Imperial God Emperor

"The spewing of demon qi has been abnormal recently. Something strange must have happened in the abyss."

"Don't you know? I heard it's because the demon tide is about to burst out."

"What? That can't be! If my calculations based on our race's records are accurate, the demon tide shouldn't be bursting out this year."

As the aboriginals of the Black Demon Pool and the descendants of the Black Demon Emperor, the Black Demon Race enjoyed special status, such that most experts of other races would absolutely not want to provoke them. Furthermore, the ability of these discussers to appear in this zone in itself illustrated that they were very strong.

After hearing their conversation, Ye Qingyu's heart twitched a little.

The demon tide is bursting out?

He had read about it in the materials provided by the Immortal God Emperor Sect. The bursting out of the demon tide was a huge event that, when it happened, would send shockwaves in all directions throughout not only the Black Demon Pool but also the entire Chaotic Ruins Domain. And these Black Demon experts had suddenly begun to discuss a possibility of it happening in the next couple of days.

For tens of thousands of years, rumor had it that the very depths of the Black Demon Pool contained infinite secrets, including the Black Demon Emperor's legacy. Unfortunately, nobody had truly been able to reach these depths. There was also a suggestion that these depths constantly produced heavenly treasures that built up into mountainous heaps day after day, month after month over many years, and once an unusually strong demon tide burst out, these treasures would spew up together with it.

Therefore, the bursting out of the demon tide meant that a huge opportunity might be appearing in the Black Demon Pool.

These treasures were naturally created from the universal power of laws and thus were no one's possession.

Ye Qingyu had also seen records regarding the demon tide treasures in the administration hall.

There was a section which said that, two thousand years ago, there lived a middle domain ordinary expert whose strength stagnated at the pinnacle of the Immortal Step realm and could not make a breakthrough for several hundred years subsequently. However, because of a fortunate opportunity one day, he snagged a weapon which was comparable to an Emperor weapon during the bursting out of a large demon tide, and by depending on it, he not only sat firmly on the throne of the domain ruler but raised the strength of the entire domain to the level of a higher domain.

And this was but one of many similar stories.

Therefore, for several thousand years, many experts and forces from mature domains would pour into the Black Demon Pool whenever there were signs of a demon tide bursting out. Over this grand event, they would tussle maniacally and cause endless bloodbaths.

To one side.

The whispered discussions were still going on.

"No wonder there've been many auras of unfamiliar experts in the Black Demon Pool recently. They must be here to snatch the supreme treasures of the demon tide... It's rather odd that the demon tide this time won't follow the regular patterns and will be bursting out ahead of time. Could this news be fake?" A Black Demon expert who was shrouded in gray mist remained skeptical.

"It shouldn't be. News from our race has said that there seems to have been some unforeseen occurrence which has brought the bursting out ten years forward."

Another Black Demon expert seemed as if he suddenly thought of something, and said, "No wonder, according to news from other zones, there've arrived many new faces from other zones recently, and they've caused a few troubles... By the way, I heard that a lower domain envoy mission which is taking their domain rating came in as well."

"I've heard about this too, but it appears that most of them turned back after reaching the third zone, and it's unclear what's going on right now."

"They probably realized they weren't up to par and thus retreated."

"That makes sense, domain rating is becoming more and more difficult these days."

A while later.

Turning his body and leaving, Ye Qingyu headed toward the exit of the 14th zone.

On the way to the 15th zone, he ran into the surprise attacks of several assassination attempts and impromptu designs of passing-by experts,

Although he eventually succeeded in killing most of the assassins, his injuries became more and more severe. The new cut marks and bloodstains on his hooded top made him look terribly haggard, while his breathing became irregular and his inner yuan seemed to have deteriorated badly, such that he could no longer engage in protracted fights.

His overall condition looked very poor, as if he would collapse upon the very next breath. Nevertheless, he was able to persevere, and thus advanced unhurriedly while leaning on the long spear.

During the clashes with the assailants this time, he had used his thunderous methods to catch hold of and interrogate a few of them, and thereby found out the reason he was being targeted by everyone.

It turned out that a mysterious force had written his name on the bounty list in the Black Demon Pool's administration hall, offering a bounty of fifty kilograms of top-grade origin crystals.

He began to recall the information regarding the Black Demon Pool Bounty List he had seen in the administration hall.

This was an extremely special list in the Black Demon Pool.

Anyone could offer a bounty and publish the target's name on the list. The higher the bounty, the higher the ranking given to the name.

Subsequently, regardless of the target's race and strength, they would be perceived and tagged by the Black Demon qi in the abyss once they appeared in the Black Demon Pool.

Within the eighteen zones, anyone who possessed a bounty edict would, at any time, be able to check the identity of and bounty offered for each target. Most importantly, they could find out the approximate location of the target by making use of the list's perception of the tags.

This was why Ye Qingyu could not avoid the surprise attacks of various forces and experts despite changing his route several times to cover his tracks.

Fortunately, he had memorized the general terrain of the first sixteen zones while in the administration hall.

Based on the routes shown on the map in his memory, he steered clear of the main street and instead walked through some extremely obscure and deserted alleys.

Along the way, he condensed all of the information he had obtained thus far and continually organized his thoughts. After gaining a clear understanding of his present circumstances, he had a broad idea of why he became targeted by everyone.

