561: What deal? What promises?

Screech!

Like silk tearing across the firmament!

A pitch-black, distorted storm of spatial energy swept out like a waterfall!

The violent spatial turbulence was enough to instantly shred the body of an ordinary Golden Core Cultivator!

At the core of that churning black energy vortex, a figure stepped upon the chaotic energy turbulence, slowly descending!

Boom!

The earth trembled slightly!

First to enter the field of vision was a terrifying strange beast, so massive and hideous it almost blotted out half the sky!

Its body seemed covered in rugged, hideous dark-gold metallic bone armor, the surface of the shell etched with distorted, writhing crimson demonic runes.

As its four legs stomped, the rock beneath them—hard as refined iron—silently crumbled into dust!

Three hideous beast heads on its neck roared at the sky; they had no texture of flesh,

Only boiling, flowing purple-black Devilish Qi spewing and surging like lava from the eye sockets, mouths, and noses of the skulls!

The aura it emitted was filled with destruction, violence, and an ancient breath of Chaos that did not belong to this world!

That was an ancient predator roaming the depths of the Demon Realm—the Void-Devouring Three-Headed Demon Mastiff!

And upon the back of that hideous giant beast!

A figure stood quietly!

White!

Silver hair of an extreme purity, as if it were the essence of ten-thousand-year-old ice frozen solid,

Cascaded down like a waterfall, with ice-crystal-like cold luster shimmering between the strands.

Clad in black soft armor with dark-gold edging, embroidered with countless complex and distorted runes resembling spatial cracks,

It closely traced a breathtakingly graceful silhouette.

Her cold countenance seemed meticulously carved from Nine Heavens Black Jade, with icy skin and jade-like bones.

Her thin lips were tightly pursed, their color also tinged with a demonic dark purple.

Most soul-stirring of all!

Were her eyes!

They were a pair of crimson vertical pupils without whites, like the purest plasma condensed at the end of the abyss!

The vertical pupils were eerie and cruel; as they turned, it seemed as if endless seas of blood rose and fell, and stars were destroyed,

Carrying an absolute indifference and pitiless majesty that reigned over the Demon Realm!

In the center of her brow, a deep dark-purple vertical eye mark pulsed slowly like a living thing,

Emitting an even more ancient and weathered demonic might!

Heavenly Demon Sect Saintess—Xin Yuelan! Descends!

Slightly behind her, a middle-aged man dressed in plain, dusty hemp clothes, with an ordinary but expressionless face,

Hovered out of thin air like a heavy shadow.

There was no brilliance, no world-shaking pressure leaking out,

But when his turbid eyes lifted slightly and swept over the ruins below,

The core area of the concealment Restriction set by Yao Delong, which could perfectly isolate the Divine Thought probes of Void Refining Cultivators... space suddenly froze for an instant!

Like being crushed by an invisible mountain! The air became thick like a mire!

Void Refinement Mid-stage! Moreover, the condensed immensity of his aura and the depth of his Foundation far exceeded that of Old Demon Hundred Refinements, whom Yao Delong had briefly clashed with!

Hiding in the absolute shadow of a giant rock, Yao Delong's heart, which was like a rock itself, also sank suddenly!

It's her!

Xin Yuelan!

"Good, very good!"

Cold currents surged in Yao Delong's eyes! The fury in his heart almost broke through his reason!

He still remembered the definite promise made when he let Xin Yuelan go! To exchange the yanshen fetus for the nine nether soul nurturing flower!

He was even calculating how to contact her for the trade once she found the flower! And the result?

The result was that this demoness had brazenly torn apart that fragile tacit understanding!

Sending her minions on a long-distance raid to the Eastern Region to set up a base in this desolate place, all for the purpose of waiting for him, Yao Delong, to walk into the trap?!

What transaction? What promise!

In the eyes of such a high-and-mighty Demon Sect Saintess, they were probably just toys that could be shredded and played with at any time!

A sense of humiliation and killing intent from being toyed with and schemed against instantly ignited his Primordial Spirit!

