CHAPTER 1046 SLAUGHTER

After he massacred a dozen guards, thousands of low-level fiends began to appear behind the

terrifying first fiend ancestor.

Although they were of low-level status, the fiends were far from weak. Every individual fiend was more

powerful than any of the guards.

"Slaughter," ordered the first fiend ancestor menacingly.

The low-level fiends pounced at the given order. They rushed into battle, bloodlust smeared on their

faces.

"Ancestor, shall we collect souls as well?" asked a low-level fiend in a unique language.

The first fiend ancestor glared coldly in reply. The low-level fiend who dared speak twisted from

extreme pain and let out an anguished cry before turning into a puddle.

There was no patience for stupid questions for the first fiend ancestor. The other low-level fiends who

witnessed this trembled with fear and immediately understood what to do. Human souls were naturally

very useful to their ancestor so it was obvious that they needed to be collected.

They simultaneously flew into the air, causing a wave of darkness as they blotted out the sky and the

sun. Several panicked screams and cries burst from the city as they were engulfed in the darkness.

"I come with a report!"

A guard burst through the doors of a great hall, staggering to the ground as he trembled from what he

needed to inform them about.

"Terrible news! The Deer City has been overrun with fiends. Hundreds of thousands of casualties have

been reported."

"What?"

gasped the four greatest holy warriors. The shock in their voices gave away a sense of panic.

Just moments before, they had gone to patrol the city in the east. It was out of their calculations for the

Deer City down south to be attacked.

That was hundreds of thousands of civilians, most of which were some of the greatest minds and

warriors of the human race!

Gulping down their mourning, the four greatest holy warriors summoned seventeen Governors and

hurried to the Deer City. There was no time for remorse. They had to face the fiends quickly to protect

the other cities.

Their arrival was met with desecration. The Deer City was in chaos. The buildings had collapsed, and

the air was putrid from rot and blood. The smell of death was all over.

The streets were painted with blood as severed arms and legs were strewn around the city. It was a

bloodbath.

The Governor of the Deer City fell to his knees as he cried in anguish.

His wife and children were all residing in the city.

"I'll kill them! I'll kill them all!" he cried.

His eyes were scarlet with pain and rage as he started throwing random attacks into the air.

"Where are the fiends?" asked Francis with a downcast look.

"Sir, they seem to have retreated."

Several strong cultivators who had witnessed the massacre from the sidelines reported that after the

fiends had killed everyone in the city, they retreated like a massive tide.

"No! This cannot be!" The faces of the four greatest holy warriors turned pale. The fiends' retreat could

only have meant one thing.

"They must've gone off to another city to continue their murderous rampage. We must split up and

guard the cities. Once we find any traces of these fiends, we must immediately inform each other,"

Francis instructed his companions. Then he flew off alone in one direction.

The other three greatest holy warriors, along with the Governors, returned to their own cities to keep

watch for the terrifying wave of fiends.

Back in the Holy City, Darren was isolated in a secret chamber. To ensure Darren could stay focused

and successfully create the array they needed, they sealed the chamber with another array to ensure

that none could enter.

Darren was trying his best to utilize his talent and observe the patterns of the big and complex array.

He had to admit that the Heavenly Exterminating Array was quite a challenge to understand. It required

the mysterious Universe Rule along with hundreds of thousands of forces of heaven and earth. Given

even the power of his avatar, it would've been impossible to create such a great array in a short span of

time. It would have taken at least ten thousand years or more.

'The witcher ancestor is truly powerful. Could his creating ability be stronger than my avatar's?' Darren

marveled in mind.

It had been said that the array was created by both the witcher ancestor and Hiram the Great. This

seemed odd to Darren since only rule cultivators or those who practiced something like rules had the

ability to create them. This could only mean that the array was mainly created by the witcher ancestor.

It took Darren several hours to use his Spiritual Domain Degree talent to finally observe a pattern in the

array. Those hours spent were simply observing, too. If he wanted to actually create it, he'd have to

have given it thousands of more hours of his time.

Of course, this was because Darren was a martial artist cultivator. If his rule soul had not been

separated, this process would've been much faster.

After studying a dozen of patterns, Darren began to feel a little tired. He rubbed his eyes and tried to

shake himself awake. Time was of the essence.

"Phew!"

