Blue Phoenix

The war ended with a crushing defeat for the demons. Of the million-strong demon army, not even one had been spared.

The final moments were the most hectic of the entire war. When the demons realized that they had no way to retreat because of the experts behind them, and no way to advance because of the million-strong army ahead of them, they decided that if they had to die, they would die as martyrs for the Blood Demons. They would drag as many humans and beasts with them as they could!

At the start of the war, every ten to twenty demon casualty was the same as one casualty on the opposing side, but at the end, each demon managed to change this to two demons for one human or beast.

Even though they had managed to kill more than a few experts at the end of the war, this time the crushing defeat could in no way be compared to the previous fight. In that battle, although the city had won, they won a miserable victory.

Many more experts had died in the previous fight than in this one, and although the land was littered with corpses, the majority of them were demons.

By now the surviving mercenaries had already started to scour through the corpses searching for treasures, storage stones, and other valuable items.

Every time they looted a corpse, they would burn it right away to ensure that it would not be left to rot later on. It was also a kind way of showing everyone else that this person had already been looted. A way to ensure that people did not waste time searching for items when there were none.

Hui Yue gazed across the entire battlefield. The mood of everyone was not somber, instead everyone was chatty and cheerful. It was clear that murder and death was already an everyday occurrence in everyone’s lives, and no one was fazed by the fact that they had just killed over one million demons.

Hui Yue saw how his friends had decided to join in on the fun of robbing the corpses, and when he spread out his soulforce he heard Wan Qiao’s voice, “Let’s have a contest! The one who earns the most off these corpses buys the others dinner tonight!”

Everyone cheered and soon after they all rushed to collect treasures and burn the corpses.

Pei Ziqi, Wei, and Cai Jie did not join the raiding of the many demon corpses; they just walked next to Hui Yue.

“That was too easy,” Cai Jie said worriedly. “They knew we were here and all they did was send a few more skilled experts. They might have decently high attainments when compared to regular Immortals of Creation, but they were a far cry from enough to deal with those of are our level.”

“Defeating them was a piece of cake. I do not know if they are simply underestimating us, or if they have something planned.”

“I don’t know,” Hui Yue said honestly as he looked at the sky as if expecting a final expert to appear, someone much stronger than the others, but nothing happened. A fresh breeze brought the stench of blood towards them reminding them that they were standing on a battlefield of slaughter.

The grizzly scene in front of them was in no way pleasant. The demons had died miserably, especially the ones who had been in Pei Ziqi’s path. They had been smashed to oblivion. Their bodies would never be able to be put together again. Half of them were beaten to a bloody pulp or cut into so many small pieces that it would be like trying to put together a puzzle.

“The demons are not going to give up,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. “They have lost too many demons here already, but they will not give up before all the minor worlds are under their control.”

“I am not sure what they are trying to achieve by gaining control of all these minor worlds though,” Hui Yue frowned. “They are using their hard-earned manpower to control smaller worlds, but their real enemy is not here, but on the highly-ranked heavenly worlds.”

“By fighting these small worlds, they are actually crippling themselves, unless they have many more experts on their side than what we have estimated.”

Hui Yue suddenly had a bad premonition. “Humans are able to become Blood Demons by merging their blood with the blood of a demon.”

“One has to sacrifice a Blood Demon for each human that is being reformed into a Blood Demon, however, the latent talent of humans are better than that of demons.”

“Because of this, they take the weakest Blood Demons amongst them and sacrifice them in rituals to create supreme Blood Demons. Those experts we fought today were also likely to have been created.”

“I fear that perhaps quite a few humans have decided to join the Blood Demons. Although they will never be able to cultivate again, they will gain a magnificent boost in cultivation instantly without doing anything for it. This is probably too tempting for some.”

“We also have to remember that cultivating is not easy. Many cultivators are filled with resentment towards others. Those who harbor evil intents on the inside might wish to bring harm to others. Cultivators like this will definitely join the Blood Demons.”

“Others who could join them are the ones who have decided to do anything in their power to gain strength and power. The strength that is gained overnight from the Blood Demon ritual and then further enhanced by the use of pills of samsara or other such pills. People with this mindset will definitely choose to side with the Blood Demons too.”

