When Lanling led the Death Warriors, several thousand centaur warriors, and escorted more than a hundred captives into the Flame Demon Tribe, the entire Flame Demon Tribe was completely stirred up.
At this time, half of the earth wall of the seventy-li outer city had already been completed.
When Lanling returned, everyone was busy working.
The moment they saw Lanling, everyone knew that their chief, Lanling, had once again achieved a glorious victory.
However, this time, the victory felt very distant from them.
Yin Ji, Dina, and Ali walked out of the castle and looked towards Lanling.
Lanling smiled and nodded, but he did not walk towards the castle. Instead, he walked towards the summit of Mirror Mountain.
……
At the summit of Mirror Mountain, in front of the Mirror Demon King.
Twenty-six Death Warriors formed the first encirclement.
Three thousand centaur warriors surrounded the entire mountaintop in layer after layer. They then turned their backs towards Lanling and closed their eyes and ears.
This meant that they would neither see nor hear anything that was about to happen.
One hundred and eighty-five captives from the Black Demon Banner were all sitting cross-legged on the mountaintop, surrounded tightly by several thousand centaur warriors.
They sensed a cold and dangerous atmosphere.
Lanling’s calm, emotionless gaze and the strange looks of the twenty-six Death Warriors made them feel that something terrifying was about to happen.
Lanling closed his eyes and thought, “Mirror!”
“Master!” the Mirror Demon King replied.
Lanling said, “I have made a bet with the Black Demon Banner Lord. In forty-five days, no, forty-four days from now, I will fight him. If I win, I will become the ruler of the Black Demon Banner territory and become Princess Shayan’s husband. If I lose, I will be completely destroyed and lose everything.”
The Mirror Demon King said, “Master is immortal. You will never lose everything.”
Then, the Mirror Demon King said, “Master, I thought your opponent would be Naitu. I never expected it to be… his father.”
“Yes, it is crazy,” Lanling said. “But this should be the only opportunity to rule the Black Demon Banner territory.”
The Mirror Demon King was silent for a moment before saying, “Master, there are two paths before us. Search for the Ghost King’s Tomb and comprehend the power of Hell Lightning.”
Lanling asked, “What level of cultivation do you think I need to reach before I can defeat the Black Demon Banner Lord?”
The Mirror Demon King shook his head. “I am sorry, Master. I do not know. I do not have sufficiently accurate information about the Black Demon Banner Lord’s cultivation. But I know that Hell Lightning is a kind of… power of heaven and earth. It can penetrate any magical energy barrier.”
Lanling asked, “What will I find if I locate the Ghost King’s Tomb?”
The Mirror Demon King replied, “His sword, helmet, armour? Thousands of years have passed, so most of the energy inside has dissipated, but there should still be enough for you to break through to the Demon Sect realm. However, you also know that the key to breaking through to the Martial Sect realm lies in the energy path, and your cultivation in that area is extremely weak.”
“I know,” Lanling said.
The Mirror Demon King said, “But… you are His Majesty the Demon Emperor. The so-called energy path and breaking through to the Demon Sect realm are merely self-imposed limitations of ordinary members of the demon race. For you, everything is unknown and everything is possible. You can comprehend every form of energy attack in the world. Forget the energy path, it has no meaning for you!”
“I understand what you mean,” Lanling said. “After I absorb the energy of the Ghost King’s Sword, it will remain stored deep within my bloodline. Only after comprehending Hell Lightning can I undergo self-nirvana and break through to the Demon Sect realm. There is no need to follow the conventional cultivation of the energy path.”
“Exactly, Master!” the Mirror Demon King said. “What you need to control now is gradually mastering your bloodline, then mastering energy, then mastering heaven and earth, and finally mastering the energy of the entire world.”
Lanling said, “In other words, devouring these one hundred and eighty-five Martial Sect experts will have little significance for directly increasing my cultivation. Most of it will simply be stored. What matters more is creating one hundred and eighty-five new Death Warriors.”
“Yes, Master!”
“Then begin.”
“Yes!”
The demonic mirror on the mountaintop suddenly released a beam of light.
The reflections of all one hundred and eighty-five Martial Sect captives appeared inside the demonic mirror.
The Mirror Demon King released powerful spiritual energy and began capturing the spiritual souls of the one hundred and eighty-five people.
They struggled desperately.
But it was completely meaningless.
