Chapter 165 - Kill! Kill! Kill!

The collective heart rate of the crowd skyrocketed!

"A soul-based Ocular Technique!" Blue Star cried out in alarm.

"It has imprisoned so many souls..." Red Moon uttered through gritted teeth.

"Oh?" At that moment, bloodshot rage filled Yun Xiao's eyes! This was the true form of the malevolent demon! Cloaked in pure white, bathed in a dreamy radiance, and exuding a cold and lofty demeanor, especially its tail feathers, which, when unfurled, resembled a dazzling galaxy, with its thirty-three eyes gleaming like white stars. Yet, these beautiful tail feathers were nothing short of a mortal hell.

"This hatred, irreconcilable!" Yun Xiao's ears had not fully recovered, and all he could hear was a jumble of noises. However, this did not dampen the fury that blazed within his chest.

HUM!

The Sword Soul transformed into a Flying Sword, clutched in his right hand, vibrating with immense force!

Yun Xiao felt as though he was back in front of the Sword Dao Monument, facing the countless marks of enraged swords from ages past. Millennia of anger concentrated on the blade in his hand!

BOOM!

As the peacock unfurled its feathers, Yun Xiao raised his left hand, and from the ground beneath the white peacock, dozens of dark vines shot up.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

They rose like steel whips, entangling themselves around the white peacock! It was Elemental Scripture, Frenzy Plant! Though it wouldn't kill the demon, it could imprison it.

"Slay!" With all the rage of a thousand storms, all concentrated into one sword! After suppressing the Peacock Prince with his daoist spell, Yun Xiao ferociously launched his Flying Sword! This sword strike was faster than the peacock's unfurling!

This was Humanity's Supreme Sword, the number one demon slaying sword!

"Constellation Slaying Sword, Meteor Shower!" With the release of the sword, a blazing light cast ten illusions, the dazzling meteors illuminated the Spirit Treasure Palace, exuding a chilling murderous intent that took one's breath away!

"What!?" The white peacock, on the verge of fully displaying its feathers, was suddenly ensnared by the massive growth of plants and was now incandescent with fury!

"You!" A dazzling brilliance flashed before his eyes, and the Meteor Shower was now like a shooting star plummeting towards him! In the blink of an eye, the meteor morphed into ten beams of light, each more alarming than the last!

The Peacock Prince's expression shifted, hurriedly using its beak, wings, and claws to defend. Yet, it couldn't block them all!

"Die!" With Yun Xiao's deep roar, the ultimate blue beam shot out, piercing straight into the white peacock's eye.

SPUTTER!

The Flying Sword pierced through one of the white peacock's eyes and exited the back of his head, trailed by a mixture of red and white. For a moment, time seemed to stand still.

"Ughh..." Dizzied, the Peacock Prince gazed with its remaining eye at the young man in white. What it saw was the youth in white robes, catching that Flying Sword! With another thrust, he obliterated the last eye!

Both eyes pierced through, darkness now enveloped everything. In the last fleeting moment, the Peacock Prince noticed the young man's smile. That smirk told him that he'd been played like a fiddle. From start to finish, he'd been dancing in the palm of someone else's hand. As despair washed over the Peacock Prince, his life faded like wisps of blue smoke.

"No..." With one final, feeble cry, the white peacock plummeted into the abyss of death. The proud, aloof white peacock's flames vanished instantly, its luminosity dimmed. The feathers it flaunted lost their vitality, the eyes on them shutting tight. The trapped souls within them soared upward from each, entering the cycle of rebirth, seeking a new beginning...

THUD!

The majestic white peacock collapsed softly to the ground.

The young man in white stood triumphantly in front of the magnificent creature, one foot nonchalantly resting on the fallen peacock's head. He gazed down at the resplendent corpse, the corner of his mouth twisting into a smirk of disdain.

"That's all you've got, Peacock Prince?" His words were soft, but they held a biting edge, sharper than the shrillest shriek. Not only did they pierce the eardrums of the watching demons, but they also stabbed right into their very souls.

Yun Xiao lifted his gaze and cast a sweeping look over the eerily silent Spirit Treasure Palace. With a dry chuckle, he remarked, "It seems the Peacock Prince got it wrong. Turns out the one who couldn't last thirty breaths... was him."

