Chapter 84: Demon King Mirage! You Can’t Hit Airborne Targets, Can You!?
In the conference hall for East China Region’s leadership meetings in Dongwu City, the atmosphere was grave and tense.
Wu Ming, the highest-ranking official in East China Region, was leading a group of elite core personnel in discussions over the strategic deployment for the future Myth-grade Secret Realm.
At that moment, however, a burst of short alarm beeps interrupted the entire meeting.
Everyone’s hearts tightened at once. This kind of alarm was extremely rare.
It meant that a city in East China Region had encountered an unprecedented major crisis, and that the situation was extraordinarily urgent!
“Chief, Linyuan City’s signal has disappeared!”
When a secretary rushed in with that anxious report, the expressions of everyone in the meeting changed dramatically.
“Disappeared? How is that possible?!”
Wu Ming’s face turned especially severe. He knew perfectly well what lay behind the disappearance of that signal.
Every city maintained a standing signal in order to remain in a secure state, so that the moment it came under attack, it could immediately call for help or reinforcements. For a signal like that to vanish so suddenly, the city had to have been breached from within.
“Where is Wan Feipeng?”
The seriousness of the matter made Wu Ming abandon the meeting on the spot and prepare to gather reinforcements.
The secretary answered, “Three Demon Kings are attacking the border. City Lord Wan has gone to defend the battlefield at the Abyss Frontier!”
“Three Demon Kings as bait...” Wu Ming’s heart sank even further.
“Should we notify City Lord Wan to return?”
“He won’t be able to come back.” Wu Ming was utterly certain. “The Fiends must already have made preparations.”
“In recent years, the Fiends haven’t deployed this many Demon Kings at once. This time, they’re probably trying to take Linyuan City in one stroke.”
One of the core members at the meeting said worriedly, “Linyuan City is a major frontier city. If it falls, the neighboring cities will probably suffer as well!”
“Yes,” Wu Ming said with a sigh. “It is precisely because it’s a major frontier city, with many defensive mechanisms for the city, that the Fiends chose to infiltrate the city itself and strike from within.”
At that moment, a newly promoted female director from the Finance Department spoke frankly.
“Chief Wu, if it’s such an important place, why weren’t more powerful experts assigned to guard it?”
Wu Ming’s expression had already been grave, but on hearing that, he laughed from sheer anger.
The head of East China Region’s Tactical Department gave a cold snort. “Assign more powerful experts? From where?”
“There are only ten sixth-rank experts in total. At least half of them have to guard the Abyss, and the rest are divided among the Five Major Regions. The fact that Linyuan City has even a single Hunter King stationed there already means it’s being treated like a major stronghold!”
“So where, exactly, are these extra experts supposed to come from? Why don’t you tell us!”
Not to mention East China Region or even China, across all of Blue Star, top-tier experts were exceedingly scarce.
But some people lived too comfortably to understand that.
After being rebuked several times in a row, the female director immediately lowered her head and fell silent.
“I only hope...”
As Wu Ming spoke, he suddenly shook his head helplessly.
He had still harbored a trace of wishful thinking, hoping that the thing that had entered the city was not a Demon King, and that perhaps it could still be dealt with... but that was obviously impossible!
Not only was it a Demon King, it had to be a Demon King never seen before, one with a new ability that allowed it to infiltrate Linyuan City.
“I only hope this Demon King doesn’t run into Ye Ze and Liu Anran...”
Wu Ming could accept sacrifices.
But if the two most promising freshmen of this generation were sacrificed, it would pain him more than a knife through the heart!
The secretary spoke weakly. “Chief... Chu He and Luo Yao from the Special Training Camp are also in Linyuan City right now...”
“What!?”
Four genius-level freshmen, all trapped in Linyuan City?
Wu Ming’s head began to pound. “Why does everyone keep flocking to Linyuan City for excitement?”
He could not sit still for even a second longer. He did not even bother waiting to assemble a support force and set out personally instead.
“Go to the warehouse and bring all the Heaven-Restoring Herb we have. Even if they’re down to their last breath, we’re bringing them back alive!”
A team from Dongwu City sped toward Linyuan City.
...
At that moment, from the outside looking in, Linyuan City seemed to be shrouded in a hemispherical barrier of white mist.
Inside the city, the mastermind behind everything had already appeared before Ye Ze.
Feeling the terrifying aura of a Demon King, everyone present felt their scalps go numb.
To them, a Demon King was something that could crush them completely!
At that moment, perhaps because the illusion barrier had already begun to envelop the whole of Linyuan City, the illusions affecting the people inside the city instead began to dissipate.
Seeing the situation, three fourth-rank members of the City Defense Forces attacked from the flank.
“You all go first! Leave the Fiend to us!”
The three City Defense soldiers stood side by side, one with a saber, one with a spear, and one with a halberd, blocking the Demon King and signaling for Ye Ze, Liu Anran, and the others to retreat.
In the eyes of the City Defense Forces, Ye Ze’s group consisted of students, a young teacher, and an older man, all people who needed the army’s protection.
