Demon Clouds Press Upon the Border, and I Am Merely a Victim

Above Yellow Springs Ferry, dark clouds churned like a sea.

Ninety-nine soul lamps swayed violently. The remnants of the Martial Gods within them let out silent screams, casting the entire ferry city in a ghastly green light.

The three Transcendence-realm experts from the Sacred Lands had intended to strike once and flee.

But they had never expected Yellow Springs Ferry to react so quickly.

Nor had they expected Wang Hao’s single shout to hit harder than the combined attack of all three of them.

“Taiyin! Sword Mound! Blood Lotus!”

“You annihilated my entire clan, and now you want to purge the Land of Sin!”

“Fellow cultivators of Yellow Springs, if you don’t kill them today, then tomorrow, all nine demonic sects will be nothing more than meat on the Sacred Lands’ chopping block!”

The moment those words were spoken, the entire Yellow Springs Ferry boiled over.

Demonic cultivators weren’t afraid of death.

What they feared was being slaughtered like pigs by the Sacred Lands.

Especially the people of the Land of Sin, who already harbored deep grudges against the Twelve Sacred Lands.

On ordinary days, everyone killed one another, refined souls, and even carved out each other’s kidneys. That was simply an internal custom.

But when the Sacred Lands came marching in, it became an invasion by an outside enemy.

The nature of the matter was entirely different.

Meng Xuan, Lord of Yellow Springs Ferry, wore an ashen expression.

He had only just learned from Wang Hao that the Twelve Sacred Lands had secretly gathered to purge the Land of Sin.

In the very next moment, three Transcendence-realm experts from the Sacred Lands had come knocking.

What was there left to investigate?

What evidence was still needed?

This was practically the Sacred Lands pressing a knife to the throat of the Yellow Springs Demon Sect and asking, “Do you believe us now?”

Meng Xuan believed it.

His eyes had gone red from believing it so completely.

“Seal the city!”

“Disciples of the Yellow Springs Demon Sect, heed my command!”

“Activate the Myriad Souls Crossing River Formation!”

Rumble!

Along both banks of Yellow Springs Ferry, hundreds of black soul pillars lit up at once.

Countless soul banners whipped and howled in the wind.

Tens of thousands of resentful spirits within the city were drawn forth by the formation. Like a pitch-black tide, they surged into the sky.

At that moment, Yellow Springs Ferry seemed to have opened a gate leading straight to the Netherworld Prison.

Ghostly wails tore through the heavens.

Dark winds swept across the world.

The ill-yellow phantom of a great river stretched across the firmament, blocking the three Transcendence-realm experts from the Sacred Lands.

The old man in the blood robe wore a grim expression.

“Damn it!”

“That little bastard was prepared all along!”

The gray-haired old man in the plain Daoist robe had killing intent in his eyes as cold as frost.

“He’s forcing us to fight the Yellow Springs Demon Sect.”

“It’s too late to talk about that now.”

The sword cultivator tightened his fingers around his sword.

“The Yellow Springs Ancestor has already arrived.”

Deep within the void, a withered yellow hand descended.

Its palm lines were like ravines carved by the River of the Underworld, and within every crease, it seemed as though countless dead souls were floating and sinking.

This was no ordinary Martial God.

This was Transcendence.

A being who stood above the Ninth Realm of Martial Dao and had begun to touch the laws of Heaven and Earth.

As the palm descended, the space above the entire Yellow Springs Ferry crumpled like a scrap of cloth.

The old man in the blood robe gave an angry snort. The baleful light of a Blood Lotus transformed into a blood lotus ten thousand zhang across, colliding head-on with the Yellow Springs Ancestor.

Boom!

The blood lotus exploded.

The waters of the Yellow Springs surged backward.

Half the sky was dyed a blood-yellow hue.

Countless low-level demonic cultivators were shaken until blood poured from their orifices, and they fell to their knees.

Yet even so, excitement still burned in their eyes.

“They’re fighting!”

“The Sacred Lands’ dogs actually dared to attack Yellow Springs Ferry!”

“Send word! To the Myriad Souls Demon Sect! To the Blood Prison Demon Sect! To the White Bone Demon Sect!”

“The Twelve Sacred Lands are going to war!”

Beams of blood-colored communication light shot into the sky one after another.

Like scarlet meteors exploding in the night, they flew toward every corner of the Land of Sin.

And the instigator of it all was currently standing behind a collapsed corridor pillar, his face filled with righteous grief.

