Winnie Berrent gazed intently at Zhang Yuanqing and said, "Other than that, is there nothing else you want to say to me?"
What she wanted was clear as day.
Looking back at the aloof, sultry Chief Prosecutor of the New York County branch, Zhang Yuanqing sighed inwardly. *Why do I, an avatar, have to settle the true body's romantic debts?!*
After venting silently, he gave a wry smile. "Babe, I understand what you mean. I can swear that my feelings for you burn as hot as the origin of the sun itself. My past callousness wasn't because of a cold heart, but because I had no choice. It was precisely because I loved you so deeply that I couldn't bear to hurt you.
"Now I've returned to normal, free from the contamination of the Fallen Holy Grail. There are no longer any obstacles between us. My love for you will endure until the end of the world."
Winnie Berrent remained impassive on the surface, letting out a cold scoff. "Maybe the world will end tomorrow."
Zhang Yuanqing replied with righteous conviction, "Which is why I must do everything in my power to save it. Not for great righteousness, nor for nation and state, but solely to go on loving you."
Winnie Berrent was dazed for a moment. At long, long last... she saw that Demon Lord again!
Though grim and ruthless by nature, the Demon Lord had also been irreverent, fluent in sweet nothings, and prone to the occasional wicked smirk—a man of striking personality and charisma.
Winnie had once fantasized about what he would be like had he never been corrupted by the Fallen Holy Grail.
Now she had her answer.
This was her Demon Lord once free of the taint.
A surge of delight welled within her at the thought of regaining her old flame, and tenderness rippled through her heart. Even so, she kept up her icy demeanor and said, "Demon Lord, I grew tired of your honeyed, deceitful words long ago. If you want the Elvis Presley speaker back, take it. It's not as if I cherish it."
Opening her desk drawer, Winnie tossed over the palm-sized black speaker.
Zhang Yuanqing caught it. Since the avatar lacked an inventory, he slipped it into his pocket, breathing a sigh of relief. He grinned and said, "Sweet sister, if the world doesn't end, I'll marry you with an eight-bearer bridal sedan."
With the world on the brink of ruin, why bother acting so serious? He didn't mind offering sweet words and reckless promises if it made the listener happy.
Leaving Winnie stunned on the spot, Zhang Yuanqing dissolved into starlight and vanished.
A few minutes later, the avatar appeared in an abandoned house in New York County, its doors and windows boarded shut. Sitting cross-legged beside a window where sunlight filtered through, he stared at the Elvis Presley speaker before him. After a moment's thought, he spoke:
"I want to hear all the audio recordings I made after reaching the Saint stage."
...
Inside the Qingyang Formation.
Fear Heavenly King looked at Fu Qingyang and Demon Eye Heavenly King standing side by side, speaking with an easy smile: "Between the two of you, one is my former subordinate, and the other is my junior from the training class back then. We're all old acquaintances with no personal grudges. Why not coexist peacefully inside the instance and just wait for the outcome?"
Hearing this, Fu Qingyang's stern face relaxed, and the vigilance and focus in his eyes melted away.
In the next instant, battle intent reignited in his gaze. Without hesitation, he summoned the Gold Dragon Sword to steel his resolve.
He had nearly fallen prey to Bewitchment and lost his will to fight.
Fortunately, a swordsman's iron will combined with the Money Prince's combative nature allowed him to shake off the influence in time and regain his fighting spirit.
Fu Qingyang turned to Demon Eye and asked, "How strong is Fear's combat power?"
Among the demigods across both the orthodox and evil factions, Fear Heavenly King ranked at the very bottom. This was inseparable from his age; he was the same age as Fu Qingxuan, and both had once interned at Heaven's Punishment.
He was a rising star of the newer generation.
Yet the path of cultivation placed utmost importance on gradual accumulation and explosive release after long preparation.
Compared to demigods who had cultivated for a century and held renown for six decades, Fear Heavenly King lagged considerably behind in skill application, spell development, and item accumulation.
Even so, a demigod was still a demigod—a being capable of casually killing a Dominator with a single skill, overpowering peak Dominators, and wielding a fraction of the power of rules.
Demon Eye Heavenly King sneered. "A dead-last slacker! But more than enough to string us up and thrash us.
"After stepping into the ninth level, my status is already very close to his, and my Eye of Bewitchment has gained the power of rules. So, I will lead the assault in this battle, and you will play support."
In truth, the Eye of Bewitchment had possessed the embryonic form of rules long ago. Upon his ascent to Dominator, it had been strengthened further, fully evolving into a rule-based skill.
Whomever he glared at fell into chaos!
Fu Qingyang glanced at him and said calmly, "My slashes possess the power of rules as well."
Demon Eye Heavenly King curled his lips. "You still can't match me, because I have trump cards."
Fu Qingyang remained expressionless. "Who doesn't have trump cards?"
"Mine are definitely stronger than yours." Demon Eye Heavenly King lifted his chin.
In the distance, Fear Heavenly King's expression darkened, his eyes glowing crimson. "Are you two..."
Before he could finish, Demon Eye Heavenly King ripped off his headband, exposing an eerie vertical eye whose socket was suffused with blood-red and whose pupil was dark gold.
A beam of golden-red light bathed Fear Heavenly King, choking off the rest of his words as his crimson eyes turned dull.
This was the enhancement gained by the Eye of Bewitchment upon acquiring full rule power: beyond interfering with the spiritual energy inside the target's body, it now affected the soul.
Trapped in a stupor, the spiritual energy inside Fear Heavenly King ran wild, tearing through his meridians and internal organs. Before the clash had even begun, he was severely wounded by his own rampant energy.
