Volume 5, Chapter 116 – Devouring

Only after Yan Yaoluo left did the two people in the hall finally relax.

They exchanged another glance, then both leaped up. Each intercepted one of the drifting ribbons of light, letting the fine specks settle onto the stumps of their severed arms. Bit by bit, a new arm condensed once more.

It was plainly a fragile thing, though. Not only was it a bare section with no sleeve or cloth covering it, it was entirely golden and semi-transparent, as if it might shatter at any moment.

“This kind of form… sigh, I don’t even know what sort of thing this form makes us…”

After landing, Daoist Luo Ying let out a sigh, and no joy or sorrow could be read from his face.

They should have died in the Void Tribulation. Although Venerables at their “Field Dao Realm” all had avatars hidden elsewhere to preserve their lives, that damned Pang Tiandao had triggered the “great fusion” of the main world and the Illusory Realms. That swept even the regions where those life-preserving vessels were hidden into the center of the vortex. They were literally ground to pieces.

That should have been the end of it. Yet no one knew what method that Demon Lord had used. By borrowing the rules of this place, he had actually helped them restore their souls and obtain new bodies.

The price was that both body and soul were now bound fast to the rules here. Whoever controlled those rules could control and command them, making them live if he wished and die if he wished.

“Fellow Daoist Luo Ying, don’t sigh anymore.” Yue Canglan glanced at his newly formed left hand, half frowning as he strode over to inspect the lotus platform. “That demoness finally left. If we’re not going to pry into the secret now, then when?”

“Surely you don’t mean to spend the rest of your life in this form?”

“I’ve already seen a broader world. I don’t care.” Daoist Luo Ying gave a cold laugh. “But you, Great Sect Master Yue… you were defeated head-on by Di Xiang, and she hadn’t even broken through yet at the time, had she? Don’t tell me you still harbor hopes of defeating her.”

“So what if I do?” Yue Canglan shot him a glance. “To act despite knowing it cannot be done, that is my Sword Dao.”

“Are you copying Di Xiang now? The only difference is that she succeeded, while you failed, so all you can do is repeat these grand phrases every day like empty nonsense.”

“And what about you!” Yue Canglan glared at him. “You say you don’t care. You don’t want to live? Then why are you still obediently doing their bidding? Do you have any idea what they’re trying to do now? They want to bring back that age of gods and buddhas run wild. This is the ultimate great catastrophe, one that threatens both races equally!”

He understood the dangers here all too well. Whatever their differences in ideals, Di Xiang was still a person, someone who could talk, someone who could communicate.

But what were those gods, immortals, and buddhas?

Nothing but indescribable monsters.

They were things with no concrete intelligence of their own, yet under the infusion of the will-power of all living beings, they could gain concrete powers of action. That was far too dangerous, no less so than seating a one-month-old infant in the middle of a stage with a nuclear launch button in hand, its every move manipulated by the audience below.

So if Yue Canglan truly had to choose, he would rather live in the age ruled by Di Xiang.

Mm… he swore that this absolutely had nothing to do with how astonishing he found her swordsmanship.

“Why? Now that’s a good question.”

Daoist Luo Ying slowly shook his head, his tone turning sinister.

“I’m different from Sect Master Yue.”

“Sect Master Yue loves beauties, and loves the swords of beauties even more. So you instinctively overlook certain things.”

“But I, on the other hand, clearly remember that Di Xiang rose from obscurity and swept across the world in no more than a single year.”

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“What’s strange about that?” Yue Canglan frowned. “Someone having a sudden enlightenment and entering the Heaven Realm in one leap… not just in the Yu Dynasty, but in dynastic records from further back, there are plenty of similar examples.”

“You’re pretending to be dense with me?” Daoist Luo Ying shot back. “The world conquered in those records, and the world she conquered, are they the same thing?”

Yue Canglan fell silent.

They were indeed not the same.

Each age had its own imprint. Each age had its own myths and legends.

Perhaps in his own era, the name of that imprint, that legend, had been “Yue Canglan.”

And if one counted back still further, then it would have belonged to someone else.

Much as he hated to admit it, the world Bai Xiang had swept across was broader and grander than theirs.

Because it had encompassed both the main world and the Illusory Realms of that time, and had even required facing calamities such as the Void Tribulation. The difficulty of that challenge was simply incomparable.

“There have been people in the past who rose the way she did, but no one ever did it that fast!” Daoist Luo Ying said with certainty.

Then he lowered his voice. “Anything that fast isn’t human!”

“And don’t you find the existence of that Demon Lord bizarre…?”

“Blood Heaven taking form… the will of all living beings… Ha, I’ve never seen a precedent like that before…”

“If you put those two things together, well now, what that would mean… I truly wouldn’t dare say…”

…

Elsewhere, the Demon Lord drew his soul-consciousness back in and, for once, chose to return this strand of soul-silk to the main body.

