Chapter 33: Divine Demons and the Human Race

Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and the Green Serpent all sensed a trace of killing intent from that ancient divine demon. To this ancient divine demon, the three of them were nothing more than ants; killing them or not made little difference. But after all, he had been sleeping deep in the underground magma and was awakened, so he still carried some anger. The culprit, the great dragon-whale demon, was naturally the first to be killed, while Ji Ning and the others were merely innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

"No." Mu Zishuo felt that trace of killing intent, and despair rose in his heart.

Was he about to die?

"No, I can't die. I can't die! I just entered the Black-White College, and I swore at my mother's grave... I will make the Mulans regret their decision! I haven't done it yet, I haven't done anything. I won't accept it, I won't." Mu Zishuo's eyes were filled with endless anxiety and unwillingness, but under that boundless pressure, he couldn't even change his facial expression.

...

"Am I about to die?" The Green Serpent was on Mu Zishuo's arm. From the corner of her eye, she also saw the towering ancient divine demon. The feeling it gave her was as if it were the vast heavens and earth. She couldn't muster the slightest will to resist.

"What a pity to die on this wooden fellow. If I must die, I should die together with my master." The Green Serpent thought silently, looking in Ji Ning's direction, but because of the rocks blocking her view, she couldn't see him at all.

...

Ji Ning also felt death approaching him so closely.

Never before had he felt such a strong sensation. Even when he passed the three trials in the Water Mansion, he had never felt so powerless! Without any power to resist... This feeling of being so close to death filled Ji Ning with unwillingness.

"I haven't destroyed Snowdragon Mountain yet."

"And I haven't become a mighty figure of the Three Realms."

"Father, Mother... I still need to see how their reincarnations are doing."

"And Sister Qiuye, she must still be waiting for me."

Ji Ning felt powerless.

Although he wore a pendant on his chest, a protective treasure given by his master, the Immortal Diancai, and could activate the protective sword-qi within it with a single thought, that sword-qi could only hold out for a single breath against a loose immortal or earth immortal. Would it be of any use against a divine demon that could kill a Nascent Soul great demon as easily as stepping on an ant?

"Activate." Ji Ning willed it, and the protective sword-qi within the pendant, which he had already refined, immediately surged outward following his thought.

Though it might be useless...

He still had to try.

"Hm?" The ancient divine demon's vertical eye turned to stare at Ji Ning. The omnipresent force completely pressed down on Ji Ning, and also pressed down on the pendant. The protective sword-qi within the pendant tried to surge out, but was directly suppressed by the invisible force and couldn't break free.

It was pressed back again!

Ji Ning willed it again.

Pressed back again!

"How can this be?" Ji Ning felt helpless.

A trace of surprise appeared in the ancient divine demon's vertical eye as he looked at Ji Ning and murmured to himself: "A sword immortal? Loose immortal or earth immortal? The sword-qi is heavy yet sharp, different from the Northern Traveler Immortal who once pursued me, but equally astonishing. This human child actually has such a powerful sword immortal behind him."

"That sword immortal might have fellow disciples or seniors behind him," the ancient divine demon thought. "Better to leave. I was chased badly enough last time."

From the age of divine demons to the present, he knew well the terror of the human race.

Kill the small, and the big come. Kill the big, and a crowd of big ones come!

The human race had too many powerful figures; they could even directly summon a large group of immortals to besiege him alone. Having suffered losses time and again, he had become extremely cautious. It was precisely because of this caution that he had survived to this day. Otherwise, he would have been slain or suppressed by the human race long ago!

Most importantly, humans cultivated too quickly!

Although divine demons were favored by heaven and earth, born powerful, and grew naturally without the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations—those were only for cultivators—their comprehension was much slower. They generally cultivated in units of ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million years. Cultivation required an extremely long time.

But what about humans? A human could become an immortal in a few hundred years! A few hundred years? To divine demons, that was far too short.

Their terrifying reproductive ability, powerful comprehension, and rapid progress made the human race the true leader and overlord of all races on this land and even throughout the Three Realms. Even divine demons had to yield.

"Oh? A loose immortal has arrived."

The ancient divine demon glanced at the distant void. Killing that loose immortal would still be very easy for him, but did he dare? He did not, because he knew well that this loose immortal was probably one of the Yinglong Guard's loose immortals. Kill one, and soon dozens or hundreds of loose immortals would be mobilized... especially from the capital of the Grand Xia Dynasty, which might even send some old immortals who refused to die.

"Time to go." The ancient divine demon's body instantly emerged from the earth, and with a single step,

whoosh.

The void twisted, and the ancient divine demon stepped directly into the twisted void and vanished.

The rubble that had been floating in midair and the splashing water droplets all fell, causing a cataclysm.

"Gone?" Ji Ning stared in astonishment, then glanced at the corpse of the great dragon-whale demon on the ground beside him. He waved his hand and stored the entire thousand-zhang-long corpse into his storage treasure.

After entering the early stage of the Wanxiang Adept, Ji Ning had also changed to an Earth-grade storage bracer.