Darren, noticing that he was close to dozing off, quickly opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

'The four greatest holy warriors are all hardworking. It takes them countless amount of energy and time

to comprehend the great array.'

He decided to rest for a short time to regain his bearings. After which, he returned to studying the array.

Unfortunately, doubt began to creep into him as well. He started to worry that before he could find the

loophole they needed, the first fiend ancestor would arrive to slay him.

'If worse comes to worse, I wonder if I could even fend off the first fiend ancestor with my current

strength.'

In fact, Darren didn't know the exact level of where his strength lay at all. He only knew that his current

strength was stronger than any of the four greatest holy warriors.

Given this, the four greatest holy warriors were all six-tribulation senior holy warriors. Darren estimated

that his own strength was perhaps equal to that of a six-tribulation senior holy warrior at the top level.

In theory, a six-tribulation senior holy warrior at the top level could hold his own against a holy emperor.

This meant that he could fight a cultivator who had just entered the level of holy emperor, solely in

terms of strength at least. However, if skills and weapons were part of his calculations then the battle

could not be won.

To battle a holy emperor, one needed to possess the strength of a seven-tribulation senior holy warrior.

For example, Barnes, a mighty seven-tribulation senior holy warrior, was stronger than the Dark

Emperor. owns this.

A seven-tribulation senior holy warrior as powerful as Barnes could probably even hold his own against

a strong holy emperor.

Despite this, not everyone who survived seven tribulations was as powerful as Barnes. After all, he was

at a great advantage considering he had the dodecahedral Fake God Character as well.

'The first fiend ancestor's strength has restored for such a long time. Surely, he's stronger than an

ordinary holy emperor by now. I fear I won't be a match for him if the time for battle arrives.'

Darren began to make a logical comparison in his mind. Factually, his strength was still weaker than his

avatar—who'd fought the fiend before. His avatar's strength was more or less the strength of a strong

holy emperor. It meant his own strength would still lose out to the first fiend ancestor's power.

'I need to create the array as soon as possible. After its completion, the four greatest holy warriors

would gain more strength. If we all fight together, there is a greater chance to defeat that first fiend

ancestor.'

Darren decided to shelve his fear and doubts for the meantime, and concentrate on finding the flaws in

the array at hand.

Ten days later, a huge roar woke Darren from his meditation.

The secret chamber rumbled violently.

'This is bad!' Darren thought to himself. What he had feared had finally arrived. 'It must be the first fiend

ancestor! He must be coming this way!'

The time he had spent in the chamber was far from enough. Darren hadn't even completed a tenth of

the array.

'I have to go out and have a look, ' he thought nervously.

Darren couldn't wait to get out of the secret chamber. He swiftly flew off to see what was going on in the

city.

Upon his arrival, Darren's heart dropped. He couldn't believe his eyes. The situation was worse than he

had imagined.

The whole sky was covered with dark clouds and the city was utterly destroyed. Piercing screams and

cries could be heard from all around him. The miasma of death hung in the air.

Ten kilometers away from the city, there was what looked like a huge wave of black creatures.

A few seconds later, several hundred humans could be seen flying into the air. At the forefront were the

four greatest holy warriors.

"Kill them! Kill them!"

"Those bastards have slaughtered two cities, and we must kill them all! We must avenge all who have

fallen by their filthy hands!"

In the past few days, the four greatest holy warriors and the Governors had vigilantly guarded the

cities. The fiends, perhaps anticipating them earlier, seemed to have deliberately avoided them and

only attacked locations where they could not gather quickly.

The fiends quickly destroyed another city and slaughtered all its residents—along with the city's

Governor—and hastily retreated.

At this discovery, the four greatest warriors decided to lead the warriors and lay ambush on one of the

cities. They were lucky to run into the fiends just as they were en route to their next victim—the Holy

City.

"Kill!"

Darren did not hesitate and went in for a kill in the blink of an eye.

Fiends exploded into blood and guts as he passed them.

Darren gave the fiends no time to think as he attacked them one by one while showers of blood spurted

in his wake. In mere minutes, he had already killed thousands of fiends.

"Look who it is! I see you've finally made an appearance,"

cackled a blood-red figure in the distance. At the sight of Darren, he made a wicked smile as he stood

under the gloom of the gray sky.