90: Chapter 90 The Flame of Mortals, the Unquenchable Flame!

"The dawn has come."

These three words fell calmly from Su Yu's lips, as light as a feather.

But to the ears of the dozen or so core leaders in the secret chamber, the weight of these three words was heavier than the sky collapsing.

Adjutant Li Xiaotian was the first to react.

His body reacted before his brain could.

His knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the ground.

"Your subordinate acknowledges the order!"

His voice trembled slightly from extreme excitement, but the tone was lower than usual.

The dozen or so leaders behind him knelt in unison.

No one wept, and no one cheered.

They simply knelt, staring fixedly at the sheepskin map that covered the entire wall behind Su Yu.

The dense ink dots on the map looked like a silent starry sky under the dim light.

Every star was a group of people prepared to die.

And starting today, these stars would be lit one by one.

"All of you, rise."

Su Yu's voice remained calm, devoid of any unnecessary emotion.

"According to the predetermined plan, send the messages through four routes simultaneously. Adjutant Li Xiaotian is personally responsible for the North, the trade route dark lines for the Southern Border, the fishermen's channels for the East Sea, and the old camel caravan paths for the Western Regions."

"Nodes that receive the signal should judge the timing for detonation themselves. There is no need to wait for my second order."

Su Yu paused.

"Because there will be no second order."

Everyone understood the meaning of these words.

From the moment the order for full activation was issued, this web no longer needed a central hub.

Every node was independent.

Every group of Mortal knew when and where they should use their lives to trade for that blue sky.

Su Yu had merely lit the fire.

Once the fire was burning, it had nothing to do with him anymore.

"Go."

Su Yu waved his hand.

The dozen or so leaders rose, bowed deeply to Su Yu, and turned to walk toward the four secret passages in the depths of the chamber.

Each passage led to a different direction.

At the end of each direction were thousands of nodes across Great Li and even further beyond.

Adjutant Li Xiaotian was the last to leave.

He stopped when he reached the entrance of the secret passage.

"Immortal Master."

Su Yu looked up at him.

Adjutant Li Xiaotian opened his mouth, as if he had something to say, but in the end, he just grinned.

"The dawn has come. It is truly wonderful."

...

Three days later.

Great Li, Northern Border, Bluestone City.

This city was not large; including the villages in the suburbs, it had at most a population of about one hundred thousand.

But like all towns within Great Li, it had a presence that could not be ignored.

The Black Iron Spire in the center of the city.

Two late-stage Qi Refinement demons, along with dozens of Demon Slave sycophants, resided in the tower all year round.

They were the true masters of this city.

The city guardian, the magistrate, and the garrison were merely dogs running errands for them.

For three years, the node leader of Bluestone City had been Sun Daniu.

He was forty-two years old, the proprietor of a blacksmith shop.

His hands, having forged iron for twenty years, were covered in calluses and burn scars.

His wife had been taken away during the Blood Tribute collection six years ago.

At that time, he had knelt on the official road, chasing after them for ten miles while weeping, only to be kicked into a ditch by the soldiers escorting them.

Later, he stopped crying.

Later, members of the Resistance Army found him and taught him the incantation for the Mortal Self-Severing Method.

They told him that this incantation would take his life the moment it was detonated, but it could purify the demonic energy within a radius of several zhang.

They asked him if he was willing.

He said he was.

Then the Resistance Army member said that one person's detonation could only purify a few zhang.

But if hundreds or thousands of people detonated together, they could create a spiritual energy storm and reverse all the demonic energy above the entire city.

Those demons who were like rats dropped into boiling water when in spiritual energy would be burned to death.

When he heard the words "burn the demons to death," his hands, full of calluses, gripped his hammer tightly.

"Good."

Just one word.

Then he spent three years.

Using the blacksmith shop as a cover, he took advantage of the convenience of delivering ironware to pass the incantation to people one by one.

When he passed it on, he didn't sneakily slip a note.

He looked the other person in the eye and spoke clearly.

"This incantation can kill demons. The price is your life. Are you willing?"

Some refused on the spot.

He did not resent them.

Fear of death is a human instinct, and he respected that.

But more people, after a moment of silence, nodded.

Some had red eyes when they nodded, and some were smiling when they nodded.

One old woman, after listening, asked him: "Then what about my grandson? If I die, who will raise him?"

Sun Daniu said: "If you die, the demons will also die. Your grandson will be able to grow up under a sky without demons."

The old woman thought for a long time.

