Stone was already poised to strike, his blood energy surging, his muscles bulging like blocks of iron. He threw a punch at the nearest demon in the direction of Xiao Chen's attack.
This punch, accompanied by the sound of wind breaking, shattered the demon's demonic energy defense, sending it flying and creating an opening for Xiao Chen's spear shadow.
Seeing this, Su She gritted his teeth and injected a trace of his remaining talent, increasing the oppressive feeling of the mountain and river phantom by three points.
Golden righteous energy surged into the gap like a tide, forcing back the surrounding demons, and finally a crack appeared in the originally tense encirclement!
Jiang Li seized the moment and used "Stop Trace" on her longsword again. Following the attack trajectory of a demon, the tip of her sword lightly touched the opponent's wrist, forcing his bone spear to pierce his companion beside him.
The two demons clashed, revealing an even greater weakness. Jiang Li seized the opportunity and pierced the heart of one of them with her sword.
"Quick! Break through from here!" Xiao Chen shouted to the three of them, constantly waving his rusty iron spear to reinforce the gap and prevent the demons from closing the encirclement again.
Jiang Li, Su She, and Shi Tou immediately rushed towards the opening. Although Su She's aura of talent had dimmed, it still protected their retreat.
Jiang Li's longsword acted like a guardian, forcing back the approaching demons one by one; Shi Tou, on the other hand, acted like a trailblazer, swinging his fists to smash away the demons who tried to block the gap.
Xuan Yin, hovering in mid-air, watched the four about to break through, a ruthless glint in his eyes. He was about to call for reinforcements from the demons around him when he was entangled by Lin Zhen's golden longsword.
"Xuan Yin, your opponent is me!" Lin Zhen's voice was authoritative, giving him no chance to be distracted.
The gap in the encirclement grew wider and wider. Xiao Chen and his companions covered each other and finally broke through the encirclement of more than twenty demons, reuniting with Lin Jingxing not far away.
"Brother Xiao! Are you alright?" Lin Jingxing rushed forward, his eyes full of concern as he looked at the four men's disheveled appearance.
Xiao Chen shook his head, panting heavily, and said, "I'm fine for now, thanks to Brother Lin for restraining me. It's just that Su She has exhausted himself, and we need to rest for a while."
Su She leaned against the rock, his face pale and his breath weak, clearly no longer able to unleash a wide-range attack.
Jiang Li's shoulder wound also began to worsen, and the seeping blood stained half of her red dress. Shi Tou and Xiao Chen were also injured, and their auras were not as strong as before.
But they all knew that there was not much time to rest. In the distance, more demon soldiers and demons were surging towards them. The bloody battle in Sunlight City was far from over.
Jiang Li sheathed her longsword, gently wiping the black bloodstains from its blade. Her eyes showed no weariness, only an increasingly resolute light.
As long as she has a breath left, she will continue to wield her sword to protect the city and her companions behind her.
When Xiao Chen and his companions broke through and reunited with Lin Jingxing, the battlefield in Sunlight City had long since broken its previous stalemate, and the decline of the human race was spreading like a tide.
Beneath the city wall, the ranks of cultivators who had been lined up to resist had been scattered by the demon soldiers. Many cultivators were forced to retreat step by step, their faces filled with exhaustion and despair.
Some cultivators fought two opponents at once, their weapons already riddled with nicks and chips, their arms slashed open with deep, bone-revealing wounds by the demons' bone knives, black demonic energy seeping into their bodies through these wounds.
This made his movements increasingly sluggish; some cultivators, though barely managing to maintain a one-on-one fight, were suppressed by the demons' bloodthirsty nature.
Demons possess incredibly strong physical bodies; even with a pierced chest, they can still roar and lunge to tear at you.
Human cultivators expend spiritual energy with every swing of their swords, and after a long battle, they are already exhausted. Cultivators with depleted spiritual energy can only rely on their physical bodies to withstand the attacks, and are quickly torn apart by the demons.
"Pfft!"
Not far away, a young cultivator had just killed a demon soldier when he was pierced through the abdomen by a bone spear from another demon.
He turned back with difficulty, his eyes filled with resentment, and finally collapsed to the ground, instantly overwhelmed by the surging demon soldiers.
Such scenes were common on the battlefield, with black blood mingling with red blood, staining the land in front of the Sun City gates.
As Xiao Chen watched this scene, his heart sank. Although the four of them were able to fight their way through the demons in the Creation Realm, they ultimately could not take care of the entire battlefield.
War is never a contest of individual combat strength, but a contest of overall strength. The demon race's advantages of strong physique, low attrition, and bloodthirstiness were amplified infinitely in a protracted war, and the human race's successive defeats had long been inevitable.
In mid-air, Lin Zhen took in the horrific scene below, his heart filled with sorrow and helplessness.
His fighting strength was already evenly matched with Xuan Yin's, and now seeing human cultivators falling one after another under the onslaught of demonic soldiers...
They knew that continuing to fight would only cause more unnecessary casualties and might even lead to the complete collapse of the entire defense line.
"This can't go on!" A resolute glint flashed in Lin Zhen's eyes as he shouted sharply at the Creation Realm cultivators behind him.
"Pass down the order! All human cultivators, immediately retreat to Sunlight City! Activate the city's protective formation!"
The order was given without the slightest hesitation, yet it carried an indescribable weight.
Retreat means admitting defeat in this round of battle and abandoning the cultivators still struggling on the battlefield, but it is the only way to preserve our strength at the moment.
"yes!"
The cultivators at the Creation Realm responded in unison and immediately dispersed to spread Lin Zhen's orders throughout the battlefield.
The horns sounded again from the city wall, this time carrying a signal to retreat. The sharp horn sound pierced through the sounds of battle and reached the ears of every human cultivator.
Upon hearing the horn, the cultivators on the battlefield did not hesitate for a moment. They could no longer hold on and now only wanted to retreat back into the city to seek the protection of the formation.
Those cultivators who were still able to move helped each other retreat towards the city gate; the more seriously injured cultivators were carried by their companions and made a difficult retreat under the pursuit of the demon soldiers.
Xiao Chen and his three companions joined the retreating force, with Xiao Chen holding his rusty iron spear horizontally in front of him to block the pursuing demon soldiers.
Jiang Li's longsword flashed, clearing a path for the retreating cultivators; Shi Tou carried several wounded cultivators on his back.
Like an iron tower, they charged towards the city gate; Su Sheqiang mustered his remaining talent and condensed a thin light shield to protect the cultivators behind him.
Soon, all the surviving human cultivators retreated back to Sunlight City.
The moment the city gates slowly closed, the array points on the city walls lit up simultaneously, countless runes rose from the ground, and golden light converged like flowing water.
Ultimately, a huge semi-circular light shield was formed, firmly enveloping the entire Sun City.
Ancient patterns flowed across the light shield, emanating a powerful defensive aura, like an impregnable fortress, blocking the pursuing demon soldiers and demons.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The demonic soldiers rammed into the light barrier frantically, and the black demonic energy continued to erode it, but they could only leave ripples on the barrier and could not break through it at all.
Several demons at the Creation Realm attempted to slash at the light barrier with bone weapons, but only managed to leave shallow white marks before being repelled by the force of the barrier's rebound.
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