Of course, there was a reason for such generosity.
For Alba, Ye Hui had already received the blessing of another Demon Lord, Wu Liao—she could be considered Wu Liao's subject. Now that he was using her to gain the opportunity to attack the Douluo Continent, if he didn't give something as a reward, how could he demonstrate his generosity and wisdom?
Besides, it was just some power to elevate bloodline—he could afford it.
Moreover, the so-called Fallen Angel martial soul was essentially a seed formed from demonic energy split off by Demon Lords. The seed in Ye Hui came from Wu Liao. By giving her these purple-gold energies to elevate her bloodline, he was also aiming to fully control her.
(Note: In the original story, the seeds in Ye Hui and her daughter came from Alba, but it later stated that the Demon Lord who attacked last time was another—Wu Liao—and that Alba was the scapegoat, with Wu Liao ceding the attack opportunity to him. If Ye Hui's seed came from Alba, that explanation wouldn't hold, so the setting has been adjusted.)
Having absorbed these energies, Ye Hui would be completely his. Naturally, Alba wouldn't feel any regret.
A demon's gifts always came with a price.
Besides elevating and controlling Ye Hui, these purple-gold energies served another purpose—helping Ye Hui open more passages.
Ye Hui hovered in midair, her wings beating slowly. The purple-gold light pouring into her body grew denser. Following the Fallen Angel martial soul's instinct, she once again pushed the gate to expand outward. With each expansion, the purple-gold light on her body dimmed slightly.
One, two, three—until the ninth gate had been forced open in the void, she finally stopped.
Nine gates hung side by side in the air, like nine wide-open giant eyes gazing upon this world.
From deep within the gates, low growls echoed one after another, as if something was impatient to burst out.
Alba's voice came from the gates, barely containing his excitement: "Descend, my demon army!"
First to charge out were hellhounds, their bodies as massive as lions, with enormous heads and jagged fangs that seemed capable of chewing through anything. In moments, over a thousand had poured out from the nine gates.
Close behind were four-armed demons, standing two and a half meters tall, covered in purple-black scales with bulging muscles, marching out in orderly ranks. Then came winged demons bearing massive wings, their wingspans three times their body length, incredibly fast—thousands of them instantly blotting out the sky.
By now, the demon army had surpassed ten thousand.
But it still wasn't over. Demons continued to pour from the gates—lesser demons, nightmare demons, horned demons—endless varieties.
Twenty thousand, thirty thousand...
Not until the demon army exceeded thirty thousand, and nine great demons resembling the transformed Ye Hui, each comparable to a Super Douluo, stepped out, did the flow from the gates cease.
The nine gates then merged into one, and a massive portal boomed open.
A purple-gold giant hand reached out from behind the gate, gripping the frame. Then, a figure thirty meters tall stepped out—with three-meter-long horns atop its head, massive purple-flame wings on its back, and a giant flame sword in hand.
This was the Demon Lord himself—Alba!
He stepped out of the gate, and with each step, the space around him began to warp—the plane instinctively rejecting him. But because Huo Yuhao had restrained the plane's response, the rejection wasn't pronounced.
"I didn't expect it to be this easy. Is this human plane's rejection really this weak? If I'd known, I'd have gathered more troops. But no matter—I can open more demon passages later."
He looked down upon this world, a cruel smile about to curl at the corner of his mouth as he prepared to order the army to attack. But then he noticed something off.
Wait—this plane didn't seem like a normal plane?
What Yuanen Zhentian had noticed, Alba—with his quasi-divine strength—naturally noticed as well.
But he didn't know this plane had a master. He only assumed it was an accessory plane of the Douluo Continent. After all, something on the verge of becoming a true plane couldn't have been created by anyone below the divine level.
And did the Douluo Continent he was attacking have divine-level experts? Alba certainly didn't think so.
But the fact that the Demon Gate hadn't opened on the Douluo Continent itself, but rather on one of its subsidiary planes—that was clearly problematic.
Alba was about to turn and question his newly "recruited subject" when he saw Ye Hui flap her wings and instantly distance herself from them, conveniently closing the Demon Gate behind her.
"?!"
Alba's pupils contracted sharply.
"How did you break free of control?"
Ye Hui said nothing. She transformed into a streak of purple-black light and flew straight to Huo Yuhao's side without looking back.
Alba had noticed these people earlier, but with his army at his back, he clearly hadn't taken them seriously.
Now, however, he had to reassess them.
Humans radiating resentment and hostility, a servant who'd suddenly broken free of control, the location where the Demon Gate had opened—all of it pointed to an incredible possibility.
