The massive scar of destruction, carved in a straight line through the Forest of the Dead, was a humiliating wound to the pride of the Kingdom of Wei. The 'path' Sun Wukong had blazed with his Ruyi Jingu Bang now served as a colossal beacon, broadcasting the intruder's location in real-time and summoning the undead legions.
At the outskirts of Ye City, the gateway to Xuchang, the earth began to convulse violently.
"To think the border was breached by a mere monkey. Lord Cao Cao will be furious."
Atop the battlements of Ye City, a chilling voice rang out as the mana network surged. The alien divine power radiating from Sun Wukong stimulated the soul-detection grid across all of Wei, causing every dormant grave to churn.
Rumble—!
Rising from the earth were tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers. These mindless husks formed disciplined phalanxes, encircling Sun Wukong and Lucifela. Above the ashen sky, monsters stitched together from bone and rotting hide, along with gargoyle units, descended like a vast, sun-blotting cloud. Their grotesque ultrasonic shrieks tore through the air, paralyzing the mind.
"…Ugh."
Lucifela staggered with a short groan. Enduring the agony of her scorched wings, she squeezed out the last of the divine power remaining in her soul.
"Afterglow of Eden!"
A golden barrier expanded in a ten-meter radius. Any undead touching the barrier vanished into ash without even a scream. However, the enemy's numbers were endless. The miasma of necromancy filled the air, seeping through the cracks in her shield. As the pollution became too much to purify, black veins began to sprout like vines across Lucifela's pale arms.
Right then, a heavy arm snatched Lucifela's waist just as she was about to collapse.
"Hey, Compass. You're bottoming out already?"
It was Sun Wukong. Showing no sign of panic—in fact, speaking with a bored yawn—he held her firmly with one arm. He propped his staff against his shoulder with his free hand.
"These stinking bags of bones... they just snap back together no matter how many times I break them. How annoying."
With a casual flick of one hand, he swung the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Boom—!
With a single rotation, hundreds of skeleton soldiers were pulverized into dust. Even with Lucifela tucked under his side like a piece of luggage, there wasn't a hint of restraint in his movements. Instead, he flashed a predatory smirk toward the fortress walls.
"Hey! Tell your master! Stop sending these scraps and send someone worth chewing on!"
The moment Wukong's provocation echoed across the fields of Ye, the chaotic undead army froze in an instant. Even the shrieking gargoyles ceased their wingbeats and landed on the ground.
The air seemed to solidify under a suffocating pressure. A heavy murderous intent, enough to crush the earth, plummeted from the top of the Ye City walls onto Sun Wukong's head. It was the aura of a 'true warrior,' leagues apart from the corpse-puppets he had faced so far. Wukong wiped the light smirk from his face and glared up at the battlements.
A man stood there. His one eye was covered by a patch, while the other—a 'Steel Eye'—emitted a piercing, freezing blue light. It was Xiahou Dun. The massive steel bow in his hands crackled with condensed mana, distorting the surrounding space. His magical eye locked onto Sun Wukong's heart.
"Your mouth is certainly alive, monkey."
Just before Xiahou Dun's fingers released the taut string, a cold silence descended over the battlefield.
Twang—!
With an explosive roar, the arrow tore through the silence. It traveled at an overwhelming speed, the sound of it piercing the air barely audible. The bolt, laden with condensed blue mana, flew in a straight line, aiming directly between Sun Wukong's eyes.
Clang!
In a split second, Wukong tilted his head and parried the arrow with a flick of his staff. As soon as the deflected arrow struck the ground, a massive blast erupted, sending a plume of dust meters into the air.
"Ho? Not bad."
Wukong narrowed his eyes with interest. Xiahou Dun did not stop. He retracted his great bow, drew the massive greatsword strapped to his back, and hurled himself off the wall.
Thump—!
His heavy body landed as if being driven into the ground, crushing the atmosphere as he fell. The impact was so ferocious that the hardened surface of Ye City cracked like a spiderweb, kicking up a storm of dust. Xiahou Dun burst through the haze, charging forward. The blue light from his eye traced a streak through the air as he lunged for Wukong's throat.
"I shall teach a bridge-less beast the laws of Wei!"
Every time Xiahou Dun swung his greatsword, slashes imbued with a frigid chill blew like a gale. Wukong, still holding Lucifela under his arm, parried every strike with a one-handed spin of his staff.
Clang! Clang!
