IWOL Chapter 112: Demon Seed

Dong Zheng seemed to have fainted. His entire body leaned against Cui Zuojing. The youth threw Dong Zheng’s arm over his shoulder, supporting him, as he pulled him to Victor’s side.

Victor placed his paw on Dong Zheng’s forehead to purify any negative effects and relieve his pain.

Dong Linhai and Allen also came over. Dong Linhai was still holding the Ω amulet. He was stained with Ziz’s blood, turning his outer clothes bright red.

The furious lightning struck the rock wall and sharp boulder at the top of the cliff. The lightning that had previously struck Ziz was strong enough to offset much of Lin Hangzhi’s ability. Therefore, the thunderclouds quickly dissipated. Once everyone confirmed that it was safe, they gathered together.

Heinrich’s mature appearance had already diminished somewhat, but the way he now looked at Dong Zheng’s small team was completely different.

A pilgrim urged, “Hurry up and destroy the demon seed. We shouldn’t waste anymore time, in case something else happens.”

“What’s the use of this?” Dong Linhai raised the amulet.

Everyone with a codex tried to remember the contents mentioned therein, and someone said, “The fragment I got said that this thing is a blessed object. It seems to be able to increase the rate of success when destroying the demon seed.”

“If there’s nothing else, then let’s start,” Allen said. “So, which brave person is willing to go up to the seal?”

“I’ll go,” Cui Zuojing volunteered. According to the prompt at the beginning of the box, as long as they successfully destroyed the demon seed, they would clear customs.

Destroying the demon seed would certainly not be as simple as what the codex had said. By doing it himself, the outcome would be more reliable.

Due to the battle with Ziz, everyone had an intuitive understanding of Cui Zuojing’s strength, and no dared refuse his words.

Cui Zuojing handed the unconscious Dong Zheng into Dong Linhai and Lin Hangzhi’s care. After listening to Allen repeat the sealing process, he took the six gems they’d collected all over the island, wore the Ω pendant, and walked onto the altar.

The battle with Ziz and the ensuing displeasure of heaven had not affected the demon seed. The black heart was still beating without any damage. As he got closer, Cui Zuojing felt the dark, demonic energy down to his very bones, making breathing somewhat difficult.

Then, a warm force surged from his heart, banishing the chill. He walked to the altar. There was a six-pointed star array carved onto the platform. He only needed to place the gems one by one on the six corners of the star array to retrieve the artifact King Solomon had left behind.

Cui Zuojing squatted down. Holding the six gems in one hand, he began pressing them one by one into the holes on the formation.

After putting the black gem obtained from the corpse of the hundred-eyed giant Argos into the formation, Cui Zuojing took a step back. A few seconds later, the six-pointed star lit up with red, yellow, blue, green, white, and black colored lights, each emitting an ancient and profound energy. Within the brilliant rays of light, a long object slowly emerged.

Cui Zuojing reached out and held it.

It was a golden scepter with an hourglass on top. Fine silver sands slowly trickled down and vine-like brackets wrapped around the glass, affixing it to the scepter handle.

The entire scepter was about one meter long, with deep fingerprints on the handle. The hourglass had fine strands of cracks on it, as if the scepter had once been thrown hard.

Cui Zuojing held the scepter in his hand. As he looked at it, he suddenly realized that, no matter how the fine sands trickled down, the amount of sand on the upper and lower halves of the hourglass had not diminished. It seemed as if it could flow forever.

Holding the scepter, Cui Zuojing walked toward the demon seed step by step.

While everyone was watching Cui Zuojing, Dong Zheng’s brows furrowed. He let out a painful groan and slowly opened his eyes.

“Brother, you’re awake.” Dong Linhai had been stretching his neck out to look at Cui Zuojing, but now he quickly asked, “Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

Dong Zheng shook his head. He’d just forcibly used his unfamiliar abilities, and his spiritual energy was somewhat overdrawn. But, with Victor’s purification , he was feeling much better.

“What’s going on now?”

“Cui Zuojing had already obtained King Solomon’s magic weapon and is now going to destroy the demon seed.”

Dong Zheng felt that something was off. Everyone was watching Cui Zuojing and looking forward to the end of the box. Seeing that Domingo, Heinrich, and the rests looked unconcerned, he suppressed the subtle feeling.

