Chapter 168: The Projection of the Skull Shatterer

At that moment, Donald and Uther were hiding at the exit of a passage in the cave where the abyssal tunnel lay, about ten feet above the ground, secretly observing the demons below.
Hundreds of small demons were busy in a small, flat basin. From time to time, small demons returning from outside brought back some small prey. Yet, despite being extremely hungry and thirsty, they did not eat the prey right away. Instead, under the urging of two large demons, they placed the prey on an altar made of dark rocks.
The creatures on the altar were bled to death, and their blood soaked the altar, making it appear especially bloody and evil. Donald also saw several corpses of black-scaled lizardmen around the altar, likely members of that tribe captured by the more powerful demons.
Abyssal altars, also known as demon altars, are the most common type of evil altar. They are generally used to sacrifice in order to summon powerful demon lords or as coordinates for communicating with the main material world.
Looking at the altar before him and recalling the information he had obtained from the small demons, Donald realized that this altar served another purpose as well: the demons wanted to expand the size of the dimensional tunnel here so that even more powerful demons could pass through to the main world.
The abyssal world was not part of the main world. The reason why most demons appeared in deep valleys and caves was that the abyssal realm belonged to a lower dimension. The spatial tunnels between it and the main world could only be opened in low-lying areas underground, which is why there were rumors in human societies about demons coming from the underground world.
Of course, this was also influenced by the evil inhabitants who truly lived in the dark underground worlds. There had been records everywhere in the continent of underground evil creatures attacking humans on the surface. People who did not understand the situation would instinctively confuse the two. In reality, abyssal demons and underground creatures were entirely different beings. One was a creature from a lower dimension invading the main world, while the other was an indigenous resident of the main world, either born underground or having migrated to the dark world for other reasons.
Dimensional tunnels usually had restrictions, especially since the more powerful the creature, the harder it was for it to cross between dimensions. If it tried to force its way through without the power to resist spatial rules, it would be torn to pieces by the spatial forces within the tunnel or even lost in spatial storms.

So it wasn’t the first time that such tactics as sacrificing to a powerful demon lord through an abyssal altar to gain strength and expand the abyssal passages were used. Calculating the time, the demons had been making such sacrifices for about two months, and it was only a little over ten days ago that they utilized the power of the altar to allow that demon baron, Jadri, along with two of his Firewing Demons, to reach the main world through a dimensional passage behind them. Seeing this, Donald knew he couldn’t let the demons continue to expand these abyssal passages, otherwise, the demons that could pass through would become increasingly powerful, making them harder to deal with. It was even possible that a stable, large-scale passage might form here, bringing a great calamity to the northern lands. So Donald discussed the matter with Uther for a while and decided to take advantage of the demon baron’s absence to eliminate these demons first and then destroy the altar. The two of them acted simultaneously—Donald’s spells instantly dealt with a dozen or so minor demons, while Uther was tasked with holding off those two Firewing Demons, each possessing the strength of a Silver-level demon. Faced with the sudden attack from human spells, the minor demons scattered in panic; even the presence of those two powerful demons behind them couldn’t stop these timid creatures from trying to flee. Soon, the two Firewing Demons had no time to pay attention to their subordinates, as they were being overwhelmed by a formidable opponent. One of them accidentally lost an wing due to being distracted, and their attacks were blocked by a shield of holy light, disappearing without even leaving a spark on their opponent. Since most abyssal creatures had immunity to low-level fire, Donald didn’t use destructive fire spells like fireballs but instead alternated between Frost Nova and MoonNinja translates to Ninja.. With the Hunter’s elegant yet brutal combat skills and the effect of freezing cold, eliminating these minor demons was as easy as a dragonfly playing in water. Within three minutes, all the minor demons in the basin, except for the two Silver demons, had turned into corpses. “Damn it! Humans, you’ve angered us! The great Baron Jadri won’t let you off!” Seeing their comrades eliminated so swiftly by an enemy clearly no less powerful than their current opponents, the two Firewing Demons spat threats but secretly thought about finding a chance to escape. In terms of abilities, the Firewing Demons were very similar to the Fireburn Demons Donald had hunted before; if demons had blood relations, then the Firewing Demons could be considered close relatives or subspecies of the Fireburn Demons.

