Li Xi's Great Whirlwind pulverized everything it touched, be it weapons or flesh and blood.
Today, in this canyon, Li Xi had opened a flesh-and-blood mill, dedicated to giving the Abyss demons a free reincarnation.
His powerful vertical pupils provided excellent motion tracking and visual deceleration, allowing Li Xi to spin at fifty revolutions per second while accurately locating the horn demons, preventing him from becoming disoriented.
The four horn demons, arriving slightly slower, exchanged glances and understood the next tactic. They leaped dozens of meters high, aiming their four great sabers at Li Xi's spinning location and thrusting them into the ground. Under the horn demons' astonishing strength, half of the two-meter-long saber blades sank in, leaving only the other half exposed. Such a firm foundation could support a hundred-meter-tall building.
Their goal was to slow Li Xi down, but their plan was flawed. Under his vertical pupils, all their actions were laid bare. Just as Li Xi was about to strike their great sabers, he leaped effortlessly over their trap. Facing two horn demons disarmed, it was merely a matter of a few more spins. Compared to the first time he encountered horn demons and struggled to break their skin, these same level five horn demons, comparable to level six beasts, were now little more than minor fiends.
"12"
Li Xi counted silently. Four of the twenty horn demons in the canyon were gone, leaving sixteen. Now, these sixteen horn demons surrounded Li Xi. Due to the confined space, only eight horn demons could attack at a time, meaning Li Xi was subjected to countless powerful slashes almost constantly.
The countless collisions between their great sabers and his decapitation blade were like a grinding wheel polishing an imperfect blade, sparks flying everywhere. Even with Li Xi's current unparalleled strength, he found it difficult to simultaneously contend with eight horn demons. He tried to focus on killing one, but it would retreat, with others immediately stepping in to trap him.
"11"
Li Xi observed for an opening. He noticed that when the horn demons attacked, they exerted their full strength, raising their great sabers to strike him. At these moments, their lower bodies were exposed due to their immense height.
The strong bodies nurtured by the Abyss, standing over six meters tall, were a natural advantage compared to other races. However, what they prided themselves on often became their weakness.
Seizing the opportunity, Li Xi pursued two horn demons. The other horn demons, seeing their chance, continued to prepare their powerful slashes. Despite their attacks yielding no results, Li Xi's spin speed, which was initially fifty revolutions per second, had now dropped to thirty due to their repeated assaults. His power was halved. If this continued, he would soon be forced to stop.
Just as they prepared to attack, Li Xi suddenly changed direction, lowering his body slightly. Three horn demons, caught off guard with exposed lower bodies, were sliced into powder from their ankles upwards by Li Xi.
"10"
Disregarding the horn demons who had lost their lower halves and were now crippled, destined for a lifetime in wheelchairs, Li Xi continued his pursuit of the others. Of the original twenty, only thirteen remained.
From afar, the shadow clone observed the main body's progress with a grim expression, his brows furrowed as if two farmers were about to play *Dou Dizhu*.
It wasn't concern for the main body's safety; with the Three-Colored Pill, he couldn't lose against these twenty horn demons.
The primary concern was that the shadow clone had noticed a very, very faint stream of energy flowing into the main body's brow with each demon killed. At first, he thought he was mistaken, but as the main body killed more demons, especially the minor fiends, which he had dispatched in the thousands, the accumulated faint energies became as visible as to someone with a thousand degrees of myopia.
Looking at the mercenaries and priests nearby, desperately recovering their strength, and Aimei Bo climbing the mountain, the shadow clone grew anxious.
They couldn't recover significantly in less than ten minutes, and who knew what could happen after that.
The Great Whirlwind continued its harvest. With his reduced speed, Li Xi gained more control. His goal was not to kill the horn demons but to cripple them like the three he had just dealt with, severing their legs and rendering them immobile.
The horn demons seemed to be influenced by the Abyss's consciousness, their cognitive abilities significantly declining. From already not being very intelligent, their IQ had dropped to negative. Besides some instinctive combat experience, they were solely focused on brute force attacks.
Li Xi used the tactic of feigning to attack one direction while striking another, severing the legs of six horn demons. The remaining horn demons still failed to comprehend and continued to fall into the trap.
Their lack of intelligence made Li Xi shake his head. If they weren't sworn enemies, with such good physiques and such low intelligence, they could easily be tricked and sold to a black labor camp to work, earning him a fortune in gold coins.
"7"
The effect of the Green Spinach Pill was short-lived. After taking it, Li Xi knew the potency would only last fifteen seconds. Seven seconds remained, and seven horn demons were left.
Seven demons were not enough to form a complete encirclement around Li Xi. The siege had a gap, the opportunity Li Xi had been waiting for to break free from the encirclement.
His two-meter decapitation blade held its own against seven four-meter great sabers. While seeking an opportunity to break free, Li Xi also managed to slice the lower legs of two horn demons into what could be described as meat cutlets, complete with bones. For grilling, they wouldn't even need further preparation. Disregarding the horn demons left behind, attempting to crawl and pursue him, Li Xi could finally stop his Great Whirlwind and pursue the remaining five.
The Great Whirlwind was immensely powerful, but even Li Xi, who had gained triple strength from the Green Spinach Pill, couldn't sustain it for long. If he continued spinning, his arms could be torn off.
