Thirteen Great Demons

The lingering echoes of the Meteorite Sea's Star Orbit returning to their proper places had not yet dissipated. As billions of stars re-embedded their predetermined paths, the harmonious humming of their collisions, like the gentle trembling of silk and bamboo, softly reverberated across the boundless starry sky. The sound carried the breath of stardust and the pulse of Star Core; upon closer listening, one could discern the unique vibrations of each star—some like the crisp, melodious clinking of jade stones, others like the deep, resonant tolling of an ancient bell, weaving together a celestial hymn that had flowed for billions of years, gradually smoothing the ripples of the turbulent sea of the Star Sea. Ren Xiaoyao stood in the void, his robes fluttering in the starlight, a slight tingling sensation from the flow of Power of Life and Death still lingering on his fingertips. He closed his eyes, savoring this rare peace, his Divine Sense spreading like ripples, touching the stable, orderly patterns formed by the returned Star Orbit. These patterns, like a spiderweb, covered the Star Sea, radiating a faint, mysterious yellow halo—until, deep within the Tianyan Continent, thirteen deafening roars suddenly erupted, shattering this tranquility.

That roar was no ordinary creature; it was more like the howl of Primal Fierce Fiends breaking free from its Nine-Layer Seal after slumbering for billions of years, carrying a savage force capable of tearing apart the very fabric of the universe. The first roar rose from the Eastern Wasteland Swamp, carrying with it the stench of churning humus, a stench mixed with the putrid smell of millennia-old silt and the acidic stench of decaying life, instantly withering the ancient trees at the swamp's edge. The roar shook the silt deep within the swamp, sending giant waves crashing towards the sky, revealing a tangled White Bone Forest beneath—the remains of countless creatures that had perished in the swamp over the years, now hissing in pain. The roar trembled slightly, as if trying to rise from the earth. A second roar erupted from the Western Desert Gobi, carrying the piercing screeching of sand and gravel. The sound was like thousands of steel needles piercing eardrums, causing sand scorpions to burst from their burrows and spin wildly in place. The roar instantly transformed the vast sand dunes into a flowing, golden-brown torrent. As the dunes shifted, they revealed the buried Ancient City Ruins beneath, the sword and arrow marks on the walls flashing in the sand before being covered by new waves. The roar from the Southern Abyss Deep Sea was the deepest, yet carried a weight capable of crushing mountains. Ten-Thousand-Foot Water Wall rose from the sea, its dark blue waves churning the skeletons of Deep Sea Giant Beast, their scales still clinging to them, reflecting a chilling light. As the wall of water crashed down, coastal fishing villages were instantly swallowed, leaving only a few wrecked boats spinning on the crests of the waves. The roar of the Northern Region Glacier carried an ancient, unyielding chill, freezing the surging ice plains into crystal-clear Glazed Ice. Cracks spread, spewing out tiny Ice Crystals that, upon hitting the Ice Crystals, shattered the hard ice into small craters. Beneath the glaciers... The permafrost began to crack, revealing the mammoth carcass frozen for millennia. The carcass' fur remained intact in the frigid air, as if it were about to open its eyes at any moment. Thirteen Roars finally intertwined in the heavens, transforming into a Black Fog Giant Net blotted out the sky. The inky, Ink-Black Demonic Qi was so thick that it couldn't be dispersed, dyeing half the sky opaque. Even the sun became a blurry golden spot behind the misty net. The earth was instantly dragged into darkness. Rivers froze in their rushing flow, and plants drooped their leaves, afraid to stretch them out, as if heaven and earth themselves held their breath before this malevolent aura.

Ren Xiaoyao suddenly opened his eyes, a cold glint flashing in them. A bone-chilling coldness emanated from his spine, penetrating the gaps in the Tianyan Emperor Armor, as if countless ice spikes were drilling into his marrow, sending shivers down his spine. He looked up at the sky shrouded in black mist. Thirteen ferocious figures had shattered the clouds, each step causing the heavens and earth to tremble slightly— the Nine-Headed Demon at the head was the most terrifying, its nine heads slowly turning on its neck. The tiger's head spewed out scorching white vapor, which instantly evaporated the clouds upon landing; the wolf's head dripped dark green saliva, which dripped down... It corroded tiny Black Hole in the air; the single horn on the dragon's forehead glowed with eerie blue lightning, and the surrounding air hissed as the lightning flashed; nine pairs of eyes burned with the same greed, fixed on Ren Xiaoyao, as if looking at a piece of fat meat about to be devoured. On its giant python-like coiled body, every blood-red scale was writhing, and upon closer inspection, one could see countless miniature human faces embedded in the scales, all the Remnant Souls of Living Beings it had devoured. Some of these remnants were crying, some were struggling, and some had empty eyes, silently enduring the pain of eternal imprisonment.

