Chapter 55: Slaying the Demon
Dahuang Star, capital of Yu State.
In the depths of winter, large snowflakes were blown about in the air by strong winds, but few of them fell gently to the ground. A few yellow dogs shivered and hung their tails as they slowly ran down the street with a hint of red in their eyes, gazing enviously at the entrance of a pork butcher shop where one of their kind was happily gnawing on a bone. They paused for a moment by the roadside, fantasizing about snatching food from the mouth of this lucky domesticated animal. However, a stout man with a broad waist and a cleaver in hand inside the pork butcher shop thoroughly dispelled their foolish notions.
Several yellow dogs crouched dejectedly at the entrance of a pork butcher's shop, let out a few fierce barks, tucked in their tails and quickly slunk away. The butcher's sinister gaze had already swept over them, seemingly weighing how many pounds of good meat could be sliced off their bodies. This gaze made the yellow dogs feel like their internal organs were trembling with fear, instinctively fleeing from this place.
The butcher, with a stern gaze, scared away several dogs that were sneaking into his house to steal food. He let out a few proud hums, and with great force, he chopped the bones on the cutting board. Pointing at the young apprentice of the noodle shop next door, he shouted loudly: "Hey you! Get me a bowl of scalding hot beef noodle soup, with lots of broth, lots of noodles, and even more meat!"
The young shop assistant at the noodle soup restaurant responded quickly, and in a short while, he had prepared a large bowl of noodle soup. Just as he was about to hand it over to the butcher, a red figure suddenly broke through the wind and snow, appearing before him like a ghost. A handsome young man with an almost otherworldly beauty lightly flicked off a snowflake that had landed on his shoulder, gazing straight at the bowl of noodle soup in the shop assistant's hand. He smiled softly and said, "It's been ages since I've smelled such delicious food. This bowl is your family's specialty!" Before anyone knew it, the young man's hands moved swiftly, and the bowl was now in his possession. The young man sat down at the entrance of the noodle soup restaurant, picked up a pair of chopsticks from the shelf beside the stove, and began devouring the noodle soup with big mouthfuls.
The young man with soup dripping from the corner of his mouth kept nodding and praising: "Delicious, delicious! It's been years since I've had something so delicious!"
The butcher from the pork shop next door was so angry that his face turned pale, and he wore only a leather vest on a cold winter day. The veins on his arms bulged as he pulled out his cleaver and slammed it onto the chopping board. He pointed at the young man in the crimson robe and shouted, "You scoundrel! How dare you steal my noodles? I'm warning you, don't look for trouble!"
"What a nuisance!" The man in the bloody clothes turned his head and glanced at the butcher, muttering to himself. Suddenly, the fresh blood in the butcher's body flew up, turning into fine threads of blood that sprayed out from his pores. In just an instant, the robust man's body was drained of all its fluids, leaving a dry corpse like a bundle of straw. The corpse fell heavily to the ground and broke into seventeen or eighteen pieces. A big dog crouching at the door, gnawing on bones, let out a sharp cry, tucked in its tail, and hastily fled down the street.
The man in the bloody clothes smiled with a smug expression, and he and his three or five companions ate the soup in the large bowl until it was spotless. Then they picked up the bowl and drank the fragrant and thick noodle soup until not a drop remained. Only then did they pat their bellies contentedly. The man in the bloody clothes said with satisfaction: "After so many years, I finally got to taste the flavor of smoke and fire! Hmm, when we were on the Hanging Sea, why didn't I think of asking those little brats to prepare some blood food?" He shook his head, and the man in the bloody clothes chuckled coldly: "Forget it, those little brats are almost all dead, only Old Ancestor escaped. Hmph!"
