Chapter 113

"Junior Qian Yan Shixiong has been inside for a long time!" Seeing Yan Shu looked at the demon lair entrance, where corpses lay everywhere, and said with some worry.

Ever since Qian Chen entered the demon lair, the number of demons rushing out from inside had become fewer and fewer, and now they had been swept clean by the few of them. At this moment, the cave entrance was pitch black, possessing a very strange silence, like a wide-open bloodthirsty mouth, swallowing the lives of all the demons.

Now, as they recalled the final madness of the demons, they were shocked to realize that those last demons rushing out were not so much fighting.

It was more like they were fleeing from something inside that cave...

"No more demons are rushing out from the cave!" Ning Qingchen said: "Some kind of change we don't understand must have happened inside."

"How about... we go in and take a look?" Si Qingguo suggested.

This suggestion hit the mark of Seeing Yan Shu and the others' worries. He pondered for a moment and said: "Although Junior Qian Yan Shixiong has always been reliable and is always well-prepared for everything, since the demons here have been cleared, let's be careful... and go in to provide support for Junior Qian Yan Shixiong!"

The few of them entered the deep cave side by side, gradually going deeper into the demon lair following the wisps of demonic qi that stirred up irritation and murderous intent in people's hearts. Si Qingguo held a silver demon-binding ring in one hand and a small jade seal in the other, ready to activate the spiritual talismans on her body at any time, while the Big Huang Ji walked at the very front. Seeing Yan Shu and Ning Qingchen carried their sword boxes and sword pouches, following behind them.

At this moment, the Big Huang Ji led everyone through several turns and arrived in front of a fork in the road.

In that passage, it was densely packed with flesh and blood blasted into pieces, the largest of which was no bigger than a thumb. The wriggling pieces of flesh were transparent and crystalline, coming from at least dozens of different demons. Purple-red flesh and blood covered the ground, exceptionally terrifying and disgusting.

Si Qingguo looked unpleasant and said: "I finally know why no more demons are coming out! Ugh!"

Ning Qingchen checked slightly and said: "Is this the divine ability of Qian Yan Shixiong that emits thunder sounds with zither music?"

"Yes!" Seeing Yan Shu nodded, but frowned again: "But the traces here don't look like they were left by Junior Qian Yan Shixiong... Although Junior Qian Yan Shixiong is somewhat decisive in killing, his temperament is straightforward, unconstrained, and elegant. Although he is also meticulous and well-prepared in his actions... if he were to use zither music to emit thunder and shake these demons to death, he would definitely pay more attention to the rhythm of the zither music and pursue natural beauty. These demons would definitely have died looking very 'good'."

"What do you mean by 'died looking very good'?" Ning Qingchen said in a low voice: "Back at the wolf demon lair, the heads of the demons Qian killed were rolling all over the ground! Is that also called looking very good?"

"In the wild mountains, with the heads of demon beauties falling by the roadside, and some demon bones exposed in the wilderness... doesn't that have a certain atmosphere of its own?"

Ning Qingchen thought carefully and recalled the scene from that day, with demon corpses exposed in the wilderness by the rocky cliff under the moonlight; he could indeed feel a different kind of desolate and vast atmosphere.

"Junior Qian Yan Shixiong is a person who is very particular about atmosphere. The slaughter that happened at the cave entrance that day, although we didn't see it, judging from the arrangement of the demon corpses, Junior Qian Yan Shixiong wanted to express the desolation of a world in chaos, demons rising everywhere, white bones exposed in the wilderness, and the four seas being unsettled."

"Later, when we left the cave, the zither music we heard was entirely natural, with the intent of high mountains and flowing water. So, the countless zither thunder sounds shattered the demon clouds hundreds of miles away. It looked like a hellish scene, but in reality, it was imitating the sounds of thunder and rain with zither music. Those demons died miserably, but it was a scene of high mountains and flowing water accompanied by thunder sounds on a stormy night, with mud and rocks rolling down."

"Although fierce and irritable, it had its own weight. This is the charm of that final sound, like the sound of gold and stone tearing silk."

