"Uncle, aren't you being a little too cautious?" Niu Mang was baffled. His uncle could clearly crush that Dao Palace prodigy to death with a single move, yet he was being so careful.
He had investigated the Azure Emperor's origins over and over again, then paid a hefty price to enlist a divine beast of the White-Ze Lineage that could predict the future.
He had even spread word that he would go kill the Azure Emperor, yet still had not acted. Instead, he hid in the shadows, watching for changes in the outside world or unfamiliar demons appearing beside the Azure Emperor.
Niu Mang's uncle looked at him as though he were an ignorant fool. "When I was young, I had the good fortune to visit other planets and see some of their peerless prodigies. Every one of them had an immensely terrifying being at their side. Those beings usually kept their mountains and waters hidden, concealing themselves deep in the shadows. Unless those prodigies faced something they couldn't resolve that threatened their lives, their protectors almost never appeared."
Niu Mang looked utterly unconvinced. "I think you're overthinking it, Uncle. That Azure Emperor has escaped from my hands on the brink of death several times. If he hadn't possessed the heaven-defying properties of divine medicine, he would've died long ago! If he really had a Guardian, why didn't they appear sooner?"
"That's precisely why I'm worried. Beyond the Immortal Platform realm, cultivation is essentially begun anew. Every realm holds beings whose depths are impossible to fathom. The reason his protector didn't show before was most likely that no expert of my level had acted. Now that I'm making a move, I could very well draw out a terrifying being!
"And do you think just anyone can take a taboo name like Azure Emperor? With 'Emperor' in his name, he's most likely a prodigy from the Otherworld, with ambitions of becoming a Great Emperor!"
Niu Mang fell silent. Even a name carried that much significance?
Although he called this Pan Niu demon his uncle, he was not actually much younger than him. Otherwise, he would not have failed to make a place for himself in the Holy City and ended up secluded in a remote corner.
His talent fell short of his uncle's, and naturally, so did his knowledge.
What his uncle said was probably true! He had once visited other planets and called them paradise on earth, where life was more than a hundred times better than on the Demon Star. Apparently, the rules and institutions of the three great Holy Cities had been modeled on those places.
Another year passed. This was the Azure Emperor's fourth year on the Demon Star.
His battles with the Pan Niu Demons grew increasingly fierce. His extraordinary strength allowed him to defeat many demon prodigies above his realm, drawing considerable attention. Meanwhile, some had begun to speculate about the Azure Emperor's true form, suspecting that he was a great medicine that had assumed a living form-a potent source of nourishment!
Quite a few demon experts were already stirring, eager to act.
That year, the Azure Emperor killed another prodigy of the Pan Niu clan, thoroughly enraging the Great Power cultivator. He issued a warning to the Azure Emperor: "I'll give you one last chance. Come to the Holy City yourself to atone for your sins, or I will kill you!"
In secret, he dispatched another ten great demons of the Dragon Transformation realm to kill the Azure Emperor.
Relying on his strange Green Lotus, the Azure Emperor escaped with grievous injuries. His life essence was almost imperceptible, as though he were about to die.
Yet once again, through incomprehensible means, he rose anew from the ashes, stronger than before, and killed another member of the Pan Niu Demons' younger generation.
At last, the Great Power of the Pan Niu demon clan could hold back no longer. He made his move!
Leading a group of Pan Niu Demons, the Great Power cultivator locked onto the Azure Emperor's location and charged toward him with murderous force... then suddenly vanished from that land before the eyes of all the Pan Niu Demons.
At that moment, halfway along the route to capture the Azure Emperor, the Great Power Pan Niu Demon reined in his aura and stared ahead in terror.
Directly before him stood a curtain of light, with a building rising within it.
The curtain of light blocked his path. After several unsuccessful attempts to go around it, he began to understand.
Someone had used unimaginable means to move that stretch of space in front of him, blocking his way. Now he had no route of retreat, while a great terror awaited him if he advanced.
"This is a terrifying divine ability beyond all comprehension!" The longer he observed it, the more his heart pounded in fear.
It was inches away, yet as distant as the ends of the earth.
The curtain of light was right before his eyes, yet he dared not step through it-and could not have done so anyway.
How could such a terrifying figure still exist in this world? This was the White Tiger Demon Saint's territory. Even the Demon Sage himself had failed to discover the terror here. This person was most likely a Saint too! And judging by everything within that curtain of light, they were probably a human Saint!
"Senior?"
The Pan Niu Demon tried calling out, but no one answered.
"Senior, please spare my life! I swear on my life that I will never lay a hand on your junior! Please, for the White Tiger Demon Saint's sake, leave me a way to live!" With matters having reached this point, the Pan Niu Demon could only hope that invoking the White Tiger Demon Saint would give this person pause.
He had already been frightened out of his wits. The longer he stayed here, the more he could feel how terrifying the person inside that house was, even without them appearing!
"Children squabble and fight. As adults, we should stay out of it. What do you think?" A voice emerged from the curtain of light, seemingly coming from an unimaginably distant place. It pierced through layer upon layer of space, carrying the truths of the Great Dao as it fell into the Pan Niu Demon's mind.
Thud!
Before that voice, he dropped to his knees with almost no resistance, even though the other party had not released the slightest trace of might.
"Your admonishment is right, Senior..." Only now did the Pan Niu Demon finally understand what sort of figure he was facing. Even before the White Tiger Demon Saint, he had never felt such fear, nor such an oppressive majesty that needed no anger to command awe.
Could this be a... Saint King!!!
"Still, you intended to attack my junior, so this matter cannot simply end here! Till the fields for ten years, and I'll let you leave. Consider it your punishment. Will you accept?" That voice once again came through the endless void.
"Yes, yes! Thank you for sparing my life, Senior!" At last, he had heard some good news. Wasn't it just tilling fields? When he was young, prodigies of his generation had ruthlessly subdued him and ridden him time and again!
Facing that person now, he felt as though he had returned to his earliest days of cultivation, standing before a Great Power. A mere wisp of aura was enough to make his heart pound in terror and send him prostrate to the ground.
The Pan Niu Demon's world spun around him. When he appeared again, he was already in a field. He looked around in horror. He had actually been forced back into his true form, unable to speak or utter a word.
He had been reduced completely to an ox for tilling fields.
That strange house stood not far away, but he understood that it only looked close. If he truly wanted to reach it, he would need the owner's permission. Otherwise, even a Dao-Slaying King could do nothing. Perhaps only the White Tiger Demon Saint's personal arrival would offer a chance.
"Moo~"
I'd better till the fields, before the one inside changes their mind!
"Uncle Niu has disappeared!"
"This... a peerless expert just made a move! We didn't sense a thing..."
The ox demons of the Pan Niu clan looked around, chilled from their hooves to their horns.
Niu Mang sank to the ground in a daze, trembling all over. "Uncle was right! There's an immensely terrifying being behind that man! And now Uncle has been taken away just like that!"
"Go back! Go back and report to the clan leader! Have him act! The clan leader is a Great Accomplished King. He can definitely save Uncle!" Soon, as though clutching at a life-saving straw, Niu Mang began sprinting toward the Holy City.
Uncle must not die!
He was the only person who loved me!