Chapter 407: Chapter 55: Surging Demon Tide, the True Phoenix of Old is a Great Saint

"Majestic City is a colossal ancient city standing behind the Celestial Great Wall Pass. The era of its founding is lost to time, but it appeared here alongside the Great Wall 6,800 years ago..."

In Majestic City, inside a small tavern, Lu Xiuyuan explained with a chuckle, taking a sip of his warm wine.

Beside him, Chong Shanhu, who had traveled to the city by starship, nodded thoughtfully and sighed.

"Majestic City... it’s brimming with a majestic air..."

This small tavern was packed with patrons. They were drinking heartily, playing loud drinking games, and chatting idly in small groups.

To one side of the tavern, Zhou Xiaotong sat sipping a large glass of orange juice. The Old Black Dog beside her looked ancient and decrepit. Sniffing the wine-soaked air, it let out a huge yawn.

Next to the little girl and the old dog, Chong Shanhu was asking Lu Xiuyuan a question.

"Sir, are you also a veteran of the Great Wall?"

"I am."

Lu Xiuyuan took another hearty swig of his warm wine and said with a smile,

"Don’t I look the part?"

"Not really?" Chong Shanhu shook his head. "The air of a warrior about you is faint. You seem more like a scholar..."

At this, Lu Xiuyuan simply smiled.

"I guarded the Great Wall for many years. Later, my injuries were too severe, so I returned to the Ancestor Star to recuperate for a time. As fate would have it, my wounds healed, and I even broke through to the next level, so I came back."

He paused, then looked at the other patrons in the tavern and remarked with a sigh,

"These drunkards playing finger-guessing games, many of them have lived in Majestic City for generations. Take the tavern owner, for example. I know his story. His great-grandfather was a Great Wall veteran who died in battle. His grandfather died in battle, too. Later, his father also fell in this very place..."

Lu Xiuyuan’s voice was calm, but it was laced with a deep sense of sorrow.

Chong Shanhu fell silent at once. He and Zhou Xiaotong, who was still clutching her juice, glanced over at the chubby, cheerful-looking tavern owner.

The bustling owner seemed to notice their gazes and looked back, a broad smile spreading across his face.

Lu Xiuyuan then continued,

"The Human Race numbers in the trillions. Nine hundred billion live safely on the Ancestor Star. The remaining hundred billion reside here in Majestic City. Men and women, old and young, all can be soldiers. This place has truly become their home."

For a moment, Chong Shanhu was lost in a daze. He silently took a large gulp of his warm beer, feeling the heat spread through his body, and then sighed.

"These Demon Children outside the pass... when will we ever be able to kill them all?"

"We can’t. The Demon Race is far more naturally gifted than the Human Race. They reproduce extremely quickly. For some clans, a pair of demons can produce tens of thousands of offspring in a single year."

Lu Xiuyuan set down his wine cup, a weary yet strong smile on his face.

"We may never kill them all, but as long as we can keep those Demon Children beyond the Great Wall and hold them back in the starry sky, that’s enough. That is our mission."

As he spoke, his gaze grew distant.

"Over eighty percent of the people in Majestic City have never even been to the Ancestor Star in their entire lives, yet they have defended it for so, so many years..."

Chong Shanhu nodded silently, feeling a suffocating tightness in his chest.

Suddenly, a great bell began to toll—eight consecutive chimes—accompanied by a heart-rending cry:

"The Demon Race is storming the pass! The Demon Race is storming the pass! The Demon Race is storming the pass!!!"

The entire terrifying, colossal city, home to a hundred billion people, came to a sudden halt.

The small tavern, too, fell deathly silent.

The next moment.

The patrons tossed down their money and hurried home. When they reappeared on the streets, they were all clad in armor and bearing arms. The chubby tavern owner rushed into the back room, and when he emerged, he too was wearing a suit of Heavy Armor, gripping a nearly ten-foot-long Great Halberd. He roared:

"To the pass!!"

There was no clamor, no debate, no cries of fear.

There was only the clang of Armor on Armor, the thud of heavy footsteps on the ground, and the ringing of swords being drawn from their sheaths, filling all of Majestic City!

Chong Shanhu, Zhou Xiaotong, and even the Old Black Dog, who had all run out of the tavern, stared blankly at the scene before them.

From doddering old men to able-bodied men in their prime, from delicate young women to boys and girls who still had the look of youth about them, all were armored, all held blades, spears, or halberds, and all were marching silently toward the magnificent Great Wall, one after another.

The clang of Armor grew louder and louder.

Lu Xiuyuan, at some point, had also donned a suit of Broken Armor and was holding a jet-black Broken Blade.

He stood beside Chong Shanhu and Zhou Xiaotong, pointing at ten pillars of black smoke rising from the magnificent Great Wall, his expression utterly solemn.

