I Have Infinite Skill Points-Chapter 523: Heart Demon
"We’ve found it!" Xu Xiangwen suddenly stopped in his tracks, his Heavenly Eye on his forehead emitting a dazzling golden light. Through the distortion in his vision, the camp hidden within a canyon lay completely exposed.
The four-person team approached the camp, carefully avoiding detection as they looked down at the camp from a higher vantage point. Figures clad in black moved in and out – if they weren’t Shadow Assassins, then what else could they be? Judging from the size of the camp, there had to be at least 2,000 to 3,000 people.
In the Different Dimensional Space, building a house or something like that was pretty simple. An Earth Attribute Star Martial Warrior just had to press down on the ground, and as long as the soil structure was suitable, they could directly create stone houses, adobe houses, and even sand sculptures.
"Lanzi, should we do it?" Xu Xiangwen looked at the distant Shadow Assassin camp, which seemed like a young lady tossing and turning on a bed, alluringly vulnerable. They had infiltrated this deep with no resistance. Missing such an opportunity would be like begging for lightning to strike them down.
"I still have one question that I haven’t figured out," Wang Lan furrowed his brows and pondered. "How did they get in here? You know the level of security in the Pioneer Space. Let alone so many people, even a Titled Strongman wouldn’t be able to slip through undetected.
Besides, to enter the Pioneer Space, one would have to cross our 700-kilometer defense line, then move stealthily through the Chaos Mist to a depth of 500 kilometers – that’s a total distance of 1,200 kilometers. How did they manage that?"
"This..." The faces of the other three changed simultaneously – they were actually at a loss too. Logically speaking, Paradise Bird absolutely couldn’t have infiltrated such a place, let alone in such numbers.
"Forget it, we probably won’t get an answer to this question anytime soon. Since Paradise Bird’s base is here, attacking it shouldn’t be an issue."
As he spoke, Wang Lan stood up, his Star Power surging around him as the Phoenix form activated instantly. Normally, Wang Lan wouldn’t need to call upon the Phoenix form for regular battles, but the Five-colored Phoenix form was just too convenient to use.
Under the Five-colored Phoenix form, using skills was as simple as playing a video game, with any Star Martial Skill or attribute release tending towards instinct. The best way to destroy a camp is with a single, devastating strike.
A loud phoenix cry echoed in the air, and in an instant, a five-colored phoenix appeared in the sky.
"Heaven and Earth Millstone!"
Suddenly, the ground in the middle of the camp erupted with molten lava like a volcanic eruption. In the skies above, meteorites ablaze with fire rained down like a fierce storm onto the ground.
The Shadow Assassins within the camp were dumbfounded. They had no way to anticipate such a sudden attack, and definitely not one so fierce. The strength of the Shadow Assassins was not formidable. Those that Wang Lan had previously taken down were at the Star Cloud Stage of Cultivation.
Such strength was trivial in Wang Lan’s eyes; using two super S-level Star Martial Skills to deal with them was already dignifying them.
Most of the Shadow Assassins who remained in the camp didn’t even understand what was happening before they were killed by the molten lava and meteors, but a small number managed to survive as the ones who got away.
Ragtag figures ran desperately out of the attacked camp, frantically sprinting toward the rear.
Normally, Wang Lan could kill them without even taking a breath, his figure flashing, able to instantly eliminate these escapees. But Wang Lan had to clarify the issues he had not understood before.
If the Demon Clan could freely enter any of the Pioneer Spaces, the threat to Jade Country would be terrifying. The fleeing individuals weren’t aimless; they had a precise direction, which suggested that there was somewhere nearby the camp that could help them survive.
Sure enough, four or five kilometers away from their frantic escape, a canyon mouth rippled with spatial fluctuations, and a gateway akin to a mirror flickered.
Seeing this, the answer to the question that had long lingered in Wang Lan’s heart finally surfaced. A spatial passage; the Demon Clan had opened a space channel leading to the northwestern Pioneer Space.
While the old question found an answer, new ones followed closely. How was the space channel opened? Whether it’s the Different Dimensional Space or the Pioneer Space, there’s only one space channel. The complexity and randomness of spacetime mean that each opened channel connects to a different space.
Human records suggest that directed opening of space channels is limited to those from the Demon World to the Human World. So seeing a second space channel in the northwestern Pioneer Space made Wang Lan’s expression sink immediately.
"Let’s go!" The moment Wang Lan’s words fell, his figure transformed into a streak of light, charging towards the channel.
Only about seven or eight Shadow Assassins were lucky enough to evade the pursuit of Wang Lan’s four-person team. After rushing into the space, they stopped short, stunned. They had expected to return to their base on the island but ended up in a secret chamber instead. And shockingly, this secret chamber seemed to be within the Different Dimensional Space as well.
But their confusion didn’t last long as all of them, almost at once, knelt before the figure enshrouded in a mist of darkness.
"Leader, we are incompetent. Our base has been discovered, and we are pursued by a Titled Strongman. Our base is destroyed."
"If you know you’re incompetent... why have you returned with your faces intact?" The leader’s deep voice resonated, causing all his subordinates’ faces to change simultaneously.
This wasn’t what they had been told at the start! The rules of Paradise Bird were cruel: those who failed a mission, die! Those who feared death, die!
