Chapter 58: Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Great Dao Locusts

Far on the horizon, a yellow-brown turbid smoke shot like lightning toward them.

Inside the turbid smoke, Huang Hao was drenched in sweat, his expression filled with utter terror; his left leg seemed severed clean at the root by some sharp blade or axe, yet no blood flowed—instead, it gave a bizarre impression of being utterly drained and hollowed out, radiating sinister malice.

“Help… help me…”

Seeing Chen Hang from afar, Huang Hao fled wildly toward him, nearly weeping and sobbing.

“Hahahaha!”

The green-robed girl laughed.

She glanced at the Qing’e painting resting in Chen Hang’s hand, then at Huang Hao sprinting toward them, and cheerfully crossed her arms at her waist.

But before she could utter any mocking words, the void parted like a curtain, and a giant hand gently seized Huang Hao!

It was a withered, jet-black hand, its thin membrane wrapped tightly around the bones, as if a single tug would tear it apart—yet when it tore through the air, the thunderous crash suggested even a piece of mysterious golden steel could not withstand it.

Huang Hao was snatched up like a chick, utterly powerless to resist.

The withered hand, like a mass of black clouds, had fingers impossibly long and thin; as it gripped Huang Hao, it wrapped around him like five colossal serpents coiling tightly.

Huang Hao roared and struggled fiercely, unleashing torrents of colored spiritual light in chaotic explosions—but to the withered hand, it was as insignificant as a mosquito’s buzz.

With a soft, sinister giggle, the hand’s master split the void once more, finally revealing its full form.

It was a massive demonic entity shrouded in dark mist, its eyes glowing like golden lanterns; atop its head grew three faces, each bearing expressions of wrath, resentment, and delight—and now all six eyes were fixed on Huang Hao, radiating voracious, ravenous hunger.

In Huang Hao’s desperate gaze, it softly exhaled—and his body instantly withered and collapsed.

Only his abdomen swelled grotesquely high, all his essence and blood qi converging there, making him look as if he were six months pregnant.

At this moment, he resembled a ripe, fully mature fruit, about to fall from its branch…

“Aaaaaaah!”

Huang Hao screamed wildly as his limbs gradually shattered; as his neck grew heavier, Chen Hang flicked his finger—and the Thunderfire Lightning Pearl shot forth like a blazing rainbow, striking straight at the demon’s eyeball!

But the strike rang out like metal clashing against metal.

The demon merely closed its eyelids—and the Thunderfire Lightning Pearl could advance no further; instead, it was violently repelled, rebounding dozens of zhang away before barely stabilizing in midair.

Seeing this, Chen Hang’s expression darkened slightly; he tucked the Qing’e painting into his sleeve and spun around sharply.

This scene lasted only a moment.

From Huang Hao’s flight, to the demon’s appearance, to Chen Hang’s use of the talisman weapon—all occurred within mere breaths.

The demon cast only a single glance, paid no further attention, and only after Huang Hao’s head finally severed and fell did it slowly open its mouth and swallow his remains whole, all three faces laughing in unison.

This grotesque, horrifying sight froze everyone, sending chills down their spines.

“What is this? A demon? How could such a thing exist in the Southern Region?!”

The scattered cultivators panicked, shouting and scattering in all directions, utterly lacking any thought of defending orthodoxy.

Even Huang Hao, nearly at the peak of Qi Condensation, had no chance to fight back—he was devoured alive like an animal.

What chance did these lowly cultivators, mere beginners and scattered disciples, have to stay?

“A Tianmo… and a Li Yi Mo at that…”

The woman’s pupils contracted slightly.

In ancient times, the Immortal Sages had established the “Taiyi Jiugong Inverted Reversal Array” atop the Xudu Sky to protect the countless beings within and repel external threats.

After the Dao Court collapsed, the Eight Sects and Six Clans, upon inheriting the array’s core axis, reinforced it with a layer of divine qi that now encased the entire sky.

