Chapter 152: Life‑and‑Death Crisis

Two energies capable of destroying heaven and earth collided, tearing a hundred‑mile‑long spatial rift in the sky.

When the demonic aura dissipated, that Preheavenly war glaive that terrified all races was found skewed into a ridge three hundred li away, trembling incessantly.

The million demon soldiers watching the battle all inhaled sharply; since the Demon Court was founded, no Human Race has ever been able to directly repel the Jiao Demon King's weapon.

The Demon Race war commander's pupils constricted violently; he clearly felt the weight of civilization within the opponent's flames. It was not ordinary true fire, but the passing of the civilizing torch that carries the Human Race's enlightenment—a crystallization of wisdom that spans the age of ignorance.

What shocked him even more was that the aura of the Human Race commander before him was completely different from what the Demon masters' palace scriptures recorded.

The Jiao Demon King's hand gripping the war glaive bulged with blue veins; he finally realized that the rumors of Human weakness might need to be re‑examined.

Bathed in the Heavenly Dao's merit, this cluster of civilizing flames has transformed into a sacred artifact of law, its power no less than that of a top‑grade Preheavenly Spiritual Treasure.

Though the Jiao Dragon war glaive inherits an ancient bloodline, it cannot match the true flame of the civilizing torch that bears Human destiny; thus its being repelled is understandable.

This millennial Jiao spirit, though possessing some cultivation, after the initial shock immediately fixed on the target, its crimson vertical pupils staring at the leaping golden flame: "Baseborn Human Race, if you present the sacred fire to me, I may spare your whole body."

Amid the clanging of scales and claws, greed nearly solidified into substance.

"Even the remaining scum of the Demon Race dare to speak presumptuously!" Sui Huang's holy fire in his palm surged three zhang; after being pointed by the Human Ancestor, this first ancestor of the Human Race had long abandoned weakness.

At this moment, as the battlefield commander, Zhou Yi's surrounding qi coiled like a red dragon: "Today I will make you understand, the Human Race's backbone never bends, even if it must break."

"Pathetic ants!" The Jiao's tail shattered mountains across a hundred li, and the black‑iron war glaive, shrouded in eerie blue demon thunder, struck down.

In the Jiao Demon's understanding, how could a Great Luo of the Human Race, who rose quickly through merit, stand against his millennia‑forged Demon Emperor's secret art? If not for fearing that strange flame, such frail beings should have long been turned into blood food.

The war glaive summoned nine‑sky thunder, and within a thousand‑li radius the cloud layers coalesced into a dark‑blue vortex.

Such might would make an ordinary Great Luo's Dao heart tremble on the spot.

Yet Sui Huang flipped his palm, pushing the flame; the originally gentle holy fire suddenly turned into a sky‑burning golden veil, within its scorching brilliance ancient runes flickered.

"Good treasure!" the Jiao Demon let out a low roar from his throat, the demon pill surged to tenfold power.

He did not know that this cluster of flames carried not only merit, but also the power of belief amassed from millions of Human Race worshippers day and night.

Where the golden flame passed, demon thunder fell like snow against the scorching sun, and vanished completely the instant it touched.

"Human Race like ants, be reduced to ash and dust!"

The Over‑Sea Great Saint Jiao Demon let out a thunderous dragon roar, and his black‑iron war glaive, wrapped in ten‑thousand‑ton thunder, cleaved the sky‑burning blaze.

Then that vicious weapon surged through the flame; Sui Huang's foot hovered over the void, unmoving, and as he flipped his palm, ten thousand fire tongues danced like golden snakes, weaving a crimson‑flame sky‑net in midair.

The glaive's tip plunged madly into the fire array, yet like a beast trapped in a molten‑lava furnace, it could never reach the hem of the Human Race saint's robe.

Sui Huang's brow slightly lifted, his five fingers closing; the entire fire field twisted as if alive, forming nine fire dragons that spiraled toward the Jiao Demon's position.

"This is impossible!" the Over‑Sea Great Saint's pupils snapped shut, and a dark glint flared on the blood‑crystal horn on his forehead.

In his long demonic life, he had never seen a being that could wield primal fire so deftly. At this moment he finally understood that the seemingly ordinary Human before him was, in fact, a Pre‑Heavenly Dao body born of fire.

"In my eyes, you are nothing but a mere Jiao," Sui Huang said with frosty tone, as the civilizing flame in his palm suddenly surged. What he has always feared is the Demon Race's Heavenly Court's all‑covering shadow, not some arrogant dragon‑type demon king.

