Chapter 341
On the demons’ side, the ten chosen candidates were young powerhouses of great lineage, whereas from the Temple Alliance ten promising Demon Hunters, including the Scion of Light and the Saint Daughter of Samsara, had participated. Therefore, both sides were nervous beyond compare.
As soon as they saw a figure emerge from that dark green shrine, Ling Xiao and Huang Shuo couldn’t help but stand up, and swiftly rushed to the lakeside. Both parties’ powerhouses were in a state of mutual hostility, and in case any change occurred, a battle could very possibly break out any moment.
Long Haochen was walking in the front, and seeing him, Han Qian felt a great load fall off from his mind. Unconsciously he gave a look to the Temple Knight who calmly watched Long Haochen, making good preparations in case of the demons’ possible attacks.
Behind Long Haochen followed Cai’er, and then came Zhang Fangfang. Ying Suifeng and Ling Xiao relaxed at the same time. No matter what one could say, the most important thing was that the Scion of Light and the Saint Daughter of Samsara returned safely. And looking at them, they undoubtedly didn’t come back empty-handed.
However, Ling Xiao’s expression rapidly grew unsightly, because they were the only three to come back from the Illusory Paradise.
As for the captain of the Black Dragons’ imperial guard Huang Shuo, his expressions grew all the more unsightly. The fact that the humans were the first to come out was no good news to him.
Rapidly, Long Hoachen’s group of three returned to the side of the Temple Alliance.
“The others didn’t come out yet?” Ling Xiao asked Long Haochen.
Long Haochen let out a sigh, lowering his head. His expression already told a lot to Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao’s face immediately looked ashened. These had been Demon Hunters from commander-grade Demon Hunt Squads! Their loss implied that seven Demon Hunt Squads were in danger of breaking apart, and the blame for this would be for the Priest Temple to bear.
Long Haochen coldly looked at the demons, saying in a severe tone, “The ten demons that came this time had all suppressed their cultivation, and none of them were powerhouses below the eighth step. Their external spiritual energy reached 20,000 units for each of them. Under these circumstances, we were basically no opponents.”
“What?” Ling Xiao lost his voice in surprise. On the other side, Han Qian pulled Long Haochen’s sleeve, signalising him not to say anything further. Without a doubt, the blame that the Priest Temple would shoulder this time was enormous, because they were the ones to initiate this collaboration with the demons.
Long Haochen turned his head to look at Han Qian, nodding to his ancestor and showing his understanding.
Ling Xiao’s aura became visibly unsteady. The human powerhouses from the side of the Temple Alliance all started to turn hostile, and were ready to attack at any time.
However, Huang Shuo’s side didn’t shudder in fear. As the captain of the Devil Dragons, he reached the conclusion that they surpassed the human group as a whole, and that these opponents were nothing to fear. However, Huang Shuo still did his utmost to suppress the killing intent filling him, because he had clearly sensed over these days that a formidable presence was concealed among the enemies. It’s terrifying threat even shocked him.
It seemed to him that as long as they acted against the other party, a risk of suffering destructive damage would befall them.
In fact, Huang Shuo wasn’t an ordinary powerhouse of the ninth step. His strength already reached the peak of the second rank of the ninth step, his total spiritual energy reaching close to 300,000 units. Even for the demons, this level was attained only by a few powerhouses. He acted as the representative of the Demon God Emperor and yet perceived the enemy as a threat, so this hidden powerhouse had to reach a terrifying level of strength. With him here, in case a battle broke out, the damage their demon group would sustain would certainly be considerable. They were after all in the human territory.
Long Haochen shouted aloud, “However, the demons also paid a considerable price this time. Although they were all powerhouses that came this time, among them were several successors of demon gods. Their group was led by the successor of the Demon God Emperor, Ah’Bao. Still, they didn’t pay a low price either.”
Saying that, with a flick of his hand, he revealed a black flame in his hand.
This flame clearly didn’t emit the holy properties related to Long Haochen, and everyone saw the shape of crystal crown appear in his hand. This was exactly the Crown of Heritage from that Fiend of Blue Flames named Shen Shang.
Seeing this magical crystal, the powerhouses from the Temple Alliance couldn’t help but cry out in surprise. This confirmed Long Haochen’s prior words without a doubt.
On the other side, Huang Shuo’s look became all the more ugly. Of course, he recognized the owner of this magical crystal. Although the owner of that crystal wasn’t the most powerful demon that participated this time, he was still at least among the top five in overall strength. No matter what, he had no idea how this crystal could have fallen into Long Haochen’s hands. Seeing his appearance, he didn’t reach twenty years in age. Humans
and demons were not the same, and he could tell his rough age at a mere glance.
Indifferently, Long Haochen produced a brilliant flicker of light, as his eyes were filled with an ice-cold look. The stare he gave Huang Shuo didn’t give off a weak impression.
“At least, three human survivors left the Illusory Paradise this time. As for you…” Reaching this point, he deliberately paused his words.
Even if Huang Shuo was calm, he still couldn’t help but be in great turmoil at that time. Looking at the distant Illusory Shrine, he immediately became pale.
In fact, this time only demons acting as successors of the top four demon gods had participated. It was for the sake of obtaining some spiritual stoves while obeying a secret order of the Demon God Emperor that they came. If these successors had all died in the Illusory Paradise, the blow inflicted to the demons would be incomparable. It would possibly even shake the foundation of the demons.
Since Long Haochen took out one Crown of Heritage, who said that he wouldn’t have other Crowns of Heritage? Hearing his tone, Huang Shuo’s group was not optimistic about the situation of their team in the Illusory Paradise.
“Speak, what happened to them?” Huang Shuo reacted in fury, while his threatening aura abruptly rose. The terrifying oppressive power almost instantly reached its peak, and even in the entrance to a living heaven filled with vital energy like Illusory Paradise, the whole area was filled with darkness instantly.
Ling Xiao answered with a cold snort and his hands flashed golden. From the milky white staff in his hand, a gentle golden brilliance spread to the surroundings, easily blocking the rich breath of darkness, and affecting their whole side with a drizzling light splendor.
Understanding Long Haochen’s intention, he didn’t utter a single word, and gave him room to handle the matter. The powerhouses from the Temple Alliance also drew their weapons successively, preparing to enter battle mode at any time.
The pressure spread by Huang Shuo didn’t affect Long Haochen in any way. Instead, he exposed an indifferent smile on his face, “Why should I tell you anything?”
Huang Shuo gave him a cold look, “If something has happened to them, we will inevitably tread on the Southern Mountain’s City and spare no cost to kill all humans up to the last man.” This sentence was said categorically and without any hesitation from his side.
He didn’t know so much about the other clans, but he had a particular understanding on the Devil Dragon lineage.
At the present time, the Demon God Emperor of the Devil Dragon Clan had only two children, Ah’Bao and Leng Xiao, and both had entered the Illusory Paradise this time. In his opinion, given Ah’Bao’s strength, he wouldn’t possibly have encountered any trouble in the Illusory Paradise, no matter the circumstances. The reason those three humans were still alive could only be out of his leniency. They were bound to return with great gains from this trip. This was the important reason why the demons were willing to pay such a great price for the chance to enter the Illusory Paradise.
However, he absolutely didn’t expect this twist. It could indeed be seen that the casualties on the human side were disastrous, since only three of the ten that had entered returned alive. And judging from Cai’er’s appearance, she was surely in a very weak state. But more importantly, none of the demons from their group had yet returned alive!
The greatest disadvantage of the demons during this operation was their lack of understanding regarding the Illusory Paradise. All the understanding they had was issued from the Demon God Emperor’s deductions as well as the predictions from the Star Demon God. No matter what could be said, at
least Ah’Bao, and Leng Xiao hadn’t come back yet, and there was still the daughter of the Moon Demon God to consider.
The Moon Demon God’s side was still better off, since this time, it could be said that Yue Ye got a place only because of her relationship with Ah’Bao. But none of the Devil Dragons could be afforded to be lost! Although the Demon God Emperor was still young in age, his reproducing ability had reached the state where he couldn’t possibly have other children. Under these circumstances, if Leng Xiao or Ah’Bao were to have died in battle inside the Illusory Paradise, this would be a devastating catastrophe to the Devil Dragon Clan.
Since time immemorial, the Devil Dragons were led by the successive generations of Demon God Emperors, inheriting the pure lineage of the Devil Dragon bloodline. Never before had a Demon God Emperor of another bloodline been chosen, and atop of that, Ah’Bao had already gained a definite prestige within the Devil Dragon Clan. It reached the point that if they had died in battle, the Demon God Emperor was bound to be totally furious and could only take out his anger on him and his group.
For this reason, Huang Shuo’s eyes looked red. He appeared calm but was only filled with ideas of cruelty and slaughter. He was already prepared to blow these opponents to kingdom come, and would rather die here than return and bear the fury of the Demon God Emperor.
Indifferently giving a vague expression, Long Haochen revealed a cold look from the bottom of his eye, “It’s not impossible for you to learn about their whereabouts. And I can even tell you that they were not all killed in battle, and that some are still alive. However, just why should I tell you anything?”
Long Haochen said that in a very calm manner, and his face didn’t show any superfluous expression. Hearing him say this, Han Qian and Ling Xiao both couldn’t help but smile.
This kid was indeed just too intelligent. They obviously could tell that if Huang Shuo was made overly anxious and start a fight, the demons would admittedly face huge losses, but would the humans really be able to weather
the conflict unscathed? In fact, this was not the recently embattled Southern Mountain’s City, which formed a natural fortress. And this time, the overwhelming majority of the demons that came were powerhouses of the ninth step. Even if they had just crossed the threshold to the ninth step and didn’t have any weapon on them, they were still the Black Dragon Guard!
Chapter 342
Thus, these demons didn’t really want to have a battle, and the same was valid for the humans. Long Haochen’s last sentence seemed simple, but revealed a lot to Huang Shuo. He was clearly telling Huang Shuo that although the demons’ team had suffered some losses in the Illusory Paradise, there still were some survivors. It was just that he didn’t clearly explain the final situation.
After giving Huang Shuo some hope, he naturally wouldn’t enter a fight to the death. And not telling him the complete truth about the situation was naturally to get some more profit from the demons.
Regarding this point, Ling Xiao and Han Qian were all very willing to see that happen. The loss of seven outstanding young Demon Hunters was a considerable blow to the Alliance, and even if their seven Demon Hunt Squads didn’t end up entirely dissolved, they were bound to need some rearrangement. Under these circumstances, if they couldn’t get some benefits from the demons, let alone the responsibility the Priest Temple would have to bear, even Han Qian wouldn’t be able to escape taking responsibility. And given the nature of these two, they wouldn’t possibly try to avoid shouldering it.
Naturally, hearing Long Haochen’s words, Huang Shuo’s mood stabilized a bit, and raising his hands, he signalised his subordinates not to act rashly without thinking. Walking alone, he advanced in the direction of Long Haochen, and stopped about twenty meters away from Ling Xiao.
“To tell me about their situation, what do you want from me?” Huang Shuo asked coldly.
Long Haochen replied in a tranquil voice, “I want ten crystals of Devil Dragons. You should have quite a few of these things, don’t you?”
“What did you say?” In fury, Huang Shuo instantly projected killing intent towards him, all of which was blocked by Ling Xiao.
The crystals from the Devil Dragons were not the same compared to Dragon Ointment. Dragon Ointment was a special substance that Devil Dragons would secrete naturally, serving as a fabulous tonic to humans and demons. But magical crystals weren’t the same. Every single magical crystal from the Devil Dragon Clan was not only a treasure, but could also be a symbol of the Devil Dragon’s ancestors. When one Devil Dragon powerhouse would pass away on the battlefield, all others would use every possible method to retrieve its corpse to return it as an offering to the Devil Dragon Clan.
Even the Devil Dragons himself wouldn’t use their own clansmen’s magical crystals unless encountering a life-threatening situation, to say nothing of giving it to humans.
