Chapter 1023: Ten Thousand Demons Gather in Longcheng

"Li Zhong, come in!"

Inside the six-story pagoda, a voice suddenly came out.

Cao Xuanwei and Master Tan Wuchen were both shocked, looking at each other, feeling happy in their hearts—that senior had come out of seclusion!

Li Zhong sheathed his saber and turned to walk into the pagoda.

Cao Xuanwei's expression was slightly different; the senior's high regard for Li Zhong was somewhat unexpected. The first person he saw after coming out of seclusion was actually this person!

Inside the Vajra Pagoda, Li Zhong saw at a glance the silhouette sitting opposite the golden body.

Still the tattered bell, the sallow and thin little novice, just with a calm expression, holding a shiny thing in his hand, like a glass crystal fragment.

Li Zhong only took one look, and he felt that the last trace of spirituality in his Four Spirits Divine Body actually felt a kind of horror, like the scales of a great snake sliding in the deep sea.

It was like a terrifying thing between heaven and earth, revealing a trace of its aura.

Qian Chen called him to sit down and patted the military family mysterious armor on his body.

The armor plates cast from ten-thousand-forged heavy mysterious iron made a dull sound. The trace amount of Flame Yang Gold Essence mixed in with the blood qi of the military family cultivator emitted a dense Yang Flame Qi that burned evil spirits, but under this military family blood qi, besides the rolling military malevolent qi, there was not a trace of spiritual rhyme of a cultivator.

"Not bad, flesh like yellow mud, bones like quenched steel. Blood like heavy mercury, soul like a fierce evil!"

"The five internal organs and divine treasures are only pushed by rolling blood qi, like a fire wheel spinning, without a trace of divine light. No matter who comes, they can only see your military family waste body that is destined to be short-lived."

"Sure enough, the four spirits are gradually abandoned, the Dao method is covered in dust, you have cultivated the 'Heavenly Filth Sutra' very well!"

Qian Chen praised sincerely.

Li Zhong also showed a heartfelt smile: "Every day besides leading troops and practicing formations, I am constantly honing this saber with the five qi in my chest and the sharpness in my heart!"

He rarely revealed a trace of pride, and only in front of Qian Chen did he show such a childish attitude.

Qian Chen nodded: "Is the saber dull?"

Li Zhong closed his eyes slightly, sensing the Four Spirits Divine Saber in his heart. The saber intent was added to the Daxia Longque, and the broken saber came out of its sheath by itself.

Li Zhong backhanded and drew the broken saber, wiping his thumb across the blade. A kind of dull pain came.

He lowered his head, only to see his thumb pulled open a not-shallow cut, slightly shaking his head: "Still not dull enough!"

"If you want to use its sharpness, first blunt its edge!"

Qian Chen said calmly: "For these forty years, you have sneaked into the Liuzhen, hidden your name, and honed a peerless sharpness of the Li family into a hundred-battle dull saber! I knew your character. Knowing that you were grinding away the pride you developed in the past, letting the world grind away your sharpness, and casting your own toughness."

"It's like a peerless sharp treasure saber, knowing that it has been abandoned, gradually converging, and actively gathering dust."

"Using the wear and rust of the outside world to exercise your toughness, waiting for a morning of grinding and washing, to reopen the sharpness, deeper than before!"

"If I had not come, and you were able to survive this bloody battle, every brush with life and death would have worn away the dust of these past years, until your blade was exposed, unstoppable, and you achieved a supreme-rank core, astonishing everyone with a single feat!"

"This path is indeed difficult, but the future is not small... but, you still have me!"

"I will use the White Tiger as iron and the Vermilion Bird as fire to recast your blade, and use the Azure Dragon as water and the Black Tortoise as a whetstone to sharpen your edge once more. Thus, a divine blade shall be born in a single day, sweeping aside the Bronze Sparrow spear, breaking the blade's momentum, and closing in on the Crown Prince!"

"So, selected for the vanguard, body and life are shocked."

"These days you are sharp, valued by others, but you have also lost your original state of mind, and you don't know how your path should go next!" Qian Chen sighed: "You can only hone your saber in front of this pagoda, trying to grind away the sharpness before, returning to the 'latent dragon' momentum before."