"Eight tolls of the bell, ten pillars of signal smoke. This means a true, large-scale assault by the Demon Race. At least ten Grand Grades have descended..."

Lu Xiuyuan gripped his Broken Blade and said softly,

"More bones will pile up on the Great Wall. Young man, you two head to the north of the city. Quickly, take a Starship back to the Ancestor Star."

Chong Shanhu didn’t answer, instead looking seriously at Zhou Xiaotong.

"Xiaotong, did you hear him? You need to go to the north of the city, now."

The flustered little girl stammered,

"Brother Shan Hu, what about you...?"

"My master’s lineage has an ironclad rule."

An ancient, cyan-hued longblade had appeared in Chong Shanhu’s hand at some point. He suddenly grinned.

"My lineage meets calamity head-on and never shies away from disaster... How could I possibly flee from a great calamity of the Human Race?"

He leaped into the air, his Spiritual Will manifesting externally. His entire being blazed like a Great Sun, vast and scorching hot.

Lu Xiuyuan was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled lightly.

"Good lad. A Celestial Human at such a young age. Your talent is remarkable, truly remarkable..."

With that, he too soared into the sky. Immortal energy surged, celestial music echoed, and Golden Lotuses bloomed—the unmistakable signs of a True Immortal!

"To slay the invaders, to slay the invaders!"

Lu Xiuyuan sang out as he and Chong Shanhu flew, blades drawn, toward the Great Wall.

Upon the Great Wall, countless armored figures stood, their gazes fixed forward, fixed upon the boundless, starry sky. There, a tide of demons, formed into a colossal wave, was surging toward them.

The demon tide arrived, swarming onto the Great Wall. The two armies clashed, and the light of blood bloomed.

A dense mass of humans and demons collided, accompanied by the roars of Fierce Demons and the clang of Weapons. Gouts of blood splashed down, adding another layer of tragedy to the already blood-red walls.

Chong Shanhu brandished his blade, using the Heaven-Breaking Pillar Dharma. With the force of a collapsing sky, a single slash brutally minced dozens of Celestial Human Level Great Demons into a bloody mist.

Lu Xiuyuan, clad in his Broken Armor and wielding his Broken Blade, sang loudly as he battled a Demon Race Little Saint of the True Immortal level. Every collision between them sent out terrifying shockwaves!

Time passed. The Great Wall grew slick with more and more blood. Batch after batch of Demon Children died, but the demon tide still seemed endless. There were just too many, far too many.

On the Human Race’s side, the elderly veterans were already exhausted, but they continued to raise their blades and swing their swords, continuing to roar, their blood still boiling in their veins.

But gradually, more and more soldiers found their strength failing. One fine head after another fell to the ground as they were steadily pushed back.

"We cannot retreat!" a defending Grand Grade General roared. "Behind us is Majestic City! And behind that is the Ancestor Star! We are the final pass! WE! CANNOT! RETREAT!"

Amid the roars, countless soldiers cried out in unison. A Little Saint with dragon horns on its head, an Existence at the Grand Grade Level, looked down. It struck brazenly. A palm infused with a Killing Skill passed silently through the void and struck the Grand Grade General.

The general coughed up blood but did not dodge. Instead, he exerted all his strength and charged forward, carving a bloody path eight hundred li into the demon tide before being ganged up on by ten Great Grade Minor Saints and blown to pieces, not even bones remaining.

Chong Shanhu was also exhausted from the killing. He numbly raised his blade, numbly let it fall. He had lost count of how many times he’d used Heaven-Breaking Pillar, and his Primordial Qi was nearly depleted.

In his numbness, a giant demon pounced on him, its roar like a tidal wave. Caught off guard, Chong Shanhu laughed instead of retreating, raising his blade to meet it, ready to die with the beast.

But in the next moment, a chubby figure sent the giant demon flying. It was none other than the tavern owner, the one whose last three generations, as Lu Xiuyuan had said, had all died in battle.

The chubby owner grinned at Chong Shanhu.

"You fall back and rest. I’ll take care of these Demon Children..."

Before he could finish, a Great Demon of the Celestial Human Level suddenly appeared. To Chong Shanhu’s heart-rending cry of alarm, the Demon King’s claw tore through the chubby owner’s chest, flinging him away like a rag doll.

The chubby owner slammed onto the ground. He let out a few guttural gasps, blood spilling from his mouth. He seemed to want to say something, but no words came out. His unfocused gaze turned in the direction of the Ancestor Star and slowly froze.

Then, his corpse was stomped into paste by a giant demon.

Chong Shanhu let out a mournful roar and charged forward, his longblade drenched in blood. He suffered grievous wounds to slay that giant demon, but in doing so, his own strength gave out completely. Leaning on his blade, he sank to one knee and gazed at the horrific scene, sighing softly.

"It seems I won’t live to see my master grant me my cap and title."

The blood on the Great Wall flowed ever thicker.

