“Time continued to rewind, more than two years into the past!”
“What condition?” Yan Nai’er asked.
The powerful demon said, “Don’t worry, this condition has nothing to do with your chastity. Although you are beautiful and adorable, I passed the age of being interested in women a very long time ago.”
“What condition?” Yan Nai’er asked again.
The demon replied, “I want your loyalty, complete loyalty from your life and your soul. You carry the bloodline of an Ancient Demon, yet your cultivation is pitifully weak. I will find a way to make you powerful, unimaginably powerful. I will turn you into the sharpest blade under my command. Through you, I want to recreate the power of the Ancient Demons.”
“What if I refuse?” Yan Nai’er asked.
“Then I will hand you over, completely intact, to the people of the Divine Dragon Temple. Unless someone has overwhelming value, no one in this world is willing to become an enemy of the Divine Dragon Temple, including me. Even if you want to self-destruct, you won’t be able to.”
Yan Nai’er tried, only to discover that her body remained completely restrained. She still could not move at all.
“Fine, I agree,” Yan Nai’er said.
The demon replied, “Think carefully. Once I transform you into an Ancient Demoness, I have no idea what will happen. You may lose your human appearance. You may lose everything.”
“I agree!” Yan Nai’er declared. “As long as that bastard doesn’t violate me, I’ll accept anything!”
“Very well. Our contract is now complete,” the demon said.
Even while speaking to Yan Nai’er, he continued releasing countless clones to attack Huai Bingyi and Princess Zhiyan.
After hearing their conversation, Huai Bingyi’s expression changed dramatically.
“Your Excellency,” he shouted, “leave your name and reveal your true appearance.”
The demon laughed.
“You know you can’t stop me, so now you want my identity, so that one day the Divine Dragon Temple can come to kill me? Impossible! Hahaha…”
Then the demon released another surge of terrifying power.
A gigantic vortex instantly appeared in the sky, spinning faster and faster.
Whoosh!
Yan Nai’er’s delicate body was swallowed by the vortex and vanished without a trace.
“You two outstanding young heroes of the Divine Dragon Temple, farewell.”
Moments later, all of the demon’s clones disappeared.
Then his colossal figure, over a hundred metres tall, dissolved into nothingness.
The darkened sky quickly returned to normal.
The demon had already taken Yan Nai’er far away.
Although it was around six or seven in the evening and the sun had already set, the Barbarian Wilderness was still brightly lit.
Princess Zhiyan and Huai Bingyi looked at the corpses scattered across the battlefield.
“Who do you think he was?” Huai Bingyi asked.
Princess Zhiyan shook her head.
“I know very little about the powers of the Demon Race.”
She truly did not know, since she was not one of the Divine Dragon Temple’s true core disciples.
Huai Bingyi inhaled the lingering aura in the air.
“Someone with power at that level is either one of the princes of the Demon Tuo Empire or one of the great Demon Kings of the Southern Wilderness. Whoever he is, the Divine Dragon Temple will eventually uncover his identity and make him pay.”
“Let’s go,” Huai Bingyi said.
He glanced at Zhuang Zhixuan lying on the ground. After hesitating briefly, he cast a platinum net over her, imprisoning her.
Then he and Princess Zhiyan transformed into two streaks of light and sped northwards with Zhuang Zhixuan.
…
Time returned to the present, two years later.
On the summit of a mountain ten thousand metres high stood a newly built Hall of Darkness.
An ancient blood sacrifice ritual was underway.
According to an ancient diagram, the Demon King intended to recreate an Ancient Demoness.
At the centre of the hall was a massive pool filled with blood, an immense quantity of blood.
Now the blood pool had begun to bubble and boil.
Dozens of people sat cross-legged around it.
There was an incomparably handsome middle-aged demon, along with dozens of ancient elders.
Every one of them stared fixedly at the centre of the blood pool.
Every person present was unimaginably powerful, figures capable of shaking the outside world.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
As the blood churned, the entire hall began to tremble.
