Boom.
The earth didn't just crack; it screamed.
Jiang Dao tore into the town with the force of a natural disaster, the ground splintering beneath his feet as if unable to bear the weight of his existence. He moved with the velocity of a hurricane, a blur of motion trailing a suffocating wake of fire, poison, and baleful energy. It was a presence that defied description—a heavy, suffocating terror that settled into the marrow of anyone unfortunate enough to be near.
Inside the dilapidated settlement, a squad of Spirit Removers was busy scouring the ruins. They weren't looking for threats; they were hunting for survivors—ordinary mortals to be harvested. But their hunt was cut short. They felt the anomaly before they saw it, a sudden spike in atmospheric pressure, a wave of heat that tasted of copper and ash.
Faces paled. Heads turned. But reaction times were measured in human seconds, and Jiang Dao moved in demonic intervals.
A monstrous claw, wreathed in shadows and heat, swept through them.
Thwack. Crunch.
There was no pageantry to their deaths. Blood didn't just spill; it atomized. Bones didn't break; they disintegrated. Several of the Spirit Removers didn't even have the luxury of a final gasp. One moment, they were standing, apex predators in their own minds; the next, they had burst apart in mid-air like overripe melons dropped from a height.
"Spirit Removers... What a joke," Jiang Dao's voice rumbled, a sound that seemed to vibrate from the bottom of a deep cavern. "In my eyes, you are nothing but livestock. Blood food. How do trash-like things, such as you, dare to act so high and mighty?"
His voice carried a cruelty that was absolute, stripping away their dignity even in death.
"What is that thing?"
Further down the street, the commotion drew attention. A straggler rushed out of a looted home, eyes widening in confusion.
Jiang Dao didn't hesitate. His eyes went cold, the baleful qi around him coalescing into a tangible weight. He surged forward, a streak of nightmare across the cobblestones.
"You—" The Spirit Remover's pupils contracted to pinpricks. The scream died in his throat as the claw arrived.
Boom!
Another body detonated. Flesh and blood performed a macabre dance in the air before painting the walls.
Jiang Dao moved through the town like a titan of old mythology. He was a nexus of conflicting energies: Extreme Yang, Extreme Evil, and Extreme Poison. These forces braided together into an aura so potent that weaker enemies simply ceased to exist upon contact. Most of the Spirit Removers never even saw his face; they saw a blur, felt a flash of heat, and then faded into oblivion.
Jiang Dao's heart, however, remained icy. The slaughter brought him no joy, only a grim satisfaction.
These elites looked down on the world from their pedestals, treating ordinary humans as cattle, as mere sustenance. The irony was not lost on him. They saw a monster when they looked at him, but in his heart, he was the only human here. He was the vengeance of the livestock.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
He tore through the streets, an unstoppable engine of destruction. His sharp claws treated armored bodies like wet paper. Every Spirit Remover, every fierce beast they commanded, was shredded. The air filled with a chorus of screams, a symphony of retribution.
Suddenly, movement.
Jiang Dao's thick tail, muscular and terrifying as a giant python, lashed out. With a wet shluck sound, it pierced the torso of a fleeing Spirit Remover.
The man was hoisted into the air, impaled on a tail over a meter long. He writhed, his face a mask of agony as his clothes burst into flames from the contact heat. The fire poison invaded his blood instantly, twisting his features into a rictus of horror.
"You... what kind of monster are you?" the man gasped, blood bubbling at his lips.
"I am a human," Jiang Dao said, snorting two jets of scorching steam from his nostrils. "Can't you tell?"
Crack.
The tail whipped with tremendous force. The Spirit Remover's body couldn't withstand the inertia; he was snapped cleanly in half at the waist. The scream was cut short as his upper and lower halves spiraled away in different directions, raining blood onto the cobblestones before smashing into a distant wall.
Jiang Dao didn't pause. He continued his frantic, systematic purge.
Eventually, the screams died out. The town fell into a heavy, smoky silence.
Jiang Dao stood amidst the carnage, his body radiating waves of heat that distorted the air around him. His legs, thick as pillars and rippling with muscle, were wrapped in swirling Astral Qi. He stared indifferently toward the looming shadow of the Black Mountain Ridge.
"There is still that one... the monster who killed my mount," he muttered, his voice a low growl. "Killed my horse and dared to mock me. I think I'll crush him. Gently."
