Are There Only Demonesses Left in the Cultivation Realm?

The weakness Hanyi Master had detected was a deliberate trap left by Han Ze Master. The entire Mountain Defense Array of Miao Yu Palace had been reversed by her, transformed into an Ascension Array.

Han Ze Master held a moon in her hand. "The blood of three Kai Yang cultivators, plus the blood of several at the Jade Balance Realm... What a shame. I thought more of you would have come."

’In my calculations, Hanyi Master should have attracted five or six Sixth Realm cultivators. Perhaps even one or two from the Yao Guang Realm should have shown up.’

Han Ze raised her hand, and a glazed lotus flower appeared in her palm. It looked so cold that a mere glance could seemingly turn an onlooker into an ice sculpture.

The Celestial Pure True Lotus.

Not only had she subverted the Mountain Defense Array, but she had also long since acquired Miao Yu Palace’s Celestial Pure True Lotus.

Withered Corpse Master said in disbelief, "You’ve already refined the Celestial Pure True Lotus?!"

"Not yet. There was just one final step," Han Ze Master said, opening her mouth. She then swallowed the lotus whole. "Now, it is refined!"

Her aura surged violently as a red mist submerged everything. A continuous stream of Spirit was extracted from the flesh and blood of the three True Masters, including Hunting Deer, and channeled toward Han Ze Master.

After years of tampering by Han Ze Master, the Mountain Defense Array of Miao Yu Palace finally revealed its terrifying, true purpose.

"The moon in the sky, the moon in the lake, the moon in my hand!"

Han Ze Master tossed the moon in her hand into the air, and her body began to gradually merge into it.

She became the moon.

The red mist, thick with blood, slowly stained the moon crimson.

Her voice boomed from mid-air, echoing in all directions.

"I, Han Ze of Miao Yu, after four hundred years of Cultivation, shall today tread the Celestial Ladder and ascend to Yao Guang!"

The red mist abruptly expanded, enveloping the entire Miao Yu Palace.

The blood moon spoke, "It’s not enough. Still not enough. Too few people came. The rest... will be supplemented by the disciples of my palace!"

"Han Ze, what are you doing!?"

Han Qiu Master was in tatters, her left eye stained with blood. She had been rescuing several disciples and arrived a step too late, only to see Han Ze Master preparing to devour the disciples of Miao Yu Palace to fuel her ascension to Yao Guang.

She roared in fury, "Han Ze!!!"

The blood moon trembled. "Silence! As long as I ascend to Yao Guang, you will be a pillar of the Sixth Realm, and Yuehan will be the next successor. My Miao Yu Palace will endure for hundreds more years! The others are just insignificant trash!"

Withered Corpse Master said in terror, "It’s no use! We can’t escape! That bitch reversed the Mountain Defense Array!"

Hunting Deer Master raised his long spear and drew a circle on the ground, which instantly erupted in a brilliant glow. "Then what do we do?"

If the Mountain Defense Array was once meant to defend against those outside the mountain, it had now become an array to keep those inside from leaving. It had become a cage, trapping them all.

Withered Corpse Master added, "If this continues, regardless of whether she succeeds in her ascension to Yao Guang, we will surely die before that happens."

The blood moon sprouted countless tentacles, whipping them around wantonly. A disciple from the Canglan Sect was impaled by a tentacle. His cheeks swelled before his head exploded with a BOOM.

Wisps of blood were drawn out, becoming food for the blood moon.

"Hungry..."

The blood moon’s syllables were slurred. A giant maw suddenly split open in the center of the crimson orb, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth and viscous pus.

SKREEE!!!

The tentacles began to thrash even more frantically.

Withered Corpse Master summoned a huge coffin and hid inside it. "I’m leaving first."

Not only that, but a Corpse Puppet that looked exactly like him appeared in his place.

This was the substitute Corpse Puppet he had refined.

Half of his body had already been devoured. He couldn’t delay any longer. If he did, he would surely die here today.

So, Withered Corpse Master vanished into the coffin, and in the blink of an eye, the coffin burrowed into the earth.

Using the fake body to attract the blood moon’s attention, he planned to dig straight through the mountain to escape.

BANG!

He had miscalculated.

The ground suddenly split open, and a massive tentacle slammed down on the coffin, pinning it in place. Countless threads extended from the tentacle’s suckers, poised to devour both man and coffin.

Han Ze Master could already feel it. The Dao was just ahead.

It was so profound, so beautiful. The Gate of the Seventh Realm was already open.

She could not hear Han Qiu’s words.

"Han Ze, you have fallen into demonhood!!!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Why go to such lengths?"

Jiang Jiayi slowly rose to her feet, her sword already unsheathed.

It was a red Wooden Sword, so sharp that the very act of drawing it sliced open the surrounding space, revealing the void beyond.

She was going to slay a Demon.

The Daoist Sect Master had ordered her to see who was ascending to Yao Guang. She did not see the Yao Guang Law, but she did see a Demon.

The Daoist Sect Master had also said, "Just watch. Do not interfere."

This was based on the premise of the Three Palaces plotting against Miao Yu. If their plot succeeded, so be it. If it failed, they would die. It made no difference.

The Daoist Sect cared little for the rise and fall of sects in the Cultivation Realm. As long as mortals were not involved, the Daoist Sect usually remained a mere spectator.

But the appearance of a Demon was a different matter.

If a Demon appeared...

It must be slain!

"Hm?"

Jiang Jiayi suddenly looked into the distance. ’It’s not dead? Why is there... another one?’

She sat back down in a cross-legged position.

It seemed her sword was no longer needed here. The vibrating blade stilled, but it remained unsheathed.

~~~~~~~~~

Beneath the crimson blood moon, everyone seemed to have a touch of madness in their eyes.

The thrashing tentacles created waves of grating noise.

"Young Master, Han Ze has fallen into demonhood. I..."

Xia Lianxue was practically glued to Lu Changyuan’s side.

Lu Changyuan sighed. The young woman was anxious, worried about her image in his eyes.

"I know, but we still have to deal with it."

"Mhm."

Lu Changyuan smiled. "I was just wondering what Han Shui Master really meant by what she said back then."

Xia Lianxue pressed a hand to her lips, thinking for a moment. "I suppose... on one hand, she wanted to protect me. On the other, my senior sister was perhaps my fated tribulation on the path of re-walking the Red Dust. Maybe Han Shui meant to trigger it early."

But neither of them truly knew what Han Shui had been thinking back then.

Lu Changyuan gently ruffled Xia Lianxue’s hair. "Alright, let’s focus on a solution. That moon is still up there."

The blood moon was like some bizarre totem; anyone caught in its light would have their life force drained away.

The Fairy gazed at the night sky. "Desire Demons are truly wicked. I never thought I’d be tainted by one while re-walking the path of the Red Dust."

Lu Changyuan chuckled. Xia Lianxue had almost been devoured by a Desire Demon while re-walking the path of the Red Dust; it was a good thing she had met him. "It’s precisely because you were re-walking the Red Dust that you were so easily targeted by a Desire Demon."

Legend had it.

Long ago, when the world was a formless chaos, Three Thousand Great Demons plagued the land. But after millennia of struggle, the Cultivators finally managed to kill or seal all of them.

The Desire Demon was the most difficult of these Great Demons to deal with, and the hardest to kill, because its food was the "desire" of Cultivators.

And so, the Desire Demon became the only Demon that was neither killed nor sealed.