Human City-States

No one knew that, a thousand years ago, the laws of heaven and earth had faded away, spiritual veins had collapsed, and the gods and Buddhas filling the Eastern skies had vanished without a trace. The deities and devils of the West had likewise become formless and unseen. That time came to be known as the Era of Dharma Decline.

Less than a century ago, the world suddenly underwent tremendous change.

The laws of heaven and earth condensed anew, and spiritual energy gradually overflowed and spread from unknown places. The land and oceans slowly grew deeper and broader, while mountains and hills became ever more profound and towering. The cultivation worlds of East and West began to stir restlessly. Hidden great clans such as the Yin Clan openly established their own city-states, raising Blood Slaves, stockpiling strength, and plotting great undertakings.

Yet the return of spiritual energy was an unmitigated disaster for ordinary humans.

Cultivators of old and all manner of demons and monsters returned to the human world one after another; that aside, the greatest impact on ordinary humans came instead from the beasts, venomous insects, and the like that had once existed. The moment these beasts, birds, crawling creatures, and tiny insects came into even slight contact with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they underwent earth-shaking transformations!

Ordinary beasts reverted to their ancestral forms and became Demonic Beasts; birds returned to ancient forms and became demonic fowl; all kinds of bizarre venomous insects emerged in endless streams. Within only a few years, ordinary humans suffered calamity. Vast numbers were devoured by the Demonic Beasts and demonic fowl that steadily multiplied and grew stronger, becoming food in the bellies of wild beasts.

Thus, while the Yin Family established its city-state, extraordinary figures also emerged among ordinary humans. They gathered countless people and, relying on human strength, likewise built enormous city-states. Using all kinds of powerful weapons made by humans, they gathered together for self-defense. Even Blood Demon lineages like the Yin Clan found some of the larger city-states exceedingly troublesome.

The region where the Yin Clan City-State now stood had belonged to Germany on the European continent several decades ago. The Great Berlin City-State was now one of the few super-sized human city-state clusters. The Great Berlin City-State gathered hundreds of millions of people and occupied a vast territory. Hidden dragons and crouching tigers filled its borders, and demon hunters of every kind emerged in endless succession. Even ordinary Yin Clan powerhouses did not dare approach it lightly.

Silently recalling the information on the Great Berlin City-State, Yin Xuege's face grew increasingly pale!

He thought of that Light God Cult believer whom Yin Clan Warriors had killed before his eyes over a month ago. That ragged old man with callused hands had possessed no power at all! But the Light God Cult was one of the leaders resisting the dark forces represented by the Yin Clan within the human city-states. Among the Light God Cult's followers were no lack of powerhouses capable of standing against Yin Clan Elders.

Most of the truly mighty Light God Cult experts were stationed within city-states, guarding their respective territories. Just as Yin Clan Warriors called Light God Cult followers heretics, those Light God Cult followers also regarded members of the Blood Demon lineages led by the Yin Clan as heretics. Once they captured a member of a Blood Demon lineage, they would gladly expose them to the noon sun and roast them into a cloud of ashes.

With Yin Xuege's strength, if he wandered anywhere near the Great Berlin City-State and was discovered by those Light God Cult experts, not even a whole corpse would remain.

"Reconnaissance of the Great Berlin City-State?" Clenching the mission slip in his hand, Yin Xuege gritted his teeth and stared coldly at the External Affairs Hall steward before him.

The External Affairs Hall steward looked at Yin Xuege with a half-smile, then deliberately sighed in surprise. "This mission is the hardest of all the missions this time. How did Young Master Xuege happen to draw it?"

Shaking his head, the External Affairs Hall steward swept his gaze over the children watching the spectacle. "Or perhaps Young Master Xuege would like to exchange with one of them?"

The children scattered with a roar, all fleeing from Yin Xuege as fast as they could!

Exchange missions with Yin Xuege? Whoever did that would be an idiot! The missions they had drawn were merely to observe how Blood Slaves were captured, how Demonic Beasts were hunted, or simply to patrol within a hundred miles of the Yin Clan City-State. Yin Xuege's scouting mission required him to infiltrate the Great Berlin City-State and collect intelligence from recent months from the Yin Clan spy planted there before it could be considered complete!

For a mission with nine chances of death and one of survival—or, to these children, ten deaths and no life—what idiot would exchange with Yin Xuege?

