The golden gel flowed like honey over the scorched black soil, covering most of the battlefield.
The Demon Legion was pressed beneath this layer of gel. Imp claws extended from the edges, still futilely clawing at the air before being swallowed whole.
The rumbling gradually subsided.
The remaining demons were still fleeing, stepping over their companions’ corpses as they retreated toward the forest.
Only the most primal fear drove their legs, making them run so fast they even dropped their weapons.
A pink Slime Knight was the first to snap out of its daze. It looked at the demon backs fleeing toward the forest, its small eyes instantly bulging wide.
"Mm! Don't run!"
It smacked the beetle's shell with its short sword. The beetle’s six legs dug into the ground simultaneously, and it charged off with a pitter-patter.
The other Slime Knights quickly caught on, and the clatter of pursuit rose into a chorus.
"Don't let them get away!"
The Slime Knights raised their short swords and round shields, launching a final charge against the fleeing demons.
A Slime Knight rode swiftly past and slashed at a fleeing imp’s ankle. The imp screamed and crashed to the ground. Before it could scramble back up, three more Slime Knights piled on top of it.
"Pin it down! Pin it down!"
"Don't let it bite Mm!"
On the other side, Chen Yu’s body shrank from its sky-obscuring golden form back to its original size. The battlefield no longer held a trace of the Demon Legion.
Agrael finally snapped out of his daze.
He descended on his owl and cleared his throat to remind, "Your Excellency, a warlock skilled in soul magic won't die so easily. The destruction of the body doesn't mean the death of the soul."
Chen Yu also felt that, given Casaric's cunning, he wouldn't die so easily.
So he spread his Divine Sense across the entire battlefield. Sure enough, he spotted a strange imp darting low along the ground and speeding into the forest.
Its flight path was completely different from its panicked kin. It flew low, its wings flapping with barely half the amplitude of other imps, as if deliberately avoiding attention.
It clutched two items in its arms: Casaric’s Soul Crown and the Book of Souls.
Clearly, this imp had already had its soul enslaved by Casaric, turned into a complete puppet.
He didn't need to intervene. An elven ranger rode up on horseback, drew an arrow from behind his back, nocked the bowstring, and released. The arrow precisely pierced the back of the small demon’s neck.
The imp collapsed instantly, its body tumbling through the air before crashing into a pile of scorched rubble. The Soul Crown and Book of Souls flew from its grasp, scattering onto the ground.
Chen Yu hopped over and soon reached the imp’s location. He picked up the crown from the ground.
The purple-black soul-stuff immediately sprang from the crown’s surface, slithering up his small hand like a disturbed viper.
But it was quickly extinguished by the gel's tenacious life force, merely deducting fifty thousand of his Health Points.
A mere seven hundred thousand.
And before sharing life with the entire Slime Legion, my HP had already exceeded twenty million. That loss would recover in a few seconds.
After the curse was completely vaporized, a ball of purple-black soul emerged from within the crown. Its outline barely resembled Casaric’s features, but now he had shrunk countless times.
"Your Esteemed Majesty..."
Casaric’s weak voice came from the soul. By his tone, he still intended to say something—perhaps surrender terms, perhaps bargaining chips.
But he didn't finish.
The candle flame of his soulfire was gently extinguished by a puff of Chen Yu’s sword intent.
All the resentment, obsessions, mana, and centuries of memories that composed his soul crumbled like a sand castle under the Dao resonance of the Primordial Beginning Primordial Sword Dao.
In the end, his soul form completely dissipated into the air, leaving no trace behind.
This legendary warlock died a humiliating death.
As if losing Casaric’s binding, colorful souls broke free from the crown and the pages of the Book of Souls.
These imprisoned souls were released, bathed in the light radiating from Chen Yu’s body, gradually turning transparent before dissipating into the air.
Chen Yu felt something new settle within him.
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered — Ghost trait fully recorded. Obtained Talent: Soul Resilience Lv.7.]
Soul Resilience?
In an instant, Chen Yu felt his Divine Sense become like repeatedly forged steel, growing tougher and more powerful.
The boundary of his Divine Sense pushed outward, farther and farther: ten miles, twelve miles... until even at twenty miles, everything was still crystal clear.
Every tree in the forest, every squirrel hiding in a tree hollow—he could even count the scales on the pinecone the squirrel was holding.
And it wasn't just the range change. He felt his Divine Sense had put on a layer of resilient armor, capable of withstanding more soul magic and Divine Sense attacks.
There was also an added effect that pleased him even more.
