Daqin Zhentiansi

Xu Zhou.

The Battlefield of Rift Valley.

Before the smoke of battle had completely dissipated over the Chenzhou Ice Plains, the exotic atmosphere, carrying a bloody wind, had already spread along the newly expanded borders of the Great Wall.

The shattered spatial rifts resembled unhealed sores, with residual demonic aura and chaotic energy churning within them.

The flagship Zhenyu was like a black star hovering on the edge of a rift valley, casting a huge and cold shadow.

Below them was a massive army of eight million Qin soldiers, who had just experienced a brutal void traversal and were now undergoing a brief pre-battle rest.

The Xuanjia Legion occupied the center of the plain.

The heavy shield soldier leaned silently against the giant shield embedded in the frozen ground.

A faint blue aura flowed across the Kui Dragon rune armor, repairing minor damage.

The rising blood and qi gathered into patches of low-lying, dark red clouds.

The Crimson Scale Cavalry's warhorses snorted, and the quivers of the "Blazing Sun Crossbows" beside their saddles were refilled, gleaming with a cold light as if poised to fire.

The Frost Dragon Vulture folded its wings and perched on the edge of the formation.

The barbarian warriors hurriedly wiped their totem axes with the frozen earth, the air thick with a mixture of blood, metal, and cold.

An almost suffocating silence enveloped the land, with only the faint whistling of the wind blowing through the gaps in the armor—the last calm before the storm.

On the bridge, the black python robe seemed to freeze in mid-air, and every scale of the golden unicorn on its shoulder reflected the imposing array below.

Zhang Yuan's gaze was deep and unfathomable as he swept over the new and old generals gathered under his command.

Qin Wuyai, Lei Hao, Yin Jiuyou, Tie Xing, Chu Chaoyang, Wang Ben, Li Mu, Zhou Tong, Lu Xuan, Bai Shaoting, Tuoba Han...

Each of them bears the mark of conquering east and west, and fighting bloody battles across the world.

"Array up!"

Zhang Yuan's voice was not loud, but it was like ice cracking, clearly piercing into the depths of every general's soul.

The enormous star map suspended at the core of the Prison Suppressor suddenly lit up, instantly projecting Xu Zhou's mountains and rivers, the treacherous demon caves, and even the detected sources of large amounts of demonic energy onto it.

"Marquis Jingbei, Wang Ben!"

"Your subordinate is here!" Wang Ben stepped forward, his Xuanjia Ice Wolf totem blazing brightly, his eyes as cold and sharp as frozen earth.

"Leading 150,000 elite northern soldiers, and combining them with 100,000 barbarian Frost Dragon Vulture Army troops under Tuoba Han, we will form the left flank and within three days pierce through the Northern Underworld Frost Prison, destroying the eye of the Ten Thousand Demon Ice Soul Array! Wherever our army marches, we will slay all the Frost Prison Demon Kings and wipe out the Frozen Plains Demon Nest!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! I will surely shatter the cold prison and clear the left flank for the army!" Wang Ben's voice was resolute.

"Marshal Zhou Tong, the Fubo Marshal!"

"Your subordinate is here!" The burly, bearded commander stood up like a giant reef.

"Lead 100,000 elite Liangzhou naval troops, assemble the Giant Whale Camp of the Vast Ocean, circle the planets and smash the hidden reefs, and rush straight to the Demon Cave of the Raging Waves! Within five days, burn their sea eye nest and cut off the sea reinforcements of the Yingzhou demon army! The raging waves of the Vast Ocean will serve as your cannon platform!"

"Your subject obeys! I will ensure that the monster from Yingzhou is devoured by fish!" Zhou Tong's voice was like a tsunami crashing on the shore.

"General Li Mu, the Mighty One!"

"Your subordinate is here!" Commander Li Mu of Qingzhou's gaze was like a sharp blade entwined with an ancient vine.

"Leading 100,000 Qingzhou Anti-Bandit Army, with the 'Rockstone Camp' as the vanguard, we will scale the cliffs from the southern slope of Riftwind Valley and deploy the 'Withered Vine Coiling the Mountain' formation! Locking down the Starfall Ancient Road on the southern slope, the Demon Extermination Army will flank and outflank, waiting for an opportunity to uproot the ancestral root of the 'Soul-Devouring Vine King'! The vast forest is our territory, cutting down the vines is expanding our territory!"