Seeing the children scatter, the steward held up an empty basket and spread his hands helplessly with a smile. "Young Master Xuege, then there is nothing to be done. The External Affairs Hall's rules are right here. Since you drew this slip, you must carry out the mission! There is no room for negotiation!"

Standing on the steps of the External Affairs Hall, Yin Jiyan cast Yin Xuege a cold glance. It was as though he had only just recognized Yin Xuege, and he let out a few unhurried laughs.

"Xuege, I heard the Internal Affairs Hall has given you quite a few rewards these past few days? What ordinary child receives treatment as good as yours? Since you have received benefits from the Lineage, you must serve the Lineage! If everyone shrank back at the sight of difficulty, would our Yin Clan still have any room to develop?"

Flicking his sleeve, Yin Jiyan said indifferently, "Go to the Merit Hall, use your Merit Points to exchange for some useful things, and set off early! Your mission may indeed not be easy, but if you insist on calling it difficult, it is not that difficult either. You merely need to infiltrate the Great Berlin City-State, find our Yin Clan's informant, and retrieve the intelligence from these past days. Could it truly be so difficult?"

Yin Xuege glanced at Yin Jiyan's retreating back, then let out a heavy breath.

The wood was already in the boat; there was no way around it! The Yin Clan's rules were there for all to see. If a child shrank from a mission meant to build experience and knowledge, the consequences would be severe. At best, they would suffer cruel punishment; at worst, they would be demoted to a penal camp and used as cannon fodder charging into battle. Neither was something Yin Xuege wished to endure.

Two Yin Clan Warriors in pale red armor slowly walked over to Yin Xuege. They clasped their fists and saluted him together.

"Young Master Xuege, we are Yin 9937 and Yin 9938. We have been assigned to protect you as you complete this training mission!"

One of the warriors said solemnly, "Please make your preparations quickly, Young Master. We must depart before dawn. Otherwise, once day breaks, we will lose another day's time, and delaying your training will also be detrimental to your final assessment."

Looking at the two low-ranking Lineage warriors assigned as his guards, Yin Xuege smiled helplessly.

"Please wait a moment, both of you. I will go to the Merit Hall to exchange for some useful items, then we can depart!"

After a pause, Yin Xuege asked, "All the equipment required for this scouting mission has been prepared?"

Either Yin 9937 or Yin 9938 smiled. "Please rest assured, Young Master. All equipment has been prepared!"

Yin Xuege nodded. He looked up at the sky, then strode toward the Merit Hall. The Internal Affairs Hall had just granted him five hundred Merit Points. Those points could not be exchanged for anything truly valuable, so he simply traded them for ten bottles of Essence Blood Potion refined from Hundred-Medicine Essence to carry with him. Then he changed into a set of ordinary human clothes, concealed his Soft Sword on his body, and set off.

Moonlight spilled over Yin Xuege's thin, short frame. With the two Lineage warriors following him on either side, he boarded a Flying Magic Chariot that sped across the land toward the Great Berlin City-State.

At the gates of the Yin Clan City-State, Yin Jiwu stood with his hands behind his back inside the pyramid to the left of the gate, watching Yin Xuege's Magic Chariot from afar through a doorway. After a very long time, Yin Jiwu suddenly smiled and clapped his hands in approval.

"Xuejiao has improved a little after all. He understands that using brute force against this bastard is truly not worthwhile. My son Xuejiao is peerless jade, while that bastard is merely a clod of earth in the ground. If Xuejiao used the quality of fine jade to collide head-on with a clod of dirt, would that not demean his own worth?"

"This is good as well. Let that bastard die at the hands of those cult followers. This is good as well."

"Help Xuejiao erase all traces. This will simply be an entirely ordinary Lineage mission."

From a patch of shadow behind Yin Jiwu, a low, hoarse voice gave an indistinct acknowledgment. Then a breeze passed through, and that patch of shadow vanished with the wind without a trace. Ur, the burly red-haired man standing beside Yin Jiwu, shuddered violently and lowered his voice as he carefully asked,

"Master means we should silence all those stewards from the Internal Affairs Hall and External Affairs Hall?"

Yin Jiwu smiled freely and waved his hand unconcernedly.

"It does not count as silencing them. My son Xuejiao suffered greatly this time. We can select a few clan members who have committed offenses, extract their Essence Blood, and let Xuejiao consume and refine it bit by bit. In a little over a month, it should allow Xuejiao to grow as close as possible to the strength of a Moon Warrior. During this Lineage martial tournament, he can no longer afford to lose!"

