Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Primordial Fog Domain, Confusionem.

The former Libido Demon Palace had become the God Phoenix Demon Palace, and a black phoenix statue stood tall over the palace, spewing out a neverending black flame.

Within the majestic palace, imposing demon warriors of various forms stood in long lines that extended to the distance.

In the distance, a violet demon horn blew.

The solemn sound resounded through the land.

A demon army returned from its expedition.

At the very front was a chariot with a violet canopy, pulled along by a nine-headed, inky serpent.

Ice Phoenix stood atop the chariot, her body radiating thick demonic energy, a violet-red cloak billowing behind her, still smoldering with the flames of battle. Behind her was a great army of demons.

The chariot stopped in front of God Phoenix Palace, and Ice Phoenix jumped off and headed inside.

The demons tasked to guard the place came out to welcome her, led by a humanoid demon with an extremely long neck and a clown mask on its face.

The long-necked clown prostrated before Ice Phoenix. “Master, welcome back! Congratulations on another mighty victory!”

“It was a bitter victory, Longhorse. Starbone died, and Butcher was cast into the Dark Demon Lake. I lost two important subordinates.” Ice Phoenix strode into the palace without even looking at the demon, and her cloak turned the shade of blood.

The clown, Longhorse, followed, swiftly shuffling across the ground on his knees with his head still lowered. “Master, do not be angry. Those rebellious demons do not know of Your Majesty’s grandeur and power. After this battle, those scoundrels will finally recognize you and will not dare to challenge Your Majesty’s imperium again.”

“You said this before the battle of the Black Death Plateau, but what happened? In less than one year, three more groups of demons rebelled!” Ice Phoenix fumed.

The clown kowtowed several times. “This lowly one is incompetent and deserves death! It is all because I failed to properly investigate the enemy!”

Ice Phoenix finally stopped.

Glancing at the clown, she abruptly sighed. “It has nothing to do with you. So many demons coming one after another to cause me trouble is all because I’m not strong enough, which makes them lust for my position… In the end, it’s because my cultivation level is too low.”

The clown hastily said, “While Master is only at Earth Immortal, your powers are so mighty as to reach the heavens, and your intelligence is the envy of all the demons of Primordial Fog. Even Demon King Shosha and the Blackheart Ancestor are willing to follow you, proving Master’s power!”

Demon King Shosha and the Blackheart Ancestor were the only two True Immortals under Ice Phoenix’s command, their strength comparable to the likes of Wano, Windfang, and Logi. That she could recruit these two while only at Earth Immortal was proof of Ice Phoenix’s ability.

But only Ice Phoenix knew how much she paid to have these two True Immortals serve her. Shosha was in love with her, which made him easier to control. But the Blackheart Ancestor was as blackhearted as his title indicated and extremely greedy. Ice Phoenix had to be on guard against him despite him being in her service.

Thus, Ice Phoenix ignored the flattery of the clown and continued forward. Up a long set of stairs was God Phoenix Hall.

In front of the hall was a long carpet woven from countless souls of the deceased. They struggled and screamed within the carpet, releasing thick death energy that mixed with the demonic energy of Primordial Fog to create an even more terrifying power.

Ice Phoenix stepped onto the carpet, walking over the faces of the deceased as she made her way forward.

At the end of this carpet of souls was a purple throne.

The throne seemed to be made of blood, constantly seething. The four legs of the throne consisted of four powerful demons, the blood gushing from their heads forming this throne.

Upon closer inspection, one of these demons was Demon Lord Libido!

Ice Phoenix seated herself on the throne.

The violet blood began to wash away the dust of her travels, and as violet patterns began to crawl all over her face, Ice Phoenix moaned in contentment, all of her exhaustion disappearing.

She then said, “It doesn’t feel right.”

Longhorse, still prostrating, asked, “What does Master mean?”

As Ice Phoenix pondered the problem, she slowly said, “Since I defeated Libido, I’ve been challenged five times. While the seat of Archdemon Lord has everyone’s eyes red, and it’s normal for an Earth Immortal like me to be challenged, being challenged so many times in so little time is somewhat abnormal. Just as you say, Longhorse, those guys might not be convinced of my strength, but there’s no denying that I’ve defeated Libido and all the other factions who have attempted to challenge me. Given their nature, still underestimating me at this point is a little too stupid. So why are they still coming one after another? It’s like…”

Ice Phoenix hesitated. “As if something is luring them, driving them against me.”

The clown said, “Master, do you believe that some other Archdemon Lord is behind all this?”

Ice Phoenix nodded. “I do have this suspicion. But if that were the case, that doesn’t explain everything. At my current level of strength and the strength of my faction, I have some confidence in dealing with the Lesser Demon Lords, but certainly not an Archdemon Lord. If one of them wanted to get at me, they could just march on over instead of going through all this trouble. Even if an Archdemon Lord cannot occupy two Demon Regions, crushing me and then supporting another Lesser Demon Lord is fine. So why do all this?”

