Chapter 279 They were once prey of the Void?

Deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains lies the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons.

This place is shrouded in poisonous miasma year-round, and even the top hunter teams in the Yellow Zone would never dare to set foot in this core territory of the demon race.

But at this moment, outside the "Ancestral Spirit Abyss," the core of the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons, there was only deathly silence.

Hundreds of terrifying demons, each with a cultivation level of at least the third rank and capable of wreaking havoc in any human fortress city on a normal day, lay quietly at the edge of the abyss. Their breathing was heavy and suppressed, and their dark gold, eerie green, and crimson demonic eyes flickered with extremely complex light: rage, fear, and an unprecedented sense of absurdity.

In front of them, a nine-headed lion, its body surrounded by terrifying lightning, stared intently at the massive skeleton at the bottom of the abyss, which had just been dug out of the depths of the earth by a dozen or so powerful demons.

It was the remains of a powerful demon race member, long since petrified and drained of all his essence by some extremely terrifying force.

The skeleton stretched for a kilometer, and its origins in life were unknown—it belonged to some terrifying beast. But what was most chilling was that the chest cavity of this skeleton wasn't shattered by a magical artifact; instead, it exhibited an extremely bizarre "dissolving" appearance. It was as if a gigantic maw from an abyss, radiating intense corrosiveness, had forcibly bitten off a large chunk of flesh from its body.

Beside the skeleton lay a battle flag shattered into strips of cloth and a massive stone tablet covered in claw marks.

"Boss Nine Heads, this is impossible..."

A mutated tiger king, its body engulfed in eerie blue flames, swung its massive tail in extreme frustration. "Those things those humans dug up in Emei and Taishan must be made up by them! We demons were once the overlords of heaven and earth, how could we possibly be chased and eaten by those shapeless black muds like in the murals?!"

The Tiger King hadn't finished speaking.

"Bang!"

One of the nine lion's heads suddenly spewed out an extremely violent bolt of lightning, blasting the Tiger King's massive body away, sending it crashing heavily into the abyss's rock wall, sending shards of rock flying.

"Idiot! Open your dog eyes and look at that monument!"

The nine-headed lion roared with extreme ferocity, its voice shaking the entire Valley of Ten Thousand Demons. "Do you think I want to believe this?! Do you think I want to admit that we demons were just like those weak humans, mere prey in the mouths of others?!"

At the bottom of the abyss, the stone tablet covered with claw marks revealed ancient demonic script carved with demonic blood under the lightning of the nine-headed lion.

These words are not some profound martial arts technique, but rather a tearful warning left by the powerful demon clan member who died in battle:

The Abyss Demon is neither a monster, nor a human, nor an immortal. It is a calamity that devours spirits and brings certain death.

[Nine out of ten of our clan's great saints are gone; the Heavenly Court has collapsed, the Dragon Palace has been destroyed, and this calamity is inescapable.]

Humans and demons are both flesh and blood; all spirits grieve in unison.

[Hear this truth, future demons: If the Heavenly Abyss splits again, do not fight with the human race! Conceal your breath and hide your bones, guard your ancestral lineage to the death, only then will you have a chance to survive!]

boom!

These four extremely brief, harsh, and even deeply despairing and resentful last words were like four sharp knives, cruelly piercing the pitiful pride in the hearts of all the great demons present.

Humans and demons are both flesh. All spirits grieve.

These eight words completely shattered their illusion that "the great calamity of heaven is only a calamity for mankind, and the demon race can take advantage of the situation."

In the eyes of that terrifying being called "Void," human cultivators are high-quality snacks rich in spiritual energy, while these proud and physically powerful demon races are nothing more than slightly more chewy... appetizers.

"Are we... really the prey?"

The once extremely arrogant long-armed white ape, looking at the words on the stone tablet, began to lose its fierce glint. "Then what about all these years of fighting to the death with humans on the front lines for that little bit of territory...?"

What does it count for?

It was a ridiculous farce, with two groups of pitiful insects fighting over the last scraps on the plate, before the real apex predator had even officially entered the fray!

"That's enough!"

The nine-headed lion let out a deafening roar, forcefully suppressing the panic of all the great demons present.

