Chapter 2807: Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods
Moving forward, the earth appeared red-black, as if soaked in blood.
Before long, the two had already ventured deep into this region. The surroundings were eerily silent; aside from their footsteps, no other sound could be heard.
Jue Miao Chan Nu walked ahead, saying, "Zhang Ruochen, before meeting you, all the rumors about you made me deeply disgusted. I intended to kill you with my own hands."
"And now?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
"After meeting you and spending this time together, I find you are not so detestable," Jue Miao Chan Nu said.
Zhang Ruochen laughed sarcastically, "Because I am foolish enough to show kindness and save you multiple times?"
"No!"
Jue Miao Chan Nu said, "If you had not saved me, the first time we met, I would have crippled you, or killed you. I believe you have long suspected my identity, but because you feared my cultivation, you dared not act rashly."
"So, the shift in my feelings from disgust to not disliking you is not because you saved me multiple times. Rather, it is because, when facing powerful enemies, you repeatedly acted to help your friends. Also, because when you saved me, during our time alone, what I saw in your eyes was not a covetous desire for beauty. This is different from the rumors!"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Actually, from the very beginning, I was more willing to believe that you were the disciple of Yuan Yi Ancient Buddha. In my heart, I kept telling myself that you were Hai Shui, that fearless, death-defying Hai Shui who never abandoned me in the face of powerful enemies. Unfortunately, these illusions eventually shattered. Tell me, shouldn't people have fewer illusions?"
Jue Miao Chan Nu moved forward swiftly, her steps as light as the wind.
Zhang Ruochen followed, saying, "You came to the Abyss of Darkness to find Yinxue Tian, right? You once said that Yinxue Tian and the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable had a son. That person should be your ancestor, correct?"
Jue Miao Chan Nu stopped abruptly, her aura turning icy cold. She turned to face Zhang Ruochen, saying, "All of this fault was sown by the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable. Whether it is the Severing Dao Curse or today's calamity, Zhang Ruochen, if you want to blame someone, blame the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable. He planted the evil cause, leading to today's evil effect. Cause and effect, the cycle of heaven's way."
Zhang Ruochen said, "None of us experienced those times. We do not know the truth. On what basis can you determine right and wrong? If right and wrong are the truth, what fault did my Zhang Clan ancestors have? Why should they be cursed? After being cursed, how much slaughter did they endure?"
"Yinxue Tian did not kill them. She only used the Severing Dao Curse to lure out Ling Yanzi and the Mani Pearl. Unfortunately, Ling Yanzi did not appear, and the Mani Pearl did not emerge. So, the reason they died is because they were too weak," Jue Miao Chan Nu said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "In that case, is right and wrong the truth, or is strength the truth? In your eyes, the weak deserve to die and bear everything. Why then argue with me about right and wrong? Do you know that before the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, everyone is weak."
Jue Miao Chan Nu snorted lightly and continued forward without another word.
They circled around the outer area of the Witch Hall, covering nearly ten thousand miles. Along the way, they encountered some dangers, but she easily resolved them.
A desert appeared before them.
Deep within the desert stood seventy-two stone pillars.
Any single pillar, compared to the Heavenly Gate, was far inferior. However, when the seventy-two pillars were arranged together, they were quite spectacular, like divine pillars supporting heaven and earth.
Each pillar bore statues of various forms—humans, beasts, birds—all exuding fierce momentum, as if they could come to life.
Zhang Ruochen looked down and noticed that, although they were still hundreds of miles from the seventy-two pillars, the sand on the ground had turned completely black, ten times blacker than charcoal, and was imbued with dense demonic qi.
"Rustle, rustle."
A black wind suddenly rose in the desert.
The black wind swirled, kicking up sand and dust, forming a tornado.
"Moo!"
Amid the demonic wind and sand, a bizarre demonic shadow, dozens of feet tall, with a human body and an ox head, appeared, wielding a war hammer and striking directly at Jue Miao Chan Nu and Zhang Ruochen.
"Boom, rumble."
Zhang Ruochen sensed that the demonic shadow's aura was even fiercer than that of an ordinary true god, causing the entire ground to shake.
Jue Miao Chan Nu raised two fingers and waved them. The demonic shadow automatically dissipated, reverting to black wind and sand.
She stepped forward, heading toward the seventy-two pillars.
Along the way, black winds continued to erupt, coalescing into increasingly powerful demonic shadows. Some of these shadows were stronger than Dragon-Phoenix Strange Beasts, but they could not stop Jue Miao Chan Nu's advance.
The fragrance of the Udumbara Flower was already very strong, emanating from beneath the seventy-two pillars.
When Jue Miao Chan Nu and Zhang Ruochen approached the seventy-two pillars, the surroundings finally calmed, and no more winds or demonic shadows appeared.
She raised her snow-white head to look at the statues on the pillars, a deep confusion appearing in her eyes.
Zhang Ruochen also looked up. The pillars were taller than mountains.
The pillars themselves were unremarkable, but Zhang Ruochen could sense an invisible demonic pressure. If a pillar fell, it seemed it could crush an entire great world.
On this pillar was carved a handsome, powerful man holding a long saber, his hair disheveled, his brows like mountain ridges, his eyes deep. Every line seemed to align with heaven and earth.
The statue was lifelike, as if the stone man could step down from the pillar.
