Chapter 186: Demon King! Sea-devouring!

On a wasteland a hundred miles outside Jinling City, a large number of commoners who had fled from Jinling City had gathered. Most were those high-ranking officials and their servants, along with a small number of merchants.

The servants and merchants had followed on foot, almost exhausting all their strength.

Some people fell behind on the road, but no one waited for them, leaving them to wait for death in the wild.

As for those who barely kept up with the carriages, they didn't actually want to rest; they wanted to continue moving forward to enter a city sooner.

Anyone with a little common sense knew how dangerous the wild was after dark.

But the young masters and misses in those carriages didn't understand, especially that "Little Cabinet Minister" Yan Shifan, who had never endured such a grueling journey. When he came, he had traveled south by luxury boat, served with the best food and entertainment.

Now, he had to return by sedan chair. Not only was it slow, but the bumps along the way were completely unacceptable to Yan Shifan.

Even though he switched to a carriage halfway, he was still shaken until he was dizzy and nauseous. If they didn't stop, he might be shaken to death alive.

Yan Shifan didn't care at all about how dangerous the wild was at night, because he was surrounded by expert guards; any one of them, if picked out, would be somewhat famous in the martial arts world.

After resting for a while, Yan Shifan's stomach began to growl, so he ordered his servants to light a fire and cook.

"Little Cabinet Minister, just endure it a little longer and we'll be in the city. Let's just make do with some dry rations. In the current situation, lighting a fire to cook is not only a waste of time, but it might also attract trouble..."

Yan Shifan was furious when he heard this and roared: "Dry rations are hard and cold; is that food for humans? I have never eaten such husks in my life. Hurry and have someone cook! Didn't we bring a cook when we left?"

The guard said helplessly: "Little Cabinet Minister, the cook didn't keep up..."

Yan Shifan was so angry that he grabbed things around him and smashed them wildly. He had come to Jinling City to have fun with great enthusiasm, only to run into this kind of situation. He had already been suppressing a ball of anger in his heart, and now that everything was going wrong, it was like adding fuel to the fire.

The guard advised: "Little Cabinet Minister, we will be able to enter the city soon. Let's eat something to pad our stomachs and get on the road early. The Demon Race attacking the city is like a swarm of locusts; staying here any longer is dangerous."

Yan Shifan sneered: "My father spent so much money to hire you, yet I didn't expect you all to be cowards who fear death."

The guards, who came from humble backgrounds, almost couldn't resist beating him up. Thinking that his father was Cabinet Minister Yan, they suppressed their anger; it was better to avoid extra trouble.

The Little Cabinet Minister insisted on eating something hot. Helpless, everyone had to light a fire and cook. As the firelight rose, a little comfort finally appeared on the faces of the panicked people.

The raging flames dispelled the cold in their hearts and bodies.

Some people also had fear on their faces; they understood how much trouble lighting a fire in the dark night would bring.

"My lords, you cannot light a fire in the wild. Those beasts will come over the moment they see the firelight."

A middle-aged man with graying temples and a weathered face walked toward Yan Shifan's position.

The guards stopped him.

He was still earnestly advising: "Demons are not like wild beasts. Wild beasts might be scared away by a mountain fire, but demons know that the fire was lit by humans, and they will definitely come looking."

Yan Shifan sneered: "We are already a hundred miles outside Jinling City. How could those demons catch up? Unless they can all fly..."

Speaking of this, Yan Shifan suddenly froze.

That's right!

What if there are demons that can fly? Oh no!

Yan Shifan, realizing it too late, roared at the others: "Stop cooking, hurry and leave, don't stop for even a moment!"

The high-ranking officials here had stayed in the peaceful capital for a long time and knew nothing about the Demon Race, because they had no need to understand it at all, including Yan Shifan.

And those so-called expert guards didn't look like they often came into contact with the Demon Race either.

But Yan Shifan was, after all, the Little Cabinet Minister. When helping his father Yan Song handle government affairs, he would come into contact with some information and knew more than the others.

Ignoring the inconvenience of the carriage, Yan Shifan climbed up in three steps, his posture very disheveled, completely lacking his usual elegance. When others saw him so agitated, their hearts suddenly skipped a beat.

The wealthy merchants were all shrewd. Although they didn't know what had happened, they urged their servants to leave at the first opportunity, and some even abandoned part of the wealth in the carriages.

The merchants who had walked here on foot all left the campfire in terror, numbly following the convoy that was about to leave.

"Faster! Faster!"

Yan Shifan stomped his feet in the carriage in a hurry. The guard also felt his anxiety, and the horsewhip in his hand was swung with more force.

The horses felt the pain and ran forward frantically, as if they had gone mad.

Seeing the speed at which the carriage was galloping, Yan Shifan, who had broken out in a cold sweat, finally sat down to catch his breath, his body limp like a deflated ball.

I don't know how much time passed, but the area around the convoy suddenly became darker and darker. The moonlight had actually disappeared!

