Everyone's Astonishment!

"Hahahaha, you lot really have no shame at all!"

Li Xiaotian listened to the furious shouts rising from every corner of Cloud City and burst into laughter.

But in the next moment, the smile on his face vanished, replaced by a trace of icy gloom.

He swept his gaze around, looking at the figures shrouded in black robes, his eyes brimming with cold killing intent.

"Back then, this old man slaughtered more Demons than I could count on the Alien Demon Battlefield. You lackeys of the Demons dare run wild in Cloud City!"

"Do you really think us old fellows can no longer lift our blades?"

"Those who throw Cloud City into chaos... die!!"

Li Xiaotian's icy voice rang out. He took one step forward, and surging blood energy erupted in an instant.

The scarlet blood energy swept forth with an incomparably terrifying wave of air.

"Kid, while your courage is admirable, you are still too young. Leave these scum to us old fellows. You... should go home!"

Li Xiaotian spoke calmly with his back to Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng looked at Li Xiaotian's back. He was clearly a hunched old man, yet at that moment, he seemed incomparably tall in Lu Sheng's eyes.

"Senior..."

Lu Sheng murmured, seeming to want to say something.

But Li Xiaotian evidently had no intention of continuing the conversation. He stepped forward and instantly became an afterimage, charging toward the nearest Demonic Cult member.

"Old buddies, can you still lift your blades!!"

Li Xiaotian cut down a Demonic Cult member with one slash and laughed loudly.

His voice was impassioned and stirring. Empowered by blood energy, it instantly spread through every street and alley of Cloud City.

"Hahaha, old bastard! I was your superior back then, who the hell are you barking at!!"

"Damn it, when I was serving in the army, you were still digging mud at the Martial Arts Academy!"

"Forget whether I can still lift a blade. Even if I entered the Alien Demon Battlefield now, this old man could still cut down Demons with a single stroke, hahaha!!!"

At once, voices answered from every corner of Cloud City.

Faced with those half-joking, half-boastful words, the smile on Li Xiaotian's face grew even broader.

"To hell with your superior nonsense! We're both in the Viscera Refining Realm, and we've both retired. You still want to pull that Military act? Sorry, this old man isn't buying it anymore!"

Li Xiaotian roared toward one direction, then stepped forward again, arriving beside a Demonic Cult member as the battle blade in his hand came crashing down.

Pshht!

The blade sank into flesh, and blood splattered.

"Today, let's see who kills more of these Demonic Cult brats!!"

"Good!"

"Excellent!!"

One vigorous, excited voice after another rang out.

Soon afterward, terrifying auras could be seen soaring into the sky from every street in Cloud City.

Wherever those auras rose, the surrounding Demonic Cult members instantly scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in all directions.

They could slaughter ordinary civilians without mercy, but when facing these people from Martial Arts Families...

Their roles had been reversed.

Lu Sheng watched the scenes before him and listened to the voices ringing out, a trace of confusion surfacing in his eyes.

Martial Arts Families...

What exactly were they?

Since Lu Sheng had crossed over into this world, the only Martial Arts Family he had come into contact with was the Bai Family.

When Bai Mo had sent people to assassinate Lu Sheng, Lu Sheng had once believed that these Martial Arts Families were the parasites of Great Xia. They enjoyed so many benefits and resources from Great Xia, yet did not do a single practical thing.

They had even...

Assassinated martial artists.

From that moment onward, Martial Arts Families had left a fixed impression in Lu Sheng's mind.

But now...

As he watched these members of Martial Arts Families step forward without hesitation when Cloud City faced calamity.

Whether they were in the Viscera Refining Realm, Hundred Meridians Realm, or Blood Refining Realm.

Some Demonic Cult members were clearly stronger than them, yet they did not retreat in the slightest and continued battling those Demonic Cult members.

What they fought for...

Were the ordinary people behind them.

This scene violently struck at Lu Sheng's fixed impression of Martial Arts Families.

The impression left behind by the Bai Family had already cracked open with fissures, gradually beginning to change.

Lu Sheng stared blankly at everything before him.

Until...

"Big brother..."

Behind Lu Sheng, the little girl held his hand. Her eyes were no longer wet with tears; instead, they were filled with a sense of safety.

"Big brother, are you still taking me to find Mommy?"

The little girl looked at Lu Sheng with innocent eyes.

Lu Sheng came back to his senses. Looking at the little girl, he suddenly smiled.

