The other devilish beings who hadn"t yet transformed all turned to their companions with disdainful expressions.
One of them was an elderly man with a head of red hair and a hook nose, and after appraising the lush scenery in the distance with a complex look in his eyes for a while, he murmured to himself, "I didn"t think that I would get to see this again during my lifetime. Even if I perish in this realm, I won"t have any regrets."
The red-haired elderly man"s voice had been very quiet, but it was still overheard by one of his companions. This was another elderly man in a set of black robes with a golden belt around his waist, and he chuckled, "Why so pessimistic, Brother Sha? The Sacred Ancestors have already informed us that this sacred ceremony will be very different from those held in the past. If everything goes according to plan, our race could completely take over an area of the Spirit Realm. If we can make significant contributions during the sacred sacrifice, then we can apply to stay in the Spirit Realm to guard our territory here. This is an extremely rare opportunity for those like us who"ve ascended to the Elder Devil Realm."
"You"re right, Brother Sanyang; we ascended to the Elder Devil Realm, so we"ve become members of the Elder Devil Race. However, it would naturally be vastly fortunate for us if we could remain in the Spirit Realm following this battle," the red-haired elderly man replied with a nod.
The same conversation was taking place in hushed tones among everyone else.
Right at this moment, a rumbling noise suddenly rang out from within the silver gates of the giant pyramids, following which everyone was greeted by the sound of a series of extremely heavy footsteps. The runes around the silver gates flashed, and more groups of devilish beings suddenly emerged.
These devilish beings had cracked grey skin that was completely devoid of hair, looking as if they were stone golems. They were just barely humanoid in shape, but each of them had four thick arms, and every single one of their footsteps made the nearby earth tremble, clearly indicating that they were astonis.h.i.+ngly heavy.
These stone devils were each over 100 feet tall, and over 1,000 of them emerged from each giant pyramid. They then stood in front of the pyramids and arranged themselves into several orderly rows, looking much more docile and organized than expected.
Their leaders then let loose low roars in unison, and grey light began to flash from the bodies of these stone devils, following which they disintegrated into what appeared to be soft mud and disappeared into the soil down below.
Moments later, the earth within a radius of thousands of kilometers abruptly began to tremor, following which the ground abruptly tore open.
Yellow light flashed, and one earthen wall after another erupted out of the ground. In no more than 10 minutes, an enormous city wall that stretched for hundreds of thousands of kilometers had been erected.
However, even though the wall was over 1,000 feet tall, it was extremely crude and rough. There was earth and soil constantly crumbling off its surface, and it seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
Right at this moment, spiritual light flashed from the ground in front of the wall, and the grey stone devils re-emerged before quickly thrusting their palms toward it.
As they did so, pillars of light that were as thick as large bowls erupted from their hands and struck the earthen wall, following which a string of crackling sounds rang out.
Upon being struck by the pillars of light, grey flowers of light bloomed all over the wall before spreading in all directions. All of the soft and vulnerable earth was then transformed resolute grey stone in the wake of this grey light.
These stone devils possessed the ability to transform earth into stone!
As a result, under the collective efforts of so many stone devils, the enormous earthen structure was virtually instantly transformed into a seamless city wall.
The same rumbling sounds were incessantly ringing out in other directions as well, as other sections of the wall were rapidly being erected.
Thus, within the span of two hours, everything within a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers had been encompa.s.sed within this ma.s.sive stone wall.
At this point, a series of indistinct ghostly figures that were enshrouded in black Qi flew out of the pyramids.
These ghostly figures flew in a completely weightless manner as if they possessed no physical bodies, and they all flew into the city wall, upon which a series of formations of different sizes appeared on the wall"s surface. Aside from the size disparities, all of the formations were completely identical, as if they had been engraved by the same person.
After that, the ghostly figures re-emerged and flew back into the giant pyramids, paying no heed to the other devilish beings present.
Thus, time slowly pa.s.sed, and a city of stone was being quickly erected beneath the sea of devilish Qi.
The stone devils worked tirelessly, constructing buildings of other styles around the giant stone pyramids, which stood at the center of the city.
There were also some high-grade devilish beings who were setting up some profound restrictions in each corner, and layers of restriction fluctuations soon enshrouded the entire ma.s.sive city.
All of a sudden, spiritual light flashed from the tip of the pyramid that was situated at the very center of the city, and it abruptly parted. A resounding rumbling noise rang out, and a giant sacrificial altar that looked as if it had been entirely stained with blood slowly rose up.
There were a series of unintelligible ancient characters inscribed around the altar, and an overwhelming odor of blood and gore erupted from it.
