Chapter 89 A Moment of Despair
The massive hand of purple Mental Energy, like the collapsing firmament, slapped away the sky-filling black mist and the beast tide with a single strike.
However, as the instigator of all this, the Black Sha Demon Lord was not brought to justice just yet.
"Hehehe... Such powerful Mental Energy! Such delicious Soul!"
Although the Demon Lord was shaken to the point of vomiting blood by that strike, the greed in his eyes increased rather than diminished.
His figure flickered, transforming into countless black shadows, weaving between the fingers of the massive purple hand, and he actually managed to escape.
"Human boy, you are indeed strong. But this power does not belong to you; how long can you hold on?"
The Demon Lord saw through Jiang Chen's reality.
Although that terrifying pressure was powerful, it revealed an unstable, floating sensation, clearly a borrowed power.
"As long as I drag you out and wait for this power to dissipate, you will be meat on my chopping block!"
The Demon Lord laughed sinisterly, his gaze suddenly shifting, landing on the silver-haired girl below the fortress who was nervously watching the sky.
Iliya.
"Since you care so much about this little girl..." The Demon Lord's lips curled into a cruel arc, "Then I will make her my first target!"
"Swish!" A black light flashed by, reaching the extreme of speed.
"Oh no! Saintess, watch out!" Lei Heng wanted to rescue her, but he was severely injured at the moment and simply couldn't make it in time.
Mu Qingxue swung her ice sword, attempting to block, but was directly sent flying with a casual wave of the Demon Lord's hand, spitting blood.
"Come here!" The Demon Lord's withered, stick-like claws grabbed Iliya's slender neck, lifting her into the air like a chick.
"Cough, cough... Let... let me go..." Iliya struggled desperately, but in the face of half-step War God-level power, her resistance appeared so powerless.
"Let you go?" The Demon Lord licked his lips, his other hand grabbing the large, snow-white tail behind Iliya.
"This is the most noble symbol of the Royal Family... I heard that human boy really likes to use it as a body pillow?"
"Then I shall destroy it!"
Rip!
Black Qi coiled in the Demon Lord's hand, actually beginning to corrode the fur Iliya was so proud of.
"Ah——!!!" Iliya let out a miserable, sharp scream.
That was pain connected to her heart, even more intense than broken bones.
The originally snow-white, soft fur rapidly withered and fell off under the black Qi, revealing the bloody skin beneath.
"Stop! You beast!" Su Qingyue and Little Fatty Chen rushed up with red eyes, but were stunned and knocked to the ground by a single glance from the Demon Lord.
"Do you see this, human?" The Demon Lord held the dying Iliya, laughing wildly at Jiang Chen in the sky, "Is this your body pillow? Now it is dirty, smelly, and has turned into a pile of trash!"
"You low-born bitch, do you even deserve to possess the Royal Bloodline?"
The Demon Lord's fingers sank deep into the base of Iliya's tail, seemingly preparing to rip it off by force.
"Scream! Scream loudly! Let your master see your miserable state right now!"
Iliya twitched all over from the pain, tears mixed with blood flowing down.
She looked at Jiang Chen in the sky, her eyes filled with despair and pleading.
Not for rescue.
But...
"Don't look... don't look at me..."
She didn't want Jiang Chen to see her current ugly, disheveled, and undignified appearance.
She was a Saintess; even if she had to die, she wanted to die with dignity.
But now, she was just like a dog with a broken spine.
In the sky.
Jiang Chen hovered quietly.
He did not speak, nor did he move.
Those purple eyes were, at this moment, terrifyingly calm.
【Ding! Detected that the "Exclusive body pillow" has suffered irreversible damage.】
【Detected that the source of the "Calming Fragrance" has been severely contaminated.】
【System judgment: This is the ultimate provocation against the host's sleep quality.】
【Waking Up Anger value: ∞ (Infinite) → (Breakthrough critical point)!】
【Activating hidden state: Wrath of the Empress · Divine Arrival!】
"You..." Jiang Chen finally spoke.
His voice was no longer lazy, no longer hoarse, but had become ethereal and distant, as if coming from above the Nine Heavens, carrying not a trace of human emotion.
"You soiled... My possession."
The moment that word "I" was uttered, the heavens and earth changed color.
The Demon Lord, who had still been laughing wildly, stopped his laughter abruptly.
He discovered with horror that the surrounding space... had solidified.
The wind stopped, the clouds halted, and even the splashing blood hung suspended in mid-air.
