Chapter 524: Demon Cultivators Besiege the City

Zhang Nuo did not hold back in the slightest as he struck. The robed cultivator opposite him shifted his body to the side, dodging the several streaks of Sword Qi that struck toward his face, while simultaneously letting out a long whistle! It even shattered the snowflakes in the surrounding area! It looked as though the Flying Sword was about to slash into his body!

Suddenly, a burst of purple radiance surged from his body. Following his previous explosive shout, it actually caused the speed of the Flying Sword attacking him to slow down significantly. Taking advantage of this moment, the robed cultivator turned and tried to flee!

As if he had anticipated this, purple electric arcs flashed on Zhang Nuo's body. After a rumble of thunder, his body transformed into a slender electric arc and vanished into the void!

In the next moment, Zhang Nuo's figure appeared directly above the robed cultivator's head. A gray radiance rolled out from his body, instantly manifesting the phantom image of the Underworld King!

Boom!

At the same time the Underworld King phantom appeared, it threw a punch. The Demon Cultivator, who was fleeing on the ground, only felt a massive pressure descending from above his head; even the ground beneath his feet was pressed down by more than half a foot! Although his body had been tempered by the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder, his movements still stalled in the face of such oppressive power.

It was during this moment of stalling that the large hand of the Underworld King phantom slapped onto his body! With a loud sound, the robed Demon Cultivator was heavily slammed into the ground, and the bones in his limbs were almost entirely shattered. If it weren't for the fact that Zhang Nuo wanted a live captive, this single strike would have killed him!

With a movement of his Divine Sense, he retracted his supernatural ability. Zhang Nuo walked up to the Demon Cultivator and saw that his entire body was a bloody mess, his breathing as thin as a thread, clearly having suffered heavy injuries!

The surrounding cultivators were all somewhat shocked to see Zhang Nuo defeat a peer in the blink of an eye. It seemed that this junior of Deng Tianlin was no ordinary character!

At this time, several cultivators from the Seventh Team arrived before Zhang Nuo. They first glanced at the cultivator on the ground, and then one man said:

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, what happened to this person?"

Looking up at the person who spoke, he was in his thirties, yet his cultivation had already advanced to the Spirit Transformation Late Stage.

"So it is Fellow Daoist Zheng! This person is a Demon Cultivator. He certainly had no good intentions by hiding in the city!"

Zhang Nuo recognized this male cultivator; his full name was Zheng Chang. In the Seventh Team, he was second only to Deng Tianlin. Because his cultivation had reached the Spirit Transformation Late Stage, only one step away from the Integration Stage, no one dared to underestimate him!

Upon hearing Zhang Nuo's words, Zheng Chang's expression changed drastically! However, no matter how he looked at it, the cultivator on the ground did not look like a Demon Cultivator. Out of respect for Deng Tianlin, he could not say much, so he simply ordered for the person to be carried away toward the Seventh Team's residence!

Inside the main hall, Deng Tianlin circled the half-dead Demon Cultivator lying on the ground several times. With his keen insight, he also failed to discover anything strange!

"Zhang Nuo, how did you determine that he was a Demon Cultivator?"

Glancing toward Zhang Nuo, Deng Tianlin asked, feeling very puzzled. There was no expression on his face, but Zhang Nuo was unwilling to speak of the time he was trapped in the Huan Shou Gong, so he found another excuse!

"It was discovered by the Spirit Beast I possess!"

Deng Tianlin hesitated for a moment, then flipped one hand, his five fingers covered in spiritual light, and pressed them down onto the cultivator lying on the ground! Everyone understood that he was going to perform a Soul Search!

A moment later, Deng Tianlin stood up abruptly, his face becoming extremely unsightly!

"I never expected the Demon World to be so insidious this time. They planted these hard-to-detect Demon Cultivators in the city they intended to attack beforehand, and then planned to assassinate the Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators in the city and destroy the city's defensive Restriction Array one by one!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present exclaimed in shock! According to older cultivators, in previous Demon Beast Tides, the beasts only used their powerful bodies to attack, but this time, the beasts were playing with intelligence!

"Issue an order immediately! Investigate all foreign cultivators in the city! Especially Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators and Body Refining Cultivators!"

Following Deng Tianlin's order, the cultivators of the Seventh Team began to take action. On the other hand, Zhang Nuo, as the only person capable of identifying Demon Cultivators, checked a large number of cultivators every day!

As a result, after several rounds of combing through, more than a dozen more Demon Cultivators were found in the city! Zhang Nuo had performed a great service this time! The cultivators in the Seventh Team looked at him with newfound respect.

Ten-plus days later, when Deng Tianlin, Zhang Nuo, and the others stood on the city walls, they saw over a hundred thousand Demon Cultivators standing in a neat line below Anling City. At the very front of the many Demon Cultivators stood two individuals. One had a head like a crocodile but a human body! His cultivation had already reached the Integration Middle Stage!

The other was covered in a layer of thick scales, looking like an incompletely evolved strange fish! However, his cultivation was not weak, reaching the level of a Ninth-Rank Demonic Beast!

Demonic Beast cultivation is divided into ranks, but beasts that have awakened their intelligence are much more troublesome than those that haven't when at the same rank!

Looking at the appearance of this strange fish below the city, it must have awakened its intelligence, otherwise, it would not have appeared as a leader of the Demon Cultivators!

