The massive loss of undead served as a stark warning to Wei Huan of a powerful enemy's presence. He was forced to temporarily cease harvesting souls from the battlefield to focus on this critical confrontation. He stopped the fodder units from clogging the teleportation gates; instead, the high-tier undead who died at the front lines were resurrected and immediately redeployed, charging back into the fray with fearless resolve.
Simultaneously, the Pseudo-God and Legendary-rank Undead Heroes, who had been fighting independently, began to converge toward a single point to initiate a coordinated assault.
Wei Huan never underestimated the Heavenly Demon Race. They were, after all, a race that had returned from the "End" to conquer. Any Challenger who reached that destination was likely at least Sequence 8. For a race with such extreme individual power as the Heavenly Demons, every member was Sequence 9—it wouldn't even be surprising if they had stepped onto the path of godhood.
With Wei Huan's current strength, he needed to tread carefully against a Sequence 8. Facing a returning Heavenly Demon that was potentially Sequence 9, backed by a horde of Rank 6 and 7 demons, was a different league entirely.
"Boss, watch out. That Heavenly Demon is back," Yake noted, spotting the shift in the forward battlefield.
Wei Huan commanded, "Coordinate with the undead army and use the Forbidden Curse scrolls."
"We don't have many left."
"How many?"
"Only four Rank 7 scrolls and three Rank 6 ones."
Wei Huan looked at him, surprised they were so low. Yake explained, "Boss Mu needed to keep a large stock for the traps. I didn't bring many, and we've had to use them quite a bit on the way here..."
Wei Huan raised a hand. "I understand." He then added, "Drop three Rank 7 scrolls. Blast it."
Yake didn't hesitate. He raised his Ancient God-tier pistol and pulled the trigger three times into the void.
'Bang! Bang! Bang!'
Three Rank 7 scrolls manifested out of thin air directly above the Heavenly Demon at the front of the battlefield. A rolling rain of meteors plummeted, slamming into the earth with a deafening roar.
Amidst the smoke and fire, a cruel, arrogant, and eerie laugh echoed in Wei Huan's mind: "Human, you are dead... I have found you... Jie-jie-jie... Die! Die!"
As the voice grew distorted and out of control, a colossal figure seemed to descend from beyond the sky. Its head, comparable in scale to a small planet, was topped with two pitch-black eyes. It laughed wickedly as it pressed down toward the position of Wei Huan's vehicle, reaching out a hand.
Wei Huan responded calmly. Under his command, Dot Mom suddenly expanded. Her towering figure pierced through the world's barriers, reaching a size comparable to the Heavenly Demon, and then slammed into it with brute force.
Dot Mom had always been Wei Huan's trump card—the undead he relied on most for high-level battlefields. Her body, exceeding ten thousand meters, was gargantuan, and her Pseudo-God-level strength was terrifying.
However, against this Heavenly Demon, Dot Mom held no clear advantage. She wrapped her long limbs around the demon, but the Heavenly Demon's slick, soft body seemed impervious to pain. It acted as if it felt nothing at all. Only the sharpest objects could leave shallow scratches on its pearly-white skin.
Dot Mom was a Pseudo-God Hero! For her full-power assault to leave only minor scratches on that seemingly soft body proved the Heavenly Demon's defensive capabilities were truly monstrous. Furthermore, the slick body was impossible to pin down. With a squelching sound, more flesh leaked through the gaps in Dot Mom's limbs. Not only did this push her limbs apart, but the flesh began to wrap back around her, attempting to devour Dot Mom in reverse.
Dot Mom fought back with everything she had, releasing her "descendants." The entire Queen-lineage of hounds and grand-hounds joined the fray, swarming the Heavenly Demon. Wounds began to appear on the demon's body, but the progress of the devouring didn't slow; it accelerated. Soon, less than half of Dot Mom's body was still visible.
"Jie-jie-jie... Human..." The wicked laughter rang in Wei Huan's head.
Yake asked worriedly, "Should we leave?"
