Chapter 56: Fiery Sun Taoist Temple

In the early morning, Liu Qiyue left Mirror Lake Meng Manor, practicing her movement techniques gracefully along the riverside streets. She occasionally darted dozens of yards across the river surface or stepped on tree branches, moving with agility and exceptional speed. For Liu Qiyue, the journey from home to the academy was perfect for honing her movement. A skilled archer needed highly refined footwork to quickly create distance when enemies approached.

Having a genius like Meng Chuan by her side, Liu Qiyue felt a certain pressure. In her eyes, Ah Chuan worked incredibly hard. He practiced the drawing-saber technique 8,000 times daily to deflect arrows, trained for half an hour under a barrage of arrows, and refined techniques like 'Moonfall'. He had even grasped the concept of 'potential' early on, yet remained so diligent. Liu Qiyue felt that any slackening on her part would be a sin, and she was inspired to train even more diligently. Although she still couldn't match Meng Chuan and Yan Jin's intense dedication, she had improved significantly, which was why she had comprehended a secret technique last year.

With constant movement practice, Liu Qiyue's travel speed was faster than Meng Chuan had anticipated. When the urgent bells of Jade Sun Palace rang out, echoing throughout the city, Liu Qiyue was only about two miles away from Blazing Sun Academy.

"Demon invasion?" Liu Qiyue's face changed drastically upon hearing the bells. Her speed immediately surged, reaching its limit as she sprinted towards Blazing Sun Academy. Around her, street vendors and pedestrians also scattered frantically in all directions.

As a late-stage Transformation Realm practitioner who had also comprehended a secret technique, Liu Qiyue's movement speed was indeed exceptionally fast. When she was still a hundred yards from Blazing Sun Academy, she finally saw a large demon army emerging behind her. Demons appeared from the distance—on the streets, rooftops, and in the sky—all advancing towards Blazing Sun Academy. This sight made Liu Qiyue's heart tremble. It was her first time seeing so many demons.

"Hurry, hurry!"

"Hurry into the academy!" At the academy gates, the dean, instructors, and a group of soldiers were gathered. Each of the Eight Great Academies was situated near a military camp, so soldiers had arrived to provide immediate support. Many academy disciples, flushed with exertion, desperately used their movement techniques to rush into the academy.

Most Blazing Sun Academy disciples lived on campus. Many came from rural strongholds and had no other place to stay, so they naturally resided within the academy. Even among the city's youth, a considerable number lived there, as ordinary residences lacked proper training grounds. Only a small fraction returned home daily. Even that small fraction accounted for nearly a thousand disciples.

The dean and others were extremely anxious, calculating that these thousand disciples were likely still en route. Some had arrived, while others were still rushing.

"Liu Qiyue, get inside quickly!" The dean waved urgently upon seeing her arrive.

"Yes," Liu Qiyue rushed into the academy. She glanced back and saw many adults, clad in armor and wielding weapons, sprinting towards them. Most were Marrow Cleansing Realm practitioners, but there were also experts from the Transformation Realm, and even a few from the Seamless Realm. These Seamless Realm experts each carried a youth in one hand, while one burly man remarkably carried two youths on his back and two more in his hands, striding quickly forward.

"Find me an axe! I threw mine away to run faster with these youngsters," the brawny man said. He ran incredibly fast, quickly handing over the four young men and women he had brought.

"Brother Wang, don't worry, there are plenty of weapons inside the academy," the dean replied immediately.

"I'll go rescue a few more," the burly man said, turning and sprinting back.

The dean of Blazing Sun Academy and some of the soldiers held bows and arrows. As the demons approached within two hundred yards, the dean, who had grasped the concept of 'potential', was the first to loose an arrow. The arrow streaked across the sky, leaving a blur, and directly pierced the head of a massive elephant demon, causing it to collapse with a thud.

"The demon army has arrived," Liu Qiyue said, quickly drawing her bow and arrow from her back, intending to help. However, given the demons' speed, she knew she'd only be able to guarantee a kill if they closed to within a hundred yards.

