Chapter 130: The Secret of the Starry Sky
Taking advantage of the battlefield defeat, he used a great many resources to build an altar within the city.”
The Demon Lord said, “Then he convinced many elders, including that elder of mine, to agree to his plan of sacrificing the souls of fallen demon warriors to the starry sky.”
Upon hearing the words “sacrificing to the starry sky,” Chen Changsheng felt a very ominous premonition and asked, “Sacrificing to whom? What are they asking for?”
The Demon Lord said with a mocking tone, “Naturally, they are sacrificing to the Holy Light Continent beyond the starry sky. Those elders hope that the Holy Light Continent will come to our aid. Some cowardly nobles even hope to be sent back to the Holy Light Continent themselves, so they naturally won’t have to face the danger and suffering of extinction.”
Chen Changsheng said, “Wasn’t the origin of the demon race already erased? How do they know about it?”
“In these past six months, the flames of war have raged continuously, and the situation has been chaotic. Many rules have lost their effect, and naturally, many secrets have also been leaked.”
The Demon Lord looked at a certain great scholar.
The face of one great scholar suddenly turned pale, and then he began to vomit blood incessantly.
That blood was not red, not gold, not green, but black.
That great scholar was clearly severely poisoned and said in pain, “Even if I didn’t speak, the Strategist knows everything anyway.”
The Demon Lord said calmly, “But you still spoke.”
That great scholar fell to the ground, convulsed twice, and then stopped breathing.
The Demon Lord looked at the crowd, mainly at Xu Yourong, and said apologetically, “My apologies.”
Chen Changsheng didn’t notice; instead, he was thinking about what the Demon Lord had just said.
The upper echelons of the demon race had placed all their hopes on that altar, so naturally, it was hard for them to exert full effort on the battlefield, whether subjectively or otherwise. As a result, the demon race’s situation would become even worse, and the worse it got, the more they would pin their hopes on that altar. That altar was like the swamp outside Xuelao City; once you fell into it, no matter how you struggled, it was hard to stand up again. The Demon Lord should have seen this very clearly. Why didn’t he stop the Black Robe? Why didn’t he destroy that altar?
The Demon Lord looked at Chen Changsheng and said, “I think you should have already guessed. That’s right, I also want to preserve that last hope.”
Chen Changsheng said, “Even if it means going against the will of all previous Demon Lords?”
The Demon Lord sighed, “I don’t want to either, but you all pushed me too hard.”
Chen Changsheng said, “You already did this ten years ago.”
This referred to the two angels that had appeared in White Emperor City.
“There will be a very big difference.”
The Demon Lord looked at him seriously and said, “Because the numbers are different.”
Having said this, he spread his arms.
His black cloak billowed without any wind.
The demonic flames, like condensed night, also swayed, and some things became faintly visible.
Those were stone statues, some tall, some short, none exceeding a foot in height. They were neither metal nor jade, and it was unknown what material they were made of.
Some statues were half-crouching, others were spreading their wings as if about to fly. Every detail was exquisitely rendered, lively and lifelike, surpassing the realm of ordinary craftsmanship.
Chen Changsheng’s expression became very solemn.
The stone statues didn’t emit any aura, yet they gave off an extremely eerie feeling, as if they could come to life at any moment.
Wang Po and the others felt a strong sense of alarm in their hearts.
Like Chen Changsheng, they thought of the two angels in White Emperor City and of Bie Yanghong.
If one stone statue was one angel, how many were there in the dense array stretching as far as the eye could see?
The demonic flames danced unceasingly.
The night was restless, shrouded in dead silence.
Many questions now had answers.
The Black Robe’s hatred for the human race was indeed as deep as the Western Sea. To destroy humanity, he would stop at nothing. In the past few hundred years, he had relied on the demon race to eliminate humanity. When he realized the tide had turned and this had become an impossible task, he unhesitatingly chose another path.
On the road to the demon race’s downfall, he ruthlessly pushed them, driving them into a corner in the shortest possible time, forcing them to follow his rhythm. He mobilized countless resources to build an altar, preparing to welcome the descent of the angel legion from the Holy Light Continent.
“What exactly do you mean by telling this story tonight?”
Chen Changsheng said to the Demon Lord.
The Demon Lord withdrew his smile, looked into his eyes, and said calmly and firmly, “Withdraw from Xuelao City. Otherwise, I will agree to the Black Robe’s demands.”
“This is a good story,” Wang Po said.
Old Master Tang said, “Indeed, it is a good story.”
This story—or rather, the way it was told—made them feel that the Demon Lord was truly remarkable.
If it weren’t for the fact that too little time had been given to this Demon Lord and that the overall situation was already set, perhaps the demon race might have truly been on the verge of revival.
At the beginning, if the Demon Lord hadn’t summoned those historians and scholars, using words like “extinction” and “civilization” to create a solemn and tragic atmosphere, and had simply started telling the story directly, no one would have believed it. They would have only thought he was using an absurd excuse to buy time. But the Demon Lord didn’t do that. From the Holy Light Continent to the gods to the Black Robe, he narrated slowly yet grippingly, telling this story perfectly, with history and weight, making it impossible not to believe.
