Chapter 1 What?!

"What?!" Hessiana, who was flying in mid-air, almost fell down when she heard the news. "Say that again?!"

"Demon Hunters!" The voice from the walkie-talkie was urgent and clear, with the sound of shouting and killing coming from the background, seemingly getting closer. "They've penetrated the Shadow Interlayer! The Shadow Interlayer closed for some reason! Now they're everywhere in the city, everywhere are Demon Hunters!"

"Hold the line!" Hessiana roared, while simultaneously splitting into a large group of small bats that rushed out in all directions of the city. "Quick... quick, go check the catacombs! Notify all team members outside with fewer than five people to join nearby teams and gradually move towards the Shadow Demon Castle!"

Hessiana quickly hung up the communication and immediately began contacting other teams. After figuring out the situation in several major war zones, she connected with the main camp: "What's the situation now?"

"A crack appeared near Rose Lane, and at least twenty Demon Hunters rushed out of it, causing a lot of casualties," a steady voice came from the walkie-talkie. "We have forcibly sealed that place with artillery fire and are now spreading strong acid and poisonous smoke incendiary bombs near the crack. However, we received news from other areas that there are at least a dozen such cracks in the city, and many blocks have already been lost."

"Hold our own territory first. Help those nearby if you can, and let the others fend for themselves," Hessiana ordered urgently. "Fortunately, those Tiger tanks haven't been deployed yet... Let the tanks block the intersections, put the heavy machine gun bunkers on the roofs, and open the poisonous fog barrier. I'm going to contact the Ancient Ones in various places. Hold on until they seal the cracks!"

Information and instructions quickly gathered and were transmitted. Thanks to these vampires who kept up with the times and carried equipment such as walkie-talkies, they barely managed to stabilize their position in this sudden attack. But other places in the city were not so lucky. Faced with the sudden attack of the Demon Hunters, more than half of the scattered and weak families in the city could not organize an effective counterattack. Moreover, due to the "Sanctuary War" that broke out between the two major vampire families and the Shadow Demon family, most of the small families in the city chose to huddle in their respective bunkers as before, waiting for the storm outside to pass. When the Demon Hunters rushed in, these small families could hardly organize an effective counterattack and suffered heavy casualties in the blink of an eye.

Yes, it was not uncommon for major families in the Sanctuary to start wars. Hessiana leading the initially formed Mad Demon Assault Team to sweep through the major families back then was an example. The small families in this city were used to it, and they had their own rules for choosing sides and avoiding the limelight every time such a war broke out. But now the Demon Hunters had chosen such a good time to attack, which was exactly what they wanted.

"Damn it, the city is in chaos," Hessiana clenched her fists. "Why did the Demon Hunters choose this time to attack?"

Hao Ren's heart moved, and he thought of an almost whimsical possibility that made sense no matter how he thought about it: "Could it be Bessemon..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly heard a louder explosion and shouts of killing coming from the Shadow Demon Castle in the distance. A large group of strange things seemed to rush out of the raging fire, and a wave of murderous aura swept over him.

The Shadow Demons who had been passively defending in the castle finally began to actively attack, taking advantage of the chaos, and the timing they chose was just right.

"The Shadow Interlayer..." Hessiana looked in the direction of the Shadow Demon Castle, her blood-red eyes almost bursting into flames. "The Shadow Interlayer was designed by these Shadow Demons...! Bessemon, you madman!"

More and more Demon Hunters continued to pour into the city from the spatial cracks, but some aliens also calmed down after the initial panic and barely organized a defense line. This Sanctuary, which had been peaceful for a long time, was now filled with smoke. In just a few minutes, it had undergone earth-shattering changes. But Hessiana did not stop her pace. Instead, she led the crowd towards the Shadow Demon Castle with even greater fighting spirit. She now had only one goal: to drag out a certain old madman from the Shadow Demon Castle and devour him alive.

When the huge black castle was close at hand, the crowd was suddenly stopped by a group of strange creatures surrounded by black smoke.

