Shape of the Wind - Volume Meteorite Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Acquaintance

He was born in the royal family. That year, The Great Demon King Xuanye, leading personally, captured the last fortress of the Allied Forces, completely disintegrating the joint forces between human and other races.

The leader of the Allied Forces, Temujin, was slain in battlefield by Xuanye in person. His only daughter, Princess Leeran, had been married. But Xuanye was stunned by her beauty that he slain her husband in front of her and made her a royal concubine.

To commemorate this victory, Xuanye named his first child with Princess Leeran after his grandfather as Temujin.

When Temujin was eight years old, his royal father died. Before his death, he left an edict to appoint Temujin as heir, the thirty-second Great Demon King, which caused an uproar among the court officials.

Originally, among the dozens of Xuanye's sons, the second prince Yinreng had the most power, the eighth prince Yinsi mastered the strongest martial arts, but after multiple eliminations, the one who finally stood out was the fourth prince Yinzhen. He was clever and capable, had formidable tactics, and was adept with both the pen and the sword. He had been a part of the top level decision-making for the Demon Race back from a hundred years ago, publicly regarded as the heir to the throne.

Temujin was young, his mother being not the legal wife, and had no powerful backings to support him. The only thing he was better than the others was his martial arts. Although he was only eight years old, Temujin's talent was simply astounding. Having learnt martial arts for less than five years, he trained in the esoteric royal martial arts, the Heavenly Demon Skills, and attained the sixth stage. His father Xuanye and his brother Yinzhen, although they were widely regarded as martial art geniuses, it took the former one 100 years and the later one a whole 50 years to attain this stage.

One of the perks of being a demon was that strength means everything. As long as one had invincible martial arts, then regardless of age, birth origin, or backings from behind the scenes, one would immediately become a person respected by the populace. With the strong support of Yinzhen, Temujin took the throne, overriding all objections.

Having just succeeded to the throne , facing with the unfamiliar government affairs coming in a throng, Temujin felt a loss of a direction. After a ma.s.s campaign, he left the palace alone for a walk. It was at this time Temujin met the love of his life.

Temujin was meandering alone in a mountain path with neither attendants nor his armor. Being eight years old, aside from the horn on his forehead and his golden eyes, he looked nothing different from a common human child.

It had been two months since his enthronement. To show his court officials the tyrannical strength as a sovereign, following his fourth elder brother's suggestion, he had been fighting battles throughout the length and breadth of the country, vanquishing each and every power dared to disobey him.

To avoid the liegemen's belittlement due to his young age, Temujin issued a gag order to his court officials as his elder brother Yinzhen advised. Everytime he showed himself in front of a crowd, he would wear the Black demon Divine Armor forged by Von Beethoven, the master artisan of the demon Realm, the day he was enthroned to hide his true appearance. Therefore, he was enjoying long absent fresh air.

Pacing slowly in a casual air, Temujin was recalling something that bothered him.

Moments ago, he spent half a shichen to captured a fortress. The master of the fortress was a human, and he was chosen to be punished as a warning to others for his public defiance of Temujin. Temujin led his men in a charge, breaking through enemy formations single - handedly. With his invincible Heavenly Demon Skills, it didn't take long before the defense army were totally slaughtered.

In accordance with the Demon Army's traditions, whenever laying siege to a city, if the defense refused to yield, a ma.s.sacre would be in order as retaliation when the city was captured. Now that the defense army had been destroyed, it was the time of the ma.s.sacre.

Scored victory, Temujin wasn't happy at all. In fact, his mood was extremely terrible at the time.

After he broke into the fortress and turned everything in his sight into scorched earth, Temujin walked in the street, having a look at his conquests of this time.

The Demon Army was burning, killing and pillaging outrageously. Anyway, since the idea was to set off a warning, it was naturally the more thoroughly the better. So they grabbed whatever they saw, killed whoever they saw. Even some civilians who were also demons met this miserable fate, too.

Growing up seeing and hearing constantly such things, Temujin was quite accustomed to these that he paid no mind to them. However, concerning his concept, rather than that he looked down on the horror of wars, he had yet to understand what wars were.

During his wandering around, Temujin saw a mother and daughter. The mother was a mediocre-looking woman, and the daughter was very young, quite the same age as he was. Besides them lying half a dead body of a male; this should have been the man of the house.

At this moment, the mother covered the daughter with her body in order to protect her, while several soldiers were kicking her like a sandbag. The utter cries of anguish and the flesh and blood all over her skin formed an extremely miserable scene.

