Man on the ark, forced to become king

Inside Yumen City, the golden divine tree rises from the ground, its trunk like a pillar to the sky, radiating countless rays of light that illuminate the border.

The dazzling golden light stretched outwards from within the city, rising higher and higher, parting the dark clouds, dispelling the eerie atmosphere, and reaching several miles away.

As if enraged by the aura of the golden tree, a strange howl resounded from the far distance, dispelling the sandstorms and black mist that had lingered beyond the pass. Under the clear sky, the ground trembled, and a shadow like mud appeared in the distance.

Its body resembles a snake, with ten claws and fleshy wings on its back. Densely packed tiny fleshy buds adorn the wings, each adorned with a scarlet vertical pupil. It stands over ten meters tall.

The ferocious claws pressed down on the ground, and the mud spread from where the claws touched, instantly extending to a hundred meters away. The space from top to bottom was coated with a layer of dark light, which continued to spread with the demon's advance.

One by one, shadows emerged halfway out of the muddy field, struggling and roaring, condensing into hundreds of strange and grotesque figures, howling as they rushed towards the Jade Gate with the demons.

"Be on guard! The demons are knocking!"

Still reeling from the shock, Zuo Xuanliao quickly gave orders, stood on the edge of the city wall, and gripped the steel edge tightly as he watched the approaching demon.

The old master's strength and vision are beyond doubt, as evidenced by the giant tree that just appeared to be a miracle.

Mr. Lin from the Golden Tree indeed possesses abilities far beyond those of ordinary people, almost comparable to those of gods.

However, the evil spirits are not weak either. They often possess all sorts of strange abilities that are difficult to defend against. Most importantly, although only one has appeared so far, who knows how many more are hidden in the deep shadows behind it.

Faced with such a situation, even the Old Celestial Master dared not rashly leave the pass; defending the city was the wisest choice.

"General Zuo, what's the situation?"

Suddenly, the calm air rippled as Chongyue and Ling appeared on the city wall at the same time, standing beside Zuo Xuanliao.

"There is only one demon, and the defenses at Yumen should be sufficient to deal with it."

Zuo Xuanliao did not turn around, his gaze fixed on the crawling demon, his expression solemn.

Yumen Pass has stood on the frontier for thousands of years, enduring countless natural disasters and resisting countless invasions of evil spirits. Naturally, it would not be unable to deal with even a single evil spirit.

However, this situation is truly extraordinary and unprecedented.

Until the dust settles, no one knows what will happen.

“I can go out of the pass and fight it. Defending the city is ultimately a bad strategy. The demon’s abilities are strange. If it continues to attack the city walls, the risk is too great. If we deal with it like this every time, even the strongest city walls will not last long.”

Chongyue clenched his fist, his robes fluttering even without wind, and his eyes gleamed.

In his view, while it was safer to bring the demon closer before fighting it, it was not a wise move.

Only by stopping the demons before they truly reach Yumen and killing them on the spot can the pressure be truly relieved. Otherwise, even if they rely on the strength of the city walls to survive the crisis, it will still cause considerable damage to Yumen's defenses. With such a formidable enemy at hand, they may not have the opportunity to repair the damaged areas.

"Grandmasters must not personally take risks. This is no ordinary event, and we must not act rashly."

Zuo Xuanliao actually knew this principle, but he thought about it more deeply.

With the old Celestial Master gone, the Grandmaster is the most outstanding expert at Yumen Pass, a pillar of strength that can stabilize the sea.

If one rashly leaves the pass, other evil spirits lurking in the rear may take advantage of the situation and invade, with unimaginable consequences.

And... he also had a hidden worry in his heart.

With the Yan Kingdom now rife with internal chaos and the gods of the old era returning to stir up trouble, the credibility of the Grandmaster, one of the fragments of the Year Beast, is questionable.

Ingratitude is acceptable, as is petty thinking.

In short, he cannot place all his hopes on Chongyue.

Thinking this, Zuo Xuanliao turned his head slightly and saw the woman standing next to Chong Yue, causing his pupils to shrink.

Another fragment of the Year Beast?

This may not be good news for Yumen.

"Why do you look at me like that? You people have too many thoughts and too much to bear, as if everyone in the world wants to harm you. It's really boring."

Ling only needed to glance at him to understand what was going on in this person's mind.

That's why she didn't want to deal with the people from the imperial court. She had come to help, but was being treated like a thief. No one would feel comfortable with that.

"...Those in positions of power should fulfill their responsibilities; there are some things that are beyond my control."

Zuo Xuanliao did not explain, nor was there any need to explain.

For the sake of the Great Yan Dynasty, he had to play the villain.

Sitting in his position, one cannot only think of oneself.

The risk of the Sui Beast fragments going out of control is real; it's not something he made up.

Boom!

