Chapter 383: 357

357

When the first layer, the Wind Quality Layer, condensed at the edges of the rift, the city in the sky suddenly came to a halt.

Before this, although the city was solid, it possessed the characteristics of an inverted light reflection, appearing ethereal, and its edges were not very stable, as if starlight were trembling slightly in the sky, much like a living thing.

But when the wind quality sealed the boundary gap, the city suddenly lost its vitality, just as a flourishing forest might suddenly wither; although the great trees remained towering and stood without falling, they had ultimately lost that surging and aggressive life force.

At this moment, the heavy gate in the center of the city wall finally opened.

An unusually tall figure appeared, but upon closer inspection, it was not one person; it seemed as if three people were huddled tightly together.

No, that's not right...

It was three heads and six arms!

Tang Zhao suddenly realized in his heart that this was not three people, but one. It was just one person who had grown three heads and six arms.

Isn't this a Supernatural Power from mythology?

But thinking of its identity, one knew it was not using a Supernatural Power, but was born looking like this.

As expected of a Great Heavenly Demon, it certainly knows how to grow.

"The Heavenly Demons of the Xiuluo are neither human nor beast, fierce and ugly, always so unscrupulous." Below, Cui Yinsheng sneered, "There is nothing to say to these Heavenly Demons, kill them all!"

"Kill all the Heavenly Demons!"

"Exterminate the Heavenly Demons!"

Sword Guests and soldiers all roared at the top of their lungs, and even the sprout soldiers let out their own unique shrieks to show their support.

Amidst the roars, the momentum climbed once again.

On the other side, the rift was also struggling in a difficult stalemate under the coverage of the second layer, the Fire Quality Layer.

Suddenly, a hand reached out from the city. Immediately following, a freak with three heads, three bodies, and six arms squeezed out.

Tang Zhao saw this famous type of Heavenly Demon clearly for the first time.

It was unusually tall with a ferocious face; each of the three heads had a different appearance—some angry, some joyful, some violent—looking not like one person who had grown three heads, but like three living people stuck together!

Release!

Boom, the momentum surged into the sky!

The Pixiu Sword, shaped like a long spear, was brandished like a flag, and the power of Moyun City pointed toward the sky! The momentum was like a physical entity, stabbing toward the firmament.

"Pop!"

Before the great wave of momentum even arrived, the sharpest arrowhead of that momentum had already pierced the Xiuluo Heavenly Demon.

That Xiuluo Heavenly Demon instantly became like an exploded watermelon, transforming into a mass of blood mist.

Cui Yinsheng was stunned. He had originally intended to seize the initiative and instantly kill the vanguard of this Heavenly Demon incursion to serve as a deterrent, but he had not expected this Xiuluo Heavenly Demon to be so fragile; it exploded before the great momentum had even pressed down on it. One had to know that the Xiuluo were famous for their sturdy bodies and being impervious to blades and spears!

But immediately after, he saw the blood mist lingering and not dispersing, actually transforming into a cotton-like fog under the pressure of the momentum, hovering in front and clearly becoming a barrier.

And behind the barrier, faint, blood-colored human figures were emerging one by one from the city gate.

Cui Yinsheng immediately understood that the Xiuluo acting as the vanguard was clearly a sacrificial pawn, meant to be killed by him. Before dying, it had used some method like "Heavenly Demon Disintegration," using its body as an offering to turn into a barrier to cover the invasion of its kin behind it.

As expected of the Xiuluo, known for their madness; they started with a blood sacrifice, clearly not taking the lives of their own people seriously. Naturally, they would take the lives of their enemies even less seriously!

Seeing that the blood mist was extremely tough and the momentum could not break through for the moment, Cui Yinsheng waved his hand to stop, telling the soldiers not to waste Sword Essence and momentum, and to wait for the blood mist to subside before making further plans.

A moment later, the blood mist dissipated, and eight or nine Heavenly Demons rushed out from the open gate, twenty or thirty faces screaming as they held weapons and descended from the sky.

Although only a few Heavenly Demons had descended, their presence seemed to blot out the sky and sun, and the morning Sunlight was dimmed by them.

They wore fur garments, but they were already stained with a mottled red—that was the blood of their own kin. Bathing in the gore, they were even more excited, their faces, eight parts human, filled with madness.

Clang—

Several streaks of Sword Light rose from the ground, simultaneously pointing at the Heavenly Demons descending from the sky.

Those Sword Guests were veterans of the Qianxian; without needing Cui Yinsheng's command, they had long since organized into small teams, surrounding the seven or eight Xiuluo one by one. They unanimously chose the same strategy—do not let those Heavenly Demons land, and annihilate them in mid-air.

Even for a Heavenly Demon, even with a pair of wings between the three heads, being unable to fight on the ground was a major constraint. Choosing an advantageous battlefield was precisely the benefit of striking after the enemy.

At this moment, every Xiuluo was being dealt with by at least two Sword Guests, and at most, one had five Sword Guests around it, with an entire team surrounding one Heavenly Demon.

This was a standard phenomenon in Qianxian battles. In the current Suiyu, Heavenly Demons and Humans were in a subtle balance, so there was an unwritten rule of "soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals." Sword Heroes rarely took action against Sword Guest-level Heavenly Demons, but there was no rule forbidding people from ganging up on the few. On the contrary, one-on-one fights were rare in real combat; if one could use a numerical advantage to wipe out the opponent, why duel?

Moreover, in a duel, an average Sword Guest really could not win.

