Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 469 The Beginning of Demon Extermination

At the deepest part of the maze is a large enough cave.

Hundreds of torches were lit inside the cave, where hundreds of humanoid monsters had gathered.

These monsters all looked exactly the same, even their size was identical, and they exuded the unique aura of monsters.

The aura of these monsters was much weaker than that of the monsters ravaging the outside world; it was almost impossible to sense them without careful observation. But they were undoubtedly monsters.

These monsters knelt in orderly worship around a stone altar, shouting in a strange language that was completely incomprehensible.

"Waaaaah!"

"With strange gibberish emanating from the altar, waves of magical energy emanated, along with a unique aura belonging to the demon race."

Xia Zuo and Fulilian exchanged a glance, finally finding the right place. They might be fortunate enough to witness the birth of the demon race.

This is an opportunity that has not appeared in tens of thousands of years. Being able to witness the birth of the demon race will surely allow us to discover the deeper secrets of the world.

Xia Zuo wanted to know how to completely kill the Demon King and end this conflict, a task that was already easy to accomplish but seemed impossible to resolve.

game.

Frilian's entire village was massacred by demons, and her hatred for demons was the driving force behind her learning magic. Otherwise, she wouldn't have given up on the speed of her magic growth and instead practiced the magic restraint method created by Flame to enhance her combat power.

Therefore, neither of them had any intention of taking action immediately, and they patiently waited for the monsters' ritual to end.

At the same time, they were all listening carefully to the monsters' words, trying to analyze what language it was and then decipher its meaning.

But after listening for a long time, they both shook their heads.

I can't understand it at all.

Frilian frowned and said, "It's not human language, dwarven language, elven language, dragon language, or demon language, and it's completely different from gnoll songs."

Xia Zuo frowned and pondered for a long time, but then suddenly realized, "Is it possible that this isn't a language at all?"

Frillie: "Huh?"

Xia Zuo said, "Carefully sense the surge of magical power and the flow of demonic aura. Don't their fluctuations and mutual interference perfectly match the sounds of demons?"

Frillie listened intently, and slowly, her eyes widened: "Mr. Shazo, you're right, they, they overlap perfectly."

"This isn't language; it's magic and demonic energy resonating within a demon!"

Frillie was both amused and exasperated, and could only laugh at herself, "Sigh, what a waste of my joy."

Seeing Frilian's scrunched-up little face, Xia Zuo couldn't help but laugh.

He reached out and patted Frilian's white head to comfort her, "Don't think like that. Eliminating one possibility of error is a gain in itself."

"Okay, I understand, thank you, Mr. Shazo." Frillie's mood improved immediately, and she asked with a smile, "Mr. Shazo, I've never seen these monsters before. What kind of creatures are they?"

Xia Zuo shook his head: "I don't recognize them at all either. These things are different from all the creatures in the world, and they don't match the monster encyclopedia of the Elf race."

"But I can sense that dramatic changes are happening inside their bodies; we should be able to find out soon."

Before Xia Zuo could finish speaking, the altar suddenly exploded.

The magic and demonic aura no longer seeped out through the air, but exploded like a volcanic eruption.

Instantly, the demons surrounding the altar screamed in agony. They had been infused with magic power that had increased hundreds or even thousands of times, causing their sizes to drastically increase.

However, the swelling suddenly increased, but the skin withered and cracked extremely quickly.

The monsters' cracked skin undulated and rippled, like a monster about to emerge from its cocoon.

Breaking free from the cocoon?

A sudden realization dawned on Xia Zuo: "I get it! No wonder I didn't recognize these monsters!"

"These monsters are pupae before the true monsters are born; they represent a stage in a complete metamorphosis and are not actual monsters that roam the world!"

As if to prove Xia Zuo's guess, the sound of tearing cloth rang out, and the cracked skin of the monsters was completely torn apart, and one after another, strange monsters crawled out of their skins.

Their bodies are covered in wet slime, and they look like newly hatched chicks or lizards. Some look like monsters that are a combination of several animals, and some are even completely plant-like.

