hotmtlnovel Chapter 37 A Dead End
Chapter 37 A Dead End
Chapter 37 A Dead End
Several miles away, deep within the demonic clouds.
Inside the makeshift camp shrouded in poisonous mist, the Poison Master stood with his hands at his sides, gazing at the restless demon soldiers below, who were almost poised to pounce. His brow furrowed slightly. "Your Majesty, are we just going to let them run wild like this?"
Huan Du Qingtian sat cross-legged on a black jade futon filled with poisonous miasma, slowly exhaling purplish-black smoke. He didn't even lift his eyelids when he heard this: "It's good to make a fuss. We've been suppressed too much by Dongfang Guyue these past few years, and all the departments have been holding back their anger. This is a good opportunity to vent, so we won't waste our energy on internal strife all day long."
He paused, twirling his pipe between his fingers, and suddenly asked, "Speaking of Dongfang Guyue—his death was suspicious. I've heard that this matter—seems to be somewhat related to your son?"
The old man remained unmoved, bowing and saying, "Your Majesty is wise. My son did indeed tip me off beforehand and asked for some—special 'medicine.' I thought he was just young and impetuous, wanting to take a risky step to gain merit, but I never imagined—he actually succeeded."
"Oh?" Huan Du Qingtian finally raised his eyes, a hint of interest flashing in his murky yet unfathomable eyes. "So, you already know who killed Dongfang Guyue?"
The old man's lips curled into a barely perceptible smile. His voice was low, carrying a hint of pleasure in revealing a secret: "If I tell you, His Majesty might not expect it—"
"Um?"
"The one who personally murdered his master and sent Dongfang Guyue to his doom was none other than his highly regarded eldest disciple, Jin Renfeng."
"Hehe—" Huan Du Qingtian chuckled cryptically, his laughter echoing through the poisonous fog, carrying a hint of mockery, a hint of understanding, and above all, a cold indifference. "Human hearts, sometimes, are even more poisonous than my body of ten thousand poisons."
Nantian City.
"They're here."
Someone, with an extremely hoarse voice, murmured those two words.
The young official stared intently into the distance, his face, which had been struggling to maintain its composure, now drained of all color and ashen white as paper. He had seen demons before, and had even personally dealt with several horrific cases of demons injuring people. But what he was seeing now was completely beyond his imagination and beyond his capacity to bear.
What kind of scene was that?
Standing atop the high city wall, looking out—
In the sky, a dark mass of monstrous birds, like locusts, blotted out the sun. Their flapping wings stirred up a foul-smelling gale, and their sharp cries merged into a sea of noise that ripped at our eardrums.
Beneath the surface, grotesque and terrifying monsters of all shapes and sizes surged like a rolling black tide, stretching from the horizon to the very edge of sight. Jackals, tigers, leopards, snakes, insects, and rodents all transformed into enormous, demonically powerful monsters, trampling the earth with muffled rumbles. Banners? No, they were haphazardly bound symbols of animal bones, human skin, and demonic pennants, fluttering wildly in the demonic wind, exuding primal savagery and a bloodthirsty desire.
The number? It's impossible to count. As far as the eye can see, there are nothing but demons. It's as if all the demons of the entire Southern Kingdom have gathered here today, determined to wipe this lonely city, along with all the living beings within it, from the earth.
Just as the demons closed in to a certain distance, an eerie silence, like a cold tide, instantly swept over the entire South Heaven City.
As if by unspoken agreement, the people of the city fell silent at that moment. All cries, prayers, and sobs ceased abruptly. Only boundless fear remained, silently fermenting behind the tightly closed doors and windows, causing everyone to tremble.
The commotion at the demon army's front lines subsided.
A massive palanquin, adorned with pale animal bones and scarlet runes and carried by eight strong bear demons, was slowly lowered. The curtains rolled inward without wind, revealing a figure reclining inside.
