“This Black Mountain Demon King? Perished just like that?”
Beside him, a female Daoist murmured, still somewhat disbelieving.
“The City God sacrificed four incarnations, hundreds of years of accumulated divine power to seal him, plus two supreme treasures. Even a Demon Emperor would find it hard to resist…”
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Master Lesong’s complexion improved somewhat, though his heart ached inwardly.
After this battle, the fortune of two supreme treasures of the Orthodox Sect would be reduced by half! The ancestral master’s imprints within had fully exerted their power and now vanished into oblivion.
“At least we successfully saved the world, earning great merit in both the heavenly Dao and human morality, which can certainly compensate!”
At this thought, his mood improved slightly. He slowly ascended the high platform and approached the throne, but his pupils suddenly constricted.
The throne was now only a deep pit.
Within the pit, the two supreme treasures floated in midair. Although their glow was weak, their spiritual essence remained undiminished.
Under the white light lay a mask and a black robe, both tattered and worn.
“This…”
Seeing the scene, Master Lesong felt a slight unease: “Could this Black Mountain Demon King have been a ghostly soul or yin spirit? Reduced to ashes without a trace in the previous attack?”
But now, he could only form a hand seal. The Orthodox Sect’s Supreme Seal and the Supreme Demon-Slaying Sword flew into his hands.
His spiritual sense briefly scanned them and found the damage wasn’t as severe as he had imagined—it could be repaired. A hint of joy appeared on Master Lesong’s face as he put the jade seal into his robe and, holding the short sword, entered the inner hall.
Behind the heavy curtains was a large pool.
Within the pool, wisps of white spiritual energy gathered into liquid, accumulating to fill most of the pond, exuding astonishing spiritual power that gave one a feeling of intoxication.
However, within the spiritual liquid, there were also faint traces of black qi intertwined, making one’s scalp prickle.
“What a blessed land with a spiritual eye, a pity it has been defiled by the demon realm…”
Behind him, the female Daoist sighed at the sight, her eyes filled with longing: “Shall we keep it?”
“This spiritual eye has already been polluted by demonic energy. How can it be preserved?”
Master Lesong chuckled lightly: “Besides, unless we complete our mission, how can we gain merit?”
Seeing his female senior sister’s reluctant expression, he continued: “Don’t be hasty, my dear sister. After we accomplish this great task, I shall thoroughly cleanse this place, raze mountains and break into caves, turning the entire three-hundred-mile Black Mountain into Orthodox Sect territory. Then, a mere spiritual spring and eye will be nothing.”
With his short sword glowing with talisman light, he mercilessly slashed downward!
Bang!
The spiritual pool exploded, and the heavens and earth seemed to tremble slightly. Within the old Daoist’s painting scroll, the white dot representing the most critical node suddenly lost its light.
…
Boom!
Lightning flashed as a frog the size of a mountain rolled over, belly up.
“Thanks to your help, we were finally able to clear out this demon lair!”
Wu Ming slowly retracted his palm, beside him stood the already numb-looking Gong Yunshang and Xu Ziquan, along with a kind-faced old Daoist who stepped forward to express gratitude.
“Yes! Saving the world is the sacred duty of those of us who walk the righteous path!”
Wu Ming smiled slightly: “Our immediate priority is to destroy this spiritual energy node!”
“Of course!”
The node of the Black Mountain Demon Realm at this location was an ancient tree spirit plant. The old Daoist narrowed his eyes, his sword qi surged forth, cutting it in two.
Bang!
The spiritual tree fell, and the entire Black Mountain seemed to tremble.
“Ah? My Daoist cultivation has actually reached such a miraculous effect?”
The old Daoist was stunned, almost unable to believe it himself.
“It’s not here, but the Black Mountain formation’s core… It seems Master Lesong and the others have succeeded…”
Wu Ming climbed to a high place and gazed into the distance, murmuring to himself, still somewhat incredulous.
At this moment, he naturally had no desire to get involved in the core battle—it would be too easy to get caught in the crossfire or used as cannon fodder. Therefore, he remained on the periphery.
Still, even he hadn’t expected Master Lesong to succeed so smoothly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!…
The rumbling sound was like an earthquake. With the core formation destroyed, it seemed to trigger a chain reaction. The eighteen nodes, even those still guarded by demon generals, exploded one by one.
“Magnificent!”
Finally realizing the situation, the old Daoist clapped his hands in delight: “Master Lesong must have succeeded!”
“Has the mission truly been completed?”
Xu Ziquan, Li Suihan, and others exchanged glances, their eyes filled with expectation and ecstatic joy.
If this mission succeeded, the rewards and gains they would receive would be unprecedented.
“Rejoicing now is premature!”
Wu Ming glanced at these overly excited individuals with a sense of exasperation: “If the mission were truly completed, wouldn’t the Temple of the Sovereign Deity have given us a notification? Besides…”
He opened his spiritual eye and observed the entire Black Mountain’s spiritual aura, his expression growing increasingly grim.
…
Slightly earlier in time, at the very moment the Orthodox Sect launched their assault,
In the underworld.
“Charge!”
On the plains near Gui Mang Mountain, countless yin soldiers and generals formed ranks, their military aura soaring into the heavens, bearing the banners of the Black Mountain Lord and the Black Platform City God, numbering over three hundred thousand.