The Withered Bone Old Demon on the left hovered in mid-air, its entire body a faded, waxy yellow, as if carved from ancient, decaying wood. Fine cracks covered its bones, marks of time and resentment. The Nether-Green Ghost Fire flickering in its eye sockets flared and flared, each flash releasing hundreds of vengeful spirits from its bones, transforming into fine ash threads that coiled around it. These threads intertwined, forming a pair of tattered wings behind it. The wails of these spirits coalesced into viscous sound waves. Upon impact, the grass on the ground withered visibly, fireflies went out of bloom, night birds plummeted to the ground, and even the distant starlight was absorbed into ashes, as if the world was being slowly drained of its life force, turning into a colossal tomb.

Even more terrifying was the demon with Human-Faced Spider-Bodied. Its upper body was that of a stunningly beautiful woman, her skin as white as fresh snow, as if one could squeeze water from it with a gentle touch. Her eyelashes were as long as butterfly wings, casting a faint shadow beneath her eyelids when they fell. Yet, her eyes held no emotion, only the coldness and greed befitting eight compound eyes, as if everything in the world was merely prey to her. Her lower body, a spider's body, was covered in glossy black hair, which shimmered eerily in the light. The tips of her eight spider legs gleamed with a metallic coldness, leaving lingering dark green trails as they streaked through the void. The space at the edges of these trails was slowly dissolving, revealing a deeper Void behind them—a deadly poison capable of corroding the Heaven and Earth Laws, even Time Stream this place, making that period of time blurred and indistinct.

"So... so rich in the Life and Death Origin..." The nine throats of the Nine-Headed Demon opened and closed simultaneously, nine voices overlapping, some low like the tremors of the earth, causing fine ripples on the ground; others high like the friction of metal, piercing the eardrums, forming a demonic sound that could disturb the soul, rolling between heaven and earth, "Swallow him, and we can shatter the shackles of the Heavenly Dao, leaving this world without order, only the revelry of us demons!"

Before the words were even finished, thirteen demons swarmed in like a black tide, their Yao Qi coalescing into a black whirlwind that whipped up rubble and broken wood, sweeping towards Ren Xiaoyao. The Human-Faced Spider Demon was the first to unleash a deluge of spider silk, each thread as fine as a cow's hair, weaving a giant, transparent net in the air. The net's mesh was strangely hexagonal, each gleaming with a faint silver light. Just as Ren Xiaoyao was about to move, he felt the surrounding space suddenly become viscous, as if he were sinking into a swamp filled with syrup. When he raised his hand, his fingertips moved a fraction of a second slower than his thoughts—the spider silk could actually entangle the Time Flow Rate, each strand subtly lengthening his movements, trying to trap him like an immobile prey, allowing the other demons to strike with ease.

At the same time, the Withered Bone Old Demon swung its jagged bone claws, the joints clashing with a crisp "crack" sound, a sound carrying a deathly rhythm. In an instant, countless wronged souls surged from its body, coalescing in mid-air into three-foot-long blades, their blades shimmering with a dark gray light, carrying endless resentment as they pierced towards Ren Xiaoyao's sea of consciousness. Before those Grieving Soul Blades even reached him, Ren Xiaoyao felt a sharp pain in his sea of consciousness, as if countless steel needles were piercing the core of his soul. The Central Plains his sea of consciousness began to shake, threatening to shatter his spirit into fragments, trapping him forever in an endless prison of resentment, keeping company with these wronged souls.