Just as the demons looked on in confusion, Li Xi suddenly changed direction, flapping his dragon wings and using Instantaneous Movement, further increasing his speed. The maxim "speed is the ultimate skill" always held true.
With the horn demons no longer maintaining a tight formation, they could only be picked off one by one by the current Li Xi.
With incredible speed, Li Xi appeared behind a horn demon. Before it could even react, Li Xi cut a meter-long wound from its crotch along its spine, splitting its bone-white spinal column in two. If someone wanted to eat braised pork ribs, no further cutting would be necessary.
"6 seconds"
Before the horn demon could turn to attack, Li Xi, with ghostly speed, appeared beside another horn demon. With a single strike, the demon's chest cavity was shattered from its shoulder.
Repeating these high-speed attacks, the horn demons were like chicks being chased by a rooster, angry and helpless, only able to watch as parts of their bodies were sliced apart, leaving them immobile on the ground.
"2 seconds"
As the last horn demon lost its combat ability, Li Xi's Green Spinach Pill had two seconds of duration left. He ignored the minor fiends; they were less troublesome to kill than ants.
Seeing the demon portal still active, Li Xi flapped his dragon wings, blowing away all the surrounding minor fiends. He violently crushed the head of a horn demon and, with speed imperceptible to the human eye, struck the portal. The sunlight reflecting off his decapitation blade shone on the faces of everyone watching, be they human or demon, stunning them. Success was within reach.
"1 second"
The shadow clone unconsciously clenched his fist. "It's done," Sū Dān Novels.
The decapitation blade, carrying world-breaking power, struck the portal. However, just as he was about to succeed, a solid, square iron block, three meters in size, flew out of the portal. Carrying world-destroying power, it made the portal tremble, as if it were about to shatter from accommodating such immense force. This iron block, larger than a person, directly intercepted the decapitation blade.
"Boom"
Two forces of unprecedented power collided, destroying everything. The teleportation array rippled like a crumpled piece of paper being smoothed out. A minor fiend in transit, unable to even glimpse the main continent, was instantly reduced to dust by the shockwave.
The sheer volume of the collision caused the minor fiends near the portal to cover their ears, but black blood still flowed from them. It was likely the last sound they would ever hear.
Li Xi, empowered by triple strength, had unleashed his peak power. However, in front of this iron block, his decapitation blade was being squeezed directly towards his chest.
With a grunt of effort, Li Xi persisted for less than a tenth of a second. "Boom!" He, along with his decapitation blade, was blasted away.
With speed almost as lightning-fast as his arrival, Li Xi was sent flying across the canyon entrance, past the shadow clone and Aisi, and out of the canyon.
To the disbelieving eyes of everyone present, a heavy thud echoed from the ground outside the canyon, accompanied by the sound of trees being snapped.
"How could this be?"
The thirty-odd mercenaries, who had just witnessed Li Xi gain the upper hand against twenty opponents and achieve the feat of killing twenty horn demons in a matter of seconds, questioned their own eyes. How could such a powerful individual be sent flying in a single move? They felt a collapse of their faith.
"This is impossible."
Li Xi hadn't achieved nothing; he had at least stopped the iron block. If this iron block had reached Aisi and the others, no one on this path would have survived. The ten-thousand-pound iron block, upon landing, had already crushed over a dozen minor fiends, as if announcing its arrival with their blood.
Everyone looked towards the portal. What Li Xi had stopped from flying further was not merely an iron block; behind it was a hammer shaft as thick as a bucket and taller than a horn demon.
A hammerhead alone could send the main body, with triple strength, flying. The shadow clone couldn't imagine what kind of demon could wield such a weapon.
Aisi, upon seeing the multi-thousand-pound great hammer, despaired and said to Li Xi, "You must flee! A demon capable of wielding this hammer is surely an Archdemon of the Abyss—an Inferno Demon. We have no hope."
Inferno Demon. A chill ran from the shadow clone's tailbone to the base of his skull. It was the advanced form of a horn demon, a stage before a Balor. Although only level six, seemingly on par with a Mountain Giant Ape, the Mountain Giant Ape Li Xi had previously driven away was considered a young adult, a peak level six. This Inferno Demon, however, was a peak level six, on the verge of breaking into level seven. Furthermore, demons gained a level when encountering magical beasts, so the Inferno Demon's actual combat level could be considered seven.
Seven. What a terrifying existence. Even dragons dared not offend it and would detour to avoid it.
The mercenaries, previously unaware of the full situation, fell into utter despair upon hearing Aisi's words. An Inferno Demon was capable of destroying cities. Let alone them being at their last legs, with their strength reduced to less than half, even at their peak, they could only withstand one move from an Inferno Demon—the move that would instantly kill them.
Since the great hammer had appeared from the portal, no more minor fiends had been teleported out. Perhaps the Inferno Demon believed it no longer needed minor fiends now that it had arrived.
As the shadow clone contemplated a strategy, a hand capable of crushing a person emerged from the portal. It gripped the hammer shaft, as thick as a person's waist, like a piece of wood. With ease, it lifted the ten-thousand-pound great hammer and retracted into the portal.