Book 6: The Nine Demons Hall
B6C1: Nine Demons Hall’s fury
In an enormous mountain range at the bottom of the ocean with a great number of ravines, many beautiful and magnificent buildings have been constructed successively on the mountain peaks, or on the mountainsides, or on the flat ground. At first glance, there are tens of thousands of buildings and very many Xiuyaoists coming and going at any time.
Heaven knows how much more flouris.h.i.+ng than the Blood-red Ridge this place is.
The ma.s.sive Nine Demons Hall is built on a mountain in the center of this huge underwater mountain range. The other mountains appear small to anyone who views from the Nine Demons Hall. None of the other buildings is at a greater height than it is. And it occupies an extraordinarily large area.
The Nine Demons Hall as a whole forms a Twelve Capital Gates formation. 12 palaces are built on the 12 formation eyes. There are various gardens, courtyard houses, multi-storied buildings and so on in any of the palaces. The guards of the entire Nine Demons Hall have reached a shocking number of several tens thousand.
It can be said that the Nine Demons Hall alone is comparable to the whole Blood-red Ridge in terms of numbers of Xiuyaoists.
In Di Long Palace of the Nine Demons Hall, where Great Majesty Di Long lives,
Dressed in a purple robe, Di Long is sitting casually in a chair, slowly drinking the wine in his cup. He appears to be enjoying himself very much. Even though he is relaxing, his body still naturally gives off an oppressive air.
After he has finished a cup, a beautiful lady-in-waiting on one side immediately fills it for him.
“Life is endless, and one should enjoy every moment of it as much as he likes. Girls, do you think what I said is right?” Di Long strokes his hard beard then casually asks the 2 beautiful ladies-in-waiting beside him.
The lovely-looking one of them hurriedly says: “What Great Majesty said is true. Great Majesty is brilliant.”
Di Long nods his head in satisfaction.
The brows of the 2 ladies-in-waiting have been beaded with sweat. This Great Majesty is very eccentric and lordly. If their answer had not satisfied him, perhaps they would have suffered the fate of … Just thinking about this makes them shudder. When Di Long is enjoying his fine wine,
“Great Majesty, Great Majesty, something bad happened! Something bad happened!” Suddenly there are shouts outside Di Long Palace.
Di Long frowns. His eyes flash with coldness.
“Who’s that? This is Di Long Palace. Trespa.s.sers will be killed on the spot!” The chief guard of Di Long Palace shouts.
The squad leader, who has just rushed to this place, stops abruptly. His heart trembles. Just now, after knowing that 8th Majesty is dead, he was so terrified that he unexpectedly forgot the Nine Demons Hall’s rules. Entering any of the 12 palaces without permission is punished by death!
“Great Majesty, I am the squad leader in charge of the soul jade slips …”
“Let him come in!”
As soon as Di Long hears the words ‘soul jade slips’, his heart trembles. The leader of the guards who protect the soul jade slips has come here with such tenseness so something serious must have happened. Hearing the order, the squad leader goes into Di Long Palace at once.
“Say, what’s happened actually?” Di Long says coldly.
The squad leader suddenly gets down on one knee. Beads of sweat begin to stand out on his face. He says in a frightened manner: “Great Majesty, something bad happened. Today, when I went to check the soul jade slips, I discovered that … discovered that …” He becomes stuttering and even feels that his throat has dried.
“Say it quickly and clearly, or else I’ll kill you right away!” Seeing the squad leader unable to say the most important sentence completely, Di Long cannot help getting furious.
The squad leader takes a hard swallow then says: “8th Majesty, it is 8th Majesty.”
“What happened to 8th Majesty? Don’t talk nonsense. You can’t talk nonsense about this matter. Be careful or your soul will be destroyed!” Di Long suddenly stands up and shouts angrily. He has already made a guess, but he is unwilling to believe his own guess.
“8th Majesty is dead. His soul jade slip has shattered.” The squad leader is frightened. “Great Majesty, I absolutely do not lie. I saw this with my own eyes.”
Di Long’s face immediately turns pale.
In an instant, he remembers how the 9 little aquatic dragons relied on each other to struggle for survival when they were young. Their lives were constantly in danger at that time but they united to either kill and steal goods or eat other demonic beasts.
The 9 brothers always helped each other kill one enemy after another. They walked over the dead bodies of many to ascend to higher positions of power.
Eventually, after several millennia, the 9 aquatic dragons overcame the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation and transformed into humans. At the same time, they also became one of the 3 superpowers of the underwater Xiuyao world. In the Nine Demons Hall, the 9 brothers are addressed as ‘majesties’ and equal to each other. Majesty Di Long is the most powerful but he is only one of the majesties rather than the hall master!
