A blood-red dusk, both alluring and tragic. A boundless wasteland, with a chill wind sweeping over the earth, letting out a mournful wail.
In the distant sky came bursts of terrifying roars, filled with the scent of blood, rage, and slaughter.
A majestic palace stood tall and unshakable. In the palace square, powerful demon soldiers guarded a massive Gate of Demons.
The demon soldiers surrounding the gate each possessed power comparable to a Soul Emperor, undoubtedly elite members of Alba's demon legion.
Leading them was a being on the same level as Demon Monarch Alba—a ten-meter-tall nine-headed hound demon monarch.
This was Demon Monarch Wuzhuo, also known as the Hellhound Demon Monarch.
Though also a demon monarch with quasi-divine combat power, Wuzhuo was clearly inferior to Alba.
Alba stood at the peak of quasi-godhood, having split much of his life energy into nine major demons.
These nine, when working together, had strength comparable to a single demon monarch.
Wuzhuo, by contrast, was a newly promoted demon monarch, lacking Alba's deep foundations.
After all, Alba was the strongest among the Five Demon Monarchs, holding the title of Angel Demon Monarch.
Originally the weakest of the five, Wuzhuo's power surged over ten years ago when Alba opened the Gate of Demons through Yuanen Yehui's mother, and sent Wuzhuo and his legion to plunder the Douluo Plane to grow stronger.
Though they were ultimately beaten back, the stolen life energy had boosted Wuzhuo's strength to the later stages of demon monarch level.
Today, among the demon monarchs of the Demon Plane, Wuzhuo's strength ranked in the top ten.
Alba had reached his limit in strength and was unlikely to improve further. Originally, Wuzhuo was meant to lead this invasion, but after being nearly killed by Yun Ming last time, he no longer dared to step foot into the Douluo Plane.
Thus, Alba had personally taken command.
Now, staring at the Gate of Demons, Wuzhuo was burning with anticipation.
Alba, being so powerful, no longer had much need for life energy. If this raid yielded enough energy, perhaps Alba would share some, allowing Wuzhuo to break through to the pinnacle of demon monarchs.
Alba needed him to counterbalance the Bloodfiend Demon Monarch and his subordinates.
As Wuzhuo was still fantasizing about his breakthrough, a sudden flash of light rippled across the Gate of Demons. He sprang to his feet.
"So fast? Could it be that spear-wielding powerhouse again? But even for him, defeating Lord Alba wouldn't be easy..." Wuzhuo's nine heads stared intently at the Gate of Demons, nervous.
The return transmission from the Demon Plane was far too quick—something was clearly wrong.
Before Wuzhuo could think further, figures began to emerge from the light. In the next moment, a group of people appeared atop the Gate of Demons.
"Roar!!" Upon seeing that humans had emerged, Wuzhuo was shocked. What was going on? Had Alba really been defeated already, and the humans were now launching a counterattack?
All nine heads roared in unison, and without hesitation, each head spewed a pillar of flame toward Xia Yi's group.
"So it was you who raided my Titan Clan!" Er Ming snorted coldly and threw a punch. A black fist imprint, like a descending mountain, smashed down. The flames hadn't even touched him before they were obliterated. The colossal punch directly struck Wuzhuo's body.
"Outsiders, you've gone too far." At that critical moment, the world shifted. A terrifying, twisted face appeared in the sky. A pillar of pitch-black energy descended, shielding Wuzhuo.
Even so, when Er Ming's fist landed on the energy pillar, it still caused Wuzhuo's bones to crack and snap audibly.
"Too far? You call yourself a realm lord. Hmph. Your plane has raided the Douluo Plane multiple times, stealing who knows how much life energy. And you dare say we're the ones overstepping?" Cold Yaozhu (Leng Yaozhu) snorted coldly and slashed her Yellow Emperor Sword. A golden beam tore through the sky, flying straight at the realm lord above.
"Hmph! You dare challenge me before becoming a god?" The grotesque face in the sky solidified into a body. With a lift of his hand, the entire Demon Plane's laws surged, condensing into a crimson longsword which stabbed toward her.
However, with a ripping sound, the crimson sword was split in two vertically by the Yellow Emperor Sword.
