The moon was hanging in the night sky.
Li Nianfan held Little Fox in his arms and slowly flew toward Dog Mountain on his Deluxe Merit Cloud. The closer he got to his destination, the more he thought the night sky was darker on Dog Mountain, as if it was covered with a barrier of black clouds, dying it darker. He wondered whether he was hallucinating
Little Fox popped her head out from under Li Nianfan’s crooked arm, her eyes as shiny as jewels. She cautiously surveyed their surroundings and the hair on her head stood up when she detected something odd. She curled back into Li Nianfan’s embrace and one could only see the back of her head.
“Brother Li… Something’s off,” she said quietly.
“Could something bad be happening at Dog Mountain?” muttered Li Nianfan. He, too, could detect something was wrong.
It was too quiet. There was no sign of any activities on their way to Dog Mountain. Not a sound at all. Even the wind felt heavier. All signs pointed to something bad.
“Let’s be careful.”
After some consideration, Li Nianfan made his Deluxe Merit Cloud brighter, warning those around him of his power-death to those who dared to cross him. He felt it was unnecessary to keep his powers hidden because he did not want any idiot to die by his hand.
They continued onward and the atmosphere became thicker with the sense of foreboding increasing the closer they were. When they looked closely, they could see the space around Dog Mountain was slightly distorted. This caused Li Nianfan’s heart to sink and became more worried. “Brother Li, there’s a very powerful magic barrier surrounding Dog Mountain. It’s very dangerous.” The trembling Little Fox’s nine tails were already wrapped tightly around Li Nianfan’s waist, her fur not only standing up vertically but also hardened to the extent no wind was able to sway it.
“Someone’s there!” cried Little Fox with surprise. Once again, she darted back into Li Nianfan’s embrace, leaving only her head and eyes visible.
Li Nianfan stopped the Merit Cloud instantly and looked toward the direction of Dog Mountain-two figures were fleeing the area and they were holding something in their hands.
Clink! Clink! Clink! The sound of metal hitting metal came from their hands as they were pulling on something.
Judging by their raised eyes, they had obviously seen Li Nianfan, too. Their expression changed drastically and their hearts trembled with fear when they saw the golden Deluxe Merit Cloud. How could theythe best of the best from the Heavenly Realm – feel so helpless?
They cursed their bad luck for bumping into a Deluxe Merit Saint at this time. They were just about to complete their mission and now a curveball was introduced, so it was only natural for them to be unhappy about the situation.
However, they became still when they saw Little Fox. They exchanged glances with each other, confirming that the other party had the same idea.
‘A Deluxe Merit Saint’s nothing. We shouldn’t let slip the opportunity of capturing a Nine-Tailed Fox. If we manage to capture it, then it’d be twice the reward for tonight!’ they thought to themselves while laughing.
“My fellow brothers, under the favors bestowed from the Area of the Gods, I’ve become a Deluxe Merit Saint. Fate brought us together and as long as you don’t attack me, we’ll all be fine,” said Li Nianfan, exposing his own identity and dropping hints at the same time. Hopefully, the two men would get his message and tread carefully.
Judging by the two men’s furtiveness and the unusual circumstances, Li Nianfan correctly guessed that their presence on Dog Mountain was not one of pure intention. Then, his gaze scanned past the two men and rested on the thing they were pulling—from the looks of it, it was probably a dog. However, he could not be sure about it because it was too dark. ‘Are they dog-nappers? Do they even exist in the Immortal realm?’ he wondered. One of his eyebrows arched up at the thought of the skills he had developed after deeply researching about the powers of Deluxe Merit—the skill of Illumination!
He thought it was as good as anytime to try out the new skill.
“Brothers, please, don’t doubt my power. Let me move my Deluxe Merit closer so you can see it up close,” he said with a kind smile.
Then, he raised his hand and waved the Deluxe Merit light over to where they were standing. Immediately, their surroundings became illuminated.
Li Nianfan saw the dog with all four limbs being bound by the iron chain. It was looking at Li Nianfan with helplessness in his eyes. Poor, poor thing.
‘Is it a dog? Why is it hairless?’ thought Li Nianfan with a shock. Then, a wave of familiarity hit him. ‘He looks like Blackie! Why’s Blackie bald? Not only have these two dog-nappers captured him but they even shaved off all his fur as well! What kind of fetish is this? This is beyond evil!’
