Chapter 766 – The Bratty Bear
Mo Hua was deep in thought.
"I need to get that demon banner… but I might not be able to beat that supervisor…"
That demon cultivator was at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm—experienced, ruthless, and carried the black demon banner. Plus, he could demonize.
Though he didn't seem quite as terrifying as the Fire Buddha, he was clearly a tough opponent.
Especially here in the Myriad Demon Valley, surrounded by countless demon cultivators, and Mo Hua was completely on his own—it'd be even harder to make a move.
"Steal it?"
A new idea sparked in Mo Hua's mind.
He continued monitoring the demon supervisor carefully, but soon discovered the guy was cunning and paranoid.
The black demon banner never left his side—it was hidden deep in his storage ring and never casually brought out.
Even when sleeping, cultivating, or meditating, he kept the storage ring tightly tucked in his clothes.
Clearly, that demon banner was very important.
There was even a good chance it was one of those "as long as the banner exists, the man lives; if the banner is lost, the man dies" situations…
"Can't steal it…"
Mo Hua shook his head.
These old demon cultivators really didn't leave any openings.
"If you won't let me steal it," Mo Hua's eyes turned cold, "then I'll just have to figure out a way to kill you…"
From then on, he kept using the spirit-sight array to monitor the demon supervisor's every move.
The guy was strong—Mo Hua couldn't tell what demonic arts he practiced, what form his demonization took, or what kind of Four Symbols Demon Runes were carved into his body.
With the demon banner in hand, he didn't need to act personally when chaos erupted.
So he never exposed any of his trump cards.
But all enemies had weaknesses. Humans did, beasts did, and demon cultivators were no exception.
So Mo Hua kept waiting patiently for an opportunity.
That night—
Or at least what Mo Hua guessed was night (there was no sun in the valley)—
The demon supervisor suddenly went out alone, acting suspiciously and circling around endlessly.
Mo Hua tried to tail him, but eventually lost track.
"Where's he sneaking off to?"
He frowned, then crawled back to the core chamber and reconnected with the spirit-sight matrix through his divine sense.
Eventually, he found the supervisor again—in a remote corner of the valley.
Inside the demonic beast prison.
Mo Hua blinked, surprised, then climbed along the control passages until he was near the prison.
The prison was just as bloody and filled with beasts as before, but… oddly quiet.
There were no patrols nearby.
Maybe it was a shift change… maybe the guards were on break?
After searching a bit, Mo Hua finally spotted the demon supervisor—in a private cell.
The walls were thick stone, and a demonic beast was locked inside.
Mo Hua glanced inside—and was startled.
He'd seen this beast before.
It was that black bear demon…
Back before entering the Myriad Demon Valley, Mo Hua had tampered with its chains, causing it to break free and kill two demon cultivators.
He hadn't expected to run into it again here.
Now the black bear was bound by even thicker chains, shackled tightly and suppressed under multiple layers of formations—unable to move at all.
And the demon supervisor?
Was draining its blood.
He held a sharp dagger in one hand and a white porcelain dish in the other.
With a jab to the bear's paw, blood poured out and filled the dish.
The black bear's eyes were filled with rage. Violent instincts flared as it struggled, but it couldn't move.
The supervisor's eyes gleamed greedily.
He lifted the dish and drank the blood in one gulp, licking his lips afterward, revealing his grotesque fangs.
After drinking, he smacked his lips in satisfaction and murmured:
"Black bear paw blood… delicious as always. Pity this one's the Second Elder's 'forbidden meat'..."
Mo Hua suddenly understood.
The Second Elder…
No wonder this demon supervisor had to sneak in and drink the blood, not letting anyone else find out.
And he didn't dare drink too much either—
If the bear lost too much blood and the Second Elder noticed, this supervisor would be dead meat.
He stared longingly at the bear, clearly wanting another helping, but didn't dare.
Suppressing his hunger, he packed away the knife and the dish, glanced around, confirmed no one was watching, then turned to leave.
Mo Hua glanced at the silently fuming black bear, then up at the supervisor licking his fangs.
His eyes narrowed in thought.
Just outside the prison, the supervisor suddenly felt a chill.
He whipped around, eyes cold and sharp, scanning the surroundings.
But the area was deserted—only the faint snarls of imprisoned beasts echoed through the air.
The supervisor frowned.
"Why do I keep feeling… like someone's watching me?"