The grief was incredibly convincing.

So convincing that even Yin Jiuyou nearly believed it.

Wang Hao’s hair was disheveled, half of his bronze mask had been shattered, and a trace of blood stained the corner of his mouth.

Of course, the blood wasn’t his.

He had casually smeared it on himself from a hapless Yellow Springs disciple lying on the ground.

New Emperor Sword stared at him, utterly dumbfounded.

“Master, you spread that blood pretty evenly.”

Wang Hao lowered his voice.

“Shut up.”

“Right now, I’m a righteous demonic cultivator being hunted by the Sacred Lands. My entire clan has been slaughtered, I’m all alone, and I carry a blood feud that reaches the heavens.”

New Emperor Sword fell silent for a moment.

“Master, should I add some sobbing?”

Wang Hao thought about it.

“Don’t make it too fake.”

The next moment, the spirit of New Emperor Sword suddenly let out a shrill sword cry.

“Ah—!”

“Sacred Lands’ dogs! Return my master’s entire clan to me!”

Yin Jiuyou: “…”

The Demon Lord: “…”

Han Shanyue’s face twitched.

He finally understood what it meant for ruler and subject to be of one heart.

This sword wasn’t merely a strange artifact.

It was an extension of His Majesty’s soul.

Hearing that sword cry, Meng Xuan’s expression grew even darker.

He looked toward Wang Hao and spoke solemnly.

“Fellow cultivator Blood, rest assured!”

“If Yellow Springs Ferry cannot protect you today, then what face would the Yellow Springs Demon Sect have left to stand in the Land of Sin?”

Wang Hao’s body trembled faintly.

He raised his head, his eyes seemingly reddening.

“Lord Meng…”

“All my life, I, Blood Wusheng, have wandered from place to place, suffering oppression at the hands of the Sacred Lands.”

“I once thought the Land of Sin was filled with nothing but fiends. But today, I’ve finally learned that the demonic path, too, possesses something called blood and courage!”

At this point, his voice suddenly rose.

“If I survive today…”

“I swear to reveal everything I know about the Sacred Lands’ arrangements to the Yellow Springs Demon Sect!”

“I swear to use this broken body as the first soldier of the Land of Sin’s resistance against the Sacred Lands!”

The entire city fell silent.

Then, a roar like a tsunami erupted.

“Resist the Sacred Lands!”

“Resist the Sacred Lands!”

“Kill the Sacred Lands’ dogs!”

Han Shanyue lowered his head.

He was afraid someone might see the expression on his face.

An emperor of Great Xia, standing on the territory of a demonic sect, shouting that he would become the first soldier of the Land of Sin’s resistance against the Sacred Lands.

And the demonic cultivators actually believed him.

This world had become utterly absurd.

The Demon Lord stared at Wang Hao’s back, speechless for a long time.

He had once been a great figure of the demonic path himself.

But it was only today that he understood one principle:

A true demon did not necessarily practice demonic arts.

Sometimes, he wore a dragon robe.

High above the heavens, the three Transcendence-realm experts from the Sacred Lands wore expressions of utter fury.

The old man in the blood robe roared:

“Wang Hao!”

“Stop twisting the truth here!”

His voice, infused with Transcendence power, shook the entire Yellow Springs Ferry until it hummed.

Every demonic cultivator froze at once.

Wang Hao?

Wasn’t he Blood Wusheng?

Wang Hao’s heart stirred.

Not good.

The old bastard was desperate. He was starting to flip the table.

But there was not the slightest trace of panic on his face.

The next moment, he abruptly spat out a mouthful of blood.

This time, it was real.

He had forcibly reversed his own circulation of vital energy and squeezed it out.

Then he pointed at the old man in the blood robe and laughed miserably.

“Did you hear that?”

“They even want to strip me of my name!”

“Wang Hao?”

“That was merely the false name I used while infiltrating the Sacred Lands!”

“They annihilated my Blood Clan and seized the Blood Lotus inheritance. Now they even want to slander my identity!”

“As expected of the Sacred Lands. Even their lies are told from a position of such lofty superiority!”

Xue Wuhen stood beside him, his expression peculiar.

The Blood Clan?

How had he never heard of it?

But he quickly recovered and immediately dropped to one knee, tears streaming down his face.

“Young Master!”

“Please, stop!”

“The seven hundred and thirty-one spirits of the Blood Clan are watching from beyond the grave!”

Wang Hao’s eyelid twitched.

Good heavens.

Xue Wuhen had grown too.

