Chapter 1 Taibai Mountain Fortress

The Taibai Mountain Fortress was perched high, surrounded by a barren snowfield offering no concealment. Warriors constantly scanned the surroundings, making it impossible for anyone to infiltrate, even at night.

The Taibai Mountain area was a volcanic region with intricate terrain, sudden cliffs, precipices, and bottomless ravines hidden by the snow. Therefore, predecessors had driven black wooden stakes into the ground to mark the path.

"Although it also guides the demon soldiers, this bit of ice and snow can't stop those fiends, and if the fiends encounter danger, they won't die. If this humble monk encounters danger, he's finished… Rather than making it difficult for our own people to travel in order to hinder the enemy, it's better to design the wooden stakes to wind and coil a bit. That way, when the demon soldiers follow the black wooden stakes up the mountain, we can discover them early and prepare."

These words came from Fang Hui, a monk from the Dayue Temple. This monk was tall and burly, a head taller than Su Zhou, but he spoke with clarity and acted with kindness. He held no grudges because Su Zhou had beaten him so miserably before. On the contrary, Su Zhou himself felt quite awkward afterwards, sincerely apologizing for being too heavy-handed.

One of the main materials for forging the Nirvana Blade, a Sharira of a Xiantian realm eminent monk, came from the Dayue Temple's former divine monk, Master Fakong Chan… “What use is leaving Sharira if demons are not saved?” It was said that this was the decision of the current abbot of Dayue Temple, and all seventy-one monks of Dayue Temple had joined the Baijia, and most were now at the front lines.

On the other side, the silent saber-wielding Liu Xizhao was a woman with a rather delicate and refined appearance. She wore no excessive adornments, only a faint, elegant herbal fragrance about her.

Liu Xizhao and Grandmaster Han came from the same sect. Her master was currently at the front lines as well, not as a combatant but as a medic in the escort team.

Her sect was called 'Baicao Hall' (Hall of Hundred Herbs), skilled in using various spiritual plants and herbs to create medicinal plasters and pills for both internal and external use, with potent effects. The previous 'Four Spirits Jade Liquid Pill' came from the hands of the current hall master of Baicao Hall.

The reason she wielded a saber was nothing special. It was mainly because her master didn't teach her any combat skills when she was young, so she could only learn saber techniques with the army… Who knew that Liu Xizhao's talent for martial arts and saber techniques was unexpectedly good. Before her formal occupation as a physician, her inner Qi cultivation had already broken through the first realm, making her a bona fide saber expert. She was proficient in the odd twin saber technique of using a long straight saber and a short curved saber, but the short curved saber was lost in a demon soldier ambush before she met Su Zhou.

It was also a coincidence that the small team led by Zhou Buyi were all orphans.

Zhou Buyi naturally didn't need to be said. His parents' uprising and death were the turning point in the balanced situation of this world. Fang Hui's parents died in the famine when fleeing during the Demon Emperor's chaos, and he himself was picked up by the monks of Dayue Temple along with a dozen other infants. And Liu Xizhao's parents were killed in action in the four Nantianguan defense battles of yesteryear, valiantly and heroically.

The three of them grew up in the Baijia and had such backgrounds, so they were naturally direct descendants, and most of the personnel in the various teams escorting the main materials for divine weapons had similar backgrounds.

Su Zhou wasn't an orphan, but he could feel the sorrow behind this background. The Demon Emperor's chaos had emptied generations of people in the central and southern regions of Shenzhou. How many people were displaced and families broken? And how many people's bones were not found, becoming the blood food for the Demon Emperor, the demon soldiers, and the divine tree behind them?

"Brother Su, my accompaniment this time is actually my master's intention."

While the group was silently racing through the snow, Zhou Buyi approached and secretly transmitted his voice with inner force: "I'm afraid there are still spies on the mountain who haven't been caught…"

"Yes, I know."

Su Zhou narrowed his eyes. He had long suspected this problem and was on guard.

And after last night, he had even initially identified a suspect.

At this moment, the group of four had reached halfway up the mountain, at a cliff opening. From this location, they could overlook the distant mountains and rivers, as well as several nearby former human settlements.

At Zhou Buyi's suggestion, Su Zhou stopped here and used his enhanced spirit vision to sweep across the surrounding天地(tiāndì, heaven and earth), judging whether there were any demon soldiers nearby—but before he could discover the aura trails of the demon soldiers, which smelled worse than dog shit, the young transcendent couldn't help but let out a light exclamation. He then turned his head in confusion, looking at the other three, who were also using telescopes and other methods to scout the surroundings.

"Strange, everyone, I just saw large masses of spiritual light trails in the distance. I originally thought it was a demon army marching, and I was delighted, but after careful observation, I found that it didn't seem like it… Take a look, what exactly is going on?"

After speaking, he pointed Zhou Buyi and the others in a direction—vaguely visible, between the distant mountain paths, large teams of people were moving. That long, wriggling stream of people was quite conspicuous in the vast white snowfield, like ants marching between fallen leaves, crawling forward.

"There, huh."

Picking up his telescope, Zhou Buyi seriously observed and didn't bother to comment on what Su Zhou meant by 'being delighted to see demon soldiers.' Afterwards, he understood and said: "That's the migrants preparing to cross the Taibai Mountain area, head to the old Goryeo coastal crossing, and leave this land."

Putting down his telescope, Zhou Buyi sighed deeply.

"That is, those who abandon this land and country, choosing to wander far away, the departing ones."

