High Martial: I Grind Professions

A scene of Principal Ye Qin and Venerable Gu He instantly killing a few scattered Demon Kings also flashed by.

The three Venerables in the pavilion watched the light screen, unconcealable regret showing on their faces.

Killing a few Demon Kings was but a drop in the bucket for the overall situation.

"What a pity," Venerable Xingxuan sighed, his tone heavy.

Even if they rushed over now, it would be too late to stop anything. At best, they could make the Demon Race stop sending in more troops, but that would be of little significance.

The holographic forms of Ye Qin and Venerable Gu He also gave a slight nod.

On the monitoring screen, the teleportation light of the Blackrock Pass Stargate was still blazing brightly.

It was a sign that the storm destined to sweep across all of Blue Star had finally arrived.

...

That night, in addition to Blackrock Pass, countless members of the Demon Race swarmed the other small and medium-sized fortress passes.

The Human Race's strategic withdrawal, executed under the "Return to Ruins Plan," was complete. The entire population had been gathered into the core fortress cities.

The cost was the abandonment of vast territories and all Stargate fortress passes, with the exception of Mountain Rain Pass and Canghai Pass.

This was not cowardice, but a brutal calculus based on harsh reality.

For every day the Wujing Demon Saint remained hidden, he tied down the Human Race's strongest Venerable Level combatants.

Dispatching precious King-rank experts to defend large fortress passes that were doomed to fall? The risk was too high.

The Human Race's King-rank powerhouses were already few and far between. Aside from the handful who had awakened from their slumber, like the Celestial Martial King, if any of the others were unfortunate enough to encounter Wujing, they would likely fall in short order.

Sacrificing the Human Race's top-tier combatants just to kill a few Marquis Level Demon Kings was simply not worth the price.

What was even more deadly was the threat of a city-wide massacre.

If the Human Race sent its main King-rank forces to defend the Stargates, the Wujing Demon Saint could simply do the opposite, striking directly at the relatively vulnerable fortress cities.

With his Demon Saint Level strength, wiping a city from existence would be as easy as turning over his hand.

The population was the foundation of the Human Race's continued existence; if they suffered massive losses, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Although this was unlikely—the Wujing Demon Saint would not risk his own safety just to kill ordinary mortals—the Human Race had to guard against the possibility.

Another factor was that the Demon Race had complete control over the timing of the invasion.

Even if the Human Race paid a heavy price to defend every pass tonight, the Demon Race could simply abandon the attack temporarily.

If not tonight, they could come tomorrow night. They could even drag things out indefinitely.

This was an overt scheme, one the Demon Race could enact openly by leveraging its superior power.

For now, the Human Race could only bear this pressure and watch helplessly.

Thus, after abandoning the outer passes, the torrent of the Demon Race flowed unopposed, surging into the heartlands of the Human Race.

The bloody curtain had officially risen on the second all-out war between the Human Race and the Demon Race.

...

「Time passed, drop by drop.」

After a night of mobilization and concealment, the Demon Race's vast legions had seeped like a plague into the depths beneath the abandoned cities and wildernesses all across Blue Star.

They awaited only the highest command to burst forth from the ground and descend upon humanity's last core fortress cities.

In a palace deep within the Shadow Organization's headquarters, the Wujing Demon Saint sat upon the main seat.

A massive holographic projection of Blue Star floated before him, covered in a dense, uncountable spread of light points.

Each point of light represented a Demon Race force on standby, with different colors distinguishing the various clans.

Eerie green points of light, representing ordinary Demon Race members, covered the outer regions like moss.

Yellow points of light, symbolizing powerful Demon Kings, were clustered as densely as poisonous thorns around every human core fortress city.

The few, glaring red dots that flickered occasionally were the much-anticipated Great Demon Kings, lurking in positions even closer to the heart of things.

The points of light converged into a Star River, aimed directly at humanity's very lifeline.

The Wujing Demon Saint stared at this war map, a representation of the Demon Race's immense ambition and resources. His gaze was profound, yet he delayed giving the final order to attack.

In all his years lying dormant in the human world, he had not been merely recovering or waiting.

The wisdom humanity had accumulated over thousands of years, especially the cunning and calculation of its "art of war," had benefited him immensely.

"Warfare is the art of deception. Make the illusory appear real, and the real appear illusory."

These words were deeply branded into his mind.

And now was the perfect time to apply this lesson.

He knew the Human Race was on high alert, sleeping on their spears and ready for battle, their morale at its peak.

A head-on assault, even if it led to victory, would come at a devastating price.

What he had to do was let this heavy cloud of war hang continuously and silently over every human city.

He would let their taut nerves be slowly eroded by anxiety and fatigue during the long wait. He would let their soaring morale quietly slip away amidst the silent torment.

Only when that string was stretched to its absolute limit, showing the first imperceptible sign of slackening, would he launch his thunderous strike.

He would let fear and time become the invisible vanguard of his great army.

The Wujing Demon Saint kept his calculations buried deep in his heart, not even informing his most trusted subordinates.

As a result, an unavoidable sense of anxiety and confusion began to permeate the Demon Race armies scattered across Blue Star during the deathly silent wait.

Deep underground on the outskirts of a human core fortress city, several Demon Kings had gathered.

Their massive demonic bodies seemed cramped in the narrow space, and the air was thick with the smell of earth and a suffocating tension.

An Ox Demon couldn't help but ask in a booming voice, "What's going on? Aren't we all ready? Why hasn't the order to attack been given? What is the Lord Demon Saint waiting for?"

He impatiently scraped his horns against the nearby rocks.

A Demon King beside him, who exuded a cold aura, glanced at him. His voice was hoarse as he spoke:

"The thoughts of a great personage are not for the likes of you and me to fathom. If we are told to wait, we wait. If we are told to attack, we attack. What's the rush?"