Chapter 911: Invading the Hollow Venerable’s Lair
Qin Zhen and Daoxuan Immortal Master, whom Shen Mo was more familiar with, were also among the crowd. Seeing him arrive, they all came forward to greet him!
Qin Zhen was trying to make a Class VI puppet and needed a huge amount of top-tier spiritual material. After weighing her options, she ultimately decided to follow Jade Spring Fairy to attack Hallow Venerable’s lair, so she could quickly gather all the materials needed for making the puppet.
Daoxuan, on the other hand, had previously missed the battle in the Corpse Mountain Range and was not on the invitation list for the immortal banquet. He had clearly learned of this matter from elsewhere and was planning to take a share of the spoils from this great war.
After all, these years he had been wandering outside with his Sect Disciples and the creatures of Azure Heaven Cave, and the spiritual item resources he had amassed in the past had almost all been used up.
Yet Azure Heaven Cave’s Dungeon had been ravaged by Demons and was now in ruins, unlikely to produce anything in the short term;
The territory he had carved out near Five Dragon Mountain to open Spirit Fields and herb gardens and to mine ore would need many years before yielding any profit, and in the meantime he still had to pay tribute in resources and spiritual items to the Red Flame Sect... Not only were the immortal and mortal folk of Azure Heaven Cave having a hard time, even Daoxuan, this Divine Bridge Realm patriarch, was living poorly and urgently needed to strike a windfall!
Aside from Qin Zhen and Daoxuan, the other Immortal Path Immortal Masters had, more or less, had dealings with Shen Mo, and they also came over to exchange pleasantries with him.
When the Bright Moon had just risen and no more Divine Bridge or Formless Realm powerhouses arrived at the mountaintop, Jade Spring Fairy’s figure manifested. She swept her gaze over the gathered cultivators and, without saying much, directly sacrificed the Taihua Mirror!
Mirror light spilled out, and under the pulling force, Shen Mo and the others all entered the Mirror Realm.
In the next instant, the mirror light dimmed, and Jade Spring Fairy’s figure, together with the Taihua Mirror, had vanished without a trace!
...
After only a few breaths, Shen Mo felt a resonance and stepped out from the Mirror Realm. The figures of Qin Zhen and the others also successively emerged from the mirror light.
"So this is where the Hollow Venerable’s cave lies?"
Using the sun, moon, and Stars to sense the general position, Shen Mo discovered that this place was to the southeast of the Corpse Mountain Range, about fifty million li away. Unlike the Corpse Mountain Range, the environment here was even more sinister—poisonous mountains and foul waters, miasma blotting out the sky, filled with all sorts of venomous and vicious insects. No wonder a Demon True Immortal like Hallow Venerable could be born here!
Logically speaking, if his lair were a cave paradise opened by Hallow Venerable himself, he could have simply put the Fairyland away and fled to another immortal continent.
Yet Hallow Venerable had not done so, which meant that this cave paradise was either snatched from someone else, or inherited from a Senior of the Thousands Insects Evil Corpse clan, and not opened by him; it was also possible that he had "fallen" once in the cultivation world, temporarily severing his connection to his own cave paradise, and at the moment was unable to store the Fairyland away at will!
In any case, now that Jade Spring Fairy had already found his Hiding place, the truth no longer mattered.
Standing under the Bright Moon, Jade Spring Fairy’s immortal robes fluttered, fully displaying an immortal’s bearing. She raised the Taihua Mirror, drew down a strand of the power of sun, moon, stars and celestials, and shone it below; space was warped by the light, and soon a thick barrier manifested, then cracked, revealing a spatial fissure over a hundred li long!
A cave paradise that already had a master should not be so easily breached; this also indirectly confirmed Shen Mo’s conjecture.
"As for Hallow Venerable, that Evil Demon will be dealt with by this immortal personally. Once you enter the Fairyland, do not spare any Demons or vicious insects you encounter—slaughter them to the last!" Jade Spring Fairy gave a brief instruction, then turned into a streak of immortal light and flew inside.
