Chapter 152 - One Year

“Senior Brother Meng, I saw 30,000 demon ice sculptures outside the northern city wall. Did any demons escape?” asked the thin man.

“The demons might have split up their troops in advance,” said Meng Chuan. “But amongst the 30,000 demons I encountered, not a single one escaped.”

The thin man was secretly alarmed. Not a single one escaped? This fellow disciple was truly formidable!

“Alright, I’ve no more questions.” The thin man smiled and said, “Leave the rest to Earth Net.”

“Alright.” Meng Chuan also understood the process. He immediately transformed into a bolt of lightning and streaked across the sky. He arrived at a distant mountain peak before disappearing completely.

From the beginning to the end, Meng Chuan had not revealed his identity as a Patroller. His identity as a Patroller was a secret. To the majority, Meng Chuan just happened to be nearby when the demons invaded.

Even the fact that Meng Chuan had saved Green Mountain Prefecture City had to be kept a secret! Often, stories of roaming Godfiends saving a city could be heard, but the identity of those Godfiends was never publicly announced. If their identities were made public, the demons would be able to determine the size of the human race’s “Patroller network” after gathering enough intelligence. After all, only a few Godfiends would happen to be a city for no reason. Most were Patrollers that rushed over to provide reinforcements!

…

Swoosh.

A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and landed in North River Pass. There were hundreds of thousands of people living here. In terms of size, North River Pass wasn’t much smaller than Green Mountain Prefecture City.

Meng Chuan quickly returned to his residence. The window was still open. Meng Chuan entered the manor through the window.

With a lantern illuminating her surroundings, Liu Qiyue read a book on the bed. When she saw Meng Chuan, she revealed a look of delight. “Ah Chuan, you’re back? Did everything go well?”

“Yes.” Meng Chuan placed Demon Slayer by the bed. He took off his outer robe and got into bed. He smiled and said, “It’s alright. The demons hadn’t attacked the city when I arrived. I killed six demon monarchs and vanquished 30,000 demons.”

Liu Qiyue nodded. Such combat feats were normal to her. As a Great Solar Godfiend with a perfected Phoenix Divine body, she was slightly stronger than Meng Chuan in terms of wide-spread destruction. Her phoenix flames were just that terrifying. However, she was slower than Meng Chuan. If 30,000 demons fled in all directions, up to 5000 demons might escape.

“A few hundred mortals were killed when the demon monarchs entered the city.” Meng Chuan shook his head gently.

“It’s already good enough that only a few hundred were killed during a demon invasion,” Liu Qiyue comforted him.

“Yes, don’t worry. I’m already used to it. The sun hasn’t risen yet. Let’s sleep a little longer,” said Meng Chuan as he lay down.

“Alright.” Liu Qiyue put down her book and continued sleeping.

…

At North River Pass, the demons never attacked again. Perhaps they were trying to come up with a way to deal with the tough nut that was Meng Chuan.

On 27th August, Meng Chuan discovered a request for help in the early morning. He traveled over 300 kilometers, rushing to Gaolan County in Jadedusk Prefecture. An unstable World Entrance had appeared six kilometers away from Gaolan County City. A second Firmament demon monarch led 5000 demons to attack Gaolan County. As Gaolan County didn’t have any Godfiends presiding over it, they failed to put up a resistance.

After Meng Chuan arrived, he killed the demon monarch first. It took him one minute to run around Gaolan County and kill all the scattered demons. Over 8000 out of 90,000 Gaolan County City’s residents died!

As Gaolan County City had weak defenses, the first thing people did was hide in the tunnels. The demons were scattered everywhere in the city because they were trying to force their way into the trap-filled tunnels! The demons didn’t have time to breach the tunnels before Meng Chuan arrived. If he had arrived 15 minutes later, probably no living humans would’ve been left in the city.

Meng Chuan could travel nearly 1500 kilometers in 15 minutes! He was much faster than Marquis Godfiends. He was considered fast, even among Regis Godfiends. If he became a Marquis Godfiend, his speed would be absurd! If his strength continued to increase, his speed would creep closer and closer to the speed of lightning.

…

On 19th September, Meng Chuan had just eaten dinner and was still cultivating his saber art when he received a request for help.

He immediately traveled over 250 kilometers to Fish Zen County in Guhe Prefecture. He killed a second Firmament demon monarch and 6000 demons. As for Fish Zen County, over 3000 out of 60,000 residents died.

…

Time gradually passed, and it was the end of the year. Meng Chuan had been in North River Pass for a year. He had only encountered one demon attack on the city pass and three requests for help.

3rd December. Archean Mountain, night.

“Supremacy, this is today’s dossier.” Archean Mountain Lord placed the dossier on the desk.

