Chapter 66: The Leopard Demon King Strikes

Chapter 66: The Leopard Demon King Strikes (First Part)

When the colorful monkey saw those two figures clearly, his already wide-open jaw dropped even further. He exerted every ounce of self-control to suppress the cry that threatened to escape his lips.

The howling wind and driving snow ceased abruptly. The surrounding snow had formed a waist-high wall.

Zhou Yu wore a faint smile, his right hand extended forward, making a victorious "V" sign toward the colorful monkey.

Storm maintained a completely calm expression, devoid of any visible emotion. He was still frozen in a daze, unable to believe what had happened. His imposing aura and killing intent had both reached their absolute peaks; his timing and spiritual focus had been impeccably chosen. It could truly be called the most perfect strike of his entire life, yet his opponent had effortlessly caught it between two fingers using only his left hand.

Between Zhou Yu’s left fingers were pinched two willow-leaf curved daggers. His face was extraordinarily relaxed, as though he were holding two ordinary leaves rather than a pair of immensely lethal and perilous weapons.

After flashing the "V" sign to the colorful monkey, he used his right hand to brush his nose before finally turning to face Storm.

"Is this the extent of your skill? You just had to come out and make a fool of yourself?" Zhou Yu curled his lip and said mercilessly.

"What?!" A ferocious and contorted expression appeared on Storm's face. He refused to believe it, yet the cruel reality lay right before his eyes. The handles of his two willow-leaf daggers—weapons that had claimed countless lives—were still firmly in his own grasp, while the tips were pinched immovably between the other's fingers.

"I said you are garbage, and your combat prowess is utterly pathetic! And seriously, are you really a Demon General? How can you possibly be this weak?" Zhou Yu remarked.

"What—" Storm’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably. He had received a profound psychological blow. Had anyone else dared speak to him in such a manner, he would have instantly hacked them into three hundred and sixty pieces, but...

Could this fellow really be a Demon General? No! Impossible! It was impossible for any Demon General to catch his ultimate technique with such casual ease. He had to be a Demon King!

"You're a Demon King!" Storm suddenly shrieked in a frenzy. Simultaneously, he let go of his inseparable twin willow-leaf daggers and scrambled backward in panic.

"Such utterly fragile mental fortitude! This young master is merely a Demon General, yet you mistook me for a Demon King and panicked like this. Back in the day, when this young master faced actual Demon Kings, I would howl at the top of my lungs and charge straight at them..." As he spoke, Zhou Yu casually flipped his wrist and tossed the two slender willow-leaf daggers back toward Storm.

Storm's pupils constricted violently. He had already convinced himself that Zhou Yu was a Demon King, so the two blades casually hurled by him appeared riddled with fatal flaws to Storm's eyes. But wait—why would a Demon King throw blades full of such obvious openings? No, that couldn't be right! It must be a trick! If he tried to counter based on those visible openings, he would surely fall right into the enemy's trap!

Because of his fixed belief that Zhou Yu was a Demon King, those two thrown willow-leaf daggers could not possibly be ordinary. Thus, he dared neither to catch them nor to dodge them casually.

With wide eyes, Storm watched helplessly as his own twin willow-leaf daggers spun forward and cleanly sliced his body apart.

"So, in the end... there was nothing particularly special about it after all," Storm muttered as his body split into three distinct sections.

Zhou Yu felt a trace of surprise. He had never expected that this actually formidable Demon General would be slain by his own hands so easily.

Rubbing his nose, Zhou Yu muttered, "Turns out your defensive cultivation is absolute trash."

Up on the snowy cliff, the colorful monkey was completely dumbfounded. What kind of intoxicating potion had Zhou Yu fed that guy? To think he would just get himself killed like that!

An uproar broke out among the leopard soldiers. This development utterly defied their expectations; Storm had simply perished just like that!

The Leopard Demon King let out a heavy, rumbling snort. The corners of his mouth twitched, and his fists clenched so tightly they cracked—it was obvious he was burning with extreme rage.

"It seems smooth sailing is not always a blessing. In the end, Storm was simply far too arrogant!" the Leopard Demon King thought to himself. At the same time, a sliver of suspicion regarding Zhou Yu's background took root in his mind. With a physical body possessing such tyrannical strength, the youth certainly couldn't belong to any ordinary tribe. As for humans, he dismissed the possibility instantly, knowing that humans could never possess such formidable physical resilience.

