*Silence*
Following the Emperor's words, the world came to a still. The drums and melodies of war were heard in the distance. The demonic cultivators had their weapons and techniques all frozen in their hands. Eyeballing each other, their grunts, blinks, and breathing signalled need of how to proceed.
Particularly, many of their eyes remained on those with powerful cultivation bases and were well-equipped. Naturally, these higher ups were cautious and when they sensed that their enemy had spotted them, they used various ways to avoid his eyesight.
When Li Cheng saw this, his brows knitted, and a cold gleam shone in his eyes. Those in his sights felt the bore, causing a shiver to run down their spine. The pressure was insignificant and yet it was so profound.
The Emperor from above was looking down on them.
One of the leading figures couldn't take the pressure anymore and ordered,
"Those close kill!"
It was apparent that those who were 'close' were referring to the 5 demonic cultivators close to Li Cheng. These 5 were all within the Foundation Establishment and were in the grands scheme of things, cannon fodder. They were the only ones not in an encirclement and were roughly lined up about 2 metres away from Li Cheng.
From their stiff movements and slight wobbling, it was evident that they were afraid.
"Do I have to repeat what I said?" The higher-up threatened in a tone which suggested an underlying consequence ingrained in their bones.
"Screw this!" One of the 5 launched his knee up high in the air, curling down into a horse stance and screamed. Power seeped through his entirety, coursing outside a brownish energy with thin streams of malefic dark.
He clenched his hands further, kneading the metal surfaces of his ruby knuckle braces. On the pulsating surface, his now brown arms were shaping to very faintly resemble the image of a wild beast.
If one were to be caught in those hands, it would crush bone into pastry!
"Senior Brother Cai, you reached a new level in your technique?!"
One of the other 5 said in surprise. It seemed the tension of the battle allowed him to break through his technique. Encouraged and awed by, they nodded at each other and followed their Senior Brother; similar actions of preparing themselves to initiate an all-out assault.
We will fight to the death with you!
The other 4 were not ready, but Senior Brother Cai did not care. He had a feeling that he would probably die, but he had no choice as disobeying was death.
It was better for him to be the sacrifice and let his sisters and brothers have a chance to live.
"King Ox Demonic Mountain fists!"
With the whistling of the wind and pebbles flying, he appeared right in front of Li Cheng. The Emperor's subjects gasped in horror.
"AHHH!!!!!"
Screaming at the top of his lungs, he let loose an unstoppable barrage of fists, aiming straight where the enemy's solar plexus is, at the level of the heart; the dantian.
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
He wanted to cripple him!
Each strike contained the power of a mountain and furious momentum. The sounds generated by the fists howled; the power of the King Ox Demon was running rampant, madly charging dead ahead to destroy everything in its path.
After a full minute had passed, the hooves of the King Ox settled. The fists coursed with energy died down. No longer vivid as before, but continued to leak thin streams of energy, resembling a Demon Ox's cranial nares, nostrils, snorting of air.
Sweat drenched Cai's body, his pale smooth skin beet red and flabby from overexertion. Head down, gently bouncing off his upper chest.
Although his body should be hot, he felt frigid cold. He can see that his arms were full of blood. It was a successful attack, but his instincts were alarming him that something was wrong.
Deeply wrong.
Slowly, he tilted his head up.
Reflected in his crumbled eyes, was a being so high, out of this world that even the stars in the Heavens seemed distant compared to the being in front of him.
When Cai was issued with the rest of his comrades to gather as many forces when besieging this cultivator, he found it a little overkill. When he used his peripheral vision much like others or spiritual sense to navigate, he understood why everyone had to be wary.
It didn't matter if it was him at the Foundation Establishment level, or his higher ups that were as high as the Sky-Seeking Realm. All of them when they saw him felt a mysterious boundless pressure that the likes of even their leaders weren't able to exude.
The weird part was that what they felt varied which nobody understood why.
The more you looked, the more you fell into this incomprehensible feeling.
What perplexed him the most was the order: At all costs never to look at his eyes.
How bad—No… how terrifying could looking at his eyes be?
"...Son of Heaven…"
That's what quite a large number of cultivators nonsensically spread.
Cai also now fell in the same boat. What he was witnessing in front of his eyes was truly the reincarnation of Heaven's Son himself, or perhaps the living flesh from the myths and legends of old.
The Emperor, with eyes that appeared to penetrate and see all under the Heavens, blinked in a flutter. His perfect lips parted to a small circle and voiced a deep 'Oo' sound.
The voice was low, hollow, a whisper from the bottom-most depths of hell's carnage.
As though this Emperor was not the one in Heaven, but the Demonic Emperor ruling Hell.
—'Oh?'
That sole phrase echoed hundreds of thousand times in his mind.
He was going to die.
He was going to die.
He was going to die.
Unable to keep his entirety in sane, eyes stark wide, body convulsing as though he was struck by divine lightning… his breathing stopped.
