The Evil Eye sword completely merged into Lietu’s chest, all the way until the hilt. However, despite being three meters long, the tip of the blade did not emerge from his back as if the sword had combined with his body.
Thrum! Clang! With a series of metallic sounds, several dozen swords burst out of his body, stabbing out of his back, arms, neck, and even mouth.
Lietu’s demon qi erupted. His body was covered with swords like a strange, twisted hedgehog of metal. He crouched on the ground, staring at Xiao An in resentment, having merged with the sword completely.
This was extremely similar to complete demonification. It was very difficult to turn back from. The Evil Eye would gradually devour him until he became a part of the sword. Basically every master of the Evil Eye had met their end like this, while the Evil Eye grew stronger and stronger.
However, before he was completely devoured, he would obtain great strength, enough to kill them.
“Even if I die, I’ll drag you all down with me!”
The eyeball became completely embedded in Lietu’s chest. It swiveled around, and a speck of green light suddenly appeared in the centre, turning into a green iris. It stared at Xiao An.
The iris was Lietu’s demon heart. His arms and legs had all become long, sharp swords. Pushing off from the ground, he vanished.
Xiao An swung down with her sword, and with a clang, two swords collided. She had struck the arm that Lietu swung towards her.
“Die!” Lietu howled fiercely.
Cling! Clang! With a string of metallic sounds, several dozen swords burst out of his body, stabbing towards Xiao An’s golden avatar.
His long arm that was as sharp as a sword wrapped around the golden avatar conveniently, wanting to bisect Xiao An along the waist like a huge guillotine.
No matter how powerful Xiao An’s swordsmanship was, she could only forcefully endure a strike like that with her golden avatar.
These swords were as sharp as the Evil Eye itself. After obtaining Lietu’s demon heart, they even became much sharper. The golden avatar gave way, and the swords dug in by several inches. Any further and they would reach Xiao An’s body. There was a sword only inches away from her forehead.
Xiao An dispersed the golden avatar swiftly, using the opportunity to break free from Lietu’s restraint with her petite figure.
Isn’t this merely a temporary relief that’ll lead her to her demise? Without the protection of the golden avatar, a single strike will be enough to threaten her life, the Dauntless monk thought, only to see Xiao An recondense her golden avatar. All the damage from before had vanished.
When Xiao An struck again, she was much more careful, just in case Lietu caught her again. However, losing the upper hand now became unavoidable.
Their figures turned into two blurs, one running and one chasing on the square. They constantly clashed and moved about as ear-splitting thrums of metal rang out endlessly.
Even if Xiao An managed to land a blow on Lietu with her vajra sword, his swords would block it, so she achieved nothing. On the other hand, as the fusion between Lietu and the Evil Eye deepened, their attacks grew more and more swift. A sudden thrust left behind a deep mark in the golden avatar.
Lietu turned into a rotating storm of metal, filling the air with golden power every time he collided with the golden avatar. And, he moved faster and faster too, giving Xiao An no time to condense her golden avatar again.
A while later, the magnificent and detailed golden avatar was reduced to a horrible shape.
Xiao An was already pushing the Guardian King’s Scripture of Demon Subdual to the limit, but Lietu’s strength completely surpassed Demon General after merging with the sword. A regular cultivator would have become riddled with holes from a single clash with him.
“A little help here!” Xiao An said.
“Alrighty!”
Li Qingshan looked back with a smile. He waved his hand, and the pitch-black Chains of Demon Suppression criss-crossed over, extending towards Lietu.
“Useless!”
Lietu barked. Several dozen swords emerged from his body, cutting and tearing apart the Chains of Demon Suppression. Suddenly, a black shadow loomed over him; he looked up, only to see a nine-layered tower, pitch-black like ink. It had appeared out of nowhere, imposing and dignified, utterly unstoppable.
The second move of the Demon Suppression Statuary, the Demon Suppression Tower!
Boom!
The entire square shook violently. The Demon Suppression Tower fell from above, trapping Lietu inside.
“Sure enough, this move is plenty devastating,” Li Qingshan smiled.
“Release me!”
Lietu’s bellows rang out from the Demon Suppression Tower. After merging with the Evil Eye, it constantly devoured him. If he could not kill the two of them quickly, then he would be completely devoured in the end, becoming a part of the sword. In the end, he would only benefit Li Qingshan at his own expense.
He struggled desperately. Swords plunged out of his body, but the black tower was not as fragile as the Chains of Demon Suppression. The swords rapidly weakened before they had even approached the tower, and the demon qi in his body was rapidly suppressed.
Lietu was very tough. He threw himself against the tower madly, shaking and swaying the Demon Suppression Tower; it was like it could tip over at any time.
Li Qingshan waved his hand again, and nine Chains of Demon Suppression flew over with a clank. They wrapped around the Demon Suppression Tower before pinning it to the ground and pulling themselves taut. The Demon Suppression Tower immediately stopped shaking. Sounds of collision continued to ring out, but the Demon Suppression Tower did not even budge anymore.
“Done. So this is the true usage of the Chains of Demon Suppression. They work with the Demon Suppression Tower for suppression. Just how many people can escape this?”
Having learnt a new, powerful trick, Li Qingshan was overjoyed. The only issue he had with it was the moves in the Demon Suppression Statuary focused on suppression and not killing in a single strike.
The Chains of Demon Suppression can still trap the opponent before I kill them, but the Demon Suppression Tower completely isolates the opponent from me. If this Lietu doesn’t die by himself, I have to move the Demon Suppression Tower before coming up with a way to finish him off. How troublesome!
