Chapter 176: Chasing the murderer for thousands of miles and meeting the old enemy again
In the battle of Baihuayuan, the two sacred domains defeated the Holy Temple Purification Corps, their reputation soaring to new heights, spreading throughout the spirit world. Outside the Xuanyun Sect's mountain gates, a constant stream of pilgrims and cultivators arrived daily to seek refuge. The power of Youge and Jiuxiao Tiangong expanded at an unprecedented rate, and the concept of "balanced coexistence" spread quietly like a spark across the war-torn spirit world.
Yet, even as the situation seemed so promising, Ye Li and Qin Yixuan had quietly left the center of the commotion. The blood debt of the Bone-Eroding Venerable, like a venomous thorn, pierced Ye Li's heart. It wasn't just a personal vendetta; it was also about uncovering the deeper secrets of the Demonic Abyss, particularly the shocking revelation that "Mo Shang" might not have been completely annihilated. This journey was imperative.
The two temporarily entrusted the affairs of the sect and the alliance to Mr. Muyun, the Lord of Yaoguang Palace and the already independent Monkey King Sun Xiaohou. Without any followers, they left the Northern Territory silently like two glimmers of light blending into the breeze, sneaking towards the northern territory shrouded in the haze of the Demon Abyss.
They chose not to directly rip space apart for long-distance teleportation. In the current treacherous situation, with powerful enemies lurking around, any large-scale spatial fluctuations could alert the enemy and even draw an ambush from the Holy Temple or the Demonic Abyss. More importantly, they needed to see with their own eyes, to feel what this "holy-demon war" sweeping the spirit world had brought to this land.
The scenes they passed through along the way were far more tragic than they had ever heard before.
The once prosperous "Flowing Cloud Fairy City," once bustling with merchants, is now nothing but scorched earth and ruins. The pure white flag of the Temple, perched atop the highest broken wall, flutters in the wind, radiating a cold aura of order. The surviving monks and mortals, with haggard faces and vacant eyes, work numbly under the watchful eye of the Temple's law enforcement team to clear the ruins and rebuild the uniform yet lifeless white buildings that meet the "Temple standards." Anything with personal touches or traditional patterns is confiscated and destroyed. Even the ancient songs sung by children at play attract the vigilant scrutiny and "correction" of the law enforcement team. Laughter and joy are gone, only a suffocating, dead silence of "order."
In another vast swamp known as the Black Water Marsh, the scene was even more horrifying. Demonic energy swirled across the murky waters like a living being, corroding the once lush aquatic vegetation into twisted, pitch-black forms. Countless low-level demons—some shaped like bloated corpses, others multi-eyed, multi-legged arthropods—slithered through the swamp, roaring and devouring each other. The edges of the marsh were littered with the gnawed remains of humans and demonic beasts, and the air was thick with a foul stench and a mind-bending surge of negative energy. Once home to many aquatic demon cultivators and herbalists, this place had become a complete no-go zone for life.
They even witnessed a small-scale skirmish. A remnant of a local sect, less than a hundred strong, led by a white-haired old leader, relied on a dilapidated ancient formation to struggle against the "purification" of a Templar patrol. The Templars brandished their lightsabers indifferently, the priests' chants sounded like a death knell, and the old leader, with a final, burning resolve in his eyes, detonated the sect's inherited magical treasures with his disciples, perishing along with several Templars. The brilliant and tragic light of the explosion illuminated the despairing, numb faces of the survivors.
Late at night, I once glimpsed a small town occupied by the forces of the Demonic Abyss. In the center stood a twisted altar of flesh and blood, pulsing like a heart, draining the townspeople's vitality and souls to nourish some powerful demonic creature. The townspeople, their eyes frantic, resembled the walking dead, driven by the demonic force to perform endless labor and sacrifice.
Scene after scene, incident after incident, like the sharpest blade, sliced at the hearts of Ye Li and Qin Yixuan. The Temple's "order" stifled thought and vitality, extinguished diversity; the Abyss's "chaos" corrupted the very foundations and led to the regression of civilization. Regardless of which side emerged victorious, the future left for the spirit world was an incomparably bleak one.
"Do you see that, Li?" Qin Yixuan whispered, gazing down at the lifeless wasteland tainted by demonic energy. Her beautiful eyes were filled with compassion and determination. "This is the consequence of extremes. Both the Holy Temple and the Demonic Abyss have embarked on the wrong path."
Ye Li was silent, her dark robes fluttering in the wind, her eyes deep and abyssal. She knew more about the conspiracies and betrayals of her past life than Qin Yixuan did, and possessed a deeper understanding of the nature of these two great forces. "Light and darkness, order and chaos, should be two sides of the same coin, maintaining a dynamic balance. But now, they are artificially torn apart, pitted against each other, attempting to achieve their own extremes by destroying the other... There must be a greater dark hand behind this."
