Chapter 1042: Crisis, Arriving in Silence

In less than half a day, the five leaders had located the secret transfer gate into the Demon God Hall.

It was a hidden transfer entrance buried beneath the ruins.

Without the Silver-Eyed Great Sage to guide them, even ten times the effort and time wouldn’t have been enough for the challengers to find it, let alone unearth it.

“Once we enter the secret gate, there may be danger — possibly countless ancient demonic beasts lying in ambush inside. I recommend sending out an elite scouting team first to assess the situation before we decide anything.” The infuriatingly handsome swordsman put forward his suggestion to the great leader Ren Tiange.

“Agreed.” The demon-haired Hauge voiced his support.

“……” Blue Demon said nothing — no agreement, but no objection either.

“What do you think?” When it came down to it, the person Ren Tiange cared most about hearing from was the Silver-Eyed Great Sage.

The Silver-Eyed Great Sage didn’t speak either — he simply gave a slight nod. Seeing that nod of approval, Ren Tiange’s expression brightened immediately. He waved his hand, ordering his most elite unit, the Tiange Strike Team, to enter the ancient secret gate.

Half an hour later, the Tiange Strike Team returned.

Their report to the five leaders mentioned a second secret gate.

Inside, there was more — deeper spaces, an extraordinarily strange maze, and a second transfer gate. Fortunately, the team had someone exceptionally skilled in pathfinding and tracking who had broken through the maze passage; otherwise the mission would have been impossible to complete. The problem now stood plainly before everyone. Pressing further meant dealing not just with the headache of the maze, but a second transfer gate — and potentially a third beyond that. On the other hand, if they left the majority of their force to hold the underground city ruins while the five leaders and their elites went inside, and the ancient demonic beasts launched a large-scale counterattack with no one capable left to defend — what then?

The five leaders called together nearly a hundred camp captains of various ranks and key personnel from throughout the force to deliberate on whether the main body should advance or hold position.

Those inclined toward caution favored staying. Those with more aggressive temperaments wanted to push inside.

Opinion split cleanly down the middle.

A conservative faction strongly in favor of holding, an optimistic faction equally in favor of pressing in for treasure.

As for Yue Yang, a directionally challenged newcomer of this caliber was naturally not invited to any such deliberation. The only person from his immediate group with standing to participate was the one-eyed powerhouse, who went by “Ben.”

Unlike his subordinates North the bull-headed man and Four-Limbs the four-armed creature, both of whom loved a good adventure, Ben was a thorough conservative. He and more than thirty other camp captains reached the same decision: hold position outside, and if the ancient demonic beasts truly did launch a counterattack, retreat into the transfer gate and hold the maze passages as a defensive line. If no counterattack came, the group staying outside would continue searching the underground city ruins for ancient treasures. In practice, in under two days, a fair number of challengers had already turned up a handful of lower-value ancient relics. If you could get some return without taking too much risk, why not?

If the entire force pressed inside, questions of how to divide any treasure found would immediately explode into conflict — and no matter how much ancient treasure existed, it was finite, not enough to go around. The challengers who supported holding position outside simply didn’t want to see the day when internal greed turned allies against each other, so they willingly gave up what might have been a massive haul.

“What lousy luck, getting stuck with a coward like you for a leader.” The pudgy Fortune was extremely unhappy — he wanted to go in and look for treasure, but when the five leaders divided up assignments, the logistics-type personnel with limited combat ability had been placed in the holding group, so his complaints changed nothing about the reality of staying outside.

“Being alive is enough.” Yue Yang indicated he didn’t mind either way — though privately, he thought both staying outside and going inside carried roughly equal danger.

That feeling, naturally, was not something he could say out loud.

First, no one would believe him.

Second, if he said it, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage would probably seek him out not long after.

Yue Yang had absolutely no intention of drawing that kind of attention. For now, he didn’t want to reveal his true strength — he needed to get a clearer picture of the situation first. Entering the Demon God Hall was definite. Just not yet.

Knowingly charging into a trap wasn’t bravery. It was stupidity.

Staying outside, in the meantime, wasn’t so bad.

Two days passed. Challengers scattered through the ruins kept turning up ancient relics — not necessarily anything of great value, but enough to give the holdouts a sense that more was out there. More ancient treasures, definitely buried somewhere beneath these ruins, just waiting to be found. Treasure-hungry types like the pudgy Fortune grew more restless by the hour, convinced the haul inside had to be far bigger and that staying outside was a waste of time. If it weren’t for his own limited strength and his genuine wariness toward maze passages, he’d have already slipped inside on the quiet, and no amount of sitting still could be expected of him.