Although the Mirror Demon King’s spiritual energy had already diminished considerably, once their reflections had entered its world, their spirits naturally could not escape.
In a short while, the spirits of all one hundred and eighty-five Martial Sect experts had been captured.
All of them knelt down neatly.
Lanling opened his mouth, revealing his sharp fangs, and began absorbing the blood of the first captive.
The Martial Sect captive’s body trembled violently, but he felt no physical pain because his spirit had already been completely captured by the Mirror Demon King.
Lanling continued absorbing the energy.
In the blink of an eye, all the blood in the captive’s body had been drained, leaving behind a dried corpse.
The blood entered Lanling’s body and instantly transformed into pure demonic blood energy, flowing into the depths of his heart.
After draining the captive, Lanling injected some of his own demonic blood energy into the dried corpse.
How many people could Lanling’s demonic blood be given to?
No one knew, because his demonic blood had already become a conceptual form of energy. It was no longer a matter of injecting one millilitre or two millilitres of golden blood.
Lanling’s bloodline had already become a form of energy.
It could replenish itself endlessly.
And so, Lanling drained one Martial Sect captive after another, turning each of them into a dried corpse before injecting them with his own demonic blood energy.
……
When Lanling had absorbed the thirtieth Martial Sect captive, blood-coloured clouds began gathering above the mountaintop.
When he reached the fiftieth, blood-coloured lightning appeared once again.
When he reached the eightieth, terrifying blood-coloured lightning began striking the summit of Mirror Mountain repeatedly.
When he had absorbed the one hundredth captive, the blood-coloured clouds had piled up layer upon layer, continuously pressing downwards.
It was clearly daytime, with the sun high in the sky, yet the surroundings became increasingly dark.
Finally, the terrifying blood-coloured clouds completely covered Mirror Mountain.
The outside world remained in daylight, while the Flame Demon Tribe was completely plunged into darkness.
“Boom, boom, boom…”
Thick blood-coloured lightning continuously descended from the sky.
The entire Mirror Mountain and the entire Flame Demon Tribe seemed like the end of the world.
Seeing this scene, all the Rakshasa captives and all the people of the Flame Demon Tribe knelt towards the mountaintop, pressing their foreheads against the ground.
For the people of the Silver Tribe, this was already the second time they had witnessed such an apocalyptic scene.
For members of the demon race, the only thing such a scene could remind them of was the descent of a Demon King.
At that moment, the first person among the Silver Tribe captives cut off his tail.
Then the second, third, fourth…
More and more Rakshasa captives cut off their tails.
This represented submission and complete loyalty to Lanling and the Flame Demon Tribe. It meant saying farewell to their former identities.
……
Three hours.
Lanling spent a full three hours absorbing their blood and energy.
All one hundred and eighty-five Martial Sect experts had been reduced to dried corpses.
When everything ended, night had already fallen.
The blood-coloured lightning disappeared, and the layers of clouds dispersed.
The moon and stars filled the sky.
White moonlight illuminated the summit of Mirror Mountain. One hundred and eighty-five dried corpses knelt neatly on the ground, creating an extremely strange scene.
Lanling sat cross-legged before the mirror, digesting this unprecedented amount of energy.
Previously, after devouring twenty-five Martial Sect experts, his strength had increased by three thousand jin and his martial cultivation had risen by almost ten levels.
This time, he had devoured one hundred and eighty-five Martial Sect experts, most of whom were high-level Martial Sect experts.
Of course, as the Mirror Demon King had said, increasing his physical strength was already meaningless to him.
Therefore, most of the energy had to be stored.
……
Another three hours passed.
Lanling opened his eyes. Gou Li rose beside him and drew the sword at her side.
Lanling also drew his sword and struck towards her.
Gou Li’s body trembled, and she stepped backwards several times.
“Master, your pure physical strength has already reached the peak of the Martial Sect realm!”
Lanling nodded without showing any particular reaction.
There was not even much joy in his heart, because at this level, pure physical strength and martial techniques were already of little significance.
Next, Lanling continued sitting on the mountaintop and waited.
Another two hours passed.
The sky brightened, and the morning sun slowly rose.
The first ray of sunlight shone upon the demonic mirror on the mountaintop, and its reflection illuminated the dried corpses that Lanling had drained.
As if by magic, the first dried corpse began to change.
Energy surged from deep within its heart and instantly restored its body.
Snow-white and powerful muscles appeared once again.
