“Brother, what fine skill!”
Zheng Zisheng stepped forward and cupped his hands courteously toward the distant figure. “I am Zheng Zisheng of Xuanguang Cave. My thanks to Brother for lending a hand. Once we leave the estate, you must come and be a guest at my Xuanguang Cave…”
It seemed there really was some measure of fortune at his back today. First he’d come by a decent scroll of technique, then he’d run into Chen Zhong’s rescue. Marked out by demons — and still an unknown cultivator had stepped in. This young man’s foundation looked quite deep; no telling where he came from. There were no few reclusive immortal sects within Xianzong, and even one that couldn’t compare to Xuanguang Cave still held value worth befriending.
The smile on his face was thick, but the words halted abruptly halfway through. All because the ink-robed young man glanced back at him blandly, then, without a word, returned his gaze to the two demon kings.
What an arrogant temperament!
Zheng Zisheng’s cupped palms stalled slightly, his face shifting through shade and light, until in the end he could only smile awkwardly. His life was still in another’s hands at the moment; best not to let it show.
He lowered his hands and rebuked the other side furiously. “What are you still standing there like a fool for? Resisting the Thousand Demon Den — isn’t the Thousand Demon Den right there before you? Get up there and lend this brother a hand!”
“…”
Chen Zhong clenched his palm into a fist and slowly closed his eyes. His pride as a Mixed Origin Grandmaster had long since been ground flat over these hundreds and thousands of years. When he opened his eyes again, the faint, barely perceptible flicker of anger in them had already returned to calm.
He walked toward the ink-robed young man and said respectfully, “Senior, I’ve come to help you.”
“Hah.”
The other few Grandmasters sighed. The affairs between Great Qian and Xuanguang Cave were something they had no wish to meddle in, and couldn’t have meddled in anyway. Only, being of the Mixed Origin realm themselves, seeing the old man treated so, they always felt a certain grievance on his behalf. But with a great enemy at hand, the demons had to come first. They leapt up together. “Senior, we’ll come lend support as well.”
“…”
At this, the two remaining demon kings slowly drew together. By the order they’d received earlier, they were to reach the White-Feather Demon Emperor’s side with all possible speed; they’d merely happened to pass through this place, seen a lone Xuanguang Cave disciple, and thought to deal with him in passing. Who’d have imagined that in a single exchange, the Golden-Saber Demon King would be lost among them. With the Thousand Demon Den’s power, how could they know nothing of a young prodigy this strong? This time they’d well and truly kicked an iron plate. The only course now was to reach the Demon Emperor’s side… retreat first, above all!
“No need. I’ll trouble you to keep a good watch on him.” Shen Yi nodded at the old man and said courteously.
“Uh.”
Chen Zhong had never imagined the young man would respond to him at all. After all, the other hadn’t even deigned to notice Zheng Zisheng — never mind an enforcer called hither and yon by Xuanguang Cave. For a moment he felt almost overwhelmed by the favor. He hurriedly saluted. “I’ll go at once.”
Hearing this, Aqing’s heart warmed. He hadn’t expected Grandmaster Shen would still remember him. And the man was even stronger than he’d imagined — set even against the old ones back home in his family, he’d give no ground at all.
“…”
This attitude, so utterly different before and after, made a ghost-fire flare inexplicably in the chest of Zheng Zisheng, whose mood had only just settled.
He could understand a young prodigy’s arrogance. At most he’d think the other had eyes that failed to recognize Mount Tai, ignorant of Xuanguang Cave’s might. But he could by no means accept that Chen Zhong might be set above himself. Ignore a man, yet greet a dog! What sort of reasoning was that?!
“Mm.”
Shen Yi waited until the toad lord had thoroughly dissolved the scorpion venom, the burning in his eyes only thickening a shade. His figure abruptly vanished from where it stood, sweeping toward the rat demon!