"This is a trap?"
Alba laughed in anger, fury blazing in his purple-gold vertical pupils. "With just a few of you, you dare scheme against me, Demon Lord Alba? Humans, do you truly underestimate me?"
He raised his hand and swept his flame sword toward Huo Yuhao, purple-gold light bursting from its tip.
"Kill them all! Leave one alive for interrogation!"
"ROOOAR!"
In an instant, over thirty thousand demons surged forth like a tide, covering the sky and earth.
Hellhounds led the charge, roaring. Four-armed demons pounded the ground in a mad dash. Winged demons blotted out the sun. Nine great demons took the lead, their purple-gold forms tearing through the sky.
The earth trembled. Killing intent surged skyward.
Facing such a military force, even experts like Yuanen Zhentian and Yuanen Tiandang couldn't help but feel alarmed.
Last time, thanks to the Spirit Soul's warning, they'd blocked the Demon Gate in advance—they'd never seen such a vast army. Now, witnessing thirty thousand demons surging like a tide, the pressure was on an entirely different level.
Yuanen Tiandang's face paled slightly as he instinctively stepped in front of Ye Hui. Yuanen Yehui clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white, her lips pressed tightly together. Yuanen Zhentian took a deep breath, suppressing his shock, and unconsciously looked at Huo Yuhao.
How would this person respond?
In his sight, Huo Yuhao faced the incoming onslaught and let out a light laugh, stepping forward.
An invisible ripple spread outward. The demons felt an aura even more terrifying than Alba's emanate from Huo Yuhao, and under its shock, their charge slowed.
"BOOM!"
Just then, the ground of the Undead Plane suddenly began to tremble.
Yuanen Tiandang frowned slightly—he could clearly feel that the earth beneath his feet had "come alive."
"A rare opportunity. Come out and get some fresh air, all of you."
Huo Yuhao's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly spread throughout the Undead Plane.
As his voice fell, the ground split open.
First to crawl out was a skeletal hand—pale, bony fingers gripping the edge of the crack, pushing up with force. A complete skeleton stood up from beneath the earth. Two wisps of ghostly fire flickered in its hollow eye sockets. It quietly stood behind Huo Yuhao.
Then came the second, the tenth, the hundredth—the fifty-thousandth.
Bones surged like a tide from the cracks, forming silent ranks. Bone blades stood like a forest; shields rose like walls. In an instant, they had formed a white ocean.
And this was only the beginning.
Dozens of pitch-black gateways opened around Huo Yuhao. Liches emerged, leaning on bone staves, their decayed robes dragging on the ground, emerald-green light gathering at the tips of their staves. Death knights rode out in formation on skeletal steeds, their armor battered but their killing intent chilling, their horses' hooves scattering sparks of soul fire. Abominations squeezed through larger portals.
At the same time, the sky grew dark—not from clouds blotting out the sun, but from something covering the heavens.
Yuanen Zhentian and the others looked up sharply, their pupils contracting.
Liches, bone dragons, and other high-tier undead beings at least comparable to Title Douluo converged from all directions, blocking the sky's light.
Among those beings, Yuanen Zhentian saw undead transformed from soul masters and spirit beasts—most at the Title Douluo level, with quite a few at the Super Douluo level.
But these weren't the strongest. When he saw the former Sea God Corps Commander—Chen Xinjie's corpse, now a quasi-divine undead—standing at the front of the undead army, leading them to face off against the demon army, Yuanen Zhentian and the others felt their scalps tingle.
A calamity—an Undead Calamity.
That was the only term they could think of to describe this scene.
Yuanen Zhentian truly couldn't imagine what this legendary deity must have done in his past life to amass such a vast undead army.
But one thing was very clear to him—as the Spirit Soul ancestor had said, Huo Yuhao was truly a power source worth latching onto.
And if this was how Yuanen Zhentian, who was on the same side, felt, the opposing demon army was naturally even less composed.
Facing this army of hundreds of thousands of undead, the charging hellhounds abruptly skidded to a halt, letting out terrified whimpers. The four-armed demons' charging formation fell into chaos. The winged demons stopped mid-flight, their wings stirring the air into a frenzy. The nine great demons' faces shifted drastically as they instinctively looked back at Alba.
Alba's fierce grin had frozen on his face.
This Demon Lord looked at the undead comparable to great demons, then at the undead Chen Xinjie at the front who might not be inferior to him, and finally at the controller of these undead—Huo Yuhao. A strong sense of unease rose in his heart.