Li Zhong smiled bitterly: "Brother, I am not you, I can't be sharp all the time, invincible!"

"Military family cultivation, there is no lack of sharp figures... but, I am not that kind of person."

Qian Chen nodded. Li Zhong indeed did not have that kind of sharp edge, he had more of the toughness in his bones, and was not a person who was good at using external momentum to constantly hone his sharpness and cut off everything.

But rather, he converged his sharpness more, turning it into his own internal character.

Li Zhong looked at Qian Chen admiringly, saying: "Brother, the Reverse-Cultivated Four Spirits Saber Technique and "Heavenly Filth Sutra" you created for me, didn't you see through my character? Abandoning the spiritual brightness, falling the divine light, harmonizing with the light, and being the same as the dust."

"These days I constantly hone my saber, grinding away all the sharpness, spirituality, and power you gave me, the Four Spirits Divine Body is completely abandoned, no longer having the intense feeling of rolling divine power added by slight movement, but I am becoming more and more at ease!"

"The root bone is abandoned, the internal toughness is there, I still prefer this feeling of getting stronger bit by bit."

Qian Chen felt some emotion, sighing slightly.

This younger brother of his was a typical mortal-flow character. Although he didn't lack the ruthlessness to fight for cultivation resources, he lacked the spirituality of taking a sword to walk on the edge, always wanting to internalize external power into his own internal power, and then rely on his internal things to deal with external changes.

"The demonic nature is shallow!"

If Qian Chen himself were standing in this position, these past few days, he would absolutely not have been honing a divine blade, restraining its edge, and solidifying his foundation bit by bit.

Qian Chen knew that Li Zhong definitely didn't do nothing these days.

He had completed the grinding with his hundred Xuanfeng Camp brothers, the military formation was strict, and he had gained a considerable degree of recognition.

He ground away a part of the Li family background and sharpness, gaining the recognition of the Liuzhen military family children.

He integrated into the Liuzhen, integrated into the Northern Wei, and even integrated into Cao Xuanwei's command, and was a recognized "own person."

But if it were Qian Chen in that position, it wouldn't be a recognized "own person."

But rather the opposite, conquering, controlling them, letting these people work hard to gain his recognition...

Qian Chen tapped his finger on the ground, saying: "!"

Li Zhong said convincingly: "Yes, brother!"

"These days, emergency letters were sent to Taiyuan and Chang'an one by one, but there was no news. The weapons and armor in the armory still exist, but the grain and supplies are already very scarce. If it weren't for Crown Prince Xuanwei bringing a thousand imperial guards in mysterious armor from Chang'an and reorganizing the elite soldiers of the Ten Departments of the Liuzhen, using them as a skeleton, he barely controlled the situation."

"This time the Liuzhen face the Murong demon army and the Northern Border demon department's tilt, I'm afraid there will be an internal chaos first!"

"Originally there should have been an internal chaos!" Qian Chen didn't care: "But I abolished several dark seeds of Murong Chui in the Liuzhen..."

"Do you know!" Qian Chen sighed: "This time the embarrassment of the Liuzhen was prepared by me for you."

"Military supplies are insufficient, internal and external are separated, the Liuzhen' loyalty to Chang'an will inevitably waver, plus the deterioration of the external situation, under such pressure, this is your great opportunity to leap up and lead the situation."

Li Zhong opened his mouth, frowning slightly: "Lead the situation! Me?"

"You have my support, the high regard of Master Tan Wuchen, the only Yang Spirit True Person in Wuchuan now; you have fought with Cao Xuanwei and gained his favor; you have served in the Liuzhen for forty years and are also a military family person; you are from a Han family, a gentry child, and have forces in Chang'an to respond; you are an important handle for Cao Xuanwei to control the Liuzhen; even the thing that the Liuzhen lacks most now is in your hands."

Li Zhong was dumbfounded: "These, I have?"

Qian Chen smiled and pointed at the bronze tiger-face card on his body, and the illusory bronze door appeared again.

