“Does anyone else have any questions?” the Black-Armored Guard asked the young man who had just spoken.
“None at all. Many thanks, Milord.” The delicate-looking young demon man waved his hand and retreated back into the crowd of demons.
Jiang Xu glanced at him, noting his appearance. Clear-headed and articulate, he was a talent worth molding.
Jiang Xu’s inner abacus clattered away, her eyes narrowing slightly.
If Ming Yuan had seen this, she undoubtedly would have laughed at how much Jiang Xu resembled a clever little fox. Look at that calculating expression, it was utterly, captivatingly charming!
“Since everyone understands the rules, we shall now activate the teleportation array. The trial begins!”
“I wish you all good luck.”
The Black-Armored Guard’s smile deepened. He formed a hand seal, and the next instant, Jiang Xu felt a dizzying spin as she vanished from right in front of the Eastern Emperor Palace gates.
In a flash, the area inside the barrier before the palace gates became completely empty. However, not all the demons had been teleported away; dozens of demons still stood in place, watching in blank astonishment as their companions who had stood beside them dissolved into thin air.
Yet they themselves had been left behind, staring at one another in utter bewilderment.
The Black-Armored Guard looked at them, his smile unchanging. “You didn’t register, you didn’t pay your spirit stones, and after multiple warnings, you remained stubbornly delusional, attempting to fish in troubled waters and muddle your way through?”
“You want something for nothing without putting in any effort, how could such a good thing exist?”
“My demon clan has no need for such opportunistic little demons. Execute them.”
His tone was flat, yet killing intent soared.
As the words fell, other Black-Armored Guards stepped out from behind the commanding guard. Drawing the swords at their waists, with calm expressions and leisurely, unhurried steps, they approached.
“Black-Armored Guard Milord, spare my life! This little demon was just momentarily confused!”
“My clan belongs to the Wild Boar clan. How dare you kill me?”
“Kill me? Even if you are a Black-Armored Guard, you are not worthy!”
As the guards closed in, the dozens of demons reacted in various ways.
Some wailed for mercy, trembling into a ball of sheer terror; some put on arrogant airs, thinking they had powerful backing; others flashed fierce, murderous looks, preparing to leap into a violent frenzy.
The outcomes, however, were hardly different. Splashes of blood bloomed, the guards calmly sheathed their swords, and dozens of severed heads rolled across the ground as pools of blood spread.
“Clean this up,” the guard commander commanded with a wave of his hand.
The guards formed a hand seal, and roaring flames quickly swept across the area, reducing the corpses to ash. With another hand gesture and a fresh seal, a howling wind rushed past, rapidly erasing the pools of blood until the ground was as clean as newly fallen snow.
The demons outside the barrier witnessed everything in stunned silence. Each of them kept their eyes fixed downwards and their minds guarded, not daring to make the slightest sound for fear of incurring the wrath of the Black-Armored Guards.
Seeing this, the guard commander withdrew his gaze with satisfaction, standing at ease to await the end of the trial.
Qilian Secret Realm.
After a dizzying spin, Jiang Xu landed on the ground, the weightless sensation gradually fading away.
Jiang Xu adjusted her state and lifted her gaze to survey her surroundings.
Her luck seemed to be decent; she had landed on a patch of grass, and currently, there was no sign of any danger whatsoever.
Why did she say that?
Because as Jiang Xu swept her gaze around, she spotted a demon who, the moment he landed, had his clothes snagged by an outstretched tree branch, leaving him half-hanging in mid-air and struggling frantically out of sheer fright.
Jiang Xu’s lips twitched, a sudden urge to laugh bubbling up inside her.
The tree was an ordinary tree, and the branch was just the most ordinary of branches; it had merely caught the man’s clothing by accident.
Yet the man evidently imagined the secret realm to be filled with mortal danger, so he didn’t dare move at all, relying purely on instinct to thrash about blindly.
After struggling for a long time, the man finally realized this was nothing more than an ordinary tree. His face darkened instantly, and channeling force into his fingertips, he broke free and landed with a dashing flourish.
