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Chapter 195: Attacking Sazim
When Aldrian arrived at Sazim, he instantly created his domain and quickly understood the Middle Emperor Stage devil’s intention: a sacrificial ritual. He had a rough idea of why the devils had become more ferocious and powerful this time—it was because of this. From the memories of the devils he had slain, the vast field was in fact, a sacrificial ground. Although he didn’t fully understand the mechanism, it seemed that once the victims were gathered and the ritual was activated, they would be turned to ashes. As their remains vanished, the devils could absorb the energy from the vast field.
To grant their entire invasion force this power boost, the devils sometimes even resorted to sacrificing their own kind, ensuring that all members of the force would benefit. Additionally, they had been kidnapping people from neighboring countries like the Doria and Vindas Empires for a long time. All of this demonstrated that the devils had been planning to use this ritual for quite some time.
He also discovered another new fact when he created his domain: the thick negative energy was "purified" within its boundaries. The negative energy seemed to return to a level balanced with other energies. It couldn’t be completely erased because it acted like yin and yang in relation to other energies, but it could be controlled to a certain extent.
Negative energy will always exist as part of the natural order, as all beings inherently possess characteristics such as pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. When negative energy disrupts the balance and becomes overwhelmingly stronger than other energies, it leads to a result like the devil territory—a place consumed by "death," devoid of rules or morality, where only the desires of sin are followed.
This discovery was especially useful for Aldrian, as the overwhelming negative energy irritated him and reminded him of that "creature." He couldn’t help but wonder if it was what the devils referred to as their devil god. However, he set those thoughts aside as the devils attacked him. After firing a few arrows at him, they began sending their minions instead. Pressed for time, Aldrian knew he needed to end this quickly and rescue the prisoners.
He focused intently on the devils below, heavenly lightning crackling around his body as the aura of the heavens radiated from him. Unlike his usual wide-area attacks, he couldn’t risk using them here due to the presence of many non-targets. Instead, he carefully selected the devils as his sole targets, his mind working at full speed to mark only them.
The two King Stage devils, who had been staring at Aldrian with wide eyes, began to tremble under the weight of his heavenly might. In fact, it wasn’t just them—everyone below, including those in the entire fortress, could feel the heavens power emanating from Aldrian. The force of the lightning alone was powerful enough to kill even King Stage beings instantly.
There was no more hesitation, no more doubt. The two King Stage devils knew that if they didn’t stop Aldrian’s attack, they were doomed. So, they threw their Peak Heaven-grade spears, already imbued with devil energy, at Aldrian. The power of the spears was enough to kill even a peak King Stage cultivator, and they flew directly toward Aldrian’s body. Their intent was clear—to disrupt his technique, even if they couldn’t kill him instantly.
The other devils below also reacted, launching their own elemental technique attacks from below. It was a spectacular sight, with many things happening simultaneously. As for Aldrian, while he stood within his domain, he was the ruler of this place. With a wave of his control, he created space cracks that swallowed all the incoming attacks, even those from the Emperor Stage devils.
They were shocked that Aldrian could use a space technique while simultaneously preparing his lightning technique. Using a combination of the two elements within the same technique made sense, but unleashing two different techniques with distinct elements at the same time was unheard of.
Each technique has its own flow of energy and requires precise control to be shaped successfully. While different techniques can be unleashed in quick succession, doing so at the same time is impossible. So, when they saw that Aldrian could control the space technique while simultaneously channeling lightning, they were shocked. It was like moving forward and backward at the same time—something that shouldn’t be possible!
After the space crack swallowed the incoming attacks, Aldrian unleashed the lightning from his body like a slithering dragon. With the speed of light, the lightning struck the devils’ bodies in multiple places. They couldn’t hide from the lightning as long as they were within his domain. The devils used their own defense techniques, but once the lightning struck, it was futile. The lightning was powerful enough to kill even low Emperor Stage cultivators.
The two King Stage devils closest to Aldrian were instantly turned to ashes when struck by the lightning, and all the devils below followed them. Hundreds of devils were electrocuted to death, leaving only blackened corpses behind. Only a few Emperor Stage and King Stage devils, who had defense talismans, managed to survive. However, their defense talismans were instantly destroyed upon activation.
After killing most of the devils within his domain, Aldrian teleported all the prisoners to a safe location, far from any remaining devils. He then focused on the remains of the devils still within his domain. Since his domain didn’t cover the entire fortress, a few lower-cultivation devils outside of his domain remained alive and rushed toward the source of the attack.
Although they could feel the might beyond their ability to counter, they knew they had to defend the fortress at all costs. It was better to die here than face punishment from their superiors in the capital for dereliction of duty. For Aldrian, this worked in his favor, as it would make his task much easier.
After killing the small fry, Aldrian teleported to the high-ranking devils still alive: three at the Emperor Stage and two at the King Stage. He needed to incapacitate them as quickly as possible to prevent any desperate actions, like taking the prisoners hostage. True to his expectations, the King Stage devils had already moved to seize the hostages. Observing Aldrian, who attacked the devils with such incredible precision, they assumed he had come to save the prisoners.
But Aldrian wouldn’t let them succeed. He had already teleported to one of the King Stage devils. The devil was shocked by Aldrian’s sudden appearance, but he didn’t panic. He attacked Aldrian with a palm strike, but Aldrian easily dodged it and struck the devil’s abdomen with a punch imbued with a combination of death energy and golden energy.
The palm strike instantly shattered the devil’s dantian. Aldrian then teleported again, this time towards the other King Stage devil, who was about to touch a child. Before the devil’s hand could reach the child, Aldrian appeared in front of him. The devil grinned and struck Aldrian with a punch, having feigned the move to lure Aldrian into taking the bait.
"Got you!" the devil sneered.
However, Aldrian simply grabbed his wrist and used death energy to corrode his hand. The devil wanted to scream, but Aldrian struck his abdomen, instantly shattering his dantian.
Now, only the three Emperor Stage devils remained, and Aldrian could see they had fully transformed into their devil forms. Seeing Aldrian’s power, they decided to give it their all to bring down the young man. Aldrian moved swiftly, increasing the gravity where the three devils stood. Taking advantage of their shock from the sudden change in gravity, he teleported behind one of the Emperor Stage devils and struck him with death energy.
The devil, still unbalanced by the sudden change in gravity, instinctively focused his defense on his back—after all, he was an Emperor Stage devil. However, when Aldrian’s punch struck the devil’s back, his defense instantly shattered, breaking both his spine and ribs. The devil spat out a large amount of blood and was thrown to the ground. Aldrian didn’t stop; he teleported to the next target, but the other two devils had already anticipated Aldrian’s tactic and prepared a wide-area attack for his next teleportation.
The two devils then unleashed a combined wind and fire wide-area attack, creating a wall of fire and wind that surrounded them. But unfortunately for them, they suddenly felt a sharp sword intent before their technique was split horizontally, severing their feet, and they instantly dropped to the ground. Aldrian had already teleported above them and with fast movement he stabbed one with his sword directly at the dantian and punched the other with overwhelming force.
Aldrian nodded before disappearing, only reappearing ten minutes later. The captives stared at him in amazement, witnessing how easily he rendered the devils powerless, unable to do anything against him. Despite the intense battle, Aldrian showed no sign of exhaustion, maintaining a calm expression. The captives couldn’t help but wonder: Who was this young man?
