High Martial Arts: I Travel Through Heaven and Earth Through Dreams

Chapter 331 The Demon Army Presses In

[Void Battlefield - Outside Demon-Suppressing City No. 743]

dark.

An endless darkness surged in from the horizon like a tide.

That was not a harbinger of a void storm, but a torrent of hundreds of thousands of demons.

Lin Hanzhou maintained his ferocious form as a ninth-tier Demon Emperor, hovering at the forefront of the army.

He did not employ any so-called military strategy, nor did he devise any tactics.

Faced with such absolute power, all schemes and tricks are a joke.

This is the simplest and most brutal flat push.

Behind him, hundreds of eighth-tier demon generals followed like stars surrounding the moon, and further behind them was a massive demon army like locusts swarming across the land.

This combined force created a surge of demonic energy that soared into the sky, even dispersing the turbulent currents in the void.

……

【Demon Suppression City No. 743 - North City Wall】

"That...that is..."

The person in charge of today's duty is a seventh-level cultivator named Zhang Dashan.

His eyes were wide open, his pupils contracted sharply, staring intently at the black line rapidly approaching in the distance.

At first, he thought it was a void storm.

But as the distance closed, the suffocating sense of oppression made the hairs on his body stand on end.

"A demon...a demon army?!"

Zhang Dashan's voice trembled, almost cracking.

He had guarded this city for five hundred years and had seen many demonic tides, but most of them were scattered soldiers numbering in the thousands or at most tens of thousands.

But what he saw before him completely overturned his understanding.

It was a vast, endless black ocean!

A quick glance reveals there are definitely hundreds of thousands of people!

However, what made him feel like his heart had stopped was yet to come.

"That is..."

Zhang Dashan trembled as he raised the "Sky-Gazing Mirror" in his hand and looked up at the sky above the army.

Hundreds of terrifying figures strode through the air, traversing the void with their bare bodies without relying on any magical artifacts.

The aura emanating from each figure was even stronger than that of their own city lord, who was at the second level of the eighth rank!

"Several hundred... eighth-tier demon generals?!"

Zhang Dashan's legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees on the cold city wall with a "thud," shattering the astronomical mirror in his hand.

But this is not the end of despair.

At the heart of those arrogant eighth-tier demons stood a figure shrouded in purple-gold demonic energy, resembling a god.

The figure merely glanced in this direction casually.

"Buzz—!"

Zhang Dashan felt his mind go blank, as if an invisible hand was gripping his heart tightly.

Ninth Rank... Demon Emperor!

As a veteran who has dealt with demons for many years, he is no stranger to this legendary aura.

"It's over...it's all over..."

After a brief moment of disorientation, the instinct for survival drove Zhang Dashan to scramble and crawl toward the alarm station.

He used all his strength to pull down the red lever.

"Ugh—!!!!!"

A piercing, ear-piercing red alarm, representing the highest level of crisis, instantly resounded throughout the entire Demon Town City No. 743.

This is a death alarm that is only sounded when facing a "city annihilation crisis"!

In an instant, the entire city was thrown into chaos.

Countless cultivators were jolted awake from their meditation, shops closed, and the streets were filled with panicked crowds.

The overwhelming, suffocating power emanating from the moment they approached cast a shadow of death over everyone's hearts.

……

[City Lord's Mansion - Council Hall]

"What's the panic! Calm down, all of you!"

A loud shout rang out in the hall.

City Lord Wu Tianxiong slammed his fist on the table in front of him, unleashing the pressure of his eighth-level, second-stage power, which temporarily suppressed the panicked stewards in the hall.

Wu Tianxiong's face was ashen. Although he could also sense the terrifying aura outside, he was, after all, the lord of a city and had to stabilize the situation.

"Activate the city's protective array immediately! Deploy all spirit stone reserves into the array's core!"

"Notify all commanders to take to the city walls and defend to the death!"

"Also, immediately request reinforcements from the Demon-Slaying Hall..."

Just as Wu Tianxiong was methodically issuing orders and preparing to head to the city wall to reassure the troops,

Suddenly, a cold glint appeared behind him without warning.

It was a black short sword coated with deadly poison, silent yet swift as lightning, aimed directly at Wu Tianxiong's vital point in the back of his heart!

The timing of this attack was extremely precise, precisely when Wu Tianxiong's mind was mostly focused on the demons outside, and when he had just unleashed his pressure, his old power gone and new power yet to arise.

"Pfft!"

The sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh was clearly audible.

That sword not only pierced through Wu Tianxiong's protective power of the world, but also directly penetrated his body. Furthermore, an extremely insidious power frantically eroded his flesh and soul along the wound.

"Ugh—!!"

Wu Tianxiong let out a scream, staggered forward, and spat out a mouthful of black blood.

He turned around with difficulty, looking incredulously at the man standing in the shadows, holding a blood-stained dagger.

That was actually his most trusted deputy, the deputy city lord who had worked with him for two hundred years—Zhao Kuan.

"You... Zhao Kuan?"

Wu Tianxiong's eyes were bloodshot, and his finger pointing at the other person was trembling.

"What are you doing?! The demon army is pressing in, and our lives are hanging by a thread, yet you dare to launch a sneak attack on this city lord?"

"Why?!"

He genuinely couldn't understand it.

Both of them are eighth-level cultivators. Although he is at the second level of the eighth level and Zhao Wuji is at the first level of the eighth level, they usually have some minor conflicts. But when it comes to matters of principle like this, shouldn't they unite against a common enemy?

However, Zhao Kuan showed no remorse when confronted with Wu Tianxiong's questioning.

Instead, he slowly raised his head, revealing a distorted, manic, and even morbidly gleeful smile.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Zhao Kuan laughed so hard he almost cried.

"What are you doing? Wu Tianxiong, are you getting senile?"

"Of course I'll kill you! Kill all you lackeys and scum of the Demon Extermination Hall!"

Wu Tianxiong, clutching his bleeding wound, roared in pain.

"Are you insane? If I die, the city's protective formation will be left unattended. Once the demons breach the city, you won't survive either! The demons are our common enemy!"

"A common enemy?"

Zhao Kuan looked as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world; the smile on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a ferocious expression.

"Those are your Demon-Slaying Hall's enemies! Not mine!!"

He took a sudden step forward, his short sword still dripping black blood, his voice mournful and ghostly.

"I owe nothing to the human race! Nor do I owe anything to the Demon Slayer Hall!"

"Three hundred years ago, I was cultivating peacefully in my hometown, and what happened? The Demon Slayer Hall issued a summons and forcibly dragged me to this godforsaken place!"

"What nonsense about fighting for the greater good of humanity? Screw your 'greater good'!"

Zhao Kuan became more and more agitated as he spoke, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging on his forehead.

"Do you remember that 'Void Amethyst' I brought back after risking my life? It was my spoils of war! An opportunity that should have been mine!"

"As a result, you embezzled it under the guise of 'confiscation,' and then handed it over to your backer at the Demon Extermination Hall headquarters!"

"You're using my hard-earned money to curry favor with those above, making me work like a dog for you here!"

"You deserve to die! Everyone in the Demon-Slaying Hall deserves to die!"

Zhao Kuan had kept these words to himself for hundreds of years.

That suppressed resentment, at this moment, took advantage of the demons' advance and completely erupted.