In the whole demon history, the times humans had obtained Devil Dragon crystals only numbered very few, and each of them had provoked a frantic counterattack from the demons. Even the Demon God Emperor would personally handle the matter in some cases.
Long Haochen indifferently repeated his own words, emphasizing them this time even further, “I want ten Devil Dragon crystals. And I want them immediately. The Illusory Shrine is on the verge of submerging so there’s still time if you give me the magical crystals now, otherwise, if we wait for the Illusory Shrine to submerge, there will be no use even if you want to give them to me at that time. Let me emphasis that I don’t want any demon to take offense or act against the Temple Alliance after I obtain these ten magical crystals, because it is a deal and not me taking them by force.”
Huang Shuo almost spouted out his own blood. What did this kid take the Devil Dragons’ magical crystals for? Mere sweets? Taking these by force? Just try if you dare!
Turning his head to look at the Illusory Shrine, there was some truth in what Long Haochen had just said. The dark green radiance released from the Illusory Shrine started to gradually become weaker, and it seemed to be in the process of blending back into the lake soon. Before, Ling Xiao had said that a Fairy Dragon had been living in the lake for several dozen thousand years. Huang Shuo did not even have the slightest idea of its strength, but perhaps even the Demon God Emperor couldn’t be sure to fight it victoriously. And even more importantly, at that time, would Ah’Bao’s group still be alive?
“Why should I trust you?” Huang Shuo coldly looked at Long Haochen, “And furthermore, I don’t have so many magical crystals of my clansmen. I am only the leader of the Black Dragon Guard. The authority over our clan’s magical crystals is only under the prerogative of His Highness himself.”
Long Haochen shrugged his own shoulders, saying, “In that case, there’s nothing I can do. But even if you don’t have that many magical crystals, aren’t there many of your clansmen here? For the sake of your crown prince, is it that you are not willing to pay the price of your lives?”
Huang Shuo’s breathing became all the more heavy.
If this time, there had only been Devil Dragons around, things would have been better off, but that wasn’t the case! There were many powerhouses from other clans present. These words from Long Haochen were just too vile. At this time, the looks the powerhouses gave Huang Shuo and the Devil Dragon Guard completely changed.
This was Long Haochen’s brilliant plan. The great demon forces that came consisted of all kinds of powerhouses. More importantly, this time, among the demons that participated, were successors of different clans.
For this reason, these powerhouses were very concerned about the information, further adding the fact that this time, Long Haochen only asked for magical crystals from the Devil Dragon Clan. The other powerhouses immediately had a change in their attitude.
In spite of how powerful the Devil Dragons were, they didn’t dare say anything. However, a certain sentence came to their minds. “For the sake of your crown prince, is it that you are not willing to pay the price of your lives?” Moreover, he’s the successor of our entire race!
Huang Shuo was trapped in a terrible predicament. After a short time of silence, Huang Shuo coldly looked at Long Haochen, “Three crystals. I can only take out three of the crystals from my clansmen, and give these to you as exchange. Do you even have any proof that you could cause the Illusory Paradise to disappear temporarily and prevent my people from coming out?”
Long Haochen gave him an indifferent smile, “Three is impossible. I want only ten, and not a single more. But a single one less won’t do either. Elder Huang, you should make up your mind as quickly as possible. Look.”
Saying these words, he pointed at the Illusory Shrine. Sure enough, at this time, the thorny undergrowth linking the Illusory Shrine to the shore had started to disappear. The bushes in the direction of the shore shrank down, and the outlines of the Illusory Shrine started to sway slightly like a mirage.
“You…” Huang Shuo turned pale with fright. If all the young demon powerhouses that entered had died in battle, he would admittedly certainly take the blame, but this would be only the blame for this specific matter. However, after Long Haochen said these words, his responsibility wasn’t that simple any longer. It seemed even possible that the successors of this many demon gods would have died because of his commanding error. At this time, the common anger would even be taken out on his family.
“Come.” Huang Shuo shouted loudly.
It seemed indeed strange that after this shout, the Illusory Shrine suddenly stopped to descend into the waters.
With a start, Huang Shuo turned back to look at Long Haochen, noticing that he was lifting his left hand in the direction of the Illusory Shrine. An
insipid green brilliance connected it to the Illusory Shrine. It looked as if he could really control the Illusory Shrine and prevent it from sinking down.
“I think that I showed enough of my good faith. However, I cannot keep waiting for much longer.” Long Haochen’s voice was heavy as he said that.
From behind Long Haochen’s back, Zhang Fangfang advanced to his side, raising up both of his hands before calmly yelling, “Ten!…”
Just as no one seemed to have understood what he meant, he retrieved a finger.
“Nine…” “Eight…” “Seven…”
“Crap! A countdown like this! How fierce!” Han Qian and Ling Xiao looked dumbstruck at Long Haochen and Zhang Fangfang. Let alone Huang Shuo, even the two of them were nervous. Weren’t these stenchy youngsters a bit too bold? But no matter whether they could control the enemy’s’ intentions or not, their cooperation was just flawless.
“Stop counting!” Huang Shuo shouted in fury, waving his right hand and letting a light yellow leather bag fly in Long Haochen’s direction, without reducing any of the immense pressure he emitted.
In a flash, Han Qian appeared in front of Long Haochen and recovered the leather bag.
Opening it to look inside, he immediately saw a strong dark green radiance being released.
Han Qian blanked out, wearing a feverish expression, before swiftly closing the bag. He nodded in Long Haochen’s direction.
Indifferently smiling, Long Haochen looked at Huang Shuo in amazement, “I didn’t expect Elder Huang to have really brought so many good things. Then I won’t stand on formality. Thanks a lot.” He was actually asking for such sky-high prices and had Zhang Fangfang pressure him with this countdown so that Huang Shuo would let go of his greatest treasures, but didn’t expect him to really have what he asked.
“Hurry up and speak. How are Ah’Bao and the others?” Huang Shuo shouted in rage. He was already on the verge of exploding, and could start attacking at anytime. Right at this time, the powerhouses from the Temple Alliance were just as nervous, and that concealed Temple Knight who had had a small talk with Han Qian stared at Huang Shuo coldly, aiming his oppressive power directly at Huang Shuo. The others didn’t perceive anything, but Huang Shuo was stifled by the extremely tyrannical oppressive power. Before drawing a few steps back, his face changed once again despite himself.
To be able to suppress him to such degree, perhaps only the top ten ranked demon gods were able to do that. Although if he went all out, he had some confidence to give the opponent a hard time, he would inevitably die in the end.
Long Haochen also knew that he couldn’t keep infuriating Huang Shuo at this time, saying in deep voice, “We humans abide by our promises. Since I obtained what I wanted from Elder Huang, I will naturally tell you everything I know.”
“Within the Illusory Paradise, we have run into your group of demons several times. The rest of our group was killed by your demons, and the Crown of Heritage in my hand belonged to a Blue Flame Fiend. The other demons weren’t killed by us, but have opposed the Illusory Paradise by themselves, causing the insurrection of the magical beasts living there, that went all out to dispose of them. Because the three of us haven’t harmed any of the magical beasts residing in the Illusory Paradise, we haven’t been involved in the retribution that took place before we appeared. Among your group of demons, the deaths count a few, and the rest have been saved by your Demon God Emperor.”
Hearing this reply, although Huang Shuo felt a lot more relaxed, he almost spat out his blood in response. It was for such an information that he had paid ten magical crystals!
Chapter 343
This cost was really too high. In fact, those ten magical crystals had been acquired from the deceased members of the Black Dragon Guard, who had died over the course of several past wars. The reason why Huang Shuo had them on him was that the Demon God Emperor would very likely be attacked by the most powerful human Demon Hunt Squads every time he set out. As his closest subordinate, he carried these magical crystals so that he could immediately deliver them to his emperor should a need arise.
With a flash of black before their eyes, Huang Shuo replied in extreme anger, “What, is it just as simple as that?”
Long Haochen pretended to remember about something, before declaring openly, “Oh, there’s still more. I remember that an orange-clad demon was ordered to do something, after which a special orange spell was cast that confined the guardian of the Illusory Paradise for some time. But the user of this orange spell self-exploded, and his Crown of Heritage was recovered by Ah’Bao.”
“What?” This time, two orange-clad mages approached. Their long orange hair classified them as powerhouses from the Star Demon Clan. At this point, those two who had had stagnant faces until then immediately revealed their shock.
“The Technique of Great Prophecy! Ah’Bao actually ordered him to use the Technique of Great Prophecy!”
Very clearly, Long Haochen’s declaration wasn’t wrong. They could tell because his description of the Technique of Great Prophecy wasn’t the least
bit wrong. More importantly, only the Technique of Great Prophecy could show such formidable utility, like to actually confine the guardian from this place!
“Huang Shuo, you owe us an explanation on this matter. Otherwise, you will have to justify yourself before the Star Demon God.” Two Star Demon clan powerhouses approached him in rage.
Huang Shuo’s expression grew all the more unsightly. Only he knew what kind of mission the Demon God Emperor had given to Ah’Bao. He also understood that the reason why Long Haochen chose this timing to cite this detail was that he wanted to sow discord among their ranks. Still, he had no way to refute his words. At once, changes appeared in the atmosphere on the demons’ side.
This time, although the main force consisted of guards from the Black Dragon Army, the powerhouses from other races weren’t few. And they were all elites from their own clans, among which some lesser lords also had joined. Since Ah’Bao had allegedly ordered the man from the Star Clan to use a forbidden self-destructive spell such as the Technique of Great Prophecy, how would he deal with his clansmen?
At once, the demon group started to lose its unity.
Huang Shuo’s face changed color, before giving a fierce glare to Long Haochen, deeply printing the appearance of this young man in his own mind, before turning his head towards the two powerhouses from the Star Demon Clan, “This matter isn’t totally clear for now, but if our young master has been saved by His Highness, I will definitely give an account to the senior Star Demon God. However, we are currently still unable to ascertain whether this human is saying the truth.”
And right at this time, the Illusory Shrine slowly sank, submerging back into the lake. Even if they wanted to go inspect and verify, this couldn’t be done anymore, to say nothing of the fact that they were unable to even enter the Illusory Shrine.
Screened behind Ling Xiao and Han Qian, Long Haochen slowly retreated, and moved in the midst of the powerhouses from the Temple Alliance. Huang Shuo gave these humans an unreconciled glance, furiously ordering, “Let’s go.” After saying that, he led the demon powerhouses away.
Ling Xiao didn’t immediately leave the Illusory Forest, but called Long Haochen, Cai’er and Zhang Fangfang to ask them carefully about everything that had happened in the Illusory Paradise.
Except from concealing the fact that he brought his comrades along in the Tower of Eternity, Long Haochen gave a detailed account of their time in the Illusory Paradise. After finally telling them that Ah’Bao’s group didn’t manage to capture Ye Xiaolei, he simply spoke about the powerful magical beasts in the Illusory Paradise, without any excessive praise.
Hearing Long Haochen’s words, Ling Xiao’s look became unsightly. Indeed, the damage sustained by the demons this time was quite considerable, but the Alliance still ended up as the duped party.
“A Godhead?” Long Haochen didn’t understand everything about godheads, but as a powerhouse of the ninth step and the auxiliary master of the Priest Temple, Ling Xiao had some knowledge about that. He vaguely guessed that the Demon God Emperor had reached a certain level of cultivation, and now needed a godhead to raise his own strength even further. Furthermore, in case he would attain a godhead, the destruction of humanity would perhaps truly arrive. At that time, perhaps no existing human would be able to stop him. And this godhead was actually located in the Illusory Paradise.
Just like Huang Shuo wasn’t certain of the chance the Demon God Emperor had to win against that Fairy Dragon, Ling Xiao couldn’t make sure either about whether that Fairy Dragon could really protect the Illusory Paradise.
