In the present moment, the news of the city lord's death spread like wildfire.
The dwarves of Ironheart City were collectively furious.
A massive army of dwarves were quickly assembled.
Marilyn was alarmed, "Damn! The dwarves are on the move!"
The dwarves were unexpectedly swift on their mobilization.
Tens of thousands of dwarves.
If they launched a retaliatory attack in full force.
It was nigh impossible for the Silver Spring City to survive the full brunt of the assault.
The two hundred thousand elven residents would be slaughtered by the angry dwarves.
Nancilia reassured her, "Worry not, Marilyn. His Majesty will intervene and all the difficulties will be resolved!"
Marilyn's concern was not without reasons.
The elven chieftain had just been admitted under the Demon King's command.
She could not fully trust and depend on the Demon King like the young Elven King.
What if the Underground God was too powerful or too tough to deal with, and the Demon King was unable to vanquish it?
And what if the Demon King successfully vanquished the Underground God, but the daemonized dwarves did not die off as expected?
If any part of this plan went wrong.
The elves of the Silver Spring tribe would be endangered.
Zhang Nu did not attempt to explain nor convince them. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. He had the confidence to do so because of his ability to obtain information.
This cheat-like ability had never failed him.
"We're here!"
Ironbeard called out.
A magnificent temple appeared before them.
[Temple of the Blood God]...Description: This is a temple built by the corrupted dwarves, in which a powerful ancient Blood Daemon lurks.
An ancient Blood Daemon?
So it really was a daemon?
Marilyn could sense a disturbing power in the surroundings and a strong and nauseating stench of blood permeating in the air.
She took a few glances and observed, "There are many guards both inside and outside the temple."
Ironbeard pointed out, "These are not ordinary dwarves. They were hand picked by the false god as its divine servants. The daemonic power within them is much stronger than that of their ordinary brethren."
Zhang Nu quickly scanned the information prompt.
[Blood Fiend] Level 4 elite.
Description: Once the finest warriors of Ironheart City, their mad craving for the corrupted blood turned them into mindless puppets. They are now completely under control of the Blood Daemon and can be resurrected by it. They are exceedingly difficult to be thoroughly killed, but they can be sealed by ice magic.
The ancient Blood Daemon had a routine to control the dwarves.
It would first give the dwarves a taste of its benefits, such as healing diseases, recovering injuries, or increasing strength with blood consumption.
As long as the dwarves accepted the blood, they would unknowingly become addicted to it.
From then on, the dwarves would become obsessed with the blood like a junkie, unable to extricate themselves from it.
Over time, their minds would be corroded, and their thinking and mental states would be distorted. They would develop a fanatical fervor for the Blood Daemon, and even worship it as a god.
In the end, they would become puppets, through and through.
Just like the walking dead in front of them.
Zhang Nu began to assign tasks, "You guys will deal with these divine servants and delay the reinforcements. I will go in and eliminate this false god as quickly as possible."
"Understood!"
"Then let's move!"
The group swiftly rushed towards the temple.
"Who are you! How dare you trespass on sacred grounds! Or are you here to die!?"
A dozen divine servants standing guard outside were alarmed by the intruders. They all let out a low growl, their skin was torn, and they transformed into a daemon-like monster with a stature of five meters tall, a beefy physique and gnarly horns on their head.
Marilyn blasted one of the divine servants into smithereens with a single shot from her bow.
Peculiarly, these meaty smithereens melted into pus and blood, turned into a trickle, and finally reformed into a divine servant again, and it started rushing towards them once more.
"This is strange, why can't we kill them?"
"No, this is the work of the Blood Daemon. It's reviving them at the moment of their death."
Zhang Nu said indifferently, "With the false god alive, they are nearly invincible, but they can be sealed with ice elemental attacks."
"Then let me handle them!"
"Spirit of the ice, I summon thee!"
Nancilia activated her Elemental Covenant, summoning an ice elemental overlord. Immediately, a chilling stream shrouded the divine servants, freezing them in place one by one.
Within a blink of an eye, the dozen divine servants were frozen into icy statues.
The young Elven King exclaimed in surprise, "Your majesty, their weakness is indeed ice magic. Any attack with enough ice attribute energy can seal them frozen!"
These creatures.
They were definitely one of a kind.
How did the Demon King manage to see through their weakness at a glance? Truly unbelievable.
"Let's not waste anymore time."
"This place will soon be surrounded."
