Hardly had he given his warning when the withered tree behind Jin Xinyue turned into what seemed to be a human being. The dry branches turned into sharp limbs, which pierced toward the middle of Jin Xinyue’s wings!
The demon that looked like dry wood, a beetle, and a human being was covered in multiple layers of gray and brown armor. Except for his arms that were particularly long, almost ten blade limbs had grown out of his ribs and his back. His legs were twisted backwards, but his speed was unbelievably high.
His attack was as quick as a lightning, but Jin Xinyue seemed to have grown eyes on the back of her head. Her golden wings slashed at the knees of the demon, one from left and the other from right, like two fast sabers.
“Yuan Hao, I knew you’d been hiding here!”
The demon named ‘Yuan Hao’ seemed to be caught off guard by Jin Xinyue’s sudden counterattack. He hurriedly aborted his attack and dashed backward.
However, a sharp thorn suddenly protruded out of the ground where Jin Xinyue was standing and pierced through her foot!
Jin Xinyue gasped because of the excruciating pain. She fled back to the forest, but another ten or so sharp thorns spurted out of the ground again and blocked her path of escape like haunting ghosts.
Yuan Hao, who had just retreated, stomped on a giant tree and lunged at her again with the counterforce amid hideous laughter.
The two of them passed each other. Jin Xinyue grunted. Countless feathers fell off from her to the ground slowly like golden scales.
Like a wounded crane, Jin Xinyue stood on a branch on one foot while she eyed the insects crawling out of the earth, her sweet smile entirely gone. She gnashed her teeth. “Yuan Du!”
Jin Xinyue was certainly not as tranquil as she appeared to be.
Yuan Du and Yuan Hao were both princes of the Nether Spring Kingdom. They were also Elder Nether Spring’s most distinguished disciples and both in the level of demon king.
She might have been confident if she had to deal one of them, but her odds of winning were little to none when she was faced with the two of them at the same time.
Besides, the Nether Spring Kingdom was a nation of the underground Insect Clan. In a forest with rough terrain, the Insect Clan boasted natural advantages. The Feathered Clan, including Jin Xinyue, soared in the sky and was known for its speed. They could not make use of their advantages in a forest.
What did the Blade of Chaos steal from Elder Nether Spring exactly? He has sent his two most distinguished disciples to hunt it down after such a long trip even at the cost of the invaluable Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes!
Every Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes was more precious than a regular demon beast. In every battle, it was not uncommon for hundreds of Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes to be killed. Even though Elder Nether Spring was one of the twelve demon emperors, he would not use the Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes randomly.
Jin Xinyue glanced over the entire battlefield. Inside the dim forest, the Gold Shadow Guardians that she had brought with her had mostly been killed by the sudden assault of the Insect Clan, especially those who died of blood loss because of the absorption of the Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes. They were nothing but skeletons and could not have looked more miserable.
Jin Xinyue secretly cursed. She glanced at the sky, too, which was blocked by the dense crowns of trees. She was quite certain that the crowns of the trees must have been packed with deadly venomous bugs. She could even feel that lethal poison was dripping from the tops of the trees slowly.
Yuan Du, prince of the Nether Spring Kingdom who crawled out of the earth just now, was just as ugly as other insect demons. He looked like a tall human being who was wearing bionic armor. Glamorous stripes were spotted on the finely-made shell of the armor, which were emanating splendid colors despite the dimness of the forest.
Two long horns that looked like spears were protruding from his face, which was also covered in the shell. He looked rather handsome by the standard of human beings.
However, a hint of evilness was flowing in his eyes, and his eyeballs were flickering all the time, which made whoever saw him feel that there were bugs crawling all over their heart.
“Yuan Du, Yuan Hao, you two brothers are really outrageous!” Jin Xinyue shouted. “Are you not afraid of a total war between the Gold Crow Kingdom and the Nether Spring Kingdom after this?”
Yuan Du and Yuan Hao looked like each other with a smile. Yuan Du extended his hand to Jin Xinyue and said casually, “Give it to me.”
His voice was dull and thick, mixed with humming noises, as if a cluster of earth was stuffed in his throat.
Jin Xinyue rolled her eyes and giggled. “Yuan Hao, as I recall, weren’t you the one in charge of the pursuit of the item? Why is your big brother here, too? It seems that Elder Nether Spring does not trust you at all. But it makes sense, too. Everybody knows that your brother is the real powerful one in the Nether Spring Kingdom; you are just his lackey! Even in front of Elder Nether Spring, your brother has always been the one that your master likes more. This time, it is still your brother who finished the hunting task and retrieved the ultimate treasure. It seems that his position in the Nether Spring Kingdom and in the eyes of Elder Nether Spring is even more unshakable now, isn’t it?”
Yuan Hao was dazed for a moment. His grin somehow turned rigid.
Yuan Du burst into fury. “Jin Xinyue, what are you talking about?”
Jin Xinyue was smiling even more delightedly. “Fine. Today, I miscalculated and fell into your trap. It does not matter that I must give away the item now, but I will only give it to you, Yuan Hao!”
