Du Ze wondered if Xiu was aware of it. In the torch's light, Xiu's face was gloomy and dark. He stared at Belial's teleportation array and said: "Continue."
Xiu pulled Du Ze into the teleportation array. Violet and Alice wiped away their tears and followed with the others. Du Ze gazed at Xiu's figure and wanted to open his mouth, but in the end he said nothing.
They left arena 68 and came to arena 67. Because the demon sisters haven't calmed down yet, Old John fought. The 67th demon god only lasted for a few seconds before he was torn down by Old John's katar and turned into a teleportation array.
Old John glanced at the place where the demon god had vanished and said to Xiu: "The Little Master should have also noticed that the demon god is a mid-level Sword Master."
"They're going to get stronger," said Xiu. He looked up at the arena above them and continued while smiling: "Otherwise it would be too boring."
Xiu's prediction was confirmed in arena 61. The 61st demon god had the strength of a high-level Sword Master. Based on this progression, it was possible to infer that every six demon gods would be a higher level in strength. If the 54th demon has the strength of a low-level Grand Sword Master, then every 18 levels the demon gods will have the strength of a higher class.
With Old John fighting, they advanced quickly. It took only a minute for him to defeat a demon god and they quickly reached arena 54. As expected, the 54th demon god was indeed a low-level Grand Sword Master. Du Ze calculated that if things continue this way, they will encounter a Sword Saint in arena 36 and a War God in arena 18.
Du Ze assessed their team. The demon sisters are only in the Sword Master level, but with the addition of the Sword Saint Old John and the black dragon Muir, plus the Moe Lord whose power level is over 9000 – with such a magnificent lineup, even with the negative combat fighting ability of himself and Ariel, they can surely steamroll the opponents in the demon god arena.
The silly, cute reader felt gloomy. This arena was surely installed by the plot god to copy the novel's 72 demon cities story arc.
In this way the team fought their way up to arena 38. For the first time after Belial, they encountered a second demon god who was conscious: Halphas. Compared to Belial who took the initiative to to sacrifice herself for them, the "unfriendly to humans and loves to dine on their flesh" demon god Halphas' attitude was much more... malicious.
"I don't want to accept this situation. You have the future that should belong to me while I am imprisoned here." Halphas said in a hoarse voice: "There is nothing here except people who are climbing the tower, swarming like locusts – like you."
"The only thing I am happy about is that some of the people climbing the tower have brought me a lot of food. The meat of the human race has always been difficult to get." Halphas' blood-red eyes were on Du Ze. He licked his lips then said to Xiu: "If you give me that human, for Bael's sake, I will consider letting you pass."
"Ah ... This man is really delicious." Xiu said with a smile. His low voice was sensual enough to make people's hearts race as they blushed. "But only I can taste him."
Halphas, in his black dove form, narrowly avoided Xiu's sword. He flew up the arena before looking down at the horned demon holding a silver-red sword. The demon raised his head and the look in his dark purple eyes was enough to make people shudder,
"You shouldn't covet him," Xiu said.
The black dove Halphas made a sound like a hoarse tweet. He spread his wings as far as they would extend then fanned them down. Black feathers shot down like arrows. Muir changed into his dragon form to protect the others. The black feather was unexpectedly sharp, breaking through the dragon's hard scales. Muir roared in pain. Using his tail, he pulled out the black feather.
Seeing Muir is protecting Du Ze and the others, Xiu flew up, bringing the attack to Halphas.When Xiu got close, Halphas suddenly folded his wings and a large number of black feathers rained down on him. This time the feathers were not a direct attack; Halphas' aim was to block Xiu's view. Xiu was surrounded by black feathers. A strong sense of danger made him raise his sword and he instinctively blocked in front of him on the left side.
"Caw! BOOM!!!"
Xiu was driven down to the arena's floor by the black dove attack. The huge impact they made created a large crater. Xiu was almost buried in the stone. His hands were on Halphas' beak. If he were to let go or weaken his hold even a little, that sharp beak would surely pierce through his chest. Xiu stared at Halphas and his purple eyes began to glow.
"Bang!"
Even though Halphas moved very quickly, its tail feathers were still hit by the lightning. The lightning arced up from the tail to its whole body. Though the lightning didn't do much damage, they paralyzed his body for a moment. While Halphas was unable to move, Xiu cut off the black dove's right wing.