Reaching this point of thought, Ling Xiao’s face clearly looked pale. After some time of hesitation, he instructed some of the powerhouses from the Southern Mountain’s City to stay behind to protect the Illusory Forest,
and after giving some orders to report any news to him, they finally brought everyone back to the Southern Mountain’s City.
Although Han Qian was surprised over the fact that the Demon God Emperor could tear through the space of the Illusory Paradise, he currently was still in a pretty good mood.
Ten! These were a total of ten Devil Dragon Crystals! As magical crystals from Devil Dragons of the ninth step, these things were rare treasures. It could be said that each Devil Dragon crystal could be valued the same as a piece of equipment at the Epic Tier. From this could be seen how precious they were.
Although they were of the darkness element, the energy they contained was extremely pure, and in the hand of a grandmaster, their uses would be incomparable.
Long Haochen originally expressed the will to offer these magical crystals as a pure gift to the Southern Mountain’s City, but how could Ling Xiao accept such a great gift? Only when Long Haochen claimed that they were a payback for the Illusory Gems had Ling Xiao finally agreed to take two.
Han Qian directly accepted three of them without reservation. He was after all Long Haochen’s grand-teacher, and these things would certainly be more useful to him than to Long Haochen. The remaining five were given to Long Haochen, and even those three crystals weren’t taken by the Knight Temple for free. They would be exchanged for contribution points. As for the specific amount, Long Haochen didn’t ask, but anyway, after getting back to Holy City where the Demon Hunt Squad Mission Tower was, he would get to know the amount anyway when he accepted their next mission.
This time’s operation was a failure to the demons, but it was far from being considered a success for the humans, and they would probably have a lot to handle from the aftermath.
On their way back, Long Haochen had Ling Xiao treat Cai’er’s wounds. After he had just obtained the magical crystals from two Devil Dragons, Ling Xiao would naturally not spare anything, and actually used a healing spell of the ninth step. Before returning to the Southern Mountain’s City, Cai’er was treated with that powerful healing spell, which even increased her spiritual energy.
After returning to the Priest Temple, Han Qian and Ling Xiao were unable to pay more attention to Long Haochen, because they were all busy with meetings. Long Haochen and Cai’er temporarily parted with Zhang Fangfang, and returned to their private room on the first underground floor.
“Haochen, what is with you? Why do you look so uneasy?” Cai’er gave a doubtful look to the pale-looking Long Haochen.
Long Haochen replied in a grave voice, “It’s Haoyue, he’s calling for me. I’m afraid that he’s meeting some trouble with his evolution. Cai’er, I have to join him immediately.”
“Bring me along then. Since the regulations of the Illusory Paradise could be broken, the world from where Haoyue comes must definitely be the same. The only problem is that it hasn’t been six hours yet since your last use of the tower.”
Long Haochen shook his head, “There’s no more need for six hours.” He didn’t have the time for more explanations and pulled Cai’er’s hand, returning to the Tower of Eternity in a flash under the golden glint of the Eternal Melody.
After his awakening as a god’s chosen one, a certain change happened in the connection between Long Haochen and the Eternal Melody. There was no more need for a wait of six hours, and he faintly sensed that if he wanted to be transported only by himself, he would be able to return to the Tower of Eternity at any time. If he brought his comrades, although the gap of time needed would be longer, it would not be so long as six hours.
Among his squad, Cai’er was actually the only one with full battle strength. Wang Yuanyuan had some dazed feeling, thus Long Haochen
believed she was wounded. For this reason, after returning to the Tower of Eternity, Long Haochen didn’t plan on telling the others about the matter regarding Haoyue, but wanted instead to bring them back to the Priest Temple directly as soon as he would be able to.
Afterwards, a purple radiance lit up his whole body, and the blood contract between Long Haochen and Haoyue released its might, immediately transporting him to another world.
Long Haochen still clearly remembered about the danger Haoyue had confronted the last time. At that time, Long Haochen had merely been a knight of the fourth step, whose strength was a far cry from one at the sixth step. That time was indeed very dangerous, but fortunately his luck had been good and he had managed to save Haoyue in the very end.
Long Haochen was now a knight of the sixth step, and after the battle in the Eternal Paradise, he awakened his physique as a god’s chosen one, and his spiritual energy even increased marginally. It wasn’t only that his internal spiritual energy had now reached 7,000 units, but his external spiritual energy also grew tremendously, reaching a level unknown to Long Haochen. However, he wasn’t even close to his prior self, and thus felt extremely confident in being able to save Haoyue.
Now, he was looking forward to Haoyue’s evolved look. Just how much more powerful would he become after this evolution?
During his last evolution, Haoyue had grown a third head, before eating a lot of magical crystals for a long amount of time. The specific quantity wasn’t known to Long Haochen, but during every battle, Haoyue was the one gaining the most profit in this regard. This was the reason why he had so fast entered the state of deep sleep entailing evolution once again.
As his time with Haoyue increased, Long Haochen felt all the more curious about Haoyue’s origin. At the time he had just appeared, he seemed to be just a weak-looking magical beast. But as time passed the strength Haoyue showed was growing greater and greater. But the most impressive feat was his ability to evolve. A mere two years later, this evolution would
definitely let him break through the sixth step. This was an evolution speed Long Haochen had never even heard of before.
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It was the interest the Demon God Emperor had in Haoyue that concerned Long Haochen the most. He was almost certain that Haoyue was the one the Demon God Emperor had been looking for when he had come to Exorcist City.
By making a connection with the fact that the Demon God Emperor was looking to obtain a Godhead this time, Long Haochen couldn’t help but think: Could it be that Haoyue also has a Godhead? However, he rapidly shoved this thought away, as this would really be beyond belief.
With a glint of purple light, a feeling of reality hit him, and Long Haochen immediately used a Holy Mantle enveloping him inside.
This was already not the first time he was coming to this world, and he remembered about the muddy atmosphere here. If the Illusory Shrine could be called the entrance to the Illusory Paradise, this place full of black and red could simply be called hell.
Right after appearing, Long Haochen sensed a dense killing intent, stirring relentlessly right before him. It was Haoyue.
At that moment, Haoyue’s entire body was clouded in dense purple light. His three heads were raised, but all his eyes were closed, as he kept chanting some incantation. One could feel that the surrounding muddy natural energies were rushing to Haoyue’s side, turning into dots of shimmering purple brilliances, entering Haoyue’s body after passing through that purple light that surrounded his body.
Compared to before, the current Haoyue was even taller, almost reaching eight meters in length, and his whole body had become more robust. On his back, the two high peaks were even longer, both assuming a triangular shape. The greatest change was however on his head. The bulge on the left side of his three large heads was reaching the size of his other three heads and the same went for the bulge on the right side.
“My good brother, I came. Do your best to evolve, and leave the rest to me.” Saying that, Long Haochen turned around to face the the outside.
This evolution of Haoyue took place in a cave again, but he couldn’t help but feel startled just by arriving at its entrance.
The place Haoyue chose to evolve was similar to the one from last time, once again halfway in a mountain showing traces of splitting. He should have been the one who made it.
The sky was pitch-black, and not even a single star could be seen. In the air were some rich clouds of darkness and fire element, while the traces of other elements were extremely heterogeneous and dispersed, not close to the former types in quantity.
As far as the eye could see, the ground was covered in countless cracks.
Some streams of magma could even be seen.
In the end, it was just that kind of world! The deathly stillness aside, Long Haochen didn’t feel any living presence. Spreading out his senses, he got the good news that at least for now, no enemy was closing in. After his awakening, Long Haochen could spread his senses in a large range even in a place so full of deathly stillness.
After a short time of reflection, Long Haochen attempted to see whether he could meet up with his mates in the Tower of Eternity.
A fantastic change occurred when he poured his spiritual energy into the Eternal Melody. Sensing that he could directly transport himself to the Tower of Eternity, he wasn’t affected by the ties of time here anymore. But more importantly, he noticed to his surprise that he could actually sense the
location of his comrades in the Tower of Eternity, and directly transport them here.
The surprise this change caused him made his face beam with joy. Such a change would undoubtedly marginally increase their chances of survival. Furthermore, after the appearance of this change in the Eternal Melody, he didn’t have to worry about the fact of summoning Cai’er to his side anymore. This was because after Haoyue would complete his evolution, he could simply follow Haoyue, but the comrades he would bring here would need to pass through the Tower of Eternity to return. Long Haochen’s connection with the Tower of Eternity didn’t require any cooldown time anymore, and based on his calculation, there would be only a need for half an hour of wait after bringing someone here, and this time could be accumulated.
Right at that time, Long Haochen sensed something. Looking afar, he saw a large amount of the same black skeletons, which he previously had encountered, heading in his direction.
Seeing that large army of skeletons, Long Haochen couldn’t help but remember the words of that lich he had encountered. At that time, although he had felt very tense, he still had devoted all his body and mind to the protection of Haoyue. But afterwards he had had to participate in the rest of the competition, which didn’t leave him the time to give those words more thought. However, given his astonishing memory, he now remembered those words, he had been told at that time. Thinking of it, this scene appeared by itself in Long Haochen’s mind.
At that time, the lich had said, “No, what you are protecting is the reincarnation of the devil, the creator of our dark and fiery world. His existence is precisely the reason why our world is like this. Our world is broken down and magma is flowing from the Earth. Countless species became extinct all because of him. The strong have already escaped, the less fortunate all became undead, and now, only the undead can exist in this accursed world. I do not know how you came here, but your holy aura disgusts me and your actions anger me even more. I will give you one more chance to return to your world right now. Now that the devil, Austin Griffin, appeared in my territory, even if I am just a lich, I must
kill him. Otherwise, who knows what other miseries his restoration will bring to our world?”
A reincarnated Devil King? The evil maker of darkness and fire? And it would be because of Haoyue that this world changed into this hell?
This was far too inconceivable. Long Haochen flung back his own head with his full strength. No matter what, he couldn’t believe in the words that lich had said at that time. And then, he loathed himself for having let his trust toward Haoyue be swayed.
He still remembered clearly that at the time they met each other at the Knights’ Sacred Mountain, Haoyue had been covered all over with cuts and bruises when he was summoned. Then, he had had to use his own blood to protect Haoyue’s life. But in the same way, without Haoyue, he would probably also have already died on the battlefield. During these years, Haoyue had always been accompanying him, and could be said to be the being closest to his heart, except for his parents. Even Cai’er hadn’t been with him for such as long as Haoyue did. Long Haochen never had regarded Haoyue as his mount, but as his little brother, his most precious little brother.
On the basis of his trust toward his little brother, Long Haochen rapidly let the doubts go and became filled with resolution. Would he really rather trust an enemy over his own brother? No way.
Upon thinking this, he immediately felt peaceful, and only battle intent remained in his eyes.
Right at that time, a blurry figure started to float from afar. It advanced towards the army of skeletons and pushed forward.
Those black shapes, whose eyes were glinting with green flames, weren’t those liches? Long Haochen counted a total of twelve liches, and as they approached, he found out that the skeletons underneath were different from the last time.
During his last visit here, the skeletons he had encountered only had had the size of ordinary humans, but their attack and defense had been very lacking. But this time, the skeletons were all close to two meters tall, and although they were as before all black, they were a lot more robust, and carried in their hand some sword-like weapons made of bone.
Without a doubt, these strengthened skeletons were controlled by the dozen liches floating in the sky. As long as these liches were killed, the skeletons underneath were bound to cease being a threat.
However, Long Haochen didn’t move hastily. Retreating to the entrance of the cave, he let out a golden glint and Yating came out, floating in midair.
Sensing the surrounding environment, Yating immediately pursed her lips, “Master, this place is really filthy!” Arriving into such a hellish place soon after leaving the Illusory Paradise, it would be rather strange if she would be pleased.
Long Haochen said in a grave tone, “This is the world where Haoyue came from. He is in a crucial step of his evolution, so we’ll have to protect him. Return to your strongest form, the battle is going to start soon.”
