With that ringing announcement.
Everyone in the Ma Residence's front courtyard froze, whether they were members of the Demon Race exchanging drinks or human cultivators forcing smiles.
The next moment.
The dense crowd rose from their seats as one.
Human and demon alike faced the residence gates, standing with respectful expressions and their hands lowered at their sides.
Even the ill-tempered Demon Kings were unusually docile, afraid that breathing too loudly might displease the Demon Emperor.
That deathly silence lasted for the time it took an incense stick to burn.
Throughout it all, the carriage of white bones parked outside the gates did not stir.
An incense stick later.
A slender hand finally lifted the curtain of the bone carriage.
A black-gold boot descended first.
Then his entire figure emerged from the carriage.
He was a deer.
Utterly unlike the two deer demons greeting guests at the gates.
This deer had a slender build, his white fur smooth as satin. His towering antlers measured seven or eight feet in length, with pale golden patterns winding around them.
His eyes were narrow, his pupils vertical slits.
He had already assumed a mostly human form, yet deliberately retained his deer head.
A black-and-gold robe draped his shoulders, its hem trailing three feet along the ground.
Two deer demon attendants followed behind him, bowing as they straightened the edges of his robe.
He carried himself as though he looked down upon all beneath heaven, unrivaled and unchallenged.
He stopped.
His narrow eyes swept indifferently over the courtyard.
His gaze passed over the trembling human cultivators without lingering for even an instant.
It finally settled on the Demon Emperors at the main table.
Only after a long while.
Did Demon Emperor Juechen part his lips, revealing a mouthful of chilling white fangs. "To be