Chapter 863: A True Expert!

Deep within the Heaven-Devouring Turtle lay a cavernous expanse of immense proportions, a subterranean redoubt where demonic soldiers and generals could station themselves, concealed from view as they orchestrated the movements of the armies without.

This very place served as the central command post nestled inside the colossal beast.

At this moment, every fiendish soldier and general knelt upon a single knee, their countenances steeped in the utmost reverence.

For before them sat a man of imposing and heavily built stature, clad in armor as black as the abyss.

This figure bore little resemblance to ordinary mortals; curved horns erupted from his brow, a sinister, malevolent miasma swirled about his cheeks, and his flesh gleamed with a faint, metallic luster, while the armor appeared to be an extension of his own skin—resembling not a man, but rather a... fiend incarnate!

He rested one arm casually upon the armrest of his throne composed of bleached bones.

Before him, a crystal-clear phantasmagoria was projected, vividly depicting the unfolding reality of the world outside.

Countless demonic legions took flight like a pair of sprawling, obsidian wings, and in that instant, thick black smoke billowed across the vast rivers and lands below.

These mortal ants, these crawling insects, instead of fleeing in all directions, actually possessed the audacity to launch an offensive?!

"My Lord..." several demon generals murmured, trembling as they felt the oppressive weight of his aura, fearing that a single spark of his wrath might annihilate heaven and earth alike.

Perched high upon his skeletal throne, the demon god cast a cold, indifferent gaze downward: "No matter."

The enemies in their eyes had never been these insectoid mortals, yet allowing the legions to warm up before the true battle commenced was perhaps not a bad choice after all.

Thus, upon the Sea of the Underworld, turbid waves instantaneously churned and surged, striking violently against the high heavens.

A malevolent, ink-black aura spread outward in all directions, gradually enveloping the entirety of the waters, as ghostly winds howled in gusts, transforming the expanse into a freezing, desolate... Netherworld of the Nine Serenities!

In the distance, the colossal Heaven-Devouring Turtle was likewise shrouded in a tempest of wicked energy; as the grim winds swept past, the shifting miasma occasionally revealed the beast's mountainous head and ridged back, where neat rows of an imposing, deathly silent fiendish army stood arrayed.

Most terrifying of all was that the aura exuded by even a single, lowly demon soldier was enough to strike dread into the heart, to say nothing of... the horrific, god-like entity towering before them.

Or rather... this was the legendary demon god capable of swallowing the heavens and devouring the earth!

Boom!

A catastrophic roar shattered the air.

With a sweep of the Heaven-Devouring Turtle's colossal appendage, it was as if a celestial pillar had been swung; the massive ocean currents, resembling a shifting canopy woven of seawater, crashed violently against two cultivation vessels that failed to evade in time.

The faint shield of spiritual light was crushed to splinters as though it were made of mere paper, and immediately following, the entire vessel disintegrated under the impact; countless cultivators cried out in terror as the sweeping waves engulfed them, dragging them instantly into the turbid, yellow depths.

"!!!"

At this moment, all the cultivators halted their assault, an involuntary, icy dread gripping their very souls!

Only now did they recall... almost everyone present was facing such an adversary for the very first time!

A game? Though they possessed experiences of slaying god-level foes within the game, that was, after all, merely a simulation; one could never truly perish there, and could exploit death after death to unearth the enemy's vulnerabilities, invariably finding a way to prevail.

Yet in reality, your opponent remains forever an unknown variable.

Thus, an invisible chasm still lingered between reality and the virtual world; reality was always far more brutal than any idealized dream.

In the past, perhaps this disparity had not been so stark, given that the rift between their respective strengths had never been so yawningly vast.

But now, they stood before an existence that truly transcended humanity! Perhaps it was more than mere transcendence... before such a monstrosity, mankind was nothing more than an ant facing the boundless ocean.

Feeling that vast power which resembled a bottomless abyss and a shoreless sea, they harbored no doubt that a casual strike from their foe could reduce everyone present to mere dust.

To say nothing of the fact that... many things, when performed within the game under the mantle of a protagonist's innate talent, could be executed with effortless ease.

But in reality, those arts might not manifest at all, and furthermore... their own cultivation levels might not even amount to a ten-thousandth of what those protagonists possessed.

Such was the division between reality and the virtual realm.

This was also... an absolute, irreparable gulf in sheer power!

And if these armies were like the Judgement Hall of the Western Continent, prioritizing cultivation level while disregarding martial technique, it might still be manageable.

Yet... they had forged their combat prowess upon the battlefields of gods and demons, carving their way through genuine mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

Within moments, the demonic soldiers, resembling a black torrent charged with a dense, malignant aura, swept across the vessels like a dark tsunami!

Instantly, they locked in fierce, chaotic combat with the cultivators and martial artists aboard the ships, and in an eyeblink, the allied cultivation forces began to retreat in total disarray.

"Pfft—!" The Sect Master of the Nanhua Sect was in the midst of casting a spell when he was suddenly struck by an unseen horror lurking within the fiendish mist; immediately following, several monsters standing dozens of feet tall roared and lunged toward him.

A flash of sword-light gleamed as Nalan Hongwu rushed forward to join the fray.

"Pay no heed to me, go save the others!" Pushing Nalan Hongwu aside, he threw himself into the swarm of monsters in a desperate, suicidal charge.

