In a mountain range where towering peaks stood in dense formation, powerful monsters of every kind roamed freely. All of them were above Level 100, and some were even Legendary-rank behemoths. Yet not a single monster among them dared approach a forest deep within the range.
A figure suddenly appeared at the entrance to the forest — silent, without a sound. It was Yan Xue, wrapped from head to toe in bandages.
At the same moment Yan Xue appeared, several enormous figures materialized before him, radiating the terrifying pressure unique to Fourth-Order Legendaries.
"Remarkable. Has it already progressed this far after just a short while?" Yan Xue swept his gaze over a humanoid, single-horned demon standing behind six Legendary evil beasts, shock filling his heart.
A Legendary-rank Demon!
Compared to evil beasts, demons were far more difficult to cultivate. Previously, the strongest demon the Beast Emperor had managed to produce was only High Great Lord rank. The appearance of a Legendary-rank demon was a monumental leap.
Demons were fundamentally different from evil beasts — they possessed higher intelligence and could wield far greater combat power. Most importantly, they could be summoned at any time, unlike evil beasts, which could only move on their own two legs and were a hassle for everything.
Having a Legendary-rank demon was like gaining a Legendary pet and bodyguard all in one.
A High Great Lord–rank demon was formidable, but not to the point of being unstoppable. Enough experts working together could still bring one down.
But a Legendary-rank demon was an entirely different matter.
Legendary-rank monsters were beings that even the major powers currently found nearly impossible to contend with. Otherwise, the ultra-large-scale team dungeons wouldn't still be sitting unsolved by any superpower.
With such a Legendary-rank demon, the safety and survival capabilities of manipulators like them would be dramatically enhanced. They would no longer need to hide in the shadows — they could freely appear in public and more effectively control their armies of demons and evil beasts.
Yan Xue craved this himself.
As a member of the Evil God Temple, he had been hunted by all races, survival a constant struggle. If captured by players or NPCs and handed over to the Godslayer Temple, it would be a true death sentence — forced to start completely from scratch. He had to remain extremely cautious, never daring to appear openly.
But with a Legendary-rank demon, even encountering NPCs would no longer be cause for alarm. Even if he couldn't win, he could at least escape with ease. After all, Fifth-Order NPCs were pinnacle powerhouses across the entire Divine Realm and extremely rare to encounter. The strongest NPCs one would typically run into were Fourth-Order.
With a Legendary-rank demon, they would no longer have to live in the darkness. They could freely show their faces in public. This was precisely why the members of the Evil God Temple wanted to unseal it.
After the evil beasts and demons scrutinized Yan Xue, they dispersed as if they had never appeared at all, and Yan Xue strode into the forest.
At the center of the forest lay a massive sinkhole, from which emanated a dense demonic energy so potent that even Yan Xue, as an Evil God Temple member, marveled at it. If he hadn't already been converted into one of the Temple's members, an ordinary player arriving here would have been corroded by the concentrated demonic energy in an instant.
This was the location of the Evil God Temple within the Star Moon Kingdom. Within a certain radius of the Temple, the area formed a completely self-contained space — no contact with the outside world could be established in either direction.
"Yan Xue?" Inside the heavily damaged temple, a middle-aged man covered in pitch-black demonic runes glanced at Yan Xue as he walked in and asked quietly, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be controlling the demon army to guard Ancient Rock City?"
Yan Xue looked at the man before him. Though the man showed no emotion and spoke in a completely flat tone, he couldn't help but feel a deep, instinctive terror. Not only because this man was the Evil God Temple's Beast Emperor, the Evil God's Envoy — but also because of the horrifying demonic energy swirling around him.
Compared to their last meeting, the Beast Emperor had grown even more terrifying, the demonic energy he radiated no weaker than that emanating from the Evil God Temple itself. An ordinary player probably wouldn't even get close before being killed outright by the energy.
Moreover, looking at the Beast Emperor, Yan Xue always felt an inhuman quality about him — as though he were facing a terrifying beast that had only just awakened.
"Our Guild Master sent me," Yan Xue steadied himself and said quickly. "Our Guild Master said — you're still short four hundred thousand elite player souls, aren't you? Our Guild Master can provide them."