In the real world, that meant a flash of golden light streaked through the void, passed cleanly through the multiple layers of defense beneath the building, and reached the underground depths, where it entered the giant cocoon that was pulsing there.

Rustle!

Suddenly, the middle of the giant cocoon contracted inward, taking on the shape of a gourd. From the bulging upper half, it spat out a long, pale body.

Boom!

The body crashed directly onto the ground, making the kind of noise only something weighing several tons should have made.

Then it began to tremble, slowly pushing itself upright. As it did, facial features, hair, and fingernails rapidly grew across its surface.

The only thing it did not grow was genitalia.

It had no sexual characteristics.

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Above and below, it was smooth and bare.

“I’m already getting tired of this kind of body.”

“Meng Wanyu’s report was too vague. In other words, it still can’t be confirmed whether she is there.”

“I can’t delay any longer. I have to speed things up.”

Looking down at its newly formed fingers, the Demon Lord murmured a few words inwardly. Then the flesh over its body wriggled and naturally formed into… the gauzy green dress Tao Sicheng liked to wear most in daily life.

“Hmph.”

With a few flicks of those fluttering sleeves, the Demon Lord revealed a bewitching smile and walked up the stairs with the gait of a woman. Then he took the elevator and arrived at the office where Tao Sicheng had been placed.

“Hm?”

The instant the door opened, Tao Sicheng reacted like someone caught red-handed and flustered herself into a panic.

As she pressed a button to shut off the screen, she also stuffed the documents on her desk into a drawer, protesting, “Oh, come on, didn’t I say you have to knock before coming in…”

Then she looked up and found herself face-to-face with a person who had exactly the same face as her own.

Ah?

She froze at once.

Th-this-this…

“You’re the ‘Demon Lord’?”

She asked the question tentatively.

After all, only that thing could use a method like this, right?

She had assumed he had only come to frighten her, but instead the Demon Lord reached out directly, seized her wrist, and with tremendous force dragged her over from behind the desk.

“You!”

The collision hurt badly. Tao Sicheng tried to pry his hand away. “What are you doing… let me go?”

“You didn’t actually think I knew nothing about your little tricks, did you?”

A voice exactly like her own sounded chillingly cold when it came from someone else’s mouth.

The Demon Lord looked at the girl and let out a sneer.

“You’re nothing but an ordinary mortal, one without spirit or talent, yet you delude yourself into trying to steal the Qian position with a few petty schemes…”

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“But you never stopped to think. What value does your younger brother have, that I would keep sparing his life?”

He… what did he say?

Was he talking about Kangyuan?

My younger brother, Tao Kangyuan?

“What are you trying to do?”

“Let go of me… what are you trying to do?”

“If you want something, come at me!”

“You’re not allowed to hurt Kangyuan!”

As if some possibility had just occurred to her, Tao Sicheng’s body began to tremble. She desperately struggled against his grip, but no matter what she did, she could not break free.

“I originally had plenty of patience to spare for you.”

“After all, a grand drama like an elder sister eating her younger brother… how could it work without a bit of buildup?”

The Demon Lord pulled her closer and, seeing the terror on her face, showed a faintly morbid smile of his own.

“But that won’t do anymore.”

“That person has no intention of giving me more time.”

“There are some things I have to test on the two of you first.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“Let go!”

“Let go!”

Ignoring Tao Sicheng’s screams, the Demon Lord’s expression gradually returned to calm.

“You want me to let go?”

“Fine.”

“I’ll satisfy you.”

But how could this possibly unfold in any ordinary way?

Tao Sicheng had only just breathed a sigh of relief when, the next instant, she made an even more horrifying discovery. The body restraining her, this clone of the Demon Lord… it was melting. Starting from the hand gripping her, it was little by little fusing into her body.

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Wh-what exactly is this…?

Before she could even open her mouth, the Demon Lord’s body went splat, like putty sticking to Tao Sicheng’s body, then slowly seeped into her flesh and tissues. In the end, everything looked the same as before.

But this time, what filled Tao Sicheng with terror was that she had almost lost control over her own body.

Only her mind remained awake.

Everything else, whether her five senses or the movements of her limbs, had all been handed over to the Demon Lord’s control.

“Ha!”

She heard herself let out a soft laugh.

“Flesh of the same origin…”

“I need to see the exact effect.”

Tao Sicheng wanted to scream.

Wanted to call for help.

Wanted to resist.

But in truth, there was nothing she could do.

She could only watch helplessly as this body, with the gauzy skirt swirling around it, left the office, went upstairs, turned left, and found Tao Kangyuan inside a training room, drenched in sweat and clearly having just finished cultivating.

“Sis?”

Tao Kangyuan paused slightly when he saw her.

Don’t come over!!!

Tao Sicheng frantically tried to shriek a warning.

But she couldn’t.

She couldn’t do anything.

She could only stare with eyes wide open as Tao Kangyuan walked over in response to this body’s summons.

Then something in front of her seemed to dissolve and melt away.

Splat!

Darkness came crashing down from all sides.