The Demon King is back, leading adorable kids on an adventure around the world!

As time flows on and the gears of fate turn, half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

In the past six months, Niannian has grown taller. The baby fat on her face hasn't completely disappeared, but the outline of her eyebrows and eyes is clearer than before.

Her small body has grown quite a bit taller, and when she stands next to Niannian, she is already half a head taller.

The green on her body was no longer as thin as before, but thicker, as if a base layer was seeping through her skin.

After the spiritual energy revival entered a period of full-scale explosion, the ancient slumbering beasts awakened at an increasingly rapid pace.

Every few days, new reports come back from all over the world: giant beasts emerging from the deep mountains, unknown heads peeking out from cracked glaciers, and mountain-like spines rising from the seabed.

The battle line has extended hundreds of miles inland from the initial coastal defenses, and the barriers within China's borders have been compressed to the periphery of the core urban area.

Two of the three lines of defense have been held, while the third is under continuous pressure.

Ye Qianxue was stationed on the eastern section of the defense line for four months, during which time she eliminated seven fusion-stage alien beasts. However, three more appeared after the seventh one, making the number even greater than before.

During a break in her shift, she sent Luo Tian a short message saying that they still didn't have enough manpower and the defensive line was stretched too long.

In the western section, Li Mengmeng repeatedly honed her sword formation over six months, raising all eighty-one spirit swords in her sword-nurturing gourd to a higher grade.

She single-handedly annihilated three high-level fusion-stage alien beasts, but each time she finished fighting them, her spiritual energy was greatly depleted, and the intervals between recovery were getting shorter and shorter. She was also nearing her limit.

Qiqi and Qianqian were stationed in the northern section, and Qiqi's devouring ability played a significant role over the past six months.

She absorbs the spiritual power of each beast she kills. Her size hasn't changed much, but the dark golden power within her body has become so dense that it's almost overflowing.

Qianqian's illusion magic coverage has doubled, allowing her to suppress the senses of multiple alien beasts simultaneously on the battlefield.

However, she cannot maintain it for long periods of time, and needs several days to recover after each use.

The middle battlefield where Niannian was located was the most intense, with alien beasts surging in from three directions simultaneously without interruption, sometimes requiring three battles in a single day.

Her Chaos Nine-Leaf Lotus accelerated its operation during the continuous battles, absorbing spiritual energy at a rate several times faster than it had been six months ago.

His cultivation level seemed to be pushed upwards by some force, breaking through from the peak of the Void Refinement stage to the early stage of the Body Integration stage, and then breaking through to the middle stage of the Body Integration stage two months later.

One morning two weeks ago, she woke up to find that the power within her body had filled the last boundary of the fusion.

Then, like water overflowing a dam, it surged silently through without any sense of bottleneck, reaching directly to the early stages of Mahayana Buddhism.

She sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, then looked down at her palm.

The flow of spiritual energy was smooth, without any obstruction or stiffness.

She told Xiaoxiao about it, and Xiaoxiao remained silent for a while after listening.

She said her situation was similar; during that time, her internal tree of life seemed to have been nourished by something.

Every morning she would see new branches growing from the main trunk, and the canopy was almost twice as big as it was a month ago. Her cultivation level also rose to the peak of the Integration Realm.

The leap to the peak of the Integration Realm was achieved with almost no effort on her part, as if that power had always been there, only being gradually released as the Tree of Life grew.

That afternoon, Niannian participated in a battle on the central defensive line.

This time, a giant, ancient crustacean beast, over thirty feet in size, appeared as an armadillo magnified many times over.

The scales on its back are layered upon each other, each thicker than the palm of a hand, with sharp edges like knives, carving three parallel deep furrows in the ground as it moves.

Its cultivation level was at the peak of the Integration stage. It possessed great strength and power, and every time its forelimbs landed, the ground would crack open in several places.

The cracks extended all the way to the front lines of the defense, forcing the defenders to retreat half a mile.

Niannian was the first to step forward, and the Taiyi Sword struck its carapace. The silvery-white sword energy cut into the gaps in the scales, severing three layers and getting stuck on the fourth.

The thing didn't react to pain; it simply turned around and swept its tail towards Nian Nian.

Niannian dodged to the side and struck again, this time aiming at the soft flesh where the neck met the carapace. The blade cut half a foot in, slowing the creature's movement by a beat.

Xiao Xiao approached from the side, and when she raised her hand, several beams of emerald green light shot out from her fingertips.

The light spread rapidly after it landed, like seeds blown by the wind growing at breakneck speed.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of thick vines were pulled from the ground and wrapped around the creature's forelimbs and abdomen from below.

The vines tightened the moment they touched the carapace, and a viscous sap seeped from their surface.

The areas where the sap adhered softened and became brittle, as if something had eroded the surface structure.

Taking advantage of the situation, Nian Nian slashed down with her third sword from above. This time, the blade pierced through the softened armor and sank halfway into it.

The creature struggled and swung its forelimbs, causing part of the vine to break off in the process.

But the remaining vines continued to shrink, like countless arms squeezing it.

Little Xiao stood at the starting point of the vines' growth, the ground beneath her feet constantly cracking and healing.

New roots kept emerging from the cracks, and the phantom of the Tree of Life appeared behind her.

The tree canopy blocked out half the sky, and the drooping branches carried a heavy spiritual pressure.

The battle lasted for nearly 35 minutes, until the armored armadillo finally lost its ability to move due to the restriction of the vines and Nian Nian's continuous slashing.

First, its forelimbs knelt on the ground, then its entire body tilted to the side, kicking up a cloud of dust as it crashed to the ground.

Nian Nian sheathed her sword and landed, panting beside its now-still side. Dark liquid still clung to the blade of the Taiyi Sword.

Xiao Xiao stood a few feet away, the phantom of the Tree of Life behind her slowly dissipating. Her breathing was a little faster than usual, and there was a layer of fine sweat on her forehead, but her complexion was still okay.

The remains of the vines, having lost their support, gradually dried and crumbled, turning into a layer of light gray powder that fell onto the cracked ground and was scattered by the wind.

Qiqi and Qianqian arrived at the dispatch point of the central defense line on the same afternoon. They had withdrawn from the northern section to reinforce the defense, bringing with them some bad news.

The northern defense line has completely withdrawn from the mountains, and the number of strange beasts is still increasing.

Moreover, a group of them were clearly injured, and their wounds healed unusually quickly, as if they had been stimulated by something rather than healing naturally.

Qianqian added that, under the illusion, she sensed that the spiritual energy fluctuations at the edges of those wounds had the same frequency, as if a single source was simultaneously repairing them.

After the news reached the War God Sect, Luo Tian received three reports from the front lines.

He stood in the main hall, read the last message, folded it neatly, and put it back on the table.

Master Tianxuan stood to the side and waited for a moment before asking:

"Sect Master, should we send reinforcements?"

Luo Tian glanced out the window, stood there for a moment, and then calmly spoke:

"I'll go myself and raid their stronghold."

Master Tianxuan was slightly taken aback. Before he could speak, Luo Tian had already walked past him and out the door. The Xuanyuan Sword emitted a short hum as he stepped out of the threshold.