He casually tossed the bowl to the little servant who was shaking all over and had wet himself. The man in bloody clothes grinned at the other customers in the restaurant, who were also frightened out of their wits, and pulled out a handful of small red and blue gemstones from his sleeve and threw them on the ground. "The old ancestor won't harm you mortals," he said with a swagger, "but neither will I let you off scot-free! Boss, you're in luck, the old ancestor is giving you these gems, enough for you to live a life of luxury and leisure!"
He burst out laughing, the man in red stood up, dusting off his clothes. He strolled down the main street towards the palace of the King of Yu. The man in red walked quickly, muttering to himself: "Legend has it that the most famous Tianyi Daoist of the Great Luo Dan Tao 13,000 years ago was a certain prince of Yu State. He abandoned his throne to cultivate the Tao and later continued to bless Yu State after his ascension. That's why Yu State could last for thousands of years. I wonder if I can find any clues about the Great Luo Dan Scripture here? Having the treasure in hand but unable to open it is really frustrating!" "That Lin Xiao, he actually inherited the Great Luo Dan Scripture! Jiang Ziyin was right to let him go. But now that the Yuan sect's power is so great, there's no need for our ancestor to fight those unknown virtual realm masters, nor can we learn from him how to unlock the seal in the Great Luo Dan Scripture. Alas, I can only follow these faint clues to search."
The man in the bloody clothes let out a light sigh, raised his head to look at the gloomy sky, hummed coldly, and his body had already transformed into a burst of bloody shadows, pouncing towards the sprawling palace of Yu State.
On the side of the road, in a muddy pit, a small, unknown sprite suddenly jumped out. The sprite, whose body was bright red, jumped up and down excitedly on the spot, chirping and shouting: "Blood God Ancestor, I found Blood God Ancestor! Chirp, chirp, hurry and report to Master Yi Zu! Chirp, chirp, what will Master reward me with this time?" The small sprite grinned foolishly for a while, then suddenly slapped its own head hard, pulled out a small paper crane from its waistband, and snapped its fingers to produce a weak spiritual light on the paper crane. The paper crane flapped its wings, let out an extremely faint soft hum, and transformed into a faint white light that shot up into the sky. Soon, the paper crane merged into the wind and snow in the sky, leaving no trace of it behind.
The little monster danced and shouted for a while, turned its head to look around, and a smug smile appeared on its ugly face. It shrank its hands and feet and chased after the direction where the Blood God Old Ancestor had left.
The Suspended Sea, the Blood God Ancestor gathered a group of demon cultivators to prepare for a rebellion in the headquarters of the cultivation world. The Suspended Sea was also the name of this planet. There was not a single piece of land on the entire planet, and even small islands were only the size of a palm. The innate Xuan Yin water restriction made the Suspended Sea turbulent every day, with waves crashing against the sky and misty vapors filling the air. Being in the Suspended Sea felt like the ocean was floating above one's head, which was also the origin of its name.
The dark and cold aura of the Xuan Yin water has an eerie magnetic force hidden within, making it extremely difficult to control flying swords and treasures that belong to the metal element even in the open sea. Weaker flying swords and treasures will be shattered into powder by the impact of the Xuan Yin water's aura. If a cultivator below the Yuan Ying stage is attacked by the Xuan Yin water, their physical body and Yuan Ying will be frozen into black ice by the ancient remnant of extremely yin energy. If a cultivator who has formed their Yuan Shen unfortunately dies in the Xuan Yin water, their Yuan Shen cannot withstand its invasion and will inevitably be invaded by yin energy, erasing all memories and transforming into one of the most ferocious evil creatures in the world - a Yin Gui.
At this time, Lin Xiao was standing on a exceptionally bright red light, floating outside the atmospheric layer of the Suspended Sky. The red light that Lin Xiao was riding was actually the precious flying sword, Huo Yan Jian, which was one of the mid-grade treasures given to him by Yuan Zong. Its quality was more than ten times higher than Lin Xiao's original Chi Long Sword. Just the scattered red light alone had blocked all sorts of harmful stray energies in the void that were detrimental to the human body. With Lin Xiao riding his sword and floating, he didn't even need to activate his protective robe to safeguard his physical body; it was truly an extremely pleasant and carefree experience.
