The Transcendent attacked again. A massive crescent of compressed wind screamed through the forest, splitting the earth apart as it traveled. The King of Hell vanished.
Then instantly reappeared next to him.
Their blades collided again. Red lightning exploded across the Transcendent's winds while the surrounding forest shook violently beneath the impact.
For the first time the Transcendent's expression changed slightly. Shock appeared on his face. Because despite releasing the full force of his cultivation he was still being overwhelmed.
The King of Hell laughed. A deep distorted laugh echoed from inside the demonic helmet. "You disappoint me."
He said coldly. Then he attacked seriously. One strike. Only one.
The crimson blade flashed downward with terrifying speed. The Transcendent reacted immediately, moving his sword upward to block. Too slow.
The lightning-covered blade sliced directly through his sword arm between his shoulder and elbow. Blood exploded violently into the storm winds.
The severed arm spun through the air still gripping the sword while the Transcendent staggered backward for the very first time.
And finally fear appeared in his eyes. Not fear of death. Fear of understanding. He understood now that this thing before him was not someone he could defeat.
The King of Hell did not hesitate even slightly.
The returning slash instantly changed direction mid-motion like flowing lightning. One clean horizontal cut. The Transcendent's head separated from his body.
For a brief second his expression remained frozen in disbelief while the head spun silently through the air beneath the moonlight. Then the body collapsed. Dead when it hit the ground.
The personal disciple of the First Princess slaughtered like everyone else.
Silence consumed the battlefield afterward. Three hundred soldiers stood completely frozen among corpses.
Shattered trees, and blood-soaked earth. Nobody moved. Nobody even dared grip their weapons too tightly anymore.
Because they finally understood something horrifying.
This was not a man wearing armor. This was a nightmare pretending to be human. Then suddenly the King of Hell vanished again. Red lightning exploded across the forest floor as he shot forward like a crimson comet.
The fleeing Grandmaster, the older general had barely managed to create distance before sensing death behind him once again. He turned halfway in terror. Too late.
One brutal horizontal slash from behind.
The horse continued running forward several more meters while the lower half of the general's body remained mounted in place.
The upper torso spun violently through the air before crashing into the dirt beside the trees. Blood painted the forest floor black beneath the moonlight. Then silence returned once more.
The King of Hell slowly turned back toward the surviving soldiers. Nobody dared meet the face of his armour. He looked at them for several long seconds before finally speaking.
"Tell your masters…" His distorted, voice echoed across the ruined battlefield like something crawling out of the underworld itself. "That Hell has begun collecting debts."
A long pause followed.
"And they are very high on the list." The voice followed. The soldiers trembled silently. Then red lightning erupted outward one final time. And the King of Hell disappeared into the darkness like a true shadow demon.
Leaving behind only corpses, shattered earth, terrified witnesses and a story that would soon spread across the empire like a nightmare.
The assault force completely faltered after witnessing the massacre beneath the ancient trees. No one continued the pursuit.
The surviving soldiers turned their horses around almost immediately and rode hard back toward the capital with pale faces and trembling hands.
Even the remaining officers no longer cared about maintaining formation or discipline. Fear had already shattered whatever resolve remained behind.
They knew failure might earn them execution from the Crown Prince. But compared to the thing they had just witnessed in the forest the Crown Prince suddenly no longer seemed nearly as terrifying.
Because at least the Crown Prince was human. That armored demon in the forest was something else entirely demolishing. Maybe a true demon as well.
And meanwhile the true monster responsible for all of it was already rushing back through the darkness at terrifying speed on his shuttle.
For Luo He, the entire battle had taken less than a minute. His crimson lightning disappeared silently through the forest while the demonic armor slowly receded beneath his skin once more like liquid shadows returning to their source.
The horrifying blood red spikes vanished. The murderous aura disappeared. And soon Luo He looked completely normal again. He quickly brushed imaginary dirt from his sleeves while muttering under his breath with mild annoyance.
"Hey… family… wait for me…" Not far ahead, the convoy had barely advanced much farther through the forest roads. Fei still led the main formation cautiously while the mounted guards scanned the surroundings for danger.
Then suddenly a familiar figure emerged from the darkness behind them. "Luo He?" Jin Mulan immediately narrowed her eyes. Everyone looked shocked seeing him return so quickly.
Even Ning Jia stared toward him suspiciously. The timing simply made no sense. Yet Luo He already had an explanation prepared. Naturally.
The cunning bastard had planned for this from the beginning. He slowed his breathing slightly before riding closer to the group with a deeply serious expression.
"I went back only a short distance," he explained calmly. "I intended to prepare an ambush in case the enemy caught up." He said casually. Fei frowned slightly. "And?" He asked curiously.
Luo He's expression changed subtly afterward. A trace of discomfort appeared in his eyes. "Well…" he said slowly. "No one came." His expression was sorrow, despite the good news.
That immediately confused everyone further. "I waited several minutes," Luo He continued. "Then eventually I started moving back toward the enemies again."
He paused.
Then his tone lowered slightly. "And that's when I smelled blood." He said with a disturbed expression. The surrounding riders immediately grew quieter. "A lot of blood." He reaffirmed.
Even the horses seemed restless as the forest winds moved around them. Luo He shook his head slowly afterward as though still disturbed by what he had seen.
"When I reached the battlefield," He let out a faint breath. "The corpses were already there." He said calmly. Several servants looked uneasy immediately.
"What kind of corpses?" one guard asked quietly curiously. Luo He looked toward him. "The strong ones." He said confidently. Another pause followed.
"They were completely dismembered."
The atmosphere instantly became colder yet again. "The Grandmasters. The Transcendent. Their horses." Luo He spoke slowly as if recalling the grusam scene carefully.
"Everything had been sliced apart." He raised one hand slightly, gesturing vaguely through the air. "Not stabbed. Not hacked apart." He said with horror in his voice.
His eyes narrowed slightly. "Cut cleanly."
He said. Nobody interrupted him now.
"One horse had been split directly down the middle," Luo He continued quietly.
"Perfectly into two equal pieces." He added.
Several servants visibly paled. "I mean literally separated into two halves." He repeated him self. Even Fei's expression shifted slightly now. Because he understood exactly how difficult that should have been.
To cut through armored warhorses and high-level cultivators so effortlessly. That was not something ordinary experts could accomplish.
Luo He shook his head again slowly.
"I don't even know what kind of monster could do something like that." He added.
The irony nearly made Ning Jia laugh.
But she controlled herself immediately.
Meanwhile Luo He continued perfectly serious. "The trees were destroyed. The ground was shattered. There was blood everywhere." He added.
Then he lowered his voice slightly afterward. "And there was still lightning in the air." That sentence unsettled everyone present.
Now even Jin Mulan stared at him for a moment longer than usual. Then gave him a strange expression.
Luo He immediately looked around the dark forest afterward with visible caution before speaking again. "We need to move faster." His tone became more urgent now.
"Immediately." He uttered. Nobody argued. Because after hearing his description even the experienced guards no longer felt comfortable remaining within that forest.
Luo He looked toward the darkness one final time before muttering quietly enough for only himself to hear. "The Crown Prince might honestly be the least of our problems if something like that lives here." He added grimly.
Then the convoy accelerated deeper into the night while fear silently spread through the formation. And riding among them the entire time was the very demon they feared most.