Truly Worthy of the Name Demonic Lord, What an Archdemon's Style!

Since joining the Myriad Immortals Association, Luo Chen had undertaken very few missions. In particular, he had not once accepted the most common type: demon beast hunting. Consequently, he was unfamiliar with the specifics of the transaction process. At that moment, within Taiping Fortress, several Foundation Establishment True Cultivators spent half a day appraising the demon beasts he had brought out. When stumped, dripping with cold sweat, they repeatedly produced sound-transmitting magical instruments to confer with another master appraiser stationed elsewhere. In the end, they finally reached a valuation. Selling the four demon beast carcasses to the Demon Hunting Department would yield approximately 2.6 million spirit stones. At the same time, the converted merit points would be more than enough to elevate Luo Chen from a Five-Star Demon Hunter to a Six-Star Demon Hunter, with plenty to spare. Such a result was entirely within Luo Chen's expectations. After all, these were four late third-rank great demon kings, beings on par with Late Core Formation Grand Cultivators! For an ordinary cultivator, slaying even one would be enough to boast about for a lifetime, let alone Luo Chen slaying four in one go. The only thing that surprised Luo Chen was the price in spirit stones offered for these demon king carcasses. Throughout his cultivation journey, he had conducted countless transactions involving demon beast corpses, making him acutely sensitive to going rates. A standard first-rank demon beast was worth merely a thousand or so low-grade spirit stones. A second-rank beast went for around ten thousand spirit stones, provided the carcass was relatively intact. Third-rank beasts were far more expensive, readily fetching hundreds of thousands, with prices sharply tiered by strength. Early-stage demon kings commanded one price, mid-stage demon kings another, and late-stage demon kings were worth several times—even dozens of times—more! Of course, that had been the going rate back in the Eastern Desolation. Here in the Northern Sea, because of the vast ocean and the endless proliferation of demon beasts, market prices were comparatively lower. Yet no matter how low, these were four late third-rank great demon kings! Let alone a mere two million, fetching seven or eight million combined would have been entirely reasonable. "Two million? Are you joking with this lord?" Luo Chen asked in a low voice. Beneath the pressure of his held-back aura, the Foundation Establishment True Cultivators trembled, casting pleading glances toward the silent Dao Lan. Dao Lan was helpless. Meeting Luo Chen's gaze, he sighed. "When the Demon Hunting Department purchases demon beast materials, the internal valuation is typically half of what is offered outside. Could it be Fellow Daoist has not looked into this over all these years?" Luo Chen snorted coldly, visibly displeased. Internally, however, realization dawned. No wonder Zhang Jiadi and his wife had risked punishment from the Demon Hunting Department back then to sell the beasts they hunted at Giant Whale Port instead. This internal price was suppressed far too aggressively. It was hardly a half-price cut; it was more like sixty-forty, or even seventy-thirty. Seeing Luo Chen's displeasure, and given that he currently needed a favor from him, Dao Lan patiently explained further. "Though the price is low, part of the difference can be considered converted into the merit points required to raise a Demon Hunter's star rank." "Furthermore, the portion lost can be recouped through the discounts high-ranking Demon Hunters receive when exchanging for resources internally within the Demon Hunting Department." "It isn't truly that low. The prices have stayed this way for years." "Besides, Fellow Daoist, these carcasses of yours are heavily damaged in many places, so they could not have fetched the optimal price to begin with." "What's more, should you one day attain the rank of Nine-Star Demon Hunter, you will gain access to the Myriad Immortals Association's resource allocation for Nascent Soul breakthrough. Compared to that, this small loss is truly negligible." Listening to this seemingly brusque warmonger attempt to console him with mundane, penny-pinching calculations, Luo Chen found the situation rather amusing. "Enough, enough. Two million it is. I cannot be bothered to bicker with you." In the eyes of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator, this was a colossal sum, sufficient to lease an ordinary third-rank spiritual land for a prolonged period of cultivation. Yet to Luo Chen, it was insignificant. To say nothing of the ever-increasing yields of the Penghu spiritual land in