Then, as if to emphasize his disdain, Yun Xiao began to step on the peacock's head. He stepped hard, left and right, up and down, back and forth. After a thorough trampling with one foot, he switched to the other. With a casual shrug, he mused aloud, "Demon flesh is quite tough, isn't it? Seems even harder in death. Can't even squash it flat."

The sight of the humiliated Peacock Prince, combined with the earlier killing blow, struck like twin swords into the hearts of the shocked onlookers.

"The Peacock Prince... is dead..." The once raucous demons now stared, mouths agape and eyes trembling. All were struck dumb and numb. At their most arrogant, Yun Xiao had slapped them down with a single sword move. Their confidence had utterly shattered, leaving them paralyzed in stunned silence.

Yet, the most devastated seemed to be two human girls, princesses of the Violet Sky Immortal Empire. They looked as if they had been struck by lightning, their faces pale and contorted in grief. They collapsed, their young features twisted in anguish.

"Brother Kong Ming..." The one they had vied for and adored was now just a lifeless body, repeatedly stepped upon by Yun Xiao. And no one intervened. Their hearts bled.

"Kill him! Kill him!" the two cried, turning to those around them.

But their voices were drowned out by a heart-wrenching scream, "Peacock Prince!"

Everyone's eyes turned, landing on Moon Fairy. There he stood, in human form, a statue of stunned disbelief.

Whispers rippled through the crowd, rife with pity. "What a shame! The person he had just sworn to follow for life, gone in the blink of an eye."

BAM!

With clenched fury, Moon Fairy's fist collided with the sealing formation. "Back off, Yun Xiao! Step away from him!"

"I just stepped on him. What of it?" Yun Xiao replied with a chuckle.

"Open the sealing formation!" Moon Fairy roared at Zhao Xuanjian.

"Don't you dare," Yun Xiao retorted, the Heaven Burial Sword Soul gripped firmly in his hand, cold eyes trained on Moon Fairy.

"Yun Xiao!" Moon Fairy bellowed, pointing accusingly. "You have slain and humiliated the beloved son of the Eternal Joy Demon Emperor! Do you even comprehend the monumental mistake you've made? Once the Emperor's fury is unleashed, your Divine Dawn Empire will be razed! Your end is sealed! And anyone foolish enough to shield you shares your fate!"

At his revelation, a collective gasp swept the assembly. The horde of demons stirred, enraged.

"As the son-in-law of the Supreme Marshal, you have openly broken the peace between humans and demons! Your crimes are grievous! Both humans and demons shall see you judged!" The fifth princess of the Violet Sky Immortal Empire, her eyes aflame with rage, spoke on behalf of humanity.

"Open the sealing formation and send this miscreant to the Eternal Joy Demon Emperor!" the sixth princess cried out.

"Kill him! Kill! Kill!" The demon crowd's roars grew more frenzied, faces twisted with fury.

Clearly, the real storm brewed in the wake of the prince's death...

As the Violet Sky Immortal Empire and the assembly of demons pressed on with their threats, the human cultivators of the Spirit Treasure Palace found their pulses racing. Sure, the initial scene had been thrilling, but now? Uncertainty prevailed.

Someone needed to alert the Chen Heavenly Mansion, and fast!

"Enough with your nonsense!" Amid the mounting tension, Yun Xiao stood unyielding. A defiant smirk played on his lips. "This was a duel. A life-and-death battlefield. The prince sought this fight, and I fairly defeated him. Where lies my fault? Do you use the name of the Eternal Joy Demon Emperor to intimidate me because your Demon Continent can't handle the loss? Or is it the Emperor himself who's the sore loser? Making such a fuss here... How utterly disgraceful."

Asserting moral high ground was key for Yun Xiao. Why else would he have gone to such lengths to stage this game?

His words stopped the demons and the Violet Sky Immortal Empire representatives in their tracks. An honorable defeat left no room for their objections.

"Moreover," Yun Xiao sneered at the two princesses, "you, as humans, and the Violet Sky Immortal Empire, as a human realm, should stand up for your people. When I slay demons, what right do you have to protest?"

