by <unknown>
"Void Turmoil City is here!"
Li Yao was greatly refreshed. This was the first time he had ever observed a big city of the Blood Demon Sector at a close distance. Naturally, he would not miss a single detail.
On the red earth leading to the peninsula, a broad road paved by gray rocks gradually appeared. Two statues huge statues were standing on either side of the road. They were pure white and flawless. There was no sign of joints at all. Each statue seemed to be carved out of a single piece of jade.
Of the two statues, the first one was a man and a woman who had human heads and snake bodies. Their snake bodies were interweaved into a perfect double helix. With a closer look, one would notice that endless scriptures had been engraved on every scale of the snake bodies. Complicated information seemed to have been stored on them.
Although they were not wearing anything and their skin was touching, the male and the female were solemn and gave absolutely no lecherous feelings. On the contrary, they imposed the urge to kneel down and worship them upon anybody who saw them.
The other statue was a magnificent warrior with three legs and six arms. Enormous horns protruded out of the temples of the statue and pointed at the sky!
Although they were made of white jade, the statues seemed to be alive and releasing an overwhelming aura to all directions incessantly, making anybody who looked at them feel impatient and the passion of killing.
"The two statues are both powerful magical equipment!" The mental devil suddenly spoke in his head. "Especially the statue that represents slaughtering and fighting. It boasts enticing glamour that can increase one's killing intent by ten times without them knowing! Interesting. Very interesting!"
Li Yao was suddenly alarmed. The two statues must have been the ancient demons in the legends, but who built them exactly?
The Demon Beast Empire had ruled over the sea of stars for thirty thousand years. Although they were known as 'demons', they actually passed on the language, culture, and system of mankind. How many secrets had been buried during the thirty thousand years? It was indeed intriguing.
The team of Land Whales passed through the gate made of the two enormous statues and officially entered the territory of Void Turmoil City. On the two sides of the road were dense gardens that were colorful and quite beautiful when looked at from afar.
However, when Li Yao enhanced his vision and observed more carefully by adjusting his pupils and his crystalline lens, he discovered that the plants inside the gardens were quite weird.
They looked like tentacles extending from the underground and pointing at the sky. Every tentacle was packed with dense sucking discs that were emitting mysterious fluorescence. Together with the spores that surrounded them, the plants gave a frightening sense of beauty.
At the tip of the tentacles was an enormous ball bag that looked like a dandelion magnified countless time. It was quite puffy and drifting like a balloon.
In the breeze, the thousands of devilish tentacles were dancing along the wind. They looked like a heavily polluted cesspit. Anybody who saw them would feel their blood freezing.
Right then, dozens of giant eagles flew close in the sky, with the tamers sitting in the seats that were tied on their back with harnesses. The eagles were snatching animals such as lambs and calves. When they reached the location, they simply released the animals into the weird gardens.
In a moment, earsplitting hissing sounds filled the gardens. All the tentacles were waving crazily as if they had just been charged with electricity. Every sucking disc was wide open, revealing vicious grinding organs. The lambs and the calves were all torn apart and absorbed in, only to be entirely devoured within a breath without the slightest trace of their bones left.
While Li Yao was amazed, one of the eagles seemed to become the target for one of the tentacles because of its low altitude.
The tentacle constricted violently like a spring before it suddenly jerked up and dashed almost a hundred meters into the sky, snatching the claw of the eagle and dragging it down by force!
The eagle struggled hard and even tore off the claw in its panic.
But there was no time. At this moment, the eagle was only around seventy meters from the ground. Almost twenty tentacles sprinted out and immediately tied the eagle up without leaving any gaps.
Both the eagle and the tamer did not even have time to scream before they turned into a cluster of bloody mist, eaten up by the greedy predators!
The tentacles that had enjoyed their food grew even more eye-catching than before. The ball bags at the top expanded, too, a colorful mist that drifted into the sky.
"They are 'Ghost Flowers'. They have to be fed with fresh meat and blood every day. When they mature, the liquids secreted from the ball bags become the best ingredients to produce the narcotic drugs," Jin Xinyue explained. "Void Turmoil City is at the center of the electromagnetic swirl of the Blood Demon Sector. The climate is very unstable. It is unfavorable for all kinds of plants. Therefore, it was never developed before.
"But the Fire Ant King somehow discovered that the area is particularly suitable to develop the narcotic and the berserker plants!
"When he first established his city in this place, many demons mocked him, but after his endeavor proved to be a success, nobody dared to laugh at him anymore."
Deep in thought, Li Yao looked further ahead.
Around Void Turmoil City, across the entire peninsula, there were gardens and breeding bases everywhere.
Other than the brutal and hungry Ghost Flowers, Li Yao also saw another thousand or so bizarre-shaped plants.
The 'Dragon Hunter Grass' that lurked in the soil and suddenly dashed out to hunt, the 'Thorny Flower' that looked like holothurian on land with thorns all over its body and could fire deadly acid, the 'Rainbow Umbrella' that had a thin fragrance that could cast the victims into frenzy without them knowing…
Those plants were both the ingredients to refine all kinds of drugs and the best guards of Void Turmoil City because of their aggressiveness and their hallucinogenic effects.
