The Seventh Year the Demon King Captured the Holy Monarch

Seven years later, the Demon King Hun Yao, leading tens of thousands of Watie tribe members southward, sat on his wildebeest, looking at the vast gray world before him.

He thought to himself in a daze: It seemed that he had never said “I’m sorry” to Langmuir.

At first, it was because there was no concept of apology. Besides, where is the logic in a king apologizing to a prisoner of war, or a master to a slave? 

Later on, as his relationship with Langmuir became closer, he was increasingly troubled by inner conflicts. He was suspicious and jealous, suspecting that the slave had ulterior motives, and firmly believed that showing weakness to Langmuir would be falling into his trap. Therefore, he had never apologized to Langmuir, nor had he thanked him.

But now… many things didn’t matter anymore, especially after seeing the flowers bloom in the abyss with his own eyes.

Those were just some small and delicate wildflowers. Hun Yao felt they didn’t represent anything, but he was in a good mood because of them.

No wonder Langmuir likes flowers, he thought.

Thus, after returning to the royal court, whether to apologize or to thank, both could be arranged. Perhaps, there’s no need to wait until returning to the royal court, maybe tonight…

Suddenly, Hun Yao’s drifting thoughts were forcibly pulled back into his body.

He heard a sudden surge of ominous noise around him.

——Whoosh!

The first thing that approached was the sound of breaking through the air, Hun Yao’s pupils shrank. At this moment, his body’s instinct was much faster than his thinking. He only had time to twist his body and raise his hand, and an arrow with a spell cast on it stopped in his palm, being firmly grasped!

“King!” Mo Duo called fiercely from behind.

The next moment, a rain of arrows came head-on!

Hun Yao growled and threw away the arrow in his hand, and the other hand tightened the reins. Suddenly, the frightened wildebeest reared up and neighed. Enemies emerged from both sides of the rugged mountain terrain, like black waves roaring in. Those demons rode on lizards, holding long spears and bows and arrows, their faces painted with red and black paint, raising their weapons without saying a word.

All the soldiers of the Demon King realized what had happened. This was an ambush! Lizards were more agile than wildebeest in the mountains, and there was a group of enemies specifically lying in ambush here, waiting for the victorious army to pass.

“Face the enemy! Cavalry, steady your wildebeest, no retreat!” Asayin drew the broadsword from his waist and pointed forward. He looked around anxiously, “King!”

The enemy’s screams answered him instead of the Demon King. Hun Yao’s eyes were filled with fierce cruelty. He picked up the long spear on his saddle, swung open a half-circle burning with flames, and the next moment, the wildebeest charged out!

A lizard rushed over recklessly, was pierced through the brain by Hun Yao’s spear, swung up and smashed into the stone wall. The guy sitting on it was thrown off and rolled far away, falling head full of blood.

The next moment, the wildebeest stepped over the chest of that demon, the screams and the sound of bone cracking rose together.

“Where did these regular enemies come from, a few straw bags dare to show off…”

The Demon King arrogantly shook off the blood on the tip of his spear, chuckled lowly, “Not much skill, but not small courage. Kill for me!”

Mo Duo excitedly shouted, drawing out the long whip from her waist. The warriors of the royal court followed the general’s charge, they were like bloodthirsty wolves, never knowing how to write the word fear.

“…” Asayin’s expression became very complicated for a moment, and he urged the horse forward belatedly.

——“Jifeng” Asayin, this gray-haired and blue-eyed general, unlike Mo Duo who had followed Hun Yao since childhood, was a surrendered general. (TL: Jifeng is gale, blast or strong wind in English)

Before surrendering to the Demon King, he was the most powerful leader’s guard in the Black Thor tribe. Unfortunately, since following Hun Yao, Asayin had never been able to fulfill the duty of protecting the king once.

The new king’s horse was faster than his, the spear was sharper than his, and he liked the battlefield more than him. When he got too excited, he had to persuade him to come back…

What can he do?

“Shoot!”

Suddenly, a hoarse voice rang out among the ambushers. “The Broken Horn Demon King must die today!” With the cover of the undulating rocks, a sound of pulling strings sounded.

A trace of cruel playfulness appeared in Hun Yao’s eyes. “Just by you?”

In the next moment, the ambushers with painted faces began to waver. Black flames began to rise around Hun Yao’s body, which was transformed by the Demon King’s demonic breath – anyone who touched it would burn with it until it turned into flying ashes.

“Shoot again! Shoot!”

But the second wave of arrow rain did not come, the black flames roared and hit the cliff, the loud noise was like thunder. Half of the mountain collapsed with a rumble, the archers were smashed by falling rocks, their brains burst, and limbs flew!

Mo Duo clicked her tongue. “Oh, the mountain has collapsed. Has my King considered how the army will pass later?”

Asayin: “…Say less, General Mo Duo.”

Before long, the advantage began to tilt. Once the first layer of the arrow formation was destroyed by the Demon King, nothing could stop the soldiers of the royal court, and the ambushing enemy was quickly scattered.

