The Devil's Cage

The wail of the female spirit entered the ears of every monster at the scene.

The monsters were already doubting each other and after the wail, the doubts exploded.

Fung!

A heavy whistle sounded, a ball of muddy water appearing in front of the female spirit and spraying water on her, extinguishing the fire in an instant.

Her fading body also returned to normal after the fire was killed.

"Tsui Zui, what the hell are you doing?!" the monster in scales questioned loudly.

"What the hell am I doing? I'm trying to make things clear, we want to know the truth!"

A hoarse voice came from the muddy water but the one who spoke was too blurry to be seen.

"You are suspecting me?!"

The monster in scales spoke heavily, its voice indicating its rage and its scales clattering violently, as though they sensed his fury.

"I'm suspecting you? Only me? Wake up, open your eyes, look around!"

A laugh came from the muddy water, it then twisted and grabbed the female spirit to another side of the camp. Du, the scaled monster, wanted to chase, but several others stood in its way.

"Let Tsui Zu question her."

"You know what his powers are towards a spirit."

"No spirit can lie in front of Tsui Zu, so just wait, it will be over soon."

Several monsters spoke one after another. They sounded messy but they did not step back at all, they even subtly placed Du in the center, surrounding it.

Further away, more monsters grew hostile against Du.

Du knew once it made its move, it would be ganged up, but… he felt the power of the shard of the Philosopher's Stone inside its body and it made his heart sink.

It discovered the shard purely out of coincidence and it was natural that he wouldn't go tell everyone that he had obtained a treasure of such rarity.

It wanted to keep it as a secret and keep it safe, so it hid the shard into its body without further thoughts.

It was trying to use the power of the shard to nourish its flesh and blood so that he could grow quicker.

Compared to the other monsters, the power of the Philosopher's Stone was very effective for him, the changes the shard brought very big.

It felt its body getting stronger by the moment.

Therefore, after it heard Victor had one shard of the Philosopher's Stone and was giving it away as the prize for the victor of Battle of Winter Night, Du participated without a second thought.

It was determined to get the other shard, therefore it resolved to some despicable moves.

It told its subordinate to sneak in earlier than the designated time but it swore it never told its subordinate to attack Victor!

Du was also clear what Victor stood for!

Should he really attack Victor, Du would be the public enemy of all three parties: humans, Inhumans, and monsters.

Before its strength reached a certain level, it would never do something like this.

However, the unexpected drove it into a desperate situation.

It had no idea how that little spirit sensed the presence of Philosopher's Stone in its body but it knew it must do something, otherwise it would die a graveless death!

Explain? Stop joking!

If explaining could work, it wouldn't have to hide the shard it found and keep it a secret from everyone.

It knew how greedy its peers were. Even if it was right and reasonable, they wouldn't listen, let alone Du itself was dirty to begin with.

Du calmed its scales, its face still hidden under the layers of scales, but its eyes were looking at Tsui Zu and the little spirit further away, paying attention to the conversation, as if it was waiting for Tsui Zu to clear its name.

The other monsters frowned slightly when they saw how Du reacted.

'It wasn't Du?' the other monsters wondered.

However, at the very next moment, Du shrunk his scaley body and transformed into a ball, bouncing away.

The change happened very fast but the monsters reacted quickly.

As many different monsters chased Du, attack after attack landed on the bouncing ball of scales.

Under the rain of attacks, the sturdy scales were swiftly beaten into an ugly state but the wounds recovered exponentially.

The scales didn't just recover, they were even sturdier than before!

The monsters in pursuit were shocked by the scene and then greed came afloat in their eyes.

Du did not possess this kind of recover ability before this, the only explanation was the shard of Philosopher's Stone!

'That bastard killed Victor and snatched the shard of Philosopher's Stone!

Kill him! Take back the shard!'

All the monsters in pursuit were thinking the same thing.

As for the rules set for the Battle of Winter Night?

