Chapter 391: The Might of the True Immortal Demon King, the Storm About to Break

"Reporting—"

"Great King, my men have caught a spy!"

"Hey hey, let go of me! Why are you grabbing me? I'm your Great King's honored guest!"

"If you don't release me right now, watch out—I'll make sure you can't even walk away with the consequences!"

Just then, from the direction of the entrance came the loud voice of a lesser demon, mingled with the struggles of a man.

It raised its short, flat, thick snout to look over, its hazy eyes taking a moment to react,

"Bring him in…"

"Yes!"

Not long after, Baihao Yaowang saw his lesser demons appear before him with a reluctant human in tow.

It was a young man with a face full of indignation, faintly tinged with a hint of arrogance—he was none other than the famous game streamer who had originally bumped into Wei Ziqi, Lao Zhao.

The reason Lao Zhao had appeared here was also thanks to a mission given to him not long ago by that mysterious big shot, and it was precisely this mission that had made him dare to disregard even life and death, boldly charging into Yao Shan.

The rewards were simply too generous, and the implications in that big shot's words had given him a hint of speculation.

So he wasn't panicked in the slightest—even though he was being carried like a dead pig by several terrifyingly imposing demons, he kept cursing nonstop, struggling from time to time, causing the other viewers in the livestream to burst into laughter.

【I'm dying of laughter, doesn't Lao Zhao look a bit like something right now?】

【A pig about to be put on the roasting rack?】

【Ah yes yes yes! Even in a new place, Lao Zhao still can't escape his unlucky fate—turning a simple delivery mission into so many twists and turns, hilarious!】

Looking at the stream of shameless comments from the livestream audience, Lao Zhao was also covered in black lines, but upon seeing the main figure appear before him, he showed delight, just about to explain and ask the Demon King for help.

Unexpectedly—

"It's you…"

"You still dare to appear before me!"

As the spy in the lesser demon's mouth appeared before Baihao Yaowang's eyes, he instantly widened his eyes and exclaimed with a tone laced with anger.

In an instant, accompanying his fury, terrifying omens materialized out of thin air, the sky suddenly darkened, the air filled with an oppressive atmosphere, and a faintly visible phantom slowly raised its head and roared at the heavens.

It was a terrifying creature, pitch-black all over, yet bearing endless pale, spear-like spines on its back that seemed to blot out the sky.

Although he didn't recognize this human, the clearly discernible obscure fluctuations of power on his body were utterly familiar to him—it was exactly the aura of the subordinates of that mysterious existence who had previously done business with the four kings, only to trick them in the end!

They had already tricked him once, and now "Their" subordinate still dared to come swaggering to his territory—truly not putting him in their eyes!

In an instant, accompanying the Demon King's fury, terrifying aura overflowed; Lao Zhao only felt his entire body as if frozen in an icy wasteland, his blood ceasing to flow, as if imprisoned and pressed down by some terrifying great hand, nearly fainting.

An invisible fear struck straight at his heart, all resistance vanishing without a trace, unable to muster any defiance.

This feeling was like a lowly mortal, no better than dust and mud, encountering a noble deity high above wielding Quanyan—nothing but fear and worship, unable to summon even a hint of sacrilegious thought.

Divine might is a prison; divine grace is an ocean.

At this moment, not only was he like this, but the entire livestream also fell speechless at once, a dead silence; the interface that had been flooded with a barrage of comments the second before instantly cleared, not a single comment floating past—not because the viewers had lost interest in Lao Zhao's stream and left.

Rather, even across the immeasurable distance, the viewers hiding behind their screens were still seized by that intense True Immortal pressure, their entire bodies unable to move, as if any random movement on their part, or even the slightest thought of disrespect in their hearts, would bring misfortune and great calamity—an instinctive sense of dread!

The might of a True Immortal—terrifying beyond words!

True Immortals—if they didn't possess even this much of the miraculous, they wouldn't be pursued by countless ordinary beings beneath Xingkong as the ultimate dream of their lives, the absolute supreme existence.

That was the absolute crushing of life levels!

But just then, a peculiar glow slowly rose from deep within Lao Zhao's consciousness, transforming into a crisp dragon cry that dispelled his negative state of falling into fear.

