Beihe Pass was defended, which made all the monks from Yumen Pass who came to reinforce breathe a sigh of relief.
If the human race loses a single city on the battlefield outside the domain , the pressure on them will be too great.
After all, unless they retreat to Yumen Pass, human cultivators operating on the battlefield outside the domain will inevitably need a rear city for them to recuperate.
Besides , if all the seventeen human city gates fell at one time, one could imagine what a heavy blow the news would cause to the morale of the human race.
But even if Beihe Pass was defended, the report of only one of the seventeen small and medium-sized city gates remaining in one day still sounded extremely suffocating.
Therefore, although Yumen Pass did not conceal the news of the fall of sixteen cities, it focused on publicizing the victory of the weak over the strong at Beihe Pass.
On the one hand, they wanted to use this great victory to wash away the sadness of the fall of the other sixteen cities, so that all the monks could breathe a few breaths of fresh air under the suffocating pressure and relax their tense heartstrings a little to prevent them from breaking directly.
On the other hand, the biggest contributor to the victory at Beihe Pass was the young master of the Sword Sect, the leader of the Yumen Pass sect. There was no reason for them not to take advantage of the opportunity to publicize it.
Moreover, the human race also learned an extremely important piece of news.
Chi Zun, one of the three top demon lords of the Bingmo clan, officially entered the battlefield outside the domain from the abyss, and is currently supervising the battle in Wujian City, the rear of the demon clan.
Over the past 20,000 years, there have been countless wars, big and small, on the battlefields outside the domain, but no matter what, the top demon lords of the demon race have never appeared on the battlefields outside the domain.
This is the first time.
From the perspective of the human race, this is undoubtedly a signal that the demons are about to launch a second war between Taoism and demons.
——Otherwise, Chi Zun would personally stay in the rear to supervise the battle, just for those seventeen small and medium-sized city gates?
At this time, the one who needed honor the most was not Lu Qingshan, but the Sword Sect and the countless Yumen Pass monks.
There are many similar examples in history.
In war, heroes are very much needed. Even if there are no heroes, one must be created out of thin air, let alone a real "hero" like Lu Qingshan.
For Yumen Pass, the appearance of Lu Qingshan was like someone delivering a pillow to someone just when they were dozing off.
They were overjoyed and took the opportunity to send Lu Qingshan to the platform that had been built long ago.
On the jade tablet of the Yumen Pass battle report in the Beacon Hall, the battle report displayed at the top has been changed to the victory of Beihe Pass.
The battle report also highlighted Lu Qingshan's contribution to this victory.
The scenes that took place on the Beihe Pass battlefield soon spread throughout the Yumen Pass.
With one leap he crossed three thousand soldiers and took the enemy general's head in the midst of ten thousand troops!
The two commanders of the demon clan, the top demon commander Kulong and the high-level demon commander Xuandu, were all beheaded in his hands!
One man is an army, and he killed so many demons and devil cultivators that they were terrified and their armies were routed!
The monks at Beihe Pass all called out the name of Lu Qingshan, the Young Master of the Sword Sect!
Each of the above events is enough to shock and alarm those who hear them.
Not to mention, all of this happened because of one person.
For a moment, the entire Yumen Pass was shaken.
But Lu Qingshan, as the "protagonist" of the halo, was very indifferent to this.
His views on many things have long been different from those of ordinary people. He looks at things from a higher perspective and has a bird's-eye view.
Lu Qingshan was very calm about Yumen Pass's publicity of his achievements and reputation. He was neither too proud nor too humble.
In Lu Qingshan's view, this reputation is more of a recognition of his hard work and accumulation of experience over the years.
Lu Qingshan also understood and calmly accepted how the monk deacon of Yumen Pass fanned the flames and had ulterior motives behind this reputation.
Since the human race needs a hero at this stage, and he happened to do these things at this time and has the conditions to become a hero, then Lu Qingshan does not mind others using him as a banner to boost the morale of other human cultivators and enhance their confidence.
It's always good to have a flag up front.
It gives people hope to persevere and confidence in victory.
… …
After launching this massive siege, the demons seemed to be accumulating strength for the next war and temporarily curbed their actions.
During this period, they simply dispatched a large number of demon cultivators to settle in the sixteen small and medium-sized city gates that originally belonged to the human race and had already fallen into their hands.
Apart from this, there was no other movement, and it seemed extremely calm.
Of course, calm is only relative.
Because these days, in the wilderness areas of the extraterritorial battlefield, the number of demons has increased at a visibly increasing rate, and encounters between human cultivators and demon cultivators occur every day.
But large-scale organized wars have indeed temporarily disappeared.
The human race has gained a rare opportunity to recuperate.
The first thing they did was to collect all the resources of Beihe Pass, gather all the monks of Beihe Pass, and abandon the city and leave.
Yes, although it is extremely difficult to defend Beihe Pass, there is really no way to take it.
The reason is very simple.
Beihe Pass is the city pass farthest from Yumen Pass and the most forward-line city pass among the seventeen city passes.
If you look at it on the map, the seventeen city gates are roughly in the shape of a triangle, and the number of cities decreases as you go forward.