The Nine-Headed Demon went berserk, spewing Demonic Fire from its nine gaping maws. The Red Demonic Fire transformed into burning chains upon landing, emitting black smoke as they coiled around Ren Xiaoyao's limbs, the air around them emitting a burnt smell. The Blue Demonic Fire condensed into ice spikes in the air, their tips radiating a chilling aura capable of shattering the soul, leaving trails of tiny ice beads in their wake. The Black Demonic Fire was the most bizarre, transforming into countless tiny flying insects, their bodies pitch black, buzzing as their wings flapped, attacking his protective Gang Qi and gnawing at the Gang Qi rules that constituted it, causing Gang Qi to spread across its surface. The Nine-Color Demonic Fire intertwined in the air, forming an impenetrable net of deadly power, trapping Ren Xiaoyao firmly in its center. The void at the edges of the Fire Net twisted and melted, revealing the unfathomable darkness behind it.

Facing a three-pronged attack, Ren Xiaoyao's eyes flashed with a fierce light. Instead of retreating, he advanced, and the air pressure around him suddenly increased. The Life and Death Spring within his body abruptly boiled, and the azure and black streams of energy swirled around him like two dragons, emitting a deep dragon roar. The roar carried a rhythmic Life-Death Alternation, calming the surrounding restless air. He pointed forward, and the two streams of energy instantly merged, transforming into a massive long blade that pierced through the heavens and earth. On the blade, the seal script characters for "Life and Death" flickered erratically, radiating a majestic heavenly power. The space around the long blade slightly distorted, as if unable to withstand this power. The long blade slashed... As it fell, the sharp whistling sound that cleaved the air drowned out the demons' roars. Wherever it passed, the spider silk of the Human-Faced Spider Demon snapped inch by inch, turning into golden specks of light that dissipated in the wind. When the specks of light landed, tiny golden flowers sprouted from them. The Grieving Soul Blades of the Withered Bone Old Demon let out a mournful wail in the blade light, melting like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun. The melted liquid fell to the ground, seeped into the soil, and sprouted tender green grass. Even the domineering Nine-Color Demonic Fire was cleaved in two, creating a vacuum zone. The flames danced wildly on both sides of the blade light, but could never close up. It could only watch helplessly as the long blade slashed towards the head of the Nine-Headed Demon.

"Demons and monsters wreak havoc on the world, harming living beings. They should be completely annihilated in this Cycle of Life and Death!" Ren Xiaoyao's voice was like a great bell, shaking the heavens and earth. Wherever the sound waves passed, the pebbles on the ground jumped, and echoes came from the distant mountains.

Immediately afterwards, the pattern of the towering Sky-Piercing Ancient Tree on his shoulder's Tianyan Emperor Armor suddenly expanded, transforming into countless dark Cyan-Black Petals fluttering in the air. These petals, carrying a faint fluorescent glow, swirled and fell, their patterns clearly visible—the stylized Life and Death Characters." The petals took root and sprouted instantly upon landing, growing in the blink of an eye into giant trees hundreds of meters tall, their trunks as thick as mountains, requiring more than a dozen people to encircle them. Their branches and leaves, as lush as umbrellas, obscured a large portion of the sky, temporarily keeping the thirteen demons at bay, forming a natural barrier.

These giant trees experience an astonishing rate of Life-Death Alternation: one moment they are lush and verdant, with dewdrops rolling on their tender green leaves, reflecting a faint light and radiating Vibrant Vitality, as if one could hear the rustling of the leaves growing; the next moment they wither rapidly, their leaves turning yellow and curling, their edges scorched black, their branches becoming charred and brittle, breaking at the slightest touch, ultimately turning into a pile of ashes that drift into the air; and from the ashes, new buds sprout from the soil, growing at a visible speed, their unfolding leaves still covered with fine down. This cycle repeats itself, forming a solid barrier constructed by the Laws of Life and Death. When Yao Qi crashes against this barrier, it is like a tide crashing against a reef, instantly collapsing and dissipating into wisps of green smoke.

"It's nothing but a smokescreen!" The Leopard Demon on the far right, with wings on its back, roared, its voice filled with enraged fury. It flapped its wings violently, stirring up gusts of violent Gale Wind. The Gale Wind carried rubble and broken wood, and wherever it passed, rocks crumbled, debris flew everywhere, and the earth caved in with spiderweb-like cracks, from which faint black smoke rose. The Gale Wind even uprooted the giant trees in the front row, their roots still covered with damp soil and wriggling earthworms, tearing a gap more than ten feet wide, the space at the gap slightly distorted by the impact of the Gale Wind.

