At the outskirts of Spirit Mountain, demonic energy surged like a tidal flood, utterly transforming the Western sacred land once bathed in Buddhist light into a demonic realm.
Mara established the order of the Demonic Path atop Spirit Mountain, and the once-majestic Great Thunderclap Temple had fallen into a Devil Palace shrouded in demonic energy.
The three puppets—Fake Jieyin, Fake Zhunti, and Fake Tathagata—were imprisoned within cages of demonic energy, while all of Spirit Mountain trembled beneath the oppressive might of the Demonic Path.
Jiang Liuer, Sun Wukong, and the others retreated to a hidden valley on the outskirts of Spirit Mountain, where they joined up with Six-Eared Macaque's group.
Everyone wore grave expressions. The Demonic Path suppressed all paths, greatly weakening their strength.
Meanwhile, Mara possessed the combat strength of a Hunyuan Grand Unity Golden Immortal First Heaven.
With one side waning while the other waxed, facing him head-on would be no different from smashing eggs against a stone.
"No. If this continues, Mara will pick us off one by one sooner or later."
Six-Eared Macaque put away his Wish-Fulfilling Iron Rod, his expression heavy.
"Heavenly Dao is suppressing us, and the Demonic Path is suppressing all paths.
I can only bring out seventy percent of my strength. Shi Ritian and Ye Fan have it even worse—they can't even manage fifty percent."
Shi Ritian gave a bitter smile.
"Our Sanqing Daoist Tradition stands peerless in the Primordial Wilderness.
But in this Earth Immortal Realm, Heavenly Dao places extremely strict restrictions on us 'outsiders.'
If we hadn't entered this realm merely through avatars, we probably couldn't even retain thirty percent of our strength."
The golden radiance around Ye Fan had dimmed, and the power of his Sacred Body seemed as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over