He even knew to add a specific number.

Seeing this, Yin Jiuyou refused to fall behind.

He immediately clutched his chest and spoke in a mournful voice:

“In the past, the Blood Clan’s Ancestor was surrounded and slain by three Martial Gods of the Blood Lotus Sacred Land while protecting Young Master!”

“To this day, this old servant still remembers how Madam grasped Young Master’s hand before her death and said—”

He stopped there.

He hadn’t thought of the rest.

New Emperor Sword immediately picked up the line:

“She said: ‘Child, live on. Don’t look back!’”

Yin Jiuyou’s eyes lit up.

“Yes!”

“That’s exactly what she said!”

Han Shanyue stood to one side, completely numb.

He watched as this group fabricated a family tree, a blood feud, and a dying message on the spot, working together with flawless coordination.

For a moment, he did not know whether to admire them or fear them.

Meng Xuan believed them three-tenths.

No.

To be precise, he had never needed to believe them completely.

He only needed a reason.

A reason for the Yellow Springs Demon Sect to strike at the Sacred Lands.

And now, there were far too many reasons.

A Transcendent from the Sacred Lands had attacked Yellow Springs Ferry.

A traitor from the Sacred Lands had fled into the Land of Sin with a priceless treasure.

The Twelve Sacred Lands were suspected of plotting to purge the Demon Sects.

Stacked together, these accusations were more than enough to ignite the fury of the various demonic sects.

Boom!

In the void, the Yellow Springs Ancestor and the three Transcendents from the Sacred Lands clashed once again.

This time, the old man from Sword Ruins struck with his sword.

The sword light stretched across ten thousand miles like the Milky Way pouring down from the heavens, forcibly cleaving apart the Yellow Springs Ancestor’s enormous hand.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor snorted coldly.

“People from Sword Ruins.”

“What incredible audacity.”

“When the ancestor of Sword Ruins came to the Land of Sin back then, he did not dare act so recklessly in front of this old man!”

The old sword cultivator replied coldly, “Old Ghost Yellow Springs, we have no intention of making an enemy of you.”

“Hand over Wang Hao, and we will leave immediately.”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor gave a sinister smile.

“You trespassed into my Yellow Springs Ferry, killed my disciples, and destroyed my residence.”

“And now you think you can leave with a single sentence about having no intention of becoming my enemy?”

The old man in the blood robe shouted angrily, “That little bastard is Emperor of Great Xia, Wang Hao!”

“He is not a traitor of the Blood Lotus Sacred Land!”

“He is deceiving you!”

At that, Wang Hao suddenly burst into laughter.

His laughter was filled with sorrow.

“Everyone, listen to that!”

“They’ve given me yet another emperor’s crown!”

“If I were an emperor, would I have been hunted down like a stray dog?”

“If I were an emperor, would I have come to Yellow Springs Ferry to beg for a way to survive?”

“If I were an emperor…”

He paused, his voice sinking low.

“I would have brought a million iron cavalrymen and trampled their Sacred Land gates flat long ago.”

The moment those words were spoken, the demonic cultivators actually believed him even more.

Because it made perfect sense.

How could an emperor come alone to the Land of Sin and pretend to be a traitor of the Sacred Lands?

Wouldn’t that be insane?

Yin Jiuyou silently glanced at Wang Hao.

Your Majesty.

You really are something else.

Meng Xuan also sneered.

“People from the Blood Lotus Sacred Land say someone else is a traitor of the Blood Lotus Sacred Land.”

“People from the Lunar Sacred Land say someone else is Emperor of Great Xia.”

“People from Sword Ruins say they have no intention of becoming our enemy.”

“Do the Twelve Sacred Lands really think everyone in my Yellow Springs Demon Sect is already dead?”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor no longer bothered with words.

Behind him, the phantom of the Yellow Springs surged violently. A river of the dead stretched across the sky, with countless souls sinking and floating within it.

“Since you’ve come, leave something behind.”

Boom!

The battle erupted in full force.

When Transcendents clashed, the heavens and earth lost their color.

The sky above Yellow Springs Ferry seemed to be torn apart by four divine fiends.

The Lunar Sacred Land’s moonlight froze the river of souls.

Sword Ruins’ sword qi severed the dark clouds.

The Blood Lotus’ baleful radiance incinerated countless souls.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor fought the three of them alone. Though he was at a disadvantage, he relied on the grand formation of Yellow Springs Ferry to hold them off by force.