The uprooted trees instantly transformed into raging blue flames upon hitting the ground. These blue flames were no ordinary fire, but rather the Annihilation Fire of life and Power of Life and Death, specifically designed to burn the very essence of demons. The flames carried a faint Sandalwood Incense, refreshing the mind and spirit. The blue flames spread rapidly along the Leopard Demon's claws, scorching it until it let out a piercing scream. The screams were filled with the agony of its Demon Power being burned, causing the other demons to instinctively take a half-step back. The Leopard Demon rolled frantically on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames with its Demon Power. Its wings pounded the ground, creating deep craters, but the blue flames grew stronger with the wind, and in the blink of an eye, half of its body was burned to Void, revealing the twisted and struggling demonic soul within. Mars still clung to the soul, constantly emitting a sizzling sound as it burned. The soul's wailing drew the attention of all who heard it.

Seeing this, the remaining demons not only did not retreat, but their eyes blazed with even fiercer ferocity, and their attacks became even more ferocious. A Stone Demon with a pure white body opened its mouth and spat out billions of pebbles like a torrential downpour. The pebbles were so dense that the sky was obscured, each one the size of a fist, with a smooth, mirror-like surface reflecting the black light of Yao Qi. Each pebble contained terrifying gravity capable of shattering mountains and splitting peaks. When they crashed into Ren Xiaoyao, even the solid space was slightly dented and groaned under the weight, as if the entire world was about to collapse at any moment. The whooshing sound of the falling pebbles drowned out all other sounds.

Another Snake-Haired Demoness possessed a bewitching beauty. Her eyebrows were like distant, misty mountains, and her lips were like cinnabar dots. As she parted her lips slightly, she sang a seductive, enchanting song. That song was like a lover's whisper, tender and lingering, capable of stirring the deepest desires and vulnerabilities in a cultivator's heart. In Ren Xiaoyao's ears, he seemed to hear countless soft murmurs—the sounds of childhood laughter, the calls of relatives and friends—trying to make him lose his composure and immerse himself in illusory memories. At the same time, her long hair, composed of venomous snakes, rose into the air, transforming into countless small, green snakes. The scales on their bodies shimmered with an eerie light, and their forked tongues carried a deadly poison that could corrode Dao Heart. The poison was dark green, and when it touched the ground, it caused plumes of black smoke to rise. The snakes burrowed into Ren Xiaoyao's seven orifices, attempting to invade through the cracks in his Dao Heart and cause it to collapse completely.

Ren Xiaoyao remained unmoved, his heart as still as water. The Life and Death Giant Wheel behind his head began to spin rapidly, the green mist and blue flames at its rim spreading outwards like tides, forming faint halos. The green mist landed on the whistling gravel, and a miraculous scene unfolded: tender green buds instantly sprouted from the hard, stubborn surface of the rocks, each tipped with a pale yellow, appearing incredibly delicate; roots spread like a spider web within the rocks, drilling countless tiny holes inside; in the blink of an eye, billions of gravel fragments transformed into gentle vines, adorned with tiny white flowers, intertwining and drooping, losing all their destructive power, instead weaving a verdant curtain in mid-air, making one feel as if they were in a tranquil forest.

The blue flames precisely coiled around the strands of hair that had transformed into venomous snakes, burning them into tiny starlight points. The starlight points flickered in the air a few times before vanishing without a trace. The Snake-Haired Demoness voice struck the blue flames like water droplets falling into boiling oil, instantly shattered and unable to affect Ren Xiaoyao's mind. His consciousness remained clear, like a calm lake without a ripple. He moved with lightning speed, appearing above the Stone Demon's head like a ghost, his movements so fast that only a blur remained. He then pointed his finger downwards—the tip of his fingertip swirling with blue and black, the very essence of the Dao of Life and Death, containing the mystery of the Reincarnation of All Things.

The Stone Demon's enormous body began to "flow" like sand in an hourglass, turning into billions of stardust from head to toe and slowly drifting down. The stardust shimmered in the air like a grand meteor shower, eventually returning to the world as if it had never existed, leaving only a patch of damp soil in its place, from which a small green seedling sprouted.