Li Yao pondered hard about how he could have snuck into Void Turmoil City through the gardens that covered dozens of square kilometers if he was not pretending to be a chaotic-blood demon.
After considering for a long time, he was not confident that he would have been able to at all.
He could help not but grow wary of the Fire Ant King, the master of Void Turmoil City.
Passing through an area of black vines that soared up into the sky, they entered the downtown area of Void Turmoil City.
Li Yao's first impression on the city was 'disorderly' and 'barbaric'.
Although there were skyscrapers in the city, too, they were not made of rebar and cement but constructed by hollow weird, giant trees. Those giant trees were hundreds of meters in diameter. Not only were the hollowed trunks the best zone for activity, the branches stretching in various directions also interweaved into the best channels in the air, too.
According to Jin Xinyue, even the roots of the trees deep below the ground were all important means of transportation. Countless demons often came and went between the roots of different trees. It was quite convenient.
Such giant tree buildings, although hollowed, were not dead yet but still growing at a very slowly speed. Like the demon beasts, they were the products of generations of genetic modification and refinement, too.
Li Yao saw that many demons strode out of the neatly made tree holes proudly. When they reached the end of the branches, many flying demon beasts would immediately fly to them and carry them to their destinations in Void Turmoil City. There was apparently order in the seemingly messy city. Despite the odd appearance of the city and the citizens, Li Yao felt that they were actually no different from their counterparts in the Star Glory Federation.
Chapter 866: Skeleton Island |
All the brutal bandits of the Blood Demon Sector had gathered in Void Turmoil City. Due to their different living habits, the city was divided in
to almost ten districts whose environments were different from each other. The team of the Land Whales passed through the forest district, the swamp district, the neve district, and the desert district. Some of the districts were divided by high mountains and waterfalls, while some others were blocked by man-made rune arrays. It was told that there was an enormous undersea district at the end of the peninsula that was specially designed for the Sea Clan.
Seeing that almost a million different kinds of demons were living in the same city peacefully, the more fashionable of whom were even driving shuttles from the Heaven's Origin Sector instead of riding eagles or other flying demon beasts, even Li Yao was dazzled and quite amazed.
Very soon, after a prolonged shriek, the Land Whales spurted bright green gas up into the sky. The full airbags around their body were clearly emptied as they gradually lowered their altitude and velocity.
In the front was an enormous square made of black rocks, which was the center of Void Turmoil City.
Jin Xinyue whispered to him, "We are about to arrive at the 'Four Pillars Square' of Void Turmoil City. All newly captured black-blood demons and chaotic-blood demons are gathered and screened in the Four Pillars Square first.
"The docile and weak ones can be refined into servants and maids; the not-so-strong ones can be refined into slaves for mining and tending to the demonic plants; the strong ones can be refined into soldiers for the war to come. As for the exceptionally strong and yet impetuous ones, they are the unstable factor among the slaves, and they will be sent into the arena to become gladiators.
"The biggest arena in Void Turmoil City is known as 'Skeleton Island'. It is in the top tier even taking all the arenas of the Blood Demon Sector into account. That's our target!
"Before, in order to trade for intelligence, I've been to Void Turmoil City several times and observed the combat of the gladiators on the Skeleton Island. They were indeed marvelous, blood-freezing games.
"I once saw a black-blood demon being ripped apart by a demon beast and losing his left arm and the majority of his heart. It was clear that there was no way that he could survive. The staff on the Skeleton Island tossed him into the 'Thousand Corpse Abyss' to get rid of him.
"The Thousand Corpse Abyss is a natural cave deep inside the Skeleton Island. At the bottom of the cave, countless ferocious demon beasts are locked up. Whenever a dead body falls down, they will immediately be devoured by the demon beasts. There won't even be scraps of their bones left. Nobody can survive their attack.
"The black-blood demon was using a special combat skill named 'Hundred Soft Killing', which aroused my interest and gave me some enlightenment. He left a deep impression on me, and there was no way that I would mistake somebody else for him.
"He was clearly dead, but during the 'Riot of Bloody Blade', I ran into the black-blood demon by accident again.
"Although his appearance was slightly different and his combat style had changed, I had a very familiar feeling. Then, as I expected, he performed the 'Hundred Soft Killing' at the perilous moment when I tested him, with exactly the same form as before!
"Therefore, I am certain that he was the gladiator who should've been killed on the Skeleton Island!
"But right now, he has turned into a member of the Blade of Chaos, and even a captain in it, with a higher capability than before!
"I felt that something was greatly wrong. Therefore, I did not ask for any of my subordinates' help and captured the black-blood demon in secret by myself, hoping to elicit the information from him.
"His tongue was rather tough, and he didn't give me much valuable information. But there was indeed a faint scar resulting from tearing on the joint of his left arm and his shoulder blade. The entire left arm seemed to be sewed back to his body after the accident.
"His heart was quite weird, too. It displayed the features of two different kinds of demons at the same time.
"I was pretty sure that he was an out-and-out black-blood demon in the beginning. How could his heart show the features of two types of demons?
