The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 473 The Humanoid Demon King and "He's Different"

After the Ziwei Exorcising Array was fully activated, all the cultivators present, including the players, were protected by the human race's fortune within the Ziwei Exorcising Array.

Each cultivator had a character formed from the power of destiny appearing in their palm. These characters were divided into four types: earth, fire, water, and wind, each representing a corresponding type of protection.

Status Name: Resistance to Four Plagues

"Status effect: Protected by the luck of humanity, you randomly gain resistance to a type of calamity. When encountering damage related to the corresponding calamity, the damage you receive is reduced by 10%."

With the emergence of the Demon Realm, the strength of the demons there has increased dramatically, the root of which lies in the four places of inheritance and the Heavenly Gate.

The power of the four inheritance sites and the Heavenly Gate comes from the Four Calamities, so the resistance of the Four Calamities is effective against almost all the demon beasts in the Demon Realm.

For example, the character "fire" on Wu Chang's palm means that after he enters the demon realm, all fire-attribute demons will reduce the damage they cause to him by 10%.

The Ziwei Exorcising Array had already cracked the impenetrable demon realm, and with the resistance of the Four Calamities, the combat power of the Demon-Slaying Army was further enhanced.

After all the demon-slaying troops received resistance from the Four Calamities, the group began to move towards Twin Lakes City.

To facilitate travel to the Demon Realm, the teleportation array connecting Zhenyue City and Shuanghu City was fully opened.

The Demon-Slaying Army, composed of Great Mystic cultivators and Celestials, entered Shuanghu City in turn.

Once all the demon-slaying soldiers had entered the teleportation array and the Lidi Temple had become deserted, Wu Changzhenwo, using the Heavenly Gang Escape Technique, walked towards the central altar of the Lidi Temple.

The one who followed Emperor Zhaoning and the others into the teleportation array was merely a starlight phantom created by his skill; his true body did not leave but instead used stealth to hide inside the Lidi Temple.

The Heavenly Gang Escape Technique shares a common origin with the Purple Star Exorcising Array to some extent; his method of concealment did not activate the array's alarm.

He climbed all the way to the top of the altar, then took out the Faith Virus from his personal space and placed it at the very top of the altar.

The irregular crystal ball formed by the faith virus dispersed, covering the entire surface of the sacrificial altar with a layer of virus spheres.

Seeing that the Faith Virus had been successfully activated, he activated his Star Escape ability and swapped positions with the starlight phantom that had entered Twin Lakes City.

When Wu Changzhen placed the Faith Virus, his true form had already arrived in Shuanghu City.

Upon re-entering Twin Lakes City and stepping out of the main hall where the teleportation was located, the first thing one sees is the dilapidated state of Twin Lakes City.

Shuanghu City is divided into inner and outer cities. The outer city is where ordinary city-guarding cultivators, local Shuanghu City residents, and disaster victims who fled from the demon realm are settled.

When I came before, the atmosphere in the city was gloomy and oppressive. Refugees waiting for porridge could be seen everywhere, along with guards maintaining order in the city and tense city-guarding monks.

The people's faces were either numb or pained, completely unlike the prosperity and liveliness An Rong had described.

But looking at Twin Lakes now, it can only be described as a scene of devastation.

Everywhere you look, there are ruins and rubble. There are no corpses in the city, but most of the broken buildings are stained with blood.

There were no civilians on the streets, only wounded soldiers patrolling the city.

I heard that the night the monsters attacked the city, the casualties were heavy. The survivors in the outer city have all been moved out of Shuanghu City and sent to the city further back.

As soon as An Rong left the teleportation array, he immediately headed towards the city center, with Wu Chang and Eileen following behind him, heading towards Ji'an Hall.

The intelligence from the Xuancha Division mentioned that Li Kang, while defending the city, desperately held off a demon general at the Grandmaster level, and was seriously injured in the battle. If Tao Xian hadn't arrived in time, he probably would have died in the battle.

When An Rong received the intelligence, he also wanted to go to Shuanghu City, but Lu Changgeng was afraid that he would kill all the troublesome cultivators in his anger, so he sealed the teleportation array and asked An Rong to calm down before coming.

At this moment, Ji'an Hall was overcrowded. The clinic was packed with cultivators who had been wounded in battle with the demons. In order to accommodate more wounded people, several shops around the clinic were temporarily requisitioned.

When they arrived, Li Kang was coming out of Ji'an Hall to deliver medicine to the neighboring shop.

