Chapter 426: Buddhism Flourishes, Demon Also Flourishes; True Demon Emerges from Seclusion

At the very moment Tang Seng was ordained and shaved at the Golden Mountain Temple’s Mahavira Hall.

On the western continent of Niuhe, beneath Lingshan, within a hidden fold of empty space.

In the dim fragments of the demonic realm, black demonic energy raged unchecked.

At the center of the demonic pool, Qiao Ling, clad in white robes, sat cross-legged in midair.

A phantom of the twelve-petaled World-Ending Black Lotus enveloped him.

The twelve petals, inscribed with primordial Daoist runes, slowly opened and closed, swallowing and refining torrents of liquid demonic energy.

This supreme primordial magic treasure had once accompanied the Demon Ancestor Luo Hou in his wars across the primordial chaos; deep within its origin, slumbered Luo Hou’s lingering will of destruction.

This will was ferocious and uncontrollable, saturated with the murderous aura of slaughtering all life, relentlessly assaulting Qiao Ling’s spiritual sense, attempting to seize control and turn him into a mindless puppet driven solely by slaughter.

Qiao Ling’s expression remained calm; his hands formed seals, and the True Demon mark on his third eye erupted in brilliant dark light.

“Great Freedom, shatter illusion,” Qiao Ling’s voice, cold and clear, echoed above the demonic pool.

Great Freedom demonic energy coalesced into a sharp blade of will, slicing into the Black Lotus’s origin.

Luo Hou’s destructive will let out a silent roar, launching a furious counterattack.

Two utterly distinct demonic forces clashed fiercely within the Black Lotus.

Luo Hou cultivated slaughter, seeking to destroy all things, using killing to prove the Dao.

Qiao Ling cultivated Great Freedom, seeking to shatter all constraints, placing himself above all, unbound by any rule.

Great Freedom demonic energy embraced all phenomena, gradually dissolving and forcibly devouring the destructive will.

Over these years, Qiao Ling had continuously refined his Great Freedom Dao by drawing insights from the process of subduing primordial seals.

The twelve-petaled World-Ending Black Lotus contained forty-five primordial seals.

Qiao Ling had already successfully subdued thirty-four of them.

Today was the critical moment to subdue the thirty-fifth primordial seal—when the lingering will of Luo Hou within the Black Lotus’s origin suddenly emerged.

Though it caught Qiao Ling off guard, it did not greatly affect him.

Now that Luo Hou’s lingering destructive will had been purged, Qiao Ling seized the opportunity to fully subdue the thirty-fifth primordial seal.

“Break.”

Qiao Ling muttered, shifting his hand seals.

His understanding of Great Freedom Dao continuously refined the thirty-fifth seal.

Finally, the twelve-petaled World-Ending Black Lotus emitted a tremor that shook the soul.

The thirty-fifth seal was finally subdued.

The thirty-five seals linked together, fully opening the origin’s core to Qiao Ling.

In the demonic pool, endless liquid demonic energy was drawn forth, forming a colossal black column that poured into Qiao Ling’s body.

Qiao Ling activated his cultivation method, guiding the demonic energy to scour his limbs and meridians.

His magic power surged upward, and the five energies long condensed in his chest advanced further.

The five elemental forces—wood, fire, earth, metal, water—circulated endlessly within his heart, reaching perfect harmony.

Simultaneously, above Qiao Ling’s head, the empty space twisted, and three phantom black lotuses bloomed in silence.

Qiao Ling’s aura shattered through the peak of Jin Xian’s barrier, stabilizing firmly in the early stage of Taiyi Jin Xian.

A violent pressure surged outward, repelling all dense demonic energy around him, carving out a hundred-zhang-wide vacuum.

Qiao Ling opened his eyes; a flash of black light vanished from his pupils.

He sensed the surging power within, his expression composed.

“Thirty-five seals—this is the limit my current realm can subdue.”

Qiao Ling silently calculated; he had no intention of forcing further subjugation.

Greed leads to indigestion; forcing the remaining seals would only invite backlash from the magic treasure.

Qiao Ling decisively halted the subjugation, ending this long period of seclusion.

He exhaled deeply and rose to his feet.

Only then did he divert his attention to survey his surroundings.

He realized he was within a formation, its aura pulsing with primordial magic power.

