The two demons were shocked by the sudden attack of two newly formed devils.
The Silver-winged Nightfiend blurred without any hesitation and disappeared into the wind.
The Lion Hawk also quickly turned around with an ominous bearing and released golden shockwaves in a roar towards one of the devils.
The devil raised its large saber to block the attack, but the golden soundwaves completely enveloped it, shredding the devil back into wisps of black Qi.
The other devil raised its hand and was about to release a saber streak when the nightfiend suddenly appeared behind it.
He flicked his fingers and released a barrage of grey Ghostfiend Threads, littering the devil with holes and tearing it to mist.
Having destroyed the two devils with such ease, the Silver-winged Nightfiend incredulously stared at the remnants of the devilish Qi.
After a short moment, the black Qi in front of him gathered and flickered with black light as the two devils were reformed.
Before they were even fully formed, one of the devils pounced forward with an open mouth and spat out a stream of black Qi.
The nightfiend frowned and raised his hand, releasing another wave of Ghostfiend Threads to meet the assault. As the attacks tangled together, the other devil transformed into a three-meter-large hawk and swept to the Lion Hawk’s side.
As a sudden fight between beak and claws broke out, black and purple feathers rustled in the air.
The Lion Hawk had a clear advantage, but the huge black hawk would rapidly recover from its heavy injuries. There was a black light roaming across its body that seemed to be healing it to the point of immortality.
The nightfiend found himself in a similar situation. Regardless of how many times he struck down the devil with his Ghostfiend Threads, it instantly reformed itself in the blink of an eye.
It was clear these two devils were some sort of incarnation of Yuan Cha. If their master didn’t die or run out of devilish Qi, they would be undying.
‘Could it be that the devil ancestor was using these incarnations only to obstruct us from destroying the stone pillar?’ The nightfiend thought, ‘It’s clear that these two won’t be able to defeat us.’
Although the two devils had lacking defenses, the devilish Qi they spat were as equally vicious as the devil ancestor’s. The two demons were fully occupied in dodging their attacks.
With the delay that the devils’ bought, the heavily damaged stone pillar soon began to shine with light as it mended itself.
This deeply vexed the nightfiend.
Corpse Xiong saw what was happening to them and felt somewhat alarmed.
Long Meng had condensed several large white hands from her spiritual sense and continuously used them to pound apart the devilish Qi down below. While occupied with this, she sent Corpse Xiong a voice transmission, “Do not worry. Those incarnations are mere portions of her soul formed from devilish arts. Two are the most of what she can summon, or she would be using them to deal with us. But at this rate, we will surely be defeated. The most important point to note is that my body is being slowly corrupted by devilish Qi. Although this change isn’t currently permanent, it will be after she absorbs enough pure devilish Qi from the altar. At that moment, the devil’s soul will fuse with my body and I will no longer be able to recover it. Once she regains her full abilities, we will be completely annihilated. I’ll have to take the risk.”
“What do you mean, Madam?” Corpse Xiong asked with a respectful tone.
“I will use a secret technique to force myself into the body and fight for control. Although I will be a great disadvantage against an already devilfied body, I can temporarily force her to sit still. With this, you will be given an opportunity to finish this.” Long Meng coldly spoke.
As Corpse Xiong attacked the devilish Qi with his crimson light, he hesitantly said, “I understand, Madam. But isn’t that too dangerous?”
“Hmph, with the altar unsealed, we have no other choice.” Long Meng said with an annoyed tone.
“What exactly does the altar seal? The Madam is quite fearful of it. Could it be the mighty devilish artifacts left behind from ancient times?”
“It’d be better if it were only that. Even if the devil managed to gain power in this manner, we can easily avoid her by fleeing and then call upon others to take her down. Since I was once fused with the devil ancestor, I already had an idea of what is sealed underneath the altar. It is most likely the perfect devil Qi that was brought here from the Elder Devil realm.”
“P-perfect devil Qi?!” Corpse Xiong shouted.
