Chapter 54#

The Apocalyptic Celestial Master, Innocent of the Ways of the World#

Lu Heng flipped up and sprang to his feet, grabbing Qin Yi’s arm: “Quickly expel the demonic qi!”

Qin Yi obeyed and sat down cross-legged, closing his eyes to circulate his qi. The black fog that had been spreading down his face along his neck slowed momentarily. But it was only a moment’s pause before it continued its downward creep.

Lu Heng’s face drained of color. He immediately sat down facing him, placing his hand on Qin Yi’s dantian: “I’ll help you.”

However, Lu Heng’s efforts were in vain. The black fog merely slowed further, yet its momentum remained unstoppable. Lu Heng had already suffered tremendous depletion of his vital energy earlier; now, desperately squeezing out his remaining spiritual energy, he felt a sweet taste rise in his mouth, blood seeping from the corner of his lips.

Lu Heng felt his hand being caught, then gently yet firmly guided away from Qin Yi’s dantian.

Lu Heng opened his eyes and saw Qin Yi’s tender expression: “Senior Brother, it’s no use. I can sense that this demonic qi is different from ordinary zombies — it should be a demonic entity as well. Our cultivation levels are insufficient. We can’t withstand it.”

Half of Qin Yi’s face was caked in blood, black fog coiling around the ghastly wound, making him look utterly terrifying. Yet the smile at the corner of his lips was impossibly gentle, his gaze focused and full of deep affection — he only wanted to memorize his beloved’s face well during these final moments.

Lu Heng said nothing. He hauled Qin Yi up by the collar.

“Kneel!”

Seeing Lu Heng’s decisive and commanding manner, Qin Yi dazedly followed along, one action for every instruction.

“Repeat after me,” Lu Heng said. “By the witness of the Heavenly Dao, I, Yun Lan, take Qin Yi today as my dual cultivation partner. From this day forward, we shall walk the path of cultivation side by side.”

Qin Yi dutifully and foolishly repeated every word.

Lu Heng then dragged Qin Yi over to a large tree nearby: “Set up a concealment formation under this tree.”

Qin Yi complied.

Then Lu Heng supported Qin Yi by the waist, and the two of them leaped together up onto the thickest branch of the great tree.

It wasn’t until Lu Heng began unfastening Qin Yi’s trousers that he finally came back to himself: “S-Senior Brother?”

“If our cultivation isn’t high enough, we use the fastest method to break through.”

At this point, if a man still didn’t understand, he had no right to call himself one. Qin Yi seized Lu Heng around the waist and pulled him over to straddle him.

On the ground, several spirit crystals used for the formation cast faint, flickering light — but the glow was soon buried beneath a rain of falling leaves.

Base W.

On top of the towering watchtower stood two men. One was handsome and refined; the other, fair-skinned and elegant.

“Why haven’t Brother Yi and Xiao Mu returned yet?” Mu Fei gazed out anxiously, scanning the horizon repeatedly. He had wanted to accompany Qin Yi and Lu Heng to kill the zombie king, but had been turned away. Lu Heng had stated bluntly that his strength was not enough to keep pace with them.

Left with no choice, Mu Fei had been standing guard on the watchtower since the day they departed, hoping to spot them the moment they returned. Since yesterday, the zombie tide had been gradually dissipating — Mu Fei knew deep down that this meant Qin Yi and the others had succeeded.

“Perhaps something unexpected happened,” Jiang Sile said, his tone uncharacteristically cold.

“Xiao Le! What nonsense are you spouting!”

“Oh, before they set out, there was something I forgot to tell them,” Jiang Sile shrugged. “That zombie king is a rare twin demonic entity, you know. One wrong move, and they could be ambushed.”

“Jiang Sile! Are you out of your mind!” Mu Fei was struck with equal parts shock and fury.

Jiang Sile, however, covered his face with his hands, shoulders trembling. Mu Fei thought he was wracked with regret and anguish and was about to say something, when he saw him lift his head. On that handsome face was an expression of pure delight, the smile at his lips not having faded at all.

Fear, anger, anguish — how truly delicious. Those who owe me, those who made me suffer — every last one of them must pay me back in full!

Mu Fei now noticed that something was wrong with Jiang Sile, but it was completely different from the time he had transformed into a demonic entity. Jiang Sile’s appearance showed no abnormality whatsoever — still red-lipped and white-toothed, the picture of a pampered young master of means.

“You… you’re not Jiang Sile.” Mu Fei stepped back, raising himself into a defensive stance.

