Blackwater Abyss, the Maitreya of Desire's Sea

The Black Water Demon Cave was located in a sunken basin northwest of the Blood Sand Wasteland.

From a distance, it didn't look like a mountain.

It looked more like a rotting heart.

The black rock walls shrank layer by layer, with a huge abyss splitting open in the center. Dark green mist billowed from the abyss, and amidst the rolling mist, one could vaguely hear countless wails.

Outside the demon cave, nine layers of poisonous miasma were interlocked.

The first layer, Bone-Rotting Miasma, could corrode flesh and skin.

The second layer, Soul-Bewildering Miasma, could confuse the mind.

The third layer, Blood Gu Miasma, contained Blood Gu worms invisible to the naked eye.

The further in, the more bizarre the toxicity became.

An ordinary Astral Qi Realm martial artist without a detoxification treasure would bleed from their seven orifices within three breaths of stepping inside.

Not to mention the seven great arrays behind the poisonous miasma.

Over the past thousand years, countless righteous path experts had died here.

Therefore, the Black Water Demon Cave was known as one of the three major lairs of the Western Region's evil demons.

But tonight, this thousand-year-old lair welcomed a group of very unreasonable guests.

Wang Hao stood behind a black rock, looking at the rolling poisonous miasma ahead.

The route marked by the system was extremely clear in his eyes.

Which hidden sentry was dozing off.

Which array foundation was aging.

When the wind eye of which layer of poisonous miasma would open.

Everything was laid out in front of him like a map.

This feeling was very wonderful.

It was like opening a God's perspective.

And what Wang Hao liked most was to mock others for being weak after using a cheat.

He raised his hand.

The team stopped.

Everyone held their breath.

An extremely subtle vortex suddenly appeared in the poisonous miasma ahead.

The wind eye opened.

Wang Hao said in a low voice:

"Thirty breaths."

"Go."

Swish swish swish!

Over fifty dark shadows silently swept into the poisonous miasma.

The first layer.

The second layer.

The third layer.

There was almost no pause.

Wanyan Gu lay on Chu Tianque's back, his face ashen.

Not from fear.

But from being smoked by the poisonous miasma.

"This smell... it's like someone's ancestral tomb was boiled."

Ye Guyun reminded in a low voice: "Don't speak."

Wanyan Gu gritted his teeth: "I'm afraid if I don't speak, I'll vomit on your back."

Chu Tianque, who was carrying him, remained expressionless:

"If you dare to vomit, I'll throw you into the miasma eye."

Wanyan Gu immediately shut up.

Xiao Chen was supported by an Astral Qi Realm expert, but his eyes kept staring at Wang Hao's back.

He found that every step Wang Hao took was extremely steady.

Not the steadiness of a reckless brute.

But as if he already knew where there was a pit, where there was a knife, and where someone was ambushing.

As if the Black Water Demon Cave was not an evil demon's lair, but his back garden.

A trace of chill welled up in Xiao Chen's heart.

Just how much did this dog emperor know?

When they were struggling desperately in the Blood Centipede Gorge during the day, was Wang Hao also like this, already standing outside the chessboard, seeing all the lines clearly?

The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it felt.

Before the fourth layer of poisonous miasma, Wang Hao suddenly stopped.

Everyone instantly went on alert.

On a black stone pillar ahead, a palm-sized eyeball anomaly was perched.

That eyeball had no eyelids, and tiny human faces swam in its pupil.

A hidden sentry.

Xiao Chen gripped his sword.

But the next moment, the New Emperor Sword had transformed into a black-robed youth, silently appearing beside the stone pillar.

He stretched out two fingers and pinched the eyeball.

Just as the eyeball was about to scream.

The New Emperor Sword stuffed it into his mouth.

Crunch.

He chewed it, frowning.

"It burst."

Everyone's scalps went numb.

Wang Hao glanced at him: "Keep your voice down."

The New Emperor Sword felt wronged: "I was already very elegant."

Wanyan Gu couldn't help but say in a low voice:

"You call eating an eyeball elegant?"

