Chapter 366: Overlord-Level Female Demon

The female demon's kick landed on Lu Ye's chest, nearly sending him tumbling off the spirit boat.

Facing such a dominant great demon, Lu Ye would surely die without a flying spirit artifact. So, after taking that kick, he instinctively hooked his feet onto his spirit boat, his body flying out along with it.

After finally steadying himself, Lu Ye quickly scanned his surroundings but found no sign of the female demon.

A sense of danger came from above, and Lu Ye sharply looked up.

Under the scorching sun, the female demon swiftly swooped down from above. Nine flying spirit artifacts turned into streaks of light, assailing her. With a series of clanging sounds, all the spirit artifacts were batted away by her claws.

This scene made Lu Ye's heart pound, making him truly grasp the vast difference in power between himself and a dominant great demon.

He had encountered two other dominant demonic beasts: Little Grey at his base, and the Flood Dragon he met previously in the Qingtian Sect's territory. However, Lu Ye had never directly confronted either Little Grey or the Flood Dragon.

The female demon was the first dominant demonic beast he had faced head-on.

With his cultivation at Heavenly Seven, he had recently slain many cultivators at Heavenly Nine. Yet, even Heavenly Nine cultivators were insignificant before such dominant entities.

"Dominant-level" referred to entities capable of reigning supreme across the entire battlefield.

This hasty encounter was not an ambush by the female demon; she had clearly sensed someone approaching while resting there and launched her attack.

Lu Ye felt unlucky; if he hadn't become curious and returned to investigate just now, he wouldn't have encountered this.

Facing the female demon swooping down from above, Lu Ye had no escape. He took a deep breath, raised his Mountain-Shattering Blade, and as a stream of light flashed across its surface, a double sharpness enchantment was activated.

He thrust the blade straight forward!

This was a thrust Lu Ye made from the absolute limit of his reach, a full-power strike in which he placed great hope.

However, the female demon merely tilted her neck slightly. The sharp edge of the Mountain-Shattering Blade drew a bloody gash across her pale neck, but before Lu Ye could slash horizontally, she kicked him in the chest again.

Lu Ye's entire chest went numb. After a brief moment of suspension, his body slammed into the ground. The spirit boat beneath his feet couldn't withstand such a massive impact and shattered instantly.

Boom...

A new crater appeared in the dark red earth as Lu Ye fell heavily. That wasn't the end; the female demon, like a maggot attached to bone, swooped down after him and struck with a claw.

Dust flew and the ground cracked as Lu Ye rose and fled, his legs enhanced by flying spirit patterns, blood gushing from his mouth and nose.

Never before had he been so disheveled.

The power gap was too immense; he was no match for her.

His flying spirit artifact was also destroyed, and Lu Ye felt the aura of death like an invisible beast pursuing him from behind.

Gradually, that feeling of being on the brink of death faded.

In the midst of his flight, Lu Ye turned his head and saw the female demon standing still, her crimson eyes quietly watching him. She wasn't pursuing him; she even nimbly retreated several dozen zhang, returning to the spot where Lu Ye had first discovered her.

Confirming she had no intention of continuing the chase, Lu Ye finally exhaled.

Soon, he realized she wasn't unwilling to kill him, but unable to.

In the Blazing Fire Land, the deeper one ventured, the harsher the environment became. With his own strength, Lu Ye could only travel to a point two hundred li from the very center before he could go no further.

Although this female demon was a dominant entity, she also had her limits.

Her limit was her current location; going any deeper would be unbearable even for her, which was why she had retreated several dozen zhang earlier.

Realizing this, Lu Ye completely relaxed.

From a distance of nearly a hundred zhang, Lu Ye looked down at his chest. His heart area was a bloody mess, pierced by the female demon's recent claws. Fortunately, the wounds weren't deep, though his chest was somewhat sunken. When he pressed it, his ribs ached; they were likely fractured from the immense force of her direct kick.

Sticking the Mountain-Shattering Blade beside him and retrieving the spirit artifacts from his weapon box, Lu Ye took out and swallowed a few healing pills.

After a brief period of recovery, certain that he was not gravely injured, Lu Ye picked up his Mountain-Shattering Blade and walked towards the female demon.

Compared to before, the malice in the female demon's crimson eyes had diminished, replaced by curiosity. She seemed puzzled as to how this creature, much weaker than herself, could withstand the harsh environment and travel further than she could.

She tilted her head, scrutinizing Lu Ye as he walked step by step, her eyes full of appraisal.

Stopping sixty zhang from the female demon, Lu Ye met her gaze expressionlessly. The next instant, his weapon box vibrated slightly, and nine streaks of light shot towards the female demon with lightning speed.

Since she dared not venture deeper, no matter how powerful she was, she was effectively a stationary target. After witnessing the female demon's unresolvable agility, Lu Ye would never dare engage her in close combat again. However, using controlled artifacts removed that concern.

Having been beaten without cause and nearly killed, Lu Ye certainly wouldn't let the matter rest.

A whooshing sound filled the air as the nine streaks of light reached the female demon almost simultaneously, assailing her from various angles under Lu Ye's precise control.

Then Lu Ye witnessed what it meant to move like thunder.