Then, what kind of race could possibly boast such terrifying strength while merely at the rank of a Demon General?

Nobody else knew the true details of what had transpired within the blizzard, but the Leopard Demon King had already reached the level of a Superior Demon King. He had seen the entire sequence of events inside the vortex with absolute clarity.

Initially, he had been certain that Storm's strike would succeed. However, at the very final moment, Zhou Yu had opened his eyes, executed an eerie pivot, and casually extended his left hand. There had been no wild fluctuations of energy, no wasted movements, and not the slightest miscalculation—he had simply clamped his left hand down and effortlessly caught Storm's twin blades.

From this single display, it was clear that the young man's realm of comprehension was exceptionally high, and coincidentally, his physical body possessed terrifying toughness.

The Leopard Demon King shook his head. He racked his brain but could not think of a single race in this world boasting such monstrous capability—possessing strength rivalling an Inferior Demon King while still merely at the rank of a Demon General.

Despite this, the Leopard Demon King still had no intention of intervening personally. Although Zhou Yu was formidable and possessed the capability to defeat certain weaker Demon Kings, he remained, after all, only a Demon General. And since he was a Demon General, there naturally existed other Demon Generals stronger than him.

Before the Leopard Demon King could issue a command, a leopard soldier clad entirely in snow-white fur stepped out from the ranks. He approached the Leopard Demon King and bowed respectfully.

"Great King, allow me to capture him," the white-furred leopard soldier requested.

The Leopard Demon King nodded and said, "Bai Jue, during the grand Ten Thousand Generals War of the Demon Clan, you placed third. Now that your cultivation has advanced even further, seizing the first rank is well within your grasp. This time, consider this fellow as practice to warm up your muscles."

Bai Jue accepted the order and stepped forward.

The Leopard Demon King watched Bai Jue leave, nodding in satisfaction. This individual was his foremost Demon General, notorious for his bloodlust. Suddenly, a trace of lingering unease surfaced in his heart, prompting him to add, "Do not hold back. That brat is somewhat eccentric; transition directly into the Blood Leopard state!"

Bai Jue paused for a fraction of a second. In his mind, Zhou Yu's strength was roughly comparable to his own from a few years ago. Now that his cultivation had improved further, dealing with the human shouldn't prove too difficult. Nevertheless, since the Leopard Demon King had given the command, he nodded in acknowledgment.

The Blood Leopard was the most mysterious existence within the Leopard clan. Even the Leopard Demon King himself was not a Blood Leopard. This specialized bloodline typically manifested only once every hundred years within the clan.

Once a Leopard possessing Blood Leopard heritage entered the Blood Leopard state, they transformed entirely into a slaughtering machine. Their speed, physical strength, and demonic power would all multiply exponentially. The sole drawback was that upon entering this state, they would lose a portion of their sanity, driven solely by a berserk urge to annihilate the opponent designated before the transformation until the target was torn to absolute shreds.

Consequently, those possessing the Blood Leopard bloodline within the clan enjoyed the renowned moniker of "Solo Combat Kings" across the entire Demon Clan.

Bai Jue marched toward Zhou Yu step by step, his gaze locked unwaveringly onto his target without a single flicker of hesitation.

Zhou Yu reined in his smile. He sensed that this new opponent was vastly different from the previous ones. Even though they were still a hundred meters apart, the aura and predatory gaze emanating from the beast sent prickles of danger down Zhou Yu's spine.

"Roar!" While still a hundred meters away, Bai Jue let out a thunderous roar. A surge of crimson demonic energy erupted from his body, blasting the surrounding snow outward in a wide circle.

Upon fully entering the Blood Leopard state, Bai Jue's skin turned a vivid crimson, and his entire coat shimmered with a bloody radiance, as if he had just been fished out of a vat of fresh gore.

*Swish!*

Leaving a lingering afterimage in place, the bloody entity flashed directly in front of Zhou Yu. To cover that hundred-meter distance, Bai Jue had moved in what felt like a single blink of an eye.

Zhou Yu's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He hadn't expected Bai Jue to possess such terrifying velocity. However, ever since Bai Jue had stepped onto the field, Zhou Yu had remained on high alert, allowing him to instinctively thrust his right hand upward on pure reflex.

*Boom!*

With a deafening explosion, Zhou Yu was sent hurtling backward through the air. The sheer magnitude of Bai Jue's physical strength vastly exceeded even that giant leopard brute named Ah San!

