"Not good," Tianyi muttered aloud as he saw Ashflame Crow's sudden action. He wasn't the only one, as the other top disciples such as Xia Yushan and Daoist Moneybag frowned upon noticing that only one of the Unity Realm level demon elders acted.
"Tianyi, what should we do?" Xia Yushan asked.
The original plan was to wait for when all, or at least half, of the demon elders took action and entered the Vast Heaven Islands' domain. Although rare, there existed treasures or artifacts that could cut off a unity venerable's connection with the world.
As the son of Sword Empress Xi, it wasn't difficult for the disciples to accept that Tianyi possessed such a treasure. Though what shocked them was the fact that Tianyi could merge it with Vast Heaven Island's domain. Tianyi was just too lazy to explain the truth to them.
Tianyi pondered for a moment before he said, "Attack."
It didn't matter anymore. Although the amount of fish was only one, it was still one of the eleven demon elders. Plus, if they allowed Ashflame Crow to escape, then it was possible that none of the demon elders would enter after discovering the truth.
Xia Yushan, Daoist Moneybag, Hun Jusang, Bing Huoyuan, and Ji Wutong all disappeared with a wave of Tianyi's hand. He had shifted their location towards Ashflame Crow, and since he had already exposed the truth of the cultivator's concealment, Tianyi teleported Lushu back into Fan City.
Now, what should I do next? Should I just go all out and try to capture all the demon elders and eliminate them in one fell swoop? Even for one of the three great demon clans, this should be most of their elders, right? Although...
Tianyi scanned the different types of demons that made up their army. Not only were there avian types but also mammals and sea demons. I'm worried about the large composition of sea demons that up the army. Did the Leviathan Clan and Golden Crow Clan team up to get rid of us?
The army was also composed of the Jade Rabbit Clan members, but due to the rabbit's horn—mating characteristics, there were numerous different types of mammals that made up their members. Still, the stronger forces were mostly composed of pure Jade Rabbit Clan members.
Tianyi scanned the rest of the disciples in the room. The disciples that participated in the Demon Slaying Expedition were the elites and the ones in the same room as Tianyi were the elite of the elites. However, they were still a level weaker than Xia Yushan and the other top disciples. Despite this, against Unity Realm level experts who had their connection to the world severed, they were enough.
Now the question was whether he should expand Vast Heaven Island's domain or not. The current domain size was due to Tianyi's scheme. He had purposely shrunk it so that he could enlarge it at the critical moment and trap all the demons.
But the demon elder's Descending Eruption hampered Tianyi's plan. True, he had minimized the damage as much as possible, but he couldn't prevent everything. Tianyi wasn't sure how much he could suddenly expand the domain or how much he could disrupt the demon elder's connection with the world once he enlarged it. And worst of all, Tianyi's spatial collapse that he planned for the final move had significantly weakened.
Let's wait a bit more. I want to see how the demon elders will react. After careful deliberation, Tianyi decided to take a wait-and-see approach.
On the screen—not that he needed it, as he knew everything within the Vast Heaven Islands that was happening as long as he willed it—Tianyi saw Ashflame Crow being suppressed. As expected of a Unity Realm level expert, he was easy to deal with.
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Ji Wutong swiped his arms, and medicinal powder flew from his sleeves towards Ashflame Crow. Ashflame Crow flapped his wings, and gray dust was sprayed towards the medicinal powder. The confrontation between the powder and dust caused a stalemate for a brief moment before a tiny burst of flames sparked and destroyed the powder before continuing to fly towards Ji Wutong.
Upon seeing this, Ji Wutong quickly retreated. As an alchemist, Ji Wutong's combat strength was at the tail end of the five, but his concoctions were lethal. What he used moments ago was the Immobilization Moth Scale Powder, a powder that could cause anyone afflicted with it to be unable to use qi for a while.
Bing Huoyuan stretched out his hands, and the temperature immediately plummeted as the sparks of flame frosted over and became encased in ice. The scion of Boundless Mountain quirked his head towards Ji Wutong with a smug smirk, causing Ji Wutong to gnash his teeth together.
Ashflame Crow saw his chance and charged towards the two distracted nascent soul grandmasters, but before he could near them and incinerate them with his flames, two beams of energy stopped him. Watching from above, Daoist Moneybag waved his hands once more, and the two cylinders behind him unleashed the beams of energy again.