She remembered the warning from the Star God Temple and the message about the "Lord of Nirvana" in the Samsara Mirror. This war that engulfed the spirit world was perhaps merely the prelude to a greater conspiracy.
"Because of this, our path is even more meaningful." Qin Yixuan held her hand, and the warm star power passed through, bringing comfort and strength. "Dynamic balance, compassionate protection... It may be difficult, but we must continue, for this land, and for all living beings who yearn for peace."
Ye Li clenched her hand tightly and nodded. The tragic scenes along the way did not shake their faith. Instead, they were like a quenching fire, making their determination even more indestructible.
Leveraging the Yeli Samsara Sanctuary's profound perception of the causal line, and their precise targeting of the unique, sinister, bone-rotting maggot-like malevolence of the Bone-Eroding Venerable, they journeyed northward, traversing numerous vast domains ravaged by war and the fierce clash of Order and Chaos. To maintain their presence, they avoided major battlefields and key strongholds of both sides, choosing instead to follow desolate paths.
The journey wasn't without its challenges. They encountered numerous small groups of Temple patrols, zealous defenders of order who harbored a deep hostility towards any unpurified, powerful strangers. They were also targeted by hunting parties from the Demonic Abyss, minions of chaos with an instinctive greed for powerful energy sources. Ye Li and Qin Yixuan dealt with these unavoidable troubles with lightning-fast methods, striving to leave no trace. Ye Li's power of reincarnation often disintegrated the very foundations of their existence before they could even react; Qin Yixuan's star purification was the ultimate guarantee for clearing any lingering aura.
After nearly ten days of cautious stealth, they finally crossed the buffer zone and officially entered the core control zone of the Demonic Abyss, known as the "Blood Land of Ten Thousand Demons." The sky here was perpetually shrouded in a dark red haze, the earth was cracked, and rivers of lava flowed with the scent of sulfur. The concentration of demonic energy in the air far exceeded that of the outside world, exerting a strong corrosive effect on non-magic cultivators. Even Ye Li and Qin Yixuan were forced to constantly channel the power of their sacred domain to resist.
According to their intuition, the last place the Bone-Eroding Venerable disappeared was deep within this bloody land, a mountain range considered taboo even by demons—the Burial Demon Mountains. And they had arrived at an ancient city called "Black Nightmare," located on the outskirts of the Burial Demon Mountains.
This ancient city, recorded in ancient Northern Territory Stories, was once a frontier fortress for humanity against the demonic scourge. Its walls were high, its moats deep, its runes woven throughout, and it produced countless heroes. However, now, it has been completely reduced to a demonic den, its former glory and splendor trampled away, leaving only endless darkness and filth.
The towering city walls had long since lost their original color, completely covered in a purple-black, creeping moss that seemed alive. Corrosion-riddled holes covered the walls, faintly revealing the twisted, proliferating flesh within. The massive city gate had long since collapsed, replaced by an arched entrance constructed from countless pale bones, constantly dripping with black slime, like the gaping gullet of a giant beast.
Within the city, the once neat streets and bustling markets had vanished, replaced by a chaotic maze of shattered buildings, twisted metal, and overgrown flesh. Countless low-level monsters of varying shapes, emitting a foul stench and a frenzied aura, crawled through these mazes like cockroaches, roaring and fighting and devouring each other. The air was thick with the stench of blood, decay, and pure demonic energy, almost condensing into a substance, making it difficult to breathe.
The place in the ancient city where the demonic energy was most intense, beating like a heart, was right in the city's center. That building, originally the City Lord's Mansion, a symbol of order and power, had now been completely transformed into a massive and sinister altar of flesh and blood!
Ye Li and Qin Yixuan hovered high in the sky, using the clouds and their own exquisite concealment techniques to perfectly conceal their presence and figures. Their gaze penetrated the numerous magical barriers and architectural obstructions, clearly capturing the entire altar.
It was a circular altar, over a thousand feet in diameter. Its base was densely packed with the twisted and deformed skeletons of countless races, the gaps between the bones filled with the still-twitching flesh of unknown creatures. Carved upon the altar's surface were countless twisted, blasphemous demonic runes that stirred the deepest fears and negative emotions of all living beings. These runes slowly moved like living things, flickering with an ominous dark red light.
At this moment, the altar was clearly operating at full capacity. A dark red light emanated from the runes, forming a vast, slowly swirling vortex of blood and energy above the altar. Visible, ribbon-like streams of blood-red air were forcibly drawn from every corner of Black Nightmare City, from the nests, from the streets, and even from deep underground. They wailed and struggled as they merged into the vortex. It was the remnant of the blood and resentful spirits of countless slaughtered and sacrificed beings!
And in the very center of the altar, presiding over this massive and brutal blood sacrifice was an old man wearing a dark purple robe with magic patterns. His body was skinny and hunched like a candle in the wind, but in his eye sockets were dancing two clusters of dark green soul fire that seemed to be able to freeze the soul - it was none other than the target they had been tracking for thousands of miles, the Bone Erosion Venerable!
