Chapter Ninety-Two: Luring the Demons into a Killing Trap

At that moment, the deputy captains had already begun sending secret messages to Tiger of Ten Thousand.

After hunting Azure Cloud for so long and then being trapped here, they had seen just how varied his methods were, and how many treasures he possessed. It was enough to dazzle the eye.

In a situation like this, sending only one or two experts at the ninth level of the Heart-Consolidation Realm would not be enough to deal with him.

At a time like this, only Tiger of Ten Thousand leading men in a full-force assault could kill him.

“Hold on a little longer. Keep formation and erupt with everything you have. Show me your full strength. At a time like this, hiding anything is the same as gambling with your life. Then the four of you come with me and go for the kill.”

They could not keep slaughtering their way through the monkey horde like this. The numbers were not even on the same scale. Even if they killed several times as many demonic monkeys, it would mean nothing. There was no point in fighting these beasts to the death.

But with this troublemaker stirring things up, if they wanted to break out, they had no choice but to face the monkeys head-on.

Tiger of Ten Thousand immediately sent commands to the deputy captains. At this point, if they still did not fight with everything they had, they would all die. More than half of their men were already dead or wounded, and the rest were injured as well.

As they turned once more and Azure Cloud lured another wave of monkey beasts toward them—

“Kill!”

“Boom! Rumble—!”

In that instant, more than a dozen people unleashed their methods at once. Some were thunderfire beads that cracked like lightning, some were small modern explosives, and several even detonated spare magical artifacts. The others all erupted with their strongest attacks.

In an instant, countless demonic monkeys around them were blasted skyward.

This time, they did not avoid the monkey horde. Instead, they charged straight into it and cut a bloody path through the beasts blocking their way.

Tiger of Ten Thousand launched his fists, unleashing over a hundred fist-qi strikes in a single breath. Behind him, two deputy captains and two ninth-level Heart-Consolidation cultivators followed him straight at Azure Cloud.

In this situation, the other side would sooner or later spare no expense to attack him, and Azure Cloud had long been prepared.

The moment they erupted, he also surged outward at top speed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His shields blocked attacks coming from multiple directions. After so many fierce battles, especially with his style of fighting in which he drove four or five superior artifacts at once, an ordinary Heart-Consolidation cultivator would already have been drained dry, their power spent far too quickly.

Even swallowing spirit-restoring pills or other supplements would not keep up. But Azure Cloud’s own magical power was now at least two or three times stronger than that of an ordinary Heart-Consolidation cultivator, and his body was already close to the level of a Cloud-Riding Realm golden physique. Most importantly, his soul force and spiritual sea were both vast beyond measure, so controlling his power consumed far less.

Add to that the fact that he replenished himself directly with liquefied spiritual energy, and he did not fear falling short. With power flowing ceaselessly into him, he could naturally do what others dared not, and could not.

After blocking one wave of Tiger of Ten Thousand’s assault, he still had to dodge frantically through the obstruction of the monkeys. His movement technique, his two defensive artifacts, the superior-artifact boots on his feet, and his flying sword all had to be brought to bear for interception.

Whoosh—thud!

At that very moment, one of the deputy captains following Tiger of Ten Thousand had an especially strange movement technique. Though still inferior to Azure Cloud’s, he had hidden behind Tiger of Ten Thousand, using him as a shield against many attacks.

When Tiger of Ten Thousand’s blows were stopped by Azure Cloud’s shield, this man suddenly launched more than a dozen fine needles of mid-grade quality, stealthily threading them through a gap between the two shields like soul-snatching ghosts, stabbing straight for Azure Cloud’s heart and the back of his head.

That move was undeniably vicious. He himself was a ninth-level Heart-Consolidation cultivator, and in ordinary times he used heavy weapons, so few knew he possessed such a soul-pursuing needle technique.

Feeling the needles strike home, he was overjoyed and frantically drove them onward, wanting them to pierce through Azure Cloud’s brain and heart. But then he suddenly discovered that the needles could no longer advance even half a step.

Buzz—

Azure Cloud was also startled. Fortunately, at that moment, a suit of color-shifting soft armor slowly emerged over the skin at the back of his head and across his back.

This was the beast-inner-armor left to him by his parents, taken from a level-eight Cloud-Riding Realm beast. He could wear it, but he could not fully awaken its true power.

Still, over this recent period, although Azure Cloud had not advanced in realm, his golden-body strength was enough to extend part of its coverage. The inner armor had been crafted from the hide of an altered chameleon, and the portion that had just extended out was enough to protect the back of his head.

The other man’s eerie soul-pursuing needles stabbed into it but could not penetrate. Even so, it still sent a chill through Azure Cloud’s heart.

With a sweep of his hand, he seized those needles and forcibly drew them into the Creation Alchemy Furnace.

“My treasure...” the man cried out in alarm. He had clearly felt them hit, yet the other side had not reacted at all. He had intended to keep controlling them to make them burst, but instead they were seized and vanished instantly. He could no longer sense them at all.

How was that possible? A magical artifact he had refined himself could not possibly be forcibly taken away.

And that sensation just now, when the needles struck, had been a little like stabbing into the skin of a powerful demonic race—only barely piercing a little before meeting resistance, making it impossible to break through.

Was that a Cloud-Riding Realm inner armor?

He had already guessed at one possibility, and shock surged through him. Just how many good things did this fellow have? Even his eyes had filled with greed.

Unfortunately, their first wave of attacks had failed to kill Azure Cloud, and he had already widened the gap between them at great speed.

