Chapter 154: Self‑Moving Without Wind

"You've said everything that needed to be explained; can you let me leave now?"

The Green Scale Demon Lord's urgent voice pulled Zhou Yi back to reality. While he was just pondering, the Snake Demon had, like beans spilling from a bamboo tube, poured out all the information.

Zhou Yi lightly tapped the stone desk with his fingertips: "Since I promised to spare your life, the price is due." Before the words finished, he suddenly rose, a fist wind wrapped with stellar power sweeping across.

Under the horrified gaze of the Green Scale Demon King, White Elephant Venerable and the other three Great Luo Realm Demon Kings instantly turned to powder, not even a wail could be uttered.

The Snake Demon leader's scales rustled; now he realized the earlier conversation had been a race against death. Had he not seized the first word, he would have vanished like the three drifting clouds of blood mist.

Seeing Zhou Yi lower his gaze in thought, the Green Scale Demon Lord held his breath and drew back along the cave wall. Just as he was about to reach the opening, a clear, cold voice sounded: "Sui Ancestor."

No more words; the Human Race's holy fire instantly spread across the land. The Green Scale Demon Lord twisted and rolled in golden flames: "Despicable, you promised to let me live!"

"I truly have not acted," Zhou Yi said, standing with his arms crossed, the flickering firelight illuminating his profile. "As for the clan's desire for revenge, what does that have to do with me?"

Amid the cracking of charred black scales, the Demon King's bitter curse gradually faded: "Wait, the Demon Court will slaughter you all…"

"Human Ancestor, the Demon Court may launch a massive assault," You Chao, worried, wiped his bronze war axe, the blade reflecting everyone's solemn faces.

Zhou Yi flicked the jade pendant at his waist with his finger: "Sui Ancestor, please have that esteemed guest appear."

The merit fire lotus slowly unfurled, revealing within a charred dragon‑like figure. Even though its dragon horns were broken and its scales shattered, the sea‑covering Demon Commander still upheld his bearing: "If I loosen my bonds now, I might plead with the Demon Master."

"Plead?" Zhou Yi suddenly laughed, shaking the stalactites from the cave ceiling as they rattled down. "Did you think this was the back garden of the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace?"

The Demon Commander lifted his battered skull, his dragon whiskers curling in the inferno: "Before the Great Peng Bird Patriarch's seat stand twelve Demon Commanders; do you know the consequence of slaying me? In just three days and nights, you mud‑molded inferiors will be gone."

A flash of cold light appeared; the Demon‑slaying Sword already pressed against the dragon's reverse scales.

Dark golden patterns flickered in Zhou Yi's eyes: "Perfect, I'm just missing a guard dog."

Zhou Yi's brows twitched slightly: "Great Peng Bird Ancestor? What is his scheme?"

"Since you ask, I'll speak plainly," the Flood Dragon leader lifted his jaw. "The Human Race's essence greatly benefits our cultivation. If you are willing to offer ten thousand living souls to the Ancestor, I can plead on your behalf to spare the Human Race from annihilation."

"What are you saying?" Sui Huang's fire staff thudded heavily in his hand, crimson flames dancing in his pupils.

The elders exchanged glances, each seeing a cold glint in the other's eyes: the Demon Race had already slaughtered the Human Race, yet now they dared to make such an audacious request?

Zhou Yi's aura surged around him, the bronze sword sheath ringing: "Dragon, do you realize your life hangs by a thread?"

The Flood Dragon King's scales bristled, still maintaining his bearing: "You rely on a few artifacts to be fierce; in the Great Luo Realm, our Demon Race's strong ones number like sand in the galaxy, while your Human Race is merely ants."

Before the words finished, the chilling sword intent crashed like storm waves against the shore. Under the pressure, the Flood Dragon King shivered like a dry leaf, only then noticing the young man before him was surrounded by Chaos aura of the same level as the Demon Master.

"One final question," Zhou Yi's sword tip pressed against the dragon's reverse scales. "What does the Great Peng Bird want with human souls?"