"You two, even if he is weakened, before careful," Daoist Moneybag lectured, causing Ji Wutong and Bing Huoyuan's expression to stiffen slightly. The two glanced at one another before their expression turned serious and looked at Ashflame Crow simultaneously.
If Ashflame Crow were human, he would have clicked his tongue. Sensing a murderous aura, the crow demon quickly dodged but not fast enough. Three streaks of sword-light passed by, the other two successfully struck him.
"Damn humans!" Ashflame Crow growled as he felt the fire and water attribute of the sword-light. The fire sword-light was something his own ash flame devoured, but the water sword-light managed to slice through his feathers and wound his body. But Ashflame Crow didn't have any more time to retaliate as he felt an ominous feeling surrounding him. It wasn't a sense of danger but the result of Hun Jusang's specters nearing him.
Ashflame Crow was further enraged upon seeing one particular specter. Although its head had no beak, the specter's body was avian, and Ashflame Crow could intuitively discern that the specter was formed from his clan members' death.
Flapping his wings, Ashflame Crow quickly avoided the specters, but just as quickly, he felt his surroundings become frosty. In response, ash-colored flames erupted from his feathers and caused Bing Huoyuan's technique to fail.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Simultaneously, the pill Ji Wutong had thrown moments earlier exploded upon contact with the flames, creating a sizable purple explosion. Ashflame Crow allowed his body to be carried by the blast to avoid the poisonous explosion. However, he did not have a moment to breathe as Daoist Moneybag attacked him again with his two artifacts, followed by Xia Yushan's sword strikes.
Ashflame Crow gritted his beak and continued to entangle with the top disciples. It was not that he didn't want to escape or kill these impudent nascent soul grandmasters, but that he couldn't!
His strength had dropped tremendously upon entering Vast Heaven Island's domain, resulting in his current predicament. Ashflame Crow was stronger than Ragingflame Crow, so despite the disadvantageous situation, he could cope with it. However, neither could he escape. Coupled with his inability to regenerate his qi, it was only a matter of time before he fell.
Then came the dilemma. Should I order the rest of the elders and army to attack or... Allow himself to be sacrificed and warn the others of the true danger of the Vast Heaven Islands.
Ashflame Crow was deeply conflicted for only a brief moment before he made his decisions. "ALL DEMONS RETREAT!!! ELDERS DO NOT ENTER THE STRANGE DOMAIN! IT CAN SEVER OUR CONNECTION TO THE WORLD!!!"
After practically using his maximum volume to shout out these words, Ashflame Crow's body turned gray as flame covered him, making him appear like a withered grey phoenix.
He had foolishly entered the domain on an impulse. This mistake, he alone, will bear. With the information Ashflame Crow had given, the elders should be able to create a strategy to offset their disadvantage. Even if they couldn't, it was better than allowing almost all the Golden Crow Clan's elders to fall in the Vast Heaven Islands.
As for himself? He will take down at least two or more of the cultivators before falling!
Ashflame Crow's thoughts were noble. Unfortunately, Tianyi disagreed.
The air began to tremble, and moments later, the eight floating islands surrounding the central island shot outwards past the previous boundary of the domain. With the distanced floating islands, the size of the domain changed and enlarged by several kilometers until it captured over ninety percent of the demons.
Against their wishes, the Nascent Soul and Core Formation Ream level demons found themselves teleported inside the inner territory of the Vast Heaven Island and discovered that their body was cumbersome. Inside the mansion, Tianyi was slightly gasping for breath as he held his forehead. Teleporting so many demons against their will was more challenging than he thought.
"Vast Heaven Young Master, are you alright?" One of the elite disciples in the room he was in asked.
"I'm fine. I couldn't teleport the demon elders, so I'll have to teleport you guys to them," Tianyi said.
"No worries, leave them to us!" The disciple said, his voice full of confidence. Before, he wasn't so sure of the Vast Heaven Islands' suppression against Unity Realm level experts, but after seeing the top disciples facing off against Ashflame Crow, he was assured.
Tianyi nodded and waved his hands. Instantly, he was alone in the room. Even Daoyi and Xi Ri were gone. The master of the Vast Heaven Islands sighed as he allowed the tension to leave his body. His head was pulsing, and it would take a while for it to return to normal. At the same time, he sensed that his connection with the Vast Heaven Islands deepened.
