Meeting

A muffled, low roar suddenly rose from below the shaft.

All four of them turned toward it at once.

"That's... a Great Demon!" Shanhui cried, eyes wide.

It truly was a Great Demon. Li's expression grew grave. A colossal black shadow slowly crawled up from the bottomless well, shaped like a giant centipede—except all its secondary legs were human hands and legs, while numerous chilling tentacles swayed across its back.

The rain of arrows fired at it achieved little. This was one reason Demons were harder to deal with than Mei: they were closer to Chaos, and ordinary force could no longer inflict sufficient damage on them. To all appearances, they possessed bodies of diamond and bones of iron.

Before it had even climbed into the upper levels, the Demon's tentacles had already struck. They shot out in straight lines, like dense rows of long needles plunging into the shaft walls. Huge sections of the outer wall collapsed, sending the defenders atop them plunging into the abyss!

This is bad, Li thought.

She had climbed up along the outer wall and understood the shaft's strength. At the very least, its outermost layer was piled from natural rock, far harder than any ordinary city wall. Yet under the Great Demon's assault, the stone walls proved little sturdier than bricks and tiles. The power behind those tentacles was easy to imagine. Combined with how difficult the Great Demon itself was to bring down, she seriously doubted whether the Black Gate Cult could hold out against such terrible casualties.

Just then, a white figure leaped into the air.

Shanhui sucked in a breath.

"Luo Qingqing!?"

Li sprang to her feet.

That was indeed Miss Luo! She still wore a flowing white robe, with an eyepatch covering her face. Her graceful figure was like