“Ok.” A deep golden brilliance spread out from Yating’s body, and with a golden glint, she returned back to her form as a girl, whose soft golden brilliance mixed with Long Haochen’s, completing one another well. Immediately afterwards, they sensed a cozy and transparent feeling brought by this holy light.
The skeletons were drawing closer and closer, while those twelve liches floated at a distance of two hundred meters from the cave.
Moss green flames pulsed in the eyes of the liches who were chanting incantations without stopping. Black or grey brilliances sprayed out from the sky to the skeletons, and immediately, the skeletons visibly gained in speed, and even their aura became strengthened from that.
In his left hand was the Glorious Holy Shield and in his right hand was Bright Discipline, as Long Haochen advanced slightly, creating some
distance between the entrance of the cave and himself. As he shot a cold glance to the twelve liches, he made preparations for the battle.
Finally, the first skeleton reached out, dashed at a great speed and aimed its bone blade at Long Haochen’s head.
Having battled so many times against the skeletons during the trials in the Tower of Eternity, Long Haochen didn’t feel any pressure from those black skeletons. After holding up Bright Discipline in his right hand in a blocking motion, he crashed the bone sword easily into fragments with a fast downwards slash. A mysterious golden arc was then drawn on the chest of the skeleton, after which its body was smashed to pieces.
This time, even more skeletons were approaching, heading toward the direction of Long Haochen.
Sweeping his sword with a Light Thorn, he let out a golden radiance that spread out in a circular trajectory over ten meters in diameter. In the scope of that golden light, all the black skeletons were cut in two, and the holy light carrying a sacred breath instantly destroyed their soulfire.
After completing his awakening as a god’s chosen one, Long Haochen’s originally internal spiritual energy of pure holy light element did not only gain even greater sacred effects, but also became even more compressed. It was the same for Lin Xin who had obtained the Spiritual Stove of Heart of Flames; his light properties had gained a qualitative change, restraining all these undeads of darkness attribute.
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Once again facing an ocean of skeletons, Long Haochen’s response was a lot more effortless than before, even though the skeletons present were more evolved. This showed how much his strength matured since then.
Last time he had to protect Haoyue, he had just gone up from the fourth to the fifth step, but this time, he was already roughly in the fifth rank of the sixth step in strength. Further adding the gain from his awakening as a god’s chosen one, he naturally felt no pressure facing these low level undeads.
Seeing Long Haochen let out a brilliant golden light, the moss green flames in the eyes of the twelve liches standing afar became dimmer, visibly showing their unease.
The pure light released a sacred aura that gave them a feeling of restless danger.
Even Long Haochen himself was astonished to find out that the skeletons that kept climbing up didn’t even dare approach further upon feeling the intense light essence in the air.
A sharp cry came out from the liches, and the bone staff let out even more intense aura of death. Immediately, the skeletons in the front started to collapse, shattering into pieces before swiftly fusing with each other.
This trick again? Last time, Long Haochen narrowly died because of it. This was the Skeleton King assembled by the liches. And furthermore, it was this time the result from the joint work of twelve liches, using an even
greater number of skeletons, and would produce an even more powerful result than before.
Long Haochen was not as inexperienced as before, how would he let these liches do as they please?
“Yating!” Long Haochen growled, and immediately, a resplendent light was emitted from his back as his four immense wings spread out. With a flap, his body was already propelled toward those twelve liches.
Long Haochen’s spiritual wings were different from Yating’s wings of light. Yating’s wing of light had a transparent color that made them resemble to the wings of a butterfly, only making them all the more beautiful, but Long Haochen’s spiritual wings looked close to the wings of a bird, equally comparable in terms of speed.
Yating’s incantations were already prepared. Flapping her six wings, she took over Long Haochen’s position at the entrance of the cave, holding the staff high in her hand . During this time, an intense light element took shape in the air, transforming into a fist-sized glinting ball of light flying to the direction of the skeletons.
“Starfall!”
Although this place didn’t have any light essence, Yating was not only evolved thrice but also obtained the benefits from Long Haochen’s awakening as a god’s chosen one, and her fusion with the Saint Spiritual Stove, and her current strength was already close to a mage at the peak of the sixth step. A spell that she was given so long to prepare was naturally not a simple spell of the sixth step but a powerful spell of the seventh step.
Yating’s greatest strength resided in the fact that her body was originally fully made from light essence, thus she didn’t need to worry about being in shortage of spiritual energy like the human mages. The only restriction was the limit in the intensity of use in her power, and unless her elemental energy was totally exhausted, she would always be able to keep using magic. Of course, if nothing was really left, this would just forecast Yating’s death.
Starfall was a spell of the seventh step. And furthermore, it belonged to the type of light elemental magic exclusive to fairies, that humans weren’t able to use.
A wide expanse of bright stars smashed into the group of skeletons, and the most terrifying thing was that these bright stars had the length of an eye, aiming at the core parts in the body of the fusing Skeleton King.
The mass of golden flashes of light blossomed in the midst of the wave of skeletons, and everywhere the golden light passed, the skeletons were turned into grey ashes. The parts of the skeletons that were fusing with each other also crumbled, not given any opportunity to complete their combination.
At that time, Long Haochen arrived in front of the twelve liches.
After his wings became four, Long Haochen’s flying speed shot up. Although he was not an expert in flight for now, due to lacking training, he was still able to achieve a great performance in a straight line. Due to that, these twelve liches only saw a flash of golden light as Long Haochen was already in front of them.
Turning pale with fright, the twelve liches let out sharp cries almost simultaneously.
This ability was specific to liches. Called Hisses of Terror, it had some similarity with the brain-addling magic used by human assassins, but was a lot stronger, because, it depended on their soul energy to be accomplished.
Long Haochen had suffer losses the first time he confronted liches.
However, this time, the Hisses of Terror weren’t of much use against him. Long Haochen’s response was very simple, it was to wrap himself in Holy Mantle reinforced by Ripples of Light.
Even if the Hisses of Terror of these lichs was even more powerful, it couldn’t compare with the hiss from the specters in the Desolate Hissing
Cavern! Since Long Haochen managed to comprehend the Ripples of Light, would there be anything for him to fear in these little hisses?
In the air, with a mere motion, Long Haochen forcibly broke through the ranks of the liches. Immediately, Bright Discipline was transformed into golden shadows, from his right hand. It was Demon Wiping Flash.
The liches’ powerful aspect was their soul, not their physical body. Confronting the suppression of Long Haochen’s sacred aura, their soul lost marginally in power. How could their mere physical body resist the powerful assault from Demon Wiping Flash?
The twelve liches were pierced in a mere instant, immediately burnt by golden flames. Be it their body or their soul, everything was engulfed by this golden fire.
This was the ability acquired after his awakening as a god’s chosen one, Inner Holy Fire.
In other words, all of Long Haochen’s attack would carry the effects from Holy Fire in its use.
Holy Fire was an ability that other knights could also learn, but they had to reach the seventh step for that. In addition, in case of use, Holy Fire would deplete a massive amount of spiritual energy. However, as a god’s chosen one, Long Haochen didn’t have to worry about this.
It could be said that after his awakening, the superiority of Long Haochen’s physique as the Scion of Light was in full swing, enabling him to surpass all knights of his same rank by a great margin.
After the ocean of skeletons underneath lost the command from the liches, it took only a while for these endless waves of black skeleton to disappear.
Long Haochen shook his head slightly. He appeared dissatisfied from this battle. This dissatisfaction lay in his unfamiliarity with his own abilities after this awakening. If he had predicted that these liches would be so easy
to handle, he wouldn’t have instructed Yating to use a powerful ability such as Starfall.
Witnessing the entire annihilating of the skeletons underneath, he finally relaxed, flying back to that cavern. It was just that because of his excessive use of power during his flight, he staggered at the time of landing.
It looks that I should train my ability of flight. Long Haochen shook his head with a helpless look. These words weren’t without reason: battles between powerhouses often happened in the air. This was because, in the air, one could avoid harming allies and destroy the earth. Even the savage demons were often unwilling to battle with humans on the ground.
Yating giggled with a laugh, “Master, humans like you cannot fly innately. It’s natural that you are facing some difficulties to fly.”
Long Haochen gave her a strange look. After Yating was capable of human speech, he really felt a bit unwell. But the crucial point was that he didn’t know how he could tell Cai’er about this new side of hers.
Right at that time, a change suddenly occurred on Long Haochen’s expression. A kind of ominous premonition suddenly surged, as if a massive danger was about to arrive.
How could it be that right after killing the twelve liches and their army of skeletons, such a massive threat appeared so suddenly? What was it in the end?
Yating’s perception wasn’t the least bit inferior to Long Haochen, let alone that she originally formed one with him. She naturally had some awareness of what appeared in Long Haochen’s senses, and gave an astounded look afar.
“Master, a smell with a strong stench is approaching us. This enemy should be targeting our area.”
Long Haochen took a deep breath, letting out some soft golden brilliance. The four wings on his back were then lightly flapped, absorbing the tiny
amounts of light essence in the air.
It wasn’t that this black and red world was totally devoid of light element. Another light elemental mage of a knight would perhaps encounter difficulties to be replenished here, but he was after all a god’s chosen one. Although he couldn’t possibly borrow force from that goddess of light here, his absorption and senses over elemental essence were still extra powerful.
“Make your battle preparations. No matter what kind of enemy we face, we have to protect the cavern well till Haoyue evolves.”
“Yeah.” Yating gave a swift answer, before drawing back, standing on Long Haochen’s lateral side. Looking the master before her eyes, her gaze was extremely gentle. The loyalty she had towards Long Haochen was already not as simple as the result of the contract linking them, but was due to the fact that Long Haochen’s existence gave her a new life.
Gradually, that threat became more and more powerful. Gazing far away, Long Haochen couldn’t help but grow more and more restless.
What is that? Suddenly, his eyes shrank, and immediately next, he started to gaze into a particular direction.
In his line of sight, peculiar living creatures appeared.
At glance, they looked like humans, formed of four limbs, a body and a head. However, their gait was totally different from humans. Their both feet kept jiggling, while their hands were stretched in front of their bodies. At each leap, they advanced at least of five or ten meters, heading here at flying speed.
At first, there were only a few of them, but as time passed, more and more of these appeared in Long Haochen and Yating’s lines of sight.
“Zombies! These are zombies!” Yating lost her voice in alarm.
Long Haochen asked in astonishment, “What are zombies? Is it a type of undead?”
Yating nodded to him, “It is a kind of exceptionally strong undead. In rank, they cannot compare with lichs, but they are a lot more powerful than skeletons, and are a form of dead humans. Their physical body was corroded by the energy of death but didn’t rot, and their soul became infected with death.”
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“The great majority of the zombies only have their battle instincts, but their body is as solid as metal, and their fighting strength like their destructive power is exceptional. It isn’t anything skeletons can compare with. And furthermore, they carry in their body a strong poison. As long as their attacks reach, the poison will immediately affect its target. How else can there be so many zombies?!”
In just a little bit of time, more than a thousand zombies already appeared in their line of sight.
“Master, things are not turning well! These zombies are at least at the strength of the third step of human warriors, and their body is their best weapon.”
“Only at the third step?” Long Haochen asked this, feeling more at ease. Given his current cultivation, he could still resist when facing a group of more than a thousand zombies of the third step.
Yating’s faze froze slightly, “Master, creatures like zombies strength doesn’t lie in their individual strength, but in their latent capabilities. It is extremely difficult for skeletons to evolve, unless a powerful lich or over- lich helps them in their evolution. But through continuous slaughter and devouring, zombies can evolve by themselves. The thousand plus zombies of this group can’t possibly be all at the third step. It is very possibly a group of mixed levels.”
“There are also ranks of zombies? And they can evolve?” Hearing that, Long Haochen couldn’t help but gasp, immediately losing his optimism.
Yating nodded to him, “If I am not mistaken, these transformed corpses are ranked in strength from lower to higher starting from ordinary zombies, spectral zombies, metallic zombies. Then, there are different kinds of metallic zombies, whose ability to evolve is the strongest. Their destructive power is also extremely terrifying, and the most powerful kind, the Zombie King even has the ability of flight.”