“But there’s one problem: what does the Black Robe need you to do?”
Wang Po said, “If you have no significance to this story, then no matter how well the story is told, it’s meaningless.”
“What he needs isn’t me, but this.”
The Demon Lord’s right hand extended from his sleeve.
In his hand was not a stone statue, but a stone pestle.
That stone pestle seemed very ordinary, but in truth, it was not.
Even the stone beads on Chen Changsheng’s wrist responded, lightly clinking against each other.
That stone pestle came from the same place as the Heavenly Book Monoliths, made of the same material, yet with completely different effects.
Starry Sky Kill.
The demon race’s most closely guarded secret.
A supreme divine artifact that had not appeared in the world for tens of thousands of years.
Back then on Snow Ridge, the old Demon Lord had died under the starlight it summoned.
Chen Changsheng had witnessed the Starry Sky Kill with his own eyes.
Afterward, the priests of the Li Palace had painted it into a scroll based on his description and sent it to all prefectures for circulation.
Figures like Old Master Tang and Wang Po were naturally among the first to see the painting. With just one glance, they confirmed it was the real Starry Sky Kill.
Thus, the story the Demon Lord told also gained more credibility.
If the Demon Lord cooperated with the Black Robe, using the altar and the Starry Sky Kill to open a spatial passage, and the angels of the Holy Light Continent descended one after another…
The demonic flames danced, and those stone statues flickered in and out of view.
Seeing this scene, everyone’s expressions were extremely grave.
Even if those angels weren’t as powerful as the two battle angels that had appeared in White Emperor City, according to post-event analysis, those Holy Light Angels could comprehend the natural laws of heaven and earth on their own. In other words, from the moment they came into existence, they were already Divine Domain experts!
Of course, humanity wasn’t entirely unprepared for this worst-case scenario. Over the past ten years, the Great Zhou court, the Li Palace, and the various sects and clans had frequently simulated the Battle of White Emperor City, searching for ways to kill the Holy Light Angels, and they had made some progress. But that was still based on the premise that the number of angels was very small.
Now, with the human Sacred Domain experts either severely wounded or embroiled in rebellion, if the angels were this numerous, how could they possibly win?
Even more terrifying was… what if the gods of the Holy Light Continent descended in person? What then?
Would humanity be destroyed?
The atmosphere was extremely oppressive.
Yet some still didn’t believe the Demon Lord’s story.
“Isn’t this just a stone club? Do you really take us for fools? The Heavenly Club has been dead for over a decade!”
Xiao Zhang said, “We’ve prepared for so many years, fought for so long, lost so many people, and you think a story is enough to make us retreat?”
These words stirred some hesitation in General He Ming and a few others.
What if it was true? The Demon Lord was just trying to scare them.
Old Master Tang’s crow’s feet grew deeper, and a hint of worry appeared in his eyes.
He felt the Demon Lord’s words were true.
Wang Po and Xu Yourong shared the same view.
Chen Changsheng had personally seen that beam of light crossing the sea of stars on Snow Ridge; he should have been the one to believe this story the most.
But he vaguely remembered that the Starry Sky Kill could no longer be used, and he also recalled a conversation he had overheard that night.
He looked at the Demon Lord and asked, “The altar is for breaking the barrier? The Starry Sky Kill is for pinpointing the location?”
The Demon Lord said, “I didn’t expect you to remember my conversation with my father.”
Chen Changsheng said, “Ten years ago, two angels descended, and you could treat them as slaves. The Black Robe’s current intentions clearly go beyond that. If too many angels descend, what will you do? So you’ve been hesitating, struggling, and even now, you still haven’t made up your mind.”
The Demon Lord smiled and said, “Yes, so I leave this choice to you.”
Chen Changsheng fell silent.
Thinking back now, much of the content in the letters over the past ten years had been the Demon Lord’s maneuvering.
It was a gradual, subtle process. He could no longer convince himself that the threat of the Holy Light Continent didn’t exist.
This so-called choice was more like a gamble, with the stakes being the entire human race.
When it came to gambling, Xu Yourong and Old Master Tang were far better than him, but they hadn’t read those letters.
The content of those letters was the cards the Demon Lord had already played.
Only through those cards could one try to guess what the Demon Lord’s final hand was.
Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind the crowd.
That voice was sickly, utterly weak, yet carried a strangely smug tone that would annoy anyone who heard it.
“What he wrote in the letters is true, and most of this story is true, but what he said just now is false.”
The Demon Lord looked toward the back of the crowd, raised an eyebrow slightly, and asked, “Why?”
“Because there’s a death wish in your eyes and a hint of heartbreak, but no high spirits. Back then, I took an hour to turn the situation in Wenshui around. After leaving the ancestral hall, I took a bath right on the street. Even if you can’t match my romantic flair and can’t pull off such elegant acts, you should at least be a bit arrogant after pulling off such a reversal. Being so calm can only mean you’re lying!”
Ye Xiaolian pushed a wheelchair out from behind the crowd.
Tang Thirty-Six was sitting in it.