Ninth Camp.
Cooks' Camp.
Liao Zipeng and Second Lieutenant Lu were drinking with the others when a cook hurried into the tent and saluted them.
"How did it go?" Liao Zipeng asked, raising a brow.
"Reporting to you, Lieutenant, Ding Chen and the others held back the Demon Army!" the cook answered truthfully, disbelief still lingering on his face.
"They held them back?" Liao Zipeng was slightly stunned as well.
He had received word that there was a five-hundred-strong demon squad, led by a great demon.
Forget the great demon—those five hundred demons alone should have slaughtered Ding Chen's hundred men until not a scrap of armor remained. How had they held them back?
"Ding Chen is that capable?" Liao Zipeng frowned at the cook.
The cook's gaze flickered. "Reporting to you, sir, I was too far away to see clearly. I only saw the demons fleeing in defeat from afar. I don't know the exact casualties."
Liao Zipeng's face darkened. Sending Ding Chen's hundred men to Black Wind Valley had been a trap from the start. He knew they could not stop the Demon Army, and he did not care.
After all, even if the demons broke through Black Wind Valley, the Demon Slayer Soldiers of the vanguard would kill them before they could reach Ninth Camp.
Yet Ding Chen had actually held them back.
But there was a great demon among them.
How had Ding Chen, a Blood Moving Realm cultivator, done it?
"Keep scouting!"
With a wave of Liao Zipeng's hand, the cook bowed and withdrew.
Outside Black Wind Valley, within a forest.
Chen Xian dismounted, summoned the panel, and began improving the Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique.
After a hundred months of diligent tempering, your Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique has reached great accomplishment.
After five hundred months of day-and-night cultivation, your Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique has reached perfection. Experience: 12,791 points
He had spent a full 8,100 Experience Points before the Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique finally reached the perfected realm.
More than six hundred years of time. Even at a six-to-one ratio, he would have needed a hundred years of personal cultivation to reach such a realm.
This damned talent was far too outrageous!
As scenes flashed through his mind, Chen Xian sensed the changes in his Jade Sea and body, and bitterness filled his heart.
This was only the beginning of his cultivation. Wouldn't the later realms require even more Experience Points?
How many demons would he have to kill before he could attain immortality?
Chen Xian drew a light breath. Fortunately, there was nothing more plentiful in front of Demon-Slaying Pass than demons.
He would take it slowly. One day, sooner or later, he would become a martial arts powerhouse.
A glance showed that neither his realm nor his lifespan had changed.
Chen Xian continued improving the Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique. The technique realm remained at perfection.
But his cultivation realm began rising rapidly.
He consumed 2,000 Experience Points and reached Jade Sea Great Accomplishment.
Realm: Jade Sea Great Accomplishment Lifespan: 246 years Experience: 10,791 points
As he looked at the panel prompt, light and shadow flickered through his mind, while the years passed like a white colt flashing through a crack.
Accompanied by an angry roar, the Ox Demon Phantom appeared behind him once more. The five-meter-tall phantom had become far more solid, blackish-red in color and covered in gilded patterns.
It was much like when Chen Xian practiced the Ox Demon Body Refinement Technique.
Not only had his Jade Sea tripled in size, his Origin Qi had increased more than tenfold. It automatically surged from his body, rolling seven meters outward and snapping trees apart, shattering rocks.
"So strong!"
Chen Xian's face was full of shock. In his previous life, he had only seen such power in films and television dramas. How could he have dared believe that this world truly possessed such strength?
He clenched his fists, Origin Power surging through them.
"Twenty cauldrons!"
Chen Xian murmured. He was merely making a rough estimate of his own strength.
If he faced that great-demon-level bull demon again, he was confident he could blast it to death with a single punch.
Chen Xian then looked at the remaining ten thousand-plus Experience Points and did not continue improving.
His cultivation realm was advancing a little too quickly now. It would easily arouse suspicion.
So long as there was no great danger, it was better to save the Experience Points and improve slowly.
