Liye’s expression was gloomy as he glared at Li Xie, who was the one speaking.
If he weren’t injured right now, he would definitely make Li Xie experience what it meant to be crushed by overwhelming strength!
By contrast, Li Xie remained calm from beginning to end. His words were neither servile nor arrogant, and every sentence carried weight.
The Demon King narrowed his eyes. His cold, stern gaze swept over Li Xie before landing on Liye, who stood to the side, as though he were pondering something.
“Father, you mustn’t believe him! He’s talking nonsense! The formations in those two diverging paths are extremely dangerous. If we enter them, we’ll suffer heavy losses!”
Seeing the Demon King fall silent in thought, Liye realized that he was beginning to hesitate. His heart tightened, and he hurriedly reminded him.
As soon as he finished speaking, the Demon King raised a hand and cut him off.
“Since Xie’er dares to stake his life on it, why don’t we go in and take a look?”
The Demon King turned his head. His oppressive gaze fell on Li Xie as he continued coldly, “If he has reported falsely or spoken nonsense, he will be punished according to the demon clan’s laws!”
The demon clan’s laws?
Although Li Xie was a prince of the demon clan, if he truly lied and caused casualties among the clan members, he would still be punished.
The Demon King had always disliked him. The punishment would certainly be severe—perhaps even more so than usual!
Liye, who was kneeling, suddenly raised his head and met the Demon King’s cold, bloodthirsty eyes.
In that instant, he understood.
His father intended to use this as an excuse to deal with Li Xie!
The words of consolation that had reached his lips were swallowed back down. Liye abruptly cupped his fists and lowered his head.
“Yes. I’ll follow Father’s orders.”
The Demon King waved a hand, signaling Liye to rise, then turned his gaze toward Li Xie, who had also straightened up.
“Since you claim that this path is safe, you will lead the way.”
“Yes.”
Li Xie lowered his eyes and replied before walking toward the front of the group.
Hidden among the crowd, Yuan Shu watched as Li Xie was treated differently and felt a surge of anger.
Both men were princes of the demon clan, yet Liye was covered in all kinds of high-grade life-preserving treasures.
Earlier, when he had entered the altered underground palace formation, it was only by relying on those treasures that Liye had managed to escape with his life.
Li Xie, on the other hand, had nothing on him besides a high-grade battle robe with a modest amount of defensive power.
As for the demonic treasure he held horizontally in his hand—the Blood Blade—Black One had told her that it had merely been grudgingly bestowed upon him by the Demon King after he rendered a great service.
He had not received a new treasure in decades.
It was no wonder that, despite Li Xie’s cultivation talent being no weaker than Liye’s, he had never managed to catch up to him.
The cultivation resources the Demon King provided to the two of them were entirely different. How could their cultivation speeds possibly be the same?
Fortunately, Yuan Shu was here to help this time.
When Liye entered the formation, she had instructed the formation spirit to switch it to a formation of formidable power. When Li Xie entered, she had ordered the formation spirit to switch it back.
The group followed Li Xie into the underground palace. At Liye’s warning, they had already prepared themselves to withstand a powerful assault.
However, after entering the underground palace formation, they encountered nothing except a few extremely ordinary streaks of formation light blazing down from overhead.
The group exchanged bewildered glances before sending out a few symbolic bursts of defensive spiritual power, dispersing the scattered flames of light as they fell.
The entire formation space immediately fell silent. There was not the slightest sign of danger!
“This is what you called a place filled with danger?”
The Demon King’s expression darkened. He turned to look at Liye, who was standing behind him.
He found it difficult to believe that the Third Prince he had devoted himself to nurturing had been frightened out of his wits by such an empty formation.
Just moments ago, he had even vomited blood in the outer chamber and nearly died!
Liye had not expected this outcome either.
His expression shifted, disbelief filling his features. His eyes widened as he hurriedly searched the formation space.
“No, this is impossible… How could this be? Impossible!”
