Chapter 868

Brother Qian Chen's gaze swept over the eight arms of the Demon Lord, each holding a different magic artifact.

In truth, the human skin in Brother Qian Chen's eyes was not the true form of the Great Demon Lord Scripture; otherwise, it would not have appeared as the three-headed, eight-armed Nezha-like form of the Supreme Heavenly Demon.

But the Womb-Contained Demon was forged jointly by Brother Qian Chen and Little Murong Chui; Little Murong Chui's demonic body accounted for at most half of this demon, and only with the addition of Brother Qian Chen's primordial demonic nature could the Womb-Contained Demon be complete.

And Brother Qian Chen's primordial demonic nature was the Supreme Heavenly Demon—his Womb-Contained Demon was the Xuanzhen Taiyi Demon Ancestor within the Dao Dust Pearl.

Thus, only Brother Qian Chen's eyes—his eyes overlapping with Xuanzhen Taiyi's—could perceive the Supreme Heavenly Demon as the Scripture's true origin.

Precisely because Brother Qian Chen's eyes were absent, the Scripture's outline remained incomplete.

That was why Brother Qian Chen had inscribed the four characters "Great Demon Lord Scripture"—representing the ultimate essence of this human skin.

The artifacts held in each of the eight arms were manifestations of Little Murong Chui's entire martial path.

Sabers, spears, arrows, halberds, axes, yues, hooks, and forks!

Brother Qian Chen casually seized them, completing the "martial" character in his heart.

Immediately, the characters "Lin," "Zhen," "Dou," and "Zhe" each manifested; the hidden "martial" stele in Brother Qian Chen's mind was now fully restored.

Brother Qian Chen inscribed the four characters "Lin," "Zhen," "Dou," and "Zhe" onto the palms of the four arms.

Representing the transmission of the four demonic scriptures…

After absorbing Little Murong Chui's entire legacy, once the Seed of Conquest was broken and subdued, Little Murong Chui would have no means to resist Brother Qian Chen.

"Where is the Seed of Conquest hidden?"

Brother Qian Chen squinted, fixing his gaze on the human skin.

The Seed of Conquest was the culmination of Little Murong Chui's lifetime of cultivation; only by fully comprehending the essence of Little Murong Chui's legacy could one truly grasp its tail.

Brother Qian Chen waved his hand and stuck the skin to the pagoda, observing its aura from afar.

This startled the martial disciples nearby who had been silently copying; they merely looked up in surprise, saw Brother Qian Chen lost in silent contemplation, dared not disturb him, and thus mentally sketched the skin's overall form.

Transforming all traces of the Great Demon Lord Scripture into their own lineage.

Brother Qian Chen had always intended to leave a portion of the Great Demon Lord Scripture, stamped with his own mark, among the Six Garrisons—this place held many talents, an ideal location to transmit his own doctrine, even if it was a demonic doctrine.

But why must the L Sister Guan Dao be defined as orthodox?

Didn't the Supreme also have true transmissions?

Finally, the three-headed, eight-armed demon blurred in Brother Qian Chen's eyes.

A terrifying demonic shadow emerged, eight arms spread wide, encompassing all heavens, drawing everything under its control—a shadow blending the Primordial Demon God, Xuanzhen Taiyi Demon Ancestor, Supreme Heavenly Demon, and more, as if holding the entire cosmos in its grasp.

It resembled a great demon king.

Brother Qian Chen suddenly locked onto a single thread of Dao rhythm: the rhythm of conquering all, taking freely, imprinting everything with one's own mark, unleashing boundless slaughter and war.

With a casual pinch, a phantom Seed of Conquest appeared between his fingers.

"Seed of Conquest!"

As Brother Qian Chen clenched the phantom seed in his palm, the human skin's eyes suddenly opened, and a gray wolf and a white deer flew out from within.

The gray wolf bit down on Brother Qian Chen's right leg; the white deer was easily subdued by a single finger.

