Bab 71: Goodbye
The Snow Wind Great Ape stood, hunched over, breathing with heavy, ragged gasps of air. Its entire body was covered with streaks of blood, and a glistening feather was embedded deeply in its right eye. The beast's right arm hung, useless as its side because the forearm had been broken, with some blood-smeared white bones plainly visible through the cracked flesh.
All around the ape lay five broken bodies. The only one still barely upright was Duan Jian in his Red Fury Dragon form but his left leg was clearly jutting out at an unnatural angle, as he valiantly attempted to protect his comrades while supporting himself with only one useful leg.
Yang Xin and Zi Yun both lay a distance away. Although the ape had not attacked them from close range, it had intelligently bombarded them with broken rocks and stones, each the size of a human child, from the wall. It wasn't that they had not thought to avoid the projectiles but the devious beast had incapacitated Linjian and Du Ze first, and had anticipated the girls swooping in to save their friends from his killing blow.
The demon beast had instantaneously switched tactics right at a critical point and the girls were completely unprepared for the ranged assault.
The ape nimbly jumped in front of the stationary Duan Jian, and swung a malicious blow with its left arm as though it were swatting a fly. Unable to even respond, Duan Jian could only tense his torso before the attack swung through. He heard a cracking sound before he flew 20 feet backwards, and he instinctively knew, in a haze of red agony, that at least three ribs had cracked within him.
The demon beast roared in victory and then, with a malicious glint in its eye, began to walk over to the two girls that lay unconscious next to each other. These weaklings had caused it so much pain and trouble, and the ape wanted them to pay up on the debt of pain owed to it.
The beast picked up Yang Xin's arm as she mumbled incoherently in semi-consciousness. With a sharp yank, it dislocated her shoulder. She woke up screaming and even though she had no strength remaining to retaliate, once she realised what was happening, she fearlessly glared at the ape in front of her and stared death in the face.
It lift her by the neck and peered at her, breathing hot, rank-smelling air, into her face. She grimaced in pain and began wriggling weakly as her face started turning blue from the pressure on her windpipe. Before she lost consciousness, she spat right into the face of her attacker.
It roared in rage and lifted her up high with its left hand, ready to slam her back into the ground, once and for all.
In that instant, a muscular scaled arm of a Black Scaled Earth Dragon wrapped itself around the Snow Wind Divine Ape's neck, and yanked back hard, while its other arm hooked around the left arm holding Yang Xin.
In its moment of distraction with the woman spitting in its face, the ape had not even noticed Ye Zong creeping up behind it. With its existing injuries and shock at the sudden attack, it was immediately put into a disadvantage, unable to untangle from the dragon's powerful forearms.
The demon beast crumpled to its knees, frantically trying to grasp at the arm around its neck to free itself from the deadly choke-hold. Slowly but surely, it lost the capacity to keep struggling and fell face-first to the ground.
Ye Zong didn't want to take any chances and pulled his arm back, exploding it forward in the next instant and digging his serrated dragon claws into the back of the ape's neck. He grabbed the spinal cord within and with a brutal twist, shattered it, snuffing out all chance of life.
The sight of Ziyun lying on the ground had almost destroyed all self-control in the Patriarch of the Snow Wind Family, but then, he had remembered that he would need to remain calm as the City Lord, to continue directing Glory City's defences against the still invading demon horde.
He quickly rushed to Ziyun's side to check for signs of life and breathed a sigh of relief as he felt her breath and heartbeat. The main concern for her was that she had been hit at the side of her head with a jagged rock, and part of her skull had fractured along with considerable blood loss.
He shook her gently. "Ziyun, wake up." As she slowly came to, he hurriedly fed her a Nine Transformation Pill, and held her to allow the healing energy to flow through her. By the time he looked up, Ning'Er had arrived and fed her other four friends the same healing panacea.
Miraculously, they had all survived, although their injuries would keep them out of battle for quite awhile. When she saw that they were out of the danger zone, she called over some soldiers to carry her friends to the medical center, and instructed someone to ask Zhang Ming to join them so that he could activate the powerful healing powers of his Azure Stingray.
The four Legend Ranked warriors stood at the top of the southern city walls, ready to sweep across the remaining lower-leveled demon beasts.
Ye Zong's expression suddenly changed to one of deep worry as he held a voice transmission stone in his hand. He turned to the three comrades beside him and updated quickly.
"The Dark Guild has snuck into the city and have planted bombs next to some of the important buildings while we were distracted with the beast horde! Fortunately, I had asked Ye Shuo and Liangshu to stay behind in the city to stay out of the fighting and monitor for foul play within, and they noticed it before any bombs went off."
The faces of the Silver Flash, Ye Xiu and Ning'Er dropped in fury as Ye Zong continued, "They're barely able to hold on. The Demon Lord's strength is unfathomable and Ye Shuo has only been able to hold on so far because the enemy ventured a little too close to one of the pillars of the Ten Thousand Demonic Beast Array and got trapped by it!
Ning'Er tried to remember the strength of the Dark Guild from her previous life, and recalled that at this point, they only had two, or at most three, Legend Ranked experts. Even though the Demon Lord's power was far stronger than an early level Legend Rank, if he were trapped by the Ten Thousand Demonic Beast Array, she should be able to handle it.
"Ye Zong, I think two of us should stay here in case there are any more Legend Ranked demon beasts hidden in the horde. The other two of us should be able to handle the Dark Guild, together with Ye Shuo and Liangshu's power." Ning'Er said.