They were tall, at least two meters in height, and roughly had human limbs and facial features, but their skin was glowing jet black. Green runes flickered and wandered under their skin, and behind them, you could see a pair of huge, semi-illusory dark shadow bat wings – or perhaps they should be called demon wings.

Dozens of these semi-demon creatures blocked the path in front of the team, and this happened to be a narrow street. They must have been specifically ambushing here. Hessiana became furious when she saw these guys: "These are Shadow Demons!"

Hao Ren nudged Izhaks next to him: "Your relatives."

Izhaks moved his wrists, and a burst of hot red flames rose from his body: "Too ugly. I have Shadow Demons on my side too, but at least my Shadow Demons have a pair of beautiful goat hooves."

"Finally, I can vent my anger..." Becky gripped her enchanted longsword tightly, and a powerful whirlwind rose around her. She almost lost her life in the alien space energy storm, so naturally, she was full of anger towards these Shadow Demons. As a mercenary who dealt with life and death all day long, she didn't care what strange things Shadow Demons were at this time. She just wanted to go up and find a hapless guy to slash twice to feel better.

"Hessiana!" The Shadow Demon on the opposite side was surprised when he saw Hessiana. "You're not dead?!"

"Of course, I'm not dead," Hessiana raised her hand, and the RPG shooters following behind the team immediately raised their weapons. "And I've prepared a bunch of loud toys for you! Fire!"

A dozen rocket-propelled grenades carrying divine power pierced through the air with a sharp whistle, leaving a dazzling trail of crimson flames and sacred white light in the air, and then exploded under the feet of those dozens of Shadow Demons. Hao Ren even watched a unlucky guy take two sacred RPGs head-on, flying out particularly far, and he vaguely saw that the unlucky guy landed in four or five different places...

But more Shadow Demons reacted. They used magical shields to block in time, or desperately escaped the explosion zone. Before the smoke had dissipated, a group of black shadows rushed out of the dust and mist caused by the explosion, pouncing on everyone like evil spirits claiming lives in the dark of night.

The Mad Demon Assault Team members (okay, let's take that as their official name) immediately dropped the bazookas in their hands, swung their heavy holy silver broadswords with one hand, and held paratrooper submachine guns that sprayed silver-white flames with the other, welcoming these Shadow Demons in their unique fighting style.

Aliens did indeed have amazing and shocking physical qualities. After withstanding a round of RPG (and still sprinkled with holy water) bombardment, more than half of the Shadow Demons still rushed out almost unscathed. The two groups quickly engaged in close combat, a chaotic battle.

Hao Ren had no time to observe the battle situation of others. Anyway, there was no need to worry about the combat effectiveness of everyone here. Even the siren, who only knew how to curl up into a snake ball for defense, was temporarily invulnerable to swords and guns. He now had to concentrate on dealing with the enemy in front of him.

An exceptionally strong shadow demon wrapped in a cloud of black smoke pounced over. Wherever the black smoke went, rocks and bricks decayed and turned into dust. Hao Ren propped up his energy shield to withstand the attack, but he saw a wonderful phenomenon:

The deadly black smoke disappeared as soon as it touched his body, and the shield didn't even flicker.

The shield was not activated, and the black smoke had no effect.

The Shadow Demon who rushed over didn't realize what was going on at all. He bumped into Hao Ren stupidly, and was immediately grabbed by the latter's brute force, twisted, and pressed to the ground. Although this Shadow Demon was much taller than Hao Ren, it was obvious that the latter's physical strength had been strengthened to the point where it was difficult to measure by appearance. Hao Ren had secretly tested it. Now he could slowly rub a standard DN40 steel pipe into a solid with his fingers. This had exceeded the limit of human physiological structure and was obviously related to something symbiotic in his body. The strong Shadow Demon in front of him was indeed very strong, but Hao Ren thought, well, that was about it.

He himself was stunned for a moment before realizing what was going on with the other party's shadow power failing. Then he grinned, patted the Shadow Demon who was still on the ground and hadn't recovered: "Stick your head over, I'll show you something good."

The Shadow Demon subconsciously looked up and saw a bright, dazzling, cold, and chilling thing rapidly magnifying in his field of vision...