Just as the Ruined Temple's doors were about to shatter, a languid voice suddenly sounded through divine sense from behind the statue.
"What's all the noise?"
The voice was very soft.
Yet it sent Yin Jiao's and Yin Hong's hearts plunging into the abyss.
There was another living creature in the temple!
Yin Jiao's first thought was that the demon consort had planted a deadly trap even in this abandoned temple.
He held the Broken Blade across his body and shielded Yin Hong behind him, his voice hoarse. "Come out! Come at me!"
Yin Hong's face was deathly pale, his fingers clutching his elder brother's robe.
Thud!
Thud!
Boom-
The next instant, the rotten temple doors exploded.
Wood splinters swept inward on a demonic gale, scattering the incense ash on the offering table through the air.
The Wolf Monster stepped into the temple first.
Blood still stained his mouthful of fangs, and his eerie green eyes fixed on the two princes.
The Pig Monster blocked the broken wall on the left.
The Snake Monster slithered beneath the threshold, his long forked tongue sweeping the ground with a sound that made their scalps crawl.
Yin Jiao's grip on the blade tightened little by little.
He knew their escape route was gone.
The Wolf Monster grinned, a bloody stench washing over them.
"The royal proclamation demands your heads. The one in the palace wants your souls."
"Your little highnesses, running into a temple won't save you tonight."
Yin Hong bit his lip until it bled.
Yin Jiao stood in front of him without retreating a single step.
The green light in the Wolf Monster's eyes flared as he suddenly fixed his gaze on Yin Hong.
"The younger one's royal blood is more tender. Swallowing you first will add at least a hundred years to my cultivation!"
He lowered himself on all fours and lunged.
Yin Jiao roared in fury, raising the Broken Blade to meet him.
At that very instant.
The darkness behind the statue moved.
An ink-black figure strolled out.
It was a black dog.
His long, ink-black fur lay close against muscle and bone. His limbs were slender, and a closed Dark-Gold Vertical Mark rested between his brows.
His canine teeth gleamed white, a faint thread of golden radiance flowing between them.
Midway through his leap, the Wolf Monster froze in the air.
Every hair on his body bristled, and a terrified growl rose from his throat.
"You have no demonic aura..."
"What kind of savage creature are you?"
The black dog lifted his eyelids as though he had only just awakened.
"You dared disturb this emperor's sleep."
"While my master's away, this emperor rules the temple."
Yin Jiao and Yin Hong froze.
This black dog could actually speak?
More precisely, his voice sounded directly inside their minds.
Divine-sense communication.
The Wolf Monster's hind legs weakened, but he still roared with hollow bravado, "Stay back! I act under the decrees of Lady Su and the State Preceptor's Residence! You dare defy a royal command?"
The black dog paused.
The next instant, he vanished.
He moved too fast for Yin Jiao's eyes to follow.
By the time Yin Jiao reacted, a black paw had already pinned the Wolf Monster to the ground.
Bam!
The flagstone floor cracked.
The Wolf Monster struggled frantically, yet he could not lift even a single claw.
The demonic power within him froze in an instant, his demon soul seemingly nailed inside his body.
The black dog lowered his head and snapped his fangs shut.
He did not pierce the Wolf Monster's flesh.
Yet from deep within the crown of the Wolf Monster's head, he forcibly bit out an illusory demon-soul lifeline.
"No!"
The Wolf Monster's demon soul let out a soundless scream.
Without even blinking, the black dog swallowed it.
The Wolf Monster's body convulsed violently, and his eerie green eyes turned dull in an instant.
Deathly silence.
Only the wind remained audible inside the temple.
Yin Hong stared wide-eyed, forgetting even his fear.
The Wolf Monster who had hunted them into a corner a moment ago was simply gone?
The black dog smacked his lips and flicked his tail disdainfully.
"A little too rank, but barely edible."
The Pig Monster and the Snake Monster completely lost their nerve.
The Pig Monster turned and charged toward the broken wall, trying to escape the temple.
The Snake Monster plunged into a crack in the ground, half his body vanishing instantly.
The Dark-Gold Vertical Mark between the black dog's brows opened a sliver.
Hum!
An almost imperceptibly thin golden beam swept through the Ruined Temple.
The demon-soul lifeline inside the Pig Monster was laid completely bare.
The Snake Monster's remaining body, hidden underground, was illuminated just as clearly.
"Two more."
The black dog stepped forward.
The Pig Monster had barely reached the wall when a black paw pinned the back of his neck.
Pfft!
His demon soul was ripped out on the spot before he could even finish screaming.
Underground, the Snake Monster writhed frantically.
