"Mortals in trouble..."
"Definitely not my business."
I looked across the room toward the corner where the woman had come shouting for help.
Then I felt several pairs of eyes fixed on me.
Jingling was looking at me.
Caspar was looking at me.
Even the annoying system floated above my head, staring at me as if it expected something.
The system was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
I only hoped it wouldn’t turn this into one of its missions, because there was no way I was going to do whatever it wanted.
"Young Hero, someone is in danger. Won’t you go and check what happened?" the system asked.
I simply closed my eyes and continued playing with my chopsticks, pretending I hadn’t heard a single word.
"S-Something evil is inside there!" the woman cried as she stumbled into the dining hall, giving the annoying system even more reasons to assign me another mission.
"What evil thing did you see inside?" Ella asked as the frightened woman rushed past them.
"A demon!" the woman shouted, her voice trembling with fear. "It sucked all the girls in the room dry! Then it started targeting the others. I ran away. Otherwise... otherwise I would have been next!"
"Demon..."
I muttered under my breath.
So the demons had already begun causing trouble so openly in the mortal realm.
But...
It wasn’t my business.
"Messenger of God, won’t you go upstairs, investigate the problem, and eliminate the demon?" Caspar asked hopefully.
I looked at him and smiled.
My expression didn’t twitch in the slightest.
"If she is destined to die, then she will die. God does not want us interfering in mortal affairs. Whatever happened here was decided by fate."
"Sorry."
"I cannot interfere."
Caspar merely nodded awkwardly.
"Young Hero, go and see what’s there," the system urged once more.
"I don’t think things are as simple as they seem."
"I’m not going."
"You can’t force me," I replied coldly.
The system fell silent for a brief moment.
Then its voice rang out again, louder this time.
"Young Hero, go investigate!"
It practically shouted directly into my ears.
"Enough!"
I slammed my fist onto the table.
Crack!
The wooden table split apart beneath my hand.
"Fine! I’ll go!"
"You wanted me to investigate, right? Then I’ll go and investigate."
"Yes! That’s the Young Hero I know!" the system replied cheerfully. "I knew I had chosen the right host."
Its tone suddenly became gentle again.
Anyone would find it hard to believe that this was the same floating cloud that had been yelling at me just moments ago.
After I recover all of my body parts...
I’ll torture this irritating thing.
I’ll make it regret every order it has ever barked at this king.
Whatever it does to me now... I will repay it with equal kindness.
A sinister grin slowly spread across my face.
Pure malice filled my heart.
The system remained completely clueless about what I was thinking.
Ella looked at me with a disgusted expression.
"Why are you smiling like a maniac?"
"Nothing."
"Let’s go investigate."
I dusted off my sleeves before walking toward the staircase. Step by step, I climbed to the upper floor. My robe fluttered dramatically behind me, while my long black hair swayed with every step.
For a brief moment, it almost felt as if I were ascending the steps to my own throne.
But sadly, I still lacked my true body.
Not this physical vessel. The system had restored my flesh and pieced together my body, but my cultivation fragments were still sealed away in the places where they had been hidden. To me, those fragments were my true body. If only the stupid system had reunited me with them instead of forcing me into this incomplete corpse-like shell.
I sighed.
"I’m already full of anger. I’ll simply unleash it on whatever demon I find upstairs."
I continued climbing until I reached the upper corridor.
My footsteps gradually slowed.
I stopped.
The air around me felt strangely heavy.
A dense wave of demonic energy filled the hallway, pressing against my senses.
"I’ll need to handle this carefully... or I’ll be done for."
...
"And this demonic energy..."
"It feels familiar."
"It reminds me of one of my children."
"I-I think maybe I should stay downstairs and wait for you, King."
Ella immediately began taking small steps backward, clearly preparing to run away.
Without mercy, I grabbed him by his long hair.
"You have stubbornly become this king’s companion. You’re not running away now."
I dragged him back toward me.
"When danger comes, you’ll stand in front of me and take the first attack."
Ella trembled in fright as he stared at me with wide eyes.
I glanced toward Caspar.
It looked as though he had been thinking about escaping as well, but I didn’t give him the chance.
