In just a few seconds, out of the dozen or so demons, only the tall man leading them remained.
The pleading look on the man's face instantly froze, and the simulated terror finally mixed with a trace of genuine fear from the depths of his soul.
He realized that the man before him would never be deceived by any disguise; he could see right through their flesh to the emotionless souls beneath.
Kalisia was completely dumbfounded.
She hadn't expected Ye Chuan to be so decisive against the demons. Even though she knew the demons' tricks, seeing those creatures beg for mercy had undeniably left Kalisia feeling conflicted.
Wearing the faces of her own kind made it impossible for Kalisia to remain indifferent.
The little girl looked at Ye Chuan's profile, the admiration in her eyes practically overflowing.
Previously, she had thought his flying down was too reckless, but now she understood that in the face of absolute power, a so-called encirclement was nothing more than child's play.
Ignoring the shocked gaze of the little girl in his arms, Ye Chuan looked down at the demon man frozen in place. With a gentle flick of his finger, the man flew over and Ye Chuan grabbed him by the throat.
Soul search.
The man's body instantly began to convulse violently, yet his face still showed no trace of pain, only the body's instinctive spasms.
Ye Chuan's spiritual power swept through his soul like a tidal wave, only to find a cold, blank void inside. There was no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness—only cold directives from higher-tier demons:
Hunt humans, collect souls, disguise and infiltrate, and ambush isolated caravans and nobles.
What surprised Ye Chuan even more was that this demon had only existed for three years since its creation.
They were not naturally reproducing lifeforms at all, but pure hunting tools.
The only useful information was their familiar memory of this wasteland.
At the very least, he now knew the direction to the Storm Territory.
The moment the soul search ended, Ye Chuan squeezed his fingers slightly. The man's body instantly turned into a wisp of black smoke, dissipating in the wasteland wind without leaving a single trace.
"Alright, I've asked for directions." Ye Chuan looked at the still-dazed Kalisia and smiled, pinching her cheek.
"Pinkie, we'll be at your house soon. Shall we set off now?"
It felt nice; he gave her cheek another pinch.
Hearing this, Kalisia suddenly snapped back to reality. Paying no mind to Ye Chuan pinching her face, she quickly nodded hard.
"Really?! We can really go home?!"
"What else? We can't just stay in the middle of nowhere and feed the monsters." Ye Chuan tapped his toes and took to the sky again, speeding off in a certain direction.
This time, Kalisia didn't feel the slightest bit of panic. Instead, she excitedly clung to Ye Chuan's arm, full of thrill as she watched the wasteland scenery rapidly retreating below.
This man was too strong!
Kalisia was also curious about Ye Chuan's background and kept asking questions without any restraint.
Ye Chuan casually brushed her off, but in his mind, he was pondering over something else.
These demons had no memories, no emotions, only hunting commands.
What was the true origin of the Demon King behind them?
Being able to mass-produce such high-tier demons, it was no wonder they had managed to steamroll across more than half of the Aether Continent.
Also, the fake name he had casually made up had turned into an ancient legendary mage. Just how many years had this timeline skipped?
However, all of this would have to wait until they reached a human town to investigate.
In a matter of seconds, Ye Chuan carried Kalisia across over a thousand kilometers of the wasteland.
On the distant horizon, the silhouette of a city finally appeared.
Kalisia instantly sat up straight in Ye Chuan's arms with excitement, pointing at the city.
"It's the Storm Territory! It really is the Storm Territory! I'm home!"
Ye Chuan also looked up, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes.
Above this devastated wasteland, the Storm Territory stood like an unyielding isolated island.
The entire city was a perfect circle. The walls were pitch-black, over a hundred meters tall, and densely carved with runes.
The runes flowed with a faint golden light, forming a massive hemispherical barrier that firmly enveloped the entire city.
On the city walls, there was a watchtower every few dozen paces. Sentinels clad in armor and holding longbows stood on the towers, their vigilant eyes scanning the wasteland outside the city.
Inside the city, the buildings were arranged in a well-proportioned manner.
Even though it was completely surrounded by demon-occupied territories, this city still exuded an orderly, unyielding resilience. In this dark purple world, it was like an inextinguishable lamp.
Carrying Kalisia, Ye Chuan flew toward the city.
But just as he was a few hundred meters away from the city gates, the city's barrier instantly flared with blinding golden light!
"Hum—!!!"
A piercing alarm instantly echoed throughout the Storm Territory. The magic towers at the four corners of the city walls charged up in a flash, and several locking auras landed firmly on Ye Chuan.
In just a dozen seconds, over a dozen giant griffins soared into the sky from within the city, rushing rapidly toward Ye Chuan.
On the backs of the griffins sat knights clad in heavy armor and wielding lances. The leading knight captain held a magic staff and shouted sternly:
"Stop immediately! Otherwise, we will treat you as demon invaders and attack at once!"
More than a dozen lances were uniformly aimed at Ye Chuan, and magic gathered at the tip of the staff. The atmosphere instantly became tense.
"Don't attack! It's me!" Kalisia quickly poked her head out from Ye Chuan's arms and waved vigorously at the griffin knights, her pink twin tails swaying in the air.
"I'm Kalisia! I'm Kalisia!"
"I am Kalisia!!!"
The knight captain paused for a moment and carefully looked at Kalisia's face. A flash of excitement instantly crossed his eyes, but he quickly became vigilant again.
Demons were best at disguising themselves as nobles and acquaintances to infiltrate the city; they had seen this happen far too many times.
Even if the girl before them looked exactly like the Duke's daughter, they dared not relax in the slightest.
"My Lady?" the knight captain spoke in a deep voice.
"Please show the exclusive token of the Duke's estate, or we will never let you approach the city!"
"Okay, okay, I'll show you!" Kalisia hurriedly took off a family crest inlaid with a ruby from her neck.
"Look! This is the family crest my father gave me, and this is my magic mark. It absolutely cannot be faked!"
Saying so, Kalisia displayed her magic circuit mark, something demons could not counterfeit.
The knight captain recognized the Storm Duke's family crest and Kalisia's magic mark; they were undeniably genuine.
"It really is the young lady! The young lady has returned!"
"The eldest miss is back?!"
The griffin knights instantly let out a burst of excited cheers and immediately put away their weapons. They all bowed respectfully to Kalisia. The leading knight captain's face was filled with guilt and lingering fear:
"My Lady, I apologize for the offense just now. It is truly because there are too many demon disguises, and we must be on guard."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