He began to walk, spewing white-hot breath into the cool mountain air.
The mountain pass was a chaotic tapestry of ambition and danger. Experts from various factions were converging on the deep ranges, drawn by the allure of power.
On a narrow, winding path, the Nanling King led his entourage deeper into the Black Mountain Ridge.
The ominous blood-red light covering the mountain had not dissipated; instead, it pulsed, spreading outward like an infection. The ground trembled rhythmically, low rumbles emanating from the earth's belly. Occasionally, massive boulders were flung from the peaks, crashing down the slopes with the force of meteorites.
One of the Nanling King's allies, a fierce monstrosity from the Demon Union Palace, had been sour the entire journey.
"Your Highness," the creature rasped, his face a portrait of gloom. "I fail to see the logic in recruiting that lunatic, Jiang Dao. His strength? At best, he is on par with me. Adding him gains us little; losing him costs us nothing. Why debase ourselves to seek him out? The man—if you can call him that—is unhinged. He respects no one. I've wanted to test his mettle for a long time. Bringing him along will only fracture our unity."
The Nanling King didn't look back, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. "To achieve great things, one must overlook minor flaws. Do not forget where we are. This is the domain of the Thirteen Corpse Demon Mountains. Those entities are Corpse Demons who have been cultivated for centuries. How confident are you in fighting them alone? If this King is to seize the Divine Artifact, I must unite every usable weapon. Guild Master Flame possesses profound strength. Why make an enemy when I can make a tool?"
The Demon Union monster sneered, his eyes dark. "Since Your Highness insists, I have no choice. But do not forget the price you promised us."
"I know," the Nanling King replied, his tone dropping several degrees.
"Enough," another expert from the Demon Union Palace interjected. "We chose to cooperate with the King; we trust his judgment. There is no need to bicker over trifles."
They trudged onward, the tension in the group palpable.
Suddenly—
Xiu!
A high-pitched, tearing sound screamed from the road ahead, accompanied by a series of sonic booms.
The group halted, heads snapping up.
A boulder, easily twice the height of a man, was hurtling toward them. It wasn't falling; it had been thrown. It tore through the airflow, carrying an aura of devastating violence.
"Audacious!"
The gloomy monster from the Demon Union Palace roared. He moved instantly, his body shifting like smoke in the wind. He intercepted the projectile, his palm glowing with dark, yin energy as he struck the stone.
Puchi!
The giant rock shattered on impact, exploding into gravel that shot out like shrapnel.
But the dust hadn't even settled when the true threat revealed itself.
From behind the exploding debris, a figure emerged like a demon god breaking free from the underworld. Jiang Dao was airborne, descending like a dark cloud. His eyes were burning coals of baleful intent. Before the dust could clear, a massive, demonic claw was already closing in on the Demon Union monster.
The creature's expression shifted from arrogance to absolute horror. He hadn't expected a follow-up attack, certainly not one this fast.
But he was an elite for a reason. With a guttural roar, he activated his transformation. His body inflated instantly, muscles bulging, skin stretching. In the blink of an eye, he grew to over three meters tall, a towering beast of hair and muscle.
It didn't matter.
Jiang Dao's claw met the monster's chest. There was no resistance.
Squish.
The claw tore through the expanded chest cavity as if it were wet clay. Blood sprayed in a fan. The monster grunted, eyes bulging, but the physical trauma was just the beginning. Jiang Dao's fire poison and baleful qi flooded the open wound, surging into the creature's bloodstream and agonizing every nerve ending.
Jiang Dao didn't stop. His other hand, vast and heavy as a millstone, slammed down onto the monster's forehead.
BOOM!
The sound was sickening. The monster's head was driven straight down into his own chest cavity. The neck vanished. Only two eyes, wide with shock, remained visible above the shoulders.
Thud.
The creature plummeted from the air, smashing into the rocky path. The ground buckled, creating a crater filled with spiderweb cracks.
Jiang Dao landed a second later. Pa-da. His massive legs absorbed the impact effortlessly. He stood over the broken form, fire poison swirling around him like a cloak, his terrifying tail swishing lazily behind him.
He planted one foot firmly on the sunken chest of the Demon Union expert. He tilted his head, his mouth splitting into a grin that showed too many teeth, and looked directly at the Nanling King.
