Chapter 297 - 296: Purging North Border City

The beastkin who had just left the conference hall were still discussing their future when a message suddenly resonated through their blood—

"No one is to leave the Xia Country Management District. You are especially forbidden from approaching the North Snow Wolf Clan’s territory!"

The ram-headed man, the Minotaur, and the other Bright Soul Realm experts felt a tremor in their souls. They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with utter confusion. ’What’s gotten into the Demon Monarch?’

He was telling them to hole up in the management district for no reason. ’Could it be that those bastards from the Three Great Demon Clans of the North Wilderness can’t wait any longer? Are they going to absorb us and hand North Border City over to the Kunlun Demon Clan?!’

As this possibility occurred to him, the Minotaur’s eyes went wide, and he seethed with fury. "Those damn Demon Race bastards..."

BOOM—

An overwhelming pressure erupted from the building they had just left. Glass shattered and a gale howled. The Minotaur’s face stiffened. He and the others whipped their heads around just in time to see the figure of an unfamiliar youth charge out of the building, a jet-black spear in hand as he ascended into the sky.

’What’s happening? This aura... it’s far beyond the Demon Monarch’s!’

The Minotaur was horrified, his eyes nearly popping from their sockets. ’Don’t tell me our leader was killed! Were those his last orders?!’

Before his brain could process any further, his blood ran cold. A spear of flame shot through the sky, its crimson trail tearing across the heavens.

BOOM—

In the blink of an eye, a blast like a nuclear explosion erupted in the direction the spear had flown. Roiling gales swept out like a cataclysm.

BOOM—

BOOM—

He repeated the same attack twice more, launching spears of flame in two other directions, each erupting in a brilliant flash of light.

...

The Minotaur’s jaw dropped, and he choked on a mouthful of dust. Like the other people in the Xia Country Management District, he was frozen to the spot, trembling instinctively.

He wanted to move but didn’t dare, like an insect before a world-ending True Dragon.

HUM...

Another bloodline message came from the Demon Monarch—

"The powerhouses from the Three Great Demon Clans of the North Wilderness stationed in North Border City have all been eliminated! Each of you, take your men and hunt down the fleeing members of the Demon Race!

From this day forward, in the name of Jiang Qiu, we will purge North Border City!"

Jiang Qiu?!

The two words rang like thunder.

The Minotaur’s soul surged, and his blood boiled. He could even feel faint signs of an Ancestral Return. The ram-headed man was equally dumbfounded, as if witnessing a god descend to the mortal realm. "The Jiang Qiu who broke through to Grandmaster in one battle and forced Emperor [Chen] to retreat... he’s actually alive!"

Ever since [Zuo Xuan] plundered Blue Star, everyone had assumed all the world’s prodigies had been taken away, except for the Kunlun Demon Clan led by Emperor [Chen], whose backing was too terrifying to challenge.

After all, even those hidden in Secret Realms were captured.

Everyone assumed the same had happened to the Northern Wilderness Great Secret Realm. Contact had been cut for three months; who knew what was going on inside?

But now, Jiang Qiu had appeared!

A Grandmaster of the Human Race!

’The Demon Monarch truly is farsighted,’ he thought. ’By siding with Xia Country, we got Jiang Qiu himself to take action. Once the rest of the Demon Race is slaughtered, North Border City will be ours to rule.’

The Minotaur called to his subordinates and was the first to charge toward the city gates. "Don’t panic! In the name of Jiang Qiu, we purge North Border City! Drive out the demon hordes!"

...

After taking care of the Demon Race menace in North Border City—a favor to his teacher, Wu Xing, and the late Grandmaster Zhu Weiyi—Jiang Qiu continued flying toward the heart of Xia Country with Lin Yu.

"In Xia Country’s Northwest Province, only Yongjiang City is still standing. All the other cities were wiped out by the Great Demon armies of the Kunlun Demon Clan. Elder Lin, most of Yongjiang City’s residents had already evacuated the Northwest Province. The Northwest is practically empty."

