Chapter 218: Facing the Demons
’So, neither can I use weapons nor my storage ring in here?’ he thought in frustration as he saw the demon soldier increasing its speed to lunge at him.
’Whatever, it’s just one demon anyway.’
He thought to himself while glancing at its cultivation level, which was similar to his own.
Clenching his fists, he coated it with a layer of Qi, and the next instant, slammed it straight into the demon’s chest.
THUD!
The demon flew back several meters before crashing and rolling on the ground. When its body came to a stop, it started screeching and writhing in pain.
However, a frown had formed on Yi Chen’s face after this exchange.
Since the other party wasn’t a human, Yi Chen didn’t bother to restrain his strength, and thus, that punch carried all his might.
’That punch was strong enough to pass right through a Ninth Meridian Refinement Stage Cultivator’s chest but...’
His brows gradually knitted as he observed the demon, which was clutching its chest tightly and was coughing up large patches of blood, dark green in colour.
His strike had only managed to put a deep dent in the demon’s chest, unlike his expectation.
Although it was roaring and writhing in pain, life didn’t seem to fade from its eyes.
Seeing this, Yi Chen soon made his way towards it.
The demon tried to stand up and retaliate, but the damage Yi Chen’s strike had done to its internal organs didn’t allow it to do so. The next second, it fell back on the ground, roaring and crying with a wild fury.
Yi Chen closely observed the demon’s grotesque facial features from up close. Even though the demon was in no state to retaliate against him, an innate sense of fear welled inside him at that moment.
Taking a deep breath, he soon shook those thoughts away and, walking a couple of steps closer, stomped his foot right onto the demon’s head.
SQUASH!
Even though its physique was tougher when compared to humans, its skull still failed to withstand the force and buckled under it.
Seeing the bloody mess his trousers had become, Yi Chen instantly regretted his actions.
’Shouldn’t have done that...’ he thought with a disgusted expression and pulled his leg back.
Meanwhile, the demon’s convulsing limbs soon came to a stop as life completely faded from its body.
It was at that very instant that he saw the demon’s entire body, including its disfigured head, disintegrate into dense black smoke.
A confused frown had just taken shape on Yi Chen’s face when the black smoke rushed straight into his nostrils and forced itself into his lungs.
"!!!"
Cough! Cough!
With tears flooding his eyes, a coughing fit ensued as Yi Chen tried his best to cough the black smoke out.
However, it didn’t.
The heavy choking sensation in his chest vanished just five seconds later as if it had been completely absorbed by his body.
’Just what was-’
Before he could complete the rest of his thoughts, two demons materialised a few meters away and, smelling the blood covering him, started rushing towards him with crazed eyes.
’Whatever that was...I’ll worry about it later,’ he gritted his teeth in frustration as he rushed towards the incoming demons.
If he didn’t kill them, they would kill him.
Nothing else took precedence over keeping himself alive at this moment.
As for the black smoke...
’I don’t feel any changes in my body, so at least it isn’t poisonous...’
He thought while dealing with the two demons.
When they were dealt with just like the previous demon, they too disintegrated into thick black smoke and rushed straight into his body.
After it was all absorbed inside his body, he still found no change in him and felt more assured that the black smoke wasn’t harming his body in any way.
Another wave of demons soon materialised.
ZAHIIIIR!
’So that’s how it is...’ Yi Chen’s eyes narrowed as he looked at their number.
There were four of them in this wave.
’One...two and then four...so the next wave should be eight.’
Figuring out that the waves were coming in the exponents of two, Yi Chen’s gaze turned grave.
’...Just how many waves are going to be there...’
He thought with knitted brows.
There was no definite answer in his mind, and therefore, he decided to use his Qi as conservatively as possible.
’With no way to access my storage ring...that would be for the best,’ he thought while cutting down on his usage of Bursting Fire Steps while dealing with the four demons.
As a result, his movement suffered greatly.
Although he possessed more than enough strength to deal with them, without Bursting Fire Steps, he naturally suffered several wounds and cuts from the demons who had ganged up on him.
As he dealt with the last demon, Yi Chen’s expression grew worried.
The demon’s razor-sharp claws had managed to injure him in many places. Although these wounds and cuts were only on the surface level and something he could easily manage, he was worried about the future consequences.
’If their number goes beyond then the injuries I’ll be suffering won’t be this minor....’
The moment the last of the four demons was killed by him, all their bodies disintegrated into black smoke and were immediately absorbed by him.