The guard sitting on the carriage shaft felt puzzled, so he looked up at the sky, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

A huge black shadow shrouded the sky, actually blocking the moonlight completely!

"Little Cabinet Minister, look at the sky quickly." The guard shouted, trembling.

Yan Shifan's body trembled, and he hurriedly poked his head out of the carriage to look at the sky, gasping: "What a huge bird!"

The guard smiled bitterly: "That is a Great Roc! Its wings covering the sky are at least five hundred zhang, if not a thousand. With such a terrifying size, it's probably not an ordinary Great Demon."

Yan Shifan only felt his eyes go black, his legs went weak, and he almost fell out of the carriage, stuttering: "If it's not a Great Demon, then what is it?"

"Demon King!" The guard's face was ashen, and he closed his eyes in resignation, saying miserably: "The Golden-winged Great Roc King, one of the twelve Demon Kings of the Ten Thousand Demon Nation."

Demon King?

Yan Shifan was stunned and lost his soul: "Aren't Demon Kings legendary existences? How can there really be Demon Kings in the world? And I actually ran into one!"

Others who didn't know the truth might still have the motivation to run, but Yan Shifan was now in despair, sitting decadently in the carriage.

The black shadow in the sky was slowly approaching.

A moment later.

The entire convoy was swallowed by the black shadow. Screams rose and then disappeared instantly. The carriages and cargo all vanished, as if these people had never been there at all.

On the contrary, those who had been left behind by the convoy halfway were lucky enough to escape a disaster.

The survivors looked with vacant eyes at the terrifying black shadow gradually moving away in the sky, the powerlessness and despair in their hearts constantly spreading.

Can the Human Race really defeat such terrifying demons?

At the same time.

A hundred zhang in front of Jinling City was already filled with demon beasts.

Behind the demon beasts were Spirit Demons, behind the Spirit Demons were Great Demons, and behind the Great Demons was a throne standing high in the sky!

The orderly arrangement revealed the strict hierarchy of the Demon Race.

The figure on the throne looked down at the city tower.

"One person?"

Chu Yang also looked up at him.

"Enough."

The Demon King was a bit strange. Clearly, only one person was standing on the city tower, yet he felt inexplicably terrified.

That feeling of a great catastrophe being imminent hadn't been felt for many years. The last time, he wasn't a Demon King yet, just a Great Demon, and he had met a middle-aged man named Zhuge Zhengwo.

Wearing a green shirt, he looked just like a teacher in an academy, a true scholar.

Who knew that the "scholar" would be so ruthless? He had only eaten the people of one city to fill his stomach, and he had almost died at the other's hands.

The Demon King touched his neck and said with a nostalgic tone: "You humans are truly blessed by heaven. The world has only awakened for a few decades, yet you can cultivate to such a level."

"Those Demon Kings and Great Demons in the Ten Thousand Demon Nation, which one of them didn't live in a daze like a beast for thousands of years before finally attaining the Dao today? Compared to you humans, the difference is like heaven and earth."

"Fortunately, heaven is fair after all. Every time we eat a mouthful of your human flesh and blood, our Demon Race's cultivation and Dao practice will increase, especially those martial arts experts, Daoist masters, and Buddhist Arhats."

"It is only in these few decades that some demons have eaten their way to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years of Dao practice."

"Guess how many people had to die for this much Dao practice?"

The Demon King didn't say these things for no reason. Human cultivation, without exception, had the saying of inner demons. Being able to shake the opponent's mind before a great battle would increase the chances of winning.

The Demon King knew very well what someone like Chu Yang, who was willing to protect the commoners of a city, valued most.

Sure enough.

When he finished speaking, Chu Yang's expression changed instantly.

His eyes were as cold as if ice were about to pierce through.

The Demon King sitting on the throne saw that his goal had been achieved, clapped his hands and laughed: "Attack the city!"

With an order.

Ten thousand demons emerged!

The Demon Race's city-attacking tactics hadn't changed for decades. First, demon beasts charged, using the massive beast tide to consume military equipment like arrows and stones. Only when the defending side was exhausted would the Great Demons and Spirit Demons climb the city tower one after another.

The Qi Family Army's Demon-Exterminating Crossbows were not to be trifled with. Many Great Demons had died under the crossbow bolts. Unless consumed to a certain degree, Great Demons wouldn't easily climb the city tower.

Once the wall became the main battlefield, it would be the arena for the Divine Marquis Mansion and the experts of the Buddhist and Daoist sects to fight the Great Demons, and the outcome would be decided there.

Looking at the bare city tower, the Demon King was also muttering in his heart, unsure if the other side was playing a trick or was really this arrogant.

Regardless, letting the demon beasts charge first was never wrong. In his eyes, the so-called same race were just consumables anyway.

As long as they could smash open the city wall, they would have died for a worthy cause.

The Demon King stared fixedly at Chu Yang, wanting to see what trump cards he had to dare to defend the city alone.

Just as the beast tide was about to crash into the city gate, a sudden torrent surged out from around the city wall.

