Chapter 162: Arch-Demon Lord

Walking directly into the open, the six-armed fiend named Elasha looked at Adis opposite him with a puzzled gaze.

"There is the aura of our clan upon you?" he frowned and said to Adis.

Tina, standing nearby, was startled and instinctively glanced at Adis.

"Perhaps it is because I have killed too many of them."

Adis replied indifferently.

In truth, this was merely a wisp of aura carried over from his split soul's reincarnation. Adis had once suppressed that fiend god and gained a deep understanding of its power. To better protect this fragment of his soul, he had naturally retained a trace of the fiend god's aura as a disguise.

"How audacious!"

Hearing Adis's words, Elasha flew into a rage.

As beings corrupted by demonic energy, the fiends were inherently violent, the six-armed fiends doubly so. As members of the royal bloodline, they considered themselves superior by birth; when had they ever been provoked like this?

As his anger flared, the previously fragile, calm atmosphere shifted once more. Billow upon billow of dust and sand began to rise, driven by an invisible demonic force that surged forward.

This demonic force far surpassed that of the ordinary fiends he had encountered before, having already reached the Tier Two threshold. Compared to him, the fiends Adis had faced previously could almost be considered defective products.

The howling sand gradually obscured the scene ahead, swallowing Adis's figure from sight. Within the shadows, a fiend god seemed to leap high into the air, bringing down a fist that shattered the earth.

"Such formidable power! Truly worthy of Lord Elasha!"

All around, the remaining few fiends wore expressions of adoration, gazing with reverence at Elasha standing in front.

Across from them, however, everyone's heart skipped a beat. Although they had faith in Adis, facing such an irresistible force, they could not suppress their inner terror.

Yet, as he looked ahead, Elasha's expression grew increasingly grave, showing no signs of relief.

Right before them, the dust and sand gradually dissipated, revealing Adis standing firmly upon the earth, completely unharmed.

"Impossible!" Elasha cried out in shock, disbelief etched in the eyes he fixed upon Adis.

"Merely Tier Two." Looking ahead, Adis shook his head, a faint red glow shimmering across his body.

Had it been a few months ago, taking that blow head-on might have inflicted some injuries upon him. But now, it was accomplished with absolute ease.

He stepped forward in silence, a tiny spark of crimson brilliance slowly igniting upon his body. A vast surge of blood qi rolled outward, causing the expressions of the fiends opposite him to change drastically.

"You—" Elasha barely uttered the first syllable before he felt the world shift before his eyes.

A piercing crimson killing intent, mingled with bloodline power, soared into the sky and instantly bore down upon him. The very next instant, Adis strode forward, his eyes shining with a pure, unblemished white.

A violent wave of mental shock struck, causing Elasha's mind to stiffen involuntarily. In the next moment, a cross-shaped blade of blood slashed across the air with overwhelming momentum, chopping down upon him.

Disbelief twisted his features as he stared blankly at Adis, who had closed the distance in an instant. A multitude of cracks began to spread across his body.

A small explosion occurred right where he stood, scattering countless shreds of flesh gleaming with a dark, murky luster, causing Tina behind them to let out a sharp shriek.

"General Elasha is... dead..." A four-armed fiend stood frozen, staring in sheer disbelief at the scattered remains covering the ground.

Among the fiend race, six-armed fiends not only held lofty status but also possessed immense power, rarely ever meeting their end in battle. Yet this was the first time someone had slaughtered one so cleanly and decisively using merely human form.

The fiend abruptly snapped his head up, glaring at Adis as he steadily approached, and laughed with unhinged madness: "You're dead! You are dead!"

"King Aura will never let you go!"

Before the words could fully fade, he let out a muffled groan as a spear condensed from blood qi pierced straight through his chest, ending his life.

Behind him, Tina watched in a daze as Adis slaughtered the fiends who had always seemed invincible to her. A profound sense of unreality washed over her, making her feel as though she were trapped in a dream.

At that moment, Adis turned back to look at her. The sheer weight of his killing intent sent a sharp shudder through her frame, snapping her sharply back to reality.

"Go release the captives inside. We are leaving immediately." Adis looked at the young woman, his tone calm.

Hearing his command, the young girl did not dare to hesitate in the slightest. She sprinted into the encampment with the desperate speed of someone fleeing for her life.

Inside the camp stood countless wooden stakes, each with a human tied to it like cattle. Atop several of the stakes rested corpses, vast portions of their flesh already stripped away.

Taking in this grim scene, a flash of deep hatred crossed the young girl's eyes as she hurried forward.

"Save me!" Cries for rescue immediately rang out from the captives inside as they caught sight of the girl entering.

For a moment, wailing intertwined with frantic pleas echoed endlessly.

Yet, deaf to these entreaties, the girl kept her gaze fixed on her surroundings as she searched for something.

"Sister Tina..." A timid voice piped up from ahead, laced with tears.

Instantly, the girl's eyes lit up. She strode quickly forward, spotting a little girl locked inside, and cried out involuntarily, "Salila!"

She gently pulled out the dagger hidden in her clothes, severed the ropes binding the little girl, and pulled her into a tight embrace as they wept bitterly together.

After a brief while, the chaotic scene abruptly quieted down.

Adis walked in from the outside, cloaked in overwhelming killing intent and the stench of blood. The chilling aura forced the surrounding wailers to fall silent in terror.

He glanced at the two sisters weeping in each other's arms, frowned slightly, and then turned to the few clansmen behind him: "Release these people and drive them outside."

"This is somewhat troublesome."

Adis looked at the densely packed crowd before him, feeling a mild headache coming on.

There were at least a thousand people captured by the fiends here. Managing such a massive population—simply securing enough guards to herd them—was already a monumental hassle, not to mention the subsequent logistical burden of providing food and supplies.

Moreover, these people had mostly been plundered from various places, making their backgrounds deeply complex, hailing perhaps from dozens of different regions. While many were now homeless, there were also those who, seeing that Adis's group was small in number, began clamoring to leave upon regaining their freedom, even inciting others to join them.

Yet Adis's method for dealing with this faction was straightforward: driven by blood qi, all resistance was brutally suppressed. A great rolling of severed heads served as a stern warning that thoroughly cowed the crowd.

Naturally, such actions carried lingering consequences. But as Adis caught sight of the hatred and revulsion in certain people's eyes, he merely smiled with utter indifference.

To a deity like him, the fleeting emotions of mere mortals meant nothing at all. Once they returned, a simple cleansing through faith coupled with the passage of time would grind away any rebellious sentiments, transforming them all into nourishment for his ongoing ascension.

...

Meanwhile, far to the north, at the exact moment of Elasha's death, deep within an ancient castle, a six-armed fiend grand lord slowly opened his eyes and cast his gaze toward the south.