Chapter 474: Spreading and Proliferating, Wandu Mountain Range

Du En's thoughts began to take shape.

Because from the memories of Master Jiuyun, it was clear that the three great demons had not interacted at all over the past thousand years, each occupying their own territory, effectively living out their lives without ever crossing paths.

This clearly did not align with the current situation; either there was also a problem on the side of the old monster Xuanxu—both having problems—or it was...

Hah.

So there really was a problem while you were still alive, Master Jiuyun.

Du En was largely certain of this point.

In other words, they had been played from the very beginning, missing out on this key figure.

No, the fact that they could be played like this indicated that even if they had used other methods, the result would likely have been the same.

Because their party of three—two people and one god—was a lineup that even an ordinary Void Refinement cultivator could not compare to; it was effectively a peak state for the current stage.

If someone could still pull off maneuvers right under their noses even in this state, it could only mean the situation was abnormal, extremely bizarre, and not something that could be avoided by ordinary caution or standard methods.

But now, as the situation developed, it seemed that this bizarreness was slowly weakening?

Thinking of the situation over at Jiuyun City, where An Shen had already discovered clues, Du En could not help but think this.

Then, he shifted his focus back to the present.

"Sigh!"

Old Ancestor Gengluo let out a sigh, appearing unwilling, dejected, and frustrated.

As if knowing it could not be hidden any longer, he finally chose to speak: "You should all remember, right? Just a few hundred years ago, not long after you, Fellow Daoist Jiuyun, reached the Spirit Severing stage, another great cultivator at the Spirit Severing stage appeared in our Xuwei Human Race?"

These were things not present in Master Jiuyun's memories; Du En was completely unaware of this matter, but on the surface, he did not reveal any flaws.

The old monster Xuanxu appeared relieved and nodded, saying: "So it really was him. I still remember to this day how dazzling his demeanor was back then, far exceeding the three of us, and even many great cultivators throughout history! Thus, his successful breakthrough to Spirit Severing incited the panic of those three demonic monsters, who, for the first time ever, chose to join forces to ambush and kill him. It is a pity that we reacted too slowly; by the time we rushed over to provide reinforcements, it was already too late. He had already fallen and died, with only a few remnants left."

This old monster spoke with great regret and sighing, but the situation was clear: for such a rare and exceptional latecomer, these great cultivators would have preferred to gang up and finish the person off together.

Because if there were no accidents, that person would have been a common genius or a strong genius; facing them alone, he would have had an overwhelming advantage, so as long as he existed in the world, he could have taken away their authority and prestige!

Old Ancestor Gengluo nodded shamelessly, echoing the words of the old monster Xuanxu.

At the same time, he felt secretly annoyed at Du En's direct, unblinking gaze, which was urging him to continue speaking fully.

Unfortunately, the situation was stronger than the man, so he could only continue, feeling depressed: "Not long ago, a disciple within my sect accidentally discovered that person's legacy cave dwelling during a treasure hunt. I imagine it was the place where he hid to cultivate in seclusion to avoid prying eyes back then. Then, one of the relics inside mentioned that the reason he was so brilliant and talented back then was because he had obtained a certain opportunity..."

"What was it?!"

The old monster Xuanxu hurriedly pressed, his eyes burning with extreme intensity.

"I don't know."

"How could you not know?! Old ghost, you... tsk!"

The old monster Xuanxu was greatly dissatisfied and was just thinking of forcing him to take out those relics for everyone to appraise and then divide, but in the current situation, they truly could not afford to tear off their masks, so he could only suppress these words in frustration.

"Then how did the eight-legged great demon get involved? Did you obtain clues and go to provoke it yourself?"

"... I did indeed obtain some clues, but they were vague and unclear, and I hadn't even fully figured them out myself. Then, the eight-legged old demon just popped up on its own at that time. Clearly, the emergence of that cave dwelling triggered something on its side. That was what I thought at the time, so I hurriedly ran to contact you, old monster, and Fellow Daoist to take action."

Old Ancestor Gengluo said this, his eyes full of frustration.

Because if he had known that the iron fragment was the key, he would never have backed down back there with Lan Zhi.

Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets now! It did not look like he was lying.

Du En judged it this way.

Just as he wanted to further inquire about those relics, the old monster Xuanxu suddenly thought of another point and said: "By the way, the lair where that Wandu monster is currently entrenched is actually not far from the site of the attack back then. It must have obtained something back then, which is why it chose to move its nest over there!"

