Ancient Demon

Biodata

Origins and History

Ancient Demons entered the True Realm when reincarnation collapsed. Their exceptional starting strength and rapid growth enabled them to devastate the world, drawing Immortal Emperors and their followers into war. Descendants and disciples of the emperor associated with Li Hao’s pseudo-realm eventually left its shelter to join the fighting, sealing the passage behind them 397.

The original catastrophe occurred approximately one hundred thousand years before the renewed invasion. Initially, some great clans welcomed the disruption of their rivals. Once the invaders reached their own territories, their hurried counterattacks failed. Several Great Emperors sacrificed themselves to give the surviving races time to unite and drive the Ancient Demons back 696 698.

During that war, the Great Emperors drew the Ancient Demons’ main army away from the Northern Region. Those forces never returned, and the Ancient Demons later suffered internal fractures. Local demons that had allied with them continued fighting humanity; these allied demons are distinct from the Ancient Demons themselves 612.

After five Ancient Demon Clans conquered the Eastern Region, they immediately expanded their offensive. The other five clans joined them, renewing the catastrophe across multiple regions. Their leaders sought war spoils for their descendants, lost Reincarnation Fragments, and the eventual restoration of the Reincarnation Gate 698.

Appearance

The Ancient Demons first encountered by Li Hao resemble enormous, grotesque bats. Their wings bear dark-red veins, their hairless bodies have dragonlike claws, and their long, spiked tails resemble giant pythons. Members of that group range from hundreds to roughly a thousand zhang in size 397.

• Variable anatomy: Some have twisted or broken wings; royal bloodlines can differ visibly in size and physique 397 526.
• Wing counts: Li Hao initially observes two-winged demons and four-winged Commanders. Xueyao’s eight wings identify her as an Imperial Clan Ancient Demon when she reveals herself 469 477.
• Royal markings: Dijiang royals possess distinctive demonic markings on their bodies and fleshy wings 526.
• Humanoid forms: Xueyao appears as a black-haired woman and conceals both her wings and demonic aura. Li Hao nevertheless recognizes her scent 469.

Power and Hierarchy

Ancient Demons possess an overwhelming advantage against ordinary opponents at the same cultivation realm. Their soul-corroding abilities make cross-realm victories against them exceptionally rare, although outstanding prodigies can overcome that advantage 398 399 469.

Royal Bloodlines

• Royal advantage: At True Immortal perfection, royal Ancient Demons possess three to five times the strength of ordinary Ancient Demons at the same realm 526.
• Spiritual reserves: Perfected Immortal King Ancient Demons in the tower trials possess more than five thousand drops’ worth of True God blood strength, exceeding the reserves of most comparable cultivators from other clans 699.
• Limits: Their gifts do not erase major cultivation gaps. Higher-level military formations and an unopposed Immortal King can slaughter large numbers of lower-level Ancient Demons 474 475.

Bloodlines and Clans

Earlier accounts identify seven great Ancient Demon bloodlines. Later events describe an alliance of ten clans; the supplied material does not explain the relationship between those classifications 471 530 698.

Abilities and Skills

Soul Devouring and Corrosion

• Black mist directly attacks primordial spirits. The first major demon Li Hao encounters can corrupt those who look at it, while its malice permeates the surrounding void 397.
• Corrosive radiance surrounding a demon’s primordial spirit painfully damages Li Hao’s spirit on contact 397.
• Soul-devouring effects also corrode primordial-spirit power carried within saint domains and Sacred Dao attacks 413.
• Dying Second Order demons release soul-devouring shocks, weakening defenders even when the demons themselves are defeated 413.

Regeneration and Survival

• Blood-Drop Rebirth allows damaged bodies to recover rapidly, making ordinary cuts largely ineffective 397.
• Regeneration fails if no blood remains. A surviving primordial spirit can continue existing without its fleshly body, but a body whose primordial spirit has been destroyed becomes a decaying corpse 397 398.
• True Immortal-level demons possess patterned immortal bones, powerful regeneration, and bodies difficult to destroy completely with dulled weapons 401 415.
• One Leader counters Li Hao’s fatal attribute through self-destruction and Fate Reversal, then reforms 415.