Beihe Pass is located at the apex of this triangle.
Now, all the sixteen city gates in the triangle behind it have fallen into the hands of the demons.
Beihe Pass has become an isolated city.
If they are unwilling to give up Beihe Pass, once the demons launch another offensive, Beihe Pass will fall into an awkward situation with wolves in front and tigers behind, and no one will be able to help them.
The monks from Beihe Pass are just given away for free.
It is naturally impossible for the human race to do such a stupid thing.
So they retreated resolutely and decisively.
Judging from the ending, Beihe Pass eventually "fell", and it seemed to make no difference.
But one was given up by himself, and the other was conquered by the demons, so there is still a big difference between them.
Besides, Beihe Pass has not disappeared.
Because the human race quickly rebuilt a new city at the base of the triangle formed by the original seventeen city gates.
The city is new, but the name is old.
"Beiheguan."
All the monks of Beihe Pass retreated to Xinbeihe Pass, using it as a bridgehead, facing the demons from afar, waiting for the follow-up actions from the demons.
Another month passed like this.
Lu Qingshan has also been resting these days.
The powerful burst of Bing Zi Jue, in addition to consuming a lot of energy, has some side effects like other explosive secret techniques.
Roughly equivalent to the sage time after the outbreak.
In fact, whether in the past life or this life, as far as Lu Qingshan knows, the rule that the explosion of secret techniques must have sequelae is the only exception when it comes to the power of mountains and seas.
The powerful force released by the Bing character formula rushed into Lu Qingshan's body in an instant, rushing through his meridians. Even though it was only a short thirty breaths, it still caused considerable shock and damage to his meridians.
What's worse is that he used the military strategy twice in a short period of two days.
With all these factors added up, Lu Qingshan's situation became even worse.
However, fortunately, he is the young master of the Sword Sect.
Therefore, he can enjoy the best healing medicine and recuperate in the best environment.
But even so, it took Lu Qingshan a full month to completely heal the injuries in his meridians and return to his best condition.
"Unless absolutely necessary, the art of war should be used less frequently." This was Lu Qingshan's biggest feeling after spending a month healing his injuries.
In addition to recuperating and healing his injuries, he also used this period of time to digest what he had gained from the Battle of Beihe Pass and prepare for the next battle.
First of all, his experience value once again broke through the one billion mark, reaching a terrifying number of 1.021 billion.
However, he cannot break through to the fusion realm until the seed of the Dharma Realm is condensed, so he can only keep this experience value for now and wait for the day when he can open the Dharma Realm and advance to the fusion realm.
In addition, his amazing performance in the Battle of Beiheguan also brought him great military merit.
After a resolution was made at Yumen Pass, he was given a commendation order that was communicated to the entire Yumen Pass.
The content of the commendation order was also very simple.
One hundred thousand military merits.
Add to that the merits he gained from killing those demons, as well as his previous war merits...
If one probes the spiritual consciousness into Lu Qingshan's identity token at this moment, one can see several lines of large golden characters.
The reason why it is shining with golden light is that it is a "special effect" that will appear after the authority reaches the highest "A" level.
Identity——Lu Qingshan
Sect - Sword Sect
Authority: A (accumulated military merit 238924)
Military achievements: 230,874
…
Even among cultivators at the eighth level, not everyone can accumulate such terrifying military exploits.
After all, on the battlefield outside the domain, there is an unspoken rule that monks of the eighth realm cannot be dispatched in large-scale battles.
Large-scale battles are precisely the places where military merits can be accumulated the most.
At this time, Lu Qingshan was only a sixth-level cultivator.
This is proof of his great contribution to the human race in the war against the demons.
He has unparalleled potential and talent, a combat power comparable to that of a peak seventh-level cultivator, and with such a huge contribution...
In just less than two months, Lu Qingshan had secured his position as the Sword Sect's Young Master.
No one had any doubts about this anymore, and they all secretly sighed that Xie Qingyun was worthy of being called a sword immortal, and his vision of people was very experienced.
With such terrifying military merits in hand, the first thing Lu Qingshan did was to spend 170,000 military merits to exchange many rare spiritual materials for Taohua.
In the mountain tower, inside the quiet room.
Lu Qingshan sat cross-legged.
Peach blossoms were suspended above, and below were many spiritual materials shining with various colors.
Extreme wind fire magma, primordial cold water, chaos refined gold...all the five elements' rare treasures are available.
Lights of ochre, red, dark blue, emerald green, or golden color flew out from these spiritual materials and were absorbed by the peach blossoms, making their spirituality even brighter.
But those spiritual materials also began to slowly shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The floor beside Lu Qingshan was already piled with the remains of many spiritual materials that had lost their spiritual essence and only left residues.
Finally, after another half an hour, the last bit of spiritual light from those spiritual materials was also absorbed by the peach blossoms.
"Buzz!" The peach blossoms trembled and the sword chanted crisply.
The "well-fed" Taohua was still jumping around Lu Qingshan happily like before, expressing her gratitude and joy to him, but there was a terrifying edge flashing on the sword's edge.
99%.
This is the progress of Peach Blossom shown in the Transformation column.
