Chapter 473: Mountains Fall Like Punishment, Obtaining the Iron Fragment Once More

Southwest of the Hulan Grasslands.

Du En was currently a thousand miles away from that eight-legged Great Demon; he watched the terrifying monster from afar, watched the clearly visible remains of the blood feast, and in the end, only silently turned his head to look further northwest, toward that stretch of dry, yellow-sand Gobi.

His divine sense enveloped eight thousand miles, able to cover that forbidden land of living beings, knowing that the so-called yellow sand was merely bone powder, and the so-called Gobi was piled up from the remains of living creatures...

"That really is one damned demon."

He only evaluated it as such, his voice very calm.

It was at this moment, not caring whether the other two had arrived or not, that he spoke directly like this.

Consequently, that eight-legged horse demon seemed to hear it, suddenly opening its house-sized crimson pupils, which were filled with a cruel and sadistic look.

"Jiuyun, Xuanxu, Gengluo, you have all come."

It did not seem surprised by this, only silently standing up.

Its demonic power surged and rushed into the sky, boomingly bringing forth wild winds and evil clouds, forming a blood-smeared, ferocious demonic domain that violently expanded in all directions.

Such might, such terror, such horror!

"Mid-stage of the Fifth Rank?!"

"You actually broke through?!"

At this moment, the old monster Xuanxu in the north, and the ancestor Gengluo who was already nearing the front, felt this might and had only looks of horror; they hurriedly stopped their flight, and already realized that their strategy of dispersed encirclement was truly the worst of all strategies!

Because now, only by joining forces and facing it head-on together might there be a chance to contend, but they were already scattered and could not converge for a while, and that Great Demon would not let them converge; wouldn't they be easily crushed?! Retreat was not an option, so the key lay in who this Great Demon would strike at first...

"Jiuyun, I didn't expect you fellow to actually have such a kind heart, hahaha!"

As if finding this situation very ridiculous, the Great Demon Bajiao laughed wildly, its entire horse face suddenly bulging outward as all the cysts on its body converged there, subsequently exploding violently amidst the laughter.

Blood fell like rain, white bones stood out, and a long neck connected by flesh and blood suddenly protruded from within, ending in a skull-like horse head with a human face, bathing in its own demonic blood, its smile very frantic.

Then, carrying a terrifying power, it prepared to cross the thousand miles and directly devour Du En's side.

Since you still have a bit of kindness that hasn't rotted, I imagine that if I eat you, the taste will be the best of the three pieces of rotten meat!

"Hehe!"

"Haha!"

Facing that strange, frantic demonic power and demonic laughter, Du En only responded calmly.

He circulated his magic power, wind was born from thin air, blowing through the demonic domain.

Then, it broke open from the firmament.

A terrifying pressure fell with a boom.

Boom! The Great Demon's legs folded and snapped, its long neck embedded into the ground, and as it twitched and jumped, it struggled to turn its eyes to glance, only to see that its demonic domain had already been torn apart, and another pitch-black, heavy object was descending from the sky.

"That is?!"

"That is?!"

"Mountains?"

High mountains and great peaks grew out of thin air in the firmament, bringing terrifying heavy pressure, obscuring the sun and sky, becoming the sole ruler under the heavens, and then, carrying the immense weight of billions upon billions of jun, they sank and fell downward, or rather, were launched!

"No, no, don't!!!"

Life had already declared its countdown; the Great Demon Bajiao screamed and yelled, attempting to burst forth and break free, but it simply could not do so.

Facing these mountains falling from the sky, it was like a mortal, no, like a mole cricket or ant, simply without the slightest power to resist.

So the ending was fated.

"No!!!"

The mountains fell, the demon was pulverized, and it died.

It even changed the terrain, pushing the broken limbs and fragments, submerging that yellow-sand Gobi and burying it all together.

The wind rolled and clouds surged, the impact like a wave.

Wave after wave, like chaotic currents, even great cultivators were helpless, swaying like tiny duckweeds within it, able only to do their best to urge their magic power to protect themselves.

By the time they regained their senses, panting for breath, more than half of their magic power had already been exhausted! Shock and terror filled their hearts, fear welled up naturally, and the scene of the falling mountains just now replayed in their minds, truly like divine punishment descending to destroy a monster, making them tremble incessantly, as if for a moment they had returned to certain dangerous scenes from when they were weak in the past.

It took a long, long time for the two of them to steady their minds, and amidst their rapid breathing, they looked up and saw each other's disheveled and dusty faces.

Without knowing when, they had been swept together by the aftermath.

