Chapter 566: Prince Yuanque of Jun

Yun Che had defeated Jiufang Yu, Xiao Donglai, and Chiyang Yanwu, and now, Prince Huifei. In all four duels, everyone had been certain that Yun Che would lose. Those gathered in the Demon Emperor Hall were figures at the very top of the Demon Imperial Clan, holding immense status and influence. This was especially true for the elders, who had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, possessing keen insight and vast experience. Yet, the outcome was their repeated misjudgments, leaving them shocked and astonished again and again.

Perhaps Yun Che was the first person in the history of the Illusory Demon Realm to achieve such a feat.

With Prince Huifei defeated, Yun Che's next opponent was expected to be Prince Yuanque, a participant whom everyone had previously thought would not even get a chance to fight.

"Father, my brother looks very exhausted," Xiao Yun said, standing up. "The Sky Imperial Family has special profound recovery pills. I'll go get one immediately."

Yun Qinghong reached out and stopped him, slowly shaking his head. "Contests at the Demon Emperor Grand Ceremony have historically forbidden the use of any medicinal pills."

"Then... what should we do?" Xiao Yun asked, his expression anxious. Although Yun Che stood perfectly straight, anyone could see that he was drenched in sweat, his face flushed, and his breathing was exceptionally heavy. He had just achieved a great victory against Prince Huifei, but it was clear he had expended a tremendous amount of energy.

Yun Qinghong frowned in silence. He knew Xiao Yun was concerned that Yun Che's profound energy might be depleted, leaving him vulnerable to his next opponent. He slowly said, "Don't worry. Although your brother's words and actions may seem arrogant, he is by no means reckless, especially when his life is at stake. His decision to remain on the field suggests he still has unrevealed trump cards."

In front of Yun Che, a figure descended. Clad in wine-red battle attire, his face showed seven parts arrogance and three parts solemnity. Facing Yun Che, who had heavily injured Prince Huifei, he couldn't help but feel a slight tremor of trepidation, even though Yun Che was clearly depleted of profound energy.

"Prince Yuanque?" Yun Che's eyebrows twitched. Facing this individual, who ranked even higher than Prince Huifei among the Seven Illusory Demon Sons, Yun Che showed no trace of tension on his face, seemingly oblivious to his vastly depleted profound energy.

"Indeed, it is I!" Prince Yuanque declared. He touched his spatial ring, and a silver-white spear materialized in his hand. With a sweep of his arm, flames engulfed the spear shaft. "Prepare to die!"

In terms of arrogance, as a prince and one of the top three of the Seven Illusory Demon Sons, Prince Yuanque was certainly no less arrogant than Prince Huifei. Had he appeared before Prince Huifei, he would likely have been far more overbearing towards Yun Che. However, Huifei's crushing defeat had deeply shaken him, leaving him unable to maintain such bravado.

More importantly, he no longer dared to waste time that might allow Yun Che to recover. In terms of overall strength, while he surpassed Prince Huifei, it was only by half a minor realm. Prince Huifei's devastating defeat and severe injuries made Prince Yuanque tremble with apprehension when facing Yun Che. Prince Huifei had already become Yun Che's stepping stone to future renown. If Prince Yuanque also lost, he too would become another such stepping stone.

As a Prince of the Illusory Demon Royal Family, he could not tolerate such a fate.

Therefore, Prince Yuanque immediately unleashed his full power.

"Haa!"

With a loud roar from Prince Yuanque, flames erupted around him, and an aura like a vast ocean surged forth. The intensity of this presence seemed to conjure countless raging torrents within the hall, violently impacting the air and causing space to tremble.

The profound practitioners in the hall felt a stifling pressure on their chests, as if a heavy iron plate had been placed upon them, leaving them gasping for breath. Some with weaker profound energy hastily activated their profound defenses, their eyes wide with horror.

"Such... such a terrifying aura."

"As expected of the second-ranked of the Seven Illusory Demon Sons, this profound energy aura alone definitively surpasses Prince Huifei's."

"With such terrifying power, Yun Che... he surely can't win again, can he?"

