This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder - Chapter 631

In contrast with the horrid eldritch forms that the devils usually took, this abyss lord resembled a human—almost too much. If Tianyi could not sense her aura or had not seen the ram-like horns growing out of her temples, he might have thought she was a native of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System who had gotten lost. Or perhaps she was a transformed devil from the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System that had made its way back to the Nine Hells Abyss.

That wasn’t the reason Tianyi was so surprised. It was because of the resemblance this abyss lord had to his wife, Daoyi. He also recognized her. She was Jiang Chunye—or Chunsang, as she liked to call herself now. It didn’t matter to Tianyi.

According to Jiang Ziya, he should have killed her, but it seemed he had failed. Although it was surprising, Tianyi also had some reservations about Jiang Ziya's earlier words. In his cognition, special individuals like Chunsang were especially tenacious and difficult to kill, like a certain self-proclaimed emperor.

He was also sure that this was the special fifth-level abyss lord the fourth-level abyss lord had encountered.

Although he was annoyed that Jiang Ziya had failed to kill Chunsang, it worked in his favor this time. She wasn’t a devil from before the Godsfall War, but she had a relationship with Duke Dantalion. It was not impossible for her to know some secrets of the Nine Hells Abyss. Well, the information she had might be suspect, but it was better than nothing.

“Who are you?”

The female abyss lord stared at Tianyi. The devil before her was different from the others she had met. Most devils had chaotic features and body parts with little uniformity. The devil who appeared before her was different.

The devil stood over three meters tall—tiny by comparison to most devils who had abandoned any humanoid form. Not that the strange devil looked human.

His head resembled that of a beetle, with a pair of large compound eyes shining a blood-red light thousands of times simultaneously. A golden horn that resembled a rhinoceros beetle’s grew from between his eyes. His entire body was covered in abyssal armor that resembled an insect’s exoskeleton, with white tufts of fur growing from the joints. Sharp claws replaced the devil’s fingers and toes, each one glimmering with a cold, golden light. Seemingly sculpted on his torso were two pairs of arms hugging his chest. Rather than functional limbs, they appeared like decorations.

This was naturally Tianyi. He felt that Chunsang was a bit strange, but he didn’t delve too deeply into it at the moment. In his opinion, this might be the cost she had paid to escape from Jiang Ziya’s hands. He stared coldly at Chunsang. “The one that will replace you.”

Chunsang did not show much shock. “Another one. I thought you recognized me. Disappointing.”

“What do you mean?” Tianyi asked. Although he brandished his fist, he did not attack.

“Oh, you didn’t rush ahead like those other bullish devils,” Chunsang said. She still maintained a free and easy attitude, as if Tianyi posed no threat to her. “Exactly as I said. I’m disappointed that you didn’t recognize me.”

Although Tianyi felt that Chunsang had some arrogance issues, it wasn’t to the point of speaking them aloud. She was not the type of person to feel disappointed just because someone hadn’t heard her name. So he asked again, “What do you mean?”

In return, he received an expression that seemed to ask, Are you dumb?

Tianyi resisted the urge to attack, although it was extremely tempting. “Why are you disappointed that I did not recognize you?”

Chunsang sighed, as if it were another stupid question. If Tianyi had skin on his devil form and not chitin, a vein would have popped. Still, as if enlightening a stupid student, she answered, “Because I don’t know my name. I want someone to tell me who I am.”

He stared at Chunsang, trying to see any falsehood. Although his face-reading skills had improved with age, he could not discern whether the abyss lord in front of him was lying or not. It did not matter. The truth would be revealed once he captured and interrogated her.

Tianyi did not delay any further and attacked. His persona in the Nine Hells Abyss had always been that of a devil who pursued pure power and speed. He appeared in front of Chunsang instantly; her dress fluttered from the turbulent winds. Had this not been in the Nine Hells Abyss, a sonic boom would surely have followed Tianyi’s movement.

He reared his fist back and punched.

Despite the oncoming attack, Chunsang did not dodge. Tianyi did not think she couldn’t track him. Although her body remained still, her eyes followed his movements. Still, she did nothing as his fist reached her face. The punch entered Chunsang’s head with no resistance. Despite towering over her, his punch did not burst her head like a watermelon but seemed to have disappeared.

Chunsang’s entire body turned black, like a shadow. And like a true shadow, it sank to the floor without any support. While sinking, it pulled Tianyi down by his fist, which was still trapped inside.

Tianyi naturally resisted. He widened his stance and struggled, but the shadow puddle formed from Chunsang’s body expanded, covering the entire area. It did not stop there—it continued to expand for thousands of kilometers. In essence, the entire thousands of kilometers had transformed into Chunsang’s ‘body.’

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It seemed like Tianyi had become a fly that had fallen onto the surface of a lake. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t escape the inevitable drowning.

The four sculpture-like arms on Tianyi’s chest moved. They separated, giving Tianyi a total of six arms and making him resemble a Hindu asura. The five free hands formed fists and punched. The arms blurred and seemingly disappeared from the speed of movement.

Each punch launched by Tianyi landed on the shadow. It should have done nothing, but ripples appeared with each contact. Like waves, distortions appeared on Chunsang’s body as the power and speed of Tianyi’s punches increased. The expansion of the shadow halted and even showed faint signs of receding.