The slime on the surface of these monsters evaporated rapidly, and they emitted a monster aura ten times stronger than before, which was also growing at a rapid pace.

Two of the monsters that emerged were clearly humanoid.

They exuded an aura completely different from that of demons; evil, greed, bloodshed, tyranny, frenzy, and cruelty were mixed together, making people uneasy and fearful.

Frillie took a deep breath, then slowly said, "Demons—"

Xia Zuo nodded solemnly and said, "They are indeed demons. So that's how they are born. So the demons are demons who failed to ascend to immortality."

"No wonder demons can command demons; they are all of the same race."

Frillie's expression was icy as she raised her wand and pointed it at the two newly born demons: "Demons deserve to die."

The elven girl began to gather magic, and the two newborn demons also felt the surge of magic and turned to look at Frilian.

But their attention was immediately drawn to Shazo; their instincts told them that the tall, strong male elves were the most terrifying enemies.

The next second, the two newborn demons realized how accurate their instincts were.

Xia Zuo suddenly appeared in the monster horde, wielding his steel longsword like the wind, instantly cutting dozens of monsters in two, including those that seemed to have failed to hatch and were trapped in their cracked skin.

When Xia Zuo's longsword struck the monsters, it not only cleaved them horizontally, but also caused them to disintegrate from the broken ends into dust-like fragments.

A tremendous fear surged within the two newly born demons. Driven by their dread of death, they unleashed their power without hesitation and launched a counterattack against Xia Zuo.

One of the demons opened its mouth, from which a black magic orb was formed. It aimed at Xia Zuo and unleashed a filthy...

The light of breath.

The black, filthy light struck the demon blocking its path first, instantly piercing it and corroding a hole the size of a washbasin.

At this moment, the demons who had been emitting the filthy beams realized that Xia Zuo was no longer in his original position.

The filthy beam struck another monster resembling a skinned lion, visibly corroding it into a lump of mud.

Another newborn demon opened its arms, and a pure white bone spur grew from each palm. The bone spur was also wrapped with red bloodstains, emitting a strong bloody smell and a pungent stench.

Clearly, this monster, which resembles an assassin, has bone spikes on its hands coated with deadly poison.

But Xia Zuo ignored the two newborn demons, his figure flashing like a ghost among the demons.

Wherever he went, Xia Zuo would swing his greatsword, slicing all the monsters around him in two horizontally, and then using the sword energy left in the wounds to completely decompose the monsters into ashes.

Xia Zuo's avoidance of battle and his tendency to pick on the weak allowed the two newborn monsters to quickly forget their instinctive fear, their hearts filled with rage at being mocked and ignored.

Their actions became increasingly frantic, and the damage they inflicted on the monsters was almost as great as that inflicted by Xia Zuo.

Especially that assassin-type demon, whose bone spikes on both hands touched countless demons in the chaos, and these unfortunate demons were poisoned to death instantly.

The monsters' corpses rotted at a visible rate, which in turn became the source of the poisonous gas, killing even more monsters.

Although demons are twisted and brutal, practically all of them mentally ill, they are intelligent and almost unaffected by emotions.

Although the two demons were less than five minutes old, they quickly realized that something was wrong. They turned around at the same time to look at Frilian, preparing to deal with the young elf first.

But with Shazo's impact providing cover, Frillie had ample time to prepare, and as the two demons turned around, her magic was successfully activated.

[Destroy the Demon's Golden Thunder]

Two golden bolts of lightning shot out from the magic circle activated by the wand, instantly piercing through the bodies of two demons, and then continuing to sweep away the remaining three hundred or so demons.

But the golden lightning bypassed Xia Zuo's body without causing him any harm.

This is half the reason why Frilian chose [Golden Thunder of Exorcism].

Under Xia Zuo's cover, she could safely prepare this spell, which had a five-second pre-cast animation.

At the same time, the anti-magic attribute will prioritize attacking demons and monsters, so Xia Zuo doesn't have to worry about being accidentally injured when there are demons around.