As one of the main combat forces at the time, Li Kang was not in good condition. A piece of flesh was torn off his left thigh by a demon, and his right forearm was bitten off by a demon. Although he killed the demon in time and reattached his severed limbs with his medical skills, it was very difficult to regain his previous agility.

An Rong quickly stepped forward to take the medicine from Li Kang's hand and went into the next room to change the dressing for the unconscious cultivator.

The wounds of cultivators injured by demons are often corroded by demonic energy, making them difficult to heal and prone to deterioration. They must have their healing medicine changed every day.

Before An Rong left Ji'an Hall, he helped Li Kang a lot. His medical skills were not particularly outstanding, but he was extremely skilled at treating injuries.

Li Kang stood to the side, leaning on his cane, watching An Rong's skillful dressing-changing technique with a smile in his eyes.

"It seems that you haven't become rusty in your medical skills while you've been away."

As An Rong removed the old medicine from the cultivator's body and treated his wounds, he said:
"I was injured quite a bit when I first left, so I didn't even have a chance to get used to my old skills."

After changing the cultivator's dressing, An Rong washed the blood off his hands in a basin of water and asked in a relaxed tone:

"Uncle Li, you're a doctor, you should be treating the wounded in the rear, how did you get injured like this?"

Li Kang, with his straightforward temper, snorted coldly and said:

"Doctors can only treat the living. If I don't go and watch them all die, what's the point of treating the wounded?"

"Don't worry too much, kid. My injury is just serious, but I can walk and move around. It didn't damage my core."

An Rong said with a heavy face, "It should have been me who came, but Lü Changgeng blocked the door and wouldn't let me in."

Li Kang said, "He didn't ask you to come because he knows you. The situation was chaotic that day, and there was a demon king lurking outside the city. You weren't as calm as Zhihan, which could have caused the situation to get out of control."

"With the campaign against the demon realm imminent, everything must prioritize the overall situation."

As they were talking, Tao Xian Gu Zhihan walked into the house carrying the prepared medicinal soup, and bumped into everyone.

After Shuanghu City was nearly breached, Gu Zhihan stayed in the city and did not even participate in the sacrificial ceremony.

Li Kang looked at everyone and said:
"Alright, with the attack on the Demon Realm imminent, the four Earth Immortals of the Human Alliance are at their busiest. If they waste their time in my little clinic and delay important matters, that would be my fault."

Having personally confirmed that Li Kang was safe and sound, An Rong was completely relieved. In addition, the attack on the demon realm could not be delayed, so he and Gu Zhihan left first.

On the way, An Rong said to Gu Zhihan:
"Miss Gu, thanks to your timely arrival and driving away of the demon, Uncle Li was able to escape this calamity."

"To be honest, you stayed in Shuanghu City to take care of Uncle Li and didn't get to benefit from the protection of the Ziwei Exorcising Array. On the contrary, I, who should have been in Shuanghu City, did nothing. If I can come back alive from the Demon Realm, I will make it up to you."

Gu Zhihan said, "If you really feel guilty, you can make amends before attacking the Demon Realm."

An Rong was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, "As long as Miss Gu asks, I will not refuse."

Gu Zhihan smiled and her eyes curved slightly as she said, "Then you can stop calling me Miss Gu and start calling me the way you did before I left Ji'an Hall."

An Rong hadn't expected Gu Zhihan to want this kind of compensation. After a long pause, he finally stammered out:
"Zhihan".

Wu Chang clicked his tongue, sensing that the atmosphere was a bit off, and wondered whether he should take Eileen and leave first.

Although An Rong had disrupted his and Eileen's time together in Shuanghu City, he couldn't be unjust if An Rong was ruthless.

He had watched An Rong grow up since he was a child, and as an elder, he wouldn't stoop to the level of a child.

Just as he was thinking about how to leave, he saw Gu Zhihan suddenly release spiritual energy, enveloping the group and isolating them from external detection.

Then she said to An Rong:

"I have stayed in Shuanghu City and have not returned to Zhenyue City. Besides taking care of Uncle Li, there is actually an even more important reason."

"After I drove away the demons that entered the city that day, I noticed the Demon King's spying and chased him all the way to Dongshan Lake."

“There, I saw a humanoid demon beast. It looked exactly like a human and possessed the same intelligence as humans, even more cunning. It’s very likely that the humanoid demon beast was responsible for causing such a big mess among those young cultivators.”

“I was worried that it had designs on Twin Lakes, which is why I haven’t left.”

Upon hearing of the existence of a demon king who looked exactly like a human, An Rong was startled and asked:

"You mean, there aren't just four Demon Kings? What kind of demonic power does it possess?"