"Your Highness," Jiang Dao rumbled, his voice thick with heat and malice. "We meet again."
He stood there, a peerless abomination, radiating waves of toxicity and power.
"You... you are..." The Nanling King's pupils constricted violently. A wave of shock crashed over him.
He barely recognized the figure. Was this... was this truly Guild Master Flame?
"Wu Fang!" the other two Demon Union monsters screamed, their voices cracking with disbelief.
Terror gripped them. Wu Fang was at the peak of the Nightmare Class. He was their equal. And yet, in a single exchange—one second, one move—he had been reduced to a heap of broken bones under Jiang Dao's boot.
"Let him go! Immediately!" they shouted, though their feet remained planted.
"Let him go?" Jiang Dao looked at them, feigning confusion. "Why? Based on what? Do you think you have the authority to order me?"
"You... what do you want?" the leader of the duo stammered.
"Guild Master Jiang," the Nanling King interjected hastily, stepping forward. "We can talk about this. Please, spare his life."
"Heh heh heh." Jiang Dao's laughter was a dry, grating sound. "But what if I just don't want to?"
He bent down, his massive hand gripping the ruined body of the monster on the ground. The three-meter beast looked like a ragdoll in his grasp. Jiang Dao lifted him effortlessly; the creature was limp, paralyzed, his eyes the only thing still alive, filled with begging terror.
Jiang Dao brought the creature's neck to his face. He opened his mouth wide, revealing rows of serrated teeth, and bit down.
Rip.
"Argh!"
A gargled scream echoed from the creature's stomach. A massive chunk of his neck was gone. Black blood geysered out.
Jiang Dao spat the chunk of flesh onto the ground. He grinned, his face smeared with ichor. "He killed my mount. He dared to provoke me. And now you want me to let him go? Heh heh... It's not that simple. Hahahaha!"
His laughter shook the trees. He looked like a king of demons, reveling in the gore.
Suddenly, the laughter cut off. His eyes narrowed, focusing on the group with lethal intensity.
"You all must die."
Boom.
The words hit them like a physical blow. Hearts seized. Scalps tingled.
It didn't matter that the Nanling King was royalty, or that the Demon Union experts were veterans of a hundred battles. In the face of this aura, they felt small. They instinctively took a step back.
"Audacious!" a Spirit Remover beside the King yelled, trying to mask his fear with bluster. "How dare you threaten His Highness!"
"Your Highness, listen to him!" the remaining Demon Union expert screamed, trembling with rage and fear. "He is insane! He is arrogant beyond measure! It doesn't matter what he is—we cannot let him live!"
The Nanling King's face was a mask of dark conflict. He was shocked, yes, but mostly he was calculating. Jiang Dao's strength was absurd. To cripple a Nightmare Class expert in one hit? That changed the calculus completely.
"Jiang Dao," the King said, his voice steadying. "I have no wish to be your enemy. I only want to ally with you. Help me secure the Heaven's Mandate Divine Artifact, and I will grant you any condition. Anything you desire."
"A condition?" Jiang Dao squeezed out a grotesque, mocking smile. "My condition is that you all die."
His grip tightened on the shoulders of the crippled monster in his hands. He pulled.
Riiiiiip.
"Ah—"
The scream was wet and short. Jiang Dao tore the Demon Union prodigy in half down the middle like he was shucking corn. He tossed the two halves aside casually.
"Wu Fang!" the remaining two companions shrieked.
Xiu!
They didn't have time to mourn. A wave of fire, poison, and baleful qi roared toward them, tearing a trench through the earth. Jiang Dao was already moving, lunging straight for the two experts.
The experts' eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Pushed to the brink, they roared, their bodies expanding violently. Fur sprouted, muscles tore through clothes, and eyes turned bloodshot and bulbous. They transformed into lupine nightmares, charging to meet death head-on.
"Everyone, stop!" the Nanling King shouted.
"Your Highness, logic is dead! We must kill him!" the lead Spirit Remover yelled, drawing his weapon and charging.
The dam broke. The other Spirit Removers, realizing there was no negotiation, drew their blades and rushed forward. The pressure Jiang Dao exuded was too great; if they let him pick them off one by one, they were doomed. They had to swarm him.
But they had miscalculated.
They assumed numbers mattered.
Jiang Dao didn't dodge. He swung his palm.