The female demon, still standing, didn't move her body. Her claws became a blur of afterimages, and after a series of clanging sounds, most of the nine streaks of light were batted away, not a single one harming her.

Not only that, but three spirit artifacts were caught in the female demon's hands. They struggled incessantly as if alive, yet remained unable to break free.

The female demon seemed to be seeing spirit artifacts for the first time, lowering her head to examine the struggling objects in her grasp.

A twitch appeared at the corner of Lu Ye's eye.

It was acceptable for her to dodge or bat away his controlled artifacts; after all, she was a dominant entity whose power had reached the limit tolerable by the Spirit Creek Battlefield. But directly capturing three of his spirit artifacts like this was rather embarrassing.

And under her restraint, it was a luxury for Lu Ye to even hope to retrieve his spirit artifacts.

His attempt backfired, causing him to suffer a greater loss.

With a flicker of thought, the three spirit artifacts the female demon was examining glowed, and explosion spirit patterns instantly formed on them.

Since returning from Xian Yuan City, Lu Ye had been able to imbue spirit artifacts with spirit patterns, but he had never actually tried applying explosion spirit patterns to controlled artifacts.

Previously, he had only used this spirit pattern as the core for setting up explosion formations.

The female demon's perception was undoubtedly extremely keen. The moment the explosion spirit patterns formed, she raised her hand and flung the three spirit artifacts away.

With three loud explosions, the three controlled artifacts simultaneously lost their spiritual essence, their luster dimmed, their internal enchantments utterly destroyed, rendering them useless.

Lu Ye quickly calculated: since encountering the female demon, he had first lost a spirit boat, then three controlled artifacts, and had even suffered fractured bones from her attack...

A devastating loss!

Without hesitation, he turned and left. The power gap was simply too immense; Lu Ye had completely given up on any thoughts of slaying the female demon.

The Heavenly Secret Merchant Guild had misled him significantly. Their map clearly indicated only three dominant demonic beasts in the entire Misty Mountain, yet a fourth appeared in the Blazing Fire Land. This was clearly erroneous intelligence, certainly not his own mistake.

"Wait!" the female demon suddenly spoke, her voice somewhat hoarse but possessing a hint of allure.

Lu Ye was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected this creature to be able to speak human language.

This female demon was not a demonic cultivator. Lu Ye had specifically observed her earlier; she had no spirit artifacts on her person, nor any traces of cultivating any techniques. Her combat relied entirely on instinct and her formidable demonic power.

True demonic cultivators were different from her. They coexisted perfectly with humans, taking on human forms and following the path of meridian cultivation. Many sects had demonic cultivator disciples who, apart from minor physical differences, were indistinguishable from humans.

This female demon could be considered a member of the demon race.

The demon race and demonic cultivators were quite distinct. The former lived and cultivated more primally, similar to demonic beasts.

Lu Ye didn't know the female demon's true form, as there were few remaining traces of the demon race on her. However, judging solely by her agile movements, her true form shouldn't be very large.

During the previous battle, the female demon hadn't spoken, and she had been so curious about the spirit artifacts that Lu Ye had assumed she hadn't encountered humans before. Now, it seemed he was wrong.

At the very least, this creature could speak.

Lu Ye stopped and turned to look back.

Their eyes met, and the female demon spoke again: "Bring me what's inside!"

"What's inside?"

"A ball of fire. I can feel it, a very powerful ball of fire."

It seemed this female demon also wanted to enter the center of the Blazing Fire Land to find the legendary fire-element treasure. Although even with her power, she couldn't reach the very center, she could sense the presence of that ball of fire.

A treasure coveted even by dominant entities certainly wouldn't be ordinary.

Lu Ye also recalled the Flood Dragon, which had greatly desired his scales. It seemed that the ball of fire deep within the Blazing Fire Land was to the female demon what the scales were to the Flood Dragon.

Turning around, he continued forward.

"I'll wait for you here!" the female demon's voice called from behind him.

Lu Ye pretended not to hear.

He had traveled a long distance to get here, pursuing the same goal as the female demon. Not only had she beaten him, but she also expected him to bring the item out and give it to her—she must be dreaming.

A ball of fire. It seemed that this ball of fire was the source that created the Blazing Fire Land. Lu Ye was very curious about what kind of fire it was that could transform an area spanning thousands of li into such a treacherous place.

As he walked, Lu Ye rummaged through his storage bag.

His original spirit boat was destroyed, so he needed to quickly refine another flying spirit artifact.

The previous spirit boat was obtained from Yuan Guang of the Qingtian Sect, a cultivator of ordinary Ninth-Layer Heavenly Realm cultivation whose spirit boat was only mediocre in quality. Having recently killed so many Heavenly-tier cultivators, Lu Ye naturally had acquired quite a few flying spirit artifacts.

He selected a spirit artifact similar in shape to his previous spirit boat and used his spiritual power to refine its enchantments. With Lu Ye's current cultivation and the purity of his spiritual power, refining such a spirit artifact didn't require much effort.

An incense stick later, a new spirit boat-shaped flying artifact appeared beneath Lu Ye's feet. Its quality was undoubtedly better than the previous one. With the flying enhancement, the spirit boat transformed into a streak of light and sped forward.