Wei Huan didn't speak. He just stood there quietly, watching Dot Mom be swallowed until the last bit of her disappeared. Likely, it wouldn't be long before she resurrected in the Great Tomb. But even her resurrection would be moot; to sustain this "evenly matched" duel, Wei Huan had already consumed a massive amount of Nether Power. He couldn't afford to do it twice.
Wei Huan, who usually crushed his opponents and rarely faced adversity in war—had he truly lost this time? Faced with a race whose individual strength was superior and whose army was more numerous, had his advantages vanished?
Finally, the Heavenly Demon's bloated abdomen suddenly deflated. Dot Mom had been completely killed. The victorious Heavenly Demon lowered its head, looking at Wei Huan from beyond the firmament, its oversized, pitch-black eyes filled with mockery.
"Want more?"
"Jie-jie-jie..."
"Come on, try again..."
"Human, you are dead..."
Amidst the muttering voices, the Heavenly Demon's head pressed down inch by inch. It clearly wasn't in a hurry to kill Wei Huan; it wanted revenge, wanting to derive pleasure from the process.
Wei Huan, however, remained motionless on the vehicle's balcony, staring back at the demon. Then, he let out a sharp "Tch" and smiled.
That smile made the Heavenly Demon freeze.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Human, you deserve death!"
"I will kill you! Destroy all humans!"
"No! I will control you, let you sink forever under my race's dominion!"
"Are you scared? Feel the fear! Hahaha, it's all your fault, all of it..."
Wei Huan replied in his mind, "Are you done?" He looked deep into its eyes. "It's been a long time since I've seen a villain talk so much." 'Was it because it was certain of victory? Or was it just a complete idiot?'
Finally, he said, "Your current situation reminds me of an old saying in Daxia: 'Taking care of the head but ignoring the tail.'"
"?" The Heavenly Demon was first stunned.
"!" Then its expression froze.
"!!!" In the final moment, its face twisted. Its previously invincible, gargantuan body suddenly shrunk down, accompanied by a piercing, agonizing howl: "AAAAAAGH—!"
Simultaneously, through the green flames flickering in Wei Huan's left eye, he clearly saw the Void Bugs, who had easily completed their "Burst" cycles, departing from a bloody, mangled section of the demon's body.
The Heavenly Demon was returning to its original size; if they stayed, they would surely die. But then again, the undead do not fear death.
The Triple-Burst Double-Headed Hidden Demon, acting as the heavy hitter, had already burrowed into the Heavenly Demon's body to wreak havoc. No matter how tough the skin and flesh were, destroying it from the inside was always the easiest path. Not to mention, more undead had charged in fearlessly; they were bound to bite off a piece.
The Black Dragon Shura Horse was inside, calling forth rain and clouds, unleashing continuous lightning. The Nether Raven emerged from the void, transforming into the purest Nether Qi, flying through like a blade.
"Roar!" Big Bear bellowed, lunging with his claws, tearing away massive chunks of flesh. Quite a few Rank 6 Double-Headed Hidden Demons had found openings and burrowed in as well. Many ants can kill an elephant; as long as they could dig out one piece, that many hidden demons could carve out a massive portion of the Heavenly Demon's flesh.
"AAAAAAAGH—"
The shrill screams drifted back from the horizon. The muscles of its body twisted and contracted, shrinking rapidly. Ordinary undead who couldn't dodge in time were crushed by the shifting flesh. The undead leaders took the opportunity to land a few more blows before being forced out, unwillingly.
The Heavenly Demon, restored to its original size, looked down. The section connecting its body to its snail shell had been one-third severed. It twitched violently in pain.
'Damnable! Damnable!'
It glared ferociously at the undead, raising a hand to annihilate them, but a surge of intense pain caused its hand to drop before it could even lift it.
'Curses! Where are the Rank 6 and 7 demons I brought?'
Did it not know its own weakness? It had clearly set up protections around itself; how did these undead get close?
The Heavenly Demon scanned the perimeter, gnashing its teeth in rage. The demons it brought to protect it had been separated by a sea of low-level undead. The sounds of clashing and the occasional "Awoo" of wolf howls filled the air. These low-tier undead, which it had never deigned to look at, had somehow used some unknown means to isolate it.
