"Martial Venerable! Senior Carefree Roaming Dragon’s name has also turned gray!"

"What?!"

Wang Zhifan, who was deep in thought, couldn’t help but halt his Wind and Thunder Step. He checked the Demon Sealing List again and found that the fourth place on the list, Carefree Roaming Dragon, which had been normal just moments ago, had now turned lifeless gray, indicating that this top expert had also been harmed.

"Carefree Roaming Dragon died after Emperor Master Tianhua, with a significant gap in between! This means they weren’t encountered by an Ancient God! It was the Demon Venerable who killed them!"

Though shocked, Wang Zhifan remained calm, knowing that Carefree Roaming Dragon and Emperor Master Tianhua were most likely fighting together today. Since they died at different times, it showed they hadn’t encountered an Ancient God.

For the pressure of an Ancient God is incomparable to that of a Demon Venerable, capable of annihilating Carefree Roaming Dragon and his allies in a short time without giving them much time to struggle.

"It must be so! But when did the Demon Realm have such a powerful Demon Venerable capable of killing three top cultivators in a short time?"

"Perhaps the Demon Realm has many new plagues, ambushing Emperor Master Tianhua and his companions?"

"Do you think Carefree Roaming Dragon and the others are fools? If there were too many Demon Venerables, they would unquestionably choose to retreat! They wouldn’t easily fall into a trap!"

"What if the Demon Realm developed some ingenious Array? I heard from cultivators specializing in Arrays that the Demon Realm’s Arrays are unique and should not be underestimated!"

...

The sudden fall of Carefree Roaming Dragon incited heated discussions among the cultivators surrounding Wang Zhifan, filling the air with a mix of anger and oppression.

Everyone felt a heavy heart but found it difficult to seek revenge since they had no clear idea of who the real culprit was or where Carefree Roaming Dragon and others had fallen. Even if they wanted to support, there was nowhere to go.

Wang Zhifan similarly was lacking in ideas, but he remembered his duty on this side and quickly calmed the chaotic thoughts of the crowd, leading them to continue attacking the Demon Army, temporarily forgetting the anomaly on the list earlier.

Later that day, they didn’t encounter many unexpected events. After completing their daily combat tasks, everyone teleported back home, and Wang Zhifan returned to Celestial Essence City.

Currently, the surroundings of Celestial Essence City are relatively safe. Inside the city, there is Zhenxu, the veteran Daoist guarding, and outside the city, the Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber often comes to help clear threats.

As Wang Zhifan’s Dao companion, the Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber is currently very low-key, and few Calamity Realm experts are aware of her.

Other than occasionally going out to battle with Wang Zhifan, she seldom goes far, to prevent the Demon Realm from threatening Wang Zhifan through her.

This is not her being overly sentimental; it’s something that someone intimately linked to the top of the Demon Sealing List must pay attention to.

The Demon Realm has long regarded Wang Zhifan as a thorn in their side. Were it not for the solidarity of the human race in the Calamity Realm, and the difficulty the Demon Realm experiences in gathering intelligence as a different race, a Demon Venerable would have come specifically to deal with her long ago.

Fortunately, the Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber is very rational and doesn’t act recklessly to trouble Wang Zhifan. She has been remarkably low-key these past two months, making her presence almost negligible on the Demon Realm’s side.

She usually helps at her old home on Moon Destruction Island or stays at Celestial Essence City, which is not far away.

With the warning system from the Demon Sealing List’s map, safety is maximized, significantly reducing the likelihood of incidents, allowing Wang Zhifan to fight with peace of mind.

On this day, Wang Zhifan returned to Celestial Essence City, and after some tender moments with the teleported-in Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber, they discussed the current Calamity Realm situation, especially the sudden fall of experts like Carefree Roaming Dragon, which had negative impacts comparable to the incident at Extreme Origin Mountain a month ago.

"Fan, the current war situation is tense, and it’s not surprising for the Demon Realm to occasionally gain the upper hand.

