The rain grew heavier.
Zhao Changfeng dabbed up a little rainwater and sniffed it. To his surprise, he caught a faint smell of rust. He frowned. "This rain..."
"The Sola Desert borders the 'world membrane.' When the weather changes, some of the aura within the world membrane seeps through, giving the rain a scent that doesn't belong to this realm."
Ruan Meizhen explained, then urged him on again. "Something must have happened at Demon Mountain. Once the demon spirits finish devouring our fellow disciples hiding inside the mountain, they'll start advancing toward Tamu Town."
She went on to explain the characteristics of "demon spirits" in a little more detail.
Low-level demon spirits lacked intelligence, but they could instinctively sense living beings. The more people gathered in a place, the more strongly it attracted them.
They had traveled together for some time now, occasionally coming across corpses scattered along the way, yet they had never been attacked by demon spirits. Most likely, that was because the demon spirits had discovered Demon Mountain.
Demon spirits could communicate with one another. They must all have rushed toward that Demon Mountain, which was why the two of them had encountered none.
If they failed to reach Tamu Town quickly, once the demon spirits slaughtered every fellow disciple hiding inside Demon Mountain, they would gather and head for Tamu Town anyway.
"If the Demon Spirits' target will eventually be Tamu Town, why do we have to go there?"
Zhao Changfeng sounded puzzled.
"We'll talk as we walk!"
"And hurry up and give me some spirit stones to recover my strength!"
Looking somewhat impatient, Ruan Meizhen held out her hand with a frown and snorted. "Master has ordered us not to kill fellow disciples, effective immediately. Even if I regain my fighting strength, I won't do anything to you!"
Zhao Changfeng considered this for a few seconds, then tossed her a cloth pouch containing several dozen spirit stones. "If we really did kill each other, how would he know?"
Ruan Meizhen caught the pouch of spirit stones, her cold, beautiful eyes softening a little. But her captivating figure was already moving toward Tamu Town. "Since Master can send messages through the Demon Tokens, he can also use the tokens he distributed to detect whether his disciples are killing each other, if he wishes."
Zhao Changfeng's heart tightened. "In other words... he might know that we killed Zhang Mu, and that I attacked our other fellow disciples?"
"So what if he knows? He never cared in the first place."
Ruan Meizhen kept moving, but her voice remained cold. "Unless he explicitly forbids it, he's giving his tacit approval."
Zhao Changfeng nodded slightly and said quietly, "Then I understand."
Sparse, grayish-yellow raindrops fell, soon soaking their robes. Ruan Meizhen's already astonishing curves became even more alluring.
Following behind her, Zhao Changfeng gazed at the extraordinarily enticing silhouette revealed by her rain-soaked robes, unable to stop his eyes from lingering.
They talked along the way, allowing Zhao Changfeng to learn more about the rules of this world. He found them utterly incredible.
Tamu Town stood on the edge of the Sola Desert. Beyond the town and a stretch of wilderness lay Heavenly Shield City of the Beichen Demon Kingdom.
Hundreds of thousands of mortals lived in that city.
Throughout the Three Great Ruins, the devil dao sects of every realm did their utmost to ensure the safety of mortal kingdoms.
Zhao Changfeng had assumed that those mighty devil dao overlords, whose powers reached the heavens, would never care whether mortals lived or died, and would even use the common people of the various demon kingdoms to cultivate Demonic Cultivation Arts.
The truth was precisely the opposite.
Take the Primal Demon Temple and the Heavenly Fiend Sect, the strongest Demon Dao Great Sects in the Lingyao Realm. Not only did they strictly forbid their disciples from running amok in the mortal demon kingdoms, but if any disciple dared use mortal bodies and souls to cultivate Demonic Cultivation Arts, both sects would spare no effort to hunt down and slaughter every offender.
This applied not only to their own disciples. Disciples of other demon sects and rogue cultivators who dared prey on the mortals of the demon kingdoms would also be slain by the combined might of all the great sects.
