3 Changes

An enormous eye opened above Cloudfree City. The eye burned with savage fire. Anyone who looked into them felt themselves burning. The eye existed for only a moment before disappearing, leaving behind a hole in the sky where the eye had opened.

The hole was very big. It was so big that it covered the entire sky. Cloudfree City which extended for tens of kilometers in all direction was entirely covered within its shadow.

A massive amount of demons came out of the hole and descended upon the city. They were all humanoid in shape, had gray skin, and fearsome visages. They wielded weapons of all shape and sizes, both familiar and strange to humans.

These demons quickly reached the ground and began slaughtering people. No matter who it was and what their cultivations were, they were all slaughtered mercilessly like animals. These demons were unstoppable.

Shura saw a fourth realm cultivator getting hacked into two by a demon with his own eyes. He then also saw a fifth realm cultivator getting beheaded in a single strike by a demon.

The basic cultivation manual in his hand seemed to become a useless piece of paper.

All of a sudden Shura felt a stabbing pain in his head. He subconsciously looked up at the sky. The looming black hole in the sky was still there and even more and more demons were appearing. He felt even more pain, it hurt so much that he crouched down and held his hands to his head.

After what felt like hours the pain finally disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. Everything that had been happening to him for the past day and today became clear.

An object had come from the vast universe beyond this world and entered his mind. It had then caused a change to his body, but it was incomplete. Only now did it fully fuse within him and change became complete. The nature of the object did not matter. What was important was that it had strengthened his mind and body, and made him aware of certain things.

This completion of transformation ended the moment the pain disappeared, but within that one moment, Shura felt like he had experienced hours.

He went through his memories. He was born eighteen or nineteen years ago. He didn't know his parents and grew up in an orphanage. From adolescent to young adult he had muddled through life. He didn't know anyone, and he didn't have any passions or lofty aspirations like other people.

He had nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.

When the transformation was complete, information appeared within his mind.

It was the cultivator-slaying demons. They had descended upon this world and the cultivation civilization would burn. These demons were cruel and merciless. Even the highest and strongest cultivators who were revered as gods and immortals would die under the hands of these demons.

Their presence nullified cultivation energy and cultivation base. A godly cultivator becomes a powerless mortal before them and would get killed like how a butcher slaughtered animals.

Only by naturally evolving through demonic energy could man hope to contend against the demons. The internal qi of a person or the qi of heaven and earth was meaningless before the onslaught of the demonic energies.

The world was ending. Surviving seemed to be the only thing left for anyone to do now.

Shura didn't have anything. He didn't have anything he cared about. So he didn't have anything he wanted to protect or achieve. But living, just continuing to live, that alone was still enough to drive him on.

From the increasing tragic sight and sound, Shura knew things were bad and he should flee. His mind and body had undergone a rebirth, but at most he was now slightly smarter and his memory was slightly better and it wouldn't get impaired by the demon's cultivation-nullifying aura. The same could be said for his physique as well, he was slightly stronger and faster than the average normal person and it wasn't because of cultivation.

As for normal cultivators, no matter how high they had reached, they would fall back down to the beginning. Any strength, speed, resilience or reflex that came about because of cultivation would be abolished. Any intellect, creativity, or memory that came to be because of high attainment in cultivation would also be reversed.

With his current strength, Shura could fight one demon with great difficulty. It wasn't wise at all to fight.

A scene of a civilization ending appeared in his mind. There were so many demons. They've already descended all over the continent. So many demons and they're all so strong. Every cultivator were now just normal people before them. How could humans survive? How could cultivation civilization continue to exist? Was it all truly hopeless?

Shura ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He ran toward the direction of the nearest wall. People all around him were doing the same. The peaceful and calm atmosphere earlier in the day had now been replaced with a sense of dread and urgency.

A demon appeared in front of Shura. It held a sword with both hands and walked toward him. It was getting closer and closer.

Shura was unarmed. He couldn't do anything by just punching and kicking the demon. Or could he?

Fighting intent soared inside of his mind. He would live and fight or die fighting, but he would fight nonetheless.

The demon swung down the sword at Shura. Shura dodged to the side and punched the wrist of the demon with all of his strength.

The demon loosened its hand and Shura punched again, forcing the sword out of the demon's hand.

The demon growled at him, showing its ugly mouth with sharp teeth dyed with blood.

Shura quickly came up to the sword and picked it up. He slashed the sword at the neck of the demon. This strike used all of his remaining strength and it instantly reached the demon before it could react. The sword went through the demon's neck instantly without obstruction. It had cut cleanly. The neck fell from the body and blood spurted out of the demon's body.

A pink ball of light came out of the demon's corpse and entered into Shura's body. It was demonic energy. The only way to become as strong as the demons and defend oneself from them was to get demonic energy. Only demonic energy would allow a person to be able to survive against demons. All other forms of cultivation energy would dissipate and be rendered inert upon coming contact with demonic energy.

The battle with just a single demon had drained everything he had. Shura wasn't in a condition to fight another demon. He needed to leave quickly. The city was doomed from the moment the demons appeared. The only way to survive was to get as far away as possible.

Shura came to a stable that still had horses. The horses were neighing in terror. Shura came up to one of them and calmed it down. He got on the horse and sped through the city. Soon the gate came into his view.

Fortunately the gate was open, otherwise there would be more tragedies today. He swiftly left through the city gate. All around him people were either fleeing, getting slaughtered by demons, or both.

Only after traveling for a long time did Shura finally relax. There were no demons or place of human habitation nearby. But he also had no food or water, or even an idea of what to do next.

…

Black holes—spatial passages—similar to one above Cloudfree city appeared all over the continent. It looked like countless eyes were judging the world before disappearing. Countless demons appeared in the sky and descended upon humanity. Cultivators of all levels and factions of all sizes and influences were immediately devastated.

Aggradise Continent was a super-massive continent, there were over 40 billion people living on it. The descent and devastation of the demons had killed over 90 percent of the population. Only 4 billion people were still alive, and the number was still decreasing.

The cultivation civilization was toppled within one day. Beautiful cities with massive and beautiful palaces were now deserted and in ruins. Blood dyed magnificent sects atop mountains red.

Most of the demons ascended back into the spatial holes when there were only smoldering ruins left and corpses littered the land. Those who had clean deaths were lucky, others were not so fortunate. They were reanimated by demonic energy to become ghouls—the living dead that hungered for flesh and blood. Those who were consumed by them would turn into ghouls themselves after death.

The land was forever changed, now tainted by demonic energy. Qi no longer flowed. All magical devices and instruments became useless. Long-distance communication was cut. Cultivators were no longer cultivators, and humans were no longer humans.

Mankind had now become frail and weak and were no longer the masters of their lives or their surroundings.

A dark era had descended upon the people of this world. It was as if the heavens were rebuking men for their hubris. Their desire for strength and longevity, their arrogance and excesses had triggered a divine punishment.

Stripped of their powers, the cultivators were now faced with the ultimate tribulation. Did they truly have what it take to survive this crisis? Were they truly worthy of whatever cultivations that they had before?

A dark and bloody time awaited the surviving cultivators.