"Quick, quick, quick, everyone inside the academy!" The academy dean's face suddenly changed. "A great demon commander is here, hurry!"

"Faster!" The faces of all the soldiers, and even the Seamless Realm experts who had been trying to rescue more people, changed. They all swiftly rushed towards the academy. Having served in Qinyang Pass, they knew exactly how terrifying a great demon commander was. Directly confronting one would be suicide.

Meng Chuan was rushing at full speed.

"They deserve to die," Meng Chuan muttered, seeing many human corpses in the distance. After entering Dongning Prefecture from the world entrance, the demon army had rapidly spread in all directions. By the time Jade Sun Palace rang its bells, many humans had already perished. Especially those too close to the demon army—the weaker humans had no time to hide in the tunnels. Many ordinary people with no cultivation talent, utterly defenseless, were simply slaughtered by the demons. Bodies lay everywhere.

As Meng Chuan passed through this area, his face turned ashen. "The demons must all be killed," Meng Chuan thought as he sped along, unable to stop looking at the scenes around him.

Suddenly, Meng Chuan saw a scene in a distant street corner. A young couple was shielding an infant with their bodies. Yet, both the young couple and the infant had been pierced through.

"Damn it!!!" Meng Chuan's eyes turned bloodshot. He involuntarily thought of his own parents. His mother had charged towards the demons, fighting them off. His father, with tears streaming down his face, had frantically carried him away, never looking back. Back then, he had survived. But the couple before him couldn't protect their child, even with their lives.

"I, Meng Chuan, swear that in this life, I will slaughter every single demon, wipe them all out," Meng Chuan vowed, his eyes red, as he continued to sprint.

"Humans over there," he noticed. In the distance, ten demons were scattered, still hunting humans. A father and son had escaped from a residence, with three demons in pursuit. Meng Chuan's body flickered, drawing an arc as he darted dozens of yards. With a flash of his saber, the three demons were cut in half.

The fleeing father and son looked back, their faces filled with disbelief.

"Senior Brother Meng!" the young man exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

Meng Chuan glanced back, recognizing a junior disciple from Mirror Lake Academy. He gave a slight nod, then his figure blurred as he darted out another few dozen yards, passing the remaining seven demons. Saber light flashed, slicing through the demons, and two streaks of light even flew out, pursuing the frantically fleeing ones. All seven remaining demons were slain.

Meng Chuan continued to sprint forward without looking back.

"Dad, it was Senior Brother Meng! Senior Brother Meng saved us," the young man quickly said.

"Yes, I know it was Young Master Meng," the middle-aged man replied, trembling with the excitement of having narrowly escaped death. "We should quickly hide again and set up some traps."

"Yes," the young man nodded.

The father and son quickly disappeared back into the dense residential area. Meng Chuan continued his journey. Along the way, he gradually began to see the bodies of young men and women wearing Blazing Sun Academy robes. They had all died on the road, clearly en route to the academy, having fallen victim to the demons.

Meng Chuan continued silently, his heart heavy with worry, searching for Liu Qiyue. "Did Qiyue encounter danger and flee elsewhere in a panic? Did I miss her?" Meng Chuan felt a growing unease.

"Perhaps Qiyue has already reached Blazing Sun Academy," Meng Chuan hoped, though the killing intent in his heart surged ever stronger. At this point, he was only one or two miles from Blazing Sun Academy.

Suddenly—

Meng Chuan saw thick plumes of smoke rising from the direction of Blazing Sun Academy.

"Smoke signals? Blazing Sun Academy has raised smoke signals?" Meng Chuan's heart tightened. "Are they already unable to hold on?" The entire Dongning Prefecture had been invaded. Academies would not raise smoke signals unless they were in dire straits.

Meng Chuan's figure flickered twice, bringing him to the top of a towering tree. From there, he gazed towards Blazing Sun Academy and immediately saw hordes of demons ferociously besieging it. Just a glance changed Meng Chuan's expression. "By my estimate, there are nearly two thousand demons, which likely means two great demon commanders!"

"Faster," Meng Chuan thought anxiously, his figure flashing as he sprinted directly towards Blazing Sun Academy.