Chapter 424: Battle Against the Demon Abyss Clan

They urgently transferred additional guards and gathered cultivators to organize the evacuation of cultivators and mortals from several towns and villages ahead. During this process, the elders and disciples remaining in the sects formed a huge force and went forward to intercept the enemy. The cultivators of the Grade A major cities also dispatched their city defense forces to join the battle.

However, the result was unbelievable. Despite countless human cultivators and demon cultivators joining forces against the enemy, they still lost.

The reorganized forces also lost several battles in succession. They lost far too quickly, and they could not understand the reason. They wanted to contact the various sect masters of the Holy City and organize an even stronger fighting force to battle the enemy, but despite trying every possible method, including communication talismans, thousand mile communication talismans, communication jade tokens, communication artifacts, communication spiritual treasures, and even secret techniques, nothing worked.

They had lost contact with the Holy City.

To make matters worse, after retreating to the double Grade A major city of Azure Origin City, before they could reorganize their battle formation, they suddenly received messages from the elders who had remained behind.

The sects were surrounded by demonic aura. Several teams that had gone out to investigate had completely disappeared, with no way to contact any of them. Those who had barely managed to escape back were soon demonized as well.

The situation was now extremely critical.

The cultivators of the various sects and cities could indeed unite as one and fight during times of crisis, but cultivators also had their own selfish concerns. Compared to the current crisis, they were even more worried that their own sects would be destroyed and their inheritances cut off, just like the villages, towns, cities, and sects along the way that had already been destroyed. Therefore, they were currently locked in a stalemate, wanting to lead the surviving disciples back to rescue their sects.

"Wuwu... Our town and family actually... Ah... Demon Abyss Clan, I swear we will never coexist with you!"

"My sect has been destroyed!!! Impossible, impossible..."

"How could this happen?"

"Heavens! This can’t be real. Little sister... Sob..."

"Ah!"

After hearing Fu Young’s words, many cultivators from the destroyed towns and sects along the route could not help crying out, or speaking in disbelief. Some cultivators with strong mental fortitude remained silent, but the intense atmosphere of grief spread even faster and farther. The sect masters of the various sects, along with the leaders of forces and clan heads whose territories had not yet been affected by the flames of war from the Demon Abyss Clan, hurriedly comforted those cultivators consumed by grief.

Just then, a red robed Soul Transformation cultivator with an indifferent expression and an exceptionally handsome and extraordinary appearance flew in front of Fu Young and cupped his hands.

"I am Jian Li of the Holy Sword Sect. Fellow Daoist Fu, please tell me the details of the battles in which you suffered defeat."

"The intelligence reports that during several battles, when the fighting was at its fiercest, the cities, sects, and other places serving as the rear headquarters suddenly became contaminated by large amounts of demonic aura. It then quickly spread to the guarded battlefields, connecting with the demonic aura that had swept out from the Great Forest of Ancient Demon. Even the spiritual veins were filled with demonic aura flowing through them."

Jian Li of the Holy Sword Sect? Was he the Venerable Jian Li, one of the male protagonists in the book his master had mentioned?

Although Fu Young had already more or less confirmed the man’s identity, he showed no unusual expression and answered him equally as he would anyone else.

"Fellow Daoist Jian should be able to imagine how disadvantageous it is for cultivators to fight in an environment filled with demonic aura. They cannot obtain spiritual energy to replenish their spells, causing their power to be greatly reduced. At the same time, they must also face attacks from companions who could be demonized at any moment, assaults from demonic beasts, and so on..."

"In that case, it is indeed not surprising that they lost. However, after hearing this, I still feel that something is wrong. The rear of everyone’s forces could not possibly have suddenly been eroded by demonic aura for no reason, even infecting the spiritual veins. This situation should be..."

Nearby, Xiao Shou pondered as he organized his words. At the same time, he recalled the circumstances of the original story’s battle against the Demon Abyss Clan, hoping to find the problem with the Demon Abyss Clan from there.

However, the entire book is told primarily from Xiao Ran’s perspective. In the book, after Xiao Ran and Venerable Zhong Kui destroyed the Demon Abyss Clan passage beneath the Water Qilin seal, one of them escaped into the Demon Abyss Realm, while the other left the battlefield against the Demon Abyss Clan to search for the Immortal Grass for the Water Qilin. She went to the relatively peaceful waters of the Endless Sea, which had not been drawn into the war with the Demon Abyss Clan, and only returned after the war ended.

As for the battles against the Demon Abyss Clan, Xiao Ran only learned about them after returning and gathering information. Through various accounts and reports, she only learned the results of the battles, the infamous deeds of the Demon Abyss Clan that had been passed down by word of mouth, as well as the enormous number of casualties, sealing methods, and so on. The detailed circumstances were never recorded at all, so Xiao Shou naturally could not figure out anything useful from the original story.

Instead, after hearing Xiao Shou say this, Fu Young immediately followed up, "It should be that someone from the Demon Abyss Clan infiltrated the rear and placed something capable of releasing large amounts of demonic aura and infecting spiritual energy, transforming it into demonic aura, inside the central formations, fire spiritual veins, and other crucial locations. Only then could the situation described in the reports have occurred."