The other party had been lurking in the demon king's cave dwelling, waiting until now to act. Could they, like him, have tailed the guards and slipped inside together?
That would be thoroughly unnerving.
The Heavenly Eye Butterfly had failed to detect them at all.
Qin Sang considered the likelihood of the interloper being a Nascent Soul cultivator or a Transformation stage great demon to be very slim; otherwise, he would surely have already been exposed right under their nose.
Calming his nerves, Qin Sang made no rash moves. He slowed his pace and shadowed the figure in silence.
The boudoir of the demon king's favored consort was brightly lit.
At the foot of the hill, a blue wolf stood guard with a pack of lesser demons, each looking downcast and dejected.
Ahead, the lavish banquet was in full, joyous swing, yet here they were, enduring a scolding.
The demon king's favored consort had vented all her fury upon them, and only after she had worn herself out and retreated inside did they finally get a moment of peace.
"Keep your damned eyes peeled, every last one of you! If anything goes wrong, I won't even wait for the King's orders—I'll seal your cultivation myself and chuck you all into the Ten Thousand Snakes Cave!"
Stifling its frustration, the blue wolf bared its fangs, a vicious glint suddenly flashing in its eyes.
"Who's there!"
In the next breath, a gray falcon demon emerged from the shadows and flew straight toward the blue wolf and its lackeys, moving with extreme care as though terrified of disturbing the demon king's consort.
Seeing the gray falcon, the blue wolf found it somewhat familiar and remembered it was a lesser demon under the White-Feathered Hawk.
"You?"
The lesser demons moved to surround it, but the blue wolf barked them back.
"Did the White-Feathered Hawk send you?"
Incapable of human speech, the gray falcon nodded repeatedly. It flew before the blue wolf, moving stealthily as it set down the sack from its back with a crisp clinking sound, accompanied by the faint, rich aroma of wine.
The falcon then respectfully stepped aside, raising a wing to point upward.
"The King ordered you to deliver immortal brew?"
The blue wolf's eyes lit up. Tearing open the sack, it saw rows of full bottles of fine wine. The gloom in its chest evaporated instantly. Snatching up a few bottles in its jaws, it tossed the bag behind it.
"Boys, the King hasn't forgotten us! Take it and share!"
The lesser demons had already been drooling. Overjoyed, they scrambled over one another to grab the wine.
"Fine wine!"
The blue wolf drained a bottle in one gulp, smacking its chops in lingering satisfaction. "I heard the King bought these immortal brews from Demon King Yuan. They truly live up to their name."
Downing three bottles in a row, the blue wolf glanced at the gray falcon beside it and sneered, "I say your king ought to be called the White-Feathered Rat instead—timid as a mouse! When the King told him to bring wine to yours truly, he didn't even dare show his face in person."
The gray falcon replied, "Please quell your anger, King Wolf. Lord Hawk King is currently stationed at the front mountain and cannot easily leave his post."
"Tch..."
The blue wolf scoffed, and then its expression abruptly froze.
The lesser demons were completely dumbfounded as well.
This gray falcon had never been enlightened by the King, yet it was speaking human words.
"Down! Down! Down!"
The gray falcon lifted its wings and patted downward lightly.
The lesser demons rolled their eyes back and fell unconscious, instantly collapsing across the ground.
As a Demon Core stage great demon, the blue wolf was not quite so easily felled. Yet when it attempted to pounce on the falcon, it felt its tendons go limp and its bones turn mushy, its demonic power stalling so heavily that it could muster virtually no strength.
"You..."
The blue wolf crashed heavily to the ground. It tried to struggle with everything it had, only for a brilliant light to flash before its eyes as a net of woven lightning descended over its head. Struck by searing pain, it blacked out.
"This Immortal's Intoxication took this young master quite some effort to buy in Immortal Demon City. It can numb even those at the late Demon Core stage. Pity it only takes effect once swallowed."
The gray falcon's bead-like eyes darted about with a flash of smugness. It swiftly dragged the blue wolf and the other demons into the shadows.
Then, opening its beak, it spat out a round pearl.
Once the pearl left its body, the gray falcon underwent a sudden transformation, its aura soaring drastically.