It was at this time that Hun Yao withdrew from the melee and drove the horse back.

“These ambushers are not the old parts of Watie,” Hun Yaao weighed the iron spear that weighed more than ninety pounds in his hand, “Asayin, do you recognize them?”

Asayin frowned. “No, I don’t recognize them. The accent doesn’t sound like a northern tribe, wait until the mastermind behind is captured…”

Hun Yao: “Capture the mastermind behind this?”

Asayin looked towards the center of the melee. “Given the number and strength of the enemy, even with the lizards, they are no match for the warriors of the royal court. Does my King have any worries?”

Hun Yao: “If what you say is true, what are these ambushers trying to achieve by throwing an egg against a rock, asking me to end them, hmm?”

Asayin was startled, a chill ran up his heart.

An unusual sound came faintly from the wind. Hun Yao suddenly turned his head, separated by heavy mountain walls, from here he could no longer see the tail of the army.

“…Behind.”

Hūnyào’s eyes darkened, he pulled the reins tightly, “The captives of the Watie tribe, those who surrendered are all behind.”

——Damn it, Langmuir is there too!

Before Asayin could react, Hun Yao whipped his horse, the tall wildebeest neighed and in the blink of an eye, carrying the Demon King, it galloped in the opposite direction of the troop’s progress.

****

Langmuir was awakened by the sudden cries, fighting sounds, and laughter outside the carriage. After a commotion, the guard left behind by Hun Yao violently lifted the curtain of the carriage, “Lord Langmuir!!”

“The lizard army has ambushed our troops! Lord Langmuir, please quickly follow us on horseback!”

——Ambush!

Langmuir woke up abruptly. He didn’t use the guard’s help, jumped down from the violently shaking carriage, held his breath and looked up——

Four-legged beasts appeared on both sides of the mountain wall with the dust, the beasts’ backs were carrying iron saddles, and sitting on the saddles were enemies holding butcher knives.

The narrow mountain area fell into chaos. The size of the lizards was twice that of the wildebeests, and the rear soldiers were immediately scattered. Exposed to the butcher knife were a large number of Watie tribe people——those pale and thin, unarmed ordinary demons and inferior demons.

“Retribution is here, you bunch of cowards!”

Those demons with paint on their faces let out a grim laugh. “Dare to betray the covenant of blood and soul, kneel to a broken horn demon… today, every coward here will be torn to pieces as divine punishment!”

A thin old demon squeezed through the trembling tribe members and stood at the front. This was the old father who first swore allegiance to Hun Yao that night.

He shakily showed his own scales, his eyes wide open in anger. “We have bled and sweated for the leader of the old days, and have fulfilled every word of the covenant, it is Watie who does not give us a way to survive!”

The people of the Watie tribe let out a mournful roar, but what they received was the sound of archers pulling strings!

“Don’t panic!!”

A wildebeest galloped over, Langmuir shouted sternly. “Where are the warriors of the royal court!”

His voice was clear and loud, and in an instant, the scattered soldiers seemed to have found their backbone and quickly gathered together.

“Look, who is that, the human slave of the Demon King!?”

The leader on the opposite side, a demon who had painted his entire face red, laughed in surprise, “Interesting, he can actually ride a wildebeest!”

He swung his arm, “Shoot arrows!”

A deadly rain of iron arrows fell from the sky. The guards rushed from behind, desperately using their vine armor shields to protect Langmuir in front of them. “Lord! Please step back!”

——Bang bang bang bang bang!!

In an instant, countless iron arrows wrapped in demonic breath shot onto the shield. The warriors of the Demon King also roared, these fierce creatures bred from the abyss were provoked into a blood frenzy, raising their ferocious scales, braving the arrow rain to charge forward without fear of death, preferring to die than to bite off a piece of enemy flesh with their teeth!

But Langmuir’s heart sank heavily, and he had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, screams immediately rose and fell around him.

They all came from the Watie tribe. The soldiers had no consciousness of protecting the captives, and weak demons were constantly shot by arrows in the melee, then trampled by panicked compatriots, and blood quickly spread throughout this mountain area!

“Lord Langmuir!” The guard reached out to lead his horse, “Please retreat! We will escort you to where our King is…”

“No.” Langmuir gritted his teeth and shook his head. Once he retreated, the soldiers of the royal court would also retreat. And the Watie tribe people have no horses, even if they don’t die in the arrow rain, they would be trampled to death by the lizards!

…The abyss had no way for the merciful, and the demons never accepted the people of the opposing tribes. The fate of the captives was nothing more than becoming livestock for sacrifice, or becoming slaves with spell chains.

Therefore, Hun Yao had said to him before, ‘we have done a great thing’. 

But what if this batch of captives were slaughtered on the way to follow the new king? The intention of these ambushers…

“Sorry, I’ll borrow it for now.” Langmuir’s expression was slightly cold, he reached out and took a longbow from the guard’s back, kicked the horse’s belly, “Go!”