“Just in this world, two whole families had chosen to join the Blood Demons. It is unknown how many of their young ones were sent off to become demons. I can imagine that all the young experts with exceptional talent were sent off,” Hui Yue continued thinking out loud, and every time he spoke, he frightened the ones who were listening to him. Perhaps it was true that the Blood Demons had a hard time birthing high-ranked experts, but by relying on the ritual and the pills, many Blood Demons could easily be created from humans.

“The families we fought had no women, children, youngsters or elderly left within their sect homes.” He said as he continued to ponder out loud.

“If one did not need to sacrifice the life of a Blood Demon, or any demon really, for the Blood Demon sacrifice, then I do not doubt that they would convert everyone into Blood Demons, but since they cannot do that, they can only take the most talented of human cultivators. The other ones must have been sent somewhere safe where they are to remain humans. Perhaps they will become servants for the Blood Demons or friends with them in the future, but in the end, it is hard to completely guess what is going to happen.”

“I spoke with Yanluo some days back, and it turns out that the Blood Demons have an Overlord on their side. In the last war we were able to win because we had more Overlords than them, but even so, they were incapable of killing the demon Overlord.”

“This shows that just like the other cultivation ranks, Overlords have rankings to them too.”

“I do not know the difference, nor do I understand what it means to be an Overlord, but I do understand that right now our side only has Yama to rely on. He alone will not be enough to deal with the Blood Demon’s Overlord.”

Hui Yue paused for some time and scratched his chin. He was in deep thought before he finally shook his head, “I know that the Blood Demons are far stronger than what we have expected,” he sighed. “But even so, there is no reason to give up.”

“I will not stop before all the Blood Demons in this galaxy are eradicated. I will not stop before we once more have the freedom we want.”

Pei Ziqi glanced at the battlefield and sighed. “I will follow you,” she said with a shake of her head. “I have lived a long and happy life. Even if I were to die, I would have no regrets dying by your side.”

“You have brought this bag of old bones out from the sect and allowed me to once more feel the thrill of being in a war. You gave me the chance to feel blood splashing on my face again, the power of my battle axe in my hand, and the joy of slaughtering my foes. This is something I have been missing. I feel centuries younger now; I feel content with my life.”

“Don’t go dying on me,” Hui Yue laughed, and Pei Ziqi gave him a wry smile. “I am sure that I will not die easily,” she promised, and all of them turned silent once more.

“Here you are,” Old Man Ling’s voice sounded behind Hui Yue who turned around together with his friends. In front of him was Old Man Ling followed by the other experts of the city.

“We owe you our thanks,” Old Man Ling said with a deep bow as he looked at Hui Yue with gratitude in his eyes. “Had you and your friends not been here this time, then we would have been slaughtered by these demons rather than us slaughtering them.”

“We are people who know how to show gratitude,” he continued. “But we do not know what you might want in return for saving our humble city.”

Hearing the old man speak, Hui Yue could not help but laugh, “do not talk about rewards.” He laughed, “I did not help out because I wished to be rewarded. I did it because of the grudge between myself and the demons. They and I cannot coexist.” He laughed, but although he was laughing, his words were serious and sent a shiver down the spine of these supreme experts.

To be unable to coexist with the demons was terrible. There were so many Blood Demons out there, and one of them was even an Overlord! How could he possibly expect to be able to defeat them all?

“Worry not, I have a plan,” he smiled at them mischievously. Although all of them were confused and unsure of what he meant, no one said anything anymore.

“The Blood Demons have been pushed back for now,” Hui Yue breached the topic that all of them had been fearing. “But although they have been stopped for now, they will definitely return.”

“They might amass their armies and come straight away to wipe out this city which has caused them so many casualties and problems, or they might wait until they finish all the other worlds in the western region and then come for you.”

“I do not know which,” Hui Yue said honestly. “But I will have to leave this world shortly. I will definitely return soon, but I have to find someone special to me and my brothers.”

“On the way, when we run into Blood Demons we will make sure to eradicate as many of them as possible, and hopefully, we will cause such a massive ruckus that they will focus on us instead of you,” he laughed. Although his words were light, the city experts felt gratitude in their hearts. Hui Yue had planned to use himself as bait to lure out the stronger Blood Demons. Not only for the sake of killing them, but also for the sake of keeping the city safe.