Chapter 207: Demons and Divine Blood (I)

Deep within the Yunwu Mountains, the dimly lit passage fell into silence after the demon-like Maximus emerged, clad in black battle armor. He took a deep breath of the air and was immediately enchanted. "Is this the air of the blue planet? I smell the delicious aroma of many foods."

Ma He stepped forward respectfully. "Lord Maximus, congratulations on being the first of the Purgatory God Clan to set foot on the blue planet."

Maximus nodded slightly. "You are correct. I am indeed the first demon to enter the world of the human race since the beginning of the War of Civilizations. But I must correct you here. We are the Purgatory True Demon Clan. We don’t need the false title of ‘God.’ In fact, I detest that word."

Ma He quickly apologized. "Yes, the great True Demon Clan. I misspoke, please forgive me, Lord Maximus."

Seeing this scene, the others showed a hint of disdain in their eyes.

Maximus's gaze similarly turned cold. "This time, Demon King Barus had expended massive resources to pinpoint this location so that we can get here.

"According to the coordinates obtained from captives, this should be the depths of the southern battlefield of the East Xia region. The space here is chaotic, and information is blocked. The human race's young talents train and cultivate within this battlefield."

Upon hearing the repeated attempts to pinpoint the location, Ma He and the others shuddered. Every one of those failed attempts had been accompanied by a death. Failing meant whoever was sent to explore and find the location had been torn into pieces by the collapsing space passage with no remains left.

"King Xuanwu of the human race has ventured deep into the territory of the True Demon Clan and killed a descendant with Divine Blood, stirring the wrath of the demon lords.

"One of them has left the frontlines to pursue King Xuanwu, which has caused chaos in the region of spacetime. For that, he will pay. Even so, the fury of those lords cannot be quelled. So the Demon King Barus has launched a campaign to slaughter the new and stronger generation of the human race.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"We, as the first squad to infiltrate the inner world of the humans, have a crucial mission this time. Once accomplished, it will greatly benefit everyone. However, it also means venturing alone without backup.

"In such circumstances, caution is imperative. Therefore, until my injuries have healed, no one is permitted to leave. We must avoid exposure and unforeseen accidents. Understood?"

At this point, Maxiumus' expression turned extremely cold.

Apart from those who had scouted ahead, their elite assassination team had set off with fifty members, but only twenty-three had successfully made it through the rift. Every one of them had also been severely injured, their realms suppressed by the spatial cuts when they had passed through. As powerful as Maximus was, it would still take even him a month to recover.

Ultimately, however, it didn't matter; the ones who had died had just been lackeys of the Demon Cult Alliance.

Kolant and others respectfully replied, "We understand."

Seeing this, Maximus nodded slowly. "Rest assured, I know you all harbor deep hatred for the Human Federation, so I won't restrict you for too long.

"This passage is our only retreat. According to King Barus’ plan, he will continue to use his energy to maintain this passage for one star cycle, which is roughly thirty days. Fifteen days from now, you will be free to hunt down those human geniuses."

The faces of the demon cultists revealed bloodthirsty excitement. Every single one of them were elites, with realms equivalent to the Sixth Heavenly Realm of the human cultivation system. Each one possessed formidable strength, not fearing even the Sixth Realm teachers stationed at the school bases.

Of course, this was under the condition that they were not injured and not besieged. Due to the unstable spatial rifts, they couldn't bring anything except weapons through, even having to leave their spatial rings or bracelets behind.

Many of the healing resources stashed on their bodies had also been destroyed by the spatial storms. As a result, they didn't even have the high-level resources for a quick recovery. They would have to rely on absorbing transcendent energy from the atmosphere or sucking the essence of the mutated creatures around them.

Maximus, who was much stronger, had managed to bring over a few items in a special bag that hung on his waist, but he would never share these with his subordinates.

Kolant, the giant, licked his lips. "When the time comes, I'll rip off all those 'geniuses’' heads and make them into necklaces."

"I'm not interested in heads, but before we left, the Bishop said that we’ll be rewarded with high-quality resources if we can bring back a piece of a genius’ scalp." Ma He's eyes turned bloodshot, full of resentment. "I want to drain the blood of these Federation lackeys..."