Cui Zuojing had already arrived in front of the demon seed. He stared at the thing in front of him for about two seconds, uncertain about how to destroy it. In the end, he simply and roughly raised his hand and brought the scepter down hard on the demon seed.

In an instant, a dazzling golden light erupted from the top of the scepter and surrounded the demon seed.

Boom!

An explosion happened without warning.

Cui Zuojing subconsciously raised his hand to block it. The amulet hanging from his neck became burning hot as it isolated him in the center of the battlefield between two opposing forces. The powerful energies that the scepter and the demon seed were emitting did not affect him at all.

At last, the demon seed was unable to persevere and fell apart. The demonic energy contained within it scrambled to flee in all directions.

Following the British expedition, today, four hundred years later, the new demon seed was once again successfully destroyed.

“Main mission: Survive/destroy the demon seed has been completed. The box [Dusk Island] is cleared. The exit will be closed in five minutes. Please leave as soon as possible.”

As the reminder sounded in everyone’s mind, a glittering white door appeared on the mountain wall not far away.

But no one was in a hurry to leave. They were all experienced pilgrims. They knew that some special items might be released in the box after the customs clearance. Everyone wanted to see what would happen, in case something advantageous happened.

At this moment, something did suddenly happened.

The cracks on the scepter’s hourglass suddenly began to extend, and with a cracking sound, the glass shattered.

Silver-white sands scattered over Cui Zuojing’s hands and drifted into the air. He even ended up inhaling some of them.

The power of the scepter disappeared in an instant, and the demonic energy that was escaping was no longer suppressed. It directly surged back against the seal that was leaking with even more demonic energy.

Everyone heard a loud crack.

Not good!

Cui Zuojing clenched the scepter tightly, trying to stop all of this, but the scepter had lost the silvery star sands in it’s broken hourglass and had become a waste product. It no longer had any energy.

Aided by outside forces, the already crumbling seal finally shattered, and a monstrous demonic energy gushed out. Seeing this, the pilgrims no longer thought of finding treasures and ran toward the door as fast as their legs could carry them.

“Cui Zuojing!” Dong Zheng shouted the young man’s name. “Come back!”

Cui Zuojing knew that the scepter shattering was a bad turn of events and was ready to slip away. Anyway, the box had already been cleared. No matter what happened in this world, it had nothing to do with them.

He just took a step forward, but someone blocked his path.

Cui Zuojing narrowed his eyes and slowly held the Tang Sword at his waist. “What do you want?”

Domingo’s face was expressionless, his eyes reflecting the black demonic energy in the sky. He stretched out his hand and coldly said, “Give it to me.”

“You also want this broken thing?” Cui Zuojing had long felt that this man was not simple and had been waiting for Domingo to make his move. But, this was a bit unexpected.

Could he really be so calm?

“I need it for something very important,” Domingo said. “This thing is useless to you now.”

“But it’s a pity that I don’t want to give it to you even if it is useless.” Cui Zuojing smiled and hung the scepter at his waist even as he pulled out his sword. The meaning was very obvious: If you want it, come and grab it.

“Cui Zuojing!” Dong Zheng shouted again.

“You go first! I’ll follow right away!” Cui Zuojing shouted back, continuing to watch Domingo.

The door would close in four minutes.

Dong Zheng frowned. The moment he saw Domingo blocking Cui Zuojing, he knew that something bad was going to happen. He wanted to directly summon Cui Zuojing but was directly rejected.

Dong Zheng knew Cui Zuojing’s mind. If he was called back to the prisoner space, then the Tang Sword, the broken scepter, and amulet on his body would all fall into other people’s hands.

“You go out first, I’ll wait for him.”

Allen nodded. “Okay, pay attention to safety, and be sure to come out in time. In case it’s something difficult to solve, just call Cui’er back.”

Heinrich said, “I’ll find you again.”

Dong Zheng said, “Okay.”

The others left the box one after another, and only Dong Zheng, Cui Zuojing, and Domingo remained.

Dong Zheng looked at Cui Zuojing, frowning. He took a deep breath, sank into his kernel world, and sat on the ground next to Arabidopsis, hoping to help Cui Zuojing through the prisoner link.

“You’re right.” Seeing Cui Zuojing’s refusal, Domingo stretched out his hand to grab the scepter.