"Ugh-. "
Halphas fell heavily on the ground; his head upturned, his blood-red eyes looked angrily at Xiu.
"D**n! If I hadn't been limited by the tower, how could you ..."
Halphas' words were interrupted when Xiu cut off the black dove's remaining wing. Xiu looked down as Halphas transformed into his humanoid form. With his long black hair falling down, Xiu covered his mouth that was smiling dangerously.
"You remind me of a man who once took Du Ze's left hand." Xiu's smile deepened, as if he was recalling something interesting that he wanted to share with Halphas. "Do you know what I did afterwards?"
The sword cut into Halphas' body silently, exposing the scarlet viscera inside.
"I cut his belly open and tried to retrieve the part that was taken away — like this."
As Xiu spoke, the silver-red sword slowly cut open the internal organs inch by inch.
"The first thing I found was the small intestine, and then I found the stomach -unlike you, that man's stomach was as big as his body."
Feeling the ice-cold tip of the sword moving around inside his body, Halphas looked up at that person's slender vertical pupils and felt an unspeakable fear for the first time.
"I looked very carefully, but in the end I failed because I made a mistake."
Blood splashed Xiu's face, making it sticky and slippery. He sighed as he gazed at the foot of the demon god that was already turning to ash.
"It's a pity."
Muir watched all this happen. He knew it wasn't normal but he wasn't too bothered by it. For Muir, everything is fine as long as he is able to protect Hilda's offspring. The black dragon opened his huge wings, releasing Du Ze and the others.
Du Ze saw Xiu standing near the teleportation array. Blood was dripping down from the Burning Desire Demonic Sword. The cracks on the stone floor showed how fierce the fighting had been.
"Are you alright?"
Xiu put away Qian Bian, took Du Ze in his arms, then casually replied: "It was nothing. His strength seems to have been limited by the Tower of God."
Du Ze immediately grasped the reason behind this. The Tower of God is a screening machine that can turn any type of creature into a god. However, if those who have just become a false god or have not yet become false gods were to really fight the demon gods, then it would cause their total annihilation. That's why it's understandable the tower limited the strength of Halphas and the others. In that case, the BOSS of the demon god arena will not be able to use his full power against them. But that was not the key point here. Just like with Belial, their biggest problem is not power but emotion.
The 38th demon god was defeated. Next up was arena 37 which also had a god with consciousness: Phenex. After the bout with Halphas, they were not sure what kind of attitude the possessed god would have towards them. Therefore they decided to take a break and recharge before they head to the next level.
During the break, Du Ze had a question mark over his head as he watched Xiu turn his left hand over and over, examining each side again and again. After fighting Halphas, Xiu became extremely concerned about Du Ze's left hand; several times Du Ze thought Xiu was staring at his left hand so much that it was almost like he wanted to swallow it up.
Do you somehow feel dissatisfied with this young man's left hand, Moe Lord?
Just as Du Ze was unable to bear it anymore and wanted to ask Xiu about it, an anomaly appeared in the arena. A small magical formation appeared suddenly and a figure emerged from it. When the newcomer stepped out of the teleportation array, both sides were stunned – they knew this person.
The human god of war, Ares, was frozen with shock when he saw Du Ze and the others, but he quickly recovered and dashed to Halphas' teleportation array. All of this happened in a flash. Du Ze brain hadn't yet been able to process the appearance of the god when he saw him disappear into the teleportation array. The array dissipated into the air; nothing was left.
Du Ze almost coughed up blood. He wanted to knock on the door of the array and to say: Open the door, you have the ability to steal other people's teleportation method, you should also have the ability to open the door, ah!
They all looked at the vanished teleportation array where Ares had disappeared. Violet anxiously asked: "What are we going to do now that the teleportation array to the next arena disappeared?"
"Heidi said that each level's checkpoint resets whenever someone goes through it." Alice took her sister's hand in hers and said comfortingly: "If what she said was right, it should be fine, we might just have to fight the demon god Halphas again."
Just as Alice finished speaking, a "plop" was heard and the Black Dove appeared in the arena. Du Ze saw Halphas' blood-red eyes widen as a hint of an emotion flashed through them. It was ... horror?
