Chapter 562: The True Immortal from Your Side Has Arrived

“Ssssh…”

In the dim crack of stone, a rat darted away.

The lantern hanging above the ugly fish demon’s head slowly dimmed; it stared at the direction the rat had fled, its grip on the steel trident gradually loosening.

The fish demon turned and continued its patrol.

Meanwhile, beneath the earth, the Daoist sped through the ground.

Though moving underground was hard to detect, one could not stay beneath forever—it made orientation difficult, and one had to surface occasionally to check direction.

“Something’s wrong here…”

Third Master whispered: “It’s as if they know we’ve come—or some other powerful enemy has arrived!”

“Could those Dragon Elders have betrayed you?”

“They’re simple-minded; unlikely.”

“Perhaps this Demon King has enemies out on the sea, and now they’ve come knocking.”

“Possible.”

“In any case, let’s leave for now and come again later.”

“No! This is perfect! As long as that octopus is still in seclusion, its defenses are weak—this is the ideal moment to unleash the Yellow Emperor’s Divine Fire! Perhaps I can even burn it half-dead!” Third Master said. “When I return after attaining True Immortality, it’ll be easier to deal with.”

“Then we stick to the original plan?”

“Good…”

Not long after, commotion erupted on the island.

The sea demon soldiers and officers, who had already been streaming out of the “palace” to patrol, were startled and rushed toward the island’s interior, fearing the Dragon Elders were causing trouble again.

Though they normally supervised these Dragon Elders, they relied entirely on the Demon King’s might—these towering giants, over ten zhang tall, knew no magic, yet even the giant shrimp and crab demons still felt like mere shrimp and crab before them.

Several years ago, near the shore, celestial soldiers and gods had descended to exterminate demons; splendid palaces and pavilions appeared in the clouds, and this Demon King, venturing near the coast, happened to see them. Upon returning, it was both terrified of the celestial soldiers’ might and enchanted by the elegant palaces; it dragged merchant ships from the nearby sea, captured the merchants, gathered towering ancient trees, and brought the Dragon Elders to this island to build a palace it could later sink into the ocean.

Any single one of these towering trees was the perfect weapon for the Dragon Elders.

No ten-zhang giant crab or twenty-zhang shrimp soldier could withstand a single swing of the Dragon Elders’ wooden clubs.

More importantly, they didn’t know whether this disturbance was connected to the news they’d received—if they disturbed the Great King’s seclusion, it would be disastrous.

Fortunately, it wasn’t the Dragon Elders causing trouble!

It was a group of armored night demons, arriving from nowhere.

Though these night demons wore armor and looked formidable, they were still far easier to handle than the Dragon Elders.

All the sea demons breathed a sigh of relief.

But just as they prepared to surround and crush them, the unfinished palace behind them erupted with a thunderous boom, spewing forth a torrent of divine fire.

The flames were fiercely intense, almost tangible—they shattered the massive stones atop the palace, overturned the newly erected framework, and hurled the stones and logs into the air, where they disintegrated mid-flight, raining down as burning fragments.

The earth trembled for a moment.

After the explosion, flames continued pouring from every passage, shrieking as they squeezed through stone crevices, spewing massive tongues of fire.

All the sea demons stared, stunned.

The Dragon Elders on the island—whether serving as soldiers or enslaved—also stared, dumbfounded.

The Yu Dynasty craftsmen, dragged here from thousands of li away, stared too—but the heat wave forced them to stagger backward.

The next instant—

“Boom!”

The stones and logs forming the palace were flung again, soaring high—almost as high as the white clouds above.

A massive, glowing red tentacle emerged.

Boom! Several more tentacles shot out in succession.

The colossal “palace” collapsed in a thunderous crash, and a giant octopus crawled out, scanning the surroundings with furious rage.

The blazing fire within the palace still burned, scorching and curling its tentacles and body—clearly a wound even it could barely endure—so it struggled frantically to escape from the ruins.

Seeing its palace destroyed before completion, before it could even be submerged, the octopus demon was frantic.

Several tentacles gestured at once.

From close range, nothing seemed to happen—but from afar, the island was roughly circular, over a hundred li long from east to west and north to south, with the palace at its center, and the nearest sea dozens of li away. Yet with this gesture, eight colossal water columns rose from the surrounding ocean, like dragons, surging swiftly toward the center.

A cage of water columns formed above the island, and countless fish tumbled down.

Many sea demons, Dragon Elders, captured merchants, and ordinary animals on the island looked up in awe.

Soon, the water columns reached the central palace.

“Ssssh…”

But when the water poured down, it did nothing but scatter the stones and logs further—completely unable to extinguish the flames, only hissing and billowing white smoke.

Even when the gathered seawater swelled to rival a lake, then coalesced under its control into a giant water sphere, the fire still burned—water and flame coexisting, the fire persistently blazing within the pure seawater, making the water bubble and steam.

The massive logs, painstakingly gathered for their size and ability to sink, were being continuously burned away.

The octopus demon instantly gave up.

The colossal water columns above suddenly shattered, crashing into the ground; the giant water sphere surrounding the palace burst open, becoming a flood that surged outward.

The sea demon soldiers and officers, naturally unafraid—fish in water—and the Dragon Elders, towering over ten zhang, were unharmed; but the captured merchants, suffering terribly,

Were swept away, scattered everywhere.

Fortunately, the sea demons knew their value and rushed to protect them.

The octopus demon lowered its head, scanning the ground, then swung a tentacle.

Whoosh!

The tip of the massive tentacle sharpened and hardened, easily piercing deep into the earth.