It was an extremely incongruous entity—a bird's head, a human body. Its head resembled a vulture's, covered in hard, dark blue keratin, its beak a hook that gleamed with a cold, metallic light. The human body, however, was dressed in magnificent southern noble attire, though the flesh beneath the clothing was also faintly covered in fine feathers. Most terrifying was its intact left eye, radiating a fierce light, filled with cruelty and greed. And at its right eye, a deep, grotesque sword scar slashed diagonally across half its face, down to its neck; the healed, torn skin was still clearly visible, as if silently recounting a harrowing defeat.
The Great Demon King of the Southern Kingdom, one of the top three most ferocious demons among the seventy-two cave masters—the Nine-Headed Child Demon.
Its gaze, like a real poisoned arrow, pierced through hundreds of feet, pinpointing precisely and firmly onto the dark figure on the city wall.
"Hey——!"
A piercing shriek echoed through the sky! The nine-headed child demon suddenly soared into the air from the sedan chair, its immense demonic energy erupting and causing the bear demons carrying the chair to stagger backward. In mid-air, its form rapidly expanded and twisted, and in the blink of an eye, a dark blue demonic light exploded, revealing its true form as a mountain-sized bird!
Its shape resembles the legendary ghost carriage, but it is even more grotesque. Its neck is forked, and it is topped with eight ferocious, shrill bird heads! Only where the ninth head should be is there a bare neck covered with ugly scars, a shocking sight!
It once had nine heads, one of which was cut down by the "Lone Peak Sword," which was the sharpest sword in the time!
"Hehehe—" The largest head in the middle emitted a strange laugh that sounded like sandpaper rubbing together. Its eight heads and sixteen eyes were all fixed venomously on Zhou Yi atop the city wall. "Lone Peak Sword—Zhou Yi! I knew you might be hiding somewhere in this southern region, but I truly didn't expect—you're really not afraid of death, daring to remain in this ruined city destined to turn to dust!"
Its voice, like the shrieks of countless wronged souls, amplified by demonic power, echoed across the battlefield: "It seems the lesson last time wasn't severe enough! It failed to teach you that some places, once you've entered, are gone forever!"
As if responding to its call—
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"
Three equally powerful and ferocious demonic energies rose into the sky from different directions of the demon army!
On the left, a dark green poisonous mist exploded, revealing a terrifying poisonous frog the size of a house, its body covered in viscous venom and its back covered in colorful bumps. As its huge mouth opened and closed, venomous saliva dripped down, corroding the ground with a sizzling sound.
On the right, silvery-white spider silk instantly wove into a web, revealing a giant water spider with eight spear-like legs and compound eyes that gleamed with a cruel, cold light. The demonic markings on its abdomen flickered erratically.
Behind them, a dark yellow, eerie wind swirled up, and a flying centipede, tens of feet long, with a hundred legs, an iron-like shell, and thin wings on its ribs, snaked into the air, its mouth opening and closing with a teeth-grinding "crack" sound.
Poison Frog King! Water Spider Queen! Flying Centipede General!
These are all powerful demon kings who have been famous in the Southern Kingdom for thousands of years and are known for their ferocity! Moreover, without exception, they have all suffered losses and injuries under the "Lone Peak Sword"! This time, they learned of Zhou Yi's whereabouts from the nine-headed child demon, which is a great opportunity to take revenge and devour the sword cultivator's flesh and blood to replenish themselves. Therefore, they personally led the elite demon kings of Moxia to come here!
The four great demon kings rose into the sky in a triangular formation, manifesting their terrifying original forms as small mountains. Their demonic energy merged into one, resembling four moving demon mountains, which from four directions firmly sealed off the small city wall of Nantian City, along with the solitary figure on it, in the center!
This is not enough.
Behind them, amidst churning demonic clouds, more than thirty powerful demon king auras erupted without concealment, like a pack of wolves circling. Below them, an endless army of one hundred thousand demons covered the mountains and plains, their roars deafening!
A demonic aura soared to the heavens, and ominous clouds covered the sky. They had truly come out in full force, determined to win, their overwhelming power causing the heavens and earth to lose their color!
However, atop the city walls...