With these two defenses in place, not even a single Tianmo from beyond the realms, let alone a Demon Lord or Demon God of great power, could descend into the Xudu Sky.

The “Taiyi Jiugong Inverted Reversal Array” need not be explained further.

It was a method passed down by the Dao Court; in the primordial chaos, when the Dao was weak, the Immortals, Buddhas, and Sages wielded this array to slay countless yao-ming creations, allowing the pure yang and turbid yin to rise from the chaos and give birth to countless worlds, lands, and skies, preserving morality.

Even the layer of divine qi added by the Eight Sects and Six Clans was no trivial matter.

Within the Gangqi layer, the primordial void was isolated, myriad phenomena emerged, beyond the Five Phases, outside the Yin-Yang duality—everywhere were golden winds, thunder and fire, Ming water and red sand.

Without the Eight Sects and Six Clans’ permission, even a Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird, capable of flying ninety thousand li in a single flap, could only spin helplessly in place, unable to escape the divine qi layer.

Even…

The divine qi layer had once trapped and killed several great Buddhist masters; those Pure Yang True Persons had merely used their great powers to relocate them into the divine qi layer, then returned home and ignored them entirely.

Though those great ones who had attained the Vajra Indestructible Glass Body could resist, they could not endure long—when their time came, they could only reluctantly enter nirvana, sitting in meditation and perishing within the divine qi layer…

Even Buddhist masters were trapped and killed within it, unable to break free.

How much less could Tianmo, common as flies and dogs in the outer voids?

Though some lands and worlds fearfully called them “Great Dao Locusts,” within the Xudu Sky they were nearly extinct.

After all, if they could not even penetrate the divine qi layer, no matter how vicious and ferocious, they were like a rabid dog chained by the neck behind iron bars.

If it cannot bite, how fierce can it be?

Yet here, now, a Tianmo had appeared—specifically, a mid-tier one: the Li Yi Mo.

The woman’s thoughts turned swiftly, and she soon formed a hypothesis.

“It seems the evil Yin-Sheng Demon my aunt cultivated escaped long ago and has been hiding in the Southern Region, breeding many offspring near Dan Su, this mortal kingdom…”

The woman thought to herself.

She turned to look at Chen Hang, about to kindly warn him to flee far away—his earlier strike with the Thunderfire Lightning Pearl might have already angered this Li Yi Mo.

Tianmo were the most vengeful of creatures; no matter their clan, they shared the same nature.

Even the smallest grudge, they would remember for a thousand years, scheming endlessly to exact revenge.

In some worlds, there even circulated a tale:

A cultivator once idly mocked a female yin demon disguised as a courtesan while passing a brothel; thereafter, every generation of his descendants died at age twenty, their primordial yang completely drained—until the female yin demon neared her eight-thousand-year lifespan limit, when the curse ended. By then, that world had already collapsed due to the arrival of the Lesser Yang Nine, utterly lifeless.

But when the woman turned to speak, her side was already empty—no one remained.

Far off, she saw Chen Hang pull out a Canhe Cart.

The moment he leapt inside, it soared into the sky, becoming a streak of light racing wildly forward—even outpacing the scattered cultivators by a great distance!

“….”

Even the woman, with her deep cultivation of composure, was momentarily stunned into silence by this sight.

“This thing looks plump and delicious—if my true body were here, I’d surely catch it and keep it in a cage to fatten up…”

The green-robed girl had been drooling at the Li Yi Mo, but seeing her mistress fall silent, she turned her head in confusion—just in time to see Chen Hang speeding away in the cart.

Only then did the girl realize someone was missing; she flew into a rage, her eyes blazing with fire.

“Damn it! This guy is so unprincipled! He didn’t even say goodbye before running off like a thief!”

The green-robed girl wiped the drool from her lips, about to shout—when the woman snatched her up in one hand and shot skyward, vanishing in an instant.