"I truly don't know!" blue blood seeped from his scales as the Flood Dragon King rasped, "Three years ago the Demon Master was severely wounded by a mysterious person and sealed in the abyss of the North Sea. Just the other day a command arrived to harvest Human Race essences, claiming it concerns a path‑to‑enlightenment opportunity…"

Zhou Yi sheathed his sword and exchanged glances with Sui Huang. Back then, when he disguised himself as a masked wanderer to rescue ten thousand flames in the Sea of Blood, the battle with the Nether River and the Great Peng Bird shook Honghuang; he never expected the Great Peng Bird to still be investigating the matter.

Just as Zhou Yi had anticipated, the Demon Master Great Peng Bird indeed survived the lethal strike, but that clash severely drained its vital energy.

In the intervening years, this Demon Race titan has remained in a dim secret realm, cultivating; the figure that once ravaged Honghuang has long vanished without a trace.

Now a Demon Race envoy suddenly appears in Human Race territory, opening its mouth to demand billions of lives; this abnormal act makes Zhou Yi's brows knit tightly.

His fingertips unconsciously tapped the mysterious jade desk, and a flash of insight struck him: could devouring Human Race essence aid its Dao injuries?

"Your Majesty, that Demon Master has always been ruthless, ranking just below the two Supreme Ones among the Demon Race," Sui Huang said anxiously, "This setback may cause them to intensify their targeting of the Human Race."

The elder's divination‑grass staff carved deep grooves into the ground, revealing his inner turmoil.

The Flood Dragon, bound to the mysterious iron pillar, heard the words and blue demon fire seeped from the gaps in his scales: "Now that you know the Demon Master's reputation, hurry…" Before he finished, Zhou Yi's robe sleeves fluttered lightly, his palm wind enveloping the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth, crushing down.

"Noisy! It was I who severely wounded the Great Peng Bird that day." Before the words finished, the Flood Demon's horrified, desperate expression was frozen within the mysterious ice.

The crystal ice refracted his final confusion: how could this Human Race wield a power even the Demon Master struggled to resist?

Zhou Yi stared toward the North Nether, the Xuanyuan Sword at his waist emitting a clear, resonant dragon chant.

Had it not been for Taiyi Shen's bell striking across the sky that day, the Demon Master would have already fallen on the summit of Mount Buzhou.

At this moment he turned to the Three Emperors Guard; the sun‑and‑moon emblem on their battle armor radiated: "You must intensify rehearsals of the Four Symbols Battle Formation; the time we have left for preparation is scant."

Sui Huang and You Chao exchanged glances and nodded; they both understood that the Demon Master's decree hanging over the Human Race was both calamity and a chance for transformation.

From the distant sky, muffled thunder rolled, as if heralding a storm that would rewrite Honghuang's order.

Within this world, the destined showdown between the Human and Demon races will inevitably arrive.

When the sky‑blocking demon clouds press upon the realm, Human cultivators clutch their artifacts tightly; they have ever had only a fight to the death.

Sui Huang stared at the surging demon qi on the horizon, the flames in his palm reflecting his resolute face.

Behind him, countless cultivators hammered their life‑bound treasures madly, the air filled with the burnt aroma of spirit elixirs.

Every cultivator knows that each slight increase in cultivation now might secure an extra thread of survival for their kin in the impending blood‑war.

In a secret chamber deep within the earth veins, Zhou Yi was surrounded by twelve profound mysterious runes. He slowly opened his eyes, his pupils reflecting a bronze ancient bell floating mid‑air.

This destiny artifact, acquired at the cost of 130,000 battle merits, now inhaled and exhaled Chaos aura; the innate Dao patterns flowing over the bell's surface made the entire space tremble.

"Still a half step short!" the young man sighed lightly, his fingertips tracing a Yin‑Yang Dao diagram in the void.

The clash three days ago in the You Ming Blood Sea remained vivid; had this celestial bell not protected his heart at the last moment, his soul would have already fled.

But a tool remains a tool; only by merging his life‑root Dao seed into the artifact can the true power of this primordial treasure be awakened.

In the depths of the Demon Emperor Palace, a torrent of murderous aura suddenly erupted, shattering the onyx‑carved dome with a thunderous crash.

The Demon Master Great Peng Bird, barefoot, stood upon a floor of glittering shards, his dark robe flowing seamlessly.