The Underworld's influence ran both ways. While the core of an Underworld used the Underworld, it was also influenced by it.
The core of an Underworld was not merely oneself, but a manifestation of broad consciousness formed from a blend of "self-perception" and "external perception."
It was like a celebrity: not merely themselves, but also the imagined image held in the hearts of countless fans. The more fans they had, the more the celebrity themself would be swept along by that broad consciousness. If the celebrity seriously went against the publicly accepted imagined image, at best they would immediately lose fans; at worst, they might even be assassinated by frenzied fans.
The core of the True Underworld was the same.
Shi Tiexin's Fear Domain was certainly powerful, but the massive volume of fearful emotions would also taint Shi Tiexin himself.
If Shi Tiexin truly were a Great Evil Manifestation, while his original body had merely been an ordinary person, then he would inevitably have become a Fear Demon King by now—unrecognizable, with no trace of his original appearance left.
The Demonic Monk was no ordinary man, yet even he had tasted the bitterness of conceptual imbalance.
The False Underworld in his right palm was like a monster's egg, swelling, writhing, and pulsing with tremors. It continuously sent out faint, indistinct calls, attempting to completely occupy Shi Tiexin's body and mind.
This thing had stopped obeying him.
Fortunately, the shattering of the Iron Encirclement Mountain Underworld had likewise brought him an enormous amount of spirituality. Together with the spirituality gained from the earlier interrogation, a total of 700% spirituality nourished his thought meridians, allowing Shi Tiexin's Mind Arts to exert an even stronger effect.
"Puff, puff, haa—puff, puff, haa—"
He panted hard, blowing continuously as though inflating a balloon. Nether Purge