“You’re not going to dig around for something?” Ben, the one-eyed powerhouse, found the sight of Yue Yang leisurely gnawing on a chicken leg genuinely puzzling. Weren’t newcomers usually eager to hunt for treasure? How was this one just sitting here, not moving? In the days since they’d arrived, Yue Yang hadn’t been seen making a single move toward searching for anything — just eating and sleeping from morning to night. Laziness wasn’t a new concept, but a newcomer this lazy was genuinely a first.

“It’s all junk. Not interested.” Yue Yang tossed the gnawed-clean chicken bone aside.

“There might be something good… Oh, forget it.” Ben gave up persuading him. Sitting around eating and drinking every day was hard to watch, but it was still better than wandering off and causing trouble, especially while the danger in the area was far from resolved. If Yue Yang accidentally stirred up some ancient demonic beasts, they’d all be finished.

A directionally hopeless newcomer like this, Ben decided, was probably best kept right where he was. If he went wandering, there’d be no finding him again.

The second day after the five leaders departed with the main force, right when the camp in the underground ruins was preparing dinner—

From every passage in the distant dark, came a series of strange sounds, all at once.

Every face in the camp changed.

The ancient demonic beasts had really launched their counterattack?

Ben and the remaining camp captains led the handful of elite fighters they had, taking up defensive positions in front of the temporary camp, while ordering newcomers like the pudgy Fortune and Yue Yang to move toward the transfer gate — if the situation deteriorated, they were to go inside immediately and link up with the main force under the five leaders. Scattering and running had been voted down from the very first discussions — because in underground passages like these, even the strongest fighter alone was no match for a flood of insects and monsters, let alone ancient demonic beasts of formidable power.

“Hold, hold!” Ben roared over the noise. The elite fighters staying behind summoned their war beasts around him, readying for the incoming assault.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE…

But then something strange happened.

The insect tide and monsters didn’t storm forward with their usual ferocious hunger. Except for a small number that had broken from the pack and come crashing blindly into Ben’s defensive line, the vast majority of the insects and monsters weren’t looking in their direction at all. It was as if something terrifying behind them were driving them forward — more numerous than any tide, insects and monsters surged across the underground ruins in all directions, fleeing toward whatever they thought was safety.

By now even a blind person could see something was very wrong.

The insect tides and monsters were already terrifying enough on their own — but they were being driven by something even stronger. What force was pursuing them? Other challengers from the Angel Alliance? Or someone else?

Before the holdout challengers could process this, hundreds of ancient demonic beasts came running through as well, every one of them covered in wounds.

Savage and ferocious as these creatures normally were, not one of them spared a glance for Ben or his people — they ran at the greatest speed of their lives toward whatever distance they could put between themselves and what lay behind them. A handful of ancient demonic beasts that fell a fraction behind the rest suddenly screamed and collapsed, tumbling together in a bloody, mangled heap.

“Bone Dragons!”

Someone cried out in alarm.

From within the ancient passages, Yue Yang, blending into the crowd, watched as hundreds of Bone Dragons — ranging from Sky-rank tier three to tier five — poured out in a steady stream.

As one of the Dark Alliance’s primary war beasts, Bone Dragons were immediately recognized by every challenger in Demon Valley. What was incomprehensible was how these terrifying war beasts, belonging to the Dark Alliance, had come to be here at the Dark Sky Nest underground ruins. This underground city was squarely within Angel Alliance territory — the nearest Dark Alliance stronghold was at least ten thousand kilometers away.

Would the enemy be deploying hundreds of Bone Dragons to assault the holdout personnel without knowing the situation on the ground?

But if the enemy did know the situation—

How had they gotten that intelligence?

Had news leaked about the five leaders clearing the ancient passages in search of treasure? More alarming still — how had the enemy known the five leaders were away from the holdout group at this precise moment? If all five leaders had been present, a few hundred Bone Dragons, even a few hundred more, would simply be slaughtered… The enemy sending hundreds of Bone Dragons as a vanguard proved they had complete, accurate knowledge of the situation on the Angel Alliance’s side.

“The Ghost King ‘Phantom,’ the Skeleton King ‘Golden Bones,’ and the Flayer King ‘Blood Shave’ — gods, the Dark Alliance’s great leaders are all here!”

When the holdout challengers saw nearly ten thousand Dark Alliance challengers emerging, their hearts had already sunk into despair.

But the sight of multiple Dark Alliance great leaders, each on par with the Angel Alliance’s own five leaders, drew involuntary cries of shock — morale and resolve both hovered at the edge of collapse. This was a fight that couldn’t be won before it even began. The outcome was decided before the first blow landed.

