Chapter 349: Rebel Siege and Realm Breakthrough

Chaos, bloodshed, despair...

Gongliang City was completely lost in a multitude of negative emotions, trending toward self-destruction.

The master of the giant shadow... the Great Demon, could not wait to plunge into the city, beginning a bloody, gluttonous feast.

That scene was like a fish leaping out of the water, breaking through the barrier, turning from illusory to real.

The Demon's giant black shadow, several thousand meters high, shrank rapidly during its descent, quickly diminishing by several dozen times.

By the time the Great Demon fell into the city, only a height of a dozen meters remained, standing like an iron tower in the center of Gongliang City.

No one blocked it; the martial artists were all running toward the outside of the city, anxious to escape with their lives.

Even if a brave warrior took action and launched an attack on this Demon, the effect was not much better than a tickle.

One martial master after another fled at full speed, completely disregarding whether it was a person or an object blocking their path, smashing through with bodies of steel, forcibly carving out a clear path through the complex city streets.

Family members and Apprentices followed closely behind, fleeing with the martial masters, not daring to stop for even a moment.

Occasionally, from not far away, came the screams of some unlucky soul who had been half-eaten by a Demon and awakened before death; seeing their hollowed-out chest, they screamed in terror and were actually scared to death on the spot.

Collapsed houses, slanted wooden stakes, flames still unextinguished, and scattered corpses hung upon them.

The Great Demon squinted its eyes, breathing in the scent of death, fresh blood, and smoke, and slowly opened its mouth.

The next moment, thick white steam erupted from its massive body of several dozen meters.

With the Demon as the core, the temperature within a hundred-mile radius rose simultaneously, instantly turning into a furnace; the transparent, colorless air turned red, transforming the sky and earth into a high-temperature hell.

Bricks and stones melted like wax; materials with lower ignition points like wood, decorative paper, and cloth burned on the spot.

Living things within this area—people, dogs, chickens, horses, mules, and so on—instantly had their blood, saliva, brain matter, and other fluids evaporated, eventually steaming into delicious food, emitting wisps of meaty fragrance.

One martial master was also unlucky; his escape route passed through this area, and he suffered the fate of the innocent bystander.

The body of a martial master was extraordinary; his outer skin and flesh were roasted, but his internal organs were still fresh and intact, and he was skewered into mid-air by the Demon's claw and tossed into its mouth, chewed until juices splattered everywhere.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

As the Demon opened its mouth, the hot wind swirled into a tornado, swallowing the lumps of "meat" that had been scalded and roasted on the ground into its belly.

Afterward, it let out a shallow, satisfied burp.

If there were any living people nearby, they could open their eyes to look at the Demon's body and perhaps recognize, amidst the demonic patterns, a complex and ancient Seal Script—it was the unique mastery of Kunpengzi... Bewitchment.

Toward the city walls... the surviving martial artists in the city were all gathered at the city gate now; they were all acquaintances who saw each other constantly, and meeting in such a wretched state, they were all speechless, only shaking their heads and sighing.

Previously, they had mocked Zhou You for fleeing, fearing he would end up with no good outcome; now, thinking back, this guy's premonition of the crisis was extremely accurate, and he had taken the lead to escape with his family.

"Of the martial arts circle, not one in ten remains; the people who are alive are all here."

A white-haired elderly martial master was heartbroken, pounding his chest and shouting, "How could it be like this, how could it be like this?"

The Demon was eating people in the city with extremely high efficiency, clearing out one block after another; any area that was marked off had all living things steamed and roasted through, and even martial masters had no reason to survive.

The white-haired martial master had seen with his own eyes an entire martial arts school wiped out in one go; neither the school head nor the Apprentices had escaped.

If they hadn't reached the city gate by now, they were destined to fall within the city and be buried in the Demon's mouth.

However, reaching the city gate did not mean they had escaped to safety.

The rebel army, a rebel army ten times the size of the previous one, had already surrounded Gongliang City airtight.