"Peach Blossom has already reached a certain limit, and it's not far from breaking through to a pseudo-Dao weapon. But it's just this little bit that is lacking, and it is the final bottleneck... No matter how much ordinary spiritual materials are absorbed, it will be useless, and there will be no way for it to complete the final step of transformation." Lu Qingshan looked at the peach blossom that was like a smoke screen, and said secretly in his heart.
It is extremely difficult to create a pseudo-Taoist weapon.
The first 99% is just the accumulation of quantity. Although it is difficult, it will at most take more time.
But this last 1% is a qualitative transformation, and it requires some real treasures from heaven and earth to help it break through the bottleneck.
This level of rare treasures has always been in short supply and cannot be exchanged for by military merit. Even in the Sword Sect's treasury, there are no such artifacts.
If you want to get it, you can only rely on chance.
But chance has always been a mysterious thing.
Maybe it will come in the next moment, or maybe it will never come in a lifetime.
Lu Qingshan shook his head, stopped thinking about it, and slowly stood up.
…
Time passes slowly.
During this period, the human cultivators in Yumen Pass have been on high alert.
However, although the demons frequently mobilized their demon cultivators, they strangely stopped and did not launch subsequent wars.
But the human race obviously does not dare to take it lightly.
After all, Chi Zun is still in charge of Wujian City and has not left yet.
The calmer the weather before a storm, the more terrifying it will be when it breaks out.
Everyone understands this principle.
The threat from the demons hangs over the hearts of all the monks at Yumen Pass like a shadow.
Even the Qingyun Sword Immortal could not feel at ease during this period.
Dark clouds are pressing down on the city, threatening to destroy it.
The scariest thing in the world is the unknown.
No one knows what the demons are trying to do this time.
…
…
Sun rises in the east and rain falls in the west.
In the eventful period of the seventh year of Tianyuan, it was not only Yumen Pass that was on the verge of a war.
In the Zhongtian Realm, the giant demon clan also launched a war, apparently to avenge Xuanzun who died in the human realm.
The attack was much more brutal than that at Yumen Pass.
The giant demon clan deployed eighth-grade demon cultivators for the first time!
You know, once forces above the seventh rank are mobilized, the expansion of the war becomes inevitable.
Therefore, the Yanlan Pass in the Zhongtian Domain was already engulfed in war during this period, and all the small and medium-sized city gates were destroyed by the demons.
The demons used this as a base to radiate in all directions, conducting sweeps against human monks on battlefields outside their domains.
Even though the Great Xia royal family and Tianji Temple immediately recalled the cultivators wandering on the battlefield outside the domain and asked them to return to Yanlan Pass as soon as possible, the human race still suffered heavy losses.
At this time, the monks from Zhongtian Realm were relying on Yanlan Pass to confront the demons.
Both sides used their own methods and engaged in many bloody battles, and the struggle gradually became stalemate.
Fortunately, the Yanlan Pass formation is strong enough, and the giant demons are not yet ready to fight to the death, so although the war has further escalated, it has not yet reached the point of the second battle between Taoism and demons.
In addition to Zhongtian Region and Dongyu Region, there is another region that is also in dire straits.
That is the Central Spiritual Realm controlled by the Huanling Sect.
The Heart Demon Clan has not launched a war, but according to intelligence, they have already dispatched a large number of demon cultivators to the battlefield outside the domain.
I think it's only a matter of time before a war breaks out.
The only thing to be thankful for is that compared to the sudden attacks by the demons in the East Region and the Central Sky Region, the actions of the Heart Demon Clan seemed to be traceable, and the cultivators in the Central Spirit Region could prepare and respond in advance, so as not to be caught off guard.
The news from the three regions caused the other four regions, which were temporarily peaceful, to start feeling insecure and they all entered a state of war readiness.
No one dares to take the battle between Taoism and demons lightly or hope for luck.
The battlefield outside the domain is turbulent, and the human territory is also not peaceful.
After the master of Shuiyue Temple took over Zhishou Tower, he united the forces of Tianji Temple, Zhishou Tower and Daxia, and using the monks under King Qing as a breakthrough point, he launched a drastic cleanup of the underworld monks in Zhongtian Domain.
With the force of thunder, within a month, it almost wiped out the underworld in the Zhongtian Realm, and at the same time quickly radiated its power to the other six realms.
The big move by the master of Shuiyue Temple seemed to have forced the underworld into a state of panic.
For a time, the underworlds of the six realms actually erupted at the same time, and like desperate dogs, they caused chaos and made trouble everywhere in the human race.
Although this caused some trouble to the human race, it was quickly settled.
Because, within the human realm, the power of the underworld is really not enough.
The underworld lurking in the dark is the scary underworld.
Once they disregard the consequences, openly expose their identities, and wantonly commit chaos and massacres, although they will cause some losses to the human race, that will be all, and they will soon be suppressed by human monks.
So, in just three months, the underworld, a malignant tumor that had been growing among the human race for thousands of years and was difficult to get rid of, was actually eradicated by Zhishoulou.
Finally, this eventful period slowly passed.
The seventh year of Tianyuan is about to enter its final season.
Winter.