181: Chapter 181 The Demon Emperor Makes His Move, Fu Yan Goes into hiding

Meanwhile, at Kindling University, in the pavilion behind Wudao Peak.

The principal, dressed in simple, elegant robes with silver hair like snow, was sitting upright at a stone table.

Floating before him were several translucent light screens, scrolling in real-time with battle reports, resource allocation information, and abnormal energy monitoring data from across Blue Star.

A cup of clear tea sat by his hand, its fragrance curling upwards, but his expression was as calm as an abyss.

Suddenly, one of the light screens flared with a blinding red light, and a top-level emergency encrypted message from Shanyu Pass popped up, containing only a few brief words: "Ten Kings raid, seven Kings hiding! Need urgent reinforcements!"

The white-haired principal, who had been as calm as water, saw his pupils suddenly constrict.

The next second, the surface of the cup of tea before him rippled slightly, and the tea liquid instantly froze solid.

He stood up abruptly.

There was no earth-shattering momentum; around the pavilion, including the stone table, light screens, teacup, and even the drifting fallen leaves, the light surrounding them appeared to undergo an extremely subtle distortion.

It was as if space itself had become unstable.

The next instant, the air inside the pavilion emitted a short, faint hum, like a phantom being pierced.

The white-haired principal and his teacup, along with the air in that small surrounding area, vanished without a trace, leaving only a slightly blurred outline behind, which was immediately filled in by the natural airflow.

This was a leap at the level of rules, transcending the ordinary concept of speed.

Thirty seconds later, above Shanyu Pass.

In the center of the chaotic and violent energy field, King Shanyu was still moving freely and powerfully, suppressing the three severely wounded yet stubbornly resisting Great Yao Kings.

Suddenly, in the air not far from the battlefield, that patch of space rippled with visible, colorless waves, as if a pebble had been dropped into a calm surface of water.

Then, at the center of the ripples, a white-haired figure in robes transitioned from faint to solid, and the Kindling University principal stepped out from thin air.

His appearance did not involve any violent energy leakage; it even caused the chaotic battlefield to seem to pause for an instant.

"Shanyu." The principal's voice resonated directly in the mind of King Shanyu, who had also sensed the movement; it was peaceful yet contained a vast amount of information, instantly conveying the current situation.

At this moment, across the entire Shanyu Pass, as far as the eye could see, only King Shanyu and the three Great Yao Kings—Shi Yao, Xuan Mang, and Gang Lu—were still locked in fierce battle.

However, the moment the principal appeared, the three Yao, as if having received some sort of order, almost simultaneously erupted with their remaining Demonic Qi.

They took a heavy slash from King Shanyu head-on, used the reaction force to forcibly break out of the engagement circle, and like three arrows leaving the bowstring, fled desperately toward the Star Gate.

They happened to retreat right next to the Interstellar Gate.

Just then, the faint blue light on the surface of the Star Gate, which had remained after the previous forced expansion of the spatial channel, flickered intensely—the "cooldown interval" after the forced operation had just finished refreshing.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Shi Yao and the other two Yao knew the terror of this white-haired old man, so they turned and frantically rushed into the now-stabilized Star Gate channel.

"You want to leave?" The principal's face was calm and ripple-free, but his eyes were as deep as the starry sky.

He did not pursue them at all; he simply stood where he was, raised his slender right hand—which seemed no different from that of an ordinary old man—and, from a distance of several thousand meters, pressed down toward the direction of the Star Gate!

Hum!

There was no earth-shattering brilliance, but with the three Yao as the center, the spatial rules within a radius of several hundred meters were instantly forcibly twisted and altered!

The air became as viscous and heavy as a lead-mercury swamp in the midst of a hundred thousand mountains, and even the refraction of light appeared eerily bent.

Even more terrifying was that above their heads, it was not a physical palm, but as if the rule-will of the entire world had been extracted and condensed.

It transformed into a massive, invisible giant hand spanning the sky and covering the firmament, carrying the rule power to imprison space and shatter everything, descending with a force that suppressed them at a speed far exceeding the three Yao's escape.

The invisible pressure descended suddenly.

Shi Yao roared, his entire body's muscles swelling like gold and iron, attempting to break through the restraints.

Xuan Mang tried his best to activate his final innate Turtle Shell Divine Ability, and cyan-black light flashed wildly.

Gang Lu roared as he bent his waist, his massive elephant trunk slamming hard into the ground, attempting to prop up this descending "sky."

But everything was in vain!

Under the shroud of that giant rule palm, their proud, immensely powerful Yao bodies seemed to be trapped in solidified amber, making it incomparably difficult even to turn their heads.

