Under the gaze of the Demon Suppression statue, violent gusts of wind swept through the square, forming a vortex and throwing countless severed limbs and droplets of blood into the air.
Li Qingshan and Xiao An stood back to back in the centre of the storm, creating the winds that ripped through everything.
The winds subsided, and the battle stopped.
Li Qingshan swung the Heavy Water sword downwards, splattering the ground with a thick streak of blood.
Notches appeared on the sword. It was riddled with cracks, on the edge of shattering.
High grade spiritual artifacts were no longer enough to endure such a battle.
Li Qingshan was riddled with wounds. Many of the injuries were close to his vital points.
Outnumbered and unable to use his daemon powers, it was impossible for him to remain unscathed. If it were not for the Demon Suppression Statuary’s extraordinary effectiveness against these Demon Generals, he would not have even been able to last ten seconds even if he pushed his talent for battle to the limit.
Xiao An’s golden avatar was also riddled with wounds, but upon dispersing the avatar, she was completely unharmed.
“It’s a pity we can’t collect these corpses.”
Li Qingshan said to Xiao An through his soul sense with a slight sense of pity. The two monks were not idiots. They definitely could not afford to do anything strange that would raise suspicion.
Xiao An said, “It’s fine. These aren’t substantial anymore.”
Li Qingshan nodded and turned towards the Demon Suppression statue, comprehending the fifth form of the Demon Suppression Statuary.
Outside the Demon Suppression hall, the Dauntless monk stopped worrying completely, while the Unraging monk had already vanished from beside him. He had entered the Demon Suppression hall, so he was ready to save them at any time.
Although slain geniuses could not be considered as geniuses, this was still the fifth floor of the Demon Suppression hall. Even if they sent in a group of the most outstanding disciples of the monastery, it was highly likely for them to be completely annihilated.
But in the end, the battle prowess that Li Qingshan and Xiao An demonstrated left him deeply astounded. Their teamwork was virtually flawless. Their coordination could no longer be described as tacit. They were basically mentally linked.
A special connection seemed to exist between them, far more complicated than the relationship between a man and a woman.
The Demon Suppression statue emitted two beams of light again, and Li Qingshan shut his eyes. His body radiated with black demon qi, which lingered on his wounds. The injuries began to writhe, closing up at a visible rate.
As he practised the Demon Suppression Statuary, the dark-red demon heart in his body grew even stronger, constantly absorbing the demonic nature of the ox demon and tiger demon and relieving the spirit turtle’s pressure.
From this aspect alone, he was already no different from demons. He possessed life force that far exceeded any human.
A while later, Li Qingshan opened his eyes and dispersed the demonic nature and demon qi. He had become even fiercer and stronger, and his level of demonification had become deeper.
“I think I look pretty good!”
Li Qingshan waved his hand and water rippled before him, forming a mirror. He saw a hideous, human figure before raising his eyebrows and making an evaluation like that.
Of course, this “pretty good” was in comparison to his original daemon form. When it came to his judgement of appearances, he had never used beauty and ugliness as a standard. He had his own strange set of standards. He had always found his original daemon form, together with the ox hooves and tiger claws, much more satisfying than his humanoid daemon form, the handsome, red-haired man.
His appearance after demonifying was another style compared to his original daemon form. He basically maintained his humanoid figure. Apart from growing taller, he only seemed like he had put on a set of extremely fitting and flagrant armour.
But in the eyes of regular people, he was truly a terrifying monster.
“Yep!” Xiao An raised her head and nodded seriously, praising him with admiration from the very bottom of her heart.
“I have to say, out of all the people I know, you have the best tastes!”
Li Qingshan chuckled and laughter reverberated through the surroundings.
The Dauntless monk and the Unraging monk both witnessed this. There was nothing they could say about their standards of beauty.
“Do you think we should still visit the sixth floor?”
Li Qingshan asked. He was very tempted to go and learn the sixth statue of the Demon Suppression Statuary, as he had learnt the Chains of Demon Suppression on the third floor.
This was no coincidence. For many ancient cultivation methods, a special juncture would often come with every three layers. If cultivators could comprehend a technique and battle skill that complemented their cultivation method, it would stop them from being distracted by anything else, and it could also ensure they could protect their lives to a certain degree.
Along the way, the role that the Chains of Demon Suppression had played could be considered as vital. Against many Demon Generals that were difficult to defeat, he only needed to unleash the Chains of Demon Suppression, and he would be able to overwhelm them completely, achieving victory with great ease.
However, with the fifth floor as a boundary in the Demon Suppression hall, venturing down further would definitely result in even greater danger. After learning the fifth form of the Demon Suppression Statuary, the pressure on the spirit turtle had basically been relieved, and it had recovered some of its sharp senses over the future. It could sense the existence of danger.
Of course, if he could use his full strength freely, Li Qingshan believed that even the seventh floor would be no problem, much less the sixth floor. However, the fate awaiting him if he reverted to his daemon form in the Demon Suppression hall would probably be venturing straight down to the ninth floor and being suppressed there for ten thousand years.
Xiao An said, “Let’s continue!”
Li Qingshan said in surprise, “You’re so confident!”
Xiao An said nothing and fished out a scarlet talisman from her hundred treasures pouch.
“I sure have been forgetful.”
