Before the barrier of Gasuo was broken, Langmuir had a premonition.
Over the years, he had repeatedly warned the temple that the Demon King in the abyss was not dead. Unfortunately, the elders took this as a means for the Holy Monarch to threaten them.
Langmuir didn’t bother to rely on these guys whose minds and hearts were both decayed. He dispatched mages to strengthen the defenses of the border cities, requiring that every city near the barrier cliff be equipped with spells to purify the miasma and defensive formations.
At that time, many generals and ministers felt that the monarch was too cautious. The demons hadn’t been able to climb out for decades, was it worth spending such a huge amount of manpower and resources on small border cities?
Until the early autumn of the year 898 of the Great Light Calendar, the barrier of Gasuo was broken by the Demon King’s breath, and the miasma overflowed. If it weren’t for the purification spell that the Holy Monarch insisted on setting up in the border city that year, the consequences would be unimaginable.
That day, countless citizens looked up, watching the dissipating miasma slowly disappear under the purification spell, their eyes filled with hot tears.
“May the Goddess bless…”
But the purification spell could not stop the advance of the demon army.
Hun Yao saw through the defenses of the cities along the way, led the army straight into the royal city, and in just five days, successively broke through the two lines of defense of the human race, unstoppable.
On the sixth day, the wildebeest cavalry of the demons and the elite army of humans had their first large-scale battle in the plains.
The bravest General Gernard of the kingdom, under the command of the Holy Monarch, led the well-trained Knights of the National Guard to fight the invading demons.
But it only delayed for a day.
On the seventh day, all the human knights saw the king of the demons with their own eyes.
The demon was surprisingly young, but the evil aura around him made people feel cold. He sat on the wildebeest, tilted his head and showed a contemptuous look, pointed at General Gernard with a long spear, and wanted to fight him one-on-one.
In the blink of an eye, the weapons crossed, the light of Mana and the fire of the demonic breath scorched the earth into crisscrossing marks. In the Demon King’s rampant laughter, Gernard was knocked off his horse. The Knights of the National Guard were all chilled, and they didn’t hold on for long before they completely collapsed, and countless people became prisoners of the demons.
At the dawn of the transition between the seventh and eighth day, the Holy Monarch Langmuir personally went to the front line.
The day had finally come.
The Broken Horn Demon King had been waiting for his enemy, whom he had been thinking about for seven years.
The Holy Monarch rode towards him on a horse, with a slender cross sword of light in his hand, his deep golden hair tied up and his silver-white cloak dancing in the morning light.
Hun Yao was lost in thought.
The Holy Monarch’s white horse stopped in front of the two armies.
The general guarding Langmuir’s side was the deputy of General Gernard.
He saw Gernard, who had been tied up and pressed to the ground, at first glance and cried out in grief, “Great General!”
General Gernard was full of shame and anger, “Your Majesty…I have failed you!”
Langmuir silently shook his head. He gently spurred his horse and moved forward alone for a distance, looking at the Broken Horn Demon King from afar.
“…Demon King from the abyss.”
He said, “Please do not harm my people.”
Hun Yao slowly laughed.
The frustration and depression that had accumulated over the past few days miraculously disappeared.
He shouted, “Langmuir.”
This direct call of his name with a hint of affection made Langmuir pause, “…You recognize me?”
Hun Yao lazily said, “I would recognize you even if you turned to ashes.”
What a boast. Langmuir thought as he held the reins: Clearly, even if I don’t turn to ashes, if I turn into an inferior demon, you wouldn’t recognize me.
The demon soldiers had just tied up the human captives and pressed them to the front of the formation. The appearance of the Holy Monarch excited them again, and they clamored to kill him.
“He is the king of humans!” “He is a despicable pig head!” “Kill him!” “Skin him and pull out his tendons!”…
Hun Yao raised his long spear, and these guys reluctantly quieted down.
“If you care about your people, you can exchange them for yourself.” The Demon King said with a smirk.
Langmuir was silent for a moment, showing a trace of sadness, and softly said, “But if I exchange them for myself now, how can I protect the millions of people behind me?”
The next moment, the figure of the Holy Monarch suddenly disappeared from the white horse.
Hun Yao’s scalp tingled, and he instinctively drew his sword to block, only to see the blade of the cross sword of light coming straight at him, followed by the harsh sound of metal collision!
Clang!——
This strike instantly made all the blood in Hun Yao’s body boil. But immediately after, his enemy retreated swiftly from in front of him, and the Demon King suddenly heard a scream from the army formation behind him.
Hun Yao turned his head and saw a demon soldier being pulled out by an invisible and majestic Mana, accompanied by a wail, and heavily fell in front of the human army!
The human soldiers immediately rushed up and used long spears and iron chains to suppress the demon.
The Holy Monarch said, “Exchange my people for your people.”
Hun Yao simply couldn’t believe it!
To be honest, he was indeed a bit contemptuous just now. After all, this Holy Monarch was beautiful, calm, and melancholic, and the end of his words was especially soft–so much so that he didn’t seem like he was here to fight at all. If it weren’t for the light armor and long sword he was wearing, he would seem like a peace envoy, completely different from what he had imagined.
Even if there was an element of carelessness, the Demon King never expected that there could be someone in the world who could capture his soldiers right under his nose.
