They pressed forward, the ground streaked with red and black as if soaked in blood.
Before long, the two had delved deep into this region. All around was deathly quiet, save for the sound of their footsteps; no other noise could be heard.
The Zen Maiden walked ahead and said, “Zhang Ruochen, before meeting you, all the rumours about you filled me with disgust. I even intended to kill you with my own hands.”
“And now?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
“After meeting you and spending this time together, I find you are not so detestable.” The Zen Maiden said.
Zhang Ruochen smiled sarcastically. “Because I am foolish enough to have saved you out of kindness multiple times?”
“No!”
The Zen Maiden said, “If you had not saved me, I would have crippled or killed you at our first meeting. I believe you have long suspected my identity, but out of fear for my cultivation, you have never dared to act rashly.”
“So, my shift from loathing you to not finding you repulsive is not because you saved me repeatedly. It is because, facing powerful enemies, you have stepped in multiple times to aid your friends. Also, when you saved me, during our moments alone, in your eyes, I saw not a greed for beauty. This differs from the rumours!”
Zhang Ruochen said, “In truth, from the start, I preferred to believe you were indeed the disciple of Yuan Yi Ancient Buddha. In my heart, I constantly reminded myself that you were Hai Shui, the junior sister who faced powerful enemies without fear, who viewed death as a return home, who never abandoned me. Sadly, these illusions have shattered. Tell me, should people have fewer fantasies to determine if someone is truly human?”
The Zen Maiden strode forward swiftly, her steps like a gentle breeze.
Zhang Ruochen followed and said, “You came to the Abyss of Darkness to seek Yin Xue Tian, did you not? You once said that Yin Xue Tian and the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable had a son, and that person must be your ancestor, right?”
The Zen Maiden halted abruptly, her body surging with chill intent. She turned and stared at Zhang Ruochen. “All these wrongs stem from the seeds sown by the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable. Whether the Dao Severing Curse or today’s calamity, Zhang Ruochen, if you must blame someone, blame the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable. He planted the evil cause, leading to today’s evil fruit. Karma and retribution, the cycle of heaven’s way.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “None of us lived through those times, so we know nothing of the truth. By what right can you judge right and wrong? If right and wrong are truth, what wrong did my Zhang family’s ancestors commit? Why should they be cursed? After the curse, how much slaughter did they endure?”
“Yin Xue Tian did not kill them; she only sought to use the Dao Severing Curse to draw out the Spirit Swallow and the Mani Pearl. Sadly, the Spirit Swallow never appeared, nor did the Mani Pearl emerge. Thus, their deaths came because they were too weak.” The Zen Maiden said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “If that is so, is right and wrong the truth, or is strength and weakness the truth? In your eyes, the weak deserve death, deserve to bear all burdens. Why then debate right and wrong with me? Do you know that before the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable, all are weak.”
The Zen Maiden gave a light hum and continued forward, speaking no more.
Bypassing the Witch Hall’s outer region, the Zen Maiden and Zhang Ruochen circled nearly ten thousand li. Along the way, they encountered some dangers, but she resolved them effortlessly.
Before them stretched a barren desert.
Deep in the desert stood seventy-two stone pillars.
Any single pillar paled beside the Heavenly Gate. Yet, arrayed together, the seventy-two pillars formed a grand spectacle, like divine columns upholding heaven and earth.
Each pillar bore carvings of varied forms: humans, beasts, birds… all fierce in aura, as if they might spring to life.
Zhang Ruochen glanced down and noted that, though hundreds of li from the seventy-two stone pillars, the desert sand had turned utterly black, ten times darker than charcoal, thick with demonic qi.
“Swish swish.”
A black wind suddenly arose in the desert.
The wind swirled, whipping up sand into a vortex like a dragon.
“Moo!”
In the eerie, demonic sandstorm, a bizarre demonic shadow emerged, tens of zhang tall, with a human body and ox head. It wielded a war hammer, smashing straight towards the Zen Maiden and Zhang Ruochen.
“Rumble.”
Zhang Ruochen sensed the shadow’s outburst of aura, fiercer than an ordinary true god’s by several degrees, shaking the entire earth.
The Zen Maiden raised two fingers and flicked them; the shadow dispersed on its own, reverting to black wind and sand.
She stepped forward towards the seventy-two stone pillars.
Along the path, black winds erupted repeatedly, forming increasingly powerful demonic shadows. Some surpassed even the dragon-phoenix strange beasts in strength, yet none could halt the Zen Maiden’s advance.
The Udumbara flower’s fragrance had grown intensely thick, emanating from beneath the seventy-two stone pillars.
As the Zen Maiden and Zhang Ruochen neared the pillars, the surroundings finally calmed; no more winds or shadows appeared.
She lifted her snow-white face, gazing at the carvings on the pillars, deep doubt surfacing in her eyes.
Zhang Ruochen looked up too; the pillars towered higher than mountains.
The pillars seemed plain, yet Zhang Ruochen felt an invisible demonic pressure, as if one falling could crush a great world.
This pillar bore the carving of a handsome man wielding a long sabre, dishevelled hair, brows like ridges, eyes profound. Every line seemed attuned to heaven and earth.
