424: Howling Abyss! The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood!

The wall was embedded with broken weapons, stained with blood that had long since dried and turned black, yet still exuded a faint Evil Qi!

This was a small frontline where the Human Race and the Demon Race clashed!

It was a fragile barrier that the Human Race, after the signing of the Primordial Pact, had barely managed to hold against the impact of the vast Demon tide with countless lives and blood!

Visible on that Wall of Flesh and Blood were scattered human figures.

Most of them were in rags, many even bearing unhealable wounds, their Qi levels uneven; most were wounded, some even missing limbs.

Their numbers were no more than a few hundred, nearly a thousand.

Yet the restless Demon creature aura faintly emanating from that abyss rift was more than a million!

Lu Jiuyuan suppressed his Qi and quietly approached the defensive line.

He saw that on the scorched earth in front of the defensive line, soaked with demon blood, lay thick piles of corpses, indistinguishable by race—some humanoid, some demonic—stacked layer upon layer; many had already weathered away, while many still exuded a fresh, bloody stench.

Some simple bone stakes inscribed with dim runes were stuck in the corpse piles like tombstones, vaguely forming a broken Formation that barely resisted the erosion of the abyss's Devilish Qi and the assaults of low-level Demon creatures.

An old man, resting against a broken spear beside a bone stake, seemed to notice Lu Jiuyuan's approach.

He raised his turbid but sharp eyes, glanced at Lu Jiuyuan, and spoke in a hoarse, dry voice: "Newcomer? Which stronghold? You shouldn't be wandering around here."

Lu Jiuyuan noticed that the old man's Qi was weak, and there was a hideous wound on his chest that almost went through his body, exuding foul-smelling Devilish Qi; clearly, the injury was extremely severe, and he had been eroded by the abyss's Devilish Qi for a long time.

"A rogue cultivator, Lu Jiuyuan," Lu Jiuyuan said calmly. "I heard there are demons to kill here, so I came to help."

"Help?"

The old man twitched his mouth, revealing a smile uglier than crying. He pointed to the figures sitting or lying behind the defensive line with weak Qi, and then pointed to the bottomless, churning rift of Devilish Qi:

"See that? The 'Howling Abyss' defensive line was established 800,000 years ago by Senior 'Raging Spear' and three hundred personal guards, holding this place to block the Demon tide...

It's been 800,000 years. Senior Raging Spear has fallen, children have been born batch after batch, guards have been replaced wave after wave. Now, only we 672 old, weak, sick, and disabled people are left, hanging on here..."

He coughed violently several times, coughing up fragments mixed with black blood, and continued panting: "Help? Young man, you have this intention, that's good.

But this place... is a pit for lives. Every year, brothers are eroded by Devilish Qi, turning into monsters that only know how to kill, and are finished off by their own people;

Every year, brothers fight until they are exhausted, are dragged into the abyss, and leave no bones behind;

Every year, hot-blooded people like you arrive, and then... leave their lives here."

"We have no reinforcements, no supplies, and the Sanctuary is overwhelmed.

We guard here only so that the small piece of land behind us, which belongs to the Human Race, can have a place to breathe, and to have a little less demon disaster...

And to let a few more of our people survive."

In the old man's turbid eyes, there was no complaint, only a kind of nearly numb, bone-deep sorrow.

"If you want to kill demons, go elsewhere. The demon brats here are endless... they simply can't be killed all... We can still hold on."

As he finished speaking, the Devilish Qi in the abyss rift suddenly churned violently, and a dull roar and the loud sound of bones rubbing together came from it!

A new round of Demon creature attacks was coming!

The hundreds of Human Race guards on the defensive line, regardless of the severity of their injuries, all stood up at almost the same time, gripped their broken weapons, and the exhaustion in their eyes was instantly replaced by sharp killing intent!

No one spoke, no one retreated, only an extremely tragic aura permeated the air.

Lu Jiuyuan listened and watched quietly.

He did not speak, only turned his gaze to the churning abyss rift, the heat and excitement in his eyes from his recent Breakthrough gradually settling, turning into icy cold!

