Volume 8: Demon Suppression Chapter 25: The Dilemma of the Human Race
Lu Qingshan and the 999 human cultivators experienced spatial changes in the teleporting aura. In an instant, they were teleported directly from the square to the mountain nearest to Yumen Pass.
Yumen Pass stood in front of them.
At first glance, unlike the city gates in the mortal world, Yumen Pass, as a pass to defend against demons, was built by humans with the power of moving mountains and seas. It is so majestic that it is unimaginable.
Neatly cut pieces of meteorite are stacked up into towering walls, hundreds of feet high, with array patterns engraved on them. From a distance, they look as majestic as mountains, and as crouching as a dragon, majestic and beautiful.
After thousands of years of erosion by wind and rain and repeated attacks by demons, Yumen Pass has left many messy marks on its walls.
But it still stands in the Tianshan Mountains, blocking the abyss, suppressing everything, blocking the way of the demons, and it has a more heavy sense of history, as if telling people about the former magnificence and prosperity of this great pass in the Eastern Region.
"This is Yumen Pass..." Lu Qingshan murmured.
"Newcomers are coming." Shouts rang out one after another.
The next moment, dozens of monks wearing black armor appeared in front of them.
The leading monk had a scar on his face, looking ferocious and vicious.
This made many monks look sideways with strange expressions.
It’s not that I was afraid, but I was just confused, because with the supernatural powers of a monk, he could even reshape broken limbs, so how could he leave scars on his face?
The scarred monk seemed to see the surprise in the newcomers' eyes. A fierce light flashed in his eyes, and he smiled heartily: "Little guys, are you wondering why I have this scar on my face?"
After a pause, the scarred monk revealed the answer and said proudly: "This was left by the soldier demon!"
Lu Qingshan's heart moved, and he immediately understood why the scarred monk seemed so proud.
Just like the higher up the food chain something is, the fewer there are.
The Soldier Demons are the most noble holy bloodline among the demons. Accordingly, the total number of Soldier Demons is actually not large.
Although it is said that the Eastern Region is fighting against the Soldier Demon Clan, in fact, most of the time, the cultivators in the Eastern Region encounter the affiliated demons of the Soldier Demon Clan.
The scarred monk in front of them not only encountered the soldier demon, but also appeared in front of them alive. The meaning of this can be understood if you think about it carefully.
At Yumen Pass, killing the soldier demon is the most supreme achievement! How can I not be proud?
"The weapons held by the Soldier Demons all contain immortal demonic energy. Once they strike you, it will be almost impossible for you to expel the demonic energy."
The scarred monk looked at the newcomers in front of him and explained a little more, grinning, "In other words, the wounds caused by the soldier demon are equivalent to wounds that cannot be healed and will exist forever. Moreover, every once in a while, the demonic energy attached to the wound will erupt once, causing you to suffer unbearable pain."
This is why the scar on his face has always been there - it's not intentional, but he can't help it.
And behind such a calm sentence, one can imagine how much pain the scarred monk in front of him has endured because of this wound.
"Let's not talk about these things for now," Scar monk shouted loudly: "Newcomers, if you want to enter Yumen Pass, you must first have your own identity mark..."
As he spoke, a hazy, illusory crystal card appeared in his hand, and then the scarred male cultivator pointed at a new monk at random, "Come out for a moment."
The newcomer who was pointed out by the scarred monk quickly stepped forward.
The scarred male cultivator handed the illusory crystal card in his hand to the newcomer and said, "Put your spiritual consciousness into the crystal card."
The new monk followed his instructions and probed his spiritual consciousness into the crystal card.
The next moment, the crystal card suddenly glowed, and then its shape twisted strangely and changed rapidly, forming a dragon-shaped light and shadow. After circling in the air, it finally turned into a very magical word "Xia".
"If you are a cultivator from a sect or a family, before you come to Yumen Pass, your family or sect should give you a token representing the identity of your sect or family. You can just imprint your mark on the token. If you are an independent cultivator, tell me. We provide special tokens for independent cultivators here." The scarred cultivator said again.
The new monk picked by the scar-faced monk was not a casual cultivator. He immediately took out a sect token from his storage ring and pressed the word "Xia" into the token.
There was a flash of light on the token, and it seemed to be no different from before, but in fact, there was a lot more.
“The token, which carries the imprint of identity, will have three important functions.
First, it will serve as your identity certificate for entering and exiting Yumen Pass, the other six mountains, and even Tianhe City, and it is completely bound to you.
Only you can use the special features of this token.
Second, it will also record your battle performance on foreign battlefields and convert it into military merits so that you can check it at any time.
But you must remember that you need to carry the token with your identity mark with you.
Because once you put the token into the storage ring, it will no longer be able to record your battle record. If you don't get any credit for your battle, you can't blame me.
Finally, this identity mark also records the treasure trove of spiritual materials that can be exchanged for military merits, and you can also use your spiritual sense to check it at any time. "Scar monk explained the function of the token in detail.