The figure in black remained seated, seemingly oblivious to the terrifying scene surrounding him that would terrify any ordinary cultivator. He even picked up another jar of wine from who-knows-where and took a large gulp.
This extreme, almost insulting calm, ironically caused the nine-headed demon to slightly tighten the string of fear in its heart, stemming from the pain of decapitation.
Something's not right.
Even though his sword heart is shattered, even though he has lost an arm—he is still Lone Peak Sword! He is the fiend who once single-handedly cut through the encirclement of several great demon kings!
Thinking of this, the middle head of the nine-headed demon gleamed with even greater malice. It deliberately slowed its speech, its voice becoming sharper and more piercing, carrying a savoring quality as if relishing a delicious treat: "Speaking of which—Yuan Dong, is that your name? Your female cultivator friend who always follows you around, wielding the 'Fine Snow Sword'?"
The figure on the city wall paused almost imperceptibly as he drank.
The nine-headed demon noticed this subtle change, and eight of its heads simultaneously grinned, revealing a cruel smile: "Her brains—truly delicious. Especially the way those eyes stared intently in the direction you fled before she died—that mixture of resentment, worry, and fear, tsk tsk, I'll never forget it—"
That's enough.
A calm voice rang out, not loud, but it instantly drowned out the howling of demons filling the sky.
Zhou Yi threw away the wine jar in his hand. The earthenware jar shattered on the city bricks, spilling the remaining wine everywhere.
He slowly stood up.
It was just a simple movement, yet it seemed as if an invisible storm was brewing around him. The aura that had been as still as stagnant water, as if its last shackle had been released, began to rise and sharpen at a terrifying speed!
The four great demon kings involuntarily took half a step back, their demonic energy instinctively becoming more concentrated to protect their bodies.
"Enough with the nonsense," Zhou Yi raised his eyes, his gaze finally settling on the nine-headed demon for the first time. His gaze was cold and sharp, yet deep within burned a flame long dormant, finally unleashed, a flame powerful enough to incinerate everything. "Are you afraid—of gambling your life against me?"
He took a step forward, his empty left sleeve whipping straight back in the raging wind, his right hand clenching as if grasping something invisible.
"Nine-Headed Child Demon".
His voice carried clearly across the battlefield, with a resolute air of declaring destiny: "Don't worry."
"Today, I will kill you."
Before the words had even finished—
"Buzz!"
The space emitted a faint tremor, as if it could no longer bear the weight.
On the city wall, the figure in black suddenly blurred, and then—
Disappear!
It wasn't a fleeting afterimage left by rapid movement, but a true disappearance, as if it had merged into the space itself!
"Watch out!" the Poison Frog King warned sharply, its swollen venom sacs instantly spewing out a thick protective venomous mist.
However, it was too late.
Right in front of the middle head of the nine-headed demon, the space rippled like water.
Zhou Yi's figure appeared out of thin air like a ghost, within arm's reach!
He didn't even use any earth-shattering moves; he simply raised his only remaining, well-defined right hand, his five fingers slightly spread, and seemingly lightly pressed down on the bird's head that was still chattering and savoring the "deliciousness."
The movements were slow, even somewhat leisurely.
But in the reflection of the nine-headed demon's sixteen compound eyes, that hand was growing infinitely larger! Within the palm, it was as if a void had collapsed, and light, sound, and even the demonic energy it exhaled were all brutally pulled, twisted, and swallowed up!
A terrifying, near-extinction-level terror emanating from the depths of its soul instantly seized its entire consciousness!
It tried to hide, but its demonic body seemed to sink into an invisible swamp!
It tried to roar, but its voice was swallowed up by the "hollow" hole in the palm!
"I told you so—"
Zhou Yi's voice, eerily calm, rang close to my ear: "Becoming so big, is it because you're afraid—"
His palm gently pressed against the front of the bird's head, which was covered with hideous sword scars.
"—Can't I hit it?"
Time seemed to freeze for a fleeting moment.
The next moment—
"Pfft—"
A strange, muffled, and chilling explosion.