The Flying Magic Chariot, forged entirely from metal, was immensely spacious. More than ten meters long and several meters wide, it could hold nearly a hundred people, but it was empty at the moment, carrying only Yin Xuege and his two warrior guards.

The Magic Chariot sped through the air a few feet above the ground. Feeling stifled, Yin Xuege pressed hard against the inner wall beside him. A metal window panel two feet long and wide slid soundlessly aside, revealing a transparent crystal-shielded window.

Outside lay a stretch of majestic mountains, with dense forest covering their slopes. The Magic Chariot was flying through a deep valley between two mountains. Countless vines clung thickly to the cliffs on both sides, and several hundred massive trees, each requiring several people to encircle, stubbornly grew from the cliff faces.

The distant mountains were likewise covered in towering trees, some at the peaks standing two or three hundred meters tall. Through the Magic Chariot's formations, they could hear deep, piercing beast roars coming from the far-off forest. As Yin Xuege looked out the window, a crimson three-headed demonic bird suddenly rose into the sky from a forest more than a hundred miles away, riding a vicious wind straight upward.

Even from over a hundred miles away, the demonic bird still appeared larger than Yin Xuege's Magic Chariot by a full size. The ferocious creature screeched as it soared skyward, trailing one ram's-horn whirlwind after another in its wake. Such savage momentum sent waves of chill through Yin Xuege's entire body.

Yin Xuege could not imagine just how much power such a formidable demonic bird possessed.

"That is a Three-Headed Hell Dragonhawk, a war bird raised by the Yin Clan!" The Yin Clan Warrior seated beside Yin Xuege explained its origins in an incomparably envious tone. "Only direct descendants of the Yin Clan who have broken through the three ranks of Star Warrior, Moon Warrior, and Night Warrior, attaining the strength required for an official Blood Demon title, are qualified to command Three-Headed Hell Dragonhawks in battle!"

Yin Xuege fell silent. Below one hundred drops of Blood Demon Essence Blood, one was only a Star Warrior. Below one thousand drops, a Moon Warrior. Below ten thousand drops, a Night Warrior. A Night Warrior's absolute combat strength was at least ten times that of a Star Warrior. Only after possessing ten thousand drops of Essence Blood and transforming all the blood in one's body into Blood Demon Essence Blood could one obtain the most basic title of "Baron"!

Such a fierce and powerful demonic bird could only be commanded by someone with at least the qualifications of a Baron!

Yin Xuege could not help but yearn for it. If he possessed a Baron's strength, perhaps he could leave this Yin Clan where malice lay everywhere, leave those "relatives" filled with hostility toward him, and possess a patch of sky of his own? Perhaps he could carve out a new life!

Unconsciously touching the jade cicada hanging at his chest, Yin Xuege suddenly found himself filled with longing for his future.

The Magic Chariot sped between the mountains. When the moon reached the center of the sky, it finally left the mountain range and arrived at a vast plain. This was the first time in Yin Xuege's life that he had left the mountains where the Yin Clan City-State stood, the first time he had seen the world beyond them. Caught off guard by the sight of this boundless plain, he could not help taking a deep breath.

Tall grass, as high as an ordinary person's neck, covered the fertile black earth. The night wind swept over it, and the endless grass rose and fell like water, rustling with a "whoosh, whoosh." As Yin Xuege leaned against the window and gazed outside, he saw several hundred Demonic Beasts shaped like vicious wolves, with single horns on their heads and black clouds beneath their feet, racing through the grass with the gale and vanishing into the distance in a streak.

Runes flickered over the exterior of the Yin Clan's Flying Magic Chariot. The dozen or so Night Netherblood Leopards drawing it let out low beast roars, intimidating the surrounding wild beasts and Demonic Beasts and forcing them to flee far away, not daring to come within half a step.

Unlike ordinary wild Demonic Beasts, the Night Netherblood Leopards raised by the Yin Clan had been refined using Blood Demon secret techniques. They existed halfway between life and death, their bodies radiating baleful energy that reached the heavens. Compared with ordinary Demonic Beasts, they possessed an extra measure of savagery and ferocity. Thus, whenever Night Netherblood Leopards appeared, ordinary Demonic Beasts fled at the mere sight of them, just like that pack of One-Horned Demonic Wolves.