Just as she reached this point, she suddenly found out that Long Haochen’s gaze was fixed, hurriedly following his look, she happened to see an immense zombie heading towards them in flight at an astounding speed, while the zombies under his path let out mysteriously a layer of green color, accelerating their advance suddenly.
Zombie King? So there is actually a Zombie King among them?
Yating’s face immediately became pale, letting out a shriek, “A Zombie King! There’s actually a Zombie King among them!”
Contrary to expectations, Long Haochen stayed calm at this time,
“Yating, how powerful are Zombie Kings?”
Yating seemed at a loss, as she replied, “I don’t know, but I heard that the Zombie Kings are in the undead worlds the weakest kind of undead kings. However, even if they were even weaker, they are still powerful entities! I’m afraid that this one is at least at the eighth step, or perhaps has he already reached the ninth step.”
Hearing her, Long Haochen couldn’t help but let out a gasp, his eyes shrinking violently. However, his grasp over Bright Discipline became especially steady. He said before that no matter how powerful the enemy would be, he would do everything to protect Haoyue and let him smoothly evolve.
Yating didn’t speak further, but started to chant an incantation. Her voice was extremely clear, as if affected by Long Haochen’s determination, as the fears filling her disappeared.
In the air, the Zombie King came as fast as he could. In the blink of an eye, he was already halfway up the mountain. Seeing Long Haochen with four wings spreading on his back, his flight forward abruptly stopped, and his eyes were directed on Long Haochen with a puzzled look.
“A human? Light user human? How can there still be humans existing here?” That Zombie King’s voice sounded clear, and the imposing aura of death from him was earth-shattering. Just like liches brought a boost in the strength of skeletons, the existence of this Zombie King increased the strength of those other zombies underneath.
“Hello, zombie sovereign. Do you have something to do here?” Long Haochen calmly asked. Since the zombie didn’t take the initiative to attack him, he wouldn’t incite battle, and tried his best to stall for time for the time being.
The Zombie King actually didn’t immediately take action against Long Haochen. His looks were very fierce, and he reached a height of three and a half meters. Floating in midair, he had a pair of nauseating wings on his back, covered with ashened black feathers.
The Zombie King had unexpectedly a very handsome face, merely appearing grey-colored. His eyeballs were actually dark blue, and his body was surrounded by a layer of green fog billowing outside. The dense stench coming out from him could be smelled even by Long Haochen who was still over hundred meters away.
Long Haochen didn’t dare overlook that, and released another Holy Mantle to protect Yating and himself from suffering from the poisonous stench of that zombie.
The Zombie King calmly looked at Long Haochen, “Get out of the way, human. What is in this cave? I got news from my subordinates, and it seems that they discovered something very dangerous here. I need to have a look inside.”
Long Haochen was actually a bit startled. It seemed that the Zombie King didn’t know that Haoyue was there. Silently, he shook his head, “My
comrade is resting here. Please don’t disturb him. I need you to leave from here.”
The Zombie King gave a terrible glare, suddenly thinking about something, “Could it… Could it be him?” Saying that, the sharp feeling he let out went up, and immediately next, a darkness purple-colored crystal came out from his mouth. Following, that dark purple crystal violently shivered, letting a purple glitter spread from within.
The Zombie King murmured a few words, and immediately next, that dark purple crystal suddenly spinned, instantly pointing towards the location of the cavern behind Long Haochen’s back.
“Oh my god! It’s really him!” The face of the Zombie King couldn’t show any change, and this was a characteristic of zombies. But at this moment, the green fog surrounding his body became unstable, and with a flash of his body, he absolutely didn’t tell Long Haochen anything more, simply throwing himself at his direction.
At the time the Zombie King spat out that purple crystal, Long Haochen already had a bad premonition. Having made good battle preparations long before, facing the charging Zombie King, he just drew a slight step back, letting out a flash of golden light in his eyes, as an intense golden red flame instantly burst out from his body. It was precisely Sunlight Fire, which was instantly unleashed.
The red-hot sunlight fire rose to the sky, as a dragon cry could be heard. Long Haochen held Bright Discipline in his hand, directly using Ascending Dragon Strike against the approaching Zombie King.
Light restrained darkness and the sacred restrained death, so Long Haochen held complete advantage in the elementary aspect. When that golden red sunfire light came into contact with the Zombie King, the dark fog surrounding the Zombie King was immediately reduced to vapor.
The Zombie King didn’t have a weapon in his hand, but his hands were incredibly long, the green nails of his fingers all reaching a length of one third of a meter, aimed at scratching Long Haochen.
A resonant bang sounded in the air, and Long Haochen clashed with the rushing Zombie King.
A violent explosion, created a violent golden expanse of light, and Long Haochen immediately felt an unsurpassed terrifying power smash against him.
At the crucial time emerged the shocking skills he obtained from training in the Tower of Eternity. His body was fell back fifteen centimeters, and during that time, his other hand launched the Holy Shield ability from the Glorious Holy Shield.
In spite of that, Long Haochen’s body was still forcibly smashed to the ground, violently striking against it. A massive impact force digged a deep hole to the place under Long Haochen’s feet. But in fact, this was right on a rock!
However, that Zombie King also seemed not to be much better off. Long Haochen’s attack wasn’t only concentrated with sunlight fire, but also holy fire, two powerful kind of holy and sacred flames that almost immediately spread to his entire body.
After the Zombie King’s diving figure was blocked, he let out a miserable cry, and immediately, great surges of green liquid flowed out, as he attempted to extinguish the holy sacred flames and the sunlight fire.
However, being a god’s chosen one, how could holy flames released by Long Haochen be so easy to handle? It wasn’t only the body of the Zombie King that was subject to burn, but even his soul. For a while, even he didn’t dare keep attacking Long Haochen, and leaped backwards, leading the group of zombies climbing up to him. Pulling two zombies, he tore their bodies to flash, causing the rest of their rich soul to flow out onto his body along with green liquid, causing the two flames to weaken greatly.
As if it was natural, the Zombie King put over twenty of his subordinates to death this way before extinguishing the two types of flames completely.
This were his properties as a god’s chosen one.
If Long Haochen was facing an opponent specializing in light attribute or an attribute unrestrained by light, although his elemental dominance would still be existing, it wouldn’t as dominant as it is now. However, he was now facing an undead creature that feared light the most.
Indeed, just like Yating said, this Zombie King reached at the very least a strength at the eighth step, and although it shouldn’t reach the ninth step, it was still a powerhouse at the peak of the eighth step. But such a powerhouse became clearly terrified upon being attacked by Long Haochen’s two types of flames, and didn’t dare pursue and attack him any further.
However, Long Haochen’s current situation wasn’t any good either. Feeling a sour and cracked feeling in his hand, his sensation over his whole body was totally different, and the bones in his body, his internal channels, as well as his internal organs all felt painful.
The strength of this Zombie King was indeed incredible. Although he managed to come with the best response, he was still narrowly killed in a single blow of such a dominant opponent.
Long Haochen clearly knew that this Zombie King was actually a lot stronger than even Ah’Bao. And furthermore, it seemed to be a pure attack- type undead. This only increased the pressure on Long Haochen, since after all, he was not a knight specialized on power. Although his own external spiritual energy wasn’t weak, it wasn’t even comparable to the level of a Zombie King.
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However, Long Haochen couldn’t show weakness at such time. Seeing the Zombie King falling in the midst of the group of zombies, he immediately understood that the opponent feared his elemental properties. Clenching his teeth, he didn’t let the slightest weakness show up on his face. The strong sunlight fire rose even further, reaching an even more intense level than before.
Yating’s chant was also completed at this time. A fantastic golden red halo appeared above Long Haochen’s head in a flash, before gently falling down. Immediately, the Glorious Holy Armor became golden red-colored, and the sunlight fire around his body stopped pulsing further, instead turning into a golden red liquid that formed a layer around his body.
This layer of liquid was like the sort of moat that was here to protect a city, revolving at a slow speed. The light essence surrounding Long Haochen’s body then turned into a dim golden area extending in a radius of ten square meters around him.
The Zombie King let out a gasp, sensing that this human was far inferior compared to him in strength, while his light properties however reached a level he had never seen before. It was really too strong, to the point that he didn’t know what would happen if he was infected by that golden red liquid. It could perhaps even damage his own soul heavily.
With so many of his younger brothers present, although the Zombie King wanted to kill Haoyue, he still cherished his own life even more. Not charging forward anymore, he instead commanded the group of his younger brothers to assault Long Haochen.
Just like Yating said, zombies were truly a lot more powerful than skeletons. When these zombies charged to the waist of the mountain, their speed instantly decreased upon approaching the area of light surrounding Long Haochen, but they still slowly approached Long Haochen by leaps, attempting to launch attacks against him.
Yating knew the most about Long Haochen’s current state, and in particular, she knew that he needed to put efforts in recovering. In a flash forward, she immediately arrived in front of him, pointing her staff forward and launching basic light arrows from the peak of her staff. Each blow was aimed against the zombies’ heads, because this was the location of their gathered soul. Immediately, with a bolt of golden after another, zombies were successively killed by Yating’s arrows of light. In front of this sort of light elemental spells, they were completely helpless. Yating’s was vigilant of the Zombie King leading the group of zombies, and it was to take precautions against his sneak attacks that she didn’t use more powerful spells.
Having gained this time for recovery, Long Haochen hurriedly adjusted revisions on his internal spiritual energy. After his awakening, his strength once again increased by a lot, but the course of events didn’t go smoothly enough for him to display it decently. Encountering such a powerful existence like the Zombie King, he came to suffer important losses.
By chance, this awakening also led to considerable progress of his external spiritual energy, or else, that previous blow would perhaps just have made him lose all fighting capability.
When doing simple movements of his body, Long Haochen felt finally better. The light essence inside of his body had just healed his injuries at great speed, and his battle strength was now back to more than eighty percent.
In a flash, Long Haochen stepped forward, sweeping away with Bright Discipline in his hand, and launching Light Thorn just like before. However, this time was Light Thorn added with Ripples of Light, which split a group of a dozen zombies in a blow. But terrifyingly, although these zombies had their bodies cut, their cut parts still crawled on the ground,
aiming towards Long Haochen. With hurry, Yating shouted to him, “Their weak point is in their head! You cannot kill them by any other means.”
“Okay.” Long Haochen gave a simple reply, once again wielding Bright Discipline in his hand. This time, Demon Wiping Flash was used, aiming accurately at the heads of the zombies one after another, destroying their flame of soul.
The defensive strength of the zombies was beyond compare with the skeletons; the area of their head was tough, so Yating’s light arrows were even more effective than Long Haochen’s Demon Wiping Flash because she chose to aim for the eyes of the zombies. But after Long Haochen started to act, he immediately sensed the huge threat coming from the Zombie King, and thus didn’t dare put all his attention in handling these ordinary zombies. This prevented him from devoting himself wholeheartedly to handle them. Occasionally, his Demon Wiping Flash turned out unable to pierce through their head, and he needed a supplementary attack. However, these zombies were also unable to wound Long Haochen in any way. The spell Yating used on Long Haochen was called Sun Halo, and was a powerful light spell of the sixth step combining both attack and defense in one, and gained from the addition of the originally powerful light attributes of Long Haochen and Yating. All zombies that approached it within a certain range from Long Haochen immediately received burns from the Sun Halo, quickly reducing their body to ashes. But at every burns inflicted on each zombies, the Sun Halo also lost in light elemental intensity.
The zombies were growing even further in quantity, and now emerged the powerful zombies that Yating mentioned before.
Spectral Zombies were a fast kind of zombies launching mental attacks. The hateful aspect of these zombies was that, with the superiority of their intelligence compared to the other zombies, they actually didn’t take the initiative to attack Long Haochen and Yating, but attempted instead to get into the cavern.
