Volume 2 - Whose Banner Is That, and Whose Name Does It Bear? - Part 1
Liang Province, the Western Frontier.
The flames of war raged, leaving scorched earth stretching for a thousand miles.
The once-imposing Blackstone Great Wall had been destroyed. Its bricks were stained with blood, and the surroundings were filled with ruins and rubble.
The ground was strewn with scattered corpses—a grim mixture of human soldiers and demons. Some bodies were severed at the waist or had limbs torn apart, yet they still clenched their teeth tightly into the flesh of their demonic enemies.
Some demons were riddled with holes, yet their mouths remained clamped on several corpses, as if biting even in their last moments.
Both sides fought desperately, their ferocity and tenacity vividly displayed on this battlefield, where the fate of millions hung in the balance.
Broken weapons, shattered armor, and severed limbs lay everywhere. But now, this battlefield had fallen silent.
...
The human forces had retreated, and the demons had pursued them. Only a few stray demons—scavengers trailing behind the demon horde—sneaked onto this quiet battlefield to feast on the fresh corpses.
A simian demon scrambled atop the ruined city wall, where a battle flag drooped like a rag. It grabbed the broken flagpole and gave it a vigorous shake.
The tattered flag fluttered in the wind, its black "Xuan" character twisting with the motion before sagging lifelessly once more.
The little simian demon screeched in laughter, seemingly amused, and shook the pole again with greater force.
As the flag billowed wildly...
The stage was set for a grand pursuit!
The battlefield shifted five thousand miles away to the vast plains of the western frontier.
Here, an overwhelming demon horde surged like a black tide rising on the horizon. They scaled mountains, crossed rivers, and swept forward in a relentless pursuit.
Ahead of them, tens of thousands of troops charged toward the distant city walls.
Signal smoke rose continuously along the way, delivering vital messages.
On the defensive line ahead, an army charged forth—not to engage, but to delay and buy time for the retreating forces.
“Faster! Faster!!”
Li Xuanli, covered in blood, shouted hoarsely. Although he had taken medicinal pills to stabilize his injuries, his body was utterly exhausted.
Yet he knew he could not fall. His entire body was driven by boiling blood and sheer determination.
Behind them, the demon horde loomed at the edge of the horizon, drawing ever closer.
In the ranks, a signal flare suddenly shot into the sky. A general, a branch member of the Li family, turned back to glance at the approaching tide of demons. He abruptly reined in his horse, slowing his pace.
He roared orders for his battalion to halt, preparing to hold back the demons and buy time for Li Xuanli to escape.
As the supreme commander, Li Xuanli could not fall here. If he did, the defensive lines behind him would surely crumble.
Moreover, Li Xuanli was a direct descendant of the Li family’s main line. Of the nine sons in his generation, only three remained. How could another be lost?
The general recalled his mother’s teachings from his youth: “The main line is noble; those born of branch lines must show deference.”
The Li family’s thousand years of glory owed everything to the main line.
In his youth, he had been defiant, aspiring to rival the sun and moon.
But in middle age, after witnessing the funerals of six main-line heirs and seeing them lead every charge in times of war, he finally understood.
The difference between the main line and branch lines lay not just in birth, but in the weight of responsibility.
After years of serving under Li Xuanli, he had come to admire this main-line general.
His mother’s words echoed in his heart: “The main line is noble; the branch line is expendable.”
Perhaps she had drilled this into him to prevent him from offending the main line in his youth.
Yet these words had rooted deeply within him, an indelible mark on his soul.
As he faced the surging demon horde, a smile spread across the branch-line general’s face.
“Even my mother said my life is expendable. Then what does it matter if I die here, buried alongside you demon beasts?”
“Come on!!”
He raised his halberd high, roaring as he led his battalion in a countercharge.
Li Xuanli saw the flare signal and turned to watch the distant figure on horseback—once a sworn brother who had shared life and death with him.
They had once laughed and shared drinks in the barracks, with no distinctions of lineage between them.
