"Fang Han! Be careful—once the cauldron absorbs too many Sky Demons, you must feed them with blood-essence. If they go hungry, they'll wither… or worse, start killing each other."
Yan emerged quietly as Fang Han drove the Five-Prison King Cauldron at full force, pulling Sky Demons into its vortex while they shrieked and scattered across the endless mire of flesh and blood.
"What? Sky Demons need to eat?"
He had already captured more than five hundred in one breath. Originally, the swarming demons in the marsh had wanted to feast on him, but after seeing the ferocity of this intruder, they panicked and fled. Fang Han had to chase them down one by one.
"Of course Sky Demons eat. They live on the blood-essence of living beings. You've collected fifty thousand of them in the cauldron, and you haven't fed them once. In ten days or half a month, they'll begin slaughtering each other." Yan sounded almost solemn. "Think of it like mortal armies. You have fifty thousand soldiers—can they fight if you don't feed them?"
"That… makes sense. They need nourishment just like cultivators need pills." Fang Han realized how foolish he'd been. "But doesn't this mean I'll have to kill living creatures every single day just to feed them? Won't they become a burden? How much blood-essence does one Sky Demon need?"
"One Sky Demon can stay full for three months," Yan calculated. "But to feed one fully… let's take the Xuanhuang warhorses as reference. One demon can drain ten horses."
"What?"
Fang Han nearly jumped. Fifty thousand demons meant half a million warhorses every three months. And he had dreamed of collecting eight million Sky Demons—feeding that many would gut entire kingdoms.
"The ocean is full of life. You can scoop millions of pounds of fish and shrimp each day—they'll manage," Yan suggested.
"Then I won't have time to cultivate." Fang Han shook his head.
"Or release them to hunt for themselves—but then they'll run away, unless you brand them with restrictions. And feeding demons on living beings openly? That's a mortal taboo. Yuhuamen would kill you first."
Yan sighed. "Feeding Sky Demons is tedious. In ancient times, demon sect elders had disciples dedicated solely to this job. If you could obtain the Bloodshadow Sect's Heaven-Blood Pool, it could support millions. Or—if you were a true demon god, you could convert a whole star into a blood-soaked mire."
"That's fantasy," Fang Han muttered.
"No solution then—let them kill each other. From what I gleaned from the Water-Gu Demon, it once commanded millions. After its host body was sealed without food, they devoured one another until only a hundred thousand remained. Your fifty thousand might drop to twenty thousand in a few months. In a year, maybe a few thousand."
Yan sighed. "Raising demons is harder than raising horses. And if fed too well, they may divide or even evolve into Demon Kings. And one Demon King self-destructing could shatter the entire cauldron."
Fang Han grimaced. So much complexity—care, balance, supervision. He had imagined that filling the cauldron with demons would let him wield its full might, even fight Golden Core cultivators. But nurturing them was an ordeal.
"Wait—this entire blood marsh is full of blood-essence. You can absorb Sky Demons and the surrounding essence together, then let them feed on that."
"That works."
Fang Han activated the cauldron again. It spiraled through the air, not only pulling Sky Demons in but also huge clouds of gray, decayed blood-essence from the mire. The essence poured into the Hundred-Ghost Screen within the cauldron, where thousands of demons pounced upon it eagerly. It wasn't fresh essence, but it kept them alive.
Long Xuan flew out as well, using her "Ten-Thousand-Waters True Qi" to capture individual Sky Demons. Though slower than Fang Han's devouring array, it sharpened her control. When she trapped a powerful demon in a crystalline water sphere, she infused it with Ice-Soul Thunder. The demon shattered—instantly torn apart by the others upon entering the cauldron.
After another sweep, Fang Han realized the area had been drained clean—only five thousand more demons. Nowhere close to the eight million he sought.
"Going farther means running into Demon Kings," Long Xuan warned.
"No problem—as long as it isn't one of the rare Sky Demon Golden Core Kings." Fang Han was confident. Golden Core demon kings were exceedingly rare; if one existed here, the marsh would've been exterminated long ago by the great sects.
Then—
In the distant sky, a colossal black castle made entirely of storm-clouds floated in the air. Upon its throne sat a breathtakingly handsome young man—tall, sharp-featured, robed in embroidered silver, wearing a crown like a prince.
His aura surged like tides.
Below him stood eighteen figures—nine men, nine women—each breathtakingly beautiful or terrifyingly heroic, all wearing real armor, not illusions. They were Demon Kings—entities with true physical bodies.
This "prince" commanded eighteen Demon Kings.
"Seven-Leaf Demon Lord," one male king reported, "a major incident in the Daoist realm—an Innate Demon Sect marshal slew three True Disciples of Taiyi Gate. He's now being hunted and likely fled into the Void. He may pass through the Blood Marsh."
"We may profit from this," the Seven-Leaf Demon Lord said calmly. "Inform the armies—tighten surveillance. Any demon who brings back accurate information will be rewarded."
He paused, then added, "I came here to enter the Xuanhuang World and assist Lord Nine-Yang Demon God in rescuing my father."
The Demon Kings bowed. "We know that Lord Nine-Yin Demon God was ambushed by the Beast God and the Silkworm Empress. You are his strongest son—naturally you must save him."
"Yes. Lord Nine-Yang will soon tear open the void, but we must prepare."
Just then a Sky Demon rushed to the gate, trembling too hard to enter. "My lord! A powerful intruder is approaching—killing our armies. He's using a massive cauldron to devour our forces!"
"A cauldron?" a female Demon King muttered.
"A cauldron the size of a house!" the demon cried.
Seven-Leaf Demon Lord's gaze sharpened. With a flick of his hand—"Thousand-Mile Scrying Light!"
A glowing disk appeared before him, revealing a great spinning cauldron, pulling Sky Demons and blood-essence into its depths like a bottomless vortex.
"The Five-Prison King Cauldron! The very treasure Uncle Five-Prisons used to command eight million Sky Demons! I've been searching for its whereabouts before entering Xuanhuang… and here it is!"
He stood, laughing.
"Yin-Yang Eighteen Kings! Come with me. Capture the cauldron and the cultivator inside. With it, we can bring millions of Sky Demons into Xuanhuang—and you can temper your bodies through it."
Meanwhile—
"Good! The deeper we go, the more demons we find." Fang Han spotted a legion of ten thousand Sky Demons forming a battle array. He unleashed the Soul-Devouring Array.
A massive black cloud surged from the cauldron, forming a colossal demonic head. It opened its maw—
WHOOOOSH.
The entire demon legion was sucked in like a river flowing backward.
Now the cauldron held more than seventy thousand Sky Demons. Its power doubled, the surrounding space twisting from the gravitational pull. The cauldron had become a black hole.
"Hmph."
A cold snort echoed across dozens of miles.
A silver figure appeared—raising his hand. Above him, a river of mercury-like demonic energy poured from the heavens, condensing into a vast demonic hand that reached out to seize the cauldron itself.
"What terrifying power!"
Fang Han froze.
The Seven-Leaf Demon Lord had arrived.