Chapter 920

Monster Soul Mountain, Azure Wave Abyss.

This is Lao Geda's usual place of secluded cultivation.

Blue-green mountains lovely, jade waters rippling; on all sides the mountains are clear and the waters lovely, the scenery graceful and natural, utterly devoid of demonic aura, instead faintly bearing a trace of the legendary air of an otherworldly immortal's abode.

Legend says that Monster Soul Mountain is the holy land where the monster race's sage ancestor bestowed his bloodline and created the myriad monster race.

Azure Wave Abyss was once the place where the monster race's sage ancestor washed his feet, and later Lao Geda opened it up as his own cave dwelling.

A hundred li wide and seven or eight hundred li long, beside the deep green waters of the Azure Wave Abyss, Lao Geda, having compressed his form to only a few zhang in size, lay upon a huge rock.

Sunlight fell on Lao Geda's back, and the thumb-sized, multicolored flesh lumps on his back reflected a piercing demonic light.

On a nearby huge rock, Lao Juzi, whose body had likewise been compressed to only about three zhang in length, writhed with demonic energy coiling around him; he waved his countless sharp wrist‑feet, emitting a faint tearing‑of‑the‑air sound.

Beside Lao Juzi on the same rock, Lao Langtou likewise returned to his true form, spreading his belly and quietly basking in the sun.

Old Langtou is a white‑headed honey badger, famed for his hard head and ruthless, death‑defying nature; among the four great old monsters of the monster realm, he is the one Lao Geda fears most. Indeed, Old Langtou is innately unafraid of any poison, and in battle he prefers to go straight for the kill, making him truly formidable.

Countless extremely fine silver tentacles were spread across the fourth huge rock, while the main bodies of these silver tentacles drifted in the Azure Wave Abyss.

It is an extraordinarily beautiful jellyfish‑like creature, its exterior a silver‑blue hue and its interior a vivid red.

His body spans a hundred zhang in diameter—this is already the result of his utmost effort to compress his volume; if he fully extended his form, even Lao Juzi, who that day threatened Wu Tie with a body length of a thousand li, would be dwarfed by him.

At a size of a hundred zhang, the jellyfish's body is mist‑like and dream‑like, drifting; from it hang countless extremely fine silver tentacles that almost completely fill the Azure Wave Abyss, only a few tips breaking the surface to wrap that huge rock in an airtight embrace.

This is Lao Wangzi, the one who acts the least and is the most mysterious among the four great old monsters of the Western Monster Realm.

"Not finished yet?" Lao Wangzi said just then, his voice measured and syllable‑by‑syllable, light and elusive; even though his true form was right before one's eyes, his voice gave the impression of coming from somewhere unknown.

"Almost done, almost done." Lao Geda grunted impatiently: "Those human artifact crafters dare not slack off; if they don't give their all, I'll see to it they die… Humph, I've poured all the dozen‑odd spatial‑attribute ancient treasures I've gathered over the years into this…"

Lao Geda shot out his long tongue; with a slap, a five‑colored parrot flying from ten thousand zhang away was coiled up by his tongue and swallowed in one gulp.

With a smack of his lips, he spat out a few parrot feathers, Lao Geda stared wide‑eyed at Lao Wangzi: "Do you understand artifact crafting? We take those dozen‑odd spatial‑attribute ancient treasures, fuse them into one, refine them into a complete space, and then combine that with our myriad‑monster bone ship to forge a treasure…"

The flesh lumps on his back twitched, and Lao Geda said in a low voice: "It's very difficult, but it's not as simple as our killing people."

The three great old monsters snorted coldly in unison: "We don't understand; do you?"

Lao Geda grew a little angry from embarrassment: "I certainly don't understand either… I can't even grasp the most basic runes of artifact crafting… This isn't my fault; the sage ancestor never gave us this talent."

He slapped the rock with a claw, sending sparks flying from the oily, gleaming stone; Lao Langtou rolled over, lay belly‑down on the rock, and said in a deep voice: "Actually, according to my thinking, why run? Just put your back into it and get it done!"

"One word: do it!" Lao Langtou shouted hoarsely: "Just kill them all and it's done—why bother to run?"

Lao Langtou's eyes suddenly turned blood‑red, his pupils flashing with hysterical madness: "The information and restrictions left by the sage ancestor in our bloodline are meant for us to continually harvest Sui Chao on this land."

"If we just leave like this… what if the bloodline's restriction backfires? We may seem to have broken it, but have we really?" Lao Langtou's tiny white teeth clicked 'ga‑bang' as he said: "Maybe we could win; why not give it a try?"

