Chapter 460: Advancing Near the Bottom, Afterimages in the Secret Chamber

Because the human body had already been altered from its source, even preventing the return of the head would be of no use, so Du En did not act; and because the strength of these fellows was actually still very weak, neither of the two took action.

The foundation was truly too poor, and the methods were not as capable as those of a True Monarch.

Those human bodies were merely some Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators, and the demon beasts were mostly Tier 3, with Tier 4 being rare, so...

"Dispose of them."

Du En spoke to the guards who had come back to their senses.

If they were to strike, they could wipe them out in an instant.

If that were to happen, they might not be able to observe any details.

Moreover, since this group of guards had already come, they couldn't just start acting like a tour group from this point on, could they?

After all, it didn't matter if they died; they were going to be finished off sooner or later. Naturally, one had to make use of waste, which could be considered letting them exert their remaining heat and give back to the local community.

On the contrary, regarding the fear of alerting the enemy and scaring them away, although Du En had corresponding considerations, it was not placed in the most important position.

In short, the two of them chose to remain still for the time being.

As for those humanoid demons, they simply acted as if they could not see Du En.

This person is too terrifying!

Although they were all in a state of boundless cruelty and extreme madness, the slight normal instincts remaining in their bodies made them immediately choose to pick on the soft persimmons first; only after the soft persimmons were crushed would they possibly be driven by madness to attack Du En.

The guard leader came back to his senses, still feeling lingering fear, his face pale, but facing the humanoid demons that were already roaring as they charged over, he had no time to ponder anything and hurriedly shouted for the others to reform their ranks, each casting spells to meet them.

In an instant, various spell lights and spiritual glows erupted here; the two sides, unable to keep any distance, collided and killed each other just like that, engaging in close-quarters combat.

"Kill!"

"Bastards, die!"

"Give me your lives!!!"

Shouts of shock, anger, and killing filled the air; blood flowed all over the ground, only to be immediately evaporated by various lights and heat.

In the blink of an eye, corpses began to fall with a thud; on those wide-eyed faces, some wore wild, evil madness, while others appeared incredulous.

The former had nothing to say, just a frantic freezing and dimming, while the latter, with the remaining light of their vision, struggled to cast their gaze toward the abrupt blank space amidst the intense slaughter, carrying a look of disbelief that was either bright or dim, as if questioning why the person over there did not strike.

It was that the guards had already suffered casualties!

The blessing of the Sun's power was clearly not as convenient as before; it was just very ordinary and common in restraining yin-evil and madness. Facing these demons, although it had some slight use, it was not enough to let them continue to be invincible and slaughter at will.

Therefore, in this slaughter within the cave, it was destined that some would die.

Regarding this, Du En had long anticipated it and appeared indifferent.

A pair of pupils flowed brilliantly, like the great sun in the high sky, silently watching the distant ground, revealing a lofty, sacred quality, while also carrying a detachment from the human world.

"Uh, you're really not going to strike, just watching them die?"

Sheng Zhaoshui stood on the side, hands tucked in, calm and composed, his gaze also sizing up and observing the surroundings, but a glimmer of his peripheral vision cast over with a strange look, as if he felt Du En's behavior was very odd.

"Why should I strike? It was originally just making use of waste; you didn't think they could survive in the end, did you?"

"This... although I didn't think so, but how should I put it? It's just, it's still quite awkward?"

"In your eyes, what kind of image do I have?"

Du En asked this question without turning his head; it seemed as if he couldn't help himself, but his actual tone was calm, his movements unchanged, and there were no emotional fluctuations.

Basically, it was just the probing instructed by the True Monarch's side or something; he didn't feel it was strange.

To his counter-question, Sheng Zhaoshui rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, and replied: "Although you appear different from Uncle-Master Chang Meng, you aren't much better. Simply put, there's a kind of unrealistic, uh, naivety?"

"Unrealistic, huh... Back when there were no immortals in the world, immortals were also unrealistic to people."

"Mm, you saying that, although it's correct, but, isn't it a bit too arrogant? Could it be that you just feel you can definitely do it..."

"So that's how it is; looking at it this way, you won't become any obstacle or burden."

Only then did Du En turn his head slightly; although the gaze he cast was still calm, at this moment, as Sheng Zhaoshui felt and pondered it, he actually tasted a hint of insignificance, and his mood suddenly became somewhat subtle, as if he had developed a sense of unwillingness.