Halphas flapped his wings fiercely and everyone naturally fell into an alert posture — just to see the black dove kill himself.
All of them: "..."
Du Ze was silent for a while before looking at Xiu: "What happened?"
–What did you just do to make the demon god afraid?
"Who knows?" said Xiu lazily, leaning on Du Ze.
His strong sixth sense told Du Ze that it's better if he doesn't know too much, so the silly, cute reader blamed all of the strange events on the protagonist's halo. Because of Halphas' "good intentions" they quickly passed through to the next level of the arena. Even though he hasn't done anything much, Du Ze was full of excitement. Some silly, cute person pulled Xiu into the teleportation array. If they hurry, they might be able to see that jerk in arena 37.
They teleported into arena 37 but it was empty and there was no sign of Ares. Du Ze was disappointed and he wondered what happened since the previous demon gods had not been defeated that quickly.
"Someone else appeared so fast?" said a childlike voice and Phenex appeared.
Seeing that the other person showed no signs of hostility, Xiu put away his sword and asked: "The god of war was just here?"
"Yes, I let him go. I can let you go, too," Phenex said. "I do not like fighting and death is not something unbearable for me. I am very familiar with it."
Du Ze had not expected to meet with such a friendly demon god. Someone who will freely allow all those ascending the tower to pass through is simply good news. Phenex looked over and gazed at the fluffy chick on top of Du ze's head. The small Phoenix seems to recognize this as the demon god who can change into the form of a Phoenix and stared at him with its beady black eyes, merrily calling out to him: "Chirp chirp ~"
"I have not seen a Phoenix chick for a long time," exclaimed Phenex. "Bael's descendant, here is a small gift from me to you."
Phenex changed into a beautiful Phoenix; the Phoenix's fiery body slowly grew smaller and smaller. As it burned down almost to nothing, the bright red flame burst open and turned into a rune. A red crystal now stood in the place where Phenex had been.
At the sight of the crystal, the small Phoenix's eyes widened like a drunkard smelling wine. "Whoosh!" It flew over right away at the speed of light and greedily swallowed the red crystal. Rich fire elements gathered in the small Phoenix's body and it seemed to feel very good as it issued a long tweet. The sound started out sounding immature but by the end of it, the Phoenix's cry had become full and deep.
When all the flames had dispersed, an unusually exquisite Fire Phoenix appeared in front of Du Ze. It had long and beautiful tail feathers and faint traces of fire bloomed along the length of its magnificent wings.
The Fire Phoenix flew above Du Ze; it seemed to want to nest on Du Ze's head like before but now its body is too big for that. So the Fire Phoenix perched on Du Ze's shoulder, its head bent down as though it had been wronged.
... Well, even if it becomes beautiful, its essence is still that of a fool.
After the Fire Phoenix interlude, they continued to move forward. From the 36th onwards, the demon gods had the strength of a Sword saint. It took Old John a day to defeat one. In order to save time, Muir began to fight, too. To ascend from arena 36 to arena 19, it took them three days. The remaining 18 demons had the strength of a War God. If Xiu does not join the fight, it will take three days to pass an arena.
When the 2nd ranked demon was defeated, they had been in the demon god arena for almost a week. These days all they did was eat, sleep, and play; there was no respite from this routine. Du Ze and Xiu stood in front of the last teleportation array. Once they enter they will be sent to the final arena and come face to face with the first demon god.
Du Ze subconsciously looked at Xiu. He wanted to ask Xiu about this several times, but every time he tried to speak he found that he didn't know what to say. Xiu noticed Du Ze looking at him. He reached over and pulled Du Ze with him into the teleportation array without hesitation.
Du Ze gazed at Xiu's hand that was holding on to his; that hand is strong and full of determination, banishing all doubt.
This man will keep going and no one can stop him.
A group of people came to the last arena through the teleportation array. Before they had completely emerged from the array, they saw a figure falling in front of them. It was the human god of war, Ares, and this time he no longer looked spirited. He seemed to have been burned by a high temperature, with many spots on his body still smouldering. He was barely breathing.
Opposite the group, the first demon god slowly put down his hand and a sound like thunder rumbled through the arena.
"Welcome to my arena," Bael announced.