Because they are 9 blood brothers, the affection they have for each other is immeasurably deep.
“8th brother!” Di Long’s deep voice rises. His eyes begin to redden.
“Ah ~~~~” He suddenly raises his arms and growls like crazy in anguish.
His raging energy surges forth from him in all directions violently. The 2 ladies-in-waiting behind him are immediately blown to pieces without being able to put up any resistance. The kneeling squad leader hurriedly dodges but one of his legs is still destroyed.
In the blink of an eye, Di Long Palace is splattered with blood.
“Di Qing, Di Xu, Di Yang, Di Feng, Di Jian, Di Luan, Di Nai, the 7 of you immediately come to the place of the soul jade slips.” Di Long suddenly shouts coldly. His voice resounds through the entire Nine Demons Hall unceasingly.
Di Long himself whistles through the air, heading straight to where the soul jade slips are kept.
The soul jade slips are put inside a multi-storied building, which has been frequented by only few, who are the guards responsible for protecting the soul jade slips. The 9 majesties have seldom come here but now various purple beams of light descend to this place from the air.
Each light beam turns out to be a man. In an instant, 8 majesties have landed outside the building where the soul jade slips are kept.
The other 7 majesties look at each other. They all have a bad feeling. In a normal situation, their big brother Di Long will always call them very enthusiastically 2nd brother, 3rd brother and so on, but just now he called them by their real names.
“Big brother, what’s happened?” The 2nd brother Di Qing hurriedly asks.
“Big brother, did you call us to this place because someone has died? But those subordinates are already dead, why did you still tell us to come? Is this worth doing?” The 4th brother Di Yang curls his lips and says. Suddenly, he seems to figure out something and his face changes color: “Big brother, could it be …”
Di Long has a frighteningly unpleasant expression at the moment. He throws a kick. His powerful demonic elemental energy tears the restrictive spell apart directly.
Bang!
The door of the building is shattered. All of the 8 majesties can see clearly that the 8th soul jade slip on the top level has already broken into pieces. When the other 7 majesties see this, their faces change color almost at the same time.
Wrath, killing intent, agony …
In a while, their expressions have changed completely. Their hearts are in crus.h.i.+ng agony and their killing intent has risen to the skies. Now, outside the building where the soul jade slips are put, all of the 8 majesties are filled with killing intent. They give off a terrifying pressure that covers the entire Nine Demons Hall.
For several thousand years, the 9 brothers have always helped each other. They are extremely cruel and merciless to enemies and do not bat an eyelid when killing enemies but their brotherhood is so deep that they can sacrifice themselves for each other.
“Tell us, big brother. Who killed 8th brother? Who? I’m going to tear him to shreds!” Di Xu growls at Di Long. His eyes have become very red and his whole body has begun to tremble.
Di Long, however, remains silent.
“Who? Who killed my 8th brother? I’ll definitely avenge his death. I’m going to take revenge for 8th brother!” The 2nd brother Di Qing cannot suppress the fury in his heart either.
The 8 remaining majesties of the Nine Demons Hall are all itching to eat the killer’s flesh and drink their blood. But Great Majesty Di Long, who is being questioned by his brothers, has not got a clue about the killer. He knew that his 8th brother is dead just a moment ago too.
In the 90 million li radius territory of the Nine Demons Hall, who can kill a middle Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon?
“Big brother.” A cold voice rises. This is none other than the 6th brother Di Jian.
When it comes to power, among the 9 Purple Demon aquatic dragon brothers, the big brother Di Long ranks first and has reached the late Dongxu stage. The 8th brother Di Tong ranked 3rd and had reached the middle Dongxu stage. And the one that ranks 2nd is the 6th brother Di Jian, who is often relatively reserved and has also reached the late Dongxu stage!
“Tell me who the killer is. I’m going to capture and bring him back!” The cold look in Di Jian’s glittering eyes is like an icy arrow.
The other brothers all understand his meaning. Why should they kill? They should capture and bring the killer back then slowly make him suffer a fate worse than death through tortures. They will force the killer through various cruel tortures so that he would rather be killed than be kept alive. Only then will they feel satisfied.
Di Long takes a look at his brothers, who are full of killing intent at the moment, and says powerlessly with a shake of his head: “The killer? For the moment I don’t know who he is either. Everybody knows how powerful 8th brother was. Who could possibly kill him? But I know one thing, 2 years ago I sent him to infiltrate the Blood-red Cave because of one of the 9 Swords. Now an accident has happened to him so it should have something to do with the Blood-red Cave.”
“The Blood-red Cave?” The 2nd brother Di Qing frowns. “Its master Cha Hong is pretty strong, but he’s no match for 8th brother.”