"Everyone has done with her, right! This woman lacks flavours. Let's make the mother and daughter into barbecues."

Four or five spears thrusted down together, and the mother died on spot without making a sound.

"Have the brat down there dead yet?"

"Who know. A few more thrusts would do the job."

"Stop." Temujin shouted out of instinct to halt his men. Even himself was a little surprised at his own words.

Such things… Aren't they normal? Humans are lowly creatures with no right to survive. It's okey to slay hundreds or thousands of them for sports as one pleases- that's what everyone does. Why did I ask them to stop?

When he was wondering, his soldiers flipped the mother's dead body to find out that the daughter that should have been riddled with gaping wounds was actually unscathed. She grabbed a stone and spared no effort to throw it to Temujin.

"Devil! You ruthless being. Give my mum back!"

Needless to say, the moment when the stone left the girl's hand, she was chopped into a pulp, lying together with her mother in a pool of blood. However, the stone she thrown landed solidly on Temujin's helmet, giving out a clear sound.

There's neither powerful internal energy nor undodgeable throwing techniques. This ordinary piece of stone surpa.s.sed any other hidden weapons in the world and hit the n.o.blest and majestic Great Demon King. The soldiers around were too scared to make a noise.

If they were to be shocked, the shock in Temujin's mind was way more than theirs. Why could the little girl survived? Poked by seven or eight spears, even three more little girls were down there, they would have been pierced through. Why was she still alive?

It turned out that the instant when the spears thrusted, the mother tensed the muscles all over her body to cancel the attack, so that her beloved daughter beneath her would be unharmed. A thing was even hard for a martial art expert was achieved by a mother.

Temujin could not understand a bit that a lowly creature was able to do such a thing. For the first time in his life, he felt confused about human beings.

The look in that little girl's eyes made his heart beat athrob. Contained in it, was the grief, the despair, the scare, the anger… The girl was devastated, as if she saw the most terrible monster in the world.

Am I so terrible? But under the armor, his appearance did not differ much from the girl's! Why. Why did the girl looked at him like that.

Turned around, in a closer observation, Temujin surprisingly found that the way his soldiers looked at him was no different from that of the girl's in her last moment.

The soldiers were afraid of him. Temujin didn't like this feeling. This might be the way how the Great Demon Kings of generations ruled his subordinates, but Temujin didn't like it.

Before he was appointed the successor to the throne, Temujin used to sneak out of the palace to play with the civilian children in the capital. Among them there were quite a few human children. They built sand castles,  played hopscotch, and got along quite well. The children liked him, while their parents looked at him with the same terrible looks. Later on, as long as he was nearby, the children would disperse in an uproar.

Why were people so afraid of him? Why did the children run once they saw him? He did not want to harm anyone! Why?

Wandering in the field, Temujin was pondering. Several questions circled round in his mind, making his mood worse, and also clouded him from noticing the surroundings.

"d.a.m.ned demon. Go to h.e.l.l to atone for what you did!"

With a shout, a tender and pretty girl a.s.saulted diving from above. When her body was yet to arrive, the fierce shock wave from the finger stabbed towards between Temujin's eyebrows.

In the moment of encounter, Temujin stood spellbound.

The girl's appearance was quite outstanding. Her light blonde hair was like soft golden threads, flowing gently. Although her expression was full of anger, he face was not twisted. Instead, she had a certain lively vibe that made a fresh impression.

The girl was beautiful, but not as much as the beauties in the Demon Palace tributed by the va.s.sal states. Nevertheless, Temujin found something vaguely familiar about her bearing, that as if he had been waiting for her for many years only to meet her right here.

Dazed, Temujin forgot to evade and stood still, letting the finger reach right before him.

"Ah! It's a kid… d.a.m.n it..."

Realising that she picked a wrong target, the girl gave a cry. She used full strength in this attack that it was too late to retract her finger instantly, so she had to turn her body down a side before she turned a few somersaults in the air. It appeared that she overexerted and could no longer control the movement of her body. In a crash, she fell into an adjacent pond and splashed the muddy water sky high.

"d.a.m.n it… d.a.m.n it… G.o.d d.a.m.n it..."

Why do I have such a bad luck. Eris erased the mud on her face, inwardly frustrated.

After all that trouble she finally learned the whereabout of that person. She wanted to go find him, but she also wanted to go with a present, to show him her capability. She went through hard and thin to find out the information that there were Demon Army fighting nearby, and this was the road they had to pa.s.s. Ambushing here, she might have a chance to a.s.sa.s.sinate one or two high ranking officers when their guards were down.

