Chapter 645 - 11: Human Cattle

A Flying Boat hovered over a mountain valley. The Cultivators aboard looked down at the valley below.

"Quick! Report the situation here to the Sun Worship General."

In the valley, countless pens and sheds had been built in tiers along the mountainside, just like a mortal's livestock pasture. But these sheds weren't for housing animals; they were for mortals, each one disheveled and clad in nothing but rags.

After generations of domestication and breeding by the Wolf Demons of the Yingyue Kingdom, these mortals were no different from savages.

There was even a slaughterhouse in the valley, built by the Wolf Demons from earth and stone. On wooden racks outside, tanned human skins and smoked human flesh hung in rows. Bloodstains covered the ground, and flies buzzed everywhere.

The mortals watched their own kind being butchered with only numbness in their eyes. Only when they looked up at the Flying Boat in the sky did a flicker of curiosity flash through their dazed gazes.

The Wolf Demons here, however, were far more knowledgeable. They recognized the Cultivators' Flying Boat and, realizing things had gone terribly wrong, tried to flee.

The Rescue Army on the Flying Boat flew down on Impact Boats and slaughtered all the Wolf Demons. They discovered that these captive mortals only knew a few simple phrases of the Demon Court's tongue and couldn't speak the human language at all.

When the mortals saw these Cultivators descend from the sky and effortlessly slay the seemingly invincible Wolf Demons, they were terrified, losing all composure.

Most of the Rescue Army hailed from the Central Continent. Though many had suffered great humiliation as Independent Cultivators, they had never imagined that members of the Human Race could be reduced to such a miserable state.

It took the Cultivators a great deal of effort to calm the savages down.

A moment later, the flagship of the Rescue Army flew over the valley.

Yang Jing and a few of his disciples flew down from the Flying Boat. His expression was grim as he looked at the disheveled savages covering the mountainside.

This phenomenon had long been recorded in the scriptures of the Six Sects. The various Demon Countries of the Demon Court wouldn't eat all the humans they captured. Instead, they would keep a portion for breeding stock.

Demons called the mortals raised in this manner "food people."

The congregation of the Human Race would, over time, give birth to a Dragon Vein that transforms Muddy Qi into Spiritual Qi. This was an ironclad rule set by the great powers of the Upper Realm. To suppress the birth of these Dragon Veins, the Demons devised ways to keep these "food people" ignorant and muddle-headed. They then raised them in enclosed terrains like valleys to contain the nascent Dragon Vein.

A Dragon Vein born this way would be Innately deficient and thus insignificant against the vast Muddy Qi within a Demon Country.

Even so, the concentration of Spiritual Qi in this valley was still much higher than elsewhere in the Yingyue Kingdom.

With a thought, Yang Jing used his Magical Power to command the Spiritual Qi in the mountains. In an instant, the clear sky filled with dark clouds. As the savages watched in terror, a Spirit Rain began to fall.

He had infused the Spirit Rain with True Martial Demon Vibration Power. The downpour not only washed away all the savages' illnesses but also cleansed the Muddy Qi that had accumulated in their bodies over the years. Their clouded minds became clear.

The great storm, far from depleting the valley's Spiritual Qi, actually dispersed the Muddy Qi, causing the Spiritual Mechanism here to become even more active.

"Leave them some food, then let's go."

Yang Jing said, watching the savages who were kowtowing repeatedly as if they had witnessed a miracle.

"Master, are we just going to leave them here?"

A trace of pity flashed in Iron Head's eyes.

Yang Jing shook his head.

"We are deep behind enemy lines; we don't have the luxury of caring for these mortals. Besides, the Yingyue Kingdom raises mortals, but do you think other Demon Countries don't? How could our Flying Boats possibly tend to them all? Only by destroying the Demon Court can we truly save all the mortals who have fallen into the hands of the Demon Countries."

Because the Qi Cultivators on the Flying Boats could not yet practice Fasting, the ships still had a considerable amount of Spirit Grain stored in their holds. They had also confiscated a large quantity of grain from the granaries in the cities while sweeping through the Yingyue Kingdom.

The suspicious-looking dried meat had already been burned, but a substantial amount of proper food remained. After all, within the Yingyue Kingdom, only the Howling Moon Demon Wolves and a few other powerful Demons were qualified to feast on the "food people."

After unloading the grain, the Flying Boat flew off into the distance.

The savages all knelt in the mud, watching the distant Flying Boat. Even with their muddled minds, they knew that their own kind from the vessel had saved them.

'To think there were others of their kind in this world who could so wantonly slaughter the seemingly invincible Demon Wolves.'

But after being raised by the Demon Wolves for so long, they didn't even know how to express their gratitude, able only to kowtow again and again in the mud.

The entire Rescue Army regrouped a hundred li east of the Yingyue Kingdom's border. One by one, the Flying Boats gathered like scattered fish returning to their school.

From this distance, they could attack the neighboring Celestial Stone Kingdom in a matter of moments.

Because they had directly decapitated the Sovereign of the Yingyue Kingdom, the Eclipse Moon Great Saint, the entire nation was left without a leader and was powerless to mount an organized resistance. The Rescue Army's offensive broke through like splitting bamboo, sweeping across the Yingyue Kingdom's Demons with an astonishingly favorable exchange ratio and suffering minimal losses themselves.

The Flying Boats equipped with Defensive Arrays were completely undamaged.

The Cultivators in the Rescue Army, having earned a vast amount of military merit and spoils from a single battle, were in high spirits, their morale ready for another fight.

The two great victories, one at sea and one on land, had rapidly matured the newly formed Rescue Army, greatly increasing its cohesiveness.

Yang Jing used the Water Mirror technique on the Tier Four Flying Boat to investigate the movements of Demon Qi within the Celestial Stone Kingdom.

If a Demon Army from the Celestial Stone Kingdom were on the move, the large-scale shift in Demon Qi would certainly not escape the detection of a Tier Four Water Mirror technique.

After confirming that all was quiet within the Celestial Stone Kingdom, Yang Jing gave the order:

"Rest for two hours. We attack in two hours!"

Although the battle in the Yingyue Kingdom went smoothly, most of the Cultivators had expended a great deal of Magical Power, and some had suffered injuries of varying severity.

Within the Demon Court's territory, Muddy Qi was everywhere. Breathing it in rashly during cultivation would contaminate one's Magical Power, which was extremely troublesome.

Controlled by a Restriction, the Spiritual Eye Object on the Flying Boat gushed forth a massive amount of Spiritual Mechanism, supplying the Cultivators inside for their breathing exercises.

Some Cultivators, eager to recover their Magical Power more quickly and earn more military merit in the next battle, even consumed Spirit Pills to restore their energy as fast as possible.

Yang Jing, meanwhile, went to a cabin on the Flying Boat. The room was filled with the thick stench of blood and piled high with the corpses of Howling Moon Demon Wolves.

Nearly all the Howling Moon Demon Wolves from the entire Yingyue Kingdom were here.

The aptitude of the Howling Moon Demon Wolves ranked among the top in the entire Demon Court. Those with high-level aptitude could almost certainly become Demon Kings, placing them far above the Mingyi Dogs.

Yang Jing planned to use the Demon Blood of these Howling Moon Demon Wolves to perform Alchemy and create a Heaven Mending Pill, all to compensate for his disciple Iron Head's Innate deficiency.

It was wartime, so there was no time for proper Alchemy. However, two hours was enough time for him to extract the Essence Blood from the wolf corpses before their Essence Qi dissipated.