Chapter 76
The group heading to the Yan Yue Sect didn't dare delay at all. After receiving their mission, they quickly packed their belongings and set off on their swords. Halfway there, Shen Junning suddenly smelled a trace of demonic energy below.
"There are demons down there. I'll go down and check it out first. You stay up and support me." After saying that, he went straight down to investigate the situation.
No one was at ease letting one of the demons go down alone, so Zhou Xuanzhi said to Lin Jichen, "I'll go down and take a look. You stay up here." Then he went down to investigate with Shen Junning.
The dense forest was rarely visited by humans, and they could only follow the trail of blood that Shen Junning had discovered. Before they knew it, the two had arrived at the mountain, which the map said was called Cuiwei.
“Judging from these bloodstains, they must have been there for a while,” Shen Junning said, feeling uneasy. Such a long period of time meant that more people had likely fallen victim to the attack. “What do you think, Junior Brother Zhou?”
He never understood what the demons' purpose was. Their repeated small-scale invasions were probably a test.
"If you were a member of the Demon Clan, what would you most like to do right now?" If he were a demon, the mortals would have already become his nourishment by now, but in reality, they are not. Instead, he has gone to great lengths to steal the divine artifact.
Shen Junning did think of something else. He said, "If I were a demon, I would do everything I could to destroy the Ten Directions Barrier."
This was something Zhou Xuanzhi hadn't considered. So what was Demon Lord Chonghua thinking?
Shen Junning and his team began investigating the bloodstains again, following them into the depths of the dense forest. Large patches of blood were visible on the thick layer of fallen leaves, and the surrounding tree trunks bore scratch marks from fingernails; even the green leaves on the trees were stained red with blood. There were also drag marks under their feet, indicating a person's struggle; all ten fingers were worn raw on the ground, leaving several bloody streaks.
In the pool of blood on the ground, the two saw hair still attached to the flesh, and even found human fingers. Occasionally, rats would scurry by, feasting on the remaining "remnants" of the demons.
Zhou Xuanzhi had always felt that the sect leader and his senior uncles were underestimating him by treating him like a child. But seeing this scene today, he truly felt the terror of the demon race.
Shen Junning was the same. He had not experienced that era. After his cultivation, he went down the mountain to train and came into contact with the demon race the most. Because they lived under the same sky as cultivators, they were more restrained in their actions, while the demon race was the complete opposite.
Seeing that Zhou Xuanzhi's expression wasn't good, Shen Junning waved his hand and said, "Tell them all to come down! We also need to inform our master about the situation here."
When Lin Jichen and his group came down and saw the scene before them, they still felt nauseous, even though Zhou Xuanzhi had previously said that this place was like hell.
It's unimaginable how many people perished, how desperate they were, crying out to heaven and earth in vain.
"There should be villages nearby, let's go look for them." At least we need to know how many people have died and how many are still alive.
Demons wouldn't travel around with a group of mortals; that would be too conspicuous. There must be a village nearby.
"Should we split into two groups? As for the Yan Yue Sect, we..." The people from Medicine God Valley stopped halfway through their sentence. There were no casualties on that side, but the matter of the divine artifact could not be delayed.
The artifact is indeed important. The demons didn't steal it to use as a decoration in the Boundless Realm. Shen Junning thought for a moment and said, "Then let's split into two groups. I'll lead a team to investigate. Maybe we can find some clues about the demons. Junior Brother Liu, take a team to the Yanyue Sect."
Shen Junning, Zhou Xuanzhi, and Lin Jichen stayed behind to search for nearby villages and count how many people were missing. If they could find survivors, that would be even better, as they would at least know what happened back then.
At the foot of the mountain was a village, a lifeless village, with the marks of fire on the houses laid out before everyone's eyes, and a thick stench of blood still lingering.
Lin Jichen stepped forward and touched the burned-out roof beam. A wisp of black smoke drifted out. She turned to the other two and said, "It's the karmic fire of the demon race."
Zhou Xuanzhi used his magic to sense the surrounding atmosphere, but there was no trace of human presence. The demonic energy was extremely dense, an atmosphere that cultivators disliked. He despairingly analyzed, "This village was ravaged by demons, leaving no survivors."
Shen Junning returned from his investigation and shared his findings: "This is the scene of the crime. The demons first slaughtered countless mortals here, leaving only a few alive, who were then brought to the dense forest we just saw." His voice was filled with anger.
The group gripped their swords tightly, but anger was useless; they couldn't even find any trace of the demons.
"Let's look around some more!" Zhou Xuanzhi remembered that there were several villages nearby, and hoped to find witnesses.
No one spoke along the way, but the most composed Shen Junning spoke first: "There is a traitor in our immortal sect, and his position is not low."
Someone who knows what magical artifacts each sect possesses must be either the sect leader or the head of a major sect. But with so many sects, where do you even begin to investigate? And who would be the right person to do it?
In a nearby village, you can see from afar that the entire village is on high alert, with villagers patrolling around the village with their farm tools.
