Chapter 866: Name Your Price

At the upper levels of the Celestial Northern Prison, there were two distinct sections—one belonging to the Guardian Ruler and the other to the Deputy Commissioner Zuo.

Zuo Ci, the deputy commissioner of the Imperial Supervisory Bureau, spent years cultivating in solitude within his private chamber, rarely stepping outside. There was nothing much he could do about that. Even the Guardian Ruler could occasionally leave the Celestial Northern Prison to roam about, but Zuo Ci could not. If he wished to leave, it could only be during quiet periods, and even then, he could only go as a clone.

Zuo Ci had to keep his Dao essence linked to the Celestial Northern Prison. It was simply impossible for him to leave.

As the years went by, Zuo Ci came to accept this fate. He should've expected it from the moment he became the Dao Master of Resilient Defense.

Clad in a dirty Daoist robe, Zuo Ci sat cross-legged in his chamber. His long hair draped down messily, and his face was unsurprisingly greasy and grimy. After all, anyone would stop caring about their appearance after being confined for over a hundred years.

Zuo Ci had remained in this meditative posture for hundreds of days, and everything had been the same as always.

However, at this moment, he suddenly opened his eyes.

Zuo Ci looked at the empty space in front of him and spoke, seemingly to no one.

"You dragged me into this without even a greeting. I nearly fell asleep.

"You must be the infamous Nightmare Demon King of years past? You slipped into my mind without a sound... These dream techniques of yours are truly terrifying."

A moment later, an eerie laugh rang out from that empty space. "

Hee-hee-hee...

"

Outside the chamber, a ball of chaotic mass lit up. It resembled an enormous pupil, surrounded by a dark-colored iris that gave off the impression of being as distant as the stars in the night sky.

There was a colossal eye right outside the chamber's window!

"You reacted very quickly. I had hoped you'd remain peacefully unaware... but alas, you noticed," said the Nightmare Demon King in a raspy and frighteningly eerie voice.

Zuo Ci remained motionless, but he had already begun taking action with his Dao essence. Waves of golden light flared within the chamber while flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder manifested outside.

Roaring Dao essence clashed violently.

The terrifying thing about the Nightmare Demon King was that it was a creature born directly from the Great Dao of Nightmare, so it had absolute affinity with the Great Dao of Nightmore. It could invade a person's mind tracelessly without a form, dragging them into its illusory realm. Once the person was inside the nightmare, the Nightmare Demon King could manipulate everything, even using the person's Great Dao to attack them.

And that was happening to Zuo Ci right now. The Nightmare Demon King had pulled him into its nightmare and seized control of his Great Dao of Resilient Defense. If Deputy Commissioner Zuo hadn't awakened in time, the Celestial Northern Prison might have fallen under the Nightmare Demon King's control in the span of a single breath.

Even now, Zuo Ci couldn't immediately reclaim full control of the Celestial Northern Prison. The Nightmare Demon King was like a super powerful virus, capable of slipping unhindered through every defensive measure—real and illusory. Just like when it infiltrated the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams during the Assembly of Immortal Sects, there was no stopping the Nightmare Demon King.

Zuo Ci raised his left hand, and streams of spiritual qi instantly condensed into rhombus-shaped crystals on his palm. Then they transformed into a long spear of pure spiritual qi.

He gripped the spear and hurled it forward.

Whoosh.

The spear flew through the air in an arc and struck the Nightmare Demon King's giant eye.

Boom!

An explosion erupted on impact.

However, during the explosion, the real Nightmare Demon King had already vanished without a trace.

The demons had never intended to attack Deputy Commissioner Zuo. They knew just how difficult it was to harm a Dao Master of Resilient Defense. Even if several demon kings joined forces, they would likely have to fight for a long time to even have a chance of defeating him.

Nevertheless, the Nightmare Demon King was a being that could slip through any gap, so it was perfectly suited to counter his tactics.

"

Hee-hee-hee...

" The eerie laughter of the Nightmare Demon King echoed from afar. "We hadn't planned to move this early. I could've refined the dream realm even further. But unexpectedly, a greater demon attacked the Celestial Northern Prison today and tied down the Guardian Ruler, giving us the perfect opportunity to attack. So... I took action ahead of schedule,

keke.

"Under these circumstances, I doubt anyone will be able to come rescue you. Let's see how long it takes you to escape from this incomplete dream...

hee-hee-hee...

"

Zuo Ci's expression darkened, and he quickly rose to his feet.

He knew that everything he was seeing right now was fake. He couldn't sense anything outside, so all he could do was shut every gate of the Celestial Northern Prison, forbidding any changes within.

Until he broke through this nightmare realm, he had to hold firmly to his Dao essence!

...

However, with the Celestial Northern Prison now sealed shut, it wasn't just the demon kings outside the fortress who were trapped. The same went for the prison guards inside.