“Of course I’m Jiang Sile, Brother Ah Mu. It hurts my feelings to hear you say such things.” Jiang Sile raised an eyebrow with a sardonic twist. “And when my feelings are hurt, I feel like doing something to let off steam.”

Jiang Sile took a step forward, his handsome face drawing close to Mu Fei’s. He gently licked Mu Fei’s lip: “Tell me — an entire base full of sheep ready for slaughter, wouldn’t that make a perfect outlet?”

Jiang Sile’s foot stomped down, snapping the vine that had erupted from the ground. Black chains materialized out of thin air, binding Mu Fei completely.

“Brother Ah Mu, do enjoy watching the bitter fruit you brewed with your own hands.” Jiang Sile laughed aloud as he descended the tower.

He had barely stepped off the tower when Jiang Sile stopped dead in his tracks — because he saw two people who should not have been here.

The man in front had bandages wound around half his face, yet his exposed right eye blazed like a blade, stabbing toward him with piercing intensity. The man behind carried a sword in his embrace — on closer inspection, every muscle in his body was taut, poised in a state of coiled readiness.

These two were, of course, Qin Yi and Li Heng.

Qin Yi had turned disaster to his advantage this time. Not only had he expelled the demonic qi from his body, but his cultivation had surged dramatically. Even the barrier that had long plagued him in the Essentials of Formations had shattered at the same time. Spiritual energy and demonic qi were two sides of the same coin — just as shadows always lurk beneath light, and ashes always remain after flames.

Etched on the inner wall of the zombie’s spirit crystal was a formation for converting demonic qi into spiritual energy. As for how this formation had come to be inscribed on the crystal’s inner wall, Qin Yi had asked Lu Heng about it.

Though not entirely certain, Lu Heng had shared his thoughts. The world possessed a will of its own. Now that foreign demonic qi was infiltrating the entire world, attempting to assimilate this plane with the demonic entity plane, the world’s consciousness naturally would not sit idly by. This conversion formation was most likely an act of self-preservation by the world’s consciousness.

Jiang Sile merely paused for a beat before saying, “You’re back? I thought that low-level demon would’ve kept you there. After all, this plane is so pathetically fragile.”

“You’re not Jiang Sile,” Qin Yi said.

“Who says I’m not him? I am Jiang Sile’s hatred, his anger, his jealousy, his despair. How am I not Jiang Sile?” Jiang Sile shrugged.

This demon, now merged as one with Jiang Sile, had grown too lazy to maintain its disguise. It had feasted sufficiently on dark thoughts, recovering most of its power. Besides Jiang Sile, it had much to thank that man named Song Youren for — he had truly provided a grand feast of ambition and hatred.

Qin Yi and Lu Heng exchanged a glance.

Qin Yi gave a slight nod. Lu Heng understood it meant to proceed as planned. Jiang Sile had lost his patience. He clenched his empty right hand, and his nails instantly shot out to several inches in length. He drew his right leg back, his spine curving slightly. Even draped in human skin, this demonic entity’s movements could not shed the shadow of the inhuman.

With a push of his right leg, he turned into an afterimage and lunged forward. The demon’s claws were its weapons — harder than any known metal.

Lu Heng held his sword in his right hand and formed a sword seal with his left. Now that his cultivation had surged, Lu Heng no longer needed to activate Dichen with his own vital blood; he merely poured spiritual energy into it. The ink-black Dichen’s blade shimmered as a golden phantom materialized upon it.

The moment Jiang Sile drew near, the phantom on Dichen’s blade floated into the air and in an instant split in two, then four. A dense swarm of golden sword phantoms rained down upon the demon.

Jiang Sile retreated rapidly but still caught a sword phantom across his cheek. What flowed from the wound was not fresh blood, but wisps of black fog.

“Tsk,” Jiang Sile casually swiped at the wound, which slowly healed. “Making progress, I see.”

His words had barely faded when a flock of fire crows answered him. Illusory crows formed from golden-white flames circled once in the air before swooping toward Jiang Sile. He neither dodged nor evaded, instead opening his mouth to exhale a stream of black fog. The fog took shape in midair as a swarm of bats, meeting the fire crows head-on.

BOOM —

The two forces collided in the air and dissipated simultaneously, leaving behind only billowing white smoke. From within the smoke, a single streak of golden light pierced through. Jiang Sile, for all his speed, could not evade in time — Dichen severed half his left arm.

Lu Heng struck and immediately retreated at speed, narrowly dodging the vicious claw that followed. Jiang Sile’s right hand grasped empty air, but he did not grow angry. He reached back and pressed down on the wound where his left arm had been. Thick black fog erupted from the wound; once it cleared, his left arm reappeared, perfectly intact.