With this group of Night Netherblood Leopards leading the way, the Flying Magic Chariot crossed several hundred miles of grassland smoothly, then passed over two great rivers. Ahead, a blaze of lights suddenly appeared. Countless thick beams swept over the surroundings, and under their illumination, boundless fields could be seen ahead, where crops of every kind swayed in the wind.

The Flying Magic Chariot stopped there, hiding within a dense forest. The Yin Clan Blood Curse Master driving the Magic Chariot opened the partition panel inside and gestured expressionlessly at Yin Xuege and the two Yin Clan Warriors.

Already dressed in ordinary human clothes, Yin Xuege and the two Yin Clan Warriors bowed to the Blood Curse Master, then quickly opened the door and stepped out. The Blood Curse Master glanced at Yin Xuege's back and snorted unhurriedly. "Three days from now, at this time and in this place, we will come to meet you. Young Master Xuege, take care on the journey!"

Yin Xuege's steps slowed. He turned to look at the Blood Curse Master, then said nothing as he swiftly left the forest and headed forward along a small path between the fields. The two Yin Clan Warriors followed close behind, separating to Yin Xuege's left and right with dozens of meters between them. From time to time, they passed him to scout ahead.

The Flying Magic Chariot rose soundlessly. The dozen or so Night Netherblood Leopards gave low roars, turned around, and swiftly pulled the Magic Chariot back along the road from which they had come.

The night was the world of the Blood Demon Clan.

Beneath the cover of darkness, Yin Xuege and the two Yin Clan Warriors felt entirely safe. They avoided the searchlights sweeping wildly about, avoided the buildings of small human settlements in the fields, and advanced as quickly as they could.

The night wind brushed their bodies. Their footsteps made no sound as they ran, skimming across the land like spirits of the night. Compared with ordinary humans, Yin Xuege and the others moved at least ten times faster. By the time a faint pale glow like a fish's belly appeared in the eastern sky, the three of them had reached the outskirts of a majestic city-state.

The Great Berlin City-State appeared before Yin Xuege just like that.

Like an ancient colossal beast, the Great Berlin City-State's metal walls stood upon the land. The hundred-meter-high walls blazed with light, embedded with countless enormous lamps that continually sent snow-bright beams sweeping in every direction.

A nocturnal beast was suddenly enveloped by a beam of light. A tremendous blast rang out from atop the wall, and a streak of red light shot downward. A violent explosion erupted where the beast had stood, leaving behind a huge crater several meters across. Wisps of pungent gunpowder smoke rapidly spread through the night wind. As for that unlucky beast, not even a hair remained.

It was Yin Xuege's first time seeing such a weapon. He stared in shock at the huge crater more than two hundred meters away, his ears ringing from the massive explosion, his mind nearly stunned senseless.

High-pitched shouts rose from atop the city wall. Two small Flying Cars, each capable of holding only two or three people, leapt down from the wall and flew rapidly toward the crater amid a faint humming sound.

Before Yin Xuege could take in the full sight of the Great Berlin City-State's outer wall, the two Yin Clan Warriors had already grabbed his shoulders and leapt at top speed into a foul-smelling ditch beside them. Treading through waist-deep sewage, the two warriors dragged Yin Xuege, who was submerged to the chest, forward with careful, tiptoeing steps.

Yin Xuege nearly vomited!

The five senses of the Blood Demon Clan were a hundred times sharper than those of ordinary humans. They could even smell a drop of fresh blood dozens of miles away. Soaking in the reeking sewage, Yin Xuege's nose twitched violently again and again, while his internal organs twisted in agony. Had he not forcibly controlled his body, he would have vomited long ago.

As though walking through hell, Yin Xuege did not know how the two warrior guards led him through a long sewer passage, how they avoided the various surveillance mechanisms and traps within, or how they ultimately infiltrated the Great Berlin City-State.

By the time he regained his senses, they had already climbed out through a sewer manhole.

This was a deep, pitch-black alley, with skyscrapers rising on both sides. The night wind swept several tattered sheets of paper past Yin Xuege's feet, while more than a dozen stray dogs ran past the alley entrance with their tails tucked between their legs.

From deep within the alley came the pleasant scent of fresh blood, along with the distant sound of a man's agonized cries and a woman's moans.

One Yin Clan Warrior laughed softly. "Young Master Xuege, welcome to the territory of humans! This is the Great Berlin City-State!"