Chapter 634: In a Good Mood
A three-meter-tall body blurred the line between real and illusion, taking on the shape of a demon.
But the expression on its face was devout beyond measure, hands pressed together like a enlightened monk, stepping forward slowly, deliberately toward the large circle Chen Ye had drawn.
Everyone knew that stepping into that large circle could very well mean the end of one’s life.
Yet the demon showed not a hint of hesitation.
It was as if Chen Ye’s mere will had become its most devout reason.
If that three-meter frame did not look so much like something monstrous, with a different skin it might even pass for a high-ranking monk.
Faced with such devotion,
Chen Ye remained on full alert.
Until the matter was finished, Chen Ye would not relax for an instant.
He doubted every punctuation mark of everything this juvenile anomaly said.
As for why this juvenile anomaly called him Milord,
Chen Ye did not understand the reason, could not ask, and therefore did not dwell on it.
Like he’d said before, there are too many things in this world one cannot understand.
Trying to force clarity on all of them would be foolish.
Strengthen yourself as much as possible; only when you are truly strong will those so-called secrets reveal themselves clearly.
The figure drew nearer to the sacrificial circle Chen Ye had painted. With every step, its body shifted, and the oppressive pressure from it intensified.
Purple flames burned around it, and within those flames seemed to come wails and curses.
Faces would occasionally surface on the little creature’s body.
It was as if that form itself was a netherworld that bound human souls.
That was Chen Ye’s impression.
Each was a terrified, sorrowful, agonized face stripped of distinct features.
He had seen the Taoist transform earlier, but seeing it with his own eyes now still shocked him.
It felt like countless unjust souls were hidden inside that body.
A powerful terror rose in his chest, like an animal sensing its predator.
Anomalies were humanity’s natural enemies.
But that sensation had just begun to bloom when the supernatural power inside Chen Ye’s body extinguished it cleanly.
Anomalies are humanity’s enemies, yet the supernatural power in human bodies appears to be these anomalies’ enemies in turn.
If an ordinary human faced something like this, they would probably be frozen in fear and then slaughtered.
What shocked Chen Ye most was that face.
It transformed into Zhou Lan’s face, then into the face of Mo Huairen whom Chen Ye had killed.
After that it turned into Wu Jianshan’s face.
When Chen Ye looked at it, the face shifted in an instant into countless faces,
and every face was connected to him.
This ability resembled the Human-Faced Scorpion’s power, but it was distinct from it.
It was even more horrifying than the Human-Faced Scorpion.
Earlier the Taoist had mentioned fighting another semi-adult Purple Rakshasa,
but he had not said it would be like this.
Could every Purple Rakshasa have different abilities?
Chen Ye kept his face expressionless. To him, these people were more or less those he had killed, or people who died because of him.
When they were alive, he neither feared them nor cared about their deaths.
Still, he remained vigilant, never easing because of this little creature’s inexplicable reverence.
The surrounding mist thickened, and inside the Smoke Breath Mist something large seemed to be forming.
At Chen Ye’s sign, that large thing in the mist would surge out and tear this anomaly apart.
At that moment Chen Ye’s gaze caught something on the nape of the Rakshasa’s neck, and his eyes flashed.
There was a small face, a wrinkled little face.
It looked either like a newborn’s face or like that of a decrepit old person.
The wrinkles layered over one another.
The eyebrow hairs were long and wiry.
When Chen Ye noticed the small child’s face at the back of the neck, the child—or perhaps the old person—suddenly opened its eyes.
Those eyes were indescribable.
They were like eyes that peered into the human world from hell itself.
Pitch black, yet lucid and clear.
When Chen Ye met those eyes, the Blood Eye prickled slightly.
Some energy seemed to attempt to surge from those eyes into him,
but it was dispersed by the energy the Blood Eye carried.
It was like one powerful force meeting an even stronger one.
At that instant Chen Ye did not hesitate and activated Body Transformation into Blue Smoke.
He had prepared long ago; any sign of danger and he would turn himself into smoke immediately.
A cold, eerie snicker sounded right by his ear.
“Hehe… Milord, I’m sorry, please forgive me…”
The words cut off mid-sentence.
The three-meter Rakshasa drove a hand forward with astonishing speed, stabbing through where Chen Ye’s body had been.
But… but…
Where Chen Ye had been stood only a dissipating cloud of smoke!
The long, ominous arm had pierced nothing but blue smoke.
If the strike had landed on a real body,
Chen Ye would likely have been dead.
Although he had means to survive,
he always spared no effort to keep his guard high. Even when dealing with the lowest-level anomaly, he treated it with utmost caution.
The demon looked stunned to have only pierced a wisp of smoke, and could not finish the words it had meant to say.
From the demon’s perspective this should have been a guaranteed killing blow, yet it had failed.
How could this be!
The three-meter demon murmured the rest instinctively, “My… rudeness…”
Those four words slipped out as an instinct, yet panic briefly flickered across its face.
That emotion should not have appeared on a demon’s face, and its presence there was absurd.
“Indeed, anomalies are anomalies. You can never be too careful with them!”
A cold voice came from behind the demon.
Chen Ye curiously examined the wrinkled little face at the demon’s nape.
“Milord, I’m sorry, I… I…”
The small wrinkled face at the back of the neck truly appeared flustered and started apologizing again.
The previous shifts—evil, devotion, arrogant then deferential—seemed to indicate a composite of many individuals forming one being.
Chen Ye waved his hand, “It’s fine. If I hadn’t prepared, I wouldn’t have released you from the cage. It’s fine…”
There was no hint of anger in his voice; he spoke as if discussing something unrelated.
But at that moment,
a purple, thin tongue suddenly snaked out from the demon’s back.
The tongue darted with terrifying speed and even made a screech as it cut through the air.
It had once allowed this creature to ambush and kill many foes stronger than itself.
However, when that tongue pierced the air now, it did not puncture Chen Ye’s body.
At the spot where Chen Ye had stood, there was only blue smoke.
The smoke scattered, and no one remained.
The demon was finally panicked.
“How is this possible… this… how is this possible…”
Chen Ye stepped out from the Smoke Breath Mist and looked at the demon’s back.
At first there had been only the wrinkled little face on the nape.
But now, the demon’s back had sprouted a dense mass of faces.
Not one face—
its entire back was covered with countless faces.
Those faces piled up like ants, seeming desperate to find some vent for release.
“Indeed, anomalies are anomalies!”
“All right, have some fun with you long enough, now you should go!”
Chen Ye looked at the demon and the corner of his mouth twitched upward, clearly in a good mood.
One of the Hundred-Ghost Eater’s abilities was Demon Manifestation.
Any anomalies sacrificed to the Hundred-Ghost Eater were stored in its prison.
Later in battle, he could even mobilize those anomalies’ abilities.
Although this juvenile Purple Rakshasa’s power was not strong, its abilities were peculiar, and they would add another option to his arsenal in the future.
That was why Chen Ye was in a good mood.