Verdant Devil City
With a dozen corpses left in his wake, Devil casually strolled in through the front gate of Verdant Devil City. With each step he took, his soul became stronger as he continuously refined the Slaughter Aura from his pitiful victims. The feeling of strength filling his spiritual body caused Devil's grin to widen even further, making him look far more devilish than any devil in this city…
"I-Intruder!"
"Quickly, someone has broken into the city!"
"Is it a demonic horde or an attack from a rival lineage?!"
"I-I don't know, the intruder is of unidentified origins! B-but his aura…"
In the end, the Verdant Devil City's guards and military didn't quite understand what was going on as they rushed to the scene of the apparent attack, but when they reached their city's front gate, their speculative chatter ceased. When Devil's blood-soaked aura reached them, they all felt their mouths turn dry as their hearts became filled with fear.
What was the average strength of the verdant devils in this city? How far had the cultivation of this society progressed? Who was the strongest power here? Did they have access to treasures, formations, and other such things?
These questions didn't even enter Devil's mind as he strolled through the front gate, towards the approaching hordes of 'devils', with an apparent complete lack of fear.
Devil had adopted Yaan's most demonic tendencies, as well as a portion of the Primordial Devil's pride. Because of this, he simply did not even consider the possibility that he might be defeated - not on this 1st Layer of Abyss at least, and definitely not by these imposter 'devils'!
"Hahaha! Come, come, the stronger you are, the more Slaughter Aura I will be able to refine for my own growth! This is the path of a demon - no, this is the path of The Devil! The only way on is forwards, there is never any room to take a single step back…once my slaughter begins, it will not stop…it will not stop until I surpass the limitations that the main body reached back then, and I ascend to the Immortal Step! Become my nutrition, become my food, send yourselves to your deaths…come, become a part of my slaughter!"
Devil's crazed laughter echoed out through Verdant Devil City, shaking the residents of the city in shock. The population in this city numbered several million, and despite there being multiple Rank 4 Royal Spirit Realm devils in this city, even they felt their hearts tremble under the power of the killing intent contained within his voice!
Truthfully, if the verdant devils were to act with haste and co-ordinate a properly organised counter-attack, then Devil, who was still just a Slaughter Spirit at the Spirit Soul Realm, would not be able to achieve victory. However, the terror produced by his aura of killing intent caused them to hesitate and hold back; all of the most powerful verdant devils watched from afar as Devil made his way towards the second wave of verdant devils, who had been forced by their superiors to 'kill' the intruder.
In reality, they knew that these lower level devils had no chance of survival, they were simply being used as sacrificial pawns to test this intruder whom they could not get a measure on.
Devil saw through this immediately. Well, it wasn't exactly difficult to see through this situation though…
All of the verdant devils facing him were armed with metallic looking weapons, either spears or swords, but their hands were trembling and they were unable to even look him in the eye. Even though there were dozens of them and more were flocking in by the second, their numbers did nothing to quell their nerves, because they were all either at the Spirit Soul Realm or the Arch Spirit Realm, the first two realms of soul cultivation.
Devil's eyes flickered about to a few places, and he couldn't help but smirk.
"So the captains are hiding behind their men, and the generals are watching from afar…what a bold species you are, you false devils…"
"Y-you!" One of the foremost devils became slightly flushed at his provocative words. He gritted his teeth in anger as he stepped forwards, thinking that if he was the first to act, the one to lead the assault and take down the intruder under the watchful eye of the higher ups, then his life would take a complete change for the better in this city!
Unfortunately, he was only able to utter this single stammered word. Devil was only at the Spirit Soul Realm, and it was mostly his killing intent that was scaring his opponents back…but he was still no ordinary person.
He had inherited Yaan's disposition towards violence and killing, as well as his immense sense for combat. When combined with his killing intent which was able to crush his opponents' fighting spirit into the abyss, he was genuinely a force to be reckoned with, despite his soul which lacked much of a cultivation base right now.
Whoosh…CHI!
Before the bold devil could speak another word, Devil had already made his move, blurring through the foggy air and reappearing with his arm pierced straight through the chest of his foe. He casually pulled back his arm and let the body hit the ground with a thump, then refined the Slaughter Aura without so much as looking at his opponent.
The other devils couldn't help but swallow and stare at the corpse of their fallen comrade, watching as the black miasma leaked out from the hole in his chest. When that corpse started withering and lose its colour, soon turning a bleak grey, their horror only intensified further.
It was at this moment that Devil's grin widened, and he made his actual move.
He made no sound as he moved, but his opponents weren't so silent. Shrill screams of pain and fear echoed throughout Verdant Devil City as corpse after corpse hit the ground, each withering away ominously as soon as Devil was done with harvesting their lives.
The verdant devils were awoken from their stupor when a shockwave suddenly erupted from Devil's body and his aura grew a level stronger…however, although his aura grew to a higher level, the ascension itself informed them of something very important…
"What?! He- he's only at the Arch Spirit Realm?!"
"You mean until now, we've been cowering away from a mere Spirit Soul Realm bastard?"
