Su Su rushed all the way toward the forbidden grounds.
Following the path she had tracked with her Divine Sense last time when trailing Tantai Jin, she could feel the eerie gazes of the Blood Ravens lurking in the shadows.
Chongyu asked, "Su Su, are you alright?"
Su Su silently shook her head.
Tantai Jin's words had naturally not left her unaffected. She had moved past that history, resolved to return to him, only for him to claim it had all been a cruel jest.
Before her stood a transparent Barrier, which the Blood Ravens avoided with fearful reverence.
"We've reached the Profound Return Array."
Su Su raised the ring in her hand, and the Barrier dissipated. She hesitated for a moment, pausing just before stepping into the array.
"What's wrong?" Chongyu asked.
Su Su stared at the ominous array before her and said, "Tantai Jin gave me this ring willingly. He knew I would come here. Now that he's the Demon God, why would he let me destroy the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array?"
Chongyu asked, "Is there danger inside?"
Su Su shook her head. "Danger isn't the issue. The worst-case scenario is far more terrifying than mere danger."
She cast a deep glance at the Profound Return Array and, at the last moment, withdrew her foot, stepping back outside the Barrier. The Barrier slowly closed, returning to its original state.
"Su Su?"
Sensing the unnatural stillness around them, Su Su decisively said, "Something's wrong. Let's go!"
Though they were just one step away from destroying the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array, Chongyu reluctantly glanced back at the array.
Su Su formed a hand seal, and in an instant, her figure vanished from the spot.
She had no intention of lingering, focused solely on escaping the Demon Realm.
The moment Su Su disappeared, two figures emerged from the shadows. Jingmie sighed regretfully, "What a pity. After setting up this trap for so long, she still managed to escape."
Jing smiled faintly, though her eyes remained cold, her nails nearly digging into her palms.
Jing said, "We should have just taken the Life Gathering Pearl by force."
Jingmie scoffed. "You want to fight her? Not only is that girl cunning, but that zither of hers alone would be enough to give you trouble. She now has a Demigod Body. If she truly realizes our intentions and destroys the Life Gathering Pearl, none of us will benefit."
Jing clenched her fists and strode toward the Demon Hall.
Jingmie followed behind her, saying, "I know why you're angry, Jing. You think the Demon Lord favors her—that even as a demon, she still holds a place in his heart."
Jing shot him a cold look. "Don't presume to be clever, Jingmie."
Jingmie shrugged.
The two entered Tantai Jin's chambers, where the thick scent of blood hung in the air. The black-robed youth seated on the stone throne was as cold and flawless as jade. Sensing their arrival, Tantai Jin opened his eyes.
Jing reported, "Demon Lord, for some reason, Li Susu didn't enter the array and has left the Demon Realm. The Life Gathering Pearl is still with her."
Tantai Jin leaned back, idly toying with the beaded bracelet on his wrist.
The glass-like translucent beads appeared dull in the Demon Realm, the blood-red threads accentuating his pale skin.
"So?" Tantai Jin raised an eyebrow, smirking at Jing. "Wasn't this your idea? Knowing how stubborn she is, forcing her to reveal the pearl's location wouldn't work, so you devised a plan to make her hand it over willingly."
Jing stiffened and explained, "Li Susu doesn't know the purpose of the Life Gathering Pearl. Had she entered the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array, the three already-placed pearls would have sensed it, and the Life Gathering Pearl would have automatically returned to its rightful place. She wouldn't have been able to keep it."
"But she didn't enter," Tantai Jin said. "Jing, only the incompetent make excuses."
"Yes," Jing bowed her head. "Demon Lord, what should we do now? If the Life Gathering Pearl were in Ye Chu Feng's hands, it wouldn't be so bad—he's just a half-demon who obtained a fox demon's inner core and can't destroy the pearl. But with it in Li Susu's possession, how do we retrieve it?"
"You can't, but someone else can," Tantai Jin said.
"Who?"
Tantai Jin clapped his hands, and a boy walked in.
Recognizing the boy's appearance, Jing laughed. "Zhang Yuanbai? Does the Demon Lord intend to send Zhang Yuanbai to deceive Li Susu? But she's seen the Illusion Face Pearl's transformations before and won't easily believe illusions. If she realizes our true goal is the Life Gathering Pearl, it could backfire."
Tantai Jin didn't respond. Instead, he removed the beaded bracelet from his wrist—the one Su Su had painstakingly woven for him.
While she had been crafting it, he had silently cast a spell on the beads. Tantai Jin extended his hand, and Zhang Yuanbai struggled helplessly as he was drawn into Tantai Jin's grasp.
The black-robed Demon Lord narrowed his eyes slightly as the power of the Illusion Face Pearl flowed continuously from Zhang Yuanbai's body into his own.
A jade pendant floating in the air slowly transformed into the figure of a young man—handsome yet frail and thin.
The sight left not only Jingmie stunned but even Jing, who hadn't anticipated this.
Tantai Jin could actually absorb others' powers for his own use!
The ability to seize others' powers had existed since ancient times, but it typically only enhanced one's own Cultivation. Yet Tantai Jin, after absorbing Zhang Yuanbai's power, could even animate inanimate objects into living beings!
Not even the ancient Demon Gods had attempted such a feat.
Jing had always doubted Tantai Jin's loyalty. In her eyes, a Demon God missing the Evil Bone was far inferior to the ancient Demon Gods of the past.
She even coldly thought that it didn't matter if Tantai Jin had ulterior motives. Without the Evil Bone, the Demon God's most crucial component, he couldn't destroy the Path of Shared Sorrow—a legacy of the ancient Demon Gods.