The city-guarding martial artists who had just escaped had already been mostly wiped out, with only a few scattered survivors slipping into the crowd, not knowing how long they could hold on.

Thinking of Zhou You again, he had already crossed this defensive line closest to the city outskirts, and his chances of survival far exceeded theirs. "Where is Wang Laohu?"

Suddenly, someone remembered this heinous old man who had colluded with the two great clans to deceive them, causing all the martial masters to lose the best opportunity to escape.

Thinking about it now, they, along with their disciples and family members, and even the innocent residents of Gongliang City, were just food thrown to the Demon by the clans, and also the prepaid toll for the two great clans to escape.

It was too cruel, and too ruthless! There was no time to condemn the culprit, because someone saw Wang Jianxiong, leading a group of disciples and family members, already charging into the rebel army formation, fighting back and forth; all around him were torn and shredded limbs, with waves of blood mist.

The "Crouching Tiger" Wang Jianxiong had not taken action for a long time, and the fangs he revealed at this moment shocked everyone.

Successive Qi-blood warriors among the rebels stepped forward, attempting to block his path and drag down this group of people trying to escape.

However, encountering Wang Laohu was their misfortune.

With a roar of a fierce tiger, the blockers were torn apart; his Hu Zhua danced like sickles, instantly severing the bodies of a dozen Qi-blood warriors, their severed limbs falling like withered grass, and his Tiger Tail Kick treated people like balls, kicking them out to create a 100-meter-long path of bloody mud.

The strength of one man, sweeping away everything, could be called an enemy of ten thousand.

Putting aside his character, Wang Laohu's attainments in boxing were, in Gongliang City, undoubtedly the best.

Other martial masters saw this and remained silent; seeing that Wang Laohu was about to cut through the enemy formation, they could not fall behind.

"Disciple, put the thickest Iron Armor on me, hmm, add another layer."

"Everyone follow me; the outside is not like the city, but if anyone stumbles and falls behind, no one will save you; seek your own path to survival!"

"Old Boxer, I never thought there would be a day we would fight side by side."

The martial masters bid each other farewell, each taking their family members and disciples to charge into the rebel army formation.

To speak a rather cruel reality, once encountering a strong enemy and a large-scale encirclement, family members and Apprentices with low strength were not just burdens; they could also be that "arm" to be severed to ensure survival.

One martial master after another acted like an arrowhead, piercing into the rebel crowd, stirring up a storm of blood.

Depending on the strength of their cultivation, the distance they advanced varied; some were short, only a hundred meters or so, while others were as long as two or three thousand meters, leaving behind countless scattered bones, still warm and twitching.

At this time, the strong among the rebels gathered one after another from all sides, surrounding and blocking the teams of escaping martial masters.

Wang Jianxiong was at the very front, bearing the brunt and becoming the target of several groups of troops.

"Awoo!"

With a roar from Wang Laohu, his pores emitted a soft silver light, flowing over his entire body like water.

The silver light rolled, and golden spots rapidly expanded, covering his entire body in the blink of an eye.

He was changing, from a Silver Tiger into a Golden Tiger.

According to the hierarchy of the Jade Tiger Art, the Silver Tiger was a Primary Martial Master, while the Golden Tiger was an Intermediate Martial Master.

Had Wang Laohu actually broken through in the heat of battle? "No!"

In another corner of the battlefield, the one-armed martial master Bao Tiefeng, seeing Wang Laohu's change, shook his head.

"He suffered heavy injuries and fell in realm, and being advanced in years, there is no longer any possibility of returning to the Intermediate stage, so this is not a breakthrough in the face of battle."

"It is a realm leap, a secret technique applicable to those who have fallen in realm."

"By overdrawing his life, he briefly gains a realm leap, elevating himself to his former realm; once time passes, he will either die or be crippled." "Wang Laohu is also going to risk his life!"

(End of chapter)