Um... could they make peace?
He wanted to turn back.
Unfortunately, Huo Yuhao didn't give him a chance to speak. He directly gave the order.
"Kill. Leave one-tenth alive."
Before the words faded, the Undead Calamity had already rolled over them like a tide.
Liches raised their staves in unison, emerald-green light covering the sky. Death knights charged, their horses' hooves shattering everything in their path.
The sky went completely dark. Bone dragons dove down, their dragon breath sweeping across rows of demons, felling them in droves. Liches hovered in midair, their fingers pointing lightly as death fingers pinned great demons in place. Those undead transformed from soul masters and spirit beasts flickered through the battlefield like phantoms, and wherever they passed, purple-black blood sprayed like fountains.
The undead Chen Xinjie led the charge, his quasi-divine strength on full display as he single-handedly suppressed all nine great demons.
The demon army's defense line collapsed in an instant.
And Alba knew that this time he had come to attack someone else's planet. Unless he was a "planetary traitor," they wouldn't let him leave. So he also grew desperate, roaring his order: "Charge through and capture that woman over there! Reopen the planar passage!"
Hearing this command, though the demons felt their chances were slim, the ingrained hierarchy in their blood drove them to act. They surged toward Ye Hui's direction.
But with the undead army blocking the way, each step forward cost them many lives.
The life energy left behind by these fallen demons was absorbed by the Undead Plane, fueling its ascension.
Watching this, Huo Yuhao turned to Yuanen Zhentian and the others. "If you want to take your revenge on the demons, now's your chance."
The Yuanen family members thanked Huo Yuhao solemnly and charged into battle without hesitation. The three of them were like tigers among sheep—wherever they passed, demons fell in droves, purple blood splattering everywhere.
Even Yuanen Yehui joined in.
After today, she could be counted as the first of the younger generation to have witnessed a grand scene.
Seeing this, Huo Yuhao said to Gu Yuena, "Na'er, you go too. Absorbing some demon life energy will help your recovery."
Gu Yuena's eyes were bright, still immersed in the scene of Huo Yuhao commanding hundreds of thousands of undead with a wave of his hand. At his words, she finally snapped back, nodded with a smile, summoned her Silver Dragon Spear, and transformed into a silver streak that shot straight into the battlefield.
In an instant, of the seven who had entered this place, only Huo Yuhao and Snow Empress remained.
The two exchanged a glance—no words needed. They understood each other's intentions and looked toward the Demon Lord together, vanishing from their spot in the next instant.
Alba swung his longsword, destroying the undead that had closed in, while looking for a way to break out of the encirclement.
He knew that recapturing Ye Hui was far too unlikely. Better to find a way to break through this plane's space, escape to the Douluo Continent, and find another chance to return to the Demon Plane.
He'd barely formed the thought when he spun around sharply—two auras had appeared before him.
Snow Empress had already floated before him. With her yin-yang complementary transformation and three soul cores simultaneously resonating, her jade-white palm pressed gently toward him.
Emperor Palm—Great Cold Without Snow!
Alba's pupils contracted sharply. Purple-gold light exploded from beneath his scales. His flame sword reversed, spatial force swirling around it, its power breathtaking. He was about to clash head-on with Snow Empress.
But in that instant, gray mist spread, carrying mysterious fluctuations. Alba's vision blurred—his actions had reverted to a moment before. His sword hadn't yet been raised, his arm was still at his side, and his chest was wide open.
The Reincarnation Domain—time had rewound by one breath!
Snow Empress's palm had already pressed against his chest. Cold erupted, and his purple-gold scales instantly frosted over. Alba's flame sword had only been half-raised before it froze midair along with his arm.
At that moment, Huo Yuhao appeared above Alba, planted his foot, and stomped down!
BOOM!
The iceberg shattered. Purple-gold scales and flesh burst apart. Alba's massive body crashed down like a toppling mountain. The ground trembled violently. Shards of ice and bloody mist, carrying the shockwave, spread outward, sending undead and demons within hundreds of meters flying.
The tremendous commotion drew attention from both sides on the battlefield.
"Lord Alba!" A demon who saw the scene cried out in shock.
On the battlefield, Huo Yuhao stood atop Alba, his indifferent gaze sweeping across the field. Snow Empress stood beside him, silent and unmoving, like an eternal, unmelting glacier.
Everything froze in that moment, as if time had stopped.
The demons didn't know what had happened, but they knew one thing—their king had been defeated.
Defeated without warning, defeated without any ability to resist!
***
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