Even if all demonic beasts perished, the Path of Shared Sorrow would continue to grow, eventually devouring all things and creating a new world.
But now, she clearly realized that even without the Evil Bone, Tantai Jin himself was a genius capable of mastering anything through analogy.
What terrifying comprehension.
If he absorbed her power, could he also bring about drought, plague, and the resurrection of the dead?
Jingmie and Jing simultaneously lowered their heads.
They knew—this was the first time they had truly submitted to a superior.
Under Tantai Jin's hands, the body of a young man gradually took shape. The boy opened his eyes, his appearance bearing a faint resemblance to the mortal Tantai Jin from five hundred years ago.
Tantai Jin asked, "Do you know what to do?"
The boy curved his lips into a smile. "I do."
"Jingmie will take you out of the Demon Realm. You will bring the Life Gathering Pearl back to me."
As Jing watched them leave, her earlier doubts faded. Seeing Zhang Yuanbai collapsed on the ground, gasping and pale, she suddenly believed that Tantai Jin could indeed retrieve the Life Gathering Pearl.
Jingmie regarded the boy beside him with astonishment.
He knew the Illusion Face Pearl could transform demonic beasts into identical human forms, but this was the first time he'd seen an inanimate object brought to life under its power.
"Can you really retrieve the Life Gathering Pearl?" Jingmie asked.
The boy turned to him, smiling. "Of course."
"How?"
The boy stared straight at him. After a moment, he raised his hands and gouged out his own eyes.
"Hey—!" Jingmie recoiled in shock, too late to stop him. Two trails of blood streamed down the boy's face.
The boy paled but showed no sign of pain. With empty sockets where his eyes had been, he smiled. "Lord Jingmie, this is the method. Would you like to know more?"
Jingmie frowned. "No need."
What a lunatic.
Could someone like this really deceive Li Susu?
After Jingmie and the boy departed, Tantai Jin said, "I will be in seclusion soon. Do not disturb me."
Jing hurriedly replied, "Understood."
"When he brings back the Life Gathering Pearl, we will activate the Path of Shared Sorrow."
Jing smiled radiantly and nodded.
On that day, the world would be theirs. The Immortal Sects and mortals would become nothing more than mud beneath their feet.
The six realms would be filled with overwhelming Demonic Energy. The weak would perish, and the strong would be consumed by bloodlust.
Demonic beasts would no longer need to hide in the barren wastelands of the Demon Realm or live in fear.
Jing led Zhang Yuanbai away.
Tantai Jin rose and walked toward the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array.
Where Su Su had refused to enter, he stepped in without hesitation.
The nine gates of life and death silently rotated. In the world's arrays, there were typically eight directions: "Life, Injury, Rest, Obstruction, Scenery, Death, Shock, and Opening."
He sat at the Life Gate, drew the God Slaying Crossbow, and aimed it at the ninth, nameless gate.
A black arrow shot through the air, piercing the ninth gate. A surge of Demonic Energy erupted in retaliation, striking toward Tantai Jin.
The Life Gate absorbed part of the blow, but the remainder struck his body.
Tantai Jin grunted softly and murmured, "As expected of something an ancient Demon God traded his life for."
Indestructible, enduring for millennia.
Had he not been at the Life Gate, he would have been severely wounded.
Without the Evil Bone, he couldn't destroy the Path of Shared Sorrow.
The God Slaying Crossbow vanished. Tantai Jin stared at the ninth gate and sneered. "How troublesome. So only that one path remains?"
A path he was destined to walk alone.
How infuriating.
He closed his eyes and began absorbing the surrounding Demonic Energy. The Demon God's Seal between his brows grew darker.
Since he had already become a demon, he might as well embrace it fully.
Suddenly, his wrist felt as if it had been lightly tugged. Tantai Jin knew—the boy he had sent out had found his target.
His expression calm, Tantai Jin focused on the images being transmitted to him.
"These two are freaks. Disgusting," said a blue-robed Monster Exterminator. "They haven't eaten or drunk for days, yet this one still won't die."
A tall, thin exterminator frowned at the figure in the prison cart. "Are we sure they're even demonic beasts? We've tried every method we know to kill demons on them, and none have worked."
"Don't talk nonsense!" the blue-robed one snapped.
Their current fame among mortals was entirely due to the wretched man in the prison cart. This man had killed many before being captured, and now that he'd met his end, the people cheered as the exterminators tortured him.
If they admitted now that the man in the cart wasn't a demonic beast, their careers as "Monster Exterminators" would be over.
"If demon-slaying methods don't work, just cut off their heads," the blue-robed one said, a flash of cruelty in his eyes.
The tall exterminator silently acquiesced.
"Tomorrow, when there's a crowd, we'll use a bit of illusion to make it look like they died from demon-slaying methods."
Gongye Jiewu leaned against the prison cart, eyes closed, listening to their discussion.
His body was battered, covered in wounds, yet his expression remained calm and indifferent. From another cart nearby came a faint sound.
Gongye Jiewu knew it was the boy captured two days prior.
They had claimed his eyes could enchant people, so they gouged them out and threw him into the cart, tormenting him daily.
Gongye Jiewu's Spiritual Platform was sealed, his powers gone. But he knew—the boy was just an ordinary mortal.
Hearing they planned to kill him tomorrow, Gongye Jiewu found himself far calmer than he'd expected.
He had long known that the world he protected held both good and evil. Three thousand manifestations, countless lives—each with its own form.
Night fell. The two exterminators drank themselves into a stupor. A figure groped its way to Gongye Jiewu's cart and unlocked it.
Gongye Jiewu opened his eyes. The boy whispered hoarsely, "I can't see. Show me the way. Let's escape together."
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