Chapter 155: Gold Horn and Silver Horn
Jiang Zhe, wearing two heavy treasure bracelets, returned to the training room aboard the spaceship.
One of them was intended as a gift for his teacher, Saint Spirit King.
But on second thought, with her extraordinary background, she probably had no shortage of heavy treasures. Only a supreme treasure would truly boost her strength.
"Still, a top-tier set like this must be rare, even for her, right?"
"Forget it. Whether she needs it or not, this is my respect as her disciple. Besides, this thing is practically a renewable resource for me…"
He muttered to himself.
He then put one bracelet away and focused on refining the other.
First, he imprinted his spiritual mark, then used the power of the world to carve intricate law patterns into each colored gem...
He had plenty of time, because before departure, Orianna had reported to him:
"Master, I've obtained a simplified map of the First Abyss from Chi Ying."
"The spaceship will travel at 10,000 kilometers per second and is expected to reach the Nexus Marquis Ridge in about 18 Earth days."
Just before he began refining the bracelet, Orianna updated him again:
"Estimated time to arrival at the target location, Nexus Marquis Ridge: about 174 hours."
Nexus Marquis Ridge
This territory spanned nearly ten billion kilometers, making it one of the largest among the lands held by demon marquises. It also contained valuable blood-gold mines, further highlighting Nexus's status.
Nexus served under a demon duke.
He himself was the most promising candidate to become a newly promoted duke.
The Marquis's Main City
Given the demons' savage, bloody, and brutal nature, they had little interest in order or civilization.
Concepts like families, cities, city-states, and kingdoms would flicker through their chaotic minds but never take root.
They thought pondering such meaningless ideas was a waste of time. Better to figure out how to kill the viscount or count next door and eat their hearts to strengthen their own bloodlines.
So this so-called "main city"...
Was merely the site of Nexus's castle, around which demons gathered, forming a large settlement.
Dirty, chaotic streets, crude stone houses and towers...
Overall, it resembled a medieval European town on Earth.
Outside the main city, the blood-gold mines were the foundation of its prosperity.
Nexus enforced crude order through violence and drove production through immense profits, building a fragile stability on this blood-soaked land.
The Giant Rift
Less than a hundred kilometers from the city was a massive rift, tens of kilometers wide and stretching thousands of kilometers long.
Thick, gauzy blood-red miasma churned up from its depths.
No demon below the rank of marquis dared linger here—this miasma would erode their minds, draw them deeper into chaos, and drive them mad.
The blood-gold was mined from the rift's depths. The miners, constantly exposed to the miasma, were naturally treated as expendable.
The Hidden Underground Palace
At the bottom of the rift, a secret mine shaft led to a palace resembling a crypt.
In its main hall, a thin layer of blood mist covered the floor.
Two demon dukes, each with sharp horns on their foreheads, sat cross-legged in the mist, drinking.
Their skull goblets swirled with crimson liquor that shimmered with bloodlight and exuded a rich, sweet aroma that dazzled the senses.
This was bloodwine, brewed primarily from the hearts of marquises—exceedingly precious.
The two demons looked nearly identical, as if cast from the same mold.
Only one had golden horns on his forehead, the other silver.
They were brothers, known respectively as the Gold Horn Duke and the Silver Horn Duke.
Nexus's patron was none other than Silver Horn.
Silver Horn swirled his goblet and sneered,
"My foolish brother, what brings you here?"
"To see you one last time, have a good feast, and say farewell," Gold Horn replied coolly, rarely speaking.
"Farewell? Where are you going?" Silver Horn sat up, frowning. Then his eyes widened. "The Ninth Abyss? You found a wormhole leading there?"
"Yes, on Bonas Lake—a short-lived wormhole that should last another 150,000 youke (about 210 years). Want to come with me to that ultimate battlefield?"
"Hah, who'd suffer that willingly? I don't have your lofty ambitions. I'm quite content slowly growing stronger here in the blood-gold mines."
Draining his goblet, Silver Horn added disinterestedly,
"So, what delicacy do you want? I'll have someone prepare it. Eat your fill, then be on your way."
"Heh. I hope to see you again. If you ever visit me for a meal, I'll treat you to a duke's heart."
Gold Horn ignored the jest and bluntly requested:
"One hundred marquis hearts, and as many count hearts as you have. I said I wanted a feast."
Silver Horn grunted, displeased, but was about to order Nexus to comply when suddenly—
The two brothers simultaneously looked up, gazing through layers of rock toward the sky above the rift.
They sniffed the air.
The tantalizing scent of rare blood delicacies drove them wild.
Even the normally stoic Gold Horn showed a hungry look.
After identifying the two auras, Silver Horn's face darkened.
"A pureblood vampire, at count rank? Freshly born and already daring to provoke us?"
Killing a pureblood demon brought them no benefit—its heart, the source blood, would instantly return to its origin pool, beyond any demon's reach. Worse, their image would be recorded in its memory and passed on to the next incarnation, possibly inviting revenge.
"And the other one? Sniff, sniff…"
Silver Horn frowned, unable to place it.
"Not a demon," Gold Horn said. "An outsider, with life genes thousands of times stronger—but only at marquis rank (realm lord)!"
A glint of savage bloodlust finally crossed his cold face.
"Silver Horn, this is the feast I crave."
Before he finished speaking, Gold Horn vanished, racing up the mine shaft to claim his meal.
"Stop! This is my territory—that's my prey!" Silver Horn shouted, quickly following.