Victor was dead, his soul dispersed into the air!

There were no rules to abide by anymore!

Now, whoever got their hands on the shard, they would possess the power of the Philosopher's Stone!

The monsters swarmed towards the direction where Du escaped.

When Mian Yi, Daliphen, and Ciroc arrived at the monster camp, the whole camp was almost empty, only that female spirit guarding Victor's skeleton was left.

"Yu, what happened here? Where are the others?" Daliphen asked.

"Du killed Lord Victor and snatched the shard of Philosopher's Stone! It was his dirty work that sent the monsters into the Battle of Winter Night earlier than the designated time," the female spirit, named Yu, explained.

"Du?! That bastard!" Daliphen yelled loudly.

Although there was the Dark Moon Treaty, not all monsters followed it accordingly.

Similar to those Demon Hunters, who retreated to the mountains because they disagreed with the terms of the treaty, many monsters disagreed too but they did not leave in a peaceful way, quietly disrupting the peace and destroying the treaty in the dark.

In places where the common couldn't lay eyes, the monsters roamed freely and Du was one of them.

The Herders once linked and suspected Du to five missing cases before, but they lacked the evidence to charge Du.

Du wasn't just ruthless, it was cunning too and it was on the blacklist of the Herders.

As for Du killing Victor and disrupting the Battle of Winter Night, Daliphen wasn't surprised at all. He had a hunch that Du was behind all this, same went for Mian Yi.

He was scolding Du in his heart while he left.

The killer had been confirmed, staying in the camp proved useless.

Compared to the killer, Mian Yi was more worried about his young mistress.

'Please be safe!' he prayed and hastened his steps.

He had to find the young mistress before things went beyond redemption.

Watching Mian Yi leave, Ciroc did not stop him.

As the person in charge of the Herders in this Battle of Winter Night, Ciroc knew what his priorities were, he had to bring back the young men and women inside the battlefield.

However, out of vigilance, Ciroc carefully checked the skeleton again.

He meticulously examined every part of the skeleton and when he saw that red glaring ring on the left index finger, he sighed.

It belonged to Victor and this body should be him, the respectful man of justice.

The ring of bloodline could never go wrong.

"Yu, my condolences. Do you need us to help bury Lord Victor?" Ciroc asked.

"No thanks," Yu said softly.

Daliphen wanted to say something else but Ciroc pulled his sleeve and stopped him. They bowed at Victor's body again before they too left the monster camp.

Yu did not care about Ciroc and Daliphen, her eyes never leaving Victor's body.

She hoped for a miracle but nothing happened.

Victor did not come back from the dead, he did not show her the warm smile again, even the presence of his soul wasn't around.

Victor was truly gone, gone before her eyes.

She was helpless against it.

She felt a grievance, she felt rage, she felt a grudge!

The negative feelings were like three long chains intertwining around her, constricting her like a venomous viper. The feelings fought inside her and strengthened her by the second, her translucent body slowly materializing, the gloomy and cold presence freezing the ground when she stepped on it.

A while later, she moved closer to Victor's body.

She wanted to bring the body along for revenge, she would make those bastards pay with blood!

Yu swallowed Victor's body and vanished.

The whole monster camp was empty, only the night breeze whistled in the air.

More than 20 minutes later, a figure sprung out from the ground at the corner of the camp.

The scales on its body was badly broken but not a drop of blood was spilled, Du chuckled menacingly.

It was coming after the shard of Philosopher's Stone, how could it not be prepared?

It didn't just prepare itself on the battlefield of the Winter Night battle, it even set up a lot of traps in this camp, where Victor chose to settle down during the event. As a matter of fact, Du had prepared to lose in the battlefield and then snatch the shard back in camp.

Therefore, it had dug out many underground tunnels around the camp.

Some were for escaping and some were for ambushing.

It also knew that its tricks could only fool those bastards for a while, so it had to hurry.

