Chapter 30:The Pillar of horror.

Chapter 30: Chapter 30:The Pillar of horror.

Chen Guanshan turned away from the chaotic scene, guiding the Chen Family away as they immediately began moving toward the exit of the gathering place.

"Everyone, follow me. We’re leaving."

The Chen Family members did not need to be told twice. Whatever doubts they had about the situation had already disappeared the moment the City Lord and his advisor revealed their true forms.

As for the order to kill the demons, they didn’t care!

Almost half of the gathering had actually been demons from the start, and from that fact alone, they knew that the situation outside must be even more severe.

Chen Guanshan kept his sword in his hand as he led the group through the gathering. Around them, the situation had already descended into complete chaos.

The sound of weapons clashing filled the air. Cultivators from different families were fighting desperately against the demons, while others were frantically trying to escape the City Lord Mansion.

"Elder Guanshan."

One of the clansmen looked toward the side.

"Looks like we’re not the only ones ignoring the order."

Chen Guanshan followed his gaze.

A group of cultivators was moving through the chaos several dozen meters away, keeping a tight formation as they made their way toward the exit.

The clansman pointed toward them.

"That’s the Wang Family."

Chen Guanshan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Indeed, it was them.

The Wang Family had gathered into a defensive formation, with the stronger cultivators surrounding the weaker ones as they pushed through the crowd.

Six of them were roughly in the middle stage of Qi Condensation, and the rest were at the early stage. Compared to the Chen Family, their lineup wasn’t half bad.

Several of them already had blood on their robes, though it was difficult to tell whether it belonged to them or the demons they had killed.

At the front was a woman wearing a silver robe that was slightly torn at the sleeve. A few strands of her long black hair had come loose behind her as she held her sword low in one hand, guiding her group to safety.

"Wang Yuelan."

Chen Guanshan muttered as a gleam flashed through his eyes. In the next second, he withdrew his gaze.

"Keep moving."

They continued forward.

They had barely passed another group of cultivators fleeing when a distorted figure suddenly lunged from the side. Its body slammed into the ground on all fours, sending stone fragments flying into the air.

Boom!

In its mouth was a severed head, half-chewed inside its grotesquely huge mouth. The man’s pained and horrified expression was frozen upon his face even in death.

The Chen clansmen froze for an instant.

The demon slowly lifted its head.

Its eyes turned toward them while blood and pieces of flesh continued to hang between its teeth.

"..."

One of the clansmen swallowed hard.

"What the hell..."

The demon suddenly grinned.

Its mouth stretched even wider.

"Hungry..."

The word came out in a distorted voice.

It dropped the half-eaten head onto the ground and crawled toward them.

"Kill it!"

Chen Guanshan’s voice immediately rang out.

Several Chen clansmen moved at the same time.

One stepped forward and swung his sword toward the demon’s arm, forcing it to raise its body and expose its neck.

Chen Guanshan was already there.

His figure flashed forward.

Slash!

His sword passed cleanly through the demon’s neck.

Its enormous head separated from its body and rolled across the stone ground.

Bang!

The remaining body collapsed immediately.

"Don’t stop!"

Chen Guanshan didn’t even bother checking the corpse. He turned toward the entrance and activated his body technique.

Whoosh!

His figure shot forward.

"Move!"

The Chen clansmen immediately followed without wasting a single breath. Spiritual energy surged through their legs as they circulated their body techniques to their limits.

Their figures rapidly crossed the stone ground, leaving behind only faint trails of dust as they sprinted toward the entrance.

There were still dozens of cultivation families left behind that were fighting against the demons. But as more and more people escaped, the original momentum rapidly deflated as everyone began making a run for their lives.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The distance disappeared within seconds, and they continued forward.

The entrance was already within sight, and Chen Guanshan pushed his speed even further. The Chen clansmen followed closely behind, circulating their body techniques to the limit as they crossed the remaining distance.

Several demons lunged at them along the way, but the Chen Family dealt with them without slowing down, cutting them down whenever they came too close.

"Faster!"

Chen Guanshan shouted as the enormous entrance drew closer.

The clansmen immediately increased their speed.

Their figures blurred as they crossed the final stretch, and within a few breaths, Chen Guanshan stepped through the entrance of the City Lord Mansion.

The entrance was located at the highest layer of Blue Cloud Mist City, and beyond the wide platform was an unobstructed view of the countless layers below.

Chen Guanshan took another step before his body suddenly stopped.

His eyes widened, and the sword in his hand subconsciously loosened in his grip as though he had forgotten about it entirely.

"What in the heavens’ name..."

He muttered, and his voice caught the attention of the others as they quickly arrived behind him and came to a stop.

"Elder Guanshan?"

One of them looked toward him before following his gaze.

His expression changed immediately when he noticed what Chen Guanshan was looking at.

"What..."

The word escaped his mouth without him realizing it.

More Chen clansmen gathered around them, and one after another, they looked down from the elevated platform. Other cultivators who had just arrived at the entrance also stopped nearby.

Like them, nobody seemed capable of saying anything for several breaths.

The Blue Cloud Mist City they had entered earlier was still there, but it had become almost unrecognizable from what it had been before.

Explosions erupted across the lower layers, sending flames, smoke, and shattered pieces of stone into the sky.

Buildings that had stood for decades were collapsing one after another as battles spread through the streets, while spiritual techniques flashed between the countless structures.

Then they noticed what stood among the destruction.

"What... are those things?"

There, within their sight across the city, gigantic pillars had risen throughout the city. They were enormous masses of flesh that stretched several stories into the air, and the closer Chen Guanshan looked, the more clearly he could see what they were made of.