They could only watch helplessly as that invisible destructive power pressed down upon their heads; despair, like a cold tide, drowned their consciousness.

"Emperor Fu, save me—!" The three Yao, their souls terrified, infused their final Primordial Spirit screams into their Bloodlines, piercing through the interstellar barrier.

Just as the giant palm was about to touch the crowns of the three Yao, at the critical moment when the destructive force field composed purely of rules had already caused the Demonic Qi shields on the three Yao's bodies to shatter inch by inch and their Yao bodies to begin to crack—Boom!

Over in the Monster Realm, Emperor Fu, who had been focusing intently, moved across the massive interstellar barrier!

He seemed to have anticipated this moment long ago, and pointed a finger.

An unimaginably magnificent Demonic Qi force used the energy that had not yet fully dissipated after the expansion of the channel by the Starry Sky Stone on the Shanyu Pass side as a bridge.

It pierced through the Star Gate and, in the space on the Blue Star side, forcibly condensed a translucent, hundred-zhang long giant finger phantom with profound patterns.

This huge, illusory finger, carrying the sharpness to pierce space, pointed with incomparable precision at the center of the palm of the invisible rule-giant hand that the principal had pressed down.

Hiss—Boom!!!

A silent collision of rules erupted, like hundreds of millions of spatial cracks exploding simultaneously!

There was no physical shockwave, but with the point where the finger and palm struck as the center, space presented spiderweb-like transparent cracks!

The huge, illusory finger phantom flickered violently, beginning to disintegrate and annihilate inch by inch from the fingertip.

But the result gained at this price was that the principal's giant rule palm's downward momentum was forcibly blocked by this powerful and ingenious finger.

Although the giant finger phantom condensed by Emperor Fu only supported for an extremely brief moment before completely vanishing into thin air.

The principal's giant palm continued to descend with unstoppable momentum, but this split-second difference was precious for the three Great Yao Kings fleeing for their lives.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The bodies of Shi Yao, Xuan Mang, and Gang Lu had already mostly submerged into the stabilized blue light curtain of the Star Gate.

Boom!

The giant rule palm pressed down completely!

The ground at the point of impact collapsed silently, and a bottomless palm-print crater with a diameter exceeding one hundred meters suddenly formed; the rocks and twisted metal structures at the edges looked as if they had been melted by high heat and then instantly cooled.

The terrifying aftermath of the rules chased after the trail of the three Yao, slamming violently into the light curtain of the Star Gate.

The blue Star Gate channel vibrated violently, the light curtain flickering crazily like the surface of water in a storm, forcibly enduring this rule-level impact.

Although ninety-nine percent of the giant palm's power was offset and obliterated by the interstellar channel itself and the defensive power constructed by Emperor Fu on the Monster Realm side.

However, that last bit of residual power that crossed the rule barrier still, like a red-hot branding iron, heavily imprinted onto the backs of the three Yao who had not yet fully entered the channel.

"Urghhh—!"

"Pfft!"

Three muffled groans mixed with the sound of bones shattering and internal organs rupturing pierced through the Star Gate.

The bodies of the three Yao, as if struck by a giant invisible hammer, flew and vanished into the depths of the blue light curtain.

Leaving behind only three sprays of ink-thick Yao King essence blood splattered on the ground at the entrance of the channel, still emitting an astonishing Evil Qi.

This injury was enough to leave them severely weakened even after returning to the Monster Realm, forcing them into a deep slumber for several years.

From the principal appearing to his attempt to suppress the three Yao, to the three Yao calling for help, Emperor Fu blocking with a finger from across space, and the three Yao finally taking the opportunity to flee while heavily injured.

The entire process, which was intense and full of rule-based confrontation, actually happened within the span of a breath.

Seeing Shi Yao, Xuan Mang, and Gang Lu escape back to the Monster Realm, the principal did not have the slightest pause or annoyance, as if this had already been within his expectations.

His gaze, like a sharp sword piercing through the clouds, casually locked onto a direction that appeared empty.

Swish!

His figure faded again, and almost at the same time he vanished, he clearly appeared again on the outline of another valley a hundred miles away, his speed having already transcended the concept of spatial displacement.

His goal was exceptionally clear: to kill those seven escaping and hiding Great Yao Kings, the descendants of the Demon Emperor who posed the greatest threat to the hinterland of Blue Star.

The spatial rules around him were silently plucked, like an invisible hand searching the world.

The principal's vast Primordial Spirit Power merged into the rules of this area he controlled, performing a carpet-like scan like a high-precision radar, not letting go of even the slightest abnormal energy movement.

Very soon, the first obscure aura was locked onto by him—the Great Yao King of Withered Bones hiding in the abyss of an abandoned mine.