Li Qingshan studied the black Demon Suppression Tower and suddenly thought of something. It also has nine floors. Don’t tell me this is how the Demon Suppression hall looks like? If the Demon Suppression hall is actually a Demon Suppression tower, how large will this tower be? It’ll probably be even larger than Great Buddha mountain.
Suddenly, a fierce and brutal aura burst through a set of gilded doors and entered the square. The colossal figure had basically squeezed through the doorway, and its protruding teeth were even sharper than spears, producing foul gusts of air.
“Another one! Hmm? Are you Duoge?”
Li Qingshan noticed the deep-violet pupils of the monster and remembered how Duoge looked like when he held his breath to demonify.
Roar! Duoge unleashed a threatening howl, like a vicious beast about to launch an attack.
“I didn’t think he’d actually turn out like this. Is it because he ate too many demon hearts?”
Li Qingshan could sense that the demon qi on Duoge was extremely violent and powerful. He had to maintain the Demon Suppression Tower and Chains of Demon Suppression, so he was unable to spare any effort to suppress Duoge as well.
Duoge glanced at Li Qingshan and Xiao An too before looking over them and staring at the Demon Suppression statue. The Demon Suppression statue gazed right back at him. In the end, Duoge lowered his head; his gaze landed on those scattered demon hearts, eyeing them greedily.
Li Qingshan came up with an idea. Using the Divine Talisman of Great Creation, he conjured a monster exactly the same as Duoge, just even larger and more vicious. He created it in front of Duoge, and it let out a roar.
“Hmm? What’s this? He even knows illusion techniques?”
The Dauntless monk was mildly surprised. He was highly knowledgeable, but he did not possess much understanding of the school of Novels that had fallen into decline.
Duoge shrank back slightly, becoming angered immediately. He lunged over viciously, but he hit nothing. The monster twisted and vanished as soon as he touched it. With his current level of intelligence, he had no idea what this was all about, so the situation left him in a small daze.
Li Qingshan instead used this opportunity to wave his hand. With a gust of wind, all of the demon hearts swept into his hand; he said to Duoge, “You want them?”
Duoge lunged over with a growl. He was extremely large, but he was highly nimble with the lunge.
The more demon hearts he devoured, the more violent and demonified he became, but he was unable to control this urge. He was like a person lost at sea, unable to help themselves as they drank seawater. The thirst could not be described with words.
Li Qingshan turned around and threw as hard as he could, tossing all the demon hearts behind him.
Duoge did not hesitate, immediately giving up on Li Qingshan and sweeping over Li Qingshan’s head in pursuit of the demon hearts. The demon hearts all flew towards the Demon Suppression Tower.
“Rise!”
Li Qingshan sniggered. The Chains of Demon Suppression slackened, and the Demon Suppression Tower flew high into the air.
Having been suppressed in the Demon Suppression Tower, Lietu finally gave up on the pointless struggle. However, when he crossed his legs and sat down, he discovered that the rate at which the Evil Eye devoured him was not as fast as he imagined it to be. Under the tower, his mind recovered some clarity, and he came to an understanding.
This tower can suppress demonic natures and demon qi. However, it is not just mine, but the Evil Eye’s too. This is a good opportunity for me to gain complete control over the Evil Eye! I refuse to believe he can keep me suppressed here forever. As soon as he stops the technique, I’ll rush out and kill them—no, I’ll have them taste the Demon race’s torture of slow death.
Right as he thought about that, his surroundings suddenly brightened. He responded extremely quickly, immediately standing up and brandishing his swords, only to see almost a hundred demon hearts flying over with a huge, vicious demonic beast following behind. The killing intent on his face turned into shock.
In the middle of the air, Duoge swept out with his long, red tongue and swallowed the demon hearts from almost a hundred powerful Demon Generals. His colossal body followed along his original trajectory and dove towards Lietu. His large, deep-violet eyes suddenly noticed the eye on Lietu’s chest, as well as the demon heart in the eye. He immediately became like a dog that had spotted a bone, and his pounce became even more determined.
He immediately pushed Lietu down onto the ground.
Boom!
In the air, the Demon Suppression Tower became even larger and more dignified, falling down once more and suppressing Duoge and Lietu at the same time.
This was the benefit of the Demon Suppression Statuary. The greater the demonic nature and demon qi, the more powerful the moves would become.
After suppressing both of them, the tower instead became even more stable, as they were not working together to break free, instead becoming locked in an intense battle.
Li Qingshan sat on the sharp tip of the tower as furious bellows and bestial roars rang out from beneath his bottom.
Having merged with the sword, Lietu was extremely powerful, but Duoge had become extremely crazy after completely demonifying. He had just devoured almost another hundred demon hearts, so he definitely was not weak either.
Lietu was unable to settle down and slowly control the Evil Eye anymore either, or the only fate awaiting him was being devoured. He could only plead to the Evil Eye for more power while it gradually devoured him. The sliver of clarity in his heart vanished, and he gradually went crazy too.
In the narrow space, a man and a beast engaged in an unavoidable close combat, tearing and stabbing away at one another madly.
“When they’ve fought enough, I’ll open the tower. When that happens, finish off the sword person first and steal the sword.” Li Qingshan told Xiao An from atop the tower.
Xiao An asked, “Then what about Duoge?”
“If we can help him recover his sanity, then that would obviously be for the best. If we can’t-” Li Qingshan paused. “Then we kill him!”
A while later, the sounds of battle from within the Demon Suppression Tower did not die down at all. Instead, it became louder and shriller. They waited for another ten minutes before it gradually died down.
Li Qingshan and Xiao An exchanged glances. He called out, “Rise!”
