Chapter 87: The Devouring Unleashed

Jiang the Grand Demon descended to the bottom of Peach Blossom Valley.

He looked down upon Yi Tian and the others, utterly in control of the situation.

“Hand over the secrets you possess!” Jiang the Grand Demon commanded, his voice cold. “Don’t try my patience. If you refuse, I will have to act, and by then, you won’t even have the chance to beg for mercy. Do you understand?”

Yi Zhen, Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and the rest were gripped by tension. They wanted to fight back, but the difference in strength was far too great; even if they risked their lives, they might not inflict the slightest harm on their foe.

Yi Tian was unwilling to waste words or play for time. In an instant, his consciousness entered the bracelet on his wrist, and his mind appeared in a boundless starry sky. Countless stars of black and crimson light flickered all around. Within each star, there were flowers, beasts, birds, fish, and various weapons. Apart from these, there was one colossal star, the ultimate presence—a towering, earth-shaking, three-headed demon hound.

Yi Tian’s consciousness immediately plunged into that star.

Boom!

It was as if his mind pierced innumerable realms and ages; the starry expanse blazed with radiance.

To Jiang the Grand Demon, Yi Zhen, and the other members of the Reincarnation Squad, a stream of dazzling light shot from Yi Tian’s hand, and an overwhelming, terrifying aura swept through the entire abyss.

A three-headed demon hound more than thirty meters long appeared before them all.

With its sudden emergence, the hound’s dreadful presence filled Jiang the Grand Demon, Yi Zhen, and the others with boundless terror. The strands of dark aura swirling around the beast seemed capable of utterly annihilating them, body and soul.

“Roar!”

The leftmost head’s eyes were like black holes, able to devour all things. The rightmost head was wreathed in deathly energy, and its gaze alone seemed to spell certain doom. The central head held mastery over darkness itself.

Under the demon hound’s gaze, Jiang the Grand Demon felt a mortal peril unlike anything before. In the next moment, death seemed inevitable.

Though he could not understand how this creature had appeared, Jiang the Grand Demon did not hesitate—he launched his attack at once.

“Twin Dragon Strike!”

Water and fire dragons erupted from him, coiling and lashing out at the three-headed hound.

With his mind fused to the demon hound, Yi Tian felt a world-shaking, apocalyptic power. In a fraction of a second, he gained full insight into the beast’s abilities.

Facing Jiang the Grand Demon’s attack, Yi Tian commanded the Devouring Head to open its maw.

Boom!

All light around the Devouring Head was sucked in, darkness radiating like a miniature black hole, consuming everything nearby. In a blink, the Twin Dragon Strike was swallowed whole.

After all, this attack had been delivered straight to its jaws—how could it resist the power of devouring?

So long as the energy remained within the range it could consume, it would be swallowed effortlessly, without any unexpected consequences.

Jiang the Grand Demon was aghast.

The three-headed demon hound had devoured his attack.

He knew well that the Twin Dragon Strike was his ultimate move, its destructive force enough to seriously wound or kill even those of his own rank.

Yi Tian wasted no time.

The Devouring Head of the demon hound suddenly snapped toward Jiang the Grand Demon, swallowing in his direction.

In a heartbeat, the space where Jiang the Grand Demon stood, along with hundreds of meters around him, was engulfed by a vast, terrible force. Even the light in the void twisted and warped.

Jiang the Grand Demon himself was swept up by the irresistible pull, being dragged swiftly toward the demon hound’s gaping maw.

“This is bad—what sort of monster is this?!”

His face twisted in horror. He unleashed a torrent of true energy, struggling to resist the pull and momentarily steadying himself.

Though he managed to hold his ground, he could not stop the devouring force.

He then tried the “Thousand Pound Anchor,” driving his feet deep into the earth, hoping to resist the monstrous suction.

But Jiang the Grand Demon’s hopes were in vain.

This was the first time the Devouring Head’s full power had been unleashed; even the ground beneath his feet was pulverized by the force, the shattered soil swept up and sucked into the black hole-like maw.

Yi Zhen, Yi Feng, and Yi Shan stared in shock at the thirty-meter demon hound.

They recognized it. This hound looked much like Xiao Hei after growing a second head, only now it had a third, and its aura was even more terrifying—like a demon god descended.

Moreover, this demon hound was clearly far stronger and more fearsome than Xiao Hei in its transformed state.

Even Jiang the Grand Demon, who had so effortlessly destroyed Iron God Hand Fang Ge before, was left utterly helpless, barely able to hold his ground before being inexorably dragged toward the beast.

They also noticed something strange about Yi Tian. Since the demon hound appeared, he had stood stock still, as if his soul had left his body.

Suddenly, Jiang the Grand Demon produced a supreme spiritual sword from his ring, pouring his terrifying true essence into it. In a flash, he hurled it like a bolt of silver lightning at one of the demon hound’s heads.

Yi Tian, merged with the beast, saw the desperate counterattack, but the Devouring Head did not pause—it swallowed the blade whole in a blink.

On the verge of collapse, Jiang the Grand Demon paid no heed to anything else. He frantically drew talismans from his storage ring, unleashing dazzling attacks one after another.

But, without exception, each was devoured by the demon hound’s Devouring Head.

With every attack swallowed, the force pulling at Jiang the Grand Demon weakened ever so slightly.

This gave him a brief reprieve.

Meanwhile, Yi Tian’s Starry Mud Avatar had maintained the demon hound form for more than ten breaths now. Jiang the Grand Demon was starting to falter, but Yi Tian could feel the immense energy drain required to sustain the transformation.

He could only hope his avatar would hold out until Jiang the Grand Demon was devoured.

If the Starry Mud Avatar was forced out of the demon hound form before then, their entire group—and the whole Yi Clan—would be doomed.

Fortunately, the black-crimson Starry Mud seemed to contain endless energy. After Jiang the Grand Demon’s last, unwilling scream was silenced by the beast, the demon hound form still persisted.

Thus, Jiang the Grand Demon, a master of the Origin Law, perished without a sound in Peach Blossom Valley.

Yi Zhen and the others could scarcely believe it.

In the blink of an eye, the three-headed demon hound vanished without a trace.

Yi Tian’s consciousness returned to his body. He quietly put away the Starry Mud Avatar, and all was finished.

“Let’s get back quickly,” Yi Tian urged the others, who were still reeling in shock.

“Oh!” Yi Zhen was the first to recover, immediately realizing they needed to hurry back to the mine tunnel. If the cataclysmic battle drew other experts and their whereabouts were discovered, disaster would be imminent.

Without delay, they all sped back toward the mine.

As expected, not long after the battle, martial artists began to cautiously appear nearby, searching for clues.

But they found nothing.

Some, exercising extreme caution, even ventured down into Peach Blossom Valley, discovering a few corpses. They scoured the area inside and out but found nothing amiss, and soon departed.

This time, the danger had been extreme—one misstep, and not only they, but the entire Yi Clan, would have been lost forever.

As for the sudden appearance of the three-headed demon hound, Yi Zhen, Yi Feng, and Yi Shan all vaguely suspected it was connected to Yi Tian. Though they did not know how it was done, none asked him about it.

In a chamber within the mine, Yi Tian examined his Starry Mud Avatar.

He breathed a sigh of relief to see it intact—had it reverted to its original state, he would have been truly heartbroken.

Even so, the Avatar’s color had faded from black-crimson to deep crimson. This transformation, after devouring an Origin Law master, a supreme spiritual sword, and a variety of talismanic energy attacks, had only just managed to replenish some of the energy expended.

Otherwise, Yi Tian could not imagine how many spirit stones it would take to restore the Avatar to its black-crimson state.