Lin Xiao suddenly realized the importance of a good treasure for personal strength. In the past, if he were to ride the Red Dragon Sword out of a planet's atmosphere, he would be torn apart by the violent energy of space in less than an incense stick's time. But now, riding the Great Fire Sword, he could move about in space with ease, as if strolling through a courtyard. Lin Xiao couldn't help but develop a great interest in various rare and precious flying sword treasures, a very great interest!
"If possible, I must collect the best and strongest Taoist treasures. One set for Ya'er, one set for Master and Mistress. One set for Hua Dajie. With such a powerful flying sword treasure to protect them, they will never be attacked by enemies again?" Lin Xiao looked at the empty sea below his feet, and he had already made up his mind.
Led by Gu Weng, Jin Zun, Hua Shen, Qing Yi, and Qing Chu, the three surnamed Xuan - Xuan Yuan, Xuan Hang, and Xuan Luo - joined forces to issue a poster that attracted numerous renowned sects from the cultivation world, gathering tens of thousands of cultivators at Xu Kong Hai. They prepared to launch a massive attack on Xu Kong Hai, aiming to eradicate the demonic forces gathered by Xue Shen Lao Zu. The Orthodox Alliance's power was formidable, with eight Void Realm experts and over 200 Nascent Soul stage cultivators, as well as more than 3,000 Core Formation stage cultivators. Even the weakest among them were powerful Golden Dan stage cultivators! It can be said that the entire cultivation world's elite had gathered here. This was a massive force capable of destroying any power in the current cultivation world. The eight Void Realm experts were unparalleled in today's cultivation world.
Moreover, there is a Blood Dragon here who has forgotten his own age and can't even figure out how many years old he is - Ao Xue. A Blood Dragon who has gone through the transformation of the Heavenly Tribulation unique to the Blood Dragon clan, successfully shedding his original shell and transforming into a human form, possessing the legendary power of an immortal! With the current top-notch cultivation in the cultivation world being at the Yuan Shen stage, Ao Xue alone can already slaughter the tens of thousands of Orthodox cultivators present, let alone the demonic cultivators who have been defeated by the Yuan Zong and are now hiding under the Suspended Sea with their morale completely depleted.
A small head popped out from a cluster of green moss on Lin Xiao's shoulder, and Yao Jing glanced at Ao Xue, who was reciting incantations and making hand seals while standing on the Blood Cloud. Lowering her voice, she whispered to Lin Xiao: "Lin big brother, this woman is really scary! These past few days, she has been guarding your home entrance, and any female disciples of the Yuan Zong who dared to approach your abode were beaten until their faces were bruised!" Yao Jing smiled with some satisfaction: "Those people are so pitiful, they had their bones broken, but can't recover as quickly as I do!"
Lin Xiao raised his head and stared blankly at the endless void. Yao Jing's words once again stirred up Lin Xiao's painful memories!
This overbearing mother dragon, she not only beat up the female disciples of the Yuan Sect who dared to approach Lin Xiao's residence, but also made Qing Le pour tea for Lin Xiao and eat a big half-day of vinegar, almost turning Lin Xiao's abode upside down! "I just hugged her, that's all! This is still something that Gu Yong gave me! What's the big deal?" Lin Xiao muttered to himself in confusion: "Want me to marry her as my wife? Heaven!" Lin Xiao instinctively thought of his father Lin Shan's legitimate wife, Hua Yunniang, and it seemed like he saw himself becoming the second Lin Shan!
