850 Battle of Assassins (III)
Demonraise did not care for his opponent’s dangerous gaze. He was only mildly surprised she survived his [Beastly Gaze of Fear] with such little effort.
‘I should not focus on fear in general, but fear of death,’ analyzed Demonraise as he realized his attack was too broad; if he had focused his gaze, the final result would have been more intense.
‘Hm? Where is she?’
Demonraise activated all the receptors from the Star-Nosed Mole, trying to detect his opponent’s whereabouts. However, he searched everywhere, including the surrounding dimensions, with no success.
Then, his beast instinct suddenly activated as he felt great danger coming. Demonraise tried to move his body, but it was too late.
Push!
Two daggers pierced him from his back, puncturing many of his internal organs. Demonraise groaned in pain as blood dripped from his mouth.
‘How can I not sense any of her movement?’
Such a thought flashed in his mind, but he knew this was also an opportunity since Wang Ju was so close. He moved his left hand to capture her daggers.
Demonraise’s plan was to hold onto them to render her immobile while he attacked swiftly with his right hand. However, as soon as his body moved, he discovered he could not control them as easily as before.
He felt something was wrong and used his Divine Sense to check inside and discover the source of the anomaly. Wang Ju’s blades contained this weird poison or curse that made his cells attack each other.
His immune system suddenly became his enemy. Demonraise swiftly took control of his cells, but it was to no avail. It was like they now had a will of their own and refused to obey him.
So, he had to forcefully make them obey. Alas, trying to control billions of cells took time, and Wang Ju was not going to give him any.
She suddenly disappeared and appeared before him. Her daggers pierced his heart and brain. Luckily, Demonraise had plenty of experience and a high Battle IQ.
Before the second dagger pierced his brain, he activated the Animal Hall and acquired the power of the Bighorn Sheep, making his skull harder than the Dao Weapon on her hand.
Regardless, his eviscerated heart soon became an issue. Since he is Di Tian’s Shadow, he inherited the latter’s mighty fleshly body. But, his vitality was slowly leaking out of his body without a heart. The situation was exacerbated by the cells of his control.
‘Her Duyi Realm is so concentrated,’ Demonraise had to divide his mind into three. He had to be careful of Wang Ju’s movement, fighting his out-of-control cells and trying to remove her Duyi Realm from his body so he could regenerate.
‘His ability is annoying,’ thought Wang Ju after he felt like stabbing the latter’s head. ‘Let’s eliminate it.’
She activated the power of her dagger to the full extent of their abilities. Then, she appeared before him again and stabbed him. The moment Demonraise was about to react and counterattack, his demonized cells became even more overbearing as they attacked his brain and Nervous System.
As a cultivator, he can bypass control of his body by his brain as his soul takes over. However, the process takes a few nanoseconds to switch, and that’s plenty of time for Wang Ju.
The leader of the Fate Shadow Guard knew her opponent had placed a lot of power to protect his brain. Although he would not die if it were destroyed, the passing of vitality will drastically be increased once these two primary organs–heart and brain–are no longer present.
The daggers took care of Demonraise’s two lungs. However, this was not her main objective. The power of Samsara emanated from the dagger, and immediately, the Animal Hall was forcefully closed.
‘My mind was so focused on other things that I neglected that she should also have control of Samsara Dao,’ pondered Demonraise calmly as he used his ability to retain the already acquired animal powers.
‘I can use that technique to deal with this situation. If that is the case, I should focus more on how she could teleport without noticing anything.’
Demonraise focused all his attention on Wang Ju, ignoring his body that was rapidly falling apart. Unfortunately, Wang Ju no longer needed to teleport since he was basically useless.
‘I guess it won’t be this easy,’ sighed Demonraise internally as he used his own unique techniques:
[Insect Larva Vitality Technique]
An Emperor Artifact that resembled a cube appeared above his head, encasing him in a protective barrier.
Then, in an instant, all of Demonraise’s vitality was gone from his body, condensed into one place. And from that one place grew another version of himself.
Push!
A baby version of Demonraise clawed out of his previous body like an insect coming out of its cocoon. The process was brutal and macabre. However, Wang Ju was finally able to see his opponent’s face.
He looked bland, like any ordinary person that is not easily noticeable or can blend into a crowd. Such a face was perfect to be an assassin. However, Wang Ju had the sense that this might not be his original face but changed into that to become a Shadow.
Despite his ordinary look, there was still something special about Demonraise–his eyes. They looked like predators, always making people fearful or unnerving with their powerful gaze.
‘In a few seconds, baby Demonraise grew to his former size. So, he waved his hand to put back his previous clothes.
‘The process was as brutal as ever,’ thought Demonraise, momentarily reminiscing about the past.
He was born during the Beginning Emperor Era in a large mortal family; to be exact, he was the ninth child and the fifth son. Alas, life in that era was full of trials and tribulations for mortals.
The Innate Lifeforms would spread diseases, curses, natural disasters and even influenced internal war amongst mortals to curb their population growth. They knew the large mortal population was one talent source for cultivators, so they relentlessly targeted them.
Unfortunately, Demonraise’s family was not the lucky few tribes that got to live in small worlds created and protected by powerful cultivators. And one day, when their crops suddenly died overnight, his family could not feed all of them.
So, at eighteen months old, he was abandoned in the forests nearby. Death should have been his end, but fate had another plan for him. Instead, a pack of wolves found and raised him as their own.
Demonraise grew up and became one of their own, taking part in hunting and gathering food. Furthermore, his mother became enlightened. She awakened her spirituality and became a demon.
As a result, their pack was one of the best in that forest. Alas, things did not last long. When Demonraise was in his thirties, a group of cultivators hunted his mother and his fellow brothers and sisters.
And when he was about to die, full of hatred and grievances, he encountered a young Di Tian who was traveling the world to learn about all creations and see if he could one day recreate them, allowing humans to win this war.
Di Tian thought he was interesting since he appeared to be an animal and human. So, he saved his life. On that fateful day, Demonraise asked Di Tian to grant him vengeance, and he would swear loyalty to him all his life.
After pondering for a moment, Di Tian agreed and allowed it–especially since these cultivators broke the agreement between the human and demon race by hunting demons for no reason.
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After this event, Demonraise began a proper cultivation journey as one of Di Tian’s subordinates. And when the latter failed his trial and had to be reincarnated, Demonraise did not break his oath and followed him through reincarnation.
In the second life, the Sleepers were appropriately organized or created, and he took the name Demonraise as a token to his late mother.
He dealt with the Demon Race for most of his career in the Sleepers as he gathered information from them. He had a natural affinity with the demon race, making it easier to get their friendship, and sometimes, even pass as one of them.
As such, most of his techniques are based on imitating animals, including his assassination fighting style.
In the current time, after Wang Wei eliminated more than 95% of the Sleepers, he was one of the few people who survived. And after testing the remaining people, Di Tian chose him as his Shadow since he was one of the most loyal and had a great affinity with the technique.
Demonraise clenched his hand as he manipulated every muscle, bone, organ, and cell of his body; he wanted to adapt to this new body as soon as possible.
‘I’m alive, but the situation has not changed much,’ he pondered. As long as he could not discover her teleportation technique, he would lose the momentum of this battle.