's shoulders dropped before she nodded meekly; it was like she was being lectured by the clan's elders again.
"As the second daughter of the clan you have one responsibility – to find a suitable partner and carry the lineage of the clan, that's it, and unlike your elder sister the requirements are a lot looser".
"That's right…" Bai Lian mumbled.
"So, you are doing everything you can, training whenever possible, following whatever advice you can find, being a good member of the clan".
"That's right" her voice was little louder, but she didn't understand where Na Xue was going with this.
"How nice, I really envy you, such a comfortable position".
"What?! Even I've worked hard, training until I collapsed, fighting other clansmen that were much stronger than me until bleed-"
"As I said, how nice" A sarcastic smile was plastered on Na Xue's face as Bai Lian become dumbfounded. Na Xue's head flopped as her pink hair covered her facial expression "What was the first kind of training you received in your clan?" she asked.
"First…?" Bai Lian paused, she had to think for a minute. "I think.. it was Qi gathering?".
"When I was a one year old child I was given a pet spirit animal, it was a tiger cub which had a slave seal planted in it so it couldn't hurt me, but me at the time didn't understand that and bonded closely with it, it was my first friend and I spent day and night with it, my parents never interacted with me so it felt like my only family."
"…" Bai Lian listened closely, her heart skipped a beat as a sense of foreboding, this wasn't supposed to be a happy story after all.
"A year later, I was given a knife and told to kill and eat him".
"?!" Shock filled Bai Lian's expression as she covered her face with her hands.
Na Xue lifted her hand up as it turned into the paw of a tiger. "I still remember the sounds he made as the knife pierced his hide, the smell of his blood and the deafening silence after he died…".
Bai Lian turned even whiter than normal as she imagined the scene "How cruel…"
"That's what I mean, you see this as cruel… but to me, this was normal" Na Xue lifted her head as her hair cascaded back and her eyes met Bai Lian's once more "And it's not just my clan, most clans are like this, even yours… tell me, have you ever seen your Elder Siblings truly training?".
Bai Lian paused then shook her head, now that she thought about it, she had only seen them doing simple training.
"Then you should remember this well, what you've been doing is but child's play. Bleeding? It's not training without it, Fainting? It just means you didn't push past your limits! You need to step outside of the boundaries, break the rules, push past the door blocking your way, throw away what you don't need!"
"…what have you thrown away?" Bai Lian asked as her shoulders shook slightly.
"Too many things… but… maybe I've gained more in return" Na Xue murmured as she looked away, averting her eyes.
"Why are you telling me this?".
"Why?" Na Xue stood up as she stretched "I'm your Senior Sister, is there anything wrong with me giving you advice?..." she looked at the chaos in the distance "You just looked a bit lost, that's all" she murmured under the wind.
Bai Lian looked towards the distance as well, her eyes reflected the chaos in her mind as her thoughts shot back and forth…
'In the end, I really was just playing around… too scared to take the step' her ocean blue eyes seemed to glaze over with ice as she felt a scroll tucked tightly in her robes.
It was a simple gift from a senior, one she thought she would never use.
Right now, more than ever, that scroll felt like a tempting whisper from the devil.
And she had decided she would listen to it.
…
"Woah! This flat crab's blood can be used for elixirs!"
"This one has a hard carapace; I think we can make a shield out of it!"
"This spine is deadly; a spear would be the best thing to make out of it!"
The Crystal Coral Sect members had been sweeping up the smaller critter that had wondered in their zone, there was still a surprising amount despite the number of cultivators on the beach, yet not a single one was truly valuable, basically all of them were mortal level materials were disassembled.
'Senior sister…' He wasn't one for eavesdropping, but he was watching the entire area right now with his territory… that and he was still had a hint of caution towards her, yet it stemmed more from the unknown than actual doubt, some of which had just been answered for him.
'So that's the type of clan she came from…' His eyes closed as he sorted his thoughts, but right now it wasn't the time to think about that.
Shu He stared in to the distance as he watched the other sects and cultivators with his territory, his vision was rather chaotic with all the different Qi types flying everywhere but he was able to get a general understanding of what was happening, most larger beasts were getting stuck in the few front rows because of being held down their disorderly nature, there was no way any of them would come to the back line.
Under normal circumstances.
'A little bit wouldn't hurt' He pulled out an incense stick and a vial.
"Huh? Shu He, what's that?" Ren Hai who was standing next to them while giving orders asked, slightly concerned.
"Ren Hai, do you want some better materials?" Shu He asked with a smile.
"Huh… S-sure, but we can't attack the other groups you know?"
"Of course, I wasn't going to do that" he opened the vial as Shu Xue wrinkled her face and said "Stinks" with disgust all over her face.
Shu He laughed "Of course you won't like it, it's for them" He dipped the incense in the liquid, and it soaked it up, becoming covered in it and changing to a grey colour, he then closed the vial before storing it away and throwing the incense, so it stuck in the sand and crouching down, with a snap of his fingers a flame lit up.
"S-Shu He, just what will happen when you light that incense?" Ren Hai said nervously.
"Simple, the real beast tide will begin!" The flame met the incense and smoke rose into the air which quickly spread downwind through the beach and out to sea, and as if they were called, many of the sea creatures turned they heads, eyes and limbs towards their direction!