"Head inside and occupy the temple first!"
Zhang Nu led his three subordinates straight into the temple. There were still over a hundred divine servants stationed inside, all of them top-tier Level 4 elite warriors. However, they were easily suppressed by the magic of the Elven King and her ice elemental overlord.
Just then, the alarm was sounded.
Hundreds and even thousands of dwarves madly rushed in from all directions.
"I'll leave this to you."
"Hold back these dwarves and buy me some time."
Zhang Nu immediately summoned his royal guards, the twenty Mystic Royal Guards immediately activated their Mystic Dragon Barrier, and a protective dome with the strength comparable to a city's defense barrier was erected. The dome instantly enveloped the entire temple, blocking the hundreds of thousands of dwarves outside.
Nancilia and Marilyn were both Level 4 overlords, along with dozens of Level 4 lord royal guards, they should be able to hold on for a long while.
Zhang Nu entered a cave deep within the temple.
[You are suffering from psychic erosion. HP -14!]
[You are suffering from psychic erosion. HP -11!]
[You are suffering from psychic erosion. HP -17!]
[...]
After entering the cave, Zhang Nu found that the space inside was much larger than he had imagined. And when he reached the end of the cave, his field of vision suddenly opened up several hundred times, revealing a huge and gooey lake of blood.
This lake was the source of the psychic erosion.
[Ancient Extraterrestrial Blood Daemon] Level 5 overlord. HP 20000, MP 15000
...
Skills: Soul Transfer Ritual (A rank), Blood Daemon Incarnation (A rank), Blood Temptation (A rank), Blood Boiling Rage (B rank), Dissolving Ocean (B rank), etc.
Description: This is a mysterious Blood Daemon not of this land. It arrived in the Endless Mountains with a meteorite in ancient times. It woke up during the Ironheart mining disaster two hundred years ago after absorbing enough souls. It has now absorbed hundreds of thousands of souls and possesses almost unbeatable power.
Ancient Extraterrestrial Blood Daemon?
So it really was a daemon afterall.
Zhang Nu was curious about the origin of this ancient daemon.
According to its description, it came from beyond these lands, and yet it was not categorized as a foreign Evil God, indicating that the so-called outer space still belonged to this world.
Truth be told, Zhang Nu possessed very limited knowledge regarding this world.
This world seemed to have numerous independent spaces and dimensions, separated from each other.
Other than the vast continent beyond, there was the chaotic underground world, the mysterious abyssal dimension, and the homeland of this extraterrestrial Blood Daemon, the outer space.
As for whether there are other spaces, Zhang Nu had no way of knowing for now.
In any case, this world was even more exciting than he imagined.
His view of the world was extremely limited as he was currently confined in this small Chaos Forest.
He must speed up his pace and step out into the vast world as soon as possible.
"You are mighty."
"But still not powerful enough!"
"Do you desire more power?"
A tempting voice echoed from the blood lake. "Consume my blood, it will unlock your full potential. You shall gain a power a hundred times stronger than what you possess right now!"
[You are under the effect of "Blood Temptation". Your "will" stat will decrease by 10% for 10 seconds!]
"Come!"
"Feast on my blood!"
"This is your deserving reward for finding your way here!"
Zhang Nu chuckled and took a step into the blood lake. The stinking pus and blood were churning around him, with countless faces of people floating onto the surface,
Each and every single face here was a soul devoured by the Blood Daemon.
Even in death.
They could not find peace nor release.
These victims of the daemon would forever be imprisoned in the sea of blood.
The blood tried to engulf Zhang Nu.
But as it approached him, a powerful force enveloped the space within several hundred meters, suppressing the blood within its effective radius.
The tempting voice constantly emanating from the blood lake was weakened by more than 90%.
"Monarch's Domain??"
"That's impossible!"
"How could you have a Monarch's Domain?!"
The voice from the blood lake revealed a hint of anxiety and unease.
Zhang Nu suppressed the blood lake with his domain and immediately formed a bolt of thunderflame to strike at the center of the lake.
In the center of the blood lake.
There laid a huge meteorite-like crystal.
The whole lake was merely an incarnation.
This extraterrestrial meteorite was the core of the Blood Daemon.
Attacking the lake would not threaten the Blood Daemon at all.
Only by damaging the core would the ancient daemon be harmed.
-899!
The meteorite core of the Blood Daemon cracked under the strike of the thunderflame bolt.