Meanwhile, in the clouds above:

The Li Yi Mo, having fully consumed Huang Hao’s essence and blood, finally raised its head. It seemed to savor the taste, remaining still for several breaths—then all three faces, wrath, resentment, and delight, burst into laughter.

It split its hands apart and slipped back into the veil of void—yet several li away, a cultivator’s flying shuttle suddenly shattered under a crushing grip.

He spun around in panic—and saw three faces, each with a different expression.

“Hehe!”

…

“How could there be so many?”

Within the Ziqing Dunguang, the woman’s face turned icy; she reversed direction, thrusting her fetal breath to its peak, transforming into a sharp, brilliant rainbow that instantly sliced dozens of Tianmo into bloody mist.

Everywhere around, densely packed, filled the sky with Tianmo of countless species.

They blanketed the heavens like a plague of locusts during a famine.

Most Tianmo had no gender; they fed on flesh, blood, spiritual essence, and magic power—all things containing spiritual energy—to nourish their demonic powers.

Their reproduction occurred only when they absorbed too much spiritual energy and could no longer contain it; then they would split off a new Tianmo to carry the excess, effectively continuing their lineage.

Precisely because of this insatiable greed, the Dao Court’s sages had branded them with the contemptuous name “Great Dao Locusts.”

In ancient times, had not the Demon Lords and Great Demons submitted humbly like domesticated dogs—and had not the Tianmo been an essential part of heaven’s design, too vital to erase entirely—

They would have long ago been wiped clean by the Dao Court, just like the yao-ming creatures, vanished from existence.

…

“Why so many of these demons?!”

Everywhere she looked, demons of all sizes filled the air.

Even the green-robed girl could no longer drool; she cried out:

“Is someone from the Six Demon Sects performing a ritual here to cultivate a technique? So many of them—I couldn’t even eat them all if my true body were here!”

The woman casually clapped her hand into the void—and six fire dragons roared forth, devouring hundreds of Tianmo in an instant.

But barely a hundred steps forward, the six fire dragons were torn apart by the black tide of Tianmo, devoured whole—utterly fearless.

“There are no members of the Six Demon Sects performing any ritual here. These Tianmo are all the karmic remnants left by my aunt… no wonder Lord Junyao of Yucheng Sect hunted her for three thousand li.”

Around her, everywhere, a sea of blackness stretched in every direction, equally horrifying.

They flew several more li forward, yet still found no exit.

The woman finally halted, sighed, and from her sleeve released a silver-white flying sword; it circled once and instantly beheaded several Tianmo skilled in stealth and ambush.

Then she formed a sword finger—the sword, fueled by her full fetal breath, became even more lethal, like a beam of northern polar immortal light bursting from the earth’s depths, illuminating a hundred paces with chilling radiance!

The Tianmo could not withstand even a single strike—they were sliced into pieces, falling dead.

In an instant, the surrounding demons were all cleared; the few remaining hesitated, shrinking back in fear.

Though Tianmo were mad and ferocious, they were still sentient beings, possessing the seven emotions and six desires—often more intense than mortals.

The woman’s sword had terrified them, sapping their courage—but after mere breaths, hunger and greed overcame reason; several Tianmo cried out first, and the rest followed, charging forward.

Since their birth, they had been imprisoned in darkness; though fed daily, the portions were meager—how could every demon be satisfied?

Today, for some reason, their prison had suddenly opened; the ecstatic Tianmo first rushed out in frenzy, then, sensing spiritual energy, split into dozens of groups of varying sizes, scattering in all directions.

The flesh and spiritual soul of cultivators are nourished by spiritual energy, making them especially delicious; even their seven emotions and six desires are more satiating than those of ordinary mortals.

These starving lower-tier heavenly demons, though momentarily stunned, could not endure for long and immediately surged forward again.

And after half a watch had passed.

Even though the maiden’s swordplay was superb, she gradually began to falter…

After all, this spiritual body of hers had only reached Qi Condensation cultivation, and even though she practiced the “Purple Pure True Qi,” ranked ninth-tier upper-class within the Ai family of Shangyu, her breath retention was ultimately limited.