"Heaven's Wrath, Eternal Life!"

Little Murong Chui's final strike, hidden within the Seed of Conquest, pierced straight through Brother Qian Chen's chest—the core secret of the Seed of Conquest was finally exposed before Brother Qian Chen's eyes.

Brother Qian Chen's eyes brightened with understanding; he smiled: "So you and Sun En are mortal enemies!"

The Seed of Conquest was a seed that subjugated all things under "I"; Brother Qian Chen had always found it strange—such a path of "I" conquering all should be terrifying, inevitably provoking a backlash from all things against the "I."

Yet Little Murong Chui's Seed of Conquest seemed free of this danger.

Now he understood…

"So you, Little Murong Chui, are demonic skin with Dao bones. The Seed of Conquest transforms all things into 'I,' making every 'outer I' part of 'I.' It seems supremely tyrannical, but its core is profoundly aligned with Dao."

"Your 'I' is not the self, nor the absolute selfishness and obsession of the demonic sects' 'I.'"

"It is the Daoist 'I' of unity between heaven and humanity!"

"I belong to 'heaven,' so the outer I is a gift from heaven—conquer, but do not possess!"

"Thus, the Fruit of Conquest does not elevate the self above all, but uses 'I' as the pivot to connect all conquered things to heaven, birthing a heavenly Dao imbued with your will!"

"What kind of heavenly-consciousness martial path is this?!"

Brother Qian Chen now understood how Little Murong Chui conquered all without being devoured in return.

Because his "I" was linked to heaven; his outer-I consciousness was the embryonic form of a vast sky.

"Heaven's Wrath, Eternal Life" arose because attaining eternal life was an act against heaven—heaven raged, seeking to shatter the eternal life fruit.

That terrifying heavenly Dao technique pierced Brother Qian Chen's body, aiming to sever the bridge of eternal life anchored in his primordial spirit—

Only to find the hollow interior of his yellow-clay body utterly empty…

Little Murong Chui's face twisted in horror: "You're not even human?"

Brother Qian Chen's yellow-clay body was a ritual of an immortal herb, existing between life and death; when heaven raged to shatter eternal life, what did it matter to my clay and stone form?

I'm not even a primordial spirit!

"Aligned with heaven, yet defying it!" Brother Qian Chen remarked coolly: "This is very un-demonic—and yet profoundly demonic."

It was un-demonic because its core followed heaven's will—it was a seed of heaven.

It was profoundly demonic because the current heaven was formed by the Supreme's union with Dao; the Primordial Spirit Dao represented all, severing eternal life was heaven's law—but it contradicted the heaven established by the Supreme.

This very tension and contradiction was the essence of the demonic path.

Brother Qian Chen gave Little Murong Chui only one definition.

His chest wound healed; he casually tore open the gray wolf, crushed the heavenly consciousness within with a palm strike, and forged the commanding heavenly force into a long spear, gazing down at Little Murong Chui: "Remnant of the Old Heaven!"

The spear pierced the human skin, pinning Little Murong Chui to the wall—but Little Murong Chui only curled his lips into a cold smile.

"The final strike, Heaven's Wrath, Eternal Life, concentrated from the Seed of Conquest, failed to kill you. That was expected."

"Though I don't know what you truly are?"

Little Murong Chui said calmly: "Whose avatar? What demonic monster have you turned the Yellow Clay Dao's creation-body into? Even lacking fate and lifespan—but this final killing blow, whether it succeeds or fails, matters little."

"As long as you tear open that skin, break the seal, I'll render all your schemes void!"

Little Murong Chui said coldly: "Because you didn't come for the Seed of Conquest—you came for the title—Great Demon Lord!"

The human skin, now Little Murong Chui, touched the crack behind his ear.

That was the wound Brother Qian Chen had slashed—the invisible, formless, indefinable Great Demon Lord title had already escaped through it; without knowing its essence, Brother Qian Chen could not possibly stop it.