How could Cui Zuojing let him succeed? He moved sideways and, at the same time, greeted Domingo’s arm with a stab.

However, the man evaded him, as expected.

Cui Zuojing raised his eyebrows and slammed his elbow into Domingo’s stomach. But, the man raised his arm and blocked him again.

With these two moves, Cui Zuojing could determine Domingo’s strength. He raised his guard and no longer dared to take things lightly. He attacked Domingo with one move another another, shifting between a rapid storm of sword, fist, palm, and foot. Every move was ruthless and cruel, but none of them were able to cause any substantial damage to Domingo.

Domingo seemed to be fully aware of Cui Zuojing’s fighting habit. He knew how he would react, in what position, what speed, what strength, and what direction, and were able to counter all of his moves.

As they fought, they moved tacitly in the direction of the door. No matter who the final winner was, if they failed to get out before the door disappeared, they would only be left with a dead end.

With a shout, Cui Zuojing swung his foot at Domingo’s middle. But, the man didn’t evade. He staked it all against the possibility of injuries and, with the help of Cui Zuojing’s legs and feet, he moved close enough to snatch the broken scepter from his waist.

Cui Zuojing was completely incensed.

He hadn’t seen a pilgrim who could truly compete with him in close combat for a long time. In the past, once he became truly serious, even a pilgrim as strong as Cheriyu Nana would find it difficult to contend with him. But this Domingo not only didn’t lag behind, he was also able to snatch things from him.

The battle with Domingo was extremely frustrating. Domingo seemed to know his every moves and could even successfully predict his next move. This allowed Domingo to effectively resist against him and, although the fight between them seemed equally divided with no one gaining the upper hand, only the parties involved knew that Cui Zuojing was being suppressed.

He had to think of another way.

Cui Zuojing summoned the power of time that had been silently resting in his body for eight years. Now that the first seal was lifted, he should be able to control it enough to use it against Domingo.

A faint yellow light glowed from the youth’s eyes, and time slowed.

The frantic, roiling demonic energy, the flying sands and tumbling rocks, as well as the yellow leaves and twisted blades of grass, seemed to all slowed to 0.5 times the normal speed.

But Domingo’s fist still swung over without any hindrance, without even the slightest bit of delay.

That familiar power, the one that he’d felt coming from Domingo in the western temple, once again returned.

It didn’t work?!

Cui Zuojing was surprised. He bore the power of the Master of Time, one of the origins of the Pure White Realm. This couldn’t even suppress Domingo?!

It had only been a short while since Cui Zuojing’s seal was lifted. His control of the power of time was a bit rusty, leaving him slightly distracted. The power balance between them tilted and, in an instant, Domingo’s bow and arrow appeared in front of him.

Cui Zuojing watched as the arrow brushed his neck, slicing off the amulet’s silver chain and leaving a thin, bloody line on the side of his neck.

The amulet fell into Domingo’s hand.

There was only 19 seconds left before the door closed.

Dong Zheng was extremely anxious. He’d been trying his best to help Cui Zuojing. But, their prisoner link seemed to be disturbed by some powerful spiritual force, making it impossible for him to pass Domingo’s predicted trajectory to Cui Zuojing.

“Hurry up and go! Quickly!” Cui Zuojing roared at Dong Zheng. He wanted to use the last ten seconds to take the things back.

Since Domingo wanted them so badly, they must be very important!

Only ten seconds left.

Dong Zheng gritted his teeth, turned, and stepped through the door. The grass coat of arms on his left hand flickered as he prepared to summon Cui Zuojing back in eight seconds, no matter what the result was.

Cui Zuojing slammed into Domingo, and they rolled on the floor. He smashed his fist into Domingo’s face, hooked his fingers around the amulet’s chain and pulled hard.

Domingo clenched the amulet tightly and pushed Cui Zuojing back in the direction of the door.

As Cui Zuojing fell out through the door, he saw the blond-haired and gray-eyed man standing alone in the chaotic sealed land. Behind him, the Demon God crawled out of the ground with a loud roar. It spread its huge, black bat wings full of bone spurs, blocking out the sun and the sky.

Domingo, with a broken scepter in one hand and the Ω amulet in the other, stood tall as a cedar tree. He gazed at Cui Zuojing and whispered one word.

“Farewell.”

—— Volume 5: Dusk Island [Ends] ——

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