Chapter 658: Waking up the Ancient Demon
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
Within the sealed world.
Protector Huo Zhu was standing in mid-air, his entire body surrounding by faint fire snakes when he announced: "Your demands are too excessive. There is no way I can agree to then…" At the same time, Xue Ying was pretending to negotiate with him to stall for more time…
This was when, all of a sudden, Protector Huo Zhu's expression changed.
"Dong Bo Xue Ying, you've been lying to me!" Protector Huo Zhu roared out in anger, his voice so powerful that even the surrounding void began to tremble and form cracks.
"Haha, were you not also pretending, then?" Xue Ying's voice reverberated within this sealed world.
In the Mirage World, Xue Ying sneered as he looked at these events unfolding. A World Deity javelin appeared in his hand—he had brought along a significant amount of this sort of weapon.
'This protector from the Ancestor Mother Religion is much stronger than me, but I have something to help me.' Xue Ying suddenly stretched his right arm to hurl out the World Deity javelin with all his strength. The weapon flew through the Mirage world with 'hu', and then directly tore through the void to arrive at the sleeping Ancient Demon who was tens of billions of kilometers away.
After all, the sealing effect only worked on the ordinary world, so Xue Ying's Mirage was entirely unhindered by it.
The gray javelin tore through the void to arrive at the Ancient Demon, where it went back into the ordinary world from the Mirage world.
"Hong!"
The sharp head of the javelin landed straight by the arse of the Ancient Demon; who asked that specific body part of his to be sticking out and be the closest to Xue Ying?
When compared to a protector of the Ancestor Mother Religion, Xue Ying's strength might not be any big deal, but amongst cultivators of his cosmos, he was essentially at the same level as apex Paragons.
The arse of the Ancient Demon trembled lightly, followed by the World Deity weapon shattering in its entirety, and the humanoid, dog-headed Ancient Demon slowly opening its eyes. It had a pair of yellow eyes filled with intense coldness and killing intent. It immediately turned to face the distant sealed world.
Before long, its vision locked down on Xue Ying's figure who was still hiding in the Mirage World, its gaze so fierce that Xue Ying started to cower. A coldness invaded his heart, and an invisible force began to press down on him.
'It knows I'm the one who acted?' Xue Ying was much shocked.
"Hong."
The distant Ancient Demon, with its few hundreds of billions of kilometers large body, swung its right claw.
"Si la~"
It immediately tore through the sealed world, despite it being a few tens of billion kilometers long, and arrived immediately at the region where Xue Ying stood.
Describing this action might take some time, but everything had actually happened within moments.
The distant Ancient Demon swung its claw at a speed that was essentially instantaneous—it had clearly started out tens of billions of kilometers away, but it seemed to have arrived in front of Xue Ying within the blink of an eye. On top of that, Xue Ying was hiding in the Mirage world, yet he was still feeling an unseen force boring into the Mirage and lashing out against his black armor.
"Hong hong hong~" It was only now that Xue Ying finally managed to react. He spurted out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying back into the distance. At the same time he was falling, Xue Ying discovered that the claw had not actually entered the Mirage World.
In reality, the unseen strength of the claw had tunneled into the Mirage world where it bombarded his body. As he was suffering from this attack, Xue Ying's true deity heart momentarily 'stopped' working. In other words, his actions became minutely slower, and it was only after receiving the attack that he regained his natural processing speed. By then, however, he was already flying backward.
"Run, run, run."
"Sou sou."
Xue Ying immediately teleported away.
He teleported directly over to a location situated a few hundred billion kilometers away, where he let out a sigh of relief. Looking back at the distant Ancient Demon, he realized that it would not continue chasing after him, despite staring in his general direction. Instead, the demon turned towards Protector Huo Zhu, whose fire snakes were surrounding his body and who was still in a muddle-headed state.
'The intelligence provided by Teacher seems to be true. Once an Ancient Demon awakens, it won't distinguish between friend and foe, attacking any and all lifeforms around. However, that only applies to someone within a region of fifty billion kilometers around it. Now that I left that region, it will no longer chase after me,' Xue Ying thought. If the Ancient Demon were to continue chasing after anyone in a frenzy, the Ancestor Mother Religion would not have dared send so many protectors over.
'Ancestor Mother Religion, this is my final gift to you.' Xue Ying lowered his head. There were faint cracks all over his Extreme Annihilation Mysterious Body armor. 'Such power… The demon can't even enter the Mirage world, yet the force it managed to transmit inside was sufficient to leave me grievously injured.'
'Had I been inside the ordinary world instead of the Mirage… I would most likely have been directly extinguished…' Xue Ying muttered inwardly. 'Such is a Ruler-realm existence.'
The Ancient Demon had the combat power of a ruler indeed, but because it was a refined lifeform, it was still slightly lacking compared to real rulers. It was likely comparable to a tender, newly emerged ruler, so his combat power was likely closer to that of Monarch Green!
...
Xue Ying had managed to rapidly escape through the Mirage world, but Protector Huo Zhu was in a much more miserable state.