The largest and most arrogant head in the center of the nine-headed demon suddenly compressed and collapsed, as if something inside had been instantly emptied and crushed. Dark blue, hardened keratin, scarlet muscle, white brain matter, viscous demon blood—all the tissues mixed together indistinguishably, and then, "Bang!!!"
Like a ripe watermelon being smashed by a hammer, it explodes with a bang!
Red, white, blue, black—a viscous liquid mixed with broken bones and feathers poured down like a sudden downpour of blood onto the densely packed demon army below!
The stench was overwhelming! Thick, sticky liquid was poured down like a torrential rain onto the demon army below the city, causing chaos and commotion.
A deathly silence fell upon the city walls.
Only the biting mountain wind howled sharply, passing through that solitary, towering figure in black. The gale whipped his empty left sleeve straight back, the fabric taut and rustling, like a tattered flag that still struggled to unfurl against the wind, refusing to bow.
One palm strike shattered the head of the Great Demon King!
No sword clashes are needed, no dazzling light required. In the eyes of the crowd, this is the Lone Peak Sword of yesteryear! Even without a sword in hand, with a severed arm and empty sleeve, it remains deadly powerful!
A fierce wind howled from the distant mountain peaks.
Yang Yifang stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the astonishing scene on the city wall. His face, which had always been as calm as an ancient well, finally revealed an undisguised shock. In his eyes, which had seen countless vicissitudes and witnessed the rise of numerous geniuses, the pupils slightly contracted, a flash of brilliance quickly returning to a deep and complex expression.
He originally thought that the so-called number one swordsman in the Southern Territory, Lone Peak Sword, was at most a "good hand" among the younger generation who was once outstanding but has now fallen.
However, what he saw before him completely overturned his understanding.
Such strength————
Yang Yifang silently weighed the situation in his mind, then slowly, extremely slowly, shook his head, letting out a long sigh that blended into the howling mountain wind: "Such cultivation and combat power—looking at the world today, apart from the deceased Dongfang Guyue and Wang Quan Shouzhuo—"
"I'm afraid—no one in the Dao Alliance dares to claim they can easily overpower him, let alone defeat him."
He had underestimated this person too much before.
This is hardly a "former expert among the younger generation." This is clearly a towering giant who has long transcended the constraints of age and seniority, and is enough to be among the top five in the One Qi Alliance, and even has the potential to challenge for the top three!
However, it is precisely because of this that the scene before us appears all the more tragic and hopeless. "Alas—"
Another sigh escaped Yang Yifang's throat, heavier than the gale on the mountaintop and more profound than the distant demonic clouds. In that sigh, there was a mixture of too many indescribable emotions—the shock of glimpsing unparalleled martial prowess, the regret of a pearl being shrouded in dust and a dragon trapped in shallow waters, and even more so, a deep sense of powerlessness and desolation, knowing the ending yet being unable to change it.
The world is ever-changing, and fate is unpredictable; many exceptionally talented individuals ultimately cannot escape their destiny.
"What a pity." He finally uttered only these three words, each word carrying immense weight, crashing onto the cold rocks beneath his feet.
"He—he's so amazing," Yang Yan's voice rang out from beside her, trembling slightly, whether from shock or something else, "Can—can he hold this city alive?"
Mu Mie also clung tightly to his mother's clothes, tilting his little face up, his eyes filled with a complex light that mixed with admiration and fear, also waiting for an answer.
Yang Yifang slowly turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the expectant and uneasy faces of his daughter and grandson, before finally returning to the lonely city heavily sealed off by demonic clouds and killing formations, and to the still upright figure on the city wall.
He shook his head slowly, but with an undeniable determination.
"Absolutely impossible."
Four words, cold as iron, severing all unrealistic fantasies.
"No matter how strong he is, he is still just a person." Yang Yifang's voice was deep and clear, as if stating an eternal truth. "His flesh and blood body and spiritual power have an end. Facing an army of 100,000 demons, more than 30 demon kings forming an array to block him, and four beings who hate him to the bone and whose strength is all at the level of great demon kings joining forces to kill him—this is a battle situation that cannot be reversed by individual bravery."