Its plumage was no longer gray, but a thunderous silver-white that shimmered with bright radiance, as if lightning constantly skimmed across its wings.
It looked just like a thunder beast born bathed in lightning!
Its piercing eyes were sharp, its talons like blades.
Though it still bore the form of a raptor, the bearing it carried in every glance was infinitely more magnificent than before—a contrast as stark as the bright moon to a firefly.
Even more astonishingly, whereas the gray falcon had merely been a lesser demon of the Demon Spirit stage, it had now vaulted straight into the mid Demon Core stage!
"This Mirage Pearl Mother left me is certainly handy for disguises, but sealing my own cultivation to make it flawless... Being ordered around by you bastards for all these years has suffocated this young master to death!"
It gave the blue wolf a vicious kick, then glanced up at the boudoir of the demon king's favored consort. The pearl flashed, mist surged, and once swallowed back into its belly, the falcon transformed into the blue wolf and glided noiselessly upward.
Amid a thicket of trees, Qin Sang hid within the shadows, watching the entire spectacle unfold.
Looking at the falcon demon's drastically altered form, a sudden sense of familiarity washed over him.
"It can't be, can it?"
Qin Sang stared at the demon's silver-white feathers.
He suddenly recalled many years ago, when he and Master Wandering had sneaked into Boundless Valley in search of the Nightbloom Lily, witnessing the battle between a Thunder-Devouring Falcon and two human Nascent Soul cultivators.
In both aura and cultivation, this falcon demon could not compare to that Transformation stage Thunder-Devouring Falcon, but its appearance was remarkably similar.
Qin Sang remembered that the Thunder-Devouring Falcon had had a chick, which he had even toyed with back then.
Could this be an old demon acquaintance?
Confirming it was merely a falcon demon in the mid Demon Core stage that had long mingled among the demons using an exotic treasure for disguise, and was nowhere near as terrifying as he had feared, Qin Sang felt relieved and hurried after it.
Inside the boudoir of the demon king's favored consort.
Gauzy curtains hung, and a white jade vanity table stood within.
At a glance, one would think it was the private bedchamber of a human maiden.
In fact, the chamber's mistress—the demon king's favored consort—was indeed a female cultivator.
The woman possessed exquisite beauty, though her natural talent was somewhat lacking, leaving her stuck at the False Core stage to this day. However, she was deeply doted on by the demon king, and Qianji Demon King had already promised to spare no expense to help her break through the Core Formation stage bottleneck.
Neither her cultivation nor her background could ever threaten the demon king's primary consort's position.
The favored consort was well aware of this, which was why she merely put on an act and vented her frustration on those lesser demons rather than actually barging into the banquet to cause a scene. At this moment, her face showed no trace of anger; she sat before the mirror applying her makeup, radiant and breathtaking.
"Your Ladyship, the King has ordered someone to deliver the immortal fruit and nectar that Your Ladyship favors."
The blue wolf's voice drifted in from outside.
"Hypocritical pretense! Why didn't he bring it himself?"
The consort huffed. Sweeping her divine sense across the area and seeing it was the blue wolf personally making the delivery, she opened the restriction outside the door. "Leave it outside!"
"Understood!"
...
Suddenly, the consort sensed something amiss. Glancing into the mirror, she discovered to her horror that the blue wolf had somehow entered her bedchamber and was standing right behind her.
"How dare you!"
Shock and fury surged through the consort, but suddenly a chill wrapped around her throat as a silver chain tightened against her neck.
"Don't be reckless, Your Ladyship. I know the King gave you plenty of protective treasures, but if this young master gets nervous and slips up, letting your fragrant beauty perish would be a terrible shame."
The mist on the falcon demon dissipated, revealing its true form.
"What do you want?! I was abducted and brought here by him by force—I don't know anything!"
Seeing an unfamiliar falcon demon, the demon king's favored consort turned pale with fright, not daring to move an inch.
"I wasn't planning to ask you anything anyway,"
the falcon demon spoke flatly, then flicked a spark of lightning from its claw.
Darkness seized the favored consort's vision, and she collapsed into unconsciousness.
Chapter 1142