As the saying goes, running towards a mountain will exhaust a horse. Running from the mountain to the foot of the mountain that one can see is also an exceptionally arduous task.

But after all, the four of them were martial artists. Although they couldn't yet be said to regard the six directions and eight wildernesses between天地(tiāndì, heaven and earth) as a flat road, mere cliffs really weren't anything. As long as there was a bit of a slope, martial artists could use their inner force to unload the force.

Compared to the output of their transcendent power, their weight was just floating clouds.

So, led by Su Zhou, the four of them raced straight towards that group of migrants.

"We can see them, so where are the demon soldiers?"

This was what Su Zhou himself said: "With my eyesight, I can confirm that there are no demon soldiers around, but is it possible that they haven't discovered this group of migrants? Absolutely impossible. In my opinion, those beasts will definitely send people to intercept and kill them."

Liu Xizhao also nodded slightly, saying her first words on this mission: "In this icy world, the fiends need to expend more blood Qi to maintain their peak condition. If they discover ordinary people, they will definitely not let them go."

Fang Hui also spoke: "Let's follow this group of migrants and see what happens. We should discover the movements of the demon soldiers and also notify them to be prepared for ambushes."

Since the majority of the team said so, the guide Zhou Buyi naturally agreed—or rather, whether they agreed or not, Su Zhou would go anyway.

In any case, they were going down the mountain to patrol the surrounding mountains and forests, and following that group of migrants was just a slightly longer detour, and it could greatly increase the chances of discovering demon soldiers.

"There are quite a few people." Getting closer, observing the team from thousands of meters away, the thermal vision made things even clearer in the icy world, Su Zhou raised his eyebrows, quite surprised: "This group of people is divided into three sections, front, middle, and back. Each section has nearly a thousand people… Nearly three thousand people migrating at once?"

"There's no choice. A few days ago, the demon general Chidi slaughtered a village, didn't he? The local residents also have some ability to communicate with each other. And the locals who know that a group of demon soldiers has come to Liaozhou can only abandon their homeland and risk migrating to the coastal crossing to take a boat to Fusang (Japan)."

Zhou Buyi's tone was calm, almost indifferent, when he said this: "Hey, the world is in chaos, the people are suffering, and immortal demon soldiers are burning, killing, and looting everywhere in Shenzhou, offering human blood and souls to nourish the immortal roots in their bodies."

"Of course, fire can kill, thunder can kill, but what kind of weakness is that? Is there anyone in this world who isn't afraid of fire and thunder?"

I'm not particularly afraid… Su Zhou instinctively wanted to say that, but knowing that the atmosphere wasn't right, he held back.

At this time, Monk Fang Hui said "Amitabha" and shook his head with his eyes closed: "The exodus of several thousand people from the Northeast is actually still considered small. Most of them are survivors of the Liaozhou demon disaster of yesteryear, and who in this world isn't a survivor of some demon disaster? In the southeastern region, the coastlines that the Baijia can't take care of are said to have seen tens of millions of people fleeing their homeland and heading to Nanyang. The vast land of Shenzhou is mostly empty, with countless cities and towns deserted."

Although the demon army had a water advantage, it hadn't reached the point where it could block the Baijia's righteous army in the Nanjiang River while also managing those coastal escapees.

Su Zhou kept this information in mind, while opening his spirit vision to scan the surrounding environment and sizing up the people in the team, lest a few demon soldiers secretly infiltrated—but just as he was carefully sizing them up, a problem arose.

"What? Among these migrants, there are actually a few Houtian second-stage experts, close to Grandmaster level?"

He couldn't help but be surprised—the entire Shenzhou land of the Divine Wood World, according to the Baijia's righteous army, only had five Great Grandmasters, and the Baijia's righteous army and the demon dynasty had a total of about fifty Grandmasters.

Of course, both sides would hide some trump cards, but not too many. In the current situation, thinking about hiding a hand would only bury oneself.

And below the Grandmaster level, Houtian second-stage experts were considered mid-to-high-end combat power. Just like Zhou Buyi, he could even serve as the captain of the team escorting the main materials for the divine weapon, but there were actually two in this migration team, and a few, but definitely present, seven or eight Houtian martial artists.

Su Zhou and the others were here to notify the migrants to prevent ambushes and did not conceal their auras. So, when the martial artists in the team jumped up to observe, they righteously displayed their inner Qi to show that they were not demon soldiers haunted by grievances and curses.

Zhou Buyi seemed to know the two second-stage experts in the migrants, so he took the initiative to greet them and inform them that hundreds of demon soldiers had recently arrived in the Taibai Mountain area, and it was not a single team, so they were likely to encounter a demon soldier attack.

And Fang Hui explained to Su Zhou: "Huang Bode and Cui Chengzhong are both top experts among the fourteen leaders of Liaozhou in the past. When the demon army ran rampant, they led the remaining Liaozhou survivors to build some residences in the deep mountains and avoided the demon army's hunt… Judging from this migration, they have completely abandoned Liaozhou and are preparing to go to the old Goryeo crossing and cross to Dongying (Japan)."

"Protecting the people is admirable—but why not try to join the Baijia's righteous army, instead of just running away?"

This was Su Zhou's real question from the beginning until now: "According to what you said, tens of millions of people have fled this land, and there must be no shortage of martial artists of this level among them—with so many people and so much power, if this force was added to the fight against the demon dynasty, they might have already captured Nantianjing."

Su Zhou didn't lower his voice. He was saying it for the two martial artists not far away to hear, and when those two martial artists heard it, they immediately raised their heads in anger and scolded: "You unweaned brat…"