1068: Chapter 1067 Joint Slaying of Powerful Enemies, War Spirit Tide

The humanoid creature paid a similarly heavy price; the foul-smelling blood whip formed by the Blood Demon on its right lashed its ribs viciously, tearing away a large chunk of flesh and revealing the faintly golden bones beneath.

Directly in front, although it turned its body to avoid the vital spots from the Sword Demon's chilling finger-sword Sword Qi, a penetrating wound still opened up on its shoulder.

Though the Sky Demon's sharp claws above missed their mark, the astral wind whipped up by its wings smashed down like a heavy hammer, causing the creature to stagger and spray dark-golden blood from its mouth and nose.

Trading wound for wound, the Fire Demon was injured right at the start; this ferocity exceeded the expectations of the Four Demon Generals.

"Seeking death!"

The Fire Demon was enraged, flames surging from its wound in an attempt to disperse the gold patterns that clung like maggots to bone, its offensive becoming thirty percent more violent.

The battle reached a fever pitch.

The humanoid creature's fighting style was completely disorganized, as if driven by combat instinct, yet it was ruthless and precise to the extreme.

It seemed oblivious to pain, unafraid of trading injuries, and even willing to risk its life for a strike.

Those pupils burning with golden flames remained locked onto any imperceptible gap in the coordination of the Four Demon Generals.

In the eighth round, it took a blood arrow from the Blood Demon through its calf, but used the opening to close in on the slightly slowed Fire Demon, slamming into it with its whole body. The impact sent the Fire Demon's Qi and blood churning, its protective flames flickering uncertainly as the gold patterns took the chance to spread.

In the fifteenth round, it ignored the Sword Demon's Sword Qi slicing off three of its fingers; its remaining palm, like a blade, stabbed directly into the soft underbelly exposed during the Sky Demon's dive, forcing the Sky Demon to shriek and soar back into the air, interrupting its attack.

In the twenty-third round, covered in blood and with its gold patterns mostly dimmed, it suddenly erupted with a light even more blinding than at the start. Its speed surged as it lunged toward the Blood Demon, who was currently casting a large-scale Blood Prison Binding.

The Blood Demon retreated in alarm, creating a gap in the encirclement.

"He won't last much longer!"

The Sword Demon shouted coldly, his voice piercing through the roar of the battlefield.

He constantly prowled the outermost perimeter, his Sword Qi crisscrossing. He acted as both the primary attacker and support, mending the occasional loopholes left by the other three demons due to the creature's frantic counterattacks.

The Four Demon Generals were, after all, killers who had been through a hundred battles; after the initial shock, their cooperation became increasingly tight.

The humanoid creature's gold patterns grew dimmer and dimmer, its movements began to lag, and its roars took on the rasp of exhaustion.

The wounds on its body were shockingly numerous, its dark-golden blood nearly drained, leaving a viscous trail on the scorched earth with every step.

The thirty-seventh round.

An opportunity!

A cold light flared in the Sword Demon's eyes.

As the Sky Demon dived once more to distract it, and the Fire Demon and Blood Demon pinched from left and right, the humanoid creature was forced to block with both arms, leaving its center wide open—

The Sword Demon moved.

His entire being seemed to transform into a beam of pure light, a sword light that could sever anything.

There was no world-shaking momentum, only the ultimate speed and sharpness.

The sword light swept past the humanoid creature's neck, and also through its heart and forehead—the three places where the gold patterns converged.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment.

The humanoid creature's violent movements came to a dead stop.

It slowly lowered its head, looking at its own chest.

A thin line spread down from its neck, passing through its heart and down to its abdomen.

The thin line was pale at first, then erupted into countless fine golden cracks.

"Roar... ugh..."

A final raspy roar caught in its throat.

All the flickering gold patterns on its body suddenly extinguished, like charcoal burning out.

That muscular, powerful physique crumbled inch by inch like a weathered sand sculpture, starting from the sword mark, turning into black ash that drifted through the air.

As the ash dispersed, no corpse was left behind, only a stone that landed on the cracked, scorched earth with a soft "ding."

It was a crystal about the size of a fist, pitch black all over, so deep it seemed capable of absorbing all surrounding light.