Gu Zhihan shook her head and said:

"The other party is very cunning. Perhaps they were worried about exposing their intelligence. After realizing they couldn't keep me here, they didn't make any further moves."

"But I'm certain that it's unlike any other demon king we've ever seen; it must be the fifth demon king."

Wu Chang was not as surprised as An Rong about what Gu Zhihan said. In his world, it was common knowledge that there were five of the four demon kings, so there was nothing to be surprised about.

His only interest was that Gu Zhihan mentioned that the demon king looked no different from a human.

Is it no different from humans, or is it itself human? Gu Zhihan continued to instruct:

“After the Demon-Slaying Army enters the Demon Realm, I suspect it has a way of hiding among humans and waiting for an opportunity to strike.”

"Once we enter the Demon Realm, everyone must be extra careful. Do not let your guard down just because the other party is a human cultivator, nor should you show mercy just because the other party has a human appearance."

An Rong pondered Gu Zhihan's words, his expression grave, and said:

"I'll pay attention."

When the group returned to the Demon-Slaying Army, they found everyone there waiting for them. Lü Changgeng glanced at An Rong, his lips twitching slightly, but in the end, he couldn't say anything.

After all, An Rong was going to Shuanghu City, and it was he who personally blocked the door to stop An Rong in order to protect the power of the Elders' Council.

An Rong didn't fight him, and the demolition of Zhenyue City was already considered reasonable. Now that he's just going home for a visit, he has no right to criticize him.

He turned to the crowd and said:

"Now that everyone has arrived, all members of the Demon-Slaying Army, listen to my command: divide yourselves into four groups according to your resistance attributes to the Four Calamities and find the corresponding team leader."

While the resistance to the four calamities is said to be random, it can be controlled to a certain extent.

In order to lead the four demon-slaying armies separately, the four earth immortals were assigned different attributes, which were determined according to the original division when they explored the demon realm.

Lü Changgeng is water, Tao Xian is earth, An Rong is fire, and Wu Chang is wind.

The cultivators followed the characters in their hands and gathered under the command of the corresponding Earth Immortal.

Perhaps because he possessed the Fire Demon King's Heart Flame, Wu Changzhen was randomly assigned the Fire element and traveled with An Rong.

Coincidentally, the members of the Arcane Knights were also assigned to the Fire faction.

The group followed Wu Changzhen and arrived in front of An Rong in unison.

Jianxing looked at the crowd behind him and said, "What a coincidence, everyone has obtained fire resistance."

Leng Shan clenched his fist, covering the character for "water" on his hand, coughed twice, and said:
"Yes, it is indeed a coincidence."

Relying on his control over his body, Ma Jia manipulated the blood vessels in his palm to twist and expand, forming a protruding fire character.

He said, "A one-in-four probability isn't really that much of a coincidence."

The Tongue of God put on gloves, covering the character for "wind" in his palm, and echoed:
"Logic is only discussed in novels, but it doesn't apply to reality. Things are often like this; low-probability events that wouldn't even appear in novels are very easy to encounter in real life."

The negotiation master, the clay puppet, the white horse, and others all nodded in agreement, saying that what he said made sense.

The four calamities are in a state of resistance, which is rare among the native inhabitants of the world's dungeon planes, so they don't care.

A mere 10% damage reduction is nowhere near as safe as following the Peacekeepers.

Not to mention, by following the peace, you can make a fortune in dungeon exploration, contribution points, and quest rewards.

Even without 10% damage reduction, or even with a 30% damage amplification debuff, they wouldn't join other teams.

In fact, the members of the Arcane Knights were not the only players who held this idea, but the problem was that they did not have the means to cheat.

The members of the Mystic Knights gained a lot of contribution points by joining the Great Xuan Royal Family early and developing their downlines. Especially after they realized the difference in strength and Lu Changgeng took the initiative to yield to Emperor Zhaoning, their status in the Humanity Alliance also rose.

Even the lowest-ranking among them held the position of butler. Those like Booker and Veronica, who did not compete with other members of the organization, developed a large number of subordinates. Although the two were weak, their contribution value surpassed that of others, and they became retainers before Lengshan and Jianxing.

This group of people were either stewards or worshippers, and Wu Chang, as the first celestial being, even reached the level of a Dharma protector.

Who dares to pry open their palms and examine the four calamities they are resisting?

Is it an elder or a celestial being who comes?

But if it were other celestial beings, without some status, then they would have to act strictly according to the rules, and everyone would stick together, wouldn't that mean the four demon-slaying armies would have to merge into one?

