The Myriad Demon King's thousands of eyes blinked in a rapid, chaotic cascade. Its ancient mind, a consciousness that had witnessed the turning of ages, was reeling.
'How?' The thought was a silent, screaming vortex. 'How can this human know? The secret of our Lord… it is the most guarded secret in this world! Only we, the Fierce Beasts who reside in the core region, know of her existence, of her recovery in the Lake of Life. No other beast knows. And the Asura God… he knows of his inheritance site? How is that possible?'
Zhang Tian felt the monster's shock, its terror. He pressed his advantage.
He first sent a calming wave of his own consciousness to Ah Yin, who was still trembling in the psychic prison. 'Calm yourself, my Empress. I have this under control.'
He then addressed the Myriad Demon King again, his mental voice shifting from cold command to a tone of almost casual conversation. "You seem troubled," he projected. "I can assure you, I have no interest in bringing the wrath of the Divine Realm down upon your master. After all, I have possessed this information for several years. If I wanted to act, I would have done so already."
The statement was a masterpiece of manipulation. It was a threat wrapped in a reassurance, a declaration of power disguised as a gesture of peace. It positioned him not as an immediate enemy, but as an unknown, and terrifyingly powerful, neutral variable. The Myriad Demon King's ancient, analytical mind began to shift its calculations.
'He is not just threatening me,' it thought, its fury being rapidly consumed by a cold, hard pragmatism. 'He is negotiating. He is showing me that he could have destroyed us at any time, but chose not to. Why? What is his goal? What does he want?'
The monster's pride warred with its instinct for self-preservation. Its fury at being threatened by a creature it considered a gnat was a raging inferno. But the cold, hard logic of the situation was a bucket of ice water. This gnat held a divine nuke. He held the fate of their Lord, of their entire race, in his pathetically weak human hands.
It could not kill him. It could not let him go. The risk was too great either way. It needed guidance from a higher authority.
It attempted to regain some semblance of control, to re-establish the hierarchy of power. "Your knowledge is… impressive, human," its mental voice was a low, grudging sound. "But this matter is beyond my authority to decide. I will contain both of your consciousnesses and take you to our leader. He will decide your fate."
Zhang Tian let out a silent, mental scoff. 'A prisoner? You think I came here to be your prisoner?'
"I don't think so," he projected, his own mental voice sharp, final, and utterly non-negotiable. "You will release my Empress's consciousness, and my own. And we will leave. Now."
Before the Myriad Demon King could even begin to formulate a protest, Zhang Tian delivered his final, crushing blow. His mental voice became as cold and as sharp as a shard of ice.
"Let me be clear, Myriad Demon King. I do not care about your authority. If you do not release us, peacefully, in the next five seconds, I will consider you and every other Fierce Beast in this forest an enemy of mine. And I promise you… you can forget about living for another ten years. And yes, that includes the great Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian, himself."
The Myriad Demon King was stunned again. But this time, the shock was different. It was deeper. More profound.
It was not just that this human knew of Di Tian, their invincible, god-like leader. It was the sheer, unshakeable confidence with which he had delivered the threat. This human Spirit King, who knew their greatest secrets, who knew their leader's name, was threatening their entire race with annihilation.
'This isn't a bluff,' the Myriad Demon King's ancient mind raced, its thousands of eyes wide with a new, dawning horror. 'He knows of the Silver Dragon King, a secret that could bring the God Kings of the Divine Realm down on us. He knows of the Asura God, our Lord's greatest nemesis. He knows of Di Tian. His confidence… it is not born of ignorance. It is born of power. He can most likely make a god descend upon us.'
The risk was no longer just a risk. In its mind, it was a certainty.
The Myriad Demon King's contemplation, its internal battle between its immense pride and its even more immense fear, caused its mental control to waver. The immense pressure holding Ah Yin's consciousness captive lessened for a single, fractional second.
It was the only opening Zhang Tian needed.
'Now, my love!' he projected, his mental voice a sharp, urgent command. 'Return!'
Ah Yin, who had been gathering what little strength she had left, poured all of her will into a single, focused point. Her consciousness became a sharp, crimson needle that pierced through the weakened psychic net.
With a silent, tearing sensation, she broke free.
Zhang Tian's own wisp of consciousness lingered for a second longer. He gave the Myriad Demon King a final, mental smirk, a parting shot that was a masterpiece of arrogant contempt. "A wise decision," he projected. "Remember this day. Do not interfere with my Blood Silver Grass again."
Before the Myriad Demon King could even formulate a reply, Zhang Tian's consciousness also vanished, leaving the ancient beast alone in the dead, silent clearing.
The Myriad Demon King was left trembling. Not from weakness, but from a mixture of pure, impotent rage and a profound, soul-deep fear. It had been outmaneuvered, threatened, and ultimately, defeated. By a human Spirit King.
It let out a silent, mental roar of pure, unadulterated frustration, a wave of psychic power that shook the very trees for miles around, sending birds scattering into the sky and lesser beasts cowering in their dens.
Back at the estate, in the quiet, sun-drenched grotto, Ah Yin's physical body gasped, her eyes snapping open. She was as pale as a corpse, her forehead beaded with a cold sweat. The psychic backlash from the encounter, from the tearing of her consciousness from the King's mental prison, was immense.
Zhang Tian was at her side in an instant, his own face grim, his hand on her shoulder, a steady, grounding presence. "Are you alright?" he asked, his voice a low, worried sound.
She recounted the experience, her voice trembling slightly. "My love, that thing… it was a monster. Its power… it was beyond anything I could have imagined. I never knew… I never knew such a creature existed in this world."
She looked up at him, her crimson eyes wide with a new, dawning understanding of the true, hidden powers of the world. "And from your conversation with it… it is not the only one. There is a whole group of them. And that Silver Dragon King… I never knew!"
