“Lie Shan, don’t you think you’re a bit out of control?!” An enormous roar echoed between heaven and earth while a colossal face peered out of the void, looking coldly down at the Yellow River basin.
The human tribes in the area trembled with fear and huddled on the ground. Color also drained out of Bingyi’s face; though he’d refined Fuzhu’s life sphere, he was still a paltry ant on the ground compared to the being in the sky.
“Out of control? For what reason do you make such a claim?” Lu Yun responded in a self-assured manner and tilted his head up at the face in the sky. His tremendous power surged over all of the Yellow River, wordlessly confronting the new enemy in the skies.
“Killing a chaos realm demon god on a simple whim, do you think you’re Leize?” the existence demanded frostily.
“Dijiang, don’t even think about swaggering around and throwing your weight around here!” [1]Another immense presence suddenly rose into the air as a young woman—so stunning that she would conquer cities by her beauty alone—appeared next to Lu Yun and stood by his side. A faint golden haze shone around the Bell of Chaos.
“Tushan!” Dijiang, one of the most preeminent demon gods of the world, reacted dramatically when he saw the young woman. “So the Bell of Chaos is indeed in your hands!”
“The Bell of Chaos is right here, come and get it if you can!” Icily glaring back, Troublemaker Tushan retorted in a tone that left no doubt she wasn’t feeling charitable.
“Tushan, isn’t it crossing the line that Lie Shan allows his disciple to kill demon gods?!” A knot of thunderclouds suddenly collected above the northern skies and golden-purple lightning howled among them, coalescing into a titanic body.
“Then I ask you, Nuanzi, what would you do if a hundred million of your tribe was killed?” Tushan asked coldly as she looked to the north.
“How preposterous, this seat is a most lofty being beneath the heavens. Who would dare touch my tribe?” sneered Nuanzi.
“So they don’t dare touch your people, but they dare come eat mine?” Lu Yun interjected. “I, Lie Shan, slayed Dusk Snake, Fuzhu, Huashe, beat the shit out of Luo Houluo and Darkriver in the netherdark, and even killed one of Ji Du’s bodies. Do all of you still take me to be fruit ripe for the picking?
“Or can only the two of you bask in your dignity, and I am allowed none of that?!” His voice reverberated through the great wilderness like the tolling of an exceptional bell.
It stung the demon gods on the scene awake. Though Lie Shan was a pathetic human, his battle strength absolutely put him at the peak. Even Darkriver and Luo Houluo hadn’t been able to put up a fight against him, and in fact, their current whereabouts were still unknown.
Ready to benefit from an opportunity dropped into his lap, Ji Du had suffered the loss of one of his bodies instead, rather than become lord of the netherdark.
“Lie Shan, you could triumph over Darkriver and the others in the netherdark only because you could rely on hellfire there. We are in the great wilderness now, not the netherdark. There is no hellfire to bolster you here!” Dijiang revealed his true form as an enormous scarlet bird sparkling with silver light. He possessed six feet, two pairs of wings, and glared coldly at Lu Yun through a pair of dark red eyes.
“Indeed, whether or not you’re worthy of dignity needs to be determined through battle. Or do you really think you’re Leize?” Nuanzi snorted.
“What, do the two of you want to bully him through superior numbers?” Troublemaker Tushan took a step forward and speared them with an icy look.
“Yaaawn, why are there more and more people who seek death these days? What’s the point in all this fighting and killing? It’s much more comfortable to sleep at home.” A voice that seemed to be more sleep talking sounded around them. A young woman wearing a purple silk dress, her face almost split by the force of her yawns, suddenly appeared out of the blue.
Ah Zhi.
Observer of stars and weaver of fates in the human sacred land, the Ah Zhi who could enter the future from her dreams.
“A Fated Spider!” Nuanzi and Dijiang looked at each other when the latest newcomer joined them.
“It’s three against two now,” Troublemaker Tushan chuckled merrily.
“Even so, that’s all there is to Lie Shan. You are still nothing without hellfire.” Dijiang remained undaunted.
“Yaaawn. Don’t you get it yet, Dijiang?” Ah Zhi asked with resignation. “All of you dare to bully Lie Shan because you think his foundations are shallow and weak, and that he doesn’t have any friends. But here I am, and I represent his family of five demon gods. I’m not opposed to any of you challenging him one-on-one.
“Well, I can’t be bothered either if you want to bully him with superior numbers. But I’m sure Leize and Huaxu would be quite interested in that.” Ah Zhi fully opened her sleepy eyes and looked seriously at Dijiang.
There were more than Nuanzi and Dijiang in the surroundings. The others were hidden in the void and refusing to show their faces. Regardless, the two that were out in the open were among the strongest of the demon gods, on par with Luo Houluo and Darkriver.
In other words, existences that’d once been able to suppress Lie Shan with a single thought.
“Dare you face me, Lie Shan?!” Nuanzi’s body was that of a dragon, but he had the head of a tiger. Eight pairs of wings flapped on his back and continuously released bolts of lightning into the surroundings.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Lu Yun met him stare for stare.
“Good. We will acknowledge your status if you defeat me today, and no longer interfere in your quest against other demon gods who have slaughtered your race. I won’t kill you even if I defeat you either, just imprison you in a chaos tribulation at the center of the Arctic Sea. Do you accept this?!”
“Alright!” Lu Yun nodded slightly when he heard this. It would seem that Nuanzi wasn’t here because the demon god had certain designs toward him or humans, but was here on behalf of the demon gods.
As for Dijiang…
That demon god was still fixated on the Bell of Chaos over Tushan’s head, and Tushan herself.
Hailed as the foremost beauty of the great wilderness, this wasn’t a title that Tushan had given herself. It’d been attributed to her from hordes of adoring demon gods, and there were many who would love to get their hands on her.
“We fight above the nine heavens, below the cosmos!” Nuanzi’s ponderous body took to the air and instantly arrived beneath the seal keeping out the yin spirits and realm monsters.
Lu Yun was close behind him.
The great wilderness boiled over with activity; almost every demon god cast their eye there. They wanted to see just what kind of trump card Lie Shan of the human race possessed, that he dared fight Nuanzi!
Though Nuanzi wasn’t Leize or Taiyi’s match, he was on par with Darkriver and Luo Houluo. So what gave this pathetic human such confidence to contend against this august being?
“Master, take these weapons!” Tianqi quickly sent his seal and sickle into the stars.
“No need.” Lu Yun gently pushed them back into Tianqi’s hands.
Many swallowed hard at the sight of those two treasures, but no one dared make a move before the battle concluded.
Nuanzi’s titanic self circled in space. When he saw Lu Yun arrive, he pounced on the human and flared outward with a rain of lightning. This lightning was more than a thousand times stronger than Fuzhu’s amateurish attempt. Just a single one of these bolts could obliterate him!
Boom.
A black tree shadow appeared behind Lu Yun as hellfire blazed to life in the cosmos, turning space into a sea of fire.
1. Dijiang is an ancient mountain god in Chinese mythology and credited with being the originator of tribal song and dance.
