Chapter 453: The Demon Elites in the Demon Resisting Mountain Range (I)
“We are making a detour.” Long Haochen decided after pondering for a short time.
“The Exorcist Mountain Pass is close to the middle of the Demon Resisting Mountain Range, stretching a kilometer. Even if these demon armies numbered even more than we are expecting, they can’t possibly cover the whole mountain range. We will just take the long route, looking for a location with smaller defenses to breach our way out. As long as we pass through the Demon Resisting Mountain Range, there will naturally be no issue for us to return to Exorcist City.”
After planning this out, everyone immediately set out, while keeping enough distance with the demon army, travelling on a curved trajectory to the north. Because the demon base camps were in the southeast, by passing through north, they would avoid the majority of the demon army and wouldn’t easily run across demon reinforcements.
The demon camps turned out to be even larger than they imagined. The main force’s army extended over fifty kilometers, and a large amount of subsidiary soldiers and patrols were scouting on the border.
Aside from the area right in front of the Exorcist Mountain Pass, at regular intervals, demon beacons and garrison stood in guard. And some were placed at most spots at the edge of the mountain range, so as to prevent being caught in a surprise attack from the Alliance. After all, given the length of the frontiers, the demons couldn’t possibly encircle the whole Temple Alliance either. Which was why Long Haochen chose to take a detour.
Of course, this wasn’t a method Long Haochen alone thought about. Almost all Demon Hunt Squads whose members are over the sixth step would choose to break through the frontier from a rather weakly defended place, crossing it this way.
For the sake of safety, Long Haochen’s group kept going north for a hundred more kilometers before stopping. At that very moment, the sky was greatly lit, and the afternoon would soon start.
After finding a rather scarce shrubbery area, Long Haochen led his comrades to take a rest here. Night was the best timing to operate in secret, and tonight was the day they chose to return to the Alliance.
In Long Haochen’s opinion, dawn was the best timing, because that time, humans as well as demons would all be a lot more lax. But one factor determined his choice of time, and that was the Divine Snail Shield of Sun and Moon.
After attempting these few days, he figured that using the Divine Snail Shield of Sun and Moon at dawn and dusk was impossible for him.
Without question, this Divine Snail Shield of Sun and Moon was of epic tier, and a really powerful item for the protection of the group. The Shield Wall ability enabled to fully utilize the power of this shield, with the potential of even delaying a powerhouse of the ninth step. A powerhouse of the eighth step could forget about breaking its defense easily. Although the danger of breaking out from here wasn’t high, for the sake of safety, Long Haochen still preferred that the Divine Snail Shield of Sun and Moon be functional when attacking the demon scouts.
Everyone was recovering in these shrubs, and didn’t light up a fire to remain inconspicuous, during their wait for the night time.
Han Yu’s Demonic Eye stealthily floated over the shrubs. The gigantic eye would occasionally let out a flash of bright light, scouting the surroundings.
At this time, they were at about ten kilometers from the frontier, right at the limit of the range of their scouting mages. And furthermore, it was right in front of the Exorcist Mountain Range.
In the sixty fourth Demon Hunt Squad, aside from the fastest cultivators being Long Haochen and Cai’er, the cultivation speed of the others was actually not slow at all. It was just that their progress was overshadowed by Long Haochen and Cai’er. For instance, the current Han Yu was already at 6,000 units of internal spiritual energy, reaching the standards of the fourth rank of the sixth step at a great speed. And he was not even twenty yet! To give a simple comparison, at this age, Long Haochen’s father may not even necessarily have reached this level of cultivation.
Along with the increase of Han Yu’s strength, his magical beast companion the Demonic Eye also evolved to commander level, barely attaining the power of a human powerhouse of the sixth step. The diameter of that eye was already half a meter, with four six meters long tentacles circling along. Although its utility to the team was mainly to do scouting, its fighting strength was still not to be underestimated.
The sky gradually darkening, the demon armies on the frontier set up a bonfire.
A group consisting of fifty Dual Bladed Demons was making a tour there. The Dual Bladed Demons formed the largest part of the demons in quantity, so this kind of hard labor was naturally given to them.
Aside from Dual Bladed Demons, their ranks also contained a Demon Eye soldier, in charge of communication.
As they were advancing, that Demon Eye soldier suddenly let out a shriek, stopping his advance. The Dual Bladed Demons hurried to stop and gathered around it. These lower ranked demons were unable to speak any language, and were relying on their instincts to communicate.
The six eyes of the Demon Eye soldier were staring at one direction. But the next instant, those demons all fell to the ground intuitively.
A black clad person was walking rapidly towards their direction. Not human shaped, but a Black Gigantic Dragon of colossal size. Its eyes glinting red, coldly sweeping through the Demon Eye Soldier and the Dual Bladed Demons, making them almost limp.