Lao Juzi flicked his tail and sent Lao Langtou flying from the rock into the Azure Wave Abyss.

Waving the countless tiny, razor‑sharp wrist‑feet on both sides of his body, Lao Juzi said coldly: "All you know is to fight, fight, fight… but you've got to be able to win. That kid actually managed to subdue both Sha Jun and Ci Huang—this could be deadly!"

Lao Wangzi drawled: "Isn't that right? Back then, Sha Jun alone thrashed the four of us; although only Lao Mallet was really fighting that time, the three of us were merely probing his strengths and weaknesses, yet he was truly hard to deal with."

"Sha Jun and Ci Huang together can at least restrain three of us four brothers." Lao Wangzi drawled: "Let's not talk about suppression; at least they can hold back three of us… then, can that remaining one withstand the twenty‑odd demon, ghost, and monster lords who have thrown in their lot with the Wu Wang prince?"

Lao Langtou climbed out of the water, silently circled behind the rock where Lao Juzi was, spread his claws, and viciously dug at Lao Juzi's rear.

Lao Juzi let out a strange cry, turned into a streak of light and shot up into the sky; Lao Langtou, eyes blazing red, pursued him relentlessly, shouting: "I'll kill you, you son of a bitch… you dared throw me into the water—I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!"

Lao Geda roared: "This is a time to risk our lives, and you're still horsing around—don't you want to live?"

Lao Geda snapped: "Lao Wangzi, wrap Lao Mallet up so he can't cause trouble… Damn it, are you trying to doom our brothers? Even aside from us four, there are so many monster youngsters."

Lao Geda bellowed: "The Ghost Realm has been purged clean, the Strange Realm slaughtered to nothing, and the Demon Realm is there, undermining its foundations while preparing a frenzied sacrifice…"

Lao Wangzi shot out countless tentacles like lightning, seized Lao Mallet in one grasp, and dragged him down into the Azure Wave Abyss.

Lao Langtou hoarsely shouted: "Exactly! And the Demon Realm is preparing to fight to the death; I admire their all‑or‑nothing spirit… I've always felt I shouldn't be a monster at heart—I'm a pure demon!"

"Let go of me, let go of me, I want to go to the Demon Kingdom to fight…… What if, what if that old bone staff and old blood vat win?" Lao Langtou strained desperately, silver tentacles kept being broken off, but endless silver tentacles kept emerging, constantly wrapping around him.

"We can hope they win, but what if they lose?" Lao Gedang's body shuddered, shifting into the humanoid form he usually uses to meet people, he plopped down on a boulder and let out a heavy, worried sigh: "If they lose, then……"

At that moment, wave after wave of terrifying venerable-level magical power surged from the far east.

One, ten, thirty……

One hundred, two hundred, three hundred……

Three hundred twenty-eight streams of incomparably powerful venerable-level magical power came from the east, and Lao Gedang leapt to his feet, looking toward the east in utter terror.

That spot was exactly the direction of the fortress line they had managed to erect over these days, having urged the demon offspring and the captured human craftsmen to work desperately.

"This is……" Lao Gedang stared blankly, then let out a wild howl, transforming into a gust of wind that rushed into Demon Soul Mountain.

Inside Demon Soul Mountain, along a passageway leading straight down tens of thousands of li into the earth, in an extremely vast underground space, hundreds of human artifact smiths captured by the Demon Kingdom were jointly forging a huge oddly shaped bone vessel.

This bone vessel stretches nearly two thousand li in length, three hundred li in width, and over two hundred li in height from bottom to top, made entirely without any wood or metal, forged solely from enormous hollow white bones.

These giant white bones, which routinely reach tens of thousands of zhang in length, emanate a fierce and ruthless demonic aura throughout their bodies, with clear grand dao patterns etched on them. Because of these grand dao patterns, these bones are far sturdier and more flexible than any magical weapons such as the Nine‑Refined Immortal Arms.

On some of the bones, the grand dao patterns are as dense as a spider's web, emitting an aura far stronger than that of peak demon emperors like Mo Yun Jiu Wang.

These are the remains of half‑step venerable‑level giant demons that have fallen in mutual slaughter over countless years in the Western Demon Kingdom; Lao Gedang and his three companions have gathered countless such demon bones, now dug them all out and pieced together the materials for forging this unbelievably huge bone vessel.

"Still not finished?" Lao Gedang burst into this vast underground space, roaring angrily: "Still not finished?"