The statue was lifelike, the stone figure as if ready to step down from the pillar.
An ordinary cultivator would kneel and kowtow after one glance.
“How is this possible, this is…”
The more Zhang Ruochen looked, the more familiar the figure became. He had seen it in the river of time: the Heavenly Demon, who left the “Heavenly Demon Stone Inscription” to pass on his legacy.
Why was the Heavenly Demon’s statue on this pillar?
The Zen Maiden said, “He is one of the three great demonic sources, the Heavenly Demon. You should be no stranger.”
Zhang Ruochen clasped his hands in a fist and bowed deeply to the pillar.
He held respect and gratitude for the Heavenly Demon.
The Zen Maiden walked towards the second pillar and said, “It seems you know nothing of the legend of the seventy-two pillar demon gods!”
Zhang Ruochen had cultivated for a short time, his foundations shallow; he knew little of the universe’s ancient secrets.
But upon hearing “seventy-two pillar demon gods” from the Zen Maiden, he immediately searched the knowledge left by the Connect-Heaven Divine Wood.
As she walked, the Zen Maiden said, “The universe’s history spans the near ancient, middle ancient, and high ancient eras. The middle ancient was brief, only two hundred thousand years. The high ancient was a grand age, a time of great prosperity, lasting about thirteen million years.”
“Many divine spirits who study history say the high ancient began with the Heavenly Demon and ended with the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable.”
“Though not entirely accurate, in terms of cultivation and strength, the high ancient’s peak at its start was indeed the Heavenly Demon, and at its end, the Immovable Ming King Great Venerable.”
“Before the high ancient lay an era of utter chaos, so distant now that it is hard to trace. Thus, history books call it the chaotic ancient.”
“In the chaotic ancient, the Dao waned while demons waxed; the demonic path shook the cosmos.”
“In that era, another remarkable being was born: one of the three great demonic sources, the Great Demon God. Born in the Pangu Realm, with invincible cultivation across the world, countless demonic path powerhouses under him, he waged war across the universe, unifying the Sacred Realm, commanding the ten hell tribes and myriad realms. The war dragged on for hundreds of thousands of years, known as the chaotic ancient.”
“Under the Great Demon God’s lead, the demonic path unified the universe; none dared defy. Then, the Great Demon God ordered seventy-two stone pillars forged from dark night star mother stone, carving his seventy-two most powerful demon gods upon them, sealing them as the ‘seventy-two pillar demon gods’.”
“The Heavenly Demon ranked first, head of the supreme four pillars.”
The Zen Maiden continued, “Yet the Great Demon God never imagined that the first demon god he personally appointed would kill him, ending his demonic dynasty. The chaotic ancient closed, the demonic path perished, ushering in the high ancient’s flourishing chapter of a hundred flowers blooming.”
“The Heavenly Demon killed the Great Demon God?” Zhang Ruochen said.
The Zen Maiden said, “In that era, who besides the Heavenly Demon could withstand a single move from the Great Demon God?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Even if the Great Demon God died, the demonic path still had the Heavenly Demon and the seventy-two pillar demon gods. How did it fade so quickly?”
“The demonic path was extreme, bloodthirsty and cruel. After the Great Demon God’s death, the Heavenly Demon vanished from the world. The seventy-two pillar demon gods turned on each other: some died, some wounded. In the end, the demonic path decayed. Thereafter, no demonic powerhouses like the Great Demon God or Heavenly Demon ever arose again.” The Zen Maiden said.
As they spoke, they reached the base of the thirty-seventh pillar.
Carved upon it was an undying bird.
From the Connect-Heaven Divine Wood’s knowledge, Zhang Ruochen knew the thirty-seventh ranked among the seventy-two pillar demon gods was indeed the undying bird. He wondered if this was Little Black’s ancient ancestor.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Strange, why are the seventy-two demon god pillars here?”
“This is what intrigues me most too!” The Zen Maiden said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “The Heavenly Gate vanished a hundred thousand years ago, as the gate to the Sacred Realm. The seventy-two demon god pillars belong to the chaotic ancient, over thirteen million years old. The Witch Hall disappeared at the far ancient’s end, likely over a hundred million years ago, perhaps more. Why do these landmarks from various eras all appear together in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City?”
As Zhang Ruochen and the Zen Maiden pondered, shadows on the demon god carvings atop the seventy-two pillars quivered. One by one, the statues seemed to revive, stirring faintly.
The Zen Maiden tensed slightly and looked up.
The pillars did not move, nor did the carvings.
Zhang Ruochen had sensed it too and said, “This place is eerie; let’s find the Udumbara flower first.”
“Do I need you to teach me how to act?”
The Zen Maiden felt displeased, thinking Zhang Ruochen showed no awe before her, that she had been too lenient. Thus, she pointed a finger forward.
From her slender, pale fingertip flew a chain, wrapping Zhang Ruochen round and round.
“A captive should act like one. I am a great god; you should harbour fear. To kill you takes but a thought.”
The Zen Maiden gripped the chain and commanded, “From now on, you walk ahead.”
Earlier, when Zhang Ruochen debated right and wrong with her, leaving her speechless, she had already been quite annoyed. But as a peerless great god, she maintained composure and had not erupted then.
