"Hehehe..."


    Shen Cheng cried out in agony, his eyes filled with extreme hatred, fixating on the rat demon as if he wished to bite it to death.


    At death’s door, Shen Cheng faintly heard a voice filled with pleasant surprise.


    "Amitayus Celestial Honor! Atst, this Taoist has seen a living person, and also a rather unorthodox demon race!"


    The speaker was none other than Zhou Yi, whose escaping light had passed by the ruins of Yu City. His Divine Sense swept across and detected the aura of humans and demons, prompting him to descend immediately to investigate.


    The rat demon’s expression turned grave; it could not sense the strength of the Taoist and demanded loudly.


    "Where did this scoundrele from?"


    "This poor Taoist is a Qi-refinement practitioner from Kunlun Mountain, Xuan Yi!"


    Zhou Yi waved his hand, and a divine light fell upon Shen Cheng, refining his Qi-Blood once more and obliterating all the parasitic eggs.


    "Kunlun?"


    The rat demon cried out in shock, its ears erect like a rabbit’s, and it pped its wings to flee outside.


    The fierce beasts standing by its sides, fearless, followed the rat demon’smand and attacked Zhou Yi, spewing poison and breathing fire, each as powerful as the Foundation Establishment Stage.


    "Heard the name of Kunlun and still wish to flee?"


    Zhou Yi snorted coldly, and the Light Dividing Sword flew out from his sleeve, transforming into dozens of sword lights that swept across.


    In an instant, the fierce beasts, previously howling fiercely, fell silent, their heads tumbling to the ground, still bearing the expressions they had in life.


    "Mercy, Immortal Master!"


    Seeing the sword lights approaching, the rat demon panicked and fell from the sky, hugging its head and begging for mercy.


    Zhou Yi captured it within his hand and directly applied the Soul Search technique, forcibly extracting its memories.


    A momentter.


    The rat demon’s eyes were dull, its mind muddled, and its demon soul damaged—it had be an idiot.


    "Fierce beasts actually came from the humanboratories!"


    Zhou Yi stood in shock for a long while, learning from the rat demon’s memories that the Six-Eared Demon King had escaped theboratory and spread the form of Elixir Number Zero all around.


    Lacking the experimental environment of humans, the crudely made Elixir Number Zero by the Six-Eared Demon King had an even lower sess rate in merging.


    After wild beasts ingested it, fewer than one in ten survived, and the urrence of intelligence was one in ten thousand.


    However, beasts differ from humans in their vast numbers andck of intelligence; for example, a pair of rats can multiply into thousands within a year, and there are even more terrifying numbers of insects.


    The majority of fierce beasts spurred on by Elixir Number Zerocked intelligence and knew only to destroy and kill, being the one in ten thousand intelligent demon servants.


    In the subsequent hundreds of years, demons, with their endless numbers and fearless fierce beasts, attacked cities and conquerednds.


    "All of Nine Continents have fallen. Now, the only human settlements left are the cities close to Xianjing, spanning over four thousand li, and even that territory is continuously shrinking..."


    Zhou Yi sighed helplessly. One could say that humanity had destroyed itself.


    If they had not researched Elixir Number Zero and instead developed martial arts and Immortal techniques ording to the ancient methods, orthodox demons’ speed of cultivation could not match that of humans.


    Humans also had the advantage of a headstart. The Tai Xuan Jing Zhou Yi had passed down was a top-level Qi-refinement technique, giving demons absolutely no chance to rise.


    But human efforts can’t fight fate!


    Demons inherit abilities through their bloodlines, which align even more closely with Elixir Number Zero.


    The current demons have abandoned the ancient methods, relying entirely on the elixirs to stimte their bloodlines. In Zhou Yi’s view, this was entirely like cultivating demonic techniques, advancing at a miraculously fast pace. Even a mere rat demon had over a dozen Foundation Establishment Stage fierce beasts as servants.


    The Rat King had awakened its intelligence less than ten years ago!


    With such an expansion rate, even humans with Heavenly Spiritual Roots couldn’tpete—of course, the price paid was in millions of wild animal corpses.


    "But with only Elixir Number Zero, demons couldn’t easily conquer Cloud Continent. Those mindless Qi Refinement Realm fierce beasts could only turn to mud under heavy artillery fire!"


    "Following Elixir Number Zero, there came the development of Elixir Number One, and the Elixir Number Two that the Rat King obsesses over..."


    Zhou Yi found in the rat demon’s memory that it had continuously attacked Liang City to obtain the form for Elixir Number Two, simr to how in the old days honors could be exchanged for Immortal cultivation techniques.


    "The fierce beasts stimted by Elixir Number Zero have the strength corresponding to the Qi Refinement Realm and without intelligence, magic artifacts, etc., are certainly no match for Qi Refinement cultivators."


    "After taking Elixir Number One, fierce beasts’ power may bepared to the Foundation Establishment Stage."


