Chapter 979: The Demon Emperor; The Peaks Fall And The Air Changes! (I)
Chapter 979: The Demon Emperor; The Peaks Fall And The Air Changes! (I)
Luo Chen's way of conducting himself was truly reminiscent of those who walked the devil path, and it was not merely his large-scale slaughter of demonic beasts.
The outer reaches of the Sunken Sea were the hunting grounds for rogue cultivators. They would hunt demonic beasts to trade with the division for spirit stones, to raise their demon hunter rank, or simply to temper themselves through battle. At any rate, there was no one who would indiscriminately obliterate demonic beasts without even leaving their bodies behind.
But whenever Luo Chen appeared, the rhythm of the battlefield changed, because he would use the Myriad Soul Banner to clear the entire field. Rogue cultivators below the Golden Core Realm were driven off without exception; even Adepts, unless they had substantial power, would barely hesitate for a moment before withdrawing out of fear. In truth, there were not many late-stage Adepts in the Society to begin with, and aside from Saberstorm, there were even fewer of them active on the Sunken Sea battlefield. Without any opposition, all the large and small swarms of demonic beasts would be swept away by him alone. It was this unrestrained dominance that caused his Dao title to spread so quickly.
Now, the crimson-robed figure stepped into the Three Pillar Gorge. Seeing the scattered battles between cultivators and demonic beasts, his expression remained as calm as ever. He did not make any grand gestures; he simply raised a hand, and a black banner unfolded before him, then plunged into the sea. Ghostly energy surged outward in waves, giving rise to Ghost Generals and even Ghost Kings upon the surface.
He commanded, "Go!"
At once, the ghostly figures scattered and covered a radius of ten li.
The rogue cultivators who had been locked in battle with the demonic beasts saw this and immediately understood.
"Devil Lord Azure Yang is here!"
"The banner's out, he's clearing the field!"
"Fall back! Fall back!"
"Get out of the Myriad Soul Banner's range now! If you're caught inside, he won't show any mercy!"
Amid cries of alarm, streaks of light shot outward as cultivators fled in all directions. The demonic beasts they had been fighting were left confused, not knowing what had happened.
Some of the stronger ones sensed something amiss and turned their attacks toward the Ghost Generals and Ghost Kings charging in. They immediately decimated the ghostly army, and seeing how easily the ghosts were destroyed, the demonic beasts gradually let down their guard. In their eyes, the humans had simply misjudged their strength; these ghostly figures were clearly no match for them.
Atop the peak, Luo Chen watched the scene coldly, showing not a hint of surprise at the outcome. He had been wielding the Myriad Soul Banner in the most straightforward manner. Unlike Han Zhan, he could not command Ghost Kings to form formations, nor could he shape a true ghostly domain like what Yan Zhixian did. Thus, these ghosts could only act on their own instincts. In life, they might have been formidable, but death had stripped much of their strength. Their opponents, on the other hand, were seasoned elites who had survived the war with the devil sect. Against such foes, it was only natural they would fall short.
But Luo Chen had never intended for them to win the battle. He only needed them to drive the human cultivators away. Once the field was clear, he could deal with some low-tier demonic beasts and an early-stage Demon King without worries.
Hm, roughly 2,000 of them split into multiple zones. That makes things a bit more troublesome. Luo Chen's gaze lingered on the demonic beasts below as the scattered groups began to converge. Using the Infinite Blaze Prison on these low-tier demonic beasts would be overkill. Maybe... it's time to try something else.
His hands instantly moved, casting one seal after another in a seamless flow. Within his body, the second core released streams of pure mana that flowed through his hands. In the span of a breath, he had formed hundreds of seals and driven a substantial amount of mana into the black banner below.
Suddenly, his voice echoed through the air. "Merge!"
Within several li of the Three Pillar Gorge, waves surged upward before falling back down like rain. Wind and clouds churned as the air filled with a rolling roar that at first sounded like thunder, yet upon closer listening, turned out to be countless ghostly wails. Amid this storm of misery and cries, the sea shook violently. Thousands of demonic beasts froze where they stood as a monstrous figure slowly rose from beneath the surface.
It had over a dozen heads and a hundred arms, a grotesque mass of limbs and faces. Half its body remained submerged, while the rest loomed above the sea. As it emerged, the surrounding ghostly mist rushed toward it, merging into it and making it grow more solid. With the fog drawn away, the rogue cultivators who lingered could finally see the battlefield clearly. When they saw this horrifying figure, an uproar broke out among them.