When the extremely evil demon king hidden within the strange fish revealed himself, Chu Liang immediately ordered all the guards to retreat. But the building was sealed as tight as a drum. Where could they even run to?

Shhk.

Before they could run far, a strand of white silk pierced through the cell wall and coiled tightly around the ankle of one of the guards at the rear of the group.

In the blink of an eye, that guard was rendered immobile, wrapped head to toe in white threads until he became a massive cocoon.

Right after that, a series of thuds came from inside the cell, followed by a deafening crash.

Boom!

A massive fist imprint bulged outward on the cell wall.

The middle-aged man, who had seemed so short and weak just moments ago, looked completely different now. Two ash-gray wings had unfurled behind him, and his right arm had become several times thicker, veins bulging like coiled dragons on his arm. Viscous purple liquid coated his fist, and after a few powerful punches, he was about to smash through the cell wall!

Behind him, the cell was now covered in threads of white silk and purple liquid. The massive monster fish had vanished, leaving behind only a gruesome skeleton with droplets of the purple liquid dripping from it.

Chu Liang caught the scene with his divine sense, and his heart raced in fear.

The scene made him recall the legend of the seventh demon king of the Far West.

Back then, Venerable Wen Yuan had led a group to attack the Far West in order to rescue Chu Liang. At the time, only six demon kings had emerged to fight, including the Demon King of the Great Marshlands—who had been forced into battle by a certain elite cultivator of the Mount Shu Sect. The only demon king of the Far West that hadn't appeared was the Demon King of the Emerald Forest, a moth who had taken human form.

This demon king, Moth, rarely appeared in public, yet he occupied the most fertile and resource-rich forest in the Far West. That alone spoke of his immense power. After all, even the Black Golden Crow had to settle for the barren Desolate Plains.

Moth was said to draw power from the living. He would devour living creatures whenever he awoke, then he would fall into a long sleep to digest his food. Once the digestion was complete, he would become even stronger.

Over a thousand years ago, during the chaos of war, he had taken advantage of the turmoil across the nine provinces and devoured the entire population of a kingdom in the Western Regions.

It seemed the demons were truly going all out this time, even sending this terrifying being that normally slumbered for centuries on end. Furthermore, they sent him as part of the vanguard.

The demons had successfully smuggled a demon king inside and even sealed off the Celestial Northern Prison somehow. Without outside interference, Moth was invincible within these walls.

The demons outside didn't need to breach the prison anymore. On the contrary, they now had to defend it—to keep the righteous sects' Eminent Ones from breaking in!

The tides had turned.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Moth continued pounding the cell wall. The structure was fused with the Great Dao of Resilient Defense, but that didn't mean it could withstand repeated blows from an eighth-realm greater demon without its Dao Master's control.

It was only a matter of time before Moth broke free.

Chu Liang and the prison guards fled far away in utter disarray. It seemed like Moth was trapped in the cell, but it was actually the humans who were trapped.

Chu Liang knew this was a part of the bait plan, but it certainly wasn't part of the plan to let the demons get Tuntun so easily. If that happened, they wouldn't be able to lure out the Demon God's life essence, and all of this would be meaningless.

"We have to stop him," Chu Liang muttered.

"Who doesn't want to? But who

can

stop him?" Du Wuhen replied, his face crumpled with worry. He muttered bitterly, "We shouldn't have bought a house!"

If we hadn't tried to buy a house, I wouldn't be in this mess right now!

The guards were all visibly in despair. "The Guardian Ruler is away in battle, and there's no word from Deputy Commissioner Zuo. Right now, there's simply no one herer who can stop him!"

Faced with this terrifying eighth-realm demon king, they had no hope of survival.

"No." Chu Liang shook his head. "There is someone who can stop him."

Hope flickered in Du Wuhen's eyes. "Are you saying... it's you?"

Chu Liang's and Moth's cultivation levels were worlds apart. However, Du Wuhen had seen Chu Liang pull off so many miracles. If Chu Liang claimed he could take on an eighth-realm demon king alone, Du Wuhen would believe him without hesitation.

That was the absolute faith he had in the name "Chu Liang."

"What are you even thinking?" Chu Liang said, mercilessly shattering Du Wuhen's fantasy. Then he turned to the guard beside him and instructed, "Take me to Immortal Yuan Lu's cell!"

If there was anyone still in the Celestial Northern Prison that had a chance of being a match for an eighth-realm demon king, then it could only be Immortal Yuan Lu, a prominent figure of the West Sea diabolical sects who had been imprisoned some time ago.

"Immortal Yuan Lu?" The guards escorting Chu Liang looked stunned. "Isn't it too dangerous to release him?"

Chu Liang replied, "Isn't our situation dangerous enough already?"

Another guard expressed his doubts. "But... he's been imprisoned for so long. Why would he help us?"

They soon arrived outside the target cell.

"Immortal Yuan Lu, I need your help," Chu Liang said calmly to the cell. "Name your price."