Chapter 162: A Year Later

"Two World Island can't hold on," Bai Yaoyue said, watching the scene unfold. She turned to Venerable Qin Wu. "Qin Wu, does Yuanchu Mountain have a solution?"

Venerable Qin Wu smiled. "Black Sand Grotto-Heaven once seized two treasures from beyond the heavens. The Black Sand Emperor used them to sweep across the world, forcing my Yuanchu Mountain to only defend itself! I'm sure Black Sand Grotto-Heaven has more solutions than we do."

Bai Yaoyue shook her head. "Successive generations of sects and factions have been able to suppress Yuanchu Mountain temporarily, but none have ever managed to destroy you. And the oldest 'Cang Yuan Grotto-Heaven' is also with Yuanchu Mountain, isn't it? Your publicly revealed secret art, 'A Thousand Years in an Instant,' stunned both us and Two World Island. This time, I'm afraid Yuanchu Mountain will need to come up with more ideas."

Venerable Qin Wu sighed. "The demon race has the overwhelming advantage! Their overall strength is far greater than ours. If this continues, our human race will undoubtedly lose."

Bai Yaoyue also fell silent.

Superior strength is a clear and open strategy!

"Must we simply let them in?" Bai Yaoyue asked.

"If Yuanchu Mountain continues to defend this way, employing some other methods, we can hold out for another three hundred years," Venerable Qin Wu said. "Black Sand Grotto-Heaven can probably do the same."

"As expected of Yuanchu Mountain, you truly can hold out," Bai Yaoyue said, shaking her head. "We can defend for at most two hundred years. But Two World Island can't hold on any longer. If we also have to defend the medium and small city passes they abandon..."

"They will definitely collapse within fifty years," Venerable Qin Wu stated.

"Are we to let the demon kings in?" Bai Yaoyue asked. "The human world will be much more brutal in the future."

Venerable Qin Wu replied, "Neither you nor I have the authority to decide. Let our respective sects discuss it first. We can talk about this again in ten days."

"Your three Venerables and two Dao Protectors at Yuanchu Mountain can take your time discussing. Black Sand Grotto-Heaven is much faster; we can make a decision within three days." Bai Yaoyue said with a smile as her form dissipated. Among the three major sects, Yuanchu Mountain was the most free and lenient, Black Sand Grotto-Heaven the most strict, and Two World Island the most fanatical and extreme. After all, Two World Island had been hunted since its creation...

Only in the last eight hundred years had they solely needed to contend with the demon race. These eight hundred years were paradoxically the most relaxed for Two World Island, and its Godfiends had become much calmer.

"Two Dao Protectors?" Venerable Qin Wu frowned slightly, watching Bai Yaoyue's illusory figure vanish. "She even knows that my generation of Yuanchu Mountain has two Dao Protectors?"

Abandoning medium and small city passes and letting demon kings in?

This was met with strong resistance within both Black Sand Grotto-Heaven and Yuanchu Mountain! Because a large number of Tri-Heaven demon kings entering would cause too much devastation. However, 'Two World Island' bore the burden of the largest number of 'medium city passes,' and if they abandoned their duties, Yuanchu Mountain and Black Sand Grotto-Heaven could not bear the load.

In truth, anyone with some foresight understood that they couldn't defend for much longer.

Two World Island's abandonment now prompted faster internal changes within Yuanchu Mountain and Black Sand Grotto-Heaven.

Ten days later, the scene was still at Yuanchu Mountain.

Venerable Qin Wu, Venerable Bai Yaoyue, and Venerable Xu Yingwu jointly made a decision: in two years, the entire human world would abandon its medium and small city passes!

Rather than being forced to abandon them later, it was better to preserve sufficient strength and proactively strategize!

Furthermore, the human leadership was well aware that many demon kings already existed in the human world. Unstable world entrances allowed groups of demons and weaker demon kings to infiltrate. Therefore, Yuanchu Mountain's 'Ground Net' was relentlessly hunting down demons and demon kings throughout the territory. Even if they abandoned the medium and small city passes in the future, it would only mean an increase in the number of Tri-Heaven demon kings compared to the present.

Of course, Tri-Heaven demon kings posed a greater threat; some of them might even break through to become Quadri-Heaven demon kings! Their destructive power would be hundreds or thousands of times stronger than the previous Bi-Heaven demon kings!

