As the central hub of the entire continent, Cloud Shadow City had always been ablaze with lights and brimming with activity. But tonight, the city that should have been teeming with noise carried an eerie, unnatural silence.
Word had already spread like wildfire that the City Palace had dispatched over forty Demon Kings, a thousand Demon Commanders, and ten thousand Demon Generals to surround a single estate. Countless demons had no idea what was going on and lurked in the shadows, watching from every corner.
Some demons, however, knew that the estate belonged to Lie Kuang. The man had only entered the city a single day ago, and now the City Palace had mobilized such a massive force — were they moving against Lie Kuang? Did Lao Ke really have that kind of nerve?
Or perhaps… all of this was the doing of that newly arrived Prince?
Regardless, tonight promised to be quite the spectacle. Every demon with even a modicum of strength could feel it — tonight, something fundamental was going to change on Cloud Shadow Continent. The entirety of Cloud Shadow City was shrouded in an inexplicable atmosphere.
At Lie Kuang's estate, the Mountain and River Bell had descended and suppressed an enormous area. Lao Ke and the others had spread out at a distance, keeping watch. Lie Kuang's twenty-odd Demon King subordinates kept glancing back, their brows tightly knotted.
It had been roughly half a cup of tea's time since the treasure had trapped both that human and Lord Lie Kuang inside. They had no idea what was happening within — only faint, indistinct sounds drifted out from time to time.
The fact that the human had lasted this long under Lord Lie Kuang's assault exceeded their expectations. In their minds, given Lie Kuang's Cultivation and strength, he should have subdued the human in short order and emerged from the treasure. Yet the sounds from within told a different story — the battle was anything but one-sided.
The calm composure they had worn at the beginning had vanished entirely. All twenty-odd Demon Kings showed traces of worry in their eyes. Nothing had gone wrong for Lord Lie Kuang in there, had it? After all, the treasure belonged to that human. But so far they had detected no signs of the treasure's power being unleashed — the great bell seemed merely to block outside observation.
They forced that thought away, clinging to the belief that Lord Lie Kuang could not possibly be unable to handle a single human, and waited in silence.
Meanwhile, inside the Mountain and River Bell, Lie Kuang's eyes were bulging in fury as he fled in a desperate, cornered-animal frenzy. But within this space of barely twenty zhang across, where could he possibly run?
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he would capsize in a ditch. He hadn't taken that human seriously at all, but only once the fighting began did he realize that the other party's strength was in no way inferior to his own. Combined with that eerie Sacred Spirit lending support from the side, Lie Kuang had been beaten into near-total helplessness.
His once burly frame had withered and shriveled, looking like a wind-dried fish. Enormous quantities of his vital blood had been drained away, all thanks to that Sacred Spirit. He had no idea what kind of sinister art the creature had cultivated, but it possessed the effect of devouring all things. Every time a new wound appeared on his body, torrents of blood would surge forth before being swallowed and refined by the creature.
Once or twice might have been tolerable, but the accumulation had become more than even Lie Kuang could withstand.
By now, he could feel that his foundation had been damaged. His upper-rank Demon King Cultivation had fallen to mid-rank, with no possibility of recovery…
His heart seethed with grief and indignation. Before his eyes stretched only darkness, without a trace of light.
When he saw Yang Kai block his path once more — those sharp, clawed fingers reaching for him — Lie Kuang hastily dropped to one knee and cried out at the top of his lungs: "I yield! I surrender! Please spare my life, my lord! Lie Kuang is willing to follow you and serve you unto death!"
Any more delay and he would lose his life altogether. In this moment, pride, reputation — none of it mattered. Staying alive was everything.
Yang Kai's dragon claw halted just in front of Lie Kuang's neck. He tilted his head, studying the man, and upon sensing the unwillingness still burning in those eyes, he broke into a grin: "You're too late. Surrendering now… what use would you have been to me?"
If Lie Kuang were still a peak upper-rank Demon King, Yang Kai might have had some interest in recruiting him. But the man had already been drained of so much vital blood by the Avatar's Devouring Battle Technique that his strength had plummeted, with no hope of recovery. Taking him in would serve absolutely no purpose.
He'd been given a chance and hadn't cherished it. Only when backed into a corner did he bend the knee. The world didn't work that way.
The words had barely left his mouth when Yang Kai raked his claws downward.
…
With a flash of light, the Mountain and River Bell began spinning rapidly, quickly shrinking in size.
Every demon who had been watching the area perked up immediately. Lie Kuang's twenty-odd subordinates lit up with excitement on their faces.
Boya's eyelids twitched violently. She genuinely didn't dare look, terrified of witnessing something she never wanted to see. The Soul Puppet was in Yang Kai's hands, and it had been tolerable so far — at the very least, over these past few days, Yang hadn't made things too difficult for her or forced her to do anything against her will.
But if the Soul Puppet fell into Lie Kuang's hands, Boya was certain that her days to come would be a fate worse than death.
So even though she knew the odds were slim, she silently prayed that Yang Kai would somehow pull off a miracle and appear before her alive.