Only then did Lao Zhao's dazed gaze regain its liveliness; his entire body was soaked through with sweat, as if just pulled out of water. At this point Lao Zhao's heart tightened, and he realized that things seemed to be developing a bit wrong.

Shouldn't this terrifying Demon King recognize the black-robed big shot behind him?

Otherwise, why would that big shot send him here to deliver a message? But what was this situation before him?

Why did the other party look like they wanted to flay him alive and eat him?

Although before coming he had told his fellow gamers he wasn't afraid of death, that the rich rewards were worth casting life and death aside, after suffering that incident just now, he swore he had only been joking, just running his mouth—who wants to die if they can live? In his panic, he decisively cried out: "Wait!"

"Wait! Demon King, sir, don't be rash, I have something to say! Even when two nations go to war, they don't kill the envoy!"

This startled cry was like a stone thrown into water, breaking the silent atmosphere.

"Hmm?"

Upon hearing this, Baihao Yaowang's gaping bloody maw also paused, though his violent eyes still fixed dead on this tiny human.

"Phew—" Seeing that his words had worked, Lao Zhao finally breathed a sigh of relief. That terrifying scene just now had truly let him see for the first time just how terrifying the strongest publicly known existence in this game world really was, making him unconsciously set aside that slight sense of superiority a game player feels over NPCs.

He paused, then said somewhat embarrassedly: "Demon King, sir, could you loosen me up a bit? A great existence asked me to deliver something to you…"

Upon hearing this, although Baihao Yaowang made no move, his actions did ease considerably.

If any other person or demon had said this, he might not have listened to half a sentence.

But this human before him was different—of course, what was special wasn't this weak fellow before him who couldn't even withstand a wisp of his aura, but the being standing behind him…

"Puff!"

A quick-witted lesser demon sliced open the ropes binding Lao Zhao, immediately dropping him hard onto the ground with a solid thud, but Lao Zhao couldn't be bothered with that now. In his panic, he took out the Cun Wu Jie Zhi given to him by that mysterious big shot, carefully handed it to the lesser demon beside him, who presented it upward.

At this point, after the Demon King had it in hand, he deliberated for a few sentences, then said: "Demon King, sir, that mysterious lord also left a message for you, 'This, you understand.'"

After saying that, he spoke no more—today's ordeal was enough for him to take a good long rest.

In that instant, he truly felt he was going to die—not just his game character, but his body on Di Xing as well.

'This, you understand.'

Silently savoring these words, the somewhat baffled Baihao Yaowang slowly opened the Cun Wu Jie Zhi, and the next moment—

"Whoosh—!"

His black-and-red eyes instantly widened, and he even became careful with his breathing, as if afraid that the slightest larger movement would cause the ring before him and its contents to be lost.

"Boom boom boom—"

A thunderous sound abruptly rang out here—it was Baihao Yaowang's heartbeat, momentarily out of control from excitement!

Just the sound of the heartbeat alone caused the little demon Lao Zhao beside him to show a trace of agony on his face, because they felt that their own hearts had unknowingly begun to beat along with it, faster and faster, as if about to explode.

But in the next instant, this feeling and the sound vanished again.

Because the BaiHaoYaoWang had come back to his senses, "Little fami… little brother, He, you—did that lord behind you say anything else?!"

A slightly excited voice escaped from the BaiHaoYaoWang's mouth; he could not help being excited.

Because the items inside that Cun Wu Jie Zhi were the World Power and Merit he had been longing for!

Of course, in the mouths of those lords, it was called "Essence Stone"—a precious treasure!

He had wronged those lords!

He had thought those lords had already forgotten their deal with him, but unexpectedly it was he who was too impatient. Look, they had already sent a portion of "Essence Stone" over through their subordinate.

In just a brief instant, looking at this ring, the BaiHaoYaoWang's inner emotions underwent a tremendous reversal.

For a moment, even the somewhat uneasy Lao Zhao was stunned.

No, wait—this terrifying Demon King had just been treating him like a sworn enemy moments ago, as if the lord who gave him the task and he were at odds with each other, wanting to kill even him, the messenger; yet the moment after he handed over the task ring, he was affectionately calling him little brother. The relationships between these lords really are strange…

Still, he sensibly shook his head and informed him that the rest could only be known if the Demon King himself went to seek out that lord.

Of course, during this process he also grew curious about that ring—what exactly was hidden inside?

