…
The celestine mausoleum was well hidden in the snow.
The door of the Nangong Mausoleum opened from the inside, and the slightly overweight middle-aged man strode in. Torches lit up many paintings upon the celestine walls.
Ancient ink made these paintings come alive.
They were paintings of battles, quite literally the art of war, outlined by ancient ink in three main colors: green, blue and red. They weren"t statues but exuded a similar archaic, ancient sophistication.
The middle-aged man didn"t pay much attention to the paintings. Instead, he paced quickly forward along the hallway of the mausoleum and entered an expansive stone hall.
The Nangong Mausoleum was beneath the five-kilometer-mausoleum.
Yet, the hall seemed oddly towering: it was at least thirty meters in height and uncomfortably s.p.a.cious.
"Master!" said voices in unison.
The slightly overweight middle-aged man acknowledged with a slight nod while looking at a giant doorway, in the center of the hall, constructed entirely of green rocks.
It was a stone doorway without a door.
Like a big arch in the middle of a cathedral, except it had a rectangular shape.
It was obviously made from a material that is different from the celestine of the Nangong Mausoleum because the doorway"s rocks were significantly denser and more ancient.
It bore many cracks, a sign of its history, and at its sides sat two huge humanlike statues.
And in the middle was a giant beast showing its sharp teeth, its eyes were two crystal-clear gemstones, sparkling with bright green light.
As the middle-aged man reached this doorway, the eight elderly men wearing animal skin, who previously sat around it, slowly stood up.
"Let"s begin!" The middle-aged man said to the eight elderly men in a bow, then walked to the front of the doorway and stood right in the middle.
"Yes!" They hastily nodded upon hearing his words, then undressed their long robes of animal skin.
While they were taking the robes off, ancient paintings appeared on their bodies, like those on the walls.
But…
On these ancient paintings, there were several esoteric golden characters. As the eight elderly men sat down, these characters started to s.h.i.+ne and flow around.
…
Blood Shadow City was located at the heart of Ten Demonic Realms.
The Blood Shadow City of today was very different from that of the past. Above the Demonic Hall at the center of Blood Shadow City draped many strips of black silk bearing numerous golden characters.
Countless soldiers of the Demonic Army guarded the perimeter of the Demonic Hall in their black armor. All of them had stern looks as if they were waiting for something.
A moment later, a white figure appeared at the steps in front of the Demonic Hall. He was dressed in a white gown, had black hair, a handsome face with exquisite features.
"Young Lord!" Upon seeing the white figure, the Demonic Army immediately dropped to their knees and greeted with reverence.
As the Demon Young Lord…
It was perfectly normal to see Yun Qingwu in the Ten Demonic Realms.
But now, Yun Qingwu seemed a little worried. His eyes seemed a little dull, something that was rare of Yun Qingwu"s appearance.
Well, it was a fact for the Yun Qingwu now.
He did not respond to the Demonic Army. Instead, Yun Qingwu slowly ascended the steps and walked toward the center of the Demonic Hall.
At the entrance of the Demonic Hall, besides countless soldiers of the Demonic Army, also stood ten figures masked in black cloaks.
"Yun Qingwu pays respects to the elders of the Ten Realms." Yun Qingwu bowed to the ten masked men upon reaching the entrance of the Demonic Hall.
"Save for the formalities, Young Lord!" The figure in the middle reached his hand out in response. Then he looked toward the sky: "With the Heavenly Prophecy, the Chosen One has appeared. Nangong Tian is going to act soon. And for us, this is an opportunity not to be missed!"
"I understand." Yun Qingwu nodded.
"Your father is already waiting in the Hall. Follow me." Then, the figure slowly turned and walked toward the Demonic Hall.
"Yes." Yun Qingwu nodded again and promptly followed behind.
The other nine masked men, too, turned and walked behind Yun Qingwu and into the Demonic Hall.
And very quickly, under the masked man"s lead, Yu Qingwu reached and stood before a black airtight door, which was also guarded by eight old men in black cloaks.