Therefore, she suppressed her fear of killing someone for the first time and hid in the tree fighting creepy flies, mosquitoes, caterpillars and the urge of falling asleep for an entire afternoon. What she got out of all the efforts was only a little kid, causing her almost killing the wrong person and ending up in embarra.s.sment.

Eris scrambled to her feet, looked carefully. The kid's face was full of astonishment. He'd better not have been injured by her mistake!

Certainly, Eris wouldn't know that had her finger hit on the target, she would have been turned into a pile of dogmeat in a hundredth of a second by the responsive Heavenly Demon Force. That would be much more than merely injured by mistake.

"Little brother, are you alright? Did elder sister hurt you?" Eris asked out of concern.

She did not like demons. She detested those cruel and ferocious invaders. But this little brother was only a child! No matter what kind of disaster the war had brought, children were innocent.

She despised those specious knights who hid themselves like turtles tucking in their heads when the Demon Army ma.s.sively a.s.saulted, and then came out to kill women and children of the Demon Race after the army withdrawn, taking their heads and showing these off as their achievements. These sc.u.ms of the human race were hundreds folds more despicable than demons.

The boy was surprised and murmured : "You… You are not afraid of me?"

"This kid has something wrong with his mind!" The thought instantly came into Eris's mind. The boy had bright eyes and graceful eyebrows, and despite his young age, he looked very pretty. Other than the horn on his head, there's nothing different between him and a normal human child. Not scary at all. He might've had either a persecutory delusion or that of a perpetrator.

Could it be that he was beaten dumb by me just now! Hmm… Judging by his dull appearance, maybe he's already a fool before I hit him, Wahaha… It's not my fault....

"What's there to be afraid of? You have neither a green face and ferocious fangs nor a giant split mouth. You want to scare people, maybe when you grow up!"

Said Eris unmindfully. According to the priests, grown up demons' corner of their mouths would split open to their jaws, and they would grew a pair of black wings. If that was true, it would've been a shame. The kid was so pretty, he would be very handsome when he grows up… Hmm! He can't be as handsome as that man anyway. Don't get any ideas.

Having casted away the inappropriate thoughts, Eris kissingly patted herself, and discovered that she was covered in mud, looking as ugly as a rattling troll.

"Waaa! I'm turned to a ghost. What to do… What to do..." Eris went around in circle, trying to get rid of the mud on her, when she did not expected that the mud she swinged away splashed on Temujin. His snowy white silk shirt was suddenly tainted a lot.

Temujin paid no mind to it. Obviously, this girl was not afraid of him at all, which made Temujin very happy. Vaguely, he seemed to feel some long absent relaxation and warmth.

"I'm sorry. Sister will help you clean it..." With her rubbing, the situation went worse; there appeared five or six more taints.

"Ahhh...."

How awful. How could I screw up everything today. Where did my lucky star goes? The divination from yesterday clearly stated, "Super lucky if you go outside. Will meet an important person. Shall benefit from it your whole life." What a palpable lie. The first thing when she went back should be throwing away that malfunctioned crystal ball.

Hmm! She'd better not to stand here forever. Looking at each other like this with a kid who only knew giggling, Eris regarded herself the dumbest.

The kid's clothes was made of cla.s.sy fabrics, and the handwork was also delicate. It should be very expensive. In this era of war, the commoners could hardly feed themselves. There's no way they could've had the privilege to wear such fancy clothes. Even among the Demon Race, there were gaps between the wealthy and poor. What the kid's wearing was not something a common family could afford.

In this way, the child's parents must've been high-ranking demons! They might've been of important positions and held some real power. Then catching him would be a real good bargain… Eris immediately gave up this thought. Anyway, all children were innocent. To use an innocent child to blackmail his parents, Eris could not do such things, even if they were demons.

"Little brother. Are you lost with your parents? Where do you live? You'd better go home!"

This area was unsafe. There was a fortress nearby that had been engaging the demons for a long time. It's said that there would be some Demon Race's leadership coming to supervise the battle. A fierce battle was expected. Thanks to this piece of information, she came up with the idea to ambush on the road in order to a.s.sa.s.sinate a few high-ranking demons.

No matter what result came out of a battle, many souls would suffer. Vanquished soldiers fleeing and spreading to everywhere was the most terrible thing. They would thoroughly raid and slaughter the cities and towns nearby. If the kid ran into them, he would end up dead on spot.

