The moon was like a mirror and the shadow was like a hook.

The Southern Region was made up by forests. The six settlements and the Sagely Mountain City stood amongst the forest with the formation of Big Dipper Constellation.

However, it was a pity that…

The Southern Region was only left with the Thunderous Lion Settlement as the other five settlements and the Sagely Mountain City had been invaded by the Demon Race.

Nan Ling Settlement was one of them. Furthermore, it was the closest settlement to the territory of the Demon Race. With a cliff and surrounded by mountains, it had an extremely good location.

It was an extremely dangerous place.

Precisely because of how dangerous it was, it had helped in the defense against countless invasion of the Demon Race, ensuring that the terrain of the Southern Region and Great Xia was not invaded by the Demon soldiers.

At this moment, in a small secluded cave in the mountain two miles away from the Nan Ling Settlement, a tree branch of a tall ancient tree blocked the view from the cave as well as the faint light in the cave such that it was impossible for anyone to notice it.

In the cave, a bonfire was burning. On top of the bonfire was a wooden rack that had a cooked Golden-stripped Panther on it.

It was extremely rare to find Golden-stripped Panther, a beast who was extremely fast and good at hiding, in the Souther Region. Furthermore, it was at the top of the food chain amongst the beasts. However, on that unfortunate day, there were a few intruders in its den.

The Golden-stripped Panther was killed and after some cleaning and processing, it became the food on the fire rack.

Thump! At this moment, a weak sound was heard from the entrance of the cave before a beast flew into the cave.

The figure who was turning the fire rack raised his arm after seeing the beast and the beast landed on his arm.

A letter that was tied on the claw of the beast was retrieved. Then, the figure put down the fire rack in his hands and gave a look to the three Settlement Chiefs who were dressed in animal skins.

The three Settlement Chiefs immediately took over the fire rack and began turning it carefully. Meanwhile, they took a peek at the letter that the figure had opened.

However, the figure evidently did not want to share the contents of the letter with the three Settlement Chiefs. He threw the letter into the fire after reading it.

A cracking sound was heard from the fire and the letter turned into ashes.

"Senior, what happened? Was the news regarding the Southern Region? How's the Thunderous Lion Settlement now? Is it invaded by the Demon Race? How about the soldiers of the Southern Region, how are they doing?" The three Settlement Chiefs looked at Shan Yu and tried to get a response from the figure.

The figure still had a black cloth with the word "G.o.d" around his face. It was extremely eye-catching.

However, he did not reply. He waved to the three Settlement Chiefs and took over the fire rack from them.

The three Settlement Chiefs gritted their teeth as they saw this. They had asked countless questions these few days but the guy who claimed to be the Sagely Battle G.o.d Meng Tian did not answer them at all.

"Senior, since you have the ability to defeat Lin Ji, you definitely have the ability to help us reclaim the Southern Region. In view of the thousands of lives in the Southern Region, we hope that Senior can…"

"I feel sleepy, are you three full? If you are, go and guard the cave." The figure waved his hands and broke off the three Settlement Chiefs' sentence. Then, he yawned and lied down.

"This…" The three Settlement Chiefs glanced at each other and sighed gently before taking a look at Shan Yu who had yet spoken for advice.

Shan Yu nodded slightly upon seeing the gaze in the three Settlement Chiefs. Then, she took out her knife and cut a piece of meat from the fire rack and delivered it cautiously to the figure.

Seeing this, the three Settlement Chiefs stood up quickly and left the cave to focus on guarding it.

"It's getting cold." The figure stretched, took the meat with his hand and chewed on it.

"I made a coat with the animal skin during my free time, if Senior don't mind…"

"Is the Queen of the Southern Region trying to please me?" The figure broke off Shan Yu's sentence and gradually sat upright, looking at Shan Yu who was wearing a black animal skin and had her face slightly red from the glow of the fire.

"Senior, you saved our lives. This is nothing as compared to your favor. Please do not look at it that way, Senior. In fact, Shan Yu has no complains even if Senior did not care about the plight of the Southern Region." Shan Yu shook her head.

"Do you know why I brought all of you here?"

"I don't know."

"Haha, then why didn't you ask?"

"Our lives were saved by Senior, hence how would we dare to say anything?"

"So it seems like you are really gratified?"

"You saved my life, I will never be able to repay this favor!"

"Never be able to repay this favor? Come on, I have always read that people would repay by marriage, right? Are you trying to play cheat?" The figure smiled.

"Senior, please mind your words!" Shan Yu's body shook and she clenched her teeth.

"Haha, you mean I am wrong?"

"Senior, you are someone with an incredible status, how can I match up to you? It's not that you are wrong, but rather because… I already have someone in mind. Senior, I am willing to do anything else except for this, I seek your understanding." Shan Yu fell on her knees as she said and made a bow.

"So you have someone in mind already?" The figure nodded his head lightly and looked at Shan Yu with an interested look. "Can you tell me who is the handsome and extremely intelligent talent?"

After he spoke, he casually took the cup of hot water in front of him and took a sip as he waited for Shan Yu's reply.