This restricted Long Haochen’s moves greatly, causing him to be unable to move away in the slightest from the entrance of the cavern.
Furthermore, these Spectral Zombies came like the wind, and because Long Haochen couldn’t move from the cave, his Demon Wiping Flash missed sometimes, not hitting the Spectral Zombies.
The Spectral Zombies aside, metallic zombies became the main force faced by Long Haochen’s group. These kind of zombies had distinct looks; among their ranks were metallic-grey Iron Zombies, bronze-colored Bronze Zombies, silver-colored Silver Zombies, and finally, the most dreaded Gold Zombies.
The reason why Gold Zombies are so terrible is their ability to use some undead spells. These undead spells weren’t weak, and were above all used at long range, while Long Haochen didn’t have the possibility to rush out to get rid of them.
Iron Zombies were at least at the fourth step in strength, Bronze Zombies reached the fifth step, Silver Zombie were close-quarters fighters at the sixth step and Gold Zombies long-range fighters at the sixth step.
However, although these zombies were powerful, Long Haochen could still resist them for the time being. The most annoying kind was a type of entirely red-purple zombie, with a big belly.
Only two of these zombies appeared, but these two almost managed to break through the joint defense of Yating and him.
This kind of zombies were slow in speed, and couldn’t directly participate in attacks, but were actually directly thrown at Long Haochen’s group by the Gold Zombies.
When Long Haochen’s attack reached the first of these red-purple zombies, it instantly exploded, smashing a large area of red-purple liquid everywhere.
The Sun Halo on Long Haochen was actually totally dissolved by the purple-red liquid, and losing its protection, Long Haochen was immediately surrounded by zombies, left without any other choice but to use Condemning Revolving Swords to compel back the zombies.
And the time the second of these red-purple zombies was thrown over, Yating didn’t make it at time to avoid it, and drops of this red-purple liquid were splashed on her. Immediately screaming in pain, her body lit up in light, and her presence started to grow dimmer.
She actually took quite great damage from that.
Long Haochen finally became aware of what Explosive Poison Zombies were. After calling out this name, Yating rapidly dispersed the poison from her body while gritting her teeth
That purple-red poison was extremely tyrannical, and even caused the rocky ground to be corroded. Accompanied with an extremely unpleasant smell, the most terrifying thing was that it caused a corrosion of the spiritual energy, completely bypassing the defense of Long Haochen’s Holy Mantle. After these two Explosive Poison Zombies appeared, the situation became dangerous for Long Haochen and Yating.
However, Long Haochen’s battle strength also emerged right at this time. As he blocked the stronger enemies by the means of the Glorious Holy Shield, Bright Discipline would inevitably kill a zombie at every strike. A rich light essence burst out from his body unceasingly, as if his spiritual energy was basically inexhaustible.
Then, the four Silver Zombies reached the cave. Thier brilliant silver body were extremely tough, to the extent that even with an elemental dominance, they were only inflicted marks on their body upon being attacked by Bright Discipline. And furthermore, these high-level zombies were very shrewd. When Long Haochen would use a powerful ability of the type of Holy Sword, these Silver Zombies would immediately pull other zombies from their back to serve as scapegoat and take the attack in place of them as they would draw back at fast speed.
However, Gold and Silver Zombies were fortunately were low in count: at least until now, only four of each type appeared. Even so, Long Haochen also started to grow more and more exhausted.
If he didn’t have to protect Haoyue, and if the Zombie King wasn’t here to lead the zombies from afar, Long Haochen had confidence that he would have been able to kill these eight powerful zombies. But what’s the point to think this way?
Assault, Charge and Storing Ability were abilities among the kind that Long Haochan was totally unable to put to use, and the ones he used the most were Divine Obstruction, Chained Obstruction, before chaining with extremely practical abilities with low consumption like Shield Assault or Light Thorn.
But even so, his spiritual energy was being continuously depleted. Long Haochen even saw faintly that the Zombie King was approaching them, as if looking for an opportunity to deal the fatal blow.
Letting out a snort, Long Haochen once again launched Demon Wiping Flash but upon being inflicted this sort of attack, but those Silver Zombies were once again resourceful and pulled two of the ordinary zombies to block Long Haochen’s attack, while the Gold Zombies used the fluids from other zombies to help them extinguish the fire, matching with a great level of coordination.
Like this, although Long Haochen already killed quite a few zombies, the pressure was just growing greater and greater.
Chapter 348
A pitch-black radiance frequently appeared suddenly in front of Long Haochen, sign of the undead magic of the Gold Zombies. These Gold Zombies didn’t have a great variety of spells, but their attack power was brutal, to the extent that Long Haochen could barely block them by the means of the Glorious Holy Shield in his left hand as well as the use of the technique Holy Shield.
Haoyue, how much time do you still need to complete your evolution?! Long Haochen sighed gloomily, but his determination only kept increasing.
He was purely defending and unable to bring out his full strength, because he couldn’t renounce defending the cave. What was to be done now? Just what the hell could he do in this situation?
At this time, Yating finally got rid of the poison of the Explosive Poison Zombie, once again joining the battle. As soon as she joined, she completed the a powerful chant, making now use the same spell Starfall as before to handle the army of zombies.
Terrible starfalls hit from the skies, bombarding the enemies. Even with their tyrannical constitutions, the zombies were unable to stop the power of Starfall.
The Zombie King that was preparing to mount a sneak attack could only react defensively against Starfall, and temporarily had to give up on raiding Long Haochen.
However, the few Gold and Silver Zombies and even the Bronze and Iron Zombies had similar defending method against this powerful spell, and this was the use of the bodies of their own allies.
From the fall of the terrible Starlight, at least two hundred zombies died, but their true main force was still present, and Long Haochen happened to see three more Explosive Zombies approach their side.
I cannot let this go on. If I let these three Exploding Poison Zombies use their power, Yating and me will probably not be able to resist.
At this point, Long Haochen finally used his final trump.
An intense golden light abruptly shone on his chest, and immediately, three bolts of golden light were released from it.
The zombies that were growing accustomed to Long Haochen’s displays of power kept themselves away from him, for fear that a powerful attack was coming. Then three silhouettes became visible, rapidly blocking the way in front of Long Haochen.
The three that were transported were Wang Yuanyuan, Lin Xin, and Han Yu.
“Boss, what’s the situation?” Lin Xin couldn’t help but ask upon appearing.
Long Haochen replied in low voice, “The discussion will have to wait. For now, meet the enemy with everything you have.” Saying that, he charged into the ranks of the zombies. The others who were just summoned here needed to adapt to the surrounding environment, and with them here, he could finally rush out offensively.
After being suppressed for so long, Long Haochen burst out like a fierce tiger, an erupting volcano.
In his hand, a good amount of spiritual energy was poured into Bright Discipline, directly letting this sword of Glorious Tier reach out with Holy
Sword, bringing out the best of its power.
As Long Haochen advanced lightly on the ground, the four wings on his back abruptly stretched out, and like an arrow, he shot out in the following instant.
This next movement was indeed really fast. Borrowing strength from the impulse of his four wings, he reached a supreme level of speed and passed in the little space between the two Silver Zombies. Two bolts of light were seen next appearing on the back of these Silver Zombies. It was Holy Sword, used in combination with Shining Sunlight Strike.
The Silver Zombies truly deserved to be called the most expert type of zombie in defense, second only to a Zombie King: Long Haochen’s two powerful abilities didn’t even break past their defense, but even so, a large cut was left on their respective back. But more terrifyingly, intense holy flames engulfed their body in a burst.
Even the Zombie King feared Long Haochen’s Holy Sacred Fire. Hit in such close range, the two Silver Zombie cried out miserably, letting out green fog and drawing back with their fighting strength greatly reduced.
But this was just a beginning, and the dual-sword-wielding Long Haochen reached a phenomenal speed, borrowing force from the impact to accelerate all the more. In a flash, he reached out for the back of the three Exploding Poison Zombies, and stopped only ten meters away from them.
Bright Discipline suddenly pointed in three points in the air, and three microscopic-looking white glows appeared on the three Exploding Poison Zombies.
Immediately, some loud bang resounded, and the three Exploding Poison Zombies were ruptured, exploding and letting out huge puffs of black liquid that spread in all directions, but seemingly landing only on the surrounding zombies.
The poisonous fluid wasn’t something that could distinguish the enemy, and immediately, a large amount of zombies were hit by black poison, even
including those two Silver Zombies.
The reason why Long Haochen managed to reach his target like a fish in water was intricately linked with Yating’s previous Starfall, a great spell of the seventh step and after that, the majority of the leftover army was formed of the elite of the zombies.
The current him didn’t plan on renouncing so easily, but also at that time, the Zombie King made his move.
The Zombie King had been waiting for an opportunity for so long. Regardless of his cultivation level, the reason why he didn’t intervene immediately was that he didn’t want to take too much risks. Why not using these younger brothers when so many are present? At that moment, seeing that the situation wasn’t going well, he immediately flapped the asymmetrical wings on his back, welcoming Long Haochen’s attack.
A cold smile appeared on Long Haochen’s face. Although he couldn’t entirely control his four wings, some simple dexterous moves were still possible for him.
The four wings he retracted just before spread out once again, and all resistance in the air seemed to totally disappear as he dashed forward.
Long Haochen’s feet treaded on that Iron Zombie forward, launching him at the direction of the Zombie King, but his four wings flapped immediately, but propelling him backwards, in the opposite direction.
As his body moved backward at great speed, Condemning Revolving Swords burst out once again. In a flicker of golden light, Bright Discipline carried the terrible Holy Fire and the power of Holy Sword, sweeping everything before him. Even the powerful Gold and Silver Zombies crumbled before this threat.
But the majority of the other zombies couldn’t escape that, and in this retreating rush, at least twenty zombies of the iron grade or above died by Long Haochen’s sword, and it even included three Exploding Poison Zombies.
Although the situation was unclear to them, seeing Long Haochen going to meet the enemies, Han Yu, Lin Xin and Wang Yuanyuan made good battle preparations.
Han Yu and Wang Yuanyuan stayed to guard the cave, while Lin Xin was at Yating’s side in the rear.
In Wang Yuanyuan’s hand, the Divine Soul Shield smashed out, sending several approaching zombies flying with a strident hissing sound. Afterwards the massive shield once again returned to her hand, and Wang Yuanyuan unleashed a Space-Splitting Sauté next, aiming right at the Silver Zombie that was struck by Long Haochen right before.
After suffering this blow, the severely wounded zombie couldn’t persist for longer and was sent flying to the other side of the mountain.
Han Yu didn’t stay idle either. Placing his Shield of Reflection right in front of himself, he spread out the spiritual wings and defended against all the zombies that approached, sending them flying with the recoil, perfectly assuming the role of a Guardian Knight.
Seeing so many zombies afar, Lin Xin couldn’t help but declare, “Wow, so many good things!” Saying that, he was also on the move, and seeing Long Haochen dash in his path of return, he erected a Fire Wall behind him, stopping the pursuing zombies from harming him. Immediately afterwards, the Fire Curse carried by the Fire Cloud Staff followed, aiming at a greatly wounded Silver Zombie.
After the fusion between his two spiritual stoves, an enormous change appeared in Lin Xin’s flames. Originally, they appeared scarlet-red colored, but now his flames were colored in deep blue, causing the skull summoned by Fire Curse have a shade of deep blue color.
That Silver Zombie being ignited by both the sacred holy fire and the flames produced by Lin Xin’s Heart of Fire, was burnt on the inside and the outside at the same time, finally transforming into ashes.
The seven members from the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad had ample battle experience together, matching with a perfect coordination with each other. Even if they still needed to adapt because of having reached the sixth step, their co-ordinating was exquisite in this sudden battle.
Long Haochen returned next to Han Yu, who took the initiative to stride forward, temporarily becoming the greatest defensive force of the group to leave Long Haochen some time to take a breather. Meanwhile, seeing his subordinates being killed in such succession, the Zombie King was finally unable to hold back, and fiercely charged towards the opponent.
