After killing the Lesser Demon, Wu Heng and Elina waited in the carriage for five minutes. The surroundings were quiet, broken only by the sound of sewage flowing through the sewers.
The two started walking along the carriage. When they reached the middle, they saw the body of a security guard in a blue uniform lying across the tracks. A broken flashlight had fallen beside him.
Wu Heng took the keys from the guard's belt and handed them to Elina.
"These should be for the subway gate. It's safe behind us, so you can head out first."
Wu Heng had exceptional hearing. From inside the barred gate on the side of the tunnel ahead, he heard a faint Lesser Demon growl. Its voice sounded much deeper than those of the ones outside.
Without a carriage to separate them, he wouldn't be able to protect her once the fighting started.
"Aren't you coming out? Could you leave with me? You can come to my place and change clothes."
Elina asked, sounding both frightened and hopeful.
"There's a big one up ahead. If you stay by my side, I won't be able to look after you. Go on. You sing well; it'd be a shame if you died."
Wu Heng said flatly.
"Oh, then thank you. I live at 457 Phil Street."
Hearing that, Elina hesitated before taking the keys and jogging toward the exit.
At least she's not dragging her feet now. Guess it's not her time to die.
Wu Heng praised her in his mind. He rolled his neck, loosened his shoulders, and continued forward.
There were plenty of bodies along the way—homeless people, repairmen, passengers, all sorts. Not one of them was intact.
Following the bloodstains, Wu Heng reached the iron gate he'd been looking for.
This was the homeless encampment of the Underground King.
Wu Heng grabbed the damaged, warped gate and tore it away, then ducked inside.
The stench of decay in there was something else.
Following the passage, Wu Heng turned three times and came to a somewhat open space of about two hundred square meters.
A Lesser Demon, noticeably larger than the others, was using blood to draw a circle nearly ten meters in diameter. The circle was already filled with runes.
A pile of tongues lay in the middle of the circle, and a cluster of corpses hung above it.
The Lesser Demon turned, saw Wu Heng, and charged with a growl.
Wu Heng swung his briefcase at the Lesser Demon's ugly face.
The Lesser Demon abruptly checked its momentum and nimbly dodged, then raked its claws across the briefcase, leaving three deep gouges in its bulletproof surface.
Seeing how sharp its claws were, Wu Heng gripped the strap inside the case and used it as a shield, charging into the Lesser Demon.
The Lesser Demon, enraged by the blows, thrust both claws out and drove them straight through the briefcase, but they got stuck for a moment.
Seizing the opportunity, Wu Heng shoved the briefcase downward. The monster's arms were forced to the ground with it. Wu Heng freed his left hand, pinned the Lesser Demon's head, and slammed it into the floor again and again, smashing the tiles to pieces.
Seeing that the Lesser Demon was momentarily dazed, Wu Heng quickly pulled the briefcase free.
"Case weighs twenty pounds. Made of TA titanium alloy."
Wu Heng panted as he spoke, then brought it down hard on the Lesser Demon's neck.
"Let's settle who's stronger—and who lives."
Thud, thud, thud.
By the time the words left his mouth, the flesh on the captain-class Lesser Demon's neck had been smashed to pulp, and its bones were completely broken.
Wu Heng reached out with his left hand, grabbed the monster's corpse, and activated Siphon.
A stream of energy as thick as a chopstick flowed into Wu Heng's body.
He sensed that it had strengthened him by about ten percent. One of these was worth ten of the ones outside.
Just this trip to the subway had increased Wu Heng's physical capabilities by thirty percent. It was well worth it.
After killing the Lesser Demon, Wu Heng tore a piece of ragged clothing from one of the bodies hanging above and gently wiped his hands.
He examined the corpses hanging there.
One was a blind old man wearing a golden Crown.
But the torn edge of the paper beneath the Crown showed that it was just one of those paper hats people wore on their birthdays, painted gold.
So this must be the king of the Underground Kingdom.
Wu Heng circled the corpses and spotted the identity the fat man had taken on in this world: Domagoj Patrick. His face had turned blue and swollen.
"Buddy, looks like things didn't go well for you."
Wu Heng said with a sigh.
There had been three of them when they entered this world, but now he was the only one left. The fat man had been quite good at keeping his head down, yet he'd still lost his life.
Wu Heng made a circuit of the area. There was nothing else of value.
He looked down at his torn trench coat and trousers, frowned, and decided to go to number 457 and change.
Carrying the briefcase, he turned to leave. After making four turns in a row, Wu Heng suddenly stopped.
Something was wrong!
Wu Heng clearly remembered making only three turns when he came in through the gate.
Now he'd made a fourth.
There was only one passage here. He couldn't have taken a wrong turn.
Wu Heng didn't dare go any farther.
At the same time, the briefcase in his tight grip began to grow cold.
The cold intensified until Wu Heng's hand felt stiff. The sensation was all too familiar.
The Hell Priest of Ice!
Crack. Crack-crack.
The sound of ice forming rang out. The water flowing through the nearby sewer stopped, frozen solid.
Wu Heng quickly retreated.
Crack!
The ice in the sewer shattered, and a frozen corpse rose to the surface. It lay faceup, arms folded over its chest, holding a fake crystal ball made of ice in its hands. It was constantly interfering with the crystal ball inside Wu Heng's briefcase.
"Winter... has... come. You—"
The frozen face began to speak, one word at a time.
Its mouth opened and shut like broken porcelain, shedding flakes of ice-covered skin that pattered into the sewer.
Ice had come to capture Wu Heng. The last time he'd summoned it at the High Priest's place, he'd deeply offended and mocked it. It was furious and meant to tear Wu Heng's soul apart ten thousand times before throwing him into the Rock Pit.
Wu Heng felt the cold coming from the crystal ball inside his briefcase.
Looks like it's time to leave this world.
But before leaving, Wu Heng planned to give the Hell Priest of Ice one more surprise.
He quickly ran back to the hall of the Underground Kingdom.
Wu Heng looked at the unfinished circle drawn by the Large Imp.
Using blood from a corpse, he completed the final stroke of the demon summoning circle.
Fortunately, the ordinary blood only had a restorative effect on Wu Heng. He wasn't injured, so he couldn't be bothered to absorb it all.
As the circle was completed, the pile of tongues on the ground quickly knotted and bound itself together.
The hanging corpses turned into red powder and fell to the ground, forming a pile of ash that covered the tongues.
A nauseating song began to ring out around them. Everyone who heard it felt an urge to tear everything apart.
The ash compressed into a gray body, like that of a Devil Butterfly. A head resembling the Underground King's formed at the front, made from the fused tongues. Black wings patterned with markings extended from both sides of its body, and clouds of powder began drifting out in every direction.
This was the great demon from Abaddon Hell—the Chanter.
Just as the Chanter was about to take shape, Wu Heng silently thought:
"Return."
Wu Heng vanished from where he stood.
The makeshift crystal ball in the frozen corpse's hands shattered, briefly opening a rift to Hell. The Hell Priest of Ice stepped out through it.
The newly summoned Chanter spotted the Hell Priest of Ice at once. The two hellish fiends stared at each other, momentarily stunned.
Abaddon Hell and Leviathan Hell were longtime mortal enemies.
The great demon Chanter controlled all the powder, sending it surging toward the Hell Priest of Ice like a dense fog...
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