Chapter 124: A Good Plan
The light curtain was egg-shaped, floating in the air.
Zen crawled to the edge of the eggshell and was only a few feet away from Demon King Aldrich.
There was a saying that people couldn't be distracted when competing in battle of life vitality, for Aldrich he believed otherwise. Being the demon king, he was beyond any human belief and standards so a slight disturbance wouldn't affect him.
Zen thought that if he had rushed without thinking, he might be stabbed by the demon king's spike and his life would be over before he knew it. At this point, caution was his only friend.
He thought that the safest way was to attack with his broken flying knife, but he didn't expect to kill demon king with one shot. But if he could injure him, it could cause a considerable amount of effect on the demon king.
With that in mind, Zen gently pressed space ring with his finger and shot flying knife towards the back of the Demon King Aldrich.
Meanwhile, the demon king was ranting about his carelessness in ignoring the human boy when he released the demon's holy fire.
He initially thought that the human boy was as weak as an ant. He wouldn't even pay much attention to a master of the Illuminating Soul Realm, so why would he worry about a meek human boy? He was confident that the boy would eventually be corroded when exposed to his demon's holy fire.
But Demon King Aldrich didn't expect that the boy would consume his demon's holy fire.
He found it strange for an ordinary human to stand his demon's holy fire, let alone consume it like it was nothing.
Witnessing this made him change his perspective about the boy. Since then, he didn't let his guard down at all.
It also made sense to the demon king why Yolande brought the boy to the battlefield. If Yolande didn't know that the boy had the ability to swallow the demon's holy fire, she wouldn't have brought him in here in the first place.
After he processed all the details, he now concluded that everything wasn't a coincidence, but premeditation.
And Demon King Aldrich believed that the humans had more tricks up their sleeves.
At that time, he sensed the flying knife that Zen shot at his back.
Before Demon King Aldrich had time to react, the flying knife already hit him at the back.
“That tickles. By the way, that's a nice flying knife, kid,” Demon King Aldrich chuckled sarcastically.
But Zen was in disbelief when he saw how his flying knife stopped before hitting the demon king as if there was a great barrier that was protecting Aldrich.
Spencer and the other masters were fighting with the other two demon kings in the sky when they saw what was happening between Zen and Demon King Aldrich. They abruptly stopped and watched the combat nervously.
“Geez, what a pity!” Spencer shook his head in disappointment. 'The kid's strength is only at the half-step into the nature level and it isn't enough to deal with the demon king. If it were me, that flying knife would surely hit him and that demon king won't have the chance to escape. He would be dead in an instant, ' Spencer thought to himself.
The other Illuminating Soul Realm masters were also disappointed at the turn of events. “What is wrong with him? Does he really think he can beat that demon king with his half-step into the nature level?” said one of the masters.
On the other hand, Demon King Oceiros and the other ordinary demon king were a bit relaxed and were enjoying the scene. “That boy is stupid enough to fight Aldrich with his level. It's like going into a lion's den and presenting himself as food. He'll soon be crushed like an ant,” Demon King Oceiros said to the other demon king.
Zen was nervous, but he had to take another shot at this. He gently pulled the ring on his finger to take back the falling flying knife.
He took several consecutive shots, but nothing even made it to Demon King Aldrich. The knife would lose its aim as soon as it got nearer to the demon king. One shot almost hit back at Zen, luckily, he was able to dodge it.
There was no chance he could kill the demon king with the flying knife. He changed to use the Heavenly Ogre Fist.
He took a deep breath and readied himself for the Heavenly Ogre Fist pose. He turned his original life energy to the demonic life energy.
“Ogres Shaking the World!”
With his commanding voice and pose, a purple-black shadow accumulated in Zen's fist.
“Go to perdition!” shouted Zen as he threw the purple-black shadow towards Demon King Aldrich.
Zen was confident at the strength of his Heavenly Ogre Fist. He once defeated the Illuminating Soul Realm master Hugh with it, but Zen knew that his victory was only because Hugh was not 100% into their fight.
“Poof!”
But like the flying knife, the purple-black fist shadow hit an invisible barrier before reaching Demon King Aldrich.
Zen failed again. His face showed his disappointment and frustration.
'Dang! Both my flying knife and the Heavenly Ogre Fist didn't work.
There's no way but to approach him myself.
Dang it. But Demon King Aldrich is strong. His strength is far beyond mine. What if he attacks me and kills me in an instant?' Zen thought hopelessly.
“Listen to me, boy! If you stop this nonsense, I will let you live as my servant after I capture the White Emperor City,” Demon King Aldrich shouted at Zen.
When Zen heard it, he was angered. He scoffed, “I'm sorry. I'm not interested to be anyone's slave.”
“So, what do you want to be?” Demon King Aldrich asked Zen.
“I would like to be your master. What do you think?” Zen sneered.
Demon King Aldrich became furious, “How dare you insult a demon king like me? Do you know the consequences of your action?”
