‘Is it possible that Heaven finally had enough of our leaders’ crimes and dispatched its divine troops to mete out justice?’ These words hung at the lips of various Burning Spear Supercity’s citizens. Following the slaughter of the Fen and the exodus of the Yan, Burning Spear Supercity fell into all-out civil war. Human lords rallied in a single camp, not only targeting the various businesses of the Fire Spirit clans but also dispatching experts to seize their Spiritual Farms and Mines.
The Spiritual Farms and Mines represented a sect or clan’s lifeline. Most of the resources they used to train senior and junior generations alike, stemmed from there. As they couldn’t generate enough spirit stones or gather sufficient cultivation resources on their own, the juniors’ growth especially relied on these properties. Thus, attacking a clan’s Spiritual Farms or Mines was no different from declaring a war of extermination.
Faced with this grisly challenge to their authority, the remaining Fire Spirits set their grievances on the side, and united to fight back. Alas, while they still had the edge in resources and individual battle prowess, without the Yan and Fen Spirit clans, they couldn’t count on any Dao Revelation level expert. Worse, when compared to the Human Lords, even their Divine Transformation expert count fell short. After all, for thousands of years, the Yanzhou Hegemons had been sucking all Divine Transformation manpower from the seven states of Yanzhou. Lord Hanxing avoided the draft thanks to Qingxin’s deterrence, but others couldn’t say the same.
All these experts now became the swords and spears of Burning Spear Supercity’s millions of human scions, leading brutal arrays to slaughter the Fire Spirit clans. The flames of civil war embroiled Burning Spear Supercity, with hundreds of casualties on the daily.
Clans hanged the heads of enemy soldiers and officers at their doorsteps. Headquarters shifted in a storm of blood, with the two sides jousting for advantageous positions. The arrival of the First Division put an end to the carnage—but soon made it worse. The First Division blamed this mayhem on demonic influence and unleashed the most barbarous inquisition that Yanzhou had ever seen.
Led by 100 Demon Slayers, an army of trainees poured into cultivator households, capturing men, women and children alike for summary Soul Searching.
Soul Searching is no laughing matter. Without sublime mastery and meticulous care, the soul searcher can easily leave permanent and grievous damage in their target’s soul, often disabling them entirely. Thus, unless some transcendent expert with massive Soul Force and flawless technique handled the examination, soul searching was often a final resort.
Well, not for the First Division’s Slayers, who didn’t see why they should waste time gathering clues and verifying intel when they could just abduct and rob whatever they needed from Burning Spear Supercity’s citizens. From the lowest of Qi Refinement slave to Divine Transformation local tycoons, none could avoid the First Division’s rabid questioning. Some tried to flee the city but were struck down without mercy, their bodies hanged, drawn and quartered for all to see.
In this barbaric environment, the scents of blood, rot and fear pervaded the air, mixing to disgust and terrify the millions that called this supercity home. In this time of chaos, Xinzi’s White-Winged Demon Brigade appeared as a beacon of hope, celestial troops dispatched by Heaven itself to bring the Demon Slayers to justice.
Spiritual Senses of various levels locked on the White-Winged Demons. Faces twisted into mixes of stupor, awe and disbelief. Some frowned at what they saw, and as the identity of the newcomers dawned upon them, their eyes stretched impossibly.
“Wait, wait, wait! That’s Yan Zhong!”
“Not just Yan Zhong! Hair, eye color and wings aside, this…is the Yan Spirit clan!” Not long after the 3,000 White-Winged Demons appeared, words of the sort spread throughout Burning Spear Supercity.
Some wondered why the Yan clan had gone through such extreme transformations, others shivered at the cultivation bases and pressure oozing from each one of them. A few lingered on Xin Zhong’s words, trying to picture who in Yanzhou Province could make the Hegemon refer to him as “my lord.”
With the formations broken already, the trainees—expendable cannon fodders of the Demon Slaying Hall—filled the streets, carrying spirit stones and materials to set up new nodes and arrange stronger arrays.
They wouldn’t have the time. The vibration waves rolling out of the war drums stopped them in their tracks, reducing the stones and materials into dust and debris. Alarmed, the trainees sought their leaders: the 100 slayers of the First Division.
Dressed in long white robes, with silver masks hiding their faces, the 100 Slayers stared at the 3,000-man-strong brigade and the crackling white lightning coursing through the sky. The various portraits that they seized, enabled them to recognize the former Yanzhou Hegemon, and precisely for this reason, their leader hesitated to take action. His subordinates, however, couldn’t restrain their zeal, challenging the 3,000 Winged Demons openly.
