High Martial Arts: Martial Soul Great Sage Equal to Heaven, crushing all races.

Shanghai, the home of the Xia family.

An ancient tree, whose age is unknown, is now growing wildly in a bizarre way. Its twisted and thick vines, like giant pythons that have come to life, are silently spreading in all directions along the walls, eaves, and streets.

The entire Xia family territory was shrouded in this deep green shadow, forming an independent domain isolated from the outside world.

At the very center of the domain, Xia Buxiu, the ancestor of the Xia family who had been in seclusion for a century and was rumored to have passed away, sat cross-legged on a gnarled tree root.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes had long lost their human clarity, replaced by two eerie green will-o'-the-wisps, sinister and merciless.

His skin was covered with hard scabs that resembled the bark of an old tree, and the fingernails of his ten fingers had turned into dark brown, withered claws.

A dense, impure, and demonic aura swirled around him.

This is clearly a sign that the practitioner has deeply transformed into a demon through the cultivation of tree demon martial arts!

"Our ancestor has mastered the ultimate divine skill!"

"My Xia family shall prosper!"

Xia Ming and the other high-ranking members of the Xia family knelt on the ground, their eyes gazing fervently at their ancestor as if looking up at a god about to descend into the world.

They have been lying low in the city for years, secretly colluding with the demon race. They have long abandoned their moral bottom line as humans and gambled the future of their family on this evil path leading to the abyss.

Xia Buxiu's dry lips moved slightly, his voice hoarse and low, as if squeezed out from a decaying tree hole, each word carrying a chilling aura.

"The billions of humans in the Demon City, their flesh and blood, their souls—today, they will be the sacrifices for me, Xia Buxiu, to ascend to the seventh rank."

The moment the words fell, the countless vines covering the entire territory seemed to receive an supreme command, suddenly breaking free of the domain's constraints and surging in all directions like a tide, following the city's veins!

On the street, a young man running towards a refuge suddenly felt a tightness in his ankle.

He looked down and saw a vine that had appeared out of nowhere, tightly wrapped around him.

He tried to struggle in terror, but the vines unleashed unimaginable force, their sharp barbs instantly piercing his flesh.

"ah--"

A short, sharp scream.

In the blink of an eye, a vibrant life was drained of all its life essence, turning into a shrunken, withered corpse lying on the cold street.

Such tragedies were happening simultaneously in various corners of Shanghai.

The demonized Xia family warriors emerged from the shadows, their faces contorted with maniacal smiles, and pounced on every living person who had no time to escape.

The usually bustling and peaceful streets were instantly transformed into a living hell.

Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the Demon Slayer Bureau.

The golden chariot, symbolizing the general's majesty and pulled by a black dragon, was quietly parked in its designated square.

Several martial artists dressed in Xia family attire, exuding a chilling aura, sneaked in like ghosts.

The soldiers from the Demon Slayer Division responsible for guarding the area didn't even have time to sound the alarm before they were pierced through the heart by a series of ruthless and cunning sneak attacks, falling silently into pools of blood.

The leading elder of the Xia family took out a jet-black jade talisman and affixed it to the golden dragon tendon that ran through the black dragon's spine.

He muttered incantations, and the jade talisman suddenly glowed with an eerie blood-red light.

"Boom!"

A dull, resounding crash, like a bowstring snapping.

The dragon tendon seal, which Lei Jun Li Changqing had personally laid down to suppress the black dragon for 126 years, snapped in response!

A pair of crimson dragon eyes, larger than lanterns, suddenly opened!

"roar--!!!"

A deafening dragon roar, carrying endless resentment and hatred suppressed for a century, rose from the ground and into the sky. The sound wave transformed into a tangible shockwave, instantly spreading throughout half of Shanghai!

Boom!

The dome of the Demon Slayer Headquarters was shattered from below by an unparalleled force. The massive black dragon body soared into the sky, and the falling boulders rained down on the surrounding streets, stirring up clouds of dust.

Black Dragon Ao Li hovered in mid-air, looking down at the familiar yet unfamiliar steel forest below, his scarlet dragon eyes flashing with a cruel and gleeful light.

One hundred and twenty-six years of humiliation!

One hundred and twenty-six years of imprisonment!

Today, I am finally free!

It opened its ferocious dragon mouth, aimed at the most crowded commercial area below, and spat out a jet of jet-black dragon flame without hesitation.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a deathly silence of annihilation.

Wherever the dragon's breath passed, skyscrapers tens of meters high melted like candles, solid streets were instantly vaporized, and thousands of people, without even having time to utter a scream, were reduced to the most insignificant ashes along with their souls in that devastating heat.

