Chapter 526 - 492: Forming an Array to Protect Xing Lan Fairy

Song Ciwan traveled with Zhou Mu and his group for a while.

They got along well during the journey, and through them, Song Ciwan gained a preliminary understanding of Demon Suppression City.

The terrain around Demon Suppression City, both inside and outside the pass, was very peculiar.

A place like the Mingqiu Desert, which changed every seven days, was no exception.

The Mingqiu Desert was situated north of Demon Suppression City and south of Demon Suppression Pass. Sandwiched between the city and the pass, it seemed desolate, but its location was actually very important.

To the west of Demon Suppression City stretched a mountain range hundreds of thousands of miles long. This range was named Chong Wei; its western end connected to Kunlun, its southern face to the Chi River, and its eastern end to Demon Suppression City.

In truth, Demon Suppression City was the protective bastion for Demon Suppression Pass, serving as the Human Race’s second crucial line of defense against the Demon Race.

If Demon Suppression Pass were to fall, the army could retreat to Demon Suppression City. But if even Demon Suppression City fell, then the Nine Provinces would truly be in peril.

However, the Nine Provinces Land was a Mythical Realm. The significance of a grand border pass in a Mythical Realm was fundamentally different from that of a border pass in an ordinary feudal dynasty.

The most obvious difference was that although the pass existed, demons of the Demon Race often snuck across the border. Therefore, seeing various Demon Beasts within the pass was a commonplace occurrence—

This might make it sound as if Demon Suppression Pass was useless and couldn’t suppress any demons, but that wasn’t the case.

Demon Suppression Pass primarily suppressed Great Demons, Strong Demons, Demon Venerables, and even Demon Saints!

If ordinary low- to mid-level members of the Demon Race wanted to sneak across, they simply needed to bypass the cities and cross on either side of Demon Suppression Pass.

After all, it was a vast, endless expanse of land with all sorts of strange terrain. Who had the energy to maintain tight control over every single inch of it?

It wasn’t that it couldn’t be done, but the cost was too great to be sustained.

The other purpose of Demon Suppression Pass was to establish a border, delineate the territory of the Human Race, declare human sovereignty, and, at the same time, prevent large-scale invasions by the Demon Race.

As for minor skirmishes or small-scale border crossings from both sides, these were common affairs.

The Demon Race snuck into human lands, and the Human Race likewise snuck into demon territory.

The Demon Race coveted the flesh, blood, and souls of humans, while humans, in turn, needed Demon Corpses and demonic treasures.

Both sides preyed on each other. The hatred had spanned countless generations, and there was no distinction between good and evil, right and wrong—only the matter of whose methods were more cunning.

Since the establishment of the Great Zhou, over hundreds or even thousands of years of conflict, the Human and Demon Races had formed a number of unwritten rules.

For example, those at or above the level of Demon Venerable and Celestial Immortal were not to act rashly.

At the border, conflicts involving fewer than a hundred or even a thousand people were considered routine skirmishes. As long as they didn’t escalate into massive brawls of over ten thousand, they weren’t considered a problem.

Outside the battlefield, relations between the two races returned to what they were.

So, what exactly was the relationship between the Human and Demon Races?

Based on Song Ciwan’s impression from her time within the Nine Provinces, the Human and Demon Races were generally hostile toward each other but tolerant on a smaller scale.

Within the Nine Provinces, the Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty held absolute power. Even though Demon Spirits often arose in the mountains, rivers, and wilds, any of the Demon Race born within the Nine Provinces had to submit to the rule of the Immortal Dynasty.

Even if there were cases of Little Demons causing trouble for the populace or demonic calamities constantly plaguing the common folk, the Lantern Hanging Department could handle these small-scale disasters. Life for the common people, while not necessarily good, was generally manageable.

In short, humans were strong and demons were weak. Thus, while hatred existed, it hadn’t reached the point of fighting to the death on sight or becoming irreconcilable enemies.

But here at the Four Great Demon Passes, the situation was different.

Setting aside the other Demon Passes, let’s just talk about Demon Suppression Pass.

Zhou Mu said, "If you encounter one, kill it if you can, and flee if you can’t. Any one you kill is a source of wealth!"

There were no mortals near Demon Suppression Pass. Even among Cultivators, there were none with extremely low Cultivation.

At the very least, there were no Martial Artists below the Innate realm. Innate First Transformation Martial Artists or Qi Transformation Stage Cultivators—those with relatively low Cultivation—generally didn’t venture outside the city. They would find work within the city walls, performing relatively safe tasks to earn Battle Merits and resources for their Cultivation.

In the interior of the Nine Provinces, in some poor, small cities, an Innate First Transformation expert could even establish a family and become a local magnate without issue. Yet here at the Four Great Demon Passes, Innate First Transformation was the lowest rung of the ladder!

One had to admit, the disparities in the Mortal World were sometimes as vast as the heavens and the earth.

But Demon Suppression City never lacked low-level Cultivators. They swarmed to the border one after another. Some were driven by ambition, while others had hit a wall in their progress within the Nine Provinces and were willing to risk their lives at the pass for a chance to break through their shackles and reach the next level.

Or perhaps there were other reasons... Zhou Mu and the others couldn’t possibly explain everything in just a few words.

Zhou Mu just sighed with emotion. "Demon Suppression City, Demon Suppression Pass... of all who come here, aside from the core disciples raised by the army, who doesn’t have their own story?"

The main reason why these core disciples raised by the army were excluded from having a "story" was that they were typically born and raised at the border, trained from a young age.

Such people usually had nothing but loyalty and obedience in their minds. They were fanatical weapons of war. Even if they had "stories," ordinary people would never get to hear them.

Song Ciwan listened to the lengthy introductions, and the outlines of the grand city and the majestic pass gradually took shape in her mind.

Demon Suppression Pass was no longer just the cold, three-word name "Demon Suppression Pass." It seemed to emerge from the distant smoke of ancient battlefields and fall into reality, carrying with it a thousand years of slaughter, endless campaigns, the joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness of every person within the grand pass, and countless stories...