Drake Dandy hesitated for a moment. Now, the vortex above Heaven-Wave City had already become a passage connecting to another world. The Skyfiends crawling out of the vortex grew ever stronger, the mass of fiends surging down from the heavens like a black tide.
"Leave, my children of Nethervault! Leave our broken, dark world—go forth to the new world!"
The Nethervault Demon King stood atop the altar, spreading his eight arms wide to greet the descending Skyfiends. His voice boomed, earth-shaking: "Come, my children. This new world is not as barren as Nethervault. Here, there are beautiful women, endless food, and the guardians of this world are all weaklings. Let us trample them!"
Drake Dandy saw her own father already pinned beneath the foot of this Demon King, and the flood-dragon her father raised also lay collapsed on the ground, unable to move.
Another Cult-Master-class figure had already been beheaded; their head was torn off by the Nethervault Demon King and held aloft in one of his hands.
"Is the Dragon Tamer Sect truly finished?" A hint of desolation crept into her heart.
Skyfiends rained down from the heavens, attacking the fleeing soldiers on all sides. Quinn Shepherd, too, was blasted from the sky by several Skyfiends, landing with a thud. Six or seven fiends crashed down near him, slowly rising to their feet.
Quinn was no stranger to Skyfiends. He and Village Chief had encountered them while wandering the Great Ruins at night, searching for Carefree Haven—and had slain many.
These Skyfiends had powerful bodies, each grotesque and bizarre, utterly unlike the human race. They cultivated demonic qi, excelling in close combat and spellcraft—their powers were uncanny, yet not as refined as human techniques.
As soon as the Skyfiends landed, Quinn flashed forward to one of them—his blade rose and fell, beheading the fiend. He dodged aside as another Skyfiend swept its scorpion tail at him, the glossy barb nearly hooking him through.
Quinn thrust his fingers forward, the Grand Guardian’s Sword piercing the Skyfiend who hadn’t yet withdrawn its scorpion tail. With a reverse motion, he unleashed the Heavenly Demon Freedom Seal, yanking the soul from another Skyfiend closing in behind him and shattering it outright!
A distant bull-headed Skyfiend pointed at him and shouted, "Youna-la, ma-abu-lu-ji-nou-di-di-na-jia-hong! (Warrior, I challenge you!)"
"Come on, who's afraid of who!" Quinn shouted back.
Quinn roared, his yuanqi surging as he activated the Overlord Three-Core Art. The bull-headed Skyfiend bellowed and charged, dragging a massive blade over three zhang long—the blade scraping the ground, trailing sparks and lightning. With a thunderous shout, it swung the blade down at Quinn!
At that moment, a giant serpent crashed down from above, pulverizing the bull-headed Skyfiend. Drake Dandy rode atop the serpent as it landed, its tail sweeping sideways like a rolling iron pillar—crushing dozens of Skyfiends in its path.
Quinn darted away, but Drake Dandy was about to strike when suddenly a black mass of Skyfiends rained down from the sky. Even though her cultivation surpassed Quinn’s by two or three realms, she was soon locked in a bitter struggle.
Quinn was surrounded as well. Lina the Spirit Fox quickly summoned a tornado, spinning around them, but Skyfiends still managed to break through the whirlwind and lunge at them.
More and more Skyfiends poured in from the other world; from a distance, it looked as if countless flies were swarming in from Nethervault, blotting out the sky.
"The Patriarch always said, if you cause trouble, you have to clean it up yourself. This time, I can’t clean it up."
Quinn broke out in a cold sweat. Suddenly, a blazing light swept in from the south, moving swiftly through the sky and illuminating the world.
The light grew ever brighter, racing in from the south. Wherever it passed, countless Skyfiends fell from the sky, torn apart. Quinn looked up, stunned.
That light was a legion of swords.
A legion formed by countless flying swords!
There were so many swords, it was impossible to count them all.
Within the sword legion, thousands of Sword Pills spun rapidly, each one like a bright moon. As they revolved, flying swords shot out—piercing, slashing, hacking, slicing, swirling, thrusting—cutting down Skyfiends in the air.
The sword legion was truly vast. Every blade shone brilliantly, and there must have been millions of swords. Their combined radiance was absolutely spectacular.
Though Skyfiends poured in from Nethervault, blotting out the sky, the dazzling sword legion swept through, and soon the heavens were clear again—only countless corpses falling from above remained.
Inside Heaven-Wave City, the Nethervault Demon King's face changed dramatically. He roared, hastening the summoning of his true body. Hundreds of Skyfiends around the altar chanted in booming demon speech, using bones and spells to call down the Demon King's true form.
The sky shook violently. A colossal foot reached out from another world, surrounded by roaring demonic flames that turned the sky crimson.
