The Demon’s Gate - Chapter 280

Yuan Shen’s gaze trembled as he looked at Yao Jun, who had a single cloud of blood serving as his backdrop. Looking at him now, even the war going on around them seemed to quiet down, the sounds of battle suddenly becoming so faint and distant that he could barely notice them.

A thumping echoed from Yuan Shen’s chest, an emotion he hadn’t felt once during the last several years spreading throughout his body, fear. Yuan Shen still held some confidence when he saw how easily Yao Jun dealt with Qiao Xian Yi, but now fear was starting to assault him. And it was when a person felt fear like this that their true nature would often be revealed.

Yuan Shen and Qiao Xian Yi both spoke grandly earlier about what this battle would be, but now that fear had seized hold of his heart, Yuan Shen disregarded all his earlier words and bravado. A bright light flashed beneath his feet and his figure vanished into the distance, flying directly towards the main battlefield of the ongoing war.

Yuan Shen arrived atop one of the flying galleon-like ships that hovered above the battlefield, the light beneath his feet vanishing as he set foot on the deck, a cold sweat running down his back. The people aboard the ship were somewhat caught off guard when he first arrived, but once they recognized him they made certain to respectfully salute him. Yuan Shen quickly waved his hand, barking out an order to the men manning the ship.

“Retreat, right now! Get us back ho…”

Yuan Shen stopped talking before he could finish his sentence, a shiver running down the entire length of his spine. He slowly turned his head with a few twitches, his gaze landing on the gray-eyed and violet-haired youth sitting on the bulwark of the ship. Qiao Xian Yi’s neck was firmly in his grasp, her body still contorting as space itself continuously smashed into her, breaking her body so badly that her body died and was forced to rely on her special combination of laws to regenerate. Yuan Shen’s lips trembled slightly, but Yao Jun simply sent him a faint smile and used his free hand to push himself down from the bulwark.

“Good day, and goodbye.”

The sole of Yao Jun’s foot made contact with the deck of the ship, a soul-freezing chill overcoming everyone on the ship. The deck exploded outwards, hundreds of glacial spikes stabbing through the ship on all sides. One particularly large spike, as thick as a tree, went all the way down to the ground before spreading out into several more thick spikes of ice, the ship suddenly resembling a frozen flower. Yao Jun had even taken precautions against Yuan Shen’s Element God’s Gate, merging his ice with a bit of his law of death so that Yuan Shen couldn’t just hijack it.

In less than a second, the only living beings remaining on the ship were Yao Jun, Yuan Shen, and the convulsing Qiao Xian Yi. Yuan Shen had several spikes of ice around him that just barely missed him, grazing his skin and leaving small wounds that froze before they could start bleeding. Yuan Shen could feel the law of death inside the ice, it slithered into his body whenever he made contact with the ice, gnawing at him like maggots. His voice trembled with a mixture of fear and anger as he glared at Yao Jun, who still wore that faint smile that was starting to haunt Yuan Shen.

“I’m not an idiot, you could have killed me right there. And yet, I’m still alive right now. What is it that you want, just tell me and I will give it to you.”

Yuan Shen grasped onto any straw of hope he could find, and the fact that Yao Jun hadn’t killed him right there was the biggest straw he could find. But all that met his search for hope was more despair, Yao Jun calmly walking over to him while dragging Qiao Xian Yi.

“No, Yuan Shen, you are an idiot. I already told you, all that awaits you is death. You’re only alive for one simple reason, and that’s the fact that the sun hasn’t set yet. I told you, your life sets with the sun.”

The last straw of Yuan Shen’s hope burned out as the horrible truth finally set in, Yao Jun only kept him alive because he hadn’t suffered enough yet. Yao Jun didn’t have a habit or a fondness of making his opponents suffer, he preferred to just quickly end his enemies, it was one of the main reasons he beheaded people. But when it came to Qiao Xian Yi and Yuan Shen, he wanted them to suffer, he wanted them to pay for what they had done.

Yao Jun’s right leg suddenly flashed forward, his foot landing squarely on Yuan Shen’s crotch and flinging him backward. Yuan Shen yelped in pain as he smashed through the glacial spikes and crashed into the bulwark of the ship, grasping his crotch and rolling around on the ground. Yao Jun continued to calmly walk over and raised his foot, stomping down on the back of Yuan Shen’s left leg, shattering his knee.

Ice and fire flooded into Yuan Shen’s veins from Yao Jun’s legs, small needles of ice piercing through his skin from within as the small sparks of fire started to scorch his flesh. Yao Jun even used his newly acquired Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi, to lash out at Yuan Shen’s soul and torture him on both a physical and mental level.

While Yuan Shen was howling in pain, Qiao Xian Yi suddenly grew more silent, causing Yao Jun to lower his gaze slightly. Qiao Xian Yi’s gaze had become blank and distant, her body no longer tensing up whenever it was shattered. Her body was still regenerating, so Yao Jun was certain that she wasn’t dead, he guessed that she had likely pulled back her own soul or mind so far that she wouldn’t feel the pain. But how could Yao Jun possibly allow something like that?

He sat down on the bulwark next to the howling Yuan Shen and held up Qiao Xian Yi’s body, their eyes locking. As he locked eyes with her, he poured forth all his mental energy and assaulted her mind with it, mixing in a bit of his Anima Essence to make sure he truly got her.

Qiao Xian Yi suddenly found herself standing on a vast and empty plain, somewhat withered grass swaying in a non-existent breeze. She looked around in confusion, but the earth beneath her cracked open before she could find her bearings. She sank down to her waist before the earth suddenly closed up again, utterly crushing her lower half and causing her to vomit out large amounts of blood and crushed organs.