Innate Secret Arts

• Nine Netherworld God Rend: Manifests a towering black apparition wielding a whisk of compressed souls. It seals the victims’ immortal power, forces their primordial spirits out of their bodies, and immobilizes them 469.
• Reincarnation projection: Places an Ancient Demon image inside an opponent’s primordial spirit to attack it directly 413.
• Demon Sound / Demon Roar: Shakes and disrupts primordial spirits; coordinated roars impair opponents during group combat 413 527.
• Nether God shadow: Combines multiple demons’ spiritual power into a devouring apparition. Dijiang royals also employ soul-imprisoning Hook Blades 526.

Domains and Military Formations

• Third Order demons use saint domains; True Immortal Leaders deploy immortal domains, while Immortal King royals wield world domains 397 415 680.
• Ancient Demon armies combine their strength into enormous combat bodies, including Nether Ghost, Ghost Matriarch, Blood Prison, Nine Demon, and Punishment Ghost formations 673 674 676.
• Nether Ghost Arrays can contain hundreds of thousands of demons each. During the Eastern Region crisis, the wider invading force numbers in the trillions 676.

Communication and Memory Protection

• Ancient Demons possess their own language. They can communicate meaning directly through thought when speaking with Immortal Deities, or conceal it by using that language 399.
• By Xueyao’s era, they have developed protection against memory searches: intrusion triggers primordial-spirit self-destruction and draws the intruder into a reincarnation world created by their supreme emperor 471.
• Earlier on the Ancient Road, the Soldier successfully acquires language knowledge and military intelligence from captured demons and their memories 399 401.

Flesh, Blood, and Artifacts

• Dangerous remains: Soul-devouring power persists in dead flesh. Ordinary artifact forging and pill refining risk severe spiritual injury because both processes require divine-sense control 408.
• Li Hao’s cooking: His Dao-level cooking makes the otherwise unabsorbable soul power nourishing, easily absorbed, and free of side effects 399.
• Cultivation benefits: Prepared flesh strengthens primordial spirits, heals the Soldier’s hidden injuries, and supports the development of Li Hao’s golden meridians and divine bones 399 400 401.
• Immortal nourishment: Cooking True Immortal-level flesh requires Li Hao’s Immortal Transformation and can nourish his body with immortal power 400.
• Blood essence: Ancient Demon blood essence is more valuable for Li Hao’s nourishment than ordinary corpses, but is rarer 617.
• Modified Immortal Artifacts: Ancient Demons cannot use artifacts modified by the Immortal forces. They therefore destroy captured weapons and treasures rather than leave them for their enemies 400.
• Demon Subduing Pill: Temporarily suppresses a True Immortal Leader to Second Order. The Leader later breaks the suppression chain after entering the pseudo-realm 413.

Notable Individuals

• Zheng — First Order leader commanding several hundred Third Order demons and seven Second Order demons; defeated by Li Hao and the Middle-Aged Soldier 399 400.
• Man / Savage Demon — Rival First Order leader who pressures Zheng to cooperate; killed by the Soldier after their failed attack 399 400.
• Ancient Demon Commander — Discovers the destruction of fourteen territories and overwhelms Li Hao and the Soldier before a red-armored female general intervenes 401.
• True Immortal Ancient Demon Leader — Infiltrates the pseudo-realm under suppression, devours Sages’ spirits, and devastates multiple Small Worlds. Li Hao eventually destroys its body in one strike; its primordial spirit initially survives 413 415 419 420.
• Ban Xueyao / Hua Xueyao — Eight-winged Imperial Clan woman who shares Li Hao’s cooked demon flesh and temporarily aids human soldiers. Later commands Ancient Demon forces and tries to persuade him to submit 471 474 477 673 675.
• Di Qiu — King-level Ancient Demon whose planned ambush is exposed; driven off and severely wounded by the human Celestial Master 475 477.
• Kui Jiao — Demon King stationed in the Abyss of Origin, recovering from an earlier injury when the Red Tassel Spear Woman’s relief force approaches 413.

Major Story Arcs