Chapter 57
The gap between the Lower-Tier Ancestor Realm and the Upper-Tier Emperor Realm already ran dozens, hundreds of times over.
Between the Middle-Tier Ancestor Realm and the Upper-Tier Emperor Realm, it started at a thousand.
What did that mean in practice? A thousand of them attacking together would not match Orathis, it was a dimensional crush.
Every beat of Orathis’s wings shook another swath of demon cultivators and Demonic Guards to death where they stood.
The deaths all looked much the same, bodies bursting into blood mist, or simply vaporizing.
Vorian had already been broken past recovery, now, watching Soren, watching the son whose ties he had personally severed, his eyes went faintly damp despite himself.
A chorus of screams, and Orathis decisively swallowed the five Upper-Tier Demon Emperors, working its jaws a few times as if chewing gum.
The next second, it spat the mangled emperors back out with a gust of dragon breath.
"Disgusting, revolting, they taste worse than ordinary demons, there’s a strange flavor in the blood, like some spiritual fluid that never rinsed out."
Orathis shook its head and looked over at Aelyra, dragging up a wicked dragon grin, voice going wheedling. "Hehehe, master, those tender-skinned women aren’t of any further use either, right?"
Even restored to Middle-Tier Spirit Ancestor, it couldn’t break the blood contract Soren had left in its body. Its tier had reached Deep Affection and Righteousness, and betrayal hadn’t crossed its mind, without Soren’s nod, it didn’t dare freelance its meals.
"What’s the rush?" Soren meant to integrate the demon race and conquer the entire Azure Spirit World, and this Heavenly Demon Alliance he’d never heard of was very likely a serious obstacle.
There was also that Immemorial Ruin, opening once every hundred thousand years.
New to him as well, but clearly, if people would bury their identities for centuries of group missions just to earn the right of entry, the Ruin had to be extraordinary.
In all likelihood it held supreme treasures left over from the Immemorial Era.
He surfaced from his thoughts, one flex of his palm exerted suction across the distance, and Aelyra was wrenched over like an uprooted sapling, his hand closing on her throat.
In seconds her face flushed to its limit, she couldn’t breathe, she stared at him in terror, pupils shrinking and shrinking, quaking like the ground in an earthquake.
"Let me go."
"I... I can be loyal to you."
"About your mother... I am so very sorry."
"I’ll accept punishment... endure a thousand times her pain!"
"I only beg you... don’t kill me."
Soren’s hand tightened, his answer was in the grip.
Realizing he would not be moved, Aelyra’s face flipped in an instant from piteous begging to cornered viciousness.
"Soren, you’re heartless to the bone!"
"How I regret it, why didn’t I find a way to kill you back then!?"
"My mission of centuries failed because of you."
"But don’t get smug, my Heavenly Demon Alliance..."
"So much nonsense." Her voice alone made him want to gag, but he had to wait a moment longer, the intelligence on the Heavenly Demon Alliance was massive.
Only when the Strategy Encyclopedia finished condensing its text, and he confirmed Aelyra had no further use, did he let out a savage sneer and close his hand.
Her voice cut out completely, blood ran from her seven apertures.
Watching Soren kill Aelyra without asking one single question, the other four Matriarchs very nearly wet themselves on the spot.
Wait, at least ask something! He asked nothing, we have no idea what he wants, he just walked up and choked her to death, too brutal...
Soren tossed the corpse aside and signaled that Orathis could eat her.
The corners of its mouth spasmed as if struck numb by lightning.
"This little dragon had better... better go eat those other ones."
Aelyra’s state had killed its appetite entirely, the first standard of fine food was a complete presentation of color, aroma, and flavor.
Aelyra, bleeding from every aperture, did not qualify on a single count.
It swallowed the other four Matriarchs in one gulp, anticipating tender delicacies, within moments its eyes changed, and it spat them out like a dragon possessed.
"Pah, pah, pah!" It gagged, digging at its own throat with a massive claw.
"What, still tastes wrong?"
"Nothing like ordinary demons, what kind of bizarre things has that Alliance been feeding them?"
Leaving it to its misery, Soren turned his attention back to the Strategy Encyclopedia.
[The Heavenly Demon Alliance is a powerful and ancient legacy organization.]
[It is highly unusual, and worships an Evil God Ancient Race.]
[Joining requires two conditions: orthodox demonic blood, and a breakthrough to the Venerable realm. Members are implanted with a special restriction and made to drink an ancient forbidden fluid, ensuring they can never leak the Alliance’s strongholds.]
[Members operate in groups of ten, Demon Emperors leading Demon Venerables, executing missions to recover secret techniques, supreme treasures, demonic weapons, and other relics of the demon race.]
[All recovered demonic artifacts are melted into a single furnace in a sacrificial ritual, an attempt to awaken the Evil God Ancient Race slumbering within the Azure Spirit World.]
[Members who complete their missions receive a precious ancient scroll granting entry to the mysterious Immemorial Ruins.]
[The Immemorial Ruins are a battlefield of the Immemorial Era, scattered with supreme treasures and fortunate encounters.]
[The Heavenly Demon Alliance maintains a strict hierarchy.]
[Its members believe that once the Evil God Ancient Race awakens, it will bestow upon them a mighty bloodline and the power of eternal life.]
Soren’s brow creased, then smoothed.
Eternal life, s hunger that crossed races and worlds alike.
The more powerful a race or individual, the more terrified they were of losing what they’d gained, and the harder they chased forever, he was no exception, he wanted his youth kept and his freedom endless, but he just wasn’t that crazy yet.
Evil God Ancient Race, the name alone tells you it’s not a respectable species.
He searched the encyclopedia on the keyword overall strength, it answered at once, lines of vigorous script leaping across the panel.
"Three Ancestor Realms."
"Three thousand Demon Emperors."
"Fifty thousand Demon Venerables."
What a foundation. For a moment Soren couldn’t put his feelings into words, this shadow organization kept three Ancestor Realm experts on guard.
The whole world believed no Ancestor had appeared on the Exalted Continent in an age, the world simply knew too little.