Chapter 256: Better to Die Than Be a Slave!

The God-King of the Ghost Horn Clan's words were met with silence by the remaining Sage statues, who pressed forward, their eyes blazing with unshakable resolve—they all knew his words were untrustworthy; even if he agreed, humanity would still become slaves.

This was not what they wished to see.

Better to die than be a slave!

"Kill!!"

The Sages roared, shaking the sun, moon, and void.

Divine light surged endlessly, drowning all in a desperate, final resolve, flooding heaven and earth, stretching countless miles, covering this sky and even the distant heavens.

Boom!

They charged toward the remaining twenty Divine Demons, their bodies surging with destruction and terror, unstoppable.

With a resonant clang, it tore apart hundreds of thousands of miles of void.

The Divine Demons, seeing this, flashed with icy dread; their overwhelming aura drowned the earth, freezing heaven and earth.

One step forward.

The celestial dome seemed to recoil; where their weapons pointed, they struck directly at the Sages.

The battle instantly erupted into horrific ferocity.

Perhaps it was the death of Elder Zhang, the oldest Sage, that spurred them; perhaps they had long prepared to die, never expecting to survive this day—each one fought with utter recklessness.

It is widely known: the ruthless fear the reckless, the reckless fear the stubborn, and the stubborn fear those who do not fear death—this applies equally to mighty Divine Demons.

"For the Human City!!"

One Sage roared.

Then came a brilliant divine radiance, like a collapsing sun, exploding outward.

Before even a scream could escape, the Divine Demon he embraced disintegrated into specks of light, drowned and utterly erased by the Sage's self-annihilating radiance.

Divine radiance surged like a wave, sweeping outward; the void itself detonated, the entire region obliterated, leaving nothing behind.

Hiss!

A broken battle halberd fell from the sky, embedding itself in the earth; the ground cracked open into chasms like gorges and cliffs. Instantly, creatures too slow to escape tumbled into the bottomless fissures—the halberd's residual aura was terrifying, saturated with monstrous malevolence, spreading through the cracks; only Divine Demons could withstand such energy.

Some from the Human City also fell into the fissures, yet they did not scream—only shouted, grabbing or pulling other beings down with them into the death-chasm.

That halberd was the weapon of the recently slain Divine Demon.

Another Sage detonated himself, taking one Divine Demon with him; others were caught in the blast, coughing blood as they retreated, roaring in disbelief.

"Are you mad? Even if you kill us all by throwing your lives away, you'll be finished too—without you, humanity will soon perish, and our various races still have Divine Demons left! What's the point of this stubborn resistance?!"

Silence.

The Sages smiled.

Their life force, essence, and will surged entirely inward, unleashing boundless power—no limit, their aura climbing relentlessly, as if infinite—terrible beyond measure.

"You…"

The Divine Demons and God-Kings' faces twisted in shock, their hearts trembling—they felt fear for the first time.

Not fear of power, not fear of death, but fear of humanity itself.

What is wrong with this race? Are they all mad? They were so weak, once easily crushed at will, mere food in our mouths—yet why show not a trace of the fear befitting the weak?

Why can they be so stubborn? Why do they now make us tremble?

Don't they know what submission means? Don't they know fear and reverence for the strong?

Yet the Divine Demons and God-Kings knew the answer.

It was unyielding defiance. It was daring to challenge heaven. It was unity. It was willingness to sacrifice…

Their bodies were weak, but their hearts were not—they possessed greater resilience, determination, and will than any other race.

This was a weak race.

But also a mighty one.

The Divine Demons and God-Kings deeply understood this—and why they feared this race.

It was their resilience, their stubbornness, that made other races jealous, that made them despise—ants should behave like ants; why dare dream of climbing atop us?

They simply refused to admit: weakness is not a crime; the crime is knowing one is weak yet refusing to strive, refusing to fight.

The next moment.

The Divine Demons and God-Kings exchanged glances, as if in silent agreement; they ceased fighting the Sages directly, instead retreating downward, drawing closer to the earth, heading toward the desolate land now turned battlefield.

They sought to force the Sages' hand.

Below, the battlefield teemed with too many lives—if the Sages detonated themselves, the blast would be too great even for Divine Demons to withstand, let alone ordinary mortals.

Once it exploded, countless would die.

To avoid harming their own, the Sages would dare not detonate—without this desperate tactic, the Divine Demons and God-Kings would no longer fear death.

Yet…

Boom!!!

Vast stretches of the sky turned crimson as blood, like ruby gems, like red coral—stunningly beautiful, yet no one admired it; all beings of other races, even the Divine Demons and God-Kings, were stunned by this brutality.

Another Sage sacrificed himself.

Though he had not yet reached the battlefield, his self-destruction unleashed immense power—a cataclysmic flood of annihilation, sweeping across a vast area, instantly swallowing this region and claiming tens of thousands of lives.

"Are you insane?! Doing this, your own race will lose millions!"

The voice roared in disbelief.

The Sages had lived their entire lives for humanity—this was known to all races. They willingly gave themselves for humanity, valuing their kin more than themselves—yet why now ignore their kin's lives? Had they truly gone mad?

This time, the Sages finally broke their silence—but it was not an answer.

"Would you be willing to die for humanity?!"

Their voices shook heaven and earth, echoing in all directions, swelling through the nine heavens.

Silence.

Then it erupted with a thunderous roar.

"I am willing!"

"We are willing!"

The resolute response burst forth in everything, the roar sweeping across a million miles—this was the human race, this was the unyielding, indomitable roar of humanity.

Though separated by vast distances, living beings still heard it; those of distant other races turned their gazes, and gods and demons rushed out from their own tribal lands, looking off toward the direction of the human lands, their hearts and minds shaken.

The ringing, sonorous battle cries, imbued with all manner of indomitable will, startled even gods and demons.

The Horned Ghost Race's Divine King and the other gods and demons first trembled, then revealed a towering fury—this was a disgrace, a towering contempt.

"Since you want to die, then I'll grant your wish!"

A god and demon roared in fury.

The situation was already to the death, and the stubborn, unyielding will shown by their opponents made the gods and demons tremble while also filling them with deep wariness—this race absolutely could not be allowed to survive, or the future troubles would be endless; in the future, it might well be them who were destroyed.

No more words, no longer harboring any illusions of successfully persuading them to submit, the Horned Ghost Race's Divine King and the other gods and demons all charged at the sages.

"Kill!! Kill them all!!!"

"Today, I will erase the human race from the Ten Thousand Wastes Realm!!"

Suddenly.

As the gods' and demons' roars fell, from afar came a sound like a flood, like a bell, like furious thunder rolling and surging, exploding in the distance, echoing through this stretch of heaven and earth.

"Who gave you the nerve to dare erase my human race!"

……