I smiled pleasantly.
"You should follow me too."
"Why would you leave your companion behind?"
I turned my attention toward the closed door ahead.
Anything could be waiting behind it.
Perhaps something would leap at me the instant it opened.
Perhaps a hidden attack was already prepared.
...
Maybe I should let someone else become the bait.
"Jingling."
"You go open the door."
"Whatever is hiding inside should attack you first."
After all...
He wasn’t very useful to me.
"N-No! I’m not opening it!"
Ella hurriedly backed away.
"You go in!"
The little bastard suddenly kicked me from behind.
I stumbled forward and crashed straight into the door, knocking it wide open.
Grinding my teeth in anger, I reached back, grabbed him by the hair, and dragged him inside with me.
I stumbled slightly before regaining my balance.
"Damn it!"
"Are you trying to rip my scalp off?"
Ella gritted his teeth in pain.
"You dared to scheme against this king."
"So you deserve it."
A satisfied smile appeared on my lips.
Ignoring Ella’s complaints, I carefully examined the room.
Pieces of dried skin were scattered all over the floor.
Hair...
Fragments of flesh...
Remains were everywhere.
"Oh..."
"So these are the remains of the women who stayed in this room."
"Shhh!"
Ella screamed the moment his eyes landed on the gruesome remains.
I merely rolled my eyes.
Pathetic.
For a man, he truly possessed the heart of a maiden.
The room itself appeared strangely quiet.
There were no obvious signs of danger.
Yet I could clearly sense an overwhelming amount of demonic energy.
Where was it coming from?
My eyes slowly swept across every corner of the room.
Then—
Something lunged straight at me.
Its body was horrifyingly thin, little more than skin stretched tightly over bones. Long black hair covered most of its chest and face, though I could still see its cracked lips and shriveled flesh beneath.
Its demonic aura was incredibly powerful.
The creature charged at me without hesitation.
It looked as though it wanted to reduce me to the same dried corpse as the women lying on the floor.
"Never."
Dark demonic energy burst from its body before shooting toward me.
I vanished from my position and instantly reappeared elsewhere.
But before I could react, another stream of demonic energy that I hadn’t noticed swept toward me.
It barely grazed my robe.
The fabric instantly crumbled into dust.
Had that attack struck my body instead...
Even I would have suffered.
The demon was fast.
Its demonic energy was dangerous enough to threaten even me—
The Demon King.
I slashed at the creature with my flaming blade.
It flew backward with a shriek.
Yet it immediately rushed toward me again.
My Hell Flames were capable of burning almost anything to ashes.
Only I, the Demon King, possessed flames of this caliber.
Anyone else would have been reduced to nothing.
Yet this demon remained completely unharmed.
"You’re quite stubborn."
Summoning more speed, I flashed forward.
My sword sliced the demon cleanly into two.
Yet both halves instantly fused back together before charging at me once more.
It was as though something was endlessly supplying it with power.
I continued exchanging blows while analyzing the strange situation.
...
"Something is fueling you."
"You’re not an ordinary demon."
My eyes narrowed.
Then I thrust my sword toward the wall.
A hidden array immediately revealed itself.
"So that’s it."
"What else could continuously empower a puppet like this besides an array?"
Without hesitation, I formed several hand seals.
A sealing formation wrapped around the demon, restricting its movements.
Then I coated my sword with blazing Hell Flames before striking directly at the array.
Crack!
The formation shattered into countless pieces.
The instant the array was destroyed...
The demon collapsed into dust.
"It’s finished."
"You can come out now."
"My weak, useless companion."
I looked toward the bed where Ella had been hiding.
Ella slowly crawled out with an embarrassed smile.
"King..."
"You are incredible."
"No one could fight a demon the way you just did."
"Yes."
"No one..."
"is like me."
"I’m not useless like the rest of you."
Just then—
"The High Priest..."
"He’s evil..."
"He... he did all of this... for God..."
A weak female voice echoed through the room.
I immediately turned toward the source of the voice.
A woman was buried beneath the dried remains of the other women.
A/n: hope you enjoyed the Chapter : )