If their base was destroyed, even if they were lucky enough to escape back to Paradise Bird, they were destined to die, and it would be a gruesome death. But if the instructions from above allowed for retreat when overpowered, then there would be no issue.
The leader had previously clearly stated that if the base was compromised and besieged, they could all retreat to preserve their fighting strength. Why the sudden change of heart?
"Leader, we..."
"Rules define order. Do I need to remind you of the rules of Paradise Bird? Die!"
"Leader, spare us, you said that we could retreat—"
"Leader, we were just following your directives..."
"AHH—"
Suddenly, all seven or eight Shadow Assassins emitted a collective scream, writhing in agony on the ground.
"Fire... fire..."
"AH—"
The shrill screams didn’t last long before, one by one, they seemed to cease breathing, their bodies visibly charring. Yet, strangely, there was no flame present. Their bodies appeared to naturally turn to charred coal.
The moment they stopped breathing, Wang Lan and his three companions rushed through the passageway and into this small, enclosed space. The surroundings resembled an underground cavern, with a sliver of light shining down from the sky, illuminating a platform in the depths.
A black-robed man was sitting cross-legged on the platform, shrouded in a black mist. Below the platform, several charred corpses lay haphazardly.
"Wang Lan... I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. You’ve finally come," a gloomy voice emerged from the mouth of the black-robed elder.
"Who are you? Are you a traitor to Paradise Bird?"
"Traitor? Hehehe... If I am a traitor, then so are you!"
"I’m a traitor? I haven’t heard such a good joke in a long time. The Demon Clan spies and human traitors who died by my hand are too numerous to count. You call me a traitor? Old man, are you confused?" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
"I don’t call you a traitor to the human race, but to the Divine Clan. Wang Lan, because you are not of the human race; you are a child of our Divine Clan..."
At these words, Wang Lan’s eyes suddenly widened.
"You don’t remember? Then let me remind you..."
BOOM—
Flames rose to the sky as familiar memories unfolded before Wang Lan’s eyes. It was twenty years ago, just after Wang Lan had crossed over. The flames around him burned fiercely, and the sound of noisy skirmishes came from afar.
Wang Lan was just a seven-day-old infant, cradled in his mother’s arms. His mother was a human girl, while his father was indeed a noble of the Demon Clan. Moreover, he was among the Demon Clan who most resembled humans, possessing a body almost identical to that of a human. The only differences might have been the pointed ears and the small horns on his forehead.
His father was a high-level spy hiding in the Human World, but alas, his cover was blown and discovered by the Jade Country, and he was even targeted for elimination by the Flame Emperor. His father embraced him and his mother deeply before leaving home without looking back.
Half an hour later, the door was broken down, and his father’s head was thrown into the room by a ferocious woman. A woman engulfed in flames approached his mother coldly.
Then she raised her butcher’s knife and decapitated his mother with one stroke, splattering blood all over him. As the woman lifted the butcher’s knife to strike again, she suddenly stopped.
She realized that Wang Lan’s body showed no trace of the Demon Clan’s features, and a sinister smile appeared on her face.
"With Demon Clan blood in you as well as human, it would be more valuable to raise you as a double agent..."
These memories, like scenes from a painting, unfolded in Wang Lan’s mind, making him fume with anger. He almost believed they were real.
Are you trying to bully me, thinking I was born yesterday and understand nothing? If I weren’t a transmigrator, if my memories weren’t perfectly preserved from the moment of my birth until now, I’d almost believe I was some kind of human-Demon Clan hybrid!
You can insult my intelligence, but you can’t insult my lineage!
In an instant, the illusion faded, and the scene in front of him returned to what it was before. And the figure cloaked in the black robe still sat on the platform.
Wang Lan quickly checked on Xu Xiangwen, Jiang Xinyu, and Xie Sisi. Xu Xiangwen and Jiang Xinyu were still relatively calm, but Xie Sisi looked utterly panicked.
In her illusion, her intimate moment with Wang Lan had been discovered by Jiang Xinyu. To win Jiang Xinyu back, Wang Lan actually claimed it was Xie Sisi who seduced him... He truly didn’t love Xie Sisi at all. In the end, Wang Lan coldly told Xie Sisi to disappear and never show up again.
As she watched the two leave arm in arm without a backward glance, Xie Sisi’s world collapsed in an instant... Fear and despair filled her world.
The Heart Demon invokes the deepest fears, the things we’re most afraid of and most want to hide, magnifying them to destroy one’s will.
The Heart Demon may not be ranked within Paradise Bird, but it is its most dreadful existence. Even Sony would rather not encounter the Heart Demon, let alone be enemies with it.
Seeing Xie Sisi’s state, Wang Lan knew she had completely fallen for it. If he didn’t break the illusion soon, Xie Sisi would likely break down.
In a flash, Wang Lan’s figure darted, transforming into a streak of light that appeared before the black-robed man. The black-robed man looked at Wang Lan, completely bewildered. He clearly fell for my Illusion Technique and was deeply ensnared. How could he possibly break free? And even if he did, how did he manage it without me even noticing?
At that moment, Wang Lan was filled with murderous intent.
You like soul torment, don’t you? You enjoy weaving Heart Demons? Then taste this!
"Red Lotus Karma Fire—"
BOOM—