At this moment, Si Qingguo also said thoughtfully: "When he killed the tree demon, the zither music he played was clanging and metallic, full of murderous intent. It seemed to tell the story of a martial arts expert in a life-and-death duel, used to set off the tree demon and his decisive battle... In the mountains and wilderness, it was high mountains and flowing water; during the duel, it was a song of contention. Qian Yan Shixiong is indeed very particular about atmosphere when playing the zither!"

Although the few of them didn't know that Qian Chen's choice to emit Soundless Divine Thunder with zither music was a bit of a hobby of bringing his own BGM.

They had also guessed some of Qian Chen's personality habits...

"Although these demons died from that thunder sound divine ability, in this pitch-black demon lair, demons are rampant. If Junior Qian Yan Shixiong were playing the zither, he would definitely choose to create a tense atmosphere of ambushes on all sides. These demons are the background for the ambush, but Junior Qian Yan Shixiong himself is the most dangerous ambush... So the demons who died at his hands would never have been blasted like this. They should have been extremely terrified, with unexpected ambushes on all sides, dying in a confused and panicked manner."

"The demons here are blasted into such small pieces, showing a tendency toward excessive slaughter, and the flesh and blood are blasted very evenly, indicating that the person using the divine ability was very meticulous. Perhaps... it might be a woman!"

Detective Seeing Yan Shu made a judgment based on his own experience in the Jianghu.

Although they had only spent a few days together, he had already seen through Qian Chen's characteristic of valuing 'style'—he had an obsessive-compulsive disorder where even killing had to be done very beautifully. This bloody scene really didn't look like something Qian Chen could do.

After turning a few more corners, Seeing Yan Shu discovered another group of demon corpses that were torn apart, withered, and had terrified expressions, dying with great 'style'.

Ning Qingchen looked at them for a moment and said in a low voice: "This is the state of the spider spirit and other demons when they were killed outside the demon lair that day!"

"This should be another divine ability of Qian Yan Shixiong..."

"Although the demons died cruelly before, at least it was righteous thunder magic. This is going too far, right! This is clearly the divine ability of the Demonic Path!" Si Qingguo said in confusion: "Is Qian Yan Shixiong really a disciple of the righteous path's Louguan Sect?"

"Junior Qian Yan Shixiong has a deep blood feud with that demonic cultivator. In order to deal with this person, he has put a lot of effort into the Demonic Path and is proficient in the method of using demons to control demons. Sigh... it's all a fated debt of hatred! I hope Junior Qian Yan Shixiong will kill this demon soon and stay away from the Demonic Path from now on... After all, the more one learns of the demonic, the further one drifts from the Dao." Seeing Yan Shu, however, understood Qian Chen somewhat.

"But this is not the work of Junior Qian Yan Shixiong!" he concluded.

Si Qingguo was stunned by this turn and said: "Why?"

"The blade technique is too poor!" This time, it was Ning Qingchen who answered her.

Si Qingguo looked at the incredibly exquisite blade marks on the wounds of the demon corpses and really couldn't imagine how the comment 'the blade technique is too poor' could have come about.

The group walked a few more steps forward. This time, they encountered a scene like a battlefield slaughter. The numerous demons died in a bloody battle, and the tragic scene made everyone feel as if they had seen a person with a spear challenging the entire demon lair with intense fighting spirit.

"This is a Martial Path divine ability!" Seeing Yan Shu's expression was a bit strange.

Then there was another group of demons dead all over the ground, and they were already numb to it.

Judging by this situation, it was no wonder no more demons were rushing out of the demon lair... they were probably almost all killed! A feeling inexplicably appeared in Seeing Yan Shu's heart that Qian Chen had surrounded the entire demon lair of demons.

Arriving at another battlefield, looking at the clear handprints on the wall, Ning Qingchen sighed faintly: "It's the Buddhist path!"

