“Impudent!” The three surrounding old men snarled in unison, but Xu Yangyi’s fluctuation in movement was too fast! They simply didn’t have the chance to step forward and obstruct him!

Boom! In the next second, Xu Yangyi’s leg had already kicked both of the man’s crossed arms.

Thump thump thump… The man fell back three paces in astonishment, looking at Xu Yangyi incredulously.

“Lord God!” The three old men had already charged in front of the man, anxiety worn on their faces. “H-Have you…”

Raising a jade-like hand, the man stopped the old men’s words. His gaze flowed. “I will give you a chance to speak your name.”

“To touch me with your human body is already your mortal sin…” Before his voice even fell, a wisp of surging fury suddenly flashed through his eyes. A second kick… had appeared in his pupils once more! It was even faster than the first kick! It was aimed right at his face! With the sound of breaking wind in the air, all that could soon be seen of this long, slender leg was an afterimage!

“Lord God!”

Boom! Xu Yangyi’s foot stamped into the ground. In an instant, the man had already leapt back into the air, his hair like millions upon millions of small snakes. Boundlessly extending, they immediately inserted themselves into his surroundings like a spider web, causing him to float strangely in midair!

The man’s gaze conveyed a trace of shock as he look towards the lakeside stone platform. Never had he expected that this human’s speed was actually so fast! It wasn’t particularly great, but the explosive force was surprisingly so powerful!

His body can actually match my demon form?! Before this thought even subsided, he discovered to his shock that there were only three people on the stone platform!

Where was that man?! Where did he go off to?! Fury and disbelief melded together, yet behind him, the violent sound of wind echoed like the sudden halt of an emergency break of a vehicle racing at high speed!

“God Ming’s Supreme Dao… Cocoon Weaves The Self!”

Buzz! In a twinkling, his hair encapsulated him in a silk cocoon from head to toe. In the next second, a tremendous strength that could topple mountains and overturn seas, separated by layers of defense, caused him to shiver.

“A human that can contend against my demon form…” He sucked in deeply but suddenly heard a voice float into his ear.

“Xu Yangyi.”

“Remember it. Next time you want to act against a human, you best weigh your own bit of worth first.”

Silence.

The three old men below looked at the sky, flabbergasted. They couldn’t believe at all that the young master of their clan, the God Ming of the present age, had actually been beaten to this stage by a human who hadn’t used a divine ability!

Although physical combat wasn’t the expertise of a puppetry divine ability, any person of the Ming Clan knew that puppets were their weapons, and their weaknesses were their own bodies. Therefore, everyone had a body-refining arcane effort passed down from ancient times that they trained in. Regarding some ordinary cultivators, an adult of the Ming Clan simply wasn’t required to stir their puppets to action and could play with them to death by using a single hand.

Yet now… their young master had actually been kicked and sent flying by a human?

“Impudent!!!” Sullenness and raging fury formed twisting vipers within God Ming’s heart. He had underestimated the other… however, the response that his opponent had given him was even more violent! Without any reconciliation, there moreover wouldn’t exist the currying of favor. One kick, two kicks. This was also informing him: you’re not as high and lofty as you imagine!

He was no longer able to maintain his tranquil water-like expression. This was a provocation! A humiliation! A human’s blasphemy of the gods! A blasphemer… had to pay with their soul!

In an instant, the silk cocoon ruptured apart into countless threads, thrashing into Xu Yangyi’s body, yet Xu Yangyi didn’t resist it. Such minor pain was a little better than nothing.

Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes at God Ming who had walked out from his cocoon. At this instant, the other’s silver hair was wildly dancing, but his skin had turned completely black like a silkworm before molting. Strange white runic patterns covered his body and his two eyes were likewise a white of deathly stillness.

“Open the tenth coffin…” His voice like an ice-cold god of death. “If you wish to die… I will aid you in your goals.”

“God Ming!”

“Adults must think three times before taking action!”

Boom… At this moment, a melodious chime rang out from the lake. Xu Yangyi brought out a watch from his pocket and looked at it. It was twelve o’clock midnight, the moment of the witching hour, punctual on the dot! Legend had it that from five o’clock to six o’clock in the evening, and then twelve o’clock at night, this time of shifting day to night was called the witching hour. In this period of time, yin qi was greatly flourishing and things that couldn’t be seen ordinarily became visible. Such as now...