Frilian chose the other half of the [Golden Lightning of Exorcism] because its exorcism attribute magic is far more efficient at killing demons and monsters than Xia Zuo's swordsmanship.

Once struck by the golden lightning, neither demons nor monsters could heal themselves; instead, they would quickly turn to ashes.

Including the altar that the monsters worshipped, all the monsters were struck by golden lightning, and for a moment the entire cave was filled with flying dust, a truly spectacular scene.

Xia Zuo emerged from the ashes, his clothes covered in dust, but he casually brushed it off without a care.

Back beside Frillie, Shazo gave a thumbs-up and said, "This magic wand is amazing! Who invented it?"

Frillie said shyly, "Yes, teacher, and—I also offered some help."

Xia Zuo reached out and patted Frilian's head, praising her again, "I have to say sorry, Frilian."

"It's truly unfair to overlook your talent and achievements simply because you're not yet 150 years old and are still a minor elf!"

"And then there's Flame. I thought I was overestimating her achievements, but I never imagined that her greatest achievement wasn't promoting magic, but rather creating magic with anti-magic properties."

Shazo's praise made Frillie blush with excitement. Overjoyed yet insecure, she stammered, "No, I'm not that amazing—"

"No! You and your teacher are worthy of the title, but my best friend Celia is the one who deserves it—" Xia Zuo laughed happily, "From now on, I can loudly mock this girl and say that she has bad taste."

"She can even ignore the importance of anti-magic attribute magic. It seems that she has too much magical knowledge, which has restricted her understanding of new magic."

Hearing Xia Zuo loudly mocking Grandmaster Celie, little Frillie shrank back in fear, too timid to speak.

Actually, she was very pleased.

Xia Zuo didn't think he was exaggerating. While it was certainly great that Flame promoted magic and helped advance human civilization, the development of anti-magic properties was even more important.

The situation in this world is very special; the threat posed by the demon race is the greatest disaster, surpassing even some natural and man-made calamities.

The Elven race dominated the world for tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of years, but ultimately fell into scattered tribes that could no longer unite.

The biggest reason is not the elves' excessive stubbornness due to their long lifespan, but the Demon King's army that breaks out every few decades.

When Xia Zuo was young, he heard the elders lamenting the decline of the Elf race.

They said the Demon King's army was no problem at all, easily suppressed, but now it requires the full strength of the elves.

Only through mobilization can suppression be barely achieved.

At that time, the Demon King's army was not yet able to shake the rule of the elves.

Over the next thousand years, Xia Zuo grew stronger and stronger, while the Elf race declined with each calamity of the Demon King's army.

To this day, the Elven race's rule over the world has disintegrated, transferring its dominant position in civilization to humanity.

The calamity of the Demon King's army will erupt in less than a century, and even if it is suppressed by the elves, it will still cause a large number of casualties.

Especially after the war, the attacks by scattered demons on the scattered elven villages caused far more casualties than those on the battlefield.

The reproduction of elves is difficult enough, but it takes a full 500 years for an elf to grow from birth to adulthood.

Such a rate of reproduction is simply not enough to make up for the deaths and injuries caused by the demons.

What's even more worrying is that the vast majority of the casualties were young and middle-aged elves, which further exacerbated the aging and stubbornness of the elves.

Meanwhile, the demon race is making continuous progress.

They have mastered more and more magical tricks, their power has increased, and their vitality has become more and more tenacious.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Xia Zuo killed "The Corruptor of Magic" Domenico in a few strokes with just a tree branch. If it were any other elven warrior, it might not have been a demon who died in battle.

To turn the tide of the war, we must increase the efficiency of killing demons, and do so universally.

This is not just a problem that the elves need to solve; even humans, with their explosive reproduction rate, must solve this problem.

Otherwise, human civilization will eventually be stuck at a certain peak, and as civilization declines, it will gradually follow the same path as the elves.

Of course, their high reproductive efficiency means that human civilization will not decline to the point of collapse like the elves. They will inevitably grow stronger and fight back after shrinking to a certain extent.

Then human civilization will fall into an endless cycle of growth, decline, counterattack, revival, and further growth.

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