Below, Meng Xuan roared, “Yellow Springs disciples, kill!”

“Leave no hidden agents of the Sacred Lands alive!”

There had long been spies from the Sacred Lands hidden within the city.

Originally, they had merely been responsible for surveillance.

Now, however, they instantly became the targets of everyone’s fury.

The demonic cultivators charged forward with bloodshot eyes.

“Kill!”

“Better to kill a thousand innocents than let one spy go!”

“You say you’re not a spy from the Sacred Lands? Then explain why you look so clean!”

A passing rogue cultivator stared at them in terror.

“I just like taking baths!”

“What kind of demonic cultivator takes baths? Suspicious! Kill him!”

Wang Hao retreated into the crowd amid the chaos.

His eyes instantly became cold and clear.

The tragic performance was over.

It was time to get down to business.

He said quietly, “Yin Jiuyou, keep an eye on the spies from the Sacred Lands.”

“Xue Wuhen, keep an eye on the direction of the Demon Sect’s treasury.”

“Han Shanyue, if anyone tries to kill a disciple of the Yellow Springs Demon Sect, help the Yellow Springs Demon Sect.”

“If anyone tries to kill a spy from the Sacred Lands, help the Yellow Springs Demon Sect as well.”

Han Shanyue frowned.

“Then who are we helping exactly?”

Wang Hao glanced at him.

“Help whoever makes the situation more chaotic.”

Han Shanyue fell silent.

That answer was very much like His Majesty.

New Emperor Sword trembled excitedly.

“Master, what about me?”

Wang Hao smiled.

“You’re free to do as you please.”

New Emperor Sword cheered and transformed into a streak of black-and-gold sword light, plunging into the melee.

“I’m here to uphold justice!”

A moment later, it struck a spy from the Sacred Lands unconscious with a single blow.

New Emperor Sword expertly stripped the man of his storage ring.

“Confiscated in the name of justice.”

Then it swung another sword toward a demonic cultivator nearby who was preparing to ambush a disciple of the Yellow Springs Demon Sect.

“Your sneak attack is completely dishonorable. Fine—you’re being fined!”

The man’s storage pouch disappeared as well.

Wang Hao watched from a distance and nodded slightly.

The child could be taught after all.

The melee grew more and more intense.

The message from Yellow Springs Ferry had already been sent out.

The White Bone Demon Sect was the first to respond.

From the direction of Black Bone City, large numbers of bone flying ships tore through the sky.

Countless corpse puppets stood at the prows, their sinister aura surging into the heavens.

From the direction of the Myriad Souls Demon Sect, a black sea of souls appeared on the horizon, with countless ghostly faces rolling within it.

From the direction of the Blood Prison Demon Sect, a blood-red war chariot crushed through the void. Armored demonic cultivators stood atop it, their baleful aura soaring into the sky.

At least three of the nine great Demon Sects in the Land of Sin had been alarmed.

On the other side, the powerful figures of the Twelve Sacred Lands of the Central Continent were not deaf.

Three Transcendents had been surrounded in the Land of Sin. The fluctuations of their auras shook the land for ten thousand miles, and it did not take long for experts from the Sacred Lands to sense them.

One after another, beams of sacred light rose from the edge of the Land of Sin.

The Lunar Moon Wheel.

The Golden Palace Divine Tower.

The Sword Ruins Sword Formation.

The Blood Lotus War Banner.

The shadow of a great battle, like a black tide, rapidly spread across the entire world.

Wang Hao stood amid the ruins of Yellow Springs Ferry, watching the powerful figures from both sides draw ever closer in the distance.

The corners of his lips slowly curled upward.

“They’re here.”

Yin Jiuyou stood behind him and asked in a low voice, “Your Majesty, what do we do next?”

Wang Hao reached down and picked up the storage ring of a spy from the Sacred Lands.

Then, with perfect naturalness, he slipped it into his robe.

“What else can we do?”

“As the victim, of course I must continue being victimized.”

He raised his head toward the sky.

His gaze was as deep as an abyss.

“Fan the flames.”

“Fan them until neither side dares to retreat first.”

“Fan them until both sides believe they are the ones being forced into this.”

“Fan them until this entire Land of Sin becomes the chessboard that conceals the heavens for me.”

Above the firmament, flashes of lightning appeared and vanished.

The Thunder Abyss Suppression Demon Tower trembled softly within Wang Hao’s body.

As if it, too, were waiting.

Waiting for the moment when true heavenly thunder would finally descend.