However, the Firewing Demons are among the weaker types of higher demons; generally, even professionals at the early Silver level are far less powerful than them. But thanks to their flying ability, their strong regenerative power as demons, and their immunity to fire elements, they can easily withstand seven or eight melee professionals of the same level. Although demons have high resistance to magic, they are not as effective against spellcasters. Unless it’s an elemental mage specialized in controlling fire elements, mages have many ways to counter demons. The only concern is that, compared to mages, demons are vastly numerous—often, a single lower-level demon commander has hundreds of minor demons under him, not to mention demon nobles who rule entire regions like human nobles. Donald clearly wasn’t planning to give up on these two Firewing Demons. While Uther kept the other Firewing Demon busy, Donald was surrounded by yellow-green flames, wielding his pair of moon blades as he fought against the other one. “Ah! Damn it, what kind of flame is this? Are you a mage or a warrior?” At first, the Firewing Demon dismissed the flames around Donald as insignificant and tried to resist head-on. When it came to controlling fire, among Silver-level demons, they, the Firewing Demons, were the best—except for the Fireburning Demons. Wasn’t playing with fire in front of such masters just a waste of effort leading to certain death? But once burned by Donald’s flames, it immediately let out a loud scream. The Sacrificial Flame of a Demon Hunter wasn’t just ordinary fire element damage; it was a peculiar flame that affected the soul directly. Once touched, it caused damage to the soul, which then manifested in the physical body, making it far more lethal than ordinary fire element spells. Without equipment or skills to protect against soul damage, there was no way to resist it. Having suffered heavy losses due to carelessness, the Firewing Demon dared not come into direct contact with Donald’s Sacrificial Flame again. Its attacks became hesitant, and under Donald’s precise strikes, it was quickly injured in multiple places. It then took a powerful Frost Nova strike, and finally, its neck was nearly severed by a slash from the moon blade. The surge of power flowed into Donald’s body along with the demon’s blood, as invisible dark red energy was absorbed into him, killing the Firewing Demon outright. This time, his strength had increased significantly, and since the target he absorbed was not as powerful as the Fireburning Demon last time, Donald only felt waves of heat surging within him, without the painful process of absorbing a demon’s power as before.

Then, with Uther’s assistance, he slew another Fire Fiend and absorbed its power as well, gaining the strength of two Silver Demons. Only then did a faint demonic silhouette appear behind him, far less distinct than that of the Fire Fiend. At the lower stages, a Demon Hunter could only absorb the power of demons that were either unclaimed or those he had personally hunted. This situation would change as the Demon Hunter’s strength grew. By the time Donald reached the Golden rank, it was estimated that he could simply glance at a low-level minor demon and kill it to absorb its power. However, the demon from which power was absorbed left no core behind, so Donald had no interest in siphoning the minimal power from those minor demons; it was better to extract their cores to exchange for Soul Power. After Donald absorbed the power of the second Silver Demon and dealt with their corpses, Uther had already extracted the cores of nearly a hundred minor demons. Donald summoned clean water to wash these cores, instantly obtaining over two thousand units of Soul Power. Satisfied with these gains, Donald said, “We’ve almost eliminated all of its minions. That Demon Baron hasn’t shown up either—he must be busy with something important! But since we’ve destroyed the altar, even if those Silver Demons still have nearly a hundred minor demons, they’re no longer a threat!” “Master, what should we do with this altar and the Abyssal Passage?” Donald stared at the pitch-black void resembling a strange pupil behind the altar and thought for a moment before saying, “Just destroy this altar. As for the Abyssal Passage, we should go back and discuss it with our master and others to find a way to seal this interdimensional passage and eliminate the danger here!” With that, he waved his hand, unleashing several waves of magical flames that struck the black stone altar. Yet, the flames, equivalent to the power of a second-tier spell, had little effect on the altar. When Donald used his Divine Vision, he saw a layer of dark red spiritual energy flowing outside the altar. “It’s evil spiritual energy. These demons plan to use the Abyssal energy to pollute this place into an evil stronghold, from which they can breed more demons.” “That won’t work for them! Uther, split this altar in two!” Uther obeyed immediately, raising his long sword and unleashing a beam of sacred sword energy infused with his holy light. The originally resilient dark red spiritual energy was instantly shattered by the sword strike, and the large altar was split in two.

The evil energies scattered from the destroyed altar suddenly gathered in midair to form a grotesque demon head.
“Who is it? Who destroyed the altar of the Great Craniator? You will suffer the punishment of the abyss…”
Before the demon head could finish speaking, Donald struck and dispersed the power within it. Without that power supporting it, the demon head turned into a wisp of smoke and vanished.
Donald guessed that this was a projection of the power of the demon lord who had been worshipped at this altar before. The previous demons had used sacrifices to gain the power of this mighty demon lord in order to expand the dimensional portals, allowing several silver demons to come to the main world.
By destroying this projection and the altar, they could no longer transmit their power here, let alone descend to the main world. So when Donald saw this projection threatening him, fearing that it might detect his presence, he immediately dispersed its power.