But this was the Myriad Demon Prison—who could it be?
Other demon cultivators?
No.
They were full of demonic energy—he'd definitely sense them if they were nearby.
"Could it be… I've been targeted by some evil 'demonic wraith'?"
His mind flashed to that eerie, cursed Beast Refining Diagram… and he involuntarily shivered.
"Impossible," he muttered, shaking his head. "The wraiths are all locked inside the diagram… they can't escape…"
Narrowing his eyes, he turned and left.
Mo Hua stayed in the prison, still watching the black bear demon.
And slowly… a plan began to take shape in his mind.
He followed the passageways to a new destination:
The demon cultivators' mess hall.
Yes. They had a mess hall.
He'd found it during a previous scout.
Inside were both cooking furnaces and pill furnaces.
The cooking furnaces were used to stew demon beast meat.
Most rogue cultivators couldn't afford spiritual meat, so they made do with demon beast meat—
Though only from herbivorous beasts.
Because meat-eating beasts almost always ate humans.
But demon cultivators were different.
They craved human flesh, didn't care about anything raw or cooked, and ate everything.
Next to the kitchens were alchemy furnaces.
But these were basic pill furnaces, not for complex evil pills—
They just made things like Fasting Pills, as food for the demon beasts.
Everything—furnaces, cauldrons—was caked in thick, dried blood and reeked of a nauseating stench.
Mo Hua covered his nose and mouth in disgust as he picked out some raw meat, cooked meat, and a few unnamed but extremely blood-rich pills—and stuffed them into his storage ring.
To avoid suspicion, he only took a little of each.
Then he returned to the prison.
There, he tossed the food and pills in front of the black bear demon.
The bear, just drained of blood and trying to rest, suddenly jolted alert.
It roared angrily when something was tossed in front of it.
But after seeing it was food—and sniffing it—it immediately used its big paw to drag the offerings close and devoured them like a starved beast.
Even while eating, it kept growling defensively.
Mo Hua watched, shaking his head.
"This dumb bear… seriously…"
"Doesn't even know how to get rich in silence."
In a place like this, if you're given food—you're supposed to hide it, eat quietly, build up your strength secretly.
Instead, this guy was growling and chomping like he wanted someone to snatch it from him.
Mo Hua clicked his tongue and mentally downgraded his opinion of the bear.
"Not even half as smart as my tiger…"
Back when he was at Black Mountain Stronghold, the big tiger he fed was cunning like a ghost.
It would hide food, eat stealthily, and make sure no one else found out.
Even knew how to act—pretending to be wounded and pitiful to avoid attention.
Mo Hua suddenly felt nostalgic.
"I wonder how that big tiger's doing…"
"I'm not there. Is anyone feeding it dried fish?"
"Wonder when I'll get the chance to visit it again…"
"I wonder when I'll get the chance to go back and visit it…"
Mo Hua was starting to miss it a little.
Meanwhile, in the prison, the black bear had just finished devouring the meat. Its spirit lifted immediately, and a fierce light shone in its eyes.
Mo Hua sighed in disappointment again.
"This bear really isn't it. Not the least bit sneaky."
Still, there were no other available demon beasts for now—he'd just have to make do.
From then on, whenever he had time, Mo Hua would sneak more meat to feed the bear demon.
Gradually, the bear's blood essence grew stronger, its demonic aura thickened, and its strength slowly returned.
—
Who knows how much time passed.
Sometime after Mo Hua had sent off his seventh celestial stem–earthly branch code to Elder Xun, the demon supervisor once again slipped quietly out of his room during the stillness of the night.
He was clearly going for another secret sip of blood.
Mo Hua's eyes lit up.
He hurried ahead to the prison and hid in a shadowy corner, completely merging with the darkness—concealing all presence.
Like some unseen, sinister wraith lurking in the shadows.
—
One incense stick's time later, the demon supervisor arrived.
As usual, he released his divine sense to scan the area.
But being a demon cultivator, while his body was powerful, his divine sense was weak. And due to the mental instability caused by his demonization, his spiritual perception had further degraded.
So there was no way he could detect Mo Hua.
Especially when he was starving.
Food in the Myriad Demon Valley wasn't exactly gourmet, and black bear paw blood was a rare delicacy.
Eyes gleaming with hunger, he eagerly approached the black bear, dagger in hand, ready to draw blood.
