"This time, the secret struggle between the demons and us began three years ago. But in the end, we failed. They successfully broke through the barrier between the two realms.
We still underestimated the power the demons had cultivated while enduring humiliation. Although the strongest of these forces were only second-rate sects, and most were third-rate, last-rate, or even rogue cultivators, their influence spread throughout the entire Desolate Moon Continent.
At the cost of exposing more than half of the sects under their control and allowing them to be uprooted by the Four Great Sects , the demons successfully diverted the attention of the Four Great Sects. This allowed them to obtain two 'Realm-Breaking Pearls,' while we only managed to get the one you secured at the Xuanqing Temple."
Wei Zhongran said with great regret.
"So they used these two 'Realm-Breaking Pearls' to open the barrier between the two realms at the South Sea," Li Yan said to himself.
Wei Zhongran shook his head. "You're wrong this time. The demons are not as simple-minded as they seem. After getting the first 'Realm-Breaking Pearl,' they didn't rush to break through the barrier.
Before the South Sea incident, our conventional thinking was that they would definitely carry the 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' to launch a sneak attack on the Devil's Cliff Crevice again, detonating it once more. After all, the Devil's Cliff Crevice was long acknowledged as the weakest point in the barrier between the Demon Realm and the Desolate Moon Continent.
Moreover, it had already been severely damaged in the past. If it were to be attacked by the 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' again, even with the protection of the grand formation, the success rate would still be at least fifty percent. But we were all looking in the wrong direction."
Wei Zhongran sighed and explained helplessly.
After a short pause, Wei Zhongran continued, "Just when we all thought so, the remaining demons on the Desolate Moon Continent did exactly that. But they did it after ensuring they had two 'Realm-Breaking Pearls' in hand, as part of a grand deception.
One day, more than a year ago, under the personal leadership of a Demonic General , several Demon Lords and sixty human Golden Core cultivators suddenly attacked the Devil's Cliff Crevice.
Although we had taken precautions, the Devil's Cliff Crevice had not been attacked from our side for many years. We still underestimated their determination. This Demonic General self-detonated his Nascent Soul without any regard for his own life as soon as he arrived.
Even though there were three Nascent Soul cultivators guarding the Devil's Cliff Crevice at the time, faced with the self-detonation of a Demonic General, they could only temporarily retreat. The other demon cultivators took the opportunity to throw in a 'Realm-Breaking Pearl.'
Fortunately, the seal on the Devil's Cliff Crevice had just been reinforced by two seniors, Spirit Transformation Yuandu of the Supreme Mystery Teachings and Spirit Transformation Daling of the Jingtu Sect. So in the end, this 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' only managed to expand the Devil's Cliff Crevice and failed to destroy the sealing formation.
As for this group of attacking demons and cultivators, except for one Demon Lord who possessed multiple secret arts and managed to escape at the cost of consuming a great deal of Essence Blood and dropping in realm, all other invaders were killed on the spot.
However, our Golden Core cultivators also suffered heavy casualties, and one Nascent Soul cultivator's Physical Body was destroyed by the blast while trying to stop the Demonic General's self-detonation, leaving only his Nascent Soul alive.
Another Nascent Soul cultivator was severely injured by the aftershock of the Demonic General's self-detonation, his cultivation dropping from Mid-stage Nascent Soul directly to Initial-stage Nascent Soul."
Li Yan was terrified as he listened. He hadn't expected such a major event to have occurred in the cultivation world during his years away. Even the incredibly powerful Nascent Soul cultivators had suffered such heavy casualties.
These were extremely secret matters. The fact that Wei Zhongran could speak of them showed that his status in the Malevolent Spirit Sect was far more than just a Peak Master.
It should be known that sometimes even the Sect Master, Yan Longzi, had no right to be informed about matters concerning Nascent Soul cultivators.
Secondly, it showed Wei Zhongran's trust in him. From Wei Zhongran's last few sentences, Li Yan already knew of the existence of two Spirit Transformation stage cultivators. Spirit Transformation cultivators were even more mysterious beings on the Desolate Moon Continent. Many people only guessed at their existence, let alone knew their names.
A Demonic General was equivalent to a human Nascent Soul cultivator. This was the first time Li Yan truly understood the terrifying power of a Demonic General's self-detonation. Even three Nascent Soul cultivators working together couldn't stop it, and it resulted in one death and one injury.
Li Yan was of course a sensible person. Since Wei Zhongran didn't tell him the origins of the three Nascent Soul cultivators guarding the Devil's Cliff Crevice, he naturally wouldn't ask. He just thought to himself.
'Regardless of whether they died or were injured, if any of them were Nascent Soul seniors from the Malevolent Spirit Sect, the sect's vitality is going to be greatly damaged.'
A Nascent Soul cultivator was the most important and powerful existence in any cultivation sect in this world.
Although Spirit Transformation cultivators were the true top tier in the Mortal Realm , they were usually only used to deter enemies. Moreover, it was said that Spirit Transformation cultivators no longer truly belonged to this Mortal Realm.
They remained in the Mortal Realm either because they were not confident in their ascension to the Immortal Spirit Realm or because they were still searching for a good spatial node for ascension.
Ascension was not something that could be done by casually leaving this dimension and finding any node. Doing so would, ninety-nine percent of the time, result in being lost in the chaotic spatial currents for a lifetime until one finally perished.
At the same time, these Spirit Transformation cultivators either suppressed their cultivation or would not easily use their magic power again.
Because doing so would trigger the rejection of the laws of heaven and earth, which might directly cast them out of the Desolate Moon Continent and into some random chaotic spatial current. Then, everything would be left to fate.
