From the heavenly gate to the black desert was a journey of ten thousand li, full of dangers and hidden killing intents. Along the way, Yan Wushen, Xiao Hei, and Chi Yao did not have an easy time. They went through several near-death ordeals.
“The legendary seventy-two demon god stone pillars are actually here. How could they be here? From the chaotic ancient times to now, so many ages have passed. Everyone thought this was just a legend. Who would have thought these stone pillars really exist?”
Xiao Hei stood at the edge of the desert, gazing far towards the stone pillars in the centre. Feeling the demonic might emanating from the stone pillars, his mood was extremely excited.
Yan Wushen and Chi Yao had obviously heard of the seventy-two demon god pillars. Their hearts were also shocked.
Flames wings unfolded on Xiao Hei’s back. Impatiently, he flew towards the position of the seventy-two stone pillars.
“Bang!”
He flew back upside down, crashing heavily into the ground and dragging out a long trench.
A roar sounded in the desert, raising a fierce gale.
The earth shook. A demonic beast resembling a black ox rolled in the sand and stood up. Its body was taller than a mountain. A pair of ox eyes, like two black pools, looked down at the three below.
Tian Lao stood on the head of the black ox, her red robe bright, her white hair like frost.
“Who dares to attack this emperor? If you have the skill, come out openly. What skill is there in sneaking an attack?” Xiao Hei stood up. After seeing Tian Lao’s figure, the anger in his eyes solidified.
How could a human-form living being appear here?
Could it be…
Xiao Hei’s face changed repeatedly. His teeth chattered. He cried out in shock, “Human-form strange beast!”
“Pa!”
Something unknown whipped onto Xiao Hei’s body.
Xiao Hei flew out again, crashing into a sand dune. He did not crawl out again.
With Chi Yao’s cultivation, she still could not see clearly how the other party had acted just now. The shock in her heart reached an indescribable level. Could it really be a human-form strange beast?
In front of such an existence, escape was impossible.
Yan Wushen seemed to think of something. He stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said, “Junior Yan Wushen of the Yan Luo clan pays respects to Tian Lao.”
“You actually recognise me?”
Tian Lao’s voice was vast, like divine sound from beyond the heavens.
Yan Wushen secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He said, “Senior Tian Lao is a great divine power of the hell realm. The Yan Luo clan has a stone carving of senior’s divine image. This junior has seen it before. I just did not expect that senior has always been in the Dark Abyss.”
When Tian Lao saw Gu She Jing, she already felt that her talent was extraordinary. Luo Zu Yun Shan Realm had a successor.
But looking at Zhang Ruochen again, and now at Yan Wushen, in her presence, he could be neither humble nor arrogant, speaking naturally. Such a state of mind and spirit was truly too rare.
One must know that in the past, when the Ghost Lord saw the Six Ancestors, he was so frightened that he almost knelt down.
As the supreme existence of the Raksha clan’s number one ferocious land, her deterrent power in heaven and earth was even greater than that of the Six Ancestors, who cultivated a joyful Buddhist dao temperament. To be composed and at ease in her presence required a powerful spiritual will.
Tian Lao glanced at Chi Yao again. She said, “Your era truly produces heroes one after another.”
Yan Wushen said, “Senior Tian Lao, have you seen one of my friends? His name is Zhang Ruochen. He carries the bloodline of the undead blood clan and is a member of the hell realm.”
“I have seen him. He is still alive.” Tian Lao said so.
Chi Yao’s heart, which had been worried all along, finally calmed a bit. But she fell into even deeper worry, because her transformation technique could not possibly deceive Tian Lao no matter what.
Yan Wushen said, “This junior has another matter. Since senior has always stayed in the Dark Abyss, do you know about my clan’s clan leader?”
“You mean Yan Huanyu?” Tian Lao said.
Yan Wushen knelt on one knee. His eyes were fervent, his tone sincere. He said, “Please tell me the old clan leader’s whereabouts. Yan Wushen and the Yan Luo clan will be endlessly grateful.”
“You actually ask me about Yan Huanyu’s whereabouts? Truly strange.”
Tian Lao shook her head and turned into a red shadow, heading towards the depths of the desert.
Yan Wushen could not understand why Tian Lao had such an expression. He immediately chased after her. He said, “Senior, do not go. The old clan leader has been missing for a hundred thousand years. The Yan Luo clan has split because of it. Countless clansmen have died in the struggles. If senior knows the ancestor’s whereabouts, please tell me a little.”
The black ox demonic beast blocked Yan Wushen. The two fought.
Chi Yao did not expect that Tian Lao would not make things difficult for her.
But thinking about it, it was normal. When Tian Lao disappeared from the hell realm, there was no Heavenly Court yet. The hell realm and the saint realm had not gone to war. There was no enmity at all.
Moreover, from the height Tian Lao stood at, she might not even care about a mid-rank god.
“Why did Tian Lao say such words just now?” Chi Yao muttered to herself, somewhat unable to understand.
Tian Lao had obviously seen Yan Huanyu. If she knew his whereabouts, she could directly tell Yan Wushen. If Yan Huanyu had already fallen, she could also say it directly.
Why did she feel that Yan Wushen asking her about Yan Huanyu’s whereabouts was a very strange thing?
“Great figures’ words are generally profound and unfathomable.” Xiao Hei’s voice sounded beside Chi Yao.
Chi Yao stared at him. He seemed uninjured.
It seemed that earlier, when he was whipped into the sand dune by Tian Lao, it was not that he was too injured to crawl out, but that he dared not crawl out.
