Chapter 304: Monster Siege and the Emergence of Demons

In these passing days, though Su Tianji and her companions amused themselves with small diversions, or spent idle, listless hours planting vegetables in "My Space," the populace of Legend players continued to swell in unceasing numbers. From the founding of the Defying Heaven Online Game Guild, a path had been cleared for the great factions to forge their own alliances, and soon thereafter, the Imperial Clan Guild, the Black Demon Guild, and countless others arose in succession.

The battlegrounds of their contentions had once shifted from the Zombie King Den into the depths of the Wooma Temple. Now, however, the crusading march of the various guilds, treading across a landscape paved with corpses, had finally arrived before the Zuma Temple—the sole remaining holy sanctuary of the half-orc Zuma race upon this continent.

Yet at this very hour, notices appearing in the major capital cities thoroughly disrupted their intended course:

The peril of Marfa has manifested. The evil forces concealed throughout the remote corners of the continent have been unleashed by a mysterious power. A vast host of monsters is now advancing upon the Biqi Imperial City, the Viper Valley, and the Mongchon Mud Province. The final sanctuary of humanity draws ever closer to ruin. Heroes of Marfa, take up your weapons to defend our homeland!

Should the great cities fall to the monstrous hordes, and the King of Biqi be slain, the continent of Marfa, cursed by the powers of darkness, shall plunge into an abyss of no return!

Adventurers, to protect our world, raise your blades and aid us. To arms!

Within the two shops today, this very topic reigned supreme above all else.

"A monster siege?"

"Have you seen the notices posted in the city?"

"I have. Are the monsters truly coming to wage war upon us?"

The Wooma Prophet, long forbidden from leaving his sanctuary, would now step forth from his temple!

The Zuma Prophet, who slumbered within the Zuma Temple, would also lead his congregation to strike at the mortal world!

Countless aberrant insects, dwelling amidst the subterranean dark of Death Valley, were also swarming and gathering under the command of the Touch Dragon God!

Innumerable terrifying creatures would awaken from the shadows!

"Second Royal Brother, have you seen the notice in the Mud Province?" The Fifth Prince, Ji Yang, had already taken his seat at his station, his expression fraught with a strange bewilderment. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Just who has amassed such a monstrous host?" The Second Prince muttered in equal curiosity. "I cannot fathom it... Could it be that a formidable mastermind remains hidden behind the scenes of this world?"

"What in the world is going on!?" Commander Yu Chi roared in fury. "A great counteroffensive by the forces of evil?"

Much like the million-strong army of the half-orc empire in ages past, the tides of war seemed poised to sweep the land once more!

Inside the Half-City shop.

"Who knows what will happen if the city falls to the monsters?" Black Demon felt a touch perplexed.

"Occupied by monsters..." Tang Yuan of the Yuanheng Pavilion sat to one side, quietly consuming his instant noodles. "To say nothing of the rest, if the city is seized by beasts, the shops and guards will naturally vanish entirely. A Town Return Scroll would likely deliver you straight into a den of monsters. With no stronghold and no supplies, any hope of training and raising your strength in the future will be bleak indeed!"

"How can such a thing be?!" Xi Chenzhou spoke in a heavy, low voice from the side. "Is this not forcing us to fight to the bitter end?"

Black Demon was utterly bewildered. "To have me, Black Demon, defend the world?? What a preposterous jest! And by the looks of it, I must risk my very life?"

Tang Yuan remarked, "...This venerable one finds it a bit... though, it is also for the sake of our own interests..."

"We shall speak of it tonight, tonight!" Xi Chenzhou said. "Save some time so we have enough hours remaining to defend the city when the moment arrives."

The areas outside the Mud Province and the Zuma Temple had originally been sacred battlegrounds where the great factions slaughtered one another, but now, the fires of their conflicts began to quiet down.

"Why is it so sudden?"

"Tonight?!"

The login rate for *Legend* today was visibly much higher than usual. Even those notorious group liabilities who usually logged on merely to leech experience, such as Su Tianji, seemed to have grown remarkably proactive.

"Your friend 'Aura Master Yuji' has come online."

"Oh?" Proprietor Fang, who was currently hacking away at archers in Zuma, looked thoroughly surprised. He fired off a Penguin message: "Why are you online so early today?"

