Venerated Venomous Consort

The crowd rushed to their positions to get ready and realized that all of Di Fuyi’s men were already ready.

The Monster King was a capable man born with unique talents. He was physically strong and witty. His nose was tall and pointy, thus giving his face a naturally stern look. The man managed to put his leadership into proper use, and within a century, the entire Monster Kingdom was brought under his rule. Both his literary and military talents were distinguished, making him a man as dignified and noble as Xue Yilan. In addition to his talents, he was a man known to be very fussy. His men dared not even say a thing that was against his words. His instructions were to be obeyed unconditionally. That was how he grew more and more arrogant. Failing to obey him would result in death.

He and his men ran into Yun Yanli while positioning themselves. There was a spot that should be under Yun Yanli’s supervision, but the Monster King thought that it was far more significant than the other positions, so he insisted on taking over. As soon as he arrived, he gave Yun Yanli an unwelcoming look to kick him away.

Yun Yanli did not care about the unnecessary theatrics and continued to work on the array formation as planned. Impatiently, the Monster King signaled his men to put Yun Yanli out of his way. “Get out! You are too disabled to perform your duties well!”

Yun Yanli gave him a hard slap in return for his rudeness. The man felt offended and hated it when people called him disabled. He would have crushed the rude soldier into bits, but his duty was his biggest priority at the moment.

The soldier took a hard hit and rolled away for quite some time before coming to a stop. The Monster King did not see that coming, obviously. Although the soldier was not his best, the man he chose was strong enough to defeat a general in the Upper Bound. Never had he thought that his soldier would be defeated by an opponent that he once thought was disabled and weak.

The Monster King stepped forward and said, “I did not know that this pretty man is actually quite strong. I have underestimated you, for sure!”

He hated pretty men and thought all men should be masculine and tough. He even trained all of his soldiers to be muscular. Naturally, he was not fond of the son of the Celestial Being and Great Devil as well. He thought that the man was only a lucky man who had inherited his authority from his parents.

As for Di Fuyi’s followers, they all looked equally useless in the Monster King’s opinion, except for the eight majestic creatures. He thought that Di Fuyi’s weak-looking followers must be assuming Di Fuyi’s authority as their own.

The Monster King had to obey Di Fuyi in order to carry out the plan. When the current problem was solved, he would surely pull Di Fuyi down for questioning. All this while, he had been suppressing his urge to challenge Di Fuyi. He was able to keep his composure in front of Di Fuyi, but not so much in front of Di Fuyi’s followers.

He disrespected Yun Yanli to the core because of his obvious disability, so he wanted to chase the eyesore away. It surely came as a surprise to him that the disabled man was far more abled than he had thought. His soldier had rolled away, pathetically!

Embarrassed, he felt the need to regain his reputation, so he used his authority as a king to intimidate Yun Yanli. However, Yun Yanli did not seem to care. The Monster King’s words were not taken seriously at all, and Yun Yanli continued establishing the new array formation.

The Monster King was even more embarrassed now and turned around to signal another macho soldier to make a move. The soldier walked towards Yun Yanli and clasped his shoulder. “Hey, pretty boy! The Monster King is talking to you!”

The soldier channeled all of his monstrous strength into his grip on Yun Yanli’s shoulder. The soldier intended to make it clear that Yun Yanli would lose his other arm if he chose to rebel again.

Before Yun Yanli even made a move, the soldier’s wrist was already seized and held firmly by a stranger. “A gentleman only uses his tongue and not his fist. Why are you being so violent?”

His voice was soft, but the same gentleness did not apply to his grasp. Aghast, the soldier felt as if his wrist was tightly chained.

With a hard pull, the soldier struggled to get loose. The stranger saw it coming, so he immediately let go of the soldier’s wrist, and the man lost his balance and rolled his way back to the Monster King’s feet.

The Monster King was speechless. He looked at the stranger and was astonished. The stranger had a charming but androgynous appearance. With a smile, the handsome man stood tall, while being exceedingly graceful.

The handsome man shook his hand in disbelief and looked at the soldier apologetically. “I am so sorry. Did I hurt you? I might have been too harsh on you. Are you injured?”

The macho soldier’s wrist was already bruised. He held back the discomfort and answered with a smile. “Who are you?” He politely asked, while trying hard not to make a fuss.