Brother Qian Chen did not grow angry; he asked instead: "Finished? If you're done, I'm taking my things."

Little Murong Chui blinked in surprise.

Then he saw Brother Qian Chen sweep his hand, and the entire human skin transformed into a leather sack.

Brother Qian Chen casually pulled a rope from the Dao Dust Pearl, tied the skin's tear shut, and exclaimed excitedly: "Finally tricked you in!"

"I've already deduced what the Great Demon Lord title is through the Seed of Conquest—it's a fragment of the Old Heaven's position, a fruit unrecognized by the New Heaven! Now that I know what it is, it can never escape again!"

Brother Qian Chen finally understood why he had never been able to grasp the Great Demon Lord title!

Because this thing should not exist in the New Heaven—it was a taboo, and it fiercely resisted him.

"Resist? Resistance is useless. A forcibly twisted melon is still sweet. I tell you, I don't have to become the Great Demon Lord—but if you refuse me face, the consequences will be severe!"

Brother Qian Chen spoke coldly in the Nine You Demon Tongue to the leather sack containing the Great Demon Lord title.

This sudden turn stunned Cao Cao Xuanwei and Li Zhong.

Li Zhong suddenly realized: Little Murong Chui had been deceived all along!

The Womb-Contained Demon, even Little Murong Chui's avatar, had never been sealed within the golden body. When Brother Qian Chen inverted the pagoda, transforming the six-story pagoda into nine, the Great Nirvana Golden Body had been turned inside out!

That meant the Womb-Contained Demon was not sealed inside the golden body—it was outside.

The world they inhabited was only sealed inside the golden body when Brother Qian Chen's finger inverted the world.

Li Zhong didn't understand how Brother Qian Chen had done it.

Only Brother Qian Chen knew—he had long deceived heaven and all beings with the True-False Fruit of the Dao Dust Pearl.

When he first inverted the pagoda, he had hidden the entire world's future illusion within the Great Nirvana Golden Body; everything that followed was both future and illusion.

Time in the real world froze at that moment; everything in the illusory world was a reflection, descending downward.

Hidden within the golden body.

Until just now, when true and false inverted again, everything became real!

Because Brother Qian Chen himself was uncertain whether the Great Demon Lord title could be manipulated by the Dao Dust Pearl's True-False Fruit, whether it could invert truth and illusion.

Thus, Little Murong Chui's manifested avatar had to be "real"; everything involving that avatar had to occur in the real world.

And this reality was hidden outside the golden body and the six-story pagoda; Brother Qian Chen deceived Little Murong Chui with supreme illusion, making him believe the demonic body was sealed inside the golden body, suppressed within.

But in truth, the demonic body had always been outside the golden body—in reality.

Brother Qian Chen told Li Zhong that the world of nine towering pagodas existed within the Dao Dust Pearl, and that world had been sealed inside the Great Nirvana Golden Body.

The real world—the location of the six-story pagoda—had been hidden by Brother Qian Chen using the Dao Dust Pearl.

Little Murong Chui forged his demonic body in the real world, becoming the Womb-Contained Demon.

Womb-Contained—sounds like a "fetus" hidden inside—but the Womb-Contained Demon was forged by Brother Qian Chen; this was a deception from the start.

Who says a Womb-Contained Demon cannot be gestated outside the body?

Don't you understand what a test-tube baby is?

All of this was to invert truth and illusion, invert inside and outside—to place Little Murong Chui in the illusory world, unable to see the real, while his avatar coalesced in the real world, yet deliberately dove into the false world within the golden body.

Precisely because the "emptiness" outside the golden body was the real world.

Thus, Little Murong Chui's entire cultivation imprint could be stamped onto the human skin.

Finally, Brother Qian Chen tore open the skin, breaking the barrier between the two true-false worlds, all to trick the Great Demon Lord title into the illusory world within the skin—into the Dao Dust Pearl.