A master‑level human artifact smith shuddered, carefully stopping the three‑colored spirit flame spraying from his hand, flipped over and knelt on the ground, kowtowing to Lao Gedang: "Ancestor, it's not that we lack diligence; it's just that this ship…… is too huge, these demon emperor bones are extremely hard to forge, especially since we have to ensure the harmonious fusion of the ship's grand formation and those dozen or so spatial ancient treasures……"

Cold sweat kept pouring down the forehead of this human artifact smith.

He said in a deep voice: "Not a single mistake can be allowed; if any error occurs, then the space inside the hull faces the risk of collapse……"

Lao Gedang stared grimly at these artifact smiths; after a long while, he finally exhaled and said in a deathly tone: "I, old man, will buy you one month. If after one month you cannot successfully forge this ten‑thousand‑demon‑bone vessel, then you might as well be dead."

He cracked a cruel grin, and Lao Gedang said leisurely: "By then, you'll be buried as companions for my Demon Kingdom's countless little brats, which would also be excellent."

With a flick of his sleeve, Lao Gedang turned into a gust of wind that shot up into the sky, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

In the vast underground space, hundreds of human artifact smiths and countless assisting human craftsmen each had faces ashen as death, unable to utter a word for a long time.

Even if the entire might of the Sui Chao dynasty were devoted to it, such a colossal vessel could not be completed in a short time; yet how many master artifact smiths and skilled craftsmen does the Sui Chao dynasty actually have?

Here, there are only a handful of paltry human laborers captured from the Demon Kingdom.

One month's time?

Heh. An old, frail weaponsmith threw his tool onto the ground, lay down comfortably, and let out a heavy sigh.

Alright, elders, uh... kids. There's still one month; if you want to eat, eat; if you want to drink, drink; after one month, we'll all set off together in a lively manner. This old weaponsmith laughed and said: "Forging... can't be done anymore... we might as well wait for death."

Another old weaponsmith also threw his tool onto the ground and sat down comfortably.

Hard to say, looking at these few old demons' appearance, heh, they've run into their nemesis... perhaps we still have a chance? This old weaponsmith gazed at the stone dome above his head and muttered: "If it's the Sui Chao army coming to attack..."

All around was silent as the grave; countless weaponsmiths and artisans silently murmured in their hearts, if the Sui Chao army really were to attack... could it be?

Before the hastily built fortress line of the western demon kingdom, Moyun Jiuwang and the host of demon emperors, leading countless demon kings, giant demons, and great demons, knelt and surrendered one after another. Wu Tie decisively had Zhu Ganglie and the other five great demon lords screen them.

Those ferocious, violent demons whose hands were stained with too many human lives were all beheaded and displayed publicly by Wu Jin and the others.

Those demons with a gentler nature, willing to coexist peacefully with humanity, and who had previously traded at the Sui Zhou exchange, were instead, with a sweep of Wu Tie's hand, all placed under restraint by his Wu tribe brothers Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong.

Most of the demon emperors, demon kings, giant demons, and great demons became the Wu tribe's Wu contract war beasts; from then on, not only these powerful great demons, but also their descendants, generation after generation, were bound together by the Wu tribe's curse contract.

From then on, we all prosper together, share life and death!

The demon tribe's greatest strength lies in the unmatched reproductive power of certain special demons.

From now on, every member of the Wu tribe, even newborn infants, can have a powerful demon beast by their side; Wu tribe babies with sufficient talent can even contract several powerful demon beasts.

In this way, the Wu tribe's foundation has grown by more than tenfold!

Elder Wu Yu and the other Wu tribe elders, faces glowing red, watched with delight as Wu Jin and the other Wu tribe youths performed their work.

One after another, the mighty demon emperors, demon kings, giant demons, and great demons were all subdued, and together with their peoples, they were bound by contract through secret arts by the Wu tribe youths.

A flood of towering divine soldiers surged into the fortress, seizing control of every strategic point.

Countless great and minor demons knelt in throngs on the ground, each filled with dread, awaiting the assessment, identification, and disposition by Wu Tie's army.

After a long while, four masses of demon clouds came rolling from the western sky.

Upon the demon clouds, tens of thousands of demon emperors and hundreds of thousands of demon-king-level giant demons roared in unison, each unleashing earth-shaking bellows that trembled the very void.

Old Geda even brought out his own deadly toxic Dao seal, shouting 'gwa gwa' in furious rage.

You lot, do not bully humans too much……

Wu Tie laughed and cut off Old Geda's words: "You're not human—what does it matter if I bully you? Old Geda, your evil has reached its peak; retribution has arrived."

Old Geda let out an angry roar, then a jet of dark-green demonic energy tore through the void, the deadly toxic Dao seal howling as it shot straight toward Wu Tie's head. The seal was still thousands of li away, but within a radius of a thousand li, all vegetation withered.