Chapter 365: The Great Demon Greedy Beast

Thump!

Faced with the reprimand and coercion, Lou Miyue appeared caught off guard; she knelt down on the spot, revealing a look of profound terror.

"High Envoy, forgive me!"

"Forgive you for what?"

"... Forgive the Sect Leader. If you must take a life to suppress your anger, then please, take mine! The Sect Leader was only acting for the sake of the big picture!"

At this moment, Lou Miyue begged for forgiveness and death, appearing as one willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good.

Because Du En's words were inconsistent, leaving her unsure of the situation, she had to use this tactic of retreating to advance...

"Very well! Then I shall kill you first!"

Du En naturally did not stand on ceremony and immediately moved to kill her.

You're actually serious!?

Lou Miyue was stunned; she did not truly want to die, so she stopped hesitating, chose to erupt with power, and launched a sneak attack from close range.

Then, the palm Du En pressed down directly halted her.

That hand was like a falling firmament, making her vision go black; she was completely unable to block it and realized in truth that the gap between Nascent Soul and Spirit Severing was truly like heaven and earth! Watching that firmament-hand slowly yet rapidly pressing down to kill her on the spot, she naturally dared not hold anything back, and her entire body's magic power erupted.

Externally stained with evil, internally centered on herself, it suddenly transformed; her magic power turned demonic, blood-red like mist, savage and brutal, and her physique underwent a distinct change: her skin became mottled dark-red beast hide, her claws and teeth sharpened, and her pupils turned vertical.

Truly a fine beauty-demon; Du En had not noticed before that the foundation of the techniques she cultivated was actually this kind of human-demon fusion.

Thus, she immediately felt the suppression vanish, a bloodthirsty look appeared in her eyes, and she violently surged forward again, charging straight at... the small stone statue behind Du En! Just kidding, even with this move hidden, she couldn't hope to succeed against a Spirit Severing stage Great Cultivator by crossing a major realm.

Therefore, her actual target was the small stone statue that Du En had been invisibly protecting along the way.

She smelled it; there was the scent of an infant inside, it was that Immaculate Infant who had been abducted!

As long as she held him hostage, she could naturally use him to threaten Du En!

She had long since formulated this plan; her intentional ignoring of the small stone statue along the way was for this sudden, abrupt moment, to catch Du En off guard! Then, she was tightly bound by vegetation covered in a pale, lime-gray color.

Those plants and trees mimicked the hands of the Spirit Mother, soft, long, and fast-growing, like a trap that had existed all along, directly controlling the half-human, half-demon Lou Miyue who had stepped into it, gently yet inescapably.

Clearly, Du En had been prepared.

After all, the woman's intentional ignoring to that extent was simply like saying "there is no silver buried here."

Furthermore, he was not the type of third-rate arrogant person; since he was going to act, he naturally did so with one move after another—how could he possibly give her a chance to succeed in a surprise attack? If it were a Great Cultivator of the same level launching a sneak attack, there might be some possibility, but for someone like Lou Miyue at the Nascent Soul Perfection stage, it was absolutely impossible!

"My Lord, spare me!"

Although Lou Miyue was incredibly shocked, she quickly changed her attitude, immediately becoming pitiful again, and urgently begged for mercy.

"Are you playing dumb, or are you truly stupid? I didn't kill you immediately, which clearly shows I don't want to kill you yet; why do you still need to say such nonsense?"

Du En's words were blunt and direct, and the meaning was also obvious.

Since your life is being spared for now, you must quickly get to the point and state all your intentions and the like! "I'll speak! I'll speak!"

Lou Miyue acted as if she had just thought of it, and like someone grabbing a life-saving straw, she began to spill everything: "When I was young, I lived a life of being prejudiced against by others, and then, I witnessed that sister who was always favored being taken away by a beam of light."

"Later, I questioned the Sect Leader, and he said it was a gift from the gods, but why? Why was it always her, always her? I was jealous, I was hateful, so I have always harbored treasonous thoughts against the gods and the Spirit Mother!"

"Therefore, I have been acting in secret, gathering a faction in the shadows, and finally, outside this Abyss, I secretly established this camp, wanting to seize the power of the demonic beasts not under the Spirit Mother's control for my own use, then escape this cage, kill that bitch, and take revenge on those unjust gods!"

"But in the end, I underestimated the greed of the human heart; the faction gathered together, and eventually, a twisted demonic beast was born. I could only find a way to keep it covered up, thinking it would only burst when it could no longer be contained, but your sudden appearance made me think of going with the flow, so I took the initiative to uncover it, leading to these actions."

She hurriedly stated the cause and effect; although crude and general, it was sincere and heartfelt.

Especially regarding her sister, Lou Shuyue, her hatred and jealousy were real; when mentioning her, the demonic power in her body was especially violent, scurrying inside her, like anger and hatred turned into insects, crazily clamoring and crawling under her skin and flesh.

