To the southeast of the Stream City, in the wild, Lu Li had been running with the coffin. He seemed to be in a worse state. His hair was disheveled, and his robe was ragged. He got many scratches and blood was seeping out all over his body.He looked very seedy, and his eyes were red as blood. He grimaced in pain and breathed heavily like a mad dog.
Sometimes, he was sober, and other times, he was confused. If it were not for the fact that he had strong will power, he would have completely lost his mind by now.
He had this feeling, this feeling that would not let him admit defeat or surrender to fate, that his body could not be taken by the demons, and that he could not be a dead man walking or become a demon.
For those couple of days, he had been fighting with the soul of the demon. For one moment, his Soul Pond was glaring in green, and for the next, white. It was him fighting for the dominance over his Soul Pond with the demon.
As for the fact that he could arrive at the Stream City from the Garden City all of a sudden and so quietly was entirely attributable to the demon. It had nothing to do with Lu Li.
The demon had activated the Invisibility Inhibition Formation on the Coffin of Dragon King and flew its way over. It avoided the cities along the way. That regular scouts failing to see it was not entirely surprising.
The demon was a clever one. It knew that there were too many powerful warriors at the Garden City. If it were to stay there longer, it could not make its escape. Therefore, it exhausted many of its energy to control the Coffin of Dragon King to run away.
Maybe it was precisely because the demon was focused on running that Lu Li could remain conscious at this moment. If the demon had been attacking Lu Li’s soul during this half a day, he would have lost his mind.
According to Lu Li’s speculation, the demon flying the Coffin of the Dragon King would consume a lot of energy. Otherwise, the demon would have done this before. Right now, the demon was using his body as a way to have some rest and restore some energy.
On thinking this, Lu Li became a bit relieved. He could have a chance to break free of the demon if it was using up so many energies. He still had a chance to save himself and a chance to live.
His body was flying under the control of the demon. The demon had some very skillful tricks. Every second, it could cover a distance of more than 500 yards. It had been staying in the mountains and wildness to avoid any pursuers.
Lu Li could sense what was going on but could not control his own body. He was much like a remnant soul floating outside of his body. He could see or think, but he couldn’t do anything.
"I must think of a way to save myself!"
Lu Li thought quickly. He realized that he only had two ways. The first was to fight over the control of the Soul Pond with the demon so that it could not possess his soul entirely and he could wait for Ming Yu and Yu Huashen to rescue him. The second was to figure out a way to control his body, disrupt the demon’s actions and stop it from fleeing. When Ming Yu and the others came here, they certainly would figure out a way.
Lu Li was only at the Soul Pond Realm. His soul and his power were far away from being strong. It was impossible for him to deal with the demon entirely on his own.
After sorting this out, Lu Li started to think of a way to control his body. He focused his mind on his body, his hands and feet, trying to figure out a way for his body to act according to his own thoughts.
"Plop~"
Finally, Lu Li’s legs trembled and while he was running on, he suddenly fell to the ground after trying, fighting and struggling to win back the control times after times. The coffin behind him also fell to the ground because of inertia, raising up a lot of dirt and dust.
Soon, however, Lu Li crawled up again. He started running about madly again. Once more, he had lost control of his body again.
Lu Li was greatly cheered up after succeeding for one time. As long as he could do it over and over again, the speed would be impaired. Soon, Ming Yu, Yu Huashen and Du Ran would catch up with him.
"Plop~"
Several miles forward, Lu Li once again fell to the ground. He crawled up and continued to run. A h.o.a.ry voice abruptly sounded in Lu Li’s mind, "Kiddo, do you want to die? I will corrode your body into a puddle of blood. Do you believe me?"
"Um?"
Lu Li was surprised at the demon finally speaking up. The demon had sent the voice directly to his soul. Instead of getting afraid, Lu Li became more excited. The fact that the demon was talking to him meant that it was scared, scared that Lu Li would create a disturbance and it would get caught.
"Ha, ha, ha!"
Lu Li laughed out to himself and murmured internally, "Demon, come on, do it. I’d rather have my body destroyed than have it possessed by you."
Since the demon had controlled some part of his Soul Pond, it must know what he was thinking.
As Lu Li expected, soon an old voice came up, "Idiot, you punk! I will not possess your body! I am only borrowing your body so I can flee. Behave. After I am at a safe place and I have recovered, I will let you go immediately and I will give you the treasures in the coffin."
If Lu Li were some normal 16-year-old, he might have believed in what the demon said. He had gone through so many things that his mind was more mature than his peers. He would not buy the demon’s words. This demon tried to occupy Yu Lingxu’s body back at the Tomb of the Dragon King after all.
Lu Li answered with a sneer, "Do you think that I am some 3-year-old and you can just lie to me? If you only want to run away, it’s easy. All the warriors chasing us are my guys. As long as you set me free, I will tell them not to chase you. How about that?"
The demon replied, "Why should I trust you? What if you still hunt me down after I set you free?"
Lu Li asked back, "Then why should I trust you?"
What Lu Li heard next shocked him. The demon said, "Because this is… the Dragon King. Do you think I will lie to a kid? You have been to the Tomb of the Dragon King so you must know my history well. I am a man of words and I mean it."
"Dragon King!"
Lu Li really was freaked out. This demon was once at the Human Sovereign Realm, a person that unified the Northern Desert more than 10,000 years ago. He wouldn’t lie, now would he?
The Dragon King died more than 10,000 years ago. Did he know some kind of secret skills that could preserve his soul? The demon knew how to control the Coffin of the Dragon King, and the Tomb of the Dragon King was enclosed completely. Regular warriors could not get inside. If so…this demon might really be the remnant soul of Dragon King.
"No—"
After a while, Lu Li came to his senses. If the demon really was Dragon King’s remnant soul, then why was there a divine weapon on the coffin? Also, the Dragon King was a king, why did the demon say "this is" instead of "I am"?
There was something more important. The Dragon King belonged to the Northern Desert. If it were the Dragon King indeed, after the Coffin of the Dragon King flew out of the Tomb of the Dragon King, he would hide in the Northern Desert to restore energy or find out a way to regenerate. Bottom line… he would not take such ill-considered actions as to come to the Central Plains and be discovered so soon.
What was more, Lu Li never heard that people could reserve a soul after being dead for 10,000 years. This was too absurd. The methods of the demon resembled not those of a human being, either.
Soon, Lu Li sneered and said, "You old demon, who do you want to fool? I will not waste time with you. Either you destroy my body or I will continue to mess with you so you cannot run. When my guys are here, you will have to die as well. Or, you can set me free and I swear that I will stop my guys from chasing you."
Lu Li made a determined effort. The demon laughed and replied, "Punk, you really think you are good? Since you do not know how to act, I will shatter your soul and I will convert your body to mine completely so you will become immortal even if death is what you seek. Just you wait and see."