Seeing him still being dull and unresponsive, Eris was a little frustrated. It's said that all demons were extremely cruel and ferocious, but she'd never heard that they were so tough to deal with when they were young.

"Hmm. This elder sister's name is Eris. Quite sounding, huh! What about yours?"

"We..." Temujin suddenly came to be, raising his head and speaking proudly: "We are the n.o.blest, the thirty-second Great Demon King of the Demon Race..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw that Eris was looking at him with her mouth wide open as if she saw a ghost.

"She… She's afraid, too?" Seeing the look in her eyes, Temujin regretted deeply. He shouldn't have revealed his true ident.i.ty only to destroy the beginning of this hard earned friendship.

"The Great Demon King? who are you kidding!" Unexpectedly, Eris heavily slammed him, "Lying at such young age, if a kid like you were truly the Great Demon King, the Demon Race should've been doomed long before."

Eris didn't believe it a bit.

The Great Demon King is the highest leader of Demon Race, sovereign of the three realms. He had exceptional demonic strength that was unbeatable in the world. It's a horrifying character that could stop babies from crying. It's said that among the Demon Race, no matter how strong one's martial arts were, how ruthless one usually was, a demon would be frightened to groveling on the ground and shaking whenever one saw him.

The previous Great Demon King pa.s.sed away two months ago. The new Great Demon King's true features were unknown. Rumors has that he was an incomparably cruel and ruthless character. He always wore a black armor, roaming the battlefield, spreading fear to everybody. Such a character was a callow kid? That's the biggest joke ever.

Eris almost had a stomachache from laughing. The kid was not only a fool, but also a lunatic. She wondered how his parents educated him.

"You… You don't believe me?" Knowing that Eris was not frightened, Temujin was quite pleased. But being depreciated to such extent was not that funny.

"I do… I do believe… Wahahaha… I'm laughing to death..." Without the slightest bit of decorum, Eris held her belly and laughed so hard tears flowed from her eyes. She didn't have much to say about this final-stage-paranoia kid. She just took it as coaxing a child, to do a daily good turn! Wait… Was paranoia contagious? That's something to be careful with.

"Your Majesty the Great Demon King. Shall this little woman escort you back to your palace?" Holding back laughter, Eris planned to take him to a safe place. A child wandering around danger was not safe and not something she could look on and let alone. What never crossed her mind was that to take the child back home necessarily involved the Demon Race, and it was rather dangerous to her.

Just when Temujin was about to reply, an annoying uproar, together with several howls from dying, came from behind.

Flags fell, the army was scattered, running towards all directions with no discipline as if they were the vanquished.

Temujin frowned his eyebrows. What's coming was the Beastman Army. They were ordered to siege the fortress together with Temujin but arrived late. They didn't show up until the end of the battle and acted like the victors, demanding spoils of war.

The Beastman Army was composed of demi-beasts, trolls, etc… such kinds of demons. Relying on their tough bodies and hurricane-like destructive power, they were a strong force in battlefield. Despite their low intelligence, their destructive brute strength alone was more than enough to turn the knight orders of many countries into vestiges in the dust.

What Temujin detested was the cruel and merciless way the Beastman Army conducted. They tortured for fun. The places they went through were turned into ruins. It would've been better if this only happened to human, but the Beastman Army didn't have much rationality. Whenever they went on a rampage, they targeted people on their own side, killing casually to amuse themselves. There were precedences that they sneak attacked friendly armies to make fun of them.

Eris was taken aback. Taught by an expert, her martial arts were sufficient for self-protection, but she'd never had experiences in actual combat, not to mention facing a small force alone. The Beastman Army ahead consists of hundreds of soldiers, each was more than two-and-a-half-meter tall and had hideous aspect. If she ran away at once, she should've escaped, but...

"Little brother. Hurry up. Run away. Sister will hold them for you. Run as far as you can. Do not look back." As she finished, before Temujin could object, she pushed him far away, landing him in tall gra.s.s.

The gra.s.s was very tall and thick. With this as cover, plus my holding the enemy back, the child should manage to get away! Eris thought to herself.

Though she had yet to witness the cruelty of the Demon Army, she had heard a lot about it. She dared not to imagine how such an innocent and lovely child would end up if he fell into their hands.

Seeing living people, the Beastman Army rubbed their fists and licked their lips; their excitement was unable to hide. They naturally killed s.a.d.i.s.tically for fun. A human female, although covered in mud, her graceful shape was hard to hide. It's a first-cla.s.s beauty. They were gonna have some real fun with her. As for that kid, although they didn't see his face clearly, he looked quite delicate. He must've tasted good, should've made a nice meal. For these two top-shelf preys, they roared and approached.