The moment he entered the formation, the formation spirit—towering half a mountain high—had attacked with such ferocity that he had nearly died on the spot several times.
Several life-saving treasures he carried had also been shattered. Only by the narrowest margin had he managed to preserve his life.
How could it be that there was no danger?
“Impossible? Are you trying to say this isn’t the same formation you just entered?”
The Demon King was furious inside, but only sneered. He picked up a torn piece of cloth from a branch beside him and held it out to Liye.
“Take a good look. Is it yours?”
Liye’s eyes widened. He glanced at it, then hurriedly lowered his head.
“Yes. This strip of cloth is from my robe.”
The Demon King lowered his eyes to Liye, who was kneeling before him, and his expression turned completely cold.
“This is the first time I’ve learned that you can be so eager for quick success that you would lie to my face!”
He had thought he would be dealing with Li Xie. He had never expected it to be Liye!
Liye’s expression changed. He opened his mouth, apparently intending to argue, but the Demon King cut him off with a sharp shout.
“Enough! We have no time to waste here. Everyone, follow me through the formation!”
“Yes!”
The demons answered in unison and followed the Demon King, darting toward the other side of the formation.
Li Xie stepped forward. His feet paused for a moment in front of Liye. Looking down, he curved his lips into a smile that was not quite a smile.
“Third Brother, an empty formation was actually enough to make you vomit blood. Tsk, tsk, tsk… I’m afraid your Demon Transformation realm is a fake, huh? Heh heh heh…”
With that, Li Xie strode off to catch up with the main group.
Behind him, Liye was so enraged that he flung out a burst of demonic qi, smashing it viciously into the stone wall beside him.
“That damn Li Xie! How did he know the danger in this formation had disappeared?”
After cursing viciously, Liye suddenly thought of something and abruptly turned to look toward the shadows behind him.
“I told you to keep an eye on Li Xie’s movements. Did you notice anything unusual?”
From the dim shadows, a black-clad demon stepped forward and cupped his fists toward Liye.
“Reporting to the Third Prince, the Eldest Prince repeatedly looked back today. He seemed especially concerned about a female demon cultivator among the crowd!”
“Hmm? A female demon cultivator? Are you sure?” Liye grew interested, and faint glimmers of light appeared in his dark eyes.
The black-clad demon nodded. “This subordinate also saw that Black One, the Eldest Prince’s trusted aide, was taking exceptional care of her…”
“Really?”
“Yes. This subordinate would never dare to make such a claim without certainty!”
Liye narrowed his eyes. He had been searching for leverage against Li Xie for a long time.
Could this be it? Had he finally found something?
…
The demon army passed through three formations in succession before finally stopping.
The Demon King raised a hand, and a black-gray demon rat immediately darted out from the shadows in a corner of the underground palace and leaped onto his palm.
The demon rat whispered into the Demon King’s ear. His eyes lit up, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
“This underground palace has countless branching paths and intricate formations. Even the Earth Demon Sha Clan, despite setting out first, has only reached a short distance ahead of us.”
“Since we’ve caught up, there’s no need to remain so tense. Pass down my order: everyone is to rest where they are and recover their strength.”
“When word comes from up ahead, we’ll go and claim our share!”
“Yes.” The demon steward standing nearby hurriedly went to relay the Demon King’s order.
Another Demon King’s commander frowned and could not help reminding him, “Demon King, the people who entered right behind us were from the Falling Immortal Sect and the Myriad Sword Sect. Several days have passed. What if they catch up to us…”
“Ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha…”
Upon hearing this, the Demon King suddenly burst into laughter. “The people from the Falling Immortal Sect and the Myriad Swords Sect were all affected by the dungeon’s unique spiritual energy. They’ve been left far behind!”
“Even if they rest here for several days, I doubt they’ll be able to catch up with us!”
“How could that be?” the commander asked in astonishment.
“Have you forgotten what we discovered in this dungeon when we first entered?” The Demon King turned his head.
“My lord, you mean… the power of union!”
…
