Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Dark Tribulation, a Fight to the Death

That day, after a band of demons had slaughtered a human tribe, they planned to haul the bodies of those humans back to their lair and feast on them there.

When the demons reached a place not far from a witch tribe, they were suddenly surrounded by a group of witches. The two races had long borne old grudges against one another, and no one bothered with words; in an instant the two sides were locked in savage battle.

Among the demons was a fellow called Great King Earth Tiger, a gray fox who had taken human form. Foxes were cunning, and yet he had chosen a name bearing the character for tiger; that alone showed he was a coward who feared death above all things.

For all these years, Great King Earth Tiger had followed the others in slaughtering humans, living quite comfortably indeed. For him, anything that brought no danger and still allowed him to gorge himself while improving his cultivation was a fine and welcome thing.

He had never expected that today he would be trapped by witchfolk. Though the two sides seemed evenly matched in number, Great King Earth Tiger knew very well that in terms of individual strength, the demon race had always been inferior to the witch race.

The witches could not cultivate the soul, and so they had honed their bodies to a truly ferocious degree. Those beneath them in cultivation could not even scratch them.

Great King Earth Tiger knew that today would likely not end peacefully. Even he, so fearful of death by nature, summoned his courage and threw himself into battle against the witches.

But his status was low, and he possessed no magical treasures. In desperation, he seized the human corpse in his hands and used it as a weapon, hurling it at the witches. In the chaos of battle, the corpse was torn to pieces by one of the witches, leaving only a leg bone in his hand, still slick with blood.

Just as Great King Earth Tiger was about to be caught and ripped apart, he had no choice but to thrust the leg bone into the other’s chest.

The witch who had seized him saw this and wore a disdainful smile. He could not even be bothered to glance at the bone in Great King Earth Tiger’s hand, and was already preparing to wrench the fox-creature in half.

Then, all at once, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest and froze. Slowly, he lowered his head, only to see that the human leg bone had pierced deep into his heart.

As a wave of weakness spread through his body, the witch’s eyes widened in disbelief. He could not understand why a body as hard as iron and steel could be pierced by a single bone.

Under that bewildered gaze, his body slowly toppled and never rose again.

At that moment, the battlefield was in utter turmoil, and no one noticed this strange scene.

Great King Earth Tiger stared blankly at the leg bone in his hand for a long while. Then his eyes suddenly lit up, as though he had thought of something. He glanced around; seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he quietly slipped away from the fray and soon vanished without a trace.

Meanwhile, in the ancestral land of the human race, countless survivors who had fled back from all directions were kneeling in a great hall. Their furious cries echoed through the chamber:

“Our human race has always been kind and peaceful, and has never wronged anyone. Yet now the demon race has slaughtered our countless kin. This hatred can only be washed away in blood. We beg our human ancestors to emerge and avenge the human race!”

Their grief-stricken wails shook heaven and earth.

Countless clansmen had smashed their foreheads bloody against the ground. Their faces were twisted with despair, and blood stained the floor of the great hall.

“Alas. We are already aware of this matter. But the Holy Father once said that our human race will face a great calamity. If we pass through it, we shall become the protagonists of heaven and earth. If we fail, he will still protect our race and leave behind a spark, so that we may look to the future.”

An old voice rang out through the hall.

“But if our hidden reserves do not act, are we simply to let the demons slaughter us mortals to the last?” a young man cried bitterly.

The old voice was silent for a long while before speaking again.

“Let all our people return to the ancestral land. This is the will of Heaven. What else can we do? Even if our full reserves were to emerge, without the Holy Father, Holy Mother, or Holy Teacher intervening, we would only vanish into smoke and dust.

After all, we are the descendants of the Holy Mother. Presumably, even the demon race would not dare destroy us entirely. Go. Summon all the clansmen back.”

Upon hearing this, everyone was filled with sorrow, yet they also understood that the human race’s foundations were still shallow. They could only go below and arrange for the clansmen to return to the ancestral land.

Just as the human race in the boundless wilderness received the news and the various tribes all began returning to the human ancestral land, the demon race suddenly changed its conduct. No longer content with only scattered bands of marauders, it mobilized its armies and began slaughtering humans with even greater ferocity across the wilderness, as though it intended to erase the human race from existence.

In an instant, the cries of the dying human race shook the firmament. Across the wilderness, countless wronged spirits arose, and as blood rain drifted down, even heaven and earth seemed to weep in sorrow over the tragic fate of the humans.

