Chapter 854

Blood Prison Mountain – place.

This high peak is surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs; from bottom to top it is at least a million li high. On the cliff face, countless stone beams of varying thickness and length protrude, upon which countless large and small bird nests have been built.

The higher the nest is from the ground, the stronger its owner's strength.

At a distance of six to seven hundred thousand li above the ground, even the residual demonic aura in these nests has reached the level of the Divine realm; one can imagine how powerful the true forms of these nest owners must be.

Heaven-Reaching Cliff, Cloud-Rubbing Mountain, Shi Wushuang, Mo Yun Shi Wang. Also maybe father not a name.

The summit of Heaven-Reaching Cliff is completely flat, devoid of any vegetation, with only metal poles of varying thickness planted in the ground.

great demon, huge demon; metal pillars; chains; lightning strikes and rain; demon fire forging.

On the summit, one can at any time hear the mournful, bloodcurdling howls of these great and massive demons.

If someone cannot endure the punishment and is directly refined to death here, the demon soldiers of Heaven-Reaching Cliff will come, dismember and slice them, turning them into feed for the young birds raised on Heaven-Reaching Cliff.

Such conduct appears extremely cruel to humans, but within the demon clan it is utterly normal.

Looking up, the sky directly above the flat summit of Heaven-Reaching Cliff, which is about the same size as the flat ground on the summit, is especially clear and bright compared to other places.

If it is daytime, standing on the summit of Heaven-Reaching Cliff and looking out, the sun appears several times larger than in other places of the Western Demon Kingdom, and the sunlight that falls is a hundred times more scorching and rich.

If it is night, standing on the summit of Heaven-Reaching Cliff, one can see the stars shining brightly across the sky, forming a splendid Milky Way spanning the heavens. The rich, water-like essence of the cool stellar energy pours down incessantly, nourishing the countless ferocious birds on Heaven-Reaching Cliff, making their feathers lush and continually strengthening their bloodline power.

Western Demon Kingdom – place.

Demon Sovereigns, Holy Ancestor, Flame Dynasty, persecution.

palace complex.

This is the usual dwelling of Moyun Jiuwang.

The Moyun Jiuwang clan's bloodline is thin; now the entire clan consists only of Moyun Jiuwang and Jiu Wushuang. Moyun Jiuwang himself is solitary in character, and his daily life is lived alone.

servants, maids; Eunuch; Western Front of Flame Dynasty.

In the western corner of the palace complex, in a solitary hall that keeps a distance of a hundred zhang from the other palaces, the bald-headed, large hooked-nosed Moyun Jiuwang, whose aura is cold and grim, squats on the ground, his sharp claws carefully tracing on a large stone slab.

On the stone slab, which is several zhang in length and width, there are lines, characters, various symbols of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as some strange runes.

Beside Moyun Jiuwang, a large number of books are scattered haphazardly.

These books vary in material: there are paper books, beast-skin scrolls, bamboo and wooden slips, jade and stone scrolls, and even many golden books and purple scrolls that flash with spirited rosy light.

Daoist School, Buddhist Sect, White Lotus Palace, other unnamed minor sects, medical astrology and feng shui, divination and alchemy, moving mountains and digging graves, harvesting yin to supplement yang.

River Chart and Luo Book.

"Unreasonable—could it be that I am really this stupid?"

"Unreasonable… could it be that I truly cannot advance any further?"

Demon Emperor level.

Demon Sovereign realm.

"Hateful, vexing, wicked…"

Moyun Jiuwang gritted his teeth, a flash of extremely gloomy yet utterly helpless light flickered in his triangular eyes.

"One million thirty thousand years—I have lived for a full one million thirty thousand years…"

"From birth to one hundred twenty thousand years old, I lived wantonly and recklessly, truly wasting my youth."

"But from one hundred twenty thousand years ago to now, a full nine hundred ten thousand years, a full nine hundred ten thousand years, the Divine Emperors of the Suichao dynasty have changed through several dozen generations; I only seek a breakthrough, I only seek a breakthrough!"

