Demon

Amid the vast mountain ranges, venomous insects and strange serpents filled the land, while miasma soared into the heavens. Occasionally, flocks of birds flew overhead, only to be sucked down by the giant snakes below, whole swathes of birds tumbling into their gaping jaws.

This was Eight Desolations Mountain, a desolate wilderness thirteen thousand li from the Great Luo Pill Dao, a place scarcely touched by human traces since ancient times.

Several Mountain Imps, wooden clubs in hand, drove away the venomous insects baring sharp fangs at them as they cautiously headed toward where the heavenly lightning had struck.

These Mountain Imps, each around six zhang tall, were the overlords of the forests for hundreds of li around. Ordinarily, they ran rampant and their fierce reputations filled these mountains. Yet for the past few days, they had been cowed by a strange aura, hiding deep within their caves and not daring to show themselves. That unnatural fear filled the hearts of these violent Mountain Imps with humiliated rage. But the aura was simply too terrifying. Even their brains, which scarcely held a few drops of pulp, vaguely understood that if they drew near it, they would die!

Fearing death, the Mountain Imps had endured hunger in their caves for several days. Then, on this day, as thunder rumbled through the sky, the aura that had terrified them suddenly vanished. Overjoyed, the Mountain Imps assumed the heavenly lightning had blasted its owner to pieces. Only then did they swagger out of their cave, deliberately selecting the heaviest and sturdiest wooden clubs they had fashioned in ordinary times, and head toward where the lightning had fallen.

Along the way, they savagely beat to death more than a dozen fierce beasts that had carelessly appeared before them, trampled thousands of venomous insects and snakes to death, then joined forces to tear a massive serpent over twenty zhang long into pieces. Carrying bloody chunks of meat in their hands and taking a bite every few steps, the Mountain Imps finally reached the place where the heavenly lightning had descended.

This had originally been a small valley, encircled by seven oddly shaped hills that formed the appearance of a skull. The Mountain Imps knew that a fierce and brutal Great Roc had once lived here. It was the aerial overlord for a thousand li around, and had always kept the peace with these ground-bound tyrants. Neither could do anything to the other, and neither could be bothered to provoke the other. Now that they saw the lightning had struck the Great Roc's valley, the Mountain Imps rejoiced once more and approached the valley with chuckles.

The small valley, once roughly a li wide and long, had now become a pitch-black abyss whose bottom could not be seen. The seven hills had been pulverized by a single strike of heavenly lightning. The ground was littered with huge, black, glassy slabs, formed from molten rock that had cooled and solidified. Every hill within several li had split apart, and countless large and small, deep and shallow cracks webbed across the earth, with wisps of black mist continuously drifting out from them. Excitedly, the Mountain Imps leaped across the fissures and kept drawing closer to the abyss.

"Oooh~~~" The Mountain Imps finally reached the edge of the abyss and danced about, hopping wildly beside it. The Great Roc was dead, absolutely dead! With such a huge hole, how could it not have been smashed to bits? From this day onward, the brothers would be the twin overlords of sky and earth for a thousand li around. Who would dare fight them?

"Roar! Roar!" One Mountain Imp excitedly waved his wooden club and threw back his head in a long howl.

Who could have expected that joy would bring sorrow? The Mountain Imp swung his arm too fiercely, and the heavy wooden club pulled his body forward. With a mournful cry, he tumbled head over heels into the abyss. The other Mountain Imps shrieked in terror, threw down their clubs, and turned to flee, afraid they too might accidentally fall in.

The Mountain Imp who had fallen was roaring in despair when his body suddenly stopped, floating in midair. This bizarre occurrence scared him out of his wits, and he began roaring again, urine and filth spilling out. He had felt that aura—the aura that had kept him and his brothers trapped in their cave for days, too afraid to leave. An aura steeped in boundless evil, incomparably sinister, and filled with death.

Two points of red light appeared beside the Mountain Imp. As they watched him struggle desperately, the two red lights flickered, and a sinister voice suddenly said in a low tone, "Damnable fellow. This Ancestor wished to drink a little blood and flesh, yet found such a filthy thing. Very well. If you cannot serve as meat, then you may serve as a slave. With such a large body, you should have some brute strength."

A thread of red light pierced the Mountain Imp's brow. The Mountain Imp, who had been wildly twisting and struggling, suddenly stiffened all over. Two tears of blood dripped from his great eyes, and his pupils abruptly turned a strange, dim crimson.

A mass of black mist surged up from the ground, supporting the Mountain Imp and slowly carrying him up from the abyss.

The Mountain Imps who had just fled less than a li suddenly heard their brother roaring behind them. They turned back and saw the Mountain Imp who had fallen standing atop a mass of black mist, repeatedly beckoning them over. These dim-witted hulking creatures immediately brightened. Their brother was not dead? Delighted, they ran back and happily greeted the Mountain Imp with roars.

Several streaks of red light flashed past. Blood tears flowed from the eyes of the Mountain Imps as well, and their eyes became a sea of scarlet.

A young man with the delicate, beautiful features of a sixteen-year-old girl suddenly appeared before the Mountain Imps. Blood light flickered in his eyes, layer upon layer of bloody waves rolling within them like an endless sea of blood. He wore a black robe, but it looked as if it had been burned by fire, riddled with torn holes and scorch marks.

The young man gently rubbed his smooth, hairless head and sighed softly. "What formidable Purple Thunder Heavenly Fire. If Spiritual Energy between heaven and earth had not rapidly dwindled, leaving insufficient power to condense Demon Slaying Divine Thunder, then today this Ancestor would have... Hehehehehe! To survive a great calamity without dying means this Ancestor is destined to unify this realm."

Raising his head with a trace of loneliness, the young man looked at the hazy blue sky and gave a long sigh. "Do you know? Back then, you merely sealed this Ancestor away, yet today you have brought a catastrophe of utter annihilation upon your descendants! Hehehe! According to those little brats, the highest cultivation in the present cultivation world is no more than the Nascent Soul Stage? Nascent Soul Stage! What the hell use is that?"

With an arrogant smile, the young man sighed. "Those who submit to me shall live; those who defy me shall die. The Heavenly Dao is nothing more than this."

In the distant sky, several hundred black streaks, black lights, and black mists shot over in dense swarms. A group of cultivators wreathed in surging sinister qi flew over at high speed and knelt in worship before the young man. "We, juniors of the Yin Specter Sect, pay respects to the Blood God Ancestor. Congratulations, Ancestor, on escaping your great calamity and returning to the mortal world!"

"Yin Specter Sect..." Blood God Ancestor sighed quietly and said leisurely, "Yin Sanniang gave her soul and scattered her spirit for this Ancestor back then. You are Sanniang's juniors, and this Ancestor shall certainly regard you differently."

"Tell me! What preparations have you made for the Great Luo Pill Dao, which you intend to attack first?"

Blood God Ancestor smiled faintly and said in a low voice, "Since we are to destroy the Great Luo Pill Dao, then destroy it."