Outside, the demons quivered at the sudden emergence of thousands of cultivators. Before with their superior numbers, they would have already charged towards them, but under the strange suppression, they felt that they could only exhibit less than half their strength at best. The demons had no confidence right now, especially after months of experiencing the strange means of the cultivators.
Not once had the demon's plans been successful.
Since the demons wouldn't come towards them, then the cultivators would strike first. As if one an unspoken signal, all the cultivators began to charge towards the demons.
It couldn't even be called a fight. Not only were the demons' physical attributes suppressed, but their attacks were mitigated by the Vast Heaven Islands' domain as well, resulting in the one-sided slaughter. On the other hand, the battle between the elite disciples against the Unity Realm level demons was another story.
Despite losing their greatest advantage, the demon elders were still more powerful than the disciples. In addition, due to the enlargement of the Vast Heaven Island's domain, their connection to the world wasn't completely severed, allowing them to exhibit the tall-tale might of a Unity Realm level expert.
This naturally included Ashflame Crow, but he couldn't be happy at all. Considering that this meant all the elders were caught within the cultivator's domain, Ashflame Crow had a right to be worried especially considering the power of the previously demonstrated spatial collapse. The only good news was that with the addition of the cultivators, Ashflame Crow didn't think that the person controlling the Vast Heaven Islands would unleash that horrifying spatial move for now.
The battle continued, but there was one demon elder who was not facing five or more opponents at once. It was a strange scene of a massive raven demon over ten meters in height facing two tiny dots of an opponent: one a squirrel-like reptile that could fit on an average human's palm and a spider with a crystal abdomen.
Despite facing two tiny opponents, the pressure on Serenewave Raven wasn't small at all. Both the two spiritual beasts emitted a heavy pressure. It wasn't a regular pressure but the result of a superior bloodline. I can't tell what that spider is, but why is that tiny little beast exuding such pure dragon pressure?!
Serenewave Raven didn't have much time to ponder as Dandan started to move. His speed was astonishingly fast and arrived in front of the demon elder in an instant. Opening his mouth, Dandan gathered the qi in his body and unleashed a dragon's breath attack that greatly resembled Tianyi's true qi of chaos.
Serenewave Raven's figure blurred as he shifted his body out of the way. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't completely dodge the attack, and there was a small hole in his right-wing. Don't look at the hole as if it was just a slight wound. Due to the unique properties of Dandan's qi that he inherited from Tianyi, the injury was continuously worsening, and Serenewave Raven had to continuously suppress it.
Not one to suffer a loss without retaliating, Serenewave Raven flapped his wings, and a wave of red water surged forth. As it surged forward, the water was emitting a dangerously high temperature that could easily cook a regular mortal in an instant, but Dandan wasn't afraid as he charged through the water and used his horn and punctured the raven demon's chest.
Afterward, Dandan retreated and started flailing as if in pain. He had overestimated himself and got himself scalded.
Shuijing looked at Dandan for a moment before looking away, it didn't need to speak, and it already revealed its disdain to everyone.
Serenewave Raven clacked his beak in frustration. If it weren't for Dandan's size, that horn could have grievously injured him, but currently, it was only a slight flesh wound. Deciding that he couldn't hold anything back, Serenewave Raven used all his strength and battled the two spiritual beasts.
Fighting Dandan was straightforward. Dandan's small size gave him incredible dodging capabilities, and his qi attacks were devastating, but his small size prevented his physical attacks from taking much damage.
Shujing, on the other hand, was more esoteric. She weaved webs after webs and waited for Serenewave Raven to get entangled like a hunter to prey. The webs weren't that difficult for the raven demon to break out of, but whenever he touched them, he felt his soul shake and tremble. Having known about the deceased Nightmare Heart's abilities, Serenewave Raven was clear that Shuijing was targeting his soul.
One of the spiritual beasts aimed for his body, while the other attacked his soul. Under this combination and Tianyi's hidden aid, Serenewave Raven was the first demon elder to fall.
The moment Serenewave Raven lost all signs of life, a change in the battlefield occurred. From a group of sea demons emerged the aura of a Unity Realm level expert. The source of that aura was a cephalopod-like demon with a spiral shell.
That sea demon turned into a trail of light and shot towards Dandan.