This Sword Cultivator is Somewhat Dependable

The defense of Northern River Pass has been secured, bringing a sigh of relief to all the cultivators who came from Yumen Pass to assist.

If the human race were left with no stronghold on the outland battlefield, the pressure on them would be immense.

After all, unless they retreat to Yumen Pass, it is essential for human cultivators to have a rear city where they can recuperate and sustain themselves when operating on the outland battlefield.

Furthermore, if all seventeen human fortresses were to fall in one swoop, the impact on human morale would be unimaginably severe.

Even though Northern River Pass was held, the report that only one city remains out of seventeen small to medium fortresses in a single day is still suffocating.

Therefore, while Yumen Pass did not hide the fall of the sixteen cities, they heavily promoted the victory of Northern River Pass as an example of defeating the strong with the weak.

This was partly to wash away the sorrow of the other sixteen cities with this great victory, allowing cultivators to breathe a bit of fresh air under the suffocating pressure, to relax the tense nerves a little lest they snap.

On the other hand, the main hero of the Northern River Pass victory was the young sect leader from the Sword Sect governed by Yumen Pass, and they had every reason to highlight this achievement.

Moreover, the human side learned an extremely important piece of news.

One of the three elite Demon Lords of the War Demon Clan, Chi Venerable, has officially entered the outland battlefield from the Abyss and is currently overseeing the war from the rearmost position in Incessant City.

In the past two thousand years, countless wars have occurred on the outland battlefield, but no matter what, the top Demon Lords have never appeared on the battlefield.

This is the first time.

From the perspective of the human race, this is undoubtedly a sign that the demon race intends to launch a second Dao Demon war.

— Otherwise, why would Chi Venerable personally oversee the rear, just for those seventeen small to medium fortresses?

At such a time, the ones most in need of honor are actually not Lu Qingshan, but the Sword Sect and the countless cultivators of Yumen Pass.

Historically, there are many similar examples.

In war, heroes are crucial, even if there are no heroes, people would create one by force, let alone a genuine hero like Lu Qingshan.

For Yumen Pass, the emergence of Lu Qingshan is akin to receiving a pillow while dozing off.

They were overjoyed and swiftly placed Lu Qingshan onto the already prepared pedestal.

The Yumen Pass battle report jade plaque in Beacon Fire Hall, where the top position showed the victory of Northern River Pass.

The battle report places great emphasis on Lu Qingshan's contributions to this victory.

Scenes from the Northern River Pass battlefield quickly spread throughout Yumen Pass.

With incomparable agility, he crossed three thousand leagues, beheading the enemy general amid thousands of troops!

The two successive demon commanders, top Demon Marshal Canglong, and High Ranking Demon Marshal Xuan Du, all fell to his hand!

A one-man army, striking fear into the demon race and causing their ranks to crumble!

The cultivators of Northern River Pass unanimously hailed the young sect leader of the Sword Sect, Lu Qingshan!

Each of these events alone would be mind-blowing to hear about.

Let alone the fact that all of these were accomplished by one individual.

For a time, Yumen Pass was shaken.

Yet, as the haloed "protagonist," Lu Qingshan was quite indifferent to it all.

He had long viewed many things differently from the average person, seeing from a higher perspective, on the top of the hill.

Regarding Yumen Pass's extensive propagation of his achievements and fame, Lu Qingshan accepted it calmly, neither overly prideful nor excessively humble.

In Lu Qingshan's view, this fame was more a recognition of his years of cultivation effort and accumulated foundation.

Behind this fame, Lu Qingshan also understood and accepted how the stewards of Yumen Pass maneuvered it with ulterior motives.

Since the human race needed a hero at this stage and since he happened to do these things at such a time, having the qualifications to become a hero, Lu Qingshan did not mind others using him as a banner to boost other human cultivators' morale and confidence.

At any time, having a banner ahead is always good.

It enables people to see the hope of carrying on and belief in eventual victory.

.....

After launching this large-scale siege campaign, the demon race seemed to be conserving their strength for the next war and temporarily paused their activities.

During this period, they merely stationed a large number of demonic cultivators in the sixteen small to medium fortresses that had fallen into their hands, originally belonging to the human race.

Besides this, there were no further movements, appearing unusually quiet.

Of course, "quiet" is relative.

For during these days, the demon race's numbers in the wilderness areas of the outland battlefield visibly increased, and encounters between human cultivators and demonic cultivators occurred daily.

But indeed, organized large-scale wars had temporarily vanished.

The human race gained a precious opportunity to recuperate.

The first thing they did was consolidate all resources in Northern River Pass and gather all Northern River Pass cultivators, abandoning the city altogether.

Yes, even though defending Northern River Pass was extremely challenging, it truly could not be held.

The reason is simple too.

North River Pass is the farthest fortress from Yumen Pass and is the frontline fortress out of the seventeen fortresses.

If placed on a map, the seventeen fortresses roughly form a triangle, with fewer fortresses as you advance.