World-Ending Demon Emperor-Chapter 2089 - 980: Witch Heads North! Zhi Yan’s Investiture
This is not a complete Hell Knight, as it appears to be only partially visible.
Lanling knew that the fourth brother had abandoned the identity of a Hell Knight, forsaken the bloodline of the Ancient Demon King, and had infiltrated the Dragon Temple with only his soul.
So even if activated, he would not be a powerful or complete Hell Knight.
He felt an urge to activate this Hell Knight, who might be the fourth brother.
However, after hesitating for a while, Lanling ultimately gave up. If the fourth brother truly was inside the Dragon Temple, activating him recklessly would only put him in mortal danger.
"Husband, our progress is very fast. Within a year and a half at most, we can complete the construction of all the Towers of Heavenly Fiends and Deities in the Northern Barbaric Lands," Na Xue said as she walked in.
Lanling stood up and walked to the huge map.
He gazed at the vast mountains, stretching over tens of thousands of miles, with several thousand miles lying within the borders of the Rage Wave Kingdom.
"Husband, next year we will march north to the Human Kingdom and the Dragon Temple to avenge your past grievances," Na Xue said.
Lanling replied, "I’m afraid it won’t be that easy. After all, the Northern Barbaric Lands are the ancestral lands of my Demon Race. Although briefly occupied by Emperor Moda, it still belongs to my plane. Yet the Human Kingdom and the Dragon Temple have been operating there for many years and have wholly become my opposing plane. Once there, my energy will be weakened, and our Flame Demon Empire’s army will also be affected."
At this moment, the voice of the Demon Queen Daji came from behind, "Master, are you more powerful, or is Emperor EYun more powerful?"
Lanling considered for a moment and replied, "If we’re talking purely about martial arts cultivation, my energy is wholly inherited from the Misfortune Demon Emperor, so we are equal in cultivation. However, I possess a complete Void Bloodline, making my mastery over this plane stronger than that of Emperor EYun."
Daji remarked, "So, this means you are more powerful than Emperor EYun."
Lanling nodded and said, "You could say that."
The Demon Queen Daji continued, "In the past, Emperor EYun’s Demon Army conquered the vast mountains, annihilating most of the Human Kingdoms and all the Dragon Temples above ground. If you’re stronger than Emperor EYun, shouldn’t it be easy to march north against the Human Kingdoms?"
Before Lanling could answer, Na Xue interjected, "Over three thousand years ago, the Master of Yao Xing betrayed to become the Dragon Emperor. This allowed the Dragon Temple to not only grasp many high-level Energy Studies from Emperor E Tian but also, most importantly, to nurture many powerful bloodlines by exploiting the Dragon Emperor’s Void Bloodline. The laboratory of the Dragon Temple continuously produced new results, and they made rapid progress in the power of faith. So now, the Dragon Temple is vastly stronger than it was in Emperor EYun’s time."
Na Xue was right.
When Emperor EYun rose to power, the Dragon Temple was at a low point. Over ten thousand years before Emperor EYun, Emperor E Tian had destroyed all the Dragon Temples above ground and annihilated the Sky Holy Palace, nearly causing the entire Dragon Temple to be wiped out.
It took over ten thousand years for the Dragon Temple to recover some strength, only for Emperor EYun to rise again. This led to the Human Kingdom being eradicated once more. However, this time, the Sky Holy Palace remained unharmed, and the development of the Dragon Temple was uninterrupted.
After countless years of development and the captivity of the Dragon Emperor, the power of the Dragon Temple reached its peak.
Lanling said, "I was always curious why the level of Martial Arts in the Human Kingdoms was so much lower than in the Demon Territory. I think I know why now."
Na Xue said, "You suspect the Dragon Temple used the Void Bloodline of the Dragon Emperor to confer many king-level powerhouses, thus depleting much of the Human Kingdom’s energy and causing the Dragon Realm’s energy concentration to be very low, even having to seal Martial Arts."
Lanling nodded and said, "Currently, we know nothing about the power of the Dragon Temple, but judging from their compromising attitude, it’s safe to overestimate their strength."
The Dragon Temple’s statement that everything could be negotiated indeed exuded an aura of absolute power. Anything they agree to now could be completely destroyed with force in the future.
"In the future, the vast mountains will be extremely difficult to conquer," Lanling said. "We don’t even know what kinds of power we will encounter."
Na Xue leaned gently against Lanling, affectionately rubbing against him, her tongue tenderly kissing each of his whiskers.
In controlling the energy of the Land of Fall, Demon Emperor Lanling was wounded and weakened!
No one knew about this, and Lanling didn’t tell anyone.
But Na Xue could sense it. Her relationship with Lanling was far more intimate than she had imagined, even to the point of being inextricably linked with each other’s fate.
Firstly, she still had one-quarter of the Hell Knight bloodline within her, and she was the only one with a derivative bloodline from the Void Bloodline, Lanling’s only appointed king-level powerhouse.
Na Xue could feel Lanling’s strength, weakness, arrogance, low spirits, or any other emotions through his breath.
And she could deeply empathize with the power of the Dragon Temple because she had once been a test subject there.
After inheriting the Demon Emperor’s legacy, Lanling became a deity, the deity of the entire Demon Race.
Thus, he could not afford to lose, not even once. If he were to lose, it would shatter his unbeaten status, causing millions of demons to lose faith.
Where did Lanling’s power come from?
After becoming a Demon Emperor, his cultivation had diminished significantly. Even if he became an emperor-level powerhouse, it only made him much stronger in single combat, invincible.
