Ting Lanyue was the first one who unbound herself from the shackles, she got up and said, "In ancient times, our Da Ting Clan and the ancestors of Swords Gate cooperated to develop the Great Wilderness. They knew of the horrifying strength of Tian Myriad Mother and passed down records about her! I've read them, and this Tian Myriad Mother is a devil god, not just an ordinary being! These demons want to awaken her again. We must inform the Swords Gate at any cost or things will spiral out of control!"
Zhong Yue handed over one of the scythes to Ting Lanyue and he then quickly cut off the spider webbings entangling everyone. When they were about to leave, He Chengchuan promptly said, "Cover up the bodies!"
Zhong Yue quickly understood what he meant; this is the path directly linked to the demon's lair, and if someone discovered the large number of bodies here, they would immediately come to understand that someone broke free. The bodies must be buried and hid away to buy them more time to escape!
Senior Martial Brother He must be very experienced, which explains why he is so mindful of these things, thought Zhong Yue.
As they were done burying the bodies, they silently escaped away from the Demon Ruins.
In the Demon Ruins, there was no distinction between day and night. The sky was perennially stuck in a dreary gray gloom. As Zhong Yue and the others hid here and there to avoid intersecting with the paths of the demons' patrol, they slowly got closer to the entrance of Demon Ruins.
At the front, a Sword Gate gateway portal stood high, and standing sentry outside the portal were two elders of the Swords Gate. The gateway portal was the entrance to Demon Ruins, and also it's exit. They could only be considered safe once they reached there.
Pheww——
Everyone was relieved when they saw the gateway portal as they were just a few miles away from escaping the Demon Ruins.
He Chengchuan wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead and said relaxingly, "Once we are out of the Demon Ruins, we should be safe after which we must inform the higher-ups in Swords Gate about what transpired here and rescue as many brothers and sisters trapped here as possible!"
All the upper house disciples nodded in agreement when suddenly, a female laughing voice that felt abnormally sultry and overflowed with magical power ringing in their ears, "You all managed to escape to this point, I must say you all are very fortunate! Too bad none of you will be able to proceed any further, not to mention trying to save anyone."
Everyone's face changed drastically as they cast their gaze upward, finding a lady standing at the entrance of the Demon Ruins. The lady could basically not be said to be a lady as she had the head of an elephant; large ears, long trunk and two tusks!
Tian Elephant demon!
Tian Elephant demons belonged to the highest class of demons, they had poor fertility, causing their numbers to be very sparse. However, all of them were very strong once they were born into the world, the average Tian Elephant demons were on the same level of mutated Mantis Demons or even higher!
On the ground around this female Tian Elephant demon were littered around ten human corpses. These corpses must have been those upper house disciples who managed to escape the demons' encirclement. They were so close to freedom, but unfortunately, they were all slaughtered by this demon lady!
"Demon's Qi Practitioner!" murmured Ting Lanyue.
"Qi Practitioner?"
Everyone was stunned at the fact that the demons left behind a Qi Practitioner to guard this place and it was of the premier demon race—the Tian Elephant demons!
Ting Lanyue said hopelessly, "A Qi Practitioner guarding this place. It is impossible to escape anymore…"
"Human little girl, you are a little bit smart, being able to know that I've already become a Qi Practitioner."
The demon lady showed some surprised as her identity had been revealed out by a little human girl and she said, "Now, you may begin your futile attacks. I may have little interest in eating humans, but the same cannot be said for killing!"
Ting Lanyue then said, "Martial siblings, we must fight without holding back anymore in order to survive!"
Everyone remained quiet but showed great determination. Zhong Yue also unsheathed his darksteel scythe, preparing himself to fight till the bitter end. Qi Practitioners were very sentimental toward the spirits, and they could easily merge their soul with the spirits. This is called Spirit-Soul as One, and it would drastically cause an extreme spike in their powers. Now, they might not even have a chance to win at all.
Even though they had prepared to fight with their lives, perhaps none of them would be able to escape at all.
