“As expected…”

Aqian gripped the gold-thread net with both small hands, jaw set, eyes fixed on the bronze mirror hanging in the sky.

When she had eavesdropped on the Howling Moon and the bull demon talking, she had already had a feeling.

Even if the Howling Moon needed the Junior Demon King’s help against Qingzhou, it had been far too deferential.

This arrogant bull demon almost certainly came from some demon faction beyond the Great Qian dynasty’s borders. A demon with that kind of backing — how could it not have something to keep itself alive?

There might even be something more terrifying than a demon king standing behind it.

But that was not necessarily bad news for Qingzhou.

Aqian had always wanted to make enough noise to force the War Temple to pay attention — to make clear that what was being lost was not just Qingzhou, that this was not a setback they could afford to quietly endure.

Outside demons coming in force would carry an entirely different weight.

Because no one could be sure they were only coming for revenge, rather than seizing the opportunity to push into Great Qian and keep eating away at the immortal sects’ already-shrinking room to breathe, catching them front and back at once.

If it reached that level, Xuanguang Cave and Wutong Mountain would no longer have any justification for standing aside. After all, they were nominally still allied with Great Qian.

And holding the outside was something they would have to do regardless.

Qingzhou was a gate for Great Qian — and Great Qian, in turn, had long since become a gate the immortal sects used to hold back the demons.

Twelve Spirit-Transformation cultivators from the War Temple falling one after another, and the injury to the Ancestor — that had finally turned what had once been a firm alliance into something closer to two lords and a guard dog.

Every Mixed Origin Grandmaster had been pulled away to serve the immortal sects.

Even asking for help required throwing the table over to get a response — and if Jiang Yuanhua wouldn’t throw it, she would.

To hell with it. Die together if it came to that.

Kill the Junior Demon King first. After Jiang Qiulan broke through, deal with the Howling Moon. Win the gap in time. As for whatever more terrifying demon lay beyond — let the War Temple and the immortal sects sort out that headache.

This was Qingzhou’s only real chance at coming through intact.

The odds were not good. But they were better than watching the Junior Demon King break through, have it tear through half of Qingzhou, and then wait for a group of exhausted Mixed Origin Grandmasters to come back and clean up what they called the aftermath.

Only one problem remained.

Aqian reached into her gold bell and drew out a red-tasseled spear five times her own height.

“Kill it!”

Her small figure launched into the air, driving the cold-gleaming speartip down toward the Junior Demon King’s body.

At the same moment, Shen Yi swept across the open sky, bringing Deep Abyss down hard toward the bull demon’s brow, with the jade dragon howling along in his wake, tearing toward its throat.

All three of them were seasoned demon-killers. None of them were about to stand back and watch it activate a treasure artifact.

A rapid sequence of metallic crashes rang out.

Across the Junior Demon King’s powerful frame, a suit of armor rose into being.

Rose — because it was in pieces. More than ten separate plates, floating in a loose ring around its body, their overall appearance ancient and heavy, cast in bronze, engraved with intricate patterns. No light pulsed from them. They simply hung in quiet orbit.

The spear struck the shoulder plate. The straight shaft bent sharply under the impact and let out a series of strained cries.

The jade dragon was caught by the chest plate. The dense sword-intent left only pale scratches across its surface before shattering apart piece by piece.

Only Shen Yi’s blade came down with enough force to cut, leaving a deep gash in a shoulder plate that swung up barely in time to meet it.

The Junior Demon King rose from the ground without hurry.

Its face was a ruin of wounds, one horn sheared off — and yet, ringed by the bronze armor, it looked more imposing and more dangerous than before.

It closed its hand. The ring-pommel broadsword rose into the air and settled into its broad grip.

Red Cloud for escape. The broadsword to break anything in its path. The armor to weather every blow.

For someone of its standing, home was always well-prepared before going out.

“Hah.”

The Junior Demon King exhaled a slow breath, expression flat.

Its gaze swept the damage on the armor. Who posed the greatest threat was already plain.

A slight movement of divine sense.

The bronze mirror hanging overhead shifted direction.

“I have always had my mind on Jiang Qiulan. I overlooked that Qingzhou had someone like you as well.”

The Junior Demon King looked down at the young man in black armor with a blank expression. “That blade of yours is impressive. Now it is this king’s turn to show what it is carrying.”

As the words left its mouth, a faint beam of light fell from the bronze mirror.

“…”

Shen Yi had faced this kind of well-backed demon before. The Qingqiu fox demon had also come with a collection of treasure artifacts — but compared to this bull demon, it had seemed almost shabby.

Deep Abyss, which could cut through a demon king’s body, had been stopped first by the ring-pommel broadsword and then by the bronze armor. That alone confirmed both were high-grade treasure artifacts.

By that measure, the bronze mirror would not be any different.

With that thought, Shen Yi dissolved into a breeze and reappeared at the bull demon’s flank, blade already moving — and found that the faint beam the mirror had cast a moment ago was still clinging to him.

Like a thin veil, wrapping itself around his entire body.

The next instant, blazing golden light poured from the mirror’s surface.

Following the path the beam had marked, it erupted outward.

Boom.

A dense column of golden light condensed and drove straight into the young man in black armor.

Everything happened in an instant.

Under that suffocating pressure, Aqian and Wu Feng felt their vision warp.

Jiang Qiulan stared silently at the golden light. Her hand snapped shut. The jade dragon gathered again — faster and fiercer than before — and crashed straight into the bronze mirror.

Countless silver needles poured out from within her and surged into the dragon.

Bang. Bang.

The mirror rocked under the impact, on the verge of shattering. Forced to divert half the golden light to hold the dragon back.

“Have you forgotten about this king?”

The Junior Demon King’s face split into a savage grin. When that eight-zhang frame broke into a run, the ground cracked beneath it, fracture lines spreading like shattered porcelain.

It raised the ring-pommel broadsword high.

The jade dragon did not turn to defend. Jiang Qiulan did not shift her eyes toward the bull demon. She kept her gaze fixed on the mirror, counting silently in her mind how many more strikes it would take to break it.

With her movement arts, there was no need to waste attention on anything else.

One more—

A thread of cold intent surfaced in her eyes. Several silver needles pierced through the path infant inside her inner core again, and under the agony of that stimulus, the path infant let out a piercing wail.

More sword-intent crystallized in the air around her.

“Still holding something back?” The bronze armor could stop blades and axes — but it could not hold out against that bone-deep chill. The Junior Demon King felt its whole body stiffen, its movements growing sluggish.

Its eyelid jumped. Even with all these treasure artifacts behind it, it still could not be certain it could kill her.

It poured everything into its grip on the sword hilt, trying to drive the blow home.

Then a slender hand reached out from within the golden light. Five fingers closed around the rim of the bronze mirror. The mirror thrashed wildly — and was dragged down regardless, pulled in steady and firm.

Forced into a silver pouch.

Shen Yi stepped out with his black armor shattered across his body. The wounds on his frame were deep enough to show bone, deep enough to see the faint movement of organs beneath — yet under the nourishment of the red light, they were already closing at a visible rate.

Even the seventh-transformation refined body had not been enough to fully withstand that golden light.

A good find.

He pulled off the ruined upper half of his armor and glanced sideways at the bull demon.

Then he moved.

His arm stretched out, palm pressing flat against the Junior Demon King’s forehead.

Something savage crossed the young man’s face.

CRASH—

Under that unimaginable force, the Junior Demon King’s entire body was slammed into the ground without the slightest resistance.

(End of Chapter)