The Perfect Zecter in Zhou Yang's hand continued to swing, finishing off one demon after another.
As they watched Zhou Yang draw ever closer and their brethren die one after another, the warnings of danger from the Demon Plane rang out in their seas of consciousness as though they cost nothing.
Even resistance was futile. In the end, they could only scream to vent their mounting terror.
"Stop, you demon!"
"Go ahead and scream. Even if you beg for mercy, I won't spare you."
Zhou Yang chose to ignore the demons' screams. Today, he was going to tatakae (fight) hard, to keep on tatakae-ing.
The scene at that moment actually made it somewhat difficult to tell who the real villain was.
He was like a demon king descended upon the world, sweeping through the demonic imps.
"Senior's strength... is truly terrifying." Having witnessed everything before him firsthand, Yuanen Zhentian could not help but sigh in amazement.
Just as Zhou Yang pressed onward, ready to pursue them into the depths of the Demon Plane and enjoy mowing them down, he suddenly discovered that the path ahead was a dead end he had been lured into as bait, along with a certain bastard attempting to sever the junction and flee.
A quick analysis made it clear: this location was indeed the Demon Plane, but it was bait the Demon Plane had cut off to fool him.
You wanted to flee even at the cost of cutting off part of your plane? Demon Plane, I acknowledge your fleeing IQ.
But-
"Hmph, trying to escape?"
A purple metal scorpion emerged from a ripple in the demonic passage, leaped up, and mounted itself on the Perfect Zecter.
[Kabuto Power (Power of Kabuto)]
[Sasword Power (Power of Sasword)]
"Get out, now."
Zhou Yang merely glanced aside. His blue compound eyes seemed capable of seeing through everything across space, and Yuanen Zhentian could feel that gaze targeting him.
He decisively chose to trust Zhou Yang's words. Without any other thought, he immediately withdrew his divine sense.
[Hyper Slash (Hyper Slash)]
The next moment, a deafening rumble erupted within the Demon Gate, and even the surroundings began to quake violently. Yuanen Zhentian could sense that it was no longer the earth trembling, but the plane itself.
After the earthquake subsided, a figure slowly walked out. The Demon Gate shattered and closed behind him, turning into a mass of black light that merged into the blank watch face in Zhou Yang's hand.
The demon beside them also had all her power drained away by the watch face and reverted to human form.
"I didn't expect an extra haul. A pity it isn't complete."
Zhou Yang had not expected the blank watch face he had fashioned by hand with the Power of Ohma to react when he entered earlier and begin absorbing the passage's power. By now, it had absorbed most of it.
However, because it was incomplete, forcing it into use would only make it a single-use item. Besides, this thing was a severed demonic passage; the Demon Plane probably would not grant it access at all.
Had he not paid the Demon Plane a "forced visit" before leaving and given it a slash, the Demon Plane might really have escaped.
Now that the Demon Plane had taken a slash, the Douluo Plane had seized hold of it instead, leaving it unable to escape again. There would be plenty of opportunities to visit in the future.
Meanwhile, the passage formed by the Demon Gate contained fragments of the Demon Plane, and within it was the embryonic form of a self-contained small world, which could serve as a reference for him.
The Power of Ohma could destroy worlds, and it could also create them.
This was an excellent textbook for learning about that. Naturally, Zhou Yang intended to make good use of it to prepare for establishing his own "kingdom" in the future.
After all, with kidney-deficient Ohma as a cautionary example, he did not want to fool around destroying and creating worlds until he left himself depleted.
Meanwhile, Yuanen Zhentian gazed at Hyper Kabuto before him without a word. The other clan members were all silent, while Yuanen Tiandang rushed to his wife and anxiously began tending to her.
Fortunately, Zhou Yang did not stop him, indicating that he had no objections. Only then did Yuanen Zhentian breathe a sigh of relief.
It was just that he could not quite work out where things currently stood with this powerhouse.
Having made up his mind, Yuanen Zhentian did something that shocked everyone present.
He bent his knees and lowered himself, striking his head against the ground with an exceptionally loud thud. His body, proud for so many years, finally offered up all his reverence and respect that day as he performed a deep bow to Zhou Yang.
"Thank you, Senior, for saving our clan. I will remember what you have done to save the Yuanen Household until my dying day."
"Father?!"
Yuanen Zhentian's two sons looked shocked. Never had they imagined that the towering pillar in their hearts would kowtow in thanks to an unfamiliar powerhouse.
It was as though he had cast aside all pride and glory.
"Shut up! You have no idea what just happened!"
Yuanen Zhentian rebuked them sternly. The person standing before him was an existence comparable to a god.
Both Zhou Yang's kindness and his tremendous strength had won Yuanen Zhentian's wholehearted admiration and submission.
This old man had cultivated for most of his life, and the only things he valued were cultivation and his family.
Especially after marrying his wife and having their two sons, his heart had already been filled by the word "family."
His cultivation had progressed like a fish taking to water, too. It was only after reaching Quasi-God and sensing no contact from the God Realm that he understood there was no further path upward. Thus, he had shifted his focus to his family and poured everything into it.
It could be said that his family was everything to him, even surpassing his cultivation.
Originally, he would have lost those thirteen members of his family, lost two good daughters-in-law, and even had to act against his own eldest son to quell everyone's anger.
Yet all of that had changed when this man intervened.
"Oh, you actually remember." Zhou Yang looked at Yuanen Zhentian with interest.
"Treasure all of this."
Naturally, he had noticed that Yuanen Zhentian remembered everything.
Of course, that was his doing as well.
Only after experiencing pain engraved into one's bones and heart could one better appreciate the preciousness and beauty of what lay before them.
Since it had already happened, there was no harm in letting it serve as a reminder to him.
After all, he did not consider himself much of a hero, and his chivalry was on par with Belial from Ultraman. It was perfectly normal for a demon king to do something like this, right?
Although Yuanen Zhentian's actions were difficult for the Yuanen Household to believe, once they reacted, they all knelt along with him and kowtowed to Zhou Yang.
Even the ancestor had kowtowed. If you did not follow suit, were you greater than the ancestor?
That was how social etiquette worked.
Not to mention, judging by Yuanen Zhentian's words, some clan-annihilating crisis threatening the family's survival apparently would have occurred just now.
What Zhou Yang had done was save the Yuanen Family. The person before them was clearly a senior even stronger than Yuanen Zhentian.
With such a great debt of gratitude before them, and since they were no ungrateful wolves, how could they fail to understand such a simple truth?
"That's enough of that. Get up."
Only after Zhou Yang accepted their thanks did the group stand again.
Yuanen Zhentian looked composed and relaxed, without any trace of his earlier solemnity and aged gravity.
He looked at Yehui, who had awakened with Yuanen Tiandang's help, and asked, "Senior, may I ask how things stand?"
He turned a somewhat expectant gaze toward Zhou Yang, hoping this extraordinary existence could offer a solution that satisfied both sides.
"The Demon Plane has already cut her off. It won't come again."
Hearing this, Yuanen Zhentian was delighted. The wrinkles on his aged face could not help bunching together with his smile, but more than anything, he felt the relief of having everything resolved.
Sure enough, this was truly an existence far beyond him, capable of accomplishing what he could not.