"Hey! You bunch of big idiots. None of you shall not pa.s.s as long as this princess is here."

Although she was still kind of frightened, Eris held back the urge of shaking, tightened her lips, raised her head and managed to act fearless. Herself alone blocked the Beastman Army's advance.

The battle then broke out, but carried on in a surprising way. Eris fought the Beastman Army alone using finger techniques. Although her internal energy was still shallow, but her moves was compact from which a masterful demeanour could be faintly seen. She's clearly taught by a good teacher.

"It's the Minor Stellar Finger." Despite his young age, Temujin was called a martial art genius for a reason. He recognized it at a glance.

The Minor Stellar Finger was a signature technique the "Star Sage" Kadar was famous for when he was young. It's transformed from ceremonial dances. Eris was quite good at lightness skills in the first place. When these two worked together, the effect was even more 
wonderful.

Eris spreaded her body, and as if a G.o.ddess dancing gracefully, she drifted from place to place without a trace that there's not half a moment when she stayed at the same place. The Beastman Army chased behind her beautiful figure like a bunch of headless flies, totally fell into a mess.

The Beastman soldiers didn't have much of a tactic to start with. In order to capture Eris, hundreds of Beastman soldiers packed together, waving chaotic wolf's fang maces. But Eris dodged all of them within a hair's breadth, and the maces all hit soldiers on their own side. Eris exploited the upper hand, advanced and retreated to evade the attacks while her Minor Stellar Finger turned into radiants of star light, forcing the Beastman Army to fall back again and again.

Although her attacks were quick and forceful, she moved with a grace and lightness. One moment she soared in the sky, then suddenly sweep past near the ground. Her spiraling and fluttering were simply dazzling.

"What's the relationship between this lady and Kadar? The Three Sages have quite a reputation. It turns out they do have some genuine talents." Watching Eris fighting, Temujin couldn't help admiring them a little.

The Three Sages were proverbially famous in the Wind Continent. The three started as n.o.body, gradually gained strength through the five-hundred-year war and finally stood head and shoulders above the rest, becoming the leading figures of the rebellion powers.

For the races in the continent, they were great saviours. To the Demon Race, these three were abominable enemies. They led a rebellion force with limited numbers, but managed to block the Demon Race's course of unification again and again and did great damage to it.

The Three Sages had incomparable strength. Not many demons could be certain to win in a solo fight against any one of them. In fact, even in a joint a.s.sault, great prices were required to take out these three. Therefore, the entire Demon Race hated their guts, while avoiding them like the plague.

Temujin had never met them in person. Other than there were no such opportunities, the other reason was that he didn't see the necessity. Even though the Three Sages had great capability, they could only protect certain limited regions. It never affected the overall situation. On a political perspective, it might've been a good thing to keep thing to keep a certain amount of rebellion powers.

And at the moment, Eris was exerting every last drop of her strength fighting, but regarding the huge bodies of Beastman soldiers, Eris's attacks could only do skin damages. And that's all it could do. No matter how ingenious a martial art was, in the absence of powerful internal energy as backing, it's just showy but not practical.

Her move "Sparkling Stars" stabbed an enemy in the left arm, but the enemy did not fall as expected. Instead, he waved his arms and counterattacked immediately. Awkwardly evaded the counterattack move, Eris disappointedly found out the martial arts she was so proud of was not as good as she thought it was. It shouldn't have been like this! The Minor Stellar Finger was a very profound martial art. At least it was when used by the original owner.

Martial arts were created during repeated struggles in life-and-death practical combats. No matter how many exercises one had, if it deviated from the way of practical combat, it was no more than a sport. Certainly, it might've been a good thing that all martial arts no longer took killing as a purpose. That would've been a beautiful dream. Unfortunately, this dream might've been too much for human beings. At least it didn't serve Eris well in this situation.

No matter how good she was at fighting, Eris was only a girl with limited stamina. When her attacks could not effectively reduce the enemies in number, it turned into moves that waste stamina in vain. It wasn't long before Eris began to breathe raggedly and sweat heavily. Her movement was no longer swift; it was obviously getting slower.

If she were to run away, there still was chance. As long as she used her lightness skills, the Beastman soldiers were too slow to follow. However, Eris had been worrying about whether the child had got away successfully all the time. Even though she had been at a disadvantage, she still did not give up buying time for others, tangling the enemies at her best.