So without a second word, they charged over to cover their retreat.
So much so that they did not even have time to realize what sort of opponent they were about to face!
“Don’t go over there!” Ye Ze called out at once.
But it was already too late.
The Demon King before them, covered in dark-violet scales and humanoid in shape, had an eerie light flickering in its eyes.
Then, just as the three members of the City Defense Forces were about to attack, the Demon King vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a blurry mass of mist.
“What is this?!”
Their saber, spear, and halberd struck empty air. The three City Defense soldiers felt their scalps tingle. They had never encountered such a bizarre enemy!
In the next instant, that dark-violet-scaled Demon King appeared at their side as though it were unreal.
Black mist surged up, and before the Demon King, three misty phantoms identical to itself appeared. Like heavy hammers, they struck out at once, sending the three fourth-rank City Defense soldiers flying more than ten meters away!
The three of them crashed through two walls, bringing them down with a thunderous roar.
One blow had severely injured three fourth-rank class users!
A fourth-rank Class User was already captain-level defensive strength within the city, and yet even they had been heavily wounded in a single strike!
Liu Anran’s brows drew tight. Luo Yao and Xia Qing both widened their eyes and covered their mouths in disbelief.
Ye Ze let out a sigh. After seeing the other side’s attributes, he was not surprised by that level of combat power at all:
【Mirage (lv.60)】
Type: King-class Fiend
Attributes: Strength 750, Constitution 840, Agility 630, Spirit 1030
Traits: Domain Skill - Mirage
Skills: Reality-Illusion Shift, Illusion-Shattering Strike, Oblivion Burst, Mist Shadow Clone
————
A level-60 Demon King!
Even on the front-line battlefield of the Demon Suppression Army, that was an enemy that required a sixth-rank expert, or a fifth-rank team acting together, to bring down!
And this was an illusion-type Demon King!
Every illusion that had appeared before, and even the restrictive barrier that now covered all of Linyuan City… all of it came from this Demon King’s domain skill, Mirage!
Aside from its immense large-scale illusion abilities, Demon King Mirage could even move with the mist and almost teleport anywhere within its domain!
It could use that both to evade attacks and to launch ambushes.
It was rather similar to the mantis’s movement skill.
It simply was not as free and effortless as the mantis’s Void Traverse.
On top of that, Mirage’s attributes were absurdly high. Against an ordinary fourth-rank Class User, it could kill in a single blow.
But when Ye Ze looked at that name, many thoughts suddenly came to him.
In ancient legends, the shen clam could breathe out a mirage and create illusions so lifelike they were almost real!
“Could it really be that kind of ability?”
Ye Ze frowned slightly. “No wonder it managed to slip into the city and deceive everyone!”
Near the collapsed wall in the distance, the three members of the City Defense Forces dragged their heavily injured bodies back to their feet.
“Damn it, what level is this thing...?”
Then, looking toward Ye Ze and the others, they cried out anxiously, “Run!”
Even they, as fourth-rank Class Users, had been instantly crushed by a single blow. If this group did not leave now, weren’t they simply waiting to die?
With that thought, the three City Defense soldiers tried to stand and take them away, but their heavily injured bodies could no longer keep fighting.
Luo Yao, who had little real combat experience, immediately began to panic and hurriedly hid beside Liu Anran, while the latter slowly gathered spatial power in her palm...But Ye Ze shook his head. “We can’t run.”
Not only had the restrictive barrier already covered all of Linyuan City, but now that Demon King Mirage had appeared, how could it possibly let them leave?
The moment those words fell, mist began to rise.
In the next instant, Demon King Mirage, clad in its dark-violet scales, appeared out of nowhere behind their group!
“What!?” Everyone’s expressions changed in shock.
“Pathetic humans!”
Mirage bared a savage grin, and before it, that misty phantom appeared again, throwing out a punch like a heavy hammer.
But at that moment, the Spirit Pact Cloak’s skill activated!
A pale-blue barrier unfolded before Ye Ze and blocked the blow head-on!
“Spatial Teleportation!”
Liu Anran’s pupils contracted sharply. Finally finding an opening to cast, she hurriedly teleported everyone dozens of meters away.
And Ye Ze’s pale-blue barrier from the Spirit Pact Cloak shattered completely under that one hit.
“It actually broke in a single strike...”
That shield had been formed from the combined total of his mental power and his summoned beast’s Constitution, yet it had still been smashed in one blow!
Seeing that, Luo Yao hurriedly reached out her small hand and touched Ye Ze’s cloak...
【Ding! Under the effect of the skill ‘One More Time,’ the attached skill of the Spirit Pact Cloak—‘Spirit Shield’ has had its cooldown restored!】
The cooldown for Spirit Shield had been reset!?
“Damn, there’s a skill like that?”
Ye Ze was startled and looked at Luo Yao with clear surprise.
He had not expected this hidden support class of hers to have so many tricks up its sleeve!
Luo Yao’s small hand was almost trembling. “You really have to hold on. I still don’t want to die...”
