The Demon Lord's Invasion

Chapter 1: Meeting an Old Friend in a Foreign Land

A lone wisp of smoke rises from the vast desert; the scorching sun blazes in the sky. Yellow sand and the Gobi Desert are divided by a long, straight river, creating a uniquely desolate yet beautiful scene. Beads of sweat rose from the cracked yellow earth, forming wisps of moisture visible to the naked eye. On the ancient trail, a lean, dark-skinned youth, shouldering a massive wolf weighing three hundred jin, trudged heavily along the Green River and entered the dilapidated earthen fortress of Gu Yan. With a “thud,” the boy tossed the wolf’s carcass in front of a general store inside the earthen fortress. “Another mutt. Sell it cheap,” said the shopkeeper, a man in his forties sitting in front of the store. He was disheveled and unkempt, with a scruffy beard. He sat with one leg crossed over the other, tearing tobacco leaves by hand, without so much as a glance at the boy. “How much? You’ve got to give me a price.” As he spoke, the boy tugged at his sweat-stained, tattered shirt with one hand while using the other to sweep the long, curly lock of hair from his forehead back behind his ear. He wiped the sweat from his face, revealing a very handsome, dark, and smooth young face—especially the faint dimples on his cheeks—making him look, by all accounts, like a harmless young man. The general store owner didn’t even look up, replying in an annoyed tone, “Thirty Shards. Take it or leave it.” “That’s so little!” The boy hesitated, glancing at the meat stall nearby. He thought to himself that he probably wouldn’t even get ten shards of crystal for it there, but thirty shards of crystal was a total rip-off—after all, a whole earth wolf used to be worth a hundred shards of crystal, or even a single whole crystal stone. Just as the boy was thinking of haggling for a higher price to resell it, a tall, imposing man suddenly walked up beside him and tossed the shopkeeper a black bag embroidered with intricate runes. Without even glancing at it, the shopkeeper caught the bag and said, “Ten earth dogs, two hundred and eighty shards.” “Alright, put them in the bag for me.” The man didn’t bat an eye; he took the bag back from the shopkeeper and turned to leave. “They’re worth twenty-seven now—you’d better sell them while you can.” The general store owner’s words snapped the dazed teenager back to reality. “You’re even more of a rip-off artist than a real estate agent! Prices change daily, but you raise yours in the blink of an eye—and on top of that… Fine, I’m not selling.” The teenager said this with a puffed-up chest, then kicked the earth wolf’s corpse hard and snorted coldly, “I’ll trade instead!” “Go inside and pick what you want. The prices are clearly marked. If it’s over twenty-seven, pay the difference with crystals.” The shopkeeper’s tone remained as cold as ever, devoid of any emotion. Not wanting to speak to the man any further, the teenager stepped into the shop. Without even glancing at the strange items on display, he walked straight to the shelf lined with diamond-shaped crystal blocks. These crystal blocks weren’t crystals—they were soul stones! The process of crafting soul stones was exceptionally intricate. Simply put, it involved trapping a beast’s soul within a stone rich in yin energy. As for the purpose of these beast souls, the boy knew very little; the only thing he understood was that they could be imbued into puppets, granting them independent consciousness so they could be ridden like pack horses or serve as their master’s allies in battle. “Why are they all soul-imbued?” The boy scanned the shelves at a glance but couldn’t find a single soulstone without a soul. He simply couldn’t afford the ones with souls. After two years of hard work here, he’d spent all his savings on making puppets, so he could only settle for a secondhand, low-grade soul stone and capture a beast himself. “Blazing Wind Horse, Howling Wind Wolf… Oh man, if only I had enough crystals, it’d be so awesome to take one back and turn it into a mount!” The boy watched as the gray mist within the soul stones would sometimes coalesce into beasts and other times dissipate like smoke, accompanied by faint sounds of a horse’s neigh and a wolf’s howl. Then, glancing at the prices engraved on the wooden signs beside them, his heart nearly bled! “Huh!” Suddenly, the boy seemed to notice something, and his gaze instantly locked onto a Soul Stone with a crack in it. This soul stone also contained a gray mist, but it was very thin, and it seemed to be struggling to gather—yet every time it got halfway there, it was scattered as if by a palm strike. Even so, the boy could still tell what kind