As the wails capable of obliterating will and Dao-hearts gradually faded, the wild and arrogant demonic nature completely occupied every corner of the world. The consciousness of the Thousand-Eyed Troll was finally wiped out, leaving only a mass of horrific, blade-scarred eyeballs behind.
The Thousand-Eyed Troll was dead!
In the space where the two had fought, only a single, battered figure remained standing. His robes, flesh, and limbs had all been disintegrated by a bizarre power. Many of his internal organs were gone, and he was less than a quarter of his original size! He was barely recognizable as human.
If not for the incredibly potent demonic nature radiating from that remnant flesh, and the fact that those mangled arms still clutched the familiar black Demon Blade, no one would have believed this was the 'Number One Demon' and 'Number One Blade' of the Star-Sea Continent!
To wound such a powerhouse to this degree—to the point where he could not immediately regenerate—spoke volumes of the troll's lethality. An ordinary Void Refinement cultivator would have been killed in seconds. Even a Unity stage expert might not have been able to fully erase the troll's existence.
But now, the troll was dead! The monster that had terrorized myriad realms was slain by the Demon Blade in a duel of the same rank!
Though the victory was messy, it was a victory nonetheless. This feat alone was enough to make Bai Liyun's name famous across the entire cultivation world!
In that moment, the cultivators of the Star-Sea Continent erupted into ecstatic cheers!
"The Thousand-Eyed Troll is dead! The Void Refinement troll has been slain by the Demon Blade Dao-Lord!"
'Demon Blade Dao-Lord' was the title bestowed upon Bai Liyun after the founding of the Star-Sea Academy. Along with him were two other Dao-Lords: Life-Death Dao-Lord Meng Tianqi and the Wood Immortal Dao-Lord, the Wood Immortal Crone. These three were the core combat power of the Academy, and only Qi Ping, as the Star-Emperor, had the authority to mobilize them.
"Glory to the Demon Blade Dao-Lord!"
"Star-Sea shall prevail!"
Endless cheers rang out. The cultivators in the city were so excited because the pressure brought by the troll had been too great; its mere presence could cause them to explode. Had Qi Ping and the high-level officials not prepared detailed countermeasures for known demon types, the city would have been a field of corpses.
The legends of the troll's unkillable nature had weighed heavily on everyone since it emerged. Now that the nuke-level threat was gone, they could fight with everything they had!
While the Star-Sea forces cheered, the demons were silent. The death of the Thousand-Eyed Troll and the Corpse Demon—two high-ranking Royal demons—was a result they had never imagined.
The first clash between the Star-Sea Continent and the Demon World had ended in a crushing defeat for the demons! They had invaded many worlds, but they had never encountered such terrifying Void Refinement cultivators. And it wasn't just the Demon Blade; the Life-Death Dao-Lord, the Void-Grade Stone Essence, and the inscrutable Qi Ping all made them feel uneasy. Their combined formation possessed power beyond comprehension.
Since when had human cultivators become so terrifying? In the past, had they not crumbled after a single strike?
Facing this, the Blood Sea demon fell silent. But the one most shocked was the demon within the black hole. Its identity was one of the demon world's greatest secrets; its bloodline was not inferior to the laws of space, which allowed it to swallow spatial laws and ignore interference. Yet, it had been defeated by Qi Ping's equally mysterious attack.
"Futu Zi, what is the meaning of this?" The Void-Devouring Fiend looked at a human cultivator who had just emerged from the void channel, wearing purple-gold tiger robes.
He was an old man with an expressionless face. Even facing the death of two high-ranking demons and the Fiend's questioning, he showed no emotion. Hearing the voice, the other demon experts also looked at him—the only human among the demons: Futu Zi.
Futu Zi spoke calmly: "This was one of the strongest continents in the cultivation world during ancient times. Is it not normal for some experts to appear? Though your demon tribe is strong, I told you long ago to sacrifice the flesh of high-ranking demons to stabilize the channel and summon Unity stage demons quickly. You felt it was unnecessary. This situation is your own doing."
His tone was blunt, showing no respect to the demonic giants.
"You!" the demons were left speechless.
"Now, you can either use your numbers to push them back and allow the channel to take root, or you can hurry up and make the sacrifice to summon stronger reinforcements."
Before the demons could decide, Qi Ping's forces moved. In his eyes, there was no such thing as waiting. Having confirmed there were no more 'walking nuke' demons like the troll, he ordered the three Dao-Lords and the Qing-God Army to attack. While the void channel was unstable, it was the best time to thin out the enemy's numbers.
Once the channel stabilized and the demonic world truly descended to form a 'World-Domain Battlefield' at the city, the Star-Sea Continent would face a literal meat-grinder. In such a battle, individual power would be minimized; not even a Unity stage expert would be safe.