Chapter 1 The Summit

At this moment, the three had already reached the summit of the Taibai volcanic cluster, a steep peak impossible for anyone but a martial artist to ascend.

From this vantage point, Su Zhou realized he could look down upon most of the Taibai snow mountain range and the snow plains below. He could even see a surging river in the distance, flowing directly to the far horizon, seemingly emptying into the sea!

"A demon army is coming, right?" Su Zhou knew very well the purpose of Li Daoran seeking him out. He turned his head and smiled. "You're worried that this is my first time descending the mountain, that I'm young, and that I don't have any life-or-death grudges with those An Dynasty demon soldiers. You're afraid that I might feel apprehensive before fighting to the death, so you plan to give me a preemptive pep talk, is that it?"

"Cough... I don't know what a 'preemptive pep talk' is, but I'm glad you understand. After all, Little Brother Su, you are still young..."

Although this wasn't exactly disagreeing, Li Daoran, having his thoughts laid bare, coughed and seemed momentarily unsure what to say. At this point, Zhou Buyi, feeling awkward, took over the conversation.

"Brother Su, look at the Tumen River, and the Jade Green River in the distance—"

He pointed to the great river vaguely visible on the horizon and said calmly, "The demon army has always held a water advantage, moving freely. According to the traitor's information, the demon court already has several large ships with four or five hundred demon soldiers. They have crossed our Baijia's (Hundred Schools) defenses and arrived near the Taibai Mountains. They are currently preparing to gather their forces for a direct raid."

"According to past practice, the main force of the demon army won't come out, so this is already their largest-scale troop deployment... Of course, we have four Grandmasters stationed at the fortress here, including you, so there's no way they'll be able to attack successfully. But the key is that our fortress-guarding martial artists need to be steadfast in their faith and not retreat. Otherwise, if the enemy attacks with superior numbers, one person retreating will cause a chain reaction."

* A pre-battle psychological counselor, huh... A Grandmaster and a second-stage expert doing ideological work on me. I'm honored!

"I personally don't feel any problems. I have absolutely no psychological burden killing those evil people." Feeling a sense of being valued, Su Zhou's mentality was very calm. He had originally come to hone his combat skills. What did it matter who he fought? Killing those flesh-eating demons would only bring him satisfaction.

However, he still asked, "But I have a question: If I said I did have a burden, what method would you use to persuade me, or to make me firm in my resolve?"

Upon hearing this question, the master and disciple's faces darkened, their expressions gloomy.

"Brother Su... alas, we know you haven't set foot in Shenzhou before, and you don't know the suffering of the people. You might even... not be of our race, only helping us out of temporary righteous indignation, a passing interest. So we don't know how to explain it to you."

After a while, Zhou Buyi forced a smile, but his expression was quite desolate. He simply looked up at the distant mountains and rivers, and said slowly, "We're just worried that you still see the An Dynasty faction as 'people,' or rather, just as 'cruel and tyrannical' rulers... In fact, after the Demon Emperor's father obtained the secrets of the Undying Root from the Banyan Undying Tree, and was then killed by his own son with the prototype of the Doom Blade, that nameless ritual knife, the entire upper echelon of the An Dynasty was no longer 'human.'"

As he said this, Zhou Buyi drew his sword, and pure white Daoist sword qi shot towards the south of this pale landscape, like a rainbow, seemingly venting his anger, and also seemingly pinpointing a few small spots, "The Demon Emperor uses immortality to win over military ministers, and plans to sacrifice countless people to transform into an eternally undying Banyan Dragon—and the generals and officials under him are also nearly immortal. Furthermore, the Demon Emperor's Divine Wood blood is the purest, so he can command them, so naturally they are willing to support him, and most of the demon soldiers also have long lifespans, and are unlikely to die even in battle, so they are naturally loyal."

"Anyway, their family and friends won't be sacrificed alive. The livestock they raise are enough to maintain the existing Undying Root—but what about everyone else? What about those who don't belong to the An Dynasty's core ruling circle? What about the millions of people who originally lived around this Taibai Mountain area, in the increasingly prosperous fourteen prefectures of Liaozhou, living and working in peace?"

