Chapter 520: Gongyue City

In Gongyue City, Yan Baiyu and several other cultivators were sitting in a teahouse drinking tea! The faint fragrance of Spirit Tea echoed endlessly in the surrounding air!

"The Captain has been gone for nearly a year now; why hasn't he returned yet? Could it be that things aren't going smoothly?"

Picking up the teacup at his side, Yan Baiyu took a sip and then said casually.

"Captain Kong has always held a high position in the Protective Domain Seventh Team. I suspect it's because the matter he has to handle this time is quite thorny! As long as it concerns matters in the Nine Lives Desert, the Sixteen Chambers will consider it very carefully!"

Sitting opposite Yan Baiyu, a middle-aged cultivator wearing a plain-colored robe and looking to be over fifty years old said this. Like Yan Baiyu, this person was affiliated with the Wuliang Dao Sect. His cultivation had also reached the Spirit Transformation Mid-Stage.

"Fellow Daoist Zhong is right! Our Guard Domain Third Team is already at the forefront of the storm, and Captain Kong is known for being cautious. This accident has also left him in a cold sweat, especially that Zhang Nuo—with his divine abilities, he actually disappeared without a sound!"

The others sitting around the table nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, especially the man in the plain-colored robe who had just spoken. This person's surname was Zhong, and his given name was Rui. He had heard of the previous clash of Divine Sense between Yan Baiyu and Zhang Nuo.

"I have seen Zhang Nuo's divine abilities with my own eyes. To say nothing else, just take that divine ability of manifesting Divine Sense into form; even if my cultivation were to reach the Spirit Transformation Stage, I might not be able to achieve it!"

Jiang Jingda sighed from the side. He did not have a bad impression of Zhang Nuo, and he felt it was a pity that Zhang Nuo and several others had disappeared so strangely this time!

"It is all because that person was too arrogant. If he had agreed to join the Wuliang Dao Sect back then, perhaps this would not have happened! My master does not yet know this news; if he were to find out, he would surely be very heartbroken!"

Putting on a look of great regret, Yan Baiyu toyed with the teacup in his hand as he spoke. However, the cultivators present all knew that he was narrow-minded; if Zhang Nuo had truly joined the Wuliang Dao Sect, he would certainly have felt displeased!

The group chatted about a few other things before dispersing and heading toward their respective residences. For some time now, the Wilderness outside Gongyue City had been extremely quiet, with almost no major incidents occurring, and not even high-level demon beasts had appeared, so Yan Baiyu and the others had been enjoying some leisure.

Walking on the road, Zhong Rui kept looking at the female cultivators walking on the street. Occasionally, when he saw a few pretty ones, he would transmit his voice to them in a low tone. However, as soon as those female cultivators heard his transmission, they would immediately show expressions of displeasure, roll their eyes at him, and leave!

As a member of the Guard Domain Third Team, almost no one in Gongyue City dared to cause trouble for Zhong Rui. He had become accustomed to being unscrupulous. Just then, a transformed demon cultivator appeared in front of him! After checking with his Divine Sense several times, he finally confirmed that this was just a Spirit Beast kept by a cultivator in the city that had undergone transformation!

The biggest difference between demon beasts and Spirit Beasts is that Spirit Beasts are raised by cultivators from a young age; one can hardly feel a trace of wildness on them. Demon beasts are completely different; no matter how they try to hide it, a bit of their wild aura will always be revealed!

Therefore, in the years he had spent in the Guard Domain Third Team, Zhong Rui had almost always relied on distinguishing the aura of wildness to tell demon beasts from Spirit Beasts!

Just as he was about to return to his residence, he suddenly discovered two cultivators behaving abnormally in a small alley by the street! These two cultivators were expressionless and wore identical clothing; they were communicating with each other, looking as if they were terrified of being discovered! However, their cultivation was not weak, both having reached the Spirit Transformation Early-Stage!

In Gongyue City, Zhong Rui knew almost every cultivator who had entered the Spirit Transformation Stage. These two faces were very unfamiliar, and coupled with their strange behavior, it made him suspicious!

With a movement of his body, Zhong Rui arrived right in front of the two! As soon as he appeared, the two in the alley turned their heads simultaneously. They looked at Zhong Rui with absolutely no expression, then turned and left!

"Two fellow Daoists, please stay!"

Seeing that these two wanted to leave, Zhong Rui immediately guessed that there was something strange going on! Now that Kong Mu was not in the city, with the lack of an Integration Stage cultivator to hold the fort, one had to be extra careful regarding outside cultivators!

The two mysterious cultivators acted as if they hadn't heard Zhong Rui speak and continued walking on their own. This time, Zhong Rui was even more certain that they were problematic!

With a flash of his body, Zhong Rui instantly arrived between the two, splitting his left and right hands to grab their arms!

But at the same time, the two mysterious cultivators in front, as if they shared a telepathic connection, stepped back half a step simultaneously, leaving a space half a zhang wide in the middle. Zhong Rui's forward momentum landed exactly in that spot!

