Daqin Zhentiansi

The clamor, fighting spirit, tears, and warmth below the city walls, together with the roars, destruction, filth, and cold outside, formed a picture of blood and fire intertwined, cruelty and rebirth coexisting, clearly reflected in Zhang Yuan's unfathomable eyes.

“The real siege…” he muttered to himself, almost torn apart by the biting wind. Only his solidified will, like an invisible prison-suppressing monument, enveloped the entire Riftwind Guard City. “Now, it has only just begun.”

"boom--"

The sky over Xuzhou was completely torn apart!
The inky black demonic clouds and purplish-red demonic energy surged and tangled like boiling porridge, forcibly twisting the pale white of what should have been midday into a filthy dusk.

The biting wind, carrying bone-scraping ice shards, thick sulfurous fumes, and a thick, unyielding stench of rust-like blood, lashed wildly at the triple-layered crimson-gold barrier of light above Riftwind City like millions of poisoned steel needles.

It emitted a shrill cry like the howls of millions of vengeful ghosts, drilling straight into the marrow of a person's bones.

As far as the eye can see, the earth groans and cracks under the trampling of billions of footsteps, tens of millions of iron hooves, and giant beasts!
The frozen soil was ground into a muddy swamp mixed with broken bones and filthy blood, stretching to the horizon and completely merging with the surging demonic clouds and fog to form a turbulent sea of ​​destruction!

What I heard was the desperate cries and suffocating howls of billions of half-demons being driven away, lashed by demonic whips and squeezed by the demonic army behind them; the earth-shaking howls of frost wolf demon spiders and the ear-piercing shrieks of ice bat demon swarms that blotted out the sky; the deep, sharp sounds of crystal armor war demons tearing through space and annihilating beams of light converging; and the dull rumble of skeletal giants shaking the ice plains and bone hammers crashing down!

All sounds, smells, and sights merged into a destructive symphony that crushed the soul and defiled the five senses, filling the perceptions of every living being inside and outside Riftwind City!

Inside Riftwind City, beneath the ramparts.

The newly enlisted young man from the Riftwind Battalion on the city wall had his teeth chattering uncontrollably, and his palms, gripping the blood-patterned spear, were covered in cold sweat, sticky and slippery.

He stared intently at the surging, boundless gray-black tide outside the city, watching the numb half-demons crash into the light barrier and instantly turn into minced meat and ice dust, his stomach churning.

"God..."

Beside him, veteran platoon leader Wang Hu's scar across his left eye twitched slightly. His calloused hands gripped the knife handle tightly, his knuckles white, and his heavy breathing was clearly audible amidst the noise.

Even those accustomed to life and death still find this apocalyptic scene suffocatingly oppressive.

Fear, like a cold vine, quietly took root and spread in the hearts of the soldiers and civilians on the city walls.

Yongtian Imperial City, Military Affairs Office.

On the giant sand table, the filthy black tide symbolizing the demonic alliance had completely swallowed the miniature point of light representing Riftwind City, just as ink drowned a candle flame.

The air was eerily still; you could hear a pin drop. The only sound was the faint hum of the astrolabe turning.

Minister of War Zhou Chang pressed his hands firmly against the cold edge of the sand table, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Emperor Yuankang sat upright in the main seat, his face calm and composed, but the warm, lustrous jade teacup in his hand was crushed to pieces with a "crack" without anyone noticing!
The scalding tea, mixed with the crimson cinnabar-like powdered jade, dripped down the back of his hand, where the veins were slightly bulging, onto the blood-red battle report from Liefeng, which was spread out, creating a shocking 'bloodstain'.

"The fluctuations of the Crimson Gold Barrier have reached a critical point..." Zhou Chang's voice was dry and tense, like sandpaper being rubbed together, "Marquis Qingyang... he is using the power of the entire city of Liefeng to directly confront the origin of the Three Sovereigns!"

Qingtianzhou Observatory.

The giant star instrument responsible for monitoring Xu Zhou's energy spun wildly, emitting a sharp whistling sound as it struggled under the strain!
The elder in charge gripped the railing of the observation platform tightly with his withered hands, his cloudy eyes fixed on the energy readings representing the windbreak barrier on the instrument panel.

The crimson-gold beam of light had already broken through the critical red line, yet it was still stubbornly climbing upwards amidst violent fluctuations!
"Barrier reading...breaking the limit! And it's still rising!"

He gasped in shock, his voice trembling with disbelief and a hint of awe he himself didn't even realize, "Zhang Qingyang... he actually used the Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression Stele to forcibly solidify space and anchor the Xu Zhou ley lines..."

"He is using the earth's veins as fuel and the acropolis as a furnace to scorch the entire demonic alliance!"

Zhao Zhou Tianjian Gorge, a dilapidated fortress.

Leaning against the cracked and nearly broken base of the "Suppressing Sea Sword," an old sword cultivator, who had lost an arm and was covered in blood, struggled to raise his head.

