Lord of the Earth

"Run! Run—ah!!"

The sky was torn apart by piercing screams and desperate wails.

The human settlement, which once housed tens of thousands of people, has now been transformed into a fiery hell, with thick smoke billowing and the stench of burnt flesh filling every inch of the air!
The scattered crowd scurried about like ants, their expressions filled with fear.

Boom!

A massive, black-scaled claw slammed down, easily smashing a simple stone house to pieces. The claw, covered in bone spikes, gripped a human strongman whose arms were covered in wounds, who was trying to protect his wife and children.

"Crack——!"

Ignoring the rusty knife in the latter's hand, he merely exerted slight force with his knuckles, and the crisp sound of bones shattering was particularly jarring in the burning tribe.

The screams of this burly human man came to an abrupt halt, and wisps of pale blue soul smoke spilled from his seven orifices!
"tasty……"

Then, the owner of that demonic claw.

A towering "Soul-Splitter Demon," several meters tall, resembling an upright lizard with countless twisted tentacles growing from its head, bent down, its enormous nostrils greedily sucking...

It doesn't involve sucking blood and flesh, but rather forcibly extracting a pale blue, hazy, human-shaped "soul" from the broken corpse!
Those souls twisted and shrieked silently, yet their screams sent shivers down the spines of living beings. The "Soul-Splitting Demon" inhaled them into its nostrils as if it were smoking smoke!
"belch……"

Then he let out a satisfied, chilling burp, and the huge wound on his chest, which had been cut by some kind of sharp weapon, began to wriggle and heal at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"My husband!"

The mother, barely clothed, lunged forward like a madwoman, only to be flicked away by the demon's claws and turned into a puddle of flesh. Her soul and wisps of smoke were also forcibly extracted and turned into the other party's "healing aid."

"Father! Mother!"

The young child fell beside the ruins, looking at his parents' mangled bodies and the fading light of their souls, and let out a heart-wrenching cry.

Dozens of Soul-Splitting Demons were "healing" in this human settlement. Some grabbed old people with their tentacles and smashed them against the stone walls, while others tore apart children's bodies to extract fresh souls. Raging flames engulfed the simple thatched huts, and cries and demonic roars intertwined to create a hellish scene.

"Be honest with me!"

The leader, a Saint-level "Soul Splitter" ten zhang tall, covered in dark purple bone armor, shattered the altar in the center of the tribe, which shaped its own race, with one foot. Its huge, blood-red maw opened and closed, its gaze cold and cruel.

"You humans, we've fed you for so many days, making you our food source, which is an immense honor for you. And yet you dare to resist?!"

After suffering defeat in their war against their arch-enemies, the Shadowfiends, for control of this vast region, these Soulbreakers unleashed their fury and hunger upon the humans they had long kept under their control.

They were to be used as military rations to replenish supplies.

Even the strongest warriors among this group of humans from another world had absolutely no chance of resisting the Soul Rift Demons, who were already a "quasi-transcendent" race!
The leading "demon" of the Holy Realm simply opened its huge mouth and inhaled sharply, instantly freezing the bodies of hundreds of fleeing humans. Pale blue soul light points flowed into its mouth like streams, leaving behind withered and deformed corpses scattered all over the ground.

"Are we humans truly an inferior race?"

"Did the gods really bestow my human race upon these demons as food?"

"Why are we humans so...weak? Why can we only become food for other races?"

Despair, like a cold tide, overwhelmed the hearts of the remaining humans in this region.

The long period of "enslavement" and the fear of witnessing their people being used as food had long since extinguished the will to resist in most people, leaving only numb fleeing and wailing in despair.

However, at this moment——

The sky seemed to have been rippled by an invisible hand.

Immediately afterwards, a small boat, its entire body shimmering with a warm, lustrous sheen, its design simple yet containing endless mysteries, appeared out of thin air above the sky shrouded in thick smoke and flames!
It didn't look huge, but the moment it appeared, it was like a serene mountain, radiating a soft yet firm light that instantly drew the attention of the entire battlefield, even dimming the raging demonic fire.

"Then...what is that?"

The surviving humans instinctively looked up, their eyes filled with bewilderment and a faint glimmer of hope that even they themselves dared not believe.

"This thing can actually travel through the void..."

The leader of the Soul-Splitting Demons in the Holy Realm abruptly stopped its devouring actions. Its crimson eyes narrowed, a hint of surprise flashing across them before transforming into undisguised greed.

"It seems to be a top-tier 'treasure'! It actually came to us on its own..."

However, the greed on its face froze instantly in the next moment, turning into astonishment and anger!
"Dragon Guards, attack! Slaughter them all, leave no one alive!"

A cold, youthful command came from the boat, clearly echoing across the battlefield.