Luo Chen paid them no mind and only fixed his gaze on the motionless ghostly entity standing in the sea. As if sensing it, one of its central heads slowly turned toward him, its eyes carrying a trace of confusion and resentment. Black mist seeped from its mouth as it drew in heavy breaths.
Huh? It's not responding to me? Luo Chen snorted.
This technique came from his first assessment reward, a soul-fusion technique selected by the Angler from Yan Zhixian's inheritance. Luo Chen had experimented with it over the years, but every successful fusion would give rise to the same problem. Well... the issue was not with the technique itself but in its incompatibility with him. He had never practiced the devil sect's Soul-Refining techniques before, and because of that, the fused being's will never truly aligned with his own, which left things in this awkward state.
Still, after years of experimentation, Luo Chen had already found a way around it. He slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, something within his gaze had changed. It was as if flowers bloomed and withered in an endless cycle, and the moon waxed and waned in silence.
When Luo Chen shot the horrifying figure a glance, the effect was immediate. The hatred in the monstrous ghost's eyes faded by more than half, replaced instead by confusion. Without pause, Luo Chen formed a hand seal and pushed Mirror Flower Water Moon further, all the way to its limits. Ghostly towers rose in shifting forms, shadows flickered everywhere, and celestial figures drifted endlessly through the haze, indistinct and dreamlike. Caught within it, the sentience born from the fusion quickly lost its bearings.
Seizing the moment, Luo Chen's divine consciousness moved in and took control. "Kill!"
The Ghost King also echoed the same words. It stirred the waters and charged toward the thousand demonic beasts. Watching this, Luo Chen finally let out a breath. As expected, once the fused will was thrown into confusion by illusion, it could be controlled.
The reason for its resistance was not hard to guess. Most of the original ghosts within the Myriad Soul Banner had already been killed off, leaving only a handful of Ghost Generals. The tens of thousands added later were either demonic beasts he had slain or cultivators who had died by his hands, and every one of them bore grudges toward him. Under normal circumstances, those scattered wills were restrained by the Myriad Soul Banner and could not act on their own. But once fused together, they could easily ignore the restraining power of the banner and even turn against him.
This was not mere speculation but something he could observe directly. Most notably, among the dozen or so heads of the Ghost King, several belonged to people he recognized. Yan Nantian, the Demon Spider Crab, Qian Ting, and even several Adepts who had died at the Mo family fishery, including Wu Er and the woman from Hundred Craft Mountain.
As he watched the slaughter below, Luo Chen's gaze gradually turned cold. His mastery of this soul fusion technique was still shallow, and he was far from the level Yan Zhixian had pulled off, where he could condense everything into a cohesive, single-headed Ghost King. Even so, a fused Ghost King with strength comparable to a late-stage Adept was enough to serve as one of his trump cards. Therefore, this battle at the Three Pillar Gorge was a rare opportunity. He could use it to improve his control, to ensure that when the moment truly came, he would not falter.
After observing for a while, he finally made his move. His sleeves fluttered in the wind as threads of azure flame flowed from his fingertips, drifting down toward the heavily wounded demonic beasts below. The moment the flames touched them, the fire spread through their flesh and burned without pause. And Luo Chen was right there, waiting to devour the life force.
As the flames receded, pulses of vitality surged back into him, while below, only ashes were left behind, swallowed by the sea. The rogue cultivators of the Society who witnessed this scene felt a chill run through them. They feared the monstrous being Luo Chen had created, yet also marveled at his mastery of fire. More than anything, it was the ease with which he carried out this slaughter that unsettled them.
"So this is the power of Devil Lord Azure Yang?"
The crowd's gaze slowly shifted to the man atop the peak with reverence and fear mingling in equal measure. He leapt down from the peak and followed behind the fused Ghost King. Wherever it passed, he stayed close and spread out his flames to engulf the demonic beasts in its path.
The further he pushed into the Three Pillar Gorge, the more apparent the nature of this place became. Where the three seas converged, their currents intertwined, drawing in demonic beasts from all directions and allowing them to gather in large numbers. Thanks to this feature, he was able to simply move forward and reap lives as he went.
Wave after wave of life force surged into his body, feeding the Withering-Flourishing True Fire until it burned ever brighter, far beyond the state it had been the Flame Alliance had pushed it to the fourth tier. As that power surged back into Luo Chen, the effects became visible almost at once. Quite literally so—the flush on his face deepened until it turned a dark crimson, as though it might burst at any moment. He did not know what would happen if he continued this way, but deep down he was certain this would benefit him. The opportunity to break into the fourth tier of Physique Refinement might lie with this very journey!