recent years, he had acquired over thirty million spirit stones from the Master of Baizao Mountain's storage bag alone! That was a truly immense fortune! Baizao Mountain was a paramount sect of artifact crafting, wealthy beyond measure. Evidently, when the Master of Baizao Mountain set out this time, he had carried the bulk of his personal wealth on his person, which had ultimately fallen into Luo Chen's hands. His earlier displeasure had not stemmed from caring about the sum itself, but merely from his aversion to being taken advantage of. Since those were the rules, he could not be bothered to argue. Dao Lan, however, looked somewhat surprised. "Was it not 2.6 million?" Luo Chen snorted. "I will sell the other carcasses to the Demon Hunting Department, but I shall keep the Sea-Overturning Demonic Wyrm for myself!" As he spoke, he waved his hand, stowing the desiccated carcass of the Sea-Overturning Demonic Wyrm directly into his Thunder-Accumulating Treasure Ring. The appraisers looked at one another, none daring to utter a word. Dao Lan felt inclined to remind Luo Chen that if he kept it, it would be best for personal use rather than circulating it outside the Myriad Immortals Association, lest he invite penalties from the Demon Hunting Department. Yet the words died on his lips. Luo Chen had already agreed to sell him the sawteeth from the Scorching Flame Jagged Shark at an extremely low price. Having gained such a massive bargain, how could Dao Lan afford to offend him now? Besides, while the Myriad Immortals Association enforced strict oversight on low-tier cultivators, its constraints on high-ranking Demon Hunters were far looser. Let him be! Having concluded matters here, Luo Chen lingered no longer. After bidding farewell to Dao Lan, he returned to his cave abode. Following two days of recuperation, he set out once more for the Sunken Sea. After his departure, the name of Demonic Lord Qingyang began to spread throughout Taiping Fortress. Moreover, the fervent discussions among rogue cultivators this time were several times more intense than when Dao Lan had slain the Golden-Horned Silver Rhino. Dao Lan's strength was something the fortress's rogue cultivators had long grown accustomed to; slaying the Golden-Horned Silver Rhino had merely been icing on the cake. Yet Demonic Lord Qingyang, a Golden Core master famed throughout the Myriad Immortals Association for his artifact crafting, had achieved such a glorious victory on his very first appearance on the battlefield. How could people not talk about it with relish? The only thing leaving everyone itching with curiosity was that among all the discussions, the actual methods Demonic Lord Qingyang used to vanquish his foes were rarely mentioned. Everyone knew he possessed such might, but none knew what magic treasure or secret techniques he truly relied upon. *** In a lake on an island, somber clouds hung thick and ghost mist coiled grimly. Luo Chen hovered high in the sky. A magnificent sun shone piercingly bright in the heavens above, yet its radiance could not penetrate the ghostly fog below. Within Luo Chen's body, an incandescent sun seemed to blaze as well, ceaselessly radiating light. His natal Golden Core rotated continuously! His natal magic treasure, the Hunyuan Cauldron, shone with brilliant luster, releasing surging magic power along distinct array formations into the void to manifest the Senluo Fire Hell! Beneath his feet, over a thousand low-tier demon beasts wept and wailed in agony. A mid third-rank demon king looked up toward the heavens in fierce resentment, snarling ceaselessly at the red-robed Daoist. The clumsy magic treasure flying sword it had barely managed to summon wobbled and crashed to the ground, seemingly slipping entirely beyond its control. Under the suppression of the Senluo Fire Hell, a formidable late-stage great demon king might have offered some token resistance. These low-tier demon beasts, however, could only wait to be slaughtered. Even this mid third-rank demon king was unable to marshal its demonic power freely, unable even to manipulate its magic treasure. It wished to ram the red-robed Daoist with its physical body, yet from the grim ghostly aura all around, ghost kings repeatedly surged forth and bored into its flesh, jolting its form so violently that it could not even command its own limbs. Under these conditions, Luo Chen could effortlessly channel his source true fire to refine these living beasts on the spot. Burning, refining, devouring their vitality to nourish himself! "The Myriad Immortals Association's purchase prices for demon beasts are far too low. Rather than selling to them, I might as well empower myself." As Luo Chen controlled the Senluo Fire Hell to suppress the pack