The ten‑thousand‑zhang demon Jiao suddenly manifested its true form, its black scales like ink blotting out the sky, and its blood‑crystal horn burst, shattering the dark light.

As its massive tail swept, it turned half of the fire field into flickering fireflies; the moment its fangs seized the war glaive, Pre‑Heavenly demon markings lit up layer by layer on the weapon, forcibly tearing the fire curtain to strike directly at the saint's life‑gate.

Golden flames swirled in Sui Huang's eyes, and the sea of fire beneath his feet suddenly collapsed into a crimson‑gold lotus platform.

That flame of merit which once illuminated Human civilization now transformed into a radiant Great Sun; though its power does not match the true solar fire that scorches the eight corners, it aligns with the proper order of the Heavenly Dao and human morality.

"This is the way of the passing torch!" the saint's voice shook the universe, and nine layers of fire rings blossomed in succession.

No matter how the demon Jiao drives its destined demon pill, that seemingly berserk attack is always nullified by the subtle fire currents into nothingness.

The observing demon hordes were horrified to discover that the Over‑Sea Great Saint's offensive was like a moth trapped in a spider's web— the more it struggled, the deeper it fell.

Zhou Yi looked toward the battlefield, nodded in admiration; the crimson‑colored true qi swirling around Sui Huang indicated that the "Constant Universe Scripture" had reached the transformation realm, and was only half a step away from perfect cultivation.

Since Zhou Yi introduced the Zhe Tian secret technique to the Human Race, Sui Huang has resonated wondrously with the cultivation method pioneered by the Constant Universe Great Emperor.

In just three to five 60-year cycles, this Human Race sage has refined the imperial classic to the realm of refined advancement.

Zhou Yi's gaze burned like a torch, clearly seeing that Sui Huang at this moment had touched the threshold of a quasi‑emperor, his power comparable to a Great Luo Golden Immortal of Honghuang.

In former days Sui Huang, though wielding the holy fire of merit, was ultimately limited by the merit‑based path to enlightenment and could not be called strong within the Great Luo realm. Now, by breaking through the Zhe Tian method to the quasi‑emperor stage, his combat power has made a qualitative leap.

Even more astonishing, that accompanying holy fire of merit not only perfectly matches the profound meaning of the "Constant Universe Scripture", but has also been forged into a dedicated enlightenment artifact, propelling its combat power to the pinnacle of the Great Luo ranks.

At this moment the crushing battlefield situation is clear proof that the ancient great demon Jiao King is being wholly suppressed.

This ancient ferocious beast, its body cloaked in dark scales, thrashes left and right within the fiery cage, while the molten‑lava chains tighten further after each collision.

The shock rose like a tide over the Jiao Demon King's mind, and the long‑held perception of the Human Race over millennia is collapsing.

Is this truly the same Human Race that only ascended to Great Luo through the Heavenly Dao's mercy? The blazing, sky‑burning power before us is clearly the Tongtian cultivation forged through genuine practice.

The Jiao Demon King's scarlet vertical pupils trembled violently, and in a daze he felt a distortion of time and space: had he simply slept too long, or had this Honghuang Tian Di already become a different world?

When the scorching battle turned into a life‑or‑death crisis, this infamous ancient great demon finally saw reality; not only the chance to slay the opponent, but even a full retreat now depended on the opponent's mood.

Meanwhile, higher in the clouds, the Red Flame and Wind‑Wave armies swept the Demon Race battle formation with a force that uprooted everything in its path.

The Green Snake Demon Commander and other great demons were tightly entangled by the Longlin army; the Demon Race troops, stripped of elite power, fell like waves of wheat before the Zhe Tian battle array.

The defeated demon soldiers discarded helmets and armor, scattering in flight, and even several demon commanders began to consider retreat.

Across heaven and earth echoed Sui Huang's abrupt shout: "Hold!"

Ten thousand fire patterns instantly solidified into a world‑burning Dao diagram, turning a thousand‑li radius into a crimson‑flame furnace.

Suddenly, the sound of Sui Huang's authority rang across heaven and earth; the Zhe Tian blazing flame abruptly contracted, coalescing into a glaring sun‑like disc suspended in the sky.

This great sun, formed from the gathered true fire, erupted with ten‑thousand‑zhang golden rays; the vast energy surged like a reversed Milky Way, the Heavenly Dao's laws interwoven into a net, sealing every escape route of the Jiao Demon King.