Chapter 386 - 19: Demon Suppression Stele
Within a demonized primeval forest.
Towering, ancient trees shot up from the ground everywhere. Although their canopies were so dense that no light passed through, the trunks below were sparsely spaced. Each tree occupied about an acre of land, its branches only beginning to sprout over a hundred feet from the ground. The trunks themselves were so colossal that a person standing beneath one was like an ant.
A chilling verdure assaulted the senses, and the deeper one went into the woods, the darker it became.
A middle-aged man in a dark gold robe stood beneath a tree. Although his features were unremarkable, he exuded a majestic and noble aura, an air of disdainful pride.
This man was none other than the Profound Celestial Demon Marshal, Senluo.
He gazed into the depths of the forest and said lightly, "Since you’re here, you might as well come out."
An aura quietly descended.
Beneath a towering tree nearby, a tender green twig rapidly sprouted from the soil.
In the blink of an eye, the twig grew into a small tree with a trunk as thick as a bowl.
Green leaves unfurled upon it, and white flowers bloomed in profusion.
From the center of one of the white flowers, a Female Cultivator emerged.
After the Female Cultivator landed, she took a few steps, and her form returned to a normal human size. She was dressed in a Moon White Monastic Robe that accentuated her slim, graceful figure. Although she was very beautiful, her upswept eyebrows lent her a stern, murderous air, and she radiated an Evil Qi that commanded respect without any show of anger.
"Senluo, what do you want with me?" The Female Cultivator’s tone held a hint of anger.
This woman was, shockingly, also at the Late-Life Soul Stage, and her aura was in no way inferior to Senluo’s.
Senluo took out a jade conch and said lightly, "By order of the Madam, I have come to have you fulfill the promise you made all those years ago."
The Female Cultivator’s brows knitted together as she looked at Senluo. "Are you all finally making your move?"
Senluo nodded but said no more.
The Female Cultivator fell silent, deep in thought, a flicker of hesitation in her eyes.
Senluo sneered. "What, having second thoughts? You swore a Heart Demon Oath before the Madam back then. Are you aware of the consequences for breaking such an oath?"
The Female Cultivator’s expression was dark and uncertain. After a long moment, she said, "Fine. I will take you to the Demon Suppression Stele, but I won’t be involved in anything else!"
A mocking look crossed Senluo’s face. "That’s acceptable."
With that, he transformed into a ray of Demonic Light and silently flew into the jade conch. His immense aura vanished without a trace.
The jade conch seemed to be a powerful treasure capable of concealing auras. Even with her Late-Life Soul Stage Divine Sense, the Female Cultivator momentarily couldn’t detect Senluo hiding within the tiny shell.
She took the jade conch hovering silently in the air and carefully put it away. Then, she transformed into a streak of light, streaking noiselessly through the forest and off into the distance.
...
Deep within the dark primeval forest stood a massive city, eight hundred li in circumference.
The city walls, a thousand feet high, were majestic and imposing, like a mountain range.
Within the city were countless colossal towers and Immortal Pavilions, all wreathed in spiritual light.
Countless Demon Talismans of various sizes were branded onto the outer walls. Densely packed and dazzling with Demonic Light, they gave the fortifications the appearance of polished black jade.
Originating from the massive walls, a thick and sturdy restrictive barrier enveloped the city, exuding a sense of mountain-like might.
Black Jade Demon City.
In the forest outside the Demon City, a sphere of dim, obscure Demonic Light hovered in the air. It seemed to exist outside this world, leaking not a single trace of its aura.
At the center of the Demonic Light was a voluptuous, dignified, and elegant woman.
She wore a magnificent platinum-colored gown, her bearing regal and her beauty stunning. Every glance from her lovely eyes was captivating.
—Madam Qi.
To her left stood an exquisitely handsome youth. Dressed in white robes and a jade crown, two locks of black hair cascaded past his jade-like cheeks to his shoulders. With his robes fluttering, he looked like a banished immortal.
To her right was Ling Yan, tall and aloofly beautiful, with snow-white wings sprouting from her back.
Each of her feathers was like a sword, covered in Red Gold patterns and emitting faint sparks of electricity, giving her an extremely dangerous aura.
Behind the trio, more than a dozen Life Soul Cultivators stood motionless. Among them were Fang Cheng, Mu Xueling, and Jiang Beiyue.
Two days prior, the three of them had been brought here by Ling Yan to rendezvous with Madam Qi. They had been waiting quietly within this sphere of Demonic Light ever since.
The Life Soul Cultivators around them were all Dharma Guardian Demon Marshals from Profound Celestial Demon City, each with a profound aura and a remarkable presence.
Fang Cheng looked at the back of the youth standing beside Madam Qi and finally understood. ’So the master of Profound Celestial Demon City’s third Tier Four Feather Divine Soldier is this mysterious youth.’