With the tension released, he plopped to the ground.
Dead.
His eyes remained affixed open, un-forgetting the last scenery of his life.
The sisters and brothers who were blankly watching their Senior unleash a powerful technique had regained their wits when they saw him fall to the ground.
Disbelieved, they ran over and checked his condition.
"He's dead!"
"Senior Brother Cai died!"
The demonic cultivators watching immediately used their spiritual sense to check.
They were all dead silent after confirming he was deceased.
To them, they weren't surprised that the enemy would take no damage from a cultivator of that level. But what they couldn't understand was how he died.
They didn't sense him using any technique or release his Qi at all. The only thing they saw was him take the full blow and stare in his eyes.
Stare in his eyes?
He can kill by just looking!
Didn't that Sky-Seeking Realm cultivator also basically fell to her last breaths just by looking deeply into his eyes?
That would mean he could perhaps kill everyone here through a mere exchange of eyes if he wished!
High level cultivators with a powerful sea of consciousness could send their spiritual sense to assault the enemy, and if the disparity is wide they could also do something similar. It was akin to a soul cultivator attacking the enemy's soul.
But in this case, there were no signs of that either!
"Impossible!!" a female demonic cultivator clad in some strange jewellery shouted. Her disciples around her also cried in incredulity.
"What's wrong, Senior Spiritual Master?"
"I don't know how but… that Junior Cai's soul has gone missing!"
"What!"
Her words sent the whole army of demonic cultivators into a pandemic.
"Bullshit! Are you sure not one of us here had secretly taken the soul?" one demonic cultivator rebuked.
She snorted. "Hmph! You can ask any of my disciples. I assure you they would say the same. Besides, if you had some common sense, you would know it would be impossible for one of us to sneakily take the soul under everyone's watch."
"That's true."
"Senior Spiritual Master is right."
The dumb demonic cultivators muttered to themselves.
"So he can look at someone in the eyes, make them go mad, kill them, and simultaneously obliterate their soul?!"
When that conjecture was uttered by a Nascent- Soul demonic cultivator, the world went silent for a moment before the crowd riled up.
"We have to jump on him now!"
"Attack him together! He can't look all of us in the eye!"
"Fools!" one of the commanding demonic cultivators yelled, shutting up everyone present. "We have barely seen the extent of what he can do! All we know is his eyes are a death sentence, simply using our senses to look at him is dangerous, and he can disappear and teleport whenever and wherever he wants!
"Even the 4 Eyed Death Green Poison Toad's poison appears to have no effect on him! And we all know that even a Sky-Seeking Realm cultivator could fall seriously ill if the toad's poison is taken in large quantities."
***
Li Cheng was watching the scene in confused amusement.
During the beginning of the chaos, he had managed to shake off those assassins and then grouped up with a bunch of cultivators nearby. Because they were extremely wary of him, none of the demonic cultivators dared to continue their attack and left them alone.
However, that didn't mean they would let them go. Eventually, they were surrounded by several demonic cultivators and they continued to come until there seemed like hundreds had encircled them.
He was lucky that the afraid cultivators above the Golden-Core pushed their juniors into being the first force of confrontation.
Li Cheng was confident that he could take on the brunt of one as long as he was focused. Thus, he gambled that he could put on a small facade of invincibility in order to add to their wariness, further mess with their minds, and help him think of his next plan.
He was planning to domineeringly force one of them to challenge him one on one, with the demons using him as a scapegoat, but unexpectedly they did so themselves.
Despite this, the technique unleashed by that Cai demonic cultivator was no joke. He couldn't defend and though his robe was amazing, his cultivation was too trash that he had to force back in the surging blood threatening to vomit out of his mouth a couple of times.
When the demonic cultivator finally finished his attack, he couldn't help but leak out a groan of pain.
And for some reason it was shortly after this that the demonic cultivator died!
Then, a Spiritual Master who are experts dealing with souls said that the soul had gone missing.
'Have I somehow learnt the ultimate technique of killing with one's eyes that is present in many cultivation novels? But I didn't use any soul attacks, Qi, or Intent for that matter!
'It must be that potion…'
While keeping an eye on the surroundings, remaining indifferent as an Emperor, he took a glance at the potion's description again.
[Butterfly Queen's Mystical Misty Perfume x5.5]
[One of the Butterfly Queen's cherished perfumes, this fragrance encapsulates her renowned allure in the insect realm. Beyond her beauty, she's notorious for her skills in enticement, teasing, and applying pressure. This perfume embodies those captivating abilities. When sprayed, it releases a mist that envelops the area, leading onlookers to let their imaginations run wild. The intensity of the effect depends on the quantity used, with the full amount lasting roughly a week.]
Just in case, he had only used half the potion! And most of it was applied to his face.
What if he used the full bottle in one area?
He couldn't help but shiver at the horrors he may perform one day. Even feeling sorry for his future enemies.
Ding!
[Your skill has been updated.]