His body suddenly tensed up, and Lin Xiao gritted his teeth and coldly snorted: "Impossible! Such a thing, impossible!" He muttered to himself in a low voice: "As long as I can beat you, you'll marry me? Alright then, my strength will never surpass yours, and you can just watch as I get killed by someone else? Hmm, this is equivalent to having a celestial guardian by my side at all times, it's extremely good." Thinking of this, Lin Xiao couldn't help but curl up his lips into a smile. Forced by the harsh reality, Lin Xiao gradually transformed from that pure and kind-hearted, simple-minded young man, slowly developing some cunning and calculation. This was a good thing, at least he would find it easier to survive in the future.
Tens of thousands of Orthodox monks stared at Ao Xue, puzzled as to why Yuan Zong would let such a tall and beautiful girl launch the first wave of attack. Could it be that Yuan Zong thought this girl could break through the innate ban on the Suspended Sea's Heavenly Water Restriction? The elders of the Orthodox sects smiled, shaking their heads in disdain.
They all knew that Yuan Zong had invited several seniors with virtual realm strength from somewhere, and they also knew that Yuan Zong had set up an ambush. He heavily injured the demon cultivators who attacked him under the leadership of Xue Shen Lao Zu. Logically speaking, even if Xue Shen Lao Zu's strength was higher, he couldn't escape their encirclement with eight virtual realm experts joining hands. As for the remaining Yuan Shen stage, Yuan Ying stage, and Jindan stage demon cultivators, they could be eliminated cleanly by just two or three virtual realm experts!
Yuán Zōng however wants to loudly gather so many Orthodox masters to rush to the Hanging Sea. These elders all understand Yuán Zōng's meaning: Establish prestige!
Yuán Zōng must once again demonstrate their illustrious reputation as the first sect of the cultivation world in front of all the orthodox sects. It seems that after this joint operation to exterminate demons is successful, Yuán Zōng's prestige will soar once more? "However, does Yuán Zōng's prestige really need to be increased? Since ancient times, they have been the largest sect in the cultivation world; why bother with so much fuss?" Several elderly figures who were well-versed in Yuán Zōng's inner workings whispered among themselves in confusion.
Awe's hand emitted a pitch-black light that was extremely piercing. The light was deep and seemed to absorb everything around it, giving people a feeling of being blinded by its intensity.
Long and powerful, with a faint glow of blood light, the double palms pressed down, and the black light flew out, rushing into the suspended sea. Countless groups of dark water demons came from all directions, making a piercing whistling sound, like birds flying into the forest, and threw themselves at the black light. Gradually, the rolling dark water demons became more and more numerous, denser, and the thunderous sound shook the sky above the suspended sea. The black dark water demons were torn apart, forming long strips that ripped through the air, rapidly flying towards the black light. In the air, a huge thunderous sound was triggered. It shook people's ears in pain, and the shallow cultivators' bodies swayed, almost falling into the suspended sea that was undergoing a massive change. A group of colorful lights flashed from the hands of those deeply cultivated Orthodox elders, firmly protecting these Golden Elixir and Yuan Ying stage cultivators.
The Snow Seal Technique transformed and changed, remotely controlling the black light to revolve around the suspended sea surface thousands of miles in diameter below, collecting the dark water within a radius of nearly ten thousand miles into a clean slate. In the end, it condensed into a human-head-sized black light ball that was almost substantial, floating in the air above the suspended sea, emitting an aura of death that sent chills down one's spine.
Ao Xue turned back to look at Gu Weng and his group, who were staring blankly, and shook her head: "Is the mysterious water demon going to make it difficult for you like this? If you encounter even more formidable yuan water or mysterious water, won't your legs turn soft with fear?"
Eight virtual realm masters' faces turned red at the same time, and then a few strands of helplessness suddenly appeared in their hearts: "You dragon tribe are originally water-playing experts, and the mysterious yin water calamity is nothing to you!"