of soul it was! “Holy shit, it’s actually a human soul!” The boy couldn’t help but blurt out a curse. The moment the words left his mouth, the boy froze in shock, as if he’d heard a hallucination. “Chinese—you’re speaking Chinese! Who are you? Where am I?” A faint voice drifted out from within the cracked soul stone. Every word he spoke, every inflection in his voice, left the boy utterly stunned. Fifteen years—ever since he was born, the boy had never heard anyone speak to him in this language. “Meeting an old friend in a foreign land!” The boy stared blankly at the cracked soul stone, his eyes welling up with tears! “Finally, someone I can communicate with… May I ask… where…” The voice coming from the cracked soul stone grew fainter and fainter, until the boy could no longer hear it at all, and the gray mist surrounding the soul stone in his eyes slowly began to fade. “Oh no!” The boy quickly realized that his fellow countryman was on the verge of his soul dissipating completely! “Shopkeeper, sh… shopkeeper!” The boy called out in Chinese, but halfway through the word, he snapped to his senses and quickly switched to the common language of this world. “What are you yelling about?” The general store owner walked in, looking displeased. “I’ll take this soul stone. It’s priced at one crystal, right? Here you go. And trade me that mutt for three Yin Pearls.” The boy spoke rapidly, handing the shopkeeper a crystal the size of his thumb. The shopkeeper calmly glanced at the cracked soul stone, then back at the boy, and said expressionlessly, “I can only give you two.” “Deal!” The boy didn’t care how much he was losing; he took the two black beads from the shopkeeper’s hand, immediately crushed one, and used the meager Yuan Qi within his body to slowly infuse the Yin Qi from the Yin Bead into the Soul Stone. “Can you understand what he’s saying?” the general store owner suddenly asked. “Oh, I know…” Before the word “know” left his lips, the boy seemed to suddenly realize something and laughed. “Of course. This is a dialect of the Sand Sea natives’ language—and an extremely ancient one at that. I’m trying to see if I can get any information about the totem out of him.” These words were pure fabrication, but the general store owner seemed to believe him and nodded, saying, “I advise you to be careful. Totems are demons by nature—they not only beg for food and drink but also eat people!” “That’s none of your concern.” With that, the boy hurried away—he certainly didn’t want the shopkeeper to know too much! On his way back to his mud-brick hut, the boy hurriedly took out the cracked soul stone. Seeing that the gray mist inside had grown much denser, he let out a sigh of relief. After a moment’s thought, he took out another Yin Pearl and repeated the process. A long time later, the gray mist within the soul stone finally coalesced into a human form. “Thank you,” the soul within the soul stone suddenly spoke. “Heh, don’t mention it. My name is Jiang Tang. I’m from the former Tianchao Dynasty. I suppose we’re fellow countrymen—or… from the same planet? The same realm?” The boy, Jiang Tang, spoke with a hint of laughter, though a trace of world-weariness had unexpectedly crept onto his youthful face. “Dongfang, from the Imperial Capital of the Celestial Dynasty.” The spirit’s tone was even colder than the general store owner’s. “Dongfang? Is that a surname? Or a given name?” Jiang Tang looked puzzled. “It can be a surname, or it can be a given name—why bother with such distinctions?” “I’m different from you. I believe a person only truly exists when they have a name,” Jiang Tang said with a smile. Dongfang’s spirit flickered, then coalesced as he asked, “What is your current status? What kind of environment are you in?” “Status…” Jiang Tang let out a bitter laugh. “I’m no ordinary person. The clan I belong to is so vast it would make your jaw drop. But as they say, in a big forest, there are all kinds of birds. We may seem like family, but in reality, there’s hidden danger at every turn. Let’s not talk about it.” The man and the spirit conversed in the ramshackle hut for who knows how long, until Jiang Tang drifted off to sleep without realizing it. The next day, yellow sand swirled through the air, and a fierce wind howled. Jiang Tang jolted awake, leaping to his feet as if his pants were on fire, and pushed open the dilapidated wooden window to look outside. “Oh no, I’m afraid I won’t make it in time!” Jiang Tang hurriedly gathered his things. “What’s happening outside? What are you planning to do now?” Dongfang’s voice suddenly rang out from within the Soul Stone. “Uh…” Jiang Tang seemed to have only just noticed the spirit stone. “A sandstorm is