The Demon Realm has been in shambles since the last Annihilation and demons began resettling into the Human Realm. But that caused their population to dwindle at the hands of human mages who hunted and killed them, resulting in what remaining of the demon folk to seek refuge deep inside the wildernesses of the mountains. Some would come to achieve the ability to assume into human appearance and fully conceal their distinctive aura known as Demon Qi, even though demons able to do so numbered few. Added with the commonly-negative perception the Human race had for Demons, Yang Qing’s and his men’s consternation and shock were all too expected.

But Xiao Chen was hardly perturbed or surprised; he has always known Yi Tong was no ordinary person. Many a time Yi Tong had remarked about the boredom of long life and it had never occurred to Xiao Chen that Yi Tong was actually being serious. “Wow… So he’s really a demon with almost one thousand years of age?”

The demonic aura only grew stronger, churning up winds that howled and shook trees around them, causing the branches to flail and swing with their leaves rustling restlessly overhead. Xiao Ning was locked in a fierce battle with the true physical self of the stranger in black, with Gu Feng engaging one of his doppelgangers. Another of his doppelgangers stared at Yi Tong, gasping with surprise, “Such immense demonic might! Are you a demon of the Spirit Silence Room?”

“ARGHH!” Yi Tong roared with fury and stormed at the doppelganger. With every step stamping into the ground, he threw up dirt and dust and the sheer force of his thunderous charge caused several trees to be uprooted, flying far and away into the distance.

The clone of the stranger in black merely snorted as he beheld Yi Tong charging at him with his demonic might in full display, muttering a contemptuous “Meddling fool”. He raised a hand, and the silky-black silhouette of a hand, gigantic and monstrous, appeared in thin air and slammed down on Yi Tong with the force of a mountain.

No one said a word as the magically-conjured fist hammered hard on Yi Tong. Everyone was reeling with startle. Despite being only a copy of the stranger in black, the doppelganger not only looked just as invincible as its true body, it had also sentience of its own. The true manifestation of the perfect Embodiment Duplication Skill.

Yi Tong leaped and threw forth both arms, releasing a pair of columns of deadly energy that rose up to meet the monstrous silhouette fist bearing down on him. The columns of destructive rays smashed together with the fist and a huge bang ensued and a terrible shockwave erupted, threatening to tear the continuum of Time and Space around them.

Rage and anguish coursed through the veins on Yi Tong’s face that surfaced as he struggled to funnel more power into the columns of energy spewing from his arms that were holding up the gigantic fist from pounding down on him. But he could hold on no more. A terrible bang ensued, and Yi Tong was thrown into the air by the blast.

“Brother Yi!” Xiao Chen cried. He dashed forward to help his friend when suddenly he felt a searing pain burning at his Dan Tian point below his waist. It was the power of the Seven-apertured Octarine Core Fruit he ate before, stirring restlessly like an impatient beast.

Xiao Chen let loose a grunt and strange, fiery-red, web-like marks began blazing brightly on his skin around his neck, stretching around his body like an unstoppable infection while he wrestled with the pain in his Dan Tian point that was growing like a volcano waiting to erupt. “Control it, boy!” a distressed Gui Xian yelled frantically, “Hold yourself together!”

“ARGGHHH!” Xiao Chen threw his head back and howled. His eyes turned blood-red as the power inside him burst forth, his hair thrashing wildly as the wave of energy exploded from him, tossing Ziyun’er and everyone else who rushed to him off their feet.

Yang Qing and the rest of the other swordsmen gaped with horror. “Surely he’s not a demon too?!” Naturally, Xiao Chen was not, although he looked no different from one. His right hand grabbed into thin air and the Blood Lotus Demon Blade appeared out of nowhere, its hilt falling into his grasp. With a fierce and murderous look at the stranger in black, he lunged straight at him.

“Dragon Slay!” Xiao Chen screamed, taking into the air with a stomp so powerful that the ground split. He swung his Saber and a thousands-of-foot blood-red magical bolt shaped like a scythe formed in the air.