The demons were vast in number and, as a race with few distinct tribes, they were skilled in group coordination. However, in the eyes of the "Gut-Bro" (the Wolf King), who had taken formal military courses and participated in countless territory and world wars, they were nothing special.
This time, the Running Wolf army had proved its worth once again!
"Awoo-awoo..."
Gut-Bro howled, and the Running Wolf army moved in perfect order. No matter how many died in the process, in the brief moment the Heavenly Demon was distracted, the other demons had been pushed even further away!
Looking at the undead surrounding it, the Heavenly Demon felt that sense of dread return. Faced with these clearly low-level undead, it had a premonition of its own death. This was the same reason it had retreated after a single strike in the last encounter with this human—on its own, it seemed unable to match him. This human might not be high level, but he had many tricks, and the undead leaders in his hand were indeed powerful enough to wound it.
One mistake and...
"***! ***! Come help me!!"
The Snail Heavenly Demon roared in its mind, calling for its companions. The reason it had returned was not just because the Demon World aided its cause, but more importantly, because it had secured the help of its kin. With three Heavenly Demons joined together, even if this human were twice as strong, he could be easily slain.
However...
"***! ***! Damn it!!"
No matter how it called, the companion who was huddling in the pit of the spatial tunnel, blocking the hole with its shell, did not respond.
The Heavenly Demon looked at the undead closing in again like hungry tigers. it glanced at its wounds, which had already begun to heal, but the memory of that pain was etched deep into its mind. For some reason, it was suddenly afraid again.
The undead stepped forward; it stepped back twice. The undead took two steps forward; it retreated seven or eight, then suddenly turned, abandoning everything, and dove into the spatial tunnel.
As the fleeing Heavenly Demon passed the pit blocked by the shell, it threw a punch in rage. Ultimately, faced with the other's silence, it was forced to continue its flight in terror.
It didn't matter. It had another companion. Once they converged, they would be invincible in this world!!
---
Wei Huan watched the fleeing Heavenly Demon but did not give chase. He had won this encounter, but that didn't mean his strength was truly superior. In both battles, as soon as he gained a slight advantage, the Heavenly Demon turned and fled. If it had truly stayed to fight to the death with its Rank 8 or 9 power, Wei Huan would have achieved a pyrrhic victory at best.
This Heavenly Demon was exceptionally protective of its own life, never taking even a sliver of a risk.
"Boss, what's next?" Big Foot, who had retreated, was wiping away the blood on his body—some was blackish-red from demons, some was silver-white from the Heavenly Demon.
Big Foot held an Ancient God-tier weapon. Additionally, the Heavenly Demon's chatter before the fight had given him plenty of time to set up his "Burst" cycle. While a single strike couldn't kill the demon, leaving a wound was no problem. There were over twenty Void Bugs who had performed a simultaneous "Burst." When Ancient God weapons hit the same spot, they left an opening large enough for the undead leaders to enter. The undead didn't fear death; the damage caused from inside the body was the true source of the demon's screams.
Had it reacted any slower, the connection between the demon's body and its shell might have been completely severed by the exploding undead.
"Boss, did you see? Less than three seconds after it shrunk, the wound was almost healed." Yake's Eagle Eye was still monitoring the front line, but he was perplexed.
Wei Huan nodded. "I saw. If the Heavenly Demons only had the ability to grow large and lead indigenous populations, they wouldn't be able to stand their ground on the King's Battlefield. Extreme healing must be one of their advantages."
Big Foot remarked, "Reminds me of slugs that crawl out of the mud on rainy days—you can cut them and they still won't die. This guy clearly has the traits of a soft-bodied creature."
Yake added, "And during the fight, you had the undead attack that shell. It's essentially indestructible. It seems their defense is also top-tier."
"And they're fast at running away," Big Foot added as a final note.
