Chapter 619: Flames of Revenge (Part 2)
"K... King!! King!!"
Amidst the deathly silence permeated with shock, a mournful cry rang out. Then, an elderly man with half-white hair rushed forward, standing at the spot where Zhong Wang had met his end, his entire body trembling violently. This man was no stranger to anyone present. He belonged to the Illusion Demon Royal Clan, his title being Han Wang. He was the eldest and strongest member of Zhong Wang's household, and by seniority, he was even Zhong Wang's uncle. His strength had reached Lord Xuan Realm, Level 6, making him the main pillar of the entire Zhong Wang household, and he held considerable power and status within the Demon Emperor's capital. Ever since Zhong Wang took over the household, Han Wang had hidden behind him, becoming his guardian. With him around, even in the capital teeming with experts, few could harm Zhong Wang.
But today, he watched helplessly as Zhong Wang turned to ashes in an instant. Not only did he fail to step forward to protect him, he didn't even react until Zhong Wang had already perished.
"Xiao Yaohou!" Han Wang's voice was filled with grief and fury. "Even if my king's words were disrespectful... his crime did not warrant death! Yet you... you are so ruthless..."
"King Huai committed regicide and treason, his crime deserving the extermination of nine generations! Zhong Wang willingly became King Huai's accomplice—his crime alone warrants death ten thousand times over! Disrespect towards me, the Empress, makes him even more deserving of death beyond forgiveness!"
"Han Wang! Considering that you were once loyal to my father, the late Emperor, I will spare you from joint punishment for now! If you dare say another word on behalf of Zhong Wang or King Huai, I will have you executed as well!"
Han Wang's face twitched, and he suddenly let out a great roar: "You killed my king... if you have the guts, then kill me too!!"
Xiao Yaohou's night-black eyes narrowed slightly. Her voice, carrying the chilling pressure of death, reached every soul without a hint of hesitation: "Since you wish to die, I will grant your wish! Your indulgence of Zhong Wang's treason is also worthy of death!!"
Before Xiao Yaohou's voice had even faded, a bone-piercing coldness had already spread throughout Han Wang's entire body. He, a Sixth-level Lord Emperor, suddenly felt the approach of death at that very moment. A fear he had never experienced in his entire life, like an awakened demon, wildly grew and swelled in his heart and soul.
He never expected that Xiao Yaohou would actually kill him, without a single moment of hesitation. Even more, he could never have dreamed that with his strength, he would feel such terror just from being locked onto by Xiao Yaohou's killing intent.
No one else knew that in that single ice-cold, heartless sentence from Xiao Yaohou, Han Wang's will had nearly collapsed. He gritted his teeth fiercely, leaped up recklessly, let out a strange howl, and crazily condensed all his profound energy to strike at Xiao Yaohou.
"Xiao Yaohou, be careful!" Su Xiangnan exclaimed in alarm. Han Wang was a strong figure even among Lord Emperors; four months ago, Xiao Yaohou would have been no match for him.
But as Su Xiangnan's shout just ended, a miserable shriek like a pig being slaughtered tore through the skies above the entire Demon Emperor's capital. Han Wang's body, which had just leaped up, convulsed in mid-air, then crashed heavily back to the ground... His hoarse, desperate screams sounded as if he were enduring the cruelest torture in the world.
Everyone stared in terror, their eyes wide... They saw that Han Wang's hands were each burning with a cluster of crimson-gold flames!
Golden Crow Flame!!
These two clusters of Golden Crow Flame were neither vigorous nor violent. Instead, they burned unhurriedly, calmly, without urgency. Yet in the blink of an eye, they had scorched away the flesh of this Sixth-level Lord Emperor's hands, revealing stark white bones. Then even the bones were burned away, and Han Wang's two hands completely disappeared from his arms...
"Wuaaaaahhhhhhhh..."
Han Wang screamed desperately, rolling frantically, using his profound energy to resist with all his might. But the two seemingly gentle clusters of crimson-gold flame continued to burn at their leisurely pace, unaffected in the slightest. Even as he rolled and beat at them, the flames spread to his chest, waist, ribs, thighs... In the blink of an eye, over a dozen clusters of crimson-gold flame were burning on his body, while both his arms had already half-disappeared.
