Return to Demon-Subduing City

As always, dark clouds rolled in over the Demon-Subduing City, and thunder roared as usual.

Sensing the extremely pure yet explosive Spiritual Qi of thunder, with each breath he could feel the electric sparks tingling slightly in his nasal cavity and lungs; the Hu Mang looked up at the sky and had been looking for quite a while before muttering to itself.

"I said, how come there's a huge hole in the sky?"

It was a circular, perfectly regular hole in the void, about ten feet in diameter, as if someone had used their supreme Law Power to carve out a piece from the thick clouds, opening a gateway to another world.

At the edge of the cave entrance, the clouds appeared scorched black, with slightly curled edges and a layer of eerie blue light. This light was slowly rotating, like an ancient array in operation, preventing the cave entrance from being swallowed up again by the surrounding churning dark clouds.

As soon as Hu Mang transmigrated, he saw this strange phenomenon and felt the terrifying Law Power fluctuations within it, which startled him greatly.

I thought he'd been staked out as soon as he got back.

He felt the Qi of the Void pouring down from above, the slight stinging sensation as it brushed against his skin, and the aura that was more ancient and profound than any thunder in the Demon-Subduing City. He exhaled, "This is no ordinary hole... Someone has torn a rift in the void above the Demon-Subduing City."

After observing it for a while, he realized that this thing was probably an unattended void formation.

"A teleportation array?" the Hu Mang murmured. "Another new gadget."

To date, Heavenly Gate has never successfully replicated a teleportation array.

"Since there's no one in charge, I should be relatively safe here. And now that I'm here, my Heavenly Eye— "

With a thought, Hu Mang activated his Heavenly Eye.

The moment the Heavenly Eye opened, Hu Mang sensed an unprecedented change. The thunderous Spiritual Qi throughout the entire Demon-Subduing City seemed to sense his presence at the same moment, surging towards him like rivers flowing into the sea.

This influx was not a violent pouring into his body, but rather a submissive one, hovering within his perception range, awaiting his command.

The once explosive and unruly power of lightning was now as docile as a domesticated hunting dog before him, and would rush toward the direction he specified with just a thought.

He felt as if he had transformed into the Thunder God of this Demon-Subduing City, truly controlling everything in the city—every bolt of lightning traveling through the clouds, every wisp of thunderous Spiritual Qi permeating the air, every brick and stone soaked in lightning, were clearly visible in his perception, as if they were extensions of his own body.

After defeating the fake Thunder God, he became the true Thunder God of this city!

The "Demon-Subduing Divine Runes" that had disappeared between Hu Mang's eyebrows lit up again. This time, without needing the materialization of the "Heavenly Eye," his vision could traverse space and see one demon-subduing place after another: the Fire House Cat Garden, the Demon-Subduing Drill Ground, the Sha-Subduing Commander's Manor, the Evil-Expelling Altar- Demon-Suppressing Mysterious Treasury, and the Rebirth Shrine. However, his brows quickly furrowed.

These demon-suppressing sites looked as if they had been torn apart by Law Power, rendering all the treasures and restrictions inside ineffective.

For example, above the Sword-Nurturing Sha-Cleansing Pool, there were originally ten demon-subduing swords floating in the air. Now, nine of the ten swords are broken, and the last one is stuck diagonally in the ground, with faint blue smoke rising from it. According to the Heavenly Gate, the computing core has burned out.

As for the Tempering Treasury, it was in an even worse state. The large thunderfire furnace in the center of the treasury was split in two. Even more outrageous, the underground fire vein, comparable to a volcano crater, was forcibly sucked away, leaving only a large hole emitting billowing black smoke.

Hu Mang's gaze shifted to the Demon-Subduing Prison. The first, second, third, and fourth levels had all been breached, and even the most mysterious and unpredictable fifth level, which suppressed immortals, had been opened up with a huge gap, revealing its true form.

There were no restrictive mechanisms; it was simply a carved-out stone space.

The entire fifth floor was empty and spotless, as if it had been thoroughly cleaned, without a speck of dust.

Apart from that, there was no other clutter.

"So, the fifth level isn't part of the Demon-Subduing Prison's basic structure; it's just a space that female immortal dug out herself?"

Hu Mang shook his head, then quickly turned and headed straight for his target.

Dark Lightning Puppet-Control Hub

The courtyard of the government office was also damaged, with broken wood chips, twisted metal components, and broken cables scattered everywhere. It was almost impossible to find a single doll that had retained its original shape.

Those once lifelike mechanical puppets, capable of walking on their own and even cooperating with tactical drills, have now all turned into scattered parts, as if they had all collapsed and shattered under some kind of immense pressure, leaving not even a complete body behind.

Even the three-story-tall Human Immortal Lightning Puppet in the center was split in two, with its upper body lying to one side and its lower body still standing in place, revealing the terrifying source of Qi and Blood and qi inside. In reality, it was nothing more than normal wooden blood vessels and organs, only with an extra layer of flesh color.