There was a high chance that Huang Tayun had something to do with the matter of the bounty list.

This was Ye Qingyu's first time in the Black Demon Pool and he had not made any new enemies. Therefore, it could only be that supervisor who would offer such a huge bounty for him.

Because of the Storm List, Huang Tayun was doubtful of his own true strength, and hence had not personally appeared.

He intended to make use of other forces to deplete Ye Qingyu's yuan qi first, while conveniently probing the latter's hidden techniques and strength so that he would know how to cope.

The only thing which was shocking to Ye Qingyu was that Huang Tayun was willing to offer such a high price for him.

Could it be simply because of that useless nephew of his?

Shouldn't be.

This matter is a little complicated.

After half of an incense stick burned off.

Ye Qingyu walked toward the 15th zone while continually operating the nameless breathing technique to correct his breathing.

The closer he got to where the Black Demon qi was surging, the slower the injuries on his body healed.

An extremely terrifying and overbearing power seemed to be contained within the strange demon qi. It not only inhibited one's exertion of strength but rendered an injured person unable to recover immediately.

It was at this moment that he truly felt that he had encountered his first huge danger since entering the Chaotic Ruins Domain.

The Black Demon qi-shrouded road ahead was filled with signs of danger.

However, he could not stop walking.

The outcome of the domain rating and the destiny of the entire Heaven Wasteland Domain were in his hands.

The reason why he pressed on toward the 15th zone was that he had found out some things about Ge Ming from the killers that died at his hands and several other sources.

He had found out the real reason for the killings in the [Easy Wins Joint] from some rumors. The promising talent of the Divine Sky Sect was crushed in a betting game against Ge Ming but could not take the losshus, in a fit of anger, the former destroyed the entire gambling house and began a bloodbath.

However, it was believed that Ge Ming did not die amid the massacre and managed to escape.

Whether or not these rumors were true, Ye Qingyu did not have any other clues and thus had no choice but to search the 15th zone... Furthermore, if he was unable to fulfill the test requirement of killing the wanted criminals, he would have to proceed to the 16th zone to try his luck and see if he could pick the Black Demon Herb.

In any case, he had to pass through the 15th zone.

Roughly two hours passed.

It was only now that he slowly reached near the entrance of the 15th zone.

However, before he entered the zone, he once again perceived an incomparably strong smell of blood!

It was as if Asura's Sea of Blood was ahead.

Ye Qingyu's countenance turned cold.

What's going on?

As he operated his yuan qi, his vision instantly penetrated the intense Black Demon qi and looked toward the entrance.

In the distance, he saw hundreds of corpses of experts from different races and with different physiques. These corpses laid at sixes and sevens on a plaza to the left of the entrance, turning the plaza into a sea of corpses and blood.

The air above the plaza was shrouded in extremely powerful residual yuan qi and evil blood qi, making the whole scene look like the extremely terrifying Asura's purgatory.

The blood had yet to dry up.

Yet another massacre.

These experts had apparently not been dead for long, and their death states were extremely wretched, as if they had been tortured to death. Broken limbs were scattered everywhere, and there was not a single intact body.

Could it be the Divine Sky Sect's and the Black Moon Divine Palace's doing again?  

Frowning, Ye Qingyu trotted toward the plaza.

On the plaza.

"Heh heh, I never thought that lass could be so vicious, and start a massacre simply because of one disagreeable sentence..." a cluster of green-black mist which was onlooking from beside the corpses whispered.

Beside it, a one-horned rhino demon snorted and said, "That person from the [Poison Flower Cave] is to blame. Before he verbally flirted with that lass, he should've heard that she's the holy girl in the sanctum of the higher domain called the Four Stars Domain."

"No wonder she's strong enough to sunder the bodies of everyone in the [Poison Flower Cave] in no time at all. I heard that some of them perished even before they could act," a Demon Race expert, who was shrouded in a gray mist but revealed two webbed feet, said while sighing.

"It's still a little incredible how she killed the [Poison Flower Cave] so quickly. I heard that she's traveling together with the Third Prince of the Mizar Race of the Mizar Domain, another higher domain. He's also a renowned genius talent in the myriad domains." Several clusters of black mist, whose demon qi was somewhat similar to that of the Black Demon Pool, joined the onlooking crowd.

"It looks like the newborn dragons of various domains are all coming to the Black Demon Pool..."

"What's more, I heard from the Golden Owl Demon Race two days ago that they have spotted the old monsters of several demonic races and even the Human Race entering the depths of the Black Demon Pool one after another."

The onlookers were each an expert whose tracks were covered, and a powerful aura surged throughout their bodies. However, they appeared extremely frightened upon the mention of the Four Stars holy girl and the Mizar Third Prince.

Golden Owl Demon Race?

Ye Qingyu recalled in detail the introduction he saw in the administration hall.

This was a Demon Race that was extremely skilled at investigating and finding trails. Derived from the owls and the Demon Race, nothing that happened in the places where they lived could escape their eyes .

The news of old monsters entering the Black Demon Pool was basically true if it came from them.

"I even heard an elder of the Golden Owl Demon Race say that a princess of the Black Demon Race has turned up. She's also in a rush to get to the depths of the Black Demon Pool to participate in the seizure of treasures after the imminent bursting out of the demon tide."