Chapter 427 - 267: Rout
Almost at the same instant the command hub of Furnace Castle erupted in ecstasy.
A resonant, excited voice, filled with supreme majesty, echoed through the global communication network to every corner of Red Flame Star.
It resounded in the ears and hearts of every survivor:
"To all the soldiers of Red Flame Star! To all my compatriots! I am Fierce Lion, leader of the Mercenary Alliance!"
His voice paused, as if he were suppressing immense excitement.
"I, Fierce Lion, in my name as leader of the Alliance and as its guardian Venerable, hereby declare!"
His voice suddenly soared, filled with the triumphant relief of having vanquished the demonic scourge.
"The war against the Demon Race’s invasion, which lasted two hundred and thirty-seven years—is over!"
"As of today! As of this very moment! All members of the Demon Race that invaded the surface and underground of our Red Flame Star have been uprooted and utterly purged! Not a single one remains!"
It was as if the entire planet had been put on pause.
Everyone who heard the broadcast, whether they were in battlefield ruins, shelters, command centers, or in cities that had just been liberated, held their breath and looked up in disbelief.
Fierce Lion’s voice, filled with unprecedented reverence and gratitude, thundered across the sky:
"The one who has accomplished this monumental, unprecedented feat, bringing eternal peace to our Red Flame Star, is none other than—"
"Changning Saint Venerable—Li Wen!!!"
BOOM!
After a brief, dead silence, an eruption like a mountain collapsing into a tsunami followed.
"Changning Saint Venerable!"
"Saint Venerable! Saint Venerable! Saint Venerable!"
First scattered, then converging, until countless voices across the entire planet, filled with the ecstasy of survival and boundless gratitude and worship for their savior, pierced the heavens, merging into a single title that resounded throughout the cosmos:
"Changning Saint Venerable—!"
"Changning Saint Venerable—!!"
"Changning Saint Venerable—!!!"
The tidal wave of voices shook the land and sky of Red Flame Star, again and again.
At this moment, Li Wen’s name echoed across the Star River.
...
Li Wen, whose Primordial Spirit constantly enveloped all of Red Flame Star, clearly heard the cheers that resounded across the planet.
A genuine, relieved, and gratified smile finally appeared on his chiseled face.
It was a smile of relief that his efforts had paid off, a smile of fulfillment for his duty as a protector.
He did not appear to accept the worship of billions.
He simply sent a calm yet supremely majestic Primordial Spirit transmission directly into Venerable Fierce Lion’s sea of consciousness:
"Fierce Lion, the matter here is settled. The Stargate is sealed, and the threat to Red Flame Star has been eliminated. I am needed to aid other stars, so I will take my leave."
His words were concise, yet they explained everything.
As his voice faded, Li Wen’s figure had already vanished from the outer space of Red Flame Star.
There was no earth-shattering display of power, only a single step that caused a slight ripple in space.
As if melting into the void, he sped off toward another Human Race planet ravaged by war—Cangwu Star.
...
「As Li Wen sped toward Cangwu Star.」
Deep beneath the crust of Cangwu Star, hundreds of miles down.
Within a vast palace built of dark red Crystal Stones, the Demon Power was thick and menacing.
The master of this place, the Demon Saint "Bloodscale," was coiled upon his throne, cultivating by absorbing the dense, baleful energy.
Suddenly!
BUZZ—
An inconspicuous, dark purple bone pillar next to his throne, carved with countless bizarre runes, abruptly glowed with a scarlet light.
A cold, tyrannical will, carrying a supreme and inviolable pressure, forcibly descended across the endless Star Sea.
The Demon Saint Bloodscale snapped open his scarlet, vertical pupils.
A trace of shock and doubt flickered in his eyes, but it was overshadowed by an instinctual reverence and submission to this will.
He immediately prostrated himself, lowering his head deep to the floor.
"Greetings, my Emperor! What are Your Majesty Shadow Claw’s orders?"