The horrendous pain assaulted all of her nerves and caused her to scream out in pain, but the only response that came was the echo of her own scream. And just as her vision turned black as the wound became too much for her, she found herself standing on the vast and empty plain again.

Confusion quickly set in, but she didn’t even get the chance to utter a single word before the grass around her grew in size and coiled itself around her body and tightened drastically. The grass acted like a snake, squeezing down on her on all sides until her bones shattered and her organs ruptured, everything turning dark again. But just as things turned dark, Qiao Xian Yi found herself standing on the plain again, the only reminder of the previous events being the pain that still assaulted her. And once again, just as she found herself on the plain, something around her killed her, the cycle repeating without end.

While Qiao Xian Yi was twitching and convulsing, vomiting on herself due to the illusion that he had put her under, Yao Jun helped Yuan Shen up onto the bulwark of the ship, supporting him using some ice. Yao Jun pointed at the distant sun, which was rapidly approaching the horizon, still smiling faintly at Yuan Shen.

“This is a good spot, you can count the last minutes of your life here without any interruptions.”

Yuan Shen couldn’t even say anything in response to that grim statement, the pain assaulting him sealed his mouth shut, all he could do was gaze upon the setting sun. But as the two looked at the setting sun, they saw that a portion of the sky was burning with violet flames, a human figure rapidly approaching them. Yao Jun saw a man from the Final Fire clan, his charcoal-like skin split up by violet veins, rapidly flying towards them, the sky burning behind them.

“Youngster, what the hell do you think you’re doing!”

An invisible force surrounded Yao Jun, the Qi itself all around him freezing and forming a prison that sealed him up. If even the Qi around him became like this from the man’s shout, it could only mean one thing, he was a Heavenly Deity. It seemed like Yao Jun’s actions had finally been discovered by someone, but Yao Jun wasn’t too worried, not yet at least.

His eyes moved to the side slightly, a large black crack appearing in the sky in front of the approaching man. Arthurius stepped out of the crack and lashed out with his fist, space tearing around it as the man from the Final Fire clan was forced to raise both arms to block, a brilliant violet flame coating his arms and successfully blocking the punch. The man looked at Arthurius with a grim expression, his vision flickering between Yao Jun and Arthurius.

“Arthurius, are you insane!? Men, kill that youngster no matter what!”

The invisible force around Yao Jun receded, the man from the Final Fire clan would need all his focus and then some if he wanted to resist Arthurius. The sea of people beneath the frozen ship that Yao Jun was sitting on moved like waves after the man shouted out, several large battalions breaking away from the rest of the battle to assault Yao Jun. Yao Jun still didn’t move, only sparing the incoming battalions a single glance.

The shadow cast by the frozen ship suddenly extended drastically, resembling an open maw as it encompassed the incoming people. Before any of them had a chance to react, the shadow beneath them seemed to become hollow, thousands of people instantly sinking into the darkness. Awaiting them within the shadows were pitch black grinders that sucked them in and crushed them all, none of them able to escape Yao Jun’s law of disintegration. Yao Jun moved his eyes back towards the sun after finishing the deed, muttering quietly.

“I don’t want any interrupters.”

Loud roars resounded after Yao Jun’s mutter sounded out, Sirius and the others rushing over to accomplish the wish of their lord. Yao Jun could see that Yun Yantian and Guo Luo, as well as his parents and one other woman he hadn’t seen before, were riding on the back of Zhuyin and Zhuanxu, their safety ensured.

With them taking care of anyone that tried to get close to him, Yao Jun was able to calmly observe the setting sun, occasionally glancing at Yuan Shen or Qiao Xian Yi. Both were writhing in pain, but their eyes were mostly dead and lifeless, even the faintest hope or desire for life already having escaped them due to the pain. It was especially bad for Qiao Xian Yi, time inside the illusion moved far faster than real life, she had died thousands of times already within the last few minutes. Yuan Shen still had some light left in his gaze, but it was so faint it was on the verge of vanishing.

As the sun got closer to the horizon, Yao Jun saw the armies of the World Tree clan pull a strong retreat, as if they were being beaten back. They retreated onto their ships and took advantage of the hole Yao Jun had punched into the array from the outside, leaving the planet and opening a few more holes in the array to make room for the rest of their army. Only the Heavenly Deities remained behind to serve as the rearguard and to block the other Heavenly Deities. A few of the people from the other armies heeded Arthurius’s earlier warning and took this chance to flee, but most of the opposing armies remained, at least a few hundred million people bearing down on Arthurius and the other Heavenly Deities of the World Tree clan. And then, the sun touched the horizon.

A deafening rumbling sound rocked the entire planet, massive cracks spewing smoke spreading across the surface of the planet. Pillars of pitch-black flames rose up from the cracks, roaring as they shot towards the sky and collided with the array, spreading out and dyeing the sky as dark as the night. More and more pillars of flame rose towards the sky as the planet’s core became unable to maintain its delicate balance due to all the interference Yao Jun had done to it, the unstable core starting to expand and contorting, literally tearing the planet apart.

Yao Jun still sat on the frozen flower that was once a flying ship, the black flames reflected in his eyes as he surveyed the dying world and the armies caught up in its death throes. Yuan Shen also looked at him with the last sliver of light left in his eyes, Yao Jun’s gray eyes and violet hair, as well as his faint smile, filling his entire vision. As more and more black pillars started to surround them, Yuan Shen realized that to be the God of Demons was to be the King of Hell, a title he found perfectly fitting for Yao Jun right now.