"Who are you, and what exactly do you want?"
The Soul Devouring Demon, trapped by two lightning dragons, glared at Qin Shilei with resentment.
Purifying Eye!
Without answering, Qin Shilei's eyes instantly turned a captivating purple.
A Golden Soul Devouring Demon in its prime could never be controlled by Qin Shilei's Purifying Eye.
However, it was now severely weakened, with less than a tenth of its strength remaining. It soon became blank-faced and dazed.
"Now, summon those Silver-tier clones here again."
"Yes."
The Soul Devouring Demon opened its mouth and let out a piercing howl.
An invisible wave rapidly spread outwards with the cry.
Before long, Silver-tier Soul Devouring Demons began to fly over in succession.
Qin Shilei killed one as it arrived, and a pair as they arrived.
Even hundreds or thousands of Soul Devouring Demons could not escape the thunderous onslaught.
Qin Shilei even controlled this Soul Devouring Demon to circle Lingquan City three times.
Finally, they arrived at the outskirts of Lingquan City.
"Can you call out the Soul Devouring Demons inside one by one?"
"I can summon them, but whether they come or come together, I cannot guarantee."
Qin Shilei thought to himself: "The Silver-tier Soul Devouring Demons should have been wiped out. There should be five Golden-tier Soul Devouring Demons near the Lingquan spatial rift.
If I charge in directly, they might scatter and flee at the first sign of trouble.
If even one Soul Devouring Demon escapes, it will leave a hidden danger.
I still need to try to lure them out one by one and eliminate them individually."
With a plan in mind, Qin Shilei had the controlled Soul Devouring Demon attempt to summon the others.
As expected, after a short while, two Soul Devouring Demons flew out from the city.
Under Qin Shilei's ambush, these two flying Soul Devouring Demons were soon cut down and turned to ash.
"Alright, you can go join your clones now."
Qin Shilei casually killed the Soul Devouring Demon he had been controlling.
Summoning it again and again might alert the Soul Devouring Demons inside, causing them to flee at the first sign of danger.
Following his memory, Qin Shilei concealed his presence and flew towards the tall building where the spatial rift was located.
As soon as he stepped into the basement, he discovered two Soul Devouring Demons in the corner.
Why were there only two Soul Devouring Demons?
Where was the last one?
However, before he could think further, the two Soul Devouring Demons had already discovered him.
"Who?"
"The one who will send you back to where you came from."
After speaking, Qin Shilei formed a hand seal and summoned two lightning dragons to attack.
Ten minutes later, these two Soul Devouring Demons were, as expected, annihilated into dust.
"Where did that last Soul Devouring Demon go?"
Qin Shilei murmured to himself.
He casually searched Lingquan City for an hour but still could not find the last remaining Golden-tier Soul Devouring Demon.
He had no choice but to return to the spatial rift.
Looking at the spatial rift before him, Qin Shilei couldn't help but frown.
Fortunately, he had learned from the Soul Devouring Demon that the other side of the spatial rift was the territory of a Diamond-tier demon.
Otherwise, he might have rushed through and ended up in a terrible situation.
Qin Shilei pondered for a moment, then released his remaining three Silver-tier Mammoths.
"You will patrol the vicinity of Lingquan City."
If any demon came through the spatial rift to Blue Star, they would likely attack these three mammoths first.
This way, he would be alerted to the demon's arrival through the death of his pets, giving him time to prepare.
Glancing once more at his pets, who were munching on leaves, Qin Shilei turned and flew towards Litian City.
The last Soul Devouring Demon was likely closest to the most populated city, Litian City. He had to go there to see if there were any clues.
Before long, Qin Shilei was walking on the streets of Litian City.
Survivors hurried past him, their faces etched with determination. They didn't recognize Qin Shilei, who was wearing a mask of anonymity.
Qin Shilei browsed for a good part of the day but found no trace of any Soul Devouring Demons.
Looking up, he saw a restaurant ahead and walked in.
It was dinner time, and the restaurant was filled with evolving humans dining.
Qin Shilei found an empty seat by the window, ordered three small dishes, and began to eavesdrop on the surrounding conversations.
Soon, he heard the news he was looking for.
"Did you hear? So many people have died mysteriously in our city these past few days."
"I heard too. Nearly several thousand people have died, one after another."
"Most of those people had no apparent injuries, as if they had simply fallen asleep forever."
"Nearly a thousand members of the Blazing Sun Gang died like this, inexplicably."
"Now everyone says it's a ghost taking souls, snatching your soul away while you sleep."
As soon as someone in the restaurant brought up the topic, everyone started discussing it with looks of shock.
"To be able to kill so many people so silently, the perpetrator is likely the last Golden-tier Soul Devouring Demon."
Qin Shilei thought to himself.
After dinner, he asked for directions to the Blazing Sun Gang's location and headed towards that residential area.
The bodies of the deceased members of the Blazing Sun Gang had already been moved.
Qin Shilei walked around the area but found no clues.
The only certainty was that there were no signs of any fighting at the scene.
He had no choice but to summon his phantoms, assigning them the simple task of patrolling Litian City. They each chose a direction and began to explore the city.
They all fully utilized their Purifying Eyes, hoping to stumble upon the Soul Devouring Demon lurking in Litian City.
At sunrise, Qin Shilei sat frowning in a breakfast shop.
"It seems that searching blindly like this will hardly find the Soul Devouring Demon hidden in the city. I need to borrow the strength of others to find it more efficiently and sooner."
The most influential force in Litian City was undoubtedly the City Lord's Mansion.
Therefore, after breakfast, Qin Shilei went straight to the City Lord's Mansion.
After revealing his Golden-tier strength, he was easily invited inside.
Ye Litian looked at Qin Shilei, who had entered, with suspicion.
The man had an ordinary appearance and introduced himself as Qin San, but there was no Golden-tier expert named Qin San on the ranking lists.
Therefore, this name must also be fake.
"Mr. Qin San, what brings you to my mansion?"
Qin Shilei got straight to the point: "I've come about the bizarre deaths in the city. Their manner of death is very similar to how I understand Soul Devouring Demons to consume souls.
Soul Devouring Demons are demons from the abyss, and hundreds of thousands of people in Lingquan City were killed by them.
If there is a Soul Devouring Demon lurking in Litian City, and it is not found and dealt with soon, Litian City could become the next Lingquan City."
"Alarmist nonsense!"
Before Ye Litian could speak, Du Shankui immediately said disdainfully, "Litian City is full of talented people, protected by tall city walls outside, and with an absolute master like the City Lord presiding within. You claim we will suffer the same fate as Lingquan City; you are simply spouting utter nonsense."
If Du Shankui hadn't secretly had someone use investigative techniques to probe Qin Shilei's background and found nothing, he would have likely thrown Qin Shilei out directly.
Qin Shilei frowned and said, "I am absolutely not trying to scare you, nor do I have any reason to deceive you. I just hope you can send some people to cooperate with me in finding the lurking Soul Devouring Demon. I will take care of it myself."
Ye Litian replied readily, "Shankui, have Fang Bin lead a hundred city guards to assist Mr. Qin in investigating this matter."
Seeing his willingness to cooperate and send people to assist in the investigation, Qin Shilei was very grateful that he had changed his appearance to meet Ye Litian.