In the current situation, the only hope she could place her faith in was Ye Ze.
She was a support role. Without teammates, she would be worse off than anyone!
Ye Ze asked curiously, “How many more times can you use that skill?”
Luo Yao looked pitiful. “I can’t use it again. I can only use it once a day.”
That made sense. A skill like that was bound to have a very long cooldown.
“Then... can we still hold on now?”
Hearing that, Ye Ze smiled. There was not the slightest fear on his face, even though this was his first time facing a Demon King.
“Relax. We can kill him.”
“What!?” Liu Anran turned her head at once, unable to believe her ears.
The others also stared at him in utter disbelief, as though asking:
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
This was a level-60 Demon King!
Without a sixth-rank expert, or a coordinated fifth-rank team in the city, what were they supposed to use to fight a Demon King?
At present, with Demon King Mirage pressing the attack, the only thing they could do was rely on Liu Anran’s teleportation to evade.
If the Demon King touched them, they died. So how exactly were they supposed to kill it!?
And yet, even in those few brief exchanges, Ye Ze had already found the key to victory!
“His skills and attack range are limited...”
“We just need to go into the sky!”
If they wanted to win, then at the very least, they absolutely could not let the Demon King threaten them directly.
And although Demon King Mirage’s illusions were supreme, neither his four skills nor his domain skill had any ability to attack aerial targets!
Because Mirage’s true form was nothing more than a giant clam!
Even after taking humanoid form, it still had no means of fighting in the air. Or rather, how was a clam supposed to go into the sky?
It simply had no anti-air capability at all!
It did not possess that ability.
In fact, as a Tactician, Liu Anran had vaguely realized the same weakness.
But there was still a problem.
“I can’t teleport everyone into the sky!”
If she used Spatial Teleportation to take all of them into the air, they would probably fall to their deaths in the next second!
Demon King Mirage would not even need to make a move. The fall alone would kill them all.
But the moment Liu Anran finished speaking, Ye Ze released a summoned beast she had never seen before!
“Simon!”
“Roar—!”
A high, mighty dragon’s roar rolled forth like thunder and shook heaven and earth.
Rather than using a Dragonkin form, the magic dragon Simon, under Ye Ze’s command, transformed directly into his true magic dragon body!
A colossal black shadow swept across the earth. The fully grown magic dragon, more than a hundred meters long, spread his wings like a curtain that blotted out the sky and sun, exuding a terrifying pressure!
“Teleport us onto the dragon’s back!”
Only after Ye Ze called that out did Liu Anran finally react...
The magic dragon was simply too shocking. Including Liu Anran, not a single person present had imagined that Ye Ze actually possessed a dragon-type summoned beast!
And not just any dragon, but a magic dragon with such overwhelming presence.
Even the casual aura it gave off surged with monstrous might. If someone said a second Demon King had come to attack the city, people would probably believe it!
The instant Demon King Mirage saw the dragon, it seemed to realize something. It immediately moved in urgent haste, preparing to intercept Ye Ze and the others!
But Liu Anran cast in time and teleported everyone onto the dragon’s back!
“Spatial Teleportation.”
Carrying Ye Ze and the others, the magic dragon soared through the skies above Linyuan City.
On the ground, Demon King Mirage gnashed its teeth in furious rage!
“Damn it—!”
The duck already in the pot had actually flown away!
That was right. It truly had no way to attack the air!
Although its attributes were high enough, its Agility alone was too low, and it had no means of flight...because it was just a clam!
Originally, when facing that girl capable of teleportation, it had already been on the verge of succeeding.
If it only attacked two or three more times, that girl with Spatial Teleportation would inevitably run out of strength and fail to escape in time, and then it would have been able to take down the whole group.
But now, they had gone into the sky...
“Damn it—!”
Looking at the magic dragon floating high above, Demon King Mirage furiously unleashed attack after attack—mist phantoms, explosive blasts, and more...
but not a single one could reach the dragon.
On the dragon’s back, seeing that Demon King Mirage was powerless to pursue them, Luo Yao spread herself out flat and let out a long, relieved breath.
“Ah! We survived!”
Liu Anran finally relaxed somewhat as well. Without this flying summoned beast, she truly might not have been able to hold out.
But Ye Ze merely stared down at Demon King Mirage below, the corners of his lips lifting.
“We’re not just going to survive...”
“I said I’d kill him, and I absolutely will!”
That was a Demon King!
If he killed it personally, who knew how much experience he would gain?
Liu Anran still looked puzzled. “What are you planning to do?”
In response, Ye Ze summoned a squirrel’s Shadow Clone and used it to swap with the panda he had lent out!
“First, get the panda back!”
...
At the City Lord’s Guesthouse, Chu He was still immersed in his painting. Lost in concentration, he had not noticed any of the commotion outside the guesthouse.
He had just been about to add a few more strokes.
But then he suddenly lifted his head, his gaze landing on the summoned beast before him, and immediately froze.
“Where did that enormous panda go?”
“How did it turn into a little squirrel!?”