This pillar was connected to none other than one of the three great Demon Emperors of the Demon Realm.
The one known for his sinister cunning and for tearing the void with his claws—the Shadow Claw Demon Emperor!
The scarlet light on the pillar twisted and coalesced into the blurry phantom of a beast’s claw, emanating a terrifying aura.
It was a projection of the Shadow Claw Demon Emperor’s will.
A cold, urgent, and undeniable command stabbed directly into the Demon Saint Bloodscale’s sea of consciousness:
"Bloodscale! Immediately abandon all plans on Cangwu Star! Order all your subordinates to withdraw to the Demon Realm through the Stargates at all costs, at the fastest possible speed! Execute this now! Immediately!"
The Demon Saint Bloodscale’s massive body went rigid.
He raised his enormous head, his vertical pupils filled with extreme confusion and disbelief.
"Your... Your Majesty?! Why... why is this? It seems something has gone wrong on Red Flame Star, but everything on Cangwu Star is under control. In a few more months, your subordinate is confident he can completely break through..."
"Idiot!" The Shadow Claw Demon Emperor’s will let out a furious roar that shook the entire underground palace.
"Red Flame Star hasn’t ’gone wrong’! It’s completely finished!
Just now, all the Stargates were completely sealed, and the Red Flame Demon Race... was completely annihilated! Not even a single messenger escaped."
"Wha-what?!" The Demon Saint Bloodscale was struck as if by lightning, his massive demonic body trembling violently.
His scarlet, vertical pupils instantly shrank to pinpricks, filled with an indescribable terror.
"Scared now, are you?!" The Shadow Claw Demon Emperor’s voice was bone-chillingly cold.
"I don’t care how the Human Race did it. It looks like their next target is undoubtedly Cangwu Star!
So you will immediately! Right now! Have every last demon that can retreat, retreat!
Then you yourself will flee Cangwu Star at once! Get into outer space! Get as far away as you can!"
"Ye-yes! Your subordinate obeys! Thank you for the warning, Your Majesty!" The Demon Saint Bloodscale was terrified beyond belief, not a shred of doubt remaining.
’If the Human Race could annihilate all the demons on Red Flame Star so quickly, it means they can also annihilate all the demons on Cangwu Star, including a Demon Saint like me. A single step too slow, and I’ll be utterly destroyed, body and soul!’
The scarlet light on the bone pillar instantly extinguished.
The Demon Saint Bloodscale shot to his feet, devoid of any of his usual saintly majesty, leaving only a soul-shattering terror.
His immense Demon Power erupted in an instant, transforming into a viscous, bloody light.
Without hesitation, he smashed through the thick rock of the palace ceiling.
At the fastest speed he had ever moved in his life, he fled recklessly toward the surface—no, toward the space beyond the planet.
At the same time, a retreat order filled with extreme panic and the highest authority was instantly transmitted via the special demonic will imprints he had left behind into the minds of all Demon King Level and above members of the Demon Race on Cangwu Star:
"All Cangwu Demon Race! Highest emergency retreat order! Immediately withdraw to the Demon Realm through the nearest Stargate! Violators will be executed! I repeat, retreat immediately!!!"
...
「Before the Demon Saint Bloodscale issued the order.」
Cangwu Star, the megacity of Linger City.
The city walls had collapsed in many places, and its energy shield had long since shattered.
Inside the city, the Human Race defenders had suffered heavy casualties.
The few dozen surviving Fiendgods, led by a captain at the Peak of Marquis level, were desperately holding on, relying on the last few barricades.
Every one of them was wounded, their True Aura nearly depleted, and their eyes filled with utter despair.
Outside the city, a "Xuanggu Great Demon King," a hundred zhang tall, covered in black bone armor, and exuding a ferocious aura, was letting out a sky-shaking roar.
It was commanding a tide of Demon Beasts to launch a final assault.