It could be seen that the sword qi Zhou Buyi had released earlier corresponded to a dozen locations in the distant snowy land. Su Zhou narrowed his eyes, but he could vaguely see the ruins of small cities and towns in the mountains. The closest one was actually at the foot of this mountain range, next to a steaming snow hot spring.

Perhaps in the past, people lived and worked there in peace, and many ginseng collectors and hunters rested there, but now it was empty.

"The Demon Court, both high and low, and that Undying Power, are nothing but a group of zombies driven by the 'desire for eternal life,' a plague poisoning the world and its people."

Zhou Buyi's expression was extremely calm. He looked into the distance and said faintly, "My master and I aren't very talkative, but Brother Su."

"I once saw hundreds of households of refugees being used as prey by the demon army, being driven into exile in the frozen wilderness, hunted by them with arrows and spears, with only one person escaping to our Baijia militia's defense zone."

"I have seen a mother voluntarily sacrificing herself while fleeing, cutting off her own arm for her children to gnaw on—the father had already died covering their retreat, fortunately he couldn't see this tragic scene."

"The fourteen prefectures of Liaozhou, one million seven hundred and twenty thousand people, hundreds of villages and towns, only thirteen thousand survived because of the invasion of a demon army, mostly mountain hunters. And this result was only because the heavy snow sealed the mountains, and the demon soldiers were impatient to search in the ice and snow, and returned to court early... We were also powerless to help. These remote coastal border provinces are impossible to defend. The Baijia's forces can only defend the inland areas between the North River and the South River."

* 烽烟时常起，天地不得安！乱贼尽豺虎，生民肆意残！(Frequent are the fires of war, the world knows no peace! The rebellious bandits are all wolves and tigers, the people are wantonly ravaged!)

Zhou Buyi really didn't know how to speak. He wasn't a strategist. If he were, the many tragic events during the demon army's decades of rampages would have filled Su Zhou with rage, wishing he could devour their flesh and sleep on their skin. He wouldn't have trembled, gripped his sword tightly, and reddened his eyes as he spoke, afraid to face Su Zhou, lest he shed tears and feel embarrassed.

"In the days when Emperor Xiao was in power, no one picked up lost items on the road, and doors were never locked at night. Public and private granaries were abundant, but now, the thirty-four regions of Shenzhou are covered in thorns, and even an entire province has been completely slaughtered, with white bones everywhere, uncollected."

Although Li Daoran looked middle-aged, he was clearly an old Grandmaster who, like Mo Ganxiu, had personally experienced the prosperous era of the former dynasty, and also the era of the Undying Demon Emperor. The master and disciple duo, one Daoist and one Baijia, had the same temperament. They had originally come to give Su Zhou psychological counseling, but as they talked, they began to sigh and couldn't continue.

In the end, the two seemed to realize that Su Zhou really didn't have any psychological problems, and his fighting will was also very firm, so they handed over two small booklets and left in a hurry, leaving him alone on the summit of the snow mountain, surveying the small mountains around him.

Before leaving, Li Daoran had words to offer.

"We, together with Wei Lie, have seen that Little Brother Su, you don't know qinggong (light body skill), and although your close combat martial arts are fierce, you lack long-range attack methods, so we both discussed it and each chose a unique skill to give you."

"A Thousand Miles of Travel is our lineage's unique qinggong. Its agility in small areas may not be strong, but it can make people run like swift horses, traveling a thousand miles a day. It's quite suitable for Little Brother Su's innate talent of leaping hundreds of feet."

"And this 'Firm Shot' method is Grandmaster Wei's military bow technique. It uses internal force to cooperate with physical strength to accumulate power. The greater the power, the stronger it is. It requires someone with natural divine strength to master it. Even Wei Lie himself has only barely achieved it, so he simply gives it to you, hoping that you can carry it forward."

The cold wind howled, and the gray clouds seemed to be right in front of him, surging and changing, as if within reach.

Su Zhou stood there with these two booklets in his hands, gazing down at the snowy mountains, silent for a long time.

Seeing that there was no one around, the crimson little snake emerged from his hair and chuckled, "Su Zhou, this expressionless face doesn't look like you—I thought you would swear on the spot after hearing their sincere and earnest speeches, and vow to flay the skin, crush the bones, and scatter the ashes of the entire Demon Court."

