After Zhou Qing's interruption, the Yellow-Robed Old Daoist had actually forgotten why he had come. He scrutinized Zhou Qing and the other three again, yet truly could not detect the aura of anyone from the demonic path. Cupping his hands, he said, "This poor Daoist's eyes have failed him. I am Taoist Chenkong of Mount Ailao. May I ask how to address you, Daoist friend?"
For a Transformation Stage expert to claim his eyes had failed him was as ridiculous as an ant trampling an elephant to death. Had it been anyone else, Old Taoist Chen Kong would have beaten them half to death before asking questions. But Zhou Qing seemed unfathomable, and he simply could not gauge the depth of his cultivation, so he could only sound him out first. He wondered, When did such a formidable young man appear in the cultivation world? How have I never seen him before? Among the outstanding disciples of the major sects, only Kunlun's Yi Yunzi has reached the Transformation Stage, but even he is not this powerful!
Old Taoist Chen Kong could never have imagined that Zhou Qing had condensed a Second Primordial Spirit, something that had not appeared in the Daoist Sect for centuries.
"Oh! Daoist Chenkong, you are too courteous! I am Zhou Qing, Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect. These are my three disciples! Come, why have you not greeted Daoist Chenkong?" Zhou Qing kept steering the conversation aside. Just as the conflict seemed about to turn from weapons of war into jade and silk, a sudden soft moan rang out. The girl had actually awakened faintly.
Zhou Qing regretted it until his intestines turned green. Had he known, he would have killed that scourge sooner. Why had he made such a spectacle of it? Now that the girl was awake, word that he had just slaughtered three Mao Shan disciples and Dragon Group members would definitely spread. When that happened, under the vast heavens and across the broad earth, there would likely be nowhere left for him to hide.
Making his decision at once, the instant the girl's moan left her lips, Zhou Qing's expression changed. A thread of blood-red light emerged from his hand and, in an instant, flooded heaven and earth. Every color between heaven and earth lost its hue, leaving only a viscous crimson red.
Zhou Qing was wielding the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber with all his strength, chopping toward Old Taoist Chen Kong and the girl.
To kill them and silence all witnesses—since Zhou Qing had resolved to act, he held nothing back. An expert of Old Taoist Chen Kong's level was not far below the Five Grandmasters. If he deliberately fled, perhaps no one under heaven could stop him. If he escaped, regret would be useless.
With the saber in hand, ghosts and gods were spared none.
Beneath the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber, all life lay within the path of destruction.
During the ancient war of Investiture of the Gods, the Chan Sect had mobilized its elites, and one hundred and eight feudal lords had marched against Chaoge of the Yin Shang Dynasty. The demonic path grandmaster Yu Hua had guarded Sishui Pass. Beneath the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber, immortals and demons alike retreated; even Erlang Zhenjun Yang Jian, hailed as the Chan Sect's foremost god of war, had been wounded by its blade. Truly, with one man guarding the pass, ten thousand could not break through.
Zhou Qing's present cultivation was not even one-thousandth that of the demonic path grandmaster Yu Hua in those days, but the gap between Old Taoist Chen Kong and Erlang Zhenjun Yang Jian was likely far greater still.
Although Old Taoist Chen Kong had secretly kept watch on Zhou Qing's movements and gripped a magic treasure tightly in his hand, the girl's groan caused his attention to waver slightly. How could he have known that Zhou Qing, who had been smiling moments ago, would suddenly strike?
A vast demonic aura that filled heaven and earth swept toward him, and before his eyes stretched a viscous sea of crimson. Old Taoist Chen Kong's face changed drastically. This demonic aura was so dense and its momentum so overwhelming that even Wen Lanxin, once known as the demon among demons and the foremost expert of the demonic path, had fallen short of it.
Thirty years ago, conflict had once again erupted between the Daoist and demonic paths. Kunlun, the Tianshi Sect, Mao Shan, Wudang, Shu Mountain, and the other Daoist sects had arranged a battle with the demonic path atop Mount Everest. As the demonic path had declined, its experts withering away, their numbers were far inferior to those of the Daoist Sect, leaving them at a disadvantage. At the time, Wen Lanxin, the demonic path's foremost expert and the so-called demon among demons, proposed that she alone would accept every challenge from the Daoist Sect.
