The Demon Barbarians were standing right where Fang Yun had previously declared a safe point.

“Ha ha, foolish humans, do you really think all of us Demon Barbarians are idiots? I’ve been holding back from crossing the bridge just to observe you!”

“You’ve been standing here for quite some time because this place has been safe during this period! Am I right?”

“Looking at their shocked faces, I’m about to die laughing! Ha ha, the human genius has been played by us!”

“The biggest problem with the human race is their arrogance! We are of the noble Demon Clan bloodline, how could our minds be inferior to humans!”

“You caused us to slide down from the avalanche slope, and now you help us cross the Falling Star Bridge, this settles our score!”

“Ha ha……”

The dozen or so blood Demon Barbarians stood in what they believed to be a safe place, laughing unrestrainedly.

Fang Yun smiled without a word.

Suddenly, a meteor with a diameter of three zhang plummeted from the sky, dragging a long tail of flames, heading straight for the Demon Barbarians.

The meteor, wrapped in blazing fire, moved with extreme speed.

“Not good! We’ve been tricked!”

“Run!”

All the Demon Barbarians reacted swiftly, scattering like a flock of pigeons.

The power of a three-zhang-long meteor was far greater than that of a meteor the size of a human head; the Demon Barbarians were too slow, and the meteor too fast.

“Boom……”

The meteor hit the ground, its flames melting the bodies of all the Demon Barbarians, while also smashing a hole dozens of zhang in diameter into the ice bridge.

Two Demon Barbarians, extremely fast, managed to run beyond the range of the hole.

Everyone saw the terrifying impact force of the meteor colliding with the ice bridge scatter in all directions, the bodies of the two Demon Barbarians being shattered by the powerful blast wave.

Blood splattered, evaporating before it could even hit the ground due to the intense heat.

The Presented Scholars did not expect so many Demon Barbarians to die just like that.

“Fang Yun was right, the power of the meteor is far more terrifying than we imagined.”

“The power of this meteor, I’m afraid only a great Demon King could barely survive a direct hit, I wonder how a Demon Saint would fare against it with their body.”

“Your way of thinking is quite dull. Even if tens of thousands of meteors were to fall, they would be nothing more than a breath’s effort for All the Saints, their power is beyond our reach.”

Fang Yun interrupted their conversation: “Don’t worry about them anymore. Proceed with the plan as we discussed!”

Thus, all the Presented Scholars began to prepare their protective War Poetry, uniformly using the most common “Ode to the Mountains,” not because this War Poem was particularly good, but because it was the most reliable protective War Poem for Presented Scholars.

Fang Yun, having only recently been promoted to Presented Scholar, had not yet learned “Ode to the Mountains,” so Yan Yukong helped him to enhance the power of “Ode to the Mountains.”

Fang Yun keenly felt that the power of “Ode to the Mountains” here far exceeded that of the outside world.

Everyone began to use the swift-moving War Poetry, their clothes fluttering, each looking ethereal and extraordinary.

The group took their positions in the formation they had discussed earlier.

Fang Yun said, “With Niu Shan’s help, even if I don’t know ‘The Song of the Great Wind,’ I can still dodge the power of the meteors, but you will have to rely on yourselves! There is a red horizontal line on the surface of the ice bridge, one step in the human world, one step in the Demon Realm. On my command, start reciting ‘The Song of the Great Wind’!”

Everyone recited “The Song of the Great Wind” in unison, with only Fang Yun holding his brush and ink ready to write.

Just before the breath and a half time it took for “The Song of the Great Wind” to form, everyone stepped over the red line.

They looked up at the deep blue night sky, waiting for the meteors to fall, while carefully timing their moment.

Previously, a Demon Clan holy son had charged forward with two Demon Barbarian followers, and they were met by three meteors. Now, with twenty-one people and two Demon Barbarians appearing together, there would inevitably be twenty-three meteors.

But there were not twenty-three points of starlight, only one.

A solitary meteor with a diameter of one zhang fell, carrying a fiery red tail flame.

Everyone was expecting meteors the size of human heads, with a diameter of about a foot, but this meteor was a thousand times larger!

In a single breath, this meteor could leap tens of miles, falling to the ground, falling among the people.

The faces of the people changed dramatically.

Almost instantly, they understood. This was the Comet Corridor established by the Demon Ancestors; if the human race could unite, then the meteors could also merge into one.

The scene of the Demon Barbarians’ deaths flashed before everyone’s eyes.

Four Presented Scholars who wanted to flee only took half a step before stopping, realizing they couldn’t escape.

The canine Demon, scared witless by the canine analysis, whimpered and collapsed on the ground, waiting for death.

Niu Shan merely sighed softly, unsure whether he was lamenting that he had ultimately followed the wrong person or something else.

More than half of the Presented Scholars turned to look at Fang Yun, their expressions varied, with regret, anticipation, annoyance, resignation, some feeling relieved, and even a few Presented Scholars smiling.

Not a single person stopped reciting “The Song of the Great Wind.”

Not a single person showed resentment.

Not a single person was in despair.

Because the moment they stepped into the Comet Corridor, each person already knew they would face this moment.

Fang Yun lowered his head, writing rapidly.

Whether on the bridge or below it, whether Demon Barbarians or humans, at this moment, all were watching the meteor, and also watching Fang Yun and the others beneath it.

The five Presented Scholars who had withdrawn from the bridgehead silently watched, suddenly feeling that Fang Yun and his companions were incredibly distant, as if at the end of the world, and in the next instant, they would disappear from this world forever, all traces belonging to them erased.

Erased by that massive meteor.