Then she said: "Then teach me."

Over the past three years, more than thirty thousand Mortal in and around Bluestone City had memorized the incantation and were willing to die.

Thirty thousand people, scattered across every street, every shop, and every household in the city.

They ate, worked, and slept just like everyone else.

The only difference was that they had an incantation in their hearts, and a signal they had been waiting for for three years.

This afternoon.

A porter driving a donkey cart passing through Bluestone City stopped in front of Sun Daniu's blacksmith shop.

He bought a firewood chopper.

Before leaving, the porter said casually.

"Shopkeeper Sun, the dawn has come."

Sun Daniu's hand stopped on the anvil.

The hand holding the hammer trembled once.

It only trembled once.

Then he put the hammer down.

He put it down very, very gently, as if afraid of waking someone up.

He took something out from a hidden compartment behind the shop.

A bronze gong.

This bronze gong had been prepared three years ago and had been hidden in the dark compartment under the counter.

All thirty thousand people knew.

When the sound of the gong rang out, it would be the moment for them to die.

Sun Daniu was not in a hurry.

He first extinguished the charcoal fire in the furnace, installed the door panels of the shop one by one, and then went to the water vat in the backyard to wash his face.

He looked at his reflection in the water and suddenly smiled.

"Old woman, wait for me."

Then he carried the bronze gong, walked out of the shop, and walked to the widest street in Bluestone City.

Sun Daniu faced the direction of the Black Iron Spire in the center of the city and took a deep breath.

"Clang—!!!"

The sound of the gong resounded through the entire Bluestone City like an explosion.

First gong.

In the tofu shop in the east of the city, Old Zhang put down the millstone in his hand.

Second gong.

At the back door of the cloth shop in the west of the city, an assistant wiped the water off his hands and said to the young apprentice beside him, "Live well."

Third gong.

At the alley entrance in the south of the city, a group of old people walked out of their respective homes.

They looked at each other, without any need for words, and walked together toward the center of the city.

After three gongs.

On the streets of Bluestone City, more and more people began to appear, walking in the same direction.

They did not walk fast, but they were determined.

Some held their spouse's hand, some patted their neighbor's shoulder, and some said nothing, just kept their heads down and walked forward.

They had only one destination: the Black Iron Spire in the center of the city.

The demons were there.

If they were going to die, they would die in the faces of the demons.

Inside the spire.

The two late-stage Qi Refinement demons were the first to notice the anomaly.

They looked through the surveillance formation on the tower wall and saw the Mortal pouring endlessly toward the spire in the streets.

"What are these ants doing?"

One demon frowned, a flash of disdain in its vertical pupils.

"Don't they know the ban on gathering more than three people?"

The other demon sneered.

"Doesn't matter, let the city guardian's men handle it. Kill a few leaders, and the rest will naturally disperse."

They didn't care at all.

They had seen too many such petty gatherings in the tens of thousands of years of demonic rule.

Kill a batch, and they would settle down; it had always been this way.

But soon.

The expressions of the two demons changed.

Because it was not dozens, not hundreds of people pouring toward the spire.

It was thousands.

Thousands.

And it was still increasing.

The garrison sent by the city guardian tried to intercept them, but there were too many Mortal.

The garrison soldiers themselves were also Mortal, and many of them could no longer move their legs once they saw their own relatives and neighbors in the crowd.

Some soldiers who had already memorized the incantation simply threw their spears on the ground and turned to join the crowd walking toward the spire.

At this moment, the two late-stage Qi Refinement demons finally realized something was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

Because they saw an extremely strange expression on the faces of these Mortal.

Not fear.

Not numbness.

But a kind of calm that completely disregarded life and death.

That was the expression of people going to their deaths.

They had heard the term "Mortal Self-Severing Method" in the emergency reports from the capital.

They had also heard about what happened in the capital.

But they didn't believe it.

Or rather, they didn't want to believe it.

And only at this moment did they realize the seriousness of the situation.

"Bad!"

One demon finally reacted, its vertical pupils shrinking to the size of needle points.

"They are going to detonate here! Retreat quickly!!"

It was too late.

Sun Daniu stood at the very front of the crowd, facing the Black Iron Spire, and threw the bronze gong on the ground.

He looked at the dark iron tower that symbolized demonic rule and grinned.

There was hatred in that smile, relief, and a kind of satisfaction that he had finally waited six years for.

"Old woman, I'm coming to keep you company."

He sat down cross-legged.