Long Meng gravely said, “This was from an age before you incarnated into a refined corpse, but you should know how fearsome it is. It is completely different from ordinary devilish Qi. Not only can it corrupt the spirit veins of the mortal world, but it can even spread corruption through the air, common humans and low-grade cultivators will gradually turn into devils. Given enough time, the mortal realm will become a copy of the Elder Devil’s.”
“But I heard that in the past, the perfect devil Qi was completely purified by the ancients. Could it still be there within the altar?”
Long Meng paused for a moment and explained, “Perfect devil Qi is the accumulated devil essence from the Elder Devil realm. While they could purify normal devilish Qi, how could they possibly do that to something that can even change the nature of the world’s spiritual Qi? Only the spirit realm should have a method to dissolve it. Before I was sealed, I heard the three Kunwu Masters speak of sealing a majority of the perfect devil Qi and holding them in areas of the mortal world with the most abundant spiritual Qi. They used the pressure of these sites to suppress them. ”
Corpse Xiong wore a wavering expression upon hearing her, “That certainly makes sense. Kunwu Mountain is one of the most famous spirit mountains in history. Using the mountain vein to suppress the devilish Qi was a reasonable plan. They probably hoped that constant exposure to the pure spiritual Qi would slowly erode the perfect devil Qi, but the mountain’s spiritual Qi was far sparser than in the past. Without a million years of time, the devilish Qi won’t dissolve. If it is released now, it would be impossible for it to be sealed again. Not to mention that the devil ancestor would be completely unstoppable after she absorbs the perfect devil Qi.”
A dark glint flashed from Corpse Xiong’s eyes and he uttered, “But even if the entire mortal realm became corrupted, why should we care? In the past, the demons and humans of the spirit realm had already once expelled the Elder Devils from this world. We’ve done all we could do here. Wouldn’t it be better for us…”
Long Meng coldly smiled and said, “I know that in the past you were brought to this realm as a Corpse Bear, a human’s spirit beast. Didn’t you come to the Devil Suppressing Pagoda and assist me in hopes of using a reverse spirit stream to return to the spirit realm? However, your cultivation is far below Deity Transformation stage. Even if you were to use one, the spatial forces will rend you out of existence. And how did you guess that I knew the location of a reverse spirit stream?”
Corpse Xiong wore a faint smile and said, “The Madam must be joking. I was only a spirit beast because I had yet to awaken my consciousness. And don’t worry about me passing through the spirit stream. I have prepared for countless years, and have a method in mind. As the concubine to the Great Demon King Tian Kui, who else would know of the location of a reverse spirit stream if not you?”
Long Meng snorted and bluntly said, “You hold quite some belief in me, but to tell you the truth, I will only be able to find reverse spirit streams after I completely reclaim my old body. So, don’t entertain any ideas of running.”
Corpse Xiong grinned and instantly replied, “So long as I fulfill your wishes, you will agree to take us to the spirit realm? We will naturally do our utmost to obey.”
“That will be fine. Act as my protector.” Long Meng nodded with satisfaction.
Soon after, Long Meng held her hands in an incantation gesture and her entire body flared in silver light.
At that same moment, Han Li also took action as per Sevenwonders’ request. He parted his hand to release several bolts of Divine Devilbane Lightning below, scattering clouds of devilish Qi.
As the huge wolf faced the allied cultivators, beams of black light continuously released from the vast clouds of devilish Qi, pushing back the mountain of yellow Qi and the other attacks. The Devilish Qi had now spread to over half of the area, surrounding most of those present.
Suddenly, the stone pillars gradually lit up with blinding light and let out a low hum. Ancient talisman characters appeared from each stone pillar and began to tremble.
The scene was cause for amazement for both demon and human.
But when Sevenwonders saw this, his face sank.
Although he hadn’t listened to Long Meng and Corpse Xiong’s conversation, he could faintly guess that something terrible was about to occur. With gritted teeth, he tossed the drum into the air and had it float midair. He then harshly yelled, “Fellow Daoist Sable, what are you doing!? Quickly bring it out, or we will suffer calamity!”
