Today was an uncommonly fine day.
Although the Demon Emperor’s Eye occupied the sky, preventing people from seeing the sun, the air today seemed much fresher than usual, and the fog appeared to have thinned somewhat.
It gave off a feeling full of hope and vitality.
“Is everyone here?”
Yuxia counted heads at the camp entrance, counting down the time until departure.
“We confirmed it not long ago, everyone is present, Lady Yuxia,” the bespectacled girl said respectfully after circling the group to check and running back to Yuxia.
“Mhm, thank you for your hard work, Miss Rozali.” Yuxia nodded.
“Not at all… It’s my honor to be of help to Lady Yuxia!” The bespectacled girl seemed a bit flustered.
But when she saw Yuxia up close, she spoke with some surprise again. “L-Lady Yuxia, you look a bit tired. Did something happen last night?”
Yuxia’s face was slightly wan now, with faint dark circles under her eyes, looking as if she hadn’t slept at all.
“It’s nothing, just got pestered by something all night.” Yuxia pursed her lips.
Really… why did I have to study white stockings all night last night! I was even thinking about how to match them, what pose to strike in front of Lu Mo after putting them on, and what kind of expression she would make.
Thinking and thinking, I just couldn’t sleep.
Truly, white stockings are a menace.
Rozali couldn’t stay calm at this point.
“P…pestered all night?”
That statement sounded somewhat dubious to her.
What exactly did Lady Yuxia do last night?
Yuxia didn’t notice Rozali’s expression, proudly looking at the crowd before her now. “Alright, since everyone’s here, let’s depart. Leaving early means we can finish the frontline push sooner, defeat the Demon King sooner. Once we enter the core area, watch your own safety. Don’t expect me to save you.”
As she spoke, she flicked one of her twin tails with her hand, turned, and walked forward, ignoring the crowd behind her.
“Yes! Lady Yuxia!”
“Understood! Boss Yuxia!”
Her tone was proud and somewhat harsh.
Yet, many in the crowd responded with smiles, showing genuine respect.
Many of them had carried out missions with Yuxia and knew her true nature.
Although her tone could be bad at times, if real danger arose, she would never abandon them.
On several occasions, it was Yuxia who voluntarily stayed behind to cover their retreat.
Yuxia walked into the denser fog of the core area.
The procession thus set off in a grand manner.
Yuxia, walking at the very front of the group, suddenly spoke up. “Rozali, I have a question for you.”
“Please go ahead, Lady Yuxia,” Rozali quickly responded.
“Do you think… I’d look good in white stockings?”
Because of shyness, the volume of her latter half clearly dropped.
Rozali froze on the spot.
When she realized what Yuxia had actually said, she jumped in shock, her glasses nearly falling off.
“Wha-wha-wha-whaaat?!”
She looked at Yuxia again, only to see the twin-tailed girl looking at her, waiting for an answer, not seeming like she was joking at all.
“L-Lady Yuxia would of course look good in anything!”
Rozali hurriedly answered.
“In that case, should I change my clothing style too?”
“Yes.”
“Could you help me pick some out then?”
“Sure, no problem.”
Rozali put her glasses back on, looking at Yuxia, feeling that the other girl’s face seemed slightly flushed, her gaze wandering, looking more and more like a maiden in love.
She took off her glasses and put them back on repeatedly, and after confirming this wasn’t an illusion, she couldn’t help but feel increasingly astonished.
Lady Yuxia… is she in love?
Who is it? Who could make Lady Yuxia this bashful? What kind of person is the other party?
And last night’s Lady Yuxia… was she also “pestered” into that state by that person?
“How did Lady Yuxia come to think about changing her style?” Rozali asked. “The current you is already very beautiful, cute and charming.”
“But that person doesn’t pay me any mind at all, always treating me coldly.”
Yuxia smiled. “Since that’s the case, next time we meet, I’ll change into an outfit she likes.”
“What kind of expression will she make then? Will her eyes finally have me in them?”
“What kind of person is the ‘she’ Lady Yuxia speaks of?” Rozali felt her curiosity itching.
“She’s a hateful person, someone who’s always running away.” Yuxia looked toward the distant Demon King’s throne and spoke softly.
The task Yuxia was to carry out this time was to exterminate the demons in the area ahead and map this region.
Although it was already the demon territory’s core area, today’s mission seemed unusually simple to execute.