"Kiddo Yue, I might need to use your body no matter what this time!"
In Zhong Yue's psyche ocean echoed the voice of Xin Huo. Xin Huo then said, "If you die, I will have to enter my slumber again until another Fuxi descendent awakens me from my slumber. However, I've been out here for too long without subsisting on the power of a pure-blood Fuxi, and I am on the verge of being extinguished so I cannot wait any longer! I will have to use your body to fight even if it means that my identity will be unveiled!"
Zhong Yue was startled, and when he wanted to reply, noises could be heard coming from the gateway portal. He looked toward the gateway portal and discovered that it was gradually opening!
The situation had stunned everyone including the female Tian Elephant demon as no one had expected this. For a short moment, none of them were able to respond quickly to the situation.
A voice of an elder could then be heard saying, "The entrance to Demon Ruins has been opened, all of you may enter now."
"Thank you, elder."
At the entrance, one after another upper house disciples entered into the Demon Ruins while talking and laughing to each other. They seemed to be one of the Qi Practitioners' disciples aiming to hone their abilities in the Demon Ruins.
When these disciples entered into the Demon Ruins, they saw Zhong Yue and the others straight ahead, and they were all shocked to see the female Tian Elephant demon.
"Martial siblings, retreat at once!"
Ting Lanyue continued shouting, "Immediately inform the elders that the demons have captured the upper house disciples to sacrifice them in a ritual to revive Tian Myriad Mother..."
Before she could even finish what she was saying, the demon lady's trunk suddenly enlarged and became multiple times bigger. Its trunk then suddenly began to inhale ferociously, sucking up the newly-arrived disciples into the air with around ten of them being sucked into its trunk!
"I hate eating raws!"
With her chewing hardly, blood started gushing out of her mouth, and the over ten disciples were devoured just like that!
The demon lady then swung her trunk swiftly and vigorously. The remaining ninety plus upper house disciples that stayed in the air were pulverized into meatballs when the unstoppable trunk impacted them!
"Filthy demon!"
The white light flashed through the unclosed gateway portal, and the next moment, an elder in white robes could be seen standing in front of the gateway portal. He looked frustratingly and angrily at the demon lady, his face changed and impulsively said, "Qi Practitioner of the Tian Elephant demon? The Demon Ruins is barren of the spirit of heaven and earth… how is it possible for you to become a Qi Practitioner? Damn it!"
The elder in white robes was one of the two elders guarding the Swords Gate's gateway portal. He quickly collected his thoughts and shouted fiercely, "Ring the bells at once! The worship of the demons to this forsaken land has given birth to demonic spirits!"
On the other side of the gateway portal, the other elder quickly reacted and promptly rang the bells. The tolls of the bell could then be faintly heard coming from the gateway portal.
"Old human bastard, you are quite clever!"
The demon lady chuckled, and while she swung her trunk toward the elder, she laughingly said, "But it is too late now, the Tian Myriad Mother will be revived soon. It's futile to resist even after Swords Gate knows about this!"
"Tian Myriad Mother!?"
The white-robed elder face changed drastically, and after another white flash, the other elder guardian rushed into the Demon Ruins. Together, they dashed forward and unleashed their full strengths to kill the demon lady.
The three Qi Practitioners fought in front of the gateway portal. Each of them cast incredible skills and performing earth-shattering techniques. The demon lady then straightforwardly cast the [Human-Spirit As One] and transformed into a peculiar elephant with four heads and eight arms with a height of a hundred feet tall, after which she continued fighting frantically with the two elder guardians.
The two elder guardians also cast [Human-Spirit As One], and each respectively turned into a winged celestial being and a celestial being mounted atop the back of a black turtle with a snake on his back. The aura and the energy force released by the trio's battle forced Zhong Yue and the others from a few miles away to keep backing off. This pushed them ever further away from the gateway portal and also hindered their path of escape.
"Swords Gate's elders huh?"
