Chapter 1713: 781: Demon Extermination
Those rootlets were like countless minuscule insects, endlessly gnawing, devouring their Immortal Dao Dao Patterns and replacing the Immortal Dao with the Dark Sea’s Evil Dao.
They ate away the original flesh and blood of their physical bodies, using their own flesh and blood to substitute their bodies.
Emperor Wan Shou sensed those worms eating his eyes, eating as they manufactured new eyes.
He also felt something strange about his tongue—that was a portion of his tongue slowly losing all sensation, while at the same time it felt as if something extra had appeared in his mouth.
Something that did not belong to him.
That thing was a tongue—a tongue that was not his, indescribably agile. This tongue was licking his lips, counting his teeth, and then his teeth began falling out one by one, new teeth growing in their place.
But those were not his teeth.
His eyes bulged wide, terror filling his gaze.
He discovered that he was being devoured at incredible speed!
At the same time, another “him” that was not him was rapidly forming.
The experience was utterly horrifying.
Emperor Wan Shou sacrificed the Demon-sweeping Duster, using his remaining consciousness to urge this Magical Treasure.
“Duster Refining Demon!”
The horsetail whisk spread open, each strand of dust silk piercing into his body, penetrating his Daoist Field and stabbing into his Primordial Spirit. They were like extremely fine strings; as the strings vibrated, all manner of supremely mysterious Dao sounds burst forth, like an immortal melody, making one unconsciously sink into intoxication.
That was the immortal melody used by the Spirit Treasure Daoist Ancestor when refining demons, using the Immortal Dao to refine the Outer Dao. The five notes were proper, yet strange variations emerged in endless succession, containing the might of the Immortal Dao. As the music spread out, countless worms within his body instantly shattered, turning into clumps of blood mist.
Emperor Wan Shou’s body in that instant also became riddled with holes, a mangled mass of flesh and blood.
Only half an eye remained to him, his nose bridge collapsed, there were no teeth in his mouth, and many of his bones were missing.
“Mere Outer Dao demon worms, and you think to seize my physical body?”
Emperor Wan Shou’s features twisted; his heart, liver, intestines, stomach and other organs were all riddled with holes, and the surface of his skin looked as if it had been gnawed by insects and ants, appallingly gruesome.
He was already at the Peak of the Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm, his Life Force incomparably powerful; even so, he would not die. With a single thought, several strands of the Demon-sweeping Duster separated from his body and flew out, stabbing toward Ning Zhenzi.
“Back when the Earth Immortal Realm was opened up and Great Demons ran rampant, the Spirit Treasure Daoist Ancestor swept demons, using this duster to exterminate every Great Demon under heaven and break all Outer Dao! Let alone a trifling demon like you?”
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Subtle Taoist Monarch also sacrificed the Eight Trigrams Refining Furnace. The Pill Furnace rose into the air, its mouth turning downward, covering Ning Zhenzi.
This Treasure was the refining-treasure for Alchemy of Daoist Taiqing. Though not a Supreme treasure of the Taiqing Realm, it was after all an item of a Daoist Ancestor, its power boundless.
The Subtle Taoist Monarch first used the fire within the furnace to temper his physical body, Daoist Field, and Primordial Spirit, refining away the worms inside him, and only now freed up his hands to deal with Ning Zhenzi.
He was faring no better than Emperor Wan Shou, like prey gnawed by ants and worms, his body riddled with holes, his cultivation greatly damaged. But the Eight Trigrams Refining Furnace was truly domineering: at its very first strike it suppressed Ning Zhenzi.
Ning Zhenzi struggled against the suppression and burning of the Eight Trigrams Refining Furnace, feeling an incomparable heaviness. At the same time, the Demon-sweeping Duster shot toward him, every strand of silk like a sharp sword, throwing him into confusion. He could not help but praise, “What a fine Magical Treasure! Truly worthy of being a demon-refining Treasure of the Three Pure Ones, it can actually wipe out so many of my clones! It’s just that—who said I only understand the Outer Dao?”
Emperor Wan Shou and the Subtle Taoist Monarch’s faces changed drastically. They suddenly realized that the worms in their bodies had not been completely refined away; quite a number had lain dormant, evading the slaughter of the Demon-sweeping Duster and the Furnace of Eight Trigrams. Now these worms were becoming active, and while devouring their flesh and cultivation, they continuously spawned new worms!
The worms they had just eradicated contained the Outer Dao, dominated by the Evil Dao.
But the hidden worms contained the Immortal Dao!
The two Magical Treasures could sweep flat and annihilate the Outer Dao, but overlooked the Immortal Dao.
These worms proliferated rapidly inside them, gnawing Emperor Wan Shou as they replicated and split. Even if Emperor Wan Shou and the Subtle Taoist Monarch urged the power of their respective Magical Treasures, for the moment they were unable to completely slaughter all these worms.
The worms within them continued to self-replicate and divide, kill one batch and another arose.
Ning Zhenzi’s pressure lessened greatly as he laughed and said, “Fellow Daoists, after fusing with me, I am you and you are me, so why struggle?”
Countless fine tendrils shot out from his body, stabbing into the two men.
Emperor Wan Shou and the Subtle Taoist Monarch tried to resist, but having ingested that so-called Bodhi Dao Fruit, their disadvantage was too great. The two of them only had time to block a move or two before their own flesh and blood and Primordial Spirit, along with their Dao Patterns, were all devoured and replaced!
Had the two not been injured, if they faced Ning Zhenzi one-on-one, they would not have feared him in the slightest.
With such heavy Treasures as the Demon-sweeping Duster and the Eight Trigrams Refining Furnace, not only could they protect themselves, they could even wound or kill Ning Zhenzi.
But now that they had first been heavily injured by Chen Shi and then tricked by the Bodhi Dao Fruit, they could no longer oppose Ning Zhenzi.
In no time at all, the consciousness of the two sank into darkness.
From within the Green Palace came a rustling sound, like countless silkworms feeding.
Chen Shi walked within the Stone Forest, where one green stone pillar after another was branded with Immortal Dao Dao Patterns left behind by an Immortal Emperor Supreme. From time to time he would halt, carefully examining these Dao Patterns, grasping the wondrous truths of the Great Dao hidden within them.
𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
His pace gradually slowed.
The brands on the Stone Forest were all Immortal Dao Dao Patterns. The Immortal Emperor used the Immortal Dao to expound the Outer Dao, and the depth of these Dao Patterns, in Chen Shi’s experience, was second only to the Green Stele left by the Daoist Spirit Treasure, exceedingly obscure.
Ever since Chen Shi perfected the Primordial Talisman, there had been no secrets left in Immortal Dao Dao Patterns in his eyes; yet the Dao Patterns on the Stone Forest repeatedly enlightened him, allowing him to comprehend still more.