Chapter 94
Somewhere else, in a dim underworld that stank of blood.
Two black-robed figures stood in a towering black demonic tower, before a small formation.
On the formation lay the broken pieces of a life tablet, two pairs of fists slowly closed.
"The Blood Demon Ancestor failed."
"And he was killed."
"Is that Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon really that strong?"
"A wisp of soul power made it back through the tablet before it broke, it should carry fragments of what he saw."
"Open it."
One of them drew a thread of his own soul power and pushed it into the broken tablet.
Ink-black light came pouring out of the formation.
The pieces knitted back together, and a short memory bloomed above them.
It showed how the Blood Demon Ancestor died, head crushed flat under Soren’s foot.
Both men flinched.
"That brat, the same Soren who was worth nothing for hundreds of years, then changed overnight like a different soul crawled in."
"And he’s the one who killed the Blood Demon Ancestor."
"No Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon anywhere in this, he did it alone."
Soul transmission through a life tablet was a technique only serious factions bothered with, before dying, whoever marked the tablet could push back a thread of soul power carrying intelligence and a last few images.
What the Blood Demon Ancestor sent back had no dragon in it, his dying message might as well have been spelled out, Soren is the threat.
One of them fed demonic energy into the projection and enlarged Soren’s image.
He sucked in a breath, the other man’s face went darker.
The enlarged view caught individual particles of Soren’s demonic energy, every point of light was one unit, and the makeup was nothing like an ordinary Demon Emperor’s.
Every particle carried a violent warping force, sitting inside each one, faint but there, was a seal.
"An Ancestor Seal!"
"Only demonic energy from someone who’s stepped into the Ancestor Realm carries an Ancestor Seal!"
"Then our intelligence is badly wrong!"
"Soren isn’t a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor, he isn’t even Upper-Tier."
"He’s an Ancestor Realm expert!"
"Our Heavenly Demon Alliance runs a network that almost never fails."
"This time it failed catastrophically."
"Could he have broken through in the last few days?"
"Most likely, the Ancestor Seals are there, but they’re thin, no solidity."
"So he hasn’t awakened his innate Ancestor technique yet."
"Mark of a fresh breakthrough."
"We were careless."
"To think another Ancestor Realm expert would surface this fast, on top of the three in our Alliance."
"Soren has to die."
"He’s newly broken through, and he still killed the Blood Demon Ancestor, who had centuries of blood on his hands, he holds a blood contract with a Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon at Middle-Tier Spirit Ancestor realm."
"It won’t be easy."
"Even hitting him together, we’d pay a steep price."
"And if our vitality gets gutted now, a plan we’ve built over lifetimes falls apart."
"Soren still dies, we simply can’t be the ones holding the knife."
The two traded a look, something had already been settled between them.
One of them snapped his fingers.
A teleportation portal opened, and a masked woman walked out of the twisting corridor of space.
She had a figure on her, wrapped in a tight black short dress that followed every line, white silk sleeved her arms, fair skin showing through in patches.
She crossed the floor with a rhythm to her hips, waist narrow, every step a small performance she didn’t look like she was putting on.
She dropped to one knee. "Greetings, Uncle."
"Greetings, Heaven Demon Ancestor."
The Heaven Demon Ancestor, the Earth Demon Ancestor and the Blood Demon Ancestor were the three founders who built the Heavenly Demon Alliance together.
The Earth Demon Ancestor was this young woman’s uncle.
He nodded once and waved off the formalities.
She stood, her gaze swept the room and snagged on the Blood Demon Ancestor’s tablet and the projection above it.
"Ah?" The sound got out before she could stop it.
"The Blood Demon Ancestor... he was killed?"
The Earth Demon Ancestor laid out everything about Soren and the chain of events, she was quick, went straight to the point. "What does Uncle wish me to do?"
He let out a heavy breath, stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Our plan is nearly at its final stage, barring surprises, a few more demon artifacts in the smelting furnace and we can wake one of the Ancient Evil God tribes."
"So we can’t afford the smallest mistake."
"Soren killed the Blood Demon Ancestor, the feud between him and this Alliance is carved in blood."
"But it’s inconvenient for the Heaven Demon Ancestor and me to show our faces, meeting him head-on is out of the question."
"You command the Alliance’s Assassination Division, you’ve got the experience, you’ll kill him."
She nodded, her voice didn’t waver. "Understood."
"Though I only broke through to Upper-Tier Demon Emperor recently, the gap between us is too wide, ordinary methods won’t get me close."
The two Ancestors glanced at each other, and the same cold smile crept onto both mouths. "Correct."
"Which is exactly why we called you and nobody else."
"This won’t look like any assassination you’ve run before."
"Your target is a Demon Ancestor, no ordinary Emperor Realm expert comes into it."
"The Blood Demon Ancestor died to him, be ten thousand times more careful than usual."
"Yes," she said.
The Heaven Demon Ancestor added one more thing. "When the situation calls for it, you’ll have to make sacrifices to earn his trust, that’s how you raise your odds, don’t move early."
She paused. "The sacrifice the Heaven Demon Ancestor refers to is..."
"Your body."
"Ah? This..." Behind the mask her face went hot, she turned to the Earth Demon Ancestor.
"Uncle, you know my situation."
"Because of my status, I was never made to serve the other Demon Emperors the way the women who joined later were."
"So I’ve never been with a man."
"In matters like this..."
"...I don’t have the slightest experience."
"I’m afraid I can’t use my body to close the distance with someone like Soren."
The Earth Demon Ancestor answered without missing a beat. "It doesn’t matter."
"That inexperience is your greatest asset."
"Don’t rush it, remember this, first you draw out Soren’s secrets, only when you’re certain, ten parts out of ten, do you find the moment and finish him."
"Yes!" She bowed and withdrew.