This was loot obtained from killing a Wanxiang great demon earlier. Its space was quite large, but the dragon-whale demon's corpse took up more than half of it.

"Senior apprentice-brother." Mu Zishuo ran over excitedly.

"Master." The Green Serpent transformed into a streak of green light and coiled directly around Ji Ning's arm.

Having come close to death once, their minds had changed somewhat.

"Senior apprentice-brother, why did that divine demon leave?" Mu Zishuo asked hurriedly. "And why didn't it kill us?"

"I don't know either." Ji Ning shook his head. Although the ancient divine demon had muttered to himself, the surrounding space was locked, and sound couldn't travel, so naturally he couldn't hear it.

Just then—

A blood-robed elder appeared in midair. He wore a tall crown, and his blood-red robe was extremely ornate. But at this moment, there was unwillingness in his eyes: "It got away. It fled really fast. Lucky for it." He had sensed the disturbance here and rushed over immediately, but on the way, he realized the divine demon was already fleeing.

He also gave chase, but unfortunately, he didn't catch it.

"You three." The blood-robed elder appeared in midair and looked down at Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and the Green Serpent.

When his gaze fell, it made the three of them feel a chill in their hearts.

"You must have seen the divine demon that appeared just now," the blood-robed elder said coldly. Gradually, the surrounding heaven and earth began to stagnate, and Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and the Green Serpent felt an invisible pressure. It was very similar to the divine demon's method. However, the pressure was much weaker than that of the divine demon.

Even so, the immortal before them still made Ji Ning and the others feel they couldn't match him.

"Tell me, what did it look like?" The blood-robed elder pointed at the Green Serpent. "You, little demon, speak first."

The Green Serpent showed a terrified expression and said: "It was an enormous divine demon. Its palm alone was a thousand zhang wide, and its height was ten thousand zhang! Its whole body seemed to be made of magma rock. It had one vertical eye, one nose, and one mouth. It had no hair, and there was faint magma on its head."

A look of shock appeared in the blood-robed elder's eyes. Him? Only then did he know which divine demon it was, and it sent a chill down his spine... It was a close call. Fortunately, he hadn't caught up. If he had, he would probably have lost his life. Then he pointed at Mu Zishuo: "You speak."

As soon as he spoke,

Mu Zishuo felt an invisible force guide his soul. Although his consciousness was clear, his mouth couldn't help but speak: "It emerged from the underground magma. Its whole body was fiery red. An invisible force bound and oppressed us, leaving us utterly unable to resist. It had one vertical eye, one nose, one mouth..."

"You speak." The blood-robed elder pointed at Ji Ning.

Ji Ning also felt an invisible divine sense instantly invade his sea of consciousness.

But Ji Ning's powerful divine sense resisted it.

"Bang!"

The silent collision of divine senses, though the blood-robed elder held an absolute advantage, he couldn't control Ji Ning like a puppet.

"Oh? Your soul is this strong?" The blood-robed elder looked at Ji Ning. "Which sect are you from?"

"This junior is Ji Ning, a disciple of the Black-White College. My master is Immortal Diancai," Ji Ning said respectfully. "This is my junior apprentice-brother Mu Zishuo, and this Green Serpent is a spirit-beast I just took in at the Swallow Mountain Great Wasteland."

"Immortal Diancai? Black-White College?"

The blood-robed elder nodded calmly, still冷漠ly saying, "I ask you, when the divine demon appeared... why didn't it kill you?"

"I don't know," Ji Ning shook his head.

"I don't know," Mu Zishuo also said.

Qingqing obediently shook her head, not daring to speak.

The blood-robed elder knew well that this ancient divine demon had a strange temper and often killed humans out of spite. However, because it was always cautious and low-key, and generally didn't kill cultivators with backgrounds, the Grand Xia Dynasty's pursuit of this divine demon wasn't too intense.

If it killed wantonly, slaughtering many people with important backgrounds, the Grand Xia Dynasty would be enraged and pursue it with full force, and it would probably be captured alive in a few days!

"You three are lucky to have escaped with your lives from under that divine demon's hand," the blood-robed elder barked. "But you must absolutely not spread this matter. If I find out, the Yinglong Guard will hold you accountable!"

"Yes," Ji Ning, Mu Zishuo, and the Green Serpent all replied.

The blood-robed elder waved his hand dismissively: "Leave here quickly."

Not daring to delay, Ji Ning and the others boarded a dragon-headed warship and turned into a streak of light, swiftly departing.

Whoosh.

Another silver-haired youth with disheveled hair and a tall crown appeared in midair, followed by a burly old man in armor.

"A divine demon appeared?" the silver-haired youth asked with a smile.

"Which divine demon?"

...

Ji Ning guessed that the appearance of this ancient divine demon would cause some commotion, but that was a worry for immortals, far too distant from him.

"Senior apprentice-brother, this time we really had a narrow escape. We almost couldn't return alive," Mu Zishuo sighed, looking at the surrounding clouds and the endless wilderness below. "It's good to be alive."

"It's good to be alive," Ji Ning nodded.

If they had died just now, it would have been too unjust. He still had many things to do!