The Demon Queller Envoy carrying a lantern walked through the empty, damp passageway, his footsteps echoing with startling clarity.
"Damn it, this cursed place. Staying one second longer feels like bad luck."
He muttered under his breath and inspected the cells one by one, as usual.
Everything was normal.
He yawned and pushed open the heavy iron door leading to the deepest part of the third level.
The next moment, his whole body froze in place.
The lantern's glow illuminated the sight ahead.
The cell at the very end stood wide open.
Several black iron chains as thick as an adult's arm lay twisted, severed, and scattered across the icy floor.
The cell was completely empty.
The General-level Great Demon that Division Master himself had personally suppressed... was gone.
A chill shot from the Demon Queller Envoy's soles straight to the crown of his head.
Trembling, he turned to flee and sound the alarm.
The instant he turned around, he slammed into a wall of flesh.
No, something even harder than a wall.
The lantern fell from his hand with a clang, rolled several times, and revealed the full appearance of the thing before him.
It was a burly figure nearly three zhang tall, covered head to toe in dark-red scales. A pair of ghastly green vertical pupils stared down at him with great interest.
It was the escaped Great Demon, Kui Lin.
"Y-you... your wounds..." The Demon Queller Envoy's voice trembled beyond recognition.
He remembered perfectly well that this demon had only been captured and suppressed after Division Master and two Innate experts had joined forces to grievously wound it. Every bone in its body had been shattered, and even its demon core had nearly been dispersed.
"Oh? You mean this?"
Kui Lin raised a claw and scratched his completely unscathed chest, where a terrifying sword wound that should have pierced straight through his body had once been.
He split his bloody maw wide, exposing rows of sinister fangs.
"Just a minor wound. Shedding a layer of skin healed it all."
"I should thank your Demon Suppression Division for giving me such a peaceful place to recover."
"As thanks, I'll make you the first appetizer of my regained freedom."
Before the words had faded, an enormous claw had already enveloped the Demon Queller Envoy's entire head.
Splat.
Kui Lin carried a bloody head as he strode step by step out of the Demon Suppressing Prison, each footstep leaving a deep print in the hard ground.
Dong—!
Dong—! Dong—!
A rapid, heavy toll rang throughout all of Cangyun City.
This was the Demon Suppression Division's highest-level alarm, one that had not been sounded for a hundred years.
Its ringing meant that a tremendous crisis capable of overturning Cangyun City had descended.
Within the Demon Suppression Division compound.
Over a thousand Demon Queller Envoys rushed out from every direction and swiftly assembled.
Weapons in hand, they stared grimly at the colossal figure slowly emerging from the underground entrance.
The mere Innate demon aura radiating from it made more than ninety percent of the Demon Queller Envoys present feel as though they could not breathe.
Many had their true qi seize up, their teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"Kui Lin!"
Deputy Division Master Ji Yi arrived and recognized this notoriously vicious Great Demon at a glance.
"Where is that old dog Xiang Chongtian?" Kui Lin casually tossed away the head in his hand, his voice rumbling like muffled thunder. "Tell him to crawl out and die!"
"Presumptuous!"
Ji Yi roared. As the twenty-seventh-ranked expert on the Earth Ranking and a peak Primordial Qi Realm cultivator, how could he allow a demon to run wild at the entrance of the Demon Suppression Division?
"Formless Body-Shattering Sword Qi!"
He held two fingers together like a sword, and an invisible, razor-sharp Sword Qi tore through the air and shot straight for Kui Lin's brow.
Faced with an attack capable of piercing gold and iron alike.
Kui Lin merely gave an impatient shout.
"Scram!"
A soundwave spread outward, and that invisible Sword Qi shattered inch by inch in midair before vanishing without a trace.
Then, Kui Lin raised his huge, fan-like palm and casually slapped it toward Ji Yi.
As though swatting an irritating fly.
Ji Yi's face changed drastically. He pushed his protective qi to its limits and crossed his arms before his chest.
A crisp explosive crack rang out.
Ji Yi flew backward like a kite with its string cut, vomiting blood as he was sent dozens of meters away. He crashed through three walls in succession before stopping, his entire chest caved in.
The entire scene fell deathly silent.