He then sighed and replied: "Are you trying to say I lack great ambition? But the problem is, the reason the world is in its current state right now is precisely because there are too many people with great ambitions."

As he spoke, beneath that devil-may-care surface, there seemed to be a kind of well-considered decadence, as well as a faint, lingering, and unexpressed melancholy.

Pausing slightly, Du En did not argue with him pointlessly anymore, but bluntly shifted the topic to the matter at hand: "It seems now that this kind of mine tunnel has been specially reinforced and can accommodate and bear battles of the general Deity Transformation stage."

"Uh..."

Sheng Zhaoshui didn't quite react, but Du En continued to speak.

"According to the observation just now, the human bodies used by these demons should be people who went missing in the last year, but the two people we are looking for are not among them. Of course, this doesn't mean we can breathe a sigh of relief, because there seem to be more of these things further inside, it's just that there seems to be only that one evil corpse, which seems a bit wrong."

"That is indeed true; that evil corpse seemed a bit abrupt, placed at the entrance here as if telling us, you haven't found the wrong place, this is the key."

"The demons are in a quite pure situation; in the process of being killed and killing, their performance is within the normal range, looking as if some demonic path evil cultivator just intended to combine cultivators and demon beasts to create this situation."

"In that case, could it be that the other party accidentally obtained that evil corpse from somewhere while collecting sacrifices, which is why they didn't know the specific inside story, and that's why there is this abrupt and strange situation?"

Du En was about to answer when he looked toward the other side, the mine tunnel leading deeper inside.

The sound of spiritual stone pillars breaking was coming over lightly, very faint, but heard here, it was the same as one breaking right in front of him, followed by new roars starting to come through.

The humanoid demons' reinforcements had arrived! Was it a prior arrangement, or was the mastermind right here? His divine sense did not discover anything, so let's just enclose this area first! Limited by the boundary of his divine sense, Du En's endless mana surged, and the Wood Domain, which was already spreading normally, suddenly exploded in growth, in the blink of an eye forming an internally segmented concentric spherical domain that circled a diameter of eight thousand miles, covering everything from top to bottom, divided into nine layers as a whole.

Those thick, overlapping green woods and lush grasses became an extension of his hands, feet, and ears; he didn't expect to really be able to stop the enemies, just wanted to capture the traces of the enemies. The guards, who were originally feeling fear and unease due to the arrival of the humanoid demon reinforcements and whose battle lines were beginning to collapse, were greatly encouraged by this.

It wasn't that they discovered the coverage of the Wood Domain, but that Du En's mana was deliberately surged and drifted out a sliver; in their senses, it was like dark clouds pressing down on the city, covering the sky and earth, making them tremble in their hearts, but immediately followed by awe and worship.

Worship of power, the law of the jungle, the strong are supreme—it is only natural.

Although the demons appeared abnormal and not natural, they still had remaining normality, so upon sensing that terrifying mana, they all subconsciously stopped in terror, and for the moment, they had not recovered, appearing silent and hushed.

"Long live the Exalted One!"

The guard leader's mind swayed, but he also knew how to seize the opportunity; he shouted loudly, took the lead in charging, and immediately, like cutting melons and vegetables, hacked the demons standing in place into pieces.

He controlled a long golden sword, held a short golden halberd, and wore a suit of golden armor on his body; from head to toe, everything was gold, truly like a divine soldier descending from heaven. With his Nascent Soul perfection cultivation fully exerting its power, even though the demons began to recover, there was not a single enemy that could withstand a single blow! When Zhu Qing, who had lagged behind for quite a while, plucked up the courage and walked in cautiously, he happened to see the back of the person displaying great power here, and immediately could not help but feel inexplicable awe; then, seeing the demon corpses and remains on the ground, as well as the demons themselves surging from the opposite side, he could not help but have his tiger-like body shake.

Not to mention those various hideous and fierce heads, below the necks, they were all proper human bodies!

Men, women, old, young, everything was there; from some details, such as the grime in the fingernails, the calluses on the palms, the scorched skin, etc., he could not help but realize one thing in a suffocating manner.

The bodies of these people were all loose cultivators just like him, bottom-tier loose cultivators!

How could this be?!

Then what about his younger sister?! Once he thought of the worst-case scenario and looked back at the guards who had become fierce as wolves and tigers again, his mood changed instantly; he desperately wanted to rush up and stop them from eliminating these demons.

After all, his younger sister might be in there... was she really still there?

