Meng Qi and others feared getting lost and unable to return to the exit, so they could only advance along the river flowing with crimson water. Proceeding cautiously, they used strangely postured pitch-black trees and giant boulders for cover, seeking suitable targets to attack.
Not all demons can condense demon crystals; only those whose bodies contain a certain level of concentrated demonic energy can achieve this, meaning they must possess at least the strength of an Iron Demon.
“How about that one? It seems to be almost at the level of a half-step Outer Scene.” Meng Qi, concealed behind a pitch-black boulder shaped like a human face, cautiously peeked out with half his head and fixed his gaze on a demon by the riverbank devouring fish.
The demon stood nearly ten feet tall, with thick, long legs, wielding a heavy demonic blade. Black mist swirled around it, so dense that its features were obscured. The fish it held was three feet long, with emerald scales, black hair sprouting from between them, and a mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth.
The demon devoured the black-haired, green-scaled fish in a few swift bites, splattering flesh and blood, leaving only a large bone behind, its maw entirely stained crimson.
“Let’s take him.” Jiang Zhiwei replied succinctly. Qi Zhengyan and others made no objections, indicating agreement.
Thus, the five scattered. Ruan Yushu and Qi Zhengyan remained in place, while Jiang Zhiwei and Zhao Heng flanked from the left and right. Meng Qi took a deep breath and charged straight out!
He had no intention of hiding their presence from demons of this level in the demon realm. In this tainted and corrupted environment, the effect of the Purifying Talisman and the aura of his companions stood out like fireflies in the night.
Thud, thud, thud. Meng Qi, gripping his blade tightly in his right hand and channeling all his strength into his legs, pushed his Wind God Legs technique to its limit. Like a massive war chariot, he charged relentlessly toward the demon.
Instantly alerted, the demon transformed, spun around, raised its demonic blade, and slashed toward Meng Qi. The blade’s energy coiled with black mist, like a summons from the Nine Nether.
Standing ten feet tall, compared to Meng Qi, it was like half a mountain peak, giving a feeling of insurmountable power.
Zheng! Ruan Yushu, with focused eyes, swiftly plucked the strings with his right hand, unleashing the “Snatch” tone from the Eight Heavenly Dragon Sounds. Instantly, the demon froze, its primordial spirit shaken, as if on the verge of being seized.
Seizing the opportunity, Meng Qi moved like a phantom, twisted in an eerie motion, dodged the blade’s energy, and reached the demon’s front, roaring, “Kill!”
The thunderous words echoed, and the evil spirit trembled.
Purple Lightning surged forward, his blade flickering nine times in a feint. Each strike appeared to vibrate at the same point, like overlapping afterimages, compressing layer upon layer and generating a thunderous roar.
Boom!
Nine purple lightning bolts, serpentine like dragons, crackled and intertwined, morphing into a spinning wheel that struck fiercely at the demon.
Boom!
The Divine Thunder purged all wickedness. The demonic aura surrounding the evil entity was utterly dispelled, revealing its true form.
Its entire body was covered in black scales, resembling a lizard. A deep gash, visible to the bone, appeared on its surface, with purple lightning snakes slithering nearby, continuously shattering the nauseating scales.
Just recovering from the sound of the qin, the evil spirit fell into intense paralysis.
At the same time, Qi Zhengyan activated the Dragon Pattern Red Gold Sword. A cold light, like a hornless dragon emitting a bluish glow, slashed toward the demonic fiend from afar.
Where the blade’s light swept past, the demonic energy froze into black snowflakes, like ashes of burnt paper, drifting slowly away.
The sword’s gleam struck the paralyzed demon, deepening the wound and piercing through its body. Dark crimson blood gushed out, freezing into crystalline shards midair before they could touch the ground—like frozen droplets of blood suspended in the sky.
Trapped in the ice, the demon writhed, its struggles emitting eerie creaks and causing visible fissures to spread.
At this moment, Jiang Zhiwei arrived. Her White Rainbow Through the Sun Sword, radiating an aura that awed all evil spirits, traversed oceans and split mountains as it slashed from between the brows straight to the throat.
Crack! The thin layer of ice on the demon’s face shattered instantly, but its head also split in two, black liquid gushing out as its severely wounded primordial spirit retreated into its body.