"It was this incident that made me grow more and more suspicious about the Blade of Chaos. I investigated in secret and got more and more involved. Later, by accident, I discovered Elder Nether Spring's uncanny attitude toward the Blade of Chaos. I dug deeper into it, and you know the rest.
"Based on the few words of the black-blood demon and the proof that I grasped, 'Skeleton Island' is very likely an important bureau of the Blade of Chaos, and there is something seriously wrong with 'Yuchi Ba', the boss of the Skeleton Island!
"On the surface, the Skeleton Island is a cruel arena, but in fact, it is probably the 'boot camp' to select the elite warriors for the Blade of Chaos!
"But whether or not it is the case will require your thorough investigation or even a personal 'chitchat' with Yuchi Ba."
On their trip, Jin Xinyue had explained the whole plan multiple times. However, she was still scared that the unpredictable old monster would prefer the straightforward method. She repeated without getting bored, "I know that, with Elder's capability, you can rage inside Void Turmoil City and find Yuchi Ba directly.
"However, Yuchi Ba is extremely prudent, and he brings a lot of bodyguards wherever he goes. He rarely shows up by himself.
"If his Skeleton Island is really the boot camp of the Blade of Chaos, his valiance and wisdom must be extremely impressive, too, considering that the Fire Ant King is right next to him.
"Right now, the Blade of Chaos is being struck heavily, and it is the most perilous moment for him. Will he acknowledge his identity if you pay an unannounced visit to him?
"More importantly, we don't know whether or not there are the spies of the Fire Ant King and even Elder Nether Spring around Yuchi Ba. It will be a disaster if we alarm them and expose the secrets of the Skeleton Island and Yuchi Ba.
"Therefore, I'm afraid that Elder must sneak into the Skeleton Island in order to approach Yuchi Ba.
"According to the tradition of the Skeleton Island, if a gladiator can survive five battles on the island, they will be invited to meet Yuchi Ba and regain their freedom. Yuchi Ba will refer them to high-level demons as killers, assassins, or bodyguards.
"I assume that they are probably the spies that Yuchi Ba sends out. Since those killers, assassins, and bodyguards are around the high-level demons, it is only natural that they can provide a constant, accurate stream of intelligence for the Blade of Chaos.
"The battles on the Skeleton Island are quite cruel, and it is nigh on impossible for normal gladiators to pass five of them, but with Elder's capability, it should be as easy as pie. I believe that you will be able to approach Yuchi Ba and find out what exactly he is up to very soon, Elder.
"As for me, I have turned into a human being right now. Although I can pretend to be chaotic-blood demon, my real identity will certainly be revealed should I engage in combat!
"Therefore, I'm afraid that I cannot enter the Skeleton Island with you, Elder, but I will spend the time while you are inside gathering the latest intelligence here.
"This is about the whole plan. Do you have any suggestions, Elder?"
Li Yao slightly nodded.
He was not really a disobedient brutal demon from forty thousand years ago. Such stealth and infiltration operations were what he was best at. Naturally, he did not feel uncomfortable at all.
On his way here, Li Yao had been observing the slave-catching team of Void Turmoil City, too.
The slave catchers were all tough, well-trained demons who were mostly above the level of demon general. They were adept at combat in all terrains, and they could even spot the demons who were lurking in crevices.
If compared to the army of the Star Glory Federation, those slave catchers were definitely elite special forces.
The slave catchers who were sent out on regular missions were already so strong. How awesome would the real elites around the Fire Ant King be?
Besides, the Fire Ant King was a middle-level demon emperor who was a
dept at refining narcotic and berserker plants. He must have prepared a lot of drugs to boost his combat ability. There was no telling how terrifying his strength would be in a real battlefield at all.
According to Li Yao's calculations, if he triggered the full strength of the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage, with the enhancement of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, he was naturally not scared of the Fire Ant King.
However, without resorting to his capability as a Cultivator and his crystal suit, it would be troublesome for him to fight against the Fire Ant King just based on the primeval force that he had only been practicing for half a month.
It was like two soldiers of similar physical strength, one with professional combat training and the other knowing nothing about it, engaged in a fight. The winner of the battle would be obvious.
Chi!
The Land Whales were all spurting out air currents from the top of their heads, wreathing the spacious square in a faint fog. The tentacles of the Land Whales interweaved with each other slowly into a web that led to the ground.
"Get down now! Get down now!"
All the cabins were opened. The slave catchers drove the prey away from the vehicles rudely, waving their electric whips. Rows of guards in black armor were standing afar together with the biochemical beasts, which were higher than many buildings.
All the biochemical beasts were silent, but the intimidating aura that they released was like enclosing high walls that were suffocating the prey.
On the backs of the biochemical beasts, on comfortable silk seats, hundreds of silver-blood demons were sitting and talking in a high mood.
They were all there to pick slaves.
The black-blood demons and the chaotic-blood demons were mostly raised up in nature. They were used to the free lifestyle in the wilderness, and now that they had been captured and locked in the narrow cabins for several days, they were more than pissed.
The moment they were released, the square was a mess. Cries, moans, screams, and roars resounded with each other. The entire square seemed like it would explode at any moment.