Every Demon Queller Envoy stared in stunned disbelief.
That was the Deputy Division Master! A peak Primordial Qi Realm top expert, and he had just... been sent flying by one slap?
Was this the gap between the Primordial Qi Realm and Innate?
It was simply the difference between heaven and earth.
"Pathetically weak." Kui Lin disdainfully withdrew his hand.
He swept his gaze around, and his demon aura surged wildly, gathering into a rolling mass of dark clouds above the Demon Suppression Division and completely blotting out the moonlight.
"Xiang Chongtian! If you don't crawl out now, I'll slaughter your Demon Suppression Division today and turn every last one of you into blood food!"
Beneath the demonic clouds, some weaker Demon Queller Envoys had their legs give out under the pressure and collapsed onto the ground.
Despair spread through every heart.
Division Master had gone out and had yet to return. In the entire Demon Suppression Division of Cangyun City, who could stop this Innate Great Demon?
Just then.
A figure walked over unhurriedly from the direction of the secluded cultivation chamber.
"It's Shen Che!"
"Shen Che, the one who killed Yan Hong and the Corpse Daoist!"
Someone recognized the newcomer.
Yan Xiu and Ji Yi, who was struggling to rise, both changed expressions upon seeing Shen Che.
"Shen Che, don't go over there!" Yan Xiu hurriedly shouted. "That's an Innate Great Demon, not something you can deal with!"
"Fall back, quickly!" Ji Yi also urged him in a hoarse voice as he coughed blood. "Don't throw your life away for nothing! You are the hope of our Demon Suppression Division. You cannot perish here!"
Shen Che did not stop walking.
He passed straight through the crowd and reached the very front, standing at a distance from the enormous demon.
"I merely want to see just how strong an Innate demon truly is."
His voice was calm, yet it carried clearly to everyone's ears.
Everyone thought he had gone mad.
Kui Lin heard him as well. He lowered his head, those ghastly green vertical pupils locking onto Shen Che.
"Oh? Another one who isn't afraid of death?"
"First level of the Primordial Qi Realm? Interesting."
He smiled contemptuously and flicked a finger.
A strand of demon power condensed until it was almost tangible, turning into a black line that shot toward Shen Che.
This strike was enough to easily kill any martial artist in the middle stage of the Primordial Qi Realm.
Shen Che merely lifted his sleeve and gave it a light sweep.
The black line exploded into a cloud of black mist.
The smile on Kui Lin's face stiffened slightly.
"You do have some skill. No wonder you dared step forward."
"But this is as far as you go!"
He roared, and the earth beneath his feet cracked. His enormous body became a dark-red afterimage, crossing more than ten meters in an instant as a claw wreathed in dense demon aura lunged straight at Shen Che's face.
Before the full-force strike of an Innate demon, even space itself seemed to be imprisoned.
Facing this heaven-destroying, earth-shattering claw.
Shen Che slowly raised his right fist.
Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill, Tenth Layer!
One million six hundred thousand jin of divine strength in one arm, unleashed!
Vajra Zen Fist · Zen Spear!
This punch carried no earthshaking momentum.
Yet it struck after yet arrived first, like an invisible spear piercing the vault of heaven. With the resolve to pierce through all things, it crashed fiercely into that claw.
At the instant fist and claw met.
There was no imagined earthshaking boom.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Then.
Crack—!
A bone-splitting sound that set teeth on edge rang out.
Kui Lin's mountain-like body jerked violently.
The scales on his chest, along with the breastbone beneath them, were directly crushed and caved in by an indescribably terrifying force, forming a savage fist imprint.
Boom!!!
That huge body flew backward like a sandbag struck head-on by a siege cannon, moving even faster than it had charged in.
He flew dozens of meters before crashing through a row of buildings behind the Demon Suppression Division. Dust and smoke soared into the sky.
The entire Demon Suppression Division was silent as a grave.
Everyone gaped, staring blankly at the black-clad figure withdrawing his fist.
Ji Yi forgot to let the blood at his lips continue dripping.
The saber in Yan Xiu's hand fell to the ground, yet he did not notice at all.
A first-level Primordial Qi Realm cultivator... sent an Innate Great Demon flying with one punch?
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