The five Presented Scholars sighed softly, feeling pity for Fang Yun and the others, but more so, relief.

Thankful they hadn’t gone to their deaths.

“What a pity…”

Many Demon Barbarians sighed inwardly.

Everyone saw Fang Yun writing with his brush, but no one held out hope.The breath of death loomed over Fang Yun and the others.

He wrote with a superior pen, a poem completed in one breath.

“The north wind blows through the gates of Qin, iron-clad soldiers colder in the snowy night. Swallowing six nations to build an empire, in death they lie in the northern frontiers, guarding rivers and mountains!”

Upon completing the poem, Fang Yun wrote three words above the four lines.

Not in praise of the First Emperor.

Not in praise of the Great Wall.

Not in praise of Qin’s generals.

It was “In Praise of Qin’s People.”

The people, bearing arms as soldiers, carrying bricks as laborers, tilling the fields as farmers, trading goods as merchants, ascending the temple as scholars, grasping scrolls as the living.

Fang Yun had pondered what could withstand meteors, considering the chill and the vital energy of heaven and earth. He concluded that the strongest defense for humanity was a wall, the Great Wall, and prepared a poem in its praise.

But in the instant the massive meteor appeared, in the moment he felt the breath of death, Fang Yun overturned his previous decision.

Only when faced with death did Fang Yun seem to see, amidst the bone-chilling wind, squads of soldiers steadfastly guarding the Great Wall. These soldiers, like those of Qin and the people who built the Great Wall, sacrificed for unification, silently contributing against foreign enemies, their most precious lives and youth exhausted on the frontier.

Bricks and stones could block foreign foes, could block the Demon Barbarians, but not the celestial meteor.

But the masses could.

It wasn’t the emperor who swallowed six nations and built an empire, it was the masses.

It wasn’t the one on the dragon throne who defended the rivers and mountains, it was the masses.

The Great Wall of humanity was the masses.

Crack… Boom…

An infinite amount of cold air erupted like white mist, condensing into a thick ice wall on its way up.

The ice wall kept rising, expanding, like a real wall with beacon towers, parapets, and crenels…

Tiny specks of light flew from all directions, each fainter than a firefly’s glow by a hundredfold. Barely visible unless looked at closely, but as these specks flowed in, the ice wall suddenly gained a force of unity between heaven and earth, all things as one.

This wall would not fall.

The same voice echoed in everyone’s ears.

But in Fang Yun’s ears, it echoed differently, heavy as mountains, ethereal as stars, at times like children chanting in unison, at times like a thousand people reciting together.

“Heaven and earth possess a righteous qi, which is bestowed upon all forms…”

In the blink of an eye, a section of the ice wall, hundreds of feet high and miles wide, rose from the ground, piercing the starry sky like a mountain peak.

In the middle of the wall was an archway, under which Fang Yun and all the others stood.

“Boom…”

The meteor struck the wall, flames shooting out, ice shards splattering.

The terrifying meteor drilled into the wall like a bit, creating a breach and continuing to strike downward, opening a larger gap, aiming straight for Fang Yun.

It was then that Fang Yun’s energy was exhausted, even the power of The Courage to Write was drained by the wall, and even the force from the imperial edicts in the literary palace was depleted. He felt as if the oil was spent and the lamp was out.

If not for the echoing “Song of Righteous Qi” in his ears, Fang Yun would have already collapsed.

Beside him, Niu Shan quickly stepped forward to support him.

The entire fourth corridor seemed to change due to the battle between the meteor and the wall. After the wall appeared, no more meteors came.

All the Demon Barbarians watched incredulously as the fiery meteor clashed with the cold ice wall.

It was a struggle between the stars and the earth, a contest between celestial phenomena and human effort.

It all ended in a mere two breaths.

The ice wall shook slightly, tiny ice chips falling from the top of the archway, scattering on everyone’s faces.

The cold was bone-piercing.

The meteor’s flames were extinguished.

“Did it hold?” Fang Yun asked with his head lowered, no longer having the strength to look up at the sky, his voice quieter than his breathing.

“It held!” Li Fanming clenched his fists, watching Fang Yun.

“It held!” Zong Wude shouted loudly.

“It held!” Yan Yukong called out.

One after another, people started shouting, like a roll call, and as if the person they liked was right beside them during the count.

“Mm, I can hear it,” Fang Yun said, closing his eyes and falling into a faint.

Niu Shan gently picked up Fang Yun and walked towards the bridge end half a mile away.

Meteors reappeared in the sky, but none fell here.

The ice wall silently turned back into cold air, slowly falling back into the ice bridge, those tiny specks of light as if they had never existed.

The Demon Barbarians of the fourth corridor were silent. At that moment, they had an illusion.

Humanity would not fall.

Five Presented Scholars silently watched as Fang Yun and the others disappeared into the fourth corridor.

“We’ve lost an opportunity.”

“Let’s hope they can keep going. We were afraid, we retreated, but they’re still there.”

“Let’s go back. Fang Yun preserved a generation’s hope for humanity with the ice wall, leaving The Holy Land, we should also contribute. One step back is enough, we can’t keep retreating.”

“That’s right.”

A white-haired ape Demon Barbarian from the Blood Barbarians looked ahead, following a few holy clan Demon Barbarians, awkwardly dodging meteors. No matter how strong the impact of the nearby meteors, its vital energy firmly protected every hair.

In the fourth plaza, everyone was enveloped in a silver cocoon of light. (To be continued.)

PS: Sorry, it took over six hours to write one chapter, the third chapter is still being written… I haven’t slept yet, pity that it’s already dawn…