Scanning the surrounding field of severed limbs and remains, it was impossible to identify their previous appearances; looking again at the behavior of those crazed, bloodthirsty demons, Zhu Qing's face turned deathly pale and he was in extreme agony, because he could see no hope at all...

"They've finally managed to push the front line forward, let's go."

Du En's calm voice rang out, and at the same time, he raised a hand and pointed; True Flame reduced the remains to ashes, also burning away the fragments of the spirit stone pillars and the various setups in the pits, leaving behind only flickering red lamps to replace the fallen light source.

"My Lord, my younger sister..."

"She went missing recently, and I haven't seen a figure resembling her."

"Really?"

Du En did not answer, because there was no need to.

In any case, he hadn't lied, so he just turned his head and started walking normally.

Zhu Qing saw only a kind of real weight in that, heavy and substantial, pressing his drifting heart back to the bottom of the cabin.

He nodded heavily and followed closely behind once more.

"Roar!"

The shrill beast roar made him hurry to stick close to him.

Raising his eyes to look, he only saw that in the replacement of light, those humanoid demons appeared even more hideous; at this moment, they were clearly filled with madness, their instinctive fear was gradually decreasing, and in their disregard for death, the guards' advance became sluggish again, with Nascent Soul stage mighty figures falling on the spot from time to time.

Zhu Qing could not have imagined such a scene before.

The Nascent Soul stage!

That was the Nascent Soul stage! A Nascent Soul mighty figure who was above ten thousand people and below one in Nine Clouds City! However, Du En watched this scene without a ripple of thought, merely waving his hand, and invisible Flower-Piercing Seeds were already scattered, landing on those humanoid demons, immediately beginning to drain their demonic power, growing and infiltrating.

Even as their instincts gradually faded and their behavior became ever more crazed, they quickly became powerless.

The guard leader, who had also begun to be obstructed, saw this and could not help but heave a sigh of relief, hurriedly speaking: "The Venerable has already made a move, hurry! We cannot continue to be useless and incompetent!"

"Yes!"

The remaining guards lifted their spirits, took pills to exert their power, and accelerated their pace of advance once again.

Next, even though the humanoid demons that emerged became increasingly powerful in overall strength, their demonic aura surging like a river, they were still unable to delay the guards' footsteps; they killed, burned, and cremated their way through, destroying the filthy and vicious things hidden here once and for all.

"We are almost at the bottom, is there really no Spirit Transformation stage?"

Sheng Zhaoshui spoke up.

Although his divine sense had been proven to have shortcomings, he could still accurately observe the depth of the mine pits and tunnels, but now that they were about to reach the bottom, he still hadn't seen any Spirit Transformation stage enemies appear.

Was the level of the person plotting here really just this? If that were truly the case, it would really be lacking something, unlike that last time in the Source Life Star Realm, where one could bump into a bunch of fifth-order Spirit Transformation enemies so easily...

Du En thought this, and began to answer: "My Wood Domain has not detected anything attempting to break through; either the enemy's methods are truly too superb, or the opponent is not here or is still cowering inside. Looking at it now, the first point is unlikely, eh?"

As he was speaking, he suddenly made a discovery, and his footsteps quickened all at once.

Sheng Zhaoshui raised an eyebrow and followed silently.

Zhu Qing naturally followed closely as well, but his mood was clearly much lighter, because looking past the figure of that one person before his eyes toward the deeper parts, although the guards were covered in wounds and less than half remained, the humanoid demons they were facing now had shrunk to single digits, and each one was covered in small flowers.

The battle situation was clear!

They were about to win!

Looking again at Du En, who was calm and composed and had caused this with a slight exertion of his methods, he saw him walk to a certain stone wall in the mine tunnel, reach out and push, and a strange, dim yellow light barrier appeared, shattered with a 'pop', and then the ordinary stone wall was directly turned into powder.

That was actually a secret door! Zhu Qing was greatly astonished, thought of something, and subconsciously took two quick steps, glancing over with a cautious, humble, yet extremely expectant look.

It was not large inside, empty and vacant, with no figures and no terrifying scenes.

He let out a sigh of relief and then cautiously glanced at Du En, only to see him watching with great absorption, so he could not help but feel anxious again.

Du En did not care about the mood changes of the tag-along behind him, because at this very moment, in this small secret room behind the secret door, the two of them saw that kind of residual image of the past again! It was not a segment of domestic past left behind at Zhu Qing's home; what would be left behind in a hellhole like this was naturally the record of the perpetrator, the mastermind behind the scenes.

(End of this chapter)