“Well, I'm not interested in finding out. I only know that the human and demon are enemies, so don't try to lure me into surrendering,” Zen said coldly.
“I like you, unfortunately, you'll have to die. I hope you won't regret the choice you made.” Demon King Aldrich heightened the speed and frequency of releasing the evil spirit.
Demon King Aldrich's strength intensified and the pressure in Yolande's shoulder became heavier. At that moment, her beautiful little face turned pale and she was struggling to hang on.
Zen looked at Yolande and saw that she kept that blank face even at a time like this. It made her look more pathetic in trying to look calm and composed.
Even though he didn't like Yolande, he was moved by her determination. “Well, there's no harm in trying again.”
Zen also knew that he had no choice but to fight Demon King Aldrich. If Yolande lost in the battle, he would end in a more miserable situation than the people in the White Emperor City.
'This battle has to end now!' Zen made up his mind and jumped from where he was towards Demon King Aldrich.
He was close enough to Demon King Aldrich that he could reach the latter in one jump.
Seeing what Zen was doing, Yolande took this opportunity to release more life vitality from her body. With Demon King Aldrich distracted, she could now take him down for good.
It didn't matter what Zen would do as long as he could distract Demon King Aldrich.
As he approached the demon king, Zen shot a pale-yellow sharp thorn from his forehead and darted at Demon King Aldrich.
“Spiritual Thorn!”
He didn't expect to do much damage to the demon king. His only goal was to distract him.
But he was surprised to see that his Spiritual Thorn stabbed Demon King Aldrich's head.
“Wow! Way to go!” Zen shouted with joy.
The pale-yellow Spiritual Thorn did pierce Demon King Aldrich's head.
But unexpectedly, the demon king had no reaction at all.
Demon King Aldrich laughed hysterically. “I'm impressed! I didn't know you could launch spiritual attacks. But it doesn't really matter. You may be stronger than any normal human beings, but you're still no match for me. Only if your soul was a lot stronger, you could've already killed me,” Demon King Aldrich said. “But since you failed, let me kill you instead.”
Zen suddenly felt an invisible force rolling towards him.
All the while he thought that the invisible force could defend Demon King Aldrich from any outside attacks like his flying knife and Heavenly Ogre Fist. But he was surprised to find out that it could also be used to attack.
'What a tremendous force!'
He didn't have time to dodge it, so he just faced the incoming attack.
“Bang!”
With the power of the invisible force, Zen was thrown out.
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”
He hit the bottom of the light screen and bounced back repeatedly like a rubber ball.
After bouncing back for several times, the force of motion gradually decreased. Zen landed at the bottom of the light screen and fell unconscious.
“What now, kid? Tired already?” Demon King Aldrich laughed hysterically. “You're a brave ant to think you can bite a big demon king like me.” Demon King Aldrich laughed again scornfully.
Yolande's eyes were fixed on Zen with her face still calm and unconcerned, but her eyes were wide and blinking rapidly.
The Illuminating Soul Realm masters saw everything, and they shook their heads in disappointment. It was ridiculous to hope for Zen to defeat any demon king. After all, even for the masters like themselves found it difficult to defeat a demon king especially Demon King Aldrich.
There was no way Zen could survive that massive force of an attack. All of them thought he was dead.
But lo and behold, Zen started to move. He raised his head first and got up.
He was standing as if nothing happened to him. He stretched his body and felt that that blow almost broke his waist.
Nevertheless, it was because of that tremendous power that Zen's body was now producing warm currents. The warm currents flowed into the center of his body and made him feel more comfortable.
He was willing to take more blows only if they couldn't kill him. It was his way of practicing to reach the nature level.
Seeing how easy Zen recovered from his attack, Demon King Aldrich trembled in fury.
Meanwhile, not from afar, Yolande's blank face changed. A sly smile crossed her face and her eyes were glowing with excitement.
The chance of seeing a blue moon was higher than the chance of Yolande ever smiling. If one saw Yolande smiling, they would even think it was a coincidence and not because she was happy.
Luckily, everyone was paying attention to Zen. No one saw the change in Yolande's expression, not even Zen who was busy planning on how to return the favor to Demon King Aldrich.
While Yolande and Demon King Aldrich continued to face each other, Zen was anxious in coming up with a plan. As he walked back and forth, he caught sight of Hugh in a distance and an idea instantly came to his mind.
He waved his hands in the air to attract Hugh's attention. Amongst the Illuminating Soul Realm masters, Hugh was the only one defeated by Zen in a battle. But despite that, it didn't mean that he wasn't good enough to be one of the masters. All that had reached the Illuminating Soul Realm were either the privileged or the most gifted.
Hugh soon understood what Zen was trying to signal to him.
In their last battle, Zen was able to absorb Hugh's five-clawed Golden Dragon and turned it into the Black Dragon with his demonic life energy. This could mean that Zen could absorb other people's life vitality and used it as his own.
Hugh knew exactly what Zen was planning. Without second thoughts, he stretched out his arms, released his five-clawed Golden Dragon, and sent it to Zen.