The massive demon serpent thrashed in a frenzy, faint black radiance leaking from between its already dark-red scales.

The purple-gold flames grew ever more violent.

As it rolled and writhed, the earth beneath it was scorched to ash.

Its hissing shriek carried on without pause.

As the Twenty-Third Den's demon emperor, it understood better than anyone just how formidable the Dark-Tail Spear was. Every ounce of its mighty demon-force now surged and roiled, striving purely to digest the shadowy light lodged within it.

Fortunately, its demon body was leagues sturdier than Liu Jingyuan's had been.

Through sheer desperate thrashing, its dark-red scales flexed faintly open and shut, and the black radiance leaking from within it began, slowly, to recede.

"Hiss!"

The Crimson-Heart Serpent Emperor let out a sharp, feminine shriek: "Don't think that just because you're holding this spear, you're actually it. Let This Emperor tell you — you're already dead!"

It wasn't wrong, in truth.

Demon-Communing, Treasure-Refining was nothing more than a crude, shallow trick. No matter how many years Shen Yi spent deriving and refining it off borrowed demon lifespan, he could never truly make the spear part of his own body the way the Dark-Tail Demon Emperor once had.

Which was why he still relied on nothing more than the crudest stabbing thrusts.

Even that time against the Azure-Plumed Demon Emperor, when the spear had sensed danger on its own and released its shadowy light to ward off the attack — Shen Yi still couldn't replicate that trick even now.

"So it really is the Dark-Tail Spear."

Tong Xinchuan's brow furrowed slightly, faintly impressed by the young man's nerve.

Not only had he dared to steal the old flood-dragon's tailbone, he dared to wield it right here inside the Thousand Demon Den itself.

Truly out of his mind.

"It got burned last time — this time it'll definitely call in other demon emperors to help."

Yu Chao'an glanced off into the distance, a touch of wariness in his eyes.

Never mind how arrogant they looked acting right now — that was only because the Thousand Demon Den…