"Greetings to the Ten Domains Elders and to Young Lord!" The eight old men greeted respectfully.
"Open the door!" The figure said.
"Yes!" The eight old men promptly turned toward the door, each of them revealed a key and plugged it into the holes on the large, stone door.
"Crack!" The door began to open.
A splash of brightness poured out from within. When the door was fully open, the Ten Domains Elders and Yun Qingwu slowly walked in.
It was a chamber
A chamber inside the Demonic Hall.
It was about 30 meters high, expansive beyond imagination. And at its center stood a middle-aged man wearing a large black gown with golden sides, with a black crown on his head.
From his looks, he bore some similarity to Yun Qingwu. He had sharp eyebrows and mysterious, deep black eyes that resembled the galaxy, but his face showed more indifference.
And behind this man stood a giant, black, stone door. Just like the one in Nangong Mausoleum.
The only difference was…
This door was wholly black, as though it was submerged in black ink. It was constructed completely with black rock, and there was a pair of bloodshot, beastly eyes at the top of the door.
"Yun Di!" The Ten Domains Elders bowed in a greeting upon seeing the middle-aged man and then took off their cloaks.
"Father." Yun Qingwu lightly took a few steps forward, then greeted the middle-aged man, though his expression revealed much worry.
"Yes, everyone is present. Let"s begin then!" The middle-aged man named Yun Di nodded. As his gaze fell on Yun Qingwu, his cold, indifferent face instantly revealed a loving expression.
As the Demon Lord of the Ten Demonic Realms…
Yun Di had already, for the most part, shunned the public eye. Within the Demon Race, the name "Yun Di" was nothing more than a name. Because there was already a Young Lord in charge.
So…
In the Demon Race, how could there be two rulers?
"Father, are we really going to do this?" Yun Qingwu"s voice wasn"t loud, but it has interrupted the Ten Domains Elders" pace.
"Why not?" Yun Di"s facial expression had not changed significantly, as though he wasn"t at all surprised by Yun Qingwu"s question.
"The Demon Race is currently very cohesive. As long as we develop steadily, we"ll dominate one day. We need not do this." Yun Qingwu softly bit his lip but said his opinion anyway.
"Qingwu, I understand how you feel. But we have waited for too long, haven"t we?" Yun Di replied after a sigh.
"Father, actually, I… I already arranged…" Yun Qingwu said after hesitating for a moment.
"Arranged? What?" Yun Di"s eyes showed a shred of confusion.
"I"ve planted a seed."
"A seed? Where did you plant it?"
"On a person."
"Who?"
"Fang Zhengzhi."
"That"s a human?"
"Yes."
"You"ve planted a seed on a human… how confident are you?" Yun Di appeared a little surprised, then quickly returned to a state of calmness.
"Fifty percent!" Yun Qingwu said softly.
…
At the Sword Peak in the Heaven Dao Pavilion, the s.p.a.ce above the Heaven Academic Altar.
A curtain of golden ray draped from the heavens and swayed gently, radiating its glorious magnificence above the Heaven Academic Altar, illuminating the clouds upon the azure sky
What an impressive sight indeed.
And under the golden ray, a white figure dashed towards it, wielding a white, crystalline sword pointed straight ahead.
Fang Zhengzhi had once considered the possibility that someone might seize this opportunity to pull a sword against him while he was severely injured. But never did he expect this person to be Nangong Hao.
And Fang Zhengzhi wasn"t the only one who didn"t see this coming…
None of the disciples of the Heaven Dao Pavilion or the Nine Pinnacles Mountain had expected this. Everyone had their eyes locked on this white figure who was charging at lightning speed.
They were awed by the glorious display and the fact that Fang Zhengzhi and Chi Guyan were within the golden ray together.
But now, without even the slightest bit of time to express this wonder, they were utterly shocked by what followed.
"What on earth is happening?"
"What is Junior Nangong Hao trying to do?!"
"Why did he attack?"
