Zhu Lie’s face changed drastically. He erupted with flames, charging towards Ru Xin without any regard. Ru Xin continued to smile as she flew backwards. The two of them rapidly pulled closer before slowly pulling away again.
Various vicious diseases erupted in Zhu Lie at the same time. His body swelled up, his skin festered, and Ru Xin in his vision gradually blurred. His eyes became hazy, almost becoming blind.
“You can die with me, you crossbreed!”
Zhu Lie let out a fierce roar like a wild beast on the verge of death. His heart glowed brightly, thumping violently. His heart was almost about to explode. The hearts of fire devourers were like daemon cores to daemons. It was the centre where their power gathered. Once they blew it up, they could unleash alarming destructive power.
From such a close distance, death would be almost certain for Ru Xin.
“A trapped beast continues to fight. Sudden stop of the heart!” Ru Xin spread her fingers with a smile and closed her hand gently.
In that moment, all of Zhu Lie’s power seemed to be drained from his body. Since birth, his heart fell silent for the first time, no longer beating anymore, and the flames on his body were extinguished as a result. He maintained his charge towards Ru Xin, doing his best to raise his trident and stab it at her.
Ru Xin turned to one side, brushing past him. Her pale, jade-like hand plunged straight into his chest, digging out a bright-red heart. It rapidly hardened in the wind, becoming a fire-red stone—the Heart of Melting Fire!
Diseases completely devoured Zhu Lie’s body, causing him to die and rot. The plague ghost appeared from his body and returned to Ru Xin.
Ru Xin let out an indiscernible sigh and glanced at the sky. A bloody red gradually seeped through the azure-blue. She could vaguely sense she was probably under some kind of influence from the Dragon Arena, which was why she struggled a little to control her killing intent.
However, once the wild beast was released, how could it be locked up again?
……
Li Qingshan left the great banyan tree and sensed an extremely distinct change. Murderousness had condensed in the air, while the sky had been dyed by a smear of blood-red. The tiger demon in his sea of consciousness growled with bloodthirstiness. If it were not for the spirit turtle’s suppression, probably even he would be influenced.
With the refinement almost complete, the Dragon Arena could not be compared to an actual Asura Field, but it had already developed some resemblance. The cultivators from the sects and schools all engaged in blind slaughter, no longer holding back at all. In only a few days, thousands of cultivators had fallen in battle, which served like fuel to the flames, seemingly making the air burn.
The lake vanished, turning into a rising and falling stretch of desert. Si Qing’s hunting plan was back on track. The seventeen Foundation Establishment cultivators had all rested up and built up strength. Flying sword arcane artifacts emerged from their hands, weaving a fine net with light and sealing off all of Li Qingshan’s paths of advance and retreat.
Li Qingshan smiled, and his figure suddenly vanished. Although he did not turn invisible, all of the attempts to lock onto his aura failed. A hint of disorder appeared between the coordination of arcane artifacts, revealing an undetectable opening. He took advantage of the opportunity and slashed down. The net collapsed.
Right when he wanted to use the situation and chase after a few people, he suddenly felt his body grow heavy, slowing him down against his will. He knew he had already fallen for his enemies’ technique, which should have been some kind of earth element technique. At the same time, at least seven techniques landed on him. Techniques were not as great as arcane artifacts, but they covered an extremely vast range, so all he could do was endure it. Among them, at least another four were techniques that slowed him down or limited his movements, so he immediately began to struggle to take another step forward.
The arcane artifacts flew over again with this opportunity. Every single one of them possessed the power to kill. The scarred man let out a bellow, and his arms swelled and thickened. The Earth Shattering Hammer of the Eight Directions became extremely large, smashing down from above.
Everyone eased up inside. Do you really think you can take on all of us together? Outnumbered, Li Qingshan was about to meet his doom from a single clash.
Clang!
A pitch-black tower appeared out of thin air. All of the arcane artifacts landed on it and were rebounded with clings and clangs, but the Earth Shattering Hammer of the Eight Directions’ collision immediately drowned them out. The crook of his thumbs immediately ripped open, and the great rebounding force left him with internal injuries. As he stared at the pitch-black, unscathed tower, he felt disbelief.
Even Golden Core cultivators could not directly endure this strike of his, yet it was unable to smash through a strange tower. Little did he know that even Golden Core cultivators could not open Li Qingshan’s Demon Suppression Tower, and that was even a head monk from the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga.
Everyone was surprised, but they were not afraid. They called out, “Assemble the formation!”
Immediately, eight cultivators took out the formation banners they had prepared a long time ago and surrounded the tower from eight directions, assembling the Sweeping Wind Formation of the Eight Directions. Immediately, the surroundings began to whistle madly with wind, sweeping up blades that slashed at the Demon Suppression Tower. It possessed the ability to build up damage and take down almost anything.
But to the Demon Suppression Tower, it was no different from a breeze, completely unconcerned about it. It even failed to leave behind a mark.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The cultivators used their strongest attacks to barrage the Demon Suppression Tower. A great rumble filled the entire desert.
Under these attacks, the Demon Suppression Tower tottered gently, almost collapsing. Eight Chains of Demon Suppression flew out from the surroundings and binded the Demon Suppression Tower in the air, preventing it from shaking anymore.
My demonic nature gushes endlessly. My sins are endless.
To Li Qingshan, this was his greatest defence only second to the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell.
No wonder he’s so arrogant. Turns out he has a method to remain undefeatable! The scarred man was secretly surprised. He ordered loudly, “Everyone, take turns controlling the formation banners. Conserve your spiritual qi. Let’s see when he can last until!”
Everyone nodded, and their faces twisted hideously. The stronger the arcane artifact or technique was, the more spiritual qi it would consume. If he only defended, then the only fate awaiting him was running out of spiritual qi.