The chieftain specifically told me today that the top expert of the Vermilion Bird Race recently conducted a secret investigation at the Nine Heavens and found that The Master has suppressed the Demon Queen, and The Master shows signs of achieving Sainthood.

Thus, as long as we hold on, no matter how many ups and downs we experience, victory will belong to us in the Calamity Realm."

The Moon-Annihilating Dragon Saber’s words reveal crucial information about the situation between The Master and the Demon Queen at Nine Heavens.

This is arguably the most decisive factor for the current Calamity Realm situation, but they have always been battling in the distant Nine Heavens, making it difficult for those below to understand the specifics.

"Recently, the Daoist of No Heaven and No Earth used a Secret Technique to probe the Nine Heavens situation, drawing the same conclusion. So, these are likely the final difficult times before victory, and we must hold on."

Wang Zhifan agreed with the Dragon Maiden’s encouraging words. Those extraordinarily innate cultivators fighting life-or-death battles with Demon Venerables in the Calamity Realm couldn’t ignore The Master’s situation any longer. They had long been trying to investigate it.

This highlights a significant feature of high-level combat in a supernatural world: ultimate victory is determined by the top-tier combat power, yet below them, there are many tiers also fighting hard, bleeding, and striving.

It’s hard to describe the complexity of this feeling, as people at each level work hard for their survival, all the while knowing that their ultimate fate still depends on those above them.

Take Wang Zhifan and other extraordinarily innate forces, for instance, fighting against the invading Demon Venerables from the Demon Realm for several months now, with casualties on both sides, aided by the Demon Sealing List, appearing as the main characters of the battle, the determiners of victory or defeat. Yet above them, there are still several Saints and Demon Lords fighting it out.

These unseen, real top-tier forces are the true writers of the war’s outcome, as battles below don’t truly decide the battlefield.

However, Wang Zhifan knows as a player one thing—supernatural game instances won’t place them in a completely deadlock situation.

Since the objective of the instance is to repel the Demon Realm’s main force, it suggests it’s achievable, indirectly indicating The Master will eventually win against the Demon Queen, while the three Saints and five Demon Lords maintain their balance in the battle of worlds.

Otherwise, if The Master were to lose, no one in the Calamity Realm could defeat a Saint-level Demon Queen, leaving no hope for even a slight victory, and making it impossible for the Demon Realm’s main force to retreat after investing heavily in the Calamity Realm. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Thus, Wang Zhifan is clear that this instance is showing signs of concluding. Despite the Demon Venerables from the Demon Realm seeming endless and the fierce battles persisting for a hundred years, once The Master triumphs over the Demon Queen, the Demon Realm army will inevitably withdraw from the Calamity Realm obediently.

Otherwise, having The Master personally wipe out the Demon Realm army would result in the Demon Venerables and Demon Generals dying swiftly like ordinary demons, almost akin to giving victory freely, making it impossible for the Demon Realm to achieve their goal of occupying the Calamity Realm.

"The only question is, how long will this take? A month, two months, a year? Never mind, no matter how long, I will endure until the end!"

With an ever-firm belief, Wang Zhifan soon conveyed this spirit to the three players in the Martial Venerable Hall, strengthening their confidence in clearing the instance.

These three are not idling in Celestial Essence City; they venture out to fight almost daily alongside the city’s cultivators. However, their opponents are mainly Demon Generals and ordinary demons, placing them a tier below Wang Zhifan.

Several months of warfare had left these players numb. They endured severe injuries and life-threatening situations, yet their desire to clear the instance drove them to continue, hoping their efforts would soon complete the instance for rewards.

Wang Zhifan himself shared a similar attitude. After exchanging with the top experts still alive on the Demon Sealing List, he initially identified the activity range of the culprit responsible for the fall of Carefree Roaming Dragon, Emperor Master Tianhua, and others. He decided to scout the location at the appropriate time tomorrow, avenging the fallen cultivators in his position as the top of the Demon Sealing List.

After all, as the strongest standing human on the Calamity Realm, with too many former top cultivators fallen, if he didn’t step up to solve the problem, there would be no one else.