Unfortunately, she is already dead; your hatred is just a tree without roots.

Thinking this, Du En asked again: "Then where exactly do the techniques of Buddha, Demon, and Demon of this realm come from?"

"Buddha? From the Buddha Lands? I don't know, I don't know about that." Lou Miyue, who had been immersed in her emotions, recovered slightly and spoke hurriedly, "As for my Demon-Merging and Demon-Devouring techniques, on one hand, they were obtained from the Blood Demon Sacred Sect and other secret methods of the blood lineage; on the other hand, they were obtained from a scripture in a hidden technique cave beneath the Dark Abyss."

"Oh? A hidden technique cave?"

"Yes! Yes! Over there, it is said to record past events, but things like sunlight, sky, high mountains, green forests, oceans, and so on are truly nonsense; there is nothing useful at all."

In order to save her own life, she truly said everything, but gradually, she seemed to feel something was wrong, so at the very end, she said this.

At the same time, in her eyes, there were inevitably some expressions of expectation and yearning.

No, not expectation and yearning, but greed and possessiveness! "Hahaha! So that's it! So that's it!"

She suddenly laughed, her smile appearing bitter, yet the greed in her eyes grew increasingly intense.

"You didn't refute my claim of being a 'half-step Spirit Severing' earlier because you had already sensed it!"

"You could say that, or rather, the fact that you would mention such a term was already a reminder to me."

Half-step Spirit Severing?

Such an in-between realm never existed! There is only Nascent Soul Perfection and the Spirit Severing Great Cultivator.

Other than that, there are only rare isolated cases like Lou Miyue.

Every breakthrough is normal; one should have been able to achieve the Primordial Spirit and realize Spirit Severing, but instead, they fell before the Spirit Severing Barrier, and because of their techniques, they did not directly return to heaven and earth as a whole, but instead merged into the power they were supposed to occupy and seize.

Thus, the incomplete residue of the Primordial Spirit became the final puzzle piece, pushing its birth! "I was actually already dead; it turns out that without knowing it, I had already become a part of that Great Demon Greedy Beast!"

Her recklessness, her loss of composure, all her discordant actions were because of this! Greed was intense, and humanity had vanished.

Fallen into a beast, only residue remained! "I must say, you, who are left with only the outer skin of residue, being able to have so many thoughts is what makes you special."

"... Thank you."

In the end, hearing such a fair and calm evaluation, Lou Miyue could not help but be slightly stunned, then softly uttered two words. Then, she completely dissipated.

Replacing her was the Great Demon Greedy Beast that had merged the gathered faction into one, failed to cross the Spirit Severing Barrier due to greed, and was ultimately swallowed and combined—it had taken shape!

"Hhh..."

A suppressed, hissing sound in the throat.

Drip~

The saliva constantly secreted and flowing from the corners of her mouth was no longer concealed.

At some unknown moment, it had already broken free from the tangled vegetation, standing its ten-foot-tall, humanoid-like body before Du En, extending a hand covered in pink skin that resembled the withered bark of an old tree, and pressing the sharp claw-tip of its index finger to a spot only half an inch from his forehead.

It had finally lured its prey into its lair; compared to that foul-smelling fellow dressed like a ball, this one was infinitely more delicious, and compared to the cave demon beasts and soldier sacrifices it had grown tired of eating, it was likewise infinitely more delicious.

The Great Demon Greed Beast looked at Du En, its eyes filled only with greed, wanting nothing more than to devour this chosen, most beautiful prey! Du En looked at the Great Demon Greed Beast, his eyes filled only with calm, thinking only of how to eradicate this greed-turned-demon!

The battle between the two sides was ready to erupt at any moment! Boom! The next instant, it exploded.

Because this place, the Greed Beast's lair, was actually quite special, constructed and paved by Lou Mi yue using fifth-tier Essence Steel, a material of incomparable hardness capable of easily penetrating the power of the Spirit Mother.

Although the technique used was highly sophisticated and invisible, making it difficult to detect, the permeation of the Essence Steel had actually formed a special spiritual energy environment.

That was why Du En had sensed something was wrong when he crossed the abyss earlier, and why he did not use his massive Dharma Image, which was unsuited for the narrow terrain here, nor did he attempt to go to the back of the surface layer, as that too was restricted by the influence.

In the blink of an eye, he had already donned his armor.

The Great Spirit Dharma Image, this Daoist technique, was manifested in the form of Profound Armor! The spell he had converted to did not completely replace the original spell, but rather absorbed its essence and core, incorporating such foundations to continue climbing and expanding upward.

In other words, as long as Du En wished, he could still use his previous spells, or rather, manifest them in their previous forms!

