Chapter 201: The Second Divine Demon Challenges the Everlasting Puppet

The Second Divine Demon Challenges the Everlasting Puppet

At the foot of Puppet Peak, Norman Salvatore finally stopped.

His black hair stirred gently in the mountain wind.

His expression was calm.

His left eye churned with demonic depth—his right eye blazed with divine brilliance.

In his eyes, that seemingly ordinary wooden hut held endless killing intent.

Even he would not come out unscathed if he entered rashly.

The hut looked almost laughably simple.

A few rough wooden planks formed its walls. The roof was covered with old, weathered tiles. There was no magnificent formation surrounding it. No radiant treasure guarded the entrance. No terrifying aura deliberately leaked from within.

Yet Norman Salvatore could feel it.

The moment his gaze settled upon that humble dwelling, the hairs on his arms quietly rose.

Something was inside.

Something that made even his instincts warn him not to step across that threshold carelessly.

Norman’s mismatched eyes narrowed slightly.

His left eye was golden.

His right eye was black.

One carried the brilliance of divinity.

The other seemed to contain an endless abyss.

For the first time since arriving at Puppet Peak, his expression showed a trace of seriousness.

"Today, I seek to initiate a Rank battle!"

Norman declared, his gaze fixed on the wooden hut.

His voice wasn’t loud.

But the moment it spread through the air, the surrounding spiritual energy trembled.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward that humble dwelling.

The excited murmuring among the younger members of the Salvatore Family slowly disappeared.

One person.

Then another.

Then everyone.

All eyes settled upon the wooden hut.

They had come expecting to witness a battle between two monstrous prodigies.

Now, even the wind seemed to understand what was about to happen.

It became strangely quiet.

Under the expectant gazes of the crowd...

CREAK—

The old wooden door groaned.

The sound was painfully clear in the silence.

Dust drifted from the wooden frame.

The door opened slightly.

But no figure emerged.

Norman’s brow tightened.

He waited.

Nothing.

"The Second Divine Demon challenges you!"

Norman’s voice became slightly colder.

He stepped forward.

The instant his foot touched the ground—

BOOM!

The earth trembled.

Behind him, two colossal phantoms rose from the earth, towering over all!

One was a sacred divine being.

Its body was shrouded in endless radiance, its features impossible to see clearly. Divine brilliance poured from its silhouette like rivers of heavenly light.

Its eyes looked down upon mortals.

As though every living being beneath the heavens were nothing more than insignificant ants.

Beside it stood a grotesque demon lord.

Its body seemed forged from darkness and blood.

Its enormous mouth curved into a sinister grin.

It looked as though it wanted nothing less than to offer heaven and earth themselves as a sacrifice.

A terrifying pressure descended.

The sky of Sovereign Blessed Land was split into two worlds by the brilliance of the Divine Principle and the abyss of the Demonic Principle.

One half was sacred.

The other was dark.

One represented divine order.

The other represented destruction and slaughter.

The collision between the two created a frightening distortion across the heavens.

Clouds shattered.

Mana rippled.

The mountains beneath their feet trembled.

And the one who had caused all this stood calmly before a simple wooden hut.

Norman’s black hair fluttered behind him.

His face remained expressionless.

In his eyes, god and demon coexisted.

Yet there was no emotion.

This was not indifference.

It was an absence of feeling.

Norman Salvatore was a peerless prodigy who had slumbered since the Chaotic Era.

His memories had been lost.

When he awakened, he had possessed almost nothing.

No clear memory of his past.

No clear understanding of his future.

Only fragments.

Only instinct.

Only the strange sensation that he had once been something far greater than the person standing here now.

He had awakened from the Cloud Spiritual Elixir and received the Patriarch’s favor.

The Patriarch had personally helped him refine his blood, guiding him back onto the path of cultivation.

And when Norman had stepped onto the martial path—

Heaven and earth had changed color.

Gods and demons had bowed.

His aptitude had shocked the entire Salvatore Family.

No one could match him.

Not in talent.

Not in his understanding of the Divine Principle and Demonic Principle.

Not in the terrifying bloodline sleeping within his body.

Yet Norman was alone.

Even though the Salvatore Family now gave him warmth that he had never known during his countless years of slumber, there remained an invisible distance between him and everyone else.

He could sit among them.

He could drink with them.

He could fight beside them.

But something inside him still felt separated from this era.

He had slept for an unknown span of ages.

Too long.

Long enough for the world he once knew to disappear.

Long enough for everything familiar to become unfamiliar.

Then came that battle.

He had fought Nux.

He had fought Damien.

He had fought Austin.

And after that battle, the four of them had gotten drunk together.

It had been strange.

Almost absurd.

Yet that night had changed something.

Only slightly.

But enough for Norman to realize that perhaps he could belong somewhere.

Still...

He had also realized something else.

The difference between himself and everyone else.

He had no path of his own.

Yes.

He was the Salvatore Family’s Second Divine Demon.

The idol of countless younger members.

The monstrous prodigy whose name alone could make others lower their voices.

But Norman did not know what he sought.

He didn’t know what he truly wanted.

Damien had said that he would stand at the absolute peak.

Not for glory.

Not for reputation.

But to help his master take revenge.

Nux’s gaze had been resolute.

There were things he had to do.

Things he could not abandon.

And Austin...

Austin had looked into the distance and said he didn’t want to keep Rias waiting too long.

Each of them had something.

A reason to move forward.

A person waiting for them.

A goal burning inside their hearts.

Norman had none.