Chapter 646 - 422: Return and Respect
Witnessing the Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber break through to the Super Innate Realm, the few exchanged words briefly before bidding farewell, each returning to their respective homes.
Except for the three monks of the Buddhist Sect responsible for handling the aftermath of this Demon Realm invasion, everyone else left Huangzhou.
Qingfeng had to return to the Confucian Sect to copy texts as punishment, and the Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber said they needed to visit the Canglan Ancient Sea Race Land, leaving only Wang Zhifan to return to Celestial Essence City.
In fact, Wang Zhifan didn’t necessarily have to return to Celestial Essence City; he could have gone elsewhere to inquire about powerful Demon Realm invaders. However, he didn’t want to forgo the convenience his identity as a person of the Dao Realm afforded him, so he chose to return to the Taoist metropolis two thousand miles away.
The journey itself needs no elaboration. Wang Zhifan still relied on his old companion, Red Deer Horse, to take him there, spending over half an hour.
Along the way, he sporadically encountered some roaming forces of the Demon Realm, but these were relatively weak types, with less than a thousand demonmen and at most three to five Demon Generals.
These discoveries confirmed that the Demon Realm was indeed executing a scatter-and-star strategy for its invasion, and the main army had likely not yet entered.
Wang Zhifan used the power of ice or the Annihilation Aura to easily deal with some of the forces that no one had attended to, disregarding those which human cultivators had already intervened in; these were just weak Demon Realm forces, perfect for the cultivators to practice on.
However, upon returning near Celestial Essence City, Wang Zhifan unexpectedly discovered a large army of Demon Realm invaders surrounding the outskirts of this Taoist city, numbering over thirty thousand.
He first noticed the presence of Demon Venerables on the battlefield, though they appeared only as corpses—three of them, specifically, charred and sliced into pieces.
The entire battlefield was visibly outside Celestial Essence City, with the city’s defense array emitting a gentle azure glow, enveloping the city. Few demonmen could approach, much less cause damage.
After all, Celestial Essence City had a substantial number of Taoist cultivators with enough strength to repel the invading tens of thousands of demonmen.
"The Demon Realm is so rampant? Attacking Celestial Essence City directly?"
Such a scene was beyond Wang Zhifan’s expectations. After confirming that the Demon Venerables had already been eliminated, he immediately joined in dealing with the remaining Demon Generals on the battlefield.
Mainly because he felt a bit embarrassed, having chosen to stay in Celestial Essence City yet suddenly went to Huangzhou’s Buddhist lands to help them fight the Demon Venerables, unaware of the ambush on Celestial Essence City by three Demon Venerables. He thought lending a hand now would make amends for his oversight.
Thus, on a battlefield already clearly dominated by Celestial Essence City’s Taoist forces, another powerful Taoist expert suddenly appeared, bringing a dimensional reduction strike. The Demon Generals still entangled with the Taoist Innate began to fall one by one, significantly accelerating Celestial Essence City’s victory.
"Demon! Taste my Demon-slaying Divine Sword Skill!"
At this moment, the Qingyang Palace’s gatekeeper disciple, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old Innate Realm Taoist youth, whom Wang Zhifan was familiar with, was also fervently engaged in battle outside Celestial Essence City against a ten-foot-tall, ghastly fierce Demon General.
This young Daoist, though still a minor, possessed true Innate Realm cultivation. Like Wang Zhifan’s impression of him, he excelled in using Flying Sword Skill against adversaries, riding a sword for flight while controlling twin swords for attack in a three-sword style.
As the young Daoist flew through the air, he called out, and the sword technique he used dazzled onlookers. Suddenly, the two flying swords he controlled converged, merging into a single giant sword larger than a person, bursting out in rings of azure light towards the dreadful Demon General on the ground!
The Demon General, seeing his opponent unleashing a special skill, remained calm and responded swiftly. He suddenly dived towards the ground, and like a clay figure in a flood, his ten-foot-tall body vanished into the ground in an instant.
"Demon! You can’t escape!"
The Qingyang Palace’s young Daoist saw this and remained confident. He drove the giant merged flying sword to attack the ground fiercely. With a thunderous roar, he smashed out a pit on the surface where the Demon General had just disappeared, at least ten feet wide and two zhang deep.
"Is it dead?"
The power of this sword move was significant, raising a lot of dust around. The young Daoist, unable to see the ground clearly or sense the enemy’s state through the dust, controlled his flying sword to descend slightly, intending to get closer for a better look.
Of course, he wasn’t a careless fool. During this observation, he had already recalled the giant flying sword to revert to the twin sword state, surrounding himself defensively as he slowly descended.
But at this moment, amidst the obstructed view from the airborne dust, a ten-foot-tall silhouette unexpectedly appeared above and behind the young Daoist! It was the very same Demon General who had burrowed underground!
It turned out the Demon General not only survived the young Daoist’s ultimate attack but cunningly escaped to the distance, taking advantage of the dust raised by the sword technique’s impact on the ground to secretly approach the young Daoist from above!
This was clearly a combination of concealment capability and psychological warfare.
The Demon General managed to surreptitiously close in on the young Daoist amidst the dust. He must have used some skill to dampen his presence, as simply moving slowly wouldn’t have ensured he wouldn’t be detected.
Simultaneously, he chose to approach from above, anticipating the young Daoist would assume he had emerged on the ground, thereby unconsciously lowering his guard to the area above and behind him, the ideal position for an ambush.