This Fairyland was extremely massive and heavy; even if a True Immortal took action, it would be hard to completely destroy it in a short time. If it were shattered, the remaining Demons inside would scatter and flee, making the situation even more difficult to handle. Thus, Jade Spring Fairy did not waste effort on the structure itself but planned to directly behead Hallow Venerable, leaving the clearing of all the other Demons inside to Shen Mo and the other Immortal Path experts!
Shen Mo and the others all followed.
The scene within the Fairyland left everyone rather shocked...
In his cultivation career of more than a hundred years, Shen Mo had seen many different Dungeons and cave worlds, but this Fairyland was no ordinary Blessed land—it was clearly an enormous insect nest!
It was somewhat similar to the Thousands Insects Evil Corpse forbidden land he had once destroyed in the Primordial Realm; everywhere he saw ant-nest-like, intricate passageways. The difference was that this Fairyland had no distinction between sky and earth—what met the eye were nests formed entirely from layers of rock, soil, and mineral deposits, stretching from "heaven" to "ground" and filling the entire world.
The nest tunnels crisscrossed in all directions. Various grasses and spiritual plants grew right on the rock walls, and the place was packed with innumerable vicious Evil Insects, as well as a great number of Demons in "evil corpse" form darting about among them.
The Evil Insects and Demons inside the Fairyland, seeing intruders break in, all unleashed their methods, charging up without fear of death—only to be massacred by Shen Mo and the other powerhouses!
Once the Demons near the entrance were cleared, everyone followed Jade Spring Fairy’s instructions: they moved in groups of three to five, each team accompanied by one Formless Realm powerhouse, and then each chose a nest passage to delve into, trying to wipe out all the Evil Insects and Demons spread throughout the nest.
Qin Zhen and Daoxuan had already spoken with Shen Mo beforehand and now closely followed behind his escaping light.
As the three went deeper, the number of insect-type Demons and Thousands Insects Evil Corpses they encountered continually increased, and their strength grew ever more formidable. The forbidden land of the Thousands Insects Evil Corpse that had descended into the Primordial Realm back then had at most a little over two hundred evil corpses; yet in this Insect Nest Cave, the number of evil corpses was enormous—on their path alone, more than five hundred had already died under Shen Mo’s hand!
"Swish, swish, swish!"
Shen Mo raised the Soul Refining Flag and gave it a fierce shake.
In an instant, blood light blazed forth, the Blood River surged...
Tens of thousands of ferocious Demon Soul Generals roared as they struggled out of the Blood River, sweeping out curtains of heaven-shrouding demonic miasma and Evil light in all directions.
With so many Evil Insects and Demons in the Insect Nest Cave, Shen Mo was not alarmed but delighted, intending to use them as blood food to greatly boost the strength of the Demon Soul Generals within the flag. As for the remaining over a million ordinary Soul Generals, which had no potential to advance, he did not waste Mana to condense them!
Over a hundred thousand Demon Soul Generals were divided by Shen Mo into ten squads; each squad had several Class V Demon Soul Generals, and was led by one of ten top Demon Soul Generals—Fairy Pei Yu, the Ghost Bride, Master Hong Jue, Serpent-Eel Heavenly Demon, Thousand-eyed Demon, Banzhi Jiaming, and the others—who rampaged freely, slaughtering and devouring the Thousands Insects Evil Corpses and other insect-type Demons!
"With so many Demons serving as blood food, the Demon Soul Generals’ strength can be greatly improved. It might even be possible to give birth to several Class VI Demon Soul Generals." Shen Mo pondered silently.
Class VI Demon Soul Generals were comparable to Formless Realm powerhouses, and the difficulty of cultivating them had exceeded his expectations. The remaining demons and monsters in the Corpse Mountain Range had nearly all been devoured, yet not a single Demon Soul General had advanced to Class VI; even the strongest Demon Soul Generals such as Fairy Pei Yu were stuck at the Class V peak.
But in this Insect Nest Cave, although the number of great demons was not large, the insect-type Demons below Class V were innumerable. Nurturing several Class VI Demon Soul Generals here should not be difficult!