Chapter 396 - Vortex Upgrade. The Demon’s Takeover

To the northeast of Bao Island…

With Zhang Che joining the battle, he immediately drew the attention of a bunch of demonic creatures.

However, Zhang Che remained unafraid. He was currently even fretting about not killing enough demonic creatures for the golden vortex to undergo an upgrade!

At present, the demonic creatures weren’t trying to retreat at all, which was exactly what he wanted.

What was there to be said? He’d just slaughter them all!

Due to the restraint from the spatial tunnel, the pitiful demonic army was unable to send their strong individuals over. They were no match for Zhang Che’s powerful babies at all, and could only watch as their elites were slaughtered one by one.

Zhang Che didn’t let such a good opportunity slip by, either. He directed the scarlet sword, flying around him in a hundred-meter radius like a bolt of red lightning, striking back and forth.

Everywhere the scarlet sword flew past, the demonic creatures would be slain cleanly one after another. The demons’ reddish-black blood spattered everywhere, and countless severed limbs scattered across the ground.

Zhang Che felt so excited that he wanted to cheer out loud when he felt thread after thread of those near-unnoticeable mysterious energy flying into his spiritual sea and being absorbed by the golden vortex.

“Come, come, the more the better!”

The officers of the demonic army had obviously noticed the tough foe that was Zhang Che. They gave an order, and a batch of huge and savage demonic beasts immediately emerged from the army and rushed towards his location.

Even so, the Earthen Rock Demon and the rest of his capable subdued beasts and pets weren’t vegetarians.

Seeing those demonic beasts trying to break through their defensive perimeter, they immediately unleashed their godly might, leaving those demonic beasts unable to advance any further.

” Tsk, tsk. These demonic creatures are really friendly. They knew I’m in desperate need of their life energy to raise the Umbra Wind God Leopard, and they immediately sent so many demonic beasts with pure life energy to me. I can’t not accept their kind sentiments!”

Despite the stronger demonic beasts being few in number, Zhang Che no longer cared about those cannon fodder-like demonic soldiers. He quickly ordered the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon to charge forward, and he directed the scarlet sword to change its targets to those demonic beasts instead, killing them mercilessly.

Those powerful demonic beasts were a rare species. Not many of them were visible within the demonic army. Not only that, once the demonic army realized they were in a bad spot, the troops they would withdraw first included those powerful demonic beasts. It wasn’t such an easy matter for Zhang Che to quickly accumulate their life energy.

Now that he had such a good opportunity, naturally he wouldn’t let it slip.

As a result, after only a few minutes, the few dozen demonic beasts were wiped out by Zhang Che and his babies. Underneath the rainbow crystal in his spiritual sea, a fist-sized energy ball of light had accumulated once again.

“It’s not enough… I need it to be at least double the size for the Umbra Wind God Leopard to grow again!” Zhang Che narrowed his eyes slightly. He wasn’t interested in massacring the nearby demonic soldiers. Instead, he observed the battlefield, looking out for those larger demonic beasts.

While he was observing around him, a mass of faint light suddenly slipped out of the black door, and silently hid itself within the large demonic army. On the battlefield, not a single person noticed this negligible event.

Even Zhang Che was fully focused on searching for large demonic beasts. He also didn’t notice the brief appearance of that mass of light.

Although Zhang Che was searching for large demonic beasts, the Earthen Rock Demon and his other babies weren’t slacking off on killing the demonic soldiers. They were like fierce tigers that found themselves among a pack of dogs. Not only that, they were the kind of fierce tigers with cheats activated, killing without any pause. No one could stop them.

Before Zhang Che realized it, the golden vortex had absorbed enough mysterious energy. It suddenly spun violently in his spiritual sea.

Zhang Che could help but light up, his eyes shining in anticipation.

This time, hopefully the golden vortex would undergo a qualitative change after powering up!

As the golden vortex spun fiercely, its color became increasingly resplendent. It seemed like countless galaxies were moving inside it, looking very mysterious.

When the fluctuations ended, the golden vortex had nearly doubled in size, and its color became even more brilliant, yet profound.

Zhang Che felt inexplicably moved. He focused his mind onto the golden vortex, and an incredibly profound feeling rushed up to his head.

He felt like everything within a three hundred meter radius was within his grasp!

He “looked” towards the Earthen Rock Demon near him. From that fellow’s movements, he immediately predicted its next target.

Indeed, a moment later, the Earthen Rock Demon took a step forward with its extremely thick right leg along the path he foresaw and stomped on a group of closely packed demonic soldiers with a loud bang, turning those pitiful demonic soldiers into a pile of meat paste.

“Hmm? There’s actually such an ability?” Zhang Che felt overjoyed.

Didn’t this mean that he could analyze his enemies’ next move to a certain extent, allowing him to react accordingly when they were about to strike, and launch a counterattack from an unexpected angle? (TLN: That’s Observation Haki, no doubt.)

