The old man you see with your phone is highly suspicious.

They couldn't even believe that there was such a powerful heroic spirit among the demons.

During their great expedition against the demons, they learned some information: near-Tier 4 is basically the ceiling, and the true Tier 4 combat power is the battle of the gods at the ceiling.

Therefore, when the fourth-tier Blood Duke appeared, many people felt that the game was in the bag. After Xue Law was able to easily kill the Blood Duke, even if they were short of people, the prince felt that they would have no problem.

The difference in strength was too great, and now that they saw this skeletal centaur knight, the archers immediately appeared and quickly notified Xue Dinglu.

Without another word, the horse began to gallop faster, its speed as swift as a ghost.

"Waves, heed my command!" A surging waterspout spun around the female pirate, and a massive torrent of water surged toward the centaur like a tsunami.

She thought that the large-scale waves could at least delay the situation for a dozen seconds, giving Xue Dinglu time to arrive.

The archers immediately drew their bows and nocked arrows, which were enchanted with a whirlwind and shot out in an instant. The whirlwind and the tsunami formed a massive water whirlwind that obscured the view and stirred up the surrounding dust and mud, creating a huge composite magic.

This kind of combined magic should at least delay things for a dozen seconds.

However, in the next instant, the female pirate felt her pupils constrict.

Behind the waterspout, there was no sign of the centaur skeleton knight. So where was he...?

She turned around abruptly, and the terrifying chain sword pierced through her back in an instant.

"Magic to control water? Unfortunately, those who control water elements like you are most afraid of what's behind you and what's above you." The skeletal centaur suddenly drew his chain sword and, in the next instant, deflected the arrows that were gathering a fierce wind.

In an instant, the accelerating centaur rammed into him and sent the archer flying like a rag doll.

“Pathetic.” The skeletal centaur finished speaking, completely ignoring Lana hiding in the cave on the other side, and prepared to leave on his own.

A cross-shaped portal appeared on the spot.

Xue Dinglu saw the blood-stained centaur and the two heroic spirits lying on the ground, their fates unknown. His brows furrowed.

He opened the portal in less than three seconds.

And now, in just these three seconds, the fate of these two heroic spirits is unknown.

No, or rather, it is already dead, but its soul has not yet left this body.

He sensed it; the enemy was in the upper-middle tier of level 4, and very strong.

But that's all.

As the dimensional sword was drawn, Xue Dinglu immediately unleashed his aura.

“Interesting.” The centaur knight said, his chain sword suddenly transforming into a longsword, blood flowing on its surface. His gaze towards Xue Luding was filled with fighting spirit.

The terrifying charge came again, the centaur's body and nearly 4-meter height bringing unparalleled acceleration and a sense of oppression.

It was like a runaway truck.

until……

The moment they made contact, the skeletal centaur's pupils constricted, and half of his body vanished instantly. As the charge paused, he turned around, only to see Xue Dalu standing motionless in place, though he had nearly died.

"What kind of monster is this..." he muttered as he looked at Xue Dinglu.

But for some reason, a surge of power and fighting spirit appeared in his body, the lost half of his body visibly recovered, and his aura soared once again.

"As expected, this is the kind of war that I find interesting! I came to this land precisely because of strong individuals like you!" He laughed wildly and attacked Xue Dinglu once again.

"This is my decisive blow, watch closely!"

But Xue Luding frowned, because in that instant, the opponent had become stronger.

It wasn't the kind of sudden power surge that comes after a burst of power; rather, it was a sudden increase in a person's strength, several times over. Previously, they were in the upper-middle tier of 4, but now they're about to reach the peak of tier 4.

This sudden increase in intensity makes it hard for Xue to avoid thinking about biased refereeing.

So when they realized they couldn't defeat the demons, they shamelessly started increasing the stats, huh?

Xue Luding thought of the other heroic spirits in the demon race. Indeed, the ones he encountered at the beginning were all very weak, but they became stronger and stronger. Now, with the sixth heroic spirit he had encountered, it was already close to the quasi-5th rank.

Or is it this kind of direct, face-to-face alteration of values ​​without any pretense?

Sure enough, the more this was the case, the more it proved Xue's theory that this great expedition was merely a sacrificial ritual for the divine tree, where the losers became nourishment for the tree.

The records they made about how harsh the Demon Realm was, including the poisonous gas and how surviving was a struggle, are actually far from accurate. The truth is that the losers become the Divine Tree's buffet restaurant.

The poisonous gas might be pollen from the sacred tree. It's already given its all to survive because the ground must be full of tree roots. Anything that violates the rules of the sacred tree will become its snack.

This is the truth about the Great Crusade: a war manipulated from behind the scenes, offering hope to both sides.

Perhaps for the defeated demons, their only hope lies in the Great Expedition held every hundred years. If the Great Expedition is successful, they will reclaim everything they once had.

We must reclaim those flowers, that sky, and that land where life is normal.

However, even with strength approaching that of a near-fifth-tier cultivator, for Xue Lude...

"Dimension, Guillotine!" The Dimensional Blade was swung violently, and a terrifying halo of light appeared.

The next second, the centaur that was running like a dump truck was split in two, as if it were a roadside road.

So-called biased refereeing has no deterrent effect in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority.

Xue Dinglu also lamented that he too had become a numerical monster one day, truly a case of the wheel of fortune turning, and finally it was his turn to crush others with numerical superiority.

Chapter 334 represents the four gods: power, life, strategy, and love.

The towering centaur was easily split in two, a fact that shocked both the centaur warrior who was not yet completely dead and those who learned of this through mysterious academic means.