"Impossible!" The face of the realm lord of the Demon Plane changed wildly—from shock to horror. Without hesitation, his form began to dissolve, trying to fuse with the plane and escape.
But in the next moment, he realized Leng Yaozhu's golden sword light had frozen space, making escape impossible.
"Lord Demon God, save me!" In desperation, the realm lord cried toward the grand palace below.
"Shiiing…" The golden sword light pierced through him. With a scream, the realm lord shattered into pieces, disintegrating into scattered energy in the sky.
He hadn't even been able to resist.
Even in death, he couldn't understand how Leng Yaozhu, not even a god, could unleash a second-rank god-level attack.
"What happened? The realm lord is dead?!"
The moment he died, all high-ranking demons in the Demon Plane felt it.
"It came from Angel Demon Monarch Alba's side."
"Could the Demon God have acted?"
"But wasn't the Demon God suppressed?"
"Go! Let's check it out!" In a blood-reeking palace, the Bloodfiend Demon Monarch immediately led his subordinates toward the scene at full speed.
"This plane's getting interesting," Gu Yue smirked coldly, raising a hand. A scarlet light fell into her palm.
"That's Shura energy," said Da Ming and Er Ming in surprise. They both knew Tang San and recognized the Shura's power instantly.
But what puzzled them was—how could a mid-tier plane possess Shura energy?
And more shockingly, that exact energy had just been used by the Demon Plane's realm lord.
"More and more interesting," Gu Yue chuckled, saying nothing more. She looked into the distance—she could feel it: the Demon Plane had more than one Gate of Demons.
In other words, the Demon Plane had raided more than just the Douluo Plane.
For a mid-tier plane to have access to so many plane coordinates, including high-tier ones like Douluo, was highly suspicious.
No one would believe this wasn't orchestrated.
Gu Yue didn't believe it for a second—it had to be someone secretly guiding them.
"That works for us. The Origin of Creation could use a few subsidiary planes," she smiled.
Recently, the Demon Emperor had already discovered a few mid and low-tier planes in the nearby universe.
But without plane coordinates, further exploration would be much slower.
Now, using the Demon Plane as a springboard, they could gain access to many planes in one shot.
A truly unexpected bounty.
"What do you plan to do with these demons?" Yuanen Yehui looked down at the remaining demons, her eyes filled with murderous rage. She turned to Xia Yi and Leng Yaozhu.
"What do you think?" Xia Yi replied. By now, Yuanen Yehui had fully returned to normal, no longer in demon form. But her aura had already reached Super Douluo.
She had just broken through to Title Douluo, yet already advanced to Super Douluo—a truly unprecedented pace.
"These demons deserve a thousand cuts. If it weren't for them, my mother wouldn't have died. Of course we should kill them all," she said coldly.
"Then kill them," said Xia Yi.
"You do it," Leng Yaozhu turned to the Nether Emperor (Mingdi).
The Nether Emperor was not an evil soul master, nor did he possess an evil spirit martial soul. His domain was death and slaughter.
Much like Leng Yaozhu's group's dark attribute, death was not inherently evil—it just made it easier to fall to darkness.
Despite having killed countless foes, his martial soul never turned evil.
In that regard, he surpassed Leng Yaozhu herself.
Which made sense—after all, the Nether Emperor was favored by the Douluo Plane, and wouldn't be easily corrupted.
Moreover, unlike Leng Yaozhu, the Nether Emperor joined the Holy Spirit Church only to reach godhood.
No one from the Church dared to use their mind-controlling methods on him.
Simply put, the Nether Emperor had never been an evil soul master.
Among all Douluo's Limit Douluos, nearly all sought to create personal god positions. Aside from Leng Yaozhu and Leng Yulai, the most successful was the Nether Emperor.
If the Douluo Plane advanced to the divine level, he would undoubtedly ascend to godhood alongside the others.
Since he mastered death and slaughter, there was no one more suited to this job.
"Understood." The Nether Emperor replied without hesitation. The divine weapon Dirge of the Netherworld appeared in his hand. With a sweep of his blade, twelve Death Knights led Netherworld beings as they charged toward the remaining demons.