None of the Heaven Dao Pavilion disciples could figure this out. But Nangong Hao had indeed attacked, while everyone was still in a state of amazement.
But this obviously didn"t scare Fang Zhengzhi at all.
Fang Zhengzhi was caught off guard of Nangong Hao"s sudden attack, but that didn"t mean that he was afraid of it. Of course, this was not to say that Nangong Hao wasn"t powerful.
It"s just that…
Nangong Hao was not powerful enough!
"What can he do?" Fang Zhengzhi smirked nonchalantly as he thought to himself. Even if Chi Guyan wasn"t beside him, he would not fear Nangong Hao.
And that was a fact.
Chi Guyan raised her sword the moment she spotted Nangong Hao, her eyes gleamed with coldness.
No one knew what Chi Guyan was thinking.
Just as n.o.body knew why Nangong Hao would attack.
And most importantly…
There were many times when one seemed to have an absolute advantage, then circ.u.mstances would change suddenly. And these changes could be life-threatening.
"I"ll block him, you"ll block the first lightning!" Chi Guyan"s voice rang by Fang Zhengzhi"s ears, while the sword in her hand moved.
A sword like a moon.
It had the arc of a crescent moon and s.h.i.+mmered like it was surrounded by thousands of stars. It moved towards Nangong Hao and struck a blow without any hesitation or mercy.
While Fang Zhengzhi was still a little confused.
"Lightning? What lightning?" Fang Zhengzhi was about to ask when his eyes went wide open. He finally realized it.
If his current feeling could be described in a phrase, it would be…
s.h.i.+t, how could I be so careless?!
Up above, a flash of lightning cascaded like a golden dragon, while the whole sky was filled in a golden light. And most importantly, it was such a thick ray of lightning.
"…" Fang Zhengzhi really wanted to ask Chi Guyan for a swap. But in the end, he didn"t manage to.
The lightning had already struck.
And Chi Guyan dodged it in time.
Well, an awkward moment.
"Boom!" The golden flash of lightning unmistakably landed right on Fang Zhengzhi"s head, ran through from his hair to the soles of his feet.
And at this moment, Fang Zhengzhi felt a euphoric feeling, as though he had become a deity or experienced Dao itself.
It felt like a million golden snakes had zoomed through every inch of his body, from the hairs and pores on his skin to the organs within. It was as though he was cleansed by a bath of golden snakes.
It felt wonderful!
Fang Zhengzhi didn"t know why, but he imagined being a bolt of lightning and striking at people.
Well…
It wasn"t anything to resist anyway.
"Blurgh!" Fang Zhengzhi spurted a mouthful of blood, which landed right on Chi Guyan"s back. Her pink dress, which was already stained with blood, had a new addition.
At this moment, he seemed to know why Nangong Hao chose to attack at this time.
And of course, he was well aware that Nangong Hao"s strategies weren"t any lackl.u.s.ter compared to his, and in many facets, they outs.h.i.+ned his.
It was apparent that these were all part of a plan.
But why did Nangong Hao choose to attack at this time? The Nangong Hao he knew wasn"t one who would take advantage of others" difficulties.
Fang Zhengzhi was puzzled.
But he didn"t give it further thought. Well, it was a fact that Nangong Hao had indeed attacked, and thinking deeper about it wouldn"t change that.
"Nangong Hao, are you out of your mind? Challenge me openly if you have the guts!" Fang Zhengzhi spoke with whatever gusto he had left.
"Don"t walk out of the golden ray!" Chi Guyan warned as he heard Fang Zhengzhi.
"Huh? I can"t walk out of it?" Fang Zhengzhi had just taken a step out, which he promptly retracted.
"Yes. If you step out of the golden ray, you"ll be dead when the lightning strikes!" Chi Guyan nodded and replied firmly.
"Wow, so powerful? I got it!" Fang Zhengzhi didn"t fully understand the details, but still made a surprised expression.
"I"ll block his attack again, you"ll block the second lightning!"