"Senluo has gone in," the youth said softly, as if he had sensed something.
Hearing this, Madam Qi said, "The area around the Demon Suppression Stele is heavily guarded. I hope he encounters no obstacles."
The youth smiled. "We have plotted for many years. With the time, place, and people all aligned, there will naturally be no issue."
...
The Female Cultivator in the Moon White Monastic Robe walked through a heavily guarded estate within Black Jade Demon City.
Her status was clearly noble. The Cultivators on patrol all stopped to bow when they saw her, addressing her as "Milady."
This was the Demon Stele Mansion, an estate adjacent to the City Lord’s Mansion. It was the hallowed ground where the Demon Suppression Stele was enshrined, guarded on a daily basis by one hundred Life Talisman Cultivators and two Life Soul Cultivators.
The Demon Suppression Stele was originally a Fifth-rank Magical Artifact refined by the four Tribulation Realm Ancestral Kings of the Mo Luo Realm using Celestial Demon Remains. Its demonic might could repel any Celestial Demon below the fifth rank, allowing the Cultivators of the Mo Luo Realm to rest and recover in its presence.
The Demon Stele was naturally inscribed with supreme and profound Dao Patterns and runes. Some could even comprehend Demon Path Divine Techniques from it or gain insights into the Profound Mechanisms of Artifact Refining and talisman creation.
Therefore, on any given day, many Cultivators came to observe the Demon Suppression Stele.
Throughout history, many famous Dharma Masters owed their success to a fortuitous encounter with the Demon Suppression Stele in their early years when their cultivation was low. From that point, their power skyrocketed, and they went on to dominate the world.
The current second-strongest expert in the world was the most famous example.
Later, to refine a Tier Five Feather Divine Soldier, Marquis Li plundered the Demon Suppression Steles from other Demon Cities. This led to seven cities being destroyed by endless hordes of Celestial Demons after losing the protection of their steles.
Of those seven Demon Suppression Steles, Marquis Li successfully used four to refine a Tier Five Feather Divine Soldier.
The remaining three were rumored to have been given to Madam Qi.
After so many years, the resources accumulated by Marquis Li’s faction were surely enough to refine another Tier Five Feather Divine Soldier.
Now, if they could just obtain one more Demon Suppression Stele... the second Tier Five Feather Divine Soldier in history was about to be born!
For this reason, all the major Demon Cities guarded their Demon Suppression Steles with extreme vigilance.
In the past decade, the three Demon Cities under Marquis Li’s command had attempted to seize other cities’ Demon Suppression Steles several times, but all attempts had ended in failure.
Despite her distinguished status, the Female Cultivator still had to pass through several routine security checks before she finally reached the center of the Demon Stele Mansion.
There was no palace here, only a massive, dark gold obelisk towering over a hundred feet high.
Ancient and esoteric Demon Patterns were carved upon the stele. A single glance was enough to draw one’s soul deep within, making it impossible to pull away.
Beneath the Demon Suppression Stele, seven or eight Cultivators sat cross-legged on the ground, staring blankly and motionlessly at the artifact.
Others sat with their eyes closed in silent meditation, as if comprehending some profound truth.
The Female Cultivator walked to the base of the Demon Suppression Stele. Even with her Late-Life Soul Stage Cultivation and experience surviving countless life-or-death calamities, she felt a trace of nervousness.
She slowly took out the jade conch, sighed softly, and held it aloft.
A ray of Thunder Light shot out from the jade conch. With an earth-shattering BOOM, it transformed into a thousand-foot-tall Feather Divine Soldier.
It had the head of a dragon and the body of a man. It wore a Heaven-Peaking Crown and was clad in an Imperial Robe forged from Spirit Pattern Armor, exuding a majestic aura.
Before the other Cultivators in the mansion could react, the eighteen snowflake-shaped Spirit Flame vents, arranged like a spine on the Feather Divine Soldier’s back, erupted with an astonishingly potent Demon Flame.
It opened its massive hand, seized the Demon Suppression Stele, and ripped it from the ground.
RUMBLE!
As if the heavens themselves were collapsing, a deafening thunderclap echoed through the void.
The vision of every Cultivator in the Demon Stele Mansion was instantly filled with an endless, roiling sea of Thunder Light. Dazzling lightning flooded heaven and earth, blinding them to all else.
Within their perception, a boundless, endless, and self-perpetuating storm of lightning, like the wrath of heaven itself, had suddenly appeared over the Demon City.
Faintly, within that ocean of Thunder Light, a Thunderous Giant Dragon seemed to rise, soaring away with the Demon Suppression Stele!
"Such audacity!"
An ancient, furious voice boomed from the depths of the Demon City.
Then, the light of the restrictive barrier above the Demon City flared brilliantly, blocking the immense force of the lightning.
...