The Demon Suppression Tower rose high into the air and scarlet blood immediately flowed out.
Duoge waved his teeth and claws about with Lietu beneath him. His claws filled with power pressed down on Lietu’s shoulders firmly, completely ignoring the swords that pierced through him as he mauled at Lietu desperately with his bloody mouth. His scarlet tongue constantly swept about, wanting to swallow the demon heart in Lietu’s chest.
Lietu no longer bore any resemblance to his past self. Sword-like spines covered his body, penetrating deeply into Duoge, but they were unable to stop his huge, teeth-ridden mouth from constantly pressing down. The smell of the demon heart attracted Duoge. He did not care at all about how many holes there were through his body.
Blood flowed out like spring water, dyeing the golden ground red.
Originally, Lietu possessed the ability to see the location of the demon heart with the Evil Eye sword in hand. No matter where his opponent’s demon heart was hidden, he could take it out in a single strike. However, who knew how many demon hearts Duoge had eaten as he followed Li Qingshan and Xiao An. He was unable to digest them immediately, so they were all stored in his body, preventing the Evil Eye from discerning the location of the true demon heart.
Lietu raised his head, blurrily making out Li Qingshan and Xiao An’s existence. He could feel his will being assimilated into the Evil Eye. He would be completely devoured before long.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
Lietu let out a hysterical roar of despair. The swords all pulled back into his body, and his chin dropped to an unbelievable angle. A streak of light suddenly shot out of his mouth, moving as fast as lightning as it aimed straight at Li Qingshan.
As it happened right next to him, Li Qingshan was unable to dodge, or perhaps it would be better described as being unable to use his true power to dodge. He remained composed as the Demon Suppression Tower descended from above, enveloping him with a boom.
That had been from a moment of inspiration. Indeed, as it turned out, not only could the Demon Suppression Tower trap the opponent, but it also could protect its user. Although it could not kill the opponent, it was still an extremely practical move.
And, he could feel the glow of his demon heart subsiding drastically inside the Demon Suppression Tower. The Demon Suppression Tower was not for suppressing evil demons alone. More importantly, it was for suppressing his own demonic nature.
He could not help but recall the third Demon Suppression statue, the figure of the demon man wrapped in chains. He must have used chains for self-restraint and a tower for self-suppression when he was unable to control his madness.
However, it was pitch-black in here. He was unable to see what was going on outside.
Right as he thought of that, his vision brightened, and he saw the outside world. The Demon Suppression Tower seemed to become transparent, allowing him to clearly see the violent clash between the streak of light and the Demon Suppression Tower, kicking up sparks. As it turned out, the streak of light was a sword that shot out of Lietu’s mouth continuously.
Lietu’s desperate counterattack was definitely valiant. Probably even the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell could not block it easily, but it was unable to pierce the Demon Suppression Tower. That was not because the Demon Suppression Tower was more powerful than the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell, but because the Demon Suppression Tower possessed a power to suppress demons. It specially restrained demonfolk, so no matter how powerful their attacks were, they would be whittled down to a shell of their former strength when they landed on the Demon Suppression Tower.
Duoge used this opportunity to lunge at the eyeball. Li Qingshan waved his hand in the Demon Suppression Tower and black chains flew out, wrapping around Duoge.
Duoge put up a violent struggle, and the chains broke one by one before even more chains immediately replaced them. He had already become heavily injured from the battle earlier, so he no longer possessed his original ferocity.
Lietu’s final strike finally ran out of energy too. He collapsed onto the ground powerlessly, turning into a corpse.
The Demon Suppression Tower flew up once again, falling over Duoge. Li Qingshan smiled. “I can’t just let you eat the sword that has caught my eye.”
At this moment, something unexpected happened. Duoge’s scarlet tongue suddenly extended rapidly, and a mouth with long, vicious teeth opened up, biting towards the eyeball in Lietu’s chest.
Xiao An was about to swing her sword and sever the tongue when something else happened again. Lietu’s corpse began to move again, flying towards Li Qingshan.
“Hmph, so you even know to play dead!”
Li Qingshan extended his hand and grabbed Lietu’s neck, but to his surprise, Lietu did not put up a struggle. He only stiffened up without moving at all as his flesh and blood rapidly withered away. Only the eyeball in his chest remained the same.
A while later, a black residue scattered across the ground, and Lietu vanished completely. All that was left was a strange sword in Li Qingshan’s hand.
“Interesting. Looks like divine swords aren’t the only ones with intelligence. Demonic swords are the same. This sword actually knows how to avoid trouble and how to defect to the enemy. Not bad, not bad.”
Li Qingshan stroked the sword and said with a smile. This demonic sword that had just lost its master seemed extremely docile. Its eyes swiveled around, even actively transmitting its power to Li Qingshan as if a voice was whispering into his ear, “I’m very sharp. I’m very strong. Take me. I will help you kill all your enemies!”
If regular people obtained a strange, demonic sword like that, they would not be able to help themselves but to develop some disgust even if they loved its power and could not bear to part with it or see it destroyed. However, Li Qingshan liked it very much. He said to the strange eyeball on the hilt.
“Sword, oh sword. Probably every single master you’ve served has suffered this fate! You’ve abandoned and betrayed them all, but that’s not your fault. You’re merely a sword. There’s nothing you can do if they’re too weak.”
