This Place Was More Terrifying Than the Eighteen Layers of Hell

Host, I suggest you leave the Demonic Sect Land first. The Evil Demons here belong to Tong Gensheng. The Evil Demon you killed just now has likely spread word of you to the others.

Receiving Ling Tianwei's wildly reckless thoughts, the system could not help but try to dissuade him.

It also understood that Ling Tianwei was unruly and unyielding by nature, utterly incapable of taking advice, yet it could not sway him in the slightest.

The system was quite helpless about this as well.

"I'll leave before they mobilize as a group."

Ling Tianwei gave a simple reply.

As he traveled onward, all he saw was gray desolation, with scarcely any sign of life.

Ling Tianwei could not help frowning, because he had not seen a single person along the way.

At first, Ling Tianwei thought he had landed in a relatively remote area. Yet the ruined villages and small towns below all spoke of how this place had once been inhabited.

When he had traveled from Bai Xuan City aboard Liu Lingming's magical artifact toward Lingxu Sacred Land, there had been no such sight.

By comparison, the state of the Demonic Sect Land was plain to see.

Just as Ling Tianwei was wondering whether the ordinary people of the Demonic Sect Land had all been ruined, he finally sensed several traces of life.

After all, during his enlightenment, Ling Tianwei had deeply experienced the plight of ordinary people beneath these cultivators through Heaven and Earth Grudge Power.

"Finally, people."

Seeing this, Ling Tianwei immediately headed toward those auras.

Very soon, Ling Tianwei arrived above them. It was a simple group—seven or eight people and a donkey cart.

Almost all of them were sallow and emaciated, mere skin stretched over bones. Their faces were filled with exhaustion, their eyes exceptionally clouded. To call them human... they hardly looked human anymore.

Seeing this, Ling Tianwei frowned deeply. He then descended beside the group, intending to ask about the situation in this region.

Before he could speak, the group saw Ling Tianwei descend from midair and immediately fell into a panicked mess. Their eyes were full of terror and fear as they looked at him.

They were not like the ordinary people Ling Tianwei had encountered in Bai Xuan City, who would immediately cry out "Immortal Master" and kneel to worship upon seeing a cultivator.

With the Dao intent of anger within him, Ling Tianwei could clearly sense the myriad emotions on these people—fear was not all there was. There was despair as well, and even a faint thread of anger mixed within.

Before Ling Tianwei could speak, the leader of the group hurried forward and said,

"My lord, my lord, we are Blood Slaves from the Blood Nightmare Sect's subordinate territory. We have already given blood once before."

After saying that, he cautiously watched Ling Tianwei's expression, seemingly hoping to use the Blood Nightmare Sect's name to intimidate him.

Perhaps only the ordinary people of the Demonic Sect Land truly understood the terror of cultivators. They penned up the people of every region, and in order to cultivate, they stopped at nothing.

In almost every place, most people became slaves of the various demonic sects. All they could do was survive on the meager food those sects provided and continuously bear descendants.

And what were those descendants born for?

Almost all became various consumable materials for demonic cultivators. If mother-and-child resentment was needed, a batch of mothers and children would be taken away and tortured. If fetuses were needed for cultivation, they would be dissected...

The Blood Nightmare Sect's cultivation method was to condense human essence blood, and the Blood Slaves under its rule were countless.

From the moment nearly every person was born, they had to begin supplying blood for the Blood Nightmare Sect.

Among them, the essence blood of newborn children was the finest. Every territory under their rule had to offer it up.

Compared to the Blood Nightmare Sect, the things other cultivators required were even more bizarre and varied. They might suddenly rise up and refine you.

Here, the lives of ordinary people were cheaper than anything. That was why these people wore such terrified expressions upon seeing Li Tianwei, fearing that he had come to refine them.

Li Tianwei looked at their instinctive fear and listened to the cold words coming from the leader's mouth.

Though he had long expected it, the reality before him told him that it was far more severe than he had imagined.

"Elder, I am not one of those demonic cultivators. I am a cultivator from the righteous great sect, Lingxu Sacred Land."

"I am not one of those Evil Demons of the Outer Dao. I will not do anything to you."

Li Tianwei immediately revealed his identity with a smile.

Yet after Li Tianwei finished speaking, these people showed no excitement or joy. Instead, they became even more panicked.

The leader's face was filled with grief as he directly tried to dissuade him.

"Immortal Master, leave quickly. I do not know how you Immortal Masters distinguish between righteous and demonic paths, nor do I know what the difference is, but I can tell that you are a good person."

"Good people are useless here. Last time, there was an Immortal Master like you who wanted to save us. In the end, a Blood Nightmare Sect elder stripped away his flesh and blood, made his bones into magical artifacts, and I heard that they even collected his soul into a banner."

"This place is hell, a place more terrifying than the Eighteen Layers of Hell."

"Such a thing actually happened."

Li Tianwei's heart trembled at these words, and his expression darkened. He had experienced the resentment of a hundred thousand people within Heaven and Earth Grudge Power. Those cultivators truly used every possible means to improve their cultivation.

And now, having arrived in the Demonic Sect Land, he found that such an excellent Proximity to the Dao Land had been turned into something like the Eighteen Layers of Hell in their hands.

As for whether the person before him was lying, Li Tianwei did not need to verify it. With his perception of heaven and earth, he could tell at a glance.

At the very least, these people were not like the Evil Demons and demonic cultivators he had encountered, who seemed to be surrounded by wandering ghosts and riddled with filthy, vile words.

"So, Immortal Master, you should leave as soon as possible!"

"This is not a place for people to stay."

The leader shook his head and sighed. In his clouded eyes, Li Tianwei saw a strange calm—the sort of calm born from suffering so much that one had been worn completely numb.

Li Tianwei raised his head again and looked around at those skin-and-bones, sallow-faced people.

After meeting his gaze, they repeatedly shrank back. The fear and timidity within them made the cruelty of this place all too clear.

Guided by their emotions, Li Tianwei suddenly felt the Grudge Intent he had comprehended boiling, igniting the fire in his heart completely.

Pulled along by anger, Killing Intent rose, Death Intent descended, Grudge Intent surfaced, and evil intent stood cold and awe-inspiring.

"How long have I been in this Demonic Sect Land? Yet all I have realized is that these demonic cultivators must die—the kind of death with no reason to argue about."

"They clearly occupy such an excellent Proximity to the Dao Land, yet instead of cultivating diligently, they devote themselves to Evil Demons and Outer Dao practices."

Li Tianwei let out a long breath, his gaze exceptionally resolute. The Evil Demons had to be eliminated.

"Can you take me to the Blood Nightmare Sect's territory? You may report it as you please. I absolutely will not implicate you."

The group had thought Li Tianwei would retreat, never expecting him to say such a thing.

For a moment, they did not know how to answer.