Along with that demonic shadow, two or three dozen people appeared. The demonic shadow soared into the air, and those people immediately followed, charging into the city together.

Adam Cooper sneered, “The second most powerful in Nanhuang, Dylan Reed, you finally dare to show yourself before me.”

That demonic shadow, Dylan Reed, let out a sinister laugh. “Hmph, Adam Cooper, I’ve never accepted your title as Emperor of Nanhuang. Today, I’ve come to challenge you!”

Adam Cooper threw his head back and laughed. “Challenge me? Why didn’t you dare come when my Drought Demon Bloodburn was still alive? I once passed through your Demonic Flame Valley, and you retreated three thousand miles in fear. Why didn’t you challenge me then?”

Dylan Reed was exposed and instantly flew into a rage, shouting, “Enough talk! Today, I, Gui, have brought the fellow cultivators of Nanhuang to ask you to abdicate, hand over the secret realm’s treasury, and leave Huangyun City. If you obey, all will be well. If not… I’ll have to use force! Hmph, to teach the Emperor of Nanhuang a lesson—such an honor is rare even in three lifetimes!”

Adam Cooper ignored the triumphant Dylan Reed, instead sweeping his gaze over the people behind him. These people were not strangers to Adam Cooper; they were all heads of major sects in Nanhuang. In the past, they had all tried every means to curry favor with him, but now they all stood behind Dylan Reed.

A cold smile appeared at the corner of Adam Cooper’s mouth. “If I hadn’t guarded Nanhuang for ninety years, how many of you would still be standing here? Most likely, you’d have already been captured by the Nine Great Heavenly Gates and thrown into Ruolu Prison, wouldn’t you?”

Just that one sentence made these sect leaders break out in a cold sweat; over seventy percent of them lowered their heads, not daring to meet Adam Cooper’s eyes. However, with things having reached this point, there was no turning back. None of them would change their minds just because of Adam Cooper’s words.

Adam Cooper had long since seen through their true colors. With a cold snort, he flicked his sleeve and declared proudly, “Come on, if you want my secret realm’s treasury, if you want my Huangyun City, then take it by your own strength!”

Dylan Reed let out a sinister laugh, and behind him a demonic flame surged three hundred zhang high, about to pounce. Suddenly, a clear, cold voice rang out: “Emperor Cui, an old friend comes to visit and you don’t even greet your guest?”

Adam Cooper seemed to have expected this, his expression calm as he said, “I knew you wouldn’t miss such a spectacle. Since you’re here, come in. You went to such lengths to break my Huangyun City’s Five-Cloud Lock—even if I don’t welcome you, would you not still come in?”

With a bright, ringing laugh, a seven-colored rainbow bridge descended into the city. The bridge was inlaid with all kinds of gems and pearls, dazzlingly luxurious. An old man with a single eye, followed by several hundred righteous cultivators, slowly walked down from the rainbow bridge.

Among the Nanhuang sects, someone recognized him and whispered in shock, “The head of Jiuyi Mountain, Ryan Parker!”

Years ago, Ryan Parker had personally led an army into Nanhuang, sweeping all before him, but after encountering Adam Cooper, he suffered a crushing defeat and was wounded by Adam Cooper. The Drought Demon’s fire poison that blinded his eye also injured his soul, and to this day that eye had not recovered.

As the Emperor of Nanhuang, Adam Cooper naturally guessed that at such a moment, Ryan Parker would surely come to kick him while he was down, so he was not surprised by his appearance. But when Adam Cooper saw the elegant young woman beside Ryan Parker, the muscles on his face couldn’t help but twitch: “Ethan Scott, so it really is you!”

Adam Cooper never imagined that the first to betray him would be the lover he trusted most! It was Ethan Scott who opened the Five-Cloud Lock; otherwise, even if these people managed to get in, they would have paid a heavy price—whether Ryan Parker or Dylan Reed, at least half their followers would have died miserably.

Ethan Scott looked at him with somewhat vacant eyes, but her voice was utterly emotionless: “I spent over a hundred years undercover by your side, all for this very day. Killing you will rid the righteous path of evil!”

“Undercover?” Adam Cooper sneered. He had never guarded against Ethan Scott; she’d had countless chances to kill him, so why wait until now? In the end, it was simply because his Drought Demon Bloodburn was dead, and everyone believed he was doomed!

Back then, when Ethan Scott followed him, she certainly endured tremendous pressure, but on the other hand, wasn’t it the same for Adam Cooper? As a figure of the demonic path, he fell in love with a righteous fairy. When they first got together, Adam Cooper had not yet risen to power in Nanhuang, and over seventy percent of those who came to hunt him down did so out of fear that Ethan Scott would leak demonic secrets. Adam Cooper himself couldn’t remember how many times he’d fought and been wounded for Ethan Scott.

Even after he became Emperor of Nanhuang, things were far from peaceful. Any rebellion in Nanhuang was always because people couldn’t stand the woman at the emperor’s side being from the righteous path.

As for Adam Cooper himself, he even risked his life to deter the Nine Great Heavenly Gates from troubling Ethan Scott’s clan, leaving Nanhuang alone to kill a Luofu Mountain elder who oppressed the Song family.

Luofu Mountain was one of the mighty Nine Great Heavenly Gates, and that battle was the most brutal of Adam Cooper’s entire career.

Adam Cooper was furious. In his life, what he hated most was betrayal by those close to him. Dylan Reed and the Nanhuang sects turning against him only made him feel contempt, but Ethan Scott truly enraged him.

Suddenly, Ethan Scott’s expression changed. Her jade palm flipped and struck the ground. With a loud bang, a ball of pale golden light exploded, and Ethan Scott floated lightly, landing safely dozens of zhang away.