“Very sharp.” The unfamiliar-looking female disciple from the Xiang Ling Sect smiled faintly. Gradually, her features transformed into those of a young man with golden eyes and a brilliant appearance—Gui Yansheng.
He looked at Gu Baiying and sneered, “You seem to be paying constant attention to her, never letting your guard down.”
“Gui Yansheng?” Rong Shuang exclaimed angrily, “How could he be here?” She then looked at Bu Jiang and demanded, “Did you deceive us? The Demon Clan is indeed untrustworthy!”
Bu Jiang glanced at her and scoffed, “Don’t blame everything on the Demon Clan. He actually came from among your sect’s disciples.”
Rong Shuang was at a loss for words.
Zanxing stared at Gui Yansheng and said coldly, “His magic weapon, the Asura Umbrella, has soul-capturing powers. That’s how Sister Ziluo’s incident happened. It seems that before reaching Heishi City, the disciples of Sect Master Rong Shuan had already been swapped.”
Capturing others’ souls and then assuming the victim’s form would prevent anyone from detecting his demonic aura.
“What do you want to do?” Zanxing asked.
Gui Yansheng looked at Zanxing with a smile. His demonic aura had become even more violent than before, with dense black fog and a cold, mournful wail emanating from within.
“Why are you meddling?” The golden-eyed youth sighed as if troubled. “The world is now submerged in a great flood, and whether one is human or demon, noble or lowly, they will all eventually be drowned in the waters. This is the only time since the creation of the world that is fair. Why do you insist on breaking this fairness?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Daoist Lingxin sneered. “Does dying together count as fairness?”
“Isn’t it?” Gui Yansheng looked at him in surprise, then seemed to recall something and laughed. “Indeed, you are not fighting for the common people. Rather than fighting for the lives of the common folk, it’s more about your pitiful spiritual veins. What’s wrong with dying together?” He smiled cheerfully, but his eyes were as cold as ice. “Are you unwilling to die?”
“Stop wasting words with him!” Rong Shuang, holding a long sword, ordered those beside her, “Let’s attack together and kill him!”
Gui Yansheng sneered disdainfully, and the snow-white Asura Umbrella immediately appeared in his hand. “Just you lot?”
Demonic energy surged like a tidal wave, instantly flooding the entire wilderness.
Countless demons and sect disciples were alarmed by the sudden eruption of demonic energy, and the earth shook violently.
“What?!” Daoist Lingxin’s gaze was stunned.
Just Gui Yansheng alone wielded such a wild and demonic power, comparable to the Demon King’s strength from years ago.
But he was only a half-demon!
Zanxing looked at the golden-eyed youth and murmured, “The Xiao Yuan Pearl, he has refined the Xiao Yuan Pearl.”
Every bit of demonic energy Gui Yansheng had gathered bore the aura of countless Xiao Yuan Pearls. Zanxing had fought him before, and now his demonic energy was vastly different from when they had last met.
The Xiao Yuan Pearl within Zanxing’s own body was also fused with her spiritual veins, but it was different from Gui Yansheng’s. Her demonic energy and the Xiao Yuan Pearl’s energy were distinct and did not mix. In contrast, Gui Yansheng’s two forces had fused so well that the approaching power was also tainted with a soul-devouring blood-red aura.
Gu Baiying’s Xiu Gu spear advanced, but Gui Yansheng’s loud, boisterous laughter came from ahead. His laughter was arrogant and unrestrained, yet the ghostly wails beside him added a touch of desolation. He laughed, “Why do you always go against me?”
“I like the rain and dislike sunny days.”
“I like fairness, while you insist on unfairness.”
“Since everyone in the world opposes me, and you want to protect the common people, then I will destroy the Three Realms—”
He gazed at Zanxing, and the snow-white paper umbrella in his hand flew towards the enormous pit. Zanxing’s eyes narrowed, “Be careful, he’s going to destroy that seed!”
Bu Jiang and Shaoyang Zhenren leaped towards the giant pit. The Asura Umbrella opened abruptly before the pit, and on the white umbrella surface, countless figures suddenly appeared. These figures on the umbrella surface displayed vivid emotions of laughter, anger, and curses. Then, large masses of black fog emanated from it, and vaguely, countless figures appeared before them. These figures descended from the umbrella surface, viciously attacking everyone.
“Soul Devouring.” Zanxing charged at him with the Wuyou Staff. “Just how many people have you killed?”
The residual souls descending from the umbrella numbered in the hundreds, even thousands, and continued to increase.
“They deserved to die!” Gui Yansheng glared at her viciously. “You must die too!” From around his body, countless strands of black mist suddenly erupted, entwining like seaweed. These strands of black mist swirled and howled around him, gradually forming a strange silhouette.
“Be careful!” Gu Baiying dispersed a black mist in front of Zanxing with a spear and rushed to her side.
Mimi rolled on the ground to avoid the encroaching black mist. It reared up and roared, its fur bristling with the wind. In no time, the silver lion grew into the size of a majestic small mountain, roaring with a sound that shook the earth.
Bu Jiang and Shaoyang Zhenren, along with the others, were fighting the residual souls of Gui Yansheng in front of the giant pit. These souls were recklessly attacking the black seed deep in the pit. While the humans were getting injured, the number of residual souls continued to increase, and the group found themselves at a disadvantage.
Zanxing looked up.
The silhouette in front of Gui Yansheng grew larger and larger, almost becoming the shadow of a giant. As this giant shadow became more solid, Gui Yansheng began to develop large wounds on his body.
Initially, these wounds were just a few scratches, as if he had been stabbed with a sword. But soon, the wounds grew larger, as if his entire body was rotting from the inside out. The wounds spread to his face, which had once looked handsome and amiable, now scarred as if it had been burned, with large patches of scars appearing.
“What have you done?” Zanxing’s voice was urgent as she raised her staff high and struck at Gui Yansheng.
But the Wuyou Staff was grasped by someone.
The giant black silhouette easily seized the Wuyou Staff, formed by the black mist in front of Gui Yansheng, using its demonic power to force Zanxing back and prevent her from approaching.
Mimi let out a long roar and charged forward, only to be knocked to the ground by the howling black mist.
“No, that’s not right.” Zanxing suddenly looked up. This black mist wasn’t condensed by demonic energy but by the aura of the Xiao Yuan Pearl.
But hadn’t the Xiao Yuan Pearl already been refined by him?
“Have you figured it out?” Gui Yansheng looked at Zanxing and laughed happily. Despite his body being covered in wounds, with not a single intact piece of flesh, he laughed with great delight. He said, “Actually, the last step of the Path of Ten Thousand Ghosts and Asura, Ten Thousand Heart-Eating Ghosts, can be used not only on others but also on oneself.”
His golden eyes glowed with a sinister light, and his tone was strange and inexplicable. “I used it on myself.”
“I didn’t refine the Xiao Yuan Pearl.” He said gently, as if it were a joke, speaking slowly and deliberately.
“It was the Xiao Yuan Pearl that refined me.”
“I offered myself to the Xiao Yuan Pearl.”