His body recovered completely, although his skin remained deathly pale.
Then he slowly opened his eyes.
After seeing Lanling, he knelt down, kissed Lanling’s boots and said, “Death Warrior Pan Huo pays respects to His Majesty!”
Next, the second dried corpse began transforming.
Then the third, fourth, fifth…
One dried corpse after another transformed into Death Warriors.
They lined up, knelt before Lanling and kissed his boots.
Every Death Warrior’s cultivation had increased. Most of them had reached the Martial Sect realm, only half a step away from the Demon Sect realm.
Of course, that seemingly tiny half-step could actually be an insurmountable chasm.
After a full half hour, all one hundred and eighty-five new Death Warriors had knelt before Lanling and completed their oath of loyalty.
At the same time, one new image after another appeared inside Lanling’s mental domain.
Each image represented a Death Warrior.
Lanling could directly control any of their actions through his consciousness, including ordering them to self-destruct.
Lanling’s trump card, the Death Warrior Corps, had risen from twenty-six members to two hundred and eleven.
Immortal and indestructible, with the strength of peak Martial Sect experts!
……
After creating one hundred and eighty-five Death Warriors, Lanling barely stopped before preparing to search for the Ghost King’s Tomb.
However, before that, there was still a wedding.
To break through to the Demon Sect realm, he needed an extremely powerful source of energy.
As far as they knew, the only known source was inside the Ghost King’s Tomb. The Ghost King’s Sword contained an immense amount of energy belonging to the Ghost King.
As for where the Ghost King’s Tomb was located, they only had a very general range.
The Sea of Misfortune, fifteen thousand li from the Flame Demon Tribe.
The Sea of Misfortune was an inland sea covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.
Then, was there a connection between the Sea of Misfortune and the Cave of Misfortune, or was it merely a coincidence in their names?
There was indeed a connection.
The Misfortune Empire was a civilisation of the ancient demon race.
A large number of ancient demon civilisation ruins had once been discovered in the Sea of Misfortune. They resembled the ruins of the Cave of Misfortune and should have belonged to the same demon civilisation.
Among these ancient demon ruins, the two characters “Misfortune” appeared most frequently.
Thus, this ancient demon civilisation was called the Misfortune Empire.
The ancient ruins not far from Black Demon City were therefore named the Cave of Misfortune, while the inland sea was named the Sea of Misfortune.
Before leaving, Lanling fulfilled his promise and held a wedding with Sisi.
It was an extremely brief wedding, lasting less than half an hour.
From the wedding ceremony to the completion of the marriage, everything was finished within half an hour.
There were only a few of Lanling’s family members and several Death Warriors among the guests.
Even so, Sisi was already satisfied.
During their wedding night, Lanling gave her a drop of his demonic blood.
Her body immediately changed, and the snake-like scales covering her body disappeared, revealing her transformed appearance.
She became even more beautiful and possessed an even stronger demonic aura.
After receiving Lanling’s demonic blood, her appearance became even more striking.
Previously, she had been comparable to the Death Warrior Gou Li, but now she was comparable to Meng Tuoluo, the wife of the Little Rakshasa King.
Not only that, her cultivation had also improved further.
At this time, she told Lanling that she was a Demon Word User.
The term did not refer to the language of the demon race, but to someone capable of sensing energy.
It referred to sensitivity towards energy and towards heaven and earth.
Sisi’s martial cultivation had never been particularly high, but her sensitivity to all forms of energy was extraordinarily strong.
That was why she had been able to discover the mysterious cave, find the Starry Sky Magic Power Meteorite, and locate the Nightmare Flower.
“Darling, today is the most glorious moment of my life!” Sisi said emotionally.
The intimate scene that followed is omitted.
……
“I must follow Master!” Gou Li knelt before him. “There are three reasons. First, I can protect Master from attacks. Second, I can accompany Master and take care of his personal needs. Third, I want to break through to the Demon Sect realm. I want to follow Master’s footsteps closely and become Master’s sharpest sword!”
There were clearly three reasons, so apparently even Gou Li’s mathematics had been taught by the physical education teacher.
Unexpectedly, Gou Li had now somehow become Lanling’s closest female companion.
“Good.”
After remaining silent for a moment, Lanling nodded.
After the wedding, Lanling and Gou Li rode the Three-Headed Chimera and flew towards the Sea of Misfortune, fifteen thousand li away, to search for the legendary Ghost King’s Tomb.