Luohu Steps In

Poxun truly was steadfast. Despite suffering such grievous injuries, he had managed to fly for three days straight, finally making it within a million li of Mount Sumeru.

But he had reached his limit. His battered body fell to the ground, and not another drop of demon blood could flow from his enormous demon body.

"Demon Ancestor, save me... Demon Ancestor, save me..."

The words were murmured over and over from his lips, as faint as the buzz of a mosquito.

Suddenly, a stream of Demon Qi flew out from Western Mount Sumeru. In the blink of an eye, it reached Poxun, wrapped around his body, and turned back.

In mere moments, the Demon Qi crossed a million li, then flew into the demon palace atop Mount Sumeru like an old horse that knew the way home.

The Demon Qi carried Poxun into a gloomy hall and laid him before a middle-aged man of imposing bearing.

The man wore a gilt-edged black robe and a jeweled crown of purple gold. Endless demonic light flickered in his dark, fathomless eyes. Merely standing there, he seemed to possess the might to suppress the heavens and earth for hundreds of millions of li.

This man was the ancestor of the Demon Clan, the Quasi-Sage Luohu!

Seeing Poxun barely clinging to life, Luohu frowned. He raised a finger and shot a stream of pure Demon Qi into Poxun's body.

Poxun's battered body shuddered. The power of space lingering in his wounds was swiftly erased, and his demon body recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A moment later, Poxun opened his eyes. Seeing Luohu before him, he scrambled to his feet, dropped to his knees, and said,

"Thank you for saving my life, Demon Ancestor!"

"Tell me, what happened?" Luohu asked in a deep voice, his expression grim.

Poxun trembled at his words. He prostrated himself and wailed, "Demon Ancestor, please avenge us!"

He then recounted what had happened at the foot of Buzhou Mountain, naturally leaving out the part where he had betrayed his comrades.

"You're saying that, apart from you, the other five great demon kings all died? Then why didn't you die there too?"

After hearing Poxun's account, Luohu flew into a rage.

His eyes blazed wide as a wave of demonic pressure swept out, suppressing the four corners and eight wilds. The entire western land trembled, and Poxun felt as though several great mountains had fallen upon him. The immense pressure drove him into the ground.

Several wounds opened on Poxun's freshly healed body.

Poxun dared not make a move and could only explain desperately, "Spare my life, Demon Ancestor! If I hadn't possessed the Rift-Splitting Divine Ability, I would have died there too!"

Remembering how close to death Poxun had been, Luohu's brow relaxed, and he withdrew his magic power.

Poxun's body felt light as the boundless pressure suddenly vanished, leaving him utterly at ease.

But he dared not make the slightest move. With tears of gratitude streaming down his face, he said,

"Thank you, Demon Ancestor, for sparing my life!"

"Just this once. You may go."

"Yes!"

Poxun answered cautiously, then lowered his head, bowed, and withdrew.

Luohu was left alone in the shadowy hall.

He turned and sat back down on the throne atop the hall's raised platform, his brow slightly furrowed as though deep in thought.

Suddenly, surging Demon Qi burst into the hall. Luohu's face twisted as he roared, "There's something strange about this. Someone must be scheming against me!"

But the next moment, his fury abruptly vanished, and his expression calmed. He said slowly, "But what of it? The greater course I set in motion is already complete. Hongjun, Yang Mei, and the others are already dry bones in a grave!"

"Still, this newly emerged Witch Clan actually has twelve Daluo Golden Immortal Peaks. Such foundations are no weaker than those of the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans.

"If the Witch Clan stands with my Western Demon Sect, it will surely be a great help to me.

"And even if it cannot help me, I absolutely cannot allow it to interfere with my plans."

"It seems I must make a trip to Buzhou Mountain. But this is a crucial moment for me to condense the baleful Qi of heaven and earth and advance to the peak of the Quasi-Sage realm. My true body cannot move rashly."

"Then I shall send an avatar. Although this avatar's strength is only at the Mid-Quasi-Sage level, with my supreme demonic arts, even an ordinary Mid-Quasi-Sage would be no match for me. In the Primordial World, only Yang Mei, Hongjun, and a few others can contend with this avatar of mine. Dealing with a mere twelve Daluo Golden Immortal Peaks should be more than manageable."

In truth, the loss of the five great demon kings was unimportant to Luohu, and the emergence of the Witch Clan was unimportant as well.

What mattered was the uncertainty brought about by the Witch Clan's emergence, which gave him a sense that things were slipping out of his control.

That feeling compelled him to make a trip to the Witch Clan!

He would not allow any mishap, not even the slightest chance of one.

After all, Luohu had always had only one goal: to become a Heavenly Dao Sage.

And the only ones in the Primordial World who could stop Luohu from becoming a Sage were Yang Mei, Hongjun, Qiankun, Yin-Yang, and a few others.

As for the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans, or the Witch Clan and the like, he paid them no heed at all.

Having made up his mind, Luohu circulated his magic power. Wisps of pure Demon Qi drifted from his body, tracing the outline of a hazy human figure before him.

The figure continued to absorb Demon Qi, its form growing clearer and clearer until it became another Luohu.

Its cultivation realm continued to rise as well: Primordial Unity Golden Immortal, Daluo Golden Immortal, Quasi-Sage. At last, it stopped at the Mid-Quasi-Sage stage.

In the Primordial World, a mountain that held up the heavens stood at the center of its boundless lands. It was none other than Buzhou Mountain.

No one knew how many hundreds of millions of trillions of li wide or high the mountain was. It was the undisputed foremost divine mountain in the Primordial World. Formed from the spine of Pangu, the foremost great god of ancient times, it held countless opportunities. Auspicious light and wondrous treasures appeared upon it from time to time, drawing the various races of the Primordial World into battles to claim them.

Recently, however, Buzhou Mountain had suddenly become even livelier, with experts from various races appearing in the surrounding area from time to time.

Their target was a race that had only just emerged—the Witch Clan.

At that moment, a fiery-red exotic beast suddenly appeared atop a cliff ten thousand zhang high. With the head of a dragon and the body of a horse, it was Fire Qilin, one of the Qilin Clan's five great elders.

But Fire Qilin was in a sorry state, looking as though it had been gravely injured.

It could not even spare a thought for its wounds, fleeing desperately until it hid itself there.

Because Fuxi had injured Ancestral Qilin and destroyed the Qilin Clan's Qilin Seal, the Qilin Clan had dispatched Fire Qilin, one of its five great elders, to keep watch on the Witch Clan.

Although the Witch Clan was powerful, merely watching it was an exceptionally easy task for Fire Qilin, who was a Daluo Golden Immortal.

But to its utter surprise, while keeping watch, it unexpectedly spotted a man wreathed in Demon Qi.

To keep its whereabouts from being exposed, Fire Qilin attacked the man at once.

It had thought that, with its dignified late-stage Daluo Golden Immortal cultivation, dealing with a rogue cultivator who had appeared from who knew where would naturally be as easy as reaching out and grabbing him.

But the moment Fire Qilin attacked, it realized just how terribly wrong it had been.

The man's strength was certainly no lower than that of the clan leader, Ancestral Qilin. In fact, according to its spiritual senses, the man's pressure was even more terrifying than Ancestral Qilin's.