With eight Dark Alliance great leaders, any single one sufficient to sweep through the entire holdout force, there was no conceivable way to stand against them. Never mind all eight — just a few hundred of their elite subordinates could roll over everyone left behind. The most capable challengers had already gone inside with the five leaders, leaving fewer than a hundred of the elite holdouts remaining, and how could that hold against the Dark Alliance’s full force? Compared to nearly ten thousand enemies, thousands of elite enemy fighters, and eight Dark Alliance great leaders, the Angel Alliance’s holdout challengers were as feeble as a mantis standing in the road before a carriage — in the next moment, they’d be crushed to dust without effort.

“Move, everyone move — save whoever can be saved! Nobody summon your main war beast, don’t give the enemy points — if you’re captured, end your own life if you can. Remember, don’t give the enemy the satisfaction — even in death!” Ben let out a thunderous roar that could shake the heavens. He was the first to set his feet and try to kindle any fighting spirit to slow the enemy down.

“Pitiful little insect — you think talking loud is going to frighten anyone? Let me tell you, even Ren Tiange doesn’t dare posture in front of this king!”

An enormous dark silhouette, physical form impossible to make out clearly, floated at the head of the enemy formation.

The power radiating from this shadow was immense.

By Yue Yang’s estimate, this figure’s strength was no less than Ren Tiange’s — and unless element type countered it, taking this one down would not be simple. Based on the intelligence he’d gathered over recent days, Yue Yang could identify this powerful silhouette: Ghost King “Phantom,” the former top figure of the Dark Alliance. If Ji Wuri hadn’t come along and surpassed him, this entity would have been the strongest in all of Demon Valley across thousands of years.

Standing to Ghost King Phantom’s left and right: Skeleton King “Golden Bones” and Flayer King “Blood Shave.”

Both also commanding Supreme tier eight level power.

Slightly below Ghost King Phantom and Ren Tiange, but within Demon Valley, Yue Yang estimated them as at minimum top-five fighters — not to be underestimated by any measure.

A step behind them, five more Dark Alliance leaders ranging from Supreme tier five to tier six.

Without enough intelligence on these five, Yue Yang didn’t know their names, and could only observe their ability profiles quietly through his Heaven’s Eye.

“Shall I have my subordinates kill all this trash?” A Dark Alliance knight riding a Bone Dragon asked Ghost King Phantom with impeccably polite manners.

“No need. Drive them, just keep hunting down the stragglers. I want to watch them scramble. Ha — Ren Tiange, that fool, thinks a few days of closed-door cultivation gives him the right to claim dominance in Demon Valley. What a joke. This king will prove with actions that even without Ji Wuri, it isn’t his turn to speak here. Ancient treasure — hah. Idiot. Ren Tiange is exactly the kind of fool who sells himself to someone and then helps that someone count the money, hopeless beyond saving…”

Ghost King Phantom hadn’t even finished, but everyone already understood: this entire operation was a scheme. The Dark Sky Nest was a man-eating trap from the start, the enemy having laid this ambush and waited for Ren Tiange to lead everyone straight down into it.

Hearing it stated plainly now made every person draw a sharp breath.

Because it seemed to go beyond simply the Dark Alliance setting a trap — there was apparently a terrifying mole hiding inside their own ranks.

Think about it: without a mole, without someone working as a mirror image from inside for Ghost King Phantom, how could the enemy have come this precisely and at this exact moment?

But what occupied Yue Yang’s thoughts right now was this: the trap, yes, obvious. The mole, yes, also obvious. Both had been within his expectations. The one thing he couldn’t work out was what role the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord was playing in this clash.

If the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord was still sealed inside the Demon God Hall, completely ignorant of everything happening outside — Yue Yang decided he’d have to be a fool to believe that. Without the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord’s secret intelligence, without his guidance, Ren Tiange would never have dared lead his force boldly into the Dark Sky Nest. Equally, Ghost King Phantom on the Dark Alliance’s side must have received intelligence from someone before he’d been willing to drive his forces ten thousand kilometers at a sprint. But what did all this killing serve for the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord, lurking behind the scenes?

Could it be that his true body was still bound by the seal, only able to act through a projection?

Or did he need the blood and souls of these challengers as a sacrifice to break his seal entirely?

There was also a third possibility: the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord was already completely free, and was simply orchestrating this bloodbath out of boredom or some twisted impulse before leaving Demon Valley — feeding his own appetite.

If it was the first two, Yue Yang wasn’t too worried yet.

If it was the third, he was going to need to tread very carefully and make absolutely sure the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord hadn’t factored him into these calculations as well.

Crisis, arriving in silence.

For the first time in his life, Yue Yang felt genuinely uncertain. The Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord — an ancient entity sealed away for tens of thousands of years. Just how strong would something like that actually be?

(End of Chapter)