Demon Manifestation

"Life exhausted, then deathly sleep; the dead rise once more as spirits. Where all beings harbor doubt, a hundred million ghosts sing poems."

The song drifted from afar. A white-robed scholar with the bearing of an immortal, bamboo scroll in hand, walked amid these savage mountains with an indescribable elegance and romantic grace, like a true immortal descending into the mortal world.

Yet if one looked closely at his face, the longer one stared, the more horrifying it became.

That face was too perfect. Every word of praise humanity possessed would still fail to describe even a fraction of it. It was so perfect that it felt unreal—not a face a human could possess, but rather some unknown existence wearing a finely painted human skin over its own face, imitating humanity until it resembled one.

"Five thousand years apart, and Mountain Lord, master of the Ten Thousand Monster Royal Court, is no longer as magnificent as he was in those days. Sure enough, time is the greatest enemy of us Dao Seekers..."

At This Moment, Drought Demon, master of the Western Desert Demon Den, stood atop a mountain peak. Looking into the distance, he saw boundless ranges of mountains and rushing rivers,

lush forests and the cries of countless beasts.

The mountain ranges stretched for tens of thousands of miles, their dense forests nurturing who knew how many rare birds and exotic beasts. Strange flowers and unusual herbs carpeted the ground, while the residences left behind by predecessors occasionally emerged. Nearly every accomplished cultivator on the continent had come here, more or less, to seek ruins. Across the vast earth, herds of Vajra Elephants wandered leisurely, great swathes of Raging Fire Bulls thundered onward without cease, dragons hid in deep-mountain pools, and eagles soared freely through the white clouds. This