He returned to the entrance of Black Wind Valley.
Ding Chen and the other twenty-eight looked much better. While the Demon Army had yet to arrive, they had ordered people to roast demonic beast meat for lunch.
Chen Xian glanced into the valley. Of the forty-four wounded, seven or eight had recovered enough to move around. The remaining thirty or so were still in terrible shape, lying on the ground and groaning.
Qin Fei, Luo Ying, and Xue Qishan were leading people in giving water to the wounded.
Chen Xian withdrew his gaze, rode over to Ding Chen, and said, "Brother Ding, I'll go keep watch ahead!"
Ding Chen said, "Wang Yan is up ahead. Stay and replenish your strength first!"
They had only held the position for half a day. Before nightfall, another Demon Army force might arrive.
Including the seven or eight in the valley who could move, there were fewer than forty of them still capable of fighting.
If another demon squad launched an attack—
Other than Chen Xian, they would likely all die here.
Chen Xian dismounted and walked to the side with Ding Chen. "Brother Ding, did you offend someone in camp?"
He had wanted to ask ever since Ding Chen had been beaten up that time.
He had held back because he wanted to preserve Ding Chen's dignity.
But now, he had no choice but to ask.
What Chen Xian did not know was that Ding Chen had been beaten up because of him.
That day, Ding Chen had gone to see the Head Chef Army's major general to obtain the subsequent cultivation method for the Surging Origin Realm. Instead, he ran into Li Sheng and never got to see the major general.
Others did not know Ding Chen's identity, but Li Sheng, Wang Pei, and Mu Feng did.
The Li Family was a Duke's Mansion, one of the powerful noble clans in the imperial court that supported Sixth Prince Ning Hong.
With the Sixth Prince backing him, Li Sheng did not take Ding Chen, the Ninth Prince, seriously at all. After mocking him a few times, he had the Head Chef Army beat him up.
Forget the military camp—even if someone beat Ning Chen up in the imperial palace, Emperor Ning would not have the time to care.
If Mu Feng had not secretly held them back a little that day, Ding Chen would not merely have been bruised and swollen. He would likely have been bedridden for half a month.
Seeing Chen Xian staring at him, Ding Chen's expression grew solemn. He told him about going to the Head Chef Army to request the cultivation method from the major general, and about clashing with Li Sheng.
Ding Chen quickly finished recounting the matter, but he did not mention that he was a prince.
"Li Sheng?"
Chen Xian murmured expressionlessly. That night, when they had been clearing the battlefield and were attacked by twelve wolf demons, Ding Chen had angrily shouted Li Sheng's name.
None of them had understood then. So that was what had happened.
"Brother Ding, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Chen Xian clenched his fists. He had not expected Ding Chen to be beaten up by Li Sheng because of him.
Ding Chen waved a hand. "Let's not mention it anymore. If you ever encounter Li Sheng or Wang Pei in the future, you must be careful. Their identities are far from simple. You cannot afford to offend them."
The reason he did not mention Mu Feng was that Mu Feng was not an overbearing, arrogant man.
He had no notorious reputation in Capital City either.
After coming to the Ninth Demon Suppression Army, Mu Feng had started mingling with Li Sheng and Wang Pei only because they had known one another beforehand, and the circle at Demon-Slaying Pass was simply too small.
Chen Xian said nothing, but he remembered Li Sheng and Wang Pei.
Their being targeted had to be connected to those two.
Given the chance, he would definitely settle the score with them.
After eating wolf meat, Chen Xian mounted his horse and went ahead to replace Wang Yan.
Five hundred meters ahead of Black Wind Valley, within a forest, the view before him was wide open.
Chen Xian stood atop his horse, gazing into the distance.
On the Demon Army's side, the sky was black, vaguely resembling a black face that devoured heaven and earth. The swirling vortex of dark clouds was like a gigantic maw.
The black baleful tornadoes twisting between heaven and earth were like fangs, incomparably savage.
"Is there a Demon Imperial Dynasty over there?" Chen Xian murmured.
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