“Master’s work,” Qiao Ling felt warmth in his heart.

He knew Su Chen must have left ahead of time, deliberately setting up this protective formation to ensure his seclusion remained undisturbed.

Qiao Ling raised his right hand, palm upward.

“Retreat.”

The twelve-petaled World-Ending Black Lotus hovering above rapidly shrank, becoming the size of a palm, settling into his palm.

Primordial Daoist runes flowed across its surface, radiating a terrifying aura of annihilation.

He then activated the Black Lotus’s origin; a terrifying suction erupted.

Below, the thousand-zhang-wide demonic pool, which had accumulated countless eons of energy, drained visibly.

Within mere breaths, the entire pool’s liquid demonic energy was devoured by the Black Lotus; even the black mud at the bottom was stripped of its demonic essence, turning into ordinary gray soil.

Deprived of the pool’s support, the already shattered demonic realm fragment began to violently tremble.

The black clouds above shattered; the earth cracked into abysses; the spatial barrier split with massive fissures.

Howling winds surged, and chaotic spatial currents poured through the cracks, tearing apart everything in this small world.

This small world was about to collapse entirely.

Seeing this, Qiao Ling’s mind stirred; the Black Lotus became a dark streak, sinking into his third eye, leaving behind a faint black lotus mark on his forehead.

Qiao Ling stood in the empty space, calm and unhurried.

He focused his mind; Great Freedom demonic energy retracted inward, the black lotus mark vanished beneath his skin, and the demonic aura swirling around him fully withdrew.

Without demonic aura clinging to him, Qiao Ling once again became the refined, immaculate white-robed scholar.

No one could possibly link this scholar to the ultimate True Demon.

Qiao Ling smiled, raised his hand, and formed a finger-sword.

Using the Black Lotus’s power, he lightly slashed at the collapsing spatial barrier ahead.

A gap, a zhang wide, tore open in the empty space.

Qiao Ling stepped forward, his form dissolving into the empty space, silently escaping the Lingshan territory.

The next instant, he appeared above a desolate wasteland in the western continent of Niuhe.

A gentle breeze stirred; his white robes fluttered.

Qiao Ling glanced back at Lingshan, radiant with golden light.

Lingshan remained majestic, its Buddhist chants lingering in the air.

The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas had no idea that, right beneath their noses, the True Demon they had pursued for so long had secluded himself for decades, subduing a supreme demonic treasure.

Qiao Ling stood atop the clouds, gazing eastward.

Deep within his soul, he sensed the Buddhist fortune rising in the southern continent.

“Is this the opportunity Master spoke of—the great flourishing of the Buddhist sect?”

Qiao Ling murmured softly.

With his current Taiyi Jin Xian early-stage cultivation base and the protection of the twelve-petaled World-Ending Black Lotus, he could even defend himself against a Da Luo Jin Xian.

The Three Realms were now open to him.

Qiao Ling decided not to return to Huaguo Mountain; instead, he would travel through the Three Realms.

He had once ordered Fen Chen and others to spread the Great Freedom Dao—how had things progressed now?

Qiao Ling’s form flickered, becoming a streak of light, vanishing into the distance.

Shortly after Qiao Ling departed, within the Great Thunder Sound Temple on Lingshan.

The World-Honored Maitreya Buddha, seated upon the nine-petaled lotus throne, suddenly furrowed his brow.

He opened his eyes, his gaze piercing the empty space, gazing toward the deep mountains beneath Lingshan.

Just now, he had sensed an extremely faint tremor in Lingshan’s earth veins.

That tremor was no ordinary earthquake—it was a residual ripple from a spatial collapse.

“Prajnaparamita,” the World-Honored spoke.

Prajnaparamita, standing nearby, stepped forward, palms together: “What is the World-Honored’s command?”

“There appears to be spatial disturbance among the mountains beneath Lingshan. Go and investigate.”

“By your decree,” Prajnaparamita bowed and withdrew from the hall.

Half an hour later, Prajnaparamita returned to the hall.

“World-Honored, this disciple is dull-witted and detected no anomaly,” Prajnaparamita reported.

Maitreya Buddha nodded slightly, did not press further, and gestured for Prajnaparamita to withdraw.

He had no idea that a hidden demonic realm fragment beneath Lingshan had already been utterly annihilated by spatial chaos.