How do you infuriate a greater demon?
The answer was remarkably simple: ruin its wicked plans.
Unlike lesser demons, who were cunning bullies that preyed on the weak and feared the strong, greater demons were warlike, bloodthirsty creatures endowed with terrifying single-minded resolve.
Once a greater demon made a decision, it would rather die charging forward than ever give up.
Ever since Zhou Tai Nine had summoned it, Deimos had formulated a plan: to slaughter every living creature in sight, and then slowly crush Zhou Tai Nine to death piece by piece to see if the summoner truly had no fear of death.
Yet now, its plan had been wrecked by Jin Dajun. Zhou Tai Nine had died ahead of schedule.
"Ant, you seek death!"
Deimos's eyes radiated wrath as it growled down at Jin Dajun.
In greater demon culture, insults were graded hierarchically. "Bug" was the lowest insult; "ant" was a notch higher. Deimos had clearly recognized that Jin Dajun was no weakling.
"Is he your son or something? Sorry about that—I accidentally crushed your boy underfoot," Jin Dajun said with a grin, nudging Zhou Tai Nine's head with his foot.
Deimos's rage boiled over instantly. Its tail swept toward Jin Dajun, but Jin Dajun had been on guard all along, throwing himself forward in an Iron Mountain shoulder strike to collide head-on with the tail.
*Boom!*
The ground shook violently.
Jin Dajun sank slightly, the ground beneath his feet splintering into dense, web-like cracks.
Even though Jin Dajun was far smaller than Deimos's tail, it was the tail that was knocked flying by the impact.
*Sizzle!*
Every part of Jin Dajun's left side that had made contact with Deimos's tail erupted into green flames.
If Gong Qian had been there to see it, she would have understood how she had been poisoned. Every single scale on Deimos's tail was saturated with lethal venom; the slightest brush against it resulted in severe poisoning.
Deimos was not surprised that its tail had been repelled. It hadn't put much force into the blow, intending only to use the tail's deadly venom to kill Jin Dajun.
Seeing that its poison was ineffective against Jin Dajun, Deimos's golden slitted pupils constricted slightly. In an instant, its colossal frame appeared right in front of Jin Dajun, a hook punch whistling forward like a battering ram.
Jin Dajun's reactions were equally swift; he proactively stepped back before the fist could land.
Next came an exchange of advances and retreats. Deimos threw both fists in rapid succession, hammering down at Jin Dajun from above, but Jin Dajun evaded every strike, leaving Deimos's fists to pound uselessly into the dirt.
*Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!—*
A barrage of thunderous concussions and shockwaves radiated outwards.
In the distance, Yu Xian heard the nonstop crashing impacts and immediately steered his bubble upward. There, he spotted Jin Dajun locked in combat with Deimos.
"So the backup Minister Yu Lie mentioned was the team leader's father, Uncle Jin!" Yu Xian murmured in realization.
Jin Dajun wasn't merely dodging; he launched counterattacks while slipping past Deimos's strikes. His fighting style was completely different from Jin Sheng's. Jin Sheng's techniques were bold, wide-open, and imposing, whereas Jin Dajun fought with steady, methodical precision, every move tightly restrained and exquisite.
The two were less than three meters apart, and Deimos possessed an immense build—a single punch covered a radius far exceeding three meters. Yet amidst the ducking and weaving, Deimos failed to graze so much as a single strand of Jin Dajun's hair. Instead, Jin Dajun's fists struck its wrist multiple times, repeatedly landing on the exact same spot.
Agonizing pain wracked its wrist. In response, Deimos opened its maw and spat a crimson energy orb straight at the ground, while the cobra head at the tip of its tail also unhinged its jaws and fired a green energy orb into the sky.
Demon Cage!
The green energy orb exploded in midair, cascading downward as countless green lines, while the earth burst apart, raising pillars of red light.
In the blink of an eye, a cage woven of green strands and red pillars enclosed the entire surrounding area.
Jin Dajun decisively widened the distance between them. Scanning the perimeter, he found no gaps to escape the cage. Deimos was clearly preparing some sort of tactical maneuver, and this cage was meant to cut off any retreat.
"Corrosive Poison Swamp!"
The cobra at the tip of Deimos's tail lowered its head and spewed a torrent of green venom across the ground. The entire clearing rapidly turned into a swamp of green venom that bubbled continuously.
*Sizzle, sizzle!*
Green flames instantly flared across Jin Dajun's body, and within seconds, he was transformed into a man engulfed in fire.
The poison was simply too terrifying. As long as one stood on the ground, poisoning was unavoidable.
"Ant, the entire area is now filled with my corrosive venom!"
"As long as you remain inside this cage, you will suffer perpetual poisoning! Dissolve slowly in despair!"
Deimos looked at Jin Dajun with a cruel sneer, as if already picturing the man's agonizing end.
*This is bad! What do we do? If Uncle Jin falls...*
Watching this unfold, Yu Xian began to worry for Jin Dajun. Having seen Gong Qian's condition after being poisoned, he knew all too well how horrific Deimos's venom was.
Yet all he could do now was watch helplessly from afar.
Forget approaching the fight—he didn't even have the strength to enter the cage. And even if he could, it would just be throwing his life away for nothing.
Just as Yu Xian's anxiety mounted, Jin Dajun's body expanded amidst the green flames, swelling rapidly from his original height of over 1.8 meters to nearly five meters tall.
"That has some kick to it! This poison actually stings a bit!" Jin Dajun said, veins bulging all over his body as a ferocious grin split his face, his eyes fixed on Deimos.
Deimos roared in fury at the sight. Raising an arm, it threw a punch straight at Jin Dajun. Jin Dajun countered with a punch of his own. Massive fist met smaller fist, and neither gave an inch—they were evenly matched.
"You're the first bastard who's ever pushed me into my Fiery Vajra form this quickly. Now, enjoy my fists!" With a savage laugh, Jin Dajun went on the offensive.
His fighting style transformed completely.
Originally, his strikes had been balanced, steady, and restrained.
Now, his moves were sweeping and unrestrained, every single punch packing sheer, unadulterated violence.
Deimos let out a low growl and refused to be outdone, striking back ferociously. Both combatants hammered each other with wild abandon, discarding finesse and technique altogether. Inside the cage, fist slammed into flesh, churning the earth upside down.
The sheer visual impact was overwhelming. Yu Xian swallowed hard; it felt like watching two prehistoric beasts tearing at each other in a primal bloodbath.
*Too strong.*
*Is this the realm of true powerhouses?*
After ingesting Pangu's Blood, Yu Xian had advanced from lower Ant rank to upper Sparrow rank. He had felt fairly confident in his strength, but today's experience instilled an immense sense of urgency within him. He was still far, far too weak.
After watching for a while longer, though, Yu Xian found it almost tedious. Jin Dajun and Deimos's fight had devolved into an endless loop: a punch for a punch, grappling and tumbling into the swampy mire, splashing sheets of toxic slime everywhere.
There was no martial skill left to speak of—only the most primal violence!
Time ticked past. The sun gradually dipped below the horizon, and the moon crept silently into the sky.
Yu Xian descended to the ground. Zhang Shou and Gong Qian immediately asked about the situation. When Yu Xian described what was happening on the battlefield, both Gong Qian and Zhang Shou fell silent.
"In other words... even after the poison is completely purged, there's no way I can help?" Gong Qian muttered to herself after a long pause, clenching her fists.
She was fundamentally incapable of enduring Deimos's venom. With the entire battlefield drenched in poison, entering it might not kill her, but it would guarantee total paralysis. Going there would only turn her into a burden for Jin Dajun.
Chapter 47