The crowd followed behind Hou Yuduan, from the initial anxiety, to gradually becoming numb, and finally, the look in their eyes toward Hou Yuduan had a touch of frenzy.
"We really picked up a life this time. I thought I was surely dead tonight. I didn't expect to run into Fifth Master Hou. These demons are no match for him!"
"How is Fifth Master Hou so powerful!"
"If even Fifth Master Hou is this strong, then the Family Head of the Hou Clan, Hou Yuxiao..."
"Not necessarily, maybe the strongest in the Hou Clan is Fifth Master."
In just under a quarter of an hour, Hou Yuduan had slain over a hundred demons, among them were some of Eighth Grade, and the crowd following behind him had nearly seventy to eighty thousand people, with about two to three hundred Martial Artists.
Amid the crowd, discussions flourished, looking at Hou Yuduan with expressions that were mostly grateful, and as he slew more and more demons, gratitude gradually turned into admiration, and by the end, it even carried a hint of frenzy.
At the same time, the people also noticed that the closer they got to the city center, the more corpses there were on the ground, but correspondingly, there were fewer and fewer demons. Most of these corpses were in a shriveled state, clearly having had their vitality sucked dry by the demons.
At the very front, Hou Yuduan, the more corpses he saw, especially the weak, women, and children among them, the more angry his expression became. He looked up at the blood-colored towering ancient tree still standing on the ground, and his walking speed increased. If not for considering the crowd behind him, he probably would have flown straight there...
Just as he was about to approach the blood-colored towering ancient tree, suddenly a swishing sound came from the sky. Except for Hou Yuduan, everyone immediately looked up at the sky with a hint of terror on their faces.
"It's the blood-colored vines, it's them again, run, run..."
"The third wave is here, it's come again. This is the end."
"Being hit by these blood-colored vines, you'll be drained into a mummy instantly, run..."
Wave after wave of frightened cries spread, and the crowd immediately descended into chaos. Hou Yuduan looked up at the blood-colored vines, a flicker of recognition in his eyes, yet he did not display anger. Instead, he turned back to look at the people behind him, channeled his acupoints, and concentrated Vast Righteous Qi at his throat.
"Stay calm, everyone be quiet, stay in place, do not act rashly!"
This voice, as if it had the power to soothe the heart, once issued, immediately diminished the commotion in the crowd. They all looked up at Hou Yuduan, gradually becoming calm.
It wasn't until everyone had calmed down that Hou Yuduan suddenly spread his Vast Righteous Qi covering hundreds of meters around him, then looked up at the blood-colored vines in the sky, took a deep breath, and his expression was tinged with complexity and pain.
The descent of the blood-colored vines didn't slow down due to Hou Yuduan's Vast Righteous Qi, and continued rapidly towards the seventy to eighty thousand people below. Even though everyone had calmed down, recalling the potency of those vines, fear still showed in their eyes.
If it weren't for Hou Yuduan previously demonstrating demon-slaying, giving them great confidence, the crowd might have started rebelling and scattered long ago. But seeing Hou Yuduan standing aloft above them, even if they were still fearful, they chose to trust him at this moment.
The blood-colored vines in the sky stopped all at once, just as they reached halfway up to where Hou Yuduan was in the air.
Moreover, people noticed that in other parts of the city, the blood-colored vines continued moving downwards, only the vines above Hou Yuduan's head had stopped...
This scene made everyone below suddenly stunned.
Meanwhile, in midair, Hou Yuduan, looking at the blood-colored vines that sat over his head and slowly twisted and writhed as if alive, his anger gradually morphed into pain...
"I should have realized earlier, you have always been deceiving me; it's me... I was too naïve!"