The lair of that last great demon, located in the Wandu Mountain Range in the northeast of the continent, had actually only been moved there a few hundred years ago. Originally, it should have been further north and east, completely blocking the continental bridge. Now, as the old monster Xuanxu recalled it, he only felt it was extremely strange; he felt some lingering fear because of the eight-legged matter, yet could not help but feel greed rising.

The situation seemed clear; the three of them exchanged a look, then flew off without hesitation toward the lair of the last great demon.

Because they could not be slow; if that last great demon was also brewing a change, and they were slow, allowing its transformation to complete, the situation would become tricky.

Who knew if there would be another mountain-fall-like punishment?

And Du En's consideration was similar, which was that he could not let the situation deteriorate rapidly and produce any unpredictable changes.

"By the way, what was that person's name again? I can't quite remember."

On the way, Du En suddenly said this.

"Eh? I've forgotten too, strange..."

"Actually, I had forgotten it as well, but judging by the markings on the relics, it should be named Jian Yi."

Jian Yi...

Du En pondered silently, not speaking again.

Whoosh! Whoosh! They flew through the air, the sounds leaking out.

The state of the two great cultivators was indeed very poor; they could not maintain their concealment.

This made them both inevitably anxious and nervous, fearing that they would be discovered by the last great demon later, causing it to choose to flee or take other unfavorable actions.

As a result, even sneaking along while trying to recover a little became impossible; they could only further increase their speed, especially with Du En flying silently in front, appearing to be getting faster and faster.

A brand-new treasure obtained inexplicably, the mountain-fall horror scene that might have something to do with him, and the two key fragments obtained—his impatient performance right now... the more one pondered, the more uneasy one felt. It really felt like he was the one hiding the deepest and plotting the most!

Old Ancestor Gengluo regretted it quite a bit now; he regretted dragging this Jiuyun into the water. But thinking about it carefully, without this side entering the fray, they probably wouldn't even have been able to pass the hurdle of the great demon Eight-Legs, which made him feel a bit fortunate; after all, that monster's spearhead was pointed directly at him, and he couldn't avoid it, nor did he want to.

In short, they could only play it by ear now.

The old monster Xuanxu had similar thoughts about this.

The two guys exchanged a look, appearing as if they had buried the hatchet, silently closing the distance between each other, seemingly brewing some scheme against Du En in the silence.

His eyes moved slightly, as if glancing back at them, but he didn't really care about the thoughts of these two guys, because that was an extremely normal situation.

Therefore, what he was glancing at and watching were other things.

At this very moment, as they rapidly swept across the central part of the Xuwei Continent and continued to speed toward the northeast, unknowingly, under his lead, their altitude was also rising bit by bit.

A thousand zhang, five thousand zhang, ten thousand zhang... breaking through to above the cloud layer, the whistling airflow rushed toward them like bone-scraping steel knives; in the distance was the deep blue, silent starry sky, and looking back, one could glimpse the sunlight and heat from the far horizon.

Something was not quite right.

Du En noticed a slight anomaly in the Astral Realm as a whole.

Everything looked as normal as it had always been, but he sensed a subtle feeling of abnormality... He gazed primarily toward the sun, and light began to bloom silently in his eyes—the same light, but of a different nature; yet, it received not the slightest resonance! Did the problem lie within the sun?

As a humanoid Golden Crow, the fact that he could no longer obtain resonance from the sun meant that the situation had changed! Clearly, changes had actually been brewing for a long time, spreading in higher and deeper realms, and now they had spread to a position where even he could directly perceive them.

Because two fragments had been gathered—no, it was because of this that the two fragments began to show anomalies, causing the Great Demon Eight-Legs to undergo that kind of alienation.

In other words, was the true critical moment when Geng Luo discovered that legacy cave dwelling of Jian Yi and obtained something from it? Or was it when he put back that "Red Star Sweeping the Sky" of Zhu Yi? Du En could not yet fathom the various situations, but it did not have much impact; in any case, he would first go to retrieve the third iron piece, if it existed.

Thinking this, he withdrew his gaze, turned around, and began to dive downward.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Woo, woo, woo! Swish, swish, swish! His speed accelerated violently further, and he no longer concealed the sound of breaking through the air, almost pulling apart the two Great Cultivators behind him, leaving them secretly miserable.

In fact, if it weren't for the need to keep them under his nose for observation and supervision, his speed could have been ten or a hundred times faster, rather than being so sluggish as it was now.

So, would they reveal an anomaly because of this, such as choosing to flee? The answer was no.