The moment the Principal's figure appeared out of thin air at the entrance of the mine, a gray Domain containing the aura of death and cold curses erupted instantly.

Countless runic chains, accompanied by soul-piercing wails, coiled upward, attempting to delay this terrifying enemy.

The Principal didn't even spare that Domain a second glance.

He simply raised his hand toward the depths of the mine and made an extremely slow, yet irresistible, smoothing gesture.

Crackle—!

There was no sound, but the space within a radius of several dozen meters, along with everything inside—abandoned mine carts, Ore rocks, and even the terrified, skeletal body of the Great Demon King Skeleton—

like a fragile piece of paper violently crumpled by an invisible hand, suddenly compressed, folded, and twisted inward in silence.

The skeleton of the Great Demon King Skeleton, which was sturdy enough to withstand divine weapons, was instantly covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

The death curse Domain it had gathered with all its might popped like a fragile soap bubble under the sun with a "pop" sound.

With just a single stroke!

The Great Demon King Skeleton couldn't even finish its scream before its consciousness, along with its soul fire core—which had been forcibly folded and deformed by the brute force of the Law—was completely extinguished.

All that remained in place was a mass of twisted, flattened bone remains, resembling an abstract sculpture, along with the embers of the dead-silent Domain that dissipated instantly.

There was no pause.

The Principal's Primordial Spirit locked onto the second fleeting, panicked aura—the Great Demon King Fire Wing, who was fleeing desperately toward the underground lava lake.

The Principal took a step, and his figure instantly appeared above the crater, where scorching lava churned.

Deep within the lava lake, a violent, scorching energy erupted.

Crimson lava surged into the sky, transforming into a massive flaming bird claw.

Carrying the high temperature capable of burning mountains and boiling seas, along with the Flame Law, and driven by the Great Demon King Fire Wing's final, desperate madness, it clawed fiercely toward the Principal hovering in the air.

Before the flames arrived, the terrifying heatwave had already distorted the air.

The Principal remained expressionless.

This time, he didn't even raise his hand; he merely stirred his intent.

Rumble—!!!!

That was not thunder, but the roar of the Law being forcibly manipulated.

The sky above the crater suddenly darkened.

Immediately after, nine massive bolts of purple lightning, condensed from the purest, most yang, and rigid power of heaven and earth—their forms as profound as divine text—struck down without warning, carrying an ancient aura that judged all things.

This was not calling down lightning; this was a judgment at the level of the Law.

That massive flaming bird claw was like paper; the moment the first purple lightning bolt descended, it was struck into annihilation.

The subsequent eight purple lightning bolts seemed to possess life.

Ignoring the churning lava and the earth, they pierced through layers of obstacles with pinpoint precision and struck fiercely into the deepest part of the lava lake.

"No—!!" A shrill, distorted shriek of a demon soul emanated from underground, then abruptly ceased.

The surface of the lava lake churned violently for a few seconds before slowly calming down.

In the depths, only a chaotic fluctuation of energy remained after the intense annihilation, along with wisps of charred Demonic Qi.

The aura of the Great Demon King Fire Wing had completely vanished into the depths of the earth's core.

That destructive divine lightning of the Nine Heavens had turned it, along with its Primordial Spirit and demon core, into ashes.

In less than three minutes, two Great Demon Kings who possessed the Demon Emperor Bloodline, wielded unfathomable and treacherous methods, and were capable of causing bloody storms in any region—

in front of the Principal, who represented the Peak power of the Human Race, were like moths flying into a flame.

Without even putting up a decent resistance, they were easily crushed by what was essentially the heavenly might of the Law, falling in despair.

The Principal hovered in mid-air, his silver hair fluttering slightly in the night wind, sensing the auras of the remaining five hidden Demon King descendants, who were frantically restraining themselves even further, attempting to blend into the environment.

His expression remained devoid of any fluctuation, as if he had merely cleared away a few insignificant bugs.

His cold gaze, like a scanner, swept across the vast night sky once more.

The hunt was far from over.

On this night at Shanyu Pass, undercurrents surged, and royal blood withered.

In the Monster Realm, deep within the Heavenly Fox Hall.

The seven jade plaques in Emperor Fu's hand, which carried the life imprints of the Great Demon Kings, emitted faint cracking sounds one after another.

After their dim light faded, they fell into complete silence.

The first one—Skeleton.

The second one—Fire Wing.

The third one—

For every jade plaque that shattered, Emperor Fu's deep eyes grew a shade darker.

It wasn't that he felt heartache for these dead Great Demon Kings themselves.

In the Monster Realm, the strong were respected.