But the moment he got close—a sudden change erupted.
A wave of stench swept the air. The black bear, which had seemed to be asleep, abruptly opened its eyes. With a ferocious roar, it swiped a massive paw at the supervisor.
The bear had learned a little.
This time, it waited until the supervisor approached before attacking.
But it wasn't that smart—it didn't wait until the supervisor was right beside it, already drawing blood, with no chance of escape.
Startled, the supervisor instantly tried to retreat.
But the bear's paw still grazed him—leaving half his body numb and one arm torn and bloodied.
Bear demons were incredibly powerful among beasts.
And this was a late second-rank bear demon.
Its strike, even when glancing, carried tremendous force—enough to inflict serious injury.
"Beast!"
The supervisor shouted furiously, staring at his bleeding arm in both shock and anger.
He had been guarding the Myriad Demon Prison for years without incident—yet today, he'd been caught off guard by this lowly beast?!
He retreated again.
The black bear lunged, but the iron shackles yanked its body back, choking its throat and pinning its limbs. It couldn't move forward.
The supervisor let out a breath of relief.
But a frown crept onto his face.
"Why is its demonic energy so strong?"
"It was heavily wounded. I never fed it. It used to be half-dead… what changed?"
"At least the chains are still holding…"
The chains were carved with late second-rank formation runes—the bear shouldn't be able to break free.
Had it not been for those restraints, he would've been seriously injured or even killed just now.
He was still feeling lucky when a faint creak echoed through the prison.
The supervisor looked toward the sound—and his expression changed dramatically.
The runes on the chains… were fading.
Dimmer and dimmer… until they vanished completely.
Without the runic reinforcement, the bear's brute strength began warping the chains—until they snapped entirely.
Before the last link even broke, the supervisor had already retreated.
But the black bear was faster.
It lunged with all its might—a step later, but striking first—and charged directly at him.
The supervisor's pupils shrank. He didn't dare hold back. A flash of red lit his eyes, and with a low growl, his body expanded violently. Hair sprouted along his arms, which morphed into massive gray-furred bear claws with pitch-black talons.
He was a gray bear demon cultivator.
Now face-to-face with a bear demon the size of a small hill, he felt immense pressure and had to go all out—fully unleashing his demonization.
Thus, a gray bear demon cultivator and a black bear demon beast began their brutal melee.
Demonic energy surged, a bloody wind swept the air.
The two beasts clashed with feral roars, exchanging blow after blow—meat pounding against meat, blood splattering everywhere in a vicious brawl.
After some time, the supervisor managed to slash across the bear's chest, then pushed off and retreated several meters, panting heavily.
He was covered in wounds.
Even as a demon cultivator, trading direct blows with a late second-rank beast had left him sore and battered—his flesh trembled, bones ached.
The black bear didn't pursue.
It was still a beast after all. Though full of bloodlust, it had been injured and only had Mo Hua's smuggled food and blood pills—its recovery wasn't complete.
So after this frenzied exchange, it lacked the strength to finish off the supervisor.
But its eyes only grew more feral, saliva dripping slowly from its maw.
—
From outside the prison, footsteps approached.
All the noise had drawn patrolling demon cultivators over.
The supervisor clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Tch. So much for being discreet…"
Still, it didn't matter.
He just needed to threaten those demon cultivators into silence—make sure the Second Elder didn't hear about this.
In fact, with more people, it'd be easier to subdue the bear.
"Just hold on a little longer…"
He refocused, preparing for another clash.
Then out of the corner of his eye—he froze.
His heart suddenly dropped.
He saw the broken chains…
And on the chains—something wet and red.
At first, he assumed it was demon blood.
But looking closer—it wasn't ordinary blood.
It was blood mixed with—
"Spirit ink?"
His pupils widened in shock.
It was fresh—still wet, still red. Not dried. Not blackened.
Someone had just used spirit ink to paint formations on the chains!
To sabotage them!
How… how is this possible?!
The demon supervisor's thoughts were a chaotic mess. Before he could process it all, a cold chill suddenly spread down his spine, making his scalp tingle.
Someone… was right behind him!
His face went pale as he quickly turned his head—but he was tall, and the sudden motion didn't let him catch sight of Mo Hua.
Right then, two bursts of light ignited in the darkness of the prison.
Two blinding fireballs flared to life.
A deep, powerful divine sense surged through the air.
