Although not enemies, the encounter between two deeply cultured rivals was bound to spark a verbal sparring match, especially when one of them had just suffered a defeat. Thus, the two, one in the Celestial Palace and the other in Fengqing Village, engaged in the most intense confrontation, the most heated of which was regarding Xu Mu’s recent decision to abandon self-detonating his Sea of Consciousness.
"If you truly had the guts, the two of us should be arguing on the Bridge of Helplessness right now, yet you are in the Celestial Palace."
Xu Mu was enraged at this: "What does this have to do with guts? The reason I didn't fight to the death is because I haven't killed Veritaan yet to avenge Uncle Kui. Wait until I've avenged him, and then you'll see if I'm real or not!"
"There will be a lord-level existence appearing in Xishan tonight, so we need to hurry." Charles reminded him kindly from the side.
He then fell silent, for the matter at hand was important. It wasn't that he had conceded by not bothering to argue further, but rather that he believed Xu Mu would eventually shut up once he witnessed his strength after a while. Before that, he needed to change his tattered clothes. His walking speed then abruptly increased, as if he were stepping on a swift wind. One moment he was in an alley, and the next he was in the courtyard.
"Creak." The wooden door was pushed open, and he returned to Xu Mu’s home.
"Are you looking to try out the weapons we've developed using this opportunity?" In the house, candlelight flickered, lanterns and copper bells were casually discarded. Xu Mu, with his grayish-white pupils, opened a hidden compartment in the basement, jumped in, and after three seconds of finding what he needed, he immediately came out.
"Of course, this is the first weapon born from our true cooperation. Whether the technology of Blue Star can successfully combine with the powers of this world depends on it." Xu Mu held a copper bottle, the liquid inside unknown. When shaken violently, it made no sound, as if it had no weight. However, only Charles, who was watching from the side, and Xu Mu himself, holding the bottle, knew how heavy this compound liquid was. The metals melted to create it were countless, and the purified substances added up to over ten tons. Finally, through the means of supernatural powers, these liquids were contained within the fourth-tier magic artifact, the Jade Pure Bottle. With this bottle, the weight of these liquids had been reduced by more than a hundredfold. If it were to spill carelessly, the entire Fengqing Village would be easily engulfed in an instant!
"You should get off my back. I don't like this feeling." There was nothing new under the sun. Xu Mu, with his grayish-white eyes, once again reached out and tore off the shadow behind him piece by piece, as casually as if he were tearing off a useless scrap of cloth. The shadow was forced to separate from its host and stood alone in the air in the darkness, looking wronged.
"Interesting. I can't even discern your power rank." It was then that he had the time to examine the shadow closely. He had awakened countless powers, but he had never seen one that could become an individual entity on its own.
"This is a power obtained by the host from their enemy after killing them. We are also unsure of its specific rank." Charles stood beside the shadow; they were the same height and looked like brothers. As if sensing this, Charles's illusory data stream subconsciously expanded a bit.
"This Charles, he told him everything!" Xu Mu, in the Celestial Palace, listened to their conversation and snorted indignantly. So Charles was truly "fair," treating both of them the same way. But why did he always feel so awkward, as if he had been betrayed?
...
After changing his clothes, Xu Mu's body walked out of Fengqing Village and headed towards Xishan, braving the white mist of the eerie night. Along the way, they could see that almost all the villages were lit with torches, a testament to the bright lights. Clearly, no one could sleep. And Xishan, due to the arrival of the eerie night, was in the most tragic phase of its outer perimeter battle.
...
The mountains were filled with the fierce clang of swords, and amidst groans and roars, shadows continuously fell. The expressions of the human soldiers were more ferocious than those of the异鬼 (yì guǐ, otherworldly specters). Blades swung, and red and green blood splattered into the air like ink spilled without regard for cost. The power users who had come to reinforce from Undying City were also bloodthirsty, with not a single one retreating. Powers crisscrossed the heavens and earth, elemental energies poured down incessantly, and accidental injuries occurred from time to time. The front line stretched for thousands of miles, rivers of blood flowed, and mountains of bones piled up. Yet, no matter how fierce the tide of 异鬼 in Xishan was, not a single person retreated, for behind them was Undying City, where their families lived.
