CHAPTER 149: CHAPTER 144: BATTLE! THE KING OF BLACK MAGIC ATTACKS

A warm wind, like the breath of a demon, carried a pungent smell of blood that continually assaulted Chen Pingchuan’s senses. The scent was so dense it seemed to solidify in the air.

Chen Pingchuan’s expression remained calm, but a slight ripple disturbed the depths of his eyes as he strained to peer into the distance. Behind the Black Demon Army, his keen gaze caught a figure that stood out—a giant Black Demon. It had a towering body over ten meters high, six barbed scorpion tails, eight terrifying black claws, and eyes that glowed with a bloody red hue. It was like a moving mountain, its every shift causing the earth to tremble slightly.

Chen Pingchuan’s mind raced. Based on his dozens of previous simulations, he could accurately judge the classification system of the Black Demon species. A Black Demon of such a massive size already had the potential to develop into a King of Black Magic.

Meanwhile, Li Laoqi repeatedly swung the energy sword in his hand, cleaving through the Black Demons before him. Although each swing felled a Black Demon, he was beginning to feel fatigued. The number of Black Demons showed no sign of decreasing; on the contrary, they were multiplying. He was already wounded in multiple places, and suspicion began to cloud his eyes. At this rate, they wouldn’t last ten minutes before being worn down and killed by the swarm.

Damn it, that mystic kid must have set me up. Asking me to hold on for ten minutes? He must think I’m dying too slowly.

With this thought, Li Laoqi swiftly glanced at Chen Pingchuan, who wasn’t far away. The sight made his pupils shrink as if he’d seen a ghost.

He couldn’t help but exclaim aloud, "What the hell!"

What had he seen? On one side, the Black Demons that had swarmed the stone wall were attacking the humans in groups. Every human warrior was surrounded by one or several Black Demons. That much was normal.

What shocked Li Laoqi was the situation on the other side. The surface of the mine’s stone wall had been covered in an unnerving blackness, yet in the middle of this dark tableau was an abrupt patch of white. An empty space had inexplicably appeared in a radius of several meters around Chen Pingchuan.

The ferocious, bloodthirsty, and hideous Black Demons seemed to encounter some unknown deterrent whenever they rushed near him. In the next second, they would unhesitatingly turn and pounce on other people instead.

And so, Li Laoqi witnessed the scene before him. Elsewhere on the stone wall, blood splattered and limbs flew. But within a five-meter radius centered on Chen Pingchuan, it was like another world—empty and peaceful.

This strange tranquility was jarring on the slaughter-filled battlefield, exuding an eerie, bone-chilling aura.

Could he truly be a messenger of God?

Li Laoqi couldn’t help but believe it. After all, official research had yet to yield any item capable of repelling the Black Demon beasts. He had originally intended to flee if the situation went awry. The mine and the benefits promised by the mysterious person meant nothing compared to his own life. As long as he survived, he could get everything back.

However, Chen Pingchuan’s bizarre behavior led Li Laoqi to make a poor decision: he would wait another two minutes and see how things developed. If it became absolutely necessary, then he would bolt.

At this moment, the oddity around Chen Pingchuan hadn’t just been noticed by Li Laoqi. Special Envoy Xue and Nightingale had naturally seen it too. Their reactions mirrored Li Laoqi’s, their faces etched with disbelief.

While others could sense the Black Demons’ abnormal behavior, Chen Pingchuan, the man at the center of it all, felt it even more acutely. Seeing the King of Black Magic at the rear of the horde, he had an intuition: neither the bloodthirsty, cruel Black Demons before him nor their leader behind them would harm him.

Although his current strength was barely Level Three, making him seem insignificant in such a large-scale battle, he possessed an inexplicable confidence, and he acted on it.

Ignoring the ongoing battle, Chen Pingchuan simply walked straight toward the outside of the wall. The fiercely fighting humans and Black Demons noticed someone approaching and glanced over. Upon seeing it was Chen Pingchuan, both sides recoiled as if from a plague god, ignoring openings from their opponents as they scrambled backward.

The guards thought, This self-proclaimed Divine Envoy is too terrifying! Especially after the previous bloodbath in the mine, they deeply understood his unpredictability and arrogance.

For the Black Demons, it was much simpler. Their instincts told them one of two things: submit or die. With their limited brain capacity, they could only react instinctively, which meant getting as far away as possible.

The stone wall at the mine’s entrance wasn’t very high, or else the horde of Black Demons wouldn’t have scaled it so easily. Chen Pingchuan, moving as if through an empty realm, leaped directly off the wall that stood over ten meters high.

BANG!

His feet collided with the earth with a tremendous roar, sending dust and smoke billowing into the air. When the dust settled, Chen Pingchuan’s figure was revealed.

All the Black Demons near him trembled, instinctively trying to retreat, but the space behind them was already packed tight with the dense Black Demon Army.

Seeing this, Chen Pingchuan furrowed his brow. Even if this ocean of Black Demons doesn’t attack me, how can I get to their rear? If I have to slaughter my way through ten thousand of them, I probably won’t be finished by nightfall.

As he thought this, a flash of inspiration struck him. Chen Pingchuan pushed off forcefully with his legs, using the immense rebound from the ground to launch himself into the air.

The next second, he appeared above the heads of the Black Demons. His movements resembled the lightness techniques of martial arts novels, using the heads, backs, and shoulders of the demons below as footholds to continuously move toward the rear of the Black Demon Army.

Just then, the King of Black Magic on the horizon also noticed Chen Pingchuan rushing toward it. Its intelligent, blood-red eyes suddenly brightened!

ROAR!

The gigantic roar not only halted the Black Demon Army’s assault on the wall but also startled the surviving humans.

As the King of Black Magic drew closer, the humans on the wall finally spotted the massive creature. All eyes became fixed on it. None of them had ever seen such a colossal Black Demon beast. Even Special Envoy Xue and Nightingale, who were well-acquainted with Black Demons, were shocked by the King of Black Magic’s enormous size.

They knew that unlike humans, among the Black Demon beasts, greater size often meant greater strength. They were already being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Black Demon Army, whose average strength reached Level Two. Now, they had to face a leader-class Black Demon that clearly possessed considerable intelligence.

The most critical question was the strength of this Black Demon Giant Beast.

Feeling an oppressive pressure as vast as a tidal wave, Nightingale and Special Envoy Xue’s faces turned extremely grim.

"Level Seven!"