The New Emperor Sword turned his head and said seriously:

"I didn't smack my lips."

Wanyan Gu: "..."

You win.

Proceeding all the way.

Wang Hao almost turned the act of "stealing the base" into an art.

The second array, the Myriad Bone Bewildering Array.

He led the team through a three-inch deviation from the southwest Death Gate.

Everyone saw bones like a forest on both sides, with human heads hanging on the bones like wind chimes. If they took one wrong step, they would alarm the entire array.

Yet Wang Hao didn't even blink an eyelid.

The fifth array, the Black Water Spirit-Devouring Array.

That was the most dangerous trial.

The black water flowed on the ground like a living creature, able to devour True Essence and erode souls.

But Wang Hao led everyone into a hidden fissure.

The fissure was so narrow that they could only pass sideways.

Wanyan Gu got stuck twice.

The second time, Wang Hao looked back at him.

"Eat less."

Wanyan Gu said with grief and indignation: "I just have a large frame!"

The New Emperor Sword floated nearby, saying faintly:

"We can slice you thinner."

Wanyan Gu shut up on the spot.

After passing through the seventh array, everyone had penetrated deep into the core of the demon cave.

Along the way, they avoided thirty-seven hidden sentries, bypassed sixteen array eyes, and silently killed eleven anomaly sentinels.

Without alerting anyone.

The ten Sky-Soaring Realm patriarchs looked at Wang Hao with changed eyes.

They originally thought Wang Hao was bold.

Now they understood, it wasn't boldness.

It was having too many trump cards.

An emperor who could figure out the enemy's lair defense nodes so clearly, leading troops to steal the base, was simply more demonic than the evil demons.

Finally.

They arrived outside the core hall of the demon cave.

The hall was incomparably huge, like a flesh-and-blood temple forcibly dug out of the mountain's belly.

The four walls were hung with human skin lanterns.

The ground was engraved with dense sacrificial array patterns.

On the central high platform, an old man wearing a black-gold demon robe stood with his hands behind his back.

He had white hair draped over his shoulders, his face was engraved with evil patterns, and his eyes were like two clusters of ghostly fire.

The Cult Master of the Black Water Demon Cult.

Wu Xuanming.

Peak of the Sky-Soaring Realm.

At this moment, he was delivering a pre-battle speech to thousands of cultists.

His voice was impassioned, echoing in the hall.

"Everyone!"

"The tyrant of the Great Zhou, Wang Hao, coercing the sects of the Eastern Barren, has invaded the sacred land of our Western Region!"

"He slaughtered our clansmen, destroyed our evil eyes, and annihilated our vanguard. This enmity is absolutely irreconcilable!"

The evil demons below the stage roared in unison:

"Irreconcilable!"

Wu Xuanming raised his hand, his voice even higher:

"Tomorrow, the main force of the Zhou army will definitely reach the Blood Sand Valley!"

"At that time, our Black Water Sacred Cult will join forces with the Red Moon Demon Cult to attack them from both sides and bury the six hundred thousand Zhou army alive!"

"I will personally capture Wang Hao!"

"Extract his dragon vein!"

"Strip his emperor bones!"

"And offer his head to the Desire Sea Maitreya!"

Tens of thousands of elite evil demons shouted madly.

"Capture Wang Hao alive!"

"Sacrifice the tyrant!"

"The Western Region will not perish!"

In the dark, Xiao Chen and the others had strange expressions.

Wanyan Gu looked at Wang Hao.

That look seemed to say:

Someone is cursing you to your face.

Aren't you angry?

Wang Hao, however, listened very carefully.

He even nodded slightly.

Ye Guyun couldn't help but ask in a low voice: "Why doesn't Your Majesty make a move?"

Wang Hao said calmly: "Wait for him to finish."

Xiao Chen frowned: "Why?"

Wang Hao said: "They prepared for so long, it's impolite not to listen to the whole speech."

Everyone: "..."

You're stealing their base in the middle of the night, and you're talking about being polite?

What kind of beastly logic is this?

Wu Xuanming was still continuing.