Taoist Lingxu, Elder of Shu Mountain; Taoist Kaiyang of Mao Mountain; and Daoyi Tianshi of Dragon Tiger Mountain took turns attacking, yet all were successively defeated by Wen Lanxin. In the end, Old Daoist Ganji of Kunlun stepped forward. Having defeated three great Daoist Sect experts in succession, Wen Lanxin was exhausted and was struck off the ten-thousand-zhang mountain peak by Old Daoist Ganji, her fragrance vanishing and her jade shattering. Though she was a woman, she surpassed men. Even many Daoist Sect members of that era deeply admired her. Had the struggle between the Daoist and demonic paths not been as irreconcilable as fire and water, had circumstances not forced their hands, many Daoist Sect experts would likely have been unwilling to make an enemy of her.
That battle had truly been far from glorious. After returning to their mountains, the experts from the major sects who had taken part in the Daoist-demon battle never spoke of it again. As time passed, the matter faded from people's memories. But Old Taoist Chen Kong had been one of those who participated in that battle. Back then, he had only recently entered the Transformation Stage and was considered an expert, so he had been dragged along to bolster their lineup. He had personally witnessed that earth-shattering battle.
The towering demonic aura and heaven-shaking demonic arts remained etched in Old Taoist Chen Kong's memory to this day.
Worthy of being a Transformation Stage figure, Old Taoist Chen Kong instinctively sensed danger but did not panic. His mind became crystal-clear, smooth and flawless. The magic treasure in his hand shot forth—a pigeon-egg-sized pearl wreathed in clear radiance. The dense clear light transformed into a screen shielding his chest. He unleashed Mount Ailao's supreme art, the Profound Heaven Nine Transformations, to its fullest, and nine dragon-shaped streaks of golden light bared their fangs and brandished their claws as they pounced toward Zhou Qing.
Clang! A Flying Sword, limpid as autumn water, crystalline and flawless without the slightest impurity, burst from the crown of his head. Myriad beams of sword light protected both him and the girl. Old Taoist Chen Kong knew Zhou Qing had murderous intent. Faced with such towering demonic aura, the girl absolutely could not withstand it. Fearing that the screen formed by the pearl would not hold, he also brought out the Flying Sword refined from his own Natal Primordial Spirit.
From the instant the surging blood-red light erupted to Old Taoist Chen Kong releasing his magic treasure, counterattacking, and producing his Flying Sword, only a fleeting moment had passed. Liao Xiaojin, Zhou Chen, and Little Fox had not even reacted before the crimson light made it impossible for them to open their eyes. The surrounding trees rapidly withered under its illumination; when the breeze passed, they crumbled into white powder. Even the earth beneath them was scorched black, without the slightest trace of life.
Once the Great All-Encompassing Godly Fiend Formation was activated, all things withered. Every trace of vitality within a radius of several dozen zhang was drained away. Had Zhou Qing not only just gained the ability to control it freely, even the three behind him would likely have been unable to escape being reduced to dust.
This is not even its full power! Even Zhou Qing found the Blood-Devouring Divine Saber's might inconceivable. His cultivation was still shallow, and he likely had not brought out even one-tenth of the divine saber's power. Judging from this display, it truly slew gods that blocked it and slaughtered Buddhas that stood in its way. Zhou Qing finally understood just how mighty those ancient treasures were.
A single strike reducing a thousand li of land to dust—Zhou Qing had once thought that was an exaggeration. Now he finally understood that not only was it not exaggerated, it had even been understated somewhat.
Like a ravenous hungry ghost, the viscous blood cloud swallowed Old Taoist Chen Kong's nine dragon-shaped golden streaks of light, which vanished into it like clay oxen entering the sea. The blood cloud then pounced upon the screen formed by the pearl and, in an instant, absorbed the clear light at least a foot thick completely clean. Boundless blood clouds wrapped around Old Taoist Chen Kong and the girl, who stood within the circling sword light, from every direction.
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