Dark clouds gathered overhead.
Although it had been broad daylight, the sky rapidly darkened as the clouds thickened.
Soon, it was as dark as night.
The clouds descended lower and lower until they completely enveloped the mountain summit and the Hall of Darkness.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Blinding bolts of lightning crashed relentlessly into the blood pool with deafening force.
Everywhere else the sky remained clear, but above the mountain peak darkness tore through the heavens like the end of the world.
The handsome demon had a vivid crimson birthmark covering nearly half his face, making his appearance even more strangely enchanting.
As his excitement grew, the mark became brighter and brighter until it seemed ready to bleed.
For this single day, he had sacrificed countless things over the past two years.
To summon the powerful Dark Lightning needed to rebuild the Ancient Demoness’s body, he had spent unimaginable wealth constructing this black hall atop the mountain and creating an enormous energy formation.
That lovely and beautiful woman clearly possessed the bloodline of an Ancient Demon, so why had she remained so weak?
Because she possessed a human body.
Its tremendous power simply could not be released. Even the slightest overflow of that power would reduce her to ashes.
So she needed an entirely new body.
A true demon body.
Not only that, he had either persuaded or coerced more than a hundred of the greatest shamans into presiding over this blood sacrifice.
To contain the energy of the demon blood, he had spent countless spirit crystals constructing this blood pool.
The greatest price, however, had been the slaughter of several thousand powerful demons and several thousand high-bloodline demonic beasts, pouring all of their blood into this pool.
After paying such an unimaginable cost, there was only one objective.
To recreate an Ancient Demoness.
The demons had vanished countless ages ago.
Today, there were no true demons left in the world.
Thus, the former Demon Kings had become Barbarian Kings.
The once-proud Demon Race had been forced beneath the Divine Dragon Temple, compelled to sign one humiliating treaty after another.
The entire Northern Wilderness had already fallen.
The five great Demon King families had been nearly exterminated by the Demon Tuo Emperor.
After conquering the north, the Demon Tuo Empire established its overwhelming dominion.
Having signed the Ten Thousand Mountains Treaty with the Divine Dragon Temple, they dared not invade northwards, so they turned their ambitions towards the Southern Wilderness.
Yet despite such danger, the eight Demon Kings of the south remained divided, each concerned only with their own interests.
To resist both the Divine Dragon Temple and the Demon Tuo Empire, the Southern Wilderness had to be united into a single, powerful Demon Empire.
Otherwise, the day the Demon Tuo Empire and the Divine Dragon Temple invaded together would mark the complete destruction of the southern demons.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Thunder roared.
The earth shook.
Under the overwhelming pressure, the Hall of Darkness atop the mountain began cracking apart piece by piece.
“Your Majesty, the time has come!”
An elderly shaman cried out.
The Demon King’s eyes trembled.
The crimson mark on his face finally began bleeding.
“The Blood Sacrifice Ceremony… begin!”
With a shout, he drew a dagger and slashed open his wrist.
Blood burst forth.
At the same moment, more than a dozen powerful shamans cut their own veins, allowing their blood to pour into the pool.
Meanwhile, one powerful demon warrior after another entered the hall.
Each had bloodshot eyes filled with fanatical devotion, as though they had lost all reason.
The moment each warrior reached the edge of the blood pool…
Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck.
Their bodies exploded into dust.
Only their blood, carrying powerful demonic energy, splashed into the pool.
One after another, the demon warriors entered.
One after another, they were obliterated by lightning.
Only the demon blood containing immense power remained, feeding the Ancient Demoness within the pool.
To recreate her, the Demon King had paid an unbearable price.
Every one of these warriors was an elite.
Every one possessed strength beyond that of a Great Demon Warrior.
Yet here they served only as sacrifices, offering their demon blood to fuel her rebirth.
The blood pool itself already contained the blood of thousands of demon warriors and countless high-level demonic beasts.
“Release it!”
At the command, the Demon King and dozens of powerful shamans unleashed all of their energy.