Despite the endless space separating them, the terrifying energy fluctuations and desperate roars emanating from the northern Xuzhou direction still pierced his weary soul like tangible ice spikes, bringing waves of dizziness.

However, when his blurred "vision" caught the resilient outline of the three barriers of light in the direction of the Riftwind, which fluctuated but never faded, a hoarse yet incredibly joyful smile appeared on his blood-stained and frostbitten face. He coughed up blood froth mixed with icy shards, his voice trembling as he coughed up the deep, bone-revealing wounds: "Good! Good indeed! The Riftwind barriers are not broken! The rock is not bent!"

He roared at the few remaining sword cultivators around him, who were also covered in wounds. His voice broke in the howling wind of the canyon, yet it carried the sound of metal and stone, "Xu Zhou has the Three Emperors nailed to him! I, the son of Zhao Zhou... can still grit my teeth and slay another 100,000 demons!"

His murky yet sharp gaze, like a broken sword, pierced through the blood mist, shining like a cold star.

Inside Riftwind City, at the Demon-Suppressing Platform.

Noise, fear, deafening roar...

When these immense pressures from the city walls, the ramparts, distant continents, and even the void surged toward the Demon-Suppressing Platform like an invisible tsunami, they vanished the instant they touched the dark figure atop the platform.

Zhang Yuan stood alone on the high platform, his black python robe remaining motionless amidst the raging energy torrents, only the hem of the robe fluttering like the wailing of a battle flag.

Behind him, the solid, ancient monument-like thousand-foot-tall "Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Stele" was shrouded in dark gold Dao patterns, and the magnificent inscriptions "Power to Suppress the Ten Directions" and "Protect the Mountains and Rivers" shone brightly.

He pressed his hands firmly on the core array plate, his deep eyes seemingly reflecting the boiling sea of ​​destruction outside the city, or perhaps piercing through time and space to see a deeper battlefield.

His vast divine consciousness had long since merged with the triple barriers, the three-hundred-mile-long defensive city, and the three million core elite troops!
There were no roars, no passionate outbursts, only an absolute will as deep and unwavering as a mountain, silently transmitted through the fortified formation to every soldier fighting a bloody battle.

On the city wall, the young recruit seemed to sense something. He took a deep breath, his teeth stopped chattering, and he bit his lower lip tightly, gripping the spear in his hand even tighter.

The scarred veteran Wang Hu's tense jaw relaxed, he spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and his eyes rekindled with the familiar fierce fighting spirit. He roared, "Damn it, what are you afraid of! The Marquis is watching! Everyone, get your spirits up and take down those damn bastards!"

An invisible force, like the foundation of a rock, began to quietly build on the city walls where panic was spreading.

"Boom—" The demonic aura surged forth, colliding with the golden light barrier.

The hundreds of millions of half-demons, driven mad by the demonic whip and the demon army, converged into a boundless, dark, and viscous tide of death.

They were hunched over like skeletons, their tattered burlap sacks revealing skin and bones, their heavy shackles dragging them through the flesh and blood that had long since worn through their ankles, leaving behind winding, dark red trails.

Under the relentless pressure from the demon army behind them and the intimidation of the ice bat horde above them, they numbly and lifelessly surged toward the defenses of Riftwind City.

The moment they struck the crimson-gold light shield, instead of blood and flesh flying everywhere, they were silently turned into dust under the extreme energy clash, exploding with ice dust. In just a few breaths, a disgusting mound of flesh and ice, ten feet high, was piled up at the foot of the city!

The sole purpose of this somber "Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" is to consume the barrier's energy with endless life force, softening the will of the human race's defenses.

In the chaotic torrent, a emaciated half-demon with only one cloudy old eye stumbled and fell, his withered hand clutching tightly half a moldy and hardened wheat cake in his arms—

This may be the last food he left for his grandson.

Before it could even struggle to its feet, the swarm of ice bats that had swooped down from behind arrived, and a sharp claw pierced its back as easily as tearing through rags.

The half-eaten, blood-stained bread slipped from the twitching hand and was instantly trampled into the stinking, bloody mud by countless filthy footsteps.

Taking advantage of the brief respite of the half-demon cannon fodder, amidst the mountain of corpses, the earth suddenly groaned under the unbearable weight and cracked open with a deafening roar!
Driven by the Demon Emperor's will, the remaining lava demon dragons no longer scattered, but instead converged into several scorching dark red rivers, bursting through the pile of corpses and frozen earth with a roar!

Their massive, twisting bodies flow with scalding magma, melting and vaporizing the permafrost wherever they go, sending up plumes of highly toxic sulfurous smoke.

Countless thick streams of lava breath, like crimson waterfalls pouring down from hell, lashed wildly at the crimson-gold light shield, exploding into a shower of fiery golden rain with a deafening roar!

