novelapdf Chapter 566 Ranking! The Demon King Emerges!
Chapter 566 Ranking! The Demon King Emerges!
Chen Fan sorted and put these items away, then took out the talisman to check his points.
He could see that the ranking of the desolate state was firmly in tenth place, with only a little over a hundred points between it and the ninth place, and it could be overtaken at any time. As long as he could maintain this ranking, he could represent the Great Yu Cultivation Kingdom to participate in the selection of the honorifics in the Zhao Kingdom.
As I was pondering this, I heard footsteps behind me.
It was Han Yueshan who came over.
He stopped three steps in front of Chen Fan, his expression more solemn than ever before. He first straightened his clothes, then bowed deeply to the ground.
"Guest Minister Chen, I have come here to apologize for what happened before." Han Yueshan straightened up, a wry smile on his face.
"To be honest, when I recruited you in the Desolate Continent City, I had the intention of employing you. At that time, I only regarded you as an ordinary Nascent Soul guest, and although I did not neglect you, I did not show you much respect either. Later, when I visited the officials in the capital, in order to avoid any complications, I made you endure it several times, which made you suffer a lot of humiliation."
Having lived for hundreds of years, I consider myself fairly good at judging people, yet I've never truly discerned Chen Keqing's true abilities. After spending these past few days together, I understand that with your skills, you wouldn't even consider the position of Deputy City Lord of Huangzhou, let alone a high-ranking official in the Great Yu Dynasty. The reason you remain in Huangzhou is because you always keep your promises. I admire that integrity.”
After listening, Chen Fan remained silent for a moment. Then he reached out and helped Han Yueshan up, saying calmly, "City Lord, there's no need for this. Treat me the way you treated me before, and treat me the same way you treat me now. Bow when you should bow, and stand firm when you should stand firm. You have your reasons for doing things, and I have my principles. As long as we don't betray each other, this friendship can last."
Upon hearing this, Han Yueshan's eyes even felt slightly hot.
He took a deep breath, suppressing his surging emotions, and cupped his hands, saying, "Very well, I will say no more. From now on, the affairs of Minister Chen are the affairs of the desolate prefecture. If Minister Chen is unwilling to concern himself with the affairs of the desolate prefecture, I will not utter a single word more."
Chen Fan nodded and said no more.
Han Yueshan suppressed his emotions, took out a talisman from his sleeve, and said seriously:
"Let's get down to business. Currently, the Desolate State is ranked tenth, only a hundred points away from ninth. There are about twenty other states remaining in the Ten Thousand Demon Valley. Among them, the State we need to be most wary of is You State. Dugu Jian's strength is unfathomable. He has never been defeated since entering the valley, and You State's points are firmly in first place. Next are Jian State and Shuang State, both of which have Nascent Soul late-stage Great Perfection experts in charge."
He pointed to the map displayed on the talisman and said, "We are currently located in the south-central part of the Ten Thousand Demon Valley. If we go deeper, we will approach the core area. The core area has a high density of Nascent Soul level demon beasts, but it is also more dangerous. My suggestion is to advance eastward along the edge of the core area. The number of demon beasts in that area is moderate. With Chen Keqing's Black Banner techniques, the hunting efficiency will be extremely high, and at the same time, it is less likely to encounter major prefectures such as Youzhou head-on."
Chen Fan glanced at the map and nodded: "Okay."
……
Over the next few days, the Desolate Alliance steadily advanced along the edge of the core area of the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons.
With Chen Fan's Black Soul Banner clearing the way, the efficiency of hunting demonic beasts was terrifying. Every time they encountered a Nascent Soul level demonic beast, Chen Fan would summon the Black Banner, and as soon as his Soul Sea appeared, the demonic beast's soul would be forcibly stripped away and absorbed into the banner, leaving only an intact corpse.
Han Yueshan and his men followed behind, collecting corpses and gathering materials. Their division of labor was clear and their cooperation was excellent, and their points steadily increased.