    "If a Foundation Establishment Stage fierce beast takes Elixir Number Two and survives, could it beparable to the Golden Core..."


    Zhou Yi’s eyebrows furrowed slightly; considering the current environment of heaven and earth, it was theoretically difficult to trigger a heavenly tribtion for Core Formation. However, the elixirs strengthened the physical body and brought forth reckless mutations without regard for the consequences.


    It was not impossible they could stimte the birth of a mindless Golden Core demon body!


    "If I had emerged from seclusion a few hundred years earlier, I could have spent some years and wiped out all the demons. Now, with demons rampant across Nine Continents and the unknown Elixir Number Three, we must think of a long-term n..."


    Zhou Yi couldn’t help but feel guilty at heart, after all, he was the source of the technology that led to the downfall of the Nine Continents.


    If he hadn’t pushed for technological development, history would have progressed normally, and society would still be feudal, without any research on the No. 0 Elixir.


    "Sigh..."


    Zhou Yi looked up at the sky, his gazeplex. Even if he didn’t think developing technology was wrong, he would never again interfere with the course of history.


    "Since things havee to this, I must ensure the survival of humanity."


    "Based on the memories of the rat demon, humanity developed a martial arts system centered around the No. 0 Elixir. As the new martial arts system took shape, with everyone practicing martial arts, the advancement of the demon race slowed down!"


    "Even without my intervention, humanity might not be doomed. In desperate times, there will always be a few prodigies!"


    "Some may cultivate and form their Golden Core, or sessfully take the No. 3 Elixir, achievingbat powerparable to true immortals, which is enough to protect the continuity of the human race..."


    While Zhou Yi was deep in thought, Shen Cheng, who was beside him, woke up.


    When he opened his eyes and saw the blue-robed elder with white hair and aplexion as rosy as a baby’s, one term immediately came to mind: the bearing of an immortal.


    Shen Cheng looked around, the ground littered with the corpses of fierce beasts, the valuable blood of second-order beasts spilling carelessly.


    "Daoist master, was it you who saved me?"


    "My name is Tang Xuan, a Loose Cultivator of the Eastern Sea."


    Zhou Yi casually gave a name and asked, "I have long practiced overseas and am unaware of the plight of the Nine Continents’ humanity. Could you enlighten me?"


    "You shouldn’t havee."


    Shen Cheng sighed, "Only Xianjing remains in the Nine Continents, gathering all of humanity led by the Great Zhou’s inner cab to form the Alliance of the Nine Continents’ Humanity in hopes of preserving our lineage."


    Zhou Yi already knew this information; the rat demon had never been to the human territories but had captured many humans for interrogation.


    Zhou Yi asked, "Do you know about the Martial Arts University?"


    "Of course, the Martial Arts University is humanity’sst hope!"


    Shen Cheng exined, "The founder, Principal Xiao, is the strongest human. It’s said he has the power to take the No. 3 Elixir, but the sess rate is too low, so the alliance doesn’t dare to risk it."


    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Zhou Yi nodded slightly. Advancing through elixirs is faster than the path of immortality, but with a much higher mortality rate.


    "I will head to Xianjing now, and I can take you to a human city on the way."


    "If you have matters to attend to, you can go on ahead."


    Shen Cheng nced at the beast corpses and said, "The fierce beast blood is a vital ingredient for elixirs. I wish to collect some to take back, if you would allow it."


    "Of course."


    Zhou Yi performed a hand seal and used a demonic secret technique. In the blink of an eye, all the corpses turned into dry bones.


    The blood in the air coalesced into severalrge orbs that shrank under the pressure of mana, finally turning into a string of blood-red beads that fell into Shen Cheng’s hands.


    Shen Cheng was astounded. Such a secret technique was almostparable to an Immortal Technique, and he bowed deeply.


    "Thank you, Daoist master."


    Zhou Yi waved his hand and stored the rat demon in a storage bag, its bloodline of an ancient flying rat beast potentially useful for research.


    Clouds formed under his feet, lifting the two and continuing eastward.


    "Where is your home?"


    "Liang City."


    Shen Cheng flew high in the sky, the stars seemingly within reach, and found the experience both mysterious and novel.


    Zhou Yi asked, "Is Liang City about to fall?"


    "Yes."


    Shen Cheng’s expression was resolute, "Now that I’ve be a martial artist, I no longer need to evacuate ahead of time. If Liang City falls, I’d rather die killing a few more fierce beasts!"


    "Don’t worry, it won’te to that."


    Zhou Yi knew from the rat demon that the five demons attacking Liang City were not too powerful and could be easily wiped out.


    "How many people are practicing the ancient methods nowadays?"


    "Very few."


    Shen Cheng said helplessly, "Compared to elixirs, the ancient methods progress too slowly. Only a very few with exceptional talent practice the ancient cultivation methods."


    "I’ve heard that these geniuses protect the alliance in secret, only responsible for cultivating."


    "In the event that humanity ispletely extinguished, they will travel to the Four Seas to preserve humanity’sst spark."