Li Zhong suddenly realized: "Secret treasure of the Queen Mother of the West!"

"But isn't the other half of the key in your hand, brother?"

"So you can't even draw a cake..."

Qian Chen said without the slightest bit of politeness: "If I were holding this bronze tiger-mask tablet, I could hang them all up like carp!"

"It's only because there is only half a key that it's easy to lay out. If the secret treasure was really opened so simply, wouldn't others kick you away? By then, you would really become a fool who contributed in vain, and you would be suspected and guarded against in the future!"

Qian Chen's mouth revealed a faint, elusive smile: "If I were in your position..."

Internal and external troubles, red-hearted loyalty, honor and disgrace together, deceiving superiors and concealing from subordinates, raising bandits to respect oneself, being the pillar of the country, brave in taking responsibility, quenching thirst with plums, drawing cakes to satisfy hunger, unity of superiors and subordinates, alliance of attack and defense, excluding dissidents, monopolizing power...

Just a slight movement of thought, all kinds of means surged into his heart, the corners of his mouth hooked, and Qian Chen's expression was shrouded in a faint mystery.

Seeing Li Zhong feel a slight chill in his heart, he secretly said: "Brother, what have you experienced in these years outside?"

"You are ultimately not the material of Cao Thief!"

Qian Chen shook his head, not denying it; everyone has their own character.

What Li Zhong is doing now cannot be said to be wrong. Externally, he led a hundred Xuanjia soldiers to stabilize the Wuchuan situation, during which there was no selfishness, gaining Cao Xuanwei's trust.

Internally, he treated people with sincerity, still getting along with the Liuzhen military family children. Although he was not a core figure, he also gained the recognition of the Liuzhen military family children and pulled in a group of people from the Selected Vanguard Camp.

It's just a pity for the six-story pagoda, Kunlun secret treasure, and demonic path undercover he prepared.

"The destiny of the Li family ultimately cannot fall into your hands. These things will all turn into your internal accumulation, left for future generations!"

Qian Chen laid out these idle pieces, just to create some opportunities for Li Zhong. If he had this potential, he would naturally be like an awl in a bag, and its tip would be seen. But his ambition was not here, so Qian Chen would naturally plan other paths for him.

Li Zhong looked at the chip in Qian Chen's hand, curious: "Brother, what is this?"

Qian Chen: "Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo position!"

"Don't you vaguely feel the pressure the Liuzhen is facing now?" Qian Chen outlined a smile: "Then I will let you see with your own eyes, the current situation!"

After saying that, he flicked the Supreme Supreme Supreme Tian Mo Secret Talisman, and the two took a step out, arriving at the foot of the Yinshan, appearing in front of the two Weng cities.

The demon army in the city formed a formation relying on the city, and the rolling demon qi condensed into two demon images above the Weng city.

One was a four-armed god-demon, with a blood mark on its brow slightly opening, within which were countless blood eyes wriggling. The moment Qian Chen and Li Zhong appeared, nearly half of the blood eyes looked here, instantly locking onto the two.

The god-demon pulled its arms, and it was a white bone longbow.

But the longbow was just a change in the formation's archery, in essence, that was the aura locked by hundreds of heavy crossbows on the city wall...

The crossbow bows were cast from white bone, engraved with the mysterious runes of the Yu Yu Jiuyou Demonic Language. The bowstrings twisted from human skin and tendons were slightly pulled, and countless living souls were drawn from the formation, turning into crossbow arrows entangled with grievances, with endless blood light and black qi intertwined!

Yu Yu Jiuyou Hundred Ghost Soul-Devouring Arrow!

"It's nothing more than using hundreds of living souls as sacrifices, drawing the filthiest hundred remnant souls from the bottom of the Yu Yu Jiuyou Underworld River, triggering the Yin wind of the Underworld River to blow, and the sharp whistling when hundreds of millions of remnant souls are destroyed, turning into arrows and shooting out!"

Qian Chen swept a glance, and the evaluation was that it was not as good as the Immortal Qin alchemists!