However, in a super large-scale decisive battle against tens of millions of enemy troops, facing countless enemy energy arrays.
At this moment, relying on personal strength is useless; it relies on the power to dominate the plane, it relies on the strength akin to a divine force.
So where does this divine strength come from? It comes from the heavens and earth of the Demon Territory, and even more from the faith of countless Demon Race citizens.
During the decisive battle of the Flame Demon Empire, the faith power from the blood sacrifice of the Centaur tribe was enough for Lanling to instantly traverse tens of thousands of miles and project a divine avatar into the Flame Demon Empire.
If the Demon Race citizens lose hope in the Demon Emperor, this faith-driven divine strength will also decline, which is extremely deadly.
Therefore, the first battle of the Northern Expedition against the Human Kingdom cannot afford to fail.
However, currently, Lanling knows very little about the power of the Dragon Temple.
Na Xue suddenly said: "Husband, is it possible for us to feign an attack on one front while landing at another at the Human Kingdom? We could swiftly establish ourselves within the Human Kingdom, and transform that area into your dominion."
Currently, Demon Emperor Lanling has a major advantage against the Dragon Temple.
That is, he is the sole Plane Overlord of the entire world. Once he fully occupies a piece of land, it will essentially never be taken away again.
Lanling said: "You mean landing from the East Li Kingdom? Then transforming East Li Kingdom into my dominion in the shortest time?"
Na Xue said: "Yes."
Lanling said: "In that case, all humans in that area would need to evacuate. Because during such transformation, the energy of heaven and earth would be overturned, covered by Demon Race energy, and Dragon Bloodline citizens cannot survive."
After Lanling inherited the Demon Emperor, his bloodline became highly repulsive to the Dragon Citizens. Zhi Ning is human; she couldn’t withstand his energy aura, causing her cultivation to vanish and her vitality to begin declining. Fortunately, Lanling is her man, and through their intimate union, her bloodline attribute was directly altered. And Zhi Yu, being his son, also directly transformed his bloodline.
And once Lanling lands in the East Li Kingdom, truly within a few hundred miles, there would be no living thing left, everything perished.
"No need." Lanling rejected this proposal!
...
Outside Flame Demon City in the Demon Capital of the Flame Demon Empire.
Tang Ren found the Ancient Witch General Xixi (who is also Princess Jiang Xue of Dongli Kingdom).
"Princess Jiang Xue, the following are entirely my own thoughts, not those of the Demon Emperor," Tang Ren said.
Xixi said: "Prime Minister, please speak frankly."
Tang Ren said: "I hope you return to Dongli Kingdom once more, and have a long conversation with King Dongli Jiang Shang, asking him to continue maintaining isolation from the Dragon Temple, and to cede an area of about five hundred thousand square kilometers to the Flame Demon Empire, making it the Demon Emperor’s forward base into the Human Kingdom."
Xixi thought for a while and said: "This will be difficult, but I can go back and try."
A few hours later, Ancient Witch General Xixi exchanged control of her body with Jiang Xue, then rode a flying steed northward to return to Dongli Kingdom to persuade Jiang Xue.
...
In the Sky Holy Palace, Ning Wuya, Gu Ban, Shi Tian, and Tian Daoqi met with Zhi Yan.
"I apologize for summoning you out shortly after you entered the Dragon Prison Secret Realm for cultivation," Gu Ban said. "Because the battle is developing faster than we imagined. According to our estimates, the Flame Demon Emperor should have taken a year and a half to launch a northern expedition against the Motuo Empire. However, in less than two months, he launched the northern expedition and extinguished the Motuo Empire in three days; now the entire Northern Barbaric Lands have changed hands. Every day, the Flame Demon Empire’s million-strong army and nearly two hundred million inhabitants of the Northern Barbaric Lands are relentlessly building the Tower of Heavenly Fiends and Deities. We are not seeking to criticize the Flame Demon Emperor for laboring excessively. But at this rate, in about a year and a half, the hundred million square kilometers of the Northern Barbaric Lands will be filled with Towers of Heavenly Fiends and Deities. By then, the entire Northern Barbaric Lands will become Demon Emperor Lanling’s dominion."
Ning Wuya said: "When the Flame Demon Empire reaches the Towers of Heavenly Fiends and Deities at the Ten Thousand Mountains, it’s time for the Demon Emperor’s northern expedition against the Human Kingdom. This is a relentless decisive battle, unless one side collapses entirely, this duel will not end."
Zhi Yan nodded, indicating understanding.
Gu Ban said: "Due to your unique bloodline and identity, we want to appoint you as the commander of the Ten Thousand Mountain defensive line, overseeing three major battle zones: Rage Wave Kingdom, East Sea, and Xiliang Kingdom. Do you accept?"
Zhi Yan thought for a moment and said: "I accept. But why is such an important task not given to an Emperor of the Sky Holy Palace?"
"Because it’s inconvenient," Ning Wuya said directly.
Gu Ban said: "Moreover, your regular cultivation time in the Dragon Prison Secret Realm is insufficient. So we’ve decided to sacrifice a Tomb Priestess, directly bestowing her King-level Dragon Bloodline upon you, so that you can become stronger to undertake greater responsibilities. Among all disciples of the Dragon Temple, you are the only one rewarded with King-Level Energy. Because we believe that Demon Emperor Lanling will have some psychological flaws in front of you, bestowing King-Level Energy upon you will unleash greater combat power."
Zhi Yan hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said: "Yes!"
...
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