"Unacceptable! He must be using some treasure to intimidate us, his true strength is nothing to speak of! Everyone, charge forth, we will slay the intruder and prevent him from taking one more step into our glorious city!"
When Devil heard the uproar that was created following his ascension, he burst out into laughter.
"Hahahaha! You all will kill me, just because my cultivation is low? So what if my cultivation is at the Arch Spirit Realm? This is more than enough…to deal with some false devils!"
The verdant devils were now feeling empowered to take their chances and attack the intruder as a group, but likewise, as his cultivation grew stronger and stronger, seemingly without encountering any bottlenecks as he slaughtered his way into the city, Devil's confidence continued to rise.
He was naturally prideful, but he wasn't stupid; he knew all along that the him from just one day ago did not possess the strength to defeat this entire Verdant Devil City…
However, it was never his intention to take on the entire city with the strength of a mortal spirit. No, his intention was to kill, to slaughter, to refine the Slaughter Aura into his own strength, and to repeat this process continuously, endlessly, such that even when he was faced with wave after wave of opponents stronger than the last, he would still be able to reign supreme, because his strength would rise without a limit!
Although he was now just at the Arch Spirit Realm, and his opponents knew this fact…even though he knew that there were not only Noble Spirit Realm devils in this place, but also those at the Royal Spirit Realm…
Devil still laughed with a booming voice that verged on bloodthirsty madness.
So what if his cultivation realm was still two whole realms lower than his opponents?
They were merely Rank 4 beings, and he had the memories, the experience, and the killing intent, from slaughtering countless beings at this level! And now that he at least had some degree of cultivation base, his strength had risen explosively.
It was for this reason that those Royal Spirit Realm devils who were about to make their move, suddenly froze when they saw Devil swipe a single time with his hand, manifesting a giant claw of Slaughter Force which tore through the ranks of Spirit Soul Realm and Arch Spirit Realm devils, harvesting tens of lives with a single strike!
One strike, one step, tens of lives lost!
The second step, the second strike, almost 100 lives were taken!
With his third step and his third strike, Devil's momentum had increased to an incomprehensible degree for his realm, causing all of those who harboured thoughts of taking his life, to once again hesitate.
Boom!
Buildings were torn apart and miserable screams resounded through the air. Although they were all devils in this city, they weren't all strong, they weren't all powerful…there were many devil civilians who remained hiding in their homes, terrified of the battle happening outside. They wanted nothing to do with this madness, and they only prayed that their defenders would deal with the intruder swiftly.
But in the cultivation world, prayers were rarely ever answered. Devil was not a merciful being, and when he stepped into this city, his intention was clear, and he had no doubts about what he was going to do…
He was going to slaughter every last devil within the city - he would not let a single living being in this place escape alive.
Devil was born from Yaan's ruthlessness, and the Primordial Devil's disdain towards all life. He lacked any of the reservations that Yaan had once held towards killing, he had no kindness or compassion in his heart.
And so, Devil continued to rampage through the Verdant Devil City, growing stronger which each step, with each strike. Before long, the devastation had reached such an unbelievable degree that those powerhouses who had been watching from a distance, could no longer bare to sit back and watch while their people were slaughtered like livestock.
When Devil felt six different Rank 4 auras weighing down on him, his smile only widened. He didn't so much as pause, and instead leapt into the sky, swiping at the closest Royal Spirit Realm verdant devil.
The Royal Spirit Realm verdant devil was one of the city's six supreme protectors, but when faced with Devil's mad grin and his claw of slaughter which reeked of blood, her heart trembled and she felt her will to fight being crushed into the dirt.
Even though she could fly, and Devil had merely jumped up to reach her, she instead felt like it was she who was the one incapable of flight as his aura forced her down to the ground.
Her entire world began to spin and she became so disorientated that she couldn't tell her left from her right. In her panic, she lashed out wildly in hopes of somehow striking her opponent, but all she achieved was adding to the chaos and carnage that Devil was relishing.
The last thing she saw in her life was a gloomy grey claw sweeping down towards her, and behind this claw, a pair of shining crimson eyes burned their way into her consciousness, causing her mind to erupt with miasma before the actual attack even landed.
BANG!
The first of the city's supreme protectors was killed just like that; with a single strike, without even being able to defend herself.
Devil dropped down to the ground, and for a while, the world became still. The verdant devils stared at him in disbelief, but Devil ignored them, instead focussing on properly absorbing the Slaughter Aura from his first Rank 4 kill in Abyss.
There were still five remaining supreme protectors, but after witnessing their comrade who possessed strength similar to their own meeting her end by a single strike from this monster, even they could only stare at Devil in fear, as if their only choice was to wait for him to come and harvest their lives…
Finally, after an unknown period of time, Devil looked up. When he saw thousands of faces staring at him with those terrified looks, he smirked and shook his head.
"As expected, you false devils are not worthy of the title 'Devil'."
Less than one day later, Verdant Devil City, one of the better known cities of devils on the 1st Layer of Abyss, was left in ruins. This city which had homed several millions of lives was now just a ghost town.
As soon as he had accomplished his goal, Devil, now shrouded in a visible cloud of gaseous crimson killing intent, walked away from the city in search of his next meal.