Xin Yuelan... today's situation is a death trap aimed at me, Yao Delong!

And the person next to her... that middle-aged man in hemp clothes! Big trouble!

That deep and obscure, yet majestic and vast energy surge, like the world's fetal membrane... was more than a level higher than Old Demon Hundred Refinements! Where did he come from?

Yao Delong's Divine Thought was as taut as a bowstring as he frantically deduced the comparison of strength between friend and foe.

Even if he had trump cards to kill enemies of a higher level, to instantly tear through Xin Yuelan's protection and heavily injure her core,

While also dealing with this middle-aged man with the strange aura... Qiong Shuang and Luo Yan would definitely be caught in the crossfire if they stayed here!

In the Void Realm.

Xin Yuelan's cold crimson vertical pupils swept over the messy battlefield below.

Several remaining charred marks, the thin yet still-lingering resentful power of dead souls,

And the faint Great Sun Origin aura belonging to that bastard Yao Delong pervading the air, which made her subconsciously irritable... "They are truly a fucking bunch of..."

A bone-chilling word, filled with an indescribable irritable killing intent, brewed between her red lips, finally turning into a whisper containing a storm of destruction:

"...Trash!"

"Ah Da." Her voice was cold as ten-thousand-year-old profound ice, "Find him for me!"

Ah Da, in his grey hemp clothes, stepped forward. His turbid eyeballs turned slightly,

His gaze, like a physical beam of light, swept over the rugged rocks, the cracked earth, and the charred marks... Buzz!

A Divine Thought as vast as a mountain, as if it could penetrate all false disguises, instantly covered the entire clifftop area like an invisible giant net!

That Divine Thought was so strong it even triggered subtle spatial ripples!

In the scanned area, even the rock dust seemed to stop its own microscopic motion!

After several breaths.

On Ah Da's expressionless face, his brow furrowed extremely, extremely slightly for the first time.

"Aura... completely cut off." His voice was like two pieces of dry sandstone rubbing together, dull and arduous, "No... living... beings."

A wave of extreme surprise flashed through Xin Yuelan's cold red pupils!

Completely disappeared? Not even a tail-end of a lingering aura left? How is that possible?

Unless... just as the doubt rose in her heart!

Buzz—!!

Deep within her Sea of Consciousness! The core where the yanshen fetus mark—symbiotic with her Divine Soul and protected by countless layers of demonic rune divine Seal—resided!

Suddenly!

Throbbed without any warning!

"He's still here!!" Blood-light that could incinerate the Void Realm instantly erupted from Xin Yuelan's red pupils!

All her calm and composure vanished, her voice shrill and piercing due to shock, anger, and a frenzy of being toyed with!

"Ah Da! He hasn't left! He's nearby! Pull him out and crush him for me—!"

"Get out here—!! Yao! De! Long—!!!"

The demoness's shriek, sharp enough to tear eardrums, caused countless rocks on the entire cliff to tumble down!

...Deep in the shadows, the stagnant air was like a pool of dead water.

Yao Delong's muscles suddenly tensed like iron! It was as if a cold blade had already touched the back of his neck!

Exposed! Suffocatingly fast!

"Damn it! It must be the yanshen fetus Origin resonance!" Yao Delong instantly understood!

"Big Brother!" Qiong Shuang growled, the faint shadows of fine dragon scales emerging uncontrollably all over her body!

Luo Yan's fair face turned even paler, her knuckles gripping her long sword turning white!

"You guys go first!"

Yao Delong's sharp shout exploded in their Sea of Consciousness like thunder, brook no argument! His movements were even faster than a bolt of lightning!

He reached out with his left hand and made a grabbing motion toward the limp Luo Tianying on the ground!

"Collect!" A dusty Spirit Beast bag flashed with light, instantly sucking her inside!

Simultaneously! Two mid-grade "Void-Escaping Teleportation Talismans," flowing with rich silver-gray spatial ripples and cold to the touch like jade marrow, appeared in his right hand!

Starlight dotted the Talismans, emitting a sharp sense of tearing space!