"They are speaking of some monster siege, so I came to see," Su Tianji replied, controlling her Mage, who had only just reached level 31. "What sort of ghostly thing is this siege anyway? Are you going?"

"Nonsense, of course I am going!" Fang Qi pondered for a moment before replying, "Switch into a lower tier of equipment before you go. Store your valuable pieces safely in the warehouse."

"What kind of logic is that?"

...

While Fang Qi, Su Tianji, and the others conversed about the impending monster siege within the game, far away within the Nanhua Sect.

The Nanhua Forbidden Ground was a desolate expanse choked by a forest of inscribed stone monuments.

A sheer precipice, smooth as a mirror, looked as though it had been severed cleanly in two by some impossibly sharp weapon. Dense, blood-red characters were carved upon the black stone tablets, surrounded by a thick overgrowth of withered, yellowing grass, devoid of any semblance of vitality.

No soul knew why such a bizarre, unnatural place existed within the Nanhua Sect, where all four seasons were otherwise as gentle as spring.

The black monument standing closest to the center loomed several men tall, its surface polished well enough to reflect a reflection. Looking closely, the profound darkness within the stone seemed capable of swallowing a person whole!

The writing upon it was ancient and weathered, the characters resembling tadpoles that seemed to drift across the stone, forming one bizarre rune after another.

All the monuments linked together to form a colossal array. In the very heart of this formation, upon a patch of ground where the vegetation had completely withered and turned to black ash, sat a woman clothed in white, her hair as silver as snow.

She resembled a statue carved from rotting wood, her entire being radiating an aura that was both decaying and profoundly deep.

The characters upon the stone monuments flared with a faint light.

Suddenly, the inscriptions burst into a brilliant radiance!

The entire earth trembled with an inexplicable vibration, yet the cultivators stationed just outside this valley remained entirely oblivious to it!

Strands of black aura slowly seeped out from deep beneath the ground.

They converged in midair, coalescing into phantom countenances that shifted between reality and illusion.

The woman’s eyes snapped open. In that singular instant, her haggard, lifeless expression vanished, replaced by a terrifying aura that surged upward in a heartbeat. Her lips moved rapidly as she chanted incantations, causing the spiritual energy of the surroundings to violently churn. The frenzied energy whipped up a howling hurricane!

Simultaneously, the black vapors grew denser still. Within the sky, low whispers seemed to drift and echo, resembling the murmurs of demons tempting ignorant mortals to plunge into the dark abyss of hell!

"Give up!"

"Release me!"

"You cannot suppress me!"

"What I shall bestow upon you is far greater than what they can offer!"

"Your strength is waning, while I grow ever stronger!"

"Open your heart, and accept my power!"

"..."

Amidst the countless whispering voices, a clear, resonant cry echoed out. The sky turned from bright to dark, and then from dark to light as a blinding pillar of golden radiance pierced down from the heavens. In that fleeting instant, the shadows across the land seemed to have nowhere left to hide.

The whispering voices ceased abruptly!

Only then did the woman exhale a long breath. By this time, the guards outside the valley had clearly noticed the anomaly within this place. Two parties of male and female cultivators hurried into the area, asking, "What has transpired here?"

"It is nothing." The woman appeared exhausted and was about to sit down when her expression changed violently!

A sinister wind howled in gusts. The disciples who had just entered the valley discovered to their horror that the path behind them had vanished!

The earth seemed to come alive, writhing and undulating. Before the terrified eyes of the newly arrived disciples, they were swallowed whole by the twisting ground!

"What fresh flesh and blood!"

Fear suddenly gripped the woman's countenance, for the entire valley—from the heavens above to the earth below—had been completely sealed off, resembling a massive, dark-red cocoon of blood!

"How is this possible?!" the woman cried out in horror.

"Your inner heart is summoning me!"

"You belong to me..."

"Do you feel resentment?"

"Do you feel pain?"

"With your natural talent, are you truly willing to remain here, to grow old and die in utter solitude?"

"No... no!"

After the time it takes for a single stick of incense to burn, the eyes of the white-haired woman suddenly flared with a sinister crimson light. Her once withered aura surged with a vibrant, bloody vitality, and her aged skin turned flushed and radiant at a speed visible to the naked eye. She lightly licked her blood-red lips, her formerly cold and detached demeanor transforming in that very instant into something utterly bewitching—like a death blossom in full, magnificent bloom!

"Go and plunder more life; the entire world shall become our servant!"

.