"Understood! The elite troops of Qingzhou will not yield an inch of ground!" A faint blue light appeared between Li Mu's fingers as he pointed at the vine seeds.

"The Iron Punishment of the City-Destroying Earl!"

"Here!" Tie Xing roared like a raging bear, his chest heaving with the force of the wind.

"Command the 200,000-strong Xuanjia Dragon Cavalry of the Central Army, along with 1,000 'City-Breaking Crossbows,' and use the 'Immovable as a Mountain' formation to flatten the foothills of Riftwind Valley! Tear open the frontal demon barrier and pave the battlefield for the officials of the Heavenly Suppression Division and the elite troops to follow! You are the paving hammer!"

"Look! Under the heavy hammer, the demon's bones are reduced to dust!" Tie Xing slammed his right fist into the breastplate, the metal clanging against the metal.

"Lei Hao, the Marquis of Exorcising Evil, and Yin Jiuyou, the Marquis of the Nine Netherworlds!"

"Your subordinate is here!" "Your subject is here!" The thunder whip cracked lightly, and a chilling, dark aura filled the air.

"Lead 30,000 elite troops from the Martial Guard and the Netherworld Guard, protected by the 'Gathering Edge' formation of the Shattered Star Guard, and plunge straight into the heart of Riftwind Valley! Objective: Burn down the projection pillar of the 'Nine-Headed Lion King' altar and wipe out the guardian ancestral evil! Where the Shattered Star Guard goes, all evil will flee! This battle will be the proof of your titles! Pave the way for the Martial King!"

"We are willing to flatten the Demon Altar for Lord Marquis!" Destructive flames ignited in Lei Hao's and Yin Jiuyou's eyes.

"The remaining troops, each camp, will follow the star map indicated in the 'Riftwind Valley Military Register,' dividing into key positions, clearing out enemy strongholds layer by layer, advancing step by step! The direction the light of the Black Stone Fortress's ramparts extends is the border of our Great Qin!" Zhang Yuan's voice suddenly rose, causing the illusory image of the Abyss Mountain Sword behind him to hum. "Today, it is not merely about slaying demons! It is about reuniting the mountains and rivers of Xuzhou and welcoming back the Martial King! Before us—only a fight to the death awaits!"

"promise--!!!"

The resounding response, like a thunderclap, echoed across the eight-hundred-mile-long military formation, causing countless soldiers to fall to the ground and converging into a rhythm of iron and blood that shook the stars!

The spirit of the Xuan Turtle Ice Dragon manifested above the army formation, roaring to the sky!

After a brief respite, the war machine, under Zhang Yuan's precise and masterful division of forces, crashed down upon the land of Xuzhou!
----------------

Three days later, outside Rift Valley, the situation suddenly changed.

Before Wang Ben's left-wing spearhead could even reach the Northern Dark Prison, Li Mu's withered vines coiling around the mountain formation had just established a foothold on the southern slope, and Tie Xing's heavily armored torrent was steadily pushing aside the chaotic rocks and barren hills in front of the valley...

Rift Valley, which should have been the core area for the main attack of the central army, was the first to be hit by a fierce attack!
The sky above Xuzhou was originally shrouded in chaotic demonic energy, but now a dark red demonic cloud, as murky as congealed blood, was gathering above Riftwind Valley.

It surged violently, making a teeth-grinding, cracking sound like a million rotten bones rubbing and squeezing together.

Thick, viscous blood and qi almost materialized, pouring down from the sky with a suffocating, foul stench.

Boom!

The mountain collapsed, and three mountain-like demonic figures shattered the cliff face at the valley entrance, revealing their enormous true forms!
In the center, the lava demon dragon raised its hundred-foot-long broken body!
Beneath countless millstone-sized, peeling scales lies scarlet, rotting flesh flowing with yellowish-green, putrid pus.

Each breath expelled thick smoke of sulfur and charred flesh, causing the air to hiss and crackle.

Its winding body wraps around jagged rocks, as if it were a moving volcano, flowing with lava and poison.

On the left, a giant frost elephant shatters the ice!
On the ghastly white fangs, as thick as ancient trees and over ten feet long, dozens of mutilated and charred humanoid torsos were pierced and frozen!

