The Northern Border Region of the Tianyuan Continent had now become a field of slaughter. The Mountains Surrounding Skull Valley, once green and filled with ancient trees, were now barren, scorched by sulfuric flames. The black earth had melted, releasing purplish poisonous smoke capable of dissolving an ordinary practitioner's flesh within seconds.
Above the blazing red sky, which looked like a lake of blood, dimensional cracks stretching dozens of miles yawned open. From beyond those enormous rifts came the deafening roars of thousands of dark creatures. The Blood Demon Army—the vanguard soldiers of the Demon Realm—crept down like starving locusts. They slaughtered the settlements along the border, absorbing the blood of mortal cultivators to strengthen their demonic bodies.
Behind the fallen border defense fortress, dozens of cultivators from the great sects of the Tianyuan Continent fought desperately. Flying swords and waves of Qi from Golden Core Realm practitioners crashed into the masses of demons again and again, yet the countless enemies continued pouring out of the dimensional rifts.
"Hold the line! Don't let them breach the Border Gate!" shouted a white-bearded Elder from the Heavenly Sword Sect, his hands trembling as he held back the swing of a giant sword.
*CRACK!*
A gigantic pitch-black claw with three horns suddenly burst out of the sulfuric smoke. With a single sweep, it snapped the Elder's sword in two, sending his body flying hundreds of meters into a stone wall. He spat fresh blood before passing out.
A gigantic creature ten meters tall stepped out of the poisonous fog. Its skin was covered in thick steel scales, while its red eyes radiated the aura of the **Early Pure Soul Realm**. He was Demon General Kuang Sha, one of the trusted commanders of Demon King Mo Zun!
"Hahaha! Weak mortal humans!" Demon General Kuang Sha roared, his deep voice shaking the earth. "Your blood is fit only to serve as an offering for the resurrection of His Excellency, Demon King Mo Zun! Slaughter them all! Don't leave a single one breathing!"
Deep despair spread through the mortal cultivators. In the face of a Pure Soul Realm Demon General, their resistance was nothing more than a joke.
Yet just as Demon General Kuang Sha raised his bone axe to crush the last line of cultivators, a dark purple-gold slash of light descended from the highest point in the sky!
*WUSH!*
The light split the red clouds, streaking down at a speed beyond sound!
*BOOOOM!*
The slash struck precisely between Demon General Kuang Sha and the line of cultivators. A devastating explosion erupted, blasting hundreds of Blood Demon soldiers nearby apart into black dust. A massive crater fifty meters wide appeared in the poisonous earth.
At the center of the smoking crater stood a young man dressed in a black robe trimmed with gold. His silver-gold hair fluttered in the poisonous wind, while the God-Demon Sword on his back radiated an immortal glow.
Xiao Chen had arrived.
The entire battlefield suddenly fell silent. The human cultivators stared at the mysterious young man with wide eyes, unable to believe that someone dared stand alone before the entire Demon Army.
"Who are you, human brat?!" Demon General Kuang Sha called out, narrowing his eyes as he sensed something strange. The young man's cultivation appeared to be at the **Foundation Establishment, Third Level**, yet the aura he emitted made the demonic blood within Kuang Sha's body tremble with irrational fear.
Xiao Chen slowly raised his head. His golden irises, crowned by red pupils, locked onto Demon General Kuang Sha.
"A worm from the Demon Realm dares act presumptuously beneath these heavens?" Xiao Chen's voice echoed flatly, yet it carried waves of *Emperor's Pressure* capable of subduing dark souls.
"Presumptuously?!" Kuang Sha raged, furious at being looked down upon by a Foundation Establishment brat. "You ignorant little whelp! Die!"
Kuang Sha swung his massive bone axe with all his strength. A wave of black sulfuric flames surged forth, splitting the earth as it raced toward Xiao Chen!
Xiao Chen did not even draw his sword. He merely took one step forward and flicked the sleeve of his robe.
*BZZZZT!*
**[God-Demon Destruction Sword Art: Eternal Fortress]**
A black-gold aura erupted from Xiao Chen's body, forming a gigantic mirror marked with ancient dragon symbols. Kuang Sha's sulfuric flame attack struck the mirror and suddenly reversed direction, shooting back toward Kuang Sha with twice its original power!
*BLAR!*
"AAAGHH!"
Kuang Sha was hurled backward, his steel-scaled chest severely burned by his own flames. He vomited foul-smelling black blood and stared at Xiao Chen with a face full of horror and terror.
"This technique... this aura..." Kuang Sha's gigantic body trembled violently. As a senior general of the Demon Realm, he recognized the ancient aura contained within the young man's Qi. "Impossible... the Ancient God-Demon Emperor's Bloodline?! How could a human possess the bloodline of the Sacred Sovereign?!"
Xiao Chen slowly stepped closer. With every step he took, the faint shadow of an Ancient Emperor with golden horns and wings of light appeared behind him, filling the entire northern border sky.
"Demon General Kuang Sha." Xiao Chen drew the God-Demon Sword from his back. The blade trembled eagerly, absorbing the dark aura surrounding the battlefield. "Send my regards to Mo Zun. Tell him... the True Ruler of the God and Demon Realm has returned, and the time has come for him to kneel!"
*SRING!*
A single straight slash swept across the borderlands. The golden-purple light cleaved the gigantic body of Demon General Kuang Sha, along with the thousands of demons behind him, in two at the same time.
The blazing red border sky suddenly grew calm, cleansed by the awakening of the Unrivaled Ruler!