Zhang Nuo gritted his teeth slightly. Looking at these two Demon Cultivators, he was afraid he would be no match for either one of them if taken alone! He turned his head to look at Deng Tianlin and saw that his expression was equally serious, likely calculating the gap in strength between Anling City and the Demon Cultivators!

"Fellow Daoist Yin He, did the cultivators you sent into Anling City fail? Why is the city's defensive Restriction still active?"

The crocodile-headed Demon Cultivator asked the strange fish Demon Cultivator beside him!

The strange fish Demon Cultivator called Yin He stretched out a hand that had not yet fully formed and scratched his head a few times, his pair of eyes filled with suspicion!

"This... I don't know either? When the Palace Master assigned me the manpower, she clearly said they could easily destroy the restrictions in the city!"

As he spoke, bubbles kept coming out of Yin He's mouth, looking extremely comical! The crocodile-headed Demon Cultivator rolled his golden eyes at him! Then he snorted coldly and said:

"If we can't take Anling City this time, we won't be able to answer to the Palace Master when we return!"

"Fellow Daoist Jin E, I understand this, but those Demon Cultivators who are the same as humans are managed personally by the Palace Master herself. I really don't know the inside story!"

Yin He looked like he was about to cry, bubbles constantly spitting from his mouth! The scales on his body moved, and water droplets kept sliding off! It seemed he was sweating cold sweat from anxiety!

Zhang Nuo watched the two leading Demonic Beasts below talking and secretly guessed that they might be discussing the Demon Cultivators who had infiltrated the city! However, before they had even arrived, those Demon Cultivators had already been completely slaughtered, so naturally, they would not appear!

Deng Tianlin, meanwhile, kept his head lowered, thinking about the situation. Although the number of Demon Cultivators outside was large, they were generally fellows who had not awakened their intelligence; these could at most be considered Demonic Beasts. Compared to them, the most troublesome were the two leading Demon Cultivators—one at the Integration Middle Stage and one with Ninth-Rank strength. The two were almost evenly matched, while in Anling City, he was the only one with Integration Late Stage cultivation.

If calculated this way, as long as he could pin down these two leading cultivators, the other cultivators in the city could clean up the army of Demonic Beasts behind them! But pinning down two powerful Demon Cultivators at the same time was easier said than done!

"Ancestor, why not let this junior take one off your hands!"

Zhang Nuo saw what Deng Tianlin was thinking! The reason was simple! Although Anling City had a defensive Restriction, if the Demon Cultivators were allowed to attack, the Restriction would eventually run out of power. Once the defensive Restriction was broken, it would be much harder to intercept these Demonic Beasts! It would be better to strike first and kill more Demonic Beasts to weaken their strength!

"You?"

Deng Tianlin turned his head and looked at Zhang Nuo with great surprise. Neither of the two Demon Cultivators opposite was weak; Zhang Nuo, a Spirit Transformation Initial Stage cultivator, was likely unable to withstand either of them. Even Zheng Chang, the second-ranked member of the Seventh Team, would not dare to say such a thing!

"Ancestor, rest assured! This junior has a secret technique that can absorb a large amount of Demonic Qi in an instant, raising my cultivation to the Spirit Transformation Late Stage for a short time! Dealing with that strange fish Demon Cultivator should not be a problem!"

Zhang Nuo was not stupid; he would definitely not face the crocodile-headed Demon Cultivator. It was obvious that since he could fully transform his body, it meant the opponent had awakened more of his intelligence!

That strange fish Demon Cultivator was completely different! Although he had awakened some intelligence, he seemed to have well-developed limbs but a simple mind! If he opened all four meridians of the 'Eight Extremes Demon Veins', Zhang Nuo might still have a chance of winning!

Zheng Chang, standing behind Deng Tianlin, felt a sense of shock upon hearing Zhang Nuo's words. He was finding it increasingly difficult to understand Zhang Nuo! This cultivator who had ascended not long ago had first escaped the pursuit of Demonic Beasts to reach Anling City, then discovered the strange Demon Cultivators hidden among humans, and now was proposing to fight a leading Demon Cultivator!

These were things far beyond what a Spirit Transformation Initial Stage cultivator could do! Deng Tianlin was equally surprised, but he knew Zhang Nuo somewhat, and after a moment of consideration, he agreed!

"You go and deal with that strange fish Demon Cultivator! I will block the crocodile-headed Demon Cultivator! Other Seventh Team cultivators, listen well: use all your supernatural abilities! For the army of Demonic Beasts below, kill them if you can, don't just wound them! We don't have many opportunities to waste!"

Following his order, tens of thousands of cultivators in the city shouted in unison, a sound that made the Restriction light screen tremble several times!

At the same time, the Demon Cultivators below the city also let out wild roars. Various sounds mixed together, and the momentum was extremely terrifying!

As soon as Jin E saw that the defensive Restriction could not be broken, he pointed toward Anling City, and the army of Demonic Beasts behind him roared and charged forward!

"Leave the city!"

As soon as the two words left Deng Tianlin's mouth, the Restriction light screen at the front of the city wall opened, and tens of thousands of escape lights surged out of Anling City simultaneously!

After the Demon Beast Tide broke out, this was the first time Zhang Nuo had participated in a battle of such scale, and he felt a sudden surge of excitement! Facing the vast army of Demonic Beasts, he and Deng Tianlin charged at the very front!