of beasts, he used his source true fire to incinerate and refine their vitality, possessing ample leeway even to ponder other matters. When the fourth-tier Wither-Bloom True Fire consumed everything and settled upon that beast resembling neither deer nor sheep, several ghost kings scrambled out in haste, flying to the side to await orders. After roughly a dozen breaths, Luo Chen slowly retracted his source true fire. The Senluo Fire Hell that had suppressed all things vanished in an instant. Luo Chen hovered in midair, eyes closed, sensing the changes within his body. "Over a thousand low-tier demon beasts plus a third-rank demon king yielded less than half the vitality of that jiaoren." "Still, a mosquito's leg is still meat. Little by little, it will eventually bring about a qualitative transformation." On this side of the Sunken Sea, great demon kings were difficult to find, but low-tier demon beasts were boundless. Even if he slaughtered them all, an endless stream would still pour in from the Arctic Yama Heavens. Luo Chen was confident that by investing more time and effort, he would steadily reap rewards, and the process posed virtually no danger to him. The only issue was that he noticed the vitality the Wither-Bloom True Fire could feed back was diminishing. Luo Chen found this rather puzzling. Was the rank of the demon beasts insufficient, or had his body's capacity reached its absolute limit? Or perhaps the Wither-Bloom True Fire itself placed a restriction upon him? Shaking his head, Luo Chen opened his eyes. Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, he gave a wave of his hand. *Whoosh!* A black pennant landed in his grip. Simultaneously, the ghost generals and ghost kings wheeling through the air, along with the dense ghostly mist, plunged entirely back into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. Only at that moment did the blazing sunlight from outside and the scorching gazes of onlookers fall upon Luo Chen. "It's Demonic Lord Qingyang! He has come out!" "Show some respect! You must address him as Master, or Senior Qingyangzi!" "What do you know? Some grand figures actually prefer such a title!" "Leave that aside. I wonder what the Demonic Lord's harvest was like?" Following Luo Chen's emergence, those fervent gazes shifted toward the lakebed beneath his feet, which had been incinerated dry, leaving only a parched basin. No demon beast carcasses remained, only a thick layer of bone ash. Everyone exchanged glances, an unthinkable speculation surfacing in their minds. Could it be... "Impossible! The demon beasts entrenched on this island excelled at battle arrays and coordinated strikes. Master Guo and five others joined forces before, yet failed to conquer this island! Did the Demonic Lord wipe them all out alone?" "What's impossible about that? Master Guo and his group are not orthodox Golden Core cultivators; they are pseudo-core cultivators who advanced by refining monster cores. If they could not slay the beasts, does that mean Lord Demonic Lord couldn't?" "Still, this... not a single corpse remains! Not a single bone!" Amidst the chorus of exclamations, Luo Chen remained impassive. His gaze fell upon the five Golden Core cultivators standing at the head of the crowd. As his eyes swept over them, all five instinctively clasped their fists and bowed. "Guo Fengdao greets Lord Demonic Lord!" Luo Chen had no interest in committing their names to memory; they were merely a few pseudo-core cultivators. However, he had something to ask them. According to his prior intelligence, this demon beast pack was not supposed to be on this island, meaning the intelligence was inaccurate. He intended to hunt more low-tier demon beasts next, so to prevent similar mishaps, it was best to consult these locals. The moment he asked, Guo Fengdao and the others promptly relayed the latest intelligence on beast gathering sites. "Frog-Mouth Maelstrom... Azure Plain... Xu Flowing Sea... Three Pillars Gorge..." Luo Chen committed the names to memory one by one. These locations were all gathering grounds for vast numbers of low-tier demon beasts, differing considerably from the force-distribution map provided by Shentu at Taiping Fortress. After all, demon beasts did not remain entrenched in a single location forever. Especially with cultivators hunting them down, they were bound to shift locations. Having memorized these places, Luo Chen nodded in thanks to the group and swiftly flew off. After he departed, Guo Fengdao and the others stood together, looking at one another in silence for a long time. As Golden Core cultivators—even if only pseudo-core cultivators—they were genuine powerhouses possessing formidable magic power. Consequently, before Luo Chen, they had felt his