Upon landing, the man promptly unleashed a blast of demonic energy that snapped the tree in half, then looked around aggressively as if venting his spleen.
Right as he turned his head, he locked eyes with Jiang Xu, who was watching the entire spectacle with an amused expression. He flushed crimson with embarrassment and anger, a flicker of murderous intent flashing across his eyes as he calculated his chances of winning in a fight. Thinking better of it, he refrained from attacking, glared furiously at Jiang Xu instead, and stormed off in a huff.
Watching him leave, Jiang Xu blinked with a hint of regret. What a pity. If that guy had actually charged over, she would have sent him packing to meet His Majesty the Demon Emperor without the slightest hesitation.
Tsk tsk.
Finding the surroundings rather dull, Jiang Xu looked around idly and randomly picked a direction to walk in. She wasn’t in any rush to look for a token either, strolling along leisurely as if she were out for a casual walk.
Along the way, whenever she spotted any medicinal herbs or objects radiating a faint spiritual glow, Jiang Xu strictly adhered to the Iron Rooster’s code of conduct: wherever she passed, not a single feather was left behind.
High above the secret realm, the voice of a Black-Armored Guard rang out continuously.
“The first token has appeared.”
“The seventeenth token has appeared.”
“The thirty-fifth token has appeared.”
Jiang Xu kept count. With a one-month time limit, fifteen days seemed to have already passed, leaving another half-month.
Yet only thirty-five tokens had been found so far. It seemed that delicate-looking young man had truly hit the nail on the head earlier; out of a hundred spots, by the very end, there might only be a few dozen left.
After all, the secret realm was massive. Who knew where the Black-Armored Guards had hidden those tokens?
Jiang Xu let out a long breath and stretched lazily. Time was almost up, and it was time to go commit some robbery!
That’s right, Jiang Xu’s original plan all along had been robbery: robbing those who had already obtained tokens.
The secret realm was far too vast, and she didn’t possess the patience to search slowly. Furthermore, she was well aware of her own limitations; she knew she wasn’t a child of destiny, and the scenario where a token fell right in front of her while walking simply wouldn’t happen to her. Naturally, robbing others was the fastest method.
As for where the tokens were?
The answer was simple: wherever there were many demons, there would be tokens. With only a hundred tokens for millions of demons, naturally, wherever battles broke out, tokens were sure to follow.
Having made up her mind, Jiang Xu pricked up her ears to listen, then tapped her toes lightly, her body darting toward the southern region like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Within a wide, spacious canyon, the sounds of battle echoed endlessly.
Jiang Xu peeked over to inspect the scene. Around a hundred demons were currently surrounding two young men in the canyon, shouting for them to hand over their tokens while closing in for the kill.
After listening for a short while, Jiang Xu finally pieced together the whole story.
Those two young men genuinely possessed tokens; after all, when they found them, it had happened in full view of everyone.
The two tokens had been hidden by the Black-Armored Guards inside a tree crevice. When the two youths were chased by a pack of demonic beasts within the secret realm, they scrambled up the tree in a panic, only for a token to drop right onto one of their heads and roll to the ground from the sheer momentum.
The two youths were decisive; the moment they hit the ground, they snatched up the tokens and bolted, prompting a whole horde of demons to give chase in hot pursuit, which ironically frightened off the original pack of demonic beasts.
Right now, however, the two men were cornered inside this canyon, and despite the crowd of demons taking turns searching them, no tokens could be found. Their storage rings, pockets, and even the soles of their shoes were practically stripped bare, yet still, nothing turned up.
“Little demons, hurry up and tell Grandpa where you hid the tokens!”
“Honestly hand over the tokens, and Grandpa can spare your lives. Otherwise…”
The two young men exchanged a glance, communicated wordlessly through their eyes, and then put on smiling faces. “As long as you great lords agree to spare our brothers’ lives, we are naturally willing to hand the tokens over on a silver platter.”
“Fine, Grandpa agrees.”
“Then please follow us, Lords.”
