Chapter 2870: Chapter 2870
"It’s all your fault, you thieving cat, with your terrible ideas! If anything happens to the young master, just wait until Lady Liang and the others tear you to shreds!" Lei Ming snapped, swatting the Magic Lion hard enough to force it back into its true form.
The cat, too intimidated to fight back, muttered under its breath, "Well, you reverted to your true form too, didn’t you?"
"Hmph! Only because you tricked me into it!" Lei Ming shot back, planting her hands on her hips and glaring daggers at the feline.
Cowed by her fierce stance, the cat wisely fell silent and slunk backward, seeking refuge near Ha Tu’s feet.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger showed no hesitation—they charged forward, blades in hand, ready for battle.
Ye Liuyun had already pinpointed the demons’ weakness: they were mere manifestations of demonic energy, incapable of channeling true essence or launching long-range attacks. Their strength lay solely in close combat. As long as he kept his distance, he’d stay safe.
So, he and his duplicate began weaving through space, deftly evading the demons’ assaults while seizing opportunities to strike with their blade energy.
The demons swarmed around the defensive formation, hammering it with their fists. But Qiong Qi had wisely infused the barrier with fiery energy. With every blow, the demons’ demonic aura eroded slightly.
Unable to resist, the Demon Vine surged out again, tangling with a demonic vine creature. Though outmatched, it endured the attacks head-on, steadily absorbing its opponent’s demonic energy to weaken it before finally devouring it.
But the Demon Vine had underestimated its foe. Before it could finish the absorption, two of its tendrils were torn clean off. Against a foe with the power of a third-level Sovereign, its physical resilience simply wasn’t enough.
Shaken, the Demon Vine retreated underground and slipped back into the safety of the formation after consuming its opponent.
"Was it worth it?" Lei Ming asked, eyeing it critically.
"Broke even, I’d say," it replied, calculating that the demonic energy it had absorbed barely compensated for the loss of its two tendrils.
"Then why are you back here? Go out and help the young master!" Lei Ming scolded, giving it a sharp kick for good measure.
"But if I keep draining and absorbing, I’ll be wasting all that demonic energy! Boss, with a bit more time, you could wipe out those demons yourself!" the Demon Vine protested, its voice tinged with grievance.
Every Devil Beast here feared Lei Ming. Even the high-ranking Demon Vine didn’t dare defy him.
Lei Ming glanced at Ye Liuyun, assessing the situation. Convinced the young man was in no real danger, he merely snorted and turned his attention elsewhere.
Indeed, Ye Liuyun faced little peril. Though the demons were formidable, he kept his distance skillfully. Even when they lunged at him using spatial powers, their occasional strikes barely fazed him—his robust physique could withstand the impacts. His clone, while less durable, never sustained critical injuries. A single drop of Life Spring Water was enough to sustain it through prolonged battles.
As the demon horde dwindled, the air thickened with swirling tendrils of dark energy. Unaffected by the corrupting miasma thanks to his golden pupils, Ye Liuyun treated the fight as training. Each swing of his blade—and his clone’s—harnessed vast amounts of natural energy, cutting through the darkness with radiant force.
Only when the last demon dissolved into mist did the trapped cultivators erupt in cheers, emerging from the formation to greedily absorb the lingering demonic energy. Ye Liuyun and his clone joined them, drawing in substantial amounts. They possessed the unique ability to purify this energy into Buddha Light—a power that would prove invaluable against future demonic or even extraterrestrial threats.
After absorbing their fill, they meditated to fully refine the energy before urging Qiong Qi to break the formation again. This time, however, the dark pool remained eerily still throughout the process.
The moment the formation shattered, the Demon Vine swiftly retreated with Qiong Qi back to safety. It was only then that Ye Liuyun realized the truth: the entire pool consisted of liquefied demonic energy.
"The demonic energy has condensed into liquid form—how incredibly dense!" he exclaimed, unable to contain his astonishment.
But a question immediately arose in his mind: "Why hasn’t it dissipated?" A growing suspicion took root—something was terribly wrong with that dark pool.
Just as they were puzzling over it, the dark water in the pool began to surge upward with a violent rush. The gushing liquid coalesced into the form of a colossal ancient demon, which then stepped out from the depths.
The water level in the Blackwater Pool immediately dropped by a significant margin.
Ye Liuyun’s gaze swept across the edges of the pool and noticed it was entirely enclosed by dark, jagged stones.
“Demon-repelling stones!” he realized with a start.
“No wonder the demonic energy hasn’t leaked out—it’s all sealed in by these stones.”
The reason now clear, Ye Liuyun burst out of the defensive formation and swung his blade at the emerging demon. Meanwhile, his doppelgänger held back, continuing to scrutinize the Blackwater Pool intently.
Ye Liuyun had instructed the doppelgänger to search carefully for any other spiritual entities or lingering souls within the pool. He suspected that if something had mustered enough power to unleash demonic energy as a defense, there must be at least one intelligent presence or soul hidden deep within.
Lei Ming, too, activated her golden pupils, joining the doppelgänger in scanning the murky waters for anything unusual.
Before long, they detected a massive demonic soul lurking at the very bottom of the pool. Its appearance was identical to the ancient demon that had just emerged, and its form was as pitch-black as the water itself—so dark that without their golden vision, it would have been nearly impossible to spot.
However, the soul of this ancient demon was overwhelmingly powerful—far beyond what Ye Liuyun’s own soul could currently contend with. Only the Ten Thousand Gods Token or a blast of Blacklight could possibly subdue it.
“Try the Blacklight first!” Ye Liuyun transmitted urgently to his doppelgänger.
Without hesitation, the doppelgänger utilized spatial movement to close in, fired a concentrated beam of Blacklight directly at the demonic soul, and then retreated instantly.
Lei Ming, observing from within the formation, cheered as she reported back to Ye Liuyun, “You hit it! It’s wounded!”
A furious roar echoed from the depths.
From the depths of the black pool came a thunderous roar that shook Lei Ming, Hei Shan, Ha Tu, and the other demons to their core, their hearts quaking with primal fear.
Ye Liuyun, his doppelgänger, the Demon Vine, along with A’Xing and Lin Fei’er, fared slightly better. Not being of demonic blood, they were less susceptible to the roar’s terrifying resonance.
“The Hymn of the Netherworld might work!” the doppelgänger exclaimed, immediately striking up the ancient melody to gauge the demon soul’s reaction.
Upon hearing the haunting notes, the ancient demon soul fell silent at once. Even the monstrous creature locked in combat with Ye Liuyun halted its assault.
Ye Liuyun ceased his own attacks but remained on high alert, his eyes fixed intently on the beast, ready to counter any sudden move.
After the hymn had played for a short while, the creature suddenly turned and fled, plunging back into the inky waters of the pool as if merging with the darkness itself.
Ye Liuyun let out a slow breath of relief. The fight had pushed him to his limits; even a full-force strike from his Slaughterblade had failed to pierce the monster’s hide. Its power was immense—whether at the fourth or fifth level of Dominance, he couldn’t be sure—but a single blow from it would have forced him to rely on the Elixir of Life to survive.
Though he was confident that, given enough time, he could eventually wear the creature down, it would have been a grueling and protracted battle. He had even resorted to incantations, hoping to erode the creature’s demonic energy, but the moment it leaped back into the pool, the faint glow of his Buddhist-inspired light techniques was snuffed out entirely by the overwhelming miasma of darkness.