Accompanied by the gee-gee sound of bones cracking, his hands gradually turned into a pair of large, iron-boned, protruding vulture claws. Strands of demonic aura and rosy clouds coiled around the sharp claws; Moyun Jiuwang lightly and repeatedly clenched his claws, the tips striking together, sending up countless sparks and emitting a dull, thunderous sound.

"Demonic Emperor's bloodline, heh… heh."

Blood Prison.

Pei Feng, World-Extinguishing Demon Phoenix, Killing Blood Peacock, World-Extinguishing Demon Phoenix.

"If only she falls into my hands, perhaps I can extract her bloodline and let me possess the Demonic Sovereign's bloodline."

blood-colored beast hide.

Bloodline Succession Secret Technique.

Wushuang.

"First let him and that little girl give my clan a few offspring; then I will personally move to imprison her, extract her bloodline, and transform myself… tsk… thus the bloodline will branch out, giving me also a chance to advance further."

"Why hasn't Wushuang this child been captured yet?"

"If placed in my Western Demon Kingdom, Wushuang's lineage may not be top-tier, but aside from those few great Demonic Sovereigns and Demonic Emperors, I, Moyun Jiuwang, am absolutely not weak… moreover, Wushuang is born so handsome and outstanding; among the avian tribe, he is absolutely a top-tier handsome man."

"Look at his triangular eyes, large hooked nose, and that big bald head in his true form—how extraordinarily handsome… Is Péifèng blind? She doesn't take a liking to our Wushuang child."

Shaking his head, he tossed aside the blood-red beast hide; Moyun Jiuwang extended his claw and continued to etch on the stone slab.

"Hard, hard, hard… What are these human cultivation classics—sensing the Heavenly Dao, getting close to nature, cultivating the mind, noble righteousness—what nonsense are they?"

"What is comprehending the Dao? For us demons, as long as we eat our fill, drink our fill, and sleep soundly, when our age comes, our strength naturally arrives."

"This is also the heavenly-gifted benefit arranged by our Holy Ancestor; as long as the bloodline is high enough, after adulthood our strength naturally falls into place—why would we need to painstakingly cultivate?"

human race; Great Venerable level; carp turning into dragon.

"Why does our demon clan never have such things happen?"

Pig-Headed Great Venerable.

Heaven-Earth Rare Treasure.

Swallowing Heaven Strong Mane Bloodline.

But we need to see if it's a proper name. It's describing a bloodline that the pig-headed great venerable obtained. Likely it's a specific bloodline name. We'll treat as named entity.

"I, Moyun Jiuwang, why do I lack such opportunity, such fortune?"

bronze round mirror.

"The young master led people to besiege Péifèng's lover; who would have thought that Péifèng's lover actually came from the Scarlet Lotus Temple and absolutely possesses the strength at the peak of the Demonic Emperor; the young master was captured alive, forced to be subdued by the Buddhist method of conversion, and now has become his mount, ridden by him to Blood Prison Mountain."

Moyun Jiuwang stared blankly, then let out a sharp, piercing howl that shot straight into the clouds.

Red Lotus Temple secret method.

Heaven-Reaching Cliff, Blood Prison Mountain.

teleportation array, Iron Cliff Mountain.

"Even if that old ancestor is protecting her, this time I, old man, will certainly demand an explanation, seek a justification."

My only son, taken as a mount by someone—this is simply, how could this be?

On the cliffs surrounding Heaven-Reaching Cliff, countless bird nests large and small held myriad demonic birds with wingspans over a hundred zhang, all crying out in unison, flapping their wings and soaring up, circling Heaven-Reaching Cliff as they rose.

Soon, the summit of Heaven-Reaching Cliff was completely covered by countless huge wings, even the sunlight falling from the sky was totally blocked, and Heaven-Reaching Cliff fell into utter darkness.

At the summit of Heaven-Reaching Cliff, a massive teleportation array over twelve li in diameter lit up, piles of elemental crystals were continuously thrown into the array, a tremendous spatial power spread out, gradually forming a fixed light gate hovering above the grand formation.

Beside the teleportation array, several human array mages wrapped in animal skins stood expressionlessly, with dozens of terrifying aura great demonic bird demons standing behind them.

These array mages were all captured by the Soaring Cloud Eagle King from the Blaze Dynasty; they have been trapped here, setting up various arrays for the Soaring Cloud Eagle King, the eldest among them having been imprisoned for over ten thousand years.

