Dongbo Xueying had never cared about these Chaos Realm experts. Even without secret treasures, he could easily annihilate a tenth-level Chaos Realm cultivator. Moreover, with the three great secret treasures—the Demon Emperor Robe, the Five Phases Beads, and the Crimson Cloud Divine Spear—his combat power far surpassed what it had been in his homeworld. This was precisely why he dared to venture into the Floating West Kingdom to hunt demons.
Time flowed swiftly, and before he knew it, over fifty thousand years had passed in the Floating West Kingdom.
Bounty hunting missions were exceedingly difficult.
The Windmoon Demon Lord was his most promising target, yet the fiend seemed to be hiding with extreme caution.
“I’m not skilled in tracking, but other experts from ancient kingdoms excel at it. After more than fifty thousand years, why hasn’t anyone made a move? Could it be that no one is targeting the Floating West Kingdom? I refuse to believe it!” Dongbo Xueying mused silently. Among the bounty missions, the Floating West Kingdom was practically the easiest target! Places like the Black Demon Swamp, though comparable in terms of high-level experts, were far more treacherous in environment, making them far less appealing to hunters.
There were also demons lurking within the Moonflower Ancient Kingdom.
Indeed.
The Moonflower Ancient Kingdom and the Skysplit Ancient Kingdom—the two weakest among the six great ancient kingdoms—both harbored hidden demons. Hunting demons within an ancient kingdom was far more perilous, as some of these fiends enjoyed the covert protection of invincible beings, though none dared to admit it openly for the sake of reputation.
“The Floating West Kingdom is definitely the easier prey,” Dongbo Xueying thought as he waited.
**Boom!**
A terrifying surge of energy erupted in the distance.
Through his mastery of the void’s essence, Dongbo Xueying sensed the disturbance and immediately turned his gaze northwestward.
“There!”
Without hesitation, he activated his Void-Piercing Teleportation Technique to observe from afar.
Under the cover of night, he saw an unassuming cave dwelling outside a city—a common sight, as many powerful cultivators preferred seclusion in the wilderness. Deep within the cave, two figures were locked in a ferocious battle.
“Windmoon Demon Lord, die!”
The speaker was a burly man with icy-white skin, wielding a massive hammer that trembled the void itself. This weapon was even more fearsome than the Cloud-Sky Hammer Dongbo Xueying had once encountered. The man radiated a chilling aura, and with a single swing, an overwhelming force surged into the hammer, crashing down like a tidal wave.
Opposite him stood a sinister-looking man with violet hair, his back adorned with thirteen blades fanned out like a peacock’s tail.
With a flick of his fingers, the blades shot forth.
**Swish! Swish! Swish!**
Layer upon layer of blade-light encircled the burly man.
**Boom!**
The hammer descended, scattering the countless blade-lights like leaves in a storm.
**Boom! Boom! Boom!**
The hammer’s momentum was unstoppable, sweeping everything aside as it closed in on the Windmoon Demon Lord.
The violet-haired fiend—the Windmoon Demon Lord—paled and hastily retreated.
**Swish!**
His escape was swift, the blades swiftly returning to their sheaths behind him.
“Windmoon Demon Lord…” Dongbo Xueying suppressed the wild joy in his heart.
After searching high and low, the prey had finally revealed itself.
“Brother Frostancient, I truly owe you one,” Dongbo Xueying thought with glee.
Frostancient the Great Lord.
A second-tier Cosmic God from the Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom. In the Summerwind Ancient Kingdom, especially among the core disciples of the Xia, Cang, and Fan Clans, any second-tier Cosmic God with sufficient accumulation would be granted a peak-tier secret treasure by the Summer Emperor, Fan Patriarch, or Cang Emperor—either procured or custom-forged. This was why the Summerwind Ancient Kingdom boasted so many Sovereign-level experts.
But the Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom was far less fortunate.
Though it had three invincible beings, all were practitioners of the Body Refinement Path. As a result, the kingdom’s supreme techniques were almost exclusively Body Refinement-oriented. Acquiring techniques from other schools required exorbitant trades with other ancient kingdoms—and such exchanges were limited in number.
As for artifact forging? The three ancestral masters of the Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom knew nothing of the craft, let alone forging peak-tier secret treasures. Thus, the only way to obtain such treasures was through battle and plunder.
But who among those wielding peak-tier treasures was an easy target?
Most had powerful backers.
Thus, the Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom was pitiable. While it had many second-tier Cosmic Gods, Sovereign-level experts were exceedingly rare—only seven in total.
Frostancient the Great Lord was undoubtedly among the strongest in terms of foundation, indisputably at the peak of the second tier. Had he been a core disciple of the Summerwind Ancient Kingdom, he would have long been granted a peak-tier treasure. But as a member of the Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom, he had none. This was why the kingdom’s terrifying Body Refinement experts all sought entry into the Heart Realm Palace.