They also encountered several groups of cultivators from other prefectures. One group was a five-person team from Ming Prefecture, who deliberately avoided the area upon seeing the banners of the Desolate Prefecture from afar!
News of the battle in the valley had already spread throughout the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons. Now everyone knew that there was a Fiend in the Desolate State who carried a black banner and specialized in killing Nascent Soul cultivators.
Another group, a coalition of Qingzhou and Yuezhou, numbering more than ten, collided head-on with the desolate coalition at the edge of a swamp.
The two sides faced off across a swamp for several breaths. The Nascent Soul cultivator in the middle stage, who was leading the group, looked at the black banner at Chen Fan's waist, then at the expressions of his companions behind him, and finally led his team into the depths of the swamp without saying a word.
Looking at the cultivators from various states who fled at the mere sight of him, Ma Chengkong felt a mix of emotions.
Thinking about it, both are small states ranked at the bottom, but Liangzhou is chased and attacked wherever it goes, while Huangzhou is now avoided by everyone.
And this difference only applies to one person.
On the tenth day, everything proceeded as planned, and the wasteland's points had climbed to eighth.
But the unexpected happened without warning.
At noon, the group was besieging a stone-armored rhinoceros in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul realm in a stone forest.
Just as Chen Fan unleashed the Black Soul Banner, before his soul sea could even expand, the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled violently.
That wasn't the tremor caused by the trampling of a stone rhinoceros, but rather a terrifying fluctuation coming from the depths of the earth, as if some giant beast that had been sleeping for ten thousand years was awakening.
Immediately afterwards, a muffled explosion came from the deepest part of the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons, and a dark red beam of light shot into the sky, staining half of the sky blood red.
Han Yueshan's expression changed drastically, and he exclaimed, "That's the direction of the core restriction! The restriction has been broken?"
Before the words were finished, a terrifying and suffocating pressure swept in from the depths of the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons.
That oppressive aura far exceeded the realm of Nascent Soul cultivators, carrying a wild and ferocious demonic energy that crushed the entire Valley of Ten Thousand Demons as if it were a tangible force.
Under this oppressive force, the stone-armored rhinoceros collapsed to the ground, trembling all over, and didn't even have the courage to run away.
Chen Fan's expression hardened, and he retrieved the Black Soul Banner from his hand, spreading his divine sense out with all his might.
In his perception, the aura of the being deep within the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons was rapidly expanding, like a volcano that had been suppressed for ten thousand years finally finding an outlet to erupt.
A demon king at the Nascent Soul stage.
"Withdraw." Chen Fan uttered a single word without hesitation.
However, it was too late.
A dark shadow, obscuring the sky, flew out from the depths of the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons, moving at a speed too fast for the naked eye to perceive.
It was a black dragon over a hundred feet long, its entire body covered in jet-black scales, each scale the size of a door panel, with dark red edges, as if it had just crawled out of lava.
It opened its enormous maw, and a stream of black breath poured down like a waterfall, right below a group of fleeing cultivators!
That was the team from Jinzhou. The five Nascent Soul cultivators were corroded into bones before they could even scream in the black breath. As soon as their Nascent Souls escaped, they were swallowed up by the dragon.
A demon king in the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, the Black Water Mystic Dragon.
The entire Valley of Ten Thousand Demons instantly descended into chaos.
The cultivators from various prefectures scattered and fled, abandoning all thoughts of formations and strategies.
Some people tried to escape towards the valley entrance, only to find that the spatial rift at the valley entrance had been sealed off by a layer of dark red restriction!
Suddenly, the collapse of the core restriction triggered a chain reaction, paralyzing the entire teleportation system of the Ten Thousand Demon Valley. The teleportation seals used to enter could not be activated, and people from the outside could not enter.
Meanwhile, the Blackwater Xuanjiao circled above the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons, and with each breath, a group of cultivators turned into skeletons.