The next moment, the small boat suddenly transformed into a "giant ship," and figures dressed in black standard armor, exuding a powerful aura and displaying perfect order, leaped out like a storm, forming a battle formation and charging towards the Soul-Splitting Demon below without hesitation!
They moved swiftly and coordinated perfectly, clearly a seasoned elite force!

The leader was a slender, cold-faced young man dressed in black.

He looked no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, but his eyes and brows held an air of aloofness, but even more so a suppressed resentment and a tenacity beyond his years. A sword light flashed in his hand like a bolt of lightning, tearing through the dark sky and earth!

"Beast!"

The boy let out a low shout, his figure flashing like a ghost, the tip of his sword piercing with unparalleled precision into the core area of ​​a "Soul Rift Demon" under its armpit, which resembled a human's quasi-heart!
puff!

As soon as the sword light was unleashed, the massive body of the Transcendent Fourth Realm Soul-Splitting Demon suddenly stiffened.

It crashed to the ground with a thud, its core shredded by the sword energy, and even its soul was annihilated before it could escape!

"How dare you! You slaughter my warriors!"

The leader of the Soul-Splitting Demons in the Holy Realm was enraged. A dark red "Soul-Splitting Holy Domain" appeared around him, with countless twisted and wailing soul phantoms floating within it. A terrifying pressure surged towards the boy like a tidal wave, attempting to tear his soul directly out of his body!
However, the cultivation level displayed by the young man had already reached the peak of Quasi-Saint, only one step away from the Saint Realm.

More importantly, the swordsmanship he displayed with the black longsword in his hand was extraordinary and exquisite!

Faced with the pressure from the Holy Domain, he generated an incomparably condensed sword intent barrier around him, which instantly shattered the invisible soul-tearing force into pieces.

"Roar!"

Seeing that the domain was not working, the leader of the Soul Splitter Demons trembled its tentacles, which were like dozens or even hundreds of sword energies, each one slicing through the soul and enveloping the boy's figure!
The boy's face paled. His quasi-saint level primordial spirit felt intense pain within the sacred domain, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. Sword intent spontaneously protected his spiritual platform, and using the force to retreat, he swung his sword, severing several strange tentacles that were pursuing him!
"Good lad! With the cultivation of a quasi-saint at the peak, he can actually withstand the saintly domain of a saintly demon and even fight back!"

The veterans of the Qianxia Dragon Guard who landed were all amazed and immediately joined the battle, forming ranks to annihilate the other demons.

"This swordsmanship... is simply divine! No wonder he came from the 'Sword Pavilion'!" They all knew that this young man's surname was Ximen, his swordsmanship was superb, and he was the "Dragon Guard" who had requested to join the front line of Qianxia and travel on the Ship of Crossing the World to find and rescue the human race scattered throughout the heavens!
“The alien race from the Holy Realm, killing you will grant me at least a million merit points…”

Ximen Wuhen's eyes were cold, and his blood and qi were surging due to the challenge of going beyond his level, but his hand holding the sword was as steady as a rock.

"His Majesty said that merit can be exchanged for resources, and accumulated merit can create even more 'ships of salvation'! To save all those who deserve it..."

His thoughts, however, grew increasingly obsessive.

"When the time comes, I will find that man! I will find the 'mysterious inn' where he abandoned my mother and insisted on going! I will ask him why in person! And I will defeat him! I will let him know that his choice was wrong!"

Hatred and the desire to become stronger fueled his sword.

The young man in black merged with his sword, transforming into a black streak of light that pierced through the void, constantly battling against this Saint Realm demon.

Finally seizing a tiny opening caused by his underestimation of the enemy, he poured all his strength and will into a single sword strike, piercing with unparalleled precision the soul fire flickering in the eye socket of the Soul-Splitting Demon leader!

"Nirvana!"

The boy uttered two cold words.

The sword intent erupted suddenly, and the massive body of the Saint Realm demon trembled violently, letting out a deafening wail. The soul fire in its eye sockets dimmed and went out instantly, and its massive body crashed to the ground like a mountain collapsing and a jade pillar crumbling, its demonic energy dissipating!
The boy landed on the ground, staggered a step, leaned on his sword for support, and gasped for breath, his face pale.

Killing a Saint Realm being beyond one's level took a huge toll on him. Fortunately, this "Saint Realm Soul-Splitting Demon" was seriously injured in the previous battle... which is why he was defeated despite being beyond his level!
"But there's still no clue about the 'mysterious inn' here... Let's go to the next place... I must find it..."

The boy muttered coldly to himself, adjusting his breathing, before leaping away.

The Ark of Salvation casts its gentle light, and its soft power begins to guide and embrace the human survivors who are still in shock and can hardly believe they have been rescued.