It turned out that several years earlier, Emperor Jun had suddenly received word that a small ordinary demon had discovered an astonishing secret: human blood essence could be used to forge weapons that could easily slay ordinary witches.

After Emperor Jun and the Supreme One personally tested it, they discovered that while such weapons could indeed kill ordinary witches, they had little effect on the witch leaders above the level of Great Witches.

After some study, Emperor Jun and the Supreme One found that if countless drops of human blood essence were gathered in sufficient quantity, then sheer accumulation would bring about a qualitative transformation, and a sword could be forged that would slay the Ancestral Witches. By then, killing the Ancestral Witches would surely be easy.

But to forge such a Witch-Slaying Sword, the amount of human blood essence required was far too great. If they truly wanted to succeed, they would likely need to slaughter more than ninety percent of the human race.

Yet if they truly did so, they would almost certainly offend the people of Abbot Island beyond recovery, and no one knew what consequences that would bring.

The two of them stared at one another for a long time. At last, the Supreme One clenched his teeth and said, “By now we have already slain many humans. Since we have already offended the Nuwa side, it makes little difference if we offend them a little more. Since the Three Pure Ones have accepted our generous gifts, they will naturally lend us their aid.

Once we have forged the Witch-Slaying Sword, destroyed the witch race, and unified the wilderness, will big brother, seated as lord of the wilderness, still fear their revenge?”

After long reflection, Emperor Jun finally made up his mind and resolved to take the gamble. In order to gather human blood essence as quickly as possible before the people of Abbot Island could act, he dispatched all his forces.

During the years of demon slaughter against the humans, this became the darkest age in human history. Endless cries of anguish shook the heavens, and mountains of corpses piled up across the land.

At this point, in order to gather the blood essence sooner and prevent anyone from interfering, Emperor Jun no longer allowed the demons to devour human corpses. They were permitted only to extract the blood essence.

Just as the demon race ran rampant across the wilderness and slaughtered the human race en masse, one day a vast voice rang out across the boundless land, filled with grief and hatred:

“Our human race was created by the Holy Mother herself. We have never harmed heaven and earth, and we desire only a place to stand in the wilderness, living in humble obscurity!

Yet now the demon race has slaughtered our people for nearly ten years, killing nine out of every ten, and now seeks to exterminate us entirely. This hatred cannot be shared under the same sky. Today, I, the Lord of the Human Tribe, together with the Three Ancestors of Humanity, swear an oath before the Heavenly Way:

From this day forth, the human race shall not coexist with the demon race.

From this day forth, no human may consort with the demon race; any who do shall be deemed traitors to the human race and will be put to death.

From this day forth, it shall be the duty of every human to slay demons and banish evil, and this must never be forgotten through all generations.

From this day forth, the human race and the demon race shall be mortal enemies. Wherever they are seen, they shall be killed.”

The final words, Kill them, echoed unceasingly through the skies for days on end.

In the wilderness, countless humans heard these words and roared skyward in fury. Even those with no cultivation hurled their mortal bodies at the demons.

The oath sworn before the Heavenly Way by the Lord of the Human Tribe stirred immense shock among many mighty beings of the wilderness. The Three Pure Ones, in particular, regretted agreeing to Emperor Jun’s request. As sages, they naturally knew that the human race would become the future protagonist of heaven and earth. If they were to stand in complete opposition to it and thereby sever their own doctrines in the future, the loss would far outweigh any gain.

Emperor Jun’s expression changed drastically as well. With a cruel light in his heart, he said, “Issue the order. Exterminate the human race for me. Leave no one alive.”

His subordinates accepted the command and departed.

Emperor Jun muttered to himself, “I shall wipe you all out completely. Let me see how you intend to remain my mortal enemies.” With that, he let out a cold laugh.

What none among the people of the wilderness expected at this moment was that countless humans of great cultivation rose from the ancestral hall in the ancestral land and flew forth. Leading them were the Three Ancestors of Humanity: the Lord of the Human Tribe, the Chieftain of the Human Tribe, and the Fire-Drilling Sovereign. All three had already reached the early Quasi-Sage realm.

Among the rest, Great Luo Immortals were everywhere to be seen, and the weakest were at least at the level of the Lesser Celestial Immortal. Their number had reached many tens of thousands, shocking countless powers throughout the wilderness.

Just as the human army was flying toward the demon heavenly court, preparing to fight the demons to the death, a voice filled with boundless fury thundered through the wilderness:

“The demon race!”