Chapter 1 Zhang Yuanqing is Here

Zhang Yuanqing landed at the grand manor and strode to the artificial lake that occupied half of the estate.

The water was a deep blue. A faint, salty scent hung in the air. Sardines, sea turtles, colorful sea snakes, small sharks, and other marine life swam in the water.

As a high-level siren, Chris liked to soak in the manor's artificial lake. The lake bottom was designed to mimic the ocean environment, encompassing hundreds of common marine creatures and plants.

Compared to land, the "ocean" provided a greater sense of security for the siren.

When Chris was unhappy, insecure, or nervous, she liked to hide at the bottom of the lake and calm herself.

Zhang Yuanqing gazed at the deep blue water and sighed, "Chris, I'm here."

Vinnie already knew his identity. As a direct descendant of the Heavenly Punishment chairman, Chris couldn't possibly still be kept in the dark. As soon as he spoke, a colorful sea snake slithering on the surface suddenly leaped out of the water. Its body swelled into a giant python several dozen meters long, and it opened its dark red mouth, spraying saliva as it bit at Zhang Yuanqing. At the same time, the surrounding marine life transformed, becoming giant, grotesque sea monsters that leaped out of the water and pounced on Zhang Yuanqing.

"Pfft, pfft." The first sea snake to attack was instantly burned to ashes by golden flames. Then, the sea monsters that followed were ignited by the golden flames three meters from their target, silently turning into charred corpses.

Zhang Yuanqing stared coldly at a spot at the bottom of the lake and said, "Are you coming out yourself, or should I boil the seawater here?" The lake became quiet. There was no response, and no more sea beasts leaped out.

A dark shadow swam quickly close to the surface of the lake, and when it approached the shore, it suddenly leaped up.

It was a mermaid woman covered in cyan-black scales, holding a golden trident. Her blond hair was loose, her skin was white, and her lips were moist. She was heroic and spirited.

She leaped high into the air, like Runtu under the moon, and with a whoosh, she stabbed at the surname Zhang. Zhang Yuanqing grabbed the spearhead with one hand.

With a gentle tug, he pulled the heroic mermaid into his arms. With his other hand, he clenched his fist and slammed it hard into Chris's lower abdomen.

The shockwave raged in all directions, uprooting the lawns and trees by the lake and causing huge waves in the artificial lake.

Chris spat out blood and flew backward. Zhang Yuanqing flashed behind her and kicked her to the shore. Chris bounced like a ball, rolled, and smashed deep pits in the ground.

Finally, she crashed into the waist-high green belt.

"Whoosh!"

Chris leaped out of the green belt, propped herself up with the golden trident, and staggered to a standstill. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she glared at him stubbornly and angrily.

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the approaching dawn, "Return the treasure map fragment to me, so you don't have to suffer."

Among his many lovers, Chris was different. Zhang Yuanqing didn't conquer her with sweet words back then, nor with the persistence of three meals a day, nor with his unwavering stamina. He conquered her with violence. Sirens were irritable, belligerent, and worshiped the strong. Powerful martial strength was more attractive to siren women than handsome looks. Of course, Demon Lord and Chris didn't fight with the intention of sleeping with her.

It was purely because Chris was courting death and wanted to hunt the fallen Night Wanderer, trying to kill him several times, and being beaten up several times.

Over time, this girl fell in love with the Demon Lord.

Zhang Yuanqing didn't like this woman at first. He just thought she was beautiful and had a good figure, so why not sleep with her.

Later, he discovered that the young lady was straightforward and simple, liked what she liked, and truly hated what she hated. There was no infighting and countless little thoughts. This allowed the Demon Lord, who had experienced vicissitudes and was tired, to find a rare sense of ease and peace. He regarded her as the second ray of moonlight after Yin Ji.

Their breakup was partly because Chris couldn't stand the Demon Lord's flirtatiousness, and partly because the Demon Lord wanted to cut ties with Teng'er, Krieg, Vinnie, and others.