Thus, at this moment, he was clad in Profound Armor, having attained the full essence of the Profound Armor Giant Image, and even expanding and deepening it further; with the armor on his body, he attained total physical integration, and combined with the reinforcement, his strength was four times greater, far surpassing the two-fold coverage of its original perfected state.

Added to his own foundation, Du En's physical strength was now five-fold, and even if his Inexhaustible Azure Spirit Body were not superior in this regard, it had been bolstered and increased enough to dominate his peers!

Yet that Greed Beast was even more formidable and terrifying; Lou Miyue had not known how many demon beasts she had used for experiments back then, nor how many so-called confederates she had bewitched and utilized as fodder, so the creature that was ultimately fused and created could, in terms of raw physical strength, even battle a Great Flood Dragon of the same rank!

Boom! Upon the first clash, Du En retreated rapidly, his armor cracked and his body injured, but he took the opportunity to send the small stone statue out of the area.

The Greed Beast also let out a pained hiss and likewise retreated, but it forcibly stopped itself, lunging out violently to intercept the small stone statue.

Greed Beast, Greed Beast—Du En wanted to eat it, and it wanted to eat the Innocent Infant; they were all mine! "Where do you think you're going?"

Du En opened his hand and reached out, gathering light into a halberd and sweeping it across, directly forcing the Greed Beast to stop in its tracks, leaving it to watch helplessly as the small stone statue flew out of the tunnel and landed on a floating rock he had long since chosen.

"Roar!"

The Greed Beast was furious; it landed on both feet and stomped hard, causing the ground paved with fifth-tier Essence Steel to crack, and it exploded toward Du En once more.

At this moment, his armor had recovered, thanks to the Inexhaustible Azure Spirit, and his physical injuries were healed, thanks to the endless vitality.

In one hand he held the Halberd of Ceased War, and with the other, he gathered light to change his tactics.

White Ridge Seal! This Metal-elemental great seal was worthy of its name of Metal-elemental slaughter; the moment it appeared, waves of Geng Metal Qi erupted with a boom, like a rain of blades falling from the sky, directly submerging the Greed Beast.

The sound of squelching was incessant, and flowers of blood bloomed without pause.

"Roar!"

The Greed Beast let out a fierce roar, actually opening its bloody maw to reveal three rows of teeth, and then violently bit into the Geng Metal Qi, forcibly chewing and swallowing this killing energy.

As it consumed the Geng Metal Qi, its body twisted and writhed, and a layer of hard shell covered it; in an instant, the squelching sounds rapidly transformed into the clanging sounds of metal colliding.

Through eating, it had evolved!

This was its innate demon art, Devour!

By eating all sorts of things, it gained physical adaptive evolution! Truly a terrifying Great Demon; at present, there was no telling where the limits of this demon art lay, and Du En could only choose to disperse the White Ridge Seal.

"Chi-chi-chi~"

Seeing this, the Greed Beast revealed a mocking smile, as if ridiculing the prey's meaningless struggle, and a long tongue extended from its mouth; it was tube-shaped, and rows of barbed fangs sprang up, appearing extremely ghastly.

Pfft! With a strange sound of piercing the air, the tip of the tongue had already lunged to before Du En's eyes, fast to an absurd degree, like spatial teleportation.

Then, it missed.

The moment he sensed its Devour demon art, Du En had used great magic power to create a phantom of himself on the spot, which was why he had only retracted the White Ridge Seal after it had finished changing.

At this very moment, the Greed Beast was stunned, and before it could react, a long halberd had already ruthlessly chiseled into the back of its head; with a squelch, it gouged out a deep, bloody wound! "Roar!"

Stung by the pain, it was instantly enraged and turned to tear the Du En who had ambushed it to shreds on the spot.

Then, half of its body was suddenly covered in Ice Soul Frost, and its movements were forcibly halted.

Du En pulled up the Halberd of Ceased War and chiseled down ruthlessly once more!

"Chi~"

A sneer rang out; a giant maw suddenly grew from the back of the Greed Beast's head, like a shark in the sea pouncing on prey, and it sprang from its body, biting toward the Halberd of Ceased War, intending to eat it.

Not only that, but beneath the frozen parts, one pink mouth after another, large and small, also emerged, rapidly gnawing at the Ice Soul Frost, and in the blink of an eye, it had eaten enough to complete yet another evolutionary reinforcement.

Boom! The Ice Soul Art could no longer freeze it!

At the same time, it was about to eat the Halberd of Ceased War that could injure it...

A boom sounded, but what it bit into was not the Halberd of Ceased War, but a solid Meteor Hammer.

Majestic Mountain Meteor Hammer! It suddenly grew larger at this moment, giving it no time to react, and with a tearing sound, it directly shattered that shark-like maw that had sprung out!

(End of chapter)