辰龙's family had completed the potion, and Bai Qi could no longer delay.
After convincing Di Kui to leave, he began to unleash his demonic power, extending darkness in all directions from his center.
"What, what is this?"
As the darkness spread, the soldiers instinctively took a few steps back, only to be quickly engulfed by it.
"What in the world is this?"
Standing within the darkness, the soldiers looked around, seeing only pitch-blackness that obscured sight. A soldier attempted to turn on his flashlight.
The military-grade high-intensity flashlight, which could normally illuminate far ahead, now barely lit up a meter in front of him, and even that light was faint, as if the darkness was endlessly absorbing it.
This was not the end. When the soldier tried to shout to find his comrades, no matter how hard he yelled, his throat aching, he couldn't hear a sound. The chilling sensation from behind him constantly rattled his most sensitive nerves.
Finally, the soldier could no longer hold back. He dropped his rifle and ran frantically.
Perhaps it was the haste of his running, but he stumbled on something.
The soldier who fell to the ground dared not stop. He struggled to get up and continue his escape, but as he stood, a sight that would forever haunt him appeared before his eyes.
A monster, over two meters tall, covered in black fur, with glowing red pupils, stood before him. It was humanoid but had the head of a wolf.
Before the soldier could react, a sharp, cold light flashed. The soldier felt a chill on his neck, followed by a dizzying sensation.
Looking at the spreading darkness behind him, Di Kui's brow furrowed slightly, and he said with a hint of shock, "Holy Lord, you dare to use this move!"
It was no wonder Di Kui was shocked; he found Bai Qi's recklessness astonishing.
This move was called "Darkness Descends," an extremely powerful black energy magic developed by the Holy Lord in ancient times.
All beings enveloped by the darkness would have their senses greatly diminished, plunging them into extreme panic and making escape impossible. During this process, the darkness would gradually devour the life force of the trapped beings to nourish the Holy Lord.
Black energy creatures and the Holy Lord, however, would not only be unaffected but would also receive a power boost from the black energy. It was a potent weapon specifically designed against undead deities brimming with righteousness.
Using it now would surely enrage righteousness, seemingly a loss that outweighed any gain.
However, this was not the case. Bai Qi's purpose in using "Darkness Descends" to provoke righteousness was to test it.
Following Bai Qi's recent activities, his mother, the black energy, had undergone a monumental transformation in strength. This was the perfect opportunity to thoroughly probe righteousness's capabilities and pave the way for his future plans.
Concurrently, Bai Qi could seize this chance to harvest a wave of life energy.
After all, life energy was incredibly precious at any time. Direct use could grant eternal youth, and with a continuous influx of life energy, eternal life was not an arduous endeavor.
This was why some demons and monsters ate humans; they absorbed the life energy within them. However, this method was primitive, inefficient, and resulted in a significant loss of life energy during consumption.
"Darkness Descends," on the other hand, could extract life energy from beings unknowingly, preserving it almost perfectly.
For Bai Qi, who was already immortal, eternal life held no further temptation. Therefore, he placed greater importance on another use of life energy: as an ingredient for high-level potions.
Besides granting eternal life when used directly, life energy was also a component in many high-level potions, or it could enhance the quality of other mid- and low-level potions.
However, due to the unique nature of life energy, righteousness mages avoided discussing it and classified potions that used life energy as ingredients as "black energy potions," prohibiting their use or refinement.
The reality was quite the opposite. These potions, which could only be concocted with life energy, not only had no side effects but also provided extremely significant improvements to the human body.
As a demon, Bai Qi paid no heed to the righteousness mages' doctrines and proceeded to extract life energy from these human soldiers on a large scale, stockpiling it as material for potion refinement.
However, Bai Qi did not directly extract the life energy from these human soldiers. Instead, he dispatched werewolves into the darkness to hunt the human soldiers trapped within, and then extracted the residual life energy from their corpses after death.
While this would result in a small loss of life energy, it effectively concealed the fact that "Darkness Descends" was extracting life energy from humans.
It was clear that Bai Qi was not satisfied with merely harvesting the life energy of these human soldiers.
"Darkness Descends" continued to expand in all directions, showing no signs of stopping.
Meanwhile, on a vast expanse of open sea, a colossal cruise ship was sailing.
Onboard were the scions of island nation's financial tycoons and socialites.
Compared to ordinary people, these individuals had received news of Di Kui's landing earlier. For safety reasons, they had not evacuated to the designated safe zones with the general populace but had used various private means to leave Dong Jing as quickly as possible.
This massive cruise ship was one of the tycoons' escape methods.
Di Kui was causing chaos in Dong Jing, and there were rumors that the demon also intended to detonate Mount Fuji.
If this were true, the safe zones established by the government would no longer be safe.
The geological activities triggered by a volcanic eruption would devastate Dong Jing, and indeed the entire island nation, rendering life on land significantly less safe than at sea.
Even if the island nation sank, these wealthy individuals could live out their lives comfortably using their overseas assets.
On the cruise ship's deck, a young girl with horns on her head gazed towards Dong Jing with a troubled expression. A sea breeze blew, rustling her hair.
The cruise ship was not short of frivolous young men. Accustomed to their dissolute lifestyles and relying on their families' influence, they acted with impunity, and the girl inevitably became a target of their pursuit.
As it happened, two men sunbathing on lounge chairs exchanged glances upon seeing the girl, smiled at each other, and rose to approach her.
"Miss, you seem unhappy. Would you like to chat with us?"
One of the yellow-haired degenerates said without pretense.
Though degenerates, they were not fools. The reason they dared to be so brazen was their familiarity with this social circle. They were quite certain the girl was not part of their group, likely someone who had gained entry through connections.
"What... what do you want?"