Genuine demons were far more resilient than hastily crafted ones infused with demonic energy, especially in terms of vitality!
Bang! Zhao Heng’s dark golden sword thrust and twisted, completely shattering the demon’s primordial spirit. Its massive body collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Under the combined assault of the five, this demonic entity, slightly stronger than the Snake King, was utterly defenseless and slain on the spot. Meng Qi’s left-hand sword hadn’t even been unsheathed yet.
A relatively complete team fighting together was indeed terrifying!
Dark demonic energy swirled within the fiend’s body, condensing as it perished, forming a dark demon crystal. Its entire body either dissolved into blood or was absorbed into the demon crystal, leaving only a blood-red spinal bone—smooth as jade on the surface yet harboring violent ferocity within.
“Blood Demon Bone, excellent material for forging.” Ruan Yushu approached and commented.
Meng Qi turned to Zhao Heng and said, “Let her take it first. We’ll exchange it for merit points and split them equally.”
“Alright.” Zhao Heng replied indifferently, prompting Meng Qi to inwardly grumble about his wealthy demeanor, treating small “money” with utter disregard.
After collecting the Blood Demon Bone and Demon Crystal, Meng Qi and the others dared not venture deeper, instead searching nearby for other demonic creatures.
After bypassing a grove by the river, Meng Qi’s eyes suddenly widened, for the massive golden swastika was right before him—its distance unclear, yet directly ahead, with the glazed Buddha light and the demonic chants identical to what he had encountered before.
Why is it here?
Didn’t we deliberately walk in the opposite direction?
Countless thoughts surged through Meng Qi’s mind as he turned to Jiang Zhiwei and others, all sharing similar expressions of shock.
“There shouldn’t be many demonic beings suppressed by the Buddha’s light…” Qi Zhengyan frowned.
Meng Qi nodded slightly and said solemnly, “If we are not surrounded by the swastika symbols from all four directions, it means that no matter which path we take, we will ultimately arrive at the Buddha’s Light and True Demon.”
“Perhaps after the Venerable Jiuzhen shattered a primordial demon and sealed it away, he also suppressed the surrounding evil spirits, preventing them from leaving this area. No matter which direction they attempt to flee, they are drawn back to the core. The entrance to the demonic realm was likely their desperate attempt to escape…” Jiang Zhiwei speculated based on her understanding.
As Ruan Yushu was about to speak, a blood shadow suddenly surged from the river, vaguely human-shaped, exuding bloody and filthy aura, so intimidating that Meng Qi couldn’t help but tremble.
A demon at the initial stage of entering the outer realm?
Meng Qi was both startled and shocked, but before he could draw his blade, the blood shadow moved at a speed nearly impossible to track. It lunged forward, landing directly on Jiang Zhiwei.
A flash of bloodlight, a sound of shattering, it failed to penetrate Jiang Zhiwei’s body and devour her flesh.
Fish Scale Soft Armor? Joy surged in Meng Qi’s heart as a warm, pure light suddenly illuminated from his chest.
A green lamp slowly floated up, standing before Meng Qi. Its light wasn’t bright or dazzling, but warm and pure, spreading out, not carrying a trace of darkness or evil, illuminating every corner nearby, leaving no shadow untouched, permeating with purity and solemnity.
“Amitabha.”
“Om Mani Padme Hum.”
The blood shadow screamed in pain, its surface erupting with bloodlight, seemingly being purified under the green lamp’s glow.
“Sealing Demon Tower!” Meng Qi shouted directly, his right hand poised with “Sky’s Wound,” while his left readied “Flowing Fire.”
He wasn’t at the External Scenery level, and the Lamp Before Buddha was damaged, making it difficult to truly purify this newly ascended External Scenery-level Blood Demon!
As the blood shadow pounced towards Jiang Zhiwei, Ruan Yushu had already retrieved the Sealing Demon Tower. Seizing the opportunity created by the effect of the Lamp Before Buddha, she activated it.
A seven-story glazed pagoda radiated brilliant light, with each tier displaying images of Arhats and Bodhisattvas delivering sermons, merging into a vast residual vision.
The Buddhist pagoda, enveloped in radiant glazed light, descended. The blood shadow, unable to conceal itself under the glow of the green lantern, was instantly crushed beneath it.