Prince Yuanque's fully unleashed aura sent shivers down the spines of all the younger generation present and deeply affected even the powerful elders. Yet, no one dared to loudly declare that Yun Che would surely lose, even with Yun Che clearly in a state of profound energy depletion.

This was because Yun Che had already left them dumbfounded four times in a row, and the two sword strikes he used to defeat Prince Huifei had created too profound a shock.

Yun Che was closest to Prince Yuanque, thus enduring the strongest pressure from the aura. Yet, in Prince Yuanque's eyes, Yun Che remained completely calm and unmoved. Neither Yun Che nor the vermilion greatsword standing before him exuded any imposing aura, yet they made Prince Yuanque feel as if he were facing an unmoving, majestic, and insurmountable mountain.

This sensation deeply unsettled Prince Yuanque. With a low roar, he took a step forward.

"Bang!"

The incredibly hard black profound stone beneath his feet shattered instantly. This single step felt as though it had landed directly on the hearts of the spectators, causing a jolt through everyone present.

"Purgatory Spiral!"

Prince Yuanque thrust his spear forward. A spear aura over a *zhang* thick, swirling with fierce flames and a scorching storm, tore through space and surged towards Yun Che. Where the spear aura passed, the black profound ground below was peeled away layer by layer, sinking inch by inch. Had it been ordinary ground, an immeasurably deep chasm would have been carved out long ago.

Facing this terrifying spear aura, Yun Che's gaze sharpened. He gripped the Heaven Smiting Sword with both hands, and the sword, carrying an unparalleled, tyrannical momentum, swung down with a roar. This seemingly unadorned sword strike, however, unleashed earth-shattering explosions of profound energy. Chaotic waves of force swept out, and the ground beneath Yun Che's feet instantly cracked.

*Boom...*

The greatsword and the spear aura collided head-on. In an instant, all sound in the world seemed to be swallowed whole. An incredibly vast storm of profound energy violently erupted, causing widespread cracking across the Demon Emperor Hall's floor and sending shattered jade pieces flying.

Exclamations of surprise erupted. The surrounding profound practitioners hastily activated their profound energy defenses amid cries of alarm. Some were directly thrown from their seats by the impact, while others with slightly weaker profound energy suffered internal injuries and vomited blood on the spot.

The Little Demon Empress frowned and rose. With a flick of her grey sleeve, the boundary lines of the arena, which she had personally demarcated, instantly erupted into ten-zhang-high crimson flames. The moment the flames ignited, the profound energy storm that had erupted within the arena was firmly contained, not a single wisp of it spilling out.

The seating areas closest to the arena finally returned to calm. When everyone looked back at the arena, their eyes were filled with a mixture of shock and fear.

Prince Yuanque had clearly gone all out from the very beginning. Although he had been renowned for many years, the power he displayed with his first attack still surpassed the imagination of all who witnessed his strength for the first time. Powerhouses from outside Demon Emperor City, in particular, could barely believe such strength belonged to a young man.

And yet, even such a powerful strike... had been withstood by Yun Che!

Prince Yuanque watched wide-eyed as his spear aura was shattered by Yun Che with just a single sword strike. Yun Che himself remained rooted to his spot, not retreating an inch. Before Prince Yuanque could even process his shock, a figure suddenly flickered before his eyes, and the vermilion greatsword was already cleaving down towards him.

Prince Yuanque's pupils constricted. He violently swung his silver spear, and even before the spear was fully extended, its aura had already slammed into the Heaven Smiting Sword.

*CRACK!!*

Without suspense, Prince Yuanque's spear aura was shattered by the Heaven Smiting Sword like thin ice, failing to offer even the slightest resistance to the sword's momentum. Prince Yuanque desperately channeled all his profound energy into the silver spear, gritting his teeth as he braced to block the Heaven Smiting Sword, which was hurtling down towards him.