Although Tianyi did not use any fancy tricks, sometimes pure power was enough to overcome all obstacles.

Finally, Tianyi no longer felt the pulling force from the shadow. He knew it was because Chunsang had wanted to eat him. Like all devils, she would devour her own kind to increase her power—especially after losing her memories. Although she had the skin of a human, she was a purer devil than before.

Just because Chunsang no longer desired to eat him didn’t mean the danger had passed. If anything, it had increased. The best evidence was that the shadow did not release his hand.

Suddenly, spikes shot from the ground, all piercing toward Tianyi. When they made contact, they did not pierce Tianyi’s exoskeleton. After all, an impenetrable defense was also a crucial component of power. The shadow spikes immediately halted upon contact. Just because they stopped didn’t mean Chunsang’s offensive stopped too.

The spikes softened and covered Tianyi’s shell, as if they wanted to merge with his exoskeleton. It wasn’t just for show, either. Tianyi could feel a second whisper in the back of his mind. If the first one was the Nine Hells Abyss tempting him, the second was Chunsang persuading him to give up all defense and allow himself to be devoured.

Unfortunately for Chunsang, her temptation was weaker than the Nine Hells Abyss’s for Tianyi. He continued to punch, causing Chunsang’s domain to shrink. Even as more shadows merged with his exoskeleton, his actions did not stop.

Chunsang tried many more methods, but they were useless against Tianyi’s pure power. She relied on exploiting weak points to kill her foes and lacked a strong enough trump card to expose and capitalize on them.

In truth, her current powers could allow her to survive on the sixth level. Even on the seventh level, she could carve a name for herself as long as she was careful. It could only be said to be a pity. Chunsang could only blame herself for being unlucky, because Tianyi’s current conduit was her nemesis.

Once the shadow domain shrank until it was only about one thousand kilometers wide, Tianyi felt his fist slide out of the shadow. As if the sun had suddenly risen, the shadow sped away into the distance. Obviously, Chunsang had accepted reality and fled.

Tianyi was surprised that Chunsang had fled so fast without even leaving a single harsh remark or two. Perhaps she really had lost her memories—or maybe she had learned to flee instead of uttering wasteful words. It didn’t matter. He had already set his sights on her, and there could only be one outcome from their encounter.

He did not use any of the laws he had mastered. Even if he wanted to, he could only use his divine-level Law of Spacetime in the current environment, and doing so would expose him. His other laws could not display their power unless he revealed his inner universe, which would also expose him and give the Nine Hells Abyss an opportunity to corrupt his Nine Heavens Universe.

So the game of cat and mouse continued. Tianyi chased, attacking Chunsang’s body all the way. Each time he landed a strike, her body would shrink. It was slight, but definitely noticeable. The only way for Chunsang to recover was to absorb the devilish energy, but that would also erode her mind. Like the inferior devils, she would lose her sense of self and become a mindless fiend.

That’s why she didn’t do so. Even though each of Tianyi’s attacks reduced her body, it would take a long time until she reached the point of no return.

It wasn’t until decades later, when Chunsang’s body was less than five hundred thousand kilometers across, that she started to panic and absorb the devilish energy.

Tianyi narrowed his eyes—or at least, that’s how he felt, since his current eyes could not replicate that action. He clapped all six of his hands together. His armor wriggled, as if something monstrous were threatening to burst out. They did. From his back, a thousand pairs of disproportionately enormous arms sprang out and punched Jiang Chunye.

If anyone from Buddhism were to witness it, they would surely think Tianyi was an avatar of Avalokiteshvara at this moment. His fists landed on the shadow domain like meteors striking the earth. So great was the power that they pierced her body and slammed into the ground beneath, shaking the land. Faint tremors could be felt even a million kilometers away.

Chunsang was too stunned by the sudden offense. Before she had time to react, her body had been reduced to less than a kilometer. It was also at this time that Tianyi acted. He pounced and placed his hand on her body. A powerful suction force absorbed Chunsang’s remaining body.

She resisted. Chunsang thought Tianyi wanted to devour her, just like she had tried at the battle’s beginning. Unfortunately, she was already at the end of her rope. When she came to, she discovered that she was alive and in a strange land.

Here, she couldn’t feel the existence of the Nine Hells Abyss, much less her territory. The energy here was different from what her body was used to. Unfortunately, she could not find any sapient beings and absorb their negative emotions. This was an innate skill all devils had.

What she didn’t know was that it would have been better to die than to be captured by Tianyi. Now, she could no longer resurrect in her territory.

“Who are you? Where is this?!” Chunsang asked, staring at the newcomer with vigilance. It was a creature completely different from the six-armed, beetle-shaped devil she had lost to, and even resembled her appearance—minus the flat chest and lack of horns.

Her intuition told her that she had met him before, but she could not remember it.

“Are you really pretending, or did you really lose your memory?” Tianyi asked. “No matter. I’ll pry it out of your mouth soon enough.”

Chunsang wanted to step back as she felt a grave sense of danger. Unfortunately, it was as if the world itself had shackled her. She had less mobility than the Monkey King imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain. She could not even move her eyes or speak. So, she could only stare in horror as Tianyi walked closer.