## AST 2077 - The Demon Palace? The Darknight Demon King and the Giant Demon King

With a piercing crash, the Nine Continents Mountain flew back and slammed against their bodies, letting out a low sound upon collision. Fortunately, Qing Shui’s defense was strong enough, and Shen Huang had the Parry Heavenly Fate Treasure Pagoda. Hence, their defense was quite formidable, and they defended the attack without suffering harm.

A line of sweat dripped down Qing Shui’s face. If it wasn’t for the Nine Continents Mountain and if he hadn’t given Shen Huang the Pagoda, he wouldn’t know what would happen to them. It was highly possible that they would perish right away.

Shen Huang was also afraid after being assaulted by the trap. She looked at Qing Shui and said, “You do have quite a number of good items.”

“I don’t have any cards left. If there are any more unexpected situations, I don’t know what we’ll do,” Qing Shui smiled bitterly as he said that.

“I can feel that the strange danger has already dissipated. There shouldn’t be any more surprises. Come on, let’s go!” Shen Huang led the way in.

Naturally, Qing Shui followed behind her, though the two kept a small distance between them. This was because they were both using their own protective arts. Qing Shui was using the 9th Lotus Manifestation Stage, while Shen Huang was using the Flower Storm Strangling Formation, which was much stronger and more terrifying than Qing Shui’s 9th Lotus Manifestation Stage.

The palace doors were still closed. This time, Shen Huang pushed them open.

Creak!

There was this loud, heavy sound coming from the doors, as if the doors were as heavy as ten thousand tons. The two doors were each about 33 meters tall, with a width of 10 meters, and a height of almost a 100 meters. The doors, which were as black as ink, gave off a frightening feeling.

When the doors opened, an uncomfortably pungent odor surged forth. If they hadn’t been cultivators, they would have passed out in that instant, or even died. To a certain degree, this odor was actually slightly toxic.

The palace was very large, with innumerable pillars inside. There was a thick layer of dust on the ground. It was eerily quiet. As Shen Huang was about to enter, Qing Shui stopped her. “Wait, these supporting pillars are probably part of another formation. If you enter, you might dissolve into powder.”

Trembling, Shen Huang brought back the foot that was about to step forth. She wasn’t particularly afraid of death, but she was afraid of being ground to dust.

Scanning the area, they couldn’t see anything other than the pillars. There was nothing else left. Qing Shui kept looking for a while and detected the formation. It was an upgraded version of the Twelve Heavenly Demon Cities Formation, but Qing Shui wasn’t sure of the exact name of the formation.

The Twelve Heavenly Demon Cities Formation was a terrifying formation from the primordial era. This formation was an upgraded version of it, but it was only an upgraded version. In terms of power, Qing Shui felt that it was far from being comparable to the formation from the ancient era.

It was as if the Twelve Heavenly Demon Cities Formation from ancient times was a young man, and the formation in the palace was a toddler. It was like playing house; even if this formation was an upgraded version, it was still just an exceptionally strong toddler, far from a real adult.

If one entered the formation accidentally, you would be drawn into an endless compressed space. Formations were an extremely mystical concept in the Continents. A strong Formation Master could easily devastate a city by setting up a Killing Formation that would destroy everything in the surroundings upon its activation.

Actually, in Qing Shui’s opinion, this formation was simply a Twelve Heavenly Demon Cities Formation.

Qing Shui began to break the formation by destroying the formation’s core. However, by doing so, he was required to enter it first. Although formations were dangerous, they still had their weak points and someone who had a good command of formations could still enter and exit as he pleased. It was impossible for a formation to have no weak points, otherwise, the Formation Master would be unable to activate it.

There had to be a person inside the formation to activate it!

As Qing Shui was about to enter, Shen Huang grabbed onto him and exclaimed, “It’s dangerous!”

“Are you worried about me? So you do care for me,” Qing Shui grinned, looking at the woman who resembled a Goddess.

“You’re so shameless, be careful!” Shen Huang let go of him.

Qing Shui clasped her hand gently before entering the formation.

In an instant, the entire palace appeared to be disturbed by ripples. This continued for a while as the palace began to reveal its true appearance. The four walls were revealing what they contained within. Qing Shui stood by a distant pillar which was snapped. It revealed that one out of the countless pillars inside was indeed the eye of the formation.

Unless the eye of the formation was broken, the formation would strangle everything. Even those who entered the formation would have to look for another way out. Moreover, every step forward entailed thousands of choices that had to be made. Everywhere, there was a massive chance of being strangled. It was, after all, an immensely powerful formation, and those who were within would be in a predicament.

Shen Huang walked to Qing Shui’s side and pointed at a distant wall, saying, “This is a Demon Lord’s Palace, probably one from an archaic past.”

Qing Shui nodded, looking at the portraits on the walls. For every fixed distance, there would be a portrait with a name written on top.

The Darknight Demon King Tu Lang, upon activating his Art, it would cause everything within a 50-kilometer radius to be covered in darkness. It was an absolute darkness; within the dark fog, even night vision was useless. In this darkness, an opponent would lose half of his combat strength while the Darknight Demon King’s abilities would be twice as effective.

Looking at the portrait, Qing Shui was inwardly shocked. The Darknight Demon Lord was extremely powerful! On top of that, Qing Shui read that the so-called dark fog was actually poisonous. Although it wasn’t extremely toxic, it was still a terrifying slow-acting poison. Over time, it would lower one’s reflexes and cause hallucinations.

The Giant Demon King Biao Yong–someone who could transform into a Demon King bigger than a mountain, with a body like diamond and seemingly infinite strength. Even if an ordinary attack made it through his defense, the mitigated damage would be so weak as if he were being gently pricked by embroidery needles. This was because he had a massive figure and was extremely tough. Even swords couldn’t pierce his diamond-like skin and due to his size, even if a sword could cut through him he wouldn’t feel a thing.

Thinking of the giant, Qing Shui thought about how hard it would be to deal with him. Though different from the marine tentacle monsters, they were equally mystical and their strength was equally terrifying.

Following that, Qing Shui saw many more frightening Demon Kings from an ancient era. All of them had their hands stained with fresh blood, resembling evil spirits.

It was precisely these opponents that the Battle Gods in the Battle God Palace fought against; their mission was to exterminate these Demon Kings.

Demon Kings were undeniably the darlings of heaven and earth. They perfected their arts swiftly and were many times faster than other fighters. For a long time, the Battle Gods were suppressed. Qing Shui didn’t know if these Demon Kings had descendants in the Nine Continents. Even if they did, they would be unable to reach the same level of power as the Demon Kings in the portraits.

Qing Shui felt a little bit anxious as he was also one of the descendants of the Battle Gods. After all, he was nowhere near the Golden Battle God’s level. If the real Golden Battle God, the leader of the Battle Gods from the ancient era, used the Golden Battle Halberd, he would be able to cause an extreme damage. Even monsters like the Giant Demon King would have exploded in one hit, unless the Giant Demon King had reached the pinnacle of all demons.

This was a Demon Palace indeed, the gathering ground for the Demon Kings. They were dead, but the portraits were a way of remembering them, who were probably the founders of the Palace. However, the Palace didn’t exist for long as its inheritance was severed. As to what happened exactly at that time, Qing Shui had no idea.