coming. It’s different here than back home. Whenever a fierce wind stirs up the sand sea, it’s always accompanied by hordes of ferocious beasts from the sand sea. They’ll trample each other and kill one another along the way. If you don’t prepare now, once the sandstorm passes, you won’t even be able to pick up a single strand of hair.” “Oh, but weather like this causes pathogens from dead creatures to spread rapidly, carried by the wind. It’s dangerous for anyone with underlying health issues. Even if you’re in good shape, what about your respiratory system? Do you even have a dust mask?” “Uh…” Jiang Tang paused for a moment, then replied irritably, “You researchers are always making a big deal out of nothing. Let me tell you, this isn’t Earth. The air here contains Yuan…a kind of energy… Anyway, you can absorb it into your body to strengthen your constitution. Don’t let my current weight—less than a hundred jin—fool you; I’m strong enough to lift a tripod. Not only that, but this energy also protects against inhaling sand and dust… Oh, now’s not the time to talk about this. If we’re late, there really won’t be anything left to pick up.” “Interesting. Take me there,” Dongfang said suddenly. “Of course I’ll take you—what if thieves break in? After all, you’re worth a crystal stone!” Jiang Tang said stingily, then grabbed his bundle and the soul stone before dashing out of the mud-brick hut. Outside, the sky was already filled with yellow sand; the naked eye couldn’t make out anything beyond ten zhang. To the west, the situation was even worse—the surging, sky-high yellow sand rolled in wave after wave like a tsunami. Jiang Tang’s tattered clothes flapped in the wind as he ran against the gale, moving with lightning speed. By the time he burst out of the city gates, he saw a dense crowd of people packed tightly together. “Don’t you all think this year’s first sandstorm has hit with unusual ferocity?” “Who cares? We haven’t had one in years. I never thought that when it finally came, we’d strike it rich—the fiercer the sandstorm, the more ferocious beasts there are.” “I prepared a hundred storage pouches just for today.” Jiang Tang was startled by these words and instinctively glanced at the woman who had spoken. He saw that her attire… Three words immediately shot through Jiang Tang’s mind: “Oh my god!” What kind of clothes were those? It was clearly just a mosquito net! His gaze flitted over that heavy, crescent-shaped curve, and Jiang Tang immediately turned his head away, his face flushing and his heart racing. His heart was in his throat, burning with an unbearable tingling sensation! Tucheng was a desolate place, with a population of less than a thousand—and almost exclusively men. But at this time of year, tens of thousands would flock from the east to partake in this feast, and among them were certainly women! Although Jiang Tang’s mental age added up to a full thirty, he was still clueless when it came to women. Seeing a woman dressed so provocatively, with such a seductive figure and healthy, glowing skin, how could he possibly remain calm? Just as he was about to sneak another peek, he suddenly heard the woman laugh, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so excited I can’t wait any longer—I’m heading out first.” With that, she darted out of the crowd in a single bound and vanished into the vast sea of wind and sand, leaving behind only a trail of silver-bell-like laughter. “Ah!” Jiang Tang sighed to himself. Seeing one person after another rush into the sandstorm, he could wait no longer and followed the crowd, plunging into the swirling sand. The moment he entered the sandstorm, his vision went blank. The area ahead, which had been teeming with people just moments before, vanished in an instant, leaving only the howling wind raging in his ears. Jiang Tang had been here for two years and had encountered no fewer than twenty sandstorms during that time, but this was the first time he’d faced one as ferocious as today’s, and for a moment, he was at a loss. “Do you know about their ecological habits? In situations like this, creatures generally seek out places that can shelter them from the wind and sand. It’s simple: look for nearby ruins or ancient city walls—any environment that can serve as a shelter will surely have creatures hiding there.” Dongfang’s voice suddenly reached Jiang Tang’s ears. Jiang Tang immediately shook his head. “No way. Those places are full of people. Just like on Earth—where there are people, there’s trouble. With my abilities, I can only go after stragglers.” “When you say ‘stray,’ do you mean animals? Or people?” Dongfang’s meaningful remark was met only with a faint smile from Jiang Tang!