He reached out and rubbed her hair, saying with a smile, "Come on, big brother will take you to find your mommy!"

Lu Sheng took the little girl's hand and slowly walked in one direction.

In that direction...

Demonic Cult members' corpses lay scattered chaotically across the ground. Figures clashed madly with the Demonic Cult members, forcibly clearing this road...

Into a stretch of brightness!

"No! That's impossible!!!"

In midair, Wang Lin, trapped by Kong Yunzhang, looked down upon Cloud City, and his expression gradually became crazed.

As he watched Demonic Cult members die one after another at the hands of Martial Arts Families, an incomparably intense unwillingness surfaced in his eyes.

"Why!! These Martial Arts Families have clearly enjoyed peaceful lives for so long. Why are they still taking action!!!"

"No! It shouldn't be like this!"

"They should have fled, or shut their doors and refused to come out!!!"

A trace of confusion also surfaced in Wang Lin's crazed eyes.

The Bai Family could assassinate a genius of Great Xia over the whim of one of their own members. In Wang Lin's eyes, these Martial Arts Families should clearly have been selfish.

They should have been like the Bai Family.

But why...

When they clearly knew that resisting the Demonic Cult members would leave even their Martial Arts Families gravely weakened, perhaps even erased from the ranks of Martial Arts Families.

Why did they still choose to act without the slightest hesitation?

This...

Why exactly was this!!!

Wang Lin was utterly unable to understand.

"No!! So what if the Martial Arts Families have acted!! Kong Yunzhang has already wasted so much time. Even if he acts now, he cannot stop the Gate of Reception! Once the Gate of Reception completely opens the passage and the Demon King descends, all of Cloud City will still become a living hell!!"

"I haven't lost yet!! I still have hope!!"

As though suddenly thinking of something, Wang Lin abruptly looked toward the heavens. He stared at the crack where black energy was growing increasingly dense and its pressure increasingly powerful, and the madness in his eyes became even more intense.

"Hahahahaha!! In the end... I will still be the one who wins!!"

Wang Lin laughed wildly.

Outside Cloud City, Chen Shanhe and Yun Tianyang led the Military and Martial Alliance forces against the Fierce Beasts beyond the city.

Terrifying attacks erupted endlessly between heaven and earth, carrying incomparably fearsome power.

With every attack that fell, an unknown number of Fierce Beasts exploded and died completely.

Yet even so...

The tide of Fierce Beasts remained endless, as though there was no end in sight.

"Old Chen, the beast tide is secondary. The most important thing is still that Gate of Reception!!"

Yun Tianyang gripped a rusted battle blade and cleaved a Viscera Refining Realm Fierce Beast in two with one stroke, speaking with a grim expression.

A trace of exhaustion had already appeared on Chen Shanhe's cold face. Even as a Bone Forging Realm martial artist, after continuously killing so many Fierce Beasts, he was beginning to feel drained.

He raised his head and looked at the crack in the heavens, worry surfacing in his eyes.

"The Gate of Reception..."

Chen Shanhe murmured, a trace of unwillingness in his eyes.

Both Yun Tianyang and Chen Shanhe understood clearly that this crisis in Cloud City was neither a Demonic Cult disturbance nor a beast tide. The greatest danger was that dimensional rift appearing upon the Sky Curtain!

Once the rift was opened, it would become a brand-new Alien Demon Battlefield. Even if reinforcements from the provincial capital arrived, they would still be unable to salvage the situation.

All of Cloud City... would become a true living hell.

"Damn it, Demon Slaying City has undergone changes, forcing Guardian Kong to leave. Otherwise, with Guardian Kong here, how could this not-yet-opened dimensional rift possibly threaten us!!"

Chen Shanhe unwillingly swept out the long spear in his hand. Its powerful force instantly took the lives of several Fierce Beasts.

Though he was Cloud City's guardian, forget stopping the Gate of Reception—he could not even approach it.

The Bone Forging Realm might be at the pinnacle in Cloud City, but it still could not allow one to soar through the sky!!

Yun Tianyang's expression was equally grim.

"Forget it. Even if those Demons descend, before I die, I will not let them take even half a step into Cloud City so easily!!"

A flash of madness suddenly appeared on Yun Tianyang's face.

"Wait, who is that?"

Just as Yun Tianyang was about to erupt, Chen Shanhe suddenly cried out in alarm.

Yun Tianyang looked doubtfully toward where Chen Shanhe was pointing, then his pupils contracted slightly.