If this went on, once she was exhausted, the situation would be reversed, as she would be tangled by the the enemies. But natural compa.s.sion supported her tired body to continue fighting.

"Human beings are really a strange kind of creatures!"

Temujin thought like this. In demon Realm, due to the harsh living environment, strength meant everything. In the Demon Race, it's a normal thing to be eliminated for the lack of strength. They only respected the strong. Given this prerequisite, since human beings were born weak, they were naturally considered an inferior race.

This was the mindset of most demons. Human beings were weak in strength yet very warlike. Their long history was written in blood and tear. While they were in the mutilation of other races, they also killed each other in incredibly cruel means. They were incomparably despicable and bullied the weak. But when they met the strong, they kowtowed. Oddly, the human beings who made these evil deeds, not only didn't manifest the slightest repentance, but also often put the words like "evil" or "devil" upon the innocent who stood up against them, so that they could slaughter them and boast about it.

The demons were disgusted with the long struggle between the two sides. Although they loved raiding and acting tyrannically, they did it aboveboard and straightforward. demons believe if you dare do it, don't be afraid to be talked about.

The strange thing was, human beings had another side. Sometimes, some human beings would sacrifice their lives fighting for others. The "others" here could be someone who was neither relative nor friend, someone they had never even met before. To demons who embraced the law of the jungle, this self-devotion spirit was difficult to understand.

Moreover, whenever these people devote their life fighting for a certain reason, their strength would suddenly burst and rise by thousands folds, becoming a formidable power. This unknown power was the very reason why the Demon Race with overwhelming advantages could not completely defeat the human beings throughout their five-hundred-year-long invasion of the Mortal Realm.

It's not because of somewhat Three Sages, not because of somewhat racial coalition, nor somewhat "Warriors of the Legend". It's only because of these weird human beings.

Temujin finally saw such human beings today. Despite the fact that they had just met, the girl was doing everything she could to protect him, facing the strong enemies on her own. Why did she devote so much? What empowered her motivation to fight? What was the power that supported her to face enemies way powerful than her, yet still was not defeated?

Temujin recalled the mother who sacrificed for her child earlier. In some ways, maybe, the two women's origin of power was the same! For unknown reasons, uncommonly, Temujin was bewildered.

"What on earth was that stupid boy doing!"

Having noticed that the child hadn't gone far and was still hiding in the tall gra.s.s, Eris was desperately anxious. If things turned out like this, wasn't her baiting the enemies totally meaningless?

The enemies had already discovered her difficulties. They formed several rings and trapped Eris in the encirclement, restricting her range of drifting. Only the soldiers in the inner rings did the attack, while the rest of them just looked at the show and waited.

She had not enough stamina left to break out of the encirclement. That Eris's own conclusion.

"d.a.m.n it. I never planned to sacrifice for others!"

Because of an act on momentary impulse, she ended up like this. And that d.a.m.ned kid was frightened to stay in the tall gra.s.s and hadn't moved a bit. Today was the unluckiest day ever.

The wolf's teeth mace went for her face. Eris leaped to evade. When she was going to turn and shift position in the mid air, she felt a pull on her left foot. Her ankle was grabbed. Then followed a brute force, throwing her to a stone edge on the ground.

"Wrrr...." The Beastman army leader made a sound and stopped it. This kind of girl should serve well as a toy. To throw her to death was a waste.

"So I'm gonna die like this?" Realizing death was just ahead,  many thoughts went pa.s.s Eris's mind. Finally, that person's figure, features and voice filled her heart.

"Elder Brother..."

Two beams of light soared and arrived. With an earthshaking noise, the Beastman soldier was blasted into a pool of blood . Eris felt the grip on her foot loosen, then a gentle force supported her to slowly fell onto the ground.

The Beastmen roared like thunder, charging madly toward Eris. In the next moment, rapid shots of beams formed a light web, firmly protecting Eris. Outside the light web, continuous blasts and cries of dying turned the whole world into a Shura Purgatory.

In the center of the Purgatory, Eris felt she was wrapped by a comfortably warm power. It's wholly peaceful. Not a half bit of danger could be felt.

When all the howls returned calm, Eris open her eyes. She saw the ground full of broken limbs and a river formed of blood. The entire team of Beastman soldiers was wiped out in an instant. Not a single survivor could be found.