With his enhanced Divine Sense, the number of Flying Swords he could command multiplied several times. He estimated he could now control twelve swords simultaneously, just enough to assemble a complete sword formation.
But he had never actually learned anything about sword formations.
The Primordial Beginning Sword Guidance leaned more toward the ultimate application of a single sword—techniques like Body Into Sword and Sword Light Division were already within his grasp. But sword formations required a completely different control method, allowing twelve swords to evolve on their own and respond to each other according to a formation diagram.
His cultivation was also just one step away from the Golden Core realm of Xu Xuan Heaven. It seemed it was time to find an opportunity to stir things up over there.
Chen Yu shook his head, setting those plans aside for the moment. He picked up the Book of Souls and brought it close to examine it curiously.
The cover of this tome was made from some kind of Abyssal demon’s hide. The pages felt like delicate amniotic membrane, and when he flipped it open, he could still smell the ancient mana lingering deep within the paper.
It was several tiers above the Book of Souls he had picked up before. On the cover was Casaric’s signature, etched with demon blood, but now the name had lost all its magic.
It was a decent piece of loot. He’d store it for now.
He swallowed the now-lusterless Soul Crown and Book of Souls into the gel demiplane in his stomach.
But... after cleaning up the spoils, he looked up at the lush forest ahead. Within his Shadow Perception, a shadow was rapidly fleeing away.
Was that the Shadow Scion called Morrigan?
Chen Yu thought for a moment. His Shadow Traversal skill level wasn't even as high as Nilly’s, so there was no way he could catch up. He could only let him go.
The battle was completely over.
Chen Yu withdrew his Divine Sense, hopped around, turned, and flew up on his sword. He circled around a few still-smoking dead tree stumps, heading toward the old mage still riding his owl in midair.
Agrael saw him approach and instinctively gripped his staff tighter, silently reciting his teleportation spell in his mind.
Most Magical Creatures were beings of chaos and disorder. He wouldn't naively assume that helping this slime would earn him goodwill.
Facing a legendary Magical Creature, no amount of caution was excessive.
His heart was on guard, but he still pushed back his hood, revealing his aged face.
"Agrael Norwood, from the Dawnlands. Greetings, Your Excellency."
Chen Yu hovered before him on his sword, keeping it level with the owl.
"What's a mage from the Dawnlands doing here? Also, you should address me as His Imperial Majesty."
Agrael froze, his gaze falling on the crown atop Chen Yu’s head.
His Imperial Majesty—that title wasn't used casually on the Material Plane.
The White Horse Kingdom had dared not change its king’s title to emperor for centuries, because "emperor" meant a king considered himself equal to the Dawn Council, claiming the entire north as sovereign territory.
"May I ask... what is Your relationship with the White Horse Kingdom?"
Slime Knights riding beetles clattered past. Hearing Agrael's question, they stopped.
"How can you not know anything?"
"Yeah, yeah."
The slimes puffed out their chests proudly. "His Majesty is the Emperor of our Slime United Empire. Even Queen Louisa submitted to His Majesty’s gel."
"How can you not know this? Is your place out in the countryside or something, with such bad information?"
The Slime United Empire?
Agrael finally understood.
So that was why Casaric hadn't occupied the White Horse Kingdom—the north had another emperor.
And it was a slime.
Agrael didn't dare laugh. Not only was he witnessing history, seeing the birth of a legendary slime, but a brand-new empire was rising. Even the alchemy of this newborn empire was enough to be stunning.
Even now, he couldn't figure out how such a great alchemical creation could have been born in a place so barren of magical knowledge.
Perhaps the Council mages knew something.
Agrael performed another salute, placing his right hand over his chest and lowering his head slightly.
"Agrael greets Your Slime Majesty."
"In truth, the Dawnlands have the duty to monitor the Material Plane and prevent any extradimensional entities from invading."
"Any force attempting to cross planar boundaries to cause large-scale destruction on the Material Plane falls under the Council’s jurisdiction."
"Demon invasions are the most common and dangerous form of extradimensional intrusion. The moment Casaric began the Trial of Kingship, the Council should have dispatched personnel."
"But due to certain reasons, the Council was short-handed, so I arrived late. Please forgive me."
"Please believe that I bear no malice toward your empire."
Chen Yu didn't trouble him. He simply turned around, leaving Agrael with a rounded back.
"Go back. Tell the Council that as long as the United Empire is here, we won't stand by and let any demon invade the Material Plane."
"Also, we welcome mages from the Dawnlands to visit the empire for friendly exchange."
