A Little First Love Shock for the Demon Lord - Chapter 22.1

Minglou used Touying to sever the spider silk wrapped around his waist, but just as he prepared to leap back into the abyss, the massive rift suddenly snapped shut with a deafening roar.

Silence fell once more.

He stood before the vanished crevice, stunned. The exposed half of his face was pale, and even his fingertips trembled slightly.

Watching him like this, Zhuzhu felt a twinge of fear.

He said nothing, his eyes empty and desolate, yet Zhuzhu could sense the storm of emotion swelling within him. It was already cold in the area, but facing this Demon Lord, she felt the chill seep straight into her bones.

“L-Lord Minglou,” Zhuzhu called out nervously.

He ignored her, turning instead toward the spot she had previously stood. His face was cold as he twisted his wrist and drove Touying forcefully into the mechanism embedded in the ground.

The array briefly lit up under the external force, but flickered out almost immediately.

Unwilling to give up, Minglou continued channeling power into Touying, attempting to reactivate the mechanism.

As the energy surged, the ground began to tremble faintly.

Zhuzhu’s heart clenched. If this continued, Minglou might accidentally trigger other, more dangerous arrays.

She quickly stepped forward to stop him, speaking firmly, “Stop! This formation can only be used once. You won’t be able to open it again!”

“Silence,” Minglou replied icily, stubbornly continuing to inject power into the array.

Zhuzhu opened her mouth to speak again but suddenly noticed the tremors beneath their feet had become rhythmic.

A shake… pause. A shake… pause…

Stone monsters were approaching.

Realizing this, Zhuzhu reached out in alarm to grab Touying’s hilt. “Minglou, listen to me—”

Before she could finish, Minglou flung her back with a burst of magic. She stumbled three or four steps before managing to steady herself, the metallic taste of bl00d spreading in her throat.

Now truly enraged, Zhuzhu shouted, “Get a grip, dammit! Ying Ning isn’t dead yet!!”

Minglou finally paused.

His eyes, dark and deep as a bottomless well, turned to her. His lips parted coldly. “Are you certain?”

Zhuz hu, on the verge of tears, wailed at him like a daughter confronting an overbearing father: “Absolutely! My little spider is still on Ying Ning! I don’t know if she’s hurt, but I know she’s alive. Please, I’m begging you! Don’t lose your mind!”

Minglou fell silent, then turned his face slightly, his gaze frosty as it shifted toward the source of the tremors.

A massive stone beast, nearly twenty feet tall and entirely gray, lumbered into view from around a corner. Its hulking form loomed like a tower, commanding fear and awe.

The moment it laid eyes on Minglou, its grotesque face twisted into a twisted smile, and its red pupils glowed with an eerie light.

Zhuzhu instinctively stepped back, ready to flee at any moment. Minglou, however, didn’t move an inch. He stood his ground, locking eyes with the monster.

In the blink of an eye, the stone creature leapt up, its massive fists hammering toward Minglou. But just as its fists were about to land, Minglou vanished.

The fists smashed into the ground, creating a deep crater.

The beast, realizing it had missed its target, growled in frustration and began scanning the area for Minglou.

“Up here.”

Minglou’s cold voice rang out above.

The stone creature looked up. Minglou hovered above its head, blade in hand, eyes gleaming with disdain behind his mask.

The contempt in Minglou’s gaze only infuriated the monster further. It roared and reached out with both arms, attempting to grab him.

But Minglou bent his left leg, twisted his wrist, and reversed his grip on Touying. A flash of murderous intent passed through his upturned eyes.

With explosive force, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, arriving before the stone beast in an instant. With devastating power, he slashed toward the creature’s head.

The flurry of blade strikes was too fast for the naked eye to follow. The stone monster couldn’t react or defend—each strike landed cleanly.

Buckling under the onslaught, the monster dropped to its knees. Before it could even cry out, Touying crashed down with a final blow, shattering its skull into fragments with a deafening crack. Sharp shards flew in all directions—one hurtled straight at Zhuzhu, and had she not ducked in time, it would’ve crushed her skull.

As the beast collapsed, dust filled the air. Minglou sheathed his blade behind his back and landed lightly, his expression still an icy mask.

Zhuzhu exhaled in relief from a distance.

Maybe that thing wasn’t so terrifying after all…

But just as she thought this, she saw the shattered pieces of the stone beast start to twitch.

