Before long, Quinn Shepherd knocked out a demon cultivator, stripped him of his clothes, changed into a new outfit, and swaggered openly through the demon city.
Crowds of demons surged around him, flooding toward the abyss at the edge of the city.
A sudden upheaval had just erupted there, so loud and violent it alarmed the whole city. Though the chaos ended quickly, the burst of power in that instant was absolutely terrifying.
Whoosh—
Two demon gods swooped in overhead, diving toward the abyss, and countless winged demons followed, flapping after them into the depths.
Quinn shoved his way against the tide of bodies, finally squeezing free and heading for the city gate.
He didn’t dare fly—this was, after all, a demon city, and who knew how many demon gods or bridge and life‑death realm experts might be lurking here.
Even gods from High-Emperor Heaven probably wouldn’t dare act up in a place like this, so Quinn could only keep walking at a steady pace, though inside he was growing more and more anxious.
Those two demon gods would reach the bottom of the abyss soon and discover the unconscious Furylo. Waking Furylo wouldn’t be difficult, and once he came to, he’d definitely order the city sealed and start hunting for Quinn.
If Quinn couldn’t escape before the lockdown order went out, he’d be trapped for sure!
This city was originally a divine city of High-Emperor Heaven, vast beyond imagination—it would take some time to walk out of it.
Quinn hurried as fast as he could and finally reached the city gate, when suddenly shouts echoed from the abyss: "By order of the Sovereign King, seal the entire city immediately! No demon is allowed to leave!"
"Activate the formations! Seal the city!"
"Lock down the sky and the earth—don’t even let a mosquito get out!"
Quinn’s face changed. He looked toward the city gate, where dozens of demon strongmen were straining to push the massive gate shut. On the city towers and high ramparts, formation runes and sigils flared to life, streams of glowing symbols flowing down from the rooftops and towers toward the city walls.
The runes on the city wall lit up, dazzling beams shooting into the sky, pattern linking to pattern as a gigantic spatial barrier began to take shape.
At the base of the wall, more runes and sigils streamed into the earth itself!
Even the Everpeace capital didn’t have defenses this tight. If the sky and ground runes fully closed, he’d never get out of here!
Suddenly, Quinn seemed to melt away, turning into a shadow that zipped along the base of the wall, hugging the shadows as he raced for the gate!
The city gate was enormous and heavy—even with dozens of demon strongmen pushing with all their might, it only creaked shut inch by inch.
These demon strongmen specialized in cultivating physical divine arts—their strength was monstrous. They didn’t study spells or spirit weapons, only trained their bodies and bones to maximize brute force!
The Cult of the Heavenly Saint and the Everpeace Empire’s armies had similar strongmen—when a few of them joined forces at their peak, they could even lift the stone statues formed from a god’s body!
But this city’s gate needed dozens of strongmen just to budge it, which showed how terrifyingly heavy it was!
Quinn’s shadowy form darted through the shadows of buildings like a ghost, shifting and flickering. He had to get out before the gate closed, or he’d be trapped for good!
The two massive doors, pushed by all those demon strongmen, were down to a single crack—about to slam shut.
Suddenly, a sparkling bead rolled over and got stuck between the doors, stopping them from closing.
A strongman by the gate gave it a heavy kick, booting the bead out of the city with a curse. The gate thundered closed.
But he didn’t see that, with his kick, his own ‘shadow’ rolled out with the bead, merging with the bead’s shadow.
The bead rolled forward more than thirty feet, stopping by the moat.
Suddenly, the bead’s round shadow sprouted arms and legs—two shadowy arms stretched longer and longer, grabbing the edge of the moat and pulling with slow, steady force.
The sparkling bead rolled forward again and plopped into the river with a thunk.
A moment later, a pitch-black shadow crawled out from the riverbank’s shade on the far side, hugging the ground as it slipped away.
Soon after, the city gates swung open and a countless horde of demons stormed out: "He’s not in the city—search everywhere! Don’t let him escape demon territory!"
Quinn dodged and hid, avoiding the watchtowers. His Phantom Shadow Devil Art was nearly pushed to the limit, so he had to reveal his true form and climb high to look out, but still couldn’t spot the City of Departure.
"Furylo dragged me into demon territory—where the hell am I? How far is it to human lands?"
The land was vast and barren, the sky dim. In the east, the sun was cold and slowly turning red—a sign that night was coming.
Quinn steadied himself, hid his presence, and thought, "High-Emperor Heaven doesn’t have a single star. At night, you can’t read the sky or find your way. I’ll have to wait for daylight to travel again."
Demon scouts searched everywhere behind him. Quinn dodged and hid, nearly getting caught, so he killed one, swapped into the scout’s heavy black iron armor and helmet, slung a long black iron demon spear from his saddle, and rode a nightmare steed through the demon mists.
The next day, the ugly, broken sun rose as expected. Quinn lifted his helmet visor, checked his bearings, and barked at the nightmare steed in demon tongue to head east.
By afternoon, Quinn glanced up at the sky and his face fell—the eastern sun had suddenly gone out!
"Imperial Preceptor, you really do work fast, don’t you?"
Quinn nearly spat blood. He’d once told the Everpeace Imperial Preceptor to have Everpeace’s cultivators help High-Emperor Heaven design two suns. Now one of the broken suns had gone out—it had to be the Imperial Preceptor’s doing!
The Imperial Preceptor must have found the sun in the sky too much to bear, so he’d immediately summoned Everpeace’s cultivators to High-Emperor Heaven to take down the sun and rebuild it.
With the sun gone, Quinn couldn’t tell directions at all!
City of Departure.
Blazing light illuminated the darkness, and the World Bridge’s radiance shot into the sky, linking up with the Great Ruins. Cultivators from Everpeace streamed in, setting up huge foundries near the City of Departure, forging giant smiths who worked day and night to craft all sorts of components.
True God Pang Yu brought out blueprints no one could decipher—plans for the Sun Furnace, left behind by the Sun-Creating Deity, who hadn’t finished the second sun before being assassinated by demons. Luckily, the blueprints survived.
The Imperial Preceptor summoned many skilled cultivators to recalculate and revise the plans, demanding even higher precision.
Now, the cultivators at the City of Departure were forging the Sun Furnace itself.