This illusory crystal card called identity mark is actually a kind of spiritual art developed by the spiritual practitioners of Tianji Temple.
Its three functions are of extremely important practical significance, especially the ability to record battle records.
This is because military merit is the most important reward for cultivators for killing demons, and it is also an important motivation for cultivators to risk their lives and enter battlefields outside the domain.
However, monks often act alone, so when counting their military achievements, how to count them, as well as possible problems of over-reporting and false reporting, are all issues that must be resolved.
On the human side, the initial counting method was that after killing a demon, the cultivator needed to take out the eyeballs of the killed demon and bring them back as proof.
But later, the great cultivators of the human race discovered that in many cases, the battles between cultivators and demons were often life-and-death struggles, and they could not stop at all and could not leave the demon's body intact.
Especially for magic cultivators, when struck by a bolt of lightning, the demons are often turned into ashes directly. Not to mention their eyeballs, not even a hair will be left. In that case, isn't it just a waste of killing the demon?
If a cultivator were to restrain his hands and feet in order to keep the demon's body intact, that would undoubtedly be tantamount to risking his life.
Furthermore, in many cases, monks often do not have time to clean up the battlefield and have to leave quickly.
Finally, there were some human monks with evil intentions who tried to gain military merit by forging the eyeballs of the demons.
Taking all the above into consideration, the overhaul of Tianji Temple created a new spiritual technique specifically to solve this problem.
And in the subsequent continuous improvements, many new functions were added, and finally it became what it is today.
According to Lu Qingshan's understanding, this is actually a personal "database" that you carry with you.
…
After the scarred male cultivator finished introducing the function of the identity stamp, the dozen or so black armored cultivators began to distribute the identity stamps to the newcomers present in an orderly manner.
Lu Qingshan soon received his identity mark, and then quietly imprinted the mark on the Sword Sect token given by Xi Xiang.
"Please try to probe your spiritual sense into the token." After seeing that all the newcomers had their own identity tokens, the scarred monk said again.
Lu Qingshan did as he was told.
The next moment, several lines of ancient characters written in a flamboyant style came into his sight.
Identity - Blank
Sect - Sword Sect
Authority - Wu (To be promoted to the next level "D", the accumulated military merit must exceed 100.)
Military achievements: zero
This information is his personal information.
The identity column is blank.
This is because due to various special circumstances, human monks often need to hide their identities.
Therefore, Yumen Pass will not directly ask the identities of new monks. The identity names will be written by the monks themselves.
Of course, you can even write a pseudonym, but from now on, that pseudonym will become your code name in Yumen Pass.
Lu Qingshan thought for a moment, and finally wrote his real name after his identity.
Identity——Lu Qingshan.
…
Below the profile, there is also a list of inventories called Treasure Trove.
Lu Qingshan's spiritual sense swept through it casually, and the list was immediately opened by him.
Seven major categories come into view: "Spells", "Skills", "Spiritual Materials", "Magic Instruments", "Elixir", "Secret Techniques" and "Auxiliary", and they are divided in a very orderly manner.
Each major category is further divided into many subcategories. For example, under the "magic weapon category" there are so-called "defensive magic weapons", "offensive magic weapons", "auxiliary magic weapons" and so on, which is extremely rich.
In each subcategory, the spiritual objects included are extremely varied and dazzling.
Each spiritual object can be exchanged for military merits.
Lu Qingshan clicked on the auxiliary category, and suddenly countless pictures and corresponding text descriptions appeared in front of him.
But most of the catalogs are gray, this is because he does not have enough authority - the more precious the spiritual object, the higher the level of authority required to exchange it.
Among these gray catalogs are the things that Lu Qingshan values most.
"Spirit Crystal - One for ten combat merits (Level D authority required)"
For him, one spirit crystal means 50,000 experience points.
At Yumen Pass, one spirit crystal requires ten points of combat merit, which means that every point of combat merit can be converted into five thousand experience points.
This is why in the past life, the Seven Mountains and One River were regarded as a treasure land for leveling up by players.
…
After taking a quick look at the treasure list, Lu Qingshan quickly came to his senses.
This is because the second time is familiar, he has seen this treasure list countless times in his previous life, and looking at it now, it is actually not very novel.
But the other new monks did not have the same experience as Lu Qingshan. For them, all of this was full of novelty and surprise. Looking at the massive treasure trove, they were completely shocked and dazzled, and they took a long time to recover.
The scarred male cultivator was not in a hurry. He just stood there with a smile, waiting for everyone's curiosity to wear off.
Another half a quarter of an hour later, most of the newcomers turned their attention away from the treasure house.
"Everyone, look here. Next, I will take you to briefly learn about Yumen Pass and the situation of the battlefield outside the domain." Seeing this, the scarred male cultivator raised his voice slightly and said with a smile: "Follow me."
…
Under the leadership of the scarred male cultivator, everyone was finally able to enter Yumen Pass.
They were first taken to the tall city wall of Yumen Pass.
Here, there is a large area where you can look out over the city walls.
It was a desolate, bloody area with no end in sight and was so huge that it was unimaginable.