"The archery and military methods of the demonic path mostly use the sacrifice of living souls to trigger various visions and taboos in the Yu Yu Jiuyou. The strong ones are like the Nine Yin Corrupting Immortal Poison, and the weak ones are like the Hundred Ghost Soul-Devouring Arrow. Although evil and mysterious, in terms of absolute lethality, they are far inferior to the extreme vitality and lethality of the magical powers created by the group of alchemists of the Immortal Qin Creation Dao!"

Qian Chen flicked the Supreme Supreme Supreme Tian Mo Secret Talisman, and the Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo position manifested.

In an instant, all the living beings, magical power, physical body, soul, and even every thought in the two Weng cities fell into Qian Chen's control.

With one thought, those demon army cultivators looked at the two as if they hadn't seen them, and everything before was also wiped out.

"Common sense modification, world modulation, consciousness control..."

Qian Chen tried the effect of the Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo position slightly, and found that the demonic path cultivators in front of him could no longer be called people at all, the effect was more yellow than yellow butter.

He could even reshape all the consciousness of the demonic path cultivators in Longcheng in one thought, modify memories, distort consciousness, and even thoroughly wipe out their original selves.

It couldn't even be called some kind of magical power or spell, but just an instinctual application of the Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo position!

"The original Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo shouldn't have been so terrifying. The Primordial Dao Ancestor stepped on the boundary of the Primordial Spirit Dao Fruit, the Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo position, which is the great achievement of all demonic paths of control, distortion, and domination—only by being thoroughly refined by me like this, can it be so heaven-defying!"

Feeling that wantonness of nothing that cannot be done, Qian Chen couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "With this thing, any demonic path cultivator in front of me is equivalent to having all demonic path restrictions added to them. Is this Murong Chui's demon army?"

"These are simply my puppets!"

Qian Chen took Li Zhong, ignoring the Weng cities on both sides and the city wall that was as high as the Yinshan, and stepped into Longcheng.

Li Zhong watched the heavily guarded demon army let the two of them swagger in like this, and couldn't help but mutter in his heart: "Is this my brother seizing the Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo position and usurping Murong Chui's position? Or... oh! It must be an illusion. Brother refined Dao Chen Zhu, reversing truth and illusion in one thought, it is indeed to demonstrate the movement of the demon army he perceived for me!"

Just after entering Longcheng, he saw the demon army escorting a group of miscellaneous Hu people, old and young, toward one place.

There stood countless iron thorns, like thorny iron vines wrapped around copper pillars, mixed with flesh and blood hanging on the thorns, bone fragments scattered on the ground, and spots of blood on the copper pillars.

The demon army hung people up one by one, countless thorns pierced the human body, the screams were endless, and the iron thorns honed between the bones and flesh...

Tens of thousands of human pillars were hung there, and the iron thorns were like a forest of flesh.

Li Zhong's eyes were about to split, the Daxia Longque came out of its sheath, but was stopped by Qian Chen: "It's not that simple, you look again..."

Li Zhong looked again, only to find that although those old and young hanging on the iron thorns had their bodies torn by the thorns.

But their screams were full of energy!

The flesh and blood were pierced, and even deeply pulled into the bones, like a saw, alive, pulling out white bone fragments, but tens of thousands of human pillars, none of them died. They seemed to be tortured here forever.

"The Dao of Pain."

"These copper pillars were cast by the witch path secret method during the time of the Heavenly Shang! When the skin touches them, they will be roasted by the demon fire branded into the soul. The extreme pain makes the soul more and more clear, and even the perception is a hundred times sharper. It is the living sacrifice used by the Heavenly Shang witch path to pickle the Qiang people and sacrifice to the ghosts and gods!"

"And those thorns are even more the secret method of the Pain Demon Sect, using extreme pain to stimulate the vitality of the flesh and blood. The more scarred, the more sufficient the spirituality in the flesh and blood, and the more sufficient the vitality to feel pain."

"Of course, this is a demonic path means, using extreme pain to squeeze the potential of life, greatly consuming lifespan and the source of life."

Li Zhong was somewhat puzzled: "So this is?"