In the end, Brother Qian Chen tore open the skin-sack, breaking the barrier between the inner and outer true and false worlds, all to lure the Great Devil Lord into the false world within the skin-sack, into the Dao Dust Pearl.

This is the true illusionary fruit, this is the astonishing illusionary art with which Brother Qian Chen manipulated Little Murong Chui in the palm of his hand.

Little Murong Chui could never imagine that he had been reflected in illusion, misled, deceived, and toyed with by the Dao Dust Pearl.

The version of him reflected in illusion had condensed a Soul Transformation in reality, even leaving behind the title Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign, relentlessly drilling into the illusory world.

And when he drilled into it, the true and illusory reversed once more—all illusion became reality, everything connected to the real world, the illusory time silently merging with the real timeline.

And the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign who drilled into illusion, into the Dao Dust Pearl, had walked straight into the trap!

Only Li Zhong knew all of this.

Only he had been told the truth about the inverted pagoda and the nature of the true and illusory realms.

Li Zhong murmured: "No wonder—Little Murong Chui, as a Primordial Spirit True Immortal, so easily cast his origin into the trap, his Primordial Spirit utterly unguarded. It wasn't a trap at all—it was an illusion. Now, he has willingly walked into it, walking straight into the trap!"

Brother Qian Chen cast a cool glance: "You think you're the only clever one? Must you say everything out loud?"

He lifted his sack—inside seemed utterly void.

But Brother Qian Chen knew the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign was certainly hidden within.

"This thing came from the Old Heaven—it must have been an entity of the highest rank in the Old Heaven. Though I've refined this leather sack into a magic treasure, it won't hold it for long! This thing is a fragment of the Old Heaven's Dao… hmm! I've prepared a dantian furnace to refine it…"

Brother Qian Chen pondered, then said to Li Zhong: "Now that I've reversed true and illusory once more, all the events that occurred within the Dao Dust Pearl's illusory world have manifested in this real world."

"Without the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign, Little Murong Chui will panic and lash out—he'll spare nothing to seize Wuchuan and reclaim his title before I refine him!"

"But I've long prepared for this."

Brother Qian Chen curled a strange smile: "When he comes, he'll find a very big surprise waiting for him."

"You all withdraw from this pagoda and guard Wuchuan!"

"Everything awaits my emergence from seclusion!"

With that, Li Zhong and the others were expelled from the pagoda—even Tan Tan Wuchen, the pagoda's master, was swept out the door.

Cao Xiao Xie Xuan and his group exchanged glances, still unclear on many things, but they knew this battle of arts had all been within Brother Qian Chen's calculations—Little Murong Chui had been utterly toyed with from start to finish.

For a demon sect titan as cunning and cruel as Little Murong Chui…

Brother Qian Chen was the true old fox!

After driving everyone out, Brother Qian Chen casually burned the Reincarnation True Talisman given to him by the Creation Cauldron.

Within the pagoda, under the suppression of the magic treasure, a vast, heavy bronze gate crashed open. Even though the pagoda had been transformed into a magic treasure, the bronze gate still suppressed time and space—the time of the Earth Immortal Realm froze once more—and Brother Qian Chen stepped forward into it, vanishing.

The moment he stepped into the Reincarnation Realm, the Creation Cauldron spoke: "What did you bring in?"

The bronze cauldron and the Western Kunlun Mirror suddenly appeared before Brother Qian Chen; the mirror's light shone upon the leather sack in his hand, and the Western Kunlun Mirror asked curiously: "Strange—this thing possesses the quality of being unique across all realms, unique through past and future… and…"

The shadow of the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign finally surfaced in the mirror's light, a spectral glow reflected in time, appearing profoundly illusory…

The Western Kunlun Mirror first recoiled in horror, then shrieked: "It's a fragment of the Old Heaven's Dao!"