“Surprised?” A twisted smile hung at the corners of Jiang Sile’s mouth. “As long as demonic qi exists in this world, you cannot possibly kill me.”

Lu Heng ignored him. Dichen carved an arc through the air crackling with thunder and lightning intent, and he lunged again in the blink of an eye. With Qin Yi assisting from the side using fire-control techniques, the two sides fought on equal footing.

But this demon had an endless supply of demonic qi to draw upon, while Qin Yi and Lu Heng were mere mortals. Given enough time, they would inevitably lose.

Lu Heng and Qin Yi were not reckless people. They would never have confronted this high-level demon that had been possessing Jiang Sile without a trump card. While Jiang Sile was locked in close combat with Lu Heng, he suddenly felt a piercing pain inside his skull and his body went rigid — it was Qin Yi’s divine sense attack.

The opportunity was not to be missed. Lu Heng flicked his wrist, and Dichen pierced clean through the demon’s chest.

Mockery surfaced on Jiang Sile’s face: “I told you it’s useless.”

Jiang Sile’s right hand clamped around Dichen’s blade, heedless of his palm being scorched black by crackling lightning. Lu Heng could not resist the overwhelming force, and watched helplessly as Dichen was drawn out of the other’s chest, inch by inch.

At this moment, Lu Heng finally spoke the first words: “You’re too noisy.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Qin Yi appeared from behind Lu Heng. Between his slender fingers, he held a spirit crystal no bigger than a peach pit, which he flicked straight into Jiang Sile’s chest. The crystal vanished into thin air.

As it turned out, Jiang Sile’s jade token — a gateway to the pocket dimension — was no ordinary object. It had already developed a measure of sentience. When Lu Heng had driven his sword in earlier, it had been wreathed in boundless destructive sword intent. Under such overwhelming threat, the jade token had instinctively torn open the pocket dimension and retreated inside.

Qin Yi had seized the moment before the spatial rift could close and flicked the crystal — extracted from the zombie king’s brain — straight through the gap. It was no ordinary spirit crystal; it had been refined by Qin Yi into a catalyst for reversing formations.

The still-closing spatial rift abruptly widened, and a torrent of spiritual energy erupted skyward. The mysterious pocket dimension thus revealed itself above the base.

The otherworldly realm that materialized in midair hung inverted above them, so everyone beneath its veil could clearly see its appearance. Above a sea of grey primordial chaos floated a small stretch of land. On that land, there was no sign of life — the cracked earth stretched in deep fissures, like ugly scars running across its surface.

At a glance, Qin Yi recognized it: right in the center of the land lay a grand formation. Just as they had guessed, it was a Nine-Turn Mutual Generation Formation. At the formation’s core, a square-foot of emerald-green crystal — if not the Spirit Source stolen from the Celestial Master Sect, then what could it be?

Spiritual energy seeped from the Spirit Source and was continuously converted into demonic qi by the formation, fueling a pitch-black heart suspended above it. That heart, dark as ink, still beat with a steady thump-thump. On closer inspection, one could see the flesh and blood around it slowly growing.

The Heart of a Demon. This demonic entity — which had lurked within Jiang Sile for so long and caused one calamity after another — had finally revealed its true form. Having already regrown a complete heart, given more time, it would surely reconstruct an entire body. Once this high-level demon revived fully within this plane, every living being in the world would end up in its maw.

Fortunately, Lu Heng and Qin Yi had stopped it from happening.

The zombie king’s spirit crystal, floating in the air above the pocket dimension, blazed with ever more brilliant light until it resembled a miniature sun. At the peak of its radiance, the crystal burst into powder with a deafening crack.

But the powder did not fall. It drifted through the air, shimmering with specks of phosphorescent light, slowly forming a pattern. The moment the formation took shape, it descended gradually and merged into the grand formation on the ground below, becoming one.

The entire grand formation shifted in momentum. The rolling black fog slowly receded, replaced by the blue-green of spiritual energy. The dim glow of the Spirit Source brightened, little by little.

The formation had been reversed.

Roles were exchanged: the Spirit Source shifted from giver to taker. The grand formation now endlessly drew demonic qi from the Heart of the Demon, converting it into spiritual energy and feeding it back into the Spirit Source.

The Spirit Source, nearly depleted of its energy, was reborn anew. It had lost far too much spiritual energy and instantly devoured the demonic qi from the Heart of the Demon in one sweeping pull through the grand formation. The Heart of the Demon, which had been beating vigorously moments before, slowly atrophied — until at last it crumbled to powder and dissolved into the air.