"Man is the essence of creation. The soul leaves the body and attaches to any object with spiritual energy, which can make it become a spirit, such as gold and silver boys, jade-like beauties, little people in the pupils, and many other spirits, and even ten-year chickens, twelve-year dogs, etc., all become demons. Human wisdom, courage, benevolence, human greed, jealousy, and viciousness are all top-grade spiritual energy, named spiritual emotion!"

"Therefore, all gods use humans as offerings."

"All demonic paths use humans as resources..."

"Murong Chui is a Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo of the Earth Immortal Realm. The essence of his inheritance has long since moved away from the stage of skinning and boning people and pickling living souls! Plus this spiritual treasure Longcheng, it has allowed him to open up a Dao field that truly refines demons!"

"This piece of copper pillars and iron thorns is using extreme pain to awaken the blood soul of people!"

"Three souls and seven spirits, the spirit attached to the form is the soul (po), the spirit attached to the qi is the soul (hun). The means of the demonic path of the Earth Immortal Realm to squeeze this top-grade spiritual energy of humans can be called soul-searching and bone-scraping."

"The Heavenly Soul is Yang, which is the manifestation of the soul and the Great Dao intertwined, which can be used to confer gods and manifest parts of gods, and will be collected into demonic path magical artifacts such as the Ten Thousand Soul Banner to refine gods and demons. The Earth Soul is Yin, turning into ghosts, which can be used to refine grievances and fierce ghosts. Therefore, the soul of emotion must be squeezed for wisdom, courage, cunning, viciousness, etc. spiritual emotion..."

"And the soul (po) is the part where consciousness attaches to the physical body, and can also be pickled by various means."

"This is pickling the blood soul with pain!"

"The iron thorns are coated with secret medicine, bringing extreme pain while stimulating their blood qi. Plus the roasting copper pillars force their souls to be clear. Under such extreme torture, their consciousness gradually collapses. Most importantly, the instinct of the body's consciousness is also deeply combined with the physical body under this stimulation, and the soul (po) integrates into the blood, turning into blood soul..."

"Those whose souls and bodies are separated under this stimulation are defective products."

"Their Heavenly Soul will be refined by countless witch spells on the copper pillars, and this endless screaming and wailing, bit by bit, turning into endless demon sounds; the Earth Soul will also be tortured into fierce ghosts with deep grievances, becoming more and more resentful in the pickling of the copper pillar demon fire; the various emotions in the soul will all integrate into the flesh and blood soul, becoming top-grade food for demons, used to refine military demon army pills."

"And the true demonic path seeds will fully stimulate their courage, anger, etc. emotions in endless pain, only then can they survive the endless pain and merge soul and body."

"Their courage and anger will integrate into the blood, refining the blood soul."

"After the blood soul is extracted by the iron thorns, a part is added with demonic path secret medicine, integrated into the living blood medicine, and poured back into their bodies to supplement their vitality; the other part will be pickled by witch methods, communicating with various gods and demons of the Yu Yu Jiuyou, and refining countless souls into a kind of witch medicine ink, using magic to tattoo various witch texts and gods and demons on their skin. Finally, their souls will be tattooed into the physical body. After such pickling, the soul and physical body merge into one, and the warrior who awakens as a 'Witch' is born!"

"The Rouran Witch Department is how they transform Northern Border Hu people into Witch Department warriors."

The endless screams in the ears of a Hu boy, the demon sounds were like knives scraping on the soul bit by bit, the demon fire of the copper pillars made his soul extremely clear, extremely painful, and the iron thorns were like slow slicing, scraping between his bones and flesh.

Such pain made him extremely angry, he recalled everything about himself, and let out a hysterical roar.

This ceaseless roar finally extracted that wild courage bit by bit, integrating it into his blood.

Following his struggle, anger and courage finally overcame the pain.

The black witch medicine on the iron thorns seeped out bit by bit, on his body, in his muscles, in his bones, bit by bit, carving ancient witch texts, and finally his soul melted in this demon fire, and under the wriggling of the tattoo that pierced the demon head, it was bit by bit bound in the physical body.

His physical consciousness also gradually melted, and some instinct of the physical body integrated into the blood.