Especially the prince in the palace at this moment, he even forgot about the issue of procreation that existed in the country. You know, he felt fear when two of his country's heroic spirits were easily killed just now.

If reproductive issues could lead to the empire's demise in a few decades, then a failed Great Expedition could result in the immediate destruction of the nation.

The royal family has countless more records about the failure of the Great Expedition than other places. They saw the hardships and suffering the emperor had recorded when the continent was still the "Demon Realm," so they wanted to win no matter what.

Not talking about it would be like living in a living hell, an environment that is absolutely unacceptable to them now.

In this way, the enemy has basically lost its fighting power, and only the last group of master and servants survives in the entire demon realm.

The prince, who was far away, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

We're going to win! Finally, after this great expedition, we can spare no expense to start researching how to solve the breeding problem.

However, just as he was indulging in fantasy time and began to think about the distant future.

Unexpected events often arrive before fantasies do.

……

The Land of Judgment, on the initial island of the Demon Realm.

The Mad Viscount immediately sensed something was wrong. He had originally thought that with his and the Golden Emperor's strength, he could easily kill the demon's heroic spirit and capture the demon's host to use as experimental material.

But now, he was wrong; the opposing Heroic Spirit was terrifyingly strong.

That seemed to be a barbarian who could summon any beast, yet he was such a simple guy. The two of them were already sweating profusely from the fight.

At first, the opponent seemed very strong, but they were no match for the Golden Emperor. They were beaten up like a grandson.

The Golden Emperor can be considered the strongest Heroic Spirit among humans. Although the Mad Viscount believes that this title of strongest was exaggerated by later generations, at least in his Heroic Spirit form, he is incomparably powerful.

According to Xue's Law, this is the peak of the fourth tier, and for the people of this world, it has a special name: "demigod"!

Things started as he had imagined: the big golden guy pinned his opponent to the ground and beat him up, and he took the opportunity to sneak up to the demon host.

He only needed to deal with the green-skinned creature protecting the demon host; he didn't even consider such a lowly being a threat.

However, the next second, an unexpected event occurred. The barbarian who was being brutally beaten by the golden giant suddenly had his combat power soar from the standard combat power of someone who had just entered Tier 4 to the peak of Tier 4 within a few seconds.

In less than two and a half minutes, he went from being completely outmatched by the Golden Emperor to being evenly matched with him.

A little over a minute later, at this moment, the barbarian seemed to stop pretending and directly soared to the level of a near-5th rank. Even the giant deer beside him had a strength close to that of a near-5th rank.

This is like the Golden Emperor fighting against Er Gou from the neighboring kindergarten in the ring. In the middle of the fight, Er Gou from the kindergarten suddenly turns into Kamen Rider by tapping his belt and stops acting instantly.

The problem is that this is not the end. The two-man Kamen Rider, not satisfied with his power level, directly summoned five mechanical dinosaurs to combine into the 100-meter-tall Electric Dinosaur Machine King, while he was just a human emperor.

Damn it!

Even the goblin protecting the demon host evolved from a roadside creature casually crushed by the Mad Viscount to a goblin king who had to be taken seriously, and then to a goblin superman, all in just a few minutes.

No, even in the most fantastical grand expedition stories of the empire, the protagonist only unleashes his power in critical moments or when a friend is sacrificed, shouting a slogan like "We are the human expeditionary force!" to kill the enemy.

You guys don't even make sense when it comes to stories, you just increase your strength exponentially, right?

The Mad Viscount is numb.

The next moment, the golden emperor on whom he had placed his hopes was blasted away, his golden armor almost pierced through, and he was about to return directly to the underworld.

The Mad Viscount immediately abandoned his target, went to the Golden Emperor's side, and said, "Something's wrong! Retreat!"

"Then we..." The Golden Emperor seemed to want to continue fighting, but was quickly stopped by the Mad Viscount.

“There’s something wrong with them. Their strength has increased tenfold in such a short time, it’s like… it’s like God directly enhanced their combat power… They can’t even be bothered to shout ‘friendship, bond, dream’.” The Mad Viscount’s words immediately silenced the emperor.

He thought again of the great expedition he had led to the founding of the nation, when his side was at a complete disadvantage, but inexplicably the enemy suddenly started fighting amongst themselves, even to the point of brain damage.

Their forces united and their strength increased dramatically, allowing them to sweep away the infighting demons and usher in a new era.

At this moment, just as at that moment.

But now, it seems that I am on the opposite side.

Their own side was constantly fighting amongst themselves. If it weren't for another heroic spirit disguised as the Mad Viscount resolving the contamination, who knows what even bigger powder keg might have exploded.

Meanwhile, the opponent seemed to have received an infinite boost, and now they didn't even need to pretend anymore, directly and forcibly elevating this guy who was much weaker than themselves to the level of "demigod".

Sure enough, the outcome of the so-called Great Expedition was merely a matter of whether the other side wanted it or not; whoever that invisible hand wanted to win, would win.

To be or not to be, they had no choice.

"Let's go find them!" The Mad Viscount immediately led the Emperor, and in the next instant, magical light rose from his feet, covering them with a thick fog that blotted out the sky, instantly creating a fog field with a radius of hundreds of meters.

By the time the barbarians came chasing after them like madmen, the Mad Viscount and the Emperor had long since disappeared from the spot.

……

On Xue's side.

"Sorry, I'm a little late." Xue Luding carried the two heroic spirits who had joined forces with him to the same place.

Despite not having much interaction, they still kept their promise to Xue, and even in the most dangerous moments, they thought of stalling for time rather than abandoning Lana and running away alone.

This is already at the level that Xue's Law considers them "comrades-in-arms".