Hearing this news, which Jiang Qiu had learned from Wu Xing, Lin Yu stared blankly, his eyes wide. "The Northwest... is empty?"

"A Venerable named [Zuo Xuan] teleported here from the Nine Venerable Great Realm and abducted all the world’s powerhouses and prodigies. Only the Kunlun Demon Clan somehow managed to avoid capture. Afterward..."

Jiang Qiu recounted everything he had just heard from Wu Xing. He himself was incensed and found the news difficult to digest, let alone how it must feel for Lin Yu, who was over a century old.

Who could have ever imagined it would come to this?

"So what’s the overall situation in Xia Country now?"

Lin Yu asked, his fists clenched and his breathing heavy.

"Most provinces have suffered severe blows. The Kunlun Demon Clan isn’t just operating in the Northwest Province; they are launching a full-scale invasion of Xia Country. On top of that, the Sang Island forces on the East Coast remain powerful and pose a great threat.

Furthermore, the Western Church has now unified the West and seems to have designs on infiltrating Xia Country as well."

Hearing this, Lin Yu took a deep breath. After a moment of dazed silence, his eyes blazed with murderous intent. "When a dragon is stranded, even shrimp will mock him; when a tiger is cornered, even dogs will snarl. How arrogant they are, bullying Xia Country as if we have no one left to fight!"

Since the resurgence of the Secret Realms, Xia Country had always been the strongest nation leading the new age of martial arts. The sheer number of its Martial Artists was unparalleled, and it produced one prodigy after another.

As the bulwark against the Demon Race, Xia Country shouldered so much of the burden for Blue Star. And yet now, how many human factions have turned their backs on the Human Race?

The Western Church somehow developed a [Pseudo-God Bloodline], turning themselves into monsters while still claiming to act in the name of the Holy Light.

The Martial Artists of Sang Island were the first to forsake their origins, directly fusing themselves with Demon Race bloodlines.

This is the state of Blue Star today!

"Now that we’re back, Xia Country will no longer be bullied by petty thugs. You go and handle the luring of the nation’s Martial Artists. I’m going to Sang Island to deal with that menace."

"Alone? Do you need me to go with you?"

Lin Yu frowned at Jiang Qiu. He instinctively worried that the despicable forces of Sang Island might try to swarm him. If anything happened to Jiang Qiu, the Human Race would have little chance of making a comeback.

As things stood, Jiang Qiu was the strongest human on Blue Star. But there was no telling what strange methods Sang Island might employ. If he were to fall into a trap, it would be a fatal blow to Xia Country!

"Don’t worry. Besides the Kunlun Demon Clan, there shouldn’t be anyone on Blue Star above the Peeping Dao Realm. They are no threat to me."

Jiang Qiu’s eyes shone with confidence. "Elder Lin, you should still go and begin the luring of the Xia Country Martial Artists. Without a unifying figure, they’ll have a hard time fending off the Kunlun Demon Clan’s relentless invasions."

"Alright. Be careful."

"I will."

The two parted ways. Lin Yu continued on toward the heart of Xia Country, while Jiang Qiu flew directly toward Sang Island, his figure streaking across the sky like a dragon.

Sang Island’s power had grown rapidly. Even though most of their prodigies had been abducted, they had somehow produced a dozen new Dharma Realm experts in just three months, posing a massive threat to the East Coast.

It was important to remember that the highest Realm currently attainable by humans on Blue Star was the Dharma Realm. Most who reached it had only done so in the last three months, making their numbers exceedingly scarce.

But Xia Country’s foundations were deep. Even though the war on the East Coast was not going in their favor, they had not yielded a single inch of land.

This trip to Sang Island was to uproot those bastards of mixed blood. The score had not yet been settled for them guiding the Three Great Demon Clans of the North Wilderness to besiege North Border City!

A filthy race deserved to be annihilated.

Betraying the Human Race is unforgivable.