Wei Huan searched the souls of the nearby demons but didn't gain much useful information regarding the Heavenly Demons. These creatures could enter and exit the True World; with their abilities, occupying a world was easy. Tens of billions of demons were brought under control before they could even mount a reaction, so ordinary demons knew nothing about them. Only the strongest would know more.
Thinking of this, Wei Huan said, "This world originally had Demon Kings, but after the Heavenly Demons appeared, the Kings disappeared."
Yake nodded. "To dominate the demons, the Heavenly Demons would naturally kill the strongest first." He then looked at Wei Huan in confusion. "Why do you bring this up?"
Wei Huan said, "A Rank 8 soul is a fine thing." He then made up his mind. "As much as it's a waste, I need to keep a Rank 7 demon for a soul search."
As Wei Huan finished speaking, everyone's eyes fell back on the battlefield ahead. Since the Heavenly Demon fled, the two Rank 7 demons and over ten Rank 6 demons it brought were slowly being submerged by the undead army.
Wei Huan was low on Nether Power and didn't launch a head-on assault on these elites. Instead, he used a siege tactic, intending to grind them down bit by bit. Sister Crow and Dot Mom were summoned back to help him recover his energy. It had been a long time since his Nether Power had been this low, dropping below the safety line.
After grinding for a day, his energy recovered. Wei Huan then sent Dot Mom and Sister Crow out to finish the battle.
Thus, in two days and nights, Wei Huan had slain nearly twenty million demons. His hands were stained with countless kills, and his body was shrouded in a layer of "Killing Intent" usually found only in close-quarters fighters. Wei Huan majored in the Nether element—it was cold and dark—and his aura had become frosty and sharp. He looked incredibly frigid.
For a moment, it was hard to tell if the redness at the corners of his eyes made him look more like a madman.
However, the rough men on the vehicle didn't care about that. It had been eight days since they discovered the Heavenly Demons were preparing for war. These eight days had been an agonizing ordeal for everyone, and the battlefield of the last two days had been especially exhausting. But it was far from time to rest.
The majority of the hundred-million-strong demon army was on the other side of the spatial tunnel. Their compatriots, their comrades, and their home planet were on that side. 'That' was the real battlefield.
Big Foot requested, "Boss, we can contact Boss Mu and the others by crossing this tunnel. I can slip through to assess the situation."
Wei Huan asked, "How sure are you?"
Big Foot said, "Ninety percent. I'll take two stealth specialists. We'll get the job done."
Wei Huan nodded. He also wanted to know the situation over there. Since the Heavenly Demon had come over here to throw a tantrum, there was a high probability Mu Zhong was fine, but he needed to be certain to be at peace.
Big Foot and his men left quickly. Wei Huan ordered the vehicle to move directly to the corpses of the two Rank 7 demons.
One was large, the other small. The larger one stood over four meters tall, while the smaller was about two meters. Both were humanoid and extremely muscular. The smaller one had a pair of demon wings, and the larger one had four arms. The most distinct feature was their magic patterns, which were complex to the point of being ornate; even in death, the patterns remained a vivid red.
Unlike the Heavenly Demons, the demon race clearly had genders, but they possessed no sense of shame, making the battlefield a bit difficult to look at. Of course, one gets used to it.
Additionally, the corpses whose souls Wei Huan had taken would rot at an accelerated rate, soon turning into a puddle of foul-smelling liquid. Occasionally, they would leave behind body parts that condensed demonic power, like a single horn, a nail, or a patch of skin.
Wei Huan had no time to pick up these demon essences, nor was it necessary. If he won this fight, humanity would naturally enter this Demon World, and these could be collected then. Even if humanity lost and had to retreat temporarily, they would return eventually. Perhaps a Heroic Spirit or an Evil Spirit could be born here. Any outcome was worth anticipating.
So for now, the most important thing was to strengthen himself and further close the gap between him and the Heavenly Demon.
However, whether it was absorbing Rank 7 souls or burying the souls of these millions of demons into the Impure Soil, none would provide a rapid power boost. Only the soul of a Rank 8 demon—one born from the world's Providence—could bring him a qualitative leap.