Li Qingshan smiled. Among battles between cultivators, talismans had always held an extremely important position. They could serve as sudden attacks that could turn the tides of the battle.
Throughout the years, Li Qingshan had gathered quite a lot of different talismans. Let alone scarlet talismans, he even had violet talismans. However, during battles at his level, rarely was there the opportunity to use talismans, so he forgot about them.
Then Xiao An took out a few bronze bangles for controlling corpses. Every single one of them hid a Corpse General. They had also been one of the spoils Li Qingshan had obtained from his battle at Burial Mound mountain. There were all from the hundred treasures pouches of the Golden Core cultivators who had been killed.
Li Qingshan had passed them to Xiao An to be refined. Xiao An had already accumulated everything she required for her breakthrough to the second layer of the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty. She only lacked comprehension, so she kept them around for whenever the need arose.
Of course, these refined Corpse Generals that could be controlled were worlds apart from the Corpse Generals of the Hungry Ghost realm. And, if they were ever used before Corpse Commanders or Corpse Kings, they would change sides basically immediately. However, they were enough for rushing into battle.
Li Qingshan no longer had any second thoughts. The two of them continued on their way, stepping through the door.
The heavy smell of blood even made regular Demon Generals afraid to approach this place, but a colossal figure rushed over out of instinct. Duoge burst in and had another sumptuous feast.
……
The sixth floor of the Demon Suppression hall, the central square.
Almost a hundred Demon Generals gathered beneath the Demon Suppression statue, studying the secret within the statue, hoping that there would be a day when they could leave this prison.
The atmosphere in there was quite heavy and solemn. The Demon Generals had no interest in fighting one another. As they observed the Demon Suppression statue, their gazes would drift past the front of the statue from time to time.
A dishevelled, indifferent man sat there with his legs crossed. He had a strangely-shaped sword radiating with demon qi placed across his knees.
The sword was pitch-black like ink, but it was not completely straight. Instead, there were knobs, like it was a pagoda. It was almost three meters long, which made it obvious what kind of stature was required to wield a sword like that freely.
The strangest part of the sword was the guard and hilt. It was not made of gold, metal, rock, or wood, but a clump of coiled flesh and blood vessels. At the very centre was a bowl-sized eye, with only the whites of the eye and no iris. It was completely bloodshot, which made it seem extremely eerie.
The other Demon Generals all remained a few meters away from him, afraid to get any closer. They even seemed like they were afraid to breathe too loudly.
“What the fuck are you all doing?! Piss off, don’t block the path!”
A bellow broke the silence. From the door beneath the Demon Suppression statue, a demon radiating with a fierce aura suddenly leapt out and swung his hand towards the cold man.
The place occupied by the cold man was definitely the most optimal position for studying the Demon Suppression statue, but it also happened to be a place where demons coming up from below had to pass through.
The eyes of the demons were filled with a mocking pleasure over what was about to happen, Sir Lietu is a genius of the Demon race. Although he has fallen back down from the Demon Commander realm, he’s still not someone who can be handled by Demon Generals, not to mention he wields the “Evil Eye”.
Lietu waved his right hand gently, and a gust of foul air swept through the square.
The fierce Demon General staggered past Lietu. A vicious wound stretched from his left shoulder to his right waist, spraying with blood. He turned around. “You’re…”
Suddenly, he discovered that something important seemed to be missing. He lowered his head and checked his chest.
Lietu currently had his head lowered, fiddling around with a black, pebble-like demon heart. There was a thump behind him, and the fierce Demon General collapsed on the ground.
Without even looking back, he placed the demon heart into the strange eye in the centre of the sword hilt. The eye pulsed and absorbed the black demon heart. As if the sword had been completed, a black iris appeared in the eyeball. The eyeball swiveled around, and every Demon General that it saw shivered inside.
The many blood vessels coiled around the black iris, and the entire hilt twisted violently. Foul air whistled out, blowing Lietu’s hair into the air and filling the entire hall. All of the Demon Generals felt like they were suffocating.
The entire sword shone with black light as if the dark night had descended. The glistening colour of gold in the surroundings immediately dimmed. Only the Demon Suppression statue remained the same as before, watching all of this unfold from above.
But a while later, the eyeball forced out the demon heart, which fell to the ground with a clink. It felt like it had just eaten something disgusting and spat it back out with great disdain.
Lietu shook his head. “Sure enough, it’s still not enough. The demon hearts of Demon Generals are unable to satisfy the Evil Eye. It requires even stronger demon hearts. I need to recover my strength as soon as possible and kill my way back onto the seventh floor so that I can find a suitable demon heart.”
His sharp ears suddenly twitched as he sensed auras of death gathered outside the door. The other Demon Generals were afraid of Lietu, but none of them were weak. They all sensed it too and became vigilant.
Thump!
The nine gilded doors suddenly opened at the same time, and a hundred Corpse Soldiers swarmed in.
The Demon Generals were unsurprised. As it turned out, it was merely some Corpse Soldiers.
Lietu frowned, sensing that something was amiss. There were plenty of demonfolk that could control corpses, but these Corpse Soldiers were originally humans. Where did all these human corpses come from in the Demon Suppression hall? It was completely impossible for those bald asses from the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga to use something like this.
The eyeball on the Evil Eye sword in his hand swiveled, noticing how the backs of every Corpse Soldier was plastered with talismans. They all tore apart at the same time, shining with light.