There was even a section of arm with a small piece of rag hanging from it, frozen to the tip of the fangs, a horrifying sight! The giant eyes, the size of millstones, were deathly white, with only a twisted, eerie blue deep in the pupils, radiating an extremely cold and evil aura that could freeze the soul.

On the right, the Blood-Eyed Demon Saint is even more bizarre!
It was only ten feet tall, its entire body shrouded in churning, foul blood mist, like a solidified, persistent blood shadow.

Only a single, dark purple eye, the size of a millstone, embedded in the center of the blood mist, flowed with malice as thick as oil!

Wherever the single eye swept across, the view of the valley below instantly became clear—

Thousands of emaciated and ragged survivors of Xuzhou huddled together in the frozen gullies, shivering.

The emaciated children huddled in their mothers' arms, their little hands clutching tightly the rusty, broken pieces of the "Qin-style ring-pommel sword" remains!
The women and children wore black, writhing vine collars around their necks, each tightening bringing suppressed, suffocating groans.

"Roar--!!!"

The Lava Demon Dragon in the center let out a deafening roar. The terrifying sound wave, mixed with a stenchy shockwave like a burning wind, slammed into the rune-covered heavy shields that the Xuanjia Army had just raised below, stirring up a shower of eerie blue light!
Almost simultaneously, the blood-eyed demon saint's single, terrifying eye on the right suddenly focused!
"Heart-Devouring Thunder of Ten Thousand Evils!!"

A piercing scream, as if the cries of ten thousand souls echoed across the battlefield!

Suddenly, a thick, blood-like dark lightning bolt, compressed and condensed from billions of twisted, wailing, and resentful souls, condensed in that single eye!
This evil thunder was silent and carried the ultimate malice of burning away intelligence and polluting souls. It ignored spatial distance and struck the most densely populated area of ​​the remaining people in the valley below!
The Qin soldiers below roared and tried to intercept, but the evil lightning, condensed from vengeful spirits and demonic thoughts, was elusive and difficult to lock onto with ordinary blood and weapons!

Just as the Soul-Destroying Blood Lightning was about to strike, utterly extinguishing the last glimmer of hope within the thousands of survivors—

"Hand over the Demon Saint to me."

A voice, chilling to the bone yet imbued with supreme authority, pierced through all the clamor of the battlefield.

Zhang Yuanxuan's black car had been hovering above the valley entrance for some time now, facing the three-headed demon saint from afar!

The carriage shafts remained completely still, but within a space of about ten feet in front of the carriage, a barely perceptible crimson-gold halberd shadow flashed by.

"The remaining rebels shall be eliminated according to the military register of Riftwind Valley."

That crimson-gold spear shadow was faster than the limits of thought!
Just as the "Heart-Devouring Thunder of Ten Thousand Evils" was less than a hundred feet from the ground, the shrieks of the vengeful spirits it carried caused the survivors below to bleed from their mouths and noses and their eyes to glaze over!

"laugh--!"

As subtle as tearing silk, yet its sound resonates clearly throughout heaven and earth!

The blood-red, malevolent lightning was cleanly and decisively split in two by a beam of crimson-gold light!
What's being severed isn't energy, it's the laws, it's cause and effect!
The severed evil lightning, like filthy blood without a fuse, collapsed into a sky full of foul-smelling blood rain, which fell on the frozen soil around the survivors, burning out hissing white smoke, but did not harm a single person.

Zhang Yuan's gaze passed over the three ferocious demon saints and landed on the figure huddled at the bottom of the valley.

That military order was not only issued to the entire army, but also served as a final protection for the remaining civilians.

"Eagle Guard - Thunder Arrow!!"

Xue Dingyue's roar was like thunder from the heavens! He stood on the high cliff beside the valley, and his three thousand Eagle Guards drew their bows and nocked their arrows, their movements perfectly synchronized as if they were one person!
On the specially made heavy arrowhead made of black steel, the miniature "Demon-Slaying" runes shone brightly.

The bowstring vibration was no longer a hum, but rather like hundreds of thick, thunderous whips violently ripping through the air!

"Crack—Boom!!!"

The terrifying roar instantly drowned out the demon saint's furious roar!

The arrow, once released, transformed into three thousand dazzling streaks of light!
Just as the arrow left the bowstring, the breastplate of the three thousand Eagle Guardians—a dark red crystal core taken from the plastron of a lava turtle—suddenly lit up!

The powerful energy and blood flowed through the runes, instantly condensing into a towering, solid crimson phantom above the army formation!

