Chapter 134: Conspiracy Emerges
Facing Lü Bu blocking their path, the Rat Spirit’s eyes turned red, and it opened its blood-filled mouth madly and desperately,
revealing sharp fangs that glinted with a cold light. It intended to use all its strength to bite off Lü Bu’s neck, then seize the moment of everyone’s shock to escape this terrifying place in a flash.
It thought to itself that as long as it could escape, it would quickly report Yuan Tao’s situation to its superiors. Although it couldn’t claim all the benefits, it could still gain something, which was better than losing its life here.
Just as the Rat Spirit was about to pounce on Lü Bu, its thoughts suddenly had a weird pause.
For a moment, it was as if time had been put on pause by an invisible hand. No matter how long the Rat Spirit’s thoughts whirred in its mind, everything around it stood still.
Not only did time seem to stop flowing, but its own body also seemed frozen.
In its perception, time in its thoughts had passed for a very, very long time, but in reality, its body hadn’t moved an inch, and everything around it remained in its original state, frozen in that moment.
“Patta, patta, patta.”
Under this strange state, where time seemed to have stopped, a clear and eerie sound of footsteps approached from a distance.
Each step landed heavily on the Rat Spirit’s heart, making its already flustered mind even more fearful and uneasy.
“What sound?”
This was the Rat Spirit’s last thought.
Immediately after, a cold light flashed, and a sharp sword qi cut through the void.
Here, Yuan Tao and Lü Bu quietly watched the Rat Spirit, now headless and dismembered on the ground. Blood gushed from the severed neck, quickly dyeing the surrounding land red.
“Are all rats this fierce now? One might think it was a tiger.”
Yuan Tao’s lips curved slightly, and he broke the deadly silence on the battlefield with a teasing tone,
his gaze still fixed on the Rat Spirit’s corpse, as if savoring the rather thrilling battle that had just occurred.
“Let’s go back quickly, it’s still too dangerous here.”
After this battle, Yuan Tao’s cavalry had lost over thirty men just in fatalities.
Basically, everyone else was injured.
After a simple collection of their comrades’ bodies, they endured their injuries and prepared to continue on their way.
As for Yuan Tao, facing the corpses of three Great Demons, he directly chose to use Samadhi True Fire to refine them.
A large amount of flesh and blood essence began to gather, and waves of fragrant aroma started to emanate.
Everyone who smelled it unconsciously swallowed their saliva.
Soon, only three items remained on the ground.
A pair of eagle claws, a canine tooth, and something that looked like a stomach sac.
Yuan Tao shivered and complained.
“Damn, it was a hamster after all.”
…
As Yuan Tao and his men were preparing their belongings and getting ready to embark on their journey home,
a thousand miles away in Jingtai City, a suffocating atmosphere of impending storm loomed, and a thrilling slaughter was quietly brewing.
Around Jingtai City, a large number of demons and ghosts gathered like dark clouds, converging near the city walls at the same time.
They varied in appearance, some ferocious and terrifying, others weird and strange, emitting hair-raising auras that chilled and thickened the surrounding air.
This should have been a scene of fear and unease, but what was even more chilling was that the aristocratic clans, who should have been shouldering the heavy responsibility of guarding the city, were completely unaware.
Even some among them with sensitive spiritual awareness, upon discovering the anomaly, merely indifferently reinforced their mansions’ defenses,
disregarding the lives and safety of the hundreds of thousands of common people in the city, allowing the danger to creep closer step by step.
And among these demons and ghosts, the World Tree was actually present.
The leader this time was not Yuan Yi, but Kokushibo, who had somehow successfully been promoted to the Fifth Rank.
In this world, Kokushibo had a more unique advantage compared to Yuan Yi.
As a Ghost, its talent allowed it to increase its strength solely by devouring qi and blood.
In this world, the qi and blood force of the Demon Race was usually stronger than that of humans, so to some extent, the benefits gained by Ghosts devouring demons far surpassed eating humans.
However, eating humans could increase spirituality, something that devouring monsters could not achieve.
Coupled with the secret guidance of interested parties, the practice of eating humans gradually spread throughout the land.
The current Kokushibo was deeply mired in jealousy towards Yuan Yi, constantly pushing himself by devouring various powerful spirit beasts to achieve self-evolution.
On his face, the multiple eyes he once had were now reduced to a single pair. Those eyes glowed with a sinister red light, clearly not belonging to a human.
However, were it not for these strange eyes, Kokushibo’s appearance was already very close to that of a human.
At this moment, he stood proudly on the city wall of Jingtai City, with almost the entire combat strength of the World Tree gathered behind him.
This operation was facilitated by a contact from the Blood Wolf Vanguard.
Originally, according to custom, Ghostfire Old Woman should have been responsible for this matter, but she was defeated by Demon Moon in the previous conflict.
Her entire faction either surrendered and pledged allegiance or was brutally slaughtered, and had basically disappeared from the vicinity of Jingtai City, leaving no trace.
Therefore, the Blood Wolf Vanguard turned to contact Demon Moon’s people.
Currently, the World Tree has not publicly announced its name, still operating under the banner of Demon Moon.
Besides Kokushibo, Heath Ledger’s strength had also improved extremely rapidly, and his strength was now completely comparable to that of an ordinary Fifth Rank Martial Artist.
His abilities were bizarre and unpredictable, and ordinary demons and ghosts might not necessarily be able to gain the upper hand against him.
At this moment, he stood beside Kokushibo, gazing at Jingtai City before them.
In his unique perception, he could see a black mist representing the aura of fear, spreading at an astonishing speed, almost engulfing the entire Jingtai City.
Even more worrying, some Cursed Spirits, the predecessors of demons, had already begun to appear quietly.
Although these Cursed Spirits were currently very weak and could not yet cause substantial harm to humans, if this trend continued, the birth of new demons would only be a matter of time.
Heath Ledger looked around, observing the tense atmosphere today,
and couldn’t help but sigh deeply, “There’s just no time.” His voice was low, carrying a hint of helplessness and emotion.
“No time for what?” Kokushibo heard Heath Ledger’s murmur and, feeling curious, turned his head to ask.
However, the “Clown King” in the purple suit merely curved his lips slightly, revealing a mysterious smile, and did not answer Kokushibo’s question.
The two looked at each other for a moment. Seeing that the other had no intention of explaining, Kokushibo stopped asking.
After all, he knew in his heart that Heath Ledger’s situation was similar to his own; he would basically not betray Yuan Tao.
So he let him be, thinking whatever he wanted to do, it wouldn’t cause any major trouble anyway.