Li Nianfan felt deep sorrow in his heart. After all, Blackie was his first pet in the Immortal Realm. They were together for many years and had become each other’s most loyal friend.
The sight of Blackie being tortured sent a wave of fury across Li Nianfan’s body. Those dog-nappers! I must come up with an idea to save Blackie.’
At the same time, he had noticed the two men’s gazes on Little Fox-not hiding the lust in their eyes, seeing her as prey. “These villains!’ thought Li Nianfan. He immediately started to come up with a rescue plan.
He had supreme confidence in his defense skills and with the help of the Double Flying Stone, had the same confidence in his attack power. After all, Blackie was only a low-level Dog Demon, it did not take much to capture him. He was sure the Double Flying Stone would be more than enough to defeat the two dog-nappers.
The biggest problem was that the dog-nappers had Blackie as a hostage. So, how could Li Nianfan defeat them without hurting Blackie?
Suddenly, laughter could be heard from all three of them after catching each others’ eyes -each of them up to no good.
“Brothers, care to explain yourselves?” asked Li Nianfan.
“It’s like this, Saint. We love animals and came across this bald dog, so we wanted to bring it home to take care of it. To see if there’s any way to help him recover his fur,” lied the old man wearing the black robes without skipping a beat and sporting a poker face. The muscled man was impressed by his quick thinking and quickly added, “Yes, it’s like he said. We love animals. Is that a Nine-Tailed Fox you have? What a rare animal. Do you mind if I hold it for a bit?”
‘Of course, I mind. Only a fool will believe your words. I bet the two of you have a twisted definition of love,’ thought Li Nianfan, all the while keeping a perfunctory smile on his face. “If that’s the case, what a coincidence! I know some healing spells. How about you give him over and I’ll see what I can do?”
He took out the Double Flying Stone ready to cast a spell as soon as he had Blackie by his side.
“Umm…” The two men did not know how to react to this request.
The old man wearing the black robes squeezed out a smile. “You might not be aware, Saint, this is a very ferocious dog. I’m afraid it’ll go berserk if we were to release the chains.”
Li Nianfan frowned slightly. It seemed like they had reached an impasse.
The old man wearing the black robes and the muscled man sneaked a glance at Li Nianfan, not wanting to waste more time. “We still have some urgent matters to attend to, Saint. Forgive us for our departure. We bid you goodbye.”
They were just about to leave when Li Nianfan said, “Hold on a moment.” He was not going to let them go without getting Blackie back.
The two men stopped in their tracks and could not hide their annoyance. The fact that they were no match for a Deluxe Merit Saint did not mean they would not engage in a fight with him, if it came to it.
“Is there anything else?” asked the muscled man coldly. “Brothers, I want to show you something. Please, keep your eyes wide open,” said Li Nianfan mysteriously. Then he raised his hand, and it was as if the whole sky had heard his orders. An infinite amount of golden beams came from the four corners of the earth, coloring the whole sky and earth until the entire Dog Mountain became golden with infinite Deluxe Merit.
The golden beams of light gathered themselves and created a whirlpool with Li Nianfan at its center before surrounding the old man in the black robes and the muscled man. The two of them were shocked at the spectacle and at the thought of not knowing what would happen next.
So much Deluxe Merit. So Bright. So blinding that they felt they would really go blind.
Li Nianfan was determined to punish them. With a thought from him, the Double Flying Stone started to glow and a beam of frost burst forth-under the protection of the golden light-toward the two men.
The old man wearing black robes and the muscled man were still stunned by the display of power when they suddenly felt a surge of coldness. The sense of impending doom was enough to send electricity running through their heads. They might not make it out of this.
Every cell in their bodies trembled with fear, sending alarm signals for them to run!
However, they were paralyzed with despair. They were being rooted by a sense of indescribable fear, as if time and space had frozen over.
‘Is…is this the Power of Wisdom? How’s this possible? What’s a person with this level of power doing here? He must be a high-level member in the Wisdom Realm to have this level of power!’ thought the two men.
They wanted to scream out in fear but found themselves unable to do so. In this very moment, all they could feel was how pathetic and helpless they were—the thought of their impending death nearly drove them mad.