Boundless demonic blood energy poured into the body lying within the pool.
Lightning continued to strike from the heavens.
One powerful demon warrior after another stepped forward, was reduced to dust by lightning, and contributed the demon blood within them.
The Demon King and the shamans offered not only their power, but also their own blood, endlessly pouring energy into the Ancient Demoness.
The Demon King himself remained unharmed due to his immense strength.
The shamans, however, were reaching their limits.
“Pfft!”
One of them coughed up blood before collapsing dead.
“The last mile is always the hardest! We’re at the final moment. Do not give up!” the Demon King roared.
The remaining shamans continued their desperate ritual.
Outside, more Great Demon Warriors entered one after another, willingly sacrificing their lives.
Yet the Ancient Demoness within the blood pool still showed no sign of awakening.
The Demon King’s face twitched violently.
Was it going to fail?
Would more than two years of effort, countless lives and limitless resources all be wasted?
He did not know whether he could bear such failure.
“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The heavenly lightning reached its fiercest point.
“Your Majesty,” one shaman cried with a trembling voice, “the Dark Lightning… is ending…”
The Dark Lightning was a vital part of the ritual.
Only its thunderous power could help forge the Ancient Demoness’s new body.
To summon it, the Demon King had built this Hall of Darkness atop the ten-thousand-metre mountain.
Countless spirit crystals had been consumed to create the enormous formation that attracted the Dark Lightning.
Once it disappeared, summoning it again would require paying the same terrible price, selecting another place rich in energy, constructing another formation with countless spirit crystals, and waiting another year and a half for the lightning to gather.
In other words, if the ritual failed now, another opportunity would not come for years.
“No! Absolutely not! I don’t have years to spare!”
“Your Majesty! Just a little more! Only a little more!”
Grinding his teeth, the Demon King suddenly seized a Dragon Gold Sword and plunged it into his own heart.
Immediately, purple demon blood sprayed into the pool.
Then…
The Dark Lightning ceased.
The clouds dispersed.
Calm returned.
The sky became bright once more.
Yet the blood pool remained silent.
Nothing happened.
The Demon King’s face twisted in agony.
He had even sacrificed his own demon blood.
Why had it still failed?
Was Heaven truly determined to punish him?
Despair consumed him.
Just then…
The blood pool suddenly erupted into violent turbulence.
The crimson colour rapidly faded.
It was as though some enormous force was devouring every trace of energy within the pool.
Just like the Dragon Flame boiling the Sea of Blood before, every strand of demonic bloodline energy condensed and surged towards the woman’s heart.
The blood pool rapidly became transparent.
The water boiled violently.
A dense crimson mist filled the air.
The sky, which had only just cleared, was swallowed by darkness once more.
This darkness was so complete that one could not even see a hand held before the face.
The Demon King and the remaining shamans held their breath, staring at the scene.
Nearly fifteen minutes later…
The darkness disappeared.
Light returned to the Hall of Darkness.
The blood pool had become completely transparent.
Not a trace of blood remained.
The water was now crystal clear, perhaps the purest water in the world.
Lying quietly at the centre of the pool was a peerless beauty.
A woman capable of enchanting an entire world.
She possessed the most beautiful face and the most seductive figure.
Her body was covered in a skin-tight suit of crimson blood armour that perfectly outlined every alluring curve.
Her feet had become demon hooves.
Two crimson wings extended from her back.
Her hair flowed like blazing fire.
Lightning-shaped markings ran across the blood armour covering her legs.
The Demon King’s body trembled.
His lips quivered.
Had he succeeded?
Had he truly succeeded?
Had he really recreated an Ancient Demoness through the lives of countless people, unimaginable sacrifice, and the ancient Blood Sacrifice Ceremony?
At that moment, the demoness in the water slowly opened her eyes.
They were as captivating as fire, as deep as the sea.
She rose to her feet.
With the innocent, bewildered gaze of a newborn child, she looked around at everything.
Then she spread her wings and slowly floated into the air.