At this moment, his anger could finally be directly converted into power, his courage could drive the blood flow, the unconscious soul of the physical body and the conscious soul of the self initially merged, and he struggled with both hands, actually tearing the iron thorns alive and jumping off the copper pillar.

A witch wearing animal skin clothes with colorful ribbons walked up, the boy roared hysterically, the tattoos on his body wriggled, his whole body grew three feet, and he pounced on him without any technique.

The witch pressed him down with one slap.

He said in Hu language: "Another warrior is born! Boy, you have finally become a true warrior of our Witch Department from the cattle and sheep like mud, and you are qualified to be a Rouran!"

Saying that, he tore off the broken fur coat on the boy's body, and stuffed him into the arms of a beautiful girl beside him with one slap, saying to him: "Leave your bloodline! Next, you have to carry a saber and ride a horse to plunder and slaughter. As a warrior of the Witch Department, you are already qualified to sow your own bloodline! But everything needs you to use your saber to plunder..."

The Hu boy howled twice, then pressed on the girl and did that thing.

Li Zhong clenched the Longque saber, looking at all this in disbelief.

"These Hu people, these Hu people... why don't they have any moral etiquette, any tribal hatred..."

"Obeying the strong is the only rule of the grassland! Survival is the only law of the Hu people."

Qian Chen said: "After the Murong Department and the Rouran Witch Department went south, they plundered countless miscellaneous Hu people here. If they can escape, they naturally want to escape. If they can't escape, they accept everything and submit to the strong!"

"The Witch Demon Dao has long been branded into the bloodline of the Hu people here..."

"The old and young hanging on these tens of thousands of copper pillars are naturally resources and assets, but the teenagers are all demon cubs refined by the Rouran Witch Department. The Hu people respect the strong, so as long as they refine the blood courage, they can transform into 'Witches' and become the 'Warriors' of the Rouran Department! They have long recognized and understood this law..."

Qian Chen said lightly: "In Longcheng, there are tens of thousands of Witches transforming in this demon-refining field!"

"They can kill people with sabers while alive, use the tattoos on their bodies for witch methods, and after death, they are directly turned into demons by the tattoos, becoming the gods and demons that the witches of the Rouran Witch Department cultivate, cast spells, and manipulate!"

"These miscellaneous Hu people on the Northern Border grassland are plundered by the demon department, witch department, and Liuzhen military family like this."

"During wartime, they are pulled to be laborers, pickled into Witches by the witch department. Generation after generation, they survive like this, grow like this, and... become demons like this!"

Li Zhong looked out, and Longcheng was like a large military camp, battlefield, pasture, and world.

He saw many miscellaneous Hu people driving flocks of sheep, and one lamb after another fell into a huge stone mill, slowly being ground into meat mud;

He saw in a field in the city, countless naked men and women intertwined like wild beasts, pink miasma permeated, various dry and hot fragrances burned, desires intertwined in the invisible, countless demons were triggered by the naked intertwined men and women on the banners around, descended in the invisible, and were driven by the surrounding witches to extract some kind of power born from the entanglement of Yin and Yang in the invisible.

He saw countless corpses that couldn't withstand the honing in this demon city, and saw more corpses being sent over from different gates of Longcheng.

They were thrown into a certain cave heaven opened up by Longcheng. Intact, strong corpses were hung upside down on white bone trees, and rolling Yin qi and Earth qi were poured in to refine them into corpse demons;

The flesh and blood were scraped off, refined into a sea of blood, endless filth bred and multiplied in it, and all kinds of corpses, human, animal, were all melted in it.

The bones were dry-smoked with sulfur, pickled with Yin, obscure, and turbid qi, and finally dried like withered wood, used for burning phosphorus fire.

And a large amount of spiritual medicine, minerals, exotic beasts, etc. resources.

Transported from various worlds, put into smelting fields, medicine pools, slaughterhouses, etc. facilities, converted into war resources, gathered, accumulated, and digested in Longcheng...

? Resume updates.

? Just got back, rushed out a chapter, a bit hurried, shouldn't ask for leave next month! Strive for full attendance.

? (End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1024 =====