"ROAR!"

"Kill him!"

The roars and furious cries of Demon Fiends followed close behind, rising from all directions.

"Good... Good."

Luo Yi weakly opened his eyes. Looking up at Gu Zheng, he forced a smile. "Sorry to... to trouble you two, my lords. Especially you, Lord Gu. Just the other day, we were wondering how we could ask... ask you to... to come."

He said it all in one breath before he could hold on no longer. His head fell heavily to the ground as he lapsed into a coma.

HUMMM—

Gu Zheng’s Divine Wondrous power surged, and he infused it into Luo Yi’s body to sustain his Inner Breath.

Then, he raised his blade and charged toward two members of the Iron Lion Race that were running right at him.

These dozen or so Demon Fiends stood three meters tall, walked on two legs, and had the heads of lions. They were the Iron Lion Race.

Their bodies were as tough as Spiritual Soldiers, and their strength was immense. They were nearly invincible against others of the same realm.

Luo Yi’s realm was just short of Super Body·Radiant.

And yet, he had been beaten to within an inch of his life.

It was a testament to how formidable these members of the Iron Lion Race were.

"ROAR—" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"AWOO!"

Furious cries and roars echoed through the mountain forest.

Two second-rank members of the Iron Lion Race lunged straight at Gu Zheng.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Gu Zheng didn’t hold back. As his Divine Wondrous power surged, the light from his blade became a line. Moving in close, he swung the Celestial Frost Blade, enhanced with Sword Intent, and flashed past between the two second-rank Iron Lion Race members.

SQUELCH! SQUELCH!

Dark Demon Blood arced through the air as two grotesque lion heads were flung high.

Spirit Capturing!

[Demon Points +26]

[Demon Points +21]

...

He didn’t stop.

After collecting the Demon Points, Gu Zheng continued his charge toward the other members of the Iron Lion Race.

Xing Zhilong did the same, single-handedly holding off eight second-rank members of the Iron Lion Race.

His brilliant fists unleashed blasts of power that obliterated massive trees and shattered giant boulders.

Craters appeared on the ground, and a constant spray of mud, rubble, and dust filled the air.

"ROAR—!"

WHOOSH! BOOM!

Gu Zheng once again came face-to-face with a second-rank Iron Lion Race member and brushed past it.

SHING—

A flash of blade light, and another grotesque lion head was sent flying.

The power of his Sword Intent, the Celestial Frost Blade, his Divine Wondrous power, the Physical Strength of his Super Body·Radiant, and the power of his perfected True Skill.

When all these powers converged, not a single second-rank member of the Iron Lion Race could withstand the resulting destructive force.

Even a late-stage second-rank Iron Lion took no more than two extra strikes before being hacked in half, then into quarters.

Spirit Capturing! Spirit Capturing!

He moved swiftly, leaving trails of blade light in his wake, harvesting Demon Points as sprays of dark Demon Blood splattered onto the ground.

In no time, Gu Zheng had dealt with the second-rank Iron Lion Race members on his side.

The remaining eight were still locked in a fierce battle with Xing Zhilong.

However, two of them were already wounded and on the ground.

Xing Zhilong’s movements had also slowed, and he had taken several hits from their Bone Blades. His armor was dented and crisscrossed with cracks.

SWOOSH!

Gu Zheng charged over, swinging his blade.

"ROAR—!"

SQUELCH!

"AWOO..."

SQUELCH!

"Kill..."

SQUELCH—!

His figure flickered repeatedly, flashing past three of the second-rank Iron Lion Race members.

Amidst a dazzling display of blade light, three grotesque lion heads soared into the air.

"SWISH!"

Without pausing, Gu Zheng continued toward the remaining second-rank Iron Lion Race members.

The ones that had been swarming Xing Zhilong immediately turned to surround Gu Zheng instead.

However, Gu Zheng was faster and refused to get bogged down in close-quarters combat with them.

He flashed past, zipping by at high speed.

Blade strike after blade strike, he employed guerilla tactics, separating the second-rank Iron Lions one by one and cutting them down in sequence.

"SQUELCH—"

"BANG!"

The last two second-rank members of the Iron Lion Race died at Xing Zhilong’s hands, their heads exploding from his punches.

Spirit Capturing!

[Demon Points +26]

[Demon Points +22]

...

Gu Zheng walked back, performing Absorption on the slain second-rank Iron Lion Race members for their Bloodshed and Demon Essence.

Xing Zhilong, meanwhile, stood where he was, scanning his surroundings while catching his breath.

"Thank God... Thank God you came along, Gu."

Xing Zhilong took a deep breath. Once he had regulated his breathing, he looked around and sighed. "If I had been on my own, I really wouldn’t have been able to handle these beasts. No, calling them beasts is a compliment."

All around them in the mountain forest, scores of Demon Suppression Guards lay on the ground.

Ninety percent of them were dead.

You could say that the Demon Slayer Bureau team stationed at the Yan Gui Ridge tunnel had been annihilated.

Nearly twenty second-rank Iron Lion Race members had charged out at once, wiping out the stationed team in a single assault.

If Gu Zheng and Xing Zhilong hadn’t arrived so quickly, the entire stationed team would have been wiped out.

"Xing, I’ll leave the wounded brothers to you."

Gu Zheng also scanned the area and said in a low voice, "I’m going to check the other side of the tunnel. With so many second-rank Iron Lions dead, the combat strength of the ones that are left should be very limited."

Xing Zhilong understood the other implication of "limited" almost immediately.

He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything more. He just said grimly, "Be careful. Stay safe!"

"Understood."

Gu Zheng nodded and clasped his fist in a salute.

Then, with a light touch of his toes, he shot forward, heading for the tunnel entrance.

The tunnel at Yan Gui Ridge was inside a cave.

At the entrance, space warped and rippled with intense fluctuations.

Gu Zheng briefly sensed it out and locked onto its position.

He charged into the cave with his blade, entering the familiar Tunnel Between Two Realms. Less than two hundred meters later, he emerged in a forest.

This was an ancient forest where every tree stood three to four hundred meters tall.

It wasn’t a large area. With his vision, Gu Zheng could easily see past the trees to a vast grassland beyond the forest.

But under the crimson sun, the man-high grass radiated a sense of danger and menace.

"ROAR—"

"It’s a human!"

"How did he get out?"

"..."

As low growls sounded, and while Gu Zheng was still surveying his surroundings, seven or eight members of the Iron Lion Race, each about two meters tall, emerged from under an old tree a hundred meters from the tunnel.

Upon seeing Gu Zheng, these Iron Lion Race members showed more fear than joy, and one by one, they hastily turned to flee.