A human-looking smile was all over Dumbo’s face.

  Going to Jingdu City?

  Word had it that it was the busiest and greatest city in all of Hua Nation. Ever since Dumbo had started following Jiang He, the furthest place it had ever gone to was Lingzhou City and it had been there only once at that. But now, its master was suddenly asking it to head to Jingdu City……

  The dog was actually a little thrilled at the thought!

  Dumbo even went to its kennel on purpose, putting on the flowery baggy pants he had been saving and put on the shades he had appropriated from Two Dog Li’s BMW. Then, with a wave of its paw and a release of water-type powers, it condensed a watery mirror in front of itself.

  Once it checked its own reflection, Dumbo exclaimed in utter astonishment, “It has only been a few days since I last looked into a mirror, so why am I handsomer now?!”


  Dumbo sighed a little forlornly.

  Such was a dog’s life. What else could it want?

  ***

  Later, Dumbo headed to the farm only after it settled everything that needed doing.

  At the farm, Trumbo was holding a blade and practicing calligraphy on the ground with Blade Qi.

  As for what it was writing……Dumbo neither understood nor wanted to ask.

  Shoving Trumbo on the rump, it barked, “Stop writing. Master is having us go to Jingdu City, so pack up, we’re leaving right away.”


  “Got it!”


  Trumbo wrote on the ground with its blade

  “Sh*t!”


  Furious, Dumbo slapped out at Trumbo with its paw and scolded, “Are you insulting me? You know I can’t read and you’re still freaking writing?”


  Trumbo chuckled and said, “I forgot I could speak.”


  Indeed, Trumbo could speak human language after condensing its Daemonic Pellet too.

  With that, a ball of water descended from overhead with a wave of Trumbo’s hand and after a simple shower, shaking of fur, and releasing fire-type powers to dry its fur in seconds, Trumbo took out the broken reading glasses from out of its butt and stood up. Putting the glasses on and clasping its two-front paw behind its back, it then slowly headed out of the farm.

  Dumbo, left gritting its teeth at the sight, barked, “Get a move on! Why are you being so pretentious?”


  With that, the cat and dog stepped out of the farm, charging their Daemonic Qi. All at once, a daemonic cloud gathered beneath their feet and they stood upon it as they flew all the way toward Jingdu City.

  It was after ten full minutes that they finally remembered……they had no idea where Jingdu City was!

  They hence descended from the skies, incidentally running into a part of martial artists and Awakened training in the wildlands.

  There were a dozen people in that group, and they were no weaklings—a rank-six martial artist led them and they also had a B-class fire-type Awakened.

  They had just fought and were resting at a base when they saw the cat and dog approaching, standing on their rear legs like humans.

  The dog was wearing shades and a pair of baggy flower pants, whereas the cat had reading glasses on and was holding a blade several times its own size……

  Most of the party members were left baffled.

  Still, their sniper who was hiding above the trees was the first to come to his senses. He yelled, “Enemy attack!”


  Bang!

  A sniper’s bullet had already left the barrel.

  Raising its blade and cutting through the air, Trumbo’s Blade Qi arced like a rainbow and sliced through the bullet before it adjusting its reading glasses with its paw. “No need to get excited, everyone,” it then spoke slowly and politely, “we just want to ask for directions.”


  “It speaks! It’s a Feral King!”


  The party of warriors, ready for a fight turned ashen faced right then.

  “There’s no need for alarm, people. I won’t hurt you!”


  Trumbo walked up and wrote on the ground with its blade, “Brothers, which way to Jingdu City?”


  When they saw the flickering of blade radiance, the party was convinced Trumbo was about to attack and they had their eyes closed. However, after nothing happened for a long time, they opened their eyes to find the line of words on the ground and were left baffled once again, though someone quickly answered, “Jingdu City is around 600km southeast from here……”


  “Southeast?”


  Dumbo arrived then, barking in its native dialect, “Who the hell knows where southeast is? Do you guys not have phones? Mark it on the map and hand it over.”