You celestial beings came to Daxuan, and you all claimed to be here to eliminate demons and uphold justice. You wouldn't have changed your mind now, would you?

After all that trouble, only Hou Jingchuan and a few high-ranking officials from the Bureau managed to expand their network to the Western Alliance, obtain the status of deacons, and force their way into the inner circle of the Mystic Knights.

Other players can only join by luck.

After dividing into four demon-slaying armies, the Taichang Temple cultivators distributed demon-suppressing blood talismans to everyone and briefly explained how to use them. Then, the four demon-slaying armies began to march towards the demon realm.

Before leaving Shuanghu City, Wu Chang found An Rong and said solemnly:

"Brother An, we are about to enter the Demon Realm. Now that things have developed to this point, there are some things I have to say."

"Many people think that I only care about exorcising demons, that I can't see things clearly, and that I don't care about the fate of my sect or my own cultivation. But I don't think so. I only care about exorcising demons and I'm not distracted by other things, so I see things more clearly and more accurately."

“I can see that the Great Xuan royal family is extremely ambitious and cannot be trusted; the various factions of the Human Alliance are unscrupulous in their pursuit of cultivation and cannot be trusted; and Lü Changgeng is obsessed with ascending to immortality and has gone astray and cannot be trusted.”

An Rong initially thought Wu Chang was just giving her some parting advice, saying something about being careful of the Demon King and assassination attempts. However, Wu Chang's words were shocking, offending all three of the most important forces in Da Xuan with his very first words.

Even though An Rong didn't like them, she still felt that Wu Chang was too direct when she heard him say that.

Even though Wu Chang had already shielded himself from outside prying eyes, he still felt uneasy and cautiously looked around to see if anyone had noticed them.

Without the slightest hesitation, Wu Chang continued:
In my opinion, there are only three people in the world who can be trusted.

Upon hearing this, An Rong understood that Wu Chang intended to have a heart-to-heart talk with him, so he humbly asked:

"I wonder which three people Sect Leader Tang is referring to."

Wu Chang said:

"My first choice is naturally my wife. We are of one mind and body, and no matter what we go through, I will always believe in her unconditionally."

"Secondly, there's Brother An."

An Rong guessed that Wu Chang was among the three when he said those words, but she was still flattered to hear that he was ranked second only after Madam Tang.

An Rong asked, "Why does Sect Leader Tang trust me so much?"

Wu Chang said, "Intuition!"

"And after spending time together, I think you have similar qualities to me. We share the same goal: to put an end to everything ourselves, and to do so at any cost."

An Rong took a deep breath and slowly asked:
"Who was the last person in Master Tang's sect?"

Wu Changcheng said sincerely:
“Peace. Although he is a celestial being, I met him when he first entered the Great Mystery and we have maintained contact ever since.”

"His dedication to exorcising demons is no less than mine; I can vouch for that with my own judgment."

"He is traveling with you this time, and I have instructed him to fully cooperate with what you want to do. If you encounter difficulties and find it difficult to accomplish alone, you can trust Peace."

An Rong nodded emphatically after hearing this and said:
"Thank you, Sect Leader Tang."

Wu Chang watched An Rong's departing figure, lost in thought.

Previously in Shuanghu City, An Rong triggered "Perfectionism," but An Rong said that he had not yet fully comprehended his own immortal destiny and needed to wait for the Ziwei Exorcising Array to be completed before he would know what to do next.

During the previous earth-worship ceremony, An Rong's fortune changed no less than that of Emperor Zhaoning, which should be because he completed the immortal destiny mission and fully grasped the changes brought about by the immortal destiny.

To trigger "Perfectionism", An Rong will receive a hidden side quest. Simply waiting for An Rong to comprehend the Immortal Fate is not enough; you also need to gain enough trust from An Rong.

Even his true form took a long time to wait for the "Perfectionism" to flash.

After entering the Demon Realm, he will be separated from An Rong. An Rong is naturally wary, and even if Zhen Wo, as a Celestial Being, says a lot of nice things, it will be difficult for him to truly gain An Rong's trust.

If Lü Changgeng were to further indoctrinate him with some divine decrees from the immortals, saying that the celestial beings were all plotting to seize the Heavenly Gate and should not be trusted, then he would have even less of a chance.

If you want your true self to gain trust, there is only one way: use your true self to endorse it, forcibly increasing your true self's credibility.

Regardless of whether his guarantee is valid or not, the first thing to do is to establish in An Rong's mind that "he is different".

Whether it will succeed or not depends on luck.

He had a feeling that the hidden side quest involving An Rong would be quite significant.

(End of this chapter)