Casually, the handsome man pulled a strand of his hair back and said, “I am the leader of Young Master Di’s eight guardians. I am here to make sure that no one is making a scene, which leads me to this question – were you just talking or trying to making trouble?”

The Monster King was speechless. Harshly, he replied, “Just talking!” He then left swiftly.

His soldiers were shocked by his retreat. They paused to digest the defeat for a while.

“Your Majesty, why didn’t you teach that pretty boy a lesson?” A soldier finally gathered enough courage to ask. The Monster King was always irritated by androgyny. Surprisingly, he pulled back from the fight this time. The Monster King answered icily, “We should put the plan above everything else. There is no need for us to downgrade to their level.”

In fact, he was a smart man. One move from Kun Xueyi was enough to prove his strength. Clearly, the man was stronger than any of his soldiers. Furthermore, the disabled man was not an easy target. Perhaps, the Monster King himself would not be able to take both of them down.

Kun Xueyi and Yun Yanli were still in sight, so the Monster King could easily see their moves. Both of them worked together to establish the array formation very quickly. Within streaks of dazzling light, a part of the array formation slowly took form.

His soldiers, on quite the contrary, were only halfway done with their tasks. Things seemed rather messy on his end.

“Are you all useless? You have done so little after so long!” He shouted in anger, embarrassed by his men’s lack of efficiency.

His soldiers felt quite bitter about the reprimand. They worked tirelessly, but the array formation was far too complex for them to get a hold of so quickly.

Following their king’s formal expression of disapproval, the soldiers became even more hesitant. Half an hour later, every other point of the array formation was done, except for the Monster King’s side.

“Your Highness, your part of the array formation is quite uniquely yours; I’d say,” a voice came interrupting.

The Monster King looked up, only to see Kun Xueyi’s stunningly beautiful face. “Why are you here?” He asked with his teeth gritted.

He actually hoped that Kun Xueyi was here to help. One hopeful look was enough for Kun Xueyi to read his mind, so Kun Xueyi took a look at the helpless soldiers and asked, “What are you trying to work on now?”

Panicked, the soldiers told him honestly that there were two steps that they had missed.

“I know how to work on those two steps,” Kun Xueyi slowly said.

“You do?” The soldiers were hopeful.

“But I will not tell you, even if I do!” Kun Xueyi put his arms across his chest in a clear refusal to help.

Shocked, the Monster King did not expect that Kun Xueyi was only here to mock him.

“You are not any better,” he said in utter disapproval.

“Provoking me will not work,” Kun Xueyi answered while waving his index finger at him. He then walked away, leaving the Monster King in a fury.

The Monster King continued to watch as Kun Xueyi, and Yun Yanli finished off others’ unfinished tasks, quickly and effectively. With his fists clenched, anger and irritation filled his heart. Secretly, he felt a twinge of envy for what the rest had accomplished before him.

He had clearly underestimated Prince Nianmo’s soldiers and started to wonder if the powerful Divine Lord himself must have assigned these powerful people to Di Fuyi. “What a lucky boy with a thoughtful dad,” the Monster King thought.

“Why are you not done yet?” A sudden voice came interrupting again.

The Monster King was too busy indulging in his unspoken criticism to notice Di Fuyi’s presence. Shocked, he never thought that someone could easily get past his line of defense within 30 feet of him without triggering his security at all. To make matters worse, Di Fuyi was standing right in front of him, and yet he was unaware of it.

Di Fuyi was the prettiest boy of them all, with a beautiful face that had no indication of masculinity. This certainly triggered the Monster King. Irritated, he proudly said, “The procedure is too complex for my men who are only trained to fight. These things are only meant for weak people!”

Embarrassed by his lack of accomplishment in the array formation, he needed something else to prove his worth. “If you don’t believe me, we can fight right now,” he firmly suggested.

Gu Xijiu was here in time to witness the Monster King’s absurdity in prioritizing his reputation over the tasks at hand. “If you cannot do it, just say it. Cut this nonsense and save everyone’s time,” Gu Xijiu expressed her irritation. She decided to take over the Monster King’s unfinished business. “Walk away. I shall do it myself.”‘

The Monster King’s failure amused the crowd. Meanwhile, their leader’s face turned red with embarrassment. It seemed nothing else was more important than his reputation.