"This?!"
To his utter surprise, when the black smoke was fully absorbed by his body, his wounds immediately healed up.
Seeing this, a glimmer appeared in Yi Chen’s eyes.
ZAHIIIR!
His attention was soon pulled by the eight demons that had materialised the next moment.
If it was before, then there would have been a hint of apprehension on his face. However, now that he had understood the black smoke’s property, all his apprehensions faded away and with an excited and expectant grin on his face charged at the incoming demons.
"Come at me, you demons!" he roared, adrenaline coursing through his veins, and he dealt with all of them with great intensity.
Wounds, much deeper and severe than the earlier ones, riddled his entire body, but he didn’t seem to care and fought like a maniac who was confident that nothing would happen to him.
And that’s exactly what happened.
The eight lifeless bodies soon disintegrated, and through his mouth and nostrils, clusters of black smoke gushed inside his body.
When the choking sensation died out, all his wounds were completely healed.
The grin on Yi Chen’s face grew wider as his eyes fell on the next wave materialising. It consisted of sixteen demons and made Yi Chen’s heart pump even harder in excitement.
"Hahaha, I can go full berserk again!" He exclaimed with crazed excitement and lunged towards them before they could even attack.
Until now, he had never fought to his heart’s content with total disregard of his injuries, so now that he was given such an opportunity, he couldn’t help but feel intoxicated and relish it wholeheartedly.
"Die!"
He roared and kept dealing with them with no regard for himself.
However, that didn’t mean the demons went down easily.
At times, it took as much as three minutes to kill one demon and thanks to that, by the time all sixteen of them were dealt with, almost an hour had elapsed.
As the cluster of black smoke healed his wounds, Yi Chen failed to notice a subtle change in his skin’s pigmentation. It had turned subtly darker in tone.
After the fifth wave came the sixth, comprising thirty-two demon soldiers, which was soon followed by the seventh.
Seeing more than sixty demons glaring murderously towards him, the craziness in Yi Chen’s eyes only increased.
However, he still made sure to keep his Qi usage to a minimum and kept killing them one after the other.
It took him more than three hours to clear this wave, and the excitement in his eyes had finally started to wane.
After repeatedly fighting for the last six hours using only his physical strength, exhaustion had started to take a toll on him.
His stomach was growling while his parched tongue was begging for water. However, with no access to his storage ring, he couldn’t meet both their demands.
Glancing at the incoming wave comprising more than a hundred demons, worry finally appeared on his face.
’At this rate, I’ll definitely die of exhaustion by the time the next wave starts....’
Having no intention of dying in this domain, his mind worked in overdrive to finally arrive at a feasible solution.
’Yes...that might just work...’
He immediately utilised the Bursting Fire Steps to approach a demon, and before it could react, he broke its right arm and plucked it out.
ZAHIIIIR!
It roared in pain and anger, but Yi Chen didn’t give a damn. Raising the torn off end close to his mouth, he gulped the green blood that poured down from it.
’Disgusting...’
He thought as a taste similar to that of rotten eggs began spreading in his mouth. However, despite the disgusting taste, the blood did quench his thirst, giving him even more reason to keep consuming it.
The nearby demons immediately lunged at him, not allowing him to continue.
He immediately swung the demon’s arm at them, and to his surprise, with just a forceful swing, he inflicted grievous wounds on the demon’s body.
’Looks like this is the only weapon I can get here...’
He chuckled mockingly and began slaying the demons by using the sharp claws of their comrade.
Whenever the claw got drenched in the demons’ blood, he would lick it clean with a disgusted expression on his face.
Even his hunger had started to subside after a while, which prompted him to continue on with this, no matter how unwilling a part of his mind was.
It took him seven hours to clear this wave as enormous clusters of black smoke seemed to engulf the sky the next instant before rushing towards Yi Chen.
Seeing the black smoke coming towards him, Yi Chen couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed as the very next second, it all gushed straight inside him.
An intense tarry ash-like taste spread in his mouth the next moment as tears began to slide down the sides of his eyes. However, with no way to stop it, he could only wait for a few minutes before all of it had fully assimilated into his body.
Two minutes later, when the smoke was fully absorbed, feeling something amiss, Yi Chen’s eyes immediately fell on his hands and widened in horror the next instant.
His hands...all the way from his fingers to his forearms had turned jet black in colour just like those demons.
"THIS!"