Chris bit her lip and continued to glare at him. From the artificial lake behind Zhang Yuanqing, a colorful little fish emerged and cried out in a sharp voice, "You stinky man, you渣男, you scum who loves one, you should be donkeyed and your butt should rot, why aren't you dead yet!"

After speaking with impassioned emotion, the little goldfish shrank its head and said timidly, "These are the master's words, not mine, not mine... Ruth is just an emotionless translating machine."

What donkey dares to donkey my butt, Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself. His gaze contained dignity as he looked at Chris, who stubbornly met his gaze.

Zhang Yuanqing stepped forward and slapped Chris to the ground. The irritable young lady fell to the ground, and tears welled up and rolled down, sobbing.

Like a tamed little wild horse, Zhang Yuanqing reached out his hand to her. Chris grabbed the treasure map fragment, threw it to him angrily, and stared with red eyes, protesting silently.

Zhang Yuanqing took the treasure map fragment, gently stroked her head, and whispered, "I am him, and I am no longer him!"

What he wanted to say was that he was the Demon Lord, the Demon Lord with whom she had emotional entanglements, the person she missed. But at the same time, he was no longer the "unfeeling" Demon Lord. After saying this, regardless of whether Chris understood, Zhang Yuanqing turned into a golden rainbow and escaped.

Chris looked at the little fish Ruth with teary eyes.

"What does that mean?" The little fish Ruth spat out a few bubbles, spread out her short fins, and said, "I think he means: I am indeed the Demon Lord, but I am no longer contaminated by the Fallen Holy Grail, so 'I won't acknowledge what happened before, if you can understand it, then understand it, if you can't understand it, I don't care.'"

Chris's eyes dimmed, "I didn't expect that the Yuanshi Tianzun was the Demon Lord. If I had known it was him, I should have castrated him in New York County to vent your anger, master." Ruth comforted, "Don't be sad, the end of the world is coming, what is personal love and hate?"

Northwest, a certain rural village.

The rural areas in the Northwest are poor and backward. Whether it is a mud house or a brick house, they all exude an atmosphere of oldness and simplicity.

There are no neatly planned fields and impressive houses in the rural areas of the South, no clean and tidy cement roads, and no street lights. The land here is barren, and most farmers can only barely make ends meet, and they only have a few crumpled bills in their pockets at the end of the year.

The masses' moonlight will not focus here, internet celebrities will not come here, reporters will not set foot here, and official monitoring rarely covers here.

The temporary stronghold of the Soldiers of Cataclysm, however, is here.

Some villagers have already been bewitched by the members of the Soldiers of Cataclysm. They live their lives as usual, but will unconditionally obey the orders of the bewitching demons. When they arrive, they provide accommodation and food free of charge.

There are many similar hidden strongholds of the Soldiers of Cataclysm in the Northwest.

Members of the Soldiers of Cataclysm rarely come here, except to periodically maintain the stability of the stronghold. Once the conflict between the Lawful and Free factions intensifies and the situation becomes tense, these strongholds will be activated.

In a two-story brick building with a courtyard, the lights are bright.

A dozen members of the Soldiers of Cataclysm are sitting in the courtyard, eating hot pot around a brazier. Beef, mutton, dog meat, and various offal are rising and falling in the hot soup.

There is a lack of green vegetables in the Northwest in winter, but there is plenty of meat.

A bald, tattooed strong man cursed, "You can't even find a decent woman in this broken place. They are all dark, dry women. How long are we going to hide? I really want to go out on duty, with wine, meat, and women."

The main force of the Soldiers of Cataclysm is hidden, but that doesn't mean they are willing to be blind and deaf.

There are still scouts and intelligence personnel wandering outside, and they will periodically send back "ciphertexts," belonging to personnel on duty. Or go out to scavenge. Isn't Heavenly King of Extinction still killing people outside? It's not like the officials are hunting her for being too moisturized." Someone came up with a bad idea.