Xiao Hei felt no embarrassment at all. He said again, “Tian Lao looks like someone who cherishes talent. She did not even kill us, let alone Zhang Ruochen. Perhaps Zhang Ruochen, upon meeting her, can even resolve the curse and directly break through to become a god.”
…
At the top of the Heavenly Demon stone pillar, Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged in the central position, carefully pondering every word Tian Lao had said earlier.
“Cultivate the heart and refine the body, unite heart and body.”
Zhang Ruochen recited this sentence. A smile appeared on his face. He said, “So that is it.”
The heart belongs to the body, yet does not belong to the body.
The heart can be concrete or formless.
“The ‘cultivate the heart and refine the body’ pursued by the Demon Ancestor lineage definitely does not refer to the heart organ, but to thoughts, state of mind, temperament.”
“Heart and body united, like man and sword as one. Where the heart points, the body moves.”
“The heart is infinitely vast, encompassing all things. Thus, the body can contain everything, absolute transformation.”
“My body is five elements chaos. My heart is all-encompassing like the sea. The Wuji saint intent is the bridge between heart and body. It can tightly connect the two, thereby fusing them.”
Having figured out these layers, Zhang Ruochen’s past doubts suddenly cleared. No longer lost, he began to fuse heart and body, impacting the absolute fleshly body transformation.
…
Below the seventy-two demon god stone pillars.
Tian Lao stood beside the heavenly well, eyes closed in contemplation.
Gu She Jing came to her rear.
“How is the comprehension going?” Tian Lao asked.
Gu She Jing said, “Every stone carving on the seventy-two demon god stone pillars contains infinite mysteries. To achieve something is not a matter of one morning or one evening.”
“Cultivation has never been a matter of one morning or one evening. To support Luo Zu Yun Shan Realm in the future and become the master of a realm, you must cultivate at least five hundred thousand years more. To seal kings and claim dominance, making cultivators of the world fear Luo Zu Yun Shan Realm because of you, then you must cultivate at least eight hundred thousand years, or even longer.” Tian Lao said.
Gu She Jing said, “If I can borrow the sun dial…”
“Time-type treasures are not shortcuts. Cultivating inside still consumes lifespan. It will make your Yuan Hui calamity arrive early.” Tian Lao said, “You must understand that entering the divine realm, the most important thing is patience. Sometimes, ten thousand years, or even a hundred thousand years with no progress at all, is very normal. If after cultivating a hundred thousand years you are still standing in place, what use is holding the sun dial?”
Tian Lao continued, “But standing in place for a hundred thousand years is also accumulation, accumulating experience and insights. It is very possible that one day, a breakthrough comes, and you step into a brand new level.”
Gu She Jing said, “I understand!”
“Rumble!”
In the distance, a massive black sand demonic beast exploded, forming rolling sand and dust.
From the black cloud-like sand and dust, Yan Wushen, Xiao Hei, and Chi Yao walked out. They rushed rapidly towards the seventy-two demon god stone pillars and arrived not far from Tian Lao and Gu She Jing.
“They actually broke in.”
Tian Lao was slightly surprised. She had a new assessment of these three.
Xiao Hei was very respectful. He said, “Lord Tian Lao, we did not intend to disturb. It is really because we are allies with Gu She Jing. This emperor sensed her aura, so we urgently wanted to see her. Actually, we are all on the same side!”
Chi Yao searched everywhere for traces of Zhang Ruochen. But the Heavenly Demon stone pillar masked Zhang Ruochen’s aura. She could not find him at all.
Yan Wushen said, “Senior, can you tell me where my clan’s old clan leader went? This matter is truly very important.”
Tian Lao stared at him for a long time, as if to see through him completely. She said, “A hundred thousand years ago, Yan Huanyu did come to the Dark Abyss. He entered the Desolate Ancient Ruins City. Right here, I had a conversation with him. After that, he left the Dark Abyss.”
Yan Wushen hurriedly said, “After leaving, where did the old clan leader go?”
“Of course he went back!” Tian Lao said.
Yan Wushen asked again, “Back where?”
“Besides back to the Yan Luo clan, where else could he go?” Tian Lao asked in return.
Even Chi Yao and Xiao Hei showed expressions of astonishment. Yan Huanyu had actually returned to the hell realm a hundred thousand years ago? Tian Lao obviously could not deceive them with lies.
While Yan Wushen was shocked to the point of his mind going blank, Tian Lao continued, “Yan Huanyu did not know from where he got the information. He came to the Dark Abyss searching for the Nine Cauldrons. It seemed he wanted to borrow the power of the Nine Cauldrons to stop the war between the Heavenly Court and the hell realm.”
“But after seeing the Nine Cauldrons outside the Witch Hall, he was greatly disappointed. He realised he had been deceived by someone and deliberately lured to the Dark Abyss. So, he hurried back.”
Yan Wushen’s eyes were full of confusion and bewilderment. He said, “But… but the old clan leader never went back… This… this… how could it be like this…”
“Rumble!”
At the top of the Heavenly Demon stone pillar, a pillar of bright light rose. Circles of intense light ripples spread in all directions.
Powerful saint dao aura, in mid-air, evolved into a heavenly river. In the river, colours of the five elements manifested. Knives and swords flew, chaos qi rolled… Various daos presented different phenomena.
What flowed in the heavenly river were all saint dao rules.
“Splash!”
Zhang Ruochen’s body soared up. The rapidly flowing river rushed into his chest. When he fell to the ground and appeared before everyone, all the saint dao rules had merged into his fleshly body.
The ground was dented by his foot, sinking a large area.
