Chomp~
""…""
"G-general!"
Watching the giant demonic rat chomp down before directly swallowing General Guan whole, both Xuan Hao and Yi Min showed a surprised expression on their faces. Neither of them having expected for the giant demonic rat to do something like that!
"Is he gone like that…?" Not knowing how to feel about the current situation, Xuan Hao turned over towards Yi Min and asked her.
"No… That should not be enough to kill someone like him…" Thinking about Xuan Hao's question for a short moment, Yi Min soon answered him as she focused her attention onto the giant demonic rat that had just swallowed General Guan.
At the same time, the elderly Domain Lord who had run to General Guan for help froze in place.
His help had just been eaten whole! What was going to happen to him now?
Roar!
As if to answer the elderly Domain Lord's inner thoughts, the giant demonic rat directly dashed towards him. Intending to swallow up the elderly Domain Lord just like it had swallowed General Guan only a few seconds ago!
Whoosh!
"S-senior brother!"
However, just in the last moment before the demonic rat managed to reach the elderly Domain Lord, a handsome looking middle-aged man appeared in front of him and blocked the demonic rat.
Bang!
"Hmph!"
Frowning upon feeling the strength behind the demonic rat's attack, the middle-aged man was covered in a pitch-black miasma as his strength seemed to have reached a new level before he directly sent the demonic rat flying backwards.
Flying through the air for a few hundred meters before stopping itself. The demonic rat looked over towards the handsome middle-aged man that had just appeared before it began appraising him with a serious look on its face.
At least as serious, as a rat's face could be…
"What happened here? Where did General Guan go?" Glancing around, the handsome middle-aged man narrowed his eyes upon recognizing the two Domain Lords that were just standing at the side without doing anything.
Even when General Guan had been swallowed by the demonic rat, they had not done anything. Only looking on from the side, likely expecting for General Guan to deal with the demonic rat with a little time.
"T-the General… H-he…"
"Hm? Did something happen to General Guan?" Hearing one of the two Domain Lords following General Guan say this with a nervous expression on his face, the senior brother of the elderly Domain Lord frowned as he felt something was wrong.
"H-he was swallowed by the d-demonic rat…"
"…"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man turned to look at the demonic rat slowly preparing for another attack filled killing intent.
It had to be known that General Guan was a general of the Sky Empire! His position was extremely important for him, and his sect future plans! Not only that, but without him around, they would have no way to deal with Yi Min. Even if they ended up killing her, they would still end up being pursued by the Sky Empire afterwards!
After all, Yi Min's position in the Sky Empire was not something that could be ignored by them without having someone help cover up for them.
"Hm?"
Just as the senior brother of the elderly Domain Lord was about to escape, the demonic rat suddenly froze in its step as something began moving around violently inside of it.
ROAR!
Roaring in both pain and anger, the demonic rat's stomach suddenly burst open as General Guan made his way out of the demonic rat covered in blood and other internal organs of the demonic rat.
Roar!
Having its stomach suddenly split open as the person it had just eaten walked out, the demonic rat was beyond pissed as it swiped down towards General Guan who had just managed to make his way outside. Intending to directly kill him on the spot.
"Hah… Damnable rat!" Having exhausted a large portion of his strength to get out of the demonic rat's stomach, General Guan had no way to resist the attack of the demonic rat. Only able to curse at the demonic rat as its large claws got closer and closer.
"General Guan!"
Ching~
Barely arriving beside him in the neck of time, the senior brother of the elderly Domain Lord drew summoned forth a giant greatsword from his interspatial ring and blocked the claw swipe of the demonic rat before it could reach General Guan.
"Zi Hui…?
"Get him to safety, I will deal with this oversized rodent!" Ignoring the words of General Guan, Zi Hui screamed at the two completely useless Domain Lord's that had come along with General Guan to get him to safety, as he soon engaged in combat with the demonic rat.
""Y-yes!""
The two Domain Lords who had just stood at the side this entire time reacted quickly upon hearing what Zi Hui said, as both of them flew over and picked up General Guan before retreating to a safe distance.
Even though they were also Domain Lords themselves, they had quite a cowardly disposition, as neither of them joined in to help dealing with the demonic rat. Only the elderly Domain Lord ended up joining the fight by supporting Zi Hui from the side to alleviate some of the pressure that the demonic rat brought upon him.
Like this, a fight once again broke out. The only difference was that instead of General Guan fighting alone against the demonic rat, it was Zi Hui and his… Junior brother… Fighting against the demonic rat.
…
"Did you manage to find the demonic cultivator hiding inside the city?"
Observing how the people scheming against her were busy fighting outside, Yi Min turned her attention away from the bunch for a moment as she asked Xuan Hao.
"Ha? Ah! Yes, I found the demonic cultivator hiding at the deepest part of the tunnels below the eastern part of the capital! Although… I don't know if he is still there anymore. After he found me, he chased me all the way to the surface just outside the walls…"
Showing a slightly surprised expression the moment Yi Min asked him this, Xuan Hao quickly calmed down before he responded.
"I see… Was the demonic doing anything when you found him? Like a ritual or something along that line?"
"Hm… From what I remember, he seemed to have gather a bunch of weird cocoons with countless tentacles and was having them dig deeper into the ground for some reason-" Remembering what the demonic cultivator had been doing, Xuan directly explained it to Yi Min.
"Really!? He was trying to dig deeper!?" Only for Yi Min suddenly interrupt him as she asked with an incredibly serious expression on her face before appearing directly in front of him.
"Y-yes? Is there a problem?"
Not knowing what was wrong with what the demonic cultivator was doing, Xuan Hao asked before unintentionally taking a few steps back due to Yi Min suddenly appearing so close to him.
"Do you know why the tunnel below don't go any deeper and all stop at a certain depth?"
"No?"
Shaking his head in response to what Yi Min said, Xuan Hao did indeed feel that it was a bit weird that all the tunnels seemed to have come to a stop without going any deeper. In his eyes, there should be better resources available the deeper one went, so even if it required someone a bit stronger to mine them out due to the increasingly dense yin qi, there should be no reason not to dig any deeper…
After all, the Iron Sky Kingdom did not really lack Core Formation Realm Experts and would have more than enough strong people capable of mining of precious spiritual metals in the more dangerous depths.
"The depth that the tunnels end at is at the limit before the yin qi underground undergoes a transformation and grows terrifyingly strong! Strong to the point that even I myself wouldn't dare to venture that deep underground with my current strength. At that depth, only demonic cultivators at the True Demon Realm would be able to travel around freely without worrying about the yin qi killing them!
For the demonic cultivator to be digging that deep… I fear that he might be trying to use the dense yin qi underground to breakthrough! If he fails, the dense yin qi will kill him… But… If he succeeds, he will reach the True Demon Realm!"
Explaining this to Xuan Hao, Yi Min's frown deepened even further as she said the last part.
The True Demon Realm! At that realm, a demonic cultivator would be able to fight equally with someone in the Soul Ascension Realm!
Just thinking about having to possibly deal with such a terrifying existence, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a shiver run down his spine.
No matter how much stronger he was compared to a normal Domain Lord also at the fourth stage of the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao did not expect he would be able to fight someone at the Soul Ascension Realm.
Heck! He didn't even know if he could fight General Guan, who was still at the Domain Lord Realm!