Di Jian says coldly: “Why talk so much? Let’s go to the Blood-red Cave for an investigation first. We’ll definitely find out some clues. If we can’t find the killer, then … anyone there can be the killer so we’ll kill them all!” The look in Di Jian’s eyes is piercingly cold.
Their brother has been killed so they shall not let this matter pa.s.s.
None of the other brothers disagrees with Di Jian’s words. Their eyes even glitter with frightening killing intent.
To them, even all the other experts in the whole underwater world of Xiuyaoists put together cannot compare to their 8th brother alone. Whoever dared to kill their brother is their enemy.
Di Long immediately gives an order: “Very well. 8th brother had reached the middle Dongxu stage so the killer must be at the Dongxu stage at a minimum. And not many Xiuyaoists in the entire underwater world have reached the Dongxu stage. But … ma.s.sacre is the last resort. We should investigate first. Only when we can’t find the killer will we carry it out. Brothers, who want to go to the Blood-red Cave to investigate?!”
“You should guard the Nine Demons Hall, big brother. I’ll go.” Di Jian says coldly.
The other brothers also secretly agree with him. In terms of power, this frosty Di Jian is absolutely just below his big brother. Moreover, some brothers have even suspected that he has surpa.s.sed their big brother. After all, both Di Jian and Di Long are late Dongxu stage experts.
Since Di Jian will personally get into action, everybody feels relaxed.
“I’ll go too.” The 2nd brother Di Qing also says.
The 7th brother Di Luan also says: “I’ll go with you as well. I want to see who killed my 8th brother.” He is seething with killing intent.
Seeing that the other brothers all want to go investigate, Di Long immediately says: “6th brother, 2nd brother and 7th brother will go together. This is already enough. Perhaps n.o.body can kill the 3 of them. The other brothers guard the Nine Demons Hall with me.”
When Di Jian and the other two join forces, their offense is indeed very powerful. Perhaps only Azure Dragon, the overlord of the Azure Dragon Palace, and the old freak Three-Eyed of the Blue Water Mansion can take their lives. But they are the 2 supreme figures of the underwater Xiuyao world, how can they possibly lower themselves by killing members of the Nine Demons Hall at will?
“Big brother, the three of us have no time to lose so we’re leaving now.” The 2nd brother Di Qing folds his hands in salute. Di Jian and Di Luan also fold their hands and say farewells to their brothers.
“2nd brother, 6th brother, 7th brother, please avenge 8th brother’s death.” Di Long says solemnly. Di Xu, Di Yang, Di Feng and Di Nai also fold their hands and say goodbye to Di Jian and the other two.
Afterwards, Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan leave the Nine Demons Hall at once like 3 beams of light.
In the Blood-red Cave’s main hall,
Qin Yu flings his robe and sits down in a throne in the main hall. There is another throne on either side of him. Hou Fei is sitting in one of these thrones. The other throne is still vacant. Qin Yu reserves it for none other than Xiao Hei.
“Cave master.”
The 3 black turtle brothers, the 2 tiger sharks Wu Tong and Wu Feng, the 2 snake women Yan Qing and Xi Yan, Zhuang Zhong and Teng Bi, 9 guardians in total, bow and say respectfully in unison. After Qin Yu defeated Teng Bi in one hit, they no longer had any doubts about his power. And Hou Fei’s power is even more indisputable.
“Cave master!”
The 50 squad leaders get down on one knee and say at the same time. These 50 squad leaders represent the 5000 guards. Now they, too, already know that Cha Hong is dead and the new cave master is none other than former guardian Liu Xing.
“I’m going to declare some new rules here.” Qin Yu looks down at the 9 guardians and the 50 squad leaders below him.
They all respectfully show that they are ready to listen to his orders.
“From now on, the Blood-red Cave no longer has the chief master and vice master positions. The new ones are 1st master, 2nd master and 3rd master. The 3 cave masters are absolutely equal to each other. This rule follows the Nine Demons Hall’s example, do you understand, my guardians?”
Everybody below Qin Yu is shocked by his first order.
To Qin Yu, this cave master position is not very important. He took over the Blood-red Cave mostly because he wants to give his brothers a place to establish themselves. He himself does not want to serve under or be ordered by anyone. Moreover, he knows very well that the Nine Demons Hall will definitely not ignore Di Tong’s death.
Facing the Nine Demons Hall, Qin Yu and his 2 brothers will naturally work together as a team. Even if disasters befall them, once they join forces, what obstacle will be too difficult for them to overcome?
However, Qin Yu still does not know at all that the brotherhood between the Nine Demons Hall’s 9 brothers is very deep, that the remaining 8 majesties are full of fury and hatred for him, and that Di Jian is even leading 2 other majesties rus.h.i.+ng to his place.
End of b6c1.