As the battle began in the mortal realm, the underworld immediately turned crimson.
Within this blood-red hue, war drums thundered, horse hooves thundered, and the two armies blew their horns and crashed into each other.
Numerous ghost deities with flames several feet or even several zhang tall were dispatched in large numbers, embedded within the armies. At this moment, each led their soldiers in fierce, brutal battles.
“The great battle! This is the final confrontation that will decide the future landscape of the underworld!”
“The fire at the city gate has scorched the fish in the pond. Hurry and flee!”
“May the Black Platform City God emerge victorious!”
…
With malevolent qi surging into the heavens, the entire underworld became turbulent. Layer upon layer of hidden blessed lands and spiritual places were revealed, and long-dormant ghost deities were startled awake.
Numerous probing divine senses hovered above the battlefield but avoided a certain area as if fleeing from a deadly serpent.
“Black Mountain! Half of your eighteen mountain and river lords under your command have been killed or wounded, and the nodes have been destroyed. Why don’t you retreat?”
The Black Platform City God, radiant with light, spoke to the ghost deity opposite him, whose black spiritual energy had transformed into a coiling dragon, wrapping around his entire body.
“Hehe… What eighteen mountain and river lords? They were merely a dozen dogs under my command. Their deaths bring me no sorrow, just as you feel no grief for the fallen land gods…”
This ghost deity was naturally the Black Mountain Lord. Upon hearing this, he sneered coldly: “That Daoist merely destroyed one of my robe incarnations. Daring to boast so arrogantly, truly laughable!”
As a powerful deity, the movements of Master Lesong in the mortal realm naturally could not escape their notice.
“Even so, with the Black Mountain Demon Realm rendered ineffective, your schemes have come to nothing… Perhaps even incurring divine retribution. If you withdraw now, I can forge an ancient deity covenant with you…”
The Black Platform City God’s androgynous face showed sincerity.
“Haha… Do you think I would beg for mercy from you? Besides…”
A strange laughter emerged from beneath the Black Mountain Lord’s mask: “Do you really believe the formations I laid out would be so simple?”
“What do you mean? Something’s wrong!!!”
The Black Platform City God’s pupils constricted. Divine power surged within him, but it was already too late.
Boom!
An image of the three-hundred-mile Black Mountain instantly formed behind the Black Mountain Lord. As those eighteen nodes dissipated, more white light emerged from the land veins, recombining to form a new grand formation.
“The previous Black Mountain Demon Realm was merely an illusion. That Master Lesong cutting off those eighteen spiritual nodes was actually the key step in activating this true formation! Without him helping me break the seal, how dare I risk heavenly punishment to activate the land vein formation here? Haha… Now the nodes are destroyed, the spiritual energy is flowing, and it can never be changed again!”
A more powerful realm force surged over the Black Mountain Lord in an instant. A black halo shot into the sky, making him appear like the Yama Prince of the underworld: “Now… Don’t you recognize it?”
“Never thought… you actually revived this forbidden technique…”
The Black Platform City God’s eyes carried sorrow.
“I’ve always said, one day I will reclaim everything that was mine!”
The Black Mountain Lord shrieked, a thick column of black smoke shot into the sky, forming a black barrier that spread across the heavens and earth, engulfing everything.
In an instant, the entire underworld was covered by the black barrier, with strange forces continuously surging forth.
“Decree! Annihilation!”
The Black Mountain Lord gazed at the battlefield below and spoke four words calmly.
Bang!
In an instant, massive numbers of yin soldiers directly collapsed and vanished. The stronger ghost deities roared and howled, yet could only watch helplessly as their flames of power gradually withered until they turned to ashes.
Even not only the City God’s forces, but the Black Mountain army itself was also affected by the realm.
This realm seemed to arbitrarily absorb ghostly energy, with an extremely wide range, treating all living beings equally.
“With the underworld like this, the mortal realm cannot be spared either… Black Platform, next is your turn!”
With a wave of his hand, hundreds of thousands of yin soldiers turned to dust. The Black Mountain Lord lifted his head, his dark golden eyes fixed upon the Black Platform City God.
…
Pah!
The ink painting scroll fell to the ground, and Master Lesong’s face was filled with disbelief: “This… is impossible!”
“Senior Brother…”
The female Daoist stepped forward. Her clear eyes glanced at the scroll and saw that after the eighteen light spots vanished, it seemed to have triggered something. One after another, white dots lit up, totaling three hundred and sixty-five, forming an even more vast and powerful formation.
Boom!
The three-hundred-mile Black Mountain roared, a pitch-black smoke column shooting straight up, dyeing the entire sky black.
Phantasmal images of the underworld appeared, and a tremendous pulling force continuously assaulted their souls.
“This suction force, how many times greater is it than before? Tenfold? Hundredfold?”
Master Lesong’s face bore a mixture of laughter and tears: “What a Black Mountain Lord! He even had a formation within a formation, and made this old Daoist the key to activating the formation, becoming the scapegoat for heavenly punishment!”
“Heavenly punishment?”
The female Daoist shuddered, then saw silver serpents dancing in the sky, lightning continuously condensing, and a massive destructive aura pressing down, nearly making her suffocate.
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