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Chapter 273: Chapter 270: Luring the Monster
"Yes."
This ten-meter-long turtle-like Upper-level Demon spoke in a deep and echoing voice, using a special form of communication: "It is the human force known as the Yellow Sky Sect. The human forces south of the Tianhe have long formed an alliance, but they concealed this fact. A man from the Yellow Sky Sect named Zhang Taiping deceived the Commander, persuading him to allow passage for the Commander to lead the Spirit Clan to eliminate the human force in Star State—Lingxiao City, who had just held high the Heavenly Master Torch."
"He actually trusted the humans?"
"The Commander is very knowledgeable about the human civilization of this world and believed that what Zhang Taiping said was highly credible. That’s why he gathered the Spirit Clan to leave the Tianhe and march south in force. Moreover, to ensure safety, the Commander even battled with the Yellow Sky Sect to which Zhang Taiping belonged, crippling them before continuing southward. Little did he know... it was nothing but a ruse by the humans. Ultimately, the two human forces caught us in a pincer attack, leading to our crushing defeat."
"Our thought will is influenced by our wild instincts and cannot be as unfettered as when in a spirit state; we’re unable to respond accurately to the cunning plots and deceptions of humans in real time. The Commander knew this and yet still chose to collaborate with the humans so readily. Failure was to be expected; it’s just a shame that the excellent situation of gradually encroaching from north to south had been squandered for nothing."
The Demon Bird spoke its mind, tilting its head high as it looked toward the south of Tianhe: "Under the call of the Heavenly Master, the human forces in Tiannan have already formed an alliance. Unless we are willing to reveal all our strength, it will be difficult to shake them in a short time. However, the plan has reached a critical moment, and both Spirit Venerables have already completed their descent. We cannot afford any mistakes now."
"Then... do we give up on Tianhe?"
"Give up? If we were going to give up on Tianhe, the Commander would not have bothered to come here in person!"
This Demon Bird stated: "Tianhe North and South must be severed. We need to create an illusion that Tiannan is beyond our control. That way, should any major changes really occur in Tiannan, those human leaders won’t feel an imminent sense of crisis. And as long as they don’t respond immediately...By devouring and digesting the billions of Spirit Food in Tiannan, our power will become unstoppable. Then we can push northward and completely take over this realm."
"Now the number of humans active near Tianhe is increasing, yet we no longer have the numbers to completely block off the Tianhe..."
"Then let’s make a dramatic move to deter all humans."
The Demon Bird let out a low cry: "The other forces south of Tianhe have banded together, an impenetrable barrier that we cannot break, but the nearby Yellow Sky Sect is within our range of attack. Moreover, they’re the principal culprits behind our heavy losses and we must exact revenge."
"The Commander means to completely eradicate this human force known as the Yellow Sky Sect? Won’t this incite fear in the north?"
"The Yellow Sky Sect is already severely weakened from enacting that feigned retreat. Now is the best time to eliminate them. As for fear in the north..."
The Demon Bird’s eyes gleamed with intelligent light: "A complete regime is always slow to act, not nearly as efficient as us. As long as we handle it properly, even if the north becomes wary, as long as they don’t send troops immediately, we’ll still have room to maneuver."
The Xuanwu-like demon was convinced and nodded.
"Summon the Spirit Clan, let this force known as the Yellow Sky Sect understand the price they must pay for trying to scheme against our Spirit Clan."
...
Outside of Gourd Valley.
A Mystic Bird Fighting Machine, with its azure tail flames, cruised through the Void.
Accompanied by the surge of blue flames, the fighting machine suddenly accelerated, breaking the sound barrier in a matter of moments and slicing through another layer of white foam within a single breath, ultimately maintaining a speed four times that of sound, heading straight for Lengfeng Fortress.
After flying less than two hundred li, the Earth beneath was filled with the clang of iron hooves.
Tens of thousands of elite cultivators were in a large-scale retreat.
Behind them, innumerable demons rolled in like a tidal wave, their numbers seemingly no less than during the battle at Yuntian City.
At the rear of the retreat, several Primordial Spirit Monarchs crisscrossed through the Void, their flying swords wrapped with violent energy fluctuations as they relentlessly bombarded the giant demons.
Each hit, if landed, would leave a sword mark or even a gaping wound on the demons.
The damage wasn’t severe, but the cumulative effect was not to be underestimated.
Due to their inability to counterattack, these massive demons could only passively take hits, hiding everywhere they could.
These...
Were all Upper-level Demons.
Leveraging the advantage of the cultivation system, including Liu Jingtiao and Wu You, a total of nine Great Primordial Spirit Monarchs were nearly dominating the battle against more than twenty Upper-level Demons.
Even the Demon King hadn’t shown itself.
The reason?
Unless it was a Demon King with an Undying Demon Body fully refined into Perfection, merging both blood and demonic nature, a typical Demon King was still helpless against a Primordial Spirit Monarch.
In essence, Demon Kings were merely tougher than Upper-level Demons, capable of withstanding even more attacks.
This was the reason Cold Moon Sect was able to hold off at Lengfeng Fortress for two months, while the Yellow Sky Sect lasted only half a month before being overrun by the Tianhe Demons.
The Champsosaurus King leading the Tianhe Demons was much stronger than the Demon King of Mu State.
Gu Jinlai piloted the Mystic Bird Fighting Machine, drawing immediate attention from several Primordial Spirit Monarchs.
When they "saw" the speed of the approaching Mystic Bird Fighting Machine, they all changed their expressions simultaneously.
Even top Monarchs like Leng Ningshuang and Fang Daoqian were no exception.