For a moment they were both stunned, then they revealed bitter smiles in unison, and then, appearing inexplicably fearful and still shaken, they turned their heads together to look at the place where the mountains had fallen.

It was gone!

It was empty!

Everything was as if it were their illusion; even the Hulan Grasslands were as intact as before, as if no such mountain-falling punishment had truly occurred just now, and everything was merely their delusion and hallucination.

If not for that pile of Great Demon meat paste, which was quietly lying flat on the grass, coexisting with it in an unusually harmonious way, it was truly as if this ecology of grass growing over meat had been this way from the start.

Pale-faced and horrified! At this very moment, two great cultivators who had been famous for many years, ancestors and old monsters, only felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, for a moment as timid as children, because they truly could not understand this grotesque scene before them.

The Great Demon Bajiao's evil technique breakthrough and flesh-and-blood mutation were already quite unusual, but compared to this harmonious and natural scene before them, it was still a case of the lesser meeting the greater.

Du En was quite satisfied with his own actions.

After all, he had seen plenty of pigs run, and creating such grotesque scenes was quite easy.

The purpose was naturally to scare these two great cultivators and see how they would perform in such an abnormal situation.

So it was time for his own entrance.

Du En appeared a few steps slower, flying over on his artifact.

"You two, are you alright?"

Suddenly hearing the voice from this side, the two old fellows were immediately given a great fright, nearly lunging forward on the spot; fortunately, being great cultivators after all, they narrowly reacted while raising their hands and hunching their bodies, and with their emotions not yet recovered, they turned their heads to glare over.

Although Du En's clothes were also somewhat disheveled, he was generally unaffected; he landed in front of them, causing their pupils to shrink instinctively, and they hurriedly stood side by side.

"I was just a bit luckier; just now, seeing that monster attack, I subconsciously retreated on my artifact, and as a result, I stumbled into it and instead avoided that mountain fall, uh..."

He spoke this clumsy excuse somewhat perfunctorily, then feigned being stunned upon seeing the scene of meat spread across the grass, leaving the two great cultivators to ponder and imagine for themselves.

The two of them also gradually regained their senses.

The first person they suspected, naturally, was the fellow before their eyes.

But a moment later, they dismissed their initial suspicion. How could it be Jiu Yun? If he truly had such ability, he would have unified the Xuwei, no, unified the Qingxuan long ago!

The two exchanged glances, unable to help but think this.

Yet, they could not help but harbor some doubts in their hearts, unable to be completely at ease.

But regardless, they were currently injured, while Du En was unscathed; no matter how they looked at it, they were at a disadvantage, so it was naturally impossible to voice these doubts.

They could only force themselves to appear calm, lest the other side see their weakness and take advantage of their condition to strike.

Ancestor Geng Luo squeezed out an ugly smile and replied, "The situation is just as you see it. That old demon Ba Jiao died so bizarrely, it truly makes one's heart run cold!"

"Cough, come to think of it, the miserable state of this fellow's death is actually what he deserved; heaven truly has eyes!"

As Old Monster Xuan Xu said this, he carefully peeked at Du En, but ended up seeing nothing.

He simply followed their cautious tone and continued: "Could it be that because he practiced evil arts and committed too many sins, he brought upon himself that mountain-crushing destruction?"

Recalling Ba Jiao's performance earlier, the two subconsciously nodded.

To be honest, the terrifying might from just a moment ago really made them think of the Heavenly Punishment and Heavenly Tribulations mentioned in fragments within ancient texts.

Du En then asked, "Fellow Daoist Geng Luo mentioned earlier that this monster might be using the slaughter and consumption of living beings to attempt a breakthrough and extend its life, and it did indeed make some progress. It seems you had long since sensed the clues?"

At this point, he paused as if dissatisfied, causing Old Monster Xuan Xu to begin to catch on, subconsciously knitting his brows.

Then, Du En spoke again with pointed intent: "Speaking of which, I recently heard some hearsay that there seems to be some treasure born within your sect?"

"Old ghost, you?!"

Old Monster Xuan Xu immediately pulled back a few steps, but glancing at Du En, he walked back two steps; however, his face remained filled with distrust toward Ancestor Geng Luo.

Because now that he thought about it, if not for that mountain falling from the sky to crush the old demon, the three of them would now be facing a fifth-stage mid-level Transformation Deity great demon.

And one that practiced evil arts, having made itself weird and terrifying; its combat power clearly could not be measured by common sense! Under normal circumstances, the three of them would have died without a burial place, becoming the first blood meal for the other after its breakthrough!

