Chapter 51: No Ifs

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Chapter Fifty-One: No Ifs (First Update)

The white sphere of energy, transformed after absorbing an enormous quantity of matter, continued to swell as it advanced. Its forward speed was not particularly fast, but its rate of expansion was astonishing.

“Get out of here!” Fox Princess shouted at Zhou Yu and the Colored Monkey.

Her entire body now glowed red. Clearly, she had begun using power far beyond her own demonic strength.

“Did she destroy her own demon core?” Zhou Yu asked in shock as he watched her.

The Colored Monkey came racing toward Zhou Yu from the side. He was moving with incredible speed. At this critical moment, he had employed the method the Old Monkey had taught him before his death: demonic power spread beneath his feet, making him as swift as lightning.

With a whoosh, the Colored Monkey seized Zhou Yu with one arm and bolted.

Even so, when the white sphere of energy came into contact with Xuan Qing, it began to explode. At the Colored Monkey’s present speed, there was no way they could escape in time.

In desperation, the golden staff in his hand trembled. The Colored Monkey shouted, “I understand!”

He thrust the golden staff into the ground behind him, then gripped it tightly with one hand and warned Zhou Yu, “Hold on to the staff!”

Zhou Yu immediately seized it. At that very moment, dazzling light erupted from the staff. Its shaft lengthened at incredible speed, carrying the two of them upward into the sky like a streak of golden radiance.

From high above, Zhou Yu looked down. The white energy had completely engulfed Xuan Qing—and then it began to explode.

First came a flash of white light. Everything touched by it was annihilated, and the land within a radius of five miles was reduced to ruins.

Then an even greater force began to rage through the surroundings. The staff shuddered violently, but Zhou Yu held on with all his strength, staring fixedly below.

Energy like white ocean waves exploded again and again over the place where the great hall had once stood. It swelled like a white dumpling, expanding gradually before spreading outward in every direction. Before the energy itself could arrive, the earth ahead was already flung into the sky by the shock waves.

It was as though an atomic bomb had been thrown onto the ground. Though he could not see what lay within the blast, Zhou Yu knew that an enormous crater must have been blasted into the earth.

From his position in the sky, he had a clear view of the entire explosion, and the sight filled him with dread. Had he been caught inside it, even his nearly immortal body would surely have been unable to withstand such devastation. The only time he had ever experienced power on this scale was when he had been struck by the fist of the man carrying the enormous iron case.

Yet during that incident, he had endured bombardment of this magnitude almost countless times. How had he survived? Zhou Yu guessed that his three damage immunities had played a part. But the assault had lasted so long—had the remaining two immunities been completely exhausted?

An explosion this violent truly could kill him.

Fox Princess’s figure had also vanished into the blast. Zhou Yu searched desperately, but he could not find her.

The white energy continued spreading outward in wave after wave, exploding again and again.

The thunderous roar made the entire earth tremble like an earthquake.

Fatty watched in terror from outside, cold sweat pouring down his face. Earlier, he had led the Wild Boar Soldiers away. The moment they had left the great hall, he had ordered them to flee at full speed—not because he feared death, but because he already understood that he and his soldiers were nothing but ants before Xuan Qing. No matter how many of them there were, they could not make the slightest difference.

Xuan Qing was likely an existence on the level of a Demon Emperor. He was not someone who could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

Fatty was sly enough to know exactly what happened when an existence of the Demon Emperor’s level unleashed its power. Thus, he led his men in a mad retreat, running a full five miles before finally turning to look back.

By then, every building in the Fox Clan’s settlement had vanished. Even the great stones scattered throughout the valley were being drawn toward that place. A moment later, white light appeared in the distance.

Fatty’s heart jolted. He immediately ordered the Wild Boar Soldiers to keep running. After they had covered some more distance, a sudden radiance appeared behind them. Fatty glanced back and realized that a massive explosion had taken place.

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Just ahead stood another enormous boulder. Fatty hurriedly ordered all the soldiers to hide behind it.

They had only just taken shelter when a powerful gale swept in from behind. The wind actually lifted the rocks into the air. Boulders weighing hundreds or even thousands of pounds crashed against the immense cliff face, producing deafening impacts and bursting sparks in the darkness.

The sound was like the war drums beaten before an army charged into battle—louder even than thunder.

After the gale came a rain of stones. Then, all at once, silence descended.

The air around them seemed to have been sucked dry. Not the slightest sound could be heard. The entire earth gradually brightened, while darkness remained only beneath the shadow of the rocks. At that moment, the darkness seemed to be the only safe place left.

Unable to resist his curiosity, one of the Wild Boar Soldiers leaned out to look. He had barely exposed half his head when a scattered wave of energy blasted it apart, and he fell stiffly to the ground.

Gradually, Fatty began to find it difficult to breathe. The air he drew into his lungs seemed thin and lifeless. When he looked toward the other soldiers, he saw several of the weaker ones clutching their throats in agony. Their mouths opened and closed repeatedly, as though they were shouting something, yet Fatty could not hear a sound.

He glanced toward the mute Wild Boar Soldier nearby. Though the mute soldier remained relatively calm, he too had realized that something was wrong. He gestured toward Fatty, who struggled to understand.

“Difficulty breathing. Cannot hear,” was what the mute soldier meant.

Fatty was astonished. The explosion had affected even a mute Wild Boar Soldier of Demon General strength so severely. And they were already seven or eight miles from the great hall. What had become of the center of the blast? Fatty did not dare imagine it.

Breathing grew more and more difficult. Fatty felt the torment of suffocation. Increasing numbers of Wild Boar Soldiers clutched their throats and writhed on the ground.