The two Heavenly Kings did not hide in secret strongholds. Their personality flaws were difficult to suppress. For example, Extinction, who was bloodthirsty by nature, would turn her butcher knife against the members of the Soldiers of Cataclysm if she lacked a target.

"If you don't want to live, don't implicate us." A short, pot-bellied man said in a deep voice, "Yuanshi Tianzun has already been promoted to Lord of the Sun. Heavenly King of Fear said that he is the strongest demigod in the world, even surpassing Shura. If we attract his attention, we will all die."

"Damn it, Yuanshi Tianzun actually became the Lord of the Sun, what does he rely on?"

"In one year, he went from an ordinary person to a demigod. This kid is simply a freak. It's terrifying just thinking about it."

The topic shifted to discussing the Lord of the Sun.

At this time, the roar of a supersonic fighter plane passing overhead came. The faces of the members of the Soldiers of Cataclysm changed slightly. Before they could react, they saw an iron tower-like black shadow crashing into the courtyard.

With a loud bang, the bowls and chopsticks on the table bounced slightly, and the hot soup spilled out of the pot and splashed on everyone around the table.

Not an enemy attack. The bewitching demons felt relieved and hurriedly lowered their heads to worship, "Shura!" Shura swept over everyone and said in a muffled voice, "What's the new intelligence?"

A Mist Master ran out of the house and bowed, "We haven't received any intelligence from members on duty yet."

In his opinion, Shura and Heavenly King of Fear had only been out for a few hours. Shura walked out expressionlessly upon hearing this, intending to go to the next stronghold. The Soldiers of Cataclysm have more than one secret stronghold. A small rural village cannot accommodate all the bewitching demons.

Since there was no intelligence here, he could only go to the next place. Just as he took a step, the sound of a cell phone rang from the house.

The Mist Master hurried into the house and rushed into the courtyard in a panic a few seconds later, his face strange. "Shura, the Protector of Dark Rose, Heavenly Tree of the Forest, just sent a message." Shura turned around, and all six eyes looked at the Mist Master.

The Mist Master still had a strange expression on his face and said, "Yuanshi Tianzun disappeared once four years ago, and during that disappearance, he became... When the Pure Yang Sect Leader investigated his background, he touched on this secret, but fell into a cycle of memory loss..."

What is he saying?

The bewitching demons in the courtyard didn't understand.

Shura was silent for a few seconds, then turned around and entered the house, took out an old leather scroll, and actively entered the dream.

In the bizarre dream world, he saw the figure of a man condensed from starlight.

Anyone who investigates that Yuanshi Tianzun is the Demon Lord, or who approaches this truth, will enter the cycle,"

Shura said.

The starlight figure nodded slightly.

Lingjing Xingzhe world, the Gods War dungeon. The Taiyi Sect Leader, sitting cross-legged in the air, wearing a starlight robe, with a black round moon above his head, was constantly surging with starlight around him, scorching the black round moon above his head like flames.

The Star Lord was gradually eroding the remaining spirit of Ling Tuo, and the Great Yin Source had been preliminarily integrated with him. In two days at most, he would be able to obliterate the brand left by Ling Tuo and completely control the Great Yin.

Suddenly, he pricked up his ears and listened for a moment, then opened his eyes. His left eye was shining with starlight, while his right eye was filled with pitch-black energy.

"So that's how it is..." The darkness in the Taiyi Sect Leader's right eye receded, and starlight emerged. He raised his head and looked at the starry sky, deduced for a moment, and suddenly spat out a mouthful of Taiyin power.

This black smoke-like Taiyin Lord penetrated the dungeon and flowed through the Lingjing world like oil, "extinguishing" the stars along the way. Before long, this "oil" reached its destination, a dungeon called "Ascension Immortal Gate."

The rich, pitch-black Taiyin power enveloped the star representing the dungeon, causing it to disappear into the Lingjing world.

Almost in the next second, a golden light split the "galaxy" and came to the Lingjing world.