Though the righteous path had been completely overthrown, and the Demon Dao Great Sects of the various realms fought and killed one another, they absolutely forbade involving mortals.
Within devil dao sects, slaughter was bloody and their rules and order might be chaotic, yet every city in the mortal demon kingdoms was orderly.
Ordinary people had no fear that those devil cultivators with boundless powers would brazenly roam their cities.
The reason was that every disciple of every devil dao sect came from the various mortal demon kingdoms.
The fertility rate of this world's cultivators was so low it could practically be ignored. The higher their cultivation realm, the harder it was to have children.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate among Demonic Cultivators was likewise unimaginably high, and their lifespans had an upper limit.
This meant that for the devil dao to remain prosperous, it had to recruit newcomers from mortal kingdoms. Only when the mortal world was peaceful and its people lived secure, prosperous lives would they be willing to bear and raise children.
For the devil dao to endure and receive an endless supply of disciples, it had to ensure that every mortal demon kingdom was a paradise.
For precisely this reason, disciples of devil dao sects were also obligated to help the mortal demon kingdoms handle various affairs.
In short, only the prosperity of mortal kingdoms could create prosperity for devil dao sects.
Only then could exceptional devil dao talents emerge with higher cultivation realms and greater combat strength, giving humanity the power to resist the alien beings of the Unordered Zone.
Demonic cultivators might die from the backlash of cultivating Demonic Cultivation Arts, fall in battle, or succumb to old age once they reached the limits of their lifespans.
If the devil dao sects had no successors, how could they possibly hold on?
The immense mortal population and the constant influx of countless newcomers with cultivation talent were the fundamental reasons the Demon Dao Great Sects could stand unshaken for ten thousand years.
"Unexpected, yet perfectly reasonable in its logic. What an interesting world."
Zhao Changfeng marveled.
Just before the Crippled Demon Sect group led by Chen Haoming reached Demon Mountain, they received Teng Kun's voice transmission almost simultaneously.
"Something has happened at Demon Mountain!"
"Master said demon spirits are overrunning the desert and told us to head for Tamu Town immediately. That means Demon Mountain has already fallen!"
"Thank goodness. Thank goodness we hadn't entered Demon Mountain!"
Fear lingered in every heart as they rejoiced at the timing of Teng Kun's message. Otherwise, they would have poured straight into Demon Mountain and become food for those demon spirits.
"To Tamu Town!"
Chen Haoming gave the order and turned around without hesitation.
As for why Zhang Mu still had not caught up, he believed the man had most likely encountered demon spirits and died somewhere in the desert, just like the corpses they had seen along the way.
Elsewhere.
"Back to Tamu Town!"
Shi Yue abruptly stopped.
Fear filled his eyes as he looked at the gloomy, rain-filled sky. "Chen Haoming, Ruan Meizhen-all the disciples of the Crippled Demon Sect are heading for Tamu Town!"
"Ding!"
Under the uncertain gazes of the two rogue cultivators, he shook the bronze bell in his hand and explained uneasily, "I heard Chen Haoming and the others talking. Demon spirits have already overrun the Sola Desert. Even the Demon Mountain controlled by Old Devil Teng has fallen. The surviving disciples have received orders commanding them to go to Tamu Town."
"Elder Shi, is it really that serious?!"
The other two felt equally weighed down, then secretly counted themselves lucky.
Without the bell in Shi Yue's hand, they would never have known how dangerous this "demon spirit tide" was. They might have continued following Chen Haoming and the others, looking for a chance to kill them, only to be led toward Demon Mountain.
Had that happened, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"Hurry! We need to reach Tamu Town as soon as possible and spread the news, so Heavenly Shield City can send its City Guard Army to reinforce us!"
With that, the three raced straight toward their home base in Tamu Town.
Beneath the darkened sky.
Groups like Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen, Chen Haoming and Shi Yue were all moving toward Tamu Town, seemingly aware that the "demon spirit tide" was approaching.