Immediately following, before Zhong Rui could even make a move, a faint purple light erupted from the bodies of the two mysterious cultivators, sweeping over and trapping him inside!

"Demon cultivators!"

As soon as the opponent's technique was activated, Zhong Rui immediately sensed that something was wrong! If these two were viewed from the surface, they were no different from ordinary human cultivators, but once their technique was running, their essence as demon cultivators was immediately revealed!

Ever since the last Demon Beast Tide, all high-level demon cultivators who had gained intelligence had been driven into the Nine Lives Desert and had never dared to set foot in human cities!

Sensing that something was wrong, Zhong Rui immediately wanted to escape the constraints of the purple light, but it was too late! As soon as the two mysterious cultivators saw him trapped, they squeezed toward the center simultaneously!

They did not use any Magic Treasure, but used their physical forms to attack forcefully!

A very low, muffled sound came from the alley, as if a sack had fallen to the ground! Under the pressure of the two cultivators' bodies, the bones in Zhong Rui's body were almost shattered inch by inch! He was a Dharma Cultivator by origin, and his physical body was very fragile; before he could even manifest a Magic Treasure, his body had suffered heavy damage!

Blood flowed from his nose and mouth. Zhong Rui truly had not expected that the physical bodies of these two mysterious cultivators would be so formidable, pressing in like two great mountains!

Using his last bit of strength, Zhong Rui wanted to form a Dharma seal, but just as his hand was raised, one of the mysterious cultivators slapped his hand and grabbed his wrist! Then, a sound of bones breaking came, and Zhong Rui's hand was snapped off by force!

Before he could even make a sound, the other mysterious cultivator formed his five fingers into a claw and pressed heavily onto the top of Zhong Rui's head! All five fingers were almost completely inserted into his skull!

With wide eyes, Zhong Rui could hardly believe it; he, a dignified Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator, had actually been so easily slaughtered by two of the same rank, and had died so stiflingly! He didn't even have a chance to fight back!

When that mysterious cultivator removed his hand from the top of Zhong Rui's head, a green light shot out like lightning—it was Zhong Rui's Nascent Soul! However, before the Nascent Soul could leave his body, two palms flashing with purple light arrived right in front of it!

Slap! A crisp sound rang out, and under this strike, the Nascent Soul turned directly into a rain of blood! After the two mysterious cultivators finished all this, they took a Storage Bag from their robes, stuffed Zhong Rui's corpse into it, cleaned up the bloodstains in the surroundings, and then walked out of the alley, disappearing into the crowd on the main street!

Everything that happened was very brief; in just a few breaths of time, a human cultivator of the Spirit Transformation Stage had lost his life! In the following few days, human cultivators continued to fall in Gongyue City. These people were all cultivators around the Spirit Transformation Stage, and they were all members of the Guard Domain Third Team!

When Yan Baiyu received this news, a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Kong Mu was not in the city, and with such a major incident occurring, it seemed very unusual!

Especially those missing cultivators—they were neither seen alive nor were their corpses found, as if they had evaporated into thin air!

Summoning the remaining high-level cultivators from the Third Team, Yan Baiyu wanted to discuss with them what exactly should be done. When the group arrived at Yan Baiyu's residence, before they could even speak, they felt the entire Gongyue City shaking! Loud, booming sounds came from outside the city!

Looking up toward the direction from which the sound came, the group led by Yan Baiyu had their expressions change drastically! That direction was precisely the direction of the Wilderness!

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The group simultaneously steered their escape lights and flew toward the city gate! When they stood on the city wall, the scene before them shocked them all! They saw that in front of Gongyue City, there was an endless sea of demon beasts! There was simply no end in sight!

All kinds of demon beasts seemed to have popped out of the ground, with no warning beforehand! In front of the demon beast ranks, a young girl in green and a man with a donkey face floated quietly in mid-air! Their faces were devoid of expression, and they looked at Yan Baiyu and the others on the city wall as if they were looking at dead people!

"Demon... Demon Beast Tide!"

Yan Baiyu felt the world spinning, and his heart was about to jump out of his throat! Kong Mu's conjecture had now become reality! Facing so many demon beasts, he could not think of a second explanation!

"Quickly set up the city-protecting Dharma Array!"

After giving the order to the few cultivators beside him, these people were startled out of their previous state, but before they could take action, dozens of escape lights suddenly flashed out from the city. Immediately following, screams came from within the city, and fires erupted in several places that controlled the city's Restrictions, with sounds of explosions occurring constantly!

"Oh no, there are inside agents for the demon beasts in the city!"

In an instant, Yan Baiyu understood almost everything. No wonder high-level cultivators had been going missing in Gongyue City these past few days; it turned out that all of this was because of the Demon Beast Tide!

Now that the Restrictions of Gongyue City were destroyed, with the strength of just a few of them, how could they resist the overwhelming demon beasts outside the city?

"Haha! Human brats! Let your lives be the sacrifice for the banner of my beast tide this time!"

The donkey-faced cultivator in the sky let out a wild laugh, and with a movement of his body, he appeared right in front of Yan Baiyu and the others!