However, he learnt his lesson this time and didn’t charge barehanded at them. On his left hand was an Iron Zombie, while he grabbed on his right hand an Exploding Poison Zombie.
“Lin Xin, destroy that red-purple zombie in his right hand.” Long Haochen shouted loudly, before extending the four wings on his back. A golden light shone simultaneously on his back, coming from Brilliant World, assistance from Yating. A dense spiritual energy of light element rapidly made its way into Long Haochen’s body, helping him recover.
Meanwhile, a white glow was shot out from Yating’s chest, aiming right on the Zombie King with the power of the Saint Spiritual Stove. However, the Saint Spiritual Stove Yating was putting in use was linking the enemy to Long Haochen. In other word, Long Haochen would be the one aimed by the target of the Saint Spiritual Stove.
Of course, it would be more accurate to say that the Saint Spiritual Stove didn’t exist anymore, but that it was Yating’s ability of Attraction.
“Look at me getting rid of it.” Lin Xin shouted in excitement, before a surge of power scattered behind Long Haochen, Han Yu and Wang Yuanyuan’s back.
The three of them suddenly felt waves spreading from behind, as a scorching feeling seemed to cause their blood to boil up.
Immediately, a resonant phoenix shot up, in the shape of an azure-colored brilliance sweeping past their head from above, and directly clashing against that Zombie King.
What’s that? Long Haochen, Han Yu and Wang Yuanyuan’s minds became blank.
A blue phoenix of fire carrying three long tail feather on his back left a succession of waves of fire in the sky, before almost instantly reaching the front of the Zombie King.
, the Zombie King let out a blood-curdling screech, and was actually forcibly stopped. The Exploding Poison Zombie on his right hand instantly ruptured, but the purple-red poison wasn’t given the time to disperse and turned into gas under the effects of the high-temperature. In the other hand, the Iron Zombie was directly melted against all expectations.
Just what terrifying temperature did it reach to accomplish that!? The Iron Zombies’ toughness was after all something Long Haochen experienced personally.
After being struck by the blue phoenix of flames, the Zombie King immediately became dark-green-colored, continuously letting out a dense dark green vapor from his body, as he resisted the corrosion of the blue flames.
However, right at that time, that blue fire phoenix flapped his wings in full force, letting a ring of blue flames spread forward. When the extremely large quantity of zombies that had reached the mountain just before were enveloped inside, their movement suddenly stopped, and they melted and turned into liquid, before turning into gas and dissolving in the air.
A resonant phoenix cry resounded once again everywhere, and he once again made a turn in the air. With a violent bursting sound, it sent back the Zombie King flying, and then, spiralling in the air, the phoenix flew back to the direction of Long Haochen’s group.
Seeing the Zombie King in such a miserable state, the expressions on Long Haochen’s group of three looked totally different, and Wang Yuanyuan couldn’t help but shout, “What did you just do, has-drugs-bro?”
But it shocked them to discover that the phoenix of fire seemed to have lost all his temperature, and after it passed above their head, they could see when turning back that it directly entered in Lin Xin’s chest, disappearing inside.
“Spiritual stove?” The three of them cried out in chorus.
The ability to merge into the chest of a human was unique to spiritual stoves, but they absolutely didn’t expect that such a terrible and powerful ability would actually come from Lin Xin’s spiritual stove. Without a doubt, that blue phoenix of fire came from the fusion of his two spiritual stoves.
Even with all his knowledge regarding spiritual stoves, Long Haochen didn’t know that at the time of fusion of two spiritual stoves, different degree of level of pact existed. The greater the level of pact was, the easier the fusion, and the more power in the end of the fusion would produce in result.
But it was also from these levels of pact that the dangerous aspect of the fusion between spiritual stoves came. If two spiritual stoves are of equal power, the level of pact would reach zero, and no matter how powerful the user is, he wouldn’t possibly be able to succeed in fusing these two, leading in self-destruction.
Only two kinds of fusion existed: one was by alliance, and the other by inhibition. The way Lin Xin and Han Yu’s spiritual stoves fused could be categorized as a fusion by agreement, while Long Haochen and Cai’er’s fused by inhibition. Long Haochen’s Light Elemental Fairy was the one to inhibit the Saint Spiritual Stove, whereas Cai’er’s case was obvious without need to say anything.
However, the one who ended the most successful this time was actually Lin Xin; it was for the simple reason that he had a far too great luck, to have obtained the Spiritual Stove of Phoenix of Fire right after getting the
Spiritual Stove of Heart of Flames, producing such a fantastic evolution. From these was born his current spiritual stove: Flaming Phoenix, known as Phoenix of Heart of Flames.
The power of this spiritual stove was witnessed personally by Long Haochen’s group, and its burst power was actually enough to match a powerhouse of the eighth step, the Zombie King, leaving him helpless to handle it, and causing him to suffer great losses.
Chapter 349
Lin Xin’s Blazing Phoenix Spiritual Stove gave his comrades a pleasant surprise, but he also suffered some backlash.
The more powerful a spiritual stove was, the greater the drawbacks would be. Cai’er’s spiritual stove was the best example for that. Although Lin Xin’s Blazing Phoenix Spiritual Stove couldn’t compare with the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, it barely belonged to the ranks of the first tier spiritual stoves as well, and would grow along with Lin Xin’s strength.
After the return of the Blazing Phoenix Spiritual Stove, Lin Xin felt his internal spiritual energy instantly becoming empty, while an intense burning feeling filled his whole body. This sensation gave him no other choice but to sit down cross-legged on his original location, and concentrate all his attention on resisting the burning fever. It hit him in fact both inside and outside, giving impeding him to an extent one may well imagine. And this burning sensation would last for a total of six hours.
In itself, Lin Xin wasn’t harmed much, and this state actually even increased his own connection with fire, and trained his body. However, this process came with extreme pain. Bearing it for six hours would undoubtedly be a great challenge.
However, Lin Xin was now in a rather good mental state. This was his first time using the Blazing Phoenix Spiritual Stove, and he didn’t expect the cost to be so great, but even when facing such great drawbacks, he felt absolute ecstasy. That was the so called rejoicing over learning great news. In this kind of state, the pain he felt didn’t even feel like much.
By relying on the powerful attack of the Blazing Phoenix, he gave Long Haochen and the others an ample amount of time to rest. With Yating’s help, Long Haochen’s spiritual energy and his physical energy recovered at great speed.
Although the Zombie King was pushed back to the base of the mountain, but Long Haochen still kept his focus on him. Like this, he could sense the changes on him after sustaining the attack.
To his pleasant surprise, Long Haochen found out that the Fire Phoenix possessed formidable offensive power. The wings on the back of the Zombie King were actually directly burnt to nothing, and his body had suffered severe wounds and injuries. Furthermore, the Blazing Phoenix wasn’t aiming at a single target, but also had effects on a large scale. All those elite zombies, Iron Zombies, and Bronze Zombies had died immediately, turning into ash. Only the Gold Zombies and Silver Zombies were a little better off, and had only parts of their bodies dissolved.
That was the action of a real mage, dealing extreme damage.
Long Haochen felt a lot better now, and returned to leading the others. He didn’t display his excitement overly, but Han Yu couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Has-drugs bro, you finally revealed your power! You’re almost making my cheeks stream with tears.”
Lin Xin gave him a disdainful glare, thinking secretly: Are your cheeks even showing the tiniest tears? Why is it that from what i see, you are just laughing happily? However, because of the aftereffects of the spiritual stove, he could only use his glare to respond to him.
“Ruaa.”
Right at that time, a furious roar suddenly rang out, and the zombies which had been attacking without fear of death before, stopped in their advance.
The one letting out this roar was the seriously wounded Zombie King. He clearly looked infuriated, and sensed the terrible threat from them, but more
importantly, he still didn’t target these humans at all. If he didn’t manage to kill Haoyue while he was evolving, he would then surely get punished by the Undead King. But now, he vaguely sensed that Haoyue’s evolution was almost accomplished.
The Zombie King didn’t keep approaching the mountain, but abruptly turned around. He faced his own brother zombies before suddenly emitting a dense dark green mist.
Immediately, all the kinds of zombies immediately melted in this mist like snow under the sun.
Having a bit of intelligence, all the elites zombies immediately fled upon seeing their Zombie King unleash this mist, but the ordinary zombies weren’t blessed with any intelligence, and simply turned into liquid. These liquid corpses seemed to form a slimy stream, flowing towards the Zombie King.
That thick dark green fog infected an increasing number of zombies, and continuously gained in scope, while the flow of liquid zombies entered the Zombie King’s body through his feet. It seemed as if it made him recover from all the damage he had sustained, but at the same time it caused his body to grow in size as the liquid zombies kept being sucked into his body.
Although Wang Yuanyuan and Han Yu didn’t have such a strong perception as Long Haochen, they could see what was happening before their eyes. The great density of the dark green fog as well as the enlargement of the Zombie King were right in their line of sight
The two of them took the same action, and looked at Long Haochen, carrying inquiring expressions on their faces.
Long Haochen turned his head to look inside the cave, where Haoyue’s breathing clearly became heavier. He was reaching a critical moment. On the other side, as the Zombie King fused with his little brothers, his strength was shooting up rapidly. Even if their elements counteracted each other, in case his strength reached the ninth step or beyond, Long Haochen’s group
would hardly be able to stop his attacks. And obviously, Lin Xin’s Blazing Phoenix could not be used a second time.
I cannot let him continue to increase his strength! At this time, the slightest hesitation could very possibly lead to their complete annihilation.
With a glint of golden light, another figure appeared at his side. It was Cai’er, who had been waiting in the Tower of Eternity for a long and painful time before finally being summoned.
The reason why Long Haochen hadn’t summoned Cai’er here before was that he needed some assistance in defense and not in attack, but right now, offensive strength was what he needed more than anything else.
“Cai’er, come with me. We have to stop that zombie from amassing strength. Meanwhile Han Yu, Yuanyuan, guard the cave well!”
While Long Haochen was still in the middle of speaking, he already started to propel himself forward, his wings flapping with full strength, directly aiming at the Zombie King. Their resplendent golden color instantly reached the peaks, just like a golden sun making its way towards the Zombie King.
When Long Haochen rushed forward, Yating also glinted in gold, right before disappearing without warning. When she appeared again, she was right at Long Haochen’s back.
The Glorious Holy Shield was stored in the Eternal Melody while Long Haochen was flying forward. Now, his two hands gripped Bright Discipline, while his spiritual energy was poured in with full strength. Bright Discipline carrying the ability Holy Sword, instantly exploded with strength, and emitted a concentrated white heat surrounded by an incandescent glow carrying a strong killing intent.
Astonishingly, Long Haochen actually shone in the same incandescent glow as Bright Discipline, and the same went for the four wings on his back. Everywhere the rich white glow passed, the dark green fog in the air was purified at lightning speed.
The Zombie King sensed the fatal threat, and smashed his incomparably large fists against Long Haochen.
In his incessant process of absorbing the liquid zombies, his body had grown more massive, and his now terrifying strength produced sonic booms as he struck with his hands. From this, one may well imagine the terrifying level he reached.
Long Haochen didn’t clash with him head-on, but used the Nine Long Footwork to appear on his side in a flash. While dodging, he raised the dual-gripped Bright Discipline above his own head.
Yating’s body rocked, turning into a golden flow of light that made its way into Bright Discipline. Immediately, the white heat from Bright Discipline turned into a dark golden flame.
However, right then, Bright Discipline gave off a buzzing sound, as if uttering sad calls. It was as if with its ranking on the basis of the Glorious Tier, it couldn’t bear the pressure from the dark golden flames.
After his blow ended up fruitless, the Zombie King instantly turned around, but what he saw at that time was a heavy sword coming down in his direction.
This strike caused Long Haochen to look entirely distorted. From the top of the mountain, Wang Yuanyuan and Han Yu felt dawn descending on a world of darkness, as if the rich light was purifying the whole world.