*BOOM!!!*

With a thunderous crash, the Heaven Smiting Sword slammed heavily onto the silver spear held horizontally before Prince Yuanque. The silver spear immediately bent significantly, and the incredibly violent force of the heavy sword transferred from the spear directly into Prince Yuanque's body. In that instant, Prince Yuanque's vision went black, his entire body convulsed violently, and he felt as if all his bones had been vibrated into fragments. He felt as if he hadn't been struck by a sword, but rather by a ten-thousand-foot mountain crashing down on him. He managed to hold on for only a moment before being slammed to the ground and sent hurtling backward.

The arena had defined boundaries; exiting meant defeat. As he flew backward, Prince Yuanque's eyes widened, and he let out a low, beast-like roar. Mid-flight, he plunged his spear into the ground, its shaft embedding deeply. He gripped the spear tightly with both hands, forcibly slowing his backward momentum. When his body finally came to a halt, he was less than three feet from the arena boundary. Before him lay a perfectly straight, dark trench over thirty *zhang* long, plowed by his silver spear.

With Yun Che's previous sword strike, Prince Yuanque would have needed to fly back at least ten *li* to fully dissipate the lingering force. Although he hadn't left the arena this time, he had forcibly endured all that residual power, causing his blood to boil throughout his body. As he calmed his agitated internal energy, his right hand, gripping the silver spear, subtly trembled, and his expression was extremely grim.

Previously, he had been utterly bewildered as to how Prince Huifei, with his strength and profound armor, could have been severely injured by Yun Che with merely two sword strikes. Now, having experienced the terrifying power of Yun Che's heavy sword, he finally understood that Prince Huifei's severe injuries and crushing defeat were entirely justified. Without his profound armor, there was likely a chance of instant, tragic death.

Yun Che did not immediately pursue. His chest heaved violently. This was his first day truly using the Heaven Smiting Devil Slayer Sword in battle. Its immense power secretly astonished him, but the physical and profound energy consumed to wield it were ten times that of the Dragon Fault. He had just shattered Prince Yuanque's spear aura with one strike and sent him flying with another. Although only two strikes, they left his body with a temporary sense of emptiness. He clearly knew that with his current physical state and profound energy, wielding the Heaven Smiting Devil Slayer Sword was still somewhat too strenuous.

While it allowed him to unleash incredibly immense and tyrannical power with each swing, it also drastically shortened his stamina—essentially a form of energy overdraft.

*It seems I still need to find a way to quickly improve my profound energy,* Yun Che thought to himself.

Although Yun Che had immediately gained an absolute advantage, he also knew that winning against Prince Yuanque in his current state would not be easy. Prince Yuanque was, after all, at the peak of the sixth level of the Tyrannical Profound Realm, with incredibly abundant profound energy. Although he had just been sent flying by a single sword strike, with the silver spear in his hand, he had at least offset fifty percent of the greatsword's power, and his spear had never left his grasp.

Prince Yuanque stood up, his face dark. After his gaze flickered, he suddenly gritted his teeth, as if having made a decision. With his left hand, he violently pulled the silver spear from the ground. Then, with a fierce swing of his right arm, a completely black spear materialized in his right hand, accompanied by a flash of dark light.

"What? Two spears? Is he going to use both at once?"

"Haa!"

Prince Yuanque roared, and the muscles throughout his body suddenly began to twitch strangely, with the spasms growing increasingly violent. Following this, the sound of crackling joints echoed. His already astonishing aura suddenly surged, multiplying in intensity.

An extremely powerful torrent of profound energy rushed towards Yun Che, forcing him back half a step and causing his eyebrows to furrow. The protective profound energy on his body's surface emitted chaotic 'hissing' sounds. This surging aura alone was almost enough to tear apart his protective profound energy.

Prince Yuanque's aura continued to rapidly strengthen. At this point, a layer of fine, dark grey scales, resembling dragon scales, began to emerge on his forehead, the backs of his hands, his arms, and his chest.

Although Prince Yuanque possessed a thin inherited Demon Emperor bloodline, his birth mother was the younger sister of Chiyang Bailie, the current head of the Chiyang Clan, and possessed ninety percent of the Chiyang Blazing Dragon bloodline. Therefore, in terms of bloodline concentration, Prince Yuanque's primary bloodline was not that of the Demon Emperor but rather the Chiyang Blazing Dragon!