Before the two princes of the Nether Spring Kingdom responded, Jin Xinyue raised her hand, and a streak of redness rushed toward Yuan Hao.
Yuan Hao intended to pick up the object out of natural instincts, but Yuan Du simply retreated without a comment.
Yuan Hao’s reaction was slower. He tried his best to stop, but there was already no time. After a boom, a dark golden fireball burst out into countless flames in the shape of feathers that pierced through the trunks and the bodies of demons like the sharpest blade, hurting and killing the Blade of Chaos, the demons from the Nether Spring Kingdom, and those from the Gold Crow Kingdom indiscriminately!
It was not the item that they were chasing after at all but a bomb refined out of a demon core!
“If I can’t get the item, nobody is going to get it!”
Jin Xinyue dashed toward the depths of the forest after lighthearted giggles. She turned into a streak of brightness and stretched her wings out to the maximum, felling all the giant trees near her like two sharp sabers, blocking the way of her pursuers as the trees fell to the ground!
“After her!”
Brutality beamed out of the eyes of the two princes of the Nether Spring Kingdom. Yuan Hao blew a whistle made of the empty shell of a cicada. With the weird sound, the dozens of Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes congregated into furiously burning ghost heads, their uneven surfaces wriggling for a long time. They darted toward Jin Xinyue like lightning!
In a primitive forest with dense trees, a pair of wings dozens of meters long was definitely a burden. The giant trees deep inside the Hundred Desolation Mountain had grown for thousands of years and were more than ten meters in diameter, not to mention that they were as hard as steel.
Sharp as Jin Xinyue’s wings might have been, the brightness on them dimmed significantly after she slashed through hundreds of giant trees.
Jin Xinyue meant to soar into the sky many times, only to be pushed back by the ghost heads made of the Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes. Besides, many insects of the Nether Spring Kingdom were adept at flying, too. If she flew to the sky where there was no cover, it was even more likely that she would be attacked collectively.
Pu!
After shattering the ghost heads made of the Ghost Face Purple Mosquitoes for the seventh time, Jin Xinyue finally could not hold it any longer and vomited a mouthful of blood, the aura around her quickly fading.
Yuan Du and Yuan Hao grinned hideously and launched fatal attacks. Thin greenness was dyed to the tips of their blade limbs while a foul smell was spreading out from the stinky wind raised by the blade limbs!
However—
When Yuan Hao’s attack reached the furthest point and his blade limbs were about to pierce through Jin Xinyue’s wings, he suddenly jerked up and crouched weirdly as if he were hit by an invisible streak of lightning!
The five or so blade limbs that he had failed to retract left his body without a sign!
It was not until the blood drew a few thin lines in midair that Jin Xinyue and Yuan Du discovered that many extremely slim threads had been tied among the giant trees near them.
The threads were almost transparent and much thinner than the spider threads, but they were extremely tensile like the sharpest blades.
Thanks to his keen senses, he noticed something wrong the moment he was about to hit the threads and folded his body abruptly. Otherwise, the threads could have cut his upper body and his lower body apart!
However, his dodging movement only extended his life by half a second.
The moment Yuan Hao was about to land on the ground, a streak of redness suddenly rose up and, passing by him, leapt to the crown of a tree.
Yuan Hao’s ugly head soared to the sky with an expression of bewilderment on his face. He did not know what was going on even at his death.
There were many independent neurons on the bodies of the insects. After he lost his head, Yuan Hao’s body did not collapse but cramped crazily as if it were dancing the dance of death.
Deep inside Jin Xinyue’s eyes, the streak of redness gradually froze.
It was the suspicious villager she had met in the Dry Leaf Village!
But right now, the villagers looked entirely different from a moment ago.
The bandages on his left eye and left arm had turned into ash, revealing a demonic eye that was darker than a ruby and more sizzling than magma.
The withered left arm had now been expanded, too. Bloody stripes interweaved into complicated runes that were changing all the time as if they were alive.
Three dark golden rings were worn on the left arm. They seemed to be a certain strong barrier that locked an invincible strength inside the left arm so that he could make use of the strength without losing control of it.
What is this demon?
Jin Xinyue felt her blood freezing. She had not felt so scared when she was faced the two princesses of the Nether Spring Kingdom. But the aura from the mysterious demon for some reason reminded her of her father Jin Tuyi, who was one of the twelve demon emperors and the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons!
Who is he?
He killed Yuan Hao in just one attack. Although it was an ambush with a trap, his own capability must be in the high level of the demon king stage, if not the level of demon emperor!
He cannot be with Elder Nether Spring, and he cannot be a remnant of the Blade of Chaos. There is certainly not such an expert in the Blade of Chaos!
Is he a mysterious expert from the Kingdom of Lion Butchers or the Sea Dominator Kingdom?
Unlikely. It was a pure coincidence that I chased after the remnants of the Blade of Chaos to this place, but he arrived in the small village half a month ago!