Boom!
The air collapsed under the force of the slap, creating a vacuum that shrieked. The blow connected with the lead Demon Union expert.
Smack.
Before the monster could even touch Jiang Dao, he was launched. He flew backward like a cannonball, crossing hundreds of meters in a second before embedding himself in a mountainside. His chest was concave, his bones powder.
"Weak. Too weak!"
Jiang Dao vanished, reappearing instantly beside the second monster. His fingernails, long and sharp as daggers, clamped onto the creature's throat.
Clink.
Like divine iron meeting flesh, he lifted the three-meter-tall beast off the ground one-handed. Jiang Dao smiled, his thick tail swishing behind him like a metronome.
"So this is your best? If I knew you were this fragile, I wouldn't have bothered holding back. I should have just crushed you like bugs."
Clang!
A Spirit Remover seized the opening. Moving with lightning speed, he drove a pitch-black killing sword directly at Jiang Dao's temple.
It was a perfect strike. It should have pierced the brain.
Instead, sparks showered the air. The sword rebounded as if it had struck a diamond. The vibration traveled up the blade, numbing the attacker's hand.
"Hey," Jiang Dao turned his head slowly, his eyes bored. "What are you doing? Is that a toy? Are we playing house?"
"You..." The Spirit Remover stared at his sword in horror. It was a weapon tempered with Saint Artifact essence. It was indestructible. It was sharp. And it hadn't even scratched Jiang Dao's skin.
Whoosh.
Jiang Dao's tail uncoiled. It wrapped around the man's waist like a constrictor snake.
"Argh!"
The man screamed as the pressure mounted. His ribs groaned. Desperate, he hacked at the tail with his black sword.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
More sparks. No blood.
Around them, the other Spirit Removers from the Nanling King's manor unleashed hell. They struck Jiang Dao from every angle, their weapons glowing with power. But every strike resulted in the same metallic ring, the same shower of sparks.
Jiang Dao stood in the center of the storm, untouched. His smile widened until it looked like a gash in his face.
"Heh heh. Little mice. You're so cute. I almost like you." His eyes scanned the terrified circle. "But one mouse is a pest, and a nest of mice is a plague. Which one should I kill first?"
He looked at the Demon Union monster choking in his hand. "I'll start with you. Be a good boy. It won't hurt."
Crunch.
He squeezed. The neck collapsed.
Jiang Dao didn't just break the neck; he poured his internal energy into the body. Waves of Extreme Yang and Poison flooded the corpse. The dead monster seemed to scream from the inside, his body igniting into a torch of spiritual fire.
Jiang Dao dropped the burning husk and turned his attention to the man in his tail.
Squelch.
The tail constricted. The Spirit Remover exploded. Blood and viscera sprayed the surrounding attackers, and the black sword spun away into the darkness.
"Retreat!"
"Run! It's a monster!"
The morale broke. The remaining Spirit Removers, elite killers of the dynasty, turned and fled. They scrambled, wishing they had wings, wishing they were anywhere but here.
They couldn't break his defense. They couldn't hurt him. He was a wall of iron and fire.
"Little mice, trying to leave so soon? Don't you want to stretch your muscles?"
A Spirit Remover felt a shadow loom over him. He froze, trembling, and looked back.
Slap.
A casual backhand. The man's head vaporized. His headless body cartwheeled through the air and smashed into a cliff face.
Jiang Dao moved through the panicked crowd like a wolf in a pen. He was efficient, brutal, and terrifyingly cheerful.
The Nanling King watched his forces evaporate. His anger had long since been replaced by a cold, hard terror. He realized now that Jiang Dao wasn't someone you negotiated with. He was a calamity you survived.
The Nanling King turned and ran.
He was fast—a Spirit Remover of the Great Yu, a noble bloodline, a Nightmare Class warrior. But he wasn't fast enough.
A blurred figure slammed into the earth in front of him, blocking the path.
Jiang Dao stood there, steam rising from his skin, his tail swaying hypnotically. He was covered in the blood of the King's men, yet his expression was calm, almost polite.
"Nanling King," Jiang Dao said, his voice smooth. "Now, we can talk."
He stepped closer, the heat radiating from him forcing the King to squint.
"You help me get the Heaven's Mandate Divine Artifact, and I spare your life. What do you think?"