Tal Rasha's Hunt

“Undead, this is no place for playing house. Go back to your decaying home.”

Coldly, or rather, with utter indifference, a giant scarlet eye looked down upon the undead as if they were mere ants, mocking them from above.

From its appearance, it was a Beholder, a high-tier demon born with a powerful soul.

Once they reached maturity, they could master various types of corrupt magic with terrifying destructive power.

That massive eyeball was a heartless magic-firing machine. The casting efficiency of a single Beholder was comparable to a ten-man squad of mages.

The Beholder in the sky was estimated to be over a thousand meters in size, making it at least a Hell Archduke.

After its mockery, the Beholder took action.

Blood-colored ripples spread from the pupil of the giant eye, instantly staining the surrounding sky a dark red.

Then, magic rays emitting the aura of destruction shot out from the Beholder’s eye, raining down upon the skeleton heroes who had invaded the demon territory.

The rays were too fast. Most of the skeleton heroes could not react in time and were struck directly, pulverized on the spot.

Within the core marks of the Undead Dao Court, several sigils lit up. This was the first time since obtaining the skeleton heroes that Chen Xu had experienced reviving them through his portable space.

The rays continued to fall, and the massive bone dragons found it even harder to dodge.

At the cost of their heavy armor, the bone dragons were at the end of their ropes after tanking a single ray.

Just as the next ray flew toward them, ready to end a bone dragon’s life, the dragon let out a roar, and a divine spell etched into its soul was triggered.

A golden light flashed, and just before the Beholder’s ray could strike, the bone dragon was teleported back to Sindragosa’s divine kingdom.

“Whew, thank goodness you have the Dragon Mother’s divine spell, big guy. Otherwise, we’d have to sleep for a while like those barbarians.”

“Woooh...”

The bone dragon also breathed a sigh of relief. They did not have the ability to be revived through the Undead Dao Court like the skeleton heroes.

If they died, they were dead for good. However, as high-tier undead units and a unique, strategically significant air force, Chen Xu valued them highly.

Every bone dragon sent into battle had a divine spell etched into its soul that could be actively triggered in a moment of crisis to teleport back to Sindragosa’s divine kingdom, reducing air force casualties.

In just a few breaths, almost all the bone dragon units charging at the front line had returned to the Undead Dao Court.

Only a few unlucky ones were struck by the rays before they could trigger the divine spell. The dragons were downed, and the skeleton archers hanging beneath them perished along with them.

Seeing this, both Chen Xu and Bone Guard One felt that this core world of Heaven was a bit sinister.

They had only sent out a small vanguard and cast a single war magic, yet the enemy had immediately deployed a combatant of the Hell Archduke level.

What was the meaning of this? When fishing, one usually had to chum the water with several bags of bait first. Here, they had barely torn open the packaging before the fish jumped onto the shore themselves.

After the Beholder finished clearing the undead that had invaded the demon territory, it shifted its target and fixed its gaze on the skeleton mages outside the heavenly fortress.

Tiny droplets of blood flew out from the Beholder’s eye, converging in the air to form a massive blood-red hexagram magic array.

In the next moment, a giant crimson ray shot out from the magic array, flying toward the skeleton mages at high speed.

At that moment, the heavenly fortress behind the undead also took action.

Priest Netherx, who had been operating the fortress core, expanded the Radiant Sun canopy to block the ray for the skeleton mages.

Seeing this, the Beholder stopped its casting and looked at Netherx inside the fortress.

“Heh, the valiant Priest Netherx, actively shielding lowly skeletons... how rare. Perhaps your heavenly records should include a new storybook called 《The Forbidden Love of Netherx and the Skeleton》.”

Faced with the Beholder’s mockery, Netherx remained unperturbed. Having guarded this fortress for many years, he was long accustomed to such things.

Though Netherx himself was fine, he took the initiative to send a mental transmission to Chen Xu and Bone Guard One.

“Respected Lord of the Undead, that Beholder is Hell Archduke Aug. Besides being skilled in various magical rays, he is an expert at provoking emotions. He finds vulnerabilities through a creature’s emotional fluctuations to invade their mind.”

Chen Xu nodded to Netherx, thanking him for the information.

Then, he looked up at the Hell Archduke in the sky and asked Bone Guard One.

“Bone Guard One, if you gather all your strength, you should be able to obtain Eternal-tier power for a short time. Can you contend with this Beholder?”

“My Lord, now that the skeletons have been promoted to skeleton heroes, the energy provided by the army formation is even greater. We can maintain Eternal-tier power for a long duration. However, this artificial realm is only enough to barely hold its own against a true Eternal-tier; it is not enough to kill it.”

“I see. In that case, let’s call Kunpeng over. We’ll cancel the drill for now and focus on settling the score first.”

“As you command, my Lord.”

Bone Guard One immediately commanded the remaining army to pull back and assume a defensive posture.

Just as Chen Xu was about to open a spatial gate and reinforce the spatial barriers of this world to “close the gates and release the Kun,” a figure he hadn’t expected opened a spatial gate first.

A figure stepped out from the Undead Dao Court into this world.

“Tal Rasha, why are you here?”

“My Lord, I heard Bone Guard One mention on the soul channel that there was an Eternal-tier Beholder here. I rushed over immediately, even passing off the skeleton hero summoning requests to the others.”

Tal Rasha tilted his head back, looking at the massive eyeball in the distant sky. His jaw opened, revealing a delighted grin—the smile of a hunter who had spotted his prey.

Tal Rasha had undergone the most significant changes among the skeleton heroes under Chen Xu’s command.

Since Chen Xu had spread the skeleton hero summoning technique, the two skeletons who responded the most were Bone Guard Two and Tal Rasha.

The hunting duo of Bone Guard Two and Hades actively responded to requests to hunt legendary creatures, refusing no one. Even if the other party offered no reward, Bone Guard Two was willing to go and hunt.

Tal Rasha was the same, but he didn't hunt legendary creatures—he hunted demons.

It was unknown if the name Chen Xu had bestowed upon him carried some mysterious power, but Tal Rasha, the soul mage, now took great pleasure in collecting demon souls.

He no longer used the staff in his right hand, replacing it with a lantern crafted from soulstones.

A soul fire burned constantly within the lantern, ceaselessly scorching the demon souls inside and causing them to let out agonized wails.

Through Tal Rasha’s efforts, he had already collected over a hundred demon souls in his lantern.

The reason there were only a hundred was that Tal Rasha only kept the strongest soul of each demon species; the rest were thrown into the central wick as fuel.

Long-term hunting had caused Tal Rasha’s realm to advance by leaps and bounds. The essence gained from burning demon souls had greatly enhanced his own soul.

Currently, he had been at the Mythic tier for a long time. Perhaps in another ten years or so, after hunting more demons, he would be able to step into the Eternal tier.

When he heard Bone Guard One mention an Eternal-tier Beholder on the soul channel, he immediately used Bone Guard One’s coordinates to come here.

“Heh... heh... heh... heh...”

Tal Rasha looked at the Beholder and let out a chilling, sinister cackle.

Then, Tal Rasha restrained his laughter and looked at Chen Xu.

“My Lord, please bestow your great blessing upon me. Lend me the realm of Brother Kunpeng and that mystical heart. I will surely retrieve that Beholder’s soul and turn its body into a specimen for your collection.”