The Demon Lords

Fighting was a lot of fun. You could tell Xue Three was having a blast.

"The Four Horses" were already charging headlong at him. The leading Raging Horse wielded a gigantic axe, swinging it right at Xue Three.

With swift agility, Xue Three dodged the attack. A slight shift of his body, a quick tap of his heel, and his small figure changed direction in an instant, darting towards the Raging Horse's rear.

In a flash, his small hand flickered, and another dagger appeared, slashing towards the Raging Horse's back.

SWISH!

An extremely fine thread was severed.

Xue Three landed gracefully, seemingly wanting to mimic A Ming by performing a Western-style aristocratic bow. But before he was halfway through the motion, the axe, swung by the Raging Horse, came chopping down again.

Xue Three's eye twitched.

This puppet isn't controlled by threads! Schemes! Damn it, more schemes!

Xue Three pushed off with his legs, launching himself backward. However, the other three horses, which had been circling on the periphery, closed in to surround him.

The Skinny Horse extended its hands, strings shooting out to form a large net that descended upon Xue Three. Meanwhile, Guima spread its arms wide, moving quickly to embrace him.

But this time, from start to finish, Blind Bei stood motionless, not making a move, a hint of contemplation on his face.

Zheng Fan was too far away. Xue Three seemed to have played himself into a corner, and Zheng Fan, as his lord, couldn't intervene in time.

Unexpectedly, Xue Three, caught in the string net, suddenly shrank. As if employing a contortionist's skill, his already diminutive dwarven form became even smaller.

The string net had been precisely cast for Xue Three's original size. Once he instantly shrank, the net completely missed its mark.

Xue Three curled up, rolled like a small meatball, and slipped out from under the net. Guima's embrace also met empty air.

At this moment, Blind Bei suddenly opened his eyes. Zheng Fan only felt a gust of wind sweep past him. Guima's body shuddered violently as if a mysterious force had completely invaded it.

BANG!

Guima exploded, sending pungent, foul-smelling, and highly toxic fluids splashing everywhere. This attack was originally intended for Xue Three after being caught, but Blind Bei had forcibly triggered it.

The Skinny Horse and Pretty Horse, standing near Guima, were drenched in the liquid. Their puppet bodies began to corrode rapidly. It seemed the internal formation arrays were destroyed, and they collapsed to their knees, motionless.

Of the Four Horses, only the Raging Horse remained.

Blind Bei still stood there, calmly observing the sole surviving Raging Horse.

The Raging Horse opened its mouth, but the sound came not from its mouth, but from its belly.

"I've heard that among Western magicians, there's an extremely rare type who can do what you just did."

Blind Bei raised a hand to his mouth, covering a yawn.

His guess had been correct. The real controller was hiding inside one of their own puppets.

Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, a certain camaraderie truly existed between cunning old schemers.

Because from the very beginning, Blind Bei had seen through the opponent's tactics.

The voice spoke again from the Raging Horse's belly: "I should have targeted you first."

Blind Bei nodded. "Correct."

It was indeed a tactical blunder to allow a dual-elemental psychic and spatial 'magician' to freely exert pressure from the sidelines. In a team fight, failing to target the backline first would inevitably lead to a crushing defeat.

Truthfully, Xue Three had worked hard this time. Among the Seven Demon Kings, many could coordinate well with Blind Bei: A Ming with his high regeneration, Liang Cheng with his high defense, Fanli with his high health.

However, Blind Bei himself seemed to prefer teaming up with Xue Three. Zheng Fan had a rather cynical suspicion that Blind Bei simply enjoyed watching Xue Three hop around, drawing all the fire.

"You were too greedy," the voice echoed again from the Raging Horse's belly. "Four puppets were too many for you to handle."

"That's because I'd never encountered someone like you before."

Blind Bei smiled faintly. "A fair assessment."

"Merely stating the facts," the voice from the Raging Horse's belly replied.

After this exchange, the Raging Horse took a step back, and Xue Three advanced one.

A shout came again from the Raging Horse's belly: "Mr. Chen, if you don't intervene soon, they're going to kill me!"

Clearly, he was calling for someone else. If nothing went wrong, that person should have been guarding the rear entrance.

Xue Three's eyes narrowed, his ears twitched slightly. But to his confusion, he couldn't sense any approaching presence.

Blind Bei remained still, but Zheng Fan believed he was constantly on guard against another assassin.

It was a pity there wasn't a grandfather clock in the room. Otherwise, this would be the perfect moment to cut to the sound effect of its ticking hands.

「Three minutes later,」

The first floor of the relay station was still occupied only by their group.

Xue Three licked his lips. He was growing impatient.

The Raging Horse seemed somewhat bewildered. It yelled out again, "Mr. Chen, are you really going to stand by and watch me die?"

Its voice clearly betrayed a growing panic.

When Zheng Fan first heard the Raging Horse call out "Mr. Chen," he had been focused on staying alert. But the second time he heard the name, a distinctly anachronistic, almost folksy connotation struck him. The term "Daxia" (Great Hero) immediately brought to mind images of cheesy, old-fashioned martial arts movies. It was a decidedly archaic word. And despite having been awakened in this world for so long, this was the first time Zheng Fan had heard someone addressed with "Daxia" as an honorific.