Zhang Che wasn’t a mid-tier beastmaster who lacked fighting ability on his own. With his new-found ability, the scarlet sword’s destructive power grew a level. Perhaps he would have a fighting chance against epic-quality exotic beasts on his own!

Of course, the prerequisite was that the scarlet sword was powerful enough to be a threat for epic-quality exotic beasts!

At this moment, Zhang Che discovered the tracks of a few large demonic beasts. He immediately ordered the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon in their direction, not caring that he wouldn’t be under the protection of any of his babies.

“That kid has gone crazy!” A few military officers in the aircraft hovering in the sky a short distance away from the battlefield widened their eyes at the sight of this.

Although they acknowledged that Zhang Che was very strong, would he really not come into any danger charging deep into the demonic army on his own?

Although there weren’t any terrifyingly powerful existences within the demonic army, that was only speaking in terms of relativity. Without the protection of any subdued beasts, he might really find himself in danger!

The phrase that an army of ants could kill an elephant wasn’t just a saying! Even so, at this moment, it was already too late for them to try to stop him.

Zhang Che had already flown past the defensive perimeter his babies had set up. The human and dragon duo flew straight and penetrated deep into the demons’ camp.

“Nuluba!” a demonic officer deep in the demonic army cried out loud when it saw Zhang Che’s reckless action. A cold glint shone in the savage vertical eye on its forehead..

All the powerful demonic soldiers nearby let out wails that sounded like the cries of ghosts one after another, and moved to surround him.

“I’ll use you lot to try out the scarlet sword’s real powers after the golden vortex’s upgrade!”

Zhang Che was fearless. His eyes narrowed slightly, focusing his mind on the golden vortex once more.

The profound state rushed up to his head again. Immediately, Zhang Che could see the demonic soldiers’ next moves. The scarlet sword flew out with a whoosh, weaving around the army like a fast and nimble golden lightning snake.

After the golden vortex powered up, not only did the scarlet sword’s range double, its speed had also increased, reaching nearly Mach 10 speed!

That was over three thousand meters in a second! Within a three hundred meter radius, the scarlet sword truly could attack anywhere the moment Zhang Che willed it to!

Miserable shrieks were heard consecutively. Facing the incredibly nimble, yet fast as lightning scarlet sword, although each and every of the demonic soldiers were as strong as mid-tier legend-quality exotic beasts, their defenses weren’t comparable to actual exotic beasts. The scarlet sword streaked past lightly, and their bodies were immediately cut in half.

“So strong!”

“Who is that guy? He looks like a mid-tier beastmaster at best, but why do I feel like we’re worlds apart?”

“Fantastic! The battle today will become much easier!”

The beastmasters on the field cheered when they saw Zhang Che displaying the might of a god, slaying the demonic soldiers as if he was butchering poultry.

Originally, everyone was worried the demonic army would gather their strength for a counterattack, becoming a huge trouble for them and causing large numbers of casualties.

From the looks of it now, with the added participation of this model warrior, they have no need to worry anymore.

Right now, Zhang Che was like the incarnate of the god of killing. He directly smashed through the encirclement of the group of powerful demonic warriors and slaughtered his way to the savage demonic beasts.

At the same time, the faint light that came out from the black door had purposely avoided where Zhang Che was very cautiously. It was like a wisp of green smoke, weaving past the demonic soldiers and passing through the summoned beasts’ defensive line, flying to the beastmasters at the back.

Nobody had noticed this extremely faint light. After all, the ones involved in this campaign to eradicate the demonic army were only mid-tier beastmasters.

Suddenly, this light shot straight towards a young man, silently entering his body like a drop of water falling into the ocean.

In the next moment, the man suddenly stood dazed on the spot. Even his subdued beasts had stopped in place. Afterwards, the nearby demonic soldiers seized the opportunity and quickly tore them to shreds, turning them into streaks of light and dissipated.

“Wang Bo, what are you spacing out for? Your subdued beasts are all dead!”

The man known as Wang Bo seemed to snap out of his daydream and showed a look of frustration. He said in grief and indignation, “Argh, damn it! I was too engrossed in watching that guy and forgot to direct my subdued beasts to fight! This is bad… I lost so much. It’s like I came here for nothing!”

“Who told you to get distracted while fighting? Forget it; you back down first and go rest behind. You won’t be able to contribute anything in the battle anyway. It’s safer for you to withdraw,” his companion advised, feeling sorry for him.

This fellow’s luck was really bad. Although the beastmasters that had joined in on the campaign to eradicate the demonic army would receive ample rewards in the end, he had lost all his subdued beasts. He would surely lose more than he gained.

Unbeknownst to the companion, Wang Bo’s soul had just been replaced… well, to put it more accurately, it was taken control of.

However, as time passed, Wang Bo’s soul would disappear in the end, and his body would change owners.

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Translator’s Note:

I forgot to mention this last chapter, but Bao Island is most likely referring to Taiwan.