Divine Emperor of Death

Schleya locked gazes with Adlet Rayburn, her battle intent blazing towards him as she closely measured him.

Adlet Rayburn wore a white robe. His long golden hair flowed till the waist like a waterfall, while his facial features possessed a fatal attraction to women as he looked sophisticated other than his slanted eyes, which made him appear a bit cunning. Moreover, his bearing was such that he radiated the air of an expert, although it was unknown if he was just making it up.

Behind him were a red-haired woman and a blue-haired woman. They wore black robes as though wanting to accentuate his radiance, although they also possessed a Peak-Level Law Sea Stage Cultivation.

"Excuse me, but can you display your tile for us?"

Schleya simply took out her tile and displayed the number ten on it, causing Honorable Elder Julian Kruse, who spoke from the battle stage, to look at Adlet Rayburn.

"One could not avoid the challenge unless the challenger retracted it by themselves."

Adlet Rayburn raised his brows.

The meaning was clear. If someone didn't want to be challenged, then they could only convince the challenger.

Davis frowned as he turned to look at the Young Blood Demoness, sending her a soul transmission.

"Schleya, you-"

"I'm not going to retract my challenge." Schleya remained stubborn, unwilling to look away.

Davis thought for a moment before he opened his mouth.

"Alright, you two don't fight to the death."

"I will battle to the death." Schleya obstinately uttered.

The other women couldn't help but find this funny while Natalya's brows twitched. She had considered not challenging Adlet Rayburn out of courtesy, but to a woman like Schleya, it seemed that she only wanted to challenge her very limit.

Davis had the urge to facepalm on hearing Schleya's words before he turned to look towards Adlet Rayburn as he sent a soul transmission.

"Just don't take her life."

Adlet Rayburn turned his gaze towards Davis, wondering what he meant by that before he slightly nodded. Then, taking a step forward, he flew towards the battle stage, followed by Schleya.

They both arrived at their positions, waiting for the formation to activate.

Once the formation activated, a voice echoed out, signaling the start of the battle.

Schleya took out her two blades, Crescentblood, imbuing them with immense power before throwing one of them into the ground. Her brows quivered ever so lightly as she rushed out with one blade in her hand, her battle intent transforming into killing intent, causing Adlet Rayburn to narrow his eyes.

"I suggest you don't look at me that way. I am easily disturbed by such provoking stare."

"Then you need to temper your will."

Schleya merely uttered, causing Adlet Rayburn's lips to twitch, making him think that's not what he meant, but he didn't bother to explain.

He could only shake his head. After all, to attack him with one blade that was looking down on him.

At the same time, he raised his hand. White light tinged with a bit of silver erupted from his palm as it transformed into a winged entity. It was a skylark, flapping its wings with a refreshing stretch of its wings, chirping in a musical tone before it transformed into a light sword.

Adlet Rayburn caught the sword's hilt that appeared to have the wings of the skylark on the bottom of the blade. The sword's blade stemmed long and possessed a sharp edge, like a katana, appearing elegant yet deadly.

The moment he caught the hilt of the light sword, Schleya was already in front of him, slashing down her crimson blade with a savage momentum.

*Clang!~*

However, Adlet Rayburn was fast enough to quickly defend against her blade

'How heavy…'

Adlet Rayburn didn't expect Schleya to possess a vast might but then came to assume that it was the blade itself that was powerful. After all, it didn't even break when the Young Master of the Orcha Family attacked it.

"…!"

Abruptly, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed a strand of blood appear behind her, traveling in an arc before it tried to strike from his side. He instantly abandoned the notion of parrying her next attack and striking her in a counterattack to defend against that strand of blood.

*Bang!~*

Adlet Rayburn parried the blade of blood with his light sword, but it sent him retreating two steps back, making him feel astonished.

Her blood essence energy was also heavy? How could she coagulate and condense it to the point that it felt like it was metal instead?

At the same time, Schleya appeared above him once again, slashing down her crimson blade in a tyrannical arc. Despite it heading towards his head, he calmly took a step to the side and parried her tyrannical strike, letting her crimson blade slide on his light sword before he turned behind and sliced horizontally.

*Bang!~*

The second strand of blood blade made out of essence energy tried to kill him from behind.

His strike ended up deflecting it, but instantly, he became surrounded by Schleya and three blood blades, swinging around him like spinning blades, seeking to cut him into pieces.

A gust of torrential wind picked up as their blades danced with a blood illumination. It was like a domain of blood surrounded Adlet Rayburn, his white light being sunk into a crimson abyss.

*Clang!~* *Clang!~* *Clang!~*

They exchanged a flurry of attacks, the sound of metal continually striking out, amazing countless people as their jaws dropped. Even though Adlet Rayburn was faster, Schleya possessed the upper hand by forcing heavy attacks and using multiple blood blades to attack him.

He could not keep up, each time almost having a close call but somehow didn't even receive a single scratch.

That alone told the people about his abilities.

"Is that all you got for wanting to battle me to the death?"

Adlet Rayburn smirked when his essence energy surged, causing Schleya's eyes to go wide. His figure that was trapped within the crimson fury of blades appeared outside as he transformed into a streak of light, turning into the flying image of skylark before appearing behind Schleya as he pierced his sword.

Schleya turned around to face him, but instead of defending, she attacked with Crescentblood.

However, before Crescentblood could appear, the three blood blades surrounding her combined into one big blade and struck Adlet Rayburn's light sword, causing him to take a step back but using that momentum, he swung his light sword back at her again, his speed phenomenal.

However, his scalp turned numb at this moment.

Behind him, the second blade of Crescentblood that was left abandoned sliced through the air as it rushed towards him, no, to Schleya. If he parried Schleya's crimson blade, the blade shooting towards him would stab him!

*Bang!~*

Adlet Rayburn struck Schleya's crimson blade. The blade behind almost touched his robe when he turned into a phantom white skylark and zoomed across the space, appearing kilometers away from Schleya.

Schleya used one of her hands to capture the other crimson blade of Crescentblood. She looked at her two blades, her eyes becoming gentle as though consoling them that it wasn't their fault that they let him escape.

"Woahh!!!!~"

Cheers erupted from the crowd. They stood and screamed at this extremely fast battle that their eyes couldn't follow if it weren't for the projections placed around. Not only was their exchange exciting, but it was also hair-raising where the two of them could've been injured anytime.

Meanwhile, Adlet Rayburn watched her from afar, appearing awkward as his face alternated between laughing and crying. But what could he do?

He glanced slightly at the Emperor of Death through the corner of his eyes and recalled what he said after being recruited.

[Adlet Rayburn, I know you are wary of me. I might be a bit heavy-handed in my methods, but as long as you don't turn your claws on me, I don't care about your treasures either, even if it is a full-fledged Immortal Inheritance. As a person, I have my own set of morals. As for whether something vague like morals is going to keep you alive or not, that's entirely dependent on your own actions.]

Adlet Rayburn's expression appeared complex.

'Sigh, what the hell? How am I supposed to hold back against her ruthless attacks? Isn't this like basically a death sentence?'

He imagined that if he held back against Schleya, he might be caught in one of her ruthless moves like now and be forced to use his full prowess, and if he did use his full prowess, he would end up killing her. If he ended up killing her, he would incur the Emperor of Death's wrath.

No matter how he saw, wasn't this basically playing him to death?