“Bold and insolent Yan Zhong! Not content of colluding with demonic forces, you slaughtered the Fen Spirit clan on false charges, deserted your fief, and now still have the nerves to return to Burning Spear Supercity?”
“By the authority granted to the Demon Slaying Hall by His Divine Majesty, the August Divinity himself, the Yan Spirit clan has been stripped of its hereditary hegemony and reduced to commoners as it waits for trial. But now that you dare try to take the supercity back by force, trial won’t be necessary! Surrender the news of your demonic master, and we might yet let you die with a full corpse.”
“Demons excel at concealing their true nature and masquerading to seduce the vulnerable. Do not let the Dao Chants and appearances fool you, I do not understand how they’ve done it, but to undergo such an extreme transformation, the Yan Spirit clan must have surrendered to some high-ranking demonic master! Men and women of Burning Spear Supercity, unite under the Demon Slaying Hall’s banner to bring these fiends to justice!”
Galvanized by their unshakable Dao Hearts and the burning desires to execute all demons under the Heavens, the First Division Slayers raised their hands, summoning long white swords that burned with searing golden flames.
At first, they expected all the citizens of this cultivation supercity to raise their weapons in defiance of the presumed infernal enemy. But instead, the citizens, those that had not been turned into drooling vegetables by the inquisition, hummed ballads, scratched their heads and glanced at one another.
“I just realized that I haven’t mowed my lawn in decades. Can’t imagine what my courtyards are looking like right now. Let’s get to work.”
“You too? I thought I was the only one. Man, those hateful grasses have just been piling up. I probably won’t be done before the end of the century.”
“Just the century? My yard will take me at least a millennium!”
“From time immemorial, grass has always been a thorny foe. We’ve spent so much time fighting that we’ve neglected the basic necessities of our households. Today, let’s all unite against the grass!” United by a common enemy, human and fire spirits alike gathered in the thousands, dedicated their manpower to the destruction of the “grass enemy.”
The Demon Slayers couldn’t believe it.
‘Donkeys, the whole lot of them!’ The Division Commander’s eyes swept through his subordinates, endless disappointment twisting his face as he wondered how he’d gathered and trained these brain-dead invertebrates!
Then again, he couldn’t blame the lads. From infancy to maturity, the slayers of the First Division learned that their actions represented men, earth and heaven’s will. With every inquisition, they merely enforced justice on behalf of the heavens, doing their best to uproot the disease known as demonism. Thus, as far as they were concerned, Burning Spear Supercity should rejoice at their abuse, and fight tooth and nail for the right to smite demon sympathizers alongside the slayers.
“Citizens of Burning Spear, my master is a God, not a demon. A God that took pity upon the Yan Spirit clan, saved it from demonic oppressors and gave it the opportunity to be reborn as Divine Spirits. My name is now Xin Zhong, and under my divine lord’s banner, each and every one of you can also receive a chance at rebirth!” Xin Zhong said and stretched out his hands, beckoning for Burning Spear Supercity’s citizens to join the ‘light.’
“Pain and grief will vanish from your existences. Power and glory become your daily wage. Worship my master’s altar, receive his sutra, and from this day onward, heaven itself will stand by your side!
Come and join the one true God, he who walks among you, answers your prayers, and frees your existence from the indignities of life!” Xin Zhong’s words carried mystical appeal. The chants and drums of the 3,000 winged demons echoed still, and throughout Burning Spear Supercity, all stared absentmindedly at the angelic figures.
Even those that had been reduced into vegetables smiled at the White-Winged Demon Brigade, their hands reaching out to accept Xin Zhong’s call. A deluge of white lightning rained from above, obliterating the army of trainees before any of the Demon Slayers could react. Not that they could do anything to resist the strike.
Strong as their anti-demon hearts were, the Dao Chants still rustled their ears, making their pulses quicken as they channeled the full measure of their willpower to resist the mystifying songs. In this instant, the First Division Commander, a peak-stage Void Tribulant expert, realized that, while his cultivation base far exceeded Xin Zhong’s, resisting these seductive chants was the best he could do.
The will to fight quickly vanished from the zealous slayers’ minds. Sheer terror filled the commander’s heart, for in millennia of anti-demon practices, never had he seen or heard of such horrifying creatures.
“Were we mistaken? Are they really…serving a God? How else can you explain…this?”