“A bunch of freaks,” Dongbo Xueying muttered under his breath.
The Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom’s three ancestral masters had all reached the pinnacle of the Body Refinement Path. Through mutual enlightenment, they had cultivated a lineage where Body Refinement was the dominant school.
—
Dongbo Xueying’s teleportation range had vastly expanded. With a single step, he left his small courtyard and appeared in the wilderness, where he spotted the fleeing Windmoon Demon Lord.
The Windmoon Demon Lord and Frostancient the Great Lord were locked in a chase, both freezing the surrounding void to prevent the other from escaping.
“Frostancient, you’re too slow. At this rate, you’ll never catch him,” Dongbo Xueying observed coolly. The Windmoon Demon Lord was clearly faster, and within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he would escape the frozen void’s confines.
**Whoosh!**
Dongbo Xueying gripped the Crimson Cloud Divine Spear, maintaining his perfected Voidform, rendering himself undetectable to the two combatants.
For now, he watched from a distance, in no hurry to close in. Though the frozen void prevented teleportation, he could still wield the Crimson Cloud Domain through the spear—far more potent here than in his homeworld, reaching an even higher level! If he could bring the Crimson Cloud Divine Spear back, even the Sacred Master’s suppression via the Ancient Sacred World wouldn’t stop him from warping space to escape.
“Windmoon Demon Lord, you may be a second-tier Cosmic God, but alas…” Dongbo Xueying smirked slightly as he activated a secret art through the Demon Emperor Robe.
**Hum—**
An illusory world, vast and intangible, instantly enveloped the fleeing Windmoon Demon Lord.
This was Dongbo Xueying’s true terror.
The Soul Path was unlike other cultivation methods. In most cases, even if an opponent was stronger, one could at least endure minor injuries before escaping. But the Soul Path? Fail to resist, and it was instant annihilation.
With the Demon Emperor Robe amplifying his soul techniques, Dongbo Xueying’s attacks reached second-tier Cosmic God power—enough to force even the Southcloud King to divert part of his focus to resist. The Windmoon Demon Lord, with his flawed psyche, was the weakest of the Four Fiends of Floating West, making him easy prey for a soul specialist like Dongbo Xueying.
“Hmm?” Dongbo Xueying’s smirk abruptly froze, his eyes widening as he stared at the distant Windmoon Demon Lord.
The demon had suddenly halted.
He turned his head, looking back.
**Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!…**
From eight distant directions, towering pillars erupted, their surfaces alight with intricate runes. A colossal formation activated, its terrifying fluctuations forcing Dongbo Xueying out of his perfected Voidform. Even Frostancient the Great Lord stopped his pursuit, stunned. Another figure—a gray-robed elder—was also revealed within the formation’s range.
The Windmoon Demon Lord’s form shifted, dissolving into water before reforming into a short, rotund old man.
The old man gazed coldly at Frostancient, the gray-robed elder, and the white-robed youth who had just been exposed.
“Frostancient the Great Lord of the Snowfrost Ancient Kingdom, Eagle City Lord of the Myriad Realms Ancient Kingdom, and Flying Snow Emperor Lord of the Southcloud Kingdom… Pity, only three fish in my net,” the old man’s voice boomed across millions of miles of void. “Had it not been for Flying Snow’s soul techniques, I might have caught more.”
Dongbo Xueying, Frostancient, and the gray-robed elder all paled.
The rotund old man…
Was none other than the Floating West Ancestor—a legendary hegemon of the Heart Realm Continent!
The moment Dongbo Xueying’s illusory world failed to affect the “Windmoon Demon Lord,” he knew something was amiss. The real fiend couldn’t have resisted so effortlessly.
“He was impersonating the Windmoon Demon Lord, yet he wielded the Windmoon Blades… Could the Floating West Ancestor have mastered the Wind Path to Cosmic God level?” Dongbo Xueying realized instantly.
“Retreat!”
Frostancient the Great Lord wasted no time, fleeing outward. The gray-robed Eagle City Lord also vanished in a flash, his escape speed astonishing.
“Run!” Dongbo Xueying activated the Crimson Cloud Domain, warping space with each stride to cover tens of millions of miles in an instant, far outpacing Frostancient and the Eagle City Lord.
“That Ying Shan Xueying is fast!” Frostancient could only watch enviously as he lumbered away.
“Ying Shan Xueying of the Southcloud Kingdom?” The Eagle City Lord cast a fleeting glance at the rapidly vanishing white-robed youth.
“Flee?”
The Floating West Ancestor’s eyes glinted coldly. “You dare hunt my Floating West experts? If you come to kill, be prepared to be killed! All of you—DIE!”
**BOOM—**
The massive formation surged like a tidal wave. In the distance, another figure emerged—a giant holding aloft a colossal mountain. This was the Severing Heaven Sovereign, another Sovereign-level expert of the Floating West Kingdom, his killing intent overwhelming.
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