Outside, Chen Jian's Yin Ghost stood guard, and he was the first to detect the approaching Demon Spirits.
"Come on! Let's get up there and slaughter those Demon Spirits!"
Zhao Changfeng hefted the Blood God Saber, his fighting spirit soaring.
Now that he had broken through to the late Yuanqi Stage, the two small cauldrons within him brimmed with willpower. He was eager for a fierce battle with the Demon Spirits, seizing the chance to harvest more of them with "Heavenly Heart Demon-Seeding" and stockpile willpower.
"Watch out for those people from the Primal Demon Temple!"
"Remember! The moment you see any sign of the Demon Spirits collapsing, join me in killing Tong Yi!"
Chen Jian shouted to Cui Pinyuan and shot upward first.
Cui Pinyuan nodded lightly and was about to follow when Zhao Changfeng suddenly called out, "Senior Cui, make sure you stay alive!"
He paused. Seeing Zhao Changfeng's sincerity, he assumed Zhao Changfeng coveted the third-rank Spirit Beast he kept hidden, and snorted. "Thank you for your concern!"
He, too, soared into the sky.
Misunderstood, Zhao Changfeng smiled easily. "He really can't recognize a kind heart."
Naturally, he wanted Cui Pinyuan to stay alive. Only while Cui Pinyuan lived could he continue obtaining willpower. If Cui Pinyuan died through some mishap, he would also suffer a terrifying backlash.
"Zhao Changfeng, what exactly happened in that illusion the third-rank Demon Spirit created?"
Having successfully broken through, Ruan Meizhen only now voiced her confusion, since Chen Jian and Cui Pinyuan had been in the cavern until this moment.
"While you were under the control of your inner demon's obsession, the Demon Spirit used some unknown secret art to drag me in as well."
Zhao Changfeng had long since prepared his explanation. He said casually, "Don't worry about that. Anyway, you successfully advanced to the Primordial Spirit Realm. I'll be relying on you to point out the Demon Spirits in a moment."
Ruan Meizhen, who rarely showed Zhao Changfeng a pleasant face, thought of the Demon Spirit Tide surging once more, and of Tong Yi and the others plotting to murder them. Unsure whether either of them would survive, she said softly, "Stay alive."
Zhao Changfeng smiled. "You too."
Night lay heavy, and Demon Spirits ran rampant.
Invisible to anyone below the Primordial Spirit Realm, the Demon Spirits invaded in force under cover of darkness. Disaster descended once again.
An unseen enemy was the most terrifying of all.
For those in Tamu Town below the Primordial Spirit Realm, the formless, traceless Demon Spirits were a nightmare-one they could never wake from.
This time, the Demon Spirits did not arrive in twos and threes, but in swarms, their numbers far exceeding the survivors of Tamu Town!
"Hold fast to your true selves! Don't let the Demon Spirits break down your minds' defenses!"
"As long as your mind remains unbroken, you still have a thread of hope!"
"The most terrifying thing about Demon Spirits is how their malevolent thoughts and wills corrode us! If you can get through that, you'll have a chance to turn the tables and kill them!"
Qin Hui and Shen Yanrong shouted at the tops of their lungs.
Their voices rang through Tamu Town in the dead of night, yet sounded so pale and powerless. Both had brought out their spiritual artifacts and were joining the City Guard Army's survivors in a desperate resistance against the Demon Spirits.
Yet their comrades continued dying one by one.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Woooo!
Wind and piercing shrieks rose on all sides as invisible Demon Spirits swept through Tamu Town, infesting living beings everywhere.
The rogue cultivators were the first to suffer.
No matter where they hid, the Demon Spirits could sniff out the blood and vitality of living beings and locate them, one by one, without fail.
The next moment, the Demon Spirits burrowed into their bodies, erasing their souls with malevolent thoughts and wills, and using the power of the Unordered Zone they carried to take shape within them.
The dying screams of rogue cultivators rang out without end.
"Junior Brother Zhao!"
"Zhao Changfeng!"
Chi Jingchen screamed desperately for help.
The surviving disciples of the Crippled Demon Sect had gathered to resist the Demon Spirits together, but three suddenly died in the blink of an eye.
