The improvement of elite warriors is so great, ordinary soldiers, it's even more terrifying. Seventeen million soldiers have all been replenished as the Red Flame Army. Additionally, as the primordial blood is distributed, more and more Martial Artists in Jianye Prefecture City, who originally had limited cultivation due to their roots, have also experienced significant enhancements and joined the Hou Clan, becoming new recruits for the Red Flame Army.

In May of the New Yu Era 1336, another year has passed, and the Hou Clan's Red Flame Army officially broke through to twenty million, while the total population of the entire Jianye Prefecture's three counties was less than forty million.

Forty million people, with half being soldiers; in ordinary times in Shenzhou, this would definitely be impossible, but now with demons everywhere, soldiers are needed everywhere, this number is not excessively exaggerated.

No matter how many top Martial Artists the Hou Clan has, can they be more numerous than the demons?

Hou Yuxiao, over the past two years, has been so exhausted that there is hardly any time to rest. Whenever a Second-Rank Demon appears, he must be present, with only a few instances where Hou Yucheng and others lead the army to handle it alone.

Back when they escaped from the Ten Thousand Demons Cave, Hou Yuxiao was unsure of how many Second-Rank Demons there were, but just within the past two years, at least sixteen perished by his hand. Calculating this, the rest of Shenzhou likely has been overrun by demons, resulting in widespread misery.

These words, he speaks without any exaggeration.

He possesses the Divine Lotus, but others do not. Realistically, if not for the Hou Clan's explosive growth over the past two years, relying solely on him as a Martial Dao Saint, it would have been impossible to protect Jianye Prefecture City.

The demons aren't foolish; since the surge two years ago, no Second-Rank Demon has come alone. Since then, they almost always arrive in groups of three to five, often bringing along a large wave of Third-Rank and Fourth-Rank Demons. The most dangerous occurrence happened this February.

That time, there were nine Second-Rank Demons, along with hundreds of Third-Rank and Fourth-Rank Demons together. At that moment, there were five million Red Flame Army outside, and the prefectural city only had fifteen million troops. Hou Yuxiao had to fight desperately, quickly summoning all the elite fighters back from outside, with the addition of Hou Yuduan's early deployment of the mysterious realm—these three factors converged, barely managing to hold the defense.

But even so, they suffered the painful loss of over four million Red Flame Army soldiers, along with hundreds of Yin and Yang Boundary top fighters. It caused Hou Yuxiao to grieve for more than three months, and he still hasn't fully recovered.

Even with the Divine Lotus, he faced such difficulties, other Holy Lands merely have one or two more Saints than the Hou Clan. It is predictable that aside from the powerful Great Jin and the New Moon Cult intentionally releasing demons, the situations in all other Holy Lands must not be optimistic.

Hou Yuxiao is quite interested in other Holy Lands and has an impulse to venture out himself, but considering the current instability in Jianye Prefecture and the risk of being targeted by a large number of demons with no Red Flame Army nearby, he cannot guarantee absolute safety. Therefore, he decided to remain in Jianye Prefecture, focusing on enhancing his and his family's power.

These days continued until October 5th of the New Yu Era 1335. With Hou Yucheng's army successfully reclaiming the last Pengkang County on the east side of Jianye Prefecture, the Hou Clan officially declared the near-complete eradication of demons throughout Jianye Prefecture. Each of the five counties has retained a million soldiers and commanders. Hou Yucheng, along with some of the Sub-Saints of Martial Dao outside, all prepared to return to Jianye Prefecture City to report to Hou Yuxiao.

Before everyone could return, a message suddenly spread in the prefectural city, and its speed and wide reach far exceeded normal expectations.

This message wasn't displayed openly, but faintly contained four words that were unquestionably clear, which are:

Dazhao Holy Dynasty

......