Chapter 267 - 266: Secret Realm Transit

The meeting had just begun when a brief report on the war was brought in. The discussion about Jiang Qiu was temporarily set aside. After all, the most pressing issue now was the high probability that Gao Yuan City would fall, making the immediate evacuation of key personnel a top priority.

The state of the battle would essentially determine how much time they had left to move people out. With the Kunlun Demon Clan’s temporary retreat, now was the perfect time to accelerate the mass transfer.

It was completely unclear when the Kunlun Demon Clan would launch its second wave of attacks, so seizing every moment was the most critical task at hand.

Soon, the report was displayed on the conference room’s virtual screen. As the figures appeared one by one, the expressions of everyone present grew solemn.

The battle had been sudden. Two Great Grandmasters were severely injured and unable to attend the meeting. Twelve Grandmasters had been killed in action, and dozens more were gravely wounded. The number of deceased Dharma Realm Martial Artists had already surpassed one hundred.

Among the Martial Artists below that level, including non-commissioned officers, the cumulative death toll had already reached over ninety thousand. As for civilian casualties, it was impossible to get a count; their data was currently too difficult to investigate.

On the Demon Race’s side, only a single Demon Marshal had been severely injured and forced to flee—an outcome caused by Luo Beixing. The other Demon Marshals had suffered no fatal injuries and were now firmly entrenched in Gao Yuan City’s Outer City.

Furthermore, regarding the Demon Generals, it seemed only twenty-nine had been killed, with most of the rest being severely injured...

"Hmm? Demon General [Jie] is dead, too?" a Grandmaster suddenly asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion and surprise. "He was among the absolute top tier of Demon Generals. I heard he even had a Secret Technique to traverse space and commanded the Nether Dark Spirit Charm. He was exceptionally powerful."

On the screen now was a captured photo of Demon General [Jie]. He had the appearance of a Sheep-headed Death God, a savage, twisted grin on his face.

He was, arguably, the most difficult to kill and hardest to deal with among all the fallen Demon Generals. In terms of escape abilities, his were likely not much inferior to the Forbidden Secret Technique [Deceitful Escape] from Sang Island.

Moreover, his explosive power was astonishing. Two formidable Grandmasters from Tianshan City, lacking proper intelligence, were instantly killed by him without any chance to fight back.

Most of the Grandmasters present were not confident they could face such a terrifying existence alone; they would need to make preparations at the very least.

And yet, someone had actually managed to slay him?

"All of our Grandmasters stationed in Gao Yuan City who are still in decent condition are gathered here. And it wasn’t one of our own Gao Yuan City Grandmasters who killed him. That means it must have been done by a Martial Artist from the reinforcement contingents of other cities. That’s some serious strength."

A Grandmaster sighed with emotion. The reinforcements had arrived quickly and immediately dispatched a formidable foe. This was truly a joyous development, as it would lessen some of the pressure they would face later.

"I just wonder which Grandmaster, or perhaps Great Grandmaster, was the one to act?"

"We should make some inquiries after the meeting. This person is a crucial asset in our fight against the Kunlun Demon Clan!"

...

After arriving at the Martial Arts Building in Gao Yuan City’s Inner City, Jiang Qiu stayed close to his second senior brother. After all, the man’s identity was officially on record—a genuine Grandmaster who possessed special authority in emergencies.

Even though Jiang Qiu’s own identity had been entered into the system, his various permissions had not yet been fully established. He didn’t even have an ID card. He was more or less just a Northwest Martial Arts University student, which made it inconvenient to move about alone in such a critical area.

Now, Zhao Qian had brought him to the basement level of the Martial Arts Building. It was a restricted area larger than a football field, guarded by dedicated Dharma Realm Martial Artists. Various detection rays were set up in the hallways, and security cameras dotted the corners like holes in a beehive.

"There’s a high probability that Gao Yuan City can no longer be defended," Zhao Qian began to explain gravely. "And with the Outer City already fallen, we can’t get people out through conventional means. That’s why Gao Yuan City has activated this place. The plan is to use a special Ancient Rune Array to graft onto a Secret Realm, which will then serve as a transfer point to teleport large numbers of people out."

Listening to Zhao Qian’s solemn explanation, Jiang Qiu grew thoughtful.

Possessing the [Array Intuition] Talent and having studied *Array of the Reversed Sky*, he could tell at a glance that the Ancient Inscriptions laid out here had a special connection to space. It was likely some kind of spatial displacement array.

However, it wasn’t entirely an array. It was connected to a Secret Realm, making it a rather unorthodox application of Ancient Inscriptions.

Modern records about arrays are incredibly scarce; the art is almost a lost lineage. Xia Country’s Array Dao researchers are essentially starting from scratch to comprehend it. It’s hard to say how high their skill level is, but they are undeniably innovative.

Because they are unable to directly construct a spatial array capable of point-to-point teleportation, some Grandmasters specializing in Secret Realm research set the destination of the Ancient Inscription’s teleportation within a Secret Realm, from which a secondary transfer is then initiated.

It’s equivalent to opening an entrance to the Secret Realm here, loading everyone inside, and then initiating a second teleportation that lets them emerge in another, safer city.

During the college entrance exams, hadn’t the Kunlun Demon Clan used a similar method? They had altered the coordinates of the Kunlun City Secret Realm to point to the Twelve Great Halls. This just goes to show how flexible the spatial-jumping properties between Secret Realms are.

By using this method, they could naturally help the residents of Gao Yuan City evacuate safely.

It was just a shame that there were too many people. The resource consumption would be enormous—astronomical, even...

"Once the ordinary citizens and Non-Martial Artists are mostly evacuated, we Martial Artists who came as reinforcements from other cities have priority for evacuation. We’ll come here at that time to be teleported out.

"At the current transfer rate, it will take at least twenty-four hours to teleport the remaining tens of millions of citizens. And we have no idea when the Kunlun Demon Clan will attack again."

Zhao Qian gazed with emotion at the array space under a giant glass dome. Over two hundred thousand people had just been squeezed inside. Then, after a ripple of Secret Realm fluctuations, they vanished like reflections distorted and broken by water.

There were simply too many people in Gao Yuan City. Transporting them all would be incredibly difficult. It was even possible that, toward the end, their stored resources would be insufficient to activate a Teleportation Array of this magnitude again.

Gao Yuan City itself was located close to Kunlun City. It had seen considerable fighting in recent months and had consumed a great deal of resources. They might truly be unable to send away all tens of millions of people.

Of course, the families of Martial Artists, individuals with special talents, students from key high schools, and various experts were all guaranteed priority. Not a single one of them could be lost.

"Is there really no hope for Gao Yuan City to defeat the Kunlun Demon Clan?"

Jiang Qiu asked, his tone heavy.

Gao Yuan City was the place he was born, but now it was on the verge of falling. ’Even though I’ve reached the Peeping Dao Realm,’ he thought, ’it seems I can’t decide the outcome of this war.’

He knew that the Kunlun Demon Clan was incredibly powerful right now. The origins of [Chen] were too terrifying; almost no one in the current era could stand against him.

’But I really don’t want to see Gao Yuan City destroyed.’

"Defeat the Kunlun Demon Clan..." Zhao Qian murmured, his expression grave. "I heard my mentor mention that the Ancient Demon Emperor [Chen] may be unable to properly reach the Fusion Realm because he’s missing something—the very same thing that all Great Grandmasters approaching the peak are also lacking.

"If we could figure out what that missing piece is beforehand, obtain it before [Chen] does, and then gather the full power of the province to attack Kunlun, we might just be able to defeat the Kunlun Demon Clan."