"That brat Wang Hao is only relying on a few anomaly artifacts and a few old undying fogeys backing him up!"

"If he dares to appear before me, I can suppress him with one hand!"

In the dark, the New Emperor Sword whispered a "wow".

"He's talking about you."

Wang Hao smiled.

Wu Xuanming opened his arms, his aura soaring to the sky:

"Everyone, follow me to war tomorrow!"

"Trample the Zhou camp!"

"Capture Wang Hao alive!"

"Let the Eastern Barren know that the evil demons of the Western Region—"

Clap.

Clap.

Clap.

Crisp applause suddenly rang out.

The roaring in the hall came to an abrupt halt.

Tens of thousands of evil demons turned their heads simultaneously.

From the shadows, Wang Hao slowly walked out while clapping.

His black armor reflected the ghostly light of the human skin lanterns, and the smile on his face was too gentle for someone who came to kill.

Behind him, ten Skysoaring Realm patriarchs, thirty peak Astral Qi Realm experts, Chu Tianque, and a group of prodigies forced to broaden their horizons appeared one after another.

Wang Hao walked to the center of the grand hall and looked up at Wu Xuanming on the high platform.

Excuse me.

Who did you just say you were going to capture alive?

The entire hall fell dead silent.

The impassioned expression on Wu Xuanming's face froze.

He looked at Wang Hao.

Then he looked at the Skysoaring Realm patriarchs behind Wang Hao.

And then he looked at his tens of thousands of cultists who were still shouting slogans.

In that instant, there was only one question in his mind.

Wasn't the main force of the Zhou army three hundred miles away?

Then why was the Emperor of Great Zhou standing right in his lair?

And even finished listening to his speech?

The next moment, the devil's den erupted in chaos.

Enemy attack!

Wang Hao! It's Wang Hao!

How did he get in?!

What about the formations? The poisonous miasma? The hidden sentries?!

Wang Hao raised his hand.

His smile vanished.

Kill.

Boom!

The ten Skysoaring Realm patriarchs struck at the same time.

The core grand hall instantly turned from a pre-war mobilization rally into a slaughterhouse.

Skysoaring Realm experts attacking within an enclosed hall was an extremely unethical martial act.

Especially when ten of them struck together.

The core grand hall of the Black Water Devil Den was indeed sturdy, its four walls carved with defensive formation runes, and its underground connected to the Black Water Spirit Vein.

However, these things were meant to resist forceful external attacks.

They were not meant to prevent an enemy emperor from sneaking in through a secret door in the middle of the night and going on an unstoppable killing spree in the lobby.

Patriarch Ren smashed down with his walking stick, and a purple-gold dragon shadow swept across a thousand feet.

A swath of evil cultivators was shattered into a mist of blood by the golden light before they could even react.

The Vice Palace Master of the Ice and Snow Divine Palace lightly raised her jade-like hand, and a cold wave swept out.

Dozens of Black Water Devil Cult elites were frozen into ice sculptures while still holding their sabers drawing postures, and were subsequently shattered by a sweep of Qin Hongye's spear.

The Great Elder of the Illusion Sea Immortal Sect smilingly unfurled a dream mist.

Many evil cultivators' eyes glazed over, mistaking their companions for Wang Hao, and they immediately pounced and bit at them.

Chu Tianque was even more direct.

He drew his sword.

A single strike.

A blood-red sword light pierced through the grand hall.

From the hall doors to the high platform, a bloodline several hundred feet long appeared.

On both sides of the bloodline, the corpses of the evil cultivators slowly slid apart.

The killing power of a Half-Step Martial God was so terrifying it made one's heart stop.

Wanyan Gu lay on his stomach to the side, his eyes wide.

This old man is that fierce?

Ye Guyun said in a low voice:

So the fact that he carried you all the way without throwing you away shows he actually has a pretty good temper.

Wanyan Gu's face stiffened.

In the distance, Xiao Chen had already drawn his sword and charged out.

His injuries were not yet healed, and every time he circulated his true essence, his chest felt like it was being sliced by a knife.

But he still charged.

Not for Wang Hao.

Nor for military merits.