Exchange?
To be honest, Agrael was tempted.
He had carefully observed the mysterious runes on that Floating Fortress. They were unlike any magic he knew—a logic of runes he had never seen before.
If he could step inside that Floating Fortress and copy just a few runes, that would be enough to hold a lecture at the Council.
And this Slime Majesty seemed different from ordinary Magical Creatures.
He had seen too many Magical Creature Lords. Regardless of strength, their first reaction was always to treat all outsiders as food or enemies.
The phrase "friendly exchange" appeared in a Magical Creature Lord's diplomatic dictionary about as often as a cactus in a snowfield.
While crossing the Darklands, he had seen some slimes along the way. Back then, he thought they were enslaved servants.
But looking back now, were those slimes actually empire citizens?
Slimes and humans living together in harmony—that itself represented order and stability. This was a newborn empire that could very well be recognized by the Dawn Council.
"I will convey your words to the Council. Thank you for the audience, Your Slime Majesty."
Agrael hurried away, but it was easy to foresee how much shock this brand-new Slime United Empire would bring to the old fossils down south.
Chen Yu watched as the owl became a small black dot on the southern horizon, then withdrew his gaze.
His mind was now filled with that owl's miraculous ability to evade detection. Without his Divine Sense, he might not have noticed Agrael's presence at all.
Magic and Dao arts were two completely different paths, which also meant there were too many ways to catch each other off guard.
Once he got back, he would need to set up more gel signal towers within the empire and spread out the perception formations from Xu Xuan Heaven—two layers of networks overlapping each other.
The next time a mage like this barged in, the empire should be able to detect them in advance.
The Slime Legion was still busy on the battlefield.
Slime Knights rode their beetles, rummaging through piles of demon corpses. Dwarf artisans pushed flatbed carts behind them, tossing any salvageable metal weapons into the cart beds.
Occasionally, someone would find one or two intact magical weapons, let out a surprised cheer, and the surrounding slimes would crowd around to watch the excitement.
Chen Yu flew back to the Floating Fortress’s bridge. He was planning to ask Olivia how to deal with the Dawn Council, but Nilly's figure hurried out, nearly tripping and falling before him.
After steadying herself, she delivered some bad news.
"Damn it, Your Majesty. News from Winterhold—that Army Commander named Lide is missing."
"The guards watching him weren't injured, and the magic formation in the cell showed no signs of activation. It's like he vanished into thin air. He might have escaped using shadow abilities."
Shadow again.
Chen Yu had a feeling that these Shadow Scions would suddenly cause him some major trouble one day.
......
Golden Radiance Valley.
After crossing several dried-up riverbeds, the tree canopy grew dense again in this valley. Sunlight filtered through the layers of leaves onto the forest path, casting mottled patches of light on the ground.
Morrigan’s shadow danced rapidly across the light patches but soon stopped as he looked ahead.
At the end of the path, a man in casual clothes with a knight’s sword at his waist stepped out from the forest's shadow, as if he had been waiting there for a long time.
It was Lide.
And behind him, a shadow rose from the ground, coalescing into a female silhouette.
"My brother." Morgana’s voice came from the shadow, her tone light and cheerfully composed. "Hand over Casaric’s shadow. This is the beginning of our cooperation."
Morrigan was silent for a few seconds. Finally, he reached out, and his shadow slid across the ground like black silk.
He delivered the Shadow Dust that had once belonged to Casaric to Lide’s feet. The dust was automatically absorbed by Morgana, melting into her silhouette.
For a Shadow Scion to truly unleash the power of shadows, they relied heavily on their host. With Casaric dead, he was as weak as a lamb before Lide and Morgana, with no chance of resistance.
Handing over Casaric's shadow was his best option now.
"My sister, I hope you haven't chosen the wrong person."
"Casaric is dead. The truth is, even legends can be unreliable, and this Lord Lide is only an eleventh-level knight."
Morgana was tidying her appearance, her voice cheerful.
"That's none of your concern."
"Come on. It's time to go back."
"Where?" Morrigan asked instinctively.
"The Shadow Mountains."
She dropped her smile, lowering her voice. "With your cunning, my intelligence, and Lide’s strength, it’s enough to take part in the final war."
"The last thirteen, to revive the Shadow Dragon. That is our destiny."
"Let's go."
Lide nodded at Morrigan, signaling him to follow, then turned and continued along the path.
Morrigan was silent for a long time, lost in thought. Eventually, he made some decision and sank into Lide's shadow.