Meanwhile, Shan Yu was stunned after hearing the question. She lifted her head and looked at the figure who was waiting for her reply and at the black mask with the big word "G.o.d" on his face. She hesitated for a moment before gently nodding her head. "Senior, you have overestimated me. The person whom I have in mind is neither handsome nor an intelligent talent, he is merely a shameless brat."

Pfft! The figure spat out the water that was in his mouth and it was spat all over Shan Yu's face.

The warm water made Shan Yu's face wet and she was stunned.

After the figure spat out his tea, he jumped up with his hands across his waist as though he was about to fight.

"How is he not handsome, how is he not an intelligent talent? He was the top scorer of the Law of Dao of the Great Xia Dynasty and Double Roll cham..." At this moment, the figure suddenly shut his mouth and sat down as he took a sneak glance at Shan Yu.

"Senior, you know who is the guy I'm referring to?!" Shan Yu was extremely surprised.

"No… Oh, yes I do." Just as he was about to shake his head, he realized and corrected himself.

"I can't believe that even Senior, such a highly-respected individual, knows him. He is… indeed very powerful. However, I am not blessed enough and did not grab onto the chance that was given to me. Now, I am getting further and further away from him, I wonder where exactly is he right now?" Shan Yu's eyes welled up with tears.

For the Queen of the Southern Region, this was an emotion that was almost impossible to portray. However, Shan Yu had completely disregarded her position in front of the man who had once stood on the peak of the world, Sagely Battle G.o.d Meng Tian.

"Seriously? Crying over this?" The figure stretched out his hand involuntarily to touch Shan Yu's face.

However, just before his hand touched Shan Yu's face, she had reacted and widened her eyes while taking a step back.

"Senior!"

"Cough cough…" The figure coughed and pulled back his hand. Then, he turned to look at Lin Ji who was tied up like a dumpling at the corner of the cave. "Do you want to talk? What a pity, I don't want you to talk, what can you do about that?" t

"…" Shan Yu was speechless.

Meanwhile, Lin Ji struggled violently and widened her eyes. The thick black scales grew all over her body and the collision between the scales and the black chains around her body produced sounds of metal.

"I will punch you until you faint if you move anymore!" The figure waved his fist.

Lin Ji stopped moving immediately and gave an evil stare.

…

Night fell and the bonfire was still burning in the cave.

Shan Yu stared at the flames. She seemed to be deep in thought and was trying to recall something. After a long while, she looked up at the figure who had lied down and wanted to speak.

"Senior… you are asleep?" Shan Yu said softly after a long while.

"So the Queen of the Southern Region had finally thought through and decided to sleep with me?" The figure was back-facing Shan Yu.

"Cough…" Shan Yu's body shook and her face flushed. Nevertheless, she clenched her teeth and continued, "There is something that I want to ask Senior about."

"Speak."

"We are now outside the Nan Ling Settlement. In other words, if we continue further down, we would enter the Demon Race's territory. Senior, are you really heading to the Blood Shadow City?"

"Why not?" The figure asked back.

"I am just slightly worried as after all, Senior, you are alone. From my understanding, there are other G.o.dly State experts in the Blood Shadow City, even if Senior can defeat them alone, if there were other powerful Demons, I am afraid that…"

"You are afraid that I am courting death by heading to the Blood Shadow City, right?"

"I dare not say that, I am just…" Shan Yu bit her lips again but did not complete her sentence.

The figure kept silent.

However, an image appeared in front of him. It was the image of a few hundred villagers being beaten cruelly by the Demon soldiers and the ground was stained red with blood.

A five-year-old child was protecting Qin Xuelian and Fang Houde.

And two corpses…

Village Chief Zhang Yangping and Mister Mo Cheng.

One of them was an ordinary villager while the other was a teaching Mister. They were not supposed to be involved in this cruel battle but had been killed when the battle began.

Besides that, on the Cang Ling Mountain outside the Northern Mountain Village, there were 23 members of the Hunting Team. They were hunting on the mountain as usual when they were slaughtered after accidentally b.u.mping into the Demon soldiers who were charging down from the mountain.

25 lives!

25 lives in total!

Crack! The figure clenched his fist tight and a blood-red radiance flashed across his eyes as though there was blood flowing in them.

The Sagely Battle G.o.d Meng Tian was impersonated by Fang Zhengzhi.

However, he could not tell Shan Yu about this because he had gotten information that Yun Qingwu had sent five Demon Vice Domain Chiefs to the Northern Mountain Village from the letter he had just received.

Although there was Qing Yi who had made a breakthrough in terms of skills and could use the Traceless Sword, he could not allow "Fang Zhengzhi" to appear in the Southern Region. Even though he knew that Shan Yu would not spread the news, he could not guarantee that the three other Settlement Chiefs would not spread the news. If Shan Yu knew about it, the three Settlement Chiefs would definitely sense that something was wrong based on their interactions.

Therefore, the safest way was to not reveal anything.

The reason was simple. He could not afford to lose this gamble!

However, there was something he had to do and could not wait for two years to do.

The 25 lives of the Northern Mountain Village villagers …

Someone had to pay for their lives!

"Blood Shadow City, here I come!"