Losing a few Great Demon Kings was painful, but not unbearable.

What truly stirred his emotions was that consumed Starry Sky Stone.

This divine object, which was extremely rare even in the vast interstellar space, was one less for every one consumed.

After three jade plaques shattered, the subsequent explosions finally ceased.

The hall was deathly silent, the air seemingly solidified.

Only the faint sound of Emperor Fu's knuckles unconsciously tapping the armrest of the throne remained.

He lowered his eyes, gazing at the remaining four intact jade plaques—including the one representing Great Demon King Fu Yan—his eyes filled with heavy contemplation.

The plan had paid a price, but it was not without gains.

The key was whether Great Demon King Fu Yan and the others could hide well and entrench themselves like vipers in the heart of Blue Star.

Blue Star, hundreds of miles underground outside Changning City, in the dark depths.

Over a hundred miles from the surface.

This was no longer an ordinary layer of soil and rock, but the outer environment of the earth's core, filled with scorching high temperatures, immense pressure, and chaotic Magnetic Force.

The heavy rock layers were like an iron curtain weighing billions of jun, pressing in from all directions on the figure lurking within.

Great Demon King Fu Yan, a Great Demon King of the Five-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan, was currently restraining all his demonic power fluctuations, relying solely on his formidable demon body to endure this terrifying pressure.

The heavy rocks squeezed every inch of his bones, emitting a faint, teeth-gritting groan.

The scorching geothermal fire energy was like an invisible branding iron, roasting his protective fur, and the air was filled with a turbid mixture of sulfur and Ore.

Every slight movement felt like wading through viscous liquid metal, and the immense resistance made the circulation of demonic power within his body sluggish and obstructed.

His crimson eyes flickered with suppressed hatred and caution in the absolute darkness.

Struggling to adapt to this inhuman environment, he relied on the route information already imprinted in his Primordial Spirit, sneaking in a certain direction extremely slowly, as if walking on thin ice.

The direction was Changning City.

The flames of hatred burned in his chest—his grandson, Fox Demon Fu Ye, who possessed supreme potential, had died at the hands of a Human Race Prodigy named Li Wen!

If this grudge is not avenged, how can I be a grandfather?

However, hatred had not completely devoured his reason.

Great Demon King Fu Yan clearly knew that the greatest threat at the moment was that Peak powerhouse of the Human Race, the Principal of Kindling University.

The other party's terrifying power of the Law was enough to easily crush him.

Rashness was equivalent to seeking death.

He had successfully infiltrated Blue Star.

The lifespan of the Yao Race far exceeded that of the Human Race; he had plenty of time to lie dormant and wait.

Patience was the most precious weapon at this moment.

He would only reveal his lethal fangs under the premise of ensuring his own absolute safety.

His primary task was to find a sufficiently hidden geothermal node to hide in, avoiding the Divine Sense scan of that terrifying Principal.

Then, rendezvous with the other three Great Demon Kings.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

Suburbs of Changning City, special meditation room.

September 1, 235, galactic calendar.

Li Wen slowly opened his eyes, a galaxy seeming to flicker and condense in the depths of his pupils.

He called up the crystal-clear attribute panel in his mind:

[ Name: Li Wen ]

[ Age: 27 ]

[ Realm: Great Sun Realm Late Stage (58.5 → 58.7 Rank) ]

[ Occupation: Scholar Lv15 (380 → 16580 / 1638400) ]

[ Skill: Blade Technique · Dao Realm (21%) ]

[ Cultivation Technique: God-Shocking Sting · Seventh Layer (100%) ]

In just one short month.

Under the blessing of Absolute Focus brought by the Scholar Rank breaking through to Lv15, his Blade Technique Realm climbed at a speed that surprised even himself.

His comprehension of the Dao Realm increased by 10% directly!

This was almost the result of a year of bitter cultivation previously.

There was no other reason; it was merely the result of accumulation of effort yielding a Breakthrough.

Since embarking on the path of Cultivation, for years, it had been the same day after day.

Regardless of wind, frost, rain, or snow, whether fighting or resting, his daily hours of Blade Technique tempering had never ceased.

Those instincts fused into his blood, those repeated communications and attempts with the power of heaven and earth, had long since become the most fertile soil after he stepped into a higher cognitive dimension, allowing the seeds of the Dao Realm to sprout and grow rapidly.

At the same time, after his Primordial Spirit entered the Fourth Layer Sun-Roaming Realm, the efficiency of cultivating his Physical Body Realm also improved significantly.

His vast Primordial Spirit Power had a more subtle and efficient control over the mysteries of the body and the absorption and conversion of energy, with efficiency estimated to have increased by at least 20%.