He paused, his gaze seemingly piercing through space, seeing the desperate disparity in troop strength and the deadly trap.
"unless----
"
A faint, almost distant look of reminiscence flashed in his eyes.
"Unless he truly reaches the level of Dongfang Guyue and Wang Quan Shouzhuo. At that level, one person can be an army, and one force can protect a country."
His gaze fell back on Zhou Yi, and he slowly shook his head: "He hasn't reached that point yet. Perhaps he was once infinitely close, but now—" He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear: the loss of his arm, the torment of his inner demons, and years of decadence and depression had long since turned the possibility of reaching the top into nothingness.
He raised his hand, pointing to the distant battlefield teeming with murderous intent, his voice carrying a solemnity akin to witnessing the end of history: "Look."
"Victory or defeat, life or death, will be decided in an instant."
"You'll find out soon enough."
"ah!!!"
A piercing, malevolent scream erupted simultaneously from the remaining seven bird heads, the sound waves mixed with violent demonic power, causing ripples to spread through the surrounding air!
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!!! Lone Peak Sword, you deserve to die a thousand times!!!"
The nine-headed demon—perhaps now more accurately described as a seven-headed demon—had its largest head destroyed, and the intense pain and rage nearly consumed its reason. The remaining seven heads erupted in fury, their beaks gaping wide, unleashing crimson flames, dark green poisonous miasma, pale frost, and foul acid.
The bone-chilling winds—seven terrifying breaths of vastly different yet equally deadly nature, like seven torrents bursting their banks, surged, intertwined, and covered Zhou Yi's location without any order of precedence! The demonic light illuminated half of the gloomy sky, and wherever it passed, even the rocks on the city wall's battlements were instantly corroded, frozen, or cracked with spiderweb-like fissures!
At the same time, its massive demonic body suddenly contracted inward, its demonic light flashing violently. Its original mountain-like form shrank rapidly, transforming back into its bird-headed, human-bodied form in the blink of an eye. However, at this moment, next to the sword scar near its right eye, above its neck, was a huge, bloody wound, originally oozing thick demonic blood. The muscles at the severed neck twitched, making it look even more ferocious and terrifying than before.
Not just that!
After their initial shock, the other three great demon kings also made the wisest decisions immediately.
The Poison Frog King's bloated body deflated with a "poof," shrinking back to the appearance of an old man with indigo skin, wearing a magnificent poison robe, except that he now held a ghastly green staff made from his spine.
The water spider queen retracted her eight legs, and with a flash of silver light, she transformed into a woman dressed in a silver gauze robe, with a bewitching face but cold eyes. Between her ten fingers, invisible spider silk was already taut, gleaming with a deadly cold light.
The flying centipede wriggled its hundred legs, and the black and yellow demonic wind subsided, transforming into a tall general clad in heavy armor, his face hidden beneath a ferocious helmet, holding a strangely shaped spear with a forked tip, resembling the venomous jaws of a centipede.
While its original form is formidable, its massive size makes it an easy target for an opponent like Zhou Yi, whose speed and explosive power are terrifying. In human form, it's more advantageous to unleash sophisticated demonic arts and coordinate attacks!
"Lone Peak Sword!" The Poison Frog King's voice was hoarse, filled with deep-seated hatred. "Today is different! You have lost your sword spirit, and with only one arm and a crippled body, you still dare to be so arrogant! We will join forces and surely annihilate you here, body and soul!"
"Why waste words with him!" The Water Spider Queen's voice was as cold as ice. "Form the array! Seal off all his escape routes! If we don't extract his soul and refine his spirit today, we won't be able to quell the hatred in our hearts!"
"Attack—!!!"
The Flying Centipede let out a deep, thunderous roar, like the clash of metal, and thrust out its strangely shaped spear! The spear tip trembled, conjuring up hundreds of phantoms like the hundred legs of a centipede, carrying a piercing sound and a sweet, pungent stench of poison, aiming straight for Zhou Yi's vital acupoints!