The wildebeest responded and rushed out, leaving the guard’s exclamation far behind, and in the blink of an eye, it had reached the forefront of the fierce battle.

“Lord Langmuir!” The blood-soaked soldiers looked up and saw this scene, shouting like mad, as if they were watching a treasure being snatched away by a dragon.

Langmuir used the longbow in his hand as a sword, and swept away a few arrows that came face to face. Taking advantage of the gap before the next wave of arrow rain arrived, he stretched his arm and opened the bow!

The bowstring trembled between his fingers. Langmuir shouted loudly. “Warriors who follow my Ling, listen to my command!”

Laughter came from all directions.

“Not bad, not bad, humans can also pull the bow of the demons!”

“Where’s the arrow? Hey, he doesn’t even have an arrow!”

“Cute little beauty, maybe he doesn’t know that an arrow needs to be mounted on the bow?”

The leader sitting on the lizard pointed with his whip. “Go, catch that interesting human slave, don’t let him run.”

When dozens of lizards started to gallop, Langmuir barely pulled the bow halfway.

He had long lost his Mana. After being tortured day after day in the abyss, he couldn’t hold the iron spear of the demons now, and he couldn’t use heavy swords and long knives. Even this bow was hastily grabbed, and it was very awkward.

But when the wild wind blew open the silver-gray hair, some things that should have been worn out seemed to return to the eyebrows and eyes of the Holy Monarch.

“My King has accepted the people of the Watie tribe,” he said, “From today, they are your compatriots, brothers and sisters connected by your blood.”

“Warriors from the royal court, I command you on behalf of my King, with the weapons in your hands, protect the people of my King and your bloodline!”

The air suddenly heated up, and the black flame-like demonic breath flowed out from the human’s fingertips, condensing into the shape of a feather arrow.

“No,” the leader suddenly changed color, he shouted, “No, wait, no no, this is impossible!”

He began to wave his hands frantically. “Retreat, retreat!! Get away quickly, this human slave, he has the Demon King’s demonic breath——”

Hun Yao came galloping from the valley, shouting sternly, “Langmuir, stop!!”

The fire in Langmuir’s fingers flared up. The rough bow immediately caught fire, and the black arrow became even brighter, faintly emitting a terrifying aura of destruction. He chuckled lightly. “——And I, naturally, will also act on behalf of my King’s will, and be with my King’s warriors.”

“Langmuir!!” Hun Yao’s eyes were about to crack. “Don’t shoot, this is an order, Langmuir——”

The human did not obey as obedient as usual. Langmuir didn’t even look back, the moment he let go, the arrow left the string, like a dark comet streaking across the sky!

The dark flames identical to the Demon King exploded in the hot wind, illuminating the faces covered with scales one by one. Then, everything began to burn. The rocks were burned red, countless lizards fell down the cliff with mournful cries.

Everywhere was the spreading fire, the flames blocked the retreat of the ambushers.

The soldiers around began to shout excitedly, fortunately, Langmuir’s command became the reins that tied these wild beasts. The weak ordinary demons and inferior demons were protected behind, staring blankly at this dazzling sea of fire.

In the chaos of the battle, Hun Yao galloped around on his horse. The sky was already dark, the firelight and smoke interfered with the line of sight, everywhere were the figures of demons fighting, he couldn’t find his human.

“Langmuir!” He roared, “Answer me, Langmuir!!”

Langmuir was too far forward just now, and a painted-faced man in the chaos put on a desperate posture and pounced at him.

The guards were scattered at some point. Langmuir had no weapons in his hand, even the longbow was burned to ashes by the demonic breath just now, he could only dodge on horseback.

The enemy’s blade brushed past his left arm, and blood immediately flowed. Langmuir grunted in pain.

The next moment, a long spear like black lightning broke through the air. The enemy’s body was pierced with a huge hole, and with the spouting of a large amount of blood, it fell straight down.

Lánmùěr suddenly turned around. “…My King!”

“Langmuir!!”

Hun Yao came riding his horse, he grabbed Langmuir onto his horse in one hand, he forcefully pressed the bleeding arm of the human, and roared. “You’re crazy, who allowed you to use demonic breath, who allowed you!!”

“My King.” Langmuir was panting, his face looking up was already pale at some point. His long hair and robe were all stained with blood, his whole body was trembling slightly, like a candle in the wind.

Hun Yao could even feel the body in his arms rapidly cooling, he cursed with red eyes. “Damn it, damn it! You this——”

“I’m fine,” Langmuir quickly grabbed Hun Yao’s arm, “My King, calm down first, I only shot one arrow, nothing will happen.”

But his voice suddenly became hoarse, Langmuir frowned and coughed, the sweet and fishy taste immediately filled his throat.

His expression changed, he raised his hand to cover his mouth, but his body involuntarily leaned forward. He vomited a large mouthful of blood, his vision went dark.

The warm dark red liquid rushed through his fingers, and a large area was splashed on the already unclean snow-white robe.