After listening to his master Wei Zhongran's explanation, Li Yan finally understood the effectiveness of the demons' deceptive strategy.
First, it confused the human cultivators into thinking that the demons' main target was the Devil's Cliff Crevice.
Second, it made them believe the other side had only one "Realm-Breaking Pearl." Otherwise, if two "Realm-Breaking Pearls" were thrown into the Devil's Cliff Crevice at the same time, the outcome would have been very different.
With this assumption, the human cultivators would lower their guard significantly, only strengthening the defenses of the Devil's Cliff Crevice. This would give the demons more room to act in secret. Li Yan then asked, "Then how did they find this weak point in the barrier between the two realms in the South Sea?"
"We didn't know the answer to this question at first either. It was only later, after the great change in the South Sea, that several Spirit Transformation seniors carefully studied the 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' obtained from the Xuanqing Temple. Although they still couldn't drive the 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' in the slightest, they did make some discoveries.
Besides the activation incantation, the 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' should have another set of incantations that can be used to sense the surrounding environment, thereby obtaining feedback on certain auras or perceptions of the two realms, which can be used to find new weak points in the barrier.
Unfortunately, the other side first used a grand deception to draw most of our attention to the Devil's Cliff Crevice. Their subsequent actions in the South Sea went completely unnoticed.
And this barrier was even weaker than the Devil's Cliff Crevice. One can only say that the demons' luck had arrived. A single 'Realm-Breaking Pearl' really opened the passage between the two realms. This is truly a tragedy for the entire Desolate Moon Continent. Alas!"
At this point, Wei Zhongran sighed softly. Thinking of the sects and families in the South Sea that had surrendered, and the tens of thousands of cultivators who had been killed, he could only sigh helplessly.
Hearing this, Li Yan was also silent for a moment. The demons had won this gamble. If their luck had been just a little bit worse, the Desolate Moon Continent could have had at least another ten thousand years of peace.
For this plan, the demons had not hesitated to expose the hidden pawns they had cultivated for many years, allowing the Four Great Sects to uproot them and suffer a great loss of vitality.
Even if the strength of this barrier in the South Sea was comparable to the Devil's Cliff Crevice, without three "Realm-Breaking Pearls," the demons' efforts would still have been in vain.
But all of this was just hypothetical.
Soon, Li Yan thought of another question. "Master, the headquarters of the Supreme Mystery Teachings was painstakingly built over tens of millions of years. I heard it was breached by the demons in a very short time. Is that true?"
"Yes. In fact, the Supreme Mystery Teachings' headquarters only held out for half a day. The reason is that the other side had four Demon Marshal-level beings, while the Supreme Mystery Teachings only had one Spirit Transformation being, Senior Yuandu.
If not for the Seventy-Two Heavenly Gates Grand Formation at the Supreme Mystery Teachings' headquarters being a top-tier ancient formation, with four Demon Marshal-level beings attacking, the Supreme Mystery Teachings might have ceased to exist in a single encounter."
"Four Demon Marshals!" Li Yan sucked in a breath of cold air. Four Spirit Transformation-level beings appearing at once. The Supreme Mystery Teachings was too unlucky. Any of the Four Great Sects would have likely faced the same fate.
Immediately, Li Yan thought of a terrifying problem, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.
Wei Zhongran seemed to see through Li Yan's thoughts at a glance. He shook his head gently.
"Are you worried about that passage in the South Sea? Since it's been opened, more demon experts will come through, right?"
Li Yan was of course thinking this. Four Demon Marshal-level supreme experts had appeared at once. If the other side continuously sent more demons, how could the Desolate Moon Continent withstand this calamity?
In front of these people, he, Li Yan, was just a tiny bug. He would soon die in this invasion. And what worried Li Yan even more were his parents and other relatives at home.
"You don't need to worry about this. That passage between the two realms in the South Sea has been completely destroyed. This has been confirmed by several Spirit Transformation ancestors working together."
Wei Zhongran said in a deep voice. Li Yan quickly noticed the meaning in his words. It was confirmed by several ancestors working together, not destroyed by them working together.
Sure enough, after glancing at the uneasy Li Yan, Wei Zhongran spoke again.
"Precisely because that weak node between the two realms was so easily broken through by a single 'Realm-Breaking Pearl,' it also shows its instability. According to our final analysis, the other side sent over at most about ten thousand demon cultivators this time.
The destruction of the South Sea passage was mainly due to the pressure brought by the four Demon Marshal-level experts passing through. The damage to the passage was irreversible.
Although the other side tried their best to maintain it, wanting to teleport as many demons as possible, according to the intelligence we obtained, after the four Demon Marshal-level experts came over, they found that they could no longer teleport even one more.
Otherwise, the passage would instantly collapse, and all the demon cultivators inside would perish, including the Demon Marshals who came with them.
So, under their painstaking maintenance, they could only teleport Demonic Generals, Demon Lords, and Demonic Soldiers afterward. And in order to teleport more demons, most of them were Demon Lords and Demonic Soldiers; even Demonic Generals were few.
This passage only lasted for less than two hours before it completely collapsed."
At this point, a trace of relief appeared on Wei Zhongran's usually calm face. Although it had still brought a catastrophe to the Desolate Moon Continent, there was at least a possibility of resisting and killing the enemy.
Otherwise, there would have been no hope at all. From this, it could be predicted that the number of high-level demon cultivators absolutely far exceeded their own.
Li Yan's complexion had also recovered a lot by now. At least they still had a chance to fight back.
But then, Wei Zhongran's next words made Li Yan's heart, which had just slightly relaxed, tense up again.