'The Ancient Demon?' Looking at the Ancient Demon situated a few hundred billion kilometers ahead of him, his expression had a huge change. 'Dong Bo Xue Ying must have awoken him.'
The humanoid, dog-headed Ancient Demon was still half-lying on the ground, yet its huge dog head was staring in Protector Huo Zhu's direction. Its eyes were filled with killing intent as it roared: "Die!" Its voice engulfed the entire world, forming an immense force which rushed over in the protector's direction.
"Hu."
Shortly afterward, it swung one of its claws.
Protector Huo Zhu found himself in a better spot than Xue Ying. Even under the invisible pressure emitted by the Ancient Demon, he was still able to retain his consciousness. Roaring out, he waved the wooden rod in his hand. At the same time he swung out, countless fire snakes appeared around his body, then twirled around his right arm. These snakes served to significantly increase the already fierce power of the wooden rod, up to a level that was high above what he showed when he fought against Xue Ying.
Regarding pure strength, Protector Huo Zhu was unquestionably at the ruler realm.
However, as the claw of that Ancient Demon arrived, it seemed as if it did not even touch him. Instead, the invisible force it sent out caused the wooden rod to slow down dramatically, such that by the time the claw touched it, the rod was essentially unmoving.
"Peng!"
Protector Huo Zhu's body exploded, turning into three flame streamers which immediately dispersed. In the distance, the three flame streamers converged back into Protector Huo Zhu. However, his expression was now much paler than before.
'Damn. Damn it!' Protector Huo Zhu gritted his teeth. Although he was not afraid of fighting someone like Monarch Hex Cricket, this Ancient Demon was unquestionably at the ruler realm, and escaping it would not be easy.
"Ancestor Mother above all!"
A pale yellow leaf suddenly appeared in Protector Huo Zhu's hands. It was pale yellow in color, and it did not seem to contain any living energy, yet it was still somehow emitting immense strength. Its strength far surpassed the imagination, and it was even stronger than the Ancient Demon in terms of quality.
Protector Huo Zhu opened his mouth to swallow it, and one could now see a blurred, pale-yellow light forming on the surface of his body. His figure was also rapidly growing.
"Peng."
The Ancient Demon once again sent its claw over, and this time as well, Protector Huo Zhu moved his rod over to parry the attack.
"Peng, peng, peng…"
Every single exchange caused a full ten billion of kilometers around them to be pulverized; many deep gouges appeared in the ground all around, and the power left even Xue Ying, who had been watching this scene from a distance, to be left speechless. 'Truly fierce. The protector seems to have become even stronger than before.' Regardless, Protector Huo Zhu still seemed to be sent flying away after every single exchange, and he would again be forced to cough out mouthfuls of blood.
However, his body remained undamaged—unlike at first, it no longer exploded.
It seemed that after eating that leaf, not only his combat power increased, but even the defenses of his fleshy body grew to another level. Even though he was whacked away time after time, he could still create some distance after every exchange. On top of that, his current flying speed was much faster than before, and in the blink of an eye, he had already managed to cross tens of millions of kilometers.
'Still, you'll have to leave a region of fifty billion kilometers…' Xue Ying watched on in silence.
As he ran away, Protector Huo Zhu not only consumed the pale yellow leaf but also equipped a strange silver armor which seemed to reflect all light landing on it. As he received more strikes, the light of the silver armor gradually grew dark. In any case, roughly half an hour after he began his escape, the Ancient Demon finally stopped pursuing him.
'After all is said and done, he still managed to escape.' Xue Ying shook his head inwardly upon seeing this. 'I did hope the Ancient Demon would manage to kill him. That would have signified the death of three protectors in a single move.'
Clearly, Protector Huo Zhu and the others were just a small team, and Protector Huo Zhu, as the team's captain, had naturally brought along many essential treasures. During such crucial moments, he had to maintain the lives of his comrades. After all, it was only because of Xue Ying's illusory realm landing on a vast area that he failed to save his comrades in time.
"Hou~"
The distant Ancient Demon stood up, its dog head roaring into to the sky to send out a wave that charged out in all directions. The transmission was truly fast, and despite being isolated to a region of fifty billion kilometers around it, many spatial ripples still formed above Xue Ying.
Immediately afterward, the Ancient Demon disappeared from his previous spot.
'It likely went out to find another location where it could sleep,' Xue Ying thought. 'Overall, its combat power seems to be comparable to Eldest Disciple Brother Monarch Green's, although slightly weaker when it comes to controlling of the realm.'
'It would seem I'm still far from being able to compare with Eldest Disciple Brother…'
Having witnessed this battle, Xue Ying was now clearer about his standing.
'Time to visit the Three Devil Palaces.' Xue Ying immediately teleported, moving on to another one of the Lower Three Edens—the Black Rain Eden.
"Sou, sou, sou."
This time, he was moving out at full speed, traversing fifty billion kilometers with every single step he took as he rushed over in the direction of the passage connecting the Blood Devil Eden with the Black Rain Eden.