An ordinary cultivator, upon seeing it, would likely kneel and worship.
"How is this possible…"
The more Zhang Ruochen looked, the more familiar the figure became. He had seen this figure on the River of Time—it was the Heavenly Demon who left behind the "Heavenly Demon Stone Inscription" for future generations.
Why was the Heavenly Demon's statue on this pillar?
Jue Miao Chan Nu said, "He is one of the three demonic sources, the Heavenly Demon. You should not be unfamiliar with him."
Zhang Ruochen clasped his hands and bowed deeply to the pillar.
He held respect and gratitude for the Heavenly Demon.
Jue Miao Chan Nu walked toward the second pillar, saying, "It seems you do not know the legend of the Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods."
Zhang Ruochen's cultivation time was short, his foundation shallow, and he indeed knew little of some ancient secrets of the universe.
But upon hearing "Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods," Zhang Ruochen immediately searched the knowledge left by the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree.
Jue Miao Chan Nu walked and spoke, "The history of the universe is divided into the Recent Ancient, Middle Ancient, and Upper Ancient. The Middle Ancient was brief, only two hundred thousand years. The Upper Ancient, however, was a great era, a very prosperous time, lasting about ten million years."
"Many gods who study history say that the Upper Ancient began with the Heavenly Demon and ended with the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable."
"Although this is not entirely accurate, one must admit that, in terms of cultivation and strength, the peak of the early Upper Ancient was indeed the Heavenly Demon. The peak of the late Upper Ancient was indeed the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable."
"Before the Upper Ancient, there was an extremely chaotic era. Because it is now incredibly distant, it is difficult to study. Therefore, historical records call that era the Chaotic Ancient."
"During the Chaotic Ancient, the Dao declined and the demonic flourished, with the demonic path shaking the universe."
"In that era, a remarkable existence was born—one of the three demonic sources, the Great Demon God. The Great Demon God was born in the Pangu Realm, his cultivation unmatched in the world. He had countless demonic path experts under his command. He then waged war across the universe, unified the Saint Realm, commanded the Ten Clans of Hell, and all the realms of the universe. The war lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, known as the Chaotic Ancient."
"Under the Great Demon God's leadership, the demonic path unified the universe, and no one dared to disobey. Subsequently, the Great Demon God ordered the forging of seventy-two stone pillars from Dark Night Star Mother Stone, carving the seventy-two most powerful demon gods under his command onto the pillars, sealing them as the 'Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods.'"
"The Heavenly Demon ranked first, as the head of the Supreme Four Pillars."
Jue Miao Chan Nu continued, "But the Great Demon God never imagined that it was the first demon god he personally enfeoffed who killed him, ending his demonic dynasty. The Chaotic Ancient ended, the demonic path perished, and the prosperous chapter of the Upper Ancient, with a hundred flowers blooming, began."
"It was the Heavenly Demon who killed the Great Demon God?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Jue Miao Chan Nu said, "In that era, besides the Heavenly Demon, who could be a match for the Great Demon God in a single move?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Even if the Great Demon God died, the demonic path still had the Heavenly Demon and the Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods. How could it have perished so quickly?"
"The demonic path was extreme, bloodthirsty, and cruel. After the Great Demon God's death, the Heavenly Demon also vanished from the mortal world. The Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Gods turned on each other, killing and wounding one another. Eventually, the demonic path declined. After that, no demonic path expert as powerful as the Great Demon God or the Heavenly Demon was ever born," Jue Miao Chan Nu said.
As they spoke, they had already reached the base of the thirty-seventh pillar.
On the pillar was carved an undying bird.
From the knowledge of the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, Zhang Ruochen indeed learned that the thirty-seventh-ranked Seventy-Two Pillar Demon God was the Undying Bird. He wondered if this undying bird was Xiao Hei's ancient ancestor.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Strange. Why are the Seventy-Two Pillar Demon God pillars here?"
"That is also something I am very curious about," Jue Miao Chan Nu said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "The Heavenly Gate disappeared one hundred thousand years ago and was the gate to the Saint Realm. The Seventy-Two Pillar Demon God pillars belong to the Chaotic Ancient, over ten million years ago. The Witch Hall disappeared at the end of the ancient era, probably over a hundred million years ago, or even more. Why do these iconic structures from different eras all appear in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City?"
Just as Zhang Ruochen and Jue Miao Chan Nu were lost in thought, the demon god statues on the seventy-two pillars all had their shadows tremble. The statues seemed to come to life, moving slightly.
Jue Miao Chan Nu tensed up and looked up.
The pillars did not move, nor did the statues.
Zhang Ruochen had also sensed something, saying, "This place is strange. Let's first find the Udumbara Flower."
"Do I need you to teach me how to do things?"
Jue Miao Chan Nu was somewhat displeased, feeling that Zhang Ruochen showed no reverence toward her. She thought she had been too lenient, so she pointed a finger forward.
From her pale, slender fingertip, a chain flew out, wrapping around Zhang Ruochen in circles.
"As a prisoner, you must act like one. I am a great god, and you should be filled with fear. Killing you is but a thought away."
Holding the chain, Jue Miao Chan Nu spoke in a commanding tone, "Now, you walk ahead."
Earlier, when Zhang Ruochen argued with her about right and wrong, he had left her speechless. She had been displeased then, but as a supreme great god, she had to maintain her composure, so she had not erupted.