A glimmer of hope was finally ignited on this desolate wasteland.

……

Meanwhile, deep within the endless turbulent flow of time and space, a magnificent and ancient inn, covering an area of ​​hundreds of miles, stands like an unyielding reef in the chaotic void.

This place is not a comfortable inn for travelers, but a bloody front line where life and death battles are fought every moment!
All around the inn, the "aura of calamity" surged like a black tide, automatically evolving into various forms of "calamity creatures" as it approached!
Their forms were twisted and bizarre, their limbs proliferated and mutated, exuding an aura of pure destruction and despair, as they frantically attacked the fragile defensive line outside the inn, which was made up of the flesh and blood of countless human contractors!

"Hold on! Everyone hold on! Formation Master, quickly repair the breach on the west side!"

"Someone fucking save me! I'll give you 100,000 gold coins... Ah!"

"Doctor! This person needs treatment! Damn it, even at a time like this, they're still clinging to money?! Can't they save the person first?!"

The shouts of battle, roars, explosions of colliding energy, and the cries of the wounded mingled together, creating a deafening cacophony.

The human warriors who had signed "contracts" with the inn wore all sorts of equipment, some even tattered, and their cultivation levels varied, but their eyes all held the same fighting spirit, ready to fight to the death.

Relying on the barrier emanating from the inn itself, they formed simple yet tenacious defensive circles.

They used swords, inferior spells, and even their teeth and fists to desperately resist the onslaught of the calamity army.

Blood and shattered entrails stained the void red, and severed limbs floated around like garbage. People fell every moment, their bodies torn apart and their souls corrupted.

But immediately, others with red eyes stepped in to fill the gaps. They were fighting for their own survival, and also for the women and children living in the inn.

However, among the creatures ravaged by catastrophe, there are never few strong ones.

Suddenly, a terrifying pressure that chilled the heart and seemed to freeze the soul erupted from the deepest part of the enemy ranks!

hum!
A terrifying being, resembling a giant, rotting mountain of flesh, with filthy pus constantly seeping from its body and countless painful faces floating and wailing in the pus, smashed through several layers of hastily erected defensive spells and charged straight toward the weakest point in the defense line!

Wherever it passes, space is distorted and collapsed by the intense stench and corrosive energy it emits, making it difficult even for ordinary saints to get close.

Some of the weaker "contractors" only glanced at its twisted form before their eyes began to ache with pain, black pus and blood gushing out. Then their eye sockets and even their entire heads began to melt and rot rapidly. Before they could even scream, they turned into a pool of filthy blood!

"Oh no! It's a demigod-level cataclysmic being!"

A human from the "Holy Realm" with a hideous old scar on his face changed his expression drastically and roared.

For these contractors struggling to survive, a demigod-level being is practically an insurmountable natural disaster!

Everyone's gaze, involuntarily and with a last glimmer of hope, turned to the figure standing silently at the highest point of the inn, dressed in white as snow.

Just as the defensive line was about to be torn apart and trampled by this demigod-level cataclysmic being—

The figure moved.

Or perhaps, it was his sword that moved.

A sword light of unparalleled purity and perfection seemed to come from beyond the heavens, or perhaps it was extracted from ancient ice!

It has no fancy or complicated variations, only extreme speed, extreme sharpness, and extreme coldness! Like the first ray of absolute zero dawn piercing the dark night, or like the path of Tao that severs cause and effect and divides Yin and Yang!

The sword light arrived first, striking precisely the writhing core of the demigod cataclysmic being, which exuded the most intense evil aura!
Time seemed to freeze for a moment at that instant.

The next moment, the terrifying being, as large as a mountain and exuding an aura of despair, suddenly froze in its forward momentum.

A thin, indescribably bright ray of light quietly emerged from the top of its ugly head, then spread like water throughout its entire body!

Then, under the gaze of countless horrified eyes...

Its body was silently and neatly split in two along the path of that light!
Before it could even let out a final wail, before the immense, destructive energy within its body could be unleashed, it was annihilated by the incomparably sharp sword intent, which carried the meaning of absolute annihilation.

The massive remains, like a sand sculpture weathered over millions of years, turned into the most primitive ashes and scattered.

All that remained was a constantly twisting and pulsating dark core, and countless golden lights of merit and purple beads of fortune scattered across the sky, representing the recognition and reward of heaven and earth.

A middle-aged man dressed in white, as white as snow, stood quietly on the eaves of the inn.

With a blank expression, he sheathed the strangely shaped black longsword in his hand. The blade was spotless, without a speck of dirt or dust, as if the earth-shattering moment when he instantly killed a demigod was merely a matter of casually brushing a speck of dust off his clothes! (End of Chapter)