On the surface of the barren lake, the rhythmic chiming of a bell slowly rang out. In the serene night, it was incomparably distinct, quietly reverberating in the mouth of the volcano. Each sound caused one to feel a distant serenity, a residual lingering. Yet if carefully listened to, a kind of sensation that provoked a man to a mad devil’s slaughter was mingled with a boundless pain and despair. However, in the haunting ring of each chime, this sound bubbled forth like waves upon waves of tides!

Indeed, this was the ring of a bell… that ordinary people would never hear for all eternity. Yet this was no more than the essence of the chiming bell. No one added any divine ability to it. Although the mind was faintly influenced, it was in no way irresistible.

Crash… At twelve o’clock midnight, there were an abundance of creatures in the volcanic lake. Presently, all of them were surprisingly swimming together at the water’s surface as if they had heard some beckoning. Frolicking to their heart’s delight, they seemed to be waiting on some descent.

They were waiting… waiting for the arrival of a true monarch, unknown to any man, seated at the top of the food chain in the volcano, beholden to the eyes of ordinary people!

Even if the Mesozoic era’s apex predators, the Mosasaurs of the Cretaceous period, existed here, they would be unable to claim themselves as kings. It was the eve of the emergence of one of the nation’s true masters, the ruler of the lake. [1]

Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes, looking at all of the transformations on the lake’s surface. He discovered to his shock… mist had arised.

This mist was dense, nearly covering his eyes in an instant. He almost couldn’t see anything clearly outside of four meters. However… a soft crashing noise could be heard little by little from the heart of the lake. It seemed… something was gradually rising from the middle.

It was quite curious, the mist so heavy that he couldn’t even see his five fingers as he extended his hand. However, that rising object made everyone clearly see its true appearance!

That of a courtyard. A courtyard built with all kinds of bones!

A withered skeleton in a Daoist robe was holding onto some unknown meter-long bone to strike a damaged, rusty, three-meter-sized bell

Dong… Dong… The human skeleton rang the bell, and the sound traveled onwards to the four reaches of the deathly still, dense fog and the pavilion of myriad bones. If a mortal was here, they would’ve long been scared out of spirit and soul!

At twelve o’clock midnight, when the withered skeleton rang the bell, all things knew that as heavy fog sprang up everywhere they had to be quiet. Even the lakeside fireflies seemed to sense something at this moment.

The bell rang out twelve times. In the thick fog, two balls of enormous green light suddenly shimmered faintly from beneath the water. Hazy and appearing imposing, they were moreover… hurriedly rising upwards!

Xu Yangyi and God Ming were couldn’t help but to fall back a step. Everyone could hear the throbbing sound of their hearts. It was coming… Xu Yangyi deeply inhaled, pursed his lips, and clenched his fists. A legendary… greater demon that had survived since the era of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms. Old Monster Jadewave was on the verge of appearing amidst this expanse of thick fog.

Those two balls of green light… He understood that they were Jadewave’s eyes gazing up ahead from tens of meters below the water!

CRASH! A tremendous noise boomed! Xu Yangyi’s eyes narrowed and his hands customarily adopted a defensive stance. This was because within his eyes, the pavilion of myriad bones was suddenly rising!

“No, it’s not rising! Rather…” He gasped coldly. “Rather… this is a pavilion the other built on its body!” A gigantic black shadow swiftly bulged at the center of the volcanic lake!

It couldn’t be clearly seen what this creature was and its mass and length were furthermore unknown! All that could be heard as this tremendous body ascended were countless streams of water sliding off of its body, like the pouring of a tempest!

Thump… The ground faintly trembled, and Xu Yangyi clearly felt a kind of imbalance at his center of gravity. This was the other striding forward.

Hiss… Amidst the heavy mists, the sound of water pitter-pattered like torrential rains. Two balls of green light appeared like a lighthouse in the fog, looking over the five people present. Each person could clearly see…

The lakewater beneath their feet… had dropped by at least five meters! A several-thousand-meter volcanic lake… had declined by five meters! One could well imagine Jadewave’s demon form! The current scene was deathly silent.

Xu Yangyi and God Ming could still be considered fine, yet the three people behind had long since broken out in a mad sweat, their legs trembling.

Hiss… A strange sound was heard. Each time it arrived, it was bound by the company of the lakeside grass’ quiet rustling. At the start, Xu Yangyi was still unaware, but in a wink he immediately understood.

This... was Jadewave’s breathing! When the other breathed, a small whirlwind from the heart of the lake… acted to subdue the surrounding grass below.