"So fast! This speed... can it match flying swords!? What demon is this?"
"Be careful! A Demon Bird is attacking!"
Both top Monarchs exclaimed at the same time.
However, Liu Jingtiao, sensing something, quickly said, "Wait! This isn’t a demon... this is a War Spiritual Artifact! I can sense Heavenly Monarch Gu’s aura on this large-scale War Spiritual Artifact! This is a War Spiritual Artifact crafted by Heavenly Monarch Gu!"
"Heavenly Monarch Gu!?"
"Governor Gu’s new War Spiritual Artifact!?"
Leng Ningshuang, Fang Daoqian, and the others’ pupils shrank.
Right at that moment, to avoid any misunderstanding, Gu Jinlai also radiated his True Spirit aura, confirming Liu Jingtiao’s guess.
This development instantly made the Monarchs take notice.
Heavenly Monarch Gu had actually developed such a specialized War Spiritual Artifact for aerial combat?
From the speed of this war spiritual artifact, some elemental true monarchs whose sword control technique hasn’t reached perfection could not even catch up with him using their flying swords, let alone the flying speed of the true monarchs themselves.
With this object...
The elemental true monarchs would be in an invincible position in terms of air superiority, wouldn’t they...
"Boom!"
Just at this moment, the Mystic Bird fighting machine suddenly accelerated, and in an instant, it overtook all the elemental true monarchs and charged towards the horde of demons.
After accelerating, the fighting machine’s speed had already climbed to five times the speed of sound.
This sword speed was something that only Fang Daoqian and Leng Ningshuang among everyone present could barely achieve.
Gu Jinlai who burst forth at five times the speed of sound towards the demons did not hesitate for a moment, and immediately opened fire.
"Dada Dada!"
The dazzling firelight sprayed out from the autocannon mounted on the fighting machine, instantly creating a bloody massacre among many grouped-up great demons.
Ordinary great demons were directly torn apart by the autocannon’s bullets.
Unless the middle-level demons had cultivated an undying demon body with a focus on defense, they too were torn apart, screaming incessantly.
Even though the killing power was somewhat inferior to true monarchs’ sword attacks, still...
Just by making a few sweeps, Gu Jinlai had already killed more than ten great demons with the autocannon.
The astonishing efficiency of the slaughter shocked all the elemental true monarchs.
"This kind of war spiritual artifact... so strong!"
"Incredible rate of attack! Has Governor Gu mounted that war spiritual artifact known as ’Red’ onto this flying war machine?"
"No, this war spiritual artifact is more powerful than ’Red’! It can kill middle-level demons... if it were us true monarchs, unless wearing defensive quasi dao artifact level armor, who could endure it!?"
The nine true monarchs looked at the Mystic Bird fighting machine repeatedly diving and sweeping through the void and couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment.
They had thought that Gu Jinlai could threaten the true monarchs only with the Heavenly Sword Missiles.
Even his trump card...
Seemed to activate only at close range.
As long as the true monarchs did not engage him directly and ensured they were at an altitude over a kilometer, there shouldn’t be any fatal threat.
But unexpectedly...
The safe zone they believed was at an altitude over a kilometer had only been maintained for a brief moment before it was shattered by this new type of war spiritual artifact.
With this kind of war spiritual artifact capable of five times the speed of sound, the sky would no longer be a domain exclusively for the true monarchs.
"How did Governor Gu manage this? One after another, these powerful spiritual artifacts... could it be, the rumors are false that the jade scroll he obtained didn’t come from Tianyuan Dao but from some creator who walked a unique path!?"
Fang Linghai murmured to himself.
"For Heavenly Monarch Gu to possess such combat power is a great boon. It means that our hope of holding off these Blue State demons has just increased!"
Cheng Lixue declared with renewed spirit.
This true monarch who had retreated from Mu State to Blue State didn’t have the same concerns as the Cold Moon Sect, Purgatory Sect, or Netherworld Sect.
All he thought about was revenge.
To obliterate all the demons of Mu State.
"Monarch Cheng is right, with the Mu State demons looming over us, the stronger Heavenly Monarch Gu is, the better for us as allies," Jing Yunshan followed up, "Everyone, Heavenly Monarch Gu is covering our retreat. Let’s order our subordinates to speed up and fall back to Gourd Valley!"
The remaining true monarchs snapped out of the shock the Mystic Bird fighting machine had brought them.
Seeing the current situation in Tiannan...
Gu Jinlai becoming stronger might indeed not be a bad thing.
Thereupon, the nine true monarchs continued to cover the retreat, engaging the upper-level demons.
The elite of the Cold Moon Sect retreated at full speed.
Seemingly sensing the aura of a heavenly monarch true spirit like Gu Jinlai, the pursuing demons visibly became more excited, roaring and surging as they chased closer and closer to Gourd Valley.
Finally...
Everyone reached the mouth of Gourd Valley.
By then, the demons had already penetrated deep into the range of the Sword Heavy Cannons, several tens of miles away.
Sensing the demons’ confusion and frenzy, Gu Jinlai smiled slightly, "It seems that my little excursion outside has been very effective in drawing aggro."
"Many of the demons have special talents that can sense a heavenly master from a great distance. At this point, they probably know that there are many heavenly masters in Gourd Valley and are getting more frenzied," Zhang Yukan, who was by Gu Jinlai’s side, added.
This time, she and Guan Xingyun were leading the reinforcements.
"Since the hatred has been firmly established, there’s no need to waste any more time," Gu Jinlai waved his hand, "Order them! Fire at will!"
