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Chapter 582: Dantalion
🕑 Added 2025-04-11 00:00:08 +0000 UTCThe female devil continued to hunt down the knights, paying attention to not alert her enemies of her existence. They could know a devil was hunting them, but they couldn’t know which devil it was. Devils weren’t beyond killing their own kind with a borrowed knife. Humans were treacherous, but devils even more so. Especially the more abundant and prosperous they became.
Still, she overcame those hurdles. The devils that wanted to kill her and devour her ended up in her stomach, accelerating her evolution. She was no longer the weakling she had been when she was born in the Huang Realm. She was a hundred times stronger. No longer did she need to hide. She had the power to take revenge on those who wronged her!
The female devil could still remember those painful sword slashes she received the moment after her birth. Although she survived and the injuries were long healed, she could still recall those painful aches, not to mention the unforgettable grudges of the two existences that formed her.
Thanks to capturing a few knights alive, she pried out all the information they were good for before letting them embrace eternal damnation. From the deceased knights, she learned that the immortals from her origin system had also arrived in the Nahui Ollin System.
Although the Immortal Court wasn’t the Buzhou Immortal Sect, and she had never heard of it, she could not help but associate the two. Especially since both had the word immortal in the name. The female devil wanted to learn more, but the knights she captured did not know much. It didn’t surprise her, considering how great the distance between each system was.
The female devil left her current Mictlan and made her way toward the one the Immortal Court had stationed themselves at.
Once there, she didn’t immediately take action, but gathered information. Compared to the knights, she was much more familiar to the immortals. Not all the true immortals knew about the Immortal Court’s history, but simultaneously, many true immortals had lived long enough to witness much of the Buzhou Immortal Sect and the Immortal Court’s history. So, it was only a matter of time.
After capturing a few and torturing them, the female devil learned of the situation.
Just as she suspected, the Immortal Court was related to the Buzhou Immortal Sect. To be specific, the Immortal Court was the Buzhou Immortal Sect that had undergone a rebrand. She also learned of various monarchs and emperors present, but the female devil found those names meaningless because she didn’t recognize the majority of them. However, one name did stand out.
Xi Tianyi.
That man couldn’t be said to be her primary target of revenge, but he was inextricably linked to both of them. He was Xi Mengfei’s son and Jiang Daoyi’s senior brother. The female devil’s lips curved upward. She wondered how Xi Mengfei and Jiang Daoyi would feel if Xi Tianyi died under her hands? Would they rush to the Nahui Ollin System for revenge?
Xi Mengfei, maybe. She was a sword sovereign, after all, and even the female devil would find it troublesome to get rid of her. But only that, troublesome. As for Jiang Daoyi, it should be impossible. No matter how talented she was, it was impossible for Jiang Daoyi to grow as quickly as herself. Maybe after she killed Xi Mengfei, she would have to go to the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System to exact revenge.
The only worry the female devil had was that Jiang Daoyi would die before she gained enough power to invade the Immortal Court. Not only did she learn about the Immortal Court’s existence, but she learned about the various pantheons as well. Naturally, she wouldn’t be so foolish as to rush into a divinity’s territory without a plan or enough power.
As for Tianyi himself? She wasn’t worried.
Thanks to the two halves that formed her current existence, Hun Jusang and Jiang Chunye, she knew about Xi Tianyi’s origin and earlier years. This included his prodigious talent and rate of growth, but even then, she was not worried. How could a mere immortal’s growth compare to a devil’s evolution?
Although she was knowledgeable about Tianyi and learned more information about him from the captured immortals, those immortals were not privy to the greater secrets of the Immortal Court, including Xi Tianyi’s true power.
“Xi Tianyi, you will be the first step I take on my road of revenge,” the female devil said ominously. “Otherwise, I’ll be ashamed to call myself Chunsang.”
Despite Chunsang’s words, she fell into a dilemma soon after. She hunted many true immortals and even monarchs. Compared to monarchs, true immortals had much weaker willpower, which made them easier to interrogate. So, she only successfully retrieved information from a few monarchs.
What she learned did not make her pleased. Compared to the other true immortals, Xi Tianyi simply did not leave the fortress. She was surprised that Xi Tianyi was an immortal sovereign, but Chunsang did not lose confidence. The problem was luring him out. As the sole immortal sovereign, Xi Tianyi had to protect the fortress and would not leave easily.
“I originally planned to stay in the dark, but now, it seems that I have to be more active,” Chunsang said.
Because of her appearance, the casualty rate of the Immortal Court rose. Although it could be attributed to bad luck or the fluctuation of death, but it still caused some amount of alarm. Especially with the deaths of the monarchs. True immortals dying were not surprising, but monarchs? They were much rarer and much more worthy of attention.
Chunsang originally planned to stop and allow the death rate to return to normal, but now she wanted to raise their alarm. It would be best to make them suspicious enough to send Tianyi to investigate, but not enough to mobilize all their forces. She did not want the entire Immortal Court to take action. Chunsang had not fully crossed the divine level threshold, so numbers could still affect her.
Although she considered herself an assassin, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure she could kill an emperor without alerting anyone. That’s why she needed help.
Soon, Chunsang appeared in a clearing filled with black mist. The mist congregated in a puddle that rose and formed into a shadowy figure. The shadow had no face, but countless masks adorning its body, covered by a jester-like cloak.
“Dantalion.”
The shadowy figure was one of the seventy-two devils written of in the Ars Goetia, the first book of five in the Lemegeton, or the Lesser Key of Solomon.
In the days of yore, the seventy-two devils of Solomon were the most powerful devils except for the Seven Rulers of Sin. Almost all of them originated in the myriad systems before migrating to the Nine Hells Abyss. Some fled after being defeated, while others returned in triumph after destroying their origin system. Similarly, the strongest of the seventy-two devils were considered divinity-class, while the weakest were akin to monarchs or emperors.