When it pulled the tentacle back, it dragged up a human figure.

The man seemed pulled out by suction, then fell or broke free midair, spinning and drifting with no ground to push off from.

The captured merchants stared wide-eyed.

The man appeared to be in his thirties or forties, clad in a gray-white Daoist robe, long hair flowing, face weathered—he was clearly a Daoist from the Great Yu.

Yet this place was thousands of li from his homeland.

The merchants’ eyes instantly reddened.

Swish! Two more massive tentacles shot toward the Daoist.

The Daoist’s figure still spun helplessly in midair, but a flash of light appeared in his hand—a giant sword materialized out of thin air.

Though his body had not stabilized, this no longer looked like desperation—it looked deliberate: using the spin’s momentum, he deliberately turned, swinging the giant sword in a circular motion.

This swing was breathtakingly elegant!

Had his sword been an ordinary blade, without the monstrous octopus demon as backdrop, had it been set against peach blossoms in spring, bathed in the sea’s sunlight, his posture and swordplay would have surpassed even the most famed human sword dancers in beauty.

Ssssh! A flash of cold light—deadly intent unleashed!

Though this Demon King had attained True Immortality, under the Daoist’s sword strike, its tentacle tip was severed!

The octopus demon retracted its tentacle with a cry of pain, enraged further.

Two severed tentacles regrew instantly; then four more stabbed out simultaneously—left, right, above, below.

A flash of sword qi vanished in midair!

One tentacle was cut in half!

The giant sword swept through silver light!

One tentacle severed!

Then—Bang!

The third tentacle struck the Daoist, smashing him from the sky to the island’s surface, landing right before a merchant held aloft by a giant crab to escape the flood.

The retreating sea erupted into a giant flower, waves rising several zhang high, and the earth beneath was cratered by the impact.

The merchant stared, dumbfounded.

In that instant, the Daoist seemed to have turned into a stone statue harder than metal.

The next instant, the statue became a man again.

Their eyes met.

But shadows now loomed overhead.

The fourth tentacle stabbed down violently.

The Daoist’s gaze hardened; his body sank directly into the ground—the tentacle plunged in after him.

When the tentacle pulled back, the Daoist, now turned to stone, was lifted once more.

Come.

“Trouble!”

Third Master frowned.

This octopus demon, though a barbarian with little magical skill and thus appearing clumsy, was fully True Immortal—far beyond his ability to handle. And escape was nearly impossible.

As he thought, he activated the Divine Travel Technique!

Instantly, his body grew light as a swallow.

One sword stroke severed a tentacle.

His left sleeve swept—gale-force qi surged, shattering a charging water dragon and propelling him toward another direction, dodging another tentacle.

At the same time, he released his grip—

A shower of beans burst forth, carried by the violent gale, landing directly on the octopus demon’s body.

The beans instantly transformed into armored soldiers—some human-sized, others over ten zhang tall, armored night demons—all clinging to the octopus demon, slashing and hacking with all their might.

These armored soldiers and armored night demons numbered at least two hundred, all transformed into fragments of the Eastern Queen Mother’s shattered body—using the corpse of a demon king from the Divine Land, refined by him for dozens, even hundreds of years, their spiritual essence and power were extraordinary; even if this sea demon had attained true enlightenment, each slash of a blade or sword left a wound, each thrust of a spear or halberd carved a deep pit.

The eight-armed sea demon cried out in pain.

But it had indeed attained true enlightenment, and the damage was limited.

It swung its eight tentacles, knocking down dozens of armored soldiers, then violently thrashed its body, flinging another dozen into the air, and with a whip-like lash, many

armored soldiers were driven deep into the ground.

Had their bodies not been forged from the Eastern Queen Mother’s remains, they would have been destroyed en masse.

In but a moment, the Daoist was struck down again.

Thud! He crashed onto the cold, hard surface!

Beside him stood a merchant, a thin middle-aged man, staring blankly at him.

Thud!

Another armored soldier crashed down nearby, and immediately, giant crab-fish demons surged forward!

But before the soldier’s form was swallowed by the crab-fish demons, the man clearly saw: the fish-scale armor on the soldier bore the exact style of the Central Plains dynasty.

Now he was certain: this Daoist came from the same place.

“Master Daoist…”

The man couldn’t help calling out.

The third senior brother didn’t hear his follow-up words, but understood his thoughts.

He hoped the Daoist would win, and save them all.

“But…”

The sky darkened again.

The Daoist prepared to earth-dodge away, but found he could not teleport.

Turning, he realized he had not landed on solid ground—behind him, the hard, cold surface was not stone, but ice formed from seawater.

In just a few exchanges, mere breaths of time, this demon had seen through his technique and countered it!

Is this what a demon who has pierced the Dao and attained true transcendence can do?

Without true enlightenment, how could it possibly prevail?

“Huh…”

The Daoist turned into a breeze and vanished to the side.

The massive tentacle crashed down; even the gale and flying ice shards flung the nearby fish demons and the merchant they guarded into the air.

The clear wind drifted in the sky, seemingly invisible, yet the Daoist felt clearly: it still could not escape the demon’s gaze.

True enlightenment means transcendence, harmony with heaven and earth—hard to deceive.

It was still watching him.

Even if he escaped today, he would likely lose half his life.

The third senior brother thought so.

But most frustrating was that he could not take back these Dragon Lords on the island, nor the merchants captured as craftsmen.

Just then, a voice drifted through the wind:

“This way!”

The voice was crisp and stern, oddly familiar.

The eight-armed sea demon instantly went on guard.