The light shield was violently dented and fluctuated by the impact. The scorching heat and corrosive poison gas frantically eroded the shiny rune structure, emitting a teeth-grinding "sizzling" sound. The color of the light shield visibly dimmed a few degrees!
Leading the charge was a massive, monstrous dragon leader with one of its most menacing horns broken off.

Its only remaining eye was completely filled with frenzied blood vessels, and scorching magma flowed and solidified continuously along the cracks in its scales.

It seemed oblivious to the excruciating pain of its scales peeling away piece by piece under the shockwave of the light shield, revealing charred flesh and bone. It let out a hysterical roar and used its battered head as a hammer to slam it repeatedly against the thickest part of the barrier's light!
"Boom! Boom!"

The dull thuds of impact struck like blows to the heart. Each impact was accompanied by the muffled sound of bones shattering and splashes of lava and blood, until the last remaining horn snapped off in another violent impact!

Lava spewed wildly from the broken corner, yet it remained as if in a madman, roaring as it spewed out the last stream of molten liquid mixed with fragments of its internal organs!
Following closely behind the demonic dragon, the Crystal Armor War Demon Legion, covered in constantly shifting and transforming dark purple crystal armor, resembling a moving crystal forest, began to advance in perfect unison.

Their steps are silent yet carry a deadly rhythm, each step creating subtle ripples in the space.

The enormous, twisted, diamond-shaped scepter in his hand, resembling a crystallization of some kind of law, had a deep, annihilating light gathered at its tip.

With the silent command of the War Demon Commander, hundreds of condensed annihilation beams suddenly focused their fire, striking with unparalleled precision the weak areas of the light shield that had been corroded by lava and whose rune light had been slightly sluggish!

The instant the beam of light touched the light shield, there was no earth-shattering explosion, only a heart-stopping feeling of spatial collapse!

Instantly, dense spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the light shield, with miniature black holes churning around the edges of the cracks, frantically tearing and annihilating the energy structure that formed the barrier!
On the battlefield, a war demon commander's dark purple crystal armor, covering his entire body, suddenly flashed with a dazzling purple light, and his figure blurred abruptly—a spatial jump!
Its figure appeared instantly in the air less than a hundred feet below the city!

Ignoring the rain of rune arrows that were splashed from the city wall and easily deflected by the crystal armor, it slammed its huge rhomboid scepter into the ground!

"Buzz!"

An even stronger annihilation light erupted from the tip of the scepter, and a spatial collapse vortex, several meters in diameter and visible to the naked eye, instantly formed!

The terrifying suction force, like an invisible giant hand, forcibly pulled three Rock Camp heavy shield soldiers who were unable to react in time and were maintaining their line with their giant shields from the city wall into that distorted void!
The piercing screams didn't even have time to fully escape before they abruptly stopped, leaving only a wisp of blood mist drifting from the edge of the vortex!
Like a moving mountain of bones, a ten-zhang-tall skeletal demon soldier trampled down.

They were forcibly pieced together from countless thick, twisted, pale skeletons that shimmered with eerie runes, with dark demonic flames swirling and roaring between the joints, forming their "flesh and blood".

Two pale blue flames danced within the hollow eye sockets.

Every step was like a meteorite striking the earth, causing the frozen soil to crack and lava to spew out!
A terrifying warhammer forged from a massive spine, wreathed in pale lightning that tears space apart.

Each swing was accompanied by the sound of wind and thunder, slamming hard against the light shield and causing violent energy ripples and explosions!
The bluish-white flames burst forth from the eye sockets, and the frozen air instantly condensed into countless sharp ice spikes, which shot towards the city wall like a torrential rain!

A skeletal demon soldier trampled through the mountain of half-demon corpses, and a massive bone hammer smashed into a protruding corner of the city's foundation with tremendous force.

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the solid basalt base shattered, and several massive bones in the demonic soldier's ribcage broke under the terrifying recoil, emitting a piercing cracking sound!
But it let out a silent, savage roar, and the bluish-white cold flames surged! The bone claws plunged into the pile of corpses, grabbing handfuls of broken bones and forcibly stuffing them into the broken bone gaps as if filling fuel!

The demonic flames scorched and licked, and the flesh and bones sizzled as they quickly "fused" with the broken bones. In just a moment, the broken parts were roughly repaired, making the demonic flames even more ferocious!

The hollow eye socket locks onto the next impact point!

Before Riftwind City, demons gathered, and the sky-covering demonic light threatened to crush the entire city!

"Demon-Slaying Crossbow - Ten Thousand Arrows Slice Through the Sky!"

The commander's hoarse roar from the city wall pierced through the clamor.

His response was a roar of three thousand Cold Prison Crossbowmen!

The newly engraved runes of "Exorcising Evil" and "Chasing Souls" on the crossbow body, made by the master craftsmen of the Ministry of Works working day and night, shone brightly.

The warriors took turns, their boiling blood resisting the biting cold, winding the deep blue, almost glacial-like, extreme freezing energy onto runic crossbow strings as thick as a child's arm. (End of Chapter)