Demon Eye Heavenly King's frame shot upward as his muscles swelled, his skin turning pitch-black with a metallic sheen. The flesh along his ribs tore open, thrusting out thick arms that manifested weapons: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, staves, and cudgels.
Like a thousand-armed Rakshasa brandishing an arsenal, he charged toward Fear Heavenly King at full tilt.
At the same time, Fu Qingyang opened his inventory, pulling out a golden dragon-shaped longsword and a black cloak embroidered with golden cloud patterns.
The cloak snapped open with a whoosh and draped over his back.
Fu Qingyang's aura surged steadily. Every pore vented sharp sword qi, making him look like a peerless, unsheathed blade. In this state, any Dominator below the ninth level would have their eyeballs pierced blind by the razor-sharp sword qi at a single glance.
Pouring every wisp of sword qi around him into the Gold Dragon Sword, Fu Qingyang stomped down hard with his right foot and slashed out abruptly.
No probing, no warming up—he unleashed his full might right from the start.
The instant the terrifying sword qi left the blade, it vanished under bizarre circumstances.
In the distance, just as the dullness faded from Fear Heavenly King's eyes, his throat was slit open without a sound. The cut widened and deepened toward both sides, severing the neck bones until only a thin strip of flesh at the nape held it together.
Fear Heavenly King's head hung grotesquely down his back, stopping just short of being severed completely.
Fu Qingyang's strike had aimed straight for his head, though it fell just short of a clean decapitation.
*His Skill Approaching the Dao can be used across space now?!* Demon Eye Heavenly King was startled. Fu Qingyang's slashes were already impossible to evade, and now that he could strike across open air, they were even harder to guard against.
Shock aside, he did not squander the opening his ally had forged. With eight arms swinging weapons, a torrential storm of blows rained down on Fear Heavenly King in his crisp suit.
Slashing, hacking, bludgeoning, and piercing.
The weapons conjured by the Ancient God of War inherently possessed armor-piercing and bleeding effects. Fear Heavenly King's formidable physique tore open with wound after wound, bones snapping, sinews snapping, and flesh rending as torrents of blood soaked his black suit.
Demon Eye Heavenly King raised his saber high and brought it down with all his might. With a wet squelch, Fear Heavenly King's head was cleanly severed, tumbling to the ground.
Clad in the Swordsman Cloak, Fu Qingyang produced a sword casket. The lid sprang open, accompanied by an endless barrage of shrieking howls.
Six miniature three-inch flying swords shot forth like lightning. Two twisted together, drilling straight ahead like an auger; two carved a semicircular arc, aiming directly for the back of the head;
and two shot into the sky, pivoting their tips at the apex to plummet with piercing shrieks.
Every flying sword carried sword qi capable of severing space, along with sword intent imbued with the power of Fiend Queller.
The primordial spirit resided in the sea of consciousness, the sea of consciousness within the Niwan palace, and the Niwan palace within the head.
When dealing with a demigod-level enemy, devastating the primordial spirit was far more rewarding than destroying the physical vessel.
Just then, two faint crimson beams descended from the heavens—one shining on the severed head, the other on the headless body.
Bathed in the faint crimson light, the head's eyes rolled and snapped out of their stupor. Rolling upward, the pupils fired two incomparably sharp beams of sword qi like blinding lightning bolts.
The two flying swords plunging from high above were knocked off course, embedding themselves in the desert wasteland with two soft thuds and vanishing from sight.
Next, the severed head opened its mouth and clamped down on the two flying swords drilling toward its face. Its pearly white teeth crunched, grinding the two blades to dust.
Finally, rotating left and right, it puffed out its cheeks and spat out the sword shards with sharp puffs, knocking away the remaining two swords curving toward the back of the head.
Before being corrupted into a Bewitching Demon, Fear Heavenly King had been a Scout, and a high-status Puppeteer at that.
On the other side, the suit on the headless body's back split open with a tearing rip. Pairs of thick arms sprouted from his ribs. One hand formed a knife-edge and easily skewered Demon Eye Heavenly King's chest, hoisting him up and hurling him away with tremendous force.
The eight-foot-tall Demon Eye Heavenly King flew through the air like a boulder, cratering the wasteland repeatedly and kicking up billows of yellow sand.
Fear Heavenly King's headless body unhurriedly bent over, picked up the head, and pressed it onto the neck. With a sequence of sharp clicks, the cervical vertebrae reconnected on their own.
He rolled his neck, bones popping. The two faint crimson lights fused into one, deepening into an intense glow that shone upon Fear Heavenly King like a theatrical spotlight.
Within that imposing three-headed, eight-armed frame, terrifying power was brewing, and a bloodthirsty, berserk aura rapidly burgeoned.
Looking at the two, the easy smile on Fear Heavenly King's lips twisted into a savage sneer. His pupils flared scarlet like those of a blood-crazed maniac as he finished the sentence from earlier: "Are you two... taking me far too lightly?!"
Fu Qingyang looked up at the blood-red celestial body hanging in the murky sky, instantly grasping the crux of the problem.
He turned to Demon Eye Heavenly King, who was flying back from the distance, and said, "I agree with your suggestion."
"What suggestion?" Demon Eye Heavenly King failed to catch on for a second.
Fu Qingyang said, "You take the DPS, and I'll play support!"
Demon Eye Heavenly King looked at Fear Heavenly King, who resembled a god or demon locked in a Bloodthirsty Rampage. After a brief silence, he ventured, "Didn't you never back down?! Didn't you say you wouldn't retreat even in death?!"
Fu Qingyang's expression didn't waver. "This isn't backing down. It's sensible tactical synergy!"
Demon Eye Heavenly King glanced at Fear Heavenly King once more. Paranoid fanatic though he was, he yielded voluntarily: "Actually, I can play support too."
Chapter 1005