Until they reached the destination, the two Great Cultivators still followed panting, looking completely without any anomaly, and looking at Du En, who stood steadily suspended in the air without panting or blushing, they appeared even more vaguely filled with inexplicable awe.

That kind of speed, that kind of composure... If they still hadn't realized by now that this person could not possibly be at the early stage of Deity Transformation, then these pairs of eyes should be thrown away and replaced.

Not to mention how Nine Clouds Venerable broke through without a sound, in short, they had now arrived at the last forbidden zone for living beings on the Xuwei Continent.

Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain Range.

A desolate and deathly silent mountain range of poisonous miasma, where green poisonous smoke spread, making it look like a mountain forest from afar; only when close by could one see the specific situation, and then one could never leave, because this forbidden land was "alive"!

Whoosh! As if some peerless fierce beast were breathing inside, the mountain poisonous miasma, which permeated a radius of three thousand li, moved suddenly, biting toward the three of them like an opening mouth.

Du En did not shirk, raised his hand and pointed, his Dharma treasure flew out, spiritual light erupted, transforming into a variegated flood dragon; it grew upon meeting the wind, turning into more than ten li in length in the blink of an eye, and with a casual swipe, it possessed the power to destroy mountains and shatter forests.

"The two of you, the monster is before us, why not strike quickly?"

He appeared to have energy to spare, and those scattered poisonous miasmas could not even touch his body, yet he still made such a demand of the two Great Cultivators behind him.

They had already consumed quite a bit, and the tight following during the flight just now was an act of squeezing themselves, so their Dharma power was now only thirty percent left; they all wore bitter faces, looking as if they were mourning their parents, but they could only bite the bullet and strike together.

This Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain Barrier could not be underestimated; at the moment, they had no choice but to activate their natal Dharma treasures.

Clang! A golden cymbal emitted a loud ringing sound as it opened and closed, like falling golden weapons in sheets, vibrating and striking toward the poisonous miasma.

Hum! A long ruler flashed with five colors as its luster changed, the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth evolving out, also following closely behind.

The combined offensive of the three was fierce; even though this Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain Barrier appeared vast and deep, it was beaten into a steady retreat and soon became fragmented.

It actually didn't have active control?

Du En sensed that there was a problem; disregarding that it might be a trap, he rushed out violently, his Dharma power acting like an invisible giant hand, directly tearing apart and smashing the remaining stubborn poisonous miasma in front of him, thereby chiseling out a path.

The two Great Cultivators followed closely and soon arrived at the depths of the Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain Range, in a deep valley.

That Great Demon Ten Thousand Poisons resided here.

However, the three did not see its figure in its lair; there was only disgusting green pus splattered and densely covering the area, from which thick demonic power surged.

"The total amount of demonic power contained here is already at a level that even an ordinary mid-stage fifth-rank Great Demon could not squeeze out..."

Clearly, the mutation of that Great Demon Ten Thousand Poisons was more intense and earlier! Du En looked sharply toward the side of Old Monster Xuanxu; this old monster was now as obedient as a grandson, and while he was startled, he was also startled.

The former was because the Great Demon at his own doorstep had actually undergone such a strange mutation without him noticing at all, and the latter was naturally because of Du En's gaze.

His brain could be said to turn extremely fast, and he soon thought of a point, hurriedly saying: "It treats this place as a new lair. To tell you the truth, I was a little concerned at first, after all, this is equivalent to slightly clearing the road of the continental bridge, so I once snuck in to investigate."

"Right over there! At that time, that Ten Thousand Poisons Toad was wandering and lingering between two locations, as if choosing a specific location for its lair. Since we can't find it here, it must be over there!"

Following the direction pointed by Old Monster Xuanxu, one could see a mountain peak behind the valley.

It was not far away, not even a few hundred zhang away, and the mountain peak was not high either, just an ordinary small mountain peak of about a hundred zhang.

Du En nodded slightly, stepped out, and moved over.

The two Great Cultivators could not be as calm as him, cautiously flying over the green pus filling the valley, extremely vigilant, fearing that they would surge and attack.

In fact, they would indeed attack any living being that stepped into this place, poisoning them to death, turning them into pus, and throwing them into it to become a part of it.

So, it was actually Du En who was secretly exerting great Dharma power, suppressing it directly without anyone knowing, which was why it was such a calm and peaceful scene.

The two Great Cultivators did not notice the clues at all, and naturally appeared timid as mice, being exceptionally cautious.

(End of this chapter)