Chapter 553: The Demon Lord's True Face

Fragments of the mask fell from the air, piece by piece, revealing the true face of the Demon Lord.

And the moment they saw the Demon Lord's true face, every living being watching the battle, whether Demon or human, was struck with immense horror.

Because beneath that mask was a face exactly identical to Ye Lin's!

No, if one looked closely, they would discover that the Demon Lord's eyes, hair, and eyebrows were all a strange, deep purple.

While Ye Lin's were pitch black.

Apart from this, there was no other difference between the two; they looked as if they had been printed from the same mold.

"Old man Zhuge, what is this situation? Why are there two Ye Lins? Or rather, how does the Demon Lord look exactly like Ye Lin?" Ji Wubing felt as if his head were about to explode.

"Yeah! Isn't it said that you people of the Zhuge family are masters of divine calculation? What is going on here?" Jiang Tiandao also couldn't help but press for an answer.

Zhuge Yi's complexion was turning from pale to green at this moment.

"I don't know, give me a moment to calculate!"

Zhuge Yi held a tortoise shell and copper coins in his left hand, and tarot cards in his right.

As he shook the tortoise shell, the tarot cards danced between his fingertips.

A crystalline orb also rose up at this moment, the images within it shifting constantly.

When the copper coins from the tortoise shell landed, every single one of them stood upright!

Cold sweat began to bead on Zhuge Yi's forehead.

At this moment, the tarot cards in his right hand began to spontaneously combust, burning away completely, and the crystal orb before him shattered into fragments all over the ground.

Zhuge Yi's pupils constricted violently.

He gritted his teeth and made the boldest decision of his life, pulling out two holy grails and tossing them onto the ground.

But at this moment, those two holy grails, just like the copper coins, stood upright.

It was as if an invisible giant hand were holding them in place.

"Hiss..."

Zhuge Yi widened his eyes, immediately gathered everything up, closed his mouth, and remained silent.

He knew very well what the result would be if he continued to calculate.

All signs standing upright—a death sentence from the heavens!

If he dared to calculate, the heavens would dare to punish him!

He was not Zhuge Qianxing, so naturally, he could not gamble with his own life.

Seeing Zhuge Yi in this state, Jiang Tiandao and Ji Wubing understood that this old fellow had triggered his survival instinct.

They did not try to get any more information from Zhuge Yi, but instead locked their gazes onto Ye Lin and the Demon Lord, eagerly seeking an answer.

Little did they know, Ye Lin was also in a state of shock at this moment.

"Someone is imitating my noodles, and someone is imitating my face?"

Looking at this face before him that was identical to his own, an indescribable, eerie feeling surfaced in Ye Lin's heart.

Could it be that what Ye Xueqing gave birth to back then was actually a pair of twins?

"You shouldn't have destroyed my mask."

The Demon Lord spoke indifferently.

"Originally, after I defeated you, I could have used your identity to continue living in your stead, so that your friends and family wouldn't be too sad."

"But now, not only will you die, but those around you will not survive either."

Ye Lin narrowed his eyes slightly.

"So, can you tell me why you look exactly like me?"

"It's simple, because I am you, and you are me."

The Demon Lord looked down at the sword in his hand and murmured in a low voice.

"Your Dragon bloodline must be stuck at the final thread, unable to advance even an inch, right?"

Ye Lin's pupils constricted violently; he suddenly had a bold guess.

"So..."

"Correct, what you are missing is the Dragon Soul, the other half of the Dragon Soul."

The Demon Lord raised his deep purple eyes.

"You are the benevolent soul, I am the malevolent soul; you and I were originally one."

The Demon Lord's words made Ye Lin's expression become incredibly grave.

He suddenly remembered the words the golden artifact spirit of the Eternal Balance had said to him within the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm.

"Master! You have always been the master of the Eternal Balance; born as a dragon, even if you now have broken fangs, torn scales, blinded eyes, and severed claws, having fallen into the shallows, a dragon is still a dragon!"

"May I live to see you rule the world once more!"

Ye Lin had thought at the time that the golden artifact spirit meant to praise him as a dragon among men.

Now it seemed that those words were meant literally—was he truly a dragon?

"Then the dragon corpse beneath the Underworld Demon River..."

Ye Lin looked at the Demon Lord.

"That is the corpse of our previous life, and also the source of power for this world."

"Have you not discovered it yet?"

"The Demon race and demon creatures rely on absorbing demonic energy to increase their strength, while humans rely on slaughtering the Demon race and demon creatures to increase their strength; the source of power for both humans and demons is actually demonic energy, which is that dragon corpse."

Ye Lin nodded; he had thought about this a long time ago, but had never had a definitive answer.

"So... the true enemy... is that so-called God?" Ye Lin asked.

The Demon Lord was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Look, buddy, since that's the case, why don't we join forces against the enemy instead of fighting to the death? Don't you think?" Ye Lin blinked with a sincere expression.

"Because you would stab me in the back, and I would also look for an opportunity to kill you."

The Demon Lord spoke without hesitation.

"There is no difference between us; we are both selfish people, therefore, we cannot coexist."

"Rather than having to guard against you later, it is better for me to kill you now, once and for all."

Ye Lin fell silent.

He truly could not tolerate the existence of another 'himself'.

Whether it was 'One Qi Transforming into Three Purities' or 'One Thought Producing Twins', in essence, there was only one consciousness: Ye Lin's.

Those clones were merely extensions of Ye Lin's body, not extensions of his consciousness; they all shared the same brain.

But the Demon Lord before him was a being with a truly independent consciousness.

"One last question, why wait until I broke through to the God Domain Realm to make your move?" Ye Lin suddenly asked.

"Because I made a bet with your teacher, Zhuge Qianxing."

The Demon Lord raised his sword again, murderous intent surging on the blade.

"I bet with him on who would go further: someone like me who walks alone and discards all emotional attachments."

"Or someone like you who is indecisive, unable to be a saintly savior, and not evil enough to be truly wicked?"