"Arrrggghhhh! How dare you injure me! I will imprison your soul and repay you with unimaginable torture until the end of time!!"
One after another.
Blood corpses were summoned out of the blood lake.
These blood corpses shambled towards Zhang Nu and exploded.
[You have suffered an attack from the "Blood Daemon Incarnation", -88 HP!]
[You have suffered an attack from the "Blood Daemon Incarnation", -95 HP!]
[You have suffered an attack from the "Blood Daemon Incarnation", -91 HP!]
The Ancient Blood Daemon really was something.
Zhang Nu had rarely ever suffered such high damage since he descended unto this world.
It seemed like these Blood Daemon incarnations could be summoned endlessly. If there were enough of them, even Zhang Nu, as powerful as he was, would be slightly threatened.
However, the damage dealt by these Blood Daemon incarnations was necrotic damage.
And since that was the case, Zhang Nu activated the "Eye of Death".
A crimson vertical eye awakened and opened on his forehead.
[You have been attacked by the "Blood Daemon Incarnation", HP+50, MP+50, all stats +1 for ten seconds!]
[You have been attacked by the "Blood Daemon Incarnation", HP+50, MP+50, all stats +1 for ten seconds!]
[You have been attacked by the "Blood Daemon Incarnation", HP+50, MP+50, all stats +1 for ten seconds!]
[...]
Zhang Nu was surprised to find that after activating the "Eye of Death", not only was he immune to all necrotic damage, he also gained an necrotic energy absorbing effect.
After sending out a barrage of blood corpses for a while, the Ancient Blood Daemon noticed that something was amiss, and felt the corrosion aura of an Evil God.
"The might of an Evil God!"
"Who the hell are you!"
Zhang Nu ignored his question and continued to hurl out thunderflame bolts, causing constant damage to the Ancient Blood Daemon, whose HP was rapidly decreasing.
The outcome of this battle was already determined.
The Ancient Blood Daemon could not hold back his anger anymore.
It exclaimed, "I don't care who you are, but we have no grievances or grudges. It is not necessary for us to fight to the death. If you're willing to retreat, I can pretend that nothing has happened between us!"
Zhang Nu laughed, "You just declared you wanted to torture my soul day and night, and now as soon as you fall into disadvantage, you immediately want to settle things peacefully. Do you really think there's such convenience in this world?"
Upon hearing these words, the Blood Daemon was once again enraged.
"Do you think you alone can threaten me?!"
Zhang Nu resumed to strike at the core, after several attacks, the Blood Daemon only had a quarter of its total HP left.
At this rate, the Blood Daemon would soon be vanquished.
However.
Suddenly.
The blood lake began to boil.
Countless souls evaporated in their own screams.
The souls were converted into life force and seeped into the Blood Daemon's core, restoring the cracks on the meteorite at an astonishing speed.
[HP +1000!]
[HP +1000!]
[HP +1000!]
[...]
Each soul could restore 1000 HP to the Blood Daemon's core, and within just a second, the creature was restored to full health.
The Ancient Blood Demon said, "For two hundred years, I have collected hundreds of thousands of souls. I am immortal! Your strength is useless against me! There's nothing you can do!"
It turned out that the most powerful aspect of this Ancient Blood Daemon was its recovery ability!
Such terrifying recovery ability and its almost unlimited blood-bag reserve made him invincible.
Zhang Nu coldly sneered at it, "Is that so?"
As he spoke, an invisible force enveloped the Blood Daemon.
Time Control!
The flow of time was slowed down by a factor of ten!
Under normal circumstances, the Blood Daemon could recover from near-death to full strength in under a second, but now it would take ten full seconds to achieve the same effect.
In other words, Zhang Nu used his time manipulation ability to weaken the Blood Daemon's recovery ability to one-tenth its original strength.
"The power of time? This is impossible! How could a mere mortal like you wield such a tremendous power?" the Ancient Blood Daemon exclaimed.
Zhang Nu launched a barrage of attacks towards the core, and the Ancient Blood Daemon's HP dropped to less than one-third of its total pool.
He did not want the Ancient Blood Daemon to pull off any more tricks.
Thus, he gathered the power unto his Eye of Death and unleashed "Death Stare".
"No!"
"Stop!"
The Ancient Blood Daemon cried out in agony.
Under the terrible might of an Evil God,
His HP pool hit the bottom.
The core bursted into pieces.
[You've slain the Ancient Extraterrestrial Blood Daemon. Gold +2,100,000!]