"What?"
Da Yan watched the countless rockets rush towards him, sword energy crisscrossing. At this moment, he had no intention of fighting Ye Yun, his mind solely focused on escape. The sense of danger Ye Yun projected was overwhelmingly intense. Setting aside true essence, his physical body and strength alone were no weaker than his own!
It was precisely because of his superior physical body and strength compared to the other two Demon Emperors that Da Yan had managed to stand as their equal on Canglan Star within a mere thousand years! Now, this advantage had vanished completely in Ye Yun's presence.
Internally, Ye Yun's innate true essence, imbued with fire and lightning, suppressed his demonic essence to the extreme.
"Brat! It seems you're truly seeking death!" One can lose a fight, but never their spirit, that had always been Da Yan's style.
A black stream of demonic essence erupted, blocking all the incoming rockets. Fire and demonic essence intertwined, creating crackling sounds.
Ye Yun also noticed that Da Yan's strength was far beyond what Xue Daoyang and the others had described for a Demon Emperor. This meant that the fellow had been hiding his true power all along!
"Arc Lightning!"
All thousand rockets were shattered, but Ye Yun remained unperturbed. Lightning flashed, colliding with Da Yan's colossal sword energy...
"Brat, do you think I'm only strong in physique and brute force?" Da Yan flashed, traversing the mere few dozen meters instantly to appear behind Ye Yun. With renewed power, his sword energy struck Ye Yun's back, sending him flying back over ten meters. He then pursued Ye Yun, unleashing a flurry of punches, directly knocking Ye Yun to the ground.
Ye Yun seemed to have no reaction, allowing Da Yan's sandbag-sized fists to rain down upon him without resistance.
"As long as it's not the face, anything is negotiable."
"Hmph, you all only know my unparalleled swordsmanship, unaware that my fist techniques are the true pinnacle of my martial arts, Da Yan Demon Emperor..."
*Boom...*
Gray true essence surged, sending Da Yan's body flying backward.
"Heh heh, your specialty is fist techniques? Is that all? Couldn't even scratch me?"
Ye Yun stood suspended in the air, looking down at Da Yan and sneering. Ye Yun had intended to test his own physical resilience, and the results were exceptionally pleasing.
"Brat! You brought this upon yourself!" Da Yan grabbed the greatsword stuck in the ground, and a sword energy thirty meters long, like a typhoon, swept up and slashed down from the sky!
"Flash!"
"Invincibility!"
*Bang...*
The sword energy dissipated. Da Yan stared blankly, his sword tip held between Ye Yun's two fingers, a gash dozens of meters deep behind him. He was stunned.
Was this even human? Even the Emperors of our demon race wouldn't dare to belittle my sword energy to this extent!
"Is that all? Now it's my turn!" Ye Yun smiled faintly, gently pulling the greatsword, dragging Da Yan along with it.
*Bang...*
A torrent of blood rained down, forming a small, localized blood shower that splattered onto Yu Ye, who was kneeling on the ground.
With one punch, he sent Da Yan flying, then a kick utterly obliterated him. A generation's Demon Emperor was thus annihilated by Ye Yun's single punch and kick!
"Eh, this little lass is dead just like that?" A vortex stirred behind Ye Yun, and Da Yan's essence was immediately absorbed by him.
"Dead is dead. A shame about such a good figure, though." Ye Yun looked at Yu Ye kneeling there, her life force extinguished, and turned to speed north.
Soon, news spread throughout the Northern Great Wilderness. In just two days, tens of thousands of demons had perished. First, a human slaughtered over fifty thousand demons in a small town, and then Da Yan Demon Emperor and Princess Yu Ye both died in a treasure dispute!
"With the death of Da Yan Demon Emperor, the forces of Da Yan City are bound to fall into chaos, leaving a world dominated by you and Wu Yue as the sole powers."
In the central region, an old man dressed as a scholar stood atop a hundred-zhang towering building, gazing towards the north with a slight frown.
Beside him stood a burly demon. Unlike other demons, he had a pair of wings growing from his ears, their roots extending to his shoulders, giving the appearance of giant gills from afar.
"Hmph, Zi Yang the Daoist, Da Yan is dead, Yu Ye has perished. It looks like your human race stands to gain more, doesn't it?" The demon turned to face the scholar, his expression unreadable.
"The Buddha can save all beings, but the Dao cannot indiscriminately teach. To enlighten these demonic realm creatures, I have resided in this demonic realm for a full fifteen hundred years. Da Yu, no, Tian Ye, help me send him to the Great Wilderness. From now on, our master-servant bond ends here." The old man stroked his beard, a sense of desolation in his eyes.
Da Yu!
That was the name the old man had given Tian Ye when he was still a mere, unenlightened fledgling. After he gained sentience, the old man continued to call him Da Yu, but today, this former master addressed himself as Tian Ye, a name that struck fear into the hearts of all on Canglan Star. He was Tian Ye Demon Emperor, one of the three great Demon Emperors of Canglan Star!
"Disaster brings forth fate, and enlightenment leads to its end, does it not?" Tian Ye looked at the old man and couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. The old man was his savior, his father figure. In essence, the old man had shaped him.
"Boundless, without the Way, without wind, Tian Ye, you are now one of the eighteen Demon Emperors of the demonic realm. With your strength, becoming the leader of the eighteen departments is within reach. I hope you will remember this kindness of my Zi Yang in the future and treat my human race with compassion." Zi Yang turned, and with a point of his finger in the void, a luminous screen, like a mirror flower or moon reflection, shattered with a bang.
"A hundred-zhang tower high, reaching for the stars with one's hand. Dare not speak loudly, for fear of startling those in the heavens. This Tong Bai Tower, I shall have it destroyed after I depart." Zi Yang stood in the void, and under Tian Ye's bow, he soared into the sky, followed by nine golden cores swirling behind him.
"Master, wait!"
Tian Ye bowed once.
"Father, go!"
Tian Ye bowed a second time!
With Zi Yang's departure, the only human sanctuary in the demonic realm was instantly engulfed by demonic energy. Countless humans who had been sheltering in Tong Bai Tower discovered this immediately but dared not utter a word.
Who would have thought that the foremost of the three Emperors of Canglan Star was once a river fish raised by a human True Master?
As Zi Yang departed, Tong Bai Tower shattered layer by layer. The tens of thousands of humans within, as if held by invisible hands, slowly descended to the ground!
"Tian Ye! Hand over that old Daoist! Return my son's life!" A furious roar echoed through the heavens and earth. Above Tian Ye City, countless strands of demonic energy carried a colossal demon...