The ground looked like it was lashed by whips of blood. All the blood and minced flesh, as Eris being the center, splashed towards all directions. The deep tracks on the ground formed a sun-like shape, as if they were engraved there.

Eris trembled faintly. It's the first time she saw so many dead bodies. And they died so terribly. She was shocked by the overpowering smell of blood that she almost puked. There fear she experienced throughout the intensive battle just then was completely no match of this short moment.

Slowly, Eris turned around her head. She knew that the person who took this many lives was right behind her.

Behind her was a delicate and pretty boy, giggling. He looked incomparably innocent.

"You… You are..."

Eris's voice was trembling. Within the beam just now, she sensed a powerful demonic qi. A common demon, no matter how strong his martial arts were, how profound his magic was, could only empower them with fiend force. To turn fiend qi into demonic qi was a natural gap very hard to overcome.

Therefore, whoever could exude demonic qi was definitely a super expert in the Demon Race. They usually only exist in the royal family. And what she sensed just then was 100% genuine demonic qi.

Such internal energy, such skills, maybe even elder brother Kadar was no match for him. Who was this expert?

The little boy raised his head and looked at the sky. His mighty bearing and dignified manner of a king swept across the heaven and earth.

"We are the n.o.blest, the thirty-second Great Demon King, Temujin.

Eris fainted.

"You are the Great Demon King. Are you really the Great Demon King? Wow! How amazing. I actually meet the Great Demon King." Eris was overwhelmed with joy, jumping and skipping happily.

Temujin really wished Eris to stop. She had been repeating the words "Great Demon King" for a hundred and thirty-seven times since she woke up.

As far as he remembered, whenever people learned they were facing the ruler of the Demon Race, trembling, horrified, kneeing and kowtow would be be the normal reaction. There were even people frightened to incontinence. There were even more extreme cases where someone's heart and guts cracked, frightened to death on spot.

If those were normal reactions, then what about Eris? It's really good that the girl was not afraid of him. Of course! But, her reaction was way too abnormal. From how she was jumping and dancing, she must have taken him as some kind of rare species. It seemed she almost came at him asking for a signature. Being treated like this, Temujin felt quite embarra.s.sed.

Maybe it's like the old saying goes, newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. —Young people are fearless. Eris seemed to have no clue of how formidable he was. When she first woke up, she was kind of afraid. But all the kid did was giggling dumbly. He didn't looked harmful at all, neither did he show any malice to her. She worked up the nerve to touch him a few times. It turned out he was not much different from her, that they were both creatures with flesh and blood. He's not scary.

Having got rid of the fear, Eris's hopelessly happy-go-lucky personality came into play. In her eyes, the child was nothing different from a normal human child. The bright and fiery look in his eyes gave out the maturity not for this age, but generally speaking, the child was still at a pure and innocent age. Especially, there was always a babyish smile on his pretty face. It was just so cute.

And, it's the Great Demon King!… It's said that there seldom were people able to see the Great Demon King alive, especially humans. That made her the first ever human in the history! With such a mood, Eris gamboled restlessly.

"Errr! If it's possible, would you please not to call us like that. Our name is Temujin." As the most powerful ruler in the continent, n.o.body should address directly him with his name. But for this girl, he would grant her this privilege. Temujin wished she was only his friend.

"Temujin… What a weird name!" Eris muttered.

Temujin was really dumbfounded. This girl might have some nerve as thick as a chimney. She dared to nitpick on his name. It was a crime punishable by extermination of the entire family in normal times.

"Are you truly the Great Demon King?" Eris still had doubts.

"Of course! Who would dare to impersonate our ident.i.ty?"

"But you don't show any grandeur at all. You look neither majestic, nor regal. You are so small..." Eris criticized him from head to toe, then quoted a cla.s.sic, coming to a fair conclusion: "Right. You simply don't look like a king."

Criticize like this, Temujin had not much of a reaction. As far as he knew, the court officials of the Demon Race had been having this misgiving in the first place. Eris was just a little too honest to directly speak it out.

"Well. How shall I put it..." Temujin tried to explain to Eris the reason he attained this position.

"Whatever. You demons are weird anyway. I never get it." Eris waved her hand. That man used to say that she had a simple mind, that she took things too easy and might never achieve something great. Humph! Was that supposed to be hard? The kid right beside her was greater than anybody else.

"My name is Eris Vause Danita."

"Judging by your surname, you are from the royal family of Parikia, right?"

"Bingo! That's correct."

Temujin smiled. Seeing her using the Minor Stellar Finger, he guessed her connection with Kadar. Kadar was a prince of the Princ.i.p.ality of Parikia, and Eris a princess. What's the relationship between these two?