Above the Rift
A pyramid-shaped spaceship hovered in the sky.
After brief hesitation, Chi Ying decided to accompany her "cheap teacher" off the ship to provoke the demon dukes hidden below.
Though she didn't understand how her teacher had suddenly reached peak marquis strength, she trusted his towering life genes. Even if they couldn't beat the dukes, the two of them should be able to escape.
Still uneasy, she kept muttering at Jiang Zhe's side.
"Teacher, be careful. They've definitely sensed us and might attack without warning."
"Teacher, if we can't handle it, let's retreat to the ship and have 'Little Sprite' fly us away."
("Little Sprite" was her new name for the ship's AI.)
"Teacher, the dukes—"
Jiang Zhe quickly raised a hand to cut her off.
"Disciple, tell me—what's special about a duke's heart?"
"Not much. Still boosts life gene levels, just better and lasts longer. But eating it hits your mind even harder."
"I mean for us—non-demons. Any special effect?"
Chi Ying thought hard.
"Seems… it still just raises genetic amplitude. But to fully unlock a unique power, you'd need hearts of all attributes from different dukes. That's all the legacy memory says—no details."
"That's enough. Gives us direction," Jiang Zhe said, satisfied.
Suddenly his expression sharpened. He peered down into the churning rift.
"Back to the ship. Stay clear so you won't get caught up in this."
Chi Ying didn't insist on staying to show loyalty. Sensible as ever, she just opened her mouth to give more reminders—when a chilling voice echoed up from the rift.
"Well, well. What do we have here? A pureblood demon calling an outsider 'teacher'? You disgrace our entire race, bitch!"
It was Gold Horn.
In combat mode, he was nothing like the cold statue from the underground palace.
"I'll kill you first to clean up this shame!"
With a hiss, blood-colored chains erupted from the rift like angry serpents. They instantly stretched several kilometers, thicker than a meter, and slammed toward Chi Ying.
A heavy mental pressure crushed her. As only a domain lord, she nearly suffocated, face pale, unable to move.
"Go. Get thousands of kilometers away. I'll handle this."
Jiang Zhe blocked in front of her, wrapped her in world power, and tossed her back into the still-open ship hatch.
The AI "Little Sprite" obeyed Orianna's order and piloted the ship away with Chi Ying aboard.
"None of you will escape! Since you came seeking death, you'll die first!" the voice dripped with malice.
Jiang Zhe smiled.
"Don't worry. I won't run. And you'd better not either—show me the backbone of the demon race."
He waved, and a two-meter-long wooden shuttle appeared at his feet.
The Void Core was ready.
He snapped his fingers. An emerald gem flew off his bracelet, expanding to several meters wide.
As world power poured in, arcane patterns lit up its surface, arcs of terrifying electricity crackling across it, making it look like thunder incarnate.
"Star of Lightning—go!"
The thunderous orb shot forward, smashing into the blood chain.
Crack! Sizzle!
The chain was knocked aside, crashing into the rift's wall and collapsing rocks.
Gold Horn recalled his chain and stepped out of the miasma, staring gravely at Jiang Zhe, all arrogance gone.
"A terrifying foe—no underestimating this one," he thought.
In that clash, the raw force had felt like facing a demon with a life gene level a hundred times that of a realm lord—practically a grand duke.
Testing Each Other
Jiang Zhe squinted, learning from Orianna that Gold Horn's overall strength wasn't beyond his estimation.
The thunder orb circled him in orbit—his sixth stage of Spatial Hands, which he'd fully mastered and even stripped down to a mental attack technique.
The final seventh, eighth, and ninth stages were why he'd recently sought his senior sister Dream Sovereign, who gave him three pinnacle techniques: The Three Changes of Time and Space.
"That earlier hit was maybe 20,000 times realm lord force? Outside, you'd already be titled 'King,' and not just a novice."
He quickly calculated.
If that was Gold Horn's normal output, then his law comprehension couldn't surpass his own—likely only around the 10th to 12th layer on the Tongtian Bridge, no higher.
"Master, please hold back. Don't completely annihilate their god bodies," Orianna cautioned.
It wasn't exaggeration.
3,000 times realm lord power × 60 times soul amplification = 180,000 times realm lord force.
At full burst with a pinnacle technique, the devastation would be unimaginable. The only reason Gold Horn hadn't already fled was Jiang Zhe's deceptively realm-lord aura.
Gold Horn seemed to realize something. His eyes shifted.
Whoosh!
The blood chains struck again, weaving intricate paths toward Jiang Zhe, blending spatial law insights.
"Outsider—die!"
Gold Horn roared, launching a soul attack.
It penetrated Jiang Zhe's purple gem armor, but was cut to a tenth of its power, then devoured by the black hole in his mind sea.
It had no effect.
Jiang Zhe didn't even spare it a glance, eyes locked on the "showy" chain.
"Hah—showing off blade work before Guan Yu? Fool."
He sneered at Gold Horn's grasp of space laws.
The thunder orb crashed down, easily tracking and intercepting the chain.
Crack! Sizzle!
They clashed repeatedly—seemingly evenly matched?
Suddenly, a beam of silver light shot from the rift—an explosive movement skill bringing Silver Horn instantly to Jiang Zhe's side.
Boom!
A law domain unfurled, stretching thousands of kilometers, filled with sharp golden lights like countless blades, pressing down to immobilize Jiang Zhe.
A classic two-pronged attack: one distracted, the other ambushed. Old, but still effective.
(End of the Chapter)---
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