"You scoundrel, since you refuse to hand it over, then die!"
Seeing that Xiao Fei had no intention of returning the body from the blood lake, the Demon Lord immediately transformed one of his large hands into a cage and was about to envelop Xiao Youyi.
Xiao Youyi had probed for a long time, but the old demon had only been trying to scare him, revealing not the slightest bit of substantive information. Now, he was even making the first move against him.
"Old demon, do you think I'm easily scared?"
Xiao Youyi's blood surged, and he roared.
"Ning! Kill him!"
"Alright, Big Brother!"
Ning, receiving Xiao Youyi's command, immediately opened his massive maw and, within a radius of hundreds of miles, extended countless tentacles.
These black tentacles crisscrossed, forming a net that trapped the Demon Lord.
This was a signature move of the Dao Worm tribe, capable of devouring all energy-bearing matter in the world, even the attacks launched at them.
As these black tentacles appeared, all the energy within hundreds of miles was quickly devoured.
Not a trace of spiritual energy remained in the air, leaving it a vacuum.
Of course, the Demon Lord was no pushover. The hand he had struck with instantly transformed into tens of thousands of sharp blades.
"Swish, swish, swish..."
The blades streaked through the air, slashing wildly, severing all the black tentacles Ning had conjured.
"Nothing more than this!"
The Demon Lord snorted coldly, and then these tens of thousands of blades, like a violent storm, rained down upon Ning and Xiao Youyi.
But in the very next instant, the area within hundreds of miles was once again covered in black tentacles.
These tentacles coiled around the airborne blades, halting their advance.
The tentacles were no match for the blades, snapping with a single touch, but they were severed repeatedly, only to reappear time and again.
These tentacles were composed solely of pure energy, rendering the attacks completely ineffective against them.
On the contrary, as the tentacles continuously absorbed energy, they grew stronger, while the blades grew weaker.
With this ebb and flow, the blades formed from the Demon Lord's hand became fewer and fewer.
In the first exchange, the Demon Lord lost.
But this was no friendly spar; it was a battle to the death.
Enraged by his disadvantage in the first round, the Demon Lord roared and produced an ancient oil lamp.
"Today, I will show you my boundless demonic flames!"
With his roar, the tiny black flames within the oil lamp instantly spread, transforming into a sea of fire that engulfed the heavens and earth for hundreds of miles.
The tentacles within this expanse were instantly incinerated into ashes.
Furthermore, his demonic flames carried a potent toxicity that affected the mind.
Xiao Youyi sat on Ning's back. Although the demonic flames were formidable, all energy within a mile of Ning had already been devoured by him, naturally including the demonic flames.
However, as he witnessed the monstrous demonic flames spanning hundreds of miles, he recalled that he also possessed a flame, one that, in the hands of a Celestial Monarch expert, would be no less powerful than this demonic flame.
At this moment, Ning showed no weakness. Most of the Dao Worm tribe had comprehended laws related to devouring.
Ning opened his massive maw and inhaled the rolling demonic flames.
Finally, he even swallowed the ancient oil lamp that the Demon Lord had conjured.
Xiao Youyi, seated on his back, couldn't help but ask with concern, "How are you? Are you alright?"
"Ugh! It's a bit spicy, a bit burning in the stomach! It's fine, I'll digest it soon."
Ning was confident in his digestive capabilities.
The Dao Worm tribe, in their normal state, could devour and digest entire worlds, let alone this mere oil lamp!
The Demon Lord, having his demonic artifact swallowed, was both shocked and enraged. Enraged because this oil lamp was his most prized possession.
Shocked because the strength of this Dao Worm was likely far superior to his own, and this battle would yield no advantage.
Discretion being the better part of valor, he decided to flee.
The Demon Lord made his decision and prepared to escape.
How could Ning let him go? He opened his colossal maw, his upper jaw touching the sky, his lower jaw the ground.
"Crack!"
With a single gulp, he swallowed the Demon Lord whole.
Ning smacked his lips, as if still unsatisfied.
However, just as Xiao Youyi thought the task was complete, his spiritual sense detected a figure appearing a thousand miles away – it was the Demon Lord.
He was still alive!
Ning wanted to swallow him again, but found it was too late; the Demon Lord had already fled tens of thousands of miles away.
What a nuisance! He actually escaped!
Ning was filled with regret. He had finally had a chance to help his elder brother, only to fail.
"It's alright. It's not easy to keep a cultivator of the same level contained by yourself."
Instead, Xiao Youyi turned to comfort Ning.
"Next time we have a chance, we'll find a way to kill him!"
With the Demon Lord having escaped, Ning returned to the Third Jianmu World to recuperate.
Han Er directed the giants to quickly clear the remaining items in the sacred land.
Han Yi shuffled forward to Xiao Youyi, seemingly having something to say.
"You're a towering, strong man, just say what you need to!" Xiao Fei patted him and said.
"Master Xiao! Han Lao Qi, Ma Xiao Liu, Guai Ba Er... they're all dead!"
Han Yi's voice was already choked with tears.
The names he mentioned were all soldiers of the True Immortal realm within his giant army, men with whom he had trained and lived for tens of thousands of years.
They had experienced countless battles before, and not a single one had been lost.
But this time, the giants hadn't even participated in the fight; the mere aftershocks of the battle between the Demon Lord and Ning had killed several of his giant soldiers.
Xiao Fei didn't know how to comfort Han Yi in his grief, so he let him process it himself.
As for the seven fallen giant soldiers, Xiao Youyi arranged for their remains to be transported back to the Second Jianmu World for burial.
After quickly clearing the battlefield, they departed from the ruins of this demon sacred land.
The escape of the Demon Lord earlier had undoubtedly leaked the news.
He needed to resolve several surrounding cave-heavens before the demon and monster races could react, otherwise, he would miss his chance.
Following this, he led the giant army, splitting into two paths, like a swarm of locusts.
Wherever they passed, no demon or monster cave-heaven survived.
In a single day, they successfully swept through eight cave-heavens.
...
This time, the demon and monster races had secretly joined forces, intending to annihilate this small human team entirely.
Therefore, they sacrificed a sacred land, setting a trap to lure the human team into it.
On the spot, they killed all the True Immortals of the human team, some of the Celestial Immortals, and even the human's Bing Huo Immortal Monarch.
As the demon and monster races planned to press their advantage and annihilate the remaining Immortal Monarchs,
they never expected the human reinforcements to arrive so quickly, directly surrounding them from the outside.
This left them caught in the middle, unable to advance or retreat.
But today, intelligence arrived that their nests had been raided and their homes destroyed.
Foundations accumulated over countless millennia were ruined overnight, and even the stone lions at their gates had been overturned.
How could they remain calm? Several Immortal Monarchs immediately withdrew from the battlefield.
For them, if their homes were raided and their foundations destroyed, even if they annihilated this human force, what would be the point?