Chapter 273.3: Eight Hundred Blood Descendant Temple Guards Against Eighteen Greater Demons! (III)

"What of it? They are merely eighteen greater demons. One charge from eight hundred of our temple guard forces would tear them apart."

Chen Ping knew what the temple guard force was worth. Essentially, they had the strength of eight hundred true demons. How terrifying was that if they all charged together?

"Good! Send the guards in."

At the order, eight hundred temple guards stepped out of the line.

Rumble!

The eight hundred charged in complete formation. The temple guard force wasn't composed of ordinary infantrymen. Instead, they were all blood descendants.

All of them unleashed the full power of their fleshly body at once. Terrible blood qi went up in waves and gathered overhead into an enormous blood-red cloud that blotted out the sky. The cloud rolled forward with the guards, carrying a dreadful force straight at the eighteen greater demons.

Boom!

All eighteen true demons brought out their demon bodies for a true head-on collision. However strong those bodies were, though, set against eight hundred temple guards and the blood cloud congealed overhead like something solid, the eighteen greater demons broke at the first touch.

A single touch was all it took to prove that their demon bodies were as fragile as eggshells, crushed to pieces in an instant.

Bam!

When the charge had passed through, the eighteen true demons had been reduced to pulp.

Silence.

At once, the whole battlefield had gone quiet. Up on the wall of Shanan, the officials all watched with open mouths as though they could not believe any of what they were seeing. The wall had dropped into a stillness like death.

"Dead? They're dead?"

"One charge, one exchange, and they're dead?"

"Weren't those eighteen greater demons? That was it?"

"Eighteen greater demons just died without so much as a scrap of resistance?"

"Did... did I see that correctly?"

The voices broke out along the wall.

Greater demons! Humans were no match for a greater demon, and that was a fact as true as time. Against ordinary true demons, humans could beat them with numbers, with martial artists, formations, and could even imprison them.

However, a greater demon was a different story.

Against a greater demon, human numbers meant nothing at all. A greater demon had always been a problem for humanity with no solution. Never mind twenty thousand men; even if there were a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, they could do nothing to one greater demon.

What allowed humanity to stand against them were the half-demons of the Demon God Ministry. Yet there were eighteen of them, dead at the first touch. That was not normal! It was very far from normal! It was past what any of them had expected and beyond what they understood of the world.

"Oh? That human army outside the walls is interesting. The prefecture lord says they belong to some organization called the Temple of Flesh and Blood? Well, well... The temple does have a few tricks after all. Demons aren't so easy to kill, though."

Miss Hongshuang was certainly surprised, though not especially worried, as demons were immortal. Only a demon could kill another demon. Once the eighteen came back, the army outside the walls would be the one that would collapse.

However uncanny the temple's army was, it was made of human beings, and how could human beings be a match for demons? Greater demons did not die, and everybody knew that. Even if one ground a demon's bones to powder and scattered their ash, they would come back all the same.

However, the eight hundred guards had a method to deal with such demons. They were blood descendants, and in training, the guards had worked out ten thousand ways of dealing with true demons. The most effective of them came down to a blood descendant's blood or flesh. Either one could kill a true demon.

"Halt! Temple guard force, all of you. Blood of the blood descendants, release!"

At the command, eight hundred temple guards cut their own wrists without a moment's hesitation.

A great sheet of dark red blood went up and came down over everything, falling on the pulp the eighteen greater demons had been reduced to. It came down thick, the way torrential rain poured down, and it covered the pulp fast.

The greater demons had only just begun pulling themselves back into shape when all of them let out a scream. Smoke rose off their flesh with a hissing sound.

Sure, one or two Second Growth blood descendants could bleed themselves dry and still do nothing to a greater demon. However, there were not only one or two. There were eight hundred of them, and the blood from eight hundred opened wrists combined into something close to a pool.

Under that pool, the flesh of the eighteen greater demons was devoured fast. In a matter of moments, all eighteen stopped moving.

Dead! The eighteen greater demons were genuinely dead, with no possibility left of reviving.

On the wall, Miss Hongshuang could hardly believe her own eyes.

"What? Eighteen greater demons are dead? Impossible! Utterly impossible! Only a demon can kill another demon. How could humans kill demons at all, let alone eighteen greater demons? The Temple of Flesh and Blood... These men called blood descendants... Aren't blood descendants human?"

The shock of it went right through her and turned everything she understood on its head. How could a human kill a demon? Through untold years, however brilliant and extraordinary a man was, he could not kill one. History had proven that only a demon could kill another demon.

"Unless the Temple of Flesh and Blood or these blood descendants... are demons themselves?"

The possibility of the blood descendants being demons surfaced. She had not felt the familiar true demon aura off them, but demons came in a very great many kinds, and their abilities ran in every strange way imaginable.

Perhaps they're a kind that hides its aura, disguised as the temple's men... as blood descendants? What power on earth could gather eight hundred true demons in one place, though?

Her thoughts had gone thoroughly muddled.

The officials of Shanan on the wall were in worse shape than she was. Every face turned ugly with shock, and some of them were shaking. They had thought their way to the worst outcome possible, and that was death. If the temple's men broke into Shanan City, they were going to die, and they knew it.

They had purged the temple out of Shanan Prefecture, after all. How many blood descendants had they killed? Now the temple had come back with an army. If the walls fell, would any of them be spared?

Some of them were already thinking of abandoning Shanan City, taking their wealth and running far away. The losses would be heavy but at least they would keep their lives. However, as things stood, none of them dared say so out loud. The prefecture lord might have their heads off for it.

The one suffering most was probably the prefecture lord himself. He had listened to the men egging him on to root out the Temple of Flesh and Blood. What had it gotten him? Now the temple had come back with an army, and eighteen greater demons had not been enough to stop it!

If they took over Shanan City, the prefecture lord would die cruelly. He was the chief culprit in all of it, after all. Even if the temple spared anyone else, it would never spare him.

"Calm down!" The prefecture lord raised his voice, trying to hold them together. "We still have high walls and a moat. The temple's rebels cannot get into Shanan."

The very next moment, eight figures shot out from the temple's ranks. They were the eight blood descendant Divine Guards at Third Growth! All of them were transcendents. They jumped into the moat at once, swam across it with sheer force, and came to stand at the foot of the wall.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gate and the wall shook violently. The eight of them had simply swung their fists and begun hammering at both. It seemed like there was no bottom to their strength. In a matter of minutes, the wall and gate both gave way.

Crash!

Several large holes opened in the wall and the gate came down with a roar. Every man there knew it then that Shanan Prefecture was finished.

"Shanan City is finished! Go, go now!"

"Run for your life, quickly!"

"The temple's people are monsters! Don't let them take you..."

The officials fled the wall as fast as their legs would carry them. Miss Hongshuang had also vanished at some point, but nobody was able to say when.

The Prefecture Lord of Shanan stood alone on the wall.

"It's over..."

Dazed, he watched the temple's army filing into his city. He understood clearly that everything was over.