Demons Were Afraid

Chen Xian stood where he could just hear demons crossing the Blood River.

Before long, a Demon Man riding a demon wolf entered the range of Chen Xian's spiritual awareness. It was the rugged Demon Man Chen Xian had defeated before, a heavy sword slung over his shoulder.

"Retreat!"

Chen Xian narrowed his eyes and waved at Xue Qishan and the others.

One Demon Man was nothing to fear. The key was that three Greater Demons followed at his side. It would take time for Chen Xian to kill the Demon Man, and those three Greater Demons were more than enough to slaughter Xue Qishan and the others.

Not to mention the hundreds of lesser demons behind the three Greater Demons. There were even more sprites.

Upon hearing the order, Xue Qishan and the others immediately turned and charged out of the forest.

The Demon Man possessed astonishing hearing. From a hundred meters away, he suddenly accelerated and rushed over.

Yet after charging only fifty meters, Chen Xian raised his spear and attacked.

"You again?"

The moment the Demon Man saw Chen Xian, he panicked. He could not defeat Chen Xian. Seeing Chen Xian's spear thrust toward him, he hastily raised his heavy sword to block.

Bang!

A dark golden fiery spear-shadow swept across the spear, blasting the Demon Man a hundred meters away and sending a cluster of lesser demons flying.

The three Greater Demons were instantly dumbfounded!

The bull demon had died!

Could even their little leader not defeat this human youth?

"Roar!"

The three Greater Demons were a bull demon, a tiger demon, and a wolf demon. Their bodies stood five meters tall, massive and powerful. Gripping formidable weapons, they leaped into the air and pounced toward Chen Xian.

Chen Xian ignored them entirely. He was incredibly fast. The moment he sent the Demon Man flying, he did not hesitate. With a leap, he plunged into the lesser demon horde, intending to kill the Demon Man first.

Sacrificing the soul of a Greater Demon could earn over 300 Experience Points.

Sacrificing the soul of a Demon Man would earn even more Experience Points—at least 500, perhaps.

Back when he had reached Minor Success in Jade Sea, he had nearly killed the Demon Man.

Much less now, when he had reached Perfection of Awareness and was more than ten times stronger than before.

"Stop him!"

Terror filled the Demon Man's face. He had never expected that, after only a few days apart, this human youth had become even stronger.

In a single exchange, he had been blasted a hundred meters away, vomiting blood wildly.

Pfft, pfft...!

The lesser demons around him simply could not stop Chen Xian. In mere moments, Chen Xian speared five or six of them to death, then leaped forward to intercept the fleeing Demon Man.

Chen Xian did not know what rank this Demon Man was, but measured against human cultivation realms, he was at most at the entry level of Jade Sea.

"Lowly human!"

The rugged Demon Man roared furiously. Demon Qi erupted from within him, and his demon blood ignited into flames, blocking Chen Xian's savage strike.

The next instant.

Chen Xian's spear pierced through his chest and nailed him to the trunk of a tree so wide that two people could barely encircle it. Blood flowed freely as his body began to change, revealing a wolf demon more than two zhang long.

Sacrificed the soul of an early-stage Spirit Demon. Obtained 1160 Experience Points.

"1160 points?"

Chen Xian swiftly glanced at the panel prompt, momentarily stunned.

The soul of an early-stage Spirit Demon was worth over 1,000 Experience Points. Wouldn't mid-stage and late-stage ones be worth even more...?

Hisss!

Seeing their little leader killed, the three Greater Demons, the three hundred lesser demons around them, and the seven hundred sprites that had followed behind all drew sharp breaths.

"Run!"

Right after that, a wolf demon among the lesser demon horde cried out and turned to flee toward the Blood River.

The instant it fled, the seven hundred sprites came to their senses and spun around, fleeing in the opposite direction.

"Damn it, stop right there...!"

The bull demon roared and hurled out the huge bloody axe in its hand, but it could not stop them at all.

Even their little leader had been killed. How could they possibly be a match for this human youth? Refusing to run would be courting death.

Pfft!

A spear tore through the air, cutting off the bull demon's voice and piercing it to death in one strike.

Sacrificed the soul of a mid-stage Greater Demon. Obtained 526 Experience Points.

Chen Xian's eyes flickered. He understood now: sacrificing the soul of a Greater Demon could yield anywhere from 300 to 1,000 Experience Points.

