Rise of the Alchemy God

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The daily challenges were over, and everyone had retreated to their quarters.

They knew the upcoming days would be tough, as there were still a few days left before the end of the tournament.

Unlike usual, though, Ethan was not in his room, immersed in his minor dimension; instead, he was wandering through the city at night.

"Seal."

With his spiritual Qi manifestation, he formed a circular array, and with a motion of his hand, he placed that formation on the seal he'd found on the ground in a secluded alley of the capital.

"And with this, that makes three," he said as he moved from his previous spot, only to reappear elsewhere.

"Well, you were the one who didn't want to alert the enemy, and this is the only way to neutralize the formation without drawing any suspicion," Bai Yu said through mental communication.

"Yes, fine, but couldn't you do it yourself?" he asked as he appeared on the roof of a building, looking down at yet another formation they had found.

After hearing what Bai Yu said, he understood that the situation was much more problematic than he initially thought.

According to what she had managed to extract from the mind of the captured enemy, the purpose of the seals left at various points around the city was to raise a massive formation that would suppress the cultivation bases of all beings below the fourth stage.

When Ethan first heard this, he found it hard to believe, as he didn't think such a formation could exist.

But then Bai Yu explained to him that, in the celestial plane, there existed formations far more powerful than these.

Compared to those, this one was a trifle.

"Well, with that man out of the game, the mind behind this will likely come to inspect the area.

I can use this opportunity to capture them and see what else they have in mind.

After all, you told me not to eliminate him right away," she said, reminding him of the instructions he had given her while he was still at the tournament.

He had told her to learn everything she could from the enemy and put him out of commission, not kill him, as that would have alerted whoever was behind these four individuals.

He was certain these four weren't acting on their own.

This was likely connected to the incident from a few months ago in the spirit forest.

Then, most of the enemies were wiped out, but the strongest one managed to escape before the creature emerging from the portal appeared.

And when he heard Bai Yu's information, he realized he had been right.

The goal of these four infected individuals was to make preparations to erect a cultivation suppression formation.

Ethan didn't understand the point of setting up a formation that would only affect those below the fifth stage.

He understood that nearly everyone present fell within this range of cultivation, but the emperor or even the prince did not.

If the tournament was their target, they would have known that these two individuals from the Long Empire wouldn't allow them to do as they pleased.

But as he finished sealing the last of the seals, he received more information from her.

"So he's appeared?

What did you do to him?" he asked, sensing that the person behind these four had shown up.

"Oh, nothing much, I just questioned him a bit, and he was kind enough to provide some answers," she replied in her usual playful and calm voice.

Ethan shivered at her words and mentally offered a prayer for the poor soul who had ended up in her hands.

He was certain the unfortunate man had been tortured for quite some time before he spoke, like a dam bursting open.

That said, what finally piqued his interest was the fact that the person in question was, in fact, a demon.

A real demon.

For as much as he had heard her speak about demons, he had never met one, so hearing that one had appeared stirred his curiosity, and he looked forward to seeing him.

"So you're telling me they intend to attack the imperial palace? But that makes no sense.

The demon you captured wasn't just a mere fifth stage, was he?" he asked as he finished sealing a seal, hearing this information.

Just as he'd said before, that formation was useless against people who had already advanced to the fifth stage, so there was no point in attacking the imperial palace if the strongest person within it would not suffer any debuff from this formation.

The more he heard about these individuals' plans, the less certain he was of their ultimate objective.

While he was busy moving to various points in the empire's capital, far away from the capital, someone else was hunting down individuals corrupted by demonic Qi.

The person in question was a man with blonde hair and yellow eyes, glimmering in the darkness of the night.

With a gesture of his hand, he threw something toward the trembling figure of a man a few meters away, slumped against a tree, looking at him with an amused expression.

The area around was anything but peaceful.

Under the freshly fallen snow lay the debris of trees and earth, scattered and uprooted everywhere.

The round object landed on the ground and rolled toward the man until it stopped at his feet.

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A red trail was left on the snow where it had rolled, and once it stopped, its features could be seen.

The thing, covered in snow, dirt, and blood, was none other than a person's head.

The head bore features similar to that of a human male, but with a gray-blackish complexion like ash, and from the wide-open eyes, two ruby-red irises glinted.

At this sight, the man felt a shiver run down his spine as he looked in horror at the figure before him.

He walked forward, and as the moon's rays, breaking through the clouds, hit him,

they illuminated his figure, covered by a yellow aura that swirled slightly above him, occasionally forming what seemed to be a dragon's head.

"So, you managed to cross the barrier."