This was a very logical conclusion, but the secret cultivation method of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga was powered by the demonic nature of those suppressed in the tower.
Inside the tower, the reason why Li Qingshan did not charge out immediately and kill them all was because he could sense his demonic nature bubbling. During the battle, the tiger demon was becoming more and more restless. It had already been rather difficult for the spirit turtle to suppress the ox demon and tiger demon. Under the influence of the Dragon Arena’s killing intent, the tiger demon that had always been frenzied was acting up more and more.
Before he dealt with the problems outside, he had to deal with the problems inside. Besides, compared to his own problems, the attacks outside were nothing. He comforted the tiger demon and split up the malice, sending one cluster to the dark-red demon heart, which became even clearer. He sent the other straight into the sword qi in his dantian, making the sword intent even sharper and more dangerous.
A while later, Li Qingshan let out a tiger’s roar, no longer hiding and suppressing the demonic nature in him. Instead, he released it in a different way. His body swelled to three meters tall as he became covered in vicious-looking armour, so red that it seemed like he was bleeding.
He wielded the Traitorous Demon sword in his right hand while holding a black hoop in his right. It was the demonic artifact Si Qing was forced to give to him on the Soaring Clouds terrace. He originally wanted to harm him with it, but it was perfect for him. It was known as the Demon Reining hoop.
Seeing how the Demon Suppression Tower showed no signs of being destroyed, the Foundation Establishment cultivators gradually became stern, “He must be holding on through spiritual medicine that can rapidly recover spiritual qi. As long as we keep attacking him for a little longer, we’ll definitely be able to force him out!”
Before they had even finished talking, the Chains of Demon Suppression pulled away. The moment everyone beamed with joy, they saw the Demon Suppression Tower hurtling over, smashing into the formation with a boom. All of the cultivators who wielded the formation banners had the wind knocked out of them.
“Maintain the formation! Don’t let him escape!”
The Demon Suppression Tower flew high into the air, revealing the hideous Demon General inside, which left everyone shocked. How has he become like that? They powered the formation even more frantically.
The wild wind landed on Li Qingshan, clanking loudly. The thick armour on him became covered in countless marks in the blink of an eye. Almost an entire layer had been shaved away.
Li Qingshan raised his hand and swung out with his sword!
The evil eye on the hilt released a ring of light before shrinking. The blood-red flash from the sword tore through its vision, as well as a cultivator who maintained the formation. Under his shocked gaze, he was split into two down the middle.
The Sweeping Wind Formation of the Eight Directions was destroyed!
The wind stopped.
At the same time, the Demon Suppression Tower rampaged about under Li Qingshan’s control, blocking countless attacks and completely scattering the encirclement of Si Qing’s lackey’s.
There were still many techniques that landed on him, but they were all blocked by the armour and nullified by demon qi. Li Qingshan did not stop, sweeping backwards with his sword. With a flash of blood-red light, a head hurtled into the air with blood.
His Three Absolutes sword qi was channeled into the Traitorous Demon sword, stored in there without being released. The sword intent possessed the tiger demon’s frenzied murderousness.
Simply by directing the sword at someone, the killing intent would stun them, making them unable to dodge. And, the evil eye would see through them, making them unable to block. No matter what enemy he faced, they all fell before a single stroke.
In that moment, he had endured who knew how many attacks. His defensive arcane artifacts were damaged, and his demonic armour was covered in cracks. He used this opportunity to swing out five times, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
Only ten people remained out of the seventeen cultivators.
Li Qingshan scanned past them with two specks of red light that were his eyes. Everyone’s faces changed, overwhelmed with shock.
The battle went from the sky to the ground. Suddenly, a huge hand condensed from sand reached out of the desert and grabbed Li Qingshan. The scarred man swung the Earth Shattering Hammer of the Eight Directions with a furious roar and smashed down with it.
Li Qingshan’s demon qi surged, shaking off the huge hand before throwing a punch at the Earth Shattering Hammer of the Eight Directions.
Boom! The armour that covered his arm shattered into pieces, scattering in the surroundings.
The scarred man’s eyes were completely widened as his hands dripped with blood. The Earth Shattering Hammer of the Eight Directions tore out of his grip and spun through the air. He suddenly felt his neck tighten, now wrapped by a black hoop. The Demon Reining hoop constantly tightened, digging into his flesh.
With a spurt, the thick neck was forcefully crushed apart. The last thing he said was, “So you’ve already been hiding your strength!”
During his battle with Zhu Lie, everyone saw how he had been forced into dire straits before turning the tables and triumphing after so much difficulty. Everyone thought that was the limit of his strength.
“Do you really think you can kill me with a bunch of useless people?” Li Qingshan let out a long laugh. The Demon Reining hoop flew back into his hand, and he pointed his sword at the sky. “Thank you for your generous gift!”
Si Qing saw this and clenched his hand. His face changed drastically.
“Kill him!” The remaining ten cultivators all riled up their courage and rushed towards Li Qingshan. However, they could not defeat him even when they had an advantage in numbers, let alone now after some of their companions were already dead. Li Qingshan fought hard, but not only did he feel no exhaustion, but his killing intent instead surged, still not satisfied yet.
In the blink of an eye, another four people died. The remaining six people were stricken with fear, scattering and fleeing for their lives.
With a wave of his hand, the Demon Suppression Tower suppressed one, the Chains of Demon Suppression binded one with a rattle, and the Demon Reining hoop wrapped around one. Without showing any mercy at all, he killed them all with a swing of his sword.
Si Qing could no longer care about these rules anymore. He controlled the Dragon Arena, wanting to send Li Qingshan out and directly kill him without any regard.