Shaking her head and letting out a cold laugh, Ao Xueyu's palm lightly pressed downwards, causing the black light sphere to bring up a dark light pillar that crashed into the surface of the Suspended Sea. Beneath this surface was the lair occupied by the Blood God Old Ancestor and his cohorts - the Ruo Yuan! This Ruo Yuan was over thirty miles deep, with complex terrain, and had a naturally occurring intense aura of death, making it the favorite place for evil cultivators to cultivate. Having been heavily attacked by Yuan Zong, the thousands of demon cultivators who escaped back to Ruo Yuan were still recovering, planning to rely on the natural seals of the Suspended Sea to rest and recover their strength before making their next move!
But then, Ao Xue arrived. A being with the power of a celestial, overbearing and ruthless, showing no mercy. One who was originally a rare species among the dragon tribe, born with absolute control over various water energies, for whom the mysterious and sinister water could almost be ignored - Ao Xue.
The light sphere that absorbed all the mysterious yin water disasters within a radius of ten thousand miles crashed into the sea surface, falling straight to the bottom of the deep pool. The light sphere shattered the seabed and penetrated nearly a thousand miles underground.
In the void, Ao Xue sensed the location of the light sphere with a thread of divine consciousness. A strange smile appeared on her face, and she lightly clapped her hands, saying softly: "Explode!"
The light ball burst open, and a huge amount of dark yin water energy surged out of the light ball. It collided with the scorching hot lava that was rushing up from the earth's core, causing a clash between yin and yang, water and fire. The two extremely powerful forces produced a terrifying destructive power. A black-red energy wave rushed forward, tearing the nearby rock layers into powder. The toxic fire at the bottom of the earth lost its restraint and roared out, crazily rushing towards the sea surface. At the same time, a huge amount of seawater in the air also rolled down along the channel opened by the light ball, colliding with the toxic fire from the earth's core.
The catastrophe is about to erupt!
A piece of rock crust thousands of miles in diameter suddenly bulged up, shattered into countless fragments and soared into the sky in a burst of intense black-red light, accompanied by massive amounts of seawater.
The sky was suddenly empty of a large piece, many Orthodox monks stared blankly at the seawater and rock fragments rushing towards them from below, shouting loudly as they set up their escape lights and fled to a distant place. An old man with a Yuan Shen peak cultivation frantically shouted: "Star extinction! Star extinction! This is the power of an immortal! Only immortals can destroy a star! Star extinction, this is the power of an immortal! The Yuanzong still has an immortal!"
Inside Yuan Zong, there was actually another immortal! All the cultivators who were fleeing in a panic couldn't help but feel shocked and suddenly turned their heads to look at Xiao Xue. An immortal? Is it possible that there is still an immortal in the current cultivation world? No way! It's completely impossible! All immortals, including those in the Unity stage, had disappeared suddenly in a catastrophic event in the past. At that time, even Nascent Soul stage cultivators were extremely rare in the cultivation world. Following that, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth continued to dissipate, making it increasingly difficult for people to cultivate, to the point where forming a Golden Core became a luxury. All cultivators had no choice but to start relying on external forces to cultivate! In this situation, how could an immortal possibly appear in the cultivation world? No way!
However, the power of Star Extinction is indeed the power of an immortal!
This tall and slender beautiful girl is actually a fairy!
Immortal
The entire Back Void Sea exploded. The massive seawater and the tyrannical, unparalleled earth-core toxic fire collided, resulting in the explosion of the entire planet. A terrifying black storm swept through the void, annihilating everything in its path within millions of miles. Gu Gong and several other high-ranking experts from the Virtual Realm, as well as a large number of Orthodox Cultivation practitioners at the Yuan Shen stage, used their strongest divine powers and mobilized their most powerful magical artifacts to barely bring all the cultivators to safety before the Back Void Sea exploded. They stared blankly at the distant, piercing black light sphere, feeling an immense sense of terror towards Ao Xue, that mysterious girl. Then, they saw something even more terrifying and unbelievable!
A handsome, elegant and seemingly kind-hearted young man was being beaten up by a girl named Ao Xue on a boulder!