The thunderous sound of steel clashing echoed across the field. Xiahou Dun's assault was relentless, and the sword-qi he unleashed shredded the surrounding undead into nothingness.
"Hahaha! Yes! This is more like it!"
Wukong rolled across the ground, shifting his grip on Lucifela as if enjoying himself. Xiahou Dun's blade grazed the tips of Wukong's hair by a hair's breadth. It was at that moment, as the battle reached a fever pitch, that it happened.
Xiahou Dun's relentless sword-flow suddenly halted. Not only that, but the army of tens of thousands of undead began to part like the Red Sea. It was as if a massive wave was bowing to make way for a superior predator.
A suffocating, thick pressure—smelling of blood—took command of the battlefield.
Step. Step.
Through the rift in the legion, a man walked out. A titan of a man, standing over two meters tall, his dark teal robes fluttering. The air itself seemed to shriek and freeze at his presence. In his right hand, he held a monstrous yet majestic blade carved from the bones of a demon realm's azure dragon—the Blue Dragon Bone Glaive.
The moment his eyes flashed, even Xiahou Dun quietly stepped aside. Sun Wukong stopped yawning for the first time and wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. The golden light within his Fiery Golden Eyes burned sharper than ever.
"…Looks like the real deal finally showed up."
Wukong lightly pushed Lucifela toward a safe rock formation at the edge of the battlefield.
"Hey, Compass. Just watch from here. Don't get caught in the crossfire and turn into dust."
Lucifela didn't even have the energy to respond. With her barrier gone, the black veins on her white arms grew darker. Gasping for breath, she clung to the rock just to withstand the wind pressure generated by the two transcendents.
"Are you the rat who dared trespass upon the Chancellor's territory?"
Guan Yu's heavy rebuke fell, and simultaneously, the Blue Dragon Bone Glaive swung downward.
K-boom!
It wasn't a simple slash. The earth itself shattered, and a shockwave laced with crimson Blood Qi surged toward Wukong like a tsunami.
"Oh? This guy's got a different weight to him."
Wukong's eyes flared as he hoisted his staff. Golden radiance and crimson killing intent collided head-on, triggering a colossal explosion in the center of the battlefield.
The fight accelerated into a realm invisible to the human eye. Every one of Guan Yu's strikes was heavy enough to topple fortress walls, and every time the Bone Glaive cleaved the air, a vacuum was created, causing nearby undead to disintegrate from the pressure difference.
Yet, Wukong glided through that overwhelming weight with the fluidity of someone sliding on clouds. He would instantaneously extend his staff to poke at Guan Yu's chin, or use the staff as a pivot to spin in mid-air, dodging the massive arcs of the blade by a paper's thickness.
"Is the Azure Dragon's tooth only this sharp? Sharpen it up, will you!"
As if responding to Wukong's provocation, Guan Yu's glaive began to glow with a crimson mist. It was the form of a Blood Dragon, grown even more gargantuan by absorbing the miasma of the demon realm. The crimson dragon and the golden aura clashed, splitting the sky of the battlefield into halves of blood and gold.
The stifling boredom he had felt during his 500-year imprisonment was washed away in an instant. This blood-pumping struggle was exactly what he had craved in the silence of Five Elements Mountain. Instead of waning, Wukong's battle spirit burned fiercer with every passing second.
"Khahaha! Wei certainly doesn't disappoint!"
As the battle raged, Wukong's staff-work grew sharper, and his grin widened until it nearly reached his ears. With every clash between the Blue Dragon Bone Glaive and the Ruyi Jingu Bang, the outer walls of Ye City crumbled under the shockwaves.
Watching this, cold sweat trickled down Xiahou Dun's hand. Even for a fierce general of Wei like himself, there was no opening to intervene in this banquet of martial prowess. He realized instinctively: that monkey isn't fighting—he's enjoying a festival he's waited 500 years for.
Lucifela, collapsed in the distance, could barely keep her eyes open. The killing intent radiating from the two titans scraped against her skin like sharp blades. But she saw it—the silhouette of Sun Wukong, laughing with a touch of madness as he parried the strikes of the God of War. It was the beginning of a massive storm that would reshape the entire Demon Realm.
In the eye of the storm, Sun Wukong let out a maniacal laugh.
"Come on, give me more! I'm still hungry!"
Guan Yu's beard fluttered in the wind as his eyes sank into a deeper shade of red. The true battle was only beginning.