Before Mo Hua left, he turned to glance back at Yanluo Mountain.
Yanluo Mountain lay in ruins, with blood mist lingering in the air, miasma hazy and vague, shrouding the sky above.
As if there was a fog, concealing something unseen.
The Demon Sect leader who survived and escaped; the Golden Core Demon Cultivators from the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons; the missing Elder You;
And that unknown, writhing White Bone Evil Formation;
All these matters hovered within Mo Hua’s mind.
Mo Hua felt as though he’d gotten close to the heart of the Evil God’s conspiracy, yet far too many things remained murky and indistinct, hidden beneath the mist.
Especially that deadly evilness, transformed by the Evil Formation, streaming into the earth veins, its destination unknown...
A shadow crept over Mo Hua’s heart.
After returning to the Sect, Mo Hua burned incense and bathed, washing away the dust of travel, then lay down on the bed in the Disciple’s Residence.
The karmic entanglements of the Demon Sect, and Elder Xun Zixian’s words, still lingered within Mo Hua’s heart.
Mo Hua could not help but ponder inwardly:
"Where, after all, could the Four Symbols Green Dragon Formation be hidden?"
"Does it really require slaughtering the Demon Sect’s leader before I can claim this Formation?"
Again Mo Hua recalled deep within the Demon Sect, that vast Blood Pool cultivated for the leader’s practice.
"If the Four Symbols Green Dragon Formation truly requires the deaths of many, rivers of blood, only then to be successfully nourished..."
"To seek my own power, would I really have to slaughter countless innocent cultivators..."
"Could I really go through with such a thing?"
"Elder Xun Zixian was right—if I blindly pursue power, one day I will lose myself, forget my own heart, become a mere puppet to power. Instead of wielding it, I would become its slave..."
Mo Hua’s thoughts swirled chaotically.
But for many of these problems, he could do nothing now.
Coupled with the exhaustion from hunting down Demon Cultivators these past days, the more he thought, the more his mind clouded, until, unknowingly, he simply fell asleep.
As Mo Hua slept, his guard down, a current of evil Qi followed the threads of karma, slowly appearing, flooding into his Sea of Consciousness, seeping into his eyes.
Within the evil Qi were scenes of Demon Sect cultivators, dying tragically under the Taoist Court’s purge, mingled with lingering resentment.
These resentments coalesced into evil Qi, flowing into Mo Hua’s eyes.
Unbeknownst to Mo Hua, the "Seven Souls Blood Prison Pupil Skill" he’d gained from the Water Prison Sect was quietly activating, cultivating in utter silence.
Mo Hua’s aura took on an icy chill as well.
Within that cold, a fearsome, murderous evil radiated—a sense of "slaughter without remorse."
Yet this fierce evilness carried, too, a righteous aura of "slaying monsters and demons."
...
Taoist Prison.
Wave after wave of Demon Cultivator Disciples were thrown into the dungeons.
To prevent the Evil Formation from operating and absorbing deadly evil Qi, the Taoist Court, in the aftermath, had not slaughtered them all to the last.
Quite a few Demon Sect Disciples, under the Taoist Court’s slaughter, survived in the end.
These Demon Sect Disciples were locked away within the Taoist Prison.
And all this, Li San watched with his own eyes.
The panic-stricken whispers among the Demon Cultivators echoed, word for word, into his ears.
Li San felt as if he’d plunged into an icy abyss.
"It’s over..."
"Our Demon Sect... it’s finished?!"
Every ounce of strength drained from Li San’s body; he collapsed limply to the ground, eyes empty, like a dead fish.
Yet stray fragments of words still slipped, unbidden, into his ears.
"All gone, everyone’s dead..."
"Elder Jiu is dead, Second Elder is dead... all dead..."
"The leader’s alive..."
"So what?"
"The Demon Sect has been destroyed, utterly ruined, from top to bottom—completely finished..."
Within this stream of broken voices, suddenly a single line slipped into Li San’s ear.
"Didn’t see Elder You—seems he’s still alive..."
...
"Not once did I see him, from start to finish..."
"He wouldn’t even go down with the Sect—truly a traitor!"
...
Elder You!
Suddenly, a spark of light flickered in Li San’s eyes. He could no longer hear anything after that; only those few words resounded in his mind:
"Elder You isn’t dead!"
Not dead...
Li San’s face was ashen, his thoughts racing, and then suddenly, his pupils narrowed:
"I understand!"
"At last I understand why Elder You sent me to the Taoist Prison..."
"He foresaw that the Demon Sect would meet with disaster! He foresaw that so many fellow disciples would perish!"
"That’s why! He schemed to have me sent into the Taoist Prison!"
"This was to protect me—to let me escape this great calamity! And wait, in the future, for the Demon Sect’s restoration... its return from the ashes?!"
"If that day comes, wouldn’t I be the ’pillar of the Demon Sect’?!"
"The mere title of Elder would be nothing!"
Li San’s formerly dead heart blazed anew from the ashes.
His expression grew resolute, and his faith in "Elder You" only solidified further.
"Elder You didn’t deceive me—everything was according to Elder You’s plan!"
"Everything he did was right! Such far-seeing wisdom—Elder You must have grand ambitions."
"And Elder You’s ambition needs me... Now, I must bide my time, and in the future offer him my very life..."
In the dark prison cell, Li San slowly lay himself down on the ground, closing his eyes. No one saw the raging fire of faith and ambition burning deep within them.
...
Meanwhile, in a pitch-black secret chamber within a forbidden ground.
Pale-green candlelight flickered, ghastly sheep bones looming in the gloom.
Covered in cuts and bruises, skin and bones separating, tormented nearly beyond recognition by "Divine Punishment," Mr. Tu let out a hoarse, vicious roar:
"Sooner or later, I’ll see your Taixu Gate... wiped from the face of the earth!!"