Dot Mom had not consumed any souls so far. If he could truly find the soul of that Rank 8 demon, Dot Mom's strength would improve instantly, making Wei Huan stronger and rapidly closing the gap with the Heavenly Demon.
Twice, the Heavenly Demon had been too protective of its life to fight him to the end. But there would come a day when they would be at a dead end, with blades drawn and blood spilled. Faced with a powerhouse who had returned from the end of the Challenge World, Wei Huan didn't dare gamble his life on luck.
Wei Huan turned his hand, looking at the two Rank 7 demon souls—one large and one small—his eyes narrowing slightly. A Rank 7 demon should be able to endure his soul-searching technique for longer, shouldn't it? And as the powerhouses of this world, they would know more secrets.
He would surely find news of that Rank 8 demon from them.
---
At the headquarters, 32 Rank 7 Forbidden Curse scrolls were activated simultaneously. The massive destructive power instantly took the lives of 50,000 elite demons, with many more wounded. The combat effectiveness of the 200,000-strong elite demon force was slashed to barely 30%. It would likely be impossible for them to do anything for quite some time.
Mu Zhong had sent out a large number of unmanned camera drones toward the broken mountain. Although they couldn't get close and were frequently destroyed by the demons, he had the support of a Rank 6 Challenge World and the entire human race behind him. With massive resources and the Pilot sequence to assist him, and since drones were a basic staple of "hand-crafted" tech items, they could easily churn out ten thousand a day.
He didn't care if they were destroyed; once the materials were recovered, they could be remade. Under such dense monitoring, although they couldn't get detailed intel, the movements of the demon army were very clear.
Mu Zhong's successful ambush had kept the garrison base in high spirits for a while before things settled back into intense preparations for the coming war.
Today, Mu Zhong was in the meeting room checking the cameras in his hand. These were 12th-generation drones that had just been delivered.
"...Not bad. Carving Dark Energy magic patterns on the exterior makes them harder for the demons to detect. While they still can't get too close, it definitely reduces the drones' loss rate."
Mu Zhong looked around, set down the drone, and turned to Old Soldier. "Sequence 7 Pilots will advance to Stargate Controllers, gaining spatial manipulation abilities. Once Laws are involved, it will be truly difficult to see through them. Old Soldier, you are our strongest Pilot and are already on the path to becoming a Stargate Controller. You must press forward in this direction; the current battlefield needs it, and time waits for no one."
Old Soldier nodded. "I have a few ideas. I got some inspiration from the Boss's Magic Eye Lord. If the next-generation machine goes smoothly, we might be able to add a 'X-ray vision' ability. Then we can decode even more information."
Mu Zhong nodded. "Thank you for your hard work, Old Soldier. Produce a batch of 12th-gen machines for the front line and see how they perform."
"Yes, sir!"
Mu Zhong wanted to discuss other matters, but his expression suddenly froze, followed by a surge of joy in his eyes.
He said, "Patch it through directly!"
Mu Zhong's gaze fixed on a single point—he was clearly looking at a virtual screen only he could see.
Old Soldier heard him say: "Big Foot, how is your Boss? Is the operation going smoothly?"
News from the Boss!?
Old Soldier took one look at the expression on Mu Zhong's face and quietly stepped out of the room, feeling reassured. It seemed everything was going well for the Boss.
As long as the Boss was doing well, the sky of the Pioneer Army was still there, and the lighthouse of humanity remained lit. It was just that grounding; he felt a surge of energy to get back to work!
Mu Zhong didn't pay attention to Old Soldier's departure. He was completely focused, desperate to know the situation on Wei Huan's end. It had been nearly nine days since they lost contact. Even though he believed Wei Huan could handle any danger and face any environment, his concern hadn't lessened in the slightest.
Separation felt like missing half of himself—uncomfortable and agonizing at every turn.
Mu Zhong listened to Big Foot's report, then nodded. Though his expression remained serious, a smile touched the corners of his mouth.
It was enough that he was safe. It was enough to hear from him.
Then Mu Zhong spoke: "No problem, I understand. Tell him he can do whatever he wants; I will cooperate fully."