The moat that appeared out of thin air caught the demon beasts off guard, instantly submerging the endless demon beast army.

"This water-controlling technique is quite remarkable!"

"Are you a Daoist master, or a Heavenly Monarch?"

The Demon King's expression was solemn, and he slowly stood up from the throne.

Chu Yang curled his lips: "A little higher than that. Feel free to guess."

The Demon King frowned.

Starting from the lowest-level demon beasts, the Demon Race's realms were, in order: Spirit Demon, Great Demon, Demon King.

Legend had it that besides the twelve Demon Kings, the Ten Thousand Demon Nation also had three Demon Emperors and one Demon Race co-lord.

It was just that no one had ever seen the latter.

The realms of human martial artists were roughly the same. The third-rate, second-rate, and first-rate experts circulating in the martial arts world were collectively called the Inner Refining Realm, also known as Inner Refining experts.

This stage required tempering the physique, exercising the five viscera and six bowels, and stimulating the bone marrow and blood to renew, which had to be experienced nine times in total.

The combat power span of the Inner Refining Realm was quite large. A martial artist who had changed bones and blood once struggled to kill demon beasts, while one who had changed them nine times killed Spirit Demons like killing chickens.

After changing blood nine times, a Qi Sea Dantian was born. From then on, true essence circulated endlessly, and martial arts cultivation ascended to the sky in one step. This realm was called the Heaven-Ascending Realm, also known as a Grandmaster.

After that, flesh and blood true essence condensed as one, and every acupoint was a Qi Sea Dantian. Every move was like a celestial being reborn, called the Celestial Realm, also known as a Great Grandmaster.

Grandmaster and Great Grandmaster were martial artist realms, while the corresponding realms for the Daoist sect were Master and Heavenly Monarch, and for the Buddhist sect, Vajra and Arhat.

The leaders of the two Marquises, one gate, two factories, and one guard, besides "Divine Marquis" Zhuge Zhengwo, who was a universally known Celestial Realm Great Grandmaster, the other five were all Grandmasters infinitely close to this realm.

Masters of the Buddhist and Daoist sects were already rare, and Heavenly Monarchs were even harder to see. Let alone the Demon Race, even the Human Race hadn't seen many.

Every time they attacked a human city, the Demon Race would figure out the movements of the Buddhist and Daoist masters, and then choose to strike where it was hardest for the other side to reinforce.

Before attacking Jinling City, the Demon Race had made full preparations. Not only did they use a scheme to trap the Qi Family Army, but they also found out the whereabouts of all the Daoist masters.

There were even several Demon Kings leading many demon beasts to feign an attack on a major city in the north to attract the attention of the Daoist masters, all to make Jinling City completely isolated and helpless.

Never expected that there would actually be a Daoist master sitting here! The ocean wrapped around countless demon beasts and poured toward the Demon Race army. The Demon King couldn't care less why Chu Yang was here, hurriedly jumping off the throne, his figure changing suddenly, revealing part of his true form.

From a two-meter-tall, imposing man, he leaped into a ten-meter-tall half-man, half-beast!

With dragon horns on his head, an elephant trunk on his face, and a golden mane like a lion, it was unknown what species of Demon King he was.

"I am the Sea-devouring Demon King. A mere small river is not worth mentioning!"

The Sea-devouring Demon King's eyes were bloodshot, revealing an excited expression. His elephant trunk kept stretching and growing larger, sucking hard at the torrent in front. The water flow summoned by Chu Yang was all sucked into his nose just like that.

The ocean disappeared completely, leaving only a mess on the ground. The demon beasts that had launched the charge had already suffered more than half casualties. Another charge would probably still be futile.

Not drawing out the Demon-Exterminating Crossbows, but drawing out a Daoist master; in the eyes of the Sea-devouring Demon King, it wasn't a losing deal.

Because there was only one person on the other side. With his realm, how simple would it be to kill him? Even if he was a master infinitely close to a Heavenly Monarch, in front of him, he was just a master.

"Daoist, do you dare to fight me?"

The Sea-devouring Demon King roared at the sky, his voice like a war drum, making people's eardrums ache and their blood flow backward.

Even the commoners in Jinling City heard this sound.

The people on the other city tower naturally heard it too!

Lu Xiaofeng, Hua Manlou, Li Ge Xiao, Li Xunhuan, and Tie Chuanjia, who had been found by the two.

Duan Tianya had already set off for Wang Long City to investigate the situation of the Qi Family Army, while Gui Hai Yi Dao had gone to seek reinforcements from the nearest human army.

Besides these people, there were also Demon-Exterminating Crossbows lined up on the city tower and thousands of guards. Some commoners also stood near the city gate, having come to help them defend the city.

Among them, one could also see the figures of Yan Nantian and Jiang Feng.

They all heard the Demon King's voice but couldn't attend to the situation on Chu Yang's side.

Lu Xiaofeng looked at the huge black shadow in the sky and couldn't help but shiver.

What they were facing was the Golden-winged Great Roc King who had just swallowed Yan Shifan and his party.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 187 =====