However, the human race had already decided to abandon the medium and small city passes in two years.

During these two years, five major plans—the 'Great Migration' plan, the 'Heavenly Net and Earth Web' plan, the 'Beacon Fire' plan, among others—would be implemented to prepare for the coming changes in the human world. Every effort would be made to protect as many ordinary people as possible.

The first of these, the 'Great Migration,' involved relocating the population. Large numbers of residents lived around all medium and small city passes; for instance, hundreds of thousands resided near North River Pass. All of these people needed to be moved! After all, if the demon race were allowed to enter, areas within fifty miles of small city passes and a hundred miles of medium city passes would become uninhabitable.

Everything was happening quietly, with all preparations being made in secret.

Meng Chuan, a Great Solar Godfiend, was completely unaware. He remained at North River Pass, enjoying an intimate and happy life with Liu Qiyue as husband and wife.

It was a bright spring day, in the study.

"This painting is truly beautiful," Liu Qiyue said, her eyes shining and cheeks flushed as she looked at Meng Chuan's artwork.

"Qiyue, this is for you."

Meng Chuan smiled as he handed it to Liu Qiyue.

Liu Qiyue took the painting, gazing at it with a touch of mesmerization. It depicted a woman bathed in flames, with a phoenix apparition behind her, drawing a bow and arrow, her gaze sharp as she stared into the distance. It was a depiction of Liu Qiyue's act of shooting down a demon king at North River Pass. Although it was just a single portrait, Meng Chuan had spent over a month painting it.

He had painted it with incredible detail, meticulously rendering every strand of hair and the skin tone of her face. The pigments were all carefully ground and mixed by hand.

"It's wonderful," Liu Qiyue whispered.

Meng Chuan had painted it with deep emotion; it was as if he was combing each strand of her hair himself. They had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, facing life and death together on this difficult path of slaying demons. Meng Chuan was deeply grateful that Qiyue was willing to walk this path with him, and grateful to fate for granting him such a wife.

"Qiyue, how about I paint you one every year from now on?" Meng Chuan asked with a gentle smile.

"Really?" Liu Qiyue asked, excitedly happy.

"Yes," Meng Chuan nodded. "I'll do what I say."

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Liu Qiyue was overjoyed. "You paint one every year, and when we have children, you can include them too. And when we're old... you can paint me with white hair. From youth to old age, all painted by your own hand, Ah Chuan, that's truly lovely."

"Yes, I will paint you from your youth until your old age," Meng Chuan nodded.

"If I die one day in battle with a demon king before I'm old, that's fine too. I'll remain beautiful forever," Liu Qiyue said cheerfully. "But if we can grow old together, that would be even better. Either way, it's all good."

Meng Chuan felt happy looking at his wife's joyful expression.

With his wife by his side, he felt their days were even more blissful and sweet.

The first portrait Meng Chuan painted for his wife, imbued with years of emotion, also prompted a deep introspection within him, causing a subtle change in his Essence Soul. However, he was still far from reaching the third level of the Essence Soul.

Time passed.

A year had passed since their marriage in the blink of an eye. During this year, the demon race launched only one probing attack, fielding eight elite demons, defended by multiple domain layers. They did not engage Meng Chuan in close combat. Meng Chuan, too, was not reckless enough to charge into their layered domains; even with his strength, being enveloped by multiple domains would reduce his power to only three or four tenths, making it very dangerous. That probing attack was likely an attempt by the demon race to ascertain Meng Chuan's strength and lure him into an assault, but Meng Chuan was cautious and did not act rashly. The demon race returned without success, losing seventy thousand demons and thirty-nine Bi-Heaven demon kings.

During this year, Meng Chuan, as a patrol Godfiend, also participated in four rescue operations.

He rescued a prefecture city once and county towns three times! All rescue efforts were successful.

On the third day of the second month, night fell.

"Junior Brother Meng," Zhang Yunhu said, quietly arriving with someone.

Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue had already stepped out of the study to greet them.

"Martial Uncle," Meng Chuan said.

"Master," Liu Qiyue said, extremely excited, as she bowed respectfully. The visitor was none other than Liu Qiyue's master, Marquis Tianxing.