"No, I'm very angry."

Contrary to what he said, Su Zhou's voice was very calm. He recalled the bodies whose flesh had been drained, and thought that such bodies might have been scattered throughout Shenzhou for decades, numbering in the tens of millions.

Calculating that the number of deaths had reached this point, and there was no anger in his heart, Su Zhou's tone was instead a little confused, "Now, I'm just troubled by one thing."

Placing the spear in the ground, his tone paused, Su Zhou narrowed his eyes, clenched his fists with both hands, and carried them behind his back. His tone was deep, and he surveyed the mountains, "That is, how to kill that Demon Emperor."

"So that he can be considered 'miserable'?"

After staying on the snow mountain summit for half an hour, Su Zhou silently descended the mountain, and then began to familiarize himself with his newly forged fine iron spear—the original spear was too light, feeling floaty, and this spirit iron cross spear, weighing more than fifty kilograms, could produce a sharp howl with a casual swing. The force of the wind was extremely fierce, and the camp martial artists watching him practice nearby dared not approach within thirty meters, only sighing that although this person's face was kind and approachable, his martial arts were unexpectedly strong and powerful.

Including this spear, as well as other clothing and equipment, Su Zhou's normal weight began to approach two hundred kilograms... Of course, if you only looked at his appearance, he was naturally a handsome and elegant young man, extremely deceptive.

In recent days, Su Zhou had also traded away the various fine salts, white sugar, spices, as well as various pearls, man-made gems, diamonds, and silver that he had brought with him, exchanging them for many heavenly treasures such as mountain ginseng and earth roots. He left two and a half bottles of Number 3 Holy Water like this, which might be a few lives at a critical moment.

The great craftsman and artisan Mo Ganxiu was also quite interested in the various modern survival equipment that Su Zhou brought, especially the heaters, hand-crank chargers, and high-performance flashlights. According to the great craftsman's original words, they were 'thunder power, accumulation, usable' and 'warm, lightning strike wood'.

According to Mo Ganxiu's explanation, the two of them seemed to be planning to modify an idle true qi casting furnace, using the power of this volcano to generate the power of thunder, which was quite useful for forging divine weapons... Su Zhou didn't know what these two craftsmen were thinking. Were they really going to hand-crank a generator? It shouldn't be that bad, right?

Time passed like this. Just as Su Zhou spent a few days eating his fill and cultivating, practicing his spear after cultivating, and using qinggong to go up and down, and practicing archery in his spare time, at least learning the points of 'drawing the bow,' 'shooting arrows,' 'aiming,' and 'calculating wind,' the calm before the storm finally ended.

Grandmaster Wei Lie, who had gone to receive the 'Western Regions Star Sand,' appeared at the foot of the mountain covered in blood, with four equally wounded and seriously injured men. After receiving notification from the observation team, Grandmasters Su Zhou and Li Daoran hurriedly descended the mountain to receive them.

At this time, they also learned bad news.

The reason why the demon army, which had been slow to invade, had been holding back was because they were waiting for reinforcements from further back!

"Fortunately, I have not failed my mission. The Western Regions Star Sand has been safely delivered."

Grandmaster Wei Lie, who had a large hole poked in his left shoulder socket by a weapon such as an iron awl or a short spear, and had lost the use of one hand, still spoke with a strong voice, but could not hide his injuries and fatigue. He handed a very heavy box to Li Daoran with one arm, and then sighed, "But a total of four hundred and seventy-two demon soldiers, as well as the two demon generals 'Life Hunter' and 'Beastmaster,' have already arrived at the Jade Green River, and will soon lead the demons to attack the mountain—and now, behind us, there is the 'Red Earth' demon general, pursuing us with dozens of demonic soldiers."

"Brother Daoran, Grandmaster Su, this time the demon army would rather abandon the front line, withdraw hundreds of miles from several fortresses, and even dig out three demon generals from the cracks to forcibly stop us from forging divine weapons... This can only mean one thing!"

"Either the Demon Emperor, or that National Teacher, these two traitors will succeed in transforming into dragons soon and advance to the Innate Realm!"