Chapter 1103: The Winner May Attend Nightdemon handed everyone an invitation to the night banquet, even Hong Xi and Zhang Hanxiang.
Zhang Lie grinned. "This is a very interesting invitation."
The invitation itself was imbued with some of the king of chaos' unique nature. Those who tried to pick it up without commensurate strength would transform into a night growler.
Losing the invitation and having it fall into someone else's hands could be a disaster, and those who somehow picked it up unwittingly would find themselves trapped.
The members of Team Zenith weren't as strong as Zhang Lie, but they managed to survive reading the invitation with merely a furrow of their brows, though they were rather surprised by the sudden attack.
Hong Xi and Zhang Hanxiang clutched their heads in pain as they stumbled, but they were strong enough not to succumb to the madness and grow tentacles.
The members of Team Zenith were each beyond the level of a superior king, and Hong Xi and Zhang Hanxiang also possessed strength of a similar level, but the king of chaos was an existence far beyond that of an ordinary superior king. Even if superior kings were able to resist the mental assault, it would take some time for them to do so—let alone when they were unprepared.
Zhang Hanxiang grumbled, "Why didn't you warn us, Brother?"
Zhang Lie laughed. "As I said, it's a very interesting invitation."
Zhang Hanxiang scowled. This "interesting" was just a trap!
Zhang Lie commented, "This invitation isn't bad. It's imbued with some of the king of chaos' very nature, and can be used to train mental resilience."
Hong Xi asked, "Does the king of chaos truly intend to invite all of us?"
Nightdemon corrected, "More accurately, all of you who have defeated the king of keys."
Zhang Lie frowned. "Are you intending on rearing gu, king of chaos?" [1]
Yang Ze clarified, "If we win, we'll be able to participate in the Night Banquet. Otherwise, if the king of keys wins, his side will participate. Is this banquet meant to be a prize ceremony of some sort?"
Nightdemon smiled. "Well, you'll find out if you attend, won't you?"
Li Feng glanced at his invitation, a scrambled, chaotic message. "Is this a banquet for victors, or for the strong?"
Nightdemon replied, "If you win, then you'll have proven yourself strong. If the king of keys is still alive by the time the banquet occurs, it'll prove that his path is viable and that he has the right to attend."
So this was a banquet for the strong, then?
Nightdemon continued, "You can choose not to attend, of course. I leave that choice up to you. If you don't attend, I won't divulge the king of keys' current location."
Yang Ze suddenly thought of a question. "And if we kill the king of keys and refuse to attend?"
If they were to make use of the king of chaos' information to kill the king of keys, and then not attend the banquet… was there anything forcing them to do so?
Nightdemon replied, "In that case, I would be quite upset."
"We'll attend," Zhang Lie promised, causing everyone from Team Zenith to look askance at him.
Sun Mengmeng whispered, "Captain, we don't know what the king of chaos is planning. If it's an ambush..."
Zhang Lie replied, "If it were an ambush, I'd be quite disappointed."
Zhang Lie had seen the king of chaos' main body only twice to date, and he had worked closely with Nightdemon during the war against the death spirits. He couldn't claim to be very familiar with the king of chaos, but they had reached a mutual understanding. Nightdemon and the king of chaos wouldn't do something so boorish. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.
Furthermore, Zhang Lie didn't think he possessed anything the king of chaos would be interested in.
Nightdemon grinned. "Don't worry. You won't be disappointed if you do come to the world of primordial chaos."
Zhang Lie asked, "Can you tell me where the king of keys is located now?"
"Shouldn't you be asking me where the world of primordial chaos is, instead?"
Zhang Lie retorted, "Aren't you only interested in the victor?"
Nightdemon replied, "I'm hopeful that you'll become the eventual victor, myself, and my main body is fond of you too."
Zhang Lie replied, "You make it sound as though you're two separate entities."
"We are, and we aren't. If I die, my main body won't die. Don't you think we are independent, to some extent?"
"Biological independence?"
Nightdemon changed the topic, unwilling to divulge more of his secrets. "The reason the king of keys induced this war between the superior kings of antiquity and the three new superior kings is in order to accumulate more superior world's energy.
"If things had gone according to his plan, he'd wait for them to deal with all of you, then go after the superior kings of antiquity to claim all that they took—but alas, things did not go according to plan."
Zhang Lie chuckled coldly. "What a pity."
"To the king of keys, however, not much has changed. As long as he's able to deal with all of you, along with the three new superior kings, he'll still be able to claim everything."
Zhang Lie narrowed his eyes. "He should be wary of choking on his greed."
Nightdemon shook his head. "He isn't greedy, just pretending to be greedy."
Zhang Lie was skeptical. "What, are you forcing him to be greedy?"
The members of Team Zenith were likewise surprised. Who else but the strongest superior king could force the most ancient superior king to do anything?
Nightdemon spread his arms. "This is hardly my fault. On the contrary, I'm encouraging him to discard his supposed humanity."
The members of Team Zenith all looked toward Nightdemon strangely.
"What a... curious... hobby."
"Forcing someone to discard his humanity..."
Yang Ze's mouth was pursed as he asked, "Do you intend for the king of keys to be bestial?"
Sun Xiaowu's eyes were much the same. "So this is what the strongest superior king does..."
"No wonder the king of keys was driven mad."
Yang Ze sighed. "Right now, I'm starting to pity the king of keys."
Li Feng narrowed his eyes. "I feel like all of you are messing with me, but I don't have any evidence."
Nightdemon retrieved the Shining Trapezohedron and warned, "I don't know what your misunderstanding entails, but I am the strongest superior king, and I do want to have a pristine reputation."
Yang Ze shamelessly asked, "I don't know what you're thinking. What have we misunderstood?"
Sun Xiaowu continued seriously, "We were discussing how you forced the king of keys to abandon his humanity."
Li Feng frowned. "What could we have misunderstood? Your response is even more suspicious."
Yang Ze nodded. "I feel like it's quite inhumane to force others to abandon their humanity."
Sun Xiaowu agreed. "I've only read about such things in novels. To think that this would happen to me in real life, in the dimensional world, to two superior kings!"
1. Gu refers to mystical venomous insects that have fantastical abilities, and which are grown by placing lots of gu together in a jar, letting them devour each other, and keeping the eventual victor. ????