The hardship of the Human Race, the sorrow of the Human Race, the blood of the Human Race... at this moment, he saw it with his own eyes and felt it himself.

It was too miserable!

The old man was right. To the Demon Realm, this was no pass, no battlefield—it was just a tiny hole, and the small tribes around the hole gathered for daily hunting outside. That was all.

"Hold the line," Lu Jiuyuan finally spoke, his voice calm. "Leave the rest to me."

As soon as he finished speaking, without waiting for the old man and other guards to react, Lu Jiuyuan's figure had already disappeared from the spot.

The next moment, he appeared directly above the abyss rift, which was hundreds of miles wide, standing in the air, facing the surging, monstrous Devilish Qi and countless hideous demon shadows!

"Who is that? What is he doing?" The guards on the defensive line looked up in astonishment.

"Where did this reckless youth come from? Just holding the line is enough; why waste energy doing that?"

"Hey, reckless youth, come back! We just need to hold the wall; after fighting for two or three days, they will retreat on their own! Don't be stupid!"

"Stupid? I just had a Breakthrough and wanted to test my strength!" Lu Jiuyuan laughed. "I'll hold it for you!"

Facing the tens of thousands of abyss demon creatures pouring out of the rift like a black tide, he slowly raised his right hand.

Inside his body, three thousand six hundred inner Small World roared simultaneously!

The majestic and vast "World Power" was no longer restrained, erupting suddenly like a dormant volcano!

"Tathagata Palm: Palm Suppressing the Monkey!"

He pressed his palm down toward the endless Demon tide.

An incomparably huge, crimson palm appeared in the sky. This palm might have been hundreds of miles wide, its palm prints resembling mountain and river patterns.

The palm was condensed from all kinds of Sword Qi, as if the entire Sword Realm had been moved into the palm.

Burning with raging Phoenix fire, it covered everything below!

This was the great offensive technique Lu Jiuyuan created, based on his three thousand inner Small World, integrating his own Sword Dao and fire Dao, simulating the superficial Concept of that palm Tathagata used to suppress the monkey!

Although it looked like a palm, it was actually a sword!

The moment the giant palm shadow condensed, a pressure covering multiple terrifying Concepts of suppression, imprisonment, cutting, incineration, and purification descended like the entire sky collapsing!

The surging Demon tide below seemed to instantly fall into an invisible quagmire!

The movements of the demon creatures at the very front suddenly became incomparably sluggish, the bloodthirst in their eyes replaced by horror.

Weaker demon soldiers even began to disintegrate under this pure pressure, their Devilish Qi dissipating!

"Suppress!"

Lu Jiuyuan's eyes were cold as he exhaled and spoke.

The "Tathagata Palm," composed of endless Sword Qi and Phoenix fire, with the grand momentum of crushing everything and purifying all things, slowly but unstoppably... pressed down!

"Sss—!"

The demon creatures that first touched the edge of the palm were like meat chunks thrown into a meat grinder, instantly cut and shredded into the finest particles by the endlessly flowing, billions of tiny Sword Qi!

"Boom—!"

The Phoenix fire erupted, and the crimson-gold flames swept down like a raging tide, engulfing the demon remains cut by the Sword Qi, the dissipated Devilish Qi, and even the demon creatures deeper inside!

Wherever the flames passed, the Devilish Qi sizzled like snow meeting boiling oil, quickly being purified and incinerated!

The hundreds of miles covered by the giant palm seemed to have turned into a purgatory of Sword Qi and flames!

Rows upon rows of demon creatures instantly dissolved like harvested wheat, unable to even let out a scream.

Those powerful Emperor-level demon generals roared and unleashed various Demonic Path Divine Abilities in an attempt to resist, but in the face of the palm pressure containing the weight of a "World" and the ubiquitous Sword Qi and flames,

Their defenses shattered like paper, their bodies were quickly cut and ignited, and finally turned into a wisp of blue smoke!

In just a single breath, the entire vanguard of the originally pitch-black Demon tide was wiped out by this one palm!

A huge vacuum zone, filled with the aftermath of chaotic Sword Qi and lingering Phoenix fire, appeared in front of the abyss rift.

On the Wall of Flesh and Blood, there was dead silence.