Under that pressure, the fireballs were pushed together, crashing into one another—their internal structures collapsing and fusing, creating a twisted, terrifying reaction of spiritual power.
From that fusion, a dark fireball, its surface rippling like molten rock, formed—like a miniature meteor.
Two pale hands pressed that "meteor" right into the demon supervisor's back.
In an instant, an explosion of horrifying spiritual force erupted.
The mutated fire blazed out violently.
The demon supervisor—at the peak of Foundation Establishment and demonized—felt a searing pain in his chest. His vision was flooded with firelight. Looking down, he saw a blackened hole burned right through his chest.
The flesh around the wound had been scorched to charcoal.
It squirmed and tried to regenerate—but was devoured by the lingering flames just as fast.
"What… what kind of terrifying spell is this?!"
His eyes were filled with disbelief.
Teetering on the brink of death, he quickly reached for his storage ring, trying to grab some blood-replenishing pills to stabilize his injuries.
"I don't want to die!"
But just as he pulled out his storage pouch—he caught a whiff of something rank.
Something had drawn near.
Then, a massive bloody maw bit into his shoulder.
The black bear, startled by the meteor spell but now emboldened by the scent of blood, had pounced.
Its steel-like jaws clamped down on the demon supervisor's upper body.
He tried to struggle—only for his fingers to suddenly slip.
His storage bag was gone.
Someone had stolen it while he was distracted!
Fury surged—but then his heart sank into ice.
He knew.
There's no way I'm getting out of this alive…
The black bear chomped down, bloody saliva dripping as it chewed through flesh and bone.
The supervisor, despite his agony, tried to turn his head.
He wanted to see.
He refused to die without knowing the truth.
Who… who was it… that killed me?!
Through his blood-blurred vision, he looked behind him…
And saw nothing.
No figure. No beast.
No one sabotaging the chains.
No one casting that terrifying spell.
No one who stole his pouch.
The demon supervisor, eyes full of blood and tears, whispered—each word bitter and gasping:
"Just… who… was it…"
He never got to finish.
CRUNCH.
The black bear's jaws snapped shut, biting him clean in half.
By the time the other demon cultivators arrived, all they saw was the mangled body of their supervisor—
—being chewed on by a giant black bear.
"Bastard beast!"
"Quick! Save the supervisor!"
"F*ck!!"
"Kill it!!"
Chaos erupted.
The black bear, now tasting blood and fully enraged, let out a roar and charged the rest of the demon cultivators.
With one swipe of its massive claws, it sent several of them flying.
It rampaged through the prison, smashing stone walls and scattering demon cultivators like leaves in a storm.
Other imprisoned beasts, roused by the commotion, began to snarl and roar in unison.
The entire Myriad Demon Prison boiled over like oil hit with cold water—full of screeching, chaos, and frenzy.
Even Elder Xun, far outside the prison, could faintly sense the commotion and tremors within the Myriad Demon Valley.
"The valley is in chaos?!"
The elders and inner disciples of both the Great Void Sect and Chongxu Sect all tensed. Their faces grew solemn.
Elder Xun Ziyou grew even more anxious, immediately sending a message to Mo Hua:
"What's happening in there?!"
—
Inside the prison—
Mo Hua was still there.
He waited patiently until the bear and the other demon cultivators all charged out, leaving behind a chaotic mess.
Only then did he quietly step forward and erase all traces of the formation spell from the chains.
After that, he double-checked his surroundings.
The spell formation was gone.
The prison was in ruins. Most of the evidence had been smashed apart by the bear.
The wound from the meteor spell—Small Falling Star—was burned into the supervisor's corpse.
But the corpse had been… eaten.
"Perfect."
Mo Hua nodded, satisfied that he had left no trace.
Then, weaving through the shadows, dodging beasts and demon cultivators, he made his way back—slipping silently through the array node tunnels, returning to the hidden array chamber.
Only then did he open his Great Void Token and read Elder Xun's message.
Mo Hua casually replied:
"Nothing much. I let a big black bear loose. The demon cultivators are just… playing tag with it."
...
Outside the Myriad Demon Valley.
Elder Xun Ziyou, who had been worrying himself sick over Mo Hua's safety, read the message and—
His expression became… quite complex.
He looked back toward the valley, where the earth still rumbled faintly…
And sighed.
"This little brat… really knows how to stir up a storm."
(End of Chapter)