But within this pure darkness, countless golden lines finer than hair wound and flowed, flickering on and off like breathing or a sleeping heartbeat, faintly emitting a pulse that made one's heart skip a beat.

The Four Demon Generals slowly gathered around.

The Fire Demon clutched the wound on his chest, which was still throbbing with pain as the gold patterns hadn't been fully dispersed. He panted heavily, the lingering fear still visible in his eyes.

"As expected of a fourth-tier Peak Battlefield Heroic Spirits; it took all four of us just to barely take it down!"

The Blood Demon licked his lips. His body, shrouded in blood mist, was somewhat ethereal, clearly having consumed a great deal of energy. He looked at the crystal with a flash of heat in his eyes.

"With this crystal, the King should be able to make that Breakthrough much faster."

The Sky Demon retracted his wings and landed, his form shrinking to normal size. The edges of his metallic, cold-glowing wings were somewhat damaged. He stared at the crystal, his hawk-like eyes sharp: "Let's not delay, let's head back first."

The Sword Demon didn't speak. He walked to the crystal and bent down to pick it up.

It felt slightly heavy and icy cold in his hand, but the golden pulse transmitted through the crystal actually made his fingers—which were usually as steady as a rock when holding a sword—tingle slightly.

There was also an indescribable sense of restlessness faintly coming through the point of contact, like a call, yet also like a provocation.

He examined it closely; inside the pitch-black crystal, the golden lines were not static but were slowly moving, shifting into extremely complex, ancient runes. Looking at them for too long even gave him a sense of vertigo, as if his soul were about to be sucked in.

"What's wrong?" The Fire Demon looked at the Sword Demon.

The Sword Demon closed his fingers, gripping the crystal in his palm, and the pulsing sensation became even clearer.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over his three tired and wounded companions, then toward the depths of this desolate and deathly silent ancient battlefield. He was just about to speak—

"Thump!"

A dull vibration came not from the crystal in his hand, but from beneath his feet.

It was as if a massive heartbeat had come from the distant core of the earth.

The Four Demon Generals' expressions changed simultaneously as they jerked their heads up.

"Thump! Thump!"

The vibrations came in succession, each one heavier and clearer than the last.

The scorched earth beneath their feet began to tremble, small pebbles jumping into the air. The outlines of those eternal, broken mountain ranges on the distant horizon also seemed to be vibrating slightly.

Then, in the direction the vibrations were coming from, at a point so far away it seemed to meet the gloomy sky—

A single point of golden light lit up.

Then a second, a third... ten, a hundred, a thousand!

Densely packed golden points of light, like a sleeping galaxy suddenly awakening, connected into a single sheet under the dim sky, and like countless indifferent eyes opening simultaneously in the abyss.

Those weren't points of light.

They were pupils!

Pupils burning with golden flames!

As the pupils lit up, that stretch of land "came alive." Dark shadows writhed and stood up—one, ten, a hundred, a thousand... endless!

They had the same muscular pitch-black bodies, the same flickering golden patterns, and the same humanoid yet inhumanly hideous silhouettes.

They galloped forward in silence, the golden light from their pupils converging into a suffocating sea of light, coldly cast toward the direction of the Four Demon Generals.

Having just gone through a fierce battle, with most of their power consumed and each of them wounded, the Four Demon Generals were now locked onto by that boundless sea of golden pupils.

Dead silence.

A silence more desperate than the battle itself descended, broken only by the ominous "thump-thump" vibration of the earth beneath them and the faint, skin-crawling sound of friction from the distance.

It was the sound of countless feet slowly treading over the scorched earth, coming from far to near, merging into a low, oppressive rolling thunder.

A new tide of slaughter had awakened.

The Sword Demon tightened his grip on the still-pulsing black-gold crystal, his knuckles turning white from the force.

He slowly raised his other hand and pressed down on the hilt of his demonic sword, which was humming a warning. His voice was dry and cold as he spat out each word.

"Sky Demon, prepare to break through!"

The Sword Demon threw the crystal to the Sky Demon while simultaneously looking at the Fire Demon and Blood Demon, "Tear open a gap for the Sky Demon, even if it means death!"