But because the evil cultivators before him were stepping on the bones of countless mortals.

The human skin lanterns on the walls of the Black Water Devil Den did not grow on their own.

The blood in the sacrificial formation runes did not appear out of thin air either.

Xiao Chen slashed out with a sword.

Astral qi bore down like a solitary peak.

An evil cult elder hastily blocked, but was forced back seven steps by the sword light.

A mere junior in the Astral Qi Realm dares to—

Before he could finish, Ye Guyun's saber swept past from behind and to the side.

A lunar arc flashed.

Half of the evil cult elder's shoulder flew into the air.

Qin Hongye's spear followed closely, the spear tip piercing his throat.

Xiao Chen followed up with another sword strike.

The head fell to the ground.

The coordination of the three was clean and efficient.

Wanyan Gu anxiously cursed from the rear:

Leave one for me!

New Emperor Sword floated past him, still holding a bizarre arm in its mouth.

In your current state, you are more suited to be a cheerleader.

Wanyan Gu angrily said: Cheer your ancestors!

New Emperor Sword earnestly corrected: Swords do not have ancestors.

The tens of thousands of cultists of the Black Water Devil Cult quickly collapsed.

They thought tonight was a pre-war mobilization.

As a result, halfway through the mobilization, the enemy boss led a team to raid their dungeon.

Who could withstand this?

Wu Xuanming stood on the high platform, his expression shifting from astonishment to fury, and then to terror.

It wasn't that he didn't have trump cards.

Nor was the Black Water Devil Den lacking in experts.

Four Skysoaring Realm Supreme Elders charged out from behind the hall, their evil aura surging to the heavens.

Who dares to invade our Holy Cult!

Before their words faded, the ten Skysoaring Realm patriarchs surrounded them.

The four Supreme Elders: ...

They had wanted to show off a bit.

But the number of opponents didn't allow it.

Patriarch Ren chuckled and said:

Four fellow Daoists, don't be nervous. The ten of us beating the four of you will be over very quickly.

One Supreme Elder roared in anger:

The righteous path is despicable!

The Great Elder of the Illusion Sea Immortal Sect fanned himself:

Do you evil cultists also talk about the rules of the righteous path?

The Vice Palace Master of the Ice and Snow Divine Palace said coldly:

Cut the crap and freeze them to pieces.

Boom!

Ten against four.

There was no suspense.

The four Supreme Elders were suppressed until they vomited blood repeatedly.

On the other side, Wang Hao walked straight towards Wu Xuanming.

Wu Xuanming let out a furious roar, and his peak Skysoaring Realm aura explosively erupted.

Black water surged up like a dragon from beneath the high platform.

Wang Hao!

You are courting death!

Wang Hao raised his hand, and the Thunder Abyss Demon Suppression Pagoda hovered above his palm.

Didn't you just say you would suppress me with one hand?

Wu Xuanming's face was gloomy.

He couldn't figure it out.

He really couldn't figure it out.

How exactly did you get in?

Why was there no warning from the nine layers of poisonous miasma?

Why didn't the seven formations activate?

Who betrayed me?!

Wang Hao didn't attack immediately.

He walked to the bottom of the high platform, looked up at Wu Xuanming, and smiled gently.

Want to know?

Wu Xuanming's eyes were vicious.

Wang Hao said unhurriedly:

It is very simple.

That formation loophole at your entrance was deliberately left by Xie Wujiu.

Wu Xuanming's pupils suddenly shrank.

Impossible!

The Heavenly Secret Pavilion has cooperated with our Holy Cult for years!

Wang Hao sighed.

You see, you evil cultists are just too naive.

You treat mortals as sacrifices, your cultists as expendables, and the bizarre anomalies as your ancestors.

So why is it that when it's your turn to be treated as a pawn, you can't accept it?

Wu Xuanming's face twitched.

Wang Hao continued to rub salt in the wound:

Xie Wujiu betraying you is exactly like you betraying those mortals you fed to the anomalies.

It is very fair.

It even has a bit of karmic aesthetic to it.

These words were more ruthless than thunder.