This was simply…a great humiliation!
“My King, the demons are not cowardly pigs who fear death!”
That demon soldier, with red eyes, struggled desperately, “Slaughter the human pigs, let them see!”
On the other side, General Gernard could no longer bear it and roared, “Bah! Human bones are harder than you demons! ——Your Majesty, don’t worry about us, kill the demons!”
With a thud, the heavy iron spear was inserted into the ground by the Demon King.
“Very good.” Hun Yao said grimly, “Very good…Holy Monarch, come here.”
Langmuir didn’t even ride a horse, he just stepped forward.
The deputy general was terrified and hurriedly stopped him, “Your Majesty, you can’t go!”
“The demons are cold-blooded and ruthless, it’s common for them to kill each other. Even if we capture demon captives, they probably don’t care…”
Langmuir was unmoved. Looking at the other side, the Demon King also dismounted and walked towards the Holy Monarch alone.
“Your Majesty, you can’t!”
“My King, ignore him!”
At this point, the captives on both sides were stunned. A demon and a human, they just shouted at each other so red-faced and thick-necked.
Cold-blooded and ruthless demons?
Cowardly pigs who fear death?
Langmuir’s chest suddenly hurt.
We are so similar, aren’t we?
It was his powerlessness, after all, he had not been able to find the path of redemption to resolve hatred before the outbreak of war. Those who died, the good people who were displaced…the guilt should be on him.
Langmuir stared at the Demon King in front of him. They stopped at the same time when they were only three steps apart from each other, this time there was no pretense, no barrier.
Only the morning wind was blowing their hair.
“Is there still room for negotiation?”
Langmuir asked this question as if possessed.
He thought he would be met with merciless ridicule, but the Demon King laughed carelessly and said, “Not now.”
“So, when?”
Hun Yao raised his hand, and in front of the soldiers of both armies, he audaciously patted the Holy Monarch’s cheek, “How about after I conquer your royal city?”
At this point, the human soldiers were about to go crazy. They were too far away to hear what the Demon King was saying, but that was their beloved Holy Monarch, the son of god who had been untainted for more than twenty years, how could he be humiliated by a demon!?
Immediately, someone set up a bow and arrow, but heard the Holy Monarch coldly shout, “Do not act rashly!”
At the same time, Langmuir grabbed the Demon King’s wrist, a sharp light in his eyes, and used a bit of force to press down that claw.
Hun Yao squinted his eyes, and also grabbed the Holy Monarch’s wrist in return, exerting force in the opposite direction.
A wave spread out from them as the center. With a crackling sound, the ground suddenly cracked!
This was a silent battle. The purest Mana and the purest demonic breath collided between the palms of the Holy Monarch and the Demon King. Blood flowed from their tiger’s mouths at the same time.
“The power of you and me is vastly different from our respective people.”
Langmuir said in a low voice, “Your power can easily slaughter hundreds or thousands of human soldiers, and I can do the same to the demons.”
“So?”
“Why don’t we fight separately, without harming each other’s soldiers on the battlefield, how about that?”
The Demon King looked at the Holy Monarch for a while, then laughed.
He said, “Okay.”
Drip, drip…their blood flowed more and more.
To forcibly compress such strong and conflicting powers and fight between their palms was in itself a crazy act.
But no one intended to end this arm wrestling.
Langmuir said again, “Please release my people.”
“If you want to exchange prisoners, it can only be one for one.”
Hun Yao said gloomily, “Unfortunately, you just made a promise with me that you can’t attack my soldiers in the future. Holy Monarch, what do you say?”
“Ransom…”
“Don’t mention ransom.”
Langmuir seemed to understand, he lowered his voice even more, “I can exchange myself, but not now.”
The Demon King unexpectedly raised his eyes. But that gaze immediately turned into a playful one.
“So, when?”
Langmuir said lightly, “When the demon army retreats back to the abyss.”
“Hahahaha!” Hun Yao laughed loudly.
He was the first to withdraw his demonic breath, and the other side immediately withdrew their Mana.
This Holy Monarch was really upright, you could say he was too upright, the Demon King thought amusingly. But this was good, it gave him more impulse to capture and destroy and retaliate in the abyss.
——Until this moment, the Demon King still thought that the Holy Monarch’s “exchange myself” just now was just a polite threat.
Combined with the next sentence, it must mean “I will beat you demons and roll you back to the abyss.”
Before letting go, Hun Yao lightly pinched the bleeding wrist of the Holy Monarch with his sharp fingernails. But he heard that soft voice at the end of the sentence, saying very seriously.
“Before that, please do not harm my people.”
On this day, the demon and human armies only had a tentative hand-to-hand combat. By the afternoon, the latter retreated first, and the former also cautiously did not pursue.
The Holy Monarch personally covered the retreat, gathering the defeated army and refugees along the way, and retreated to the royal city. Prince Aiden had already made arrangements for the city defense as instructed by his elder brother, and closed the city gate before the demon army arrived.
The demons came too quickly, and the army deployment in various places could not keep up, this was already the fastest response.
After returning to the city, the first thing the Holy Monarch did was to coldly ask the welcoming Prince Aiden, “Has the elder prophet of the Temple of Light been imprisoned?”