There weren’t many demons in the surrounding area.
And the average strength of these demons was only at the mid-stage of the Earth Vein level.
They completed the extermination almost effortlessly, with no casualties.
The previously tense atmosphere in the group instantly relaxed considerably.
“Did we wipe out the demons back in the foggy areas? Leaving only the old, weak, sick, and disabled in the core?”
“I was all ready to play it safe and survive, but it’s just this?”
Someone mocked the demons’ weakness.
“In that case, the war against the Demon King might end pretty soon, right?”
“When this battle is over, I’m going back home to get married. My wife and kids are waiting for me.”
“I promised to show my child my military medal.”
Others were already talking about life after the war.
“A good era is about to arrive.”
Someone sighed.
But for some reason, the next second, all sounds in the group abruptly ceased.
Everyone fell silent.
Because at this moment… they all felt a chilling, hair-raising sensation.
A hoarse sound came from within the fog.
“Ah… aah…”
The other party seemed to want to roar, but their vocal cords were severely damaged, only able to emit this strange, inarticulate sound.
This sound echoed in the empty fog, feeling particularly eerie.
“Demons are coming.”
Yuxia warily looked ahead.
The owner of the sound finally walked out of the mist, appearing before everyone’s eyes.
It should have been a demon noble.
However, the noble before them was clearly abnormal.
He walked toward the group in a lurching, unsteady manner, mouth agape, continuously making sounds with his broken vocal cords.
He seemed unable to suppress the demonic power within his body anymore.
The demonic power pierced through his body’s surface like a living thing, leaving crisscrossing, vein-like raised patterns all over him.
Half of his face was covered by these vascular patterns, flesh bulging, eyeballs protruding, bloodshot.
“Has this noble been eroded to the brain?” someone whispered.
An intense aura of erosion was spreading outwards with him at the center.
They had encountered this situation before.
While demonic power granted demons great strength, it would also gradually erode their bodies.
Once unable to withstand the erosion, that power would rapidly spread throughout their body, devouring their nerves.
They would either become mentally impaired or fall into madness.
They might even begin infecting their own kind, and other races.
The noble before them seemed to have lost all combat awareness.
But he was still a dangerous eroder.
“What a disgusting thing.”
Yuxia said coldly, “Better kill it sooner, lest it pollutes the air.”
She gently clenched her hand toward the space before her.
In an instant, that noble, along with the surrounding space, was annihilated.
He didn’t even splash a single drop of blood before being completely devoured by the spatial turbulence.
When space returned to normal, that demon noble was gone.
This was just a minor episode during the mission.
Yuxia thought to herself, quickly ready to put this matter behind her.
“Ah… aah…”
“Hnng aah…”
“Baah ba…”
But at that moment, hoarse sounds came from the fog again.
And more and more of them.
“Look, ahead…”
Someone pointed forward in horror.
Within the fog, more and more lurching figures gradually appeared, slowly walking toward the group.
Just then, rain suddenly began to fall from the sky.
“What’s going on? The weather was fine just now…”
“And… how can water fall under the Demon Emperor’s Eye?”
Someone’s voice trembled as they spoke.
Only then did many realize this rain was probably not ordinary.
“This rain… it’s a bit yellowish? Why is there red too?”
“It stinks… this smell is wrong!”
“Blood… there’s blood in it!”
Someone recognized the nature of the red rain.
“What about the yellow stuff?”
Plop—
Soon, something fell from the sky.
Not hail.
But… flesh and blood.
Highly decomposed flesh and blood!
Some were chunks of meat, some were severed limbs, some were fragments of internal organs.
Some were desiccated bones with only a little flesh left, some were clumps of meat mixed with blood and bone.
Even… skulls fell from the sky!
The skulls were half-rotted, their empty eye sockets “staring” fixedly at them.
Decomposed eyeballs slid out from the sockets.
This was a rain of flesh and blood!
A rain… of corpses!
“Erosion—”
Yuxia detected another aura from this rain.
Without exception, all these corpses carried an intense power of erosion!
“Dammit, deploy defenses—!”
She explosively unleashed her God-blood power, shouting toward the people behind her.
But it was too late.
Before her words even finished, all the flesh and blood that had fallen to the ground had already exploded!
A terrifying power of erosion instantly enveloped everything around them!