So, I'm heading out on the 17th to attend the China Literature salon — this time it's in Japan, so I need to stockpile some chapters over the next few days. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write once I'm there, so for now it'll have to be one chapter per day. Thanks for bearing with me.
………………
Yang Kai blinked, but didn't react much. With a surge of Space Laws, Bo Ya vanished from sight.
"Trouble's come knocking."
"Sorry to trouble you, Senior." Yang Kai nodded mildly. Trouble should have arrived long ago — he wasn't surprised in the slightest.
Absorbing
Once they noticed, they were certain to trace the disturbance back to its source. Yang Kai had known all along that conflict with the other Demon Saints was inevitable the moment he made his move. It was only a matter of when.
Still, a four-month grace period was more than he could have hoped for. Half of the continents under Yu Rumeng's command remained unabsorbed — another month and that would be finished. After that, he could turn his sights on the other Demon Saints' territories.
As for how much he could devour from there, that would depend on how the Demon Saints responded.
"Watch yourself. Don't go and die." The words had barely left Chang Tian's mouth before he stepped forward, vanishing and reappearing a hundred li away in an instant, then another hundred li with the next stride, disappearing from Yang Kai's field of vision step by step.
Once Chang Tian left, Yang Kai immediately activated his protective demonic essence while simultaneously opening the Eye of Annihilation in his right eye, surveying all directions.
He didn't know how many Demon Saints were coming, but he was certain it wouldn't be many. Perhaps just one, even — Demon Saints were precious with their time, and after the last battle in the
Anyone who could track things back here had to be a Demon Saint whose territory bordered either Bei Li Mo's or Yu Rumeng's domain. Only those few would have been the first to notice the anomalies across the various continents.
In the void, Chang Tian came to a sudden halt. He gazed forward with a calm expression, watching for a long while before speaking. "Ancestor's movement techniques are quite impressive, but your aura is something even this chaotic void can't block. I can smell it from tens of thousands of kilometers away. Is there really any point in hiding?"
A figure materialized abruptly several dozen li from where Chang Tian stood. It was a gaunt, emaciated thing — like a desiccated corpse, devoid of any trace of life. Its skin was pale as parchment, and its face was utterly hideous: green-skinned with protruding fangs. This was one of the twelve Demon Saints of the Demon Domain — the Lord of Corpse Demons, Ancestral Anomaly.
"Chang Tian…" Ancestral Anomaly's dead-fish eyes fixed on Chang Tian, the whites of those eyes utterly blank save for pupils no bigger than pinpricks, making the gaze deeply unsettling. The words that came out were as dry and brittle as if the creature hadn't spoken in centuries. "What are you doing here?"
Chang Tian shot back with a question of his own: "And why shouldn't I be here?"
Ancestral Anomaly didn't bother engaging with that. He turned his gaze to the surroundings. "What happened to this place? And what happened to the other continents under Yu Rumeng's command — what does that human have to do with this?"
The Demon Saints weren't fools. One continent after another vanishing into thin air — that required immense supernatural power. In all the Demon Domain, no one had such ability. But as he had traced the trail of disturbances, he had discovered that each of those continents showed signs of being devoured. It wasn't until he arrived here and laid eyes on Gun Gun that the truth clicked into place.
Gun Gun was radiating intense spatial fluctuations, and the space around his body was riddled with cracks. It was impossible not to connect him to Yang Kai.
Facing Chang Tian's silence, Ancestral Anomaly's mouth twisted as if trying to flash a savage grin, but the expression wouldn't come — an awkward sight. His dry voice sounded again: "It seems you've gotten mixed up with that human. Chang Tian, I advise you not to seek your own destruction. You know full well what happens to those who stand against us."
Chang Tian let out a cold scoff. "That's something I learned tens of thousands of years ago already."
Ancestral Anomaly's pinprick pupils dilated slightly. He raised a hand and pointed forward. "I'm going after that boy. Step aside."
Chang Tian said nothing. He reached out and grasped at the void, and a pitch-black long sword materialized in his hand — the Dragon Fang Sword, forged from his own dragon fang, infinitely sharp, indestructible, and capable of shattering all techniques.
His stance could not have been clearer.
Nothing more needed to be said. Ancestral Anomaly let out a shrill scream, and billowing corpse qi erupted from his body. He raised a great hand, and three pitch-black coffins appeared before him. The instant they materialized, a series of thudding sounds boomed from within, and a terrifying aura of violence surged forth — as if some unspeakable horrors were about to burst free.
Before Ancestral Anomaly could cast again, Chang Tian had already swung his sword. Where the blade pointed, demonic essence churned and coalesced into a colossal black dragon a hundred zhang long, its head shaking and tail sweeping as it tore through the void.
Strike first and strike hard!
Ancestral Anomaly's expression didn't change. His hands formed seals, and demonic energy poured from the coffins. Three muffled detonations rang out as the horrors within burst from their coffins — each one a nightmarish sight, green-faced with bared fangs.
The three creatures threw their heads back and howled at the sky. Visible shockwaves rippled outward in frenzied waves before all three surged forward to meet the black dragon. In an instant the heavens cracked and the earth split as the master of the Hundred Spirit Continent and the Lord of Corpse Demons clashed in battle.
Aside from Chang Tian's meteoric rise tens of thousands of years ago, open combat between Demon Saints in the Demon Domain was exceedingly rare. The most recent occasion had been the Primordial World battle, but that had been multiple Demon Saints joining forces against a single Great Emperor, which hardly counted.
This time, however, was a genuine one-on-one duel between Ancestral Anomaly and Chang Tian. The two were no strangers to each other — tens of thousands of years ago, they had fought on multiple occasions, each encounter ending in a stalemate.