Suddenly, the sword legion veered toward Heaven-Wave City, its scale nearly matching the city itself.
Within the city, the Nethervault Demon King roared, raising all eight arms. With a buzzing sound, a gigantic black curtain barrier appeared above Heaven-Wave City, blotting out the sky.
In an instant, an overwhelming cacophony erupted—so loud and piercing that countless people bled from their eardrums. It was the sound of flying swords striking the Demon King's black curtain, the clanging all exploding at once, unbearable for anyone's ears.
Quinn's ears went deaf, unable to hear anything else. Around him, Skyfiends clutched their heads and squatted down, suffering in agony.
On the opposite bank at Wuding Commandery, countless Everpeace soldiers fought desperately against the invading Skyfiends. The clash of sword light and black curtain barrier was so unbearable that even these distant troops suffered, though the distance made it just tolerable.
Splashes sounded across the river as Skyfiends, blasted by the shockwave, fell from the sky and plunged into the water.
On Wuding's city wall, an old general with white hair looked astonished. "Imperial Preceptor, there's a true master on the other bank!" he exclaimed.
"State Duke Wei, this is no mere master," the Imperial Preceptor replied.
The Imperial Preceptor stood at the front, gazing across the river. "His strength is not far from mine, even stronger than the three ancient monsters who once besieged me."
State Duke Wei looked puzzled, glancing between the Demon King fighting the sword legion and the sky, where the Demon King's true body had half a leg in this world. "Who summoned this Demon King? That's ruthless! Has the Southern Frontier really stooped to any means just to win?"
The Imperial Preceptor shook his head. "With me here, the Nethervault Demon King cannot fully descend. In fact, whoever summoned this demon god has done Everpeace a great service. Heaven-Wave City will be broken without our own troops paying the price in blood. If I were in their shoes, I'd do the same to save our soldiers' lives."
State Duke Wei sighed. "Imperial Preceptor, that's why they don't understand you. They say you're demonic."
The Imperial Preceptor stepped down from the city wall, walking toward Heaven-Wave City. Smiling, he said, "They say that only because I've threatened their interests. My merits and faults will not be judged by people today, but by those a thousand years from now! Besides, in my eyes, they're already dead men."
Inside Heaven-Wave City, the Nethervault Demon King let out a muffled groan. All eight of his hands were bloodied and mangled—the flying swords' assault was terrifying, and the force behind them was more than his body could bear.
If his true body had come, he could have withstood it. But this body was just a wooden embryo, summoned by Quinn's demon chant. Quinn's strength was too weak; the power channeled through him was far too little to contend with the master of the flying swords.
Just then, he saw a middle-aged man walking from across the river. The Demon King's heart tightened, ready to muster his strength—only to see a peerless sword light rushing toward him.
What an utterly breathtaking sword strike!
This sword embodied the deepest mysteries of sword dao, unleashing its changes and killing intent to the fullest. It was like the most exquisite painting unfurled before his eyes—worth dying to witness.
And so he died.
His head—four faces, twelve eyes—was severed by that sword light, tumbling from his neck.
The Imperial Preceptor sheathed his sword and strode into Heaven-Wave City. The Skyfiends maintaining the altar surged toward him, countless in number, charging straight at the Imperial Preceptor.
Next, the Demon King's gigantic corpse collapsed, and the black curtain barrier shattered, disintegrating in midair.
All the flying swords attacking the barrier suddenly withdrew, streaming into the Sword Pills. Thousands of finger-sized Sword Pills hovered and spun in the sky.
Then, a wooden chest flew in from afar. Its lid opened, and countless Sword Pills clinked and rattled as they poured inside.
The Imperial Preceptor watched the wooden chest thoughtfully, unmoving. Behind him, Everpeace’s army surged across the river, storming into Heaven-Wave City, slaughtering Skyfiends and battling fiercely.
With no one maintaining the altar, the heart-stopping summoning ended abruptly. The vortex in the sky stopped growing, then slowly shrank.
The Demon King's true body had already stepped one leg into this world, but was forced to withdraw. A faint, furious roar echoed from the depths of the sky, full of unwilling rage.
Outside Heaven-Wave City, Quinn looked up at the wooden chest floating in midair, his face puzzled. "That chest looks familiar—just like the one in the village blacksmith shop. It was always filled with silver pellets. Granny Sue told me those weren't Sword Pills, just ordinary silver pellets, and said Grandpa Mute couldn't possibly be that rich..."
He saw the Sword Pills in the air all pour into the wooden chest, which began to descend. Quinn sprinted toward the spot where it was landing.
The wooden chest settled down, disappearing into a patch of woods. Quinn raced after it, finding an old man in coarse clothes with a forge strapped to his back, holding the chest—his face weathered and wrinkled by years.
The old man saw Quinn running over and grinned, revealing a mouth without a tongue.