The dead remained standing ramrod straight. Within just a few breaths, they began launching murderous attacks on the others.
Fending off his fellow disciples' encirclement while cautiously guarding against the unseen Demon Spirits, Chi Jingchen instantly found himself in a desperate situation.
He had no idea where the Demon Spirits were, or when the assault on his soul would descend.
At that moment, Chi Jingchen desperately wished he had already broken through to the Primordial Spirit Realm, so he could see the Demon Spirits' true forms.
If he could see them, he could at least put up an effective resistance, instead of being so helpless and despairing.
The people from the Primal Demon Temple had also gathered together, forming an array with Tong Yi at its head. A brass mirror hovered in midair, radiating light of the same color.
One grotesquely shaped Demon Spirit after another was exposed in the mirror's radiance, with nowhere to hide.
Flame Blade, Flowing Poison, Ice Blade, Earthly Yin Mystic Water-numerous great demonic cultivation arts were unleashed, bombarding the hideous Demon Spirits whose true forms had been revealed and blasting them into showers of pitch-black light.
Tong Yi controlled the "Yin Reflection Mirror" with his Primordial Spirit, constantly directing his junior brothers and sisters to attack the Demon Spirits. Now and then, he swept out a vast white Yin River, as though it could divide heaven and humanity forever.
The moment those low-rank Demon Spirits touched the dazzling, bizarre substances within the Yin River, they burst apart as well, turning into Demon Cores that fell to the ground.
Of all Tamu Town, only the Primal Demon Temple's group was still handling the situation with relative ease.
"So many Demon Spirits! Far more than I imagined!"
Standing on high ground, Ruan Meizhen surveyed the battlefield with her newly attained Primordial Spirit Realm cultivation and sucked in a cold breath. "We can't hold them off!"
Through her Primordial Spirit's sight, she saw hundreds of Demon Spirits shrieking through the air, searching for their next targets.
In mere moments, more than half the rogue cultivators escorted here had been killed or injured. Those still alive were struggling desperately against the Demon Spirits invading their bodies. There was no need for Zhao Changfeng to waste his effort hunting them down.
Tong Yi did not even care about the City Guard Army. Why would he care whether the rogue cultivators lived or died?
One look at the battlefield told Ruan Meizhen that not a single rogue cultivator would escape by luck. Even the City Guard Army's people would probably all die in battle.
"Even with Chen Jian, Cui Pinyuan, and the two of us, we can't hold them off?"
Zhao Changfeng asked gravely.
He, too, could not see any trace of the Demon Spirits, but he could sense that all of Tamu Town was filled with an aura of hatred for every living being.
That meant Demon Spirits were everywhere.
"I don't know! I really don't know!"
Ruan Meizhen shook her head. She wanted to join the battle immediately, yet felt uneasy about leaving Zhao Changfeng alone.
Whoosh!
A Demon Spirit she could see came hurtling toward them.
She hastily shook the "Miasma Cloud Banner" in her hand, scattering brilliantly colored drops of poisonous rain that drenched the Demon Spirit head-on.
Hiss! Hiss!
In her eyes, the second-rank Demon Spirit already had a tangible form. Her deadly poison could corrode even a Demon Spirit's energy body, and thick black smoke rose from this one, which resembled pitch-black tree vines.
Yet the vine-like Demon Spirit did not die. Struggling amid the poisonous raindrops, it slowly closed in on Zhao Changfeng.
A real body of flesh and blood could never withstand the concentrated poison she had scattered, but Demon Spirits existed as formless energy and possessed extremely high resistance to poison.
"It's coming for you! Be care-"
Ruan Meizhen cried out in alarm.
A black-and-red saber beam sliced through the deep darkness. With a single crack, Zhao Changfeng cut down the pitch-black, vine-shaped Demon Spirit.
A Demon Core with rather indistinct demonic markings dropped to the ground with a clack.
"A second-rank Demon Spirit, right? Not all that hard to kill."
Zhao Changfeng muttered, casually tossing the Demon Core into the cloth pouch at his waist. "Senior Sister, you handle making the Demon Spirits visible. Leave the rest to me."
The saber beam combined spiritual power, blood vitality, and willpower into one. Before the Demon Spirit could invade his body, he annihilated it with a single slash.