The thirty thousand people behind him sat down almost at the same time.

No slogans, no battle songs.

The thirty thousand people just sat there quietly, closing their eyes.

Thirty thousand hearts sank into the deepest depths of their souls in the same instant.

Thirty thousand strands of Innate Clear Qi were ignited simultaneously.

"Hum—!!!"

Thirty thousand white pillars of light shot into the sky from all directions around the Black Iron Spire!

The light pillars converged, collided, and fused.

Quantitative change triggered qualitative change!

A miniaturized spiritual energy storm exploded in the center of Bluestone City!

The pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth was like boiling water, instantly tearing apart, crushing, and completely reversing the demonic energy within a radius of several miles!

Under the scouring of the spiritual energy storm, the magic rune array on the walls of the Black Iron Spire crackled and exploded; the entire tower, like an ice sculpture poured with boiling oil, emitted a faint hissing sound.

The two late-stage Qi Refinement demons inside the tower didn't even have time to escape.

The pure spiritual energy poured into their demonic bodies, just like pouring sulfuric acid into their blood vessels.

"Ah—!!!"

Wailing screams came from the spire.

The demonic core of one demon shattered on the spot, its meridians burst, and black demonic blood surged from its seven orifices.

It struggled for less than three breaths before turning into a puddle of pus emitting black smoke.

The other demon tried to mobilize all its demonic power to break through, but it hadn't even rushed ten zhang out of the spire when it was swallowed by the even more intense spiritual energy storm outside.

Its demonic body melted in the pure white spiritual energy, like a piece of black ice thrown into a furnace.

From head to toe, within five breaths, it turned into fly ash.

After the spiritual energy storm.

Above Bluestone City, a small patch of sky revealed a cerulean blue color.

The demonic energy within a radius of several miles had permanently decreased by seventy percent.

And where those thirty thousand Mortal had sat.

Only shoes and clothes remained on the ground.

The Mortal in the city who had not participated in the detonation, those children, those young people who had been entrusted with the future, those descendants whom the node members had risked their lives to keep.

They walked to the empty ground and looked up at the small patch of blue.

Some cried.

Some knelt.

Some did nothing, just stood there, breathing hard the first clean air of their lives.

...

Bluestone City was not an isolated case.

On the same day.

Iron Lock Town, Grey Gorge City, and Old Crow Ridge in the Northern Border of Great Li.

The barbarian village clusters in the Southern Border of Great Li, and the three villages at the mouth of the Miasma Valley.

The fishing village docks and salt field towns in the East Sea of Great Li.

Camel City and Sand River Fort in the Western Regions of Great Li.

In hundreds of towns, on the same day, the exact same scene as in Bluestone City was staged.

Mortal gathered in front of the Black Iron Spire where the local demons were entrenched.

Thousands of people sat down.

Closed their eyes.

Detonated.

The spiritual energy storm exploded.

Demonic energy reversed.

Demons died miserably.

The blue sky was revealed.

The scale of each town was different, and the number of Mortal who detonated ranged from thousands to tens of thousands.

But the result was surprisingly consistent.

Almost none of the local demons escaped.

Because the Mortal had been aiming for the demons from the very beginning.

Surround you, sit down, and then die together.

Drag you to die together.

This was the true usage of the Mortal Self-Severing Method.

Not hiding in a corner and detonating secretly; that was meaningless.

But walking up to the demons, with tens of thousands of people surrounding you, and telling you to your face.

We are not afraid of you.

We couldn't beat you when we were alive.

But we can afford to die.

And you, you cannot afford to die.

...

Northern Border of Great Li.

In the secret chamber of the abandoned mine, Su Yu opened his eyes.

Within the range of his spiritual sense, spiritual energy fluctuations came one after another from all over Great Li.

Every fluctuation meant that a town had been purified.

It also meant that thousands of Mortal had turned themselves into the final rain.

Su Yu did not sigh, nor did he feel sentimental.

Because he knew better than anyone else that when these people chose to die, they were not thinking of hatred.

But hope.

They knew their deaths were not in vain.

Their deaths would allow their children and grandchildren to see a truly blue sky.

That was enough.

Where leaves dance, the fire also continues to burn.

The old tree burned itself out, turning into ashes, merging into the soil.

But next spring, new leaves would sprout again.

Those who sat in front of the Black Iron Spire and closed their eyes were the old trees.

Those children standing under the blue sky and breathing hard were the new leaves.

This was the Mortal' spark.

The undying spark.