Surging demon qi swept out, shrouding the rat demon within it. Plainly only entry-level Mixed Origin cultivation, yet he forced upon everyone a sense of overbearing strength they dared not look at directly. As though he were the upper-tier demon king, and the rat demon the one being crushed.
“Run!”
The rat demon was decisive in the extreme — it didn’t even want to take a single blow. Its whole body turned to black mist and bored straight down into the earth.
Shen Yi’s expression stayed calm. From the air he stamped a foot hard onto the spot where it had vanished. Beneath that slight frame, the whole earth split open with a roar, as though a giant earth-dragon were rolling within it.
Rumble, rumble—
A perfectly good secluded valley became, in the blink of an eye, a deep abyss.
A figure shot miserably out from within it. Before it could react, it was smashed in the spine by a fist from Shen Yi, who’d followed right behind.
A rat-kind demon it might be, but it was a demon king all the same — and yet its formidable demon body was run straight through by a fist. Before it could shriek, it turned its head and spewed out a mouthful of gray mist.
Shen Yi seemed to have been long prepared. A palm slapped against the rat demon’s lower jaw; as its jawbone crumbled, its head was forced involuntarily upward, sending the gray mist spraying into the sky.
The next moment, his long five fingers seized its protruding snout.
Crack!
Amid a dull sound of splitting bone, Shen Yi crushed its skull outright!
【Slain: Mixed Origin dark-wind rat demon. Total lifespan fifteen thousand nine hundred years; remaining lifespan three thousand eight hundred years. Absorption complete.】
Shen Yi turned to look at the fleeing scorpion demon, now surrounded by the several Mixed Origin Grandmasters.
An upper-tier demon king should, by rights, have crushed this crowd of ordinary Mixed Origin cultivators. But at this moment it fled in panic, its whole mind fixed only on breaking out. The men paid slight heed to its venomous scorpion stinger and kept their distance; though they hadn’t wounded the scorpion demon, they’d angered it into cursing wildly all the same.
“Numbers, what kind of skill is that? Do you dare fight this king one-on-one?!”
The scorpion demon roared, flinging out its stinger — and suddenly found that all four men before it had put away their path infants.
It instinctively turned to look. The ink-robed young man came strolling over, and what he carried in his hand was precisely the rat demon’s corpse. The companion who’d been calling for its retreat only a moment ago now had no breath left in an instant… and no head either.
The scorpion demon shuddered all over, despair welling in its eyes, and actually collapsed sitting to the ground.
Shen Yi put away the rat demon’s corpse, then raised his palm.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The several Grandmasters watched that flying ink-black robe and suddenly found themselves at a loss for words. They’d never seen a demon king die so pitifully. Just pressed to the ground like that, beaten to death alive fist by fist. Cruder and simpler than a fight between common ruffians.
Until the scorpion demon likewise lost its head, and was tucked into a storage treasure by the young man in passing.
【Slain: Mixed Origin dark-light scorpion demon. Total lifespan sixteen thousand one hundred years; remaining lifespan four thousand four hundred years. Absorption complete.】
“Hss.”
Zheng Zisheng stared blankly, and abruptly discovered that he’d just forgotten to breathe.
Xuanguang Cave had disciples aplenty, but those who could deal with three upper-tier demon kings as cleanly and decisively as this — setting aside Spirit-Transformation cultivators — numbered no more than three, surely.
He hurriedly lowered his head, masking the fury in his eyes. A good man doesn’t take a loss right before his eyes. Whatever else, better reach Uncle-Master Zhang’s side first, and talk after. And this man — his cultivation was plainly extremely low, yet he could pin a demon king down and beat it; he must have some secret art…
Zheng Zisheng quickly composed his mood and raised his head, only to find the ink-robed young man in the distance had, of all things, turned to look at him of his own accord.
He hastily squeezed out a smile. “Brother, what fine cultivation — I’m filled with admiration. As it happens, my uncle-master is here in the estate as well; I’ll be sure to introduce you a little later…”
(End of Chapter 263)