Watching the Soaring Cloud Eagle King lead the charge, bringing a huge flock of demonic birds into the teleportation array, an old array mage with white hair muttered softly: "I don't know where disaster will strike again… we're doing evil, oh!"

A great demonic bird demon picked up a wooden stick and smashed it on the old array mage's head with a "Bang!": "Stop your nagging, do your work properly—if there's any problem with the array, your son, grandson, and great‑grandson will all be turned into jerky."

Several array mages lowered their heads, and no one spoke again.

Tens of thousands of li from Blood Prison Mountain lay a large mountain with complex terrain, few trees in its woods, everywhere covered with thatch piles and sweet‑potato fields.

Within the thickets, countless lesser demons in the form of cattle, horses, donkeys, and mules frolicked happily.

But these cattle and horses are not the masters of Iron Wall Mountain; look at the throngs of wild boars of various colors and patterns, diverse species, darting about in the thickets—it's clear this is the domain of pig demons.

Pig demons originally held an extremely low status in the Western Demon Kingdom, lacking intelligence, with weak bloodlines and feeble combat ability; their sole advantage was extraordinary fecundity, so they were always used as reserve rations and cannon‑fodder troops.

But tens of thousands of years ago, a fortunate wild pig demon accidentally swallowed a heavenly‑earthly treasure, forcibly raising its bloodline to demon‑sovereign level, and in just over a thousand years it safely grew into a regional demon sovereign.

Henceforth, the status of the pig‑demon clans in the Western Demon Kingdom rose tremendously.

That demon sovereign further used heaven‑defying means to fuse some strange, exotic high‑grade bloodlines into the pig‑demon populace, causing the appearance of demon‑king and even demon‑emperor‑level bloodlines among them.

The Iron‑Toothed Great King who guards Iron Wall Mountain is a subordinate of the pig‑demon sovereign, the first successful holder of demon‑emperor‑level bloodline, and also the first adopted son taken in by the pig‑demon sovereign; his status in the Western Demon Kingdom, especially among the pig‑demon clans, is extremely exalted.

At the main peak of Iron Wall Mountain, a huge pig's head several zhang in diameter surfaced in a large pool, its four sharp tusks gleaming with metallic cold light, like four swords thrusting from its lips.

The pig's head occasionally opened its mouth; beside the pond stood over a hundred stout, sturdy, round‑cheeked men who gave a simple "hehe" laugh, grabbing basket after basket of fruits and vegetables and continually tossing them into the great pig's mouth.

The pig's head squinted its eyes, contentedly grunting "hnh‑hnh" as it gulped down mouthfuls of freshly picked fruit, so relaxed it almost fell asleep.

Suddenly, on a nearby plain, a beam of light shot up into the sky, a light gate coalesced, and the Soaring Cloud Eagle King, his whole body radiating killing intent that shot to the heavens, stepped out of the gate and soared aloft, furious.

The great pig's head snapped open one eye with a "Pa!" then hastily shut it with another "Pa!"

"That old bird's gone mad—who hit his egg, eh? Never mind, not our concern, keep it high up; the ancients say, to eat is blessing, to sleep is blessing, we must cherish our blessings… well, whatever fighting and killing, where's the fun compared to sleeping and fattening up?"

"Besides, we're no match for him."

"Our ancestors' skills are too trendy; we're just ordinary demon‑emperor bloodline, can't compare to that old bird's peak demon‑emperor bloodline… tsk, we can't beat him, we can't beat him, don't provoke him, don't provoke him…"

"We're just a carefree herd of pigs living peacefully; let those fierce birds and beasts do the fighting and killing."

"Hmm, this melon is great—bring another hundred baskets."

The Soaring Cloud Eagle King didn't even glance at the Iron‑Toothed Great King soaking in the pond; he let out a sharp cry, shot up into the high sky, instantly transformed into an old vulture with a wingspan of nearly ten thousand zhang, and with a single flap of his wings covered tens of thousands of li.

With an earsplitting, piercing shriek that tore the air, the Soaring Cloud Eagle King arrived before Blood Prison Mountain.

"Blood Prison, Péi Fèng, return my son!"