A Good-for-Nothing

150. Karma Flame (2)

 

Translator: Dragon Rider

 

Actually the shadow-demon had been fairly powerful when it’d been at full strength. Otherwise he wouldn’t have found the Demon King shortly after a wisp of the Demon King’s Qi escaped from the seal, and been serving him till this day.

However, the shadow-demon had less than half of his powers left, and wouldn’t be able to last long in SMB where no sources of demonic Qi were accessible to him.

His plan was perfect: leaving half of his demonic Qi in that human’s body to distract the others, and the other half in this black cat to make his escape, so that he could once again cleverly slip out of a predicament like a cicada sloughing its skin.

Though he would suffer a significant reduction in his powers by doing it this way, he was sure he would recover once he made it back to his master.

His plan was very good, but his luck wasn’t. He’d thought it unfortunate enough of him to encounter a protection enchantment, but it’d turned out that the one who’d cast it was Li Zong.

Worse still, now Li Zong saw through him.

‘God damn you, Li Zong!’

The shadow-demon didn’t dare launch a frontal attack on Li Zong. Believing that Tun Shanhai was a relatively soft target, he lunged at the white cat, but before he could have his way, Li Zong made his move.

A dark green flame shot towards the shadow-demon from behind him and the heat wave forced him into drawing back. The black cat, whose hairs had been instantly ignited, let out an anguished shriek, its whole body engulfed in flames. Oddly enough, the black cat was unharmed, black gas continually coming out of its body before being callously burned by the fire.

“Thi–This is…”

Li Zong clicked his fingers and with that the flames flared up, the black cat’s scream growing increasingly despairing. The sight of this gave Tun Shanhai goosebumps and he involuntarily took a few steps backward.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now you know how powerful our Chief is, I guess? It was wildly arrogant of you to come to SMB to make trouble. You must be really desperate to let our Chief teach you a lesson.” Tun Shanhai watched the cat burning, finding it both disgusting and highly enjoyable.

The black kept squealing in pain. Before long, almost all black gas in its body was burned by Li Zong’s karma flames. The last puff of it struggled out of its body, intending to escape, but before it wafted far, Li Zong noticed and finished it off with one snap.

Tun Shanhai disgustedly clenched the dead cat between its teeth, followed in Li Zong’s wake and said inarticulately, “Chief, I feel your powers have grown somewhat.”

Li Zong’s mind was straying.

Twenty years ago the Demon King was restrained with demon seals, but after merely twenty years, his demonic Qi had escaped and started wreaking havoc on human society once again. The shadow-demon was probably the one who had possessed the man wearing gold-rimmed spectacles that they’d found in that room previously.

The shadow-demon had done many things when in possession of that man’s body. They had followed this lead and found a lot of useful information. Eventually they’d even got the vessel of the shadow-demon.

Han Zhuo had reported that the shadow-demon had escaped, but strangely, the shadow-demon had infiltrated into SMB, risking life and limb.

Luo Yan had been a cultivator. How was it possible that he’d been possessed by a demon so easily?

Li Zong narrowed his eyes. There had always been more than one Demon’s Attendant.

“Things seem to be getting more complicated.”

In the dark.

Zhou Yihao who’d always been rather cocky in front of the shadow-demon was standing reverently before the man, not daring utter a word, but actually he was feeling an urge to curse the shadow-demon aloud. ‘This damn fool. I thought he’d be able to achieve something, but now it turns out that what I said about him was totally right — he’s no more than a brainless shadow who couldn’t be entrusted with anything of significance. His cover got blown so soon.’

The man’s voice was still charmingly deep and bewitching. “I quite liked the shadow-demon, but now he’s dead.”

Zhou Yihao didn’t speak, but he felt as though his insides had turned to ice. ‘That good-for-nothing died so easily?!’

A wisp of demonic Qi was emitted by the man’s hand, but it was very thin.

“Those clowns of SMB might not know that the shadow-demon was part of the shadow of my primary form… Hm, interesting — he was burned to death in none other than karma flames.”

“Karma flames?!” Zhou Yihao abruptly raised his head, his pupils contracting drastically. “Master, the one who’s capable of commanding karma flames… Is it some kind of ancient unique beast, by any chance?”

Neither the Luminosity Flame nor the Crimson Lotus Karma Flame was of earthly origins, and they certainly couldn’t be produced with any magic tools. Zhou Yihao couldn’t think of anybody or anything else apart from an ancient unique beast that was powerful enough to command karma flames.

The Demon King was different from Zhou Yihao. The Demon King was immortal, and had been living from ancient times till this very day. He slightly squinted his eyes. “An ancient unique beast? What kind of ancient unique beast could possibly live to this day?”

The man chuckled, “Even I have to hide from the Divine Law. How is it possible any of those beasts did something I couldn’t?”

“Master,” said Zhou Yihao in a confused tone, “then who do you think this guy capable of conjuring up karma flames is?”

“Haha… Interesting,” the man chuckled again. “Those old dogs of SMB have actually got themselves such a powerful ally… We do need to keep an eye open.”

Zhou Yihao said, “Do you want me to make some inquiries?”

“That won’t be necessary. You know, I cannot leave this room as I please. It makes me quite uncomfortable not being able to freely go outside. Originally the shadow-demon was my hands and eyes, but he’s dead now, which means you’ve got to take his place.”

“Master?” Zhou Yihao’s palms were soaked with sweat, the corners of his mouth twitching with thrill, his face on the verge of creasing into a beam, but Zhou Yihao managed to keep from doing so. He tried hard to make himself sound calm, though his excitement had grown too intense for him to conceal, making his voice slightly shiver. “What should I do to take his place?”