Chapter 406: The Ancient and Modern Recorder (17)

Five hundred years later.

The demonic races had not invaded human territory again for half a millennium.

Zhou Chong's cultivation had grown even stronger.

Those five hundred years felt like a fleeting dream. Many people had already forgotten the existence of the demons.

Zhou Chong had not.

Until the demons were completely eradicated, the human race would never know true peace. Their prolonged silence could only mean they were plotting something.

Events proved his guess correct. He simply had not expected their counterattack to take so cruel a form.

Within the Sacred Mountains, Zhou Chong stared coldly at the disciple he had once been most proud of.

"Master, I am sorry. This disciple has failed the cultivation you bestowed upon me.

"Rou'er and I share true feelings. We wish to be together."

Zhou Chong glanced at the charming woman kneeling beside the young man. Though she bowed as respectfully as he did, Zhou Chong could sense the hidden mockery and contempt in the eyes of the woman called Little Rou.

"Do you know she is a demon?"

The irony cut deep. Zhou Chong had risen step by step through the merit of slaughtering countless demons. He had watched generation after generation of Sacred Mountain warriors fight to the death to protect those behind them.

Only five hundred years had passed.

How had it come to this?

Some had already begun to forget the threat of the demons and even believed peaceful coexistence was possible.

It was truly laughable.

The thought brought back the "human" who had once handed him the mask.

"This disciple knows… yet humans and demons are both living beings. I believe our races can live in harmony."

Zhou Chong looked at his stubborn disciple, deep disappointment flashing in his eyes.

"Master gives you one final chance. If you are willing to kill her with your own hands to prove your resolve, today's matter can be set aside."

The young man's expression remained firm.

"Master… to this disciple, Rou'er is family. I will never harm my own family!"

Zhou Chong gazed at his obstinate disciple. The last trace of warmth in his eyes turned into cold, killing intent. Seated on the main throne of the great hall, he swept his gaze around the chamber. No one dared meet his eyes.

"The iron law of our Sacred Mountains… humans and demons cannot coexist. Since you refuse to kill her, you know the consequences."

The youth remained resolute, tightly holding the woman's hand.

"Whatever Master has given me, you may take back. I am willing to leave the Sacred Mountains and wander the world with Rou'er."

Zhou Chong laughed in extreme anger.

"Good… good… I never imagined I would raise a disciple like you. Do you think everything is so simple?"

He struck with a single sword stroke and beheaded the woman called Rou'er before anyone could react. When the young man finally realized what had happened, he clutched her corpse in grief.

Zhou Chong looked at his disciple. Humans were not grass or trees; none were without feeling. Yet some things had to be done, and some rules could never be broken.

He suppressed the sorrow in his heart and met the young man's hate-filled gaze. Without mercy, he struck with an open palm. Blood flowed steadily beneath his feet and dyed the ground red.

This was the demons' counterattack.

Zhou Chong forced down his grief and rage. He looked coldly at the gathered elders.

"From this day forward, anyone who dares collude with demons will be treated as a traitor to the human race. Humans and demons cannot share the same land. Only one side can survive upon this soil.

"Until the enemy is dead, I will not rest."

The next day, the Sacred Mountains were in turmoil.

Word spread that the disciple of the Sacred Mountain's master had formed a bond with a demon, and that upon learning of it the master had slain his own disciple.

The news raced outward from the Sacred Mountains and quickly reached human territories in every direction.

Five hundred years had not meant that the demons had abandoned their invasion. They had merely changed strategy, seeking to lull the human race into complacency and create the false impression that peaceful coexistence was possible.

That illusion had convinced countless ordinary people who had never lived through the century-long war between humans and demons five hundred years earlier.

Zhou Chong's decision regarding such people was absolute: kill without mercy.

Within only a few years, a terrible internal strife erupted among the human race. The demons seized the opportunity and, almost without effort, seized vast stretches of human territory.

It was only because Zhou Chong had already displayed an iron-blooded resolve that the situation did not worsen further.

Following the century-long war between humans and demons five hundred years earlier, an even more brutal conflict now broke out. Having lost the initiative, the human Sacred Mountains found the battle extraordinarily difficult. Many of the race's deepest foundations were thrown into the fray.

"Zhou Chong, I never expected you to be so ruthless."

The Holy Demon King was genuinely surprised. He had not imagined Zhou Chong would act so decisively, even against a disciple who was like a son to him.

Zhou Chong, for his part, had not expected the Holy Demon King to be so insidious, seeking to influence the human race gradually from within.

When enemies met, their eyes burned with particular hatred.

Six hundred years earlier, Zhou Chong had been the chief architect of the scheme that killed the Demon Qilin, the future hope of the demonic race. Six hundred years later, the demons had forced him to kill the disciple he valued most with his own hands.

A world-shaking battle erupted.

Zhou Chong proved worthy of his reputation as a peerless genius of this world. In less than a thousand years of cultivation, he stood only a single step away from becoming a Saint.

Unfortunately, the demons had prepared for this day for a full five hundred years.

Within the barrier, Zhou Chong's heart was filled with grief.

A fine rain of blood fell from the sky. Every human martial artist felt an overwhelming sorrow.

That sorrow stemmed from the fall of a Saint within the Sacred Mountains.

The Holy Demon King laughed without restraint.

"Zhou Chong, Zhou Chong… the Saint of the human Sacred Mountains is dead. This continent is destined to have only one power: my demonic race!"

Zhou Chong himself was under siege.

In that desperate moment, a bronze mask appeared on his face.

He faintly touched the threshold of Sainthood.

In almost an instant, a power that did not belong to the Nirvana Realm erupted from his body. He was about to take the final step!

Yet he had no time to complete it.

His long sword fell in a single stroke… and the entire world seemed to split in two.

"What… are you trying to do?"

The Holy Demon King had not yet recovered from the shock of Zhou Chong's imminent breakthrough when he saw the man divide the two domains. His mind fell into chaos.

Zhou Chong's body began to fade little by little.

He intended to use his own body as a barrier, buying the human race one final chance to catch its breath.

Amid the Holy Demon King's unwilling roar, an outcome that had seemed all but certain was altered by Zhou Chong's solitary effort.

"Zhou Chong… at most another five hundred years. In five hundred years, the human race will reach its complete end!"

The Holy Demon King ground his teeth.

Whether the barrier lost its power or the demonic Saints recovered from their injuries, the human race was doomed to extinction.

Outside, as Zhou Chong's body transformed into the barrier, the bronze mask lost its wearer and fell rapidly. It dropped into a swift-flowing river and gradually vanished with the current.

...

Time flew past.

Thirty years had passed since Zhou Chong transformed himself into the barrier.

"It's over. I still haven't caught any fish today. I'm going to starve."

A boy in plain clothes muttered as he stared at a moss-covered bronze lump.

"Forget it… Maybe this bronze lump can be traded for a little money. It might even be better than catching fish."

The boy looked closer at the bronze object.

It seemed to be… a mask.