In addition to the power users, the soldiers mixed on the battlefield were the ones who suffered the most casualties. The imperial court had deployed an army of thirty thousand in the southern part of Xishan. They were all clad in light armor and wielded weapons that had been re-forged by the Demon Extermination Division, their equipment being nothing short of excellent. However, even so, after the eerie night, the most ordinary 异鬼 required seven or eight soldiers to surround and take down. As for the great demons that possessed simple consciousness and could use powers, they could even contend against a hundred enemies. What's more, unless the power users intervened, ordinary soldiers, no matter how many casualties they sustained, could not even scratch these beings. Those 异鬼 truly born from darkness, possessing the purest demonic souls, in harmony with nature, had unfathomable magic power. If cultivated to a certain extent, they could even transform into human form. In the central region of Xishan, nests of such great demons could be seen at regular intervals. The weakest among them were many times stronger than the mutated Sun Widow.
"Report, General! On the northwest side, seven of the Star Constellation stars have appeared, a second-tier fox demon. The cavalry battalion of two hundred soldiers has been instantly enchanted and turned their weapons upon themselves!" From the outer perimeter of Xishan, a soldier with blood-stained armor, riding a warhorse, galloped out from the depths of the forest. His face was covered in mud and blood, and he cried out in terror.
"Report! The wolf demon previously killed in the southwest has all revived, and its size has increased several times!"
"Report, General..." In the command post, bad news after bad news arrived. Many wounded soldiers, upon hearing the news, showed fear on their faces. The eerie night had arrived, and they had held their ground here for dozens of hours. Had the elders of the Demon Extermination Division not yet eradicated the source of contamination? How much longer were they expected to hold on? The critical point was that against the 异鬼 under the boost of the eerie night, they could not hold on even if they sacrificed their lives!
More and more wounded soldiers were carried back to the command post. Communication soldiers ran themselves ragged but could not find reinforcements. It seemed that retreat had become the only option. Thus, everyone turned their gaze to the man sitting cross-legged in the center of the command post, clad in armor, with a sword laid horizontally before him.
"General, let's retreat. The brothers really can't hold on!"
"General, that fox demon is too strong. One glance enchanted hundreds of soldiers; we can't even get close."
"General, those wolf demons have hides that are too thick; our weapons can't penetrate them. Please let us retreat!"
"Let's retreat, General..." The fear of battle in the command post reached its peak after more than ten hours of bloody combat. Most of them were ordinary people. Although they had undergone countless training sessions and were equipped with excellent weapons, when their comrades died before their eyes, and some even turned into 异鬼, forcing them to kill their former companions, these soldiers could no longer bear it. Regardless of whether they would be blamed, they all opened their mouths, begging to retreat. As long as they reached Undying City, they could fight back with the great formation. In that case, they would at least be able to lose half the number of people, so why must they stubbornly hold on here?
The voices in the camp buzzed like flies in the air, disturbing the man sitting cross-legged in the middle.
"All of you shut up!"
"Left Commander, you are responsible for supervising the army. Anyone who further disrupts morale and shows cowardice will be executed!"
"Yes!" The speaking general had a young face and a cold voice, sounding no older than twenty. But when he stood up, drew his sword from its scabbard, and uttered the word "execute," both the power users and the battle-hardened veterans felt a chill in their hearts.
"The elders of the Demon Extermination Division are currently deep within Xishan, a place countless times more dangerous than here. When they were surrounded by more powerful 异鬼, did they ever think of retreating?"
"Are you scared by mere uncivilized beasts like this?"
Hearing the young general's reprimand, everyone felt bitter. What did he mean by uncivilized beasts? Those were second-tier great demons, and in this thorny mountainous terrain, their combat power was comparable to a cavalry battalion!
"You should know, I have held back until now, precisely waiting for this moment." The young general struggled to control his emotions. The Jinqi Army was his unit. From the day he joined the army, this miscellaneous unit was directly under his command. Over the years, the Jinqi Army had become a disciplined and formidable elite force. He was naturally the one who felt the most pain for the deaths of so many brothers.
"Tell the brothers in the first line to retreat to the second line, and have the brothers in the third and fourth lines all fight to the second line. The Jinqi Army will make one last decisive battle under my leadership!"
......
