King of Creation Chapter 1793 - 1778: Xio Qiangu Dumbfounded

The inferno and rising smoke from Dachang Mountain were a stark sight for Xio Zhen, the recently arrived ancestral elder of the Xio family. He bit his lip fiercely, yet blood continued to trickle from its corners.

Concurrently, Xio Tiandong, the current head of the Dongxi Clan, appeared ashen-faced, his very fingers quivering.

Not long prior, a clan warning had reached them while they were pursuing an Ancient Fierce Beast spurred by strong winds. Their hurried return coincided with witnessing a massacre that obliterated the Xio Mansion.

It is noteworthy that every individual within the Xio Mansion, from the appointed guardians to the Martial Artists undergoing rigorous training, were deemed elite and highly gifted members of the Dongxi Clan.

Yet, they were all now annihilated.

What did this signify? It meant two-thirds of the Dongxi Clan's populace had perished, instantly reducing the formerly prestigious great family in Pingzhou to a clan of little consequence.

In comparison to the loss of life and the injured clan members, the depletion of over five million High Grade Spiritual Stones seemed almost irrelevant.

Fortunately, ancestral elder Xio Zhen and clan head Xio Tiandong remained, alongside forty elite Realm King Realm clan members and Dachang Mountain itself. Protected by them, the remaining eight thousand members of the Dongxi Clan could, with sixty years of time, regain their former power.

Sixty years is a considerable span, neither excessively long nor too brief, and for Martial Artists, it is a duration they can patiently endure.

Thus, the group of Xio family Martial Artists, suppressing their sorrow, dispatched numerous urgent notices and commenced tending to the surviving clan members.

However, barely fifteen minutes elapsed before ancestral elder Xio Zhen received an urgent Talisman Communication originating from Dachang Mountain.

A force of one hundred thousand demon army troops had descended upon Dachang Mountain, initiating a brutal slaughter.

Xio Zhen and his companions turned deathly pale with terror.

By the time he arrived fifteen minutes later, the entirety of Dachang Mountain had already been reduced to a desolate ruin.

The Xio clan members stationed there, tasked with overseeing and safeguarding the mining veins of Dachang Mountain, numbered over six thousand.

Fewer than a hundred survivors remained.

Furthermore, the invaders had shattered the very foundation of the Xio Clan, destroying all hundreds of mining tunnels within the Dachang Mountain veins.

It must be understood that the Dongxi Clan had invested over a century in excavating these thousand-meter deep mining tunnels at immense expense.

Now, all of it was ruined overnight....

"Who, precisely who orchestrated this..." Xio Tiandong, the head of the Dongxi Clan, roared, collapsing skyward as he was overcome by the devastating blow.

It was not that Xio Tiandong lacked the strength to endure such calamities.

The sheer magnitude of this catastrophe was simply too overwhelming.

Nearly fifty thousand clan members of the Dongxi Clan had now been exterminated, with ninety percent of their population gone, leaving only around two thousand survivors.

The term 'clan members' here specifically refers to the males; within great families, only males are recognized as true clan members.

Among the remaining two thousand, the number of males capable of natural reproduction could perhaps be as low as four or five hundred.

Individuals like the forty Realm King Realm experts of the Dongxi Clan could still procreate, but even with considerable effort over several decades or a century, producing a single offspring was not guaranteed.

To increase the number of viable clan members to over ten thousand would essentially be an impossible feat without nearly a century dedicated to recovery and population growth.

The loss of their population and the devastation of Dachang Mountain, their primary source of wealth.

The Dongxi Clan had been rendered virtually incapacitated.

The same grim realization dawned upon West Patrol Xio Qiangu.

Xio Qiangu understood that the Dongxi Clan was finished, and for an extended period, they would be incapable of offering him any assistance.

This also meant that the annual wealth exceeding ten million High Grade Spiritual Stones, which the Dongxi Clan supplied to him, would diminish by over ninety percent.

Moreover, he would be unable to acquire any capable talents from the Dongxi Clan for the next hundred years.