Due to the tremendous recoil, Bai Jue was bounced upward into mid-air.

*Swish!*

The crimson afterimage in the sky dissolved into a patch of bloody mist, and Bai Jue lunged at Zhou Yu once more.

Having barely regained his footing, Zhou Yu was forced to raise his arms in defense yet again. He poured his energy into his limbs, wrapping them in a thin layer of black aura. Had it not been for this protective energy coating, his arms would undoubtedly have shattered from that last exchange.

*Boom!*

Another thunderous blast echoed.

This time, Zhou Yu's body was driven deep into the snowdrift, rendering him momentarily immobile. He found himself in grave peril. Because of insufficient preparation, he had fallen onto the defensive from the very first clash. Bai Jue's blistering speed offered him no breathing room to readjust.

In mid-air, Bai Jue's figure materialized once more, perfectly blotting out the sun.

*Boom!*

Another massive shockwave erupted.

Zhou Yu suddenly smiled.

A massive golden staff came crashing down from behind Bai Jue. Just as Bai Jue was about to unleash his third consecutive assault, the staff smashed him violently down into the snow.

*Boom! Boom, boom!*

The sounds of relentless bombardment echoed continuously. The layer of snow and frozen earth in that area was pulverized completely, sending up sprays of white snow stained crimson with fresh blood.

Bai Jue, despite possessing the terrifying Blood Leopard bloodline, had been pounded into a heap of minced meat by the colorful monkey using thoroughly unchivalrous tactics.

All five thousand leopard soldiers froze in absolute shock. Even the Leopard Demon King was struck dumb.

A few seconds later, a heaven-shaking roar erupted from the basin.

"What the hell! Is that even how you fight?!" The Leopard Demon King was losing his mind. He had never imagined that the monkey hanging around on the snow cliff would launch a sudden, underhanded sneak attack.

Not only him, but none of the five thousand leopard soldiers had anticipated it either.

In the Demon Clan, strength was supreme, and even Demon Kings never interfered in duels between Demon Generals. Therefore, when the previous three Demon Generals had fallen at Zhou Yu's hands, the Leopard Demon King had managed to suppress his urge to intervene. This time, the moment Bai Jue stepped up, he had firmly suppressed Zhou Yu; yet that damned monkey—whom everyone had practically forgotten—had brazenly launched a sneak attack!

In an instant, the entire basin exploded into chaos.

A cacophony of curses and roars formed a roaring wave of sound that crashed toward Zhou Yu and the colorful monkey.

"Although it feels a bit shameless to win this way, I still have to thank you," Zhou Yu leaped out of the snowdrift and said to the colorful monkey.

The colorful monkey scratched the back of his head and grinned. "Damn it, watching you fight was making me exhausted! Seeing you kill one after another just made my hands itch!"

"Still, they look rather angry..." Zhou Yu walked over to the colorful monkey's side and surveyed the frenzy boiling over across the basin.

"Leopard Demon King! Stop howling like a banshee! If you've got the guts, come fight me!" The colorful monkey arrogantly flipped the middle finger toward the Leopard Demon King.

"This is infuriating! Utterly shameless!" The Leopard Demon King trembled all over with rage.

"Shameless your sister! When did Grandpa Monkey ever say we were fighting you one-on-one? I didn't want to get involved earlier because these little runts were too weak—I was too embarrassed to fight them for fear of scaring them! But since you kept sending them out one by one, my hands got itchy, so I joined in! What, are you allowed to play tag-team wheels of combat, but I'm not allowed to strike even once? Sigh, it's all my fault for being too strong and killing him with a single blow. My bad, my bad, I really shouldn't have attacked. Sigh, I just knew I'd end up terrifying you... Sigh..."

The colorful monkey babbled endlessly, infusing his voice with demonic energy so that every single leopard in the basin heard him with crystal clarity.

"You damned monkey! Have you no shame at all?! Ahhh, I'm going to burst with anger! Just watch how I tear you into ten thousand pieces!" Trembling violently with rage, the Leopard Demon King completely abandoned any pretense of acting like an aloof, supreme expert. With a flash, he vaulted straight out of his cave and charged murderously toward Zhou Yu and the colorful monkey like a bolt of lightning.

The moment the Leopard Demon King moved, the five thousand leopard soldiers surged forward with howling war cries, driven into a frenzy.