With the roars of the three demon kings, the true intentions of this siege targeting one person were finally revealed!
"Form the Myriad Demons Locking the Sky Array!"
"Seal off the heavens and the earth, don't let this scoundrel escape!"
Behind them, the thirty-odd demon kings who had been poised to attack responded in unison! They no longer stood by and watched, but instead activated their demonic power, and various colors of demonic light shot into the sky, rapidly traversing and connecting along some mysterious trajectory!
In an instant, the sky and ground within a radius of several miles centered on the city wall seemed to be shrouded by an invisible and enormous net! Demonic energy crisscrossed and condensed into dark patterns visible to the naked eye, sealing and reinforcing the space layer by layer! Light became distorted and dimmed within it, and even the sound of the wind seemed to be blocked, leaving only the heavy, tangible pressure of demonic power squeezing in from all directions, making it suffocating.
Ambush from all sides, a net stretching to the heavens and the earth!
The sounds of wind, demonic howls, and the buzzing of energy—all became distorted and blurred within this ever-tightening net of death, leaving only a terrifying sense of oppression that sent shivers down one's spine, stemming from sheer numbers and murderous intent, pressing in from all directions, from above and below, relentlessly.
All of this was for the purpose of surrounding and killing that solitary figure in black standing atop the city wall, his left sleeve empty.
This scene, seen by Yang Yifang atop a distant mountain, unexpectedly stirred up memories buried deep within him, memories of records from ancient Daoist scriptures.
In a daze, the scene of the lone figure in black robes guarding the isolated city seemed to overlap with a scene from a thousand years ago described on the yellowed pages of a book, transcending time and space.
"At the beginning of the Tianyuan era, the Demon-Controlling Kingdom collapsed, and countless demons turned on it, besieging the capital. At that time, there was a man named Shi Kuan, who was originally a general protecting the country. Grateful for past favors, he could not bear to see the royal family perish. So he stood alone outside the ruined gates of the country, resisting the demon tide for seven days and seven nights."
"At that time, demonic energy blotted out the sun, and roars ripped through the sky. Shi Kuan remained silent, only slowly clenching his iron fists, capable of shattering mountains. Even before his fists were drawn, his chilling battle intent was already tangible, forcing the scales of the demons in front to tremble. From dawn on the first day to dusk on the seventh, he never retreated a single step, nor did he carry a single weapon. With each rise and fall of his fists, wind and thunder accompanied him, and demonic energy exploded. Wherever his fist force reached, flesh and blood turned to ash, and bones turned to powder; wherever his fist intent penetrated, even the bodies of thousand-year-old demons shattered like glass struck by a heavy hammer. Beneath the city walls, not only did blood flow like rivers, but fragments of demon cores were also mixed in with the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, glowing faintly, reflecting a scene of hellish purgatory."
"On the seventh day of fierce battle, he roared to the heavens, his voice shaking the nine heavens. He was no longer the demon general Shi Kuan, but a phoenix reborn from the ashes of endless destruction and unwavering devotion to protection, breaking free of the shackles of his bloodline and stepping into the legendary realm—becoming the Demon Emperor! Under his overwhelming power, the demons were utterly annihilated, their souls shattered, and they retreated hundreds of miles. The demons of the Northern Kingdom revered him as the Destruction Heavenly Lord!"
How similar this situation is!
However, this thought only lingered in Yang Yifang's mind for a brief moment.
Immediately, he shook his head inwardly with a self-deprecating smile, completely dispelling this absurd association.
What merit or ability does Lone Peak Sword possess to be compared to the Destruction Heavenly Lord Shi Kuan?
Who is Shi Kuan? He is the Great Demon Emperor of a nation. In the past tens of millions of years, there have only been three such figures in the entire world.
Seven thousand. Burned out.
I've cleared my debts from yesterday. I still have a surplus of three thousand today.
Updates will continue this afternoon.
Finally, I'm asking for your monthly tickets and rewards!