Du strode to its own tent and with each step it took, the pain stung him hard and it clenched its teeth tightly.

Even with a shard of Philosopher's Stone inside its body, it only accelerated its recovery, not nulling its pain receptors.

"Just you wait! I will get my hands on the other shard of Philosopher's Stone! And then I will come for you all!"

The excruciating pain from the broken scales stung its heart. Du swore loudly and at the same time hastened its steps. It reached its own tent and found the materials it prepared earlier.

The materials were laid on the ground and a magical formation was drawn quickly, low incantations coming from its mouth and its lips slightly curled into a small grin.

It was confident enough that those bastard would never expect it to go into the battlefield of the Winter Night.

Du's plan was to go in, find a place to hide, and spend 3 to 5 days to recover to its prime!

Until then… Hmph!

It coldly grunted in its heart and then quickened the incantations.

When the last part of the incantations were uttered, smoke rose from the magical formation. Du then stepped into the center but when it stepped inside, a hand came out from nowhere and grazed its body.

A dazzling glow was 'taken' away from Du's body.

Du immediately knew what went wrong since he was very aware of its plan.

"The Philosopher's Stone! My Philosopher's Stone!"

Du shouted loudly while the mist rose and gradually enshrouded it, struggling and trying to break free from the mist but the transportation formation was irreversible once activated. After the spell was activated, it was impossible to stop it, whether from the inside or outside, Du had to let the spell carry on.

All Du could do was watch the owner of the hand smile at itself delightfully.

That's right! The owner of the hand did not run away!

Instead, the owner showed a despicable smile at Du, provoking it.

The worse thing was, this person held the shard of the Philosopher's Stone in its hand and waved at Du!

Du was infuriated! Like a live volcano erupting!

"I WILL KILL YOU! I SWEAR I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL KILL YOU!" Du shouted.

The badly damaged scales broke and shattered as Du got riled up, blood gushing out like a fountain from the injuries but Du didn't care. It couldn't care as its Philosopher's Stone shard was stolen!

The shard was its root! Its everything! And it was stolen just like that! The thief was even provoking it!

'No! I have to go back! I have to find that thief and crush him!'

After losing the shard, Du couldn't care about anything else!

What recovery, what hiding, without the Philosopher's Stone shard, everything would be meaningless!

So after it stepped into the city, the venue of the Battle of the Winter Night, Du started to prepare a transportation magic formatio again.

It had to go back right away!

However, just when it was halfway through, a figure appeared in front of Du.

This time, it was a young man with a normal look yet cold gaze, plus a very large and eye-catching backpack.

If it was any other time, Du wouldn't mind adding more on to its plate, but it couldn't care less about the irrelevant now.

"Get the f*ck off, or I'll eat you!" Du shouted.

Kieran replied with a kick!

Bang!

His boots landed on Du's face, which was covered in layers of scales, the immense power sending Du flying backwards and crashing into a building.

The concrete wall crumbled and buried Du underneath. Du was completely stupefied by the kick.

"F*ck! A mere human dare to kick me…"

It shook its head and shoved the rubles away, but the following kick landed on its head again and the shout stopped abruptly..

Bang!

Again, Du was sent flying away and crashed into the neighbouring building.

Then before Du could get up a second time, the third kick arrived, followed by the fourth and the fifth.

Bang Bang Bang!

It was as though Kieran was practising soccer, with him as the player and Du as the ball, the ball kicked away again and again. At first, Du was still conscious about being kicked, but as the kicks went on, its consciousness started to fade and a series of doubt rose in its heart.

'Who am I?

Where am I?

Why am I the ball?

Why am I being kicked?!'

Du had no idea how long it had been kicked around and when the kicking finally stopped, it looked up and saw the young man in front of its eyes.

The sun was blocked by the young man's figure and set the normal looking face in darkness.

It wasn't just dark and abysmal, it was mysterious, and that voice of his was as cold as ever. "Submit to me!"