Demons are inherently selfish, creatures clinging desperately to life and fearing death. This is especially true for high-ranking demons like Xiao, who managed to reach the Zhou level, barely grasping the power of rules, a feat difficult to achieve even in the perverted depths of the Abyss.

Unlike the human world, demons are born steeped in bloodlust; even their sustenance comes from consuming their own kind. To survive in that cruel and harsh Abyss, they are practically born into a cycle of slaughter from the moment of their birth.

For a single quarry, for a patch of mineral resources, or even for a casual remark, they would fight relentlessly. It was a world devoid of civility or reason, where the only principle that mattered was strength.

For Xiao to distinguish himself among countless demons, cultivating himself to his current level and achieving his present status, must have required millennia of relentless combat.

How could he possibly be willing to die here, dissolving into ash? That is why, even knowing he was not Dugu Bachan, he unleashed a desperate, final blow to tear open a rift and escape—all for the sake of survival.

So, he feared death, deeply and terribly. Yet, for him, there existed something even more terrifying than death: the wrath of the Lord of Destruction.

It has been an untold number of ages since the demons were sealed in the Abyss. Under those arduous conditions, under that merciless, emotionless rule of survival of the fittest, there could not have been only this meager number of Zhou-level masters. At least one predecessor of Xiao, a genius who once shook the demon world, a supremely powerful demon, had reached the Zhou level when he was still young, even becoming the most formidable battle general under the Lord of Destruction.

But because he was too arrogant—having already brushed against the very edge of the rules and nearing the Yu level—he relied on his strength and the Lord of Destruction's faith in him to commit acts that displeased the Lord. The result was incurring the Lord's fury, and the punishment that followed was inescapable.

The Lord did not kill him. In fact, it is rumored that general still exists even now, but his existence is far more agonizing than death.

He was shackled by the Lord in the Abyss’s most terrifying chasm, the Yanbing Jue Valley. Every moment, he is scorched by the Nine Nether Cold Qi and burned by the Nine Heavens Blazing Flame. As everyone knows, the Nine Nether Cold Qi and the Nine Heavens Blazing Flame are among the two most extreme forces of time; either one possesses the potential to annihilate a Zhou-level master.

Yet, the Lord uses his own immense power to pull the general back from the brink just as he is about to perish.

As these two forces cycle relentlessly, it is akin to constantly baking a person in intense fire only to immediately freeze them in icy water—it is a brutal torment inflicted upon both flesh and soul.

Demons fear death, demons are selfish, but above all, demons dread endless torment. Thus, upon hearing that his Lord was displeased, Xiao’s heart plummeted to the ice valley. Could the massive contributions he had made not outweigh this single failure?

He even wondered if, knowing this outcome, he should have fought that human to the death. Was the power of the rules something worth dying for? But clearly, there was no room for regret now. Xiao knew that even ranked third under the Lord of Destruction, he possessed no power to resist this foremost general, Wu, nor even the ability to take his own life.

Even though both were Zhou level, the gulf between them was like a vast canyon, much like the difference between them and Dugu Bachan.

At this moment, Dugu Bachan in the sky shuddered violently, for he distinctly felt the edge of his blade, the final strike powerful enough to obliterate the demon, being gently shattered. Had more individuals emerged from the Demon Abyss?

Currently, on his side, only he could barely contend with these battle generals. If a few more powerful generals appeared, even if he disregarded his own life, he would be utterly incapable of holding them back. Was humanity truly doomed to extinction?

Meanwhile, with Ye Jingyu and the others pouring forth their full strength, relying on the heaven-defying magic treasures they held, they were just barely managing to hold back the demon army’s assault—and it was only just barely.

Twelve Hong-level masters, dozens of Huang-level masters, and an unknown number of Tian-level masters—this was simply beyond their current capacity to withstand. Even though Ye Jingyu possessed the Three Realms’ foremost divine artifact, and Liang Xiaoke carried primordial fierce swords like the Zhuxian Sword and the Luxian Sword, they could not repel the tide; they could only struggle to hold on.

Just as Dugu Bachan regained his senses and prepared to strike at the demons below, these demons suddenly seemed to sense something and retreated like a surging tide.

Their withdrawal was so sudden, so rapid, that they even disregarded the attacks launched by Ye Jingyu and the others in their haste to retreat!

Had the escape of the Seven Great Generals stripped these demons of their will to fight? Were these demons truly that cowardly?

Without wasting much time, the hundreds of thousands of demons rapidly withdrew beyond the Twelve Heaven Witch Annihilation Array, retreating onto the Red Plains, stopping at a distance of a full thirty li from Storm City.

Looking at the empty expanse of the plain, Ye Jingyu and the others felt as if they were dreaming. Had such a difficult battle concluded just like that? Had they achieved final victory simply because Fox Yanqi had successfully slain one general?

Was this possible? Ye Jingyu did not believe it, nor did anyone standing on the city walls. A terrifying aura was propagating from the distance—an aura of complete, utter despair.

So potent was it that many low-ranking soldiers, upon sensing it, felt their bloodlines begin to boil violently before they finally exploded and died.

Dugu Bachan attempted to release his own aura to shield the soldiers on the walls, but the moment he unleashed his World of the Blade, a sharp crack echoed—his indestructible World of the Blade shattered entirely. He himself plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground and carving out a massive earth pit.

"Master..." Ye Jingyu exclaimed in alarm, moving to help Dugu Bachan up, but he saw Dugu Bachan rise from the pit. A trickle of crimson blood stained the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were fixed far away, in the direction the demons had retreated.

Ye Jingyu and the others raised their gazes as well, seeing a figure appearing in one corner of the horizon. A moment ago, the figure was in the distant heavens, but in an instant, it traversed a thousand zhang before, in the next moment, arriving less than a hundred zhang from the city walls.

That... was actually a small boy.