Scattered stones trembled, as if drawn by some invisible force, then rose from the ground and flew toward where the monster’s head had been.

One shard grazed Minglou’s head, shattering his hairpin. His jet-black hair spilled loose.

Zhuzhu’s eyes widened in terror as she watched the stone creature begin to reassemble itself.

“It… it can’t be killed?” she said, horrified.

Minglou turned to watch the creature flex its neck, preparing to rise once again. After a moment, he spoke with chilling calm:

“There is no such thing as true immortality.”

If it wasn’t dead, then he simply hadn’t struck hard enough.

Two thick streams of black energy surged from beneath his feet, coiling upward around his body before gathering behind him into the form of a colossal black dragon, even larger than the stone monster.

The dragon let out a thunderous roar, shaking the very air.

The resulting shockwave nearly knocked Zhuzhu off her feet. She shielded her face with her arms and grounded herself with magic to stay upright.

Raising her eyes with effort, she saw the black dragon baring its bloody maw as it lunged toward the stone beast.

The beast fought back, grappling the dragon’s body with both hands, trying to tear it apart.

But dark energy continued to pour from Minglou, fueling the dragon. He stood in the midst of the churning darkness, hair whipping in the wind, his crimson eyes glowing like a demon’s.

He coldly controlled the dragon as it savaged the stone creature. The longer the battle went on, the more the dragon grew, until the monster’s arms could no longer restrain it.

The dragon coiled its tail around the beast’s body, pinning it in place. Then it lunged and bit into the creature’s shoulder, tearing it off effortlessly and grinding it into powder before swallowing it whole.

The stone beast howled and thrashed, but its power was nothing before the dragon—like an ant trying to shake a mountain.

Though it could have devoured the monster in a single bite, the dragon instead chewed it piece by piece, prolonging its suffering as if savoring it.

Amid this grotesque scene, Minglou turned, his steps slow and deliberate as he walked through the swirling darkness toward Zhuzhu.

She shivered—not from the cold, but from Minglou himself.

He had slept for a thousand years. She had forgotten what he was truly like.

This was the man who had once stormed the Demon Palace alone, wielding Touying, slaughtering hundreds of guards to wound Chen Wuxiu—and had plucked one of Chen Wuxiu’s demon bones to pick his teeth afterward.

He might lack Chen Wuxiu’s brutality, but Minglou was by no means a benevolent soul. He killed and devoured without hesitation.

Zhuzhu backed up against a wall, standing stiffly, hardly daring to breathe.

He had been more agreeable lately—she’d gotten a bit cocky. But now, the memories of fear returned, and with them, her obedience.

Why had he become so soft after waking up?

She was still wondering when Minglou stopped in front of her and gave a command in a deep voice:

“Now. Take me to Ying Ning. Immediately.”

Zhuzhu: …Well. There’s your answer.

—

Ying Ning wanted to open her eyes, but her body felt unbearably heavy and exhausted.

She had no idea how long she had been asleep. Only when the weight on her limbs began to ease did she finally regain control of her body.

“What’s going on with this maze? How come Kitty didn’t know there was one here?”

Still in a daze, Ying Ning heard Xiaoli’s voice. Slowly, she opened her eyes and found herself lying in the corner of a grand yet eerily gloomy hall. The walls were carved with terrifying images similar to those on the stone pillars she had seen before. Even the ceiling was painted with vivid depictions of gods being slaughtered.

A narrow, eerie green river ran through the center of the hall, spanned by a small arched bridge made of bones. On the bridge stood Ghost Face, and beneath it stood Xiaoli, now in the form of a little girl, facing him with anger in her eyes.

Ghost Face leaned lazily on the bridge railing and smiled at her. “Why are you so upset? I built that maze for you. Without it, those intruders would’ve ruined everything.”

Xiaoli glared at him and replied with a childish voice, “That maze is dangerous! If Little Fox hadn’t used her shrinking spell to save my sister, she would’ve died! Little Fox only wanted everyone to turn into cats—not be killed!”

Ghost Face scoffed. “What, you believed their nonsense and started doubting me?”

“Yes!” Xiaoli snapped. “Why didn’t you tell Little Fox there was such a dangerous maze? Don’t you know the cats I brought back love to run around? What if they wandered in and died?”

Irritated by her questioning, Ghost Face’s tone turned sharp.