But as the dark-gold gaze fell, the ground burst apart.
An illusory snake soul was forcibly dragged from the earth and fell into the black dog's mouth.
All three monsters were annihilated.
Outside the doorway, a sorcerer from the State Preceptor's Residence turned deathly pale.
He had just crushed a Communication Talisman when a dark-gold gaze swept toward him.
The talisman's flame went out on the spot.
"M-monster!"
The Demon Soldiers abandoned their helmets and armor, scrambling and tumbling out of the Mass Burial Grounds.
The sorcerers no longer cared about the royal command either. They turned and fled.
Soon, everything outside the Ruined Temple fell quiet.
Yin Jiao still held the Broken Blade raised, but his arm trembled.
Yin Hong leaned behind him, his face covered in mud and blood, his eyes filled with the dazed bewilderment of someone who had narrowly escaped death.
The black dog strolled back into the temple.
He stood before the two boys, looking them over from above.
After studying them for a while, he nodded.
"The Human King's bloodline. A little diluted, but reasonably clean."
Yin Jiao watched him warily.
"What do you want?"
The vertical mark between the black dog's brows flashed, and Yin Jiao suddenly felt a weight settle on his chest.
The thread of royal fortune that the aura of calamity had nearly extinguished actually grew still at that moment.
The black dog licked his nose.
"Decent innate potential. The aura of calamity hasn't gnawed your life flames clean away, either."
"Wash off all this ill luck, and you'll just about be fit to take back."
Yin Hong asked softly, "Take... take us where?"
The black dog flicked his tail, his tone utterly matter-of-fact.
"From now on, you two are under this emperor's protection."
"You'll be responsible for brushing my fur, finding me snacks, and guarding the Incense Burner."
"Do well, and this emperor will reward you with a breath of immortal qi."
Yin Jiao: "..."
Yin Hong:
"..."
For a moment, the two princes of Great Shang could not tell whether the black dog who had saved them was their benefactor or an even greater source of trouble.
Yin Jiao tightened his grip on the Broken Blade and said through gritted teeth, "We are princes of Yin Shang. We will never be anyone's servants."
The black dog tilted his head.
"Who said anything about making you servants?"
"This emperor needs underlings."
Yin Hong opened his mouth, looking even more bewildered.
Yin Jiao was about to speak again.
The vertical mark between the black dog's brows suddenly glimmered, making both boys' knees weaken slightly without actually harming them in the least.
"What? Not convinced?"
"This emperor just swallowed three monsters. Even together, you two wouldn't survive one swipe of my paw."
Yin Jiao's face flushed red.
But he did not kneel.
Even with his chest aching under the pressure, he still supported himself with the Broken Blade and stood in front of Yin Hong.
A flicker of surprise crossed the black dog's eyes.
"You've got some backbone, at least."
Just as the atmosphere reached a stalemate, a calm voice came from outside the temple doors.
"Xiaotian, stop fooling around."
The black dog's ears twitched, and most of his imposing aura vanished in an instant.
A young man in black robes walked slowly through the shattered wood.
The divine mark between his brows glowed faintly, and dark-gold blood energy circulated heavily around him.
With just one glance, Yin Jiao sensed an edge about this man that would drive demons and evil spirits into retreat.
The newcomer was none other than Yang Jian.
He glanced at the demon corpses inside the temple, then looked at the defiant Xiaotian, a hint of exasperation entering his eyes.
"Master told you to guard this temple and wait for the Yin Shang Twins to enter the game."
"And what did you do? Nearly scared them to their knees."
Xiaotian snorted.
"This emperor saved them."
Yang Jian said evenly, "One more word, and I'll tell Master when we get back that you've been taking underlings without permission."
Xiaotian's tail stiffened.
Yin Jiao and Yin Hong looked up at the same time.
Master?
There was someone else behind this terrifying black dog and this young man whose aura was unfathomable?
Yang Jian looked at the two bloodstained boys, his voice softening a little.
"Yin Jiao, Yin Hong."
"Your mother has suffered calamity, and Chaoge has become a demons' nest."
"If you want to survive, if you want to seek justice for Queen Jiang one day, come with me."
Yin Jiao's breath caught.
Yin Hong's eyes instantly reddened.
Yin Jiao stared hard at Yang Jian. "Who are you? What gives you the right to save us?"
The divine mark between Yang Jian's brows flickered faintly.
"Yang Jian of Guanjiangkou."
"By my master's command, I've come to bring you into the game."
His words fell silent.
Before the statue in the ruined temple, a spark of primordial violet light suddenly shone within the long-extinguished incense ash in the burner.