The massive peak crashed down with overwhelming force, pushing the arrow's speed to its limit!

"Ow—!"

Several giant "Rotting Bone Dragons" that were circling around the Lava Demon Dragon, intending to dive down and spew poisonous miasma and rotten bones, were intimidated by the mountain's imposing power!
Before their highly toxic and corrosive breath from the North could even be released, Xue Dingyue's arrows, as if guided by eyes, had already precisely pierced the weak points where their wing bones connected!
"Snap! Splash! Splash—!"

The sickeningly loud cracking sounds of bones breaking and tendons snapping were deafening!

The massive bone wings of the Corpse Bone Dragon were like a dilapidated house whose main beam had been instantly removed, as it tumbled and fell from the sky with a miserable howl!
Several loud bangs!

Their skeletal bodies, harder than refined steel, crashed like meteors into the heavily armored bone-blade demon soldiers on the eastern wing of the valley, who were attempting to outflank and ambush them!
The earthquake trembled, and smoke and dust mixed with bone powder shot into the sky!

The originally ferocious and well-organized formation of bone-blade demon soldiers was as if it had been crushed by a giant hand, with several huge gaps smashed open in an instant. The demon soldiers howled in agony, and their formation was thrown into chaos!

"Shattered Star Guard - Break Through the Formation!!"

Yu Wanjun's voice was like a cannonball fired from a gun!
Behind him, five thousand heavily armored cavalrymen uniformly lowered their black steel face shields, leaving only pairs of eyes burning with cold flames exposed!
The horses they rode were not ordinary warhorses, but "Iron-hoofed Beasts" tamed from low-level demonic beasts, clad in heavy armor with special runes!
The mount swallowed an energy core the size of a pigeon egg, and the Deep Sea Electrifying Turtle Eye Core was instantly activated, with brilliant blue arcs of electricity coiling around the lance!

"Boom!"

The earth trembled violently under the hooves of five thousand cavalry!

Like red-hot battering rams, carrying the unwavering will to tear everything apart during their "Tiger Marching Battle Formation" thrust, they crashed headlong into the frost giant elephant herd without any fancy moves!
"Ouch——!"

The Frost Giant Mammoth is enraged!
A king elephant suddenly hurled the frozen corpse of a human survivor, coiled at the end of its trunk, like a stone, into the center of the charging cavalry!

"Get out of here!!"

Yu Wanjun's eyes were bloodshot, and his roar was like a thunderclap!
The heavy, ten-foot-long dragon-sparrow imitation lance in his hand, flashing with a blinding blue light, slashed down like lightning!
"Bang! Crack!"

The frozen corpse was precisely struck by the heavy spear imbued with the power of thunder, and the ice shards and frozen internal organs instantly exploded into a sky full of blood mist and ice crystals!
The pervasive red and blue light mist briefly obscured the view.

In that split second!

Behind Yu Wanjun, countless lances transformed into lightning bolts, thrusting forward!
"Puff puff puff puff puff—!"

A thousand lances, wrapped in the electric currents of the vast ocean, plunged fiercely into the head, eye sockets, and ear canals of the nearest giant elephant!

The frost giant's hard skull shattered under the terrifying piercing force unleashed by the "Energy Hub"!
The icy blue demon blood mixed with the white brain matter gushed out like a fountain, only to be instantly vaporized by the electric light attached to the lance!

"Demon-Suppressing Chains - Bind!"

Yuchi Changshan's roar carried a chilling, ghostly quality!
He led a thousand "Demon-Binding Blood Guards," moving at high speed along the edge of the battlefield like ghosts.

The chains that the Blood Guard threw were no longer ordinary iron chains, but the "Nine Netherworld Demon-Suppressing Mysterious Iron Chains" covered with ancient runes from the Demon-Suppressing Tower!
A thousand chains, as thick as a child's arm and gleaming with dark light, tore through the air and instantly wove together into a giant net that covered half the sky!

A skeletal dragon that was about to pounce on the creature below was caught in a giant net!

"Whoosh whoosh-!"

The chains coiled and tightened automatically, as if they were alive, binding the massive skeletal body of the demonic dragon tightly!
The talismans on the black iron chain lit up, and the searingly hot power scorched the dragon's bones, which were as hard as black iron, causing them to sizzle and emit billowing blue smoke! (End of this chapter)