Its giant, scarlet eyes glinted with a cruel, bloodthirsty light.
In its eyes, the city before it and those tenaciously resisting Fiendgods were already a meal on its plate.
"ROAR! Tear them apart! Leave no one alive!" The Xuanggu Great Demon King swung its giant claw and personally lunged at the crumbling final defensive line.
Seeing the sharp bone claw about to fall, the Fiendgods in the city closed their eyes in despair.
Just at this critical moment!
BUZZ!
A demonic will message, carrying supreme authority and extreme panic, stabbed violently into the core of the Xuanggu Great Demon King’s sea of consciousness.
"Highest emergency retreat order! All Demon Race on Red Flame Star have been annihilated. Suspected Human Race Saint Realm expert approaching! Abandon everything! Retreat to the Demon Realm immediately!"
The Xuanggu Great Demon King’s massive body froze in mid-air.
The giant claw that was about to strike down came to a dead stop.
In its giant scarlet eyes, the bloodthirsty madness was instantly replaced by boundless shock and terror!
"Saint... Saint Realm?!!"
The Xuanggu Great Demon King’s enormous head snapped in the direction of Red Flame Star.
Although it could see nothing, it felt as if it could sense a terrifying pressure rapidly approaching—a pressure that made its very soul tremble!
’Red Flame Star... is really finished? This fast?!’
Although it was savage and bloodthirsty, to have cultivated to the Great Demon King realm meant it was by no means a brainless brute.
’The highest retreat order, issued personally by the Demon Saint Bloodscale and even carrying the brand of the Demon Emperor’s will, could not possibly be fake.’
In an instant, the fat meat about to enter its mouth, the pleasure of slaughter—all of it became worthless in the face of death.
"ROAR—!" The Xuanggu Great Demon King let out a roar filled with unwillingness yet also terror.
It violently retracted its giant claw and issued a completely different command to the surging tide of beasts below:
"Retreat! Everyone! Immediately! Right now! Withdraw to the nearest Stargate! Hurry! At your fastest speed! Any who disobey, this Lord will personally tear them to shreds!"
After roaring, it didn’t even bother to glance at the astonished horde of Demon Beasts or the Human Race defenders below.
Its massive body erupted with billowing Demon Power, transforming into a trail of black smoke.
Without a single look back, it fled frantically toward the coordinates of a specific Stargate on the distant horizon.
Its speed was so great it was as if death itself was one second behind, ready to catch it.
On the city walls, the Human Race Fiendgods who had been preparing for death were all completely dumbfounded.
Watching the Demon Beasts suddenly retreat like a receding tide, watching the pathetic, fleeing back of that terrifying Great Demon King.
Everyone looked at each other, the immense shock of their narrow escape from death leaving them momentarily unable to react.
"Wha-what happened?"
"That Great Demon King... ran away?"
"The Demon Race... retreated? We... we survived?"
A great confusion enveloped the survivors.
...
Not long after, a powerful stream of light hastily arrived at Linger City.
Seeing the scene before him, he too was stunned.
After listening to the incoherent descriptions from the surviving Fiendgods, Cyan Blade King’s brow furrowed tightly.
’The Demon Race retreated in the middle of a battle?’
The information was too bizarre to believe.
He took this strange intelligence, along with reports from several other battlefields where the Demon Race was also staging large-scale, abnormal retreats, and immediately reported it to the supreme protector of Cangwu Star—Venerable Ancient Tree.
Venerable Ancient Tree was stationed in the Life Ancient Castle, the core of Cangwu Star.
He was also filled with suspicion by the reports coming in from all over about the Demon Race’s unprompted, large-scale retreat.
His powerful Primordial Spirit swept across the planet, and he did indeed sense countless members of the Demon Race scurrying about like ants from a disturbed nest.
They were frantically swarming toward all known Stargate strongholds, the scene chaotic beyond description.
There were even instances of them slaughtering each other to fight for priority in teleporting.