He had even promised to witness the man’s rise to marquis and personally erect a monument for his mother, interring her in the Li family’s ancestral cemetery.
But all of that now seemed out of reach.
His eyes grew wet as he wiped his face, unsure whether it was blood or tears staining his hand.
He did not pause. Gritting his teeth, he roared, “Faster!”
The entire army accelerated toward the defensive line ahead.
...
Five thousand miles stretched between them, with numerous large cities standing on the outskirts of the borderlands.
These cities chose to stand and fight, sacrificing themselves to delay the demon horde and give Li Xuanli more time.
When the demon horde had broken through the border, these cities had no chance of escape. Thus, they chose to die defending their homeland.
A city raises its people; its defenders die for their home.
Yet before the overwhelming tide of demons, these cities were like reefs swallowed by black waves, submerged in an instant.
Even the protective divine arrays could only hold briefly before being shattered by the three Immortal-Level Great Demons leading the horde. Entire cities—soldiers and civilians alike—became nothing but corpses beneath the demons’ claws.
Where the demon horde passed, not a single life was spared.
Some demons gnawed on corpses while pursuing the army, others lingered to feast and were promptly slapped to death by their superiors for delaying the march.
Even so, the demon army advanced at an unstoppable pace, leaving behind fields of blood and mutilated bodies.
“Here they come!”
On the defensive line, the sentries atop the city walls watched nervously as the retreating troops approached with a thunderous roar, pursued closely by the demon horde.
“Prepare to receive them! Ready the arrays for activation once they enter the city!”
“Notify the Si Tianjian!”
“Lower the city bridge!”
Commands rang out from the city walls.
Among the defenders were Immortal-Level experts, their faces grim. They had received intelligence from Li Xuanli’s forces: three demon kings had breached the defenses.
While the demon tide itself could be delayed, the whereabouts of the three demon kings remained unknown, keeping everyone on edge.
The ground trembled as 300,000 battle-worn troops galloped forward like an earthquake.
Li Xuanli saw the city walls in the distance, their defenders ready to receive them. Yet his eyelid twitched uncontrollably, and he roared:
“Activate the array now!!”
His voice carried the force of his soul, booming for miles and reaching the defensive line.
The commander atop the wall, an Immortal-Level expert, frowned, realizing something was wrong. He immediately shouted, “Activate the array now!”
Activating the array would temporarily block Li Xuanli’s forces. While the retreating troops carried the border command tokens, they lacked the permissions required for this secondary line of defense.
Especially since the tens of thousands of soldiers lacked authorization tokens, which were extremely rare and issued only to commanding officers.
“Hmph, quick thinking!”
Suddenly, three figures appeared in the void above, none other than the three demon kings who had broken through the border array earlier. Their sudden appearance was as if they had teleported, revealing their presence after pursuing from the shadows.
These demon kings had deliberately refrained from attacking Li Xuanli’s army, waiting for them to reach the second line of defense. They intended to exploit the delay caused by the array’s activation to breach the city defenses.
This strategy allowed them to crush the secondary line of defense swiftly, enabling them to invade the inner regions of Liang Province with unparalleled speed.
In war, speed was everything. If the demon horde moved quickly enough, the Liang Province forces would be unable to respond in time, and reinforcements from Emperor Yu might fail to arrive.
The demons understood that the unity of the human race made them difficult to defeat. Breaching a single city was not enough; they needed to move swiftly to prevent human forces from rallying.
This tactic had proven effective countless times. Ten years earlier, during the Yanbei war, it had been a textbook case.
Whoosh!
The three demon kings wasted no more time hiding and accelerated toward the city.
One of them raised a hand, unleashing a bone spear-like divine weapon with the rough texture of ancient stone. It surged forward, shrouded in dark clouds, aiming directly at the array.
Boom!
The array began to form just as the bone spear struck the city walls. The force destroyed a section of the wall, killing or injuring hundreds of soldiers in the vicinity. Even Immortal-Level experts paled, their blood surging violently under the residual force.
