Volume 5, Chapter 80 – Confrontation

When Xu Shu led his squad up the rocky slope, they happened to witness this scene.

It was, without question, a staggeringly shocking sight… a dense, black mass of people, every single one clad in the most advanced combat suits currently available. At the very front, every soldier carried a composite-made “tower shield” taller than a man. At least ten thousand soldier-cultivators practicing the Stilling Cloud Formula floated into the air, all of their qi power fusing and converging overhead, and by sheer force they raised a military banner so immense it nearly blotted out the sky!

This… what exactly was this…?

Without giving either side time to react, the Stilling Cloud Army had already begun its charge.

The first thing to move was that enormous military banner. The soldier-cultivators acted with perfect coordination, jointly channeling qi to hurl it outward. The banner-pole shot through the air like a javelin, tracing an afterimage across the sky. In the blink of an eye, it crossed more than a thousand meters and slammed down among the Demon Kings.

The banner did not hit a single enemy, but its impact shook the ground and flung dirt into the air. The huge standard fluttered overhead, as though casting down a faint layer of “cloud qi.” Every living being covered by that “cloud qi,” so long as they were soldiers cultivating the Stilling Cloud Formula, felt their spirits surge as if they had taken a powerful tonic. The Demon Kings, meanwhile, all seemed to be suppressed by it, each one showing a pained expression.

“Bai Tingyun!”

The silver-haired man let out a long howl and was the first to break free of the “cloud qi” suppression. His eyes turned blood-red. With a boom, he shattered the ground beneath his feet and became a streak of white light that shot toward the army formation, roaring, “You dare show yourself? Then today, you’ll pay for my son’s life!!!”

A bloody gleam flashed through his eyes as he condensed all the demonic power in his body and poured it into the pearl in his hand, then hurled it with all his strength in Bai Tingyun’s direction.

Faced with that attack, the Stilling Cloud Army needed no command at all. Tens of thousands of soldier-cultivators gathered and converged of their own accord.

This too was a combined effort, and this too was carried out in flawless unison. They simultaneously drew their battle swords from their backs, and with one shared roar, every one of them slashed forward.

Wuuung—!

At first, the strike did not seem especially imposing. But in the next instant, as all the sword qi converged into one point, it formed a gigantic, pure-white crescent slash that crashed viciously into the pearl!

Clang—!

A sharp explosive screech rang out through the night sky. In a single exchange, the pearl was sent flying by the sword qi without the slightest power to resist. The silver-haired youth’s face turned pale, and with a spray of blood, he too was blasted backward.

“Eclipsing Moon!”

The four-meter-tall spider-demon woman, the Eight-Eyed Demon King, rushed forward and caught the silver-haired youth in her arms. “Bai Tingyun has gone mad… he’s not even defending the fortress anymore. He’s mobilized all his forces!”

The silver-haired youth still wanted to struggle free, but she hurriedly added, “We can’t get bogged down fighting them here!”

“There are troops encircling us on both flanks. If we don’t leave now, we won’t get another chance!”

“I… would never fear him!”

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The silver-haired youth clenched his teeth and wiped the blood from his mouth with a savage motion.

“Judging from this, he clearly thinks the defenses around the Qingyun Army’s main force are empty! He deliberately used this scouting unit to lure us out!”

“He knew it! Only if multiple Demon Kings showed themselves could this group be fully intercepted! He’s using that to split us apart, trying to bypass our defenses and launch a surprise attack on the main force!”

So that was it?

The Eight-Eyed Demon King was startled, then immediately understood. Under normal circumstances, this scheme would have been enough to grievously wound the Qingyun Army, because human qi-method warfare was notoriously difficult to deal with. As long as cultivators at the ninth layer of Qi Refining or above gathered together, once their numbers reached ten thousand, then with amplification from qi talismans and qi arrays, and with stronger experts guiding and directing that force, the power they could unleash would be enough to make even the Qingyun Demon Saint avoid their edge for the time being!

But the current Qingyun Army… not only had that vast bird-beast army that followed the Demon God, the Demon God was personally present as well.

It seemed like… we didn’t need to be afraid at all?

“That person… the one who calls himself the ‘Demon Lord,’ he calculated everything,” the silver-haired youth continued. “When he first told me, I didn’t believe him. But who would have thought it would really be true? Bai Tingyun has practically emptied out his nest… this is our rare chance!”

“Today!”

“Is the day the Stilling Cloud Army is destroyed!”

His face was full of savage delight as he watched the human troops sweeping in from both wings. All that remained was for them to push deeper into the wasteland and slam headfirst into that terrifying future.

But just then, a low military horn suddenly rang out from the sea of people ahead.

Wooo↘ wooo↗… wooo↘ wooo↗————

What…?

The silver-haired youth stared in shock as the sound spread outward. The masses on both flanks suddenly stopped, then retreated faster than they had come!

What was going on?

How could he possibly tell??

At the same time, up on the slope, the white-robed scholar with the handlebar mustache suddenly let out a sigh.

“This is hard…”

“General?” A rough-looking burly man walked over, looking confused when he heard that. “Retreating is one thing, but why the sighing?”

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“I’m sighing because I fear we may have fallen for the voidfiends’ scheme.”

The white-robed scholar, Bai Tingyun, spoke in a low voice.

“I had intended to expose a flaw and try to wipe them out in one stroke.”

“But now it seems these Demon Kings are disposable pawns as well.”

“If nothing unexpected happens, a tide of demon troops is already moving to encircle our rear.”

“And the enemy’s main army…”

“That is, the merged army formed from the two voidfiend forces…”

“Is probably drawing near here as well.”

Rumble…

Rumble…

The moment he finished speaking, everyone felt it.

The earth was trembling.

Even among the well-trained Qingyun Army, some in the formation could not help but narrow their eyes or stare wide-eyed, lips pressed tight, faces drawn taut as they fixed their gaze on the monstrous thing approaching beneath the moon.

What kind of terrifying demon was that?

The bright moonlight outlined a blue-black cloud.

But as it slowly drew closer, they finally saw it clearly. It was not a cloud layer at all, but an enormous tree crown!

Beneath that canopy stood a terrifying giant tree seventy or eighty meters thick. It had a hideous and bizarre blood-red giant eye, while its roots resembled a marsh made from coiling giant pythons, dragging with them and driving forward the black mass of the voidfiend army as it advanced this way!

And that was not all.

As the enemy drew closer and closer, Bai Tingyun raised his head and narrowed his eyes, seeing that the enormous canopy was writhing.

As though responding to some signal, those writhing things burst apart in all directions, spreading through the night sky and forming an even vaster pitch-black cloud. It was, astonishingly, a tide made up of more than a hundred thousand demon birds of every kind.

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There beneath the moonlight, they writhed and twisted, spreading farther and farther, until a gigantic dark silhouette took shape in the heavens, looking like a “nine-headed monstrous bird.”

That sight brought with it an immense pressure.

Bai Tingyun narrowed his eyes, and the hand hidden within his sleeve quietly clenched.

“You stay here.”

“Do not attempt another attack.”

After saying that, qi currents surged around Bai Tingyun, transforming into a white-cloud-like stream of qi that lifted him up and carried him into the sky, where he faced off against the giant tree across a distance of nearly a thousand meters.

“Qingyun…”

He spoke slowly, his voice rapidly carrying outward.

“Though I had my suspicions, I truly did not expect that the real Qingyun Demon Saint would have a trunk this thick, this towering.”

“Cough… cough… this is the limitation of the human race.” The giant tree coughed as it spoke, its voice a huge, buzzing rumble.

“Bai Tingyun… we acknowledge your strength. You are qualified to become one of demonkind.”

“So long as you willingly accept our lord’s baptism, our lord will agree to spare the people behind you and allow them to return safely to Tianji Circuit.”

“Do you even believe that yourself?” Bai Tingyun shook his head, his gaze moving back and forth across the tree crown.

Suddenly, he caught sight of a figure standing up there.

Black robes… a young face… this was, at most, a human girl of fifteen or sixteen. How could she possibly be standing there?

Oh…

This old monster…

The Qingyun Demon Saint.

Earlier, it had mentioned its so-called “lord.” Could it be that she was…?

Before he could finish the thought, Bai Tingyun’s gaze suddenly met the girl’s.

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At once, his expression changed drastically.

In that instant, he seemed to see the outline of a nine-headed giant bird leap out from the girl’s body. Every one of its heads was formed from outward-flaring “speed lines,” and all eighteen gigantic eyes glared at him as it let out a savage, ferocious roar.

“So that’s how it is…”

Wiping away the sweat on his face, Bai Tingyun muttered with a stiff expression,

“The desert ruins…”

“The Demon God Temple…”

“It is said that the Westwind Circuit of the former dynasty was completely buried beneath the sand stirred up by the ‘nine-headed giant bird.’ I thought it was only a legend, but it turns out the legend was true.”

[Ignorant creature, how could you possibly imagine my greatness?]

From afar, Li Nanyun saw the expression on his face clearly, and her heart filled with delight and pleasure.

She was just about to humiliate him even further when she suddenly sensed a burst of intense light erupt to her right.

What was that?

The light was far too dazzling. Li Nanyun, the Qingyun Demon Saint, the voidfiend army, those Demon Kings… and all the Qingyun Army cultivators and soldiers, Bai Tingyun included, all turned their heads and looked toward the source of the light.

It looked like some gigantic firework…?

Wasn’t it way too bright… what was that?

And at the far end of their sightlines, at the summit of the cliff where all those strange gazes converged, Bai Changze, Xu Shu, Zhang Donglai, Zhu Sheng, and Guo Feng… all five of them stood there dumbstruck, staring at Liu Yong as though they had gone stupid.

“I… I…”

Liu Yong was dumbfounded too.

He slowly lowered his head and looked at his mechanical arm. A small panel above the elbow had opened, and a slip of paper had popped out from inside. Written on it, in Bai Maoxu’s handwriting, was a single line.

[White-Mech Drill, Form One Thousand Two Hundred — Rejoice, for the Emperor descends]