"His power... his power can actually shatter the very foundation of all things!" Upon seeing this, the nine- Nine-Headed Demon's nine heads simultaneously revealed expressions of disbelief. The tiger's beard trembled with rage, drooling a few drops of hot saliva; the dragon's horn glowed red, carrying a violent aura; the other heads also showed expressions of mixed fear and anger. It held back no longer, and all nine heads simultaneously spat out their natal Demon Core —nine fist-sized Demon Core that swirled and danced in the air. The surfaces of the Demon Core were covered with blood-red patterns, emitting a dense Yao Qi. They formed a strange Blood-Colored Formation, with a constantly rotating Black Hole at the center of the array, emitting a terrifying suction force that devoured everything. Even the distant stars began to tremble slightly, as if they were about to be pulled off their Star Orbit by this suction force and drawn into the array to become its nourishment.

Ren Xiaoyao, however, faced the powerful suction head-on, his figure swaying slightly but steadily moving forward. The Grey Pill in his palm (formed from the Reverse Dao Origin) suddenly burst forth with dazzling light, like a small sun illuminating the sky shrouded in Yao Qi. The life-and-death inscriptions on the Grey Pill projected countless shadows, depicting the scene of the Old Ancestor Tianyan's transformation from delusion to enlightenment: when he first glimpsed the Great Dao, he stood beneath the starry sky, his eyes filled with awe and longing for order, radiating a pure aura; when he cultivated against the Dao, he was in his cave... Struggling, the Mystic Yellow Current and dark energy intertwined within his body, his face contorted with pain and inner turmoil, each exertion of his power feeling like a tearing apart of himself; after ten thousand years of obsession, his eyes were filled with resentment, his aura became violent, and he regarded all beings that deviated from order as enemies; when he finally awoke, a look of relief appeared in his eyes, his aura became peaceful, and he accepted the true meaning of the coexistence of birth and death and order... Those lights and shadows, carrying the rhythm of the Great Dao, crashed into the demon array, and wherever the lights and shadows passed, the Blood-Colored Patterns of the array faintly faded.

Strangely, the operation of the demon array froze for a moment. Although the demons did not have a complete Dao Heart, they were instinctively shocked by the truth of the "Life-Death Cycle," Principle engraved in the bones of all things, which even demons could not completely resist. The array's Devouring Power became slightly disordered, the suction force weakened for a moment, and the Black Hole's rotation speed slowed down by half a beat.

"Now!" Ren Xiaoyao seized the fleeting opportunity, letting out a low shout with undeniable power. The Life and Death Giant Wheel behind his head slammed forward, its rim radiating green mist and blue flames like a burst dam. The green mist, like a gentle spring rain, tenderly nourished the earth polluted by Yao Qi. Withered grass sprouted new buds, glistening with dewdrops; new branches emerged from broken tree trunks, adorned with tiny Flower Buds; the earth's color gradually shifted from withered yellow to emerald green, brimming with life. The blue flames, like the fire of judgment, carried a majestic divine might, precisely binding the nine heads of the Nine-Headed Demon, their flames carrying the power to purify everything.

"No--!" The Nine-Headed Demon roared in utter despair, its cry filled with boundless resentment and fear, shattering the surrounding clouds into wisps of smoke. One by one, its nine heads exploded in the blue flames, blood and brains splattering like raindrops, turning into foul-smelling black mud upon hitting the ground. Yet, tiny blades of grass sprouted from the mud, visibly covering the filth. However, within the exploding Mars, a green mist quietly spread, gently enveloping its violent demonic soul like a tender hand. The demonic soul initially struggled frantically, emitting silent roars, but under the nourishment of the green mist, it gradually calmed down. Its malevolent aura was purified bit by bit, eventually transforming into a Demon Core the size of a pigeon's egg, entirely white, devoid of any blood, radiating a soft light, quietly floating in Ren Xiaoyao's palm, like a piece of unpolished jade containing the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Seeing this, the remaining twelve demons finally felt a deep-seated fear, an instinctive dread of death. They turned and fled in unison, their movements as swift as arrows released from a bow, wanting only to get away from this terrifying human as quickly as possible. But how could Ren Xiaoyao let these demons who were wreaking havoc on the world go? His Power of Life and Death him like a shadow, transforming into a streak of blue and black light, relentlessly pursuing him.