Volume 1, Chapter 257 – Sword

These flames of law gave Shi Lan a strangely familiar feeling.

Before she could think further, the flames of law ignited the void once more and swept toward the city wall.

Faced with such terrifying flames of law, Shi Lan did not dare let them touch her in the slightest and could only retreat again and again.

A figure in a red dress appeared above Xianwu City, like a mass of blazing fire that stabbed at the eyes.

Shi Lan recognized her at a glance. Back in the great battle between the two races’ peak experts, this woman in red had been one of the demon race’s leaders, and she also had a blood feud with Luo Xiuhan, Shi Feng’s master.

Boundless flames of law coiled around the woman in red. As her scarlet pupils swept across the city and landed on Shi Lan, a trace of startled suspicion suddenly surfaced in her gaze.

…

“Still not making a move?”

Several Demon-Suppressing Marshals, together with more than ten Heaven-Man mighty experts, lay quietly hidden nearby, watching the woman in red in the sky.

“Wait a little longer…”

“If that Demon Emperor is really outside the city, then he must be looking for a chance to strike right now. We cannot alert the enemy.”

“Leave it to Mobei…”

…

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A sword domain suffused with faint, clear radiance wrapped around the flames of law.

Dressed in white, Yan Mobei descended from the clouds, treading through the flames with an ancient azure sword in hand. His sword intent was sharp to the utmost, like a divine king descending into the mortal world. Without wasting a single word, he raised his sword and slashed out Divine Martial Heavenly Astral Sword Qi, intending to kill the woman on the spot.

The woman in red withdrew the gaze that had been fixed on Shi Lan. Her expression grew more solemn. Her red lips parted slightly, and she spat out a dark blue spark of flame.

The spark swelled in the wind and, in the blink of an eye, turned into a boundless sea of fire. The flames gave off no heat at all. Instead, they exuded an almost extreme cold, and even the void was frozen into cracks.

The sword qi Yan Mobei unleashed shone brilliantly, its killing intent surging into the heavens. In an instant, heaven and earth changed color. With unstoppable force, it split apart layer after layer of icy flame, and nothing could stand in its way.

At the center of the sea of fire, the woman in red changed expression slightly. She did not dare meet its edge head-on, and without lingering to fight, she pulled back and retreated at full speed. In a single instant, she had withdrawn dozens of miles and retreated back into the beast tide.

Yan Mobei frowned slightly but did not pursue. He dispersed the sword domain, merged into the void once more, and came before the group of Heaven-Man mighty experts again.

“If we had activated the formation just now, we could have kept her here. Why didn’t you act?”

Faced with Yan Mobei’s question, the Demon-Suppressing Marshals exchanged glances and all shook their heads.

“Keeping her would not affect the battle much.”

“The death of a single Heaven Demon means little to the demon race as it stands now, and it would also alert the enemy.”

“The Demon Emperor lurking in the shadows is the real trouble. Even if that dying Demon Emperor is close to the end of his natural lifespan, he is still an Emperor-level expert. His strength is simply beyond imagination. As long as he remains alive, we can only keep ourselves taut and defend with the utmost vigilance.”

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“You can guard against a thief for a thousand days, but there is always one lapse.”

Yan Mobei shook his head and let out a rare sigh.

After all, the one hidden in the shadows was an Emperor. Even with more than half his body already through the gates of the underworld, he was still a terrifying existence who could blow countless Heaven-Men to death in a single breath.

That power, enough to punch through this very world, was simply beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Even someone as proud as Yan Mobei had no thought of challenging such power.

He did not fear slaughter, but he had no wish to seek death.

“This Demon Emperor is extremely cautious. He won’t be fooled by a flaw we deliberately expose like this. We’ll have to think of another way.”

“If nothing else works, then we just endure it. His natural lifespan is almost exhausted anyway. Dragging this out a little longer may not be a bad thing.”

“There will always be moments when our guard slips. If something goes wrong…”

They discussed it for a long time, but still came to no conclusion. All the Heaven-Men showed traces of worry.

…

Although the woman in red had retreated, the million-beast horde did not stop in the slightest and still surged toward the city wall. It was just that there were no longer any high-level demons among them. Even Heavenly Astral Realm demon beasts were rare. Most of them were low-level demon beasts that had not even reached the Innate Realm.

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To call such beasts demons was already a stretch. They could only be called somewhat stronger wild beasts, and likely more than half of them had originally been born in Chengtian Domain in the first place. They were cannon fodder among cannon fodder.

Though the million-beast tide looked imposing, it was actually too weak to withstand a blow. It was completely annihilated five miles outside Xianwu City.

Shi Lan killed many demon beasts, but the increase in battle merit was far from satisfying. At this moment, however, she had no mind to pay attention to the growth of her battle merit.

The walls of Xianwu City were thousands of zhang high and nearly a thousand li in length and breadth. The damage caused by the woman in red was not small, but compared to the wall as a whole, it was negligible.

More than five thousand people had died in the flames of law, most of them members of the Demon-Suppressing Army. Not even their corpses remained. There was not the slightest trace left of them, and even their Demon-Suppressing Tokens had been melted away for the most part, beyond recognition.

Looking at the melted scars in the wall and hearing the faint sound of quiet sobbing around her, Shi Lan suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. Life was sometimes more fragile than one could imagine, cheap as grass.

After sitting by the wall in thought for a long time, Shi Lan took a gray longsword from her Qiankun Bracelet, laid it across her knees, and slowly drew it from its scabbard.

There was no earth-shaking commotion as she had guessed, nor did any strange phenomenon appear. Inside the scabbard was only an utterly ordinary-looking longsword. It was hard to imagine that this sword had any connection to a Sovereign Weapon.

Crack.

Shi Lan calmly snapped the sword in her hand in two, without the slightest hesitation.

…

Inside the great hall at the center of the beast tide, the atmosphere was equally heavy.

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“Sacred Venerable, in the short term the human race will never lower its guard. We truly do not have much time left…”

Lan Die’er felt a growing sense of urgency. She had just received a decree transmitted back by the Demon Emperor. Whether they could swallow Chengtian Domain before the human experts returned would affect the demon race’s grand future plans as a whole. It was of the utmost importance. They had to move even faster and could not delay any longer.

“Wait a little longer…”

Halfway through his sentence, the old man on the high throne suddenly lifted his head and looked toward Xianwu City. His lowered eyelids flew wide open, and terrifying divine light shone from his eyes. Piercing through the walls of the hall, he saw Shi Lan sitting by the city wall, staring fixedly at the sword in her hands.

“What is it, Sacred Venerable?”

Seeing the old man’s unusual reaction, Lan Die’er was baffled, and the other Heaven Demons in the hall were equally full of confusion.

The old man did not reply. Taking a single step, he shattered space and arrived atop the wall of Xianwu City.

The Xianwu Yin-Yang Grand Array seemed to be provoked. Almost in that same instant, it activated in full. Vast as a smoky sea, yin and yang qi surged wildly out of the void and formed a yin-yang totem.

Linked to the principles of heaven and earth, the yin-yang totem seemed capable of cleaving apart life and death, yin and yang themselves, as it suppressed the old man!

This entire chain of events took place in only a single instant. Shi Lan had no time to react at all and could only stare somewhat blankly at the old man who had suddenly appeared before her.

The old man’s gaze was very calm as he looked at Shi Lan, utterly devoid of emotion, as if he were merely looking at an object, or a corpse.