They quickly decided that Ye Zong and the Silver Flash would stay on the front lines to continue repelling the demon beast horde, and Ning'Er and Ye Xiu would rush over to support those at the City Lord's Mansion. Ning'Er immediately took flight with her Heavenly Cicada Wings, and Ye Xiu galloped along below her in his Hellfiend Baphomet form, not far behind.
When they arrived at their destination, the large courtyard in front of the City Lord's Mansion was a complete chaos of blood and battle. Somehow, the Dark Guild had managed to smuggle thirty of their members into the city in order to cause as much damage as possible while the demon horde distracted the strongest warriors.
They had placed explosives around the main buildings of the Alchemist Guild, the Guild of Inscriptionists, the Herbalist Storehouse and lastly, the City Lord's Mansion, with the intention to slow down the progress of Glory City, while the Dark Guild built up its proficiency with the priceless alchemy recipes it had garnered from the trade with Yang Xin.
The decision to attack the City Lord's Mansion was more of a tactic to destroy morale, where the Demon Lord believed that with all the main defenders of the city at the walls, there would be no one strong enough to defend the weaker family members of the Snow Wind Family. If he could murder the women, children and elders, it would cause enormous grief and suffering indeed!
He was now regretting his decision as he battered every one of the arms of his Eight-Armed Darkhell Fiend demon spirit against the defences of this mysterious, but formidable, array. Ye Shuo was barely holding on because he lacked proficiency with controlling the array, but somehow, every time a demon spirit was slashed into pieces, he managed to bring enough support to patch the gap.
However, the Demon Lord, along with his two main subordinates, had almost escaped the entrapment a few times, and they all knew that it was only a matter of time.
Gong Liangshu, along with a team of elite guards from the City Lord's Mansion, was fighting against the almost thirty Black Gold Ranked team from the Dark Guild that had not fallen within the range of the Ten Thousand Demonic Beast Array.
'How could the Dark Guild have so many Black Gold Ranked warriors?' Ning'Er thought in confusion. 'I'm sure that hidden within their ranks are some experts from the Sacred Family', she concluded, reminded of how repulsive this family was. She would need to deal with them very soon.
Seeing that Ye Shuo was reaching his limits, Ning'Er hurried towards the control pillar of the Ten Thousand Demonic Beast Array. "Ye Xiu, support Liangshu!"
"Ye Shuo! Pass me the control!" she said with an unwavering voice, and he did not hesitate to relinquish the control for the array to its creator.
She could see the Demon Lord's face fall as he realised that the defensive maneuvers of the trap they were in suddenly exponentially increased in complexity, effectiveness and power. He instructed his two subordinates to stop attacking as he calmly stood in the air with an aura of a dictator and addressed the young girl in front of him.
"I've heard a lot about you, Xiao Ning'Er." he stated firmly, but politely. "You have been at the center of a lot of troubles for my guild. There's a lot of history you don't know about in Glory City, and maybe if you knew what happened under the surface, you may actually think that I'm not in the wrong."
Ning'Er maintained the profound seals with her fingers in front of her but did not direct the array to attack as she listened to the words of the man in front of her. If she didn't know better, she might have gone into a state of uncertainty, such as the conviction and steadiness of his presence and influence.
She knew that she held the power to kill him and his subordinates today. Other than a miracle, they had no hope from escaping now that she had the array under her control. However, the concern in the back of her mind was that in the previous timeline, Nie Li had needed to team up with the Demon Lord in order to have a better chance of defeating the Sage Emperor.
Although they had ultimately failed, she could not deny the unbelievable power that the Demon Lord had grown to, and how much he increased the chances of their team confronting their final enemy.
The Demon Lord kept quiet as he observed her face, seemingly sensing the tension that she was going through. Then, she remembered the scene of Ye Zong's chest being penetrated by the enemy in front of her, and Ziyun's cry of anguish. She also remembered the blank, hopeless look in Yang Xin's face when she returned to Glory City.
Ning'Er's eyes narrowed with a firm and clear resolve.
The Demon Lord's face changed from the chillingly calm expression to one of barely disguised panic. "Xiao Ning'Er, think again! I can be of use to you. Don't you think I know there are other realms and powers that could squash Glory City like a bug? I'll make a vow to protect this realm!"
"Goodbye." Ning'Er said her final word to him before the seals in her hand abruptly changed and the changing forms of her fingers kept shifting, faster than the eye could see. The next few minutes, all that remained was the screams of the three powerful men stuck in an inescapable array, battered from every direction by roaring demon spirits.
No matter how strong the top three leaders of the Dark Guild were, they were no match for the dynamic, shifting strategies and waves of 10,000 demon spirits rushing at them from all directions. It was akin to watching a drowning man keep trying to come up for air, only to be overwhelmed by another destructive wave of water.
Ning'Er finally closed her eyes and dropped her hands to her sides when three lifeless bodies lay on the ground in front of her without a single breath remaining. She took a deep and extended breath.
'I'll face the Sage Emperor in my own way!' she thought fiercely to herself as the bombs placed around the city began exploding like fireworks during a new year festival.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
AerynSun
AerynSun I know that I should have probably kept the Demon Lord around a lot longer as an ideal antagonist but I suddenly feel a need to accelerate the story because I don't know how long more I will be writing this fan-fic.
Merry Christmas, everyone! :)
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone