Chapter 1355: Righteous and Demonic
Chapter 1354: Righteous and Demonic
Seeing demonic shadows gathering all around, everyone from the Dao Court was shocked.
Elder Xuanyuan immediately shouted in fury, “Demonic scum—”
Before he could finish, sinister mist suddenly surged up in all directions, throwing the situation into chaos.
The demonic sword hanging at the edge of the sky began to hum. Blood condensed in the air, droplets forming into tiny crimson swords that fell like a torrential rain.
Demonic qi turned into blood, sword qi into rain, attacking the people below.
The primary targets of these blood swords were the prodigies of the various clans.
The demonic cultivators understood clearly: killing ten Golden Core elders was not worth as much as killing a single heavenly prodigy.
The guardian elders of the great clans obviously understood this as well. They activated treasures, formed barriers, or raised shields to protect their own prodigies, resisting the rain of blood-sword qi.
Some elders from the Situ clan and Qianxue Prefecture clans also stood before Mo Hua, blocking the dense killing intent of the demonic swords for him.
At the same time, the ground began to writhe. More and more corpses crawled up from beneath the earth.
These were no ordinary walking corpses. Their bodies were rotten, green blood flowing from them. After burrowing out, they lunged at people in all directions.
Shi Tiangang of Vajra Gate casually threw a few punches, blasting several corpses through. Just as he was wondering why these zombies were so fragile, he heard Mo Hua shout:
“Hold your breath!”
Shi Tiangang’s face changed, and he immediately covered his mouth and nose.
The next instant, green light flashed from the pierced corpses, and they exploded, corpse poison spreading into the air.
Mo Hua pointed a finger, forming a curtain of water that sealed the poison outside, then said,
“Take antidote pills first.”
Only then did the prodigies react. They hurriedly pulled out anti-poison pills from their storage bags and swallowed them.
They had little experience dealing with the demonic path and knew far less about corpse-refining than Mo Hua, so when the sudden change occurred, their reactions were naturally slower.
After that, more zombies continuously lunged at the crowd.
These were Poison-Blast Corpses.
Their direct killing power was not strong, but as long as they got close, green light would flash and they would self-destruct.
After exploding, their remains turned into powdery mist that spread through the air.
Following the poisonous blast, fragrant powder drifted over, carrying a sweet scent that seeped into the lungs.
Anyone who inhaled it would have their desires stirred, thoughts wandering.
In a hazy trance, it seemed as if graceful women were beckoning from afar, gentle in manner and tender in voice, inviting a night of pleasure.
Several clan prodigies accidentally inhaled the powder. As if their souls had been hooked away, they stared blankly into the distance and began walking forward uncontrollably, faces filled with infatuation.
Mo Hua frowned. “Knock them out and tie them up!”
Ao Zheng obeyed Mo Hua’s command and began knocking people unconscious one by one and binding them.
Fortunately, those bewitched were mostly average prodigies with weak willpower and modest strength, so they were subdued in just a few exchanges.
The only exception was Feng Zichen.
His luck was terrible, he inhaled too much of the powder. Desire rushed to his head, and like a madman he tried to run outward.
Unfortunately, his movement technique was good, and Ao Zheng couldn’t catch him.
In the end, Mo Hua used the Water Prison Technique to bind him precisely. Then Shi Tiangang stepped up and knocked Feng Zichen flat with one punch, finally calming him down.
But after the powder passed, the fist-sized skulls that had been falling from the sky began emitting eerie, infant-like laughter.
Fearful, sinister thoughts began spreading through the crowd.
Mo Hua immediately said, “Close your eyes, block your hearing, and stand behind me.”
All the prodigies did as told, hiding behind Mo Hua.
Mo Hua’s gaze sharpened, golden light flashing in his pupils. He saw that within each skull was a little ghost, struggling and howling, disturbing people’s minds.
Wherever Mo Hua’s gaze fell, the little ghosts were extinguished one after another.
Suddenly, a cold and furious voice rang out, “Where did this brat come from, daring to kill my ghostlings?”
Following the voice, Mo Hua looked over and saw, within the sinister mist not far away, a filthy, disheveled burly man with a string of skulls hanging around his neck.
“Boy, you killed my ghostlings, I’ll make you pay with your life!”
The skull-adorned brute’s eyes blazed as he charged toward Mo Hua.
Shi Tiangang and Ao Zheng immediately guarded in front of Mo Hua. One activated the Vajra Indestructible Art, the other the Dragon Cauldron Body-Tempering Art, and together they attacked the brute.
Bai Zisheng also thrust his spear, aiming straight for the man’s heart.
But the brute merely let out a cold laugh. The skulls around his neck emitted soul-seizing cries, black-gray baleful qi wrapping around his body. With a single punch, he sent Shi Tiangang, Ao Zheng, and Bai Zisheng flying back.
This skull brute was at the late Golden Core stage. The realm suppression was overwhelming.
Even with their great talent, Bai Zisheng and the others at the peak-stage Foundation Establishment were no match for him head-on.
After forcing them back, the brute, surrounded by gusts of Yin wind, turned and charged at Mo Hua.
Before he could reach him, however, a Golden Core cultivator from the Ao clan arrived first amid the chaos. Activating the Dragon Cauldron Body, he took the punch head-on.
The skull brute roared in fury and could only engage this Dragon Cauldron Sect elder in battle.
As Mo Hua watched the two fighting, his gaze flickered, and he noticed a deep-red flower stamen drifting toward him.
The stamen, red as lips, directly “kissed” Mo Hua’s forehead.
As if marked, Mo Hua heard a woman’s voice by his ear, slightly raspy, mature, and languid:
“What a handsome young man. Why not come to me? I will cherish you dearly…”
Mo Hua turned his head and saw a charming, seductive woman smiling at him.
She had fiery red lips and wore a gauzy dress, half-concealing, half-revealing. Her body was mature and voluptuous, and on her pale shoulder was tattooed a red flower stamen, captivating to the soul.
At this moment, the beautiful, full-figured woman looked at Mo Hua with endless allure, eyes so sultry they seemed to drip with water. As her red lips curved, it was as if she wanted to draw his very soul away.
But as she looked, her smile slowly faded, and her lips pressed together.
Because Mo Hua’s expression, from beginning to end, remained calm and indifferent.
His mind was not tempted in the slightest.
Though marked by the Joyous-Union (Hehuan) Stamen and tugged by desire, his eyes were still clear as icy water, unstained by mortal thoughts.
Being looked at by such a handsome youth with such pure eyes, the woman—skilled in seducing hearts—suddenly felt inferior herself, ashamed of her own conduct.
The next instant, the crimson flower stamen on her shoulder lit up, dazzlingly bright, even oozing blood.
The woman abruptly regained her senses. When she focused on Mo Hua again, disbelief filled her eyes.
“A gentleman like jade, a heart like clear ice…”
“This is… a supreme dual-cultivation furnace…”
In that instant, her desire flared intensely. Looking at Mo Hua, her heart nearly leapt out of her throat.
Just as the woman with the flower tattoo gazed at Mo Hua in infatuation, a cold snort suddenly rang out.
That snort was like a flood dragon or fierce beast, laced with jealousy.
The beautiful woman’s expression tightened.
Amid the surging demonic mist, a burly man nearly a zhang tall stepped out. He was incomparably muscular, his body coiled with strength like a giant serpent, black demonic qi churning around him, his aura violent. His cultivation was clearly at the peak of Golden Core, only a step away from glimpsing Feathered Ascension.
As soon as this demonic cultivator appeared, the sheer force of his presence made everyone’s hearts tremble.
Some Dao Court elders even recognized him and muttered in disbelief,
“Myriad Demon Mountains’… the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord…”
This title clearly carried enormous weight. Many well-traveled Dao Court elders felt their chests tighten at the name.
“That vile great fiend from Myriad Demon Mountains?”
“The one who massacred an entire city two hundred years ago and still managed to escape from a Dao Court True Person?”
“That monster is still alive?”
“Not only alive… it looks like he’s about to… ascend…”
Everyone’s expressions grew grave. Their hearts sank.
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord glanced in Mo Hua’s direction and gave a savage grin. “A bunch of little things, their flesh and blood are indeed delicious.”
A warning blared in Mo Hua’s heart. He immediately shouted, “Get out of the way!”
Even as his words fell, demonic mist churned before him. A massive figure crossed the distance in a single step and appeared right in front of Mo Hua.
A huge, blood-reeked, ferocious hand clawed toward Mo Hua’s head, as if to crush his skull in one grip.
Fortunately, Mo Hua perceived causality and foresaw the move. Before the strike even landed, he had already retreated, narrowly avoiding the grab.
Even so, the wind pressure from the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord’s movement brushed past him.
Mo Hua’s body erupted in pain. A metallic sweetness rose in his throat, and he couldn’t help spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Seeing this, Bai Zisheng’s eyes turned reddened. He glared at the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord and roared, “Old Bastard, you’re courting death!”
With that, he thrust his long spear. Man and spear moved like a dragon, carrying the force of an azure dragon as it stabbed toward the demon’s glabella.
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord paused, a hint of surprise in his eyes. “A dragon?”
Then his gaze turned excited. Ignoring Mo Hua, he threw a punch toward Bai Zisheng.
Fist met spear. Their forces intertwined. In just an instant, Bai Zisheng was blasted flying, blood spraying from his mouth.
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord moved to grab Bai Zisheng again.
But at that moment, a sharp sword light descended from the sky and slashed onto him. The power of this sword light was extraordinary.
Forced back by the strike, the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord looked up to see a Golden Core elder of the Xiao Clan from the Heavenly Sword Sect, flying on his sword, pointing it straight at his brow, and saying coldly,
“Demonic fiend, how dare you harm a genius of the righteous path?”
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord sneered, about to attack again, when suddenly a fierce gale rushed at him. A Dragon Cauldron Sect elder, dragon force surging, body like a green cauldron, threw a punch at him.
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord frowned slightly and raised his python-like fist to meet it head-on.
Under the shock of the collision, the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord didn’t budge an inch. Instead, the Dragon Cauldron Sect elder was blasted back several zhang.
Seizing the opening, the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord turned to kill Mo Hua again, but when he looked, the area was empty.
Mo Hua’s figure had vanished at some unknown time.
The demon frowned. He tried to go after Bai Zisheng, but the Xiao clan elder had already activated a Heavenly Sword Sect sword art and stood in front of Bai Zisheng.
At this moment, the Dragon Cauldron Sect elder and a group of Qianxue elders were already closing in to surround and kill him.
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord looked displeased.
Meanwhile, high in the sky, a surging golden sword light shot upward, passing through the rain of blood-dripping swords and striking at the Evil-Eye Demonic Sword hanging in the air.
This golden sword light was a supreme sword art of the Xuanyuan Clan of Dao Province, immensely powerful.
Even the Demonic Sword Sect’s Evil-Eye Demonic sword dared not clash with it head-on.
Within the demonic mist, a sword slave with blood characters carved on his face and fierce sword qi chanted a spell and activated his White-Bone Sword Casket, recalling the demonic sword from the sky.
Once the demonic sword was withdrawn, the sky full of blood-dripping swords ceased.
The poisonous corpses on the ground were shredded, and the toxic miasma was captured and burned away.
The pink Joyous-Union lust-qi was completely dispersed by a mind-clearing breeze summoned by an Dao Province aristocratic elder.
The skull beads were crushed by sword light.
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord snorted coldly, knowing it was unwise to continue entangling himself. He punched the Dragon Cauldron Sect elder flying and then, wreathed in demonic energy, took a single step and broke out of the Dao Court elders’ encirclement.