Grand Grade against Grand Grade, Celestial Human against Celestial Human, general against general, soldier against soldier—but on every front, they were retreating.

The grand formations cast into the city walls broke too quickly today. An Immortal had betrayed them, causing countless soldiers to rout far too fast! 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Perhaps today, we will finally breach the Great Wall Passes!" the Dragon Horn Minor Saint roared with laughter after slaying another Human Race Grand Grade, its eyes blazing.

"A pleasant surprise, indeed!"

The ten Great Grade Minor Saints no longer held back, pushing forward and entering the battlefield themselves!

Despite the suppression of the Great Wall—even a Grand Grade who could shatter a Fixed Star System could only command a range of a hundred li when using their full-powered Killing Skills here—but a single blow from ten Grand Grades could still turn all human soldiers within a hundred li to splintered bone. After several such attacks, the Human Race retreated again and again, almost being driven off the Great Wall Pass entirely!

High in the sky, Lu Xiuyuan, covered in blood, was fighting three True Immortals. He was growing weary. After a desperate struggle to slay two of them, he was finally struck down, falling from the sky into the demon tide below.

On the wall, Chong Shanhu, also bathed in blood, had fought to the point of exhaustion and passed out. He was being carried to the rear when an Earth Immortal Demon King pointed a finger, unleashing a Killing Skill that surged toward them.

The Killing Skill plowed through hundreds, even thousands of Human Race soldiers, carving a gruesome, empty path of corpses. The remaining force of the blow shattered Chong Shanhu’s limbs and nearly destroyed his internal organs.

More and more blood was spilled.

.........

「Deep in the starry sky.」

The Death Tower drifted over, coming to a stop beside a great tomb.

The tower’s doors opened wide. Ming Xiangjun sat enthroned within, her gaze meeting that of the Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint, who stood at the edge of the great tomb.

Ming Xiangjun rose and performed a salute, and the Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint quickly returned the gesture.

She said softly,

"I have torn up the treaty. That Lu Xuan will surely see me as a thorn in his side. For the time being, I will not be returning to the Great Wall."

"Of course." The Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint smiled and spoke softly, "But is that Lu Zi really so terrifying? The information I have says he isn’t even an Immortal himself."

"He is not an Immortal, but he holds the Human Saint Position. He has slain three Immortals in a row. Doesn’t that speak for itself?"

A flicker of fear crossed Ming Xiangjun’s eyes.

But the Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint just laughed heartily.

"Why be afraid? So what if that Lu Zi can run rampant among the Immortals? This is the depths of the starry sky! This is the Demon Tomb!"

He paused, then continued with a smile,

"Putting aside whether Lu Xuan can even find his way through the vast starry sky, if he truly dares to come looking for us, he’ll be courting death... Inside the tomb, a Great Saint is about to awaken."

"A Gr-Great Saint??"

A look of shock appeared on Ming Xiangjun’s face.

"How could an Existence of the Great Saint level be sleeping inside the Demon Tomb?"

The Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint grinned.

"I don’t know the specifics myself; I’m a latecomer. After that one awakens, although it won’t be able to leave the Demon Tomb, if an enemy truly dares to invade, suppressing and killing them will be a simple matter."

Her heart pounding with fear, Ming Xiangjun couldn’t help but ask,

"From the Ancient Times, which Great Saint is it?"

The Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint’s expression turned serious.

"A True Phoenix. That one was not famous in its early years and once pulled a chariot for an Emperor. Later, basking in that Emperor’s glory, it ascended from Grand Grade to Immortal, and then from Immortal to the Celestial Realms!"

Ming Xiangjun’s eyes lit with understanding, and she finally relaxed completely. She turned her head and gazed in the direction of the Ancestor Star with a soft laugh.

"The Great Wall should be flowing with rivers of blood by now, shouldn’t it?"

"Perhaps." The Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint suddenly grew interested. "You are also human. To do this, don’t you..."

"I don’t care."

Ming Xiangjun said decisively,

"Our masters have an alliance, which means we have an alliance. As for humans and demons... war is always bloody."

The Heaven-Reaching Demon Saint smiled and nodded.

"I will dispatch a few more Grand Grades to the Great Wall. Perhaps..."

His gaze grew profound.

"Today might be the day we breach the Great Wall."

.........

"What??"

In the Federation Building, Li Yutong shot to his feet, his face deathly pale.

After a long moment, he came to his senses. His lips trembled as he struggled to speak.

"Notify Dragon Tiger Mountain immediately."

"An Immortal has defected. The Great Wall Border is in peril. Seven Grand Grades have fallen in battle, and thirty-three True Immortals have been slain."

He paused, then asked,

"Are you certain... that Commander Lu has also fallen?"

"Certain."

After a moment of silence, Li Yutong’s heart pounded violently.

"Notify Dragon Tiger Mountain! Notify Lu Zi!"