"Hahaha! This is power! This is freedom!"

Ao Li laughed wildly, venting his frustration, enjoying this long-awaited feast of slaughter.

However, even in destruction, there is a glimmer of light.

On the edge of the area affected by the dragon's breath, under the rubble of a collapsed building, a young mother was trapped with her legs pinned under heavy precast concrete slabs, unable to move.

In her arms, she tightly protected a young child who had already fainted from choking on the thick smoke. The flames were spreading towards her.

Just as despair was creeping into her eyes, a lithe figure, carrying an alloy shield that was already charred and deformed by the fire, charged into the sea of ​​flames like a nimble cat.

It is Chu Qiulan.

With a speed that defied her usual level, she precisely dodged several deadly jets of fire, rushed to the mother and child, gritted her teeth, unleashed all her inner energy, and forcefully pried open a corner of the several-ton precast slab.

"Run! Head to Emergency Shelter Six!"

She pulled the mother and child out of the rubble, wiped the soot from their faces. Their beautiful little faces were covered in black grime, but their eyes were surprisingly clear.

Without pausing, she turned and rushed back into the sea of ​​fire to search for the next survivor.

Not far away, Jin Zhengyi was leading more than 30 freshmen from Shanghai Martial Arts University, forming a fragile but resilient temporary defensive line.

With their meager cultivation levels of the Awakening Soul Realm and True Qi Realm, they fearlessly fought against several third-tier demonic beasts that had taken advantage of the chaos to rush into the base city.

Kim Jong-il's fists were already torn and bleeding, but he still stood at the front, using his not-so-broad back to shield the civilians behind him from fatal attacks.

"Team One! Stop that pangolin on the left! Its weak point is its abdomen!"

"Second team! Cover the right flank! Don't let that shadow cat break through the crowd!"

"Three teams! Continue organizing the civilians to evacuate! Quickly!"

The boy's face was covered in blood, and his voice was hoarse, but the flames burning in his eyes were brighter than ever before.

They are martial artists.

They are not bystanders in the face of disaster.

High in the sky, after devouring the flesh and souls of thousands of people and recovering some of his strength, the black dragon Ao Li gradually restrained his dragon might.

To it, these humans are nothing more than ants that it can crush at will, food to replenish its energy.

What truly matters is the battle on the shores of the East China Sea.

Its massive dragon head turned eastward, where two familiar and powerful dragon auras were erupting, along with a sword intent that it hated to the core.

"Father, sister... I'm here!"

Ao Li let out a deep dragon roar, and his massive dragon body suddenly swung, transforming into a streak of black light that stretched across the sky. It smashed through the energy shield above the Demon City, which was beginning to weaken due to insufficient energy supply, and shot straight towards the eastern horizon.

……

East China Sea battlefield.

10,000 meters above the ground.

Feng Qingyang's situation is already precarious.

His green robe had long been scorched and torn by the dragon's breath, and his face and arms were covered with several deep, gruesome bloodstains that revealed the bone.

Behind him, the towering, thousand-meter-tall azure divine sword dharma image had spiderweb-like cracks appearing on its blade.

That was a warning that the power of the martial spirit was about to be exhausted and could no longer bear the burden.

But he remained steadfast like a javelin, single-handedly holding off Ao Yuan and Ao Yue, two sixth-tier dragons, buying precious time for the sea defense line below.

Just as he narrowly avoided Ao Yue's cunning dragon claw attack with a daring sidestep.

In the distance, a familiar black dragon shadow was rapidly approaching at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When he saw the face of the person who came, even Feng Qingyang, whose heart had long been tempered by blood and fire and was as hard as a rock, couldn't help but feel a sudden sinking into an abyss.

Black Dragon Ao Li!

Here it comes.

The black dragon landed beside Ao Yuan, its scarlet dragon eyes fixed on Feng Qingyang, who was dressed in rags and covered in blood. Its hoarse and cruel voice boomed in Feng Qingyang's ears.

"Feng Qingyang, one hundred and twenty-six years ago, when you personally put that dragon tendon chain on me, did you ever imagine that this day would come?"

The three giant dragons, arranged in a triangular formation, surrounded Feng Qingyang in the very center.

Azure Dragon Ao Yuan, Silver Dragon Ao Yue, Black Dragon Ao Li.

Three distinct yet equally terrifying sixth-order dragon mights intertwined to form an impenetrable net, completely sealing off all of Feng Qingyang's escape routes.

"Feng Qingyang, your death is near!"