With that, the two youths took the lead and walked ahead, followed by the crowd of demons in a massive, imposing procession. To an uninformed observer watching from afar, it might have looked like some young clan lord traveling out with a full retinue of guards.
Quite clever!
Jiang Xu gave a soft laugh. With a flick of her fingers, she left a tracking mark on the two demons, following at a distance behind them.
“Little demons, have we walked this path before? You aren’t trying to trick your lordships, are you?” A demon sensed something amiss and spoke up to question them.
Calculating the distance in his mind, the young man gave a perfunctory reply, “Lords, when you were chasing us, did you ever leave our sides for even a single second? Did you keep my brother and me in your line of sight at all times?”
“Of course not, right? This place isn’t far off the route where the two of us were being chased. We secretly hid the tokens right here when nobody was paying attention.”
Speaking as he walked, the young man pointed toward a small cave on the edge of a sheer cliff. “Look, right there! The tokens are inside. We just hope you lords will keep your promise and spare our lives.”
The demons glanced at the cave, half-doubtful. One demon flashed a ferocious grin and prepared to move in, only to be stopped by another. “Hold on. Let me go check first. I’ll confirm it, and we can kill them later.”
Finished speaking, that demon already darted forward, his gaze brimming with undisguised excitement.
“Stop right there!” the demon who had wanted to strike earlier roared furiously. Seeing other demons also leaping forward, impatience flared in his heart. No longer caring about the two brothers, he lunged ahead directly, terrified of losing the advantage to someone else.
The two young men exchanged another glance, a sharp glint flashing in their eyes, while they stood quietly in place without moving.
Seeing this, the demons who had still been holding back believed them by seventy percent. Ignoring the two brothers completely, they channeled their demonic energy and closely followed behind the leading demons.
“Ah, what is that?”
“Oh no, those little demons tricked us! There are no tokens here at all!”
“Earth Demon Bees! Run!”
Cries of alarm echoed from the edge of the cliff ahead.
Now!
The young man spun around, scattered a handful of blue medicinal powder, and dove straight off the edge of the cliff, vanishing from sight.
Having watched a wonderful show, Jiang Xu was in no rush to give chase, merely drifting along leisurely wherever she pleased.
So this was what it felt like to float in mid-air? It was quite interesting, though floating for too long became a little tedious.
After drifting for a moment, Jiang Xu dropped back down to the ground, experiencing the solid feel of terra firma beneath her feet. She gained a sudden understanding of what Ming Yuan must have felt when she took over her body that time.
She had only floated around briefly, whereas Ming Yuan must have been floating for ages!
Feeling that she missed Ming Yuan even more now, Jiang Xu decided it was time to wrap things up swiftly!
Closing her eyes, Jiang Xu sensed her surroundings: five thousand meters to the southwest.
Southwest, a secluded and gloomy cave.
The two young men leaned against the stone wall, the expressions on their faces filled with the relief of having survived a disaster.
“Second Brother, thank goodness you know the Sleeve Universe technique, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to hide those tokens where absolutely no one could find them.”
“Naturally. I practiced that for a long time, knowing it would come in handy one day.”
One of the men beamed with pride, flicking his sleeves to produce two tokens.
“Fourth Brother, two tokens, just enough for the two of us brothers to take one each. Splendid, simply splendid.”
“Indeed,” the other man chimed in, his face beaming with joy, before his body suddenly stiffened. “Who is there? Come out!”
“Hmph, quite sensitive, aren’t you?” Before the other man could react, Jiang Xu materialized directly in front of the two demons, her sword resting horizontally across their necks. “Hand over the tokens.”
“Great lord, oh no, spare my life, Milord! The tokens are yours, easily spoken for.”
He wailed for mercy while his left hand secretly twitched as if gripping something.
Jiang Xu had no intention of watching his performance. The lingering emotions from when she thought of Ming Yuan moments ago still lingered, leaving her inexplicably irritated.
Noticing the man’s petty little movements, she thrust her sword forward without the slightest mercy.
Stooping down to pick up the tokens, Jiang Xu didn’t bother sparing a single glance backward as she walked straight out of the cave.