Chapter 45: The Curse of the Shadow Demon

A faint glimmer appeared ahead, guiding Wei Cheng as he woke from a deep slumber. His body felt heavy and exhausted, as though he had just crossed mountains and endured a brutal battle. The stench of rotting corpses hung thick in the air, making him nauseous. He tried to struggle upright, but it was as if all strength had been sucked from his limbs. Only after a long while did this state gradually subside.

Wei Cheng felt like a corpse frozen in ice, now slowly coming back to life.

The moment he finally opened his eyes, his condition returned to normal—back to how he had been on Earth.

The scene before him made his heart sink. As expected, the sixth trial was a direct continuation of the fifth.

The ruin before him, scorched and scarred by flames, was unmistakably the remains of Floating Cloud North City, destroyed by the demon army.

The seeds they had sown in the fifth trial were now bearing bitter fruit in the sixth. Had they managed to defend Floating Cloud City in the previous round, this stage would have started off much more favorably—in fact, perhaps even with a significant advantage.

Clearly, the countless trials ahead were not isolated, but closely linked. Some would be minor, mere preludes, but there would certainly be pivotal, decisive stages.

Whoever secured enough resources and prepared thoroughly would reap the greatest rewards in these crucial trials.

Wei Cheng grasped this in an instant, but there was little comfort in the realization.

“Boss!”

A weak voice came from a pile of charred bodies nearby—it was Cheng An. Looking around, Wei Cheng saw Yu Liang, Wang Wei, Dong Fang, and Sun Yi as well. Apparently, their starting point had been within heaps of corpses.

Wei Cheng did not rush to pull them out. First, he quickly surveyed the area, making sure there were no signs of demons amid the ruins of Floating Cloud City. Only then did he start dragging each of them free.

“Where did all these bodies come from? If there had really been so many soldiers on the city walls, our defenses wouldn’t have been breached,” Dong Fang muttered. Their squad had originally numbered fifty, but only these six had managed to clear the last stage.

Wei Cheng found no other new challengers nearby. It seemed only the six of them would be facing this trial.

“Let’s not waste time. Is it really just the six of us? Where are the other teams? No new people joining?” Yu Liang asked, still refusing to give up as he rummaged through the corpses. Unexpectedly, he dragged out another living person—also not a native, but another challenger, apparently Mei Renli from Team Ding Jiu, a seasoned veteran who had been the only one in his squad to make it through.

“Hello, Boss Wei, everyone. Things are looking pretty grim for us,” Mei Renli said awkwardly, his small eyes darting around.

“There should be others. In this district, there were five thousand challengers—if I recall, nearly five hundred survived the last round. Let’s head to the southern city wall,” Wei Cheng said gravely. Even he dared not act alone, the bitter lesson of the previous trial still fresh in his mind.

As they prepared to move, a massive black stone stele suddenly rose from the center of the ruins, near the city lord’s mansion. Black smoke coiled around it, sealing within a sinister, terrifying force. Letters appeared across its face:

[Because Floating Cloud City has been destroyed, the ancient demon-sealing formation here is about to fail!]

[Warning! The emergence of the demon will continuously bring the Shadow Curse!]

[Warning! The Shadow Curse will be released in twelve hours, covering a radius of five hundred li. After twenty-four hours, it will be released again with a 20% increase in power and unknown additional effects, and so on.]

[Warning! When the Shadow Curse stacks to 300%, the ancient demon will be fully unleashed!]

—

“What the hell?” Wei Cheng and his companions stared, dumbfounded. The so-called Immortal overseeing their trial was certainly playing tricks—was this some kind of battle royale now?

Outrageous!

The next moment, a beam of light refracted before their eyes, as if a parallel mirrored world had suddenly appeared.

In this mirrored world, Floating Cloud City had not been destroyed. Reinforcements had arrived in time; the people had evacuated safely. The Shadow Curse had been contained, and the remaining challengers were in high spirits, bustling with celebration.

In other words—they were no longer starting from the same line.

More beams of light appeared, each representing a mirrored world. In most, Floating Cloud City had been destroyed, but a handful had held out for the reinforcements and did not need to flee from the curse.

There were exactly twenty-eight of these mirrored worlds—matching the twenty-eight districts in the Southeast Province that had achieved perfect clearance.

So, all challengers from one province shared a single major server? What about the other provinces, or the other countries?

Wei Cheng and the others stared in shock, watching their counterparts in the mirrored worlds, many of whom were just as bewildered and frightened. Now and then, they glimpsed familiar faces—friends, even family. Everyone shouted and waved, trying to communicate with gestures or Morse code, but it was useless.

After about ten seconds, the lights faded.

Beyond Floating Cloud City, on the far horizon in every direction, countless transmission steles of varying sizes appeared, so dense they looked like a vast graveyard, a sight heavy on the heart.

There was no doubt—within a five-hundred-li radius, demon squads, companies, and even entire battalions were everywhere.

Worse still, the Shadow Curse was close behind, inescapable.

There was no way out.

“We have to find the others!” Wei Cheng said at last, his voice low. With such difficulty, if only the seven of them remained, death would be certain.

Fortunately, soon more challengers began to emerge from the wreckage of the eastern and western parts of Floating Cloud City, disheveled and battered.

No one needed to call for a gathering—everyone instinctively drew together. Gone was the former bravado; the last battle had broken even the proudest spirits.

A few minutes later, Wei Cheng and the group reached the southern part of the city, still searching the ruins for food, but there was nothing—not even weapons.

Luckily, they were no longer on Earth. The internal energy they had spent there was now gradually restoring itself.

Most of the surviving challengers had gathered in the south—about four hundred in all, as this had always been the strongest sector.

From the east, forty-five people had made it.

From the west, sixty-eight.

The north had the fewest, only twelve.

They all huddled together, exchanging glances, but no one spoke. Even Zhou Wu, the leader of the south, wore a dark expression, lost in thought.

Yet those who looked closely could see the southern group had split into several factions; Zhou Wu could no longer command them all.