“Perhaps they’re too busy invading the positive plane to invest that much time?” the clown proposed.

Ice Phoenix shook her head again. “If that were the case, then after trying twice, they would have stopped sending them one by one. If any two of those five groups of demons had come at me at once, even I would have had a tough time. But right now, they’re coming on their own.”

“Perhaps they belong to different Archdemon Lords?”

“That makes even less sense. Longhorse, did you not notice that of these five groups of demons, other than the first one, which gave me half a year of rest, the other four all came in around intervals of three months. Just like…” Ice Phoenix’s voice lowered, her eyes brightening. “Like someone is arranging the times of their attacks!”

The clown was confused. “Master, do you mean that someone is intentionally sending them to their deaths? Then why was the first time an exception?”

Ice Phoenix fell into thought again. After a while, she suddenly said, “Because they weren’t sure of my strength and needed time to observe and prepare. After I won my first defensive war, the other side had a grasp of my power and began to adjust the demons they sent at me. They made their choices with a purpose, choosing demons that were neither too strong nor too weak, ensuring that I won, but not too easily…”

Ice Phoenix’s tone turned dark.

The clown’s eyes brightened as well. “This doesn’t feel like the work of a demon.”

“It truly doesn’t. Now that I think about it, they seem more like the work of another person I’m familiar with…” Ice Phoenix chuckled. “Tang Jie, was this your handiwork? You don’t want me to develop too quickly for fear that you can’t control me?”

A devil in attendance angrily cursed, “So it was the work of the humans! Those cunning humans—I knew we couldn’t trust them!”

Though she had no evidence, after careful analysis of her battles, Ice Phoenix was almost sure that Tang Jie was behind all this. Only he had reason to muster the demons against her while also hoping that she didn’t die.

Ice Phoenix sneered, “He’s simply doing his duty. It was me who was too simpleminded, forgetting what sort of person he was. I learned my art of scheming from him, so for me to make this level of mistake is my fault. But I won’t make this mistake again. Tang Jie, since you’re scheming against me from the shadows, I won’t hold back.”

She looked down. “Where is Wang Juemie’s group now?”

A devil answered, “After taking their leave, they headed to the Immortal Slayer Mountains.”

When Ice Phoenix became an Archdemon Lord, the humans that had entered the Primordial Fog Domain did not return, choosing to linger in the Primordial Fog Domain. While eliminating demons and relieving the pressure on the positive plane, they also sought to gather resources unique to the Primordial Fog Domain. Despite its destitution, the Primordial Fog Domain still had some special products that, while rather common there, were very rare in the positive plane.

In addition, they could help Ice Phoenix if necessary. While Tang Jie was having Huangfu Meng stir up the demons against Ice Phoenix, he worried that he might miscalculate, so Wang Juemie’s group was there just in case. Every time Ice Phoenix battled against the demons, the humans would hide in the vicinity. If Ice Phoenix won, they would do nothing, but if Ice Phoenix couldn’t win, they would lend their aid at key moments.

And it truly had been useful. Ice Phoenix had pretended to be weak twice, forcing the humans to intervene, and rather than lose soldiers, she actually managed to strengthen her forces. But as a price, in the fifth war, which was the one she had just been through, Wang Juemie’s group refused to intervene no matter what sort of display Ice Phoenix put out, which resulted in her losing two capable subordinates.

After learning of the humans’ location, Ice Phoenix ordered, “Nightowl, starting from today, you are to observe the humans and report on their movements!”

“Yes, Master!” A devil came forward. “Do you need to destroy them?”

“No!” Ice Phoenix firmly replied. “These humans are very useful. The fifth war to defend my crown has come to an end, but there will soon be a sixth. This time, I will have those humans be my shields, my cannon fodder against the demons, and we will sit back and benefit!

“But to do this, we need to know who their next target is.”

Ice Phoenix waved a hand, and a black fog appeared in the hall.

The fog gradually formed into a giant map, a map of Confusionem.

Ice Phoenix inspected the map and muttered, “Since he wants to give me trouble but also doesn’t want to kill me, it needs to be someone similar to me in strength but a little weaker. In addition, humans don’t have it easy provoking demons to attack me, and their options would be limited. The last five groups of demons they chose were stubborn and proud demons. They just need to make it known that an Earth Immortal fellow has become an Archdemon Lord and claim that it was all through luck, and they could fool quite a few devils into coming over. But after tricking those five factions, they don’t have many choices remaining. And looking at the surrounding area…”

Ice Phoenix’s finger glided across the map before finally falling: “The Heavenly Saber Plains, the Massacre Saber Devil!”