Chapter 468: A Worthy Death

In Xingluozhou, at the edge of a mountain range.

A late-stage Nascent Soul demon of the Green Demon Clan hid in the shadows, gazing at a human city not far ahead.

His name was Xie Yuan, an elder of a sixth-rank tribe within the Green Demon Clan.

He had arrived in Xingluozhou through a wormhole passage over a month ago.

During this month and more.

For the first half-month, he moved secretly across various regions, stealthily hunting down several human cultivators below the Nascent Soul realm.

But for his cultivation base, hunting down a few human cultivators below the Nascent Soul realm and bringing them back to the Green Demon Realm held little value.

If possible, he would rather conquer a human city.

However, the human cities he encountered during that earlier period.

Were either too strong to be taken down by him in a short time.

Or were too close to human Soul Transformation-level powers, making it difficult for him to act.

Thus, he wandered around Xingluozhou for half a month, yet never found a suitable human city to target.

Later, his luck turned favorable.

Although he failed to find a suitable human city to attack, he unexpectedly stumbled upon an unguarded fifth-rank spiritual vein.

After extracting the heart of that fifth-rank spiritual vein.

To avoid being tracked by human experts, he fled directly into the mountain range behind him and lay low for half a month.

Until a few days after that half-month passed, he detected no human experts tracking his whereabouts.

Only then did he cautiously leave his previous hiding spot, preparing to continue hunting human cultivators.

Unexpectedly, just as he was about to leave the mountain range, he discovered a human city not far away.

After several days of secret reconnaissance and gathering information by capturing lone cultivators nearby.

He learned that the city not far ahead was merely a Jin Dan-level human power, with only three Jin Dan-stage human cultivators guarding it.

Moreover, within a range of tens of thousands of li surrounding this human city, no human Soul Transformation-level power was stationed.

Therefore, after learning this information.

Xie Yuan had already set his sights on that nearby human city, marking it as his target.

A flash of excitement crossed his eyes as Xie Yuan cast a secret technique to conceal his form.

He moved at extreme speed, creeping toward the city gate of that human city.

Just as Xie Yuan was about to approach the city gate and reveal himself to launch an attack.

He suddenly heard an abrupt cold snort:

"Hmph!"

In the next instant, before Xie Yuan could even react, his body exploded directly under that snort, perishing on the spot.

"Boom!"

Xie Yuan never understood until his death what had actually happened.

The sound of an explosive burst rang out not far from the city, instantly alerting the cultivators within.

"What was that sound?"

"Such a powerful energy fluctuation. Is there an enemy attack?"

"I don't know? I haven't seen the city under attack?"

"What's going on? Just a 'boom', and then it settled down?"

A murmur of discussion rose within the city.

Not long after, a late-stage Jin Dan cultivator appeared in midair to calm the cultivators within the city.

This person was none other than the city lord of this human city—Li Yuanming!

After calming the restless emotions of the cultivators in the city, Li Yuanming did not leave the city immediately.

Instead, he extended his spiritual sense to cautiously probe the surroundings of the city.

When Li Yuanming's spiritual sense discovered Xie Yuan's corpse not far from the city gate and sensed the Nascent Soul-level fluctuation emanating from the body.

His eyes widened in shock first, then a look of delight appeared on his face.

His spiritual sense spread rapidly, confirming that no other cultivators were detected.

He could no longer restrain himself; he rushed out of the city at extreme speed and stored Xie Yuan's corpse into his storage ring.

Then he returned to the city at extreme speed.

"City Lord, what exactly happened? What did you discover?"

However, his strange behavior still attracted the attention of others in the city.

Just after he returned to the city.

a mid-stage Jin Dan cultivator curiously approached him, asking about the cause of the incident.

Li Yuanming did not explain much; after glancing at the other person, he casually said:

"Nothing important. Everyone disperse. This City Lord must continue secluding myself to cultivate."

Having finished speaking, before that mid-stage Jin Dan cultivator could even open his mouth.

Li Yuanming had already fled toward his City Lord Manor.

After returning to the City Lord Manor, he directly entered the cave dwelling where he often secluded himself and activated the protective formation of the cave.

Then he took out Xie Yuan's corpse and gazed at it with burning eyes.

In the next instant, Xie Yuan's corpse turned into a streak of light and vanished, leaving behind a storage ring on the spot.

But Li Yuanming no longer had the mind to pay attention to that storage ring.

After Xie Yuan's corpse turned into a streak of light and vanished between heaven and earth.

In its place, a force of world origin feedback surged into his body from nowhere, rapidly elevating his cultivation base.

At the same time.

On top of Mount Wanling in Dongxuan City.

Ye Qingxuan, who had been meditating, slowly opened his eyes, a hint of coldness revealing itself in his gaze.

The one who had slain Xie Yuan was the Primordial Spirit fragment he had left within Xie Yuan.

He had originally intended to spare Xie Yuan's life temporarily, to have him locate a wormhole channel opened by the Green Demon Realm in Xingluo Zhou.

He never expected Xie Yuan to seek his own death by attempting to attack a human city.

Although Ye Qingxuan wished to use Xie Yuan to find the wormhole channel opened by the Green Demon Realm.

He would not allow Xie Yuan to slaughter human cities for that purpose.

The moment Xie Yuan harbored murderous intent toward a human city, he had already sealed his own fate.

"Never mind; let the Demon-Hunting Armies formed by the major powers of Xingluo Zhou deal with the Green Demon Clan invaders!"

With the matter of Xie Yuan concluded, Ye Qingxuan ceased dwelling on this act he had performed casually before.

He stood up and walked to the edge of the summit of Mount Wanling.

Ye Qingxuan clasped his hands behind his back, gazing at Dongxuan City as it stood now.

Several days had passed, and the major Demon-Hunting Armies of Dongxuan City had completed their initial organization.

Setting aside the number of cultivators registered as Demon Hunters.

Just the Demon-Hunting Armies registered in Dongxuan City numbered in the hundreds.

Among these hundreds of Demon-Hunting Armies, only one-third were subordinate to Dongxuan City.

Included among them were:

the Blood Demon-Hunting Army formed by Xue Yu, the Dongjiang Demon-Hunting Army formed by Jiang Wen, the Wumu Demon-Hunting Army formed by Li Mu, the Golden Phoenix Demon-Hunting Army formed by Liu Feifeng, and the Yinyin Demon-Hunting Army formed by Jiang Yinyin.

Within the Demon-Hunting Armies formed by these five individuals.

all members were essentially their former subordinates, and they recruited only Dongxuan City cultivators at the Purple Mansion Realm or above.

Originally, these five had not intended to recruit members at the Purple Mansion Realm, planning instead to follow an elite path.

For cultivators at the Purple Mansion Realm offered them no help whatsoever.

However, after seeing the relevant descriptions of military formations of various ranks in the exchange list of Dongxuan City.

they changed their minds and lowered the threshold for their respective Demon-Hunting Armies to the Purple Mansion Realm.

(End of this chapter)