After landing, he stared at the crowd with savage eyes.
The surging demonic mist in the sky gradually dissipated as well, drawn back into an evil banner by a Golden Core Demonic cultivator in a blood robe.
As the mist faded, the demonic cultivators who had been hiding in ambush all revealed themselves.
A group of vicious, malevolent demonic cultivators glared at the crowd like tigers eyeing prey.
At their head was the Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord, peak Golden Core, burdened with countless crimes, immensely powerful… one of the mountain lords of Myriad Demon Mountains.
Behind him stood a number of Golden Core demonic cultivators from Myriad Demon Mountains.
To his left was an elder reeking of corpse energy, accompanied by a silver corpse, a fiend from Yin Corpse Valley, whom Mo Hua had seen before.
To his right stood a Demonic Sword Sect elder carrying a White-Bone Sword Casket, looking like a sword slave, yet possessing immense cultivation and sword qi that was bloody and sinister.
Further back was a burly man with a long string of skulls around his neck, known as “Ghost-Child Wanderer,” a Golden Core ghost cultivator from Skull Cave.
The plump, beautiful, flirtatious woman with a flower stamen tattooed on her shoulder was Madam Rui, an elder of the Joyous-Union Sect.
There was also a blood-robed Golden Core cultivator holding an evil banner and manipulating demonic mist, an elder of the Blood Refining Sect.
Beside this group of Golden Core demonic cultivators stood a number of demonic geniuses.
The Saint Son of Yin Corpse Valley was that pale-faced Young Master Shi.
The Young lord of Myriad Demon Mountains was not very old, yet tall and powerfully built, like a humanoid demonic beast.
The prodigy of Skull Cave had an eerie face, with a blood-colored skull painted on his forehead.
The Saintess of the Joyous-Union Sect was a woman with a pure, fair face and a graceful figure, seductive to the core, her eyes brimming with tender allure.
The prodigy of the Blood Refining Sect was a haughty youth dressed in a blood robe, from which countless resentful souls seemed to howl…
…
Ever since the Dao Court unified the land, the Nine Provinces had flourished and the righteous path had prospered.
Under suppression, the demonic path had been reduced to venomous snakes in the gutter, barely clinging to life. Even when they showed themselves, they had to tread on thin ice, cautious at every step, their talents dwindling.
But now, the Golden Core demonic fiends before them all possessed tyrannical auras. Even the demonic prodigies bore the bearing of monstrous talents.
These demonic elders and prodigies—of different lineages, traditions, and origins—stood together, presenting a scene of the demonic path rising in great force, as though about to reclaim its place in the world.
The elders of the Dao Court were both shocked and furious at the sight.
Elder Xuanyuan’s face was dark as still water as he said coldly, “You pack of vile beasts, you have quite the nerve to sabotage the Dao Court’s grand plan.”
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord gave a cruel grin. “You people of the Dao Court can slaughter the Great Wilderness, but the demonic path can’t? Isn’t killing all the same?”
Elder Xuanyuan snapped, “You mere demonic vermin, how dare you compare yourselves with the Dao Court?”
Madam Rui of the Joyous-Union Sect smiled sweetly. “Old fossil, we won’t waste words with you. If you lot withdraw obediently today and hand over the Dragon Pool of the Great Wilderness Royal Court, we might spare your lives and not make things difficult.”
Elder Xuanyuan sneered. “Demonic vermin keep daydreaming.”
Ghost-Child Wanderer said coldly, “In that case, it seems we can only fight to the death.”
“When righteous and demonic paths clash, whoever survives will have the right to enter the Royal Court’s Dragon Pool and seize the destiny of the Great Wilderness…”
The Demonic Flood Dragon Mountain Lord’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “Ever since that grand feast two hundred years ago, I haven’t had fresh meat in a long time…”
“I want to taste just how delicious the flesh of your righteous prodigies is…”