"Right. There's a man, do you know who he is?" Eris's eyes gleamed cunningly. She asked: "Have you heard of the name Kadar?"

"I have. The Star Sage has quite a reputation. He's a rare expert of the human race." Temujin spoke indifferently.

"Wow! So wonderful. Even you knew about him!" Eris beamed with delight. It was the expression of feeling proud for a relative's glory.

Out of no reason, seeing Eris was so happy for Kadar, an unpleasant feeling crossed Temujin's mind.

"What is he to you?"

''He's my elder brother. He taught me martial arts. What do you say. Not bad, right!' Eris said narcissistically.

According to Eris's explanation, Kadar was a cousin of the same branch in the royal family. The marriages in the royal family was complicated. Their blood relation was rather distant. However, Kadar had been taking care of her since she was young. He cherished her to the utmost. He personally taught her martial arts and literatures. As long as Eris asked, there was nothing he wouldn't say yes to.

"The life in the palace was so boring. I want to watch Elder Brother's valiant and heroic bearing in battlefield, so I sneaked out to find him." Growing up in happiness, one often fails to appreciate what happiness really means. That's how Eris was. Princ.i.p.ality of Parikia was one of the few places that hadn't been affected by the war for five hundred years. And behind this fact, was Kadar's blood and sweat for stopping the enemy and protecting his homeland.

"But why was I so useless just now? I've seen him using the Minor Stellar Finger. It wasn't like this!" Thinking of her performance just then, Eris was frustrated. Before that, she always thought herself a top expert. She never expected that this beautiful dream was popped up as soon as she left the palace.

"There's nothing to be surprised at. You training method has problems."

Despite Temujin's young age, his martial arts was not only thousands folds stronger than Eris's. The Minor Stellar Finger, although it didn't count much in his eyes, was an ultimate skill among human's martial arts. However, many profound variations of this set of finger techniques required solid internal energy to bring full play to its potential.

Eris always led a comfortable life and was not very diligent at practicing. Although she had an excellent teacher, she didn't have much internal energy. She could not bring out one tenth of the might of the Minor Stellar Finger. It's a mere formality. Of course it could not defeat enemies.

Kadar himself had a mixed idea on this matter. He wanted his younger sister to have enough capability to protect herself. But he didn't the want the bloodiness after slaughtering to contaminate Eris, to destroy her innocence and kindness. Therefore, when he taught her martial arts, he only taught a smatterer and did not urge strictly.

Hearing Temujin's comment, Eris was a little upset. She never thought that she was so beatable. Elder Brother would laugh so hard at her when they meet again. She raised her head and saw Temujin. Recalling the amazing martial arts he used just then, Eris came up with an idea. She smiled sinisterly: "Answer me this. Are we friends or not?"

"Yes. Of course we are." Temujin nodded vigorously like a blockhead. After all what had been said indirectly, he wanted her to become a friend, a sincere good friend.

"Will you feel sorry to see your good friend's martial arts are so poor?"

"I won't. I can protect you."

"You are so dull! If you say it again, I'll be angry. Let me ask you again. Will you feel sorry?"

"May… maybe a little." The poor little fool caved.

"That's all I need." Eris smiled: "From now on, you teach me martial arts, and I will play with you. How about it?"

Temujin tilted his head and thought about it. Although the Demon Race's martial arts could not be taught to outsiders, it wouldn't be much of a problem to pick a few middle-level martial arts for her. It didn't take much consideration in comparison with the importance of Eris.

"In this case, let's make a pinky swear."

"Pinky swear?"

"Correct." Eris said gravely, " That ensures none of us will regret."

He's not thinking too much, but Temujin did feel it by heart that, speaking of psychological age, Eris, who should have been the older one, might be the more naive one between the two.

"I, Eris Vause Danita, swear to be a good friend of Temujin."

"We..."

"Hold on there." Eris shouted him down, "I am your friend. Isn't it inappropriate to use 'we' when talking to a friend? We agreed that we are gonna be normal good friends."

Temujin nodded. He didn't care much about these boastful addresses anyway.

"I, Temujin, swear to be a good friend of Eris."

As a gesture of sincerity, he not only gave up "we", but also omitted his tediously long surname.

"From now on, I'll call you Little Tem."

"Why would you call me that?"

"Because I'm older than you, it's just normal for me to call you that."

Then, the two entwined each other's little finger, and a friendship of eternity began.