Luckily for them, the feelings did not last long before they were turned into two ice sculptures. Their last thought was, ‘How is it possible for a Deluxe Merit Saint to activate such a powerful attack? Why did he pretend to be a noob? Was he playing with us?’
“That settles it!” said Li Nianfan. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
He came up with this series of attacks after getting his hands on the Double Flying Stone and it was also specially customized according to his abilities. First, he would use Deluxe Merit to blind the opponents’ eyes which would cause them to go into shock, even blinding them in the process. Then, he would use the Doubly Flying Stone to unexpectedly deal the final blow. He was satisfied with the result after trying out the series of attacks for the first time. He quickly went over to Blackie and unchained him.
“Blackie, are you ok?” he asked caringly.
Suddenly, Little Fox shot out of Li Nianfan’s arms in a panic to avoid the iron chains. She could feel her Primordial Spirit trembling with fear, not wanting to be anywhere near it. She knew she would not be able to do what Li Nianfan did-treating those chains as if they were nothing. She jumped up on the two frozen men and slashed fiercely at their faces.
“Thank you for saving me, master,” cried Blackie pitifully as he nuzzled his head against Li Nianfan’s face.
“Your spiritual cultivation’s too weak! You would’ve been dog meat if it wasn’t for me,” said Li Nianfan with a shake of his head. “It’s a good thing I can rely on Little Daji and Fire Phoenix’s spells. You have to train more from now on, you hear?”
Blackie rolled its eyes and nodded violently. “Yes, Master.”
Li Nianfan looked at the bald Blackie, thinking how ugly the dog looked. He could not help but comment, “I understand why they would want to capture you but not why they needed to shave off all your fur. What an extremely weird thing to do.”
Meanwhile, at a dense forest located not far away from the Demon City, Daji and Fire Phoenix, followed by a group of demons, slowly exited from a mountain cave.
The demon group was made up of the three Demon Kings, followed by a band of injured low-level demons who were captured by the Ministry. The newly freed prisoners were bleeding profusely all over their bodies. Some even had their limbs cut off. All of them had a desolate look in their eyes.
Daji cast a suspicious eye at Bull Demon King. “And you say this is the Ministry’s stronghold?” “I…think…so,” he answered unconfidently while rubbing his horns. His eyes were wide with disbelief.
It was to everyone’s knowledge how scary the Ministry was. It was not an overstatement to say one would never come out of the stronghold alive. Thus, they were prepared to fight to the death.
Daji and Fire Phoenix were naturally cautious at the start. However, they realized they had nothing to worry about once they had checked out their opponents. The duo easily destroyed the stronghold and rescued all the prisoners.
Although they did clash with four Chaos Daluo Golden Immortals, their levels were on par with the three Demon Kings and were easily eliminated by Daji and Fire Phoenix. ‘Is that all? I thought there’d be someone more powerful than this? Could this be a fake stronghold? But that can’t be… All the prisoners are freed. Not to mention, we even discovered a big secret about the Ministry,’ thought Daji and Fire Phoenix.
Bull Demon King was too happy to care about all these. “Goddess Daji, Fire Phoenix, you’ve held up your part of the bargain. Now, it’s time for me to do the same. I pledge my servitude to Little Fox!”
Hippo Demon King and Panther Demon King exchanged a glance with each other and said at the same time, “As do we.”
Daji nodded at them and said, “Okay, please, don’t resist what I’m going to do next.” She took out the golden Demon Summoning Gourd and fed it with the three Demon King’s Primordial Spirit.
It was general knowledge that basic treasures were not able to limit the power of a Chaos Daluo Golden Immortal but it was a different story for the golden gourd-it was a Chaos Spiritual Treasure after all! The three Demon Kings never stood a chance.
The three Demon Kings’ eyes burned green with jealousy at Daji’s treasure. No wonder they were no match for her. A Chaos Spiritual Treasure could drastically increase a person’s fighting power. They were finally satisfied with their defeat after gaining the newfound knowledge. Even a member from the Heavenly Realm would have no problem eliminating more powerful opponents if they had a Chaos Spiritual Treasure on hand. What more a Chaos Daluo Golden Immortal?
Suddenly, they sensed something. They raised their heads toward the sky and were greeted with the sight of an infinite golden beam of light shooting across the sky toward the same destination.