People always hoped that everything would be loyal to them. Their women had to be loyal, their friends had to be loyal, and even their dogs and horses had to be loyal. However, eternal loyalty never existed. If horses were loyal, they would be ridden. If dogs were loyal, they would be ordered around.
Li Qingshan had no plans to be loyal to anyone, nor did he need anyone or anything to be loyal to him.
“From today onwards, your name will be ‘Betrayal’. Yep, the Demonic Sword of Betrayal. I’ll just call you ‘Traitorous Demon sword’.”
The sword shone brightly as if it was making a gleeful reply.
Li Qingshan smiled. If he did not want the sword to betray him, then all he could do was constantly grow stronger and do his best to survive. He casually placed the Traitorous Demon sword over his shoulder. The sword was over three meters long, which was perfect for once he demonified.
Li Qingshan’s gaze passed through the Demon Suppression Tower. He saw Duoge roaring madly as he constantly threw himself against the tower.
He was heavily injured, but the power from several hundred demon cores constantly surged through his body. His wounds rapidly recovered, and he demonified even more.
Li Qingshan sighed gently. He was unable to connect this monster to the skinny, dark-skinned child. He dispersed the Demon Suppression Tower with a wave of his hand.
Duoge lunged towards him. The difference in their sizes was very great, so he resembled a tiger pouncing towards a rabbit.
Duoge was much stronger than a tiger, but Li Qingshan was no rabbit. He took a step forward with his left leg and anchored himself like a nail driven into the ground. He sucked in a deep breath as his pectoral muscles heaved into the air, bringing his right arm back and extending it to the limit like a battering ram ready to strike. He launched a vicious punch at Duoge’s head.
Duoge hurtled through the air and slammed into a wall. He climbed to his feet and shook his head. A few of his teeth were broken as blood oozed out in his mouth.
The punch contained a great power of demon suppression. After reaching the sixth statue of the Demon Suppression Statuary, the demon heart in Li Qingshan’s body had become shinier and clearer, and his destructive power towards demonfolk had become greater too.
Duoge let out a violent howl and lunged over again. Death was not a concept to him. With a thunk, he sailed through the air again, leaving behind a long trail of blood on the ground.
Li Qingshan pulled back his fist. With his crude method of attack, he could only crush those weaker opponents who posed no threat to him. If Lietu had not been trapped in the narrow Demon Suppression Tower that prevented him from moving and maneuvering about, he probably would have cut Duoge to pieces a long time ago.
If Li Qingshan wanted to kill Duoge, it would not take him too much strength either. However, as he gazed into the violet eyes, the figure of that child seemed to appear before him. Then, he recalled the demon man in a painful struggle against his demonic nature that all the Demon Suppression statues depicted.
“I hope you can feel this pain!”
Li Qingshan said softly as he watched Duoge lunge over. There was a flash before his eyes, and suddenly, he could see the demon hearts that twinkled in Duoge’s body like stars. He could even clearly discern the quality of these demon hearts and whether the demonic nature they contained was pure or not.
Glancing at the Traitorous Demon sword on his shoulder, Li Qingshan opened his fist and extended his index and middle finger, pressing them against Duoge’s head viciously.
The power of suppressing demons entered his body, and a demon heart in Duoge’s head immediately dimmed, no longer shining anymore. Its demonic nature had been suppressed.
Seems like it’s effective! Li Qingshan twisted his body and allowed a huge claw to fly past him. He struck the mid-air Duoge with a hook, and two demon hearts in his jaw dimmed as well.
Li Qingshan parted his legs and unleashed both fists. At that moment, he seemed to grow a hundred limbs. The fists rained down on Duoge’s abdomen like a storm.
Duoge constantly trembled in the air, roaring and growling furiously, trying to fight back. Li Qingshan’s final punch sent him flying.
Duoge only stood up after a flip. His demon qi plummeted, and a sliver of clarity appeared in the depths of his violet eyes. Li Qingshan channeled the power of suppressing demons into his body with each punch, having extinguished several dozen demon hearts now.
With a flash, Li Qingshan arrived beside Duoge. His feet shifted as his posture changed, barraging Duoge with punches. With each punch, a demon heart dimmed.
In the end, only a single demon heart continued to shine in his abdomen. Who knew how many demon hearts it had merged with. It became the size of a fist and had an uneven surface, shining with colourful light.
“Wake up!”
Li Qingshan bellowed and struck Duoge’s abdomen with a palm strike. It penetrated deeply into him and light spilled out. Li Qingshan had poured all of his power of suppressing demons into the palm strike.
Suddenly, he came to an understanding. So this is demon suppression, not demon slaying or demon purging. Because the demon senior who created this cultivation method was also a demonfolk, he was not seeking to slay all demons, but to save those demons who were controlled by their demon hearts.
A tiny figure burst out of the colossal body of the demonic beast. It was Duoge in his original shape.
Li Qingshan caught him and placed him onto the ground gently. “I’ve already done everything I can. As for whether you can wake up, that’ll be entirely up to you.”
The Dauntless monk saw this and thought, This child seems vicious and violent, but he most definitely has a buddha nature. He has a heart of benevolence.
Duoge furrowed his brows as his eyelashes trembled. His expression changed as the Demon Suppression statues appeared in his mind, gradually blurring and turning into himself in the end.
The same expression of pain appeared on his face. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked at Li Qingshan. “Venerable… I feel horrible!”