It was hard to say who was stronger between a Heavenly Demon and a Sword Guest. Although both sides were roughly at the same level, they were not in the same system; there were many constraining factors, including mutual generation and restriction, as well as racial strengths and weaknesses. Among Sword Guests, there were powerful top-tier Sword Guests, and there were also ordinary Sword Guests who, even after mixing for several years, still lacked the strength to attack head-on and could only rely on small-team combat.

Likewise, Heavenly Demons also had strong and weak ones; the strong ones could truly take on many and sweep through the Sword Guests.

That Xiuluo was precisely a strong branch among the Heavenly Demons, extremely effective against Sword Guests on the front lines, with bodies so sturdy that Sword Guests lacking powerful offensive Sword Arts could not cut them, let alone the fact that they had three heads and three consciousnesses, watching in all directions, and were as tacit as one person. One could contend against a small team, and even in a one-on-three, they often had the advantage.

The Xiuluo Heavenly Demons had always been high-level warnings for Qianjin City. In the past, even discovering one was worth dispatching more than one team to surround and annihilate it.

Today, so many appeared at once, and the battlefield instantly became intense and even tragic. Even though the Sword Guests had a numerical advantage, except for the one Heavenly Demon facing five, the Sword Guests were not gaining the upper hand in the other battles. Those Sword Guests who were only two-on-one seemed to be falling behind, barely coping.

Purely in terms of martial power, although Sword Guests had swords in hand, not everyone necessarily had powerful combat strength to directly break the defenses of those sturdy Heavenly Demons. However, Sword Guests had their own Sword Arts with different characteristics; not only could each person exert powerful abilities in specific situations, but the cooperation between small teams had even more miraculous effects. If they were teams that had practiced together for a long time, several Sword Guests together could even challenge those of a higher level.

Unfortunately, this time the main force had not arrived, and the teams that came to reinforce were not complete. Not only were there few teams experienced in battle, but some Sword Guests had never even partnered before; let alone cooperation, it was good enough if they didn't get in each other's way.

It just so happened that the two Sword Guests with the fewest numbers were partnering for the first time, lacking coordination, and since their ability to attack head-on was not top-tier, they became tied up in the fight against a Xiuluo Heavenly Demon, which made Tang Zhao, who was watching from afar, very nervous.

At this moment, his position was the best for observing the battle, seeing at a glance the key points of the situation: where it was strongest, where it was weak, where one could win, and where it could be fatal.

If these two Sword Guests were defeated by the Xiuluo, that Xiuluo could free itself to pincer-attack another Xiuluo, achieving a quick victory, and then kill a few more Sword Guests; the advantage would snowball, and by then, if Moyun City lost its numerical advantage, the army would likely collapse like a mountain.

And by the same logic, once the Sword Guests with the greatest advantage of five-on-one achieved the first kill of a Xiuluo, those five Sword Guests could free themselves to join other teams, which could instantly reverse the situation—that would be a different kind of chain reaction.

The premise was that the Heavenly Demons in the city had all come out, and no more Heavenly Demons were pouring in continuously.

And also...

Tang Zhao looked back at the hole in the clouds—before the rift sealed, another Xiuluo City must not rush in. If that Xiuluo City underground also projected over, what could be used to resist it?

Seeing that the weaknesses of both sides had reached a precarious point, Tang Zhao looked at Cui Yinsheng—after all, Cui Yinsheng was the general who grasped the overall situation; perhaps he would coordinate the troops to make up for the loopholes, even if it meant letting the sprout soldiers swarm up?

Cui Yinsheng, however, did not take action; he no longer looked at the Xiuluo City in the sky, but instead stared at the rift.

Tang Zhao's heart tightened, and he immediately thought of the key—from the Xiuluo City on this side, not a single "Great Heavenly Demon" at the Sword Hero level had come down.

Perhaps it is limited by the rules? The Great Heavenly Demon cannot invade by way of projection, and can only break through the rift to attack head-on?

And the rift...

He looked back and saw that behind the rift, which was already more than half covered by light, there seemed to be an exceptionally tall figure standing motionless.

The leader of the Heavenly Demons!

A Sword Hero-level Great Heavenly Demon!

It did not come in, perhaps waiting for the barrier between the worlds to weaken, or perhaps waiting for the best opportunity. It wanted to launch a sudden attack in a situation where it could deliver a decisive blow and reap the greatest results.

The rift is currently gradually closing, but the later it gets, the slower the closing speed becomes, and the flaws are also obvious; whether it can be repaired before being weakened enough for the Great Heavenly Demon to enter remains an unknown.

Regardless, it not entering is like a sword hanging over one's head, pinning down Cui Yinsheng's attention and causing the Human side to lose the deterrent power of having a Sword Hero stationed there.

Cui Yinsheng looked coldly at the Great Heavenly Demon; the Momentum coiled around his body was prepared for the Great Heavenly Demon. Therefore, unless there was a catastrophe on the sidelines, he would not strike at will.

With these Sword Hero-level powers keeping each other in check, Tang Zhao suddenly realized that he had become the only Sword Guest who could move freely.

Then...

Two choices: bet on victory by joining the strongest team, gambling that the six Sword Guests can quickly win, or save the weak point by joining the two-person Sword Guest squad to delay the time of failure and wait for the five Sword Guests to surround and kill one Heavenly Demon?

Tang Zhao shifted his gaze and had already made up his mind.

Pass through for me—

The sword swung out, and a ray of light flashed by!

Li Yijian, who was currently besieging a Heavenly Demon with three other Sword Guests, felt his vision blur, and his body was enveloped by the light; he had actually been moved to a different battlefield!