He sat cross-legged on a throne made of skulls, his hands forming a strange seal. A powerful aura of the Saint Realm emanated from him, remarkably reaching the peak of the early Saint Realm! He greedily absorbed the vast energy refined and purified from the vortex of blood and energy, using it to consolidate his recently broken through, yet still somewhat fragile, realm. He even attempted to harness the resentful power of the city's blood sacrifice to attack the higher barriers. The aura emanating from him was even colder and more powerful than anything Ye Li had sensed before, filled with curses, betrayal, and ominous notes, as if embodying all the malice in the world.
"Right now! We can't let him go on!" Ye Li's eyes were sharp as knives, and she transmitted a message to Qin Yixuan. Every moment of delay meant more of the power of living beings would be devoured, and the power of the Bone Erosion Master would likely increase. This evil ritual must be interrupted!
Qin Yixuan understood without hesitation, knowing full well that she had to break the impasse with drastic measures. She raised her hand slightly, and the mysterious female power flowing from her fingertips instantly established a mysterious connection with the stars in the sky.
"The Northern Dipper determines death, the Southern Dipper governs life; power of the stars, obey my command—purify the demons!"
Her cold, clear voice seemed to carry the rhythm of the stars. A beam of starlight, pure to the extreme, imbued with an unwavering will to purify, descended from the heavens, seemingly transcending the boundaries of space! The beam wasn't massive, but condensed as substance, its color a deep, "star-shaped blue" that seemed to cleanse all filth. With unwavering precision and unerring accuracy, it struck the very core node of the vast, slowly swirling vortex of blood and energy!
"Shhhhhhhh!"
Like a red-hot iron plunging into icy water, the clashing energy was deafening! The star-blue radiance, imbued with the purifying power of the Mysterious Woman, violently collided, intertwined, and annihilated the foul, violent blood energy! Countless resentful souls trapped within the vortex seemed to be freed, letting out a final sigh of pain and peace, purified and liberated by the starlight, dissipating between heaven and earth. The entire blood energy vortex twisted and trembled violently, forcibly interrupting the previously stable energy flow and causing its circulation to stagnate.
"Who?! Who dares to ruin my good deeds?!" Shocked and enraged, the Bone-Eroding Venerable abruptly rose from his skull throne. His dark green soul fire instantly surged, like two ghostly lanterns, piercing through the demonic energy and locking onto Qin Yixuan, who loomed high in the clouds. He was presiding over a blood sacrifice at a crucial moment, and being forcibly interrupted not only ruined his efforts but also incurred a significant backlash. His fury surged.
However, when his eyes, filled with rage and murderous intent, inadvertently swept across the black-clothed figure beside Qin Yixuan, who was also floating and had an aura as deep as the abyss, the soul fire in his eyes suddenly froze, as if frozen by invisible ice, and the jumping flames were almost extinguished in an instant!
That figure, that face, that unforgettable aura… Even after transcending reincarnation, even after he became the Demon Lord, they were still deeply imprinted in the deepest part of his soul like a nightmare!
"It's... it's you?! Li... Li Zun?! No! Impossible! How... how did you find this place?!" Zun Gu's voice shrieked, filled with utter shock and unbelievable fear. He had already learned of Ye Li's rebirth and entry into the Holy Land through the Demon Abyss's intelligence network. Although initially shocked, he felt that since he was hiding in the heart of the Demon Abyss, with the dangers of the Burial Demon Mountain, the enemy would be impossible to find. But the reality before him was like a hammer, shattering his hope!
Extreme fear was like a drenching head, but then, a surge of resentment pent up in his bones, along with the hysterical madness fueled by fear, suddenly erupted! He pointed at Ye Li, his dry fingers trembling violently, and roared hoarsely, as if to dispel the chill that lingered in his heart through this roar:
"It's you! It's all because of you! Ye Li! If you hadn't been so stubborn and blocked our path to the highest path, why would we have done such extraordinary things?! Senior Brother Ling Hao, Fellow Daoist Xuan Cong, and Master Mo Shang... We could have created a new era that belonged to us! It's you! It's you who ruined it all! You deserve to die! You should have died long ago!"
He looked like a madman, speaking incoherently, but one of his words was like thunder from the sky, striking Ye Li's heart hard!
"Lord Mo Shang will not let you go! He will definitely avenge us! You will be damned forever!"
Lord Mo Shang!
Mo Shang! The traitor who had also betrayed her, whose body she had personally slain and whose soul she had crushed with the power of Samsara in the final battle at the Silent Soul Abyss! Listening to Venerable Erosion's roar, filled with resentment and dependence... Mo Shang, hadn't actually been completely annihilated?! Had his remnant soul or consciousness been collected by a powerful figure in the Demonic Abyss? Or even... perhaps reshaped through some unimaginable means?!
The shock brought by this news made Ye Li's eyes instantly become extremely deep, as if a storm was brewing in them.
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