The sky screamed and darkened as if cowering in fear to Xiao Chen’s terrible powers. The earth roiled and stirred as he sent forth the destructive blood-red scythe, churning up dust and stray blades of grasses in its wake, cutting a deep and wide gash on the ground as part of it sliced through the earth as it raced at the man in black’s double.

Everyone watched the spectacle with aghast attention. No one expected him to be able to wield such destructive powers. The mountains and earth shook as a deafening explosion ensued and a veil of dust rose and fell with the rumbles of the explosion echoing into the far distance.

The village was almost completely destroyed by the blast of Xiao Chen’s stroke; more than half of the tenements in the settlement had collapsed due to the shock. But when the dust finally settled, what everyone saw left them all dumbfounded. The doppelganger had managed to shield himself from Xiao Chen’s awesome attack with only an arm!

Yang Qing and the swordsmen each drew a long breath of cold air. This stranger in black was absurdly invincible! Xiao Chen remained floating in mid-air, staring down coldly at the stranger, the sleeve of his missing left arm snapping in the wind as he hissed, “Who are you!”

“Heh heh heh… Is this all the infamous Xiao Chen can give me? Pathetic…” The stranger in black scoffed derisively.

The scalding remark did little to ease the cold fury emanating from Xiao Chen, who ignored the jab and growled, “There were three men who came from the Human World three years ago to investigate the Soul-consuming Evil Flower. Since then, no one has ever seen or heard about them. Where are they now? Speak!”

“A place you’ll never find,” the man wrapped wholly in black answered darkly, his voice deep and distant as if he was speaking from a faraway dimension. Without warning, he threw forth a fist and Xiao Chen immediately felt an invisible force with the force of an ox blitzing him. He felt a knot in his chest tightening and he could not breathe and before he knew it, he was being thrown backward.

“Xiao Chen!” Huangfu Xin’er screamed. She glided up quickly to catch him but the invisible force from the stranger was so powerful that both of them careened to the back as one for more than twenty meters before they could finally regain their balance.

A spiteful Huangfu Xin’er was about to charge at the cloaked stranger but a firm hand gripped at her arm. “No,” Xiao Chen urged, “He’s too powerful. More powerful than the both of us.”

Xiao Chen looked at Gu Feng and Xiao Ning, both of whom could only manage to barely hold their own against the doppelgangers engaging them. “Who is this stranger who has such immense powers?! The strength he wields easily places him well over the Rogue Immortals of the League!”

“Well, that’s all the time I have for you today. I still have a business to attend to, so I’d better take my leave now.” The stranger in black boomed hoarsely. With a curt look at his doubles, the doppelgangers merged themselves back into him and the stranger made ready to leave.

But Gu Feng was far from willing to allow the stranger to leave freely. With a few skips, he caught up to the cloaked stranger, raising his saber high over his head and bringing it down viciously, unleashing the Raging Dragon Seven Slay. The ground broke asunder at the force of the massive stroke with dirt flying everywhere in the air.

“Deicide Ten-fold Slash!” Xiao Ning yelled, throwing forth ten slashes with his halberd in the blink of a second, the intense pressure from his lightning-quick attacks causing the ground to quiver. But the stranger whirled around to face them, sounding more annoyed than unnerved, snarling, “Impudent fools!”

He lifted both his arms and two jets of dark mists shot from his sleeves into the air and engulfed the magical missiles set forth by both Gu Feng and Xiao Ning’s attacks!

Boom!

Another deafening crack of a thunderclap followed and pounded everyone’s eardrums, temporarily dulling their hearing. Up in the air, Gu Feng and Xiao Ning instead were hit by a colossal force. Being threw on their backs, they crashed to the ground, both spewing mouthfuls of blood.

“Humph!” The cloaked stranger grunted coldly. With a fling of his sleeves, he morphed into a wisp of black fumes that flitted away and vanished.

“Brother Xiao Ning!” Xiao Chen and Su Xiaomei hurried to him together to help him up. But the proud warrior raised a hand to stop them. He turned to Gu Feng, “Are you all right, Brother?”

“Just a little hurt, nothing to be worried about!” Gu Feng muttered, wiping away the blood that trickled out of his lips, never once taking his eyes off the direction where the stranger had disappeared to.

