Chapter 430

After walking for half a day in darkness, everything around remained unchanged, shrouded in gloom—monotonous, dull, and heavy with the oppressive sense of being watched.

Si Princess Qingcheng closely followed Brother Qian Chen ahead, her heart uneasy; had Brother Qian Chen not walked with such unwavering resolve, she might have doubted they were merely circling in place within this directionless dark.

Just as Si Princess Qingcheng's spirits sank, gradually infected by the oppressive darkness, Brother Qian Chen suddenly halted.

"What is it, Yan Yan Shixiong? Are we lost?" Si Princess Qingcheng gripped the Heaven-Roaming Umbrella.

This slightly disheveled, wild-eyed youth was Brother Qian Chen's external manifestation; now, from within it, a handsome young boy slowly stepped forth—Brother Qian Chen's true form. He stood atop a relatively flat ridge, hands empty, while his external manifestation, wielding the Sword of Affection, lagged one step behind, shielding Si Princess Qingcheng.

"No—we're about to see dawn!" Brother Qian Chen's palm gradually coalesced a white blade-qi: "Between dawn and dusk, yin and yang shift—most perilous!"

"Those demonic creatures in the dark feared the Ancestor Ancestor Zhu Long's true flame before. But now, as dawn approaches and the Ancestor Ancestor Zhu Long's essence weakens to its nadir, some foolhardy demons will surely come to provoke us!"

Brother Qian Chen showed no sign of tension, calmly gazing at the darkness ahead.

The pitch-black void seemed to slowly fade; a faint line of daylight appeared overhead. Against this dawn-dusk backdrop, the Ancestor Ancestor Zhu Long's essence in his external manifestation's palm grew dim.

The surrounding aura grew stagnant; a strange energy stirred beneath the surface—as if all prior stillness had been preparation for this moment.

Brother Qian Chen fixed his gaze into the darkness, where several deeper shadows now emerged—grotesque forms flickering in and out of view, silent roars echoing through the dark. At this instant, the Ancestor Ancestor Zhu Long's essence in his external manifestation's hand dimmed abruptly; the light shielding them shrank to barely cover only the external manifestation and Si Princess Qingcheng.

The surrounding darkness surged forward, yet the Primordial Taiji Jin Dan inverted yin and yang, transforming Brother Qian Chen's internal qi into emptiness, absorbing the darkness.

Good and evil cannot coexist. Had Brother Qian Chen's Daoist cultivation remained in a state of "being," demonic qi entering his body would trigger violent conflict. But by transforming his qi into "non-being," like heaven and earth embracing all things, he could steal the external "being." Using his internal "emptiness," he harnessed heaven and earth's "reality."

Being and non-being give birth to each other; emptiness and form complete each other—this is the marvel of the Primordial Taiji Jin Dan.

Because the Dao transforms into emptiness, it can wield the demonic "reality."

At this moment, Brother Qian Chen used the Primordial Taiji Jin Dan as a pivot, creating an external counterpart to himself—using Dao to subdue demon. Instantly, the rolling demonic qi in the darkness became a black yin fish, entwining with his voided cultivation, forming a Primordial Taiji.

"The Dao Dust Pearl truly is an unrivaled demonic treasure…"

Brother Qian Chen felt the perilous Nine You darkness around him as if it were part of himself, refined through the Primordial Taiji Jin Dan, anchored externally via the Dao Dust Pearl—avoiding contamination or interference with his own constitution. He grew ever more convinced this supreme Dao treasure was utterly useless for orthodox cultivation, yet whenever he wished to don a demonic disguise and practice demonic arts, it became indispensable.

He was practically a traitor to the Supreme Dao!

The shame of the Three Supreme Treasures…

"Forget it—no one insults themselves like this!" Brother Qian Chen silently shook his head…

At this moment, the demons in the darkness fully revealed themselves—dozens of indeterminate shadows, their steps chaotic, surrounding from all directions. Yet they feared the Ancestor Ancestor Zhu Long's essence in his external manifestation's hand, circling past them to rush Brother Qian Chen.

Brother Qian Chen steadied his mind, dismissing all distractions. He flipped his palm—darkness covering several li stretched like a curtain, pulled down by his right hand. Instantly, the demonic shadows erupted; countless forms surged toward him.