Upon the Sky Curtain, an aged figure stood with both hands clasped behind his back, stepping through the void as he walked one step at a time toward the rift.

"This figure... why does he look a little like the Dojo Master of Heaven and Earth Dojo?"

Yun Tianyang spoke hesitantly.

"The Dojo Master of Heaven and Earth Dojo? Isn't he just an old soldier retired from the battlefield? How can he soar through the sky???"

Chen Shanhe's voice was filled with intense confusion.

Naturally, they knew of Heaven and Earth Dojo. After all, it had produced a major figure like Kong Xin.

However, they had also seen the identity information registered in the Martial Alliance for that Dojo Master of Heaven and Earth Dojo.

He was merely an ordinary old soldier who had retired from the battlefield.

His cultivation was only at the Hundred Meridians Realm.

Although he had taught students like Kong Xin and Lan Linglong, Chen Shanhe and Yun Tianyang had merely believed that Kong Xin and Lan Linglong possessed heaven-defying talent themselves, and that this Dojo Master perhaps had some ability in teaching students.

As for the Dojo Master's own strength...

They had not paid much attention to it.

Heaven and Earth Dojo held a mysterious, even transcendent status in Cloud City, but most of that came from Kong Xin.

After all, Kong Xin had emerged from Heaven and Earth Dojo.

As for this Dojo Master, although he rarely showed himself and gave many martial artists in Cloud City—even Martial Arts Families—the feeling that he was a hidden master beyond the mortal world.

Yun Tianyang and Chen Shanhe had long since investigated him thoroughly through his Martial Alliance registration information.

Thus, when Kong Xin had left, despair had filled both their hearts.

But now...

This Dojo Master, whom they had regarded as merely an ordinary retired soldier, was stepping through the void at this very moment!

One had to know that for a martial artist to soar through the sky, one needed cultivation at least above the Bone Forging Realm.

This was also why Chen Shanhe and Yun Tianyang, the two leading figures of Cloud City, had been powerless before the rift upon the Sky Curtain.

They still could not soar through the sky!

"Th-this... what exactly is going on!!"

Yun Tianyang stared dumbfoundedly at Kong Yunzhang upon the Sky Curtain, his mind utterly blank.

It was like an entirely ordinary neighbor suddenly becoming a multimillionaire one day.

The shock in his heart was beyond measure.

"I... I don't know either."

Chen Shanhe also stared blankly at everything before him.

Not only outside the city, but within Cloud City, many people also saw Kong Yunzhang's figure stepping through the void.

"Th-that isn't the Dojo Master of Heaven and Earth Dojo, is it?"

"Huh? That elusive Dojo Master of Heaven and Earth Dojo? Why is he in the sky? Holy shit, he can soar through the sky???"

"Gasp! This old man knew from the start that the Dojo Master of Heaven and Earth Dojo was no simple man. Looks like this old man's eye for talent has not dulled!"

"Bullshit! Just yesterday, you were criticizing Heaven and Earth Dojo for giving martial arts techniques away for free."

For a time, after dealing with the Demonic Cult members, many martial artists in Cloud City looked toward the Sky Curtain and could not help speaking up.

"Teacher..."

Lu Sheng had just delivered the little girl into her family's hands. When he raised his head, he saw Kong Yunzhang in the heavens.

A trace of shock also appeared in Lu Sheng's eyes.

He knew his teacher was not simple, but Lu Sheng had never expected this teacher of his in name to be so powerful.

On another street in Cloud City, Lan Linglong's hands were covered in blood. Hearing the discussions drifting over from afar, she also raised her head.

But unlike the others, as Lan Linglong watched Kong Yunzhang in the heavens, a trace of worry appeared on her face.

"Teacher's body..."

High above the heavens, Kong Yunzhang stood with his hands clasped behind his back, stepping through the void one step at a time as he slowly approached the rift.

He appeared to move slowly, yet with every step, several hundred meters vanished in an instant.

As Kong Yunzhang strode forward step by step, streaks of Sword Qi gradually emerged around him.

The razor-sharp Sword Qi even began to twist the surrounding space.

A moment later, Kong Yunzhang arrived before the rift. Watching the pitch-black energy churn ceaselessly before him, its evil aura seeping bit by bit from the crack, a trace of disgust surfaced in his eyes.

Kong Yunzhang slowly raised an arm, his finger pointing at the black rift.

"Within Great Xia's territory... there is no room for you Demons to run wild!!"