Han Wang's screams were as piercing as the wails of hellish ghosts. He writhed and convulsed wildly, his eyes bulging with agony, the veins on his forehead bulging like earthworms!
The crimson-gold flames maintained their original pace, burning silently. They were so gentle they almost seemed elegant, yet they devoured the body of a Lord Emperor bit by bit. All of Han Wang's struggles and his powerful profound energy, strong enough to be at the Sixth-level Lord Emperor realm, could not cause even the slightest interference or obstruction to them.
Boundless terror was etched onto every face. Han Wang was a member of the Illusion Demon Royal Clan; his body contained a thin bloodline of the Golden Crow, and he had also cultivated fire-based profound arts. He naturally had strong resistance to flame—especially with his Sixth-level Lord Emperor profound energy, which in the eyes of ordinary cultivators was akin to divine power!
Yet under those two small flames... in just over ten breaths of time... his entire body had already lost a third of its mass.
"H... Han... Han Wang..." A person from Zhong Wang's household stretched out a trembling hand and stepped forward, as if trying to extinguish the flames on Han Wang.
"Don't go near him!" Another person grabbed him firmly, then frantically retreated backward... Flames that could incinerate the body of a Sixth-level Lord Emperor—if they touched them, they would be courting death!
Everyone's eyes widened in horror, mouths agape, watching Han Wang's body twist and convulse wildly in the flames. Their ears were pierced by screams so miserable that cold chills ran down their spines. At that moment, they felt as if they were in the Nine Nether Purgatory, with a sinner covered in sins undergoing punishment by hellfire...
"Xiao Yaohou... spare me... Xiao... Yaohou... spare me... ah... wuaaaaahhhhhhhhh..."
No one could imagine how agonizing the pain was to make a Sixth-level Lord Emperor let out such screams, to make such a being beg with the utmost humility... The crimson-gold flames had already covered Han Wang's body, gradually swallowing all his struggles and his voice completely.
When the flames finally went out, Han Wang's body had vanished entirely from that spot. Like Zhong Wang, who had perished just moments before, there was not even a trace left behind.
Throughout the entire process, terror never faded from everyone's faces and eyes, not for a single breath. The entire great hall remained still, except for Xiao Yaohou, who remained expressionless throughout, as if she were merely witnessing the most ordinary of scenes.
Thump...
Among those closest to Han Wang, a Ninth-level Overlord Emperor from King Huai's household collapsed, falling to his knees on the ground. The other cultivators, from Thrones to Lord Emperors, all had eyes filled with nothing but dread.
For the first time in their lives, they felt how insignificant they truly were, despite being considered invincible in the eyes of ordinary people...
"Im... impossible..." King Huai's pupils kept contracting. He could not believe what he had seen, could not believe that such power existed in this world. Even more, he could not believe that this power belonged to Xiao Yaohou.
"Th-this... this... what kind of power is this?" Mu Yubai gasped for air frantically. As someone loyal to death to the Demon Emperor clan, seeing Xiao Yaohou's strength after her return, he should have been overjoyed. But the scene just now—the painful and terrifying fall of a Sixth-level Lord Emperor—filled him with more shock and horror than joy. Because this was fundamentally a terrifying power that, in a sense, should not exist in this world.
"Even if her bloodline awakened, it shouldn't be this... terrifying," Tianxia Xiongtu muttered in a daze with wide eyes.
"This power... could it be a special gift from the Golden Crow spirit?" Yun Qinghong's gaze was also somewhat dull... The power before him completely surpassed everything he had ever known. It could no longer be described with the word "strong"; it could only be called "heaven-defying."
But Yun Che shook his head: "That's her secret, I suppose."
Everyone was shocked by Xiao Yaohou's immense strength, but no one knew that her current power had been bought with her obsession for revenge and her very life... and, if one were to count it, also her virginity.