Zhang Tian listened, his expression hardening. 'So, the kings of the Star Dou Forest are aware of us now,' he thought, his own mind a cold, calculating machine. 'This changes things. The quiet, secret expansion of our clan is over. Now, we must tread carefully.'
Ah Yin looked at him, and her crimson eyes, which had been filled with a shocked, fearful awe, now began to burn with a new, cold fire. "That thing…" she said, her voice a low, venomous hiss. "It killed so many of our children. One day, my Emperor… one day we will make it pay."
Zhang Tian just shook his head, a somber, almost weary look on his handsome face. "It won't be as simple as that, my love," he said, his voice a quiet, final sound. "We have just poked a dragon's nest. And now… now we must be prepared for the dragons to come hunting."
The Myriad Demon King, or Yao Ling, as it was known to its brothers, did not linger in the dead, silent clearing. The information it possessed was too important, too dangerous, to be kept to itself. It uprooted itself from the dead ground, its massive, tree-like form gliding through the forest with a silent, unnatural speed that defied its immense size. Its destination: the deepest, most sacred, and most hidden part of the Star Dou Great Forest. The Lake of Life.
It arrived at the edge of a vast, tranquil lake, its waters so clear and so pure they seemed to reflect the very stars themselves, even in the bright light of day. The air here was not just clean; it was alive, suffused with a life force so potent it was a physical, tangible thing.
Here, the other rulers of the forest were waiting.
On a small, grassy island in the center of the lake, a magnificent, terrifying beast lay coiled in a state of deep, meditative slumber. It was a dragon. A true dragon. Its scales were the color of polished obsidian, and its eyes, even when closed, seemed to burn with the light of a thousand golden suns. This was Di Tian, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, the undisputed, god-like ruler of all spirit beasts.
By the shore of the lake, a woman of breathtaking, ethereal beauty stood, her long, green hair cascading down her back, her presence a gentle, life-giving aura that seemed to make the very flowers around her bloom a little brighter. This was Bi Ji, the Emerald Swan, the healer, the diplomat, the heart of their small, powerful court.
And scattered around the lake, in various states of bored, ancient indifference, were the others. The Bear Lord, a mountain of brown fur and raw, untamed power. The other Fierce Beasts. The kings of the Star Dou Forest.
Yao Ling's arrival caused a stir. They could all sense its agitation, its uncharacteristic, and deeply unsettling, fear.
Di Tian's golden eyes snapped open. His telepathic voice, a sound that was not a sound, but a deep, resonant boom that made the very water of the lake tremble, echoed in their minds.
"Yao Ling," he said, his voice a calm, unshakeable mountain of pure, absolute authority. "What has happened? You are disturbed."
Yao Ling began its report. It told them of the strange, new red grass, of its rapid, unnatural, and cancerous expansion through their forest. It told them of the new Empress it had encountered, a creature of surprising, and almost foolishly brave, willpower.
And then, it told them of the human.
It described Zhang Tian's pathetically weak consciousness. And it described his terrifying, world-shattering knowledge.
Bi Ji, the gentle Emerald Swan, listened, and a flicker of something, a hint of a soft, almost romantic, admiration entered her beautiful eyes. 'A human's consciousness,' she thought, her own mental voice a quiet, melodic sound, 'came to confront even someone like Yao Ling, just to protect his lover, a transformed spirit beast? How… brave. How… noble.'
But her gentle, romantic thoughts were shattered by Yao Ling's next words.
When it repeated Zhang Tian's threat, when it spoke the words "Silver Dragon King," a profound, absolute silence fell over the gathering of kings. The air itself seemed to freeze. The gentle, life-giving hum of the Lake of Life was snuffed out, replaced by a cold, hard, and terrifying vacuum.
Di Tian, the calm, unassailable ruler of all spirit beasts, uncoiled. His massive, obsidian form rose from the island, a mountain of pure, unadulterated rage. His golden eyes, which had been half-closed in a state of bored, ancient indifference, now blazed with a furious, world-ending fire.
The entire forest, the very bedrock of the continent, trembled.
The other Fierce Beasts were thrown into a state of chaos and disbelief. They roared. They snarled. They threatened.
The Bear Lord, a creature of simple, brutal logic, wanted to charge out and crush the entire human empire. "Let me at them!" his mental voice was a roar of pure, untamed fury. "I will tear their cities to the ground! I will feast on their bones!"
Bi Ji, her face pale with a new, profound fear, pleaded for caution. "No! We cannot act rashly! This human… he is not a simple enemy. He is something else. Something… more."
Di Tian's voice cut through the chaos, a roar of pure, absolute authority that silenced them all.
"This human," he declared, his golden eyes blazing with a cold, analytical fire, "is not a simple threat. He is a variable we cannot control. We must know more."
He looked at Yao Ling, and then at the others. His command was a final, unbreakable law. "We will not act rashly. We will observe. We will find this human, Zhang Tian. And we will discover the source of his knowledge. And then… then we will decide his fate."
The kings of the Star Dou Forest had a new, and very dangerous, obsession.
It was then that Yao Ling revealed its final, and most crucial, piece of information. "My Lord," it projected, its own mental voice now a low, cunning sound. "When he fled, I managed to attach a small, almost imperceptible trace of my own mental force to his consciousness. It is a mark that he will not be able to detect. I know where he is."
Di Tian's golden eyes narrowed. "Where?"
"He is far from here," Yao Ling replied. "In a human settlement, near the Sunset Forest."
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels like "Harem Master: Seduction System" and the "Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist" and I hope you like this story and those stories as well.
Check out more chapters on my P.atreon. The P.atreon will have 20+ Chapters ahead for this story. I hope you like it.
The link of p.atreon is: bit.ly/evildragon