Gazing upon this dark, chaotic battlefield... at this moment, Nalan Hongwu felt as though he had been transported back hundreds of years, to the battlefields prior to the founding of the Dajin Kingdom; in that war, he had been ambushed by enemy forces, and the entire theater of war had been devoid of light, offering no inkling of when they might emerge victorious, nor any sign of when the ordeal would end.

Arriving with high ideals, only to be left bloodied and battered by the cruelty of reality!

Such was the sensation weighing upon his heart.

This was also the first time in many years that this war-torn veteran felt the staggering gravity of warfare once again.

...

"Jie-jie-jie-jie... humans are still as useless as ever..."

A mocking sneer curled the lips of the demon god seated upon his bone throne as he held a black, three-legged tripod cauldron filled to the brim with a scarlet liquid; a pungent, metallic odor blended with the aroma of wine drifted through the air, reminiscent of the blood of some magical beast crafted into a peculiar vintage through mysterious means.

Draining it in a single draught, a striking, crimson stain remained traced upon his lips like a ghastly wound.

"Go, tell them to summon whatever powerful masters they have left," the demon god said indifferently, "it will serve well enough as an appetizer before the main battle."

"Yes!"

...

"Haven't you guys cleared this dungeon before? Can't you just deal with it the way you dealt with Anton?!" Amidst his frantic thoughts, Nalan Hongwu suddenly heard a furious roar.

"We don't have any intelligence on this monster!"

How Nalan Hongwu wished he could do just that!

Though there were similarities, war was no mere game; mastering the skills and combat techniques from a simulation was one thing, but replicating a pre-programmed strategy?!

They were naturally no fools; blindly applying a game strategy to a real-world monster would only result in a swift, inexplicable demise.

Furthermore, while this creature resembled the Apostle Anton, they were not of the same species—this was absolutely no laughing matter!

A single misstep could plunge everyone into a realm of eternal damnation.

Their ability to slay Anton had relied on an elite strike force severing his energy supply, severely constraining his power; otherwise... it would still be uncertain who would have emerged alive.

Now, what method remained to bind this terrifying monstrosity?!

"The Boss... where is the Boss?!" Nalan Mingxue frantically checked her communication jade, fine beads of sweat breaking out across her brow.

Even Zong Wu and the others could not help but repeatedly try to contact Fang Qi.

One had to realize that even during the battle against the Judgement Hall, the Boss had been watching over the entire affair from behind, meaning they never even had to consider the consequences of failure.

Yet at this precise moment, Zong Wu suddenly received a message:

"I... I might not be able to make it for the time being."

"No matter what, give it a try first." Boss Fang's voice from the other side carried a trace of exhaustion.

"What if an accident occurs...?" Zong Wu asked in shock.

"Adapt to the circumstances!" On Boss Fang's side, casting his gaze outward, auspicious yet ominous clouds blotted out the sun, and the aura hanging in the air was even more terrifying; at the new shop in the Eastern Continent, the situation confronting Boss Fang was clearly one that could not be easily resolved!

"Remember, you all are genuine masters now..." Fang Qi recorded this final sentence into his communication jade, and at last... clicked send.

Zong Wu held the communication jade in his hand, suddenly freezing in place.

"Are we... also masters now?"

"Old Ghost Zong, what did the Kid Fang say?!" Right at that moment, Nalan Hongwu snatched the communication jade from Zong Wu's grip.

"He said... we... are masters now," Zong Wu murmured. "True masters."

Unwittingly, they were no longer those rookies who absolutely had to rely on Boss Fang's guides, crying out in frustration whenever they hit a wall.

Without a single hint or a shred of help from anyone, they had conquered the brutally difficult Anton dungeon, slaying that terrifying Apostle who possessed power far beyond that of gods.

Now... they themselves could finally be considered masters, couldn't they?

"Could it be that the definition of a master is just dogmatically following a written guide and mimicking strategy?!"

"Everyone! Everyone! Just moments ago... this is intelligence the Cultivator Alliance risked their lives to secure. We heard you are members of the Anton First-Clear Raid Group, and that you are familiar with the combat methods used to deal with such giant beasts." Right then, Mo Xian, Liu Ningyun, and other elites of the Nanhua Faction arrived, holding several jade slips, having practically bathed in blood to hack their way through the demonic hordes.

"Must it truly come to this...?!" Zong Wu's expression grew profoundly solemn.

This was no different from venturing into uncharted territory, and it demanded flawless success on the very first try; otherwise, not just them, but everyone else would be completely wiped out!

"All strike teams! All strike teams! Assemble!"

Within the Cultivator Alliance, various sects began to rush back and forth to organize.

"Support them, give them every ounce of support we can!"

"The raid... begins!"

Inside the Sky-Swallowing Giant Turtle, the demonic soldiers and generals were all peering out at the situation unfolding outside.

They saw those human dharma vessels in front of the Sky-Swallowing Turtle braving immense peril to align themselves in an incomparably neat vanguard, and immediately following that, some twenty individuals instantly breached the demonic battle lines, landing squarely upon the colossal head of the Sky-Swallowing Turtle!

As the baleful aura surged and churned amidst the demonic mist, several squads could be seen deployed in a peculiar, specialized formation.

Some bore ascending holy light, some wielded dazzling lightning, some commanded sword-light like flowing silk, and some were as bloodthirsty as demons...

A fleeting glimpse could be caught through that rising, baleful energy... like ancient statues of gods standing tall and resolute.

For a fleeting second, it even birthed an illusion that at this exact moment, on this very battlefield, there were born... true gods!

Dissatisfied, I deleted over a thousand words, so this is all I can write today. The next chapter will be updated tonight, I suppose...