A strong gust of wind landed, causing the city walls to tremble. Amidst the golden light that descended from the sky, Lin Lu stepped out, stepping on the dissipating radiance. She flexed her wrists, looked around, and was rather speechless.

"What are you all doing gathered here? With a formidable enemy at hand, instead of thinking about how to deal with it, you're here suspecting your comrades?"

Lin Lu said something casually, then looked at the approaching demonic creature.

This creature doesn't seem to move very fast; it crawls very slowly. But thanks to its enormous size, even its slow movements allow it to travel several meters with each step.

As it moved, a layer of sludge spread forward, and the monsters that emerged from it seemed unable to leave that area, only able to bar their fangs and claws within the sludge.

It feels... very strange.

As the golden tree's light shone through, Lin Lu could clearly sense the unease surrounding the demon and that area.

This world seems to reject the existence of evil.

The world's rejection and the power of the evil itself conflicted, causing its power to be suppressed within a certain range, thus forming the muddy realm that the eye could see.

There is only one possible explanation for this situation—the so-called demonic species are actually 'extraterrestrial visitors' who do not belong to this world. If they exist on Earth, they will be rejected by the world, and their actions and abilities will be severely restricted.

This perspective also explains why, despite possessing formidable strength and the extraordinary ability to grow stronger through 'known' knowledge, demonic beings throughout history have never caused any major upheavals.

If they hadn't been rejected by the world, the native civilizations of Terra probably wouldn't have been able to keep them out of civilization so easily.

This is very interesting.

"This is an alien visitor. Lin Lu is very familiar with it, extremely familiar with it."

Isn't throwing trash from outside the world into the world exactly the method that the supreme will excels at?

What a dark outcast, what a fallen star turned beast...

I don't know if the so-called evil spirits have anything to do with Him.

"Mr. Lin, what exactly are the effects of your Golden Tree? Can it be used now?"

Zuo Xuanliao ignored Lin Lu's words and instead began to inquire about the effects of the Golden Tree.

Such a magnificent and grand aura must have extraordinary effects. Putting aside everything else, the fact that the light emanating from the golden tree can dispel the influence of evil spirits is enough to make it a treasure.

It is important to know that in order to enable Yumen Pass to resist the invasion and influence of evil spirits to a certain extent, an astronomical sum of money was spent, and countless rare and precious materials were used to create the Yumen Pass we see today.

But now the light emitted by the golden tree can have the same effect. What else could it be but a treasure?

However, in order for the Golden Tree to grow directly from seed to such height, Yumen Pass consumed a large amount of source stones, which were quite expensive. It can't really only have one function, right?

"It has many uses, but I can't tell you right now."

Lin Lu waved her hand, her gaze never leaving the alien creature crawling towards her.

He had no time to explain the function of the Golden Tree to Zuo Xuanliao at this time.

That kind of thing can be said anytime. Anyway, the Golden Tree is there. Even if he doesn't say anything, the people of Yumen Pass can understand it for themselves. Compared to that, dealing with the evil demons and monsters in front of them is the most important thing.

He had been thinking about demons for a long time, wanting to see them for himself and see what they were really like.

Now that the goal is right in front of us, how can we let it go?

Previously, I thought that the so-called demons were probably similar to giant beast gods, and now it seems that my guess was not too wrong.

Demons also possess abilities similar to those of gods, and their bodies contain a considerable amount of energy reserves, but they cannot fully unleash them due to the suppression of the world.

This is like a walking, fat sheep for the Golden Tree!

Even if you can't analyze anything from them, catching them and using them as fertilizer to accelerate the growth of the golden tree is a good option.

The original plan was to plant the golden tree after arriving in Yumen and then bring Nian and the others over, but it seems that this will have to be postponed.

He has to enjoy this demon first.

Under the astonished gazes of Zuo Xuanliao and Chong Yue, Lin Lu said nothing, leaping hundreds of meters from the city wall and creating a huge crater in the ground. She stood directly in front of the crawling demon.

"Mr. Lin!"

Zuo Xuanliao was completely dumbfounded.

He never expected Mr. Lin to suddenly pull such a move. How could he rashly go out of the city to fight when the enemy's intelligence was still unclear?

“This… I’ll go and lend him a hand.”

Chongyue frowned slightly, somewhat uneasy.

On the one hand, he admired this heroic spirit of not fearing powerful enemies. On the other hand, he also knew that there was more than one demon entrenched outside Yumen Pass. If he rushed out to intercept them outside the city, he might encounter attacks from other demonic species, which would be very dangerous.

Given the relationship between Nian and Xi, this person should now be considered family. As the eldest brother, how could he stand idly by?

From any perspective, he should have gone over immediately to lend a helping hand.

"Brother, please calm down."

Ling stopped Chongyue's movement and laughed, "Lin Lu is very strong. Just wait and see. A mere demon can't do anything to him."

"Besides, according to Nian and the others, Lin Lu doesn't like others interfering in his battles, so we'll just watch from here."