Suddenly, Fatty threw himself down and began frantically clawing at the earth with both hands. He soon dug a deep pit, buried his head inside it, and finally managed to draw in a little fresh air.

The soldiers around him followed his example. They stopped clutching their throats and began digging like mad, burrowing into the ground.

The earth was covered by a thick layer of ice and snow. At first, a small amount of fresh air remained trapped within the snow, but it was nowhere near enough. Beneath it lay ground hardened by the cold. The Wild Boar Soldiers clawed at it with their bare hands, tearing off their fingernails, yet still they could scarcely draw any air.

Their violent exertions consumed their oxygen at an alarming rate. Several of the soldiers suddenly fainted, half their bodies exposed above the snow and half buried beneath it, lying utterly motionless.

By now, Fatty had no strength left either. He slumped against the cliff face and stared into the distance. The light in his eyes slowly faded.

“Am I really going to die here?” Fatty muttered to himself, though he could not hear his own voice.

The enormous explosion could be seen even from Flower-Fruit Mountain, a hundred miles away.

Above the cliffside cave, Little Qing stared for a long time at the distant horizon illuminated by the blast. Tears filled her eyes. In a daze, she began walking toward it.

Then her foot stepped into empty air, and she fell from the cliffside cave. Before she could cry out, a figure flashed forth, caught her, and carried her safely down onto the snow.

Zhou Yu’s clone knocked Little Qing unconscious and returned her to the cave.

The moment the clone stepped out again, it suddenly vanished with a soft pop, dissolving into black energy that shot toward the distant white light.

Usually, when the caster of a cloning technique ran short of energy, he would recall the clone voluntarily, thereby replenishing his own strength.

Behind the enormous cliff, darkness returned to the earth. Fatty’s eyelids had just begun to droop when they suddenly twitched. He saw the snow on the ground rolling toward him from afar.

A cold wind blew from the darkness in the distance. Fatty suddenly began to cough, as though the wind had gone down his throat. He coughed until his face was stained red, pounding the snow with both hands as flakes flew in every direction.

More and more coughing broke out around him, merging into a single chorus.

Fatty raised his head. The blood-red color had not yet faded from his face, and his eyes were veined with blood. His legs still trembled weakly as he stepped out from behind the cliff and looked back.

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Fatty saw nothing.

When the white light faded, the place that had once been a valley had become a plain. One could see straight across it without obstruction.

But at that moment, Fatty noticed a thread of golden light flickering where the great hall had once stood. Following it upward with his eyes, he saw a mass of golden radiance descending from the sky, plunging rapidly toward the ground.

Suddenly, a streak of black energy flashed past Fatty and shot toward the site of the explosion.

Fatty’s eyes narrowed slowly, and a sharp glint appeared within them.

“Brothers! We’re going back! Save the King!”

Fatty made a difficult decision. That decision laid the foundation for his entire life as a demon. In later years, it would enable him, despite possessing only the strength of an ordinary demon soldier, to become the greatest figure in the history of the demon race—without equal.

The recovered Wild Boar Soldiers were somewhat bewildered. But when they saw the broad figure charging forward with all his strength, seeming suddenly taller and more resolute, they rose to their feet, retrieved their weapons, and followed him.

The mute Wild Boar Soldier ran at the very front.

By now, Zhou Yu had abandoned all thought of self-preservation. He gathered every ounce of energy in his body into his right fist. The Colored Monkey did the same.

After the explosion, Fox Princess had vanished. Yet Zhou Yu and the Colored Monkey were shocked to discover Xuan Qing lying at the very bottom of the crater.

Although green smoke poured from his body, most of his scales had fallen away, and even the claws on his right hand had been half destroyed, Xuan Qing was still alive.

A ray of blue-green light emerged from within him, gradually enveloping his body.

Zhou Yu and the Colored Monkey exchanged a glance. They decided to use their strongest combined technique—the very move that had broken through the Wild Boar King’s demonic body.

They put away the golden staff. Suspended in midair, the man and monkey clenched their fists, turned upside down, and began spinning as they plummeted toward the ground.

As their falling speed increased, energy continued gathering around their fists. The golden and black radiance intertwined, gradually forming something like a two-colored drill at the front.

It resembled a vortex composed of countless turbulent currents. Zhou Yu and the Colored Monkey gradually became a single streak of light in the night, shooting toward Xuan Qing, who lay at the bottom of the crater.

Xuan Qing was a sacred beast, unimaginably powerful. But that night, he had swallowed several hundred demonic pills and lost his reason. As a result, he had taken Fox Princess’s ultimate killing technique completely undefended.

Now Xuan Qing was unconscious. The green light around his body had appeared automatically, restoring his bodily functions.

An existence at the level of a Demon King possessed protective demonic energy, and Xuan Qing was no exception. But at that moment, his protective energy had been completely destroyed by Fox Princess’s ultimate attack.

Had he been conscious, one could say that Fox Princess would never have had the chance to unleash such a killing move. Even if she had managed to release it, Xuan Qing had dozens of ways to evade it. And even if he chose not to dodge and met it head-on, he could still have withstood it.

But there were no ifs.

That was why Xuan Qing now lay at the bottom of the crater like a slaughtered hog.

Piercing through the air and illuminating the night sky, a rotating blade of flame-like light shot down from above. It plunged into the crater and struck Xuan Qing’s body with tremendous force—directly against the spot where his scales had fallen away.

Xuan Qing spat out a mouthful of blood. The impact drove his body violently into the earth, bending his waist as though his bones had been twisted out of shape. His eyes flew open, bulging outward.

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