Under normal circumstances, within a century, the Dongxi Clan could reliably provide him with ten thousand clan members, all at the Dao Entrance Realm stage of Cultivation and thoroughly trained.

This prospect caused Xio Qiangu immense anguish.

"Weis Gang, first the Xio Mansion in Dongxi County City was bloodied by a hundred thousand demon army troops, and now Dachang Mountain has met a similar fate. Isn't this too much of a coincidence?"

"This invading demon army is clearly targeting the Dongxi Clan, specifically aiming for me, Xio Qiangu. Do you not sense it?" Xio Qiangu quickly discerned that something was deeply wrong.

Wei Gang's expression shifted. "My lord, this is indeed too coincidental. If that's the case, then..." Wei Gang then furrowed his brow, "But the problem remains, my lord, who possesses the capability to silently and stealthily transport a hundred thousand demon troops into the very heartland of our Great Zhou?"

Even Prince Lik Ji, who is stationed at the Human Demon Battlefield, likely wouldn't possess such a capability."

"Indeed..."

This was precisely what perplexed Xio Qiangu.

The entire affair seemed astonishingly improbable.

Though Xio Qiangu was immediately informed and commenced preparations, he was still inundated by a deluge of documents arriving like snowflakes.

This time, he truly understood the predicament Ye Zhen had faced previously.

Most critically, upon the news spreading that a hundred thousand demon soldiers had appeared in Pingzhou and annihilated a county city, the Imperial Court of Great Zhou was thrown into utter consternation.

Successive incursions by demon armies in battalion strength were brazenly challenging the authority of the Great Zhou's monarch and his ministers.

Not only did Venerate Emperor Ji Long directly issue an Imperial Decree, but Grand Celestial Official Wu Yu also released Military Orders.

The gist of both the Imperial Decree and the Military Orders was identical.

Efforts were to be made with nearby garrisons to locate and eradicate the invading demon army within a stipulated timeframe.

The deadline imposed was exceedingly tight.

This time, the Imperial Decree and Military Orders from Grand Celestial Official Wu Yu granted Xio Qiangu a mere one-day window.

The West Patrol and the Wind Patrol Envoy, responsible for Pingzhou’s Third Route, were given only twenty-four hours to uncover any traces of the invading demon army, or face the consequences of military law.

Do not be misled by the brevity of the one-day deadline; it was significantly more demanding than the period Ye Zhen had been allocated back then.

However, the circumstances were vastly different.

Ye Zhen had confronted an invasion numbering slightly over a thousand demon troops; such a force could easily conceal itself, with even a moderately sized cave providing adequate shelter.

Locating them within three days was, in fact, a considerable challenge.

But in this instance, Xio Qiangu was tasked with finding a hundred thousand demon soldiers.

A hundred thousand demon troops, even if arrayed side-by-side, would stretch for miles, leaving absolutely no suitable place to hide, even if they desperately wished to.

For such a massive number to conceal their movements entirely was virtually impossible; complete concealment was not feasible.

Therefore, when contrasted with the three-day Military Orders issued to Ye Zhen previously, the Military Orders assigned to Xio Qiangu and the Third Route Wind Patrol Envoy were considerably less difficult to fulfill.

Initially, upon receiving the Imperial Decree and Military Orders, Xio Qiangu felt quite confident.

Fulfilling this decree and order seemed straightforward, prompting Xio Qiangu to ponder the subsequent logistical arrangements.

However, after deploying a significant contingent of personnel from Dongxi County and conducting an extensive search for half a day, beads of cold sweat began to bead on Xio Qiangu's forehead.

They couldn't find any sign of them!

The vast number of personnel he had dispatched, alongside several Dao Realm experts led by Xio Zhen, meticulously scoured a region spanning 300,000 miles around Dongxi County.

Let alone finding a hundred thousand demon soldiers, they couldn't even detect the faintest trace of any demons.

The hundred thousand demon army seemed to have evaporated into thin air, utterly elusive no matter the effort.

In that instant, Xio Qiangu was overcome with a profound sense of helplessness!

He felt like an ant trapped on a scorching surface, utterly bewildered!