"Yun He, Yun Jiang, Yun Xi." Xiao Yaohou spoke again. These six words drove like ice spikes into everyone's hearts and souls, making their entire bodies freeze cold: "Apprehend King Huai immediately! Whoever dares to stop me... I will kill!"
"If one person blocks me, I will kill that one. If a hundred block me, I will kill a hundred. If ten thousand block me, I will kill ten thousand!!"
Her cold, bloodless voice intimidated the souls of everyone present. At this moment, they had become utterly clear... The Xiao Yaohou who had returned after vanishing for four months was no longer the same Xiao Yaohou from before!
"...Yes!"
The same reply came, but the tone was completely different. These three Grand Elders of the Yun family, who had weathered countless storms, had undergone a profound change in aura. They leaped into the air simultaneously, their aged hands shrouded in thick lightning profound energy as they grabbed straight for King Huai. Earlier, when they had lunged at King Huai, both their movements and power had been three parts cautious and seven parts uneasy. But now, they were fierce and ruthless, and the surge of profound energy even carried a deafening crackling thunder sound.
"Who dares to lay a hand on the King!"
The number of experts around King Huai far exceeded ordinary imagination. Without exaggeration, more than seventy percent of the Lord Emperors in the Demon Emperor's capital had already joined King Huai's faction. And today was King Huai's coronation ceremony, so a large number of powerful protectors were at his side... King Huai himself was a Mid-stage Lord Emperor, and those qualified to guard his side were none other than the absolute pinnacle of experts in the entire Illusion Demon Realm! The lowest among them were also Mid-stage Lord Emperors!!
Such peerless experts, whom ordinary people would seldom see in their lifetimes and regarded as legendary... King Huai alone had seventeen of them here today, right in this Demon Emperor Hall!
And these were only those who were sworn to death to the Huai Wang household and served as his personal guards—definitely not counting the top forces like the Guardian Clans and other households that had defected to him.
When the three Grand Elders of the Yun family made their move, four differently dressed figures suddenly appeared from the void behind King Huai, blocking his front and charging straight at the three Grand Elders. Each of them exuded an extremely thick aura... and they were comparable to the auras of Yun He, Yun Jiang, and Yun Xi!
"Lu Zhanfeng, Bai Jinghong, Tang Luanli, Xiao Qingshan... the 'Southern Sky Four Extremes' who shook the Southern Frontier seven hundred years ago!" In the corner of the hall, an old man exclaimed in shock. The four names he shouted struck like thunderclaps beside everyone's ears.
In this world, anyone who could become a Lord Emperor had a name that shook the world! Especially for cultivators from outside the Demon Emperor's capital; if they became a Lord Emperor, their fame would be even greater, and they would not be forgotten even generations later.
"The Southern Sky Four Extremes..." A look of astonishment also appeared on Yun Qinghong's face. "These are legendary figures your grandfather often spoke of. They had already become Lord Emperors seven hundred years ago, and not long after, there were few reports of them. Everyone thought they had retired... Who would have thought they had long become members of the Huai Wang household!"
"...It seems that the Huai Wang household's ambitions began far earlier than we imagined," Yun Che said with a furrowed brow.
"In these years, we never dared to underestimate the Huai Wang household's strength," Yun Qinghong said, his brows tightly knit. "But only in the past four months have we realized that their power had grown far beyond what we predicted! Within three days of the news that Xiao Yaohou had perished in the Jinwu Thunder Flame Valley spreading, the entire Demon Emperor's capital had completely fallen under the Huai Wang household's control. We couldn't even react. Sigh..."
Yun Che shook his head: "Father, there's no need to feel disheartened. King Huai alone could never have such ability. That Ming Wang is too terrifying... Over these hundreds of years, he has manipulated the entire Illusion Demon Realm in the palm of his hand, yet no one realized it! Everything has been proceeding according to his script... But human calculations are no match for Heaven's design!" Yun Che looked up at Xiao Yaohou and said in a low voice: "The end of his perfect plan has forced out a demigod..."
"A demigod?" Yun Qinghong and Mu Yurou were both startled.
"I want to see whether the immense power that Ming Wang has schemed and built over the years... can withstand the hatred and fury of a god!!"