Chapter 538: Demonic Eyeball

“What the hell is this?” Yun Jiuge looked at the gray eyeball that was tightly bound by the Moon Spirit Silk Thread. Its pupil was blood red in color, and the whites of the eye were bloodshot. The sight of it would make anyone feel uncomfortable.

“This is a demonic being.” Zi Shang brought the eyeball close to him and asked, “Where are you from?”

“For the love of god, I’ve always been here in this forest since I was born! I should be the one asking where you invaders have come from! Why did you destroy my home?” The eyeball complained angrily. It was behaving as though it was just an innocent victim.

“These dead trees only appeared after the Black Rain. How could you possibly have been living in this Dead Tree Forest since you were born?” Zi Shang sniggered.

“I was born along with the dead trees after the Black Rain, so of course I’ve been here since I was born,” the eyeball said with contempt.

“Try being even more arrogant than you are now,” replied Zi Shang. He tightened his grip, and the blood vessels in the whites of the eyeball nearly burst from his strength.

“Ugh! Don’t grab me so hard! You’re hurting me!” The eyeball let out a shrill shriek.

“Believe me, I can make you feel even more pain than you’re in right now.” The edge of Zi Shang’s lips went up, and there was an extremely sadistic look in his eyes.

“Don’t do this! You’ll benefit by letting me live!” shouted the eyeball loudly as it panicked.

“How would we benefit by keeping you alive?” Yun Jiuge raised her brow and asked.

“There’s nothing that I don’t know,” the eyeball said proudly.

“Can you tell me where the Black Rain in this Secret Realm comes from then?” Yun Jiuge asked.

“Nope.” The eyeball became lifeless.

“What about how to get rid of the Demon Qi and restore life to the Secret Realm?” Yun Jiuge asked again.

“N-Nope!” The eyeball suddenly felt very useless.

“Why should I let you live then?” asked Yun Jiuge as she stared menacingly at the eyeball’s red pupil.

“Wait! Did you by any chance come to this forest to find those dumb leopards and lizards? I know where they’re at! I can take you there!” The eyeball hastily yelled.

Zi Shang and Yun Jiuge exchanged glances.

“Go on. Where are they at now?” Yun Jiuge probed.

“Those stupid leopards and lizards are being kept in the stream in front of the forest. I can bring you over, but you need to release me first.” The eyeball batted its grayish-white eyelids.

“I’ll use the Moon Spirit Silk Thread to bind him,” said Yun Jiuge. She knitted the Moon Spirit Silk Thread into a grayish-white net and placed the eyeball inside it.

“What on earth is this? It’s so disgusting!” The eyeball moved from side to side in an attempt to break free from the net.

“It’ll never be as disgusting as you. Let me warn you — behave yourself, or I’ll suck every bit of life out of you,” said Yun Jiuge. She might not have made use of the Moon Spirit Silk Thread’s Devouring Power before, but she certainly did not mind trying it out on the eyeball.

“I’ve always been obedient. Why are you threatening an innocent demonic being like me?” The whites of its eye turned moist. It looked like it was crying.

“Shut up! You’re being really disgusting right now,” said Yun Jiuge, who felt goosebumps breaking out all over.

“Alright then!” The eyeball realized that it was not winning any sympathy from Yun Jiuge by pretending to be miserable, and it decided to revert back to being its normal self. It then flew towards the stream obediently.

Yun Jiuge and Zi Shang followed the eyeball out of the Dead Tree Forest, and the first thing they saw was A’ze, Da Meng and the other human-beast hybrids waiting for their return anxiously on the outside. Every single one of them looked like they were prepared to charge into the forest to save them.

“What are all of you doing here? Have you finished your search of the surrounding areas?” Yun Jiuge asked.

“We’ve finished the search, but we did not manage to find anything useful. I guess I was wrong!” A’te hung his head in gloom.

He had been chastised by A’sang earlier for being too rash. His rashness had caused Lady Yun and Lord Ye Zi to enter the forest personally.

“No, you weren’t wrong. The human-leopard hybrids and the lizard-like therianthropes have indeed disappeared by the stream. This thing over here will help us find them.” Yun Jiuge tugged on the thread in her hands, and the eyeball that was flying before them was instantly pulled towards her.