“The divination scroll given to me by the Dao Lord stated that my aunt had committed countless evils, and only thanks to the Ai family of Shangyu was she spared… Because I practiced the Ai family’s Qi Condensation art, I am entangled with her; if I do not destroy the evil Yin-Sheng Demon she forged in her past, it will hinder my cultivation.”

Another sword slash cut through the air, severing several heavenly demons mid-body.

The maiden could not help but breathe heavily, clenching her teeth.

The divination scroll given to her by the Dao Lord was not only strange, but absurd…

It not only demanded she journey to the Southern Region with her spiritual body to subdue the evil Yin-Sheng Demon.

Moreover, her spiritual body’s cultivation was to be suppressed to the Qi Condensation realm; no secret treasures or magical artifacts were permitted—only two or three talismans were allowed, solely for defense and combat.

Had the Dao Lord not specially bestowed upon her a “Ten Thousand Li Illuminating Talisman,” she would have suspected that the usually reckless old Daoist was deliberately mocking her, sending her spiritual body to die in vain.

Yet the “Ten Thousand Li Illuminating Talisman” was not a talisman for attack or killing.

The maiden could not fathom how her Qi Condensation spiritual body could possibly subdue the evil Yin-Sheng Demon, whose power rivaled that of a Cave-Enlightened Alchemist.

“The Dao Lord ordered me to depart too hastily—this spiritual body has not yet mastered any Dao arts; otherwise, how could I have ended up like this…”

Seeing her breath retention nearly exhausted, the maiden dared not wield her flying sword with wide, sweeping motions; instead, she struck again with a palm, summoning six fire dragons that soared upward to attack.

Another half-teacup’s time passed, and her aura of flight had dimmed considerably; despite dashing left and right, she could not escape the encirclement and pursuit of the heavenly demons.

She gritted her teeth, a resolute gleam flashing in her eyes—but before she could act, several bolts of thunder rained down, reducing dozens of surrounding heavenly demons to ash.

The maiden looked up and saw Chen Hang walking calmly toward her, stepping upon mist and clouds, with a thunder-and-fire Lightning Pearl hovering above his head.

Beside him followed a round, plump boy, matching his steps precisely.

“Good! Good! Hero! I misjudged you!”

The green-clad girl, who had been lying there waiting to die, instantly burst into joy:

“You truly are a man of feeling and righteousness, coming specially to save us—how heroic! Are you smitten with my mistress? Good! Good! I’ve taken the liberty of betrothing you to her; when you become a Dao Lord, hurry over to propose!”

Hearing the girl’s extravagant praise, Chen Hang merely smiled faintly, saying nothing.

“You…”

The maiden hesitated a moment, her teeth lightly biting her lower lip, glancing at Chen Hang.

In such a perilous place, could he truly have risked his life to come rescue her?

One must know that before death lies great terror; even a spouse bound for hundreds of years could not act with Chen Hang’s decisiveness.

Had he never hesitated?

“You…”

The maiden’s expression shifted, but before she could speak, she saw thousands upon thousands of heavenly demons surging from the direction Chen Hang had come, like a rising tide!

“What?!”

The green-clad girl stared wide-eyed.

This wasn’t a rescue—this was being chased by heavenly demons with no escape, coming here deliberately to find someone to share the burden!

Put bluntly, he was looking for a scapegoat!

“No wonder younger brother said nothing—he must feel guilty.”

The maiden’s face darkened, coldly glancing at Chen Hang: “You may die if you wish, but why drag me down with you? Are you trying to take me to the underworld with you?”

“Sister misunderstands.”

At last, Chen Hang spoke.

He glanced at the thousands of heavenly demons chasing behind him, then fixed his gaze on the maiden; his expression was not awkward, only a soft sigh:

“When great disaster strikes, we ought to share the same boat—why speak of dragging you down? That is far too distant and cold…”

Combined into one.