Just then, the white-robed youth turned slightly; with a flash, his figure appeared dozens of meters away. Immediately, Maximus’s eyes turned cold, and he spoke in a deep voice.

"Zuo Jing, did you not hear what I just said?"

The white-robed youth turned back slightly, his expression indifferent. "Maximus, the Eternal Cult is not a lackey of the Purgatory Clan. You are not qualified to command me."

Instantly, a strong killing intent flashed in Maximus’s eyes, as he coldly stated, "So, you want to disobey my orders?"

The white-robed youth stood with hands behind his back, calmly saying, "I said you're not qualified to command me, so there is no disobedience here. I'll go wherever I want to go."

"Do you want to die?" A terrifying demonic aura erupted from Maximus, under which even the heavens and earth dimmed slightly.

Boom!

"Even if I’m injured, even if my realm has been suppressed to the Fifth, even if I can only exert half of my strength because of the rules of the blue planet, I can still destroy you.”

"Is that so? Well, what a coincidence. I've never killed a Purgatory True Demon before. Would you like to be my first?"

With that, the youth’s eyes turned gold. An aura just as fierce and dominating emanated from him, evaporating Maximus’ demonic aura.

Just as the two were about to clash, Ma He quickly intervened. "Lord Maximus, the mission is urgent. There's no need to argue with the madman from the Eternal Cult."

"Yes, Lord, you don't need to bother with Zuo Jing. He's still part of the Alliance of Cults. Even if he leaves, we don't need to worry about him revealing our whereabouts."

"With his strength, those Federation lackeys will have only one way to go when they encounter him, so there's no need for concern, Lord."

Others quickly jumped in, seeming to fear the white-robed youth more than Maximus, despite him being from the Purgatory Demon Clan.

Maximus remained unmoved by their words. The black demonic aura on his body continued raging, almost turning the surrounding sky black, becoming increasingly domineering.

Seeing him hesitate to make his move, however, the white-robed youth simply chuckled. The gold in his eyes faded, and he turned and left, disappearing into the mist in the blink of an eye.

While Maximus made no attempt to stop him, a strange gleam flickered in his eyes.

***

It was past five in the afternoon, and within the lingering mist, the deep mountain forests grew increasingly dim.

With a swing of the Eight Desolations Purgatory Halberd, a double-headed white python, over ten meters in length with sharp claws beneath its belly, exploded with a thunderous wail, its flesh splattering everywhere.

Standing amid the dense bloody aura with halberd in hand, Chen Chu glanced to his left.

There, a massive mutated beast, entirely black and over seventeen meters in length, slowly retreated and eventually disappeared into the depths of the forest.

Watching the level 4 mutated beast disappear, Chen Chu shook his head. "Too bad, I didn't find that mutated beast. Otherwise, I could have killed it and taken it back by now."

With that, Chen Chu's figure flashed out of sight. With black and red true power circulating around him, wherever he passed, weeds, bushes, and branches were all crushed.

Compared to the vast forest, Chen Chu was as small as an insect. Before the sound from his movement could travel out, it was absorbed by the surrounding foliage.

This also, however, meant that it was challenging for him to find a specific mutated beast in the mist-filled forest. It had been thirty minutes since Chen Chu had arrived at the coordinates Li Fei had given him, and he had spent the entire time searching for traces of that late stage level 5 beast.

Even though he had already seen two level 5 creatures on the way here, he didn’t come to just hunt random level 5 beasts. He also wanted to get his hands on the potential resources.

Soon, the sky turned dark. Unable to find any traces of the mutated creature, Chen Chu climbed up a towering ancient tree, standing over a hundred meters tall with a diameter of ten meters.

Standing on a two-meter-thick branch, Chen Chu swung his halberd and started slicing through the iron-like trunk. Soon, a hole three meters in length, width and height appeared.

He had also made sure to preserve the bark to fashion a door, which could be closed and locked from the inside. Combined with being over fifty meters above ground, it was very well hidden.