The light faded, and the only sound that could be heard in the dungeon was the rattling of the chains. Demon was nowhere to be seen.


    Hagin heard the soundsing from the cell and yanked the door open. He rushed in and saw the empty spot where Demon had been chained to."


    "What the... Where''s Demon? Did you really kill him?"


    The cell was guarded tightly, and there were no passages to escape through. The only way out was the door, and Hagin had been watching it the whole time just now. He would have definitely seen Demon if he had escaped.


    Yet there had been no sign of Demon, but he was indeed nowhere to be found now. There was only one possibility. Could it have been the noise from just now?


    Hagin turned to the old man, who said, "Yes, Sir Hagin. Demon was reduced to dust. He''s dead."


    "Y-You did that?"


    Hagin looked down at his watch. "Eight minutes! You two only took eight minutes to kill Demon. How is that even possible?"


    "Oh, I had nothing to do with it," said the old man. "It was all Wilbur. He was the one who killed Demon with one blow."


    "Alright, fine. Either way, you''ve passed this challenge, and you may take the eighth dragon cauldron with you."


    "Thank you, Sir Hagin."


    "Alright. You maye with me to take the cauldron now."


    Demon''s presence in the dungeon had always been a pain in Hagin''s neck. After all, he was indeed powerful, but Emperor Ramos refused to sentence him to death. What if an elite like that were to escape one day and stir up trouble? Hagin would be partially to me for that too.


    Demon''s death was actually a good thing for Hagin, and he heaved a sigh of relief while his back was turned to Wilbur and the old man. He led the two men out of the dungeon and had them wait at the base while he went to fetch the cauldron.


    At the same time, six wisps of ck miasma floated out from the dungeon toward where Emperor Ramos'' quarters were in the underwater ce. The miasma found Ramos soon enough and entered his body.


    The next second, Ramos hurried back to his room in the middle of his walk. He stood in front of a full-length mirror, taking off his mask.


    If Wilbur and the old man were here, they would be able to tell at first nce that the merfolk''s emperor, Ramos, who had never shown his real face this entire time, looked just like Demon from the dungeon.


    Demon was actually a clone of Emperor Ramos. Wilbur had blown Ramos'' clone apart with the power of light just now, and the six wisps of miasma had returned to Ramos'' body, meaning that Demon was now back in Ramos.


    The merfolk emperor stared at himself in the mirror. "F*ck! I can''t believe you''re back."


    In the mirror, Ramos'' reflection smirked back at him. "Didn''t Senior Fremont tell you? There''s going to be a huge shift in the underwater city when the chosen one appears. I''m back now. We''ll never be apart, no matter how hard you try to get rid of me. That''s the best piece of advice Senior Fremont''s given to you."


    It turned out that Fremont hade to the underwater city back in the day, where he met the merfolk emperor. The two of them had dueled against each other, and Fremont had beaten the emperor with ease. Ramos had wanted Fremont to be his master, but Fremont turned him down, saying the time just wasn''t right yet.


    Emperor Ramos had actually been a human cultivator. His mother found herself in the world of the merfolk one day all of a sudden and ended up marrying a merman, thus birthing Ramos.


    That was why the merfolk emperor had a human form, but his blood was half merfolk.


    Ramos had been highly gifted and quickly mastered the six main energies of the underwater city. His powers grew immensely as well, but his human form caused him to be mocked endlessly. This filled him with shame and resentment, causing him to wear a mask and refrain from showing his real face to others.