“Quickly!”
As the bone spear shattered part of the wall, the array completed its activation at the last moment.
Boom! Boom!
The other two demon kings unleashed attacks, but they struck the activated array, triggering countless divine runes to flash as the array absorbed the impact.
The demon king who had thrown the bone spear roared, attempting to recall the weapon, only to find it unresponsive. The array had severed its connection to him, blocking his control.
“Damn it!”
Spitting a mouthful of vile saliva in frustration, the demon king’s anger flared, but he did not panic. Losing the weapon temporarily was a minor inconvenience. Once the array was broken, the spear would be within reach again.
These human forces lacked anyone in the Four Pillars Realm, rendering the loss of the weapon inconsequential in the grand scheme.
“Li family brat, you think fast, don’t you? Let me tear off your head!”
Green veins pulsed across the demon king’s body as his eyes gleamed with cold light. He charged toward Li Xuanli’s forces without hesitation.
Seeing the three demon kings reveal themselves and turn back, Li Xuanli’s expression darkened. As they approached, he roared, “Form up!”
The troops, still on horseback, swiftly merged into a formation, displaying the discipline of seasoned warriors.
The Li family’s elite troops bore banners marked with the character “Xuan.” While the family’s most renowned unit was the “Yuan” Battalion, the “Xuan” Battalion soldiers were similarly formidable, their cultivation honed through mid- to high-grade techniques.
Ordinary young masters from noble families would struggle to match a soldier from the Xuan Battalion in combat unless they were prodigies of extraordinary talent.
Boom!
As the formation solidified, a massive peacock-like phantom emerged from the ranks, screeching toward the heavens before charging at the demon king.
“Hmph, the array is active, but you’ll still die outside these walls!”
The three demon kings turned their fury toward Li Xuanli and his forces, raising their hands to unleash devastating attacks. The earth rumbled as massive platforms of stone rose, aiming to trap the human forces outside the city.
Inside the walls, the Immortal-Level commander immediately called for the Si Tianjian to repair the damaged sections of the array. Fortunately, the destruction was minimal, and prompt repairs could restore its integrity.
“Quickly, open Node 34 of the array! Who will lead a force to support General Li?”
The commander’s shout resounded, prompting several generals to step forward.
“Commander, I may lack skill, but I will pave the way for General Li!”
“Commander, allow me! I will ensure General Li’s path is cleared!”
“I swear to draw the attention of those demon kings!”
Their fervent declarations were not mere empty words. Among these generals, some were branch members of the Li family, others owed their lives to the family’s past acts of grace, and a few were orphans saved from demon-infested lands by the Li family generations ago.
These ties of gratitude and loyalty formed a web of connections, a testament to the Li family’s thousand years of influence.
Taking a deep breath, the Immortal-Level commander pointed to two lesser generals and said, “You two, go together. This task is yours!”
“We obey!”
The two generals responded loudly, their eyes sharp. They quickly led their soldiers, shouting to rally their troops:
“Brothers, follow me out of the city! Those who die in battle will earn eternal honor!”
“Charge!”
The two generals led their troops through a secondary array opening, flanking the battlefield to confront the demon kings.
Boom!
The three demon kings struck like falling mountains, their overwhelming demonic energy crashing toward Li Xuanli’s troops. The phantom peacock screeched in defiance but was quickly smashed into the ground.
As the peacock vanished, countless soldiers coughed blood and fell from their horses, their bodies wracked with pain.
Yet the crimson-blooded horses, intelligent and loyal, did not abandon their riders. After running a short distance, they turned back to drag their fallen masters back onto their saddles, galloping forward once more.
Near Li Xuanli, Li Wushuang spat blood. She was part of the formation and now looked as pale as paper, her blood and energy in turmoil.
Above them, the overwhelming demonic pressure loomed closer than ever before, bringing the chilling sensation of death...