Supremacy Qin Wu—who was reading—put down his book. He picked up the dossier and began reading. He frowned. “Today, two World Entrances appeared in our Great Zhou Dynasty?”

“Yes.” Archean Mountain Lord nodded. “Unstable World Entrances have been appearing more frequently. However, these two World Entrances were too far from cities! The demons didn’t send their troops to attack. However, according to Earth Net’s investigations, there should be demons that took advantage of these two World Entrances and infiltrated the human world.”

“Yes.” Supremacy Qin frowned and nodded slightly. “The number of demons that have infiltrated the human world is increasing.”

An unstable World Entrance could appear anywhere. In fact, only a small number appeared near cities.

Most appeared in the wilderness or remote mountains. They were far from any city. As long as they were 25 kilometers away, sending out a demon army would only lead to them being discovered on the way! With the speed the lesser demons could move, Godfiend reinforcements would’ve arrived before they could each reach a city.

Therefore, demons would not attack cities if a World Entrance was too far away. Instead, they sent a few demons to infiltrate the human world. They would spread out in search of opportunities to carry out destruction.

It was also for survival. There was a limit to the number of demons that could be provided for in the Demon Realm. They also had wars that never ended. With the help of unstable World Entrances, they sent batches of demons into the human world. This reduced the burden on the Demon Realm’s various factions. The demons could enter the human world and “earn” a living! They were killing two birds with one stone by doing this!

“These demons sneak in and hide in different areas. They hide in lakes and mountains. Typically, a few greater demons lead dozens of lesser demons,” said Archean Mountain Lord. “It’s not easy to find them. Even if we find them, we will only wipe out a few demons. These demons are finding opportunities to attack human villages and forts.”

“Yes.” Supremacy Qin Wu nodded.

Currently, human villages had forts built to withstand the repeated sneak attacks from the demons.

“To prevent unrest, we claim that World Entrances suddenly appear which result in demons attacking the village forts,” said Supremacy Qin Wu. “In fact, most of these small-scale sneak attacks are done by the demons lurking in our human world. As more and more demons appear, it’ll be impossible for us to hide the truth. When people learn that there are many demons lurking everywhere, I’m afraid it will cause great panic.”

“Earth Net is already in search of them.” Archean Mountain Lord said, “They’ve been sweeping the entire world. Every demon group found is destroyed. The demons don’t dare to appear easily either.”

“But the demons are different from us. Many of them live underground or in the water,” said Supremacy Qin Wu. “According to the dossiers, Earth Net is lacking in Godfiends. If Earth Net’s Godfiend population can increase by 50 percent, their searches will be more rigorous.”

“The various city passes are in desperate need for Godfiends too,” said Archean Mountain Lord helplessly.

Qin Wu nodded. The biggest problem for humans in this war was the lack of Godfiends!

“If we have a few more fast Patrollers, we can relieve the pressure,” said Archean Mountain Lord. “For example, Meng Chuan is in charge of eighteen prefectures that are within 500 kilometers of North River Pass. He has done very well in the past year. He quickly arrived each time. The prefecture city’s losses are negligible. The losses suffered by the two county cities were relatively low as well.

There’s only one Godfiend with a perfected Lightning Devastator Fiend Body. There’s only a handful of people who have completed the Seventh or Eighth Refinement. Their speed is far inferior to Meng Chuan, so they are given much smaller areas to watch over. Supremacy Qin suddenly said, “I do have an idea. The small city passes spread across the Great Zhou territory will each have an ordinary Great Solar Godfiend stationed. Their secondary duties are to help Earth Net.

“Every month, they will search for demons in the surrounding 150 kilometers for ten days. In any case, the small city passes are quite safe. An ordinary Great Solar godfiend won’t have many problems dealing with a demon invasion,” said Supremacy Qin Wu. “With a Great Solar Godfiend searching their designated areas for ten days each month, the burden on Earth net will greatly reduce.”

“This is just an idea I came up with. Discuss it with the other Elders and see if it’s suitable,” instructed Supremacy Qin Wu.

Archean Mountain Lord nodded slightly. “I’ll carefully scrutinize the strength of the various small city passes. I’ll try my best to ensure the strength of the small city passes while increasing Earth Net’s strength.”

“Supremacy.” Archean Mountain Lord could not help but say, “In the past year, more Godfiends have died in battle than the previous year. Archean Mountain and Black Sand Grotto-Heaven can still hold on, but Two World Island’s situation is quite a mess…”

“I know. You can return first,” instructed Supremacy Qin Wu.

“Yes.” Archean Mountain Lord could only leave.

Supremacy Qin Wu sat there for a long time before he picked up the book and continued reading.