Five days later.
Tamu Town.
Grayish-yellow rain continued to fall intermittently, showing no sign of stopping.
The entire town was a muddy mess. Most of those who had rushed here were scattered in twos and threes among its many dilapidated, leaking stone houses.
As disciples of the Crippled Demon Sect, he and Ruan Meizhen had been assigned a clean stone building with a watertight roof, giving them a place to stay.
Cui Pinyuan, who claimed to have built Tamu Town, was a primordial spirit realm cultivator. He had personally welcomed them and brought them here.
The deadline for Demon Mountain to reopen and return to the sect had now passed. The surviving Crippled Demon Sect disciples, like Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen, were all in town.
Anyone from the Crippled Demon Sect received a relatively intact stone house, keeping them distinctly separate from the rogue cultivators.
Zhao Changfeng had not delayed on the journey to Tamu Town, so he had found no time to kill a first-rank spirit beast and bring it along. As a result, his Demonic Cultivation Art had barely progressed.
"Spirit stones are still too slow."
Watching yet another spirit stone crumble, Zhao Changfeng rose inside the house and walked to the window to observe the people passing outside.
Tamu Town had few intact streets. Everywhere he looked were crumbling walls and ruins, with dilapidation seeping from every corner.
Zhao Changfeng did not believe a single word of Cui Pinyuan's nonsense about having built the town.
"Senior Sister Ruan, knowing the demon spirits are coming, do we really have to stay and defend this place?"
Zhao Changfeng asked casually.
"Unless you're willing to abandon your status as a sect disciple and become a traitor from this day on, you'd better put that idea out of your head!"
Ruan Meizhen's expression chilled. The more she looked at Zhao Changfeng, the more irritated she became.
Zhao Changfeng had asked this more than once. From the look of it, he had long since made plans to flee, which displeased her immensely.
No one knew that her hometown was Heavenly Shield City, or that her family was still there. If the demon spirits crossed Tamu Town, Heavenly Shield City would become a paradise where they could feast to their hearts' content.
By then, some Low-Rank Demon Spirits might seize the opportunity to break through, and the entire Heavenly Shield City would become a hell on earth.
She, the other Crippled Demon Sect disciples, and the rogue cultivators were staying in Tamu Town to attract the demon spirits with their own presence, using their flesh, blood, and souls to keep the creatures lingering here.
"Betray a sect? It's not as though I haven't done it before."
Zhao Changfeng smiled nonchalantly.
"What kind of sect is the Lingxiao Sect?"
"You betrayed a petty sect like that to join our Demon Dao Great Sect! Nobody could do anything to you for betraying the Lingxiao Sect. Just try betraying our Crippled Demon Sect and see what happens!"
"Especially now, with the demon spirit tide running rampant. If you, Zhao Changfeng, dare flee in the face of battle, all Master has to do afterward is give the word, and every Demon Dao Great Sect in the Lingyao Realm will hunt you down!"
Ruan Meizhen laid out the ironclad laws of this world.
"I was only talking. You're getting a little too worked up, Senior Sister."
Zhao Changfeng smiled carelessly, but his smile suddenly froze. A moment later, his hair stood on end.
As though terrified of being noticed, he drew his head back little by little. Sweat began to bead on his stern, resolute face.
"Who did you see?"
"Have Chen Haoming and his people arrived? Or was it that fellow from the Ghost-Controlling Sect-Chen Jian?"
Ruan Meizhen was astonished.
By now, she knew exactly how fierce and daring Zhao Changfeng was. Even when he had been on the verge of dying from her poison, he had not seemed this panicked and unsettled.
Who had frightened him so badly?
Ruan Meizhen could not help feeling intensely curious.
"N-no one. Just mental backlash from cultivating Demonic Cultivation Arts."
Zhao Changfeng answered in a somewhat stiff voice, then withdrew completely into the house, no longer daring to poke his head out and look around.
-He had actually seen Song Zejun and Zhou Jin, who should have died long ago.