Its massive body moved extremely slowly to the stone tablet, looking down at the dried demon blood on it. The lightning on the nine enormous heads gradually subsided, replaced by an extremely cold and ruthless aura of killing intent.

"Let bygones be bygones. Now, that thing called the Void is already on its way, smelling the scent of spiritual energy resurgence."

The nine-headed lion turned around, its terrifying demonic eyes sweeping over every demon of the third rank or higher present.

"Starting today, the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons is under maximum lockdown!"

"Pass on my order: recall all Tier 3 and above combatants lingering on the fringes of the human defenses! Cease all pointless sieges against human fortresses! Anyone who dares to start a war for a few human prey or low-level resources, I'll skin them alive!"

Its voice was extremely cold, leaving no room for negotiation.

"What if the humans take this opportunity to launch a counterattack?" King Shark asked, clutching his scorched wound from being struck by lightning, with extreme reluctance.

"They dare not. Humans are now more afraid of death than we are."

The nine-headed lions astutely grasped the essence of the current situation: "They are now digging up ruins all over the world in search of ways to survive. No fool would waste their precious fighting strength and resources on a deadly fight with us at this time."

"We don't fight them so we can save our energy for something more terrifying. The same reason they don't fight us."

The nine-headed lion raised its massive front paws and slammed them heavily onto the remains of the powerful demon.

"Immediately activate the formation at the deepest part of the Ancestral Spirit Abyss! Move all the cubs and core spiritual herbs underground! Organize the clan to forcibly excavate all those ancient demon caves and forbidden areas in the Hundred Thousand Mountains that have been sealed for millions of years!"

"Our demon ancestors definitely left behind some trump cards to save their lives! Whether it's an ancestral technique or a sealing formation, we must find them for me!"

"At this critical juncture, whoever can dig out more things from the ruins will be able to survive a few more days in the great calamity to come!"

This straightforward order set the tone for the entire Ten Thousand Demon Valley.

It's no longer about territory. It's no longer about becoming king or tyrant.

Rather, it was for the extremely humble and extremely pure purpose of simply surviving.

……

The seventh frontline base of the Sichuan defense line.

The continuous torrential rains had turned the wasteland into an extremely muddy mess. The searchlights on the defensive line scanned the fog ahead with extreme agitation, and the barrels of several heavy psionic machine guns hadn't been hot for a long time.

"Captain, something's not right."

An experienced hunter from the yellow zone lay prone behind cover, lowering his night-vision binoculars with utter bewilderment. "It's been a full twelve hours, and not even a single low-ranking carrion hound has appeared. Where have all those armored monster boars that used to ram the barrier several times a day disappeared?"

The commander of the defense line, a Foundation Establishment cultivator sent from the Green Zone, also had a furrowed brow.

He stared at the radar screen, which displayed an extremely strangely blank scanning area.

"It's not just here." The commander's voice was extremely grave. "From the Jianghuai defense line to the East China Sea defense line, the military reports that have just come in are all the same. The demon race... is in a full-scale retreat."

"Retreat? Are they preparing some kind of big move?" The old hunter gripped his vibrating knife tightly, instinctively feeling a sense of unease.

"No."

The commander raised his head and looked in the direction of the Shushan Sword Tomb with a very complicated expression.

"They're not holding back a big move. They're... scared."

This commander clearly knew more inside information. He was well aware that after the top-secret intelligence about the "Great Calamity of Heaven" and the "Approaching Main Tide" was leaked, the Supreme Council had issued extremely clear instructions: to completely shrink the defensive line and avoid all unnecessary conflicts.

Humans are taking over, and demons are retreating.

Faced with this massive apocalyptic crisis, capable of crushing all life, the two species that had once fought fiercely together, in a bizarre and even comical way, simultaneously chose to cease hostilities.

No agreement was signed. No negotiations were conducted.

It's simply because they both realized that if the two pieces of meat were still biting each other until they were bleeding profusely before the real predator made its move, that would be truly courting death.

An extremely oppressive, extremely fragile, yet incredibly real "peace" suddenly descended upon the wasteland.

But everyone knows the truth.

This is definitely not true peace.

This is just an extremely crazy infighting in the search for thatch to withstand the storm before it arrives.