Breaking Free of the Shackles

Tree Venerable's words plunged Demon Ape Venerable into deep thought.

They reminded him of his past with the Taiqing Staff.

The Taiqing Staff had once been his spiritual support and the faith of his life. With its help, he had broken free from the Corpse Clan's control and established his own faction.

Back then, Demon Ape Venerable had believed that the strength he possessed had granted him complete freedom.

Yet he had never considered whether the Taiqing Staff itself might be another prison.

Now, Tree Venerable's words made Demon Ape Venerable consider a question: was he being controlled by the Taiqing Staff?

At that moment, he recalled his battle with Yellow Springs Sword Saint.

He had originally decided to stop fighting Yellow Springs Sword Saint and leave separately.

Yet the Taiqing Staff had controlled his thoughts and made him decide to kill Yellow Springs Sword Saint.

When the Taiqing Staff fed that thought back to him, Demon Ape Venerable had not resisted in the slightest. He had chosen to carry it out without hesitation.

Did that prove he had been enslaved?

At that moment, Demon Ape Venerable's heart was filled with confusion and fury.

He had spent his entire life pursuing freedom. His clansmen's enslavement by the Corpse Clan had always been a pain in his heart.

For that reason, he had even cursed his clansmen and sworn eternal enmity with the Corpse Clan!

Yet at this very moment, his own circumstances were incredibly similar to those of his clansmen back then.

At the time, his clansmen had not resisted the Corpse Clan's enslavement at all. They had even considered it only natural, completely falling under the Corpse Clan's rule.

And now, he was just like his clansmen back then, while the Taiqing Staff was the Corpse Clan.

He had