Compared to the chaos in Xishan, the power users dispatched by the Demon Extermination Division's governor to various villages were much more at ease. However, as the white-eyed Xu Mu had seen, they were all on high alert. Currently, Yin Shui'er was in a village, nervously watching outside. At her feet lay the corpses of countless 异鬼, their pale green blood splattered everywhere, clearly indicating that she had just been through a major battle. No, the word "over" couldn't be used to describe it, for the battle tonight was far from over. The 异鬼 on the outer perimeter were once again surging forward like a tide, their numbers growing with each wave. They were less than two hundred paces away from breaching the village. While this seemed like a long distance, in reality, most of the 异鬼 here were stragglers from the various defense lines of Xishan.
"Haven't my uncle and the others finished yet?" Yin Shui'er's pupils flickered between blue and white, clearly indicating that she was deliberately conserving her powers, not daring to maintain a state of constant fullness. When tasks were assigned, she had chosen to stay in a village closest to Xishan, so she naturally encountered many more 异鬼 than elsewhere. Even as a power user, she couldn't cope, as these 异鬼 were, strictly speaking, first-tier, and their numbers were hundreds or thousands of times her own...
"Lord Yin, if you can't hold on, the villagers have all packed their bags and can retreat at any time." The night watchman of Heyano Village stood respectfully beside Yin Shui'er, still holding a large red lantern and a copper bell. It was evident that he had also contributed significantly during the recent defense battle.
"It's alright, as long as there are no high-tier 异鬼, I can hold on for at least two more hours!" Yin Shui'er took out the Black Gold short sword at her waist and glared ahead with killing intent. Another few hundred 异鬼. It seemed that Xishan was already at a significant disadvantage. The 异鬼 pouring in from that direction would likely only increase, so she had to conserve her powers. This Black Gold short sword was a third-tier magic artifact forged by a refiner, engraved with complex runic energy, and was an indispensable weapon for dealing with 异鬼.
"What is that!" Suddenly, the night watchman cried out in terror. Yin Shui'er followed his pointing finger and saw, amidst the hundreds of 异鬼, a massive dark shadow. It had two curved, horn-like structures on its head, resembling those of an antelope.
"Baa!" The monster, tens of meters tall, suddenly let out a piercing, drawn-out cry, as if confirming Yin Shui'er's guess. It was a ram demon over ten meters tall!
"I didn't expect to have to fight for my life right at the beginning," Yin Shui'er hesitated for a moment, then handed the Black Gold short sword in her hand to the night watchman beside her. "Those ordinary 异鬼 are your responsibility. If I can't deal with that fellow, please take the villagers and retreat. There will be power users from other villages to escort you!"
"My Lord..." The middle-aged night watchman took the Black Gold short sword, and a burning heat instantly spread through his palm. Holding a magic artifact that only members of the Demon Extermination Division were qualified to equip made his blood boil.
"Here they come, focus!" The first 异鬼 had already crossed the fence of Heyano Village. They charged forward, stepping on the corpses of their companions!
Jingle bells! The night watchman's expression turned solemn, and he began to shake the bell in his hand. Like Xu Mu, he could also command the music of a hundred households, though the effect was not as strong, it could still deter these 异鬼!
"Waterfall!" Yin Shui'er's eyes turned deep blue again. She pressed her index fingers together, their joints lightly tapping. Facing a second-tier 异鬼, she held no illusions and directly used her power.
Splash! A large amount of water element flew into the sky from Yin Shui'er's sleeves and then, like a waterfall, thundered down with the force of a storm, precisely striking the head of the ram demon. However, this ram demon was clearly very different from the Sun Widow of Fengqing Village. Although it lacked intelligence, it was still a second-tier 异鬼, and it was unlikely to allow such an attack, capable of destroying boulders, to fall upon it at will.
Baa! The ram demon's calf forcefully leaped forward, instantly bounding tens of meters away, reaching the village entrance. Its thick limbs directly shattered the outer fences and structures, sending sand and stones flying. Terrifying demonic energy permeated the surroundings, causing the Demon Extermination Bell to shake wildly, its sound waves overlapping one after another!
"Such speed!" Yin Shui'er's expression tightened. This was definitely the fastest 异鬼 she had ever seen. Moreover, when it leaped, its powerful hind legs could kick the 异鬼 behind it into pieces. What terrifying strength must it possess?
...