“Time you tasted the Demon Flogger,” Jared murmured. He sheathed the sword and snapped the ebony whip into existence. Thunder cracked, Lunaria felt very soul peel away from flesh. Terror flooded chest.
Oh no… The palace is finished. With a desperate cry spun and sprinted toward the palace depths. “Father, help me!”
Jared frowned and flew after her, gold aura streaking behind him. Flaxseed’s voice echoed after them, “Scream for every ancestor you have, girl! Nothing will save you today!”
Kishor darted forward, slicing through the drifting ash like a thrown spear. Flaxseed, his patched robe flapping behind him, pounded after without a moment’s hesitation.
***
Deep within Blackshade Demon Palace, where the torches burned with ghost-blue flame and every corridor echoed like a crypt, a cavernous hall sat shrouded in dank shadow.
In the center, an elderly man in midnight robes opened his eyes with glacial deliberation.
He was Varek Underwood, lord of Blackshade Demon Palace and father to the demon princess Lunaria. His aura pulsed with the strength of a fifth-grade earthly immortal, the sort of power that made lesser warriors bow without being asked.
On level four, that rank stood among the very greatest. He had long been capable of ascending to level five, but Varek remained here, convinced Lunaria could not yet command the palace elders, so secluded himself in endless cultivation.
“Who dares trespass in my palace?” The question boomed like cathedral bells, each word pressed down with suffocating force.
Lunaria stumbled into the grand hall, tears streaking moon-pale cheeks.
“Father, you must take charge! Jared and his people have forced their way inside, and our followers are dying by the dozen!”
Varek Underwood’s expression iced over.
“Jared? Such brazen courage. What master shelters you, boy?” He could not believe anyone below an elder would storm Blackshade Demon Palace without powerful backing.
At that instant, Jared burst through the shattered doorway, Kishor and Flaxseed flanking him.
A crooked smile curled across Jared’s lips. The black-robed lord was only fifth-tier, Kishor’s seventh-tier aura already dwarfed him, and Jared felt no trace of fear.
Demon Flogger quivered in Jared’s grasp, still humming with lingering demonic haze.
“Fifth tier of Earthly immortal Realm?” Jared laughed softly, each chuckle a fresh insult. “I expected a monster fit to shake the heavens, yet I find an old tortoise hiding behind his daughter…”
“When screamed a moment ago, where was mighty father? Is your age so advanced you can’t even crawl from your chamber?”
Color drained from Varek’s face until it resembled weathered bronze. He had lived millennia, carving his reputation across level four, and never once endured such open contempt, especially from a mere Wandering immortal Realm Level Seven cultivator.
“Impudent whelp, enough chatter!” Varek roared, unleashing a cyclone of black fog that swallowed every torchlight. “Today you will learn that between an earthly immortal and a wandering immortal yawns an unbridgeable abyss!”
“An abyss?” Jared squared his shoulders, mocking eyes bright as flint. “You couldn’t even shield your only child, yet you lecture me on chasms. I’d wager your fifth tier was bought with pills, not earned with blood.”
“Die!” Varek’s fury peaked.
His robe ballooned like a storm sail; five ink-black claw shadows ripped through the air, each dripping corrosive mist, the infamous Netherworld Ghost Claw, a move that shredded ordinary third tier Earthly immortal Realms without pause.
Seeing the claws descend, Kishor shifted forward, but Jared lifted a hand. The gesture froze the brute where stood.
“Leave to me,” Jared said, eyes gleaming with wildfire. “My strength rose too quickly lately, and We had no one worth testing it on. This relic is perfect to get me all warmed up.”