"True Word Great Handprint?" Si Qingguo leaned forward, looking at the clear handprint. Her spiritual sense stirred slightly, and she felt as if her mind had been shaken and washed by a lion's roar, and her mind became much clearer: "This Buddhist cultivation is very pure! It is a true practitioner who has obtained the orthodox transmission, not the work of some heterodox path that has learned Buddhist methods."

The next cave... looking at the charred stone walls that couldn't be identified, the group stepped on the ashes that might have been demon bone dust and walked forward slowly.

"True Fire!"

Si Qingguo no longer spoke; she just wanted to see what other tricks were ahead.

Sure enough, as she wished, ahead appeared clean stone cave passages that seemed as if nothing had happened, which were somewhat eerie in such an environment. There were also demons poisoned to death by insects, smoked to death by poisonous smoke, and others whose essence and energy had been completely drained, as if they had died from being harvested.

The variety of ways they died could be described as endless.

Seeing Yan Shu counted carefully and found more than a dozen types of death, and he felt something in his heart, having some conjectures.

After walking a long distance and having already gone deep into the demon lair, they still hadn't seen a single living demon. They didn't know if the survivors had all run away or if Qian Chen had cleaned up the place particularly well. Now they were approaching the deepest part of the demon lair! They arrived in front of a stone gate, where a purple-skinned toad spirit holding a three-pronged fork had been killed and dismembered by a demonic blade at the cave entrance.

Seeing Yan Shu followed the half-open stone gate inside. As soon as he entered, he felt as if he heard a mysterious and profound Dao sound, as if echoing in the cave.

But soon the Dao sound turned into some kind of eerie and terrifying demonic thought, as if a Heavenly Demon had descended into the world, causing Seeing Yan Shu's expression to change in his surprise. A clear sword chime sounded from the sword box on his back, which then dispelled this demonic thought.

Both Ning Qingchen and Seeing Yan Shu felt lingering fear. Seeing Yan Shu said: "Fortunately, this wisp of demonic thought was just a residual bit. If I had faced the moment when the Dao sound turned into demonic thought, I'm afraid I would have also..."

"This is definitely the work of Qian Yan Shixiong!" Ning Qingchen said with some worry: "Qian Yan Shixiong's attainment in the Demonic Path is so high, I'm afraid it's not a good thing."

"This is called high attainment?" Si Qingguo said with some fear: "If this isn't the work of some old demon, then he's simply a natural-born demon child, right? You guys say, won't Qian Yan Shixiong in the future..."

Seeing Yan Shu recalled the few words Qian Chen said before fighting the demonic cultivator and shook his head: "That shouldn't be the case... It's just that Junior Qian Yan Shixiong encountered a demonic tribulation upon entering the Dao, and has had a fated entanglement with a demon lord. On his future path of cultivation, I'm afraid the demonic tribulation will be very heavy!"

"There is still a trace of murderous intent remaining here... I'm afraid that demon general who forced Qian Shidi to use the evil object on his body was also not lightly injured. They should have gone to the deepest part of the demon lair!"

The stone path leading to the deepest part of the demon lair went straight into the belly of Heavenly Fiend Peak, surging with thick demonic qi. The aura revealed at the end, even if it was just an insignificant wisp leaking out, was enough to make one's soul tremble, one's spiritual sense jump in fear, and one's back feel chilled to the bone...

If that demonic aura were to erupt, I'm afraid it could instantly permeate Heavenly Fiend Peak with demonic qi, break through the suppression of this dangerous forbidden land, and transform into a boundless sea of blood.

"Blood Demon!" Seeing Yan Shu said solemnly: "Ahead is the loophole in the Blood Demon's seal!"

"The Blood Demon's strength exceeds our expectations. He has endured for so many years and laid out so many chess pieces here at Heavenly Fiend Peak, and his recovery level exceeds our expectations. Even if breaking through Heavenly Fiend Peak consumes most of his savings, the remaining power is enough to face the righteous path's full strength!"

"If we cannot gather the Seven Treasures for Subduing Demons, it will inevitably be a bitter battle!" Ning Qingchen sighed with emotion.