Suddenly, huge waves of fiery demonic energy emerged, shooting in all directions like arrows and an elder failed to evade one of the demonic energy projectiles and was hit by one. As soon as he was hit, he could feel his blood essence starting to be drained by the demonic energy projectile and his flesh seemingly being corroded by the pernicious and fiery demonic energy!
Somewhere not far away were demonic clouds amalgamated from demonic energy and a man in black robes standing on the cloud, his face hidden in the shadows. He said, "Elders from the Swords Gate! Such strong blood essence, you live up to our expectations of quality cattle that was fattened up for many years waiting to be sacrificed for our ritual!"
Wave after wave of demonic energy coalesced into an uncountable number of tentacles, surrounding the other Swords Gate's elder and continuing to stab at the direction of the elder. After a brief moment, the elder was stabbed by one of the tentacles, and he too felt his blood essence being drained and his flesh being corroded.
"Who are you!" shouted the angry and frustrated elders.
"This… you don't need to know."
The black robe Qi Practitioner continued laughing, and suddenly, the two elders' flesh and soul were siphoned out completely, leaving behind two lifeless skeletons!
"The blood essence of these two elders of Swords Gate is enough to revive Tian Myriad Mother!"
The black robe Qi Practitioner then flew away while laughing. Before getting out of sight entirely, his voice could be heard saying, "My children, kill those human cattle on the altar and begin the ritual!"
Seven miles away from the Swords Gate's gateway portal, Zhong Yue, Ting Lanyue, He Chengchuan and the others remained blank-faced, and He Chengchuan said, "The two elder guardians are dead…"
"Hehehe, so that's where you are, little humans."
A huge shadow emerged and covered up the skies above them. Zhong Yue looked above and saw the demon lady that transformed into the four-headed elephant with eight hands—the elephant devil god was standing in front of them!
At the same time, the demon lady said with a loud voice like thunder, "You little kids were just decoys, we had our eyes set upon the two elder guardians. Only with their blood essence will we be able to revive Tian Myriad Mother in her strongest state!"
How did the Demon Ruins' demons know that two elder guardians were protecting the gateway portal! No, it can't be….
Zhong Yue's face changed slightly, he looked up and said, "Someone informed you about them! There are traitors within the Swords Gates!"
"What a smart piece of livestock!"
The Tian Elephant demon lady praised Zhong Yue and said, "But you all have to die here. What a shame…" She then swung her trunk heavily toward Zhong Yue and the others.
Zhong Yue's face turned in acquiescence and thought, I guess Xin Huo has to use my body to fight now…
Before the trunk of the demon lady could even strike them, a wound opened up at her forehead, and a Sword Qi could be seen flying out from her head.
Shua!
The long and mighty Sword Qi flew for another mile before disappearing altogether. The demon lady opened her eyes wildly, and her corpse slammed onto the ground heavily, causing the earth to tremble unceasingly!
A Qi Practitioner in white could then be seen walking toward them in the air and looked toward the deepest part of the Demon Ruins. At the direction where he was looking, the immediate vicinity surrounding the altar was saturated with a thick blood mist. And within the blood mist, stood an enormously huge body whose outline could be faintly seen from afar!
Those demons in the Demon Ruins had killed the thousands of upper house disciples like they were livestock and apathetically sacrificed them to the Tian Myriad Mother!
"Fu Shan, bring me my sword!"
The Qi Practitioner in white then said calmly. As soon as he finished talking, a loud rumbling sound could be heard, and when Zhong Yue and the others looked toward its direction. They witnessed a colossal turtle the size of a mountain slowly moving toward them. Fissures cracked open on the ground as its footsteps were concomitant with a cacophonous rumbling sound; the mountains splintered as the turtle walked past them!
On the top of the turtle shell, was a sword glowing brightly.
"Tian Myriad Mother from ten millennia ago?"
The Qi Practitioner then opened up his hands, and the sword shined even brighter and landed on his hands. As the sword flew away from the turtle's back, the turtle visibly relaxed and its movement became even faster.
"Swords Gate's Fang Jiange, asking for the teachings of Tian Myriad Mother!"