What could make a Demon King, powerful enough to drive one to despair, change his attitude so drastically?!

Yet he had misunderstood, or rather, a wonderfully clever misunderstanding had occurred under Baichuan's deliberate manipulation through his calculations.

Long ago, after Baichuan understood that the purpose sought by the existence behind that group of Fourth Calamities was "Essence Stone"—something with an extremely great allure for True Immortals and beings above True Immortal—Baichuan roughly guessed that those few Demon Kings had very likely hooked up with them for this resource that could help them break through and grow stronger, which led to the LongFu attack incident.

He could not be blamed for thinking this way; after integrating the information collected from the players later on, he found too many coincidences.

As the true rulers of Yao Huang Da Di, the imperial LongFu—just as the immortal-level Old Dragon had mysteriously vanished, the very next moment the LongFu was attacked by four mysterious demon races at the True Immortal realm. Then, amid the upheaval and chaos across the entire Yao Huang Da Di, the players began to descend and appear, and beyond the Xingkong there existed a group of immortal-level beings watching covetously.

If one were to say that group of immortal-level beings beyond the Xingkong had nothing to do with the descent of the Fourth Calamity, that would simply be nonsense—rubbing others' intelligence into the ground! And to make an immortal-level being mysteriously vanish, only beings of the same level could do it, and moreover a whole group of them at that.

Even the two immortal-level beings on the human side could not achieve this.

Following this line of reasoning, Baichuan decisively concluded that those few Demon Kings were connected to that group of immortal-level beings behind the Fourth Calamity. Therefore, after collecting enough Essence Stone, he decisively used an avatar that had no relation whatsoever to the LongFu to issue the players an opportunity to probe them.

Furthermore, even if his guess was wrong, faced with these resources that had a tremendous effect on True Immortals and realms above, those few Demon Kings would absolutely not pass up this chance.

No matter what, one way or another, they would be led to the stage he had set up.

This was a bare-faced open scheme; as long as they craved these incomparably precious Essence Stone and wished to grow stronger, they would have no choice but to come.

Unless they themselves already possessed such an abundance of Essence Stone that they would disdain even this little sesame-seed amount Baichuan had thrown out.

But is that possible?

If it really were possible, then that mysterious game with its peculiar method of extracting Essence Stone would not have kept invading and expanding.

This was a precious resource that even he, Baichuan, could barely restrain himself from wanting to devour!

It was as if these Essence Stone could fill the "hunger" and emptiness of the True Immortal realm, making it whole.

In other words, as long as one could not manufacture this resource oneself, it would be very difficult to resist the temptation it brought.

Because making oneself more perfect is the deepest instinct engraved into all things in the world.

Only Baichuan, who possessed the Ability Panel—another means of growing stronger—could barely control his body's instinct.

Therefore, that group of Demon Kings was bound to come!

And indeed, so it was.

At the same time, situations like the BaiHaoYaoWang's also occurred at the other two locations.

All of them were caused by players who, attracted by the rich rewards in the tasks issued by Baichuan, volunteered to seek out the Demon Kings and deliver the message!

It's just that some players were rather unlucky, killed by lesser demons before they even caught sight of a Demon King.

But this was merely a small ripple; when one player died, another would step up.

As long as the task rewards Baichuan offered were rich, with no player-count requirement, there would absolutely be players willing to risk their lives for the rewards!

In other words, now everything was ready, only awaiting the Demon Kings' arrival.

At this moment, Baichuan, who was staying underground, slowly raised his head. Ignoring the player's game main city bustling with joy above, he stopped the action of pouring Dragon Blood from his claws. He seemed to have already pierced through layer upon layer of solid earth, seeing several Demon Kings with overwhelming momentum following the bait he had cast, drawing closer bit by bit…

After a long while, he withdrew his gaze, slowly took out a peculiar object, and looked toward one side, where a human body preserved in an ice coffin lay.

If a player were present here at this moment, they would surely see floating above that human body's head a dim yet player-exclusive name tag—"Bai."

But if one tried to search for this name on the player forum, one would certainly find no information whatsoever, as if this player's name did not exist at all.

Of course, if one were a bit sharp, one might immediately realize—since when could the game "Chao Fan" allow a one-character name?!

And this was Baichuan's other achievement during this period!

(End of this chapter)