“I am Jadewave.” A voice indiscernible from man or woman leisurely echoed within the mist. “Fellow Daoists have waited long.”

The millennium-old, tremendous demon of Old Black Mountain’s volcanic lake, Old Monster Jadewave, had finally come into being! The demon’s form was unknown, its face unseen, the size of its bulk unrealized, and the realm of its divine ability was furthermore unascertained.

It was like this expanse of mist, unable to allow people to see its original appearance. The greater demon’s voice wasn’t loud, far from the stage of awing mountains, yet it crisply rang out in each person’s heart.

“Junior is a successor of this era’s God Ming. I have met Senior Jadewave in the past.” God Ming stifled the killing intent he held against Xu Yangyi in his heart, smiling as he faintly bowed. Followingly, a gold box flew into the heavy mist. “An insignificant bit of goodwill. I hope Senior will kindly accept it.”

The box appeared to have lost its gravity. The heavy mists clearly shrunk back, and the box immediately transformed into a black shadow, flying in. A brief moment later, a voice rang out.

“Three Centuries Vermilion Fruit. Fellow Daoist is considerate.”

Xu Yangyi cupped his hands but didn’t say anything. He hadn't brought anything to give. Of the Ming Clan, he already had some understanding of them from Li Zongyuan’s words earlier . In comparison to such a great demon clan, he truly was considered a pauper.

“Fellow Daoists need not be panicked. Everyone knows of my rules. Although I, Jadewave, have not traversed the human realm, I have never engaged in the unscrupulous business of theft that would lower my own prestige.” In the mists, the tremendous head of an unknown creature spoke leisurely. “I have personally received the commissions of you two. I certainly will not disappoint you both. Junior of the Ming Clan, you are a successor of this era’s God Ming. The Ming Clan can be considered to hold karma with me. You may put forth your riddlings first.” [2]

“My explanation is only half of a two-hour period per person, not a moment more, not a moment less. Fellow Daoists, please attend to yourselves.” [3]

“Yes.” God Ming answered respectfully. Not to mention he was only one of God Ming’s successors, the Ming Clan had no less than twenty inheritors. Even with the status of a God Ming of this era, there was also no way of him NOT being incomparably afraid of this thousand-year-old demon.

He took out a ring, and with a gentle stroke, a screen of golden light suddenly appeared. Within, an ancient, almost tattered roll of sheepskin turned about endlessly.

It was a storage ring!

Xu Yangyi’s eyes burned. This was a true symbol of incredible wealth and status. The selling price of a storage ring could go up to over a billion RMB! To him, this was an astronomical figure! [4]

And this was only as one of the successors of this era’s God Ming. A cultivator of such status would be able to take one out. Especially… since the other was actually wearing three rings on the forefinger, middle finger, and ring finger of his right hand!

“Undo the seal.” Jadewave’s voice was faint.

“Senior…” An old man behind God Ming bowed and said, “It’s not that the Ming Clan will undo it on purpose, but rather…”

“Shut up.” God Ming didn’t even glance at the old man and cupped his hands and said, “I sincerely obey your instruction.”

God Ming inhaled deeply and traced the ring once again. Immediately, a ray of golden light, as if it could push aside clouds to see the sun, rushed out from the ring, carrying the sharp and clear cry of a dragon, seemingly capable of illuminating the entire space!

1. Mosasuar = Dragon whale - is the translated for the name for the dinosaur/type. I searched the internet, but could not find an exact dinosaur that the Chinese call “Dragon whale”. However, the clue from the Cretaceous period narrowed down my search. What’s tricky here is that I’m not sure if dragon whale is just a catch-all for big aquatic dinosaurs or a specific dinosaur. My research has led me to believe that the author is possibly talking about the Giant Mosasaur-class dinosaurs.

2. I want to bring the word theft to everyone’s attention. What is really being said is an idiom from one of China’s classics, The Water Margin, that literally translates to “imitating the dog and stealing the chicken”. From my best guesses, this refers to imitating the loyal nature of a dog, but then stealing, presumably, the chicken.

3. It sounds weird to say “half of a two-hour period”, but this is more so referring to how old Jadewave really is. The proper word for two-hour period would be 時辰 (shi chen), which in ancient Chinese time is two hours of time in the modern age. In ancient times, a day was formed from twelve of these two-hour periods.

4. I thought I would make a note out of this anyways. If anyone is unclear, the RMB (renminbi) is China’s national currency. Also known as the Chinese Yuan.