He took another step closer to Di Fuyi and challenged, “Prince Nianmo, I was told that you are a strong man who has inherited most of the Divine Lord’s strength. Are you up for a fight with me? I would like to see how good you are.”

Gu Xijiu was already working on the array formation, which bought Di Fuyi some time for a fight. “Of course,” he confidently said, while moving his wrist in a circle for a quick warm-up.

All she took was half an hour to finish off the Monster King’s assignment swiftly and neatly. She threw a quick look at the Monster King’s bruised face and asked with a voice full of pity, “Should I offer you some medicine to apply on your wounds?”

In fact, the Monster King was badly beaten. Both his eyes were bruised, and he had lost both of his front teeth. His nose was no longer pointy like before. Also, one of his earlobes was missing.

Di Fuyi managed his attacks with thorough consideration of the impact. The Monster King was not critically hurt at all, so he could still contribute his strength in the activation of the array formation later on. He only aimed his fists to the Monster King’s face so that he could show his bruises to everyone.

The Monster King was unable to fight back at all, as Di Fuyi was too fast. After a series of actions, the Monster King did not even manage to scratch Di Fuyi at all, no matter how much strength he had exerted.

He took a hard defeat in less than five rounds. More pathetically, he could not even last for half an hour. Di Fuyi only took eight minutes to defeat him and put him in his place.

The Monster King finally realized that Di Fuyi did not get any help from his father to gather a troop of powerful men to work for him. He made it all by himself.

Before the fight, more than half of the people there did not submit themselves under Di Fuyi’s leadership. However, his swift victory in defeating the Monster King was a game-changer. From then on, the way he looked at everyone was with a firm assertion of authority. He had successfully gained their respect by proving his strength.

Finally, Prince Nianmo’s leadership impressed them. His success was no longer about the Divine Lord.

Di Fuyi did not care about what others thought of him at all. He only responded to the Monster King’s challenge because he needed an opportunity to establish his power and influence over the others so that they would be united to work towards the same goal.

“All right, resume your work. Kun Xueyi!”

“Master!” Kun Xueyi suddenly showed up.

“Take someone with you and make a thorough check to make sure everything is in place. There should be no errors at all.”

“Noted!” Kun Xueyi went swiftly away to complete his newly assigned task.

The crowd began to walk away from the scene and started to feel more confident about the array formation. If Prince Nianmo himself approved it, then there should be no problem at all.

Every position was well marked before Di Fuyi made the first command to activate the array formation. Many streaks of seven-colored ray rose into the sky, like a powerful dragon that had just come alive. It surrounded the sky for a moment before colliding with the desert.

No one could hear the sound of the collision between two incredibly strong forces. All they could hear was their ears ringing and their hearts thumping after the deafening collision. Unfortunately, all of their hands were too occupied to cover up their ears.

Gu Xijiu was with Di Fuyi, They were both the masterminds of the array formation, so they had to lead by example by not lifting their hands away from the respective positions.

Just when the collision was about to happen, Gu Xijiu’s ears were suddenly secured by two small covers that were soundproof. Therefore, she was not affected by the deafening sound at all; it only felt like some negligible noise in the background.

Fan Qianshi’s proposed array formation was really effective and precise. Like a medicine with special efficacy, the frantic expansion of the desert finally came to a halt. Also, it seemed that this array formation was not as physically demanding as the previous one.

The desert was no longer moving outward. Instead, it held its position and started to roll aggressively, as if defending its territory. The streaks of seven-colored rays continued to march forward and cleanse the grudge of the resentful spirits along the way. Those spirits could be heard screeching in agony.

Gu Xijiu was relieved by the seven-colored rays’ success in holding the desert back. “He really has found a way.”

Di Fuyi examined the desert and said, “It is not that simple, I believe. The demon must have prepared an alternative.”

Soon, the desert could be heard roaring with laughter, like the sound of a few men and women laughing in unison. “Fan Qianshi, is this your way of taking me down?”

Sand and dust began to gather on the outskirts of the desert, followed by a surprise arrival of 18 ladies in white. All of them shared the same looks appearances and looked like a bunch of clones.

Surprised, many of them turned to look at Gu Xijiu in disbelief. Those ladies in white looked exactly like her. Other than their clothes and their expressions, they were completely alike. However, the ladies were surrounded by an intimidating force of dark energy, which Gu Xijiu clearly did not have.