And Ancestor Geng Luo likely knew all of this, yet mentioned nothing, and even formulated a strategy to split up! Thinking deeply about all this, it was terrifying; how could Old Monster Xuan Xu not be shocked and angry? Ancestor Geng Luo, having a guilty conscience, subconsciously let his gaze flicker, which only confirmed the situation.

However, he chose to remain silent, seemingly not intending to reveal what he knew, and was still holding on, looking at Old Monster Xuan Xu with a faint threat.

*If you cooperate with Jiu Yun to attack me here, you had better think it through! * That was roughly the meaning.

At this moment, the two of them had depleted magic power and were clearly no match for Du En; they both believed that only by joining forces could they barely maintain a balance.

So, although Old Monster Xuan Xu's expression was ugly, things had reached this point, and it was clearly not the time to settle accounts with Ancestor Geng Luo; therefore, his eyes flickered, and he still wanted to speak up to help.

Watching the performance of these two fellows, Du En was not surprised, but simply continued with his next step.

He walked toward the minced meat of the great demon that was spread out like fertilizer.

Living by devouring, in the end, one feeds life with oneself.

Deep in the quiet grassland, it seemed to manifest this principle of the cycle of heaven.

The two great cultivators were immediately startled twice.

The first start was because Du En made a move, and at first, they thought he was going to use force.

The second start was naturally because he walked toward the spread-out minced meat; to be honest, they didn't want to turn around and look directly at it at all, because as long as they saw that grotesque yet natural scene, their hearts would be in turmoil, constantly recalling the scenes from before.

Unknowingly, the figure of the great demon Ba Jiao had been replaced by their own figures.

The reason was simple: they were not actually good people. Although they were not like the three great demons who would eat all the living beings in a place to extinction, over the many years, they had also viewed the common people of Xuwei as their own chickens, dogs, cattle, and horses—completely their own property—and had committed many wanton acts of violence.

With such a guilty conscience, they naturally dared not look back.

But now that Du En had taken the initiative to run over there, they dared not turn their backs on this visible threat of the same rank, so they could only bite the bullet, lower their heads, and follow by turning around.

They only dared to use their peripheral vision and divine sense to secretly peek, not daring to look directly at such a bloody scene.

Then, they saw Du En walk up to the minced meat grassland without any psychological burden and lift his hand from afar to make a grabbing motion.

*Puff! * Something flew out from a pile of minced meat.

A pink membrane of flesh and blood covered it, with some vitality still remaining, twitching and pulsing slightly, obscuring the specific shape of the object inside.

Ancestor Geng Luo watched, thought of something, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

Du En turned around and walked back quickly.

The two hurriedly turned back and looked up, staring directly at the thing in his hand.

"The other parts of the great demon Ba Jiao have no recovery value; only this thing seems strange. I see that nine times out of ten, it should be that treasure, or something directly related to it."

Old Monster Xuan Xu nodded subconsciously upon hearing this.

Because just as Du En said, the whole area over there had turned into mince, and only this thing remained intact, clearly indicating that there was a problem inside and it was the key to everything.

It could also be seen from Ancestor Geng Luo's ugly expression that it was nine times out of ten the case.

And so.

*Rip! *

Du En tore open the flesh membrane directly, revealing the true appearance of the object inside.

Naturally, there was some resistance along the way; if it were the two great cultivators before him, they wouldn't be able to tear an opening even with a hundred years of effort, but before him, it was naturally as fragile as white paper.

Then the three looked at the object inside—a black, irregular piece of iron—and their expressions and gazes were different.

Du En's was "as expected."

Old Monster Xuan Xu's was a frown, lost in thought.

And Ancestor Geng Luo's was regret and remorse, looking very ugly.

"Fellow Daoist Geng Luo, what now? Should you explain it properly?"

Du En took out the iron piece he had previously obtained from the great demon Blue Leech; once the two pieces appeared, they immediately resonated faintly, and looking closely, one could see that the gaps clearly matched; it was evident that they were originally part of the same object.

*Clang, clang~*

He knocked the two iron pieces against each other, making this sound, and the meaning was clear.

Now the two key fragments of that treasure are both in my hands; if you don't explain things, don't think about getting them! "Old ghost, you had better speak!"

Old Monster Xuanxu spoke up to help in this way, but judging from the uncertainty in his eyes, he must have had some sort of conjecture.

What could it be?

The matter involves two of the three great demons, so one can now boldly speculate that the third one should also be implicated; thus, it must be something the three great demons once did together that gave Old Monster Xuanxu this association! (End of chapter)