“…”
A moment later, Shen Yi’s brow slowly drew together.
He thought he understood why this had happened.
A being condensed from the essences of heaven and earth — developing awareness was supposed to be an extraordinarily slow process. But the sheer amount of time he’d spent had apparently caused it to develop consciousness while still at the path seed stage.
Extinguishing a being’s consciousness — he’d done it many times through the panel.
Before, it had always been through the death-essence from the Life-Death Zen Body, and the consciousness being erased had always belonged to demons.
The situation was different now.
This path seed was inside his own inner core. Using the death-essence to deal with it would mean destroying the inner core first.
“Good thing I have the Solar-Fusion Furnace.”
Shen Yi’s eyes narrowed. He activated the suppressive force and wrapped it tightly around the path seed.
As long as it could be controlled, that was manageable. It couldn’t actually resist — grinding it down over time would work.
The several thousand years spent deriving the Solar-Fusion Scripture — not a poor investment, as it turned out.
Of course, that was the limit of what he could do here. The rest would have to be left to the panel.
With that thought, he stood again, and said inwardly with mild calm:
Don’t worry. I’ll earn you enough demon lifespan.
He looked ahead.
Two qi traces came out of the bell, flickering with increasing intensity.
The dark robe moved, and the young man became wind again, sweeping across the sky.
Fuyao Mountain. The Jade Water Ravine.
The stream was shallow, smooth stones showing through the clear water. A powerful blue-faced lion lay coiled in it. On its back, astride it, was a tall figure wearing silver-bright scale armor — human form, but with a lion’s head.
“Elder Brother — can you stop riding me.” The great lion twitched with mild irritation, flicking its tail hard.
“I’d rather ride Lady White Jade, but she hasn’t come back in days.” The lion demon in human form grinned, and a low rumble of laughter came from below.
Both brothers looked toward Qingzhou with something faintly nostalgic.
“I can’t figure out why the demon king wants us to bother with You Longtao. He holds Tingyang Prefecture. He has the Solar-Splitting Bow. He’s cultivated a divine spirit. He looks slow-moving but he’s not actually stupid.”
The great lion pushed itself up, a trace of dissatisfaction. “Thinking one gold bell is going to lure him out — isn’t that a little naive?”
“Better if he doesn’t come out. Means more time riding Lady—”
The human-form lion demon laughed loudly, then licked his lips. “She wants to accomplish something, get the demon king’s attention back on her. What does that have to do with us?”
“I heard the White Deer is dead.” The great lion was walking up the bank.
“Always thought it was smarter than us, couldn’t stand that we outranked it, secretly got mixed up with the Junior Demon King. Served it right.” The lion demon didn’t appear to care much.
They worked under the same demon king — that didn’t make them allies. Without the demon king’s presence keeping things civil, it would have killed the White Deer at a banquet a few hundred years ago.
“That’s not what I meant.”
The great lion shook its head. “If there’s someone in Qingzhou who can kill the White Deer, they can kill more demon lords too. You and I have nothing to worry about — but if the losses get too significant, it frees up the Division’s hands. Then they’re watching us all the time. That’s not a comfortable feeling.”
“You worry too much.” The lion demon gave a cold laugh. “The demon king isn’t going to let that stupid deer die for nothing. Qingzhou will have to pay a life back. From what I know — the old flood dragon in the Yangchun River is close to a breakthrough. The demon king’s already sent it precious medicines to help it along.”
A thousand years of waiting, and then emerging from the water.
Qingzhou was going to smell blood.
“So we get pushed back another spot in the ranking?” The great lion felt a twinge of annoyance. Seventeen core-nurturing demon lords under the demon king. The two of them combined should easily be top five — and yet the others always insisted on counting them separately. Pure cheating.
“I’m not the White Deer. I don’t care about rankings. I just want to know when Lady is coming back.”
The lion demon jumped off its brother and stood with a trace of restlessness.
Then — a shapely figure in disheveled clothing came along the stream’s edge. Clearly badly injured. The fine long dress torn open everywhere. Pale skin showing through. The pretty face held an aggrieved expression, full lips pressed together.
The lion demon’s eyes went straight.
“Lady — what happened to you! Come here, let me look after you properly!”
It moved forward quickly and pulled the beauty into its arms, a large paw moving with no restraint.
“…”
The great lion watched with a vague puzzlement.
Not about its elder brother’s usual behavior — mainly because this time he hadn’t been called over.
Was he just too pent-up after the wait?
And in a situation like this, the great lion was normally expected to provide its fur as a soft surface — otherwise there’d be nowhere comfortable. But also — Lady White Jade arriving this injured, and his elder brother showing not the slightest caution — shouldn’t he at least ask what had happened first?
It looked around.
And noticed a faint white mist over the nearby stream.
Which wasn’t unusual for a ravine. It blended naturally.
But something inside the great lion lurched hard. It roared:
“Elder Brother — careful! The White Deer isn’t dead — it must have defected to the Junior Demon King and come here to harm us—!“
The words were barely out—
Dragon-cry and tiger-roar split the air right beside it. The great lion spun in shock. A wide sword-intent had appeared from nowhere, two enormous beast shapes coursing around it, driving straight at its body.
Under that savage True Intent—
The great lion’s body was torn open in an instant, a terrifying wound opened across it. Then the dragon and tiger shapes slammed it away.
At the same time — Shen Yi hung in the air, the Solar-Splitting Bow in hand, drawn to full moon, both eyes blazing with sharp clarity.
The sixth transformation behind him, a series of blazing white arrows drove through the sky one after another.
Boom. Boom.
Vast white light swallowed the great lion. The powerful demon body split open — flesh and skin peeling away.
Over ten arrows, none missing. But the lion had only been stripped of surface flesh, white bone showing through. It was still alive.
Shen Yi’s brow pressed slightly. The result wasn’t satisfying.
But since the core-nurturing breakthrough, the Turtle-Breath Method could no longer completely mask his qi. Getting any closer would risk detection.
He’d had no choice but to open with the Twin-Harmony Dragon-Tiger True Intent and the Solar-Splitting Bow.
Meanwhile—
The human-form lion demon was holding Lady White Jade. Struggle moved through its eyes.
It was trying to break free of the illusion.
In an instant — the fangs showed. A roar that shook the landscape. The terrifying eyes gained a degree more clarity.
“…”
Shen Yi didn’t give it his attention. His form disappeared from where it stood.
According to General You — these two working together were not significantly below him.
Almost certainly they had some coordinated method between them.
If he couldn’t neutralize one of them first — the difficulty of killing both would probably multiply.
(End of Chapter)