Bang.
There was a loud cras.h.i.+ng noise as someone kicked open gates to the city lord’s manor. The instant the doors open, several guards flew inside.
Meanwhile, the wedding guests were in an uproar.
“Hm?” Lin Xihe instinctively placed a hand on her red bridal veil. Judging by movements, it seemed she planned to tear it off. However, perhaps because she considered it inauspicious to remove her veil under these circ.u.mstances, she resisted the urge and put her hand back down.
“Zizhao,” she said, “what’s going on?”
Zhao Zizhao’s kept on smiling calmly, just as he had before, and didn’t reply to her questions. Instead, Ye Zichen answered on his behalf.
“General Zhao’s friends have come to attend the wedding.”
“Is that so? Then why did it sound somewhat off?” asked Lin Xihe from beneath her veil. She had no idea what was going on.
“Zizhao,” she said, “since they’re your friends, how about you go greet and make arrangements for them?”
“No need,” said Ye Zichen, expression incomparably dark. “These friends of his have come with ill intentions.”
“I hadn’t thought General Zhao’s friends were so diverse. You’d even befriend demons?”
“What?” The moment she heard this, Lin Xihe tore off her veil and looked towards the gate. Everything was in utter disarray: the city guards brandished their swords as they faced a group of dark-skinned men.
Demons.
She reached into the air, and a flexible purple sword appeared in her fair hands. With almost no hesitation, she raised her sword and charged at the incoming demons.
Slice.
Slice.
Sword light flashed about.
Whenever her sword hit a demon’s body, it vanished in a puff of purple smoke and dissipated from the city lord’s manor.
“Is this really how City Lord Lin treats her guests? I just came to give you a wedding present.”
Suddenly, another figure appeared by the gates: a man dressed in purple robes. Draconic scales climbed up his face and his lips were tinted purple. His eyes were red as blood. Although he was a full two meters tall, he was extremely gaunt.
His face wore a demonic grin. His right hand grasped the frame of the manor gates as he addressed Lin Xihe.
“And when, pray tell, did I become friends with you?” she asked through knit brows, hands clenching her flexible sword. She hadn’t moved; just looking at the man, she felt a sense of impending crisis.
All she could do was use words to stall for time and search for a gap in his defenses.
“Naturally, City Lord Lin, there is no friends.h.i.+p between us,” he said, smiling confidently. “That said, I am somewhat friendly with your husband.”
Then he turned to Zhao Zizhao, brows raised, and said, “isn’t that right, General Zhao?”
“....”
Having received this sort of response, Lin Xihe turned and looked at Zhao Zizhao in bewilderment, seemingly hoping for an explanation.
Instead, she saw him approach her, smiling gently as he pressed her sword down. Then he called out to the intruder.
“You’re quite late. I told you to come hours ago.”
“I’ve been trying to break through and had just reached a critical moment, so I had to delay for a few hours,” laughed the man. “But it seems that my late arrival hasn’t interfered with our plans.”
“Hmph,” snorted Zhao Zizhao, expression sinister. “You do realize it would have been ruined if I hadn’t been stalling this whole time?”
The wedding should’ve been held at noon, but since the demons hadn’t given him the signal, he’d forcefully delayed the wedding until night time.
Otherwise, the wedding would’ve started at noon, and the guests would’ve left. Then their plan would’ve been completely ruined.
“Zizhao, you…”
As she listened to his conversation with the demons, Lin Xihe’s eyes brimmed with disbelief. She watched on in a daze. Then, Ye Zichen appeared next to her and pulled her aside.
“City Lord Lin,” he snorted, “you still don’t understand? General Zhao has been a.s.sociating with demons for quite a while now.”
With that, he turned to the man by the gates and said, “Black Dragon, long time no see.”
“Yellow Emperor, no, that’s not right, now I ought to call you Emperor Ye,” said the man, grinning broadly. “It really has been a while. You perhaps don’t know, but I’ve been thinking of you this whole time.”
“What are you thinking of me for?” said Ye Zichen, words carrying a hint of mockery, “shouldn’t you be thinking of Gu Li? I heard he took over your lair, and now you demons are like dogs without a home. You’ve holed up in some unstable sub-dimension, right?”
“Thanks for your concern. I will settle the score with him sooner or later. However, this time...,” said Black Dragon through a tight-lipped smile. “I’m here to take the Three Realms.”
“With just you?” said Ye Zichen contemptuously.
By now, all the guests were completely on edge.
Demons had arrived.
After experiencing their last invasion, you could say that the demons were deeply embedded in the Immortal Region’s collective consciousness.
Now, Black Dragon had appeared, leaving them speechless.
They were demons.
The peak-level powers of the Immortal Region had already drawn their weapons and secretly circulated their spiritual energy as they carefully sized up the situation.
Black Dragon of the demon race dared come here. In that case, he absolutely hadn’t come alone.
“That’s right, with just me, and of course a few hundred thousand hardened warriors as well,” said Black Dragon, squinting and rubbing his hands together. “Last time, you put a stop to my plans, but that absolutely won’t happen a second time.”
“Oh really?” said Ye Zichen, feigning astonishment in an obvious attempt to mock Black Dragon.
Zuo Mo felt a lump in her throat; demons had truly arrived, and now Ye Zichen was confronting them. Even though at this point it was still just a verbal battle, everyone knew that the Three Realms and the demon race would always be at odds with each other.
It was only a matter of time before fighting broke out.
“It looks like you don’t quite believe me,” said Black Dragon, narrowing his eyes.
“I wonder, what sort of masterstroke you have in mind?” said Ye Zichen. “Could you possibly let me see it?”
With that, his aura locked onto Black Dragon. However, in response, Black Dragon merely laughed calmly. “If you want to see it, I see no harm in letting you look.”
With that, he raised his hands and clapped lightly. At the same time, he smiled and said, “get them all under control.”
Instantly, demon warriors appeared behind the guests. They each brandished sharp blades, and placed them against the guests’ throats.
If they wanted to, in the blink of an eye...
The Immortal Region would have to start over from scratch.