  Hence, the martial artist watched wide-eyed as cat and dog took away his satellite phone worth a hundred and eighty thousand bucks……

  ***

  While Dumbo and Trumbo were heading toward Jingdu City, the military and the Martial Arts Department (MAD) were on the move as well. Aside from certain vital personnel stationed at various garrisons, a major convoy of army forces were speeding on their way toward Lingzhou City.

  In fact, the elites were rushing toward Lingzhou City en masse as well.

  They came from all walks of life—military, MAD, civilian martial clans or schools, and even several powerful parties of martial artists were summoned, all of them ranging from rank-seven up to divine-tier……

  There were void-tiers as well, including Dong Haichuan, Yang Luchan, and the ancestor of the Ji clan, along with other forebears from several great schools and clans who were beginning to leave their confinement.

  After all, the sky demons were coming.

  And this time, the Hua Nation was clearly ready for an all-out war!

  Meanwhile, over at the Lin residence beneath Mount Qingcheng, Sword Qi was gathering like clouds above, a phenomenon that stretched over five kilometers and lasted for half an hour before vanishing.

  Elder Lin of the Lin clan had reached divine-tier.

  As he left confinement and learned about the impending invasion of the sky demons, he promptly sought out several of his sons and his grandson who had reached the rank of grandmaster, saying, “Eldest would stay here. Everyone else, go home and ready up. All of you are coming with me to Lingzhou City tomorrow!”


  “Father!”


  His eldest son tried to stop him, but Elder Lin waved him off, saying, “This is a race war where life and death hands in the balance. A rank-eight wouldn’t change the tide and our comrades in the martial world would not speak out against keeping a rank-eight to watch over our home when I am bringing every son and grandson to battle. Moreover, you are the chief of Sichuan’s MAD and you have a lot to do.”


  Clearly, Elder Lin was ready to die.

  In fact, it was not just him. Most who knew about the sky demons were courageous enough to prepare for war at Lingzhou City, clearly ready to meet their end.

  ***

  Meanwhile, at Jingdu City, Dumbo and Trumbo had flown over an hour and had asked for directions multiple times, before finally landing at the Superpower Research Department headquarters outside Jingdu City.

  A professor had personally come to receive them.

  Still, he was left dumbfounded when he saw the bipedal cat and dog.

  Then, when he greeted Dumbo and Trumbo, as well as conversed with them, they were even more dumbfounded……

  What the hell!

  Had this cat and dog duo gained human intelligence?

  As a mater of fact, they had indeed after condensing their pellets as daemonic cultivators.

  Soon, they became close after several exchanges.

  As they entered the elevator heading to the underground research center, Dumbo put a paw over the professor’s shoulder and chuckled, “Bro, do you know what my master called us here for?”


  The professor’s legs were shaking at that.

  Damn it.

  That was a Feral King daemon! One that could tear him apart one hundred times over with a twitch of its paw!

  Hence, as the countless research personnel at the underground lab looked on, both Dumbo and Trumbo arrived before Jiang He flamboyantly. Still, after Jiang He explained the reason, Dumbo actually pounced, its canine fur bristling in uncontrollable fear.

  On the other hand, Trumbo adjusted its reading glasses, saying calmly, “It’s my honor to contribute to Hua Nation’s research.”


  Then, twenty minutes later……

  Dumbo stepped out of the blood vault with a look of disdain, sneering, “And here I thought how scary drawing blood could be……but it’s no different from a mosquito’s bite.”


  However, Trumbo’s legs were shaking as it suddenly darted towards Jiang He and clutched his thighs, shaking as it muttered, “Master, I’m scared of needles……”


  Its two jet-black eyes then closed as it fainted.

  Jiang He smiled awkwardly. Flinging Trumbo aside nonchalantly, he asked with a smile, “With enough essence now, Elder Mu, how long would it take to cook the initiation pellets?”


  Old Mu mused to himself for a while before saying, “We actually have some half-finished pellets. If everything goes smoothly, the first batch of initiation pellets would be finished by nightfall.”


  “Very well.”


  Jiang He said after some thought. “I’ll catch some shut-eye then, since I’ve been farming overnight and didn’t sleep at all.”


  Old Mu was puzzled.