The entire world seemed to have turned into a static painting.
In the center of that painting, behind the boy wearing pajamas, a peerless phantom that stood a thousand feet tall, reaching the heavens and the earth, slowly emerged.
It was a woman.
She wore an imperial crown and was draped in purple-gold ceremonial robes.
Her face could not be clearly seen, but those eyes that looked down upon all living things made the Demon Lord feel a sense of... familiarity and fear that stemmed from the depths of his Soul.
"Emp... Empress?!" The Demon Lord's voice became sharp and distorted, as if he had seen a ghost, "Impossible! How could you still be alive?! Didn't you fall long ago?!"
A thousand years ago, it was this very woman who dragged him out of the abyss, kept him as a pet for three hundred years, and finally, because he stole a spiritual fruit, slapped him into the ground, Seal-ing him until now.
That woman was his nightmare, his eternal psychological shadow!
"Kneel." The phantom did not answer, only parted her red lips slightly and uttered those two words.
Boom!
An indescribable gravitational force descended instantly.
The Demon Lord's formidable Physical Body, at the half-step War God level, was as fragile as paper in the face of those two words.
"Crack! Crack!" The bones in his legs shattered instantly, and his entire body knelt down uncontrollably, his knees sinking deep into the Void Realm (that's right, kneeling on the air, because space had been locked).
"No... spare me... Master, spare me!" The Demon Lord completely collapsed.
Whatever dignity, whatever ambition, all were thrown to the back of his mind at this moment.
He only wanted to live, even if it meant continuing to be a dog.
He released his hand, letting Iliya fall.
But Iliya did not hit the ground.
A gentle, large hand caught her softly.
Jiang Chen held the blood-covered Iliya, looking at her tail that had turned charred and withered, the purple light in his eyes flickering violently.
"Does it hurt?" Jiang Chen asked softly, his fingers gently brushing over those wounds.
"No... it doesn't hurt..." Iliya managed to squeeze out a smile, though it looked worse than crying, "I'm sorry... for getting your body pillow dirty..."
"Silly girl." Jiang Chen buried his face in her embrace and took a deep breath.
Although it was filled with the smell of blood, he could still smell that familiar, comforting milky scent.
"It's alright." Jiang Chen raised his head, looking at the Demon Lord kneeling in the air, his lips curling into an extremely cruel smile.
"If it's dirty, just wash it."
"As for that trash who soiled you..."
"Let him... become your fertilizer."
Boom!
The Empress phantom behind Jiang Chen slowly extended a finger.
That finger was crystalline and translucent, like a jade pillar supporting the heavens, carrying a world-destroying power as it slowly pressed toward the Demon Lord.
"No——!!!" The Demon Lord let out a desperate roar.
But under that finger, he was like an insignificant ant.
Pfft!
There was no suspense.
The Demon Lord's body, under that single finger, disintegrated directly into the most primitive energy particles.
Even his Soul was crushed, completely dissipating between the heavens and the earth.
Only a crystal core emitting a faint black light remained, suspended in the air.
【Ding! Killed S-rank Demon Lord.】
【Obtained loot: Dark Night Demon Core (Divine-Grade Mental supplement).】
【System prompt: This item can be used to repair damaged Souls and Physical Bodies, and can also be used to upgrade the "star dream emperor pillow".】
Jiang Chen beckoned, and the Demon Core flew into his hand.
Without even looking at it, he pressed the Demon Core directly onto Iliya's forehead.
"Absorb it."
Jiang Chen's voice brooked no argument, "This is what he owes you."
Hum!
Black energy instantly poured into Iliya's body.
The originally withered tail, under the nourishment of this massive energy, actually began to regenerate at a speed visible to the naked eye, and it became even whiter, even fluffier, and even emitted a faint golden light.
That was... a sign of Bloodline evolution!
After finishing all this, Jiang Chen's body swayed, and the purple light in his eyes completely dissipated.
"So sleepy..." He held Iliya, his body went limp, and he fell directly from the sky.
"Jiang Chen!" Mu Qingxue rushed over, disregarding her injuries, and caught the two of them before they hit the ground.
Looking at the sleeping boy in her arms and the fox-kin girl who was undergoing a transformation, Mu Qingxue's eyes were full of complexity.
"You bastard... always making people..." She sighed and held Jiang Chen a little tighter.
In the wind and snow, the Third Fortress returned to tranquility once again.
But everyone knew that after tonight, the name "Sleep God" would no longer be a joke, but a... forbidden myth.