It was as effortless as crushing an ant underfoot.
As its formless demonic body died, the second-rank Demon Spirit's malevolent thoughts and will tried to dissipate, but he successfully drew them into a cauldron with "Heavenly Heart Demon-Seeding."
A fresh surge of willpower was born.
Ruan Meizhen stared in astonishment. Was it really that easy?
The rogue cultivators and City Guard Army in Tamu Town were also at the Yuanqi Stage, yet they were crying to heaven and earth, with shrill death screams ringing out now and then.
Zhao Changfeng had slaughtered the Demon Spirit with the Blood God Saber so easily that she almost thought she was hallucinating. Yet the vine-like second-rank Demon Spirit had indeed vanished without a trace.
Standing in the long street, Zhao Changfeng looked around but could not see a single Demon Spirit. He asked, "Looks like we came out too late for the Demon Spirits to take notice of us. Senior Sister, where are there more of them?"
Willpower granted his demonic saber the power to tear and distort. First- and second-rank Demon Spirits died as soon as they became visible, and fresh willpower rapidly sprang forth.
He, Zhao Changfeng, had endured even a third-rank Demon Spirit's invasive possession and killed it in return. Any low-rank Demon Spirit bold enough to infest him was simply delivering willpower to his door.
He even felt that too few Demon Spirits were coming.
"The City Guard Army! More Demon Spirits are swarming around them!"
Ruan Meizhen called out, then suddenly hesitated. "Zhao Changfeng, do we really have to follow this road all the way into darkness? Those people in the City Guard Army, after all..."
She had a fairly good impression of Qin Hui and Shen Yanrong. She also had family and relatives living in Heavenly Shield City, and the City Guard Army had rushed here to protect Heavenly Shield City from the Demon Spirits' subsequent invasion.
Besides, they had only recently brought Spirit Stones over to express their thanks.
"They won't survive. In the end, either the Demon Spirits will devour them completely, or Tong Yi and the others will silence them."
Turning his head to look around, Zhao Changfeng heard numerous cries for help and confirmed the City Guard Army's location. "The rogue cultivators aren't clustered together. Finding them one by one to kill Demon Spirits would take too much effort. Come with me. We'll go to the City Guard Army and kill as many Demon Spirits as we can!"
Ruan Meizhen did not move. Looking at him, she asked again, "What about the City Guard Army?"
Seeing her remain still, Zhao Changfeng frowned slightly and asked impatiently, "Suppose I save them. Suppose we really manage to rout the Demon Spirits, and Chen Jian and Cui Pinyuan join forces to kill Tong Yi, with you and me as their accomplices."
"Afterward, will those people in the City Guard Army report everything truthfully to the Beichen Demon Kingdom?"
Zhao Changfeng glared at her.
Ruan Meizhen's expression turned bitter. She shook her head. "I don't know."
"Senior Sister, you already know the answer in your heart."
Zhao Changfeng grinned. "Hong Xian told me you found a few other people to take your disasters before me, right? Why are you so softhearted at a critical moment like this?"
A fierce gleam suddenly flashed in Ruan Meizhen's eyes. "They deserved to die! Every last one of them deserved worse than death!"
Zhao Changfeng froze for a moment and gave her two searching looks. Then he shook his head with a laugh. "Senior Sister, you really aren't suited to the Crippled Demon Sect. You should swap identities with me and cultivate in a Righteous Dao sect instead."
Ruan Meizhen flew into a rage. "Go to your Lingxiao Sect? Who are you insulting?!"
Zhao Changfeng stared blankly, then quickly understood and hastened to apologize. "I meant some other Righteous Dao sect!"
Song Ziyan was an excellent actress, Ning Luo's belly was full of hypocrisy and schemes, every other junior brother clung to life and feared death, and Song Zejun and his wife colluded with Demon Spirits...
From top to bottom, was there a single decent person in the Lingxiao Sect?
"Let's go!"
"Just remember one thing: don't concern yourself with whether Shen Yanrong and Qin Hui live or die. First, we all join forces against the Demon Spirits."
"If we really manage to survive the Demon Spirits, we can talk about everything else afterward!"
Zhao Changfeng strode away.