"The area you see is the outer battlefield. There are countless demons in it. As long as the human race leaves Yumen Pass and enters the outer battlefield, they may be attacked by demons at any time. This is the place where the human race has produced the most powerful people. Of course, it is also a cruel place where the most human cultivators have been killed or injured."
"And if you keep going deeper into the battlefield outside the domain, when you reach the end, you will see a space passage about a hundred miles long and ten miles wide. Through that space passage, you can enter the territory of the Abyss Soldier Demon Clan." The scarred male cultivator said calmly.
"Unfortunately, we humans do not have the strength to counterattack into the abyss. In fact, most of the areas in this extraterritorial battlefield are controlled by the demons. We humans have only built a dozen small cities with great difficulty in the extraterritorial battlefield as bridgeheads to prevent the demons from rushing directly to Yumen Pass without warning. After you become familiar with the general situation, you can go to those small cities on your own and kill the demons!" The scarred male cultivator looked out at the desolate land, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.
"As newcomers, the first and most important thing you need to remember is that danger exists at all times on the battlefield outside the domain. As long as you leave the pass, you must be alert and not be careless. In history, there were even human cultivators who were attacked and killed by shadow demons just three miles away from the Yumen Pass."
hiss--
Upon hearing this, the new monks couldn't help but gasp.
Three miles is not a far distance even for ordinary people, and it is just a matter of one step for cultivators.
And just three miles away from Yumen Pass, there are shadow demons lurking?
How daring are the demons? What kind of terrifying place is this extraterritorial battlefield?
"In addition, the demons would launch a large-scale war every ten years or so, attacking all the small city gates built by our human race and Yumen Pass. That was the most tragic time," the scarred male cultivator told the newcomers about the cruelty of war. "In every large-scale battle, our human race would suffer heavy casualties."
"Because, in terms of strength, the demons are actually far superior to us humans!" said the scarred male cultivator in a deep voice.
More than half of the thousand new monks knew what this meant, but some of them were not very clear about the situation and immediately showed a look of astonishment on their faces.
Seeing this, the scarred male cultivator couldn't help but sigh and said slowly: "Although I don't want to admit it, it is true that the demons have always been stronger than us humans. The reason why our human race was completely defeated back then was that the power of the major sects of the human race was not united. In fact, the fundamental reason is that the gap in power is too big. Because, in terms of division, the situation of the demons is much more serious than that of our human race, but even so, they still had the strength to crush us back then..."
All the newcomers fell silent, their breathing becoming rapid.
"That's why Daozu Xia wanted to establish Daxia, just to consolidate the strength of our human race. After all, our strength is far inferior to that of the demon race. If we don't unite, we humans will just surrender and admit defeat." The scarred male cultivator continued, nakedly displaying the plight of the human race in front of these newcomers.
"In addition, as for our Tianshan extraterritorial battlefield, Yumen Pass is fine. After all, nearly 80% of the human race's great cultivators in the entire Eastern Region have gathered here, and there is also the Sword Sect's Senior Qingyun Sword Immortal in charge. Therefore, the demons have always been helpless against us, and Yumen Pass has not suffered too many casualties in each battle. However, the situation of the other dozen or so small city passes is not so optimistic, and it is not an exaggeration to even call it tragic."
"Fifty percent!" The scarred male cultivator stretched out his right hand towards the newcomers. "This is the casualty rate of cultivators in small cities in every large-scale battle!"
"How can it be so high?" A newcomer couldn't help but exclaimed in disbelief.
"This is a conspiracy of the demons. They are obviously much stronger than us, but every time they attack our small city gates, the forces they send out are just a little stronger than ours. In a battle between evenly matched forces, casualties are often the heaviest."
"Ah, why is that?"
The expressions of most of the newcomers began to become much more solemn, and they had obviously understood the demon clan's plan, but there were still a few monks who had not figured it out.
The scarred male cultivator did not take it seriously and patiently explained, "Because the demons understand that if the manpower they send out is far stronger than ours, we will abandon those small city gates..."
"And the demons want us to desperately defend those small city gates, thereby continuously consuming our manpower."
"But aren't the demons also consuming their own power?" someone else asked.
"It's different, because the demons are completely different from us," the scarred male cultivator said in a deep voice, "The power of our human cultivators comes from those with spiritual roots after a long period of practice, and it needs to be accumulated slowly. But the power of the demons comes from their bloodline. As long as they keep giving birth, they can continuously cultivate demon warriors. However, once the number of these powerful demon warriors is too large, the abyss world will not be able to bear this huge resource consumption, and will begin to become desolate, dilapidated, and destroyed. This is also the reason why they want to invade our human sky. And attacking our small city gates, for the demons, not only can consume our living forces, but also eliminate their demon warriors who have exceeded the world's capacity. This kind of loss is completely beneficial to them."
"If this continues, the growth rate of our human cultivators will not be able to keep up with the loss rate, and they will only become weaker and weaker." The scarred male cultivator said, "This is exactly what the demons want."