Bang.
When Bright Discipline crashed on the top of the Zombie King, with a crisp and clear sound, a terrible scene emerged. Even given the extremely good material it was made of, making it a weapon carrying the supplementary ability Holy Sword, as well as an absorbing ability, it still burst to pieces, and Long Haochen was sent flying by the terribly strong power of the Zombie King.
However, the Zombie King wasn’t so well off either. In this violent bang, a sort of snapping sound was mixed in, a bit like the sound of oil falling on a hot surface.
One could faintly see that the Zombie King’s two steel-like arms actually melted, even after reaching such a terrifying level of strength. An intense burst of dark golden flames engulfed him almost instantly, infecting all the surrounding green mist that disappeared immediately upon contact, unable to spread to the remaining ordinary zombies. “Woah!” A mournful cry echoed from the Zombie King, who tried frantically to disperse the golden flames igniting him. He desperately tried to stop them from burning, and didn’t spare any cost for that, even spouting the dark green liquid from his body.
From his last attack, Long Hoachen also suffered great damage. However, he managed to insert the dark golden flames into the forehead of the Zombie King. Now, even cutting off his own limbs wouldn’t save him.
Long Haochen landed afar, spouting a surge of blood from his mouth. His hands covered the two sides of his body. He had some dislocated joints, and bled from several wounds.
He looked very miserable, but against expectations, not a single zombie dared take the initiative to attack him.
At the time Bright Discipline had broken into pieces, Yating regained her physical body, floating beside Long Haochen. Her face also looked very pale, as a result of the immense consumption from that attack.
After awakening as a god’s chosen one, Long Haochen obtained some special abilities specific to gods’ chosen ones. These abilities were all related to the Goddess of Light. The ability that made his body gleam with a white flame was called Spiritual Ignition, and enabled him to ignite his own spirit and spiritual energy to give a great boost to his own power. The produced might even exceeded his past Sacrifice ability by a lot, but Spiritual Ignition also had important side effects. After using it once, Long Haochen would be in a weak state for seven days. Using it wantonly would
actually even cause a major decline of his strength, even threatening his own life.
Chapter 350
The dark golden flames were actually an ability obtained from Yating’s evolution. Possessing a physical body didn’t alter her characteristics as an entity made of energy. Thus, she was still able to change herself into a being of pure and rich light essence. In this state, she could fuse with any of Long Haochen’s weapons, temporarily becoming the soul of this weapon, and igniting that weapon to produce a great gain in power. Simply said, the weapon would get destroyed after a single use, unless its materials could endure the pressure of weapon soul such as Yating.
Long Haochen knew well that his own cultivation wasn’t enough to have any chance of defeating the Zombie King, but what this enemy feared the most was his attribute, not his fighting strength. Thus, he depended on the Spiritual Ignition and Yating’s help to cause his light attribute to reach its supreme peak. Now, even if the Goddess of Light herself was present, the light she could summon wouldn’t exceed Long Haochen’s attack in purity.
The Zombie King was certainly powerful, but he was facing an absolute elemental suppression, and couldn’t sustain this blow he had just taken. It wasn’t his body that ended up seriously wounded, but his soul.
In the air, a pitch-black figure appeared above the head of the Zombie King, immediately fusing her killing intent with a grey flash of light. Afterwards, that black figure actually split in two. One part of it came to a standstill in the air before dissipating, while the other rushed to Long Haochen like lightning, holding his hands with both of her hands to help him recover.
“Why are you using the Spiritual Stove of Samsara?” Long Haochen called out in panic.
The Zombie King came to a standstill, and stopped yelling and struggling, before slowly falling to the ground. He had lost any ability to resist the dark golden flames that spread to his entire body.
The Zombie King truly deserved the appellation of undead king. Even in a situation where his own soul-fire stopped burning, his body still didn’t turn into ashes, but only kept burning.
The distant zombies who now had lost their king, and sensed that the light that appeared in front of them was incomparably terrifying, didn’t keep trying to attack and just ran away in disarray.
Cai’er supported Long Haochen, helping him to stand up, and said with a little smile, “Don’t worry, I’m okay.”
Long Haochen looked carefully at her, asking in a serious tone, “Which of your senses did you just lose?”
Cai’er replied with a happy smile, “I haven’t lost any of my senses this time. Who is she?” Asking that, she changed directions to look at the girl clad in very revealing clothes. floating near Long Haochen.
Against even Long Haochen’s expectations, the very cute Yating went up and declared, “Mistress, I am Yating, Master’s Light Elemental Fairy! After the fusion between Master’s spiritual stoves, my body made of energy gained in substance and became this way.”
Cai’er asked in astonishment, “You’re Yating?”
Looking at her before shooting the nearby Long Haochen a glance, Cai’er was obviously displeased.
Although Long Haochen had predicted this reaction long ago, he didn’t expect this situation to come so fast. Urgently changing the topic, he asked, “Is that Zombie King dead?”
Cai’er nodded, “My Spiritual Stove of Samsara is the most effective stove for overpowering this kind of souls, and is extremely efficient against undeads.”
After being summoned by Long Haochen, Cai’er immediately followed Long Haochen and made herself invisible. Seeing the white flames igniting Long Haochen, she immediately understood that he had a way to handle the Zombie King, and thus didn’t intervene directly.
When the Zombie King ended up being seriously wounded by the sacred holy flames, Cai’er had used the Dagger of Samsara from her Spiritual Stove of Samsara to launch a fatal blow against the Zombie King, thoroughly causing his soulfire to stop burning. Having lost his soul, the Zombie King became no more but the corpse of a king.
Having eradicated the threat of the zombies, the two of them returned into the cave in the mountainside, where Han Yu healed Long Haochen’s wounds. However, the weak state from Soul Ignition couldn’t be treated through normal means, and a period of seven days would be certainly necessary.
This time, Long Haochen finally had the time to tell all the details to the others.
“I really didn’t expect that Haoyue would be coming from such a world!” Wang Yuanyuan gasped. No good opinion could possibly be formed from her seeing this poisonous world filled with undeads.
Cai’er wrinkled her brows, “Haochen, if some other undeads lead an attack, what’s to be done in case we cannot resist?”
Everyone knew that some time was required to reactivate his Eternal Melody, and had thoughts of the same kind. It was just that it wasn’t an easy question to ask for them, but Cai’er didn’t have those qualms, as this was related to their following course of actions as well as everyone’s safety. In case a problem occurred, their life would be threatened, especially since their current state wasn’t so good.
Lin Xin was suffering the side-effects of his spiritual stove, and Long Haochen was also suffering the backlash of Soul Ignition. The great majority of his fighting power was already lost due to that. The only ones left were Cai’er and the two others, but in case another powerhouse such as the Skeleton King appeared, they would undoubtedly face total annihilation, unless Cai’er used the Spiritual Stove of Samsara to its fullest.
Long Haochen murmured irresolutely, “Even if another powerful undead creature appears, we can still only wait for Haoyue’s evolution to finish. But be at ease everyone, I currently have the ability to forcefully trigger the Eternal Melody to teleport us back to the Tower of Eternity.”
Hearing him say this, everyone relaxed a bit. It was good since, they had an escape route. In the meantime, they couldn’t help but feel even more admiration towards Long Haochen’s careful planning.
Long Haochen declared, “It looks as if everyone gained powerful abilities from obtaining these new spiritual stoves. Let’s quickly tell each other about their effects to avoid affecting our strength as a whole.”
“Everyone already saw Yating’s evolution. She’s now capable of human speech, and can fight on her own, too. Being a light mage, she’s actually also capable of attaching herself to my weapon in crucial times, to help my offense. However, this comes with the cost of sacrificing that weapon, and will still consume some of the power of light belonging to Yating. Afterwards, she requires some time to recuperate.”
With the exception of Cai’er, everyone had gotten to see the powerful influence Yating had on the battlefield. Her evolution to this state was extremely fortuitous, and a great part of it was due to the boost from the Illusory Paradise as well as Long Haochen’s awakening as a god’s chosen. Her current state was undoubtedly fit to be called a totally unrivalled spiritual stove of first tier.
Perhaps Yating’s immediate fighting power couldn’t match other spiritual stoves of the first tier, but never forget that the more powerful the spiritual stove is, the bigger it’s following after-effects would be. But what were Yating’s aftereffects? According to Long Haochen’s words, she didn’t have
any! And she had great potential for growth, following Long Haochen’s growth and evolution.
Cai’er seemed to have been convinced, and watching the pale-faced Yating who was trying to absorb the little light essence of this world, she nodded lightly, “Yating’s evolution will be of great help to our team. Now we have gained a light mage and priest for the future.”
Long Haochen asked, “How about you? After fusing your spiritual stoves, what ability did it gain from evolving? At that time, you had to bear such stong pain from fusing three spiritual stoves, so the boost shouldn’t be low right?”
Hearing him mention the fusion of her own spiritual stoves, Cai’er’s face immediately turned red, as she couldn’t help but recall that embarrassing scene. Shooting him a ferocious glance, she replied, “The ability I gained from my fused spiritual stoves is something you have already seen just before.”
“We have already seen it?” Long Haochen looked at her with some misgivings.
Cai’er nodded, “My situation is rather extraordinary, because one could say that the Spiritual Stove of Samsara engulfed the two others in its own evolution, rather than fusing with them. I can now feel that I can use the might from the Spiritual Stove of Samsara once per day without any aftereffects. And this is because I got the Spiritual Stove of True Shadow in the Illusory Paradise, enabling me to also give my shadow real offensive power. After the fusion, as long as I use the Doppelganger ability at the same time as using the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, during its first use per day, the illusion of me will suffer the aftereffects of the spiritual stove in my stead. After evolving, the Spiritual Stove of Samsara also enables me to use the power of the Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stove through the Dagger of Samsara once per day.”
Hearing Cai’er’s explanation, everyone including even Long Haochen couldn’t help but take a series of gasp.
It looked like the fusion of the three spiritual stoves gave Cai’er a considerable boost in strength, actually even preserving her past abilities. In truth, her strength gained an absolutely monstrous boost.
Just think, getting to use a spiritual stove without any drawback once per day, just how terrifying was that? And that was to say nothing about how the Dagger of Samsara could actually bring out the power of the Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stove.
On the other hand, Cai’er could even use the Dagger of Samsara once everyday with no cost.
The Dagger of Samsara was a true divine tool, known as the first divine tool ever acquired by the Assassin Temple. Except for the former Scion of Samsara, no one had ever been able to bring out its complete strength before. Even after his awakening as a god’s chosen, Long Haochen wouldn’t dare to say that he would be able to resist an attack from Cai’er’s Dagger of Samsara.
In terms of total strength, the current Cai’er was unable to compare with Long Haochen, but after the fusion of her three spiritual stoves this time, her burst power was still the greatest of the whole team.
To everyone’s astonishment, after saying all that, Cai’er actually didn’t go near the seated Long Haochen, just telling them everything from the side.
Wang Yuanyuan and Han Yu immediately had eccentric looks. From their point of view, Cai’er was certainly feeling jealous.
However, Long Haochen knew that that wasn’t the case. Cai’er just felt shy because of what happened inside the Illusory Paradise. But there wasn’t anything he could do about that. Just thinking of what he had groped with his very own hands…
“And you, Han Yu?” Long Haochen flung back his head with all his strength, getting rid of the beautiful thoughts that were surging in his head, before shifting to another subject once again.
Han Yu replied, “The fusion of my two spiritual stoves can also be considered to have gone smoothly. I gained an ability called Blessing of Light, enabling me to erect a protective barrier over a range of five meters. The defensive power from this barrier reaches three times my own spiritual energy, which means it has the same defensive power as Divine Obstruction. At the same time, while using Blessing of Light, everyone with attributes other than darkness will gain a tenfold recovery rate of spiritual energy, until reaching their peak condition.”
Fused spiritual stoves were just that great!