The villagers were still wary when they saw three people walking towards them from a distance. It seemed that they had called for reinforcements. Then the three of them saw a group of strong middle-aged men carrying farm tools as weapons and surrounding them.
Once both sides got closer, they could see that the newcomers were three young men wearing the school uniforms of the Immortal Sect and carrying swords.
"Which sect do you all belong to?" the leader asked, mustering his courage.
Lin Jichen could see that the other person was really scared; his hands were trembling as he spoke.
Shen Junning also saw it, and he tried his best to be approachable: "I am Shen Junning, a disciple of Qingxu Sect." Then he extended his hand to introduce two other people, "These two are disciples of Tianyu Mountain. This is Zhou Xuanzhi and this is Lin Jichen."
Yes, their clothes don't match, so it's easy to tell they're from two different sects. The man then asked, "Why are the people from Tianyu Mountain and Qingxu Sect walking together?"
They were wary of Shen Junning. Who could say they weren't afraid of a strong and healthy young man like him at a time like this?
Lin Jichen realized that this was the moment she needed to step in. She stepped forward and introduced, "With the demons in power, disciples from all sects should unite and stand together against them, so we've come together." Seeing the puzzled look on their faces, Lin Jichen explained, "Since we met on the road, we naturally couldn't just watch Senior Brother Shen face the demons alone."
Oh no, oh no, the more I explain, the more mistakes I make. I always came out with my senior brothers before, and they usually handle the explanations. But today it's my turn to explain, and I just can't seem to get it right.
“We found bloodstains in a dense forest, where demonic energy was strong. Those people were all… murdered,” Zhou Xuanzhi said. “We want to know what happened.”
"Then we arrived at a village at the foot of the mountain, where there was no sign of life, so we came here," Lin Jichen added.
Upon hearing Lin Jichen's additional information, the man asked nervously, "Have you arrived at the village at the foot of the mountain?"
It turns out that the village was called Shanxia Village. Shen Junning shook his head and said, "Yes, we came from there. We were thinking of looking for clues in the vicinity."
"You weren't killed when you reached the village at the foot of the mountain?" This time, he seemed a little agitated.
The group could vaguely guess what the other person meant, but unfortunately they did not encounter the demons. Zhou Xuanzhi shook his head and said, "When we went there, the demons were no longer there. We don't know where they went."
Hearing this, everyone was somewhat disappointed, but they quickly regained their composure, and the leader asked again to confirm, "Are you really cultivators?"
Shen Junning answered very seriously, "We are."
Upon hearing this, everyone almost burst into tears. The middle-aged man at the head of the group gripped Shen Junning and Zhou Xuanzhi's hands tightly, nearly crying out, "You've finally arrived! You didn't see the horrific sight of that demon eating people!"
"Uncle Zhang, please let the cultivators into the village! Don't talk about it here."
Uncle Zhang was startled when he heard this and nodded, "Look at my brain! Everyone, come in quickly, let's all get into the village."
“You didn’t see it. Those demons jumped down from the mountain and came into the village to eat people. They would bite off a piece of flesh from a person’s body. We couldn’t beat them, so we just watched the person being eaten.”
“Most of the villagers in the village were eaten in the village, and the rest were taken away. They set fire to the village before they left, afraid that there might still be survivors. We tried to put out the fire while they were away, but the fire was impossible to extinguish,” the man said, his voice trembling with tears.
"When those demons entered the village, some people hid and were not found by them, but they set fires, and the fires were so bad that they couldn't be stopped. Those who hid were burned to death."
"They don't even spare newborn babies..."
...
And so everyone shared what they knew, and the three of them learned about the situation from their conversation.
"So, the demons jumped down from the mountain and landed right in the village at the foot of the mountain. Does anyone here have personally witnessed them jumping down from the mountain?" Zhou Xuanzhi asked rhetorically.
No one spoke; they just looked at each other in silence.
Zhou Xuanzhi confirmed again: "No one saw it, right?"
“Someone saw it. They escaped from Shanxia Village. That’s what he said. There are also a few people from our village who escaped from Shanxia Village. Everyone saw it.” Several fourteen or fifteen-year-old children said, “We saw it with our own eyes. We’re not making this up.”
Why are the demons on Mount Cuiwei? And where did they come from? The villagers couldn't figure it out, but Shen Junning suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He asked the villagers, "Have you ever seen what those demons look like?"
The child looked at Shen Junning's height and replied tremblingly, "He's half a head taller than you, and very strong. His face is ashen, and he's not good-looking either."
The more he spoke, the more desperate the listeners became. So these weren't demons that ordinary people could kill with a kitchen knife; they were real demons who had truly entered the human world. Yes, Li Sheng had appeared in the capital before; the demons' arrival here should have been expected.
But why didn't everyone take precautions sooner?
"Because we don't know what Chonghua is thinking." Zhou Xuanzhi closed his eyes in despair. If Chonghua's child was plotting a plan that could overthrow the world, then he really could do it. The immortal sects were no match for him, and very few people could be saved.
After learning about the situation here, the three
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