terrifying strength with far greater clarity! Even though he had restrained much of his spiritual pressure, the ocean-deep fluctuations of his magic power had still left them completely overwhelmed. After a long while, Guo Fengdao finally muttered a single sentence. "If he wished to slay us, it would likely take fewer than three moves!" *** Over the ensuing months, Luo Chen frequently appeared across the Sunken Sea's battlefields between humans and demons. Wherever he arrived, he would first unfurl the Ten Thousand Soul Banner to sever all sight between inside and outside. Then, he would unleash the Senluo Fire Hell to forcefully suppress the low-tier demon beasts before incinerating and refining them with his source true fire to extract their vitality. Whenever he encountered a formidable third-rank demon king, he would at most deploy a few Qingyang Great Handprints, or if he found it troublesome, cast a single glance of Mirror Flower, Water Moon to easily dispatch it. After his departure, it invariably meant that hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of low-tier demon beasts had vanished. Not a single bone remained! Such overbearing and frequent operations caused the rogue cultivators of the Myriad Immortals Association on the battlefield to progress from shock and horror to numb acceptance. As the name of Demonic Lord Qingyang was lauded time and again, it completely eclipsed his former title of honor, Qingyangzi. Luo Chen naturally sensed the increasingly profound awe and dread in their gazes. Yet he disregarded it entirely, continuing on his own path. A guardian Golden Core cultivator from Taiping Fortress had come bearing Shentu's orders to inquire about how he handled the carcasses of the beasts he had slain. Luo Chen had brushed him off completely with the excuse of "reduced to ashes." With Demonic Lord Qingyang's prestige surging daily, Shentu could do nothing about him and simply let him proceed as he pleased. All things considered, Luo Chen's massive slaughter was a boon for the frontline defense. The massacre of countless low-tier demon beasts meant the pressure on Taiping Fortress was continuously alleviated. Who could possibly find fault with that? One day. A streak of escape light descended upon a turbulent stretch of sea. Luo Chen looked up. Three towering peaks stood erect above the vast ocean. Three surging ocean currents converged within the gorge, yet remained distinctly delineated. Three Pillars Gorge! A treacherous pass linking the Sunken Sea, the Liuyang sea territory, and the Arctic Sea. According to intelligence, a colossal horde of no fewer than thirty thousand demon beasts was gathered here. Among them were no fewer than five third-rank demon kings! There was even a great demon king lurking in the waters facing the Sunken Sea. Luo Chen's target was not that great demon king, but rather those thirty thousand low-tier demon beasts. "If I can devour the vitality of this entire horde, my task will be complete." Luo Chen murmured to himself and prepared to step into the territory of Three Pillars Gorge. Yet just as he was about to move, he paused. A burly man carrying a saber was treading upon the waves toward him. It was Dao Lan. "It has been a long time, Fellow Daoist Dao Lan." Dao Lan's expression hardened slightly. Seeing Luo Chen's blood-red complexion, his eyelids twitched violently. The long saber in his hand trembled uncontrollably, pulsing with waves of bloodthirsty desire. *How is this possible?!* *Striking so frequently should have depleted his magic power tremendously. Why does this man feel even stronger to me?!* *What is with that surging blood vitality and flourishing life force he cannot even suppress?!* *My Golden Suanni Saber is even more excited seeing him than seeing a great demon king!* Dao Lan's mind roared with astonishment, yet he maintained his composure on the surface. "Demonic Lord, it has indeed been a while. What brings you to Three Pillars Gorge?" Luo Chen smiled faintly, answering with a question of his own. "And you?" Dao Lan frowned. "I naturally came for that giant squid!" Luo Chen let out an "oh," then chuckled casually. "In that case, I will leave that troublesome fellow to you, and I shall handle the rest." *Such arrogance?* Dao Lan was momentarily taken aback, then cautioned, "Other rogue cultivators regularly undertake hunting missions here. When Fellow Daoist makes your move, do exercise caution." "Haha, do people like us still care about such things?" Luo Chen laughed aloud, leaping straight into the towering gorge. Standing behind, Dao Lan watched that wide-robed, broad-sleeved figure that burned like raging fire, muttering under his breath: "Truly worthy of the name Demonic Lord; what an archdemon's style!"