Of course, this was all before the Godsfall War. After the Godsfall War, the Seven Rulers of Sin have fallen, and the first of the seventy-two demons of Solomon, King Baal, ruled the Nine Hells abyss. Tentatively, at least. The Nine Hells Abyss was too large, and it was impossible for one devil to control the entire Nine Hells Abyss. The reason why it was called the Nine Hells Abyss was because it had nine different layers.
King Baal ruled over the ninth and largest layer. Other devils of the Ars Goetia who survived and evolved ruled the other layers. Only powerful devils at the level of a divinity could rule an entire layer. Weaker ones could only rule regions within the layers.
Duke Dantalion, the seventy-first devil of Solomon, was one such demon. Before the Godsfall War, he was relatively weak among the seventy-two devils, only being stronger than Count Andromalius, the seventy-second devil of Solomon. As a survivor, Dantalion had moved up the ranks, but his greatest power wasn’t his combat ability, but his disguise technique. Even divinities would not be able to differentiate Dantalion from the original if he and the original stood side by side. His disguise ability went beyond mere appearance, it also replicated the memory and personality.
Of course, such a powerful ability was not without its own restrictions. If it’s just replicating appearance and aura, Dantalion could do it as long as he glanced at the target for a second, but to completely replicate everything, he needed to touch the target. The longer the contact, the more he could copy. Correlating, the stronger the target, the slower the overall process would be. If it was someone at the same level, then Dantalion only needed to touch the target for a few seconds.
“Oh, is that Xi Tianyi worth it for you to contact me?” Dantalion asked. His words echoed with the voice of countless people, old, young, male, and female. It was impossible to tell his gender or age from it. “If you return to the Nine Hells Abyss now, you’ll definitely be crowned as one of the new seventy-two devils. Is he really worth it for you to stay here?”
“It’s not a question of whether it’s worth it or not. Just tell me, can you sneak into the Immortal Court’s fortress and copy Tianyi or not?” Chunsang asked.
“I can, but you know it goes against my principles to help others for free.”
Chunsang agreed to his conditions.
“Happy dealings with you,” Dantalion said. He deformed back into a puddle and disappeared, but not before leaving parting words. “Wait for my good news, my lovely little devil.”
Chunsang snorted. She didn’t stay there and wait for Dantalion to come back. No, she continued to lurk and hunt immortals. Because she wanted to devise a plan after Dantalion finished his investigation, she did not want to cause the Immortal Court to raise their guard, so she only hunted true immortals and avoided immortal monarchs.
Dantalion returned six months later. “That Xi Tianyi is really interesting.”
“Interesting, how so?” Chunsang.
“Although he’s the guardian of the fortress, he doesn’t appear much at all, secluding himself without even coming out once.”
Chunsang frowned. From what she knew, Xi Tianyi wasn’t someone who could cultivate in seclusion for even a month.
“He also doesn’t take part in anything, it’s all under the control of Vastlight and Huang Feihong. It’s like he’s been banned from any leadership roles, but from the memories I copied, he holds an incredible exalted position.” Dantalion glanced at Chunsang. “Guess what information I discovered?”
“Stop delaying, just tell me.”
“Xi Tianyi has the ability to perform cross-universe teleportation.”
Chunsang’s eyes widened in shock. Her first reaction was, “Impossible.”
“I find it hard to believe too, but most of the immortals present did directly come from their origin system,” Dantalion said.
“You find it hard to believe too, but it’s true that most of the immortals did arrive here from the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System?” Chunsang’s mind spun. “Are you saying this is a ruse and Xi Tianyi doesn’t possess the ability to teleport across the universe?”
Dantalion shook his head. “It’s only unverified.”
“How can it be unverified? Didn’t you copy Xi Tianyi’s memories, so why don’t you know?” Chunsang demanded.
“That’s the interesting part. I touched that immortal, but I couldn’t copy any of his memories at all. And he doesn’t leak any aura either,” Dantalion said.
“How is that possible?” Chunsang said aloud, more to herself than her fellow devil. Dantalion’s ability was famous, because not even divinities were immune to it.
“So, what do you plan to do?” Dantalion asked. “Before, I was just going with the flow, but now, I really want to talk to Xi Tianyi one-on-one.”
Chunsang furrowed her brows. “If you can’t copy his memories, what we can do is limited. But we must lure him out and capture him to discover the truth behind the cross-universe teleportation and why you can’t copy his memories.”
Dantalion nodded.
“Can you disguise yourself as him?”
“Of course. He’s rather easy to transform into. Xi Tianyi doesn’t have any aura at all, like he’s invisible to reality outside of the five senses,” Dantalion said. “However, since I can’t read his memories, I don’t know how he acts or what his methods are. The people I copied memories from don’t have clear details either.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I have some information you can use,” Chunsang said. “So, this is the plan…”
Comments
Sloth
Tianyi’s universe might not exist in the great nothingness. At least, not in the ways the other systems do. It might not be possible to travel to without a conduit. You could say its location is wherever tianyi’s conduits are. This is just a guess of course. I’m not sure how Haenlien has worked this out
StarSmith
I just have to say with so many clones in so many different systems and laws if this does not give him a significant boost in his understanding of space/time dao I do not know what will
sas ti
Is tianyi going to cultivate his own devils? : that seems like something he will do, also of feels like now its time to find out the location of tianyi's system.
sas ti
I see tianyi going 2 ways - 1) he is a new realm system of his own 2) he is his own universe - with his own vast void and multiple realm system
Zaim İpek
This setup seems interesting.