In addition, its two arms were torn off at the shoulder joints, one thrown in the east corner of the wall and the other rolled into the ditch in the west. The shoulders were still radiating heat, like freshly removed organs from a corpse.

Hu Mang was heartbroken.

"What a waste! Such good materials, such a clever mechanism, and now it's all gone."

Besides its limbs and torso, the head of this Human Immortal Lightning Puppet was also missing.

The Hu Mang circled around, sensing two different types of terrifying auras, and witnessing the ground being torn apart by the collision of these auras.

"So, the process should be like this: a powerful figure from this realm took a fancy to this Human Immortal Lightning Puppet and wanted to move it, but was interfered with by another powerful figure, who cleaved the Lightning Puppet in two with a single sword strike. During the struggle, both of its arms were torn off. In the end, the powerful figure had no choice but to take away the most valuable part of the Human Immortal Lightning Puppet, its head, leaving the remaining body fragments behind."

The evidence is that the left arm of the Human Immortal Lightning Puppet is covered with cracks, many of which are even pierced through.

The bullet hole that the female general risked her life to drill back then is not even as deep as a random crack nowadays.

"Wasn't it supposed to be that only high-end combat power would level up when the map changed? We haven't even changed maps yet, and we've already run into a bunch of old monsters."

Hu Mang sighed helplessly.

Although the remaining parts of the Human Immortal Lightning Puppet, or more accurately, the intact parts, are also valuable, they are probably not worth the attention of those big shots.

"On the bright side, once it's unpacked, it's easier to carry around."

Hu Mang took out an empty mid-level Storage Bag and put the large arm inside.

As for the upper and lower body, we'll talk about that next time.

The Hu Mang exhaled, slowly closed its mortal eyes, and then reopened its Tribulation Eye.

His vision spun and shifted once more, the surface appearances of all things in the world peeling away layer by layer to reveal the essential threads beneath that were invisible to ordinary people.

Tribulation Eye, activate!

But this time, the scene was clearly different from the last.

Without the Tribulation Qi, the suffocating gray-black Tribulation Qi that had once permeated the entire Demon-Subduing City like a thick fog has now completely dissipated.

The Ascension Platform is also gone.

The Ascension Platform that he had seen floating in the void and exuding a mysterious aura in the Tribulation Eye last time had also disappeared.

Even the "Tribulation Eye" that had once confronted him had shrunk in size, changing from being fully open to being half-closed, like a crack left in the void. It was no longer as aggressive as before, but quietly hovered in the distance, as if it were asleep.

Hu Mang was certain that those big shots must have found this place; otherwise, they wouldn't have left no trace of their Tribulation Qi.

He slowly withdrew his Tribulation Eye, and his vision returned to normal. Dark clouds, thunder, ruins—everything returned to that familiar, dilapidated Demon-Subduing City.

After a long while, he finally let out a long breath and cursed to the sky:

"What kind of big shots are you? You're just a bunch of bandits! You're not going to leave me anything at all!"

"What's the difference between you and those fishermen who can't catch any fish? Even if you can't catch anything, it's still good to drink some water by the roadside."

Originally, Hu Mang had planned to use Demon-Subduing City as a place to start his business, but now, with the opponent's actions, the value of that starting point has been halved.

Fortunately, they didn't leave me with absolutely nothing.

The Hu Mang muttered to itself.

Spirit Stone, Lightning Crystal, and some items of unknown material, but which would be of considerable research value if placed in the Heavenly Gate.

These things are everywhere in Demon-Subduing City!

Moreover, Hu Mang had a vague feeling that there was something else in this Demon-Subduing City that those big shots couldn't find, or rather, couldn't take away even if they found it.

But he couldn't remember it for the time being.

If you can't figure it out, then stop thinking about it; it might just be wishful thinking.

Half a day later, Hu Mang returned to Hundred-Well Abyss, where hundreds of Demon-Subduing Well once again appeared before his eyes.

Having experienced his great battle with the Devil-Slaying Bladesman, the successive emergence of Yang Spirit and Thunder God, and the self-destruction of Mysterious Yin Old Daoist and those other powerful figures from the unorthodox sects, these Demon-Subduing Well were almost completely destroyed. The location of the main well was transformed into a huge hole, with billowing Yin Qi constantly being released outwards.

But precisely because it was almost completely destroyed, and could be seen through with a single sweep of Divine Sense, it became one of the few areas in the Demon Suppression Site that hadn't been thoroughly looted by those big shots.

The Hu Mang stepped onto an abandoned bluestone platform and, upon seeing the Supreme Yin Treasure Pool below, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought you'd be drained away like the fire vein beneath the Thunderfire Furnace, but luckily there aren't many people who cultivate the righteous path, so you were preserved."

With this area, Hu Mang will have no problem cultivating the fourth level of the "Profound Yin True Scripture".