What was even more peculiar was that at the center of the altar stood a tall and broad humanoid figure who was entirely enshrouded within a layer of crimson light.
As soon as this humanoid figure appeared, all of the high-grade devilish beings present knelt down on one knee with solemn looks on their faces.
The devilish beings that were further away didn"t know what was going on, but they all immediately followed suit as well.
The collective voice of countless devilish beings then rang out in unison. "We pay our respects to Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang!"
However, the humanoid figure on the altar paid no heed to this. He merely inspected his surroundings in an indifferent manner before looking up at the sea of devilish Qi overhead.
The humanoid figure"s eyes were as piercing and dazzling as stars, creating a very unforgettable sight.
All of a sudden, he raised an arm before extending a translucent palm, then waved it through the air, seemingly in a nonchalant manner.
An earth-shattering boom immediately rang out, and close to half of the devilish Qi within the inky-black sea up above suddenly began to churn violently. The devilish Qi then converged in a frenzy before forming a ma.s.sive inky-black staff amid a flash of spiritual light. The staff was shaped like a wyrm with a ghostly head, and it had peculiar patterns running all over its surface.
It descended toward the sacrificial altar, and the fingers on the crimson figure"s outstretched hand moved ever so slightly.
The enormous staff, which was over 1,000 feet in length, began to shrink during its descent, and by the time it landed in Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang"s grasp, it had shrunk down to only around 20 feet in length.
Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang held the staff in one hand and began to chant a solemn incantation.
As he did so, the menacing ghostly head on the top of the staff opened its silver ghostly eyes, then opened its mouth to expel a series of black runes. These runes then quickly transformed into giant black flowers that drifted toward all parts of the city.
After a short while, the giant flowers had spread to every corner of the city.
Right at this moment, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang"s chanting ceased, and he abruptly rubbed the black staff between both of his hands, upon which it exploded into a ball of black light.
The black light rippled and proliferated outward in all directions as invisible spiritual fluctuations. Upon coming into contact with these fluctuations, the giant black flowers instantly exploded, forming bursts of inky-black devilish Qi that permeated through the air.
Thus, the entire giant city was instantly enshrouded under boundless devilish Qi.
In the instant that this devilish Qi settled over the bodies of all of the half-knelt devilish beings present, all of them were instantly reinvigorated, and their magic power and energy all began to recover at a rapid rate.
Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang clasped his hands behind his back, then ordered in an implacable voice, "Construct three more sacred cities within three days, then rest for seven days. After everyone has gathered, immediately attack the largest human cultivator stronghold nearby."
"Your wish is our command!" countless devilish beings cheered in unison within the giant city.
Meanwhile, the same scenes were unfolding beneath all of the devilish marks in the human and demon territories.
Under the largest of those devilish marks, there was a huge human city that had been constructed along a gargantuan tree that stretched all the way up to the heavens. Several Body Integration cultivators were standing in the air above a certain pavilion that was halfway up the tree, and they were all appraising the sea of devilish Qi in the distance with grim expressions.
...
Thousands of kilometers away from Heavenly Yuan Sovereign City, a monk and a Daoist priest were wielding a copper mirror and a round bowl, respectively, unleas.h.i.+ng countless streaks of light from the two treasures to slay a group of devilish beings with snake heads and horse bodies.
However, a sharp hiss of fury suddenly rang out in the distance, following which a gust of devilish wind blew toward them at an incredible speed.
"Run! The high-grade devilish beings are coming!" the Daoist priest immediately yelled upon seeing this.
Immediately thereafter, spiritual light flashed from the bodies of both him and the monk, and they flew directly toward the Heavenly Yuan Sovereign City.
...
On a barren plain in the territory of the demon race, there were several armies engaged in a fierce war.
One side was comprised of hundreds of thousands of grey wolves, while the other consisted of over 10,000 blue devilish lions.
The wolves were each several tens of feet in length, and they all had green light flas.h.i.+ng within their eyes; they were clearly low-grade demon beasts that possessed some demonic power.
In contrast, the blue devilish lions were even larger than these giant wolves. All of them had short black horns that were several inches in length on their heads, and they were blasting attacks such as fireb.a.l.l.s and ice spikes out of their mouths.
As these two armies were battling one another, there was also an extremely grueling battle taking place up above between thousands of snowy white giant falcons and a horde of two-headed flying snakes.
The white falcons had powerful talons with silver arcs of lightning revolving around them, while the two-headed snakes were able to expel extremely lethal poison out of their mouths. Beings from both sides were constantly falling from above, but as soon as their carca.s.ses landed among the lions and wolves down below, they were instantly devoured without a trace.