Demons.

Crawling and intertwined demons.

Thousands of them were crawling over one another, their bodies intertwined to form the massive pillars. Arms stretched out from the tangled mass, fingers dug into flesh, and countless legs moved restlessly across their surfaces.

Shrieks of horror erupted from the pillars, with heads roaring and limbs flailing. From time to time, a captured cultivator or mortal would be thrown toward one of them and rapidly devoured.

Some demons crawled upward while others descended, and many simply clung to the sides while staring down at the streets below.

There was no order to their movements, yet the sheer number of them made the pillars look almost alive.

One of the clansmen took a step backward, his legs trembling.

"Elder..."

"T-those are demons, right?"

Chen Guanshan stared at the nearest pillar.

"Yes."

"W-what are they doing, E-Elder Guanshan? W-what are they trying to do?"

Chen Guanshan remained silent for several breaths before muttering,

"I don’t know..."

The answer made the clansman look even more solemn, and his face paled. Another clansman pointed toward a different part of the city, where another pillar had formed between several buildings.

"T-there."

He swallowed.

"T-there is more..."

His voice grew quieter as he looked farther into the distance.

"And another..."

Someone else looked toward the opposite side.

"How... did this happen?"

The clansmen slowly realized that they were not looking at a few isolated pillars. They were scattered throughout the lower layers of the city, rising from streets, between buildings, and around the various structures that connected the different levels.

Worse of all, it was not only demons that filled those pillars.

Chen Guanshan’s eyes slowly moved across the grotesque structures, and his expression became increasingly grim as he noticed the figures being dragged toward them.

Mortals.

Children.

Cultivators who had been captured during the chaos.

They were being carried through the streets by demons, some struggling desperately while others were already too injured to resist.

The demons did not seem to care about their screams. They simply dragged them toward the enormous pillars before throwing them directly onto the crawling mass.

The moment a person landed against the pillar, countless hands reached out.

Fingers wrapped around their limbs and torso, pulling them into the writhing mass of demons.

"No...!"

A cultivator screamed as several arms dragged him deeper into the pillar.

His sword fell from his hand and disappeared beneath the countless crawling bodies.

Another demon bit into his shoulder, then another tore into his side. Within moments, his screams became muffled beneath the mass of shrieks and screams.

She couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.

Her small hands desperately grabbed at the demon carrying her, but the creature simply twisted its body and threw her toward the pillar.

"Mommy!"

The little girl screamed as she flew through the air, tears streaming down her face.

"Mommy! Mommy, help me!"

Several hands immediately reached out from the crawling mass and caught her.

"No! No, please!"

She struggled desperately, kicking her little legs and trying to pull herself free as more hands wrapped around her arms and body.

"I don’t want to die!"

Her voice broke into sobs.

"Please! Somebody help me! Please!"

She looked toward the distant streets, desperately searching for anyone who might save her.

"Mommy! I want my mommy!"

The hands dragged her deeper into the pillar.

"Please! Please, don’t eat me!"

Her crying became louder as she clawed desperately at the bodies surrounding her.

"Help me! Somebody, please!"

The Chen clansmen watched helplessly as her tiny body disappeared beneath the countless crawling demons. One of them suddenly turned away, his face completely pale.

He bent over and vomited onto the stone platform.

"Ugh!"

The sound made several of the others flinch. Another clansman quickly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don’t look."

"I... I can’t..."

The man wiped his mouth with a trembling sleeve, but his eyes still seemed unable to move away.

"They’re children..."

His voice cracked.

"They’re actually eating children..."

No one answered him, as even the more experienced clansmen looked shaken. There was no battlefield dignity to it, no exchange of techniques between cultivators, and no struggle between opponents.

The demons were simply gathering humans and feeding them into those enormous pillars as though they were livestock being thrown into a furnace.

Another scream rose from below.

Then another.

And another.

The screams tore through the city constantly, their sound traveling through the streets until it reached the elevated platform.

Chen Guanshan’s face darkened. He stared at the pillars for several breaths, but he still couldn’t understand what they were.

He didn’t know why the demons were forming them, what purpose they served, or what would happen if they were allowed to spread throughout the city.

And he had no intention of finding out.

"Everyone."

His voice suddenly cut through the frightened murmurs.

The Chen clansmen turned toward him.

Chen Guanshan then pointed toward the eastern side of the city.

"We’re going east."

One of the clansmen quickly looked in that direction.

"East?"

"Yes."

Chen Guanshan narrowed his eyes.

Among the destruction below, the eastern side was comparatively clear. There were still demons fighting in the streets, but he could not see any of those enormous pillars there.

"There are no pillars on that side," he said. "We’ll break through from there."

"What about the other families?"

Chen Guanshan looked toward the countless cultivators still fighting throughout the city before turning his gaze back toward the clansman who had asked the question.

"In situations like this, we only have ourselves to save."

He tightened his grip around his sword.

"Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment. Our goal is to go back home, deliver the news, and escape from this region."

"I-"

"Don’t you understand?"

Chen Guanshan pointed toward the vast cascade of decay and destruction before them.

"It’s a demon invasion... Deep inside our kingdom’s territory at that. Far away from the southern border. Their presence here in such large numbers means that the southern border has completely fallen."

"I-I’m sorry..."

The clansman who had spoken just now lowered his head and apologized, and the group’s atmosphere became even heavier.

"...It’s fine."

Chen Guanshan turned toward the eastern side of the city.

"Let’s go."