He never intended to trade blows with them head-on, or he would not have lured over so many monkey beasts in the first place.

More and more demonic monkeys surged over, once again stopping Tiger of Ten Thousand and the others from pursuing him.

Because they were chasing Azure Cloud, their formation had also been pulled apart.

Just moments ago, Tiger of Ten Thousand had still erupted to shield the one using the soul-pursuing needles. Now each of them was fighting for his life on his own.

Whoosh—thud!

“Aaaah!”

Though he did not clash with them directly, the area was not yet completely surrounded. Azure Cloud simply circled around from the outside, swung to the flank of the one using the soul-pursuing needles, and took advantage of the moment when that man was busy resisting the monkey beasts to cut him down with a single sword strike.

Tiger of Ten Thousand erupted once more and charged out in pursuit.

Though he could not compare with the Cloud-Riding Realm Tiger of Ten Thousand Dragon, when supported by the others and unleashed in concert, he was still formidable indeed.

Yet Azure Cloud could not be bothered to pay him any mind. At that moment, he suddenly dashed toward the place where they had been fighting earlier. If they wanted to chase him, they would have to push forward again, and very soon they would be surrounded by the monkeys once more.

As he charged back in the opposite direction, he also collected the bodies of the dead along the way. The storage space within the Creation Alchemy Furnace was enormous anyway. Wherever he passed, if there was no time to search carefully, he simply took all the corpses.

He also did not hesitate to collect the bodies of some powerful demonic monkeys, leaving the ground instantly stripped bare.

The sight was shocking beyond measure. Especially with enemies still following behind, watching him pass through like autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves, gathering everything in its path, he was practically a top-grade vacuum cleaner, leaving nothing behind.

“This...”

Tiger of Ten Thousand and the others were completely stunned. They had never seen a storage artifact with their own eyes, though they had heard of them, and had even seen great figures such as Supervisor Wen carrying one in certain places.

Normally, a storage item of several cubic meters was standard. Anything over ten cubic meters was already rare.

But this fellow had simply waved his hand and taken away everything, whether it was the corpses of their fallen comrades or the bodies of the monkeys. Just how enormous was his storage artifact?

Breaking out was difficult, but suddenly rushing inward had made things much easier. In the blink of an eye, they had already driven several hundred meters back.

“We can’t keep chasing him in. We’re about to lose contact with the main force...”

“There are even more monkeys coming from inside. If we keep pushing in and get trapped again, we’ll have no chance of breaking out...”

“Brother Tiger, retreat...”

Tiger of Ten Thousand was both furious and green-eyed with envy, already close to losing his reason, and he wanted to pursue the other side no matter the cost. But seeing that the situation was wrong, the others, though equally envious, had to face a grim reality.

If they kept following him, then with his Cloud-Riding Realm inner armor, his ability to drive multiple superior artifacts, his endless strength, and his bizarre movement and combat techniques, they could not keep up.

Before, when the whole force had gone deep in, they had still managed to fight their way back out. But now, if only the few of them followed him deeper while he had no one to hold him down from the side, they would surely be surrounded and killed.

“Ah... boom!”

Tiger of Ten Thousand had never felt this stifled before. In all his years, no matter what kind of enemy he had faced, he had never been this frustrated.

He punched a demonic monkey to pieces and sent a monkey king flying, then turned and led the other three in a rapid retreat.

Seeing that they no longer gave chase, Azure Cloud did not immediately turn back after them. Instead, he continued pressing deeper inward in one breath. The surrounding space had already opened up. Though the monkey beasts chasing him were still numerous, they could not catch him and could not form a killing encirclement. There was no way they could force through his defenses, so there was nothing to worry about.

He simply charged all the way back, collecting everything he saw on the road.

He did not lack money, but he was certainly frugal. Following the principle of saving where he could and spending where he should, he gathered all the corpses and weapons along the way, then turned and headed out from another direction.

By now, the situation on Tiger of Ten Thousand Dragon’s side was the most dangerous of all.

Because he had revealed Cloud-Riding Realm methods from the very start, the strongest monkey kings had all joined in to surround and kill him. The number of demonic monkeys they had summoned against him was the greatest of all, and they had even called in a group of demonic birds that cooperated with the monkeys to deal with him.

Without some means of resisting a Cloud-Riding Realm expert, this place would have long since been flattened.

And not only humans could flatten it—other demonic races were constantly waging bloody war here as well.

The reason hunting had never ceased for so many years in the Marsh of Han, yet beasts had never been in short supply, was precisely because there were so many demonic birds, and because the waters here connected to the ocean. Powerful deep-sea creatures did not dare approach, but ordinary ones would keep entering.

Those beasts in the marshes and in the waters seemed endless, and they also indirectly gave monkey hordes and other beast swarms room to survive.

Tiger of Ten Thousand Dragon had also realized something was wrong, because a large portion of the monkeys were actually trying to capture him and do indecent things to him.

That frenzied state was absolutely not normal.

He immediately recalled how, when he had seized Azure Cloud earlier, the latter had used poison pills. Although he had not felt poisoned at the time, it was obvious that Azure Cloud had poisoned the monkeys in that area.

Then something must have contaminated his own side, causing these monkeys to want to possess him with such reckless desperation.

Driven by the monkeys around him, the others had gone mad with attack after attack, and that had created the present situation.

The more Tiger of Ten Thousand Dragon understood it, the angrier he became. He had never imagined that a dignified Cloud-Riding Realm expert like himself could be schemed against to this extent.

He had to die. No matter what, he had to die. He must be killed, no matter the cost.