Without waiting for the two princesses to respond, Yun Xiao deftly sliced off a tail feather from the white peacock, holding it up for all to see. With a theatrical flourish, he announced, "Can't you folks see what's in this? Human souls! One eye held so many souls; just imagine how many would be in thirty-three eyes! How many of our kind has this demon devoured? Can any of you even count that high?"

His words struck like a gong, leaving the human crowd in stunned silence.

"To the princesses," Yun Xiao boomed, his voice dripping with scorn, "You walk alongside this mass murderer, defend it, speak for this beast. I must ask... does your Violet Sky Immortal Empire raise humans or demons?" His voice thundered, pushing the princesses back a step, their faces flushed, utterly lost for words.

Everything that unfolded in the Spirit Treasure Palace was news that would ripple across both the Heavenly Realm and the Demon Continent. Every gesture, every word from Yun Xiao carried weight.

"Sure, humans and demons have treaties and these are times of peace, but for the folks from the Violet Sky Immortal Empire to side with this demon, oblivious to their own people's lives... It's a sight that's quite hard on the eyes," Yun Xiao remarked.

The murmurs from the crowd made it clear they were on his side. "Such a shame," one sighed. "This man has fire in his belly," another whispered in awe.

Regardless of the whispers, Yun Xiao knew he had won the approval of his kin. And that was all he needed.

As the whispers grew, the princesses, sensing the mood, wisely chose silence over defense, their eyes welling up in suppressed frustration.

But Moon Fairy, undeterred, kept banging on the sealing formation, glaring at Yun Xiao. "No matter how eloquently you phrase it, your fate's sealed! When our mighty demon forces descend, nobody will dare back you!"

"We'll see," Yun Xiao replied nonchalantly, and with a smirk, he crushed the Peacock Prince's head beneath his foot.

"Yun Xiao! Having killed it was one thing, but to desecrate its body? You'll never find redemption!" the Moon Fairy shrieked.

The surrounding demons, with their murderous intentions clear, looked ready to break through the barrier, the very reason Zhao Xuanjian hadn't dared to release it. Once it came down, Yun Xiao would surely be swallowed by their rage.

"'Defile the body?'" Yun Xiao responded with an icy smirk, his eyes blazing at Moon Fairy. "This Peacock Prince has murdered countless innocent souls of our kind. I step on it a few times and you're all up in arms?"

"How dare you!" The assembled demons roared in fury.

"Daring? Ha! Let me show you what real audacity looks like."

Without another word, Yun Xiao, under the watchful eyes of thousands of demons, plunged his sword into the belly of the Peacock Prince. The white peacock's insides spilled out in a wet, grotesque heap.

"He's been dead for a while; everything's gone soft," Yun Xiao quipped, driving his Sword Soul directly into the demon's spine and audaciously draining its essence.

There was an uproarious commotion in the Spirit Treasure Palace.

"Insolent brat! Die! Die! Die!" The demons, driven to madness, pounded on the protective barrier, eyes practically popping out of their skulls.

"Hold it!" Zhao Xuanjian, flanked by the palace guards, swiftly surrounded the area. He stared at Yun Xiao, his beard twitching in disbelief. What was this young man thinking? Draining the essence of the child of the Eternal Joy Demon Emperor, right in front of everyone? This wasn't just a slap in the face to the Emperor; it was a challenge to the entire Demon Continent. If word of this spread, the Heavenly Realm would plunge into chaos.

But Yun Xiao seemed unconcerned. In mere moments, he drained the demon dry. And yes, he reclaimed the Seed of Creation, intending to toss it to his body double later.

"Oh? Upset, are we?" Yun Xiao turned to face the incensed demons, wearing a cold smirk. "We're just getting started."

As the horde stared at Yun Xiao's brazen demeanor, an unsettling thought crossed their minds. He wouldn’t... But before they could process the idea, the Soul Ignition Art was unleashed upon the corpse. Crackling sounds echoed as the once mighty body began to crystallize, gradually becoming a Blood Crystal under the searing force.

With a snap, Yun Xiao hung the Blood Crystal on his Sword Soul, shaking his head disdainfully. "Just a mediocre Wind Fire Sword Ring. Compared to a Saint Sword Ring, it's rather unimpressive!"