On the back of the Black Gigantic Dragon were a total of nine black gowned people, among whom the one at the lead had an extremely handsome face. As he showed a tile to the Demon Eye and Dual Bladed Demons, they didn’t stop over at all, simple striding forward as they passed by.
Let alone stopping them to ask about their identity, the Demon Eye and Dual Bladed Demons didn’t even have the courage to stand up, in front of the Devil Dragon’s might. All they could do was to follow them with their eyes, full of reverence, as these “peak demon powerhouses” drifted away, gradually disappearing in the night scene. The direction they were heading was toward the Demon Resisting Mountain Range.
Until their sense of the dragon’s might disappeared totally, this patrol was groveling on the ground, taking visibly rough breaths. Given that it was the first time they saw peak powerhouses up close, seeing them act undisturbed would be the stranger thing.
Similar situations happened twice or thrice in the frontier, and at least four patrols turned limp on the ground in front of them. If this was just a human shaped demon powerhouse, perhaps would they have dared to inquire them, but the issue was that they were led by a genuine Devil Dragon!
The Demon Dragons amounted only two hundreds in total, being the genuine descendants of the Demon God Emperor. Even a rather low ranked demon god would act cautiously in front of one of them, to say nothing of these low grade demons in charge for patrolling.
“McDull is becoming more and more awe-inspiring.” Concealed behind a black gown, a voice suddenly said in a low voice.
The black gowned man leading them turned his head back, coldly glaring at the speaker. Then the black gowned person suddenly shut his mouth, losing the courage to talk any more.
Right, this black gowned team was precisely Long Haochen’s group. For the sake of pretending to be a Demon Hunter Remover Squad, Long Haochen summoned the Eleventh and Twelfth holy guards, and had everyone be clad in black gown, while McDull directly take the shape of a Devil Dragon. Although he only had the mighty presence and aura, without the actual fighting strength, this was sufficient to scare the lower ranked demons.
In their way, it turned out to be even more successful than they expected. Until arriving at the Demon Resisting Mountain Range, McDull had to consume five demon crystals of the sixth step to maintain the appearance of a Devil Dragon without issue.
Actually, with their current disguise, being trouble free was a given. With the shape of a Demon Hunter Remover Squad, led by a Devil Dragon, to say nothing of an ordinary patrolling team, even demons of the seventh or the eighth step wouldn’t necessarily have dared stepping forward for an examination. A dragon-team Demon Hunter Removal, that was a core formidable existence.
Simply because of the excessive amount of danger they experienced in demon territory, Long Haochen acted extremely cautiously. Only when finally entering the Demon Resisting Mountain Range, everyone started to relax. At this point only, they could be considered to have returned to the human domain.
McDull turned back in his shape of pig, at last falling asleep in Chen Ying’er’s arms. He obviously progressed well. In the past, even after taking enough magical crystal as supply, he couldn’t possibly transform himself into a demon of the ninth step for so long. At least until Chen Ying’er reached the seventh step, this was still too much for him to handle through normal means.
After changing clothes from the black gowns, removing the magical eyes, and recalling the two holy guards, Long Haochen’s group immediately changed back into the shape of a Demon Hunt Squad. Under their black gowns, everyone was fully equipped. After exposing themselves, they naturally let out a powerful presence.
Murderous spirit was cultivated in them through trials of life or death. They didn’t realize it themselves, but in reality, the continuous act of tempering themselves had changed their manners enormously.
There was nowhere to stop by, so the group immediately headed for the peak of the Demon Resisting Mountain Range.
The Demon Resisting Mountain Range was the largest region of influence of the Temple Alliance, extending over five hundred kilometers, with a width close to five hundred kilometers. Without travelling by flight, at least two days would be required to travel through these mountain ranges.
For the sake of prudence, and to avoid the possibility of getting found out by the enemies lying in patrol in the mountain range, Long Haochen naturally had them travel by walk. To them, climbing the mountains wasn’t so much of an effort either. Wang Yuanyuan was here to give Chen Ying’er some help, and the same went for Sima Xian and Lin Xin. This way, their climbing speed improved significantly.
The night gradually deepened. Nearly one hour after entering the Demon Resisting Mountain Range, Long Haochen’s group finally reached the first summit. This mountain peak was over two kilometers high, filled with the cold of the north. The peak was completely covered in ice and snow. The mountain’s wind was cold enough to give everyone chills.
“Something seems to have happened in the south.” Han Yu suddenly told Long Haochen in a low voice.
Long Haochen looked at a certain direction, at a point faintly discernible through the fog behind the hilltop. With the absence of light in the night, even his eyesight didn’t manage to see discern anything in that direction.
Han Yu continued, “The Demonic Eye discovered it. Seems that there are quite a few people present. But it is rather far from here, making it impossible to determine whether it is people from our side or demons.”
After pondering for a short time, Long Haochen responded, “Have the Demonic Eye act as scout. We have at least to find out whether they are trying to infiltrate the mountain, or heading out from it.”