“What’s that disgusting thing?” asked A’ze, greatly taken aback by what he saw.

“Is that an eyeball?”

“Oh my god! It’s alive! It can even move about and fly!”

The rest of the human-beast hybrids gathered around Yun Jiuge and looked at the eyeball in shock. Maya even wanted to touch it.

“Go away, you dumb human-beast hybrids! I’m a great and noble demonic being. I’m not on the same level as you lowly beings!” The eyeball flew high up into the air proudly before it looked down at the human-beast hybrids and glanced at Yun Jiuge and Zi Shang from the corner of its eye.

“Great, my foot! Hurry up and take us to the human-leopard hybrids!” Yun Jiuge tugged on the Moon Spirit Silk Thread strongly, and the eyeball became giddy as it was pulled behind.

“Stop tugging! I’ll bring you over right now.” The eyeball flew towards the dried-up stream bed disgruntledly before it circled the spot filled with silt where Da Meng had stepped on previously and said, “It’s right here.”

“We’ve already searched that area numerous times. We didn’t find anything besides silt.” Both of A’te’s feet were covered in silt at the moment. He had gotten them all over his feet when he made his way onto the stream bed earlier.

“What a bunch of stupid human-beast hybrids. Back off!” The eyeball scoffed arrogantly before it shot out a ray of dark red light from its pupil towards the stream bed.

The stream bed that was covered in silt led out a loud, rumbling noise before a big black hole appeared before their eyes. Yun Jiuge and the rest of the human-beast hybrids could feel gusts of chilly wind coming from within the hole from where they stood.

“The people you’re searching for are in this hole! Go in!” The eyeball said.

“He’s right. I can pick up the scent of the human-leopard hybrids and lizard-like therianthropes coming from the inside.” A’te nodded his head with a solemn expression on his face.

“Bring us in,” replied Yun Jiuge as she tugged on the thread once again.

“Alright, alright. Follow behind me closely.” The eyeball drifted its way into the hole.

A’te, A’sang and A’ze walked at the front while Yun Jiuge and Zi Shang walked in the middle. Maya, Da Meng and A’fei walked behind them.

Yun Jiuge followed the eyeball closely and soon realized that the bottom of the stream was actually made up of a series of complicated passageways. The gray stone walls of the passageways looked extremely sturdy, and it was clear that someone had put in a lot of time and effort to build them.

“These look like secret passageways that lead to the Gray Castle.” Zi Shang touched the wall next to him and asked Yun Jiuge, “Summon your Spiritual Eye. Tell me what’s over there?”

Yun Jiuge summoned her Spiritual Eye as she was told, and she saw countless figures that exuded a grayish light in the passageway in the distance. They were all marching towards the Yun City in unison.

“They’re launching an attack on the Yun City.” Yun Jiuge knew that the Gray Castle was planning to attack the Yun City someday, but she never thought they would do so today.

“I want all of you to leave this place and return to the Yun City at once,” Zi Shang said with a cold voice. “I’ll stay behind and destroy all these passageways.”

“Okay.” Yun Jiuge was about to turn around and leave when a gray vine wrapped itself around her body. In the next moment, countless other gray vines burst out from the passageways and lunged at them. It was as though they were being drowned in a gray sea.

There was nothing but gray vines before Yun Jiuge at the moment. She immediately pulled the Moon Spirit Silk Thread back to her, but to her surprise, there was nothing but an empty shell of an eyeball in the net.

“Hahaha! You’ve all fallen into the trap! I’ve countless clones! You’ll never be able to capture me! Just wait for your deaths here and watch the Yun City get destroyed before your eyes!” The eyeball led out an arrogant laugh, and the gray vines instantly wrapped themselves all over Yun Jiuge’s body.

Yun Jiuge was about to use her Holy Power to break free of the vines when Cute Little Baby’s voice rang out, “Master! Master!”

“What’s wrong?” Yun Jiuge peered into the Magic Cauldron and saw the Cute Little Baby dragging the Fiendish Demon Fetus, Little Grass, towards her with a long face.

…