Greater Demons of different strengths converted into different amounts of Experience Points.

At that moment, the tiger demon and wolf demon finally reacted. With roars, they fled into the distance.

How could Chen Xian let them escape? The tiger demon was a late-stage Greater Demon, worth 869 Experience Points.

The wolf demon possessed the strength of a perfected Greater Demon, worth 972 Experience Points.

After killing the great wolf demon, Chen Xian leaped onward and charged into the lesser demon horde, slaughtering in all directions.

Wherever his spear passed, everything crumbled like dead wood before a gale.

Blood sprayed through the air. Demon corpses fell one after another, their wounds scorched black by Origin Qi flames.

Chen Xian pursued them all the way to the Blood River, slaughtering over sixty lesser demons and more than a hundred and thirty sprites.

All the other demons fled back across the Blood River in panic.

"What a pity!"

Chen Xian shook his head inwardly. Once the Demon Man died, the lesser demons and sprites scattered at once. On top of that, killing the three Greater Demons had cost him some time.

By the time he reached the Blood River, he had killed only two hundred demons. He glanced at the panel.

Experience: 26692 points

That was half the Experience Points he had gained from the previous two waves.

"Looks like next time, I should kill the Greater Demons and lesser demons first, then the Demon Man!" Chen Xian muttered.

Killing Greater Demons and lesser demons earned fewer Experience Points than killing a Demon Man, but killing them did not take much effort.

The Demon Man had died after two strikes from him, but it had still taken trouble and consumed plenty of Origin Qi.

If he left the Demon Man alive, it could even hold the other demons back.

Having thought it through, Chen Xian turned his horse around and headed back to their earlier position. Xue Qishan and the others had returned as well.

"Brother Xian, was this the Demon Man?" Xue Qishan, Cao Fang, and the others stood around the wolf demon's body, which stretched over two zhang long, and asked curiously.

Chen Xian nodded. "While alive, it could transform into a Demon Man. After dying, it revealed its true form."

Everyone clicked their tongues in amazement. If not for Chen Xian, this Demon Man alone could have wiped them out completely.

"Brother Xian, when you first came to the Ninth Army's Cooks' Camp, you were only at mid-stage Body Tempering, right? It hasn't even been five months, and you've already reached the Surging Origin Realm. How did you do it?" Xue Qishan truly could not hold it in any longer. He was a year older than Chen Xian. They had been assigned to the Ninth Army's Cooks' Camp together, and after everything they had been through, they could be called comrades who had shared hardship and danger.

Before Chen Xian could answer, Cao Fang laughed. "Brother Xue, do you even need to ask? Brother Xian is a naturally gifted martial artist. He built up strength before bursting forth, and besides, he works incredibly hard!"

Xue Qishan frowned, then nodded again.

There did not seem to be anything wrong with Cao Fang's explanation. He believed cultivation depended on talent, and talent was extraordinarily important. Otherwise, Pei Menglong, the Little Hegemon of the Ninth Camp, could never have reached the Soaring Realm at only twenty-five.

That was talent.

Those lacking in talent might need fifty years, even a hundred years, to reach the Soaring Realm. Most people would have no hope of it in their entire lives.

Xue Qishan lowered his head slightly and looked at the bluish-white jade pendant in his hand. One character was engraved on each side of it: Sacred Heaven.

He clenched the jade pendant tightly, his gaze fixed on Chen Xian's back. A complicated expression surfaced in his eyes—confusion, helplessness, determination, confidence...

In the blink of an eye, it was the latter half of the night.

The Demon Army never crossed the Blood River again.

Chen Xian sat with his eyes closed, expressionless, but inwardly he was frustrated beyond measure.

He had not touched the Experience Points on the panel. He was merely resting with his eyes closed, waiting for the Demon Army to come in another wave so he could kill more demons, earn more Experience Points, and deduce the subsequent cultivation arts.

Yet the demons did not come again!

The sound of horses neighing came from behind him. Without opening his eyes, Chen Xian clearly sensed that it was Wang Yan.

Wang Yan rode over. Seeing everyone still there, he could not help but let out a breath of relief. He quickly came to Chen Xian's side and asked, "What happened?"

Chen Xian opened his eyes and stared ahead. "The demons were afraid!"

Hearing that, Wang Yan stared silently at Chen Xian, not knowing what he was thinking.