Without hesitation, Brother Qian Chen pressed his palms together into a blade, slicing out a white blade-qi like a white ribbon, circling himself once—then the blade-qi surged, swallowing all surrounding darkness.

Without pause, he slashed horizontally—the Heaven Tian Mo Hua Xue-Cutting Blade, long unused!

The profound blade-light cleaved the darkness, devouring every demonic shadow it touched.

Whoosh—

Wind howled, finally breaking through the darkness; the sharp whistle of the blade-slice tore through the air, shredding the demonic shadows, whose insubstantial bodies offered no resistance, dissolving into the blade-light, turning crimson.

Among the shadows, a solid demonic creature finally appeared—its body covered in scales, webbed fingers and toes, eyes of dull yellow vertical pupils, jaws like a crocodile's elongated snout—a grotesque, ferocious demon. Its body writhed with demonic qi, forming eight blood-drenched, serpentine tentacles, entwining as they coiled toward Brother Qian Chen.

The crimson blade-light hovering in Brother Qian Chen's palm merely flickered once, slicing through the demon's thick, resilient scales.

The mottled blood-rust on its surface instantly came alive, seeping into the demon's torn flesh, glowing vividly red. The blood-light drained the demon's blood and vitality, even severing its demonic soul—the blade-qi emptied its demonic qi, blood-qi, and soul, leaving only a hollow shell, shattered into pieces beneath the blade-light.

"Done for!" Si Princess Qingcheng thought in alarm: "Yan Yan Shixiong's using this demonic blade art again—he's clearly trying to frame someone!"

In midair, a demon fused with a giant eagle suddenly extended its claw.

Its four fingers spread, conjuring countless claw-shadows, interwoven with demonic forms, emitting a piercing shriek that could shake the soul. Merely the shriek could destabilize the spirit; each claw-shadow could rip out a living being's soul intact. Ordinary cultivators often lost their souls in a single grasp, their bodies left behind for other demons in the dark to possess.

At this moment, the crimson light in Brother Qian Chen's palm vanished, sweeping across the sky.

Then it rose vertically, slashing toward the other demons closing in from all sides—the sinister blade-light surged, engulfing several li, drowning all those demons…

When the blade-light subsided, the space beside Si Princess Qingcheng and Brother Qian Chen stood empty. The demonic shadows had been devoured; their shells remained on the ground. The giant eagle in midair had fallen, its bald head covered in sores, grotesque and ugly. Its chest bore a massive wound—inside, utterly hollow, as if all flesh and blood had been drawn into the blade-light, pouring out through the wound and merging into the crimson blade.

The same held true for all other demonic bodies—each light as if hollowed out by worms.

"Yan Yan Shixiong!" Si Princess Qingcheng whispered, staring at Brother Qian Chen standing among dozens of grotesque shells.

Now daylight had fully broken; the darkness receded, and all surviving demons vanished without a trace.

Brother Qian Chen snapped back to awareness and smiled: "Using these demons, I've finally refined this Heaven Tian Mo Hua Xue-Cutting Blade-qi. When we meet the other demons, Sister, you needn't fight—I'll leave blade marks on their corpses. I suspect the survivors will turn on each other first, making it easier for us to stir up chaos!"

"But Yan Yan Shixiong, aren't we here to find treasure?" Si Princess Qingcheng stared, bewildered.

"Of course! Kill them, seize the treasure!" Brother Qian Chen retracted the blade-qi, now saturated with countless demonic shadows and darkness, calmly saying: "If you're seeking treasure, how can you avoid conflict?"

"That abandoned shrine must already be discovered by the demonic sects. First, wipe out the demon lords—then search for anything valuable!"

Is that how it is?

Si Princess Qingcheng looked utterly confused. The sky was now bright; the demonic land lay fully exposed—a barren, mottled red-brown earth, steep peaks, and a desolate, lifeless vista. Though they could now use their cultivation to fly, even soaring high revealed the same scene: a dead, silent, demonic wasteland—so desolate, so utterly empty, it inspired reverence.

Their cultivation-light soared; within an hour, they covered a distance that had taken them all night to traverse. Far ahead, on the horizon's ridge, lay ruins.