“Hmph… so you finally showed your true colors!” Da Ji, standing beside Orochi, had been prepared for this. Almost the instant Taira no Kiyomori made his move, she reacted.

In a flash, a pair of magic beads floating in mid-air met the rosary beads spinning in all directions.

Demonic and evil energies collided in mid-air, creating bursts of black and purple light.

“Do you think you can cause trouble here with that?” After neutralizing Taira no Kiyomori's attack, Da Ji immediately controlled [Collapse the Country] (the name of the pair of magic beads), pressing her advantage.

However…

While Da Ji was busy blocking the demonic energy, Taira no Kiyomori had quietly retreated and prepared his next move. And the target of his second move… was none other than the dome of the main hall.

Bang—

Before the light faded, another explosion rang out.

Clearly, Taira no Kiyomori's sudden outburst was just a feint. His real goal… was to open a passage in the building's roof, allowing him to escape.

Taira no Kiyomori knew very well that with his strength, he couldn't possibly cause any damage to the Demon King. Even in a one-on-one fight with Da Ji, he wasn't confident of winning, let alone with dozens of demon generals sitting in the main hall… If a fight really broke out, he would be doomed.

No sooner said than done… Da Ji had only taken a few steps when Taira no Kiyomori turned into vapor and slipped out through the hole he had created.

“No need to chase him,” Orochi's voice immediately rang out.

This sentence was mainly addressed to Da Ji, but also to the demon generals in the main hall.

“But… Lord Orochi…” Da Ji seemed to want to say something.

But Orochi interrupted in a deep voice, “It doesn’t matter…” He closed his eyes again, propped his chin up, and sat sideways. “Taira no Kiyomori’s loyalty is built on ‘obsession with power.’ His betrayal of me means… he believes he has found a more powerful master.”

“Eh? How could anyone be stronger than you?” Da Ji said with a charming smile, “You are invincible…”

“In this world…” Orochi was not in the mood to listen to Da Ji’s flattery, so he interrupted her again, “…there is no such thing as ‘invincible.’” The tone in which he said this was… meaningful. “No one knows this better than I do.”

…

Guzhi Castle, arena.

“Next match…” Just as the previous battle ended, the announcing statue continued to shout, “By… Wang Tan Zhi, against… Ning Ning.”

“Oh my~ It’s my turn.” When her name was called, Ning Ning was standing next to her husband (Toyotomi Hideyoshi), chatting with him. She still seemed quite relaxed. After hearing her name, she casually muttered a sentence and walked toward the arena.

“Not good… it’s my turn…” On the other side, Wang Tan Zhi, also having his name called, had a much bigger reaction. “The opponent is an Unparalleled General after all. Even if her strength isn’t as great as the demon generals under Orochi, it’s impossible for me to deal with her easily…”

“Good luck, I hope you screw up and get killed in the duel.” Jue Ge, standing near Xiao Tan, once again spoke very unpleasant lines with a smile on his face.

“I’ll cheer for you too.” Qi Sha also chimed in, “But… if possible, I hope you lose to me.”

“I’m warning you in advance, if you get beaten half to death, I won’t heal you.” Hua Jian also added a stab in the back at the right time.

“Hey… everyone is hoping I die…” Xiao Tan squinted and turned to look at the three of them, complaining.

“Just reminding you, don’t forget that this script is a no-holds-barred deathmatch, you need to have a basic understanding of combat.” Feng Bujue added in a serious tone.

“Heh…” Xiao Tan chuckled dryly, said nothing more, and walked straight toward the arena.

Before he had gone far, Feng Bujue had already turned to head in another direction. The person Jue Ge was looking for was naturally… Liu Xian Zhi Shou. Cang.

…

Edge of a different dimension, on a certain sand dune.

Di di—di di di—

Qiu Yi used Bukongshu (a technique from *Dragon Ball*, originally belonging to the Crane School; after the Z series, almost all powerful characters knew it; the principle is to control the Qi in the body to resist gravity) to advance forward, while pressing the combat power detector, muttering to himself: “Strange… I clearly detected a guy with a combat power of around 10,000 here before, but after arriving here… the signal disappeared instead.”

“Hmph… so you’ve come after all.” Suddenly, a faint murmur came from the wind.

“Uh… cough… cough… now that you’re here, stay.” Another gentle and refined voice, coughing incessantly, followed closely behind.

Before the two had finished speaking, light burst out in the sky above the sand dune, and a magic circle composed of gold and white appeared, circling the area within dozens of meters around Qiu Yi.

In the same instant, Qiu Yi felt his body sink, and he fell heavily onto the sand.

“This… what’s going on? The gravity suddenly got stronger?” Qiu Yi didn’t know what a “formation” was, but he could roughly guess… that he had fallen into some kind of trap. “Who’s there? Who’s scheming against me?”

“Cough… cough cough…” Accompanied by coughing, a solitary figure floated over, “Jí mù lěng yǎn xiào cāng yún, jìmò yīshēng ào tiān qióng (With cold eyes, I laugh at the boundless clouds, A lonely life, I am proud of the heavens).”

As soon as the poem was spoken, his identity was revealed.

This person was “Wen Wu Guan Mian (the crown of both literary and martial arts)”—Jimo Hou, one of the top strategists in the *Pili* world.

“I still don’t understand…” Two seconds later, another figure appeared next to the sand dune, “…why you guys always have to recite poetry when you appear.”

This brother’s style was completely different from Jimo Hou’s… Jimo Hou was wearing white, ornate clothes, a hairpin crown, and a long sword with a sword tassel on his back. His appearance was gentle and refined, with a face like jade. But this person… was wearing very simple beige coarse cloth clothes, a beige shawl, and a broad-bladed long sword on his waist. Although he was also quite handsome, his skin was gray-green, and his skin was decorated with many granite-like dark gray scabs. Light purple hair and pointed ears seemed to indicate that… he was not purely human.

This person was Zelgadiss Graywords, a synthetic human with the power of a demon and a rock man, known as the "cool magic swordsman."

“Hmm?” Qiu Yi glanced at Jimo Hou and Zelgadiss respectively. The numbers returned by the combat power detector made him sneer, “Heh… in order to defeat me, Qiu Yi, you two specially set up this trap?”

“Cough cough… cough cough cough… this formation was originally prepared for Taira no Kiyomori.” Jimo Hou coughed as he replied, “Until recently… I sensed you and your companion breaking into this space, so we changed our target…”

“I can also see that you are a little stronger than that strange monk.” Zelgadiss, standing on the other side of the formation, spoke as he flung off his shawl and adopted a stance, seemingly preparing to attack.