Chapter 227 — The Great Sage Who Restores the Seas (Part Two)

Zhou Xuan used his full strength, his speed reaching an inconceivable degree. The moment he heard the other was the Flood Dragon Demon King, the Great Sage Who Restores the Seas, ranked alongside Niu Yan, he knew it boded ill—he had likely fallen into a trap. That blue serpent had come to harass him for no reason, precisely to lure him down; along the way he had seen not the slightest stir, and the other had clearly been confident and well prepared, deploying his forces to surround him even as he spoke. He even knew Zhou Xuan's origins—if this was not a plot, then he had truly seen a living ghost.

He did not know why the other schemed against him, but likely Niu Yan was behind it. Zhou Xuan, caught the slightest bit off balance, would fall into the other's endless siege of water troops—against a million water soldiers and the water palace's restrictive power, he would likely meet the same end as Bai Qi. The only way was to catch the king first: seize the Flood Dragon Demon King, get close to him—and if he could be captured outright, all the better.

The barrier outside was powerful; to charge outward, should he fail to break through, would drop him into encirclement. The Flood Dragon Demon King's side looked the strongest, but in truth had its weak points. Zhou Jin's instant choice was of course the most advantageous.

The other had schemed against him deliberately—plainly unlike the affair at Thunder-Accumulating Mountain, where Niu Yan had acted in haste.

Pat! Pat! Crack-crack-crack! The black qi spun and Dutian demon fire blazed up around him; countless restrictive spells ahead were shattered clean, and in an instant Zhou Xuan closed upon the Flood Dragon Demon King.

The Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven, Niu Yan; the Great Sage Who Restores the Seas, the Flood Dragon Demon King; the Great Sage Who Confounds Heaven, the Roc Demon King; the Great Sage Who Moves Mountains, the Lion and Elephant Demon King; the Great Sage Who Shakes the Wind, the Macaque King; the Great Sage Who Drives the Gods, the Orangutan King; and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Handsome Monkey King—these seven demon kings, when they raised rebellion against the Heavenly Palace in those years, were invincible, the most outstanding seven of the demon race. Later they scattered, each ruling a quarter, each king and patriarch in his own domain.

Zhou Xuan had not long been healing his wounds above when the Great Sage Who Restores the Seas, the Flood Dragon Demon King, learned of it from below the sea. Though the Seven Great Sages did not visit one another, word still travelled among them somewhat, and Zhou Xuan's uproar at Thunder-Accumulating Mountain forty years before was known to the Flood Dragon Demon King as well.

The Great Sage Who Restores the Seas was not one to suffer obscurity; knowing Zhou Yan's strength, he schemed to trap him and then take his time. First, it would swell his own prestige; second, he hoped to obtain certain things. Fearing Zhou Xuan might easily slip away above the sea, he laid his plot—and whether or not Zhou Xuan took the bait, he lost nothing by it.

Unlike Niu Yan, the Flood Dragon Demon King had dwelt in the Northern Sea's Nether Prison and built his power there for tens of thousands of years; so vast was his dominion that even the Dragon King of the Northern Sea could not match it.

Since being driven out of West Niuhezhou, Niu Yan had rebuilt his power in South Zhanbu Continent. Though he had many troops and generals, his foundation was shallow, some of his forces a mere rabble, far less solid than the Flood Dragon Demon King's; and the quality and cultivation of his men were far inferior too. That was why Zhou Xuan had been able to escape that day.

The blue serpent was merely a godson of the Flood Dragon Demon King—such godsons he had in abundance, and to lose one to Zhou Xuan's hand would be no great pity.

Since Zhou Xuan's arrival, the Flood Dragon Demon King had set the Heaven-Trapping Great Array of Inverted Yin and Yang about the water palace's outer reaches, and secretly hidden three million water soldiers. Once caught within the array, even the Three Pure Ones would need some effort to get out.

The Flood Dragon Demon King knew Zhou Xuan was formidable and kept six demon gods fiercer than himself—Niu Yan had come off the worse—so of course he dared not be negligent.

Zhou Xuan was an expert in arrays and of course knew it was not right. He dared not charge outward; with all twelve demon gods unleashed he would equal only twelve Niu Yans—concentrated, they could blast through any great array with ease, but they were after all dispersed. That was why Zhou Xuan was so eager to refine them and make them his own—at the least, to ascend in one bound to a Gao Li like Maitreya Buddha.

Seeing Zhou Xuan charge at him instead of fleeing back, the Flood Dragon Demon King inwardly admired him, and raised a hand to summon a magic treasure.

Chapter 227 — The Ancient Demon Emperor (Part One)

A mass of black fire a thousand zhang tall, spinning at furious speed—hula! hula! it roared. Radiance flared ahead, a world-shaking blast, as one mighty restrictive spell after another was burst open by the oncoming Zhou Xuan. The Dutian demon fire spread like a blanket over heaven and earth, bearing straight down upon the Flood Dragon Demon King and his several hundred civil and military officers, like Mount Tai collapsing, like sun and moon falling—the rolling, surging momentum set the whole water palace trembling violently.

At the very moment the Flood Dragon Demon King brought forth his treasure, the several hundred civil and military officers behind him joined hands as well, roaring in unison, their dharma power flowing as one, contracting and rolling.

Gulu-gulu! Gulu-gulu! Gulu-gulu! With a sound of rushing water, the several hundred demon immortals each spat from the mouth a crystalline water dragon; the streams braided together, and ten li before the Flood Dragon Demon King formed a taiji diagram three thousand zhang across, its two yin-yang fish flowing and revolving, like a thick crystalline curtain of water meant to bar Zhou Xuan outside—most imposing, and most fair to look upon.

This taiji diagram was an array formation, compounded by the several hundred heavenly immortal Gao Li under the Flood Dragon Demon King, who gathered the true water of the Northern Sea and drilled it together until they wielded it with perfect mastery, meant wholly for defense.

The Gao Li under the Flood Dragon Demon King were of no ordinary divine power, and undisturbed besides; some had cultivated in the Northern Sea's Nether Prison for countless years. Moreover, in that Nether Prison the waters were deep and the lands broad, and there were many太古 savage beasts mighty beyond measure from birth.

The two generals behind the Flood Dragon Demon King were two ancient dragon-whales that had lived twenty thousand years, the true essence stored in their bodies a thing of terror—and with several hundred joining hands besides, this single block won the Flood Dragon Demon King a little precious time.

Judging by the momentum of Zhou Xuan's charge, once he arrived before them, likely none could withstand him. The Flood Dragon Demon King's men were all seasoned hands, long drilled; to scheme against Zhou Xuan this time he had spent greatly, bringing out even what he kept at the bottom of his chest.

"You seek your deaths!" Zhou Xuan slammed savagely into the water-curtain taiji diagram, and astonishingly did not break through at once. In a great fury, he raged inwardly—his plan had been to shield himself with the Dutian Dark Banners, rush to the Flood Dragon Demon King's side swift as thunder before the ear could cover itself, then unleash the twelve demon gods and concentrate their power to seize him.