The demonic aura erupted, and the vague blood shadow vanished, revealing its true form—a demonic blood hide with eyes and a nose!
Only five breaths of time! Without hesitation, Meng Qi thrust his sword.
Flowing Fire was like a sunset across the sky, breathtakingly beautiful, without tricks or hidden moves, heading straight for the bloodskin.
As this sword strike was unleashed, the green lamp dimmed, shrinking back to its original size, hanging once again from Meng Qi’s chest.
Zizi… Flowing Fire pierced the bloodskin, like burning fat, creating a clear sword hole, flames spreading, burning every inch of its skin, pure and intense.
The Blood Demon screamed in agony.
Without the illumination of the green lamp, it regained some mobility, though not the previously untraceable speed. Following closely behind Meng Qi, Qi Zhengyan unleashed “A Thousand Miles of Ice.” The cold light transformed into sword energy, summoning black snow once more. Layer by layer, it froze, crystallizing into a sparkling encasement that trapped the Blood Demon within.
Jiang Zhiwei took a deep breath and unleashed his full power without holding back. The Buddha’s light dimmed, as if the entire world was eclipsed by that single dazzling sword gleam.
Following some mysterious cosmic law, the sword light effortlessly pierced through the ice, striking the demon’s forehead between the eyebrows. Surging sword energy displayed its power to awe evil spirits, shattering its primordial spirit.
Zhao Heng’s qi dragon condensed behind him. With a strike of his left palm, it surged forward, devouring and tearing through the demonic blood skin.
The fragments fell, and the Blood Demon’s primordial spirit was annihilated.
Meng Qi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Without the Sealing Demon Tower, confronting a blood demon immune to ordinary attacks would have left them with slim chances of survival. Their only hope would have been for the “little glutton” to influence it with the Langhuan Twelve Divine Sounds, allowing Senior Brother Qi to unleash his full External Scenery strike to restrain it while Meng Qi attacked with Heavenly Thunder and a trace of the Eightfold Heavenly Dragon’s Fire in an attempt to deliver a fatal blow. If Zhiwei and Zhao Heng also possessed similar techniques, there might still have been a glimmer of hope. Otherwise, once the blood demon recovered, it would have been a complete slaughter.
The surging demonic energy condensed once more, forming a blood demon crystal.
Most of the bloodskin dissolved into the black earth, leaving only a palm-sized fragment.
Jiang Zhiwei shook her robes, the fish scale armor within turning to black ash. Without it, she might have perished, unless her master had given her additional life-saving measures.
The fish scale armor contained Benbo’erba’s vital essence and blood, which the Blood Demon consumed first, thus being obstructed.
Grateful to Benbo’erba for saving both my life and Zhiwei’s… Meng Qi silently sighed in relief. His fish-scale armor had shattered during the ambush at the Mountain God Temple under the final strike of the Blazing Demon, rendering it irreparable. Yet, it had secured victory against three opponents—a price well worth paying.
“Are you alright?” Meng Qi asked with concern.
Jiang Zhiwei exhaled, shaking her head: “I’m fine.”
“We already have five Magic Crystals. Even if Bi Xia Yuan Jun only gets one, it’s enough to destroy the passage. Let’s head back now and hide near the entrance. If we encounter powerful Evil Demons, we can retreat directly to Ji Tian Hall—they won’t be able to cross an unstable passage,” Meng Qi suggested.
“Alright.” Ruan Yushu concisely agreed, while Qi Zhengyan simply nodded.
Jiang Zhiwei nodded softly and said, “On our way back, let’s try to take down another demon below the External Scenery level.”
“I hope Bi Xia Yuan Jun doesn’t let us down,” Zhao Heng sighed.
Bi Xia Yuan Jun was currently in the outer regions, slaying demons below the Half-Step realm as effortlessly as butchering chickens and dogs, easily obtaining a demon crystal. The concern was that greed might cloud her judgment, tempting her to venture deeper.
The five returned along the blood river. Not long after, they saw the dim, vast void hole.
Suddenly, from the core suppressed by the swastika, the demonic roar overpowered the chanting voices, as black hurricane gusts emerged, sweeping violently in all directions!
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