No one else dared to speak. They could not yet believe that there existed such a person could defeat both the Northern Mad Emperor and the East Peak Emperor together.

A pale-white Non-flower Dust was helped by Yi Tong and Gui Xian. The utter destruction of his doppelgangers had caused a severe blowback to his soul, grievously injuring him. A frown formed as Xiao Chen studied him. It was the first time he had seen Non-flower Dust looking so vulnerable and helpless. And who was this stranger in black who could do such damage to him?

“What should we do now, My Lord?” Ziyun’er asked. She looked positively worried. Their quest to locate Gui Xian’s former associate had only ended up in disaster with so many of them being wounded.

Xiao Chen cracked his knuckles, looking into the direction where the cloaked stranger had vanished. “If this is really the perpetrator behind the mystery of the Soul-consuming Evil Flower, the Immortals’ League would be no match against him. He’s just too powerful.” He inhaled deeply, brooding quietly, for the first time the thirst for more power churning inside him. He was just no strong enough and he needed more strength if he wanted to make a difference.

“The Six Domains are too vast to find out who this stranger really is,” Yi Tong said gravely after a deep sigh, “But I’m certain he’s related to the mystery of the Soul-consuming Evil Flower. But why is he here? There are already Evil Flowers growing rampantly here. He did not have to show himself and risk being suspected. What was he actually after just now? And yet, he hastily left… He does not want us to know who he is and was trying to keep his true identity hidden…”

“He wants to keep his identity hidden, you say? Is he one of the Administration of Heaven?” Xiao Chen asked suddenly.

The remark left everyone tense and anxious. If it was true that the Administration of Heaven was responsible for unleashing the Evil Flowers, the Immortals’ League would never be able to prove that.

But Yi Tong shook his head. “I mentioned my suspicions about this to Sister Bai before. But she was firmly invested that the Administration is just and honorable. They would never covet what is not theirs. If they wish for anything, they would willingly provide a matching offer to trade for it. She was certain that the Administration would never do anything as heinous as releasing this accursed flowers to wreak havoc in the worlds of men.”

“But who else would it be, if not the Administration of Heaven, everyone frowned in morose silence, Who else would have such resources and ability if not them?”

For a fleeting second, Xiao Chen remembered something. But before he could dwell on it further, Gui Xian interrupted his thoughts, saying loudly, “Well, anyway, we’ll first have to reattach the boy’s arm. We can worry about the rest later.”

If there was anyone who truly feared the Administration of Heaven, that would be Gui Xian. It was he who owed the Administration his soul and he has always feared the day the Administration would come for him. Gui Xian had barely finished speaking when suddenly patters of footsteps began coming from an unseen corner. Gui Xian raised a hand to motion for silence when everyone heard a voice speaking, “The demonic aura was coming from somewhere around here just now…”

But before they knew it, another fierce voice came, “Demon! Take this!”

A steely whistle sliced through the air and a sword, gleaming gold and bright, shot straight at Yi Tong. Xiao Ning thrust his halberd at the incoming sword and parried it with a clang, just in time for a few figures to appear, all of them clad in the garb and robes customary of the Immortals’ League.

“Who are you people and why are you here?” An old man in green robes growled at them as soon as he saw them. The golden sword earlier was hurled by one of his impatient subordinates.

Gu Feng stepped front, eager to start another fight but Xiao Ning held him back with an arm held up against his chest. He said to the newcomers, “We’re just passing by, about to leave now.”

With Gu Feng and him exhausted and injured from the fight against the stranger in black, Xiao Ning knew better than to antagonize any enemies now, nevermind two Immortals’ League mages of the true Grand Completion Realm. These were not artificially-enhanced mages and they would be smart to avoid any altercation for now.

With a look to everyone else behind him, he quietly motioned for the party to leave. Suddenly, the elderly man squawked, “Wait a minute! I need to take all of you into custody for now. It’s too coincidental that you are here when the Evil Flowers are found here too. And you have a demon in your midst!”

Everyone tensed at the old man’s demand for them to stay put when a voice from the soldiers of the League shattered any hopes of slipping away, “Just a second! I know those faces! They look like the ones that are wanted by the Headquarters!”