Chapter 362 - A Chaotic Night

Chapter 362 A Chaotic Night“Wait!” The Old Demon of the Black Mountain stretched his hand, yelling for Xiao Chen to stop. Xiao Chen turned around. “Ten days later. Second floor. Whether you come or not, it’s up to you.”

The Old Demon threw his head back and laughed. “Very well, I appreciate your braveness, kid! I’ll forgo the three kowtows!” His voice suddenly turned cold. “But if you fail, I’ll still swallow you whole!”

Xiao Chen didn’t reply and left in the direction he came in. Behind him, the Ox-head Monster was covered in cold sweat. This kid didn’t even fear the Old Demon of the Black Mountain, he thought. It seemed that Xiao Chen must also be an incredibly vicious person out in the wild.

Back on the second floor, he found the Koo-chee beast waiting for him at the end of the passage. “Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” it cried, running over to him after seeing him return safe and sound. Xiao Chen chuckled and showed the beast his two hands, now filled with four or five orange-red and bright purple fresh fruits. He had conveniently taken them on the third floor on his way back.

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast was overjoyed. Some distance away, the Siberian weasel and his group of demons started salivating. “Those are… Lingering Fragrance Fruits. It’s been so long since we had them…”

“That reminds me of the time when I was young and just imprisoned here…”

Xiao Chen looked at them for a moment before conjuring ten or so of such fruits from his Divine Vessel and tossing them over. The group of demons was stunned and dared not pick the fruit up. On the one hand, they feared the current Xiao Chen. On the other hand, they remembered how they had beaten him up when he first arrived here.

The Siberian weasel demon drummed up his courage to say, “Um… Great Immortal Xiao, did you meet the Old Demon of the Black Mountain?”

Xiao Chen didn’t answer. Only after walking more than a hundred feet away, did he turn his head to reply, “Ten days later.” Then, he returned to his spot.

Under the stone wall, Xiao Chen took a deep breath. He felt exhaustion wash over him. Could he pull off the escape successfully this time? This time, the flight wasn’t the only thing he would do. He must return in the future and save Senior Xiao Ning. However, the Old Demon of the Black Mountain implied that their previous attempts at escaping had all failed.

“Brother Koo-chee, we’re going to leave this place soon. Will you feel reluctant?”

The Koo-chee beast looked around it with its large, blinking eyes. It whimpered, “Wuu… Koo-chee…”

Xiao Chen was stunned. Could the beast be genuinely reluctant to leave this tower? He asked, “How long have they imprisoned you here?”

“Koo-chee… Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The beast blinked its big eyes and shook its head.

Xiao Chen sighed. The Koo-chee beast could no longer remember how long it had been… He turned to look at the group of small demons fighting over the fruits, suddenly finding them to be somewhat pitiful.

The destruction of the Demon Realm forced them into a fate of wandering in the Human World. Yet humans drove them out and hunted them just because they were different. Every year, countless demons died under the might of flying swords, had their Internal Elixirs stolen by immortality-seeking hunters, and callously abandoned by their human lovers after learning about their identity.

Out of the blue, he noticed a problem. Back in Xianyong Sect, he remembered Perfected Immortal Fengxi mentioning how grim the ancient war. In releasing his Primordial Power, the Demon King accidentally caused the collapse of the Demon Realm and led to the third stage of the Annihilation Times—the Age of Dharma Decline.

The five other Realms—the Human Realm, Ghost Realm, Heaven Realm, Devil Realm—ought to have collapsed along with the Demon Realm but ultimately didn’t. The only difference was that cracks appeared between the realms. What happened? Could the rumors be true, that a divine being miraculously saved the living at such a critical juncture?

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” the Koo-chee beast cried, interrupting his train of thoughts. Xiao Chen chuckled and then sighed. These unsubstantial things were better left for another day. He might as well concentrate on figuring out his escape in ten days.

The next day, he once again went down the ninth underground floor. He clenched his hands as he watched the man sleeping inside and said softly, “Senior Xiao Ning, you must have fallen for the trap while executing my Master’s orders back then. I vow that I’ll get you out of here and right the thousand-year injustice against you even if the price I must pay is my life!”

Xiao Chen had no attachment to the Xiao family in Violet Manor. Still, the man in front of him was the true forefather of the Xiao family in the Human World. Without him, the family in the Human World and by extension, him, wouldn’t exist.

Over the next few days, Xiao Chen carefully prepared for his upcoming “prison outbreak” plan. The demons and monsters on the floors above were busy. Many monsters frequently came down to report the latest progress to him. The Siberian weasel demon also served as the messenger, helping him pass on messages to those above.

In just a few days, Xiao Chen’s name had become a household name among the demons. After all, he was someone who could get the Old Demon of the Black Mountain to work with him with just a few words. Simultaneously, the world outside was also experiencing significant turmoil.

A year passed by, numerous significant events happened. Soul-consuming Evil Flowers had blossomed in all parts of the world, many Sect Leaders had gone missing without reason, and the Devil’s sects had been going on a rampage. The terrifying news of them all was the Corpse Refinery Sect teaming up with a deranged Great Devil—a lone-wolf who claimed that he was trapped in the Human World for a thousand years after being entrapped—to attack thousand-year-old ancient sects. No one was strong enough to hold them off.

Meanwhile, countless Orthodox seniors had worked together to seal the Abyss of Devil’s Aura. The damage in Spiritual Meridians that Tianyuan City suffered one year ago had led to the sharp decline of spirit energy and the withering of many plants in a range of several hundreds of miles.

Numerous ancient sects and clans that had lain in seclusion for many years sent their disciples outside to temper themselves through experience. This led to a meteoric rise in many youngsters, and many achieved the real Nascent Soul Realm, surpassing the older generation in numbers. Turbulent times were upon the Violet Manor, and unrest was near. Many in the older generation could feel that the first stage of the Annihilation Times had truly arrived.

Even more shocking was the numerous sightings of auspicious signs or falling of Heavenly Punishments in the five continents in recent days. Rumors had it that someone had ascended to the Grand Completion Realm and achieved immortality. In nearly a thousand years, no one had ever heard of anyone capable of pulling off such a stunt, yet these had been happening at an alarming rate.

Recently, a shocking piece of news went round the East Continent with the speed of an inferno ravaging the prairie and reached the other continents in just a few days.

No one knew who spread the rumor that an extraordinary treasure from the previous Cultivation Era was about to appear in Wuyin Monastery. The treasure was said to contain the secret to the destruction of the last era. Some even said that those who obtain the treasure would get the world, command the outstanding heroes of the world, and demand absolute loyalty from them.

The sudden chaos summoned countless independent cultivators from all over the world to Huai Prefecture. There were even those from the Demon Race among them. The Reminiscence Town was so packed that not even one drop could trickle through. Every tavern was full, including those in several neighboring towns. Many people set up tents under the Karmaless Mountain to watch the emergence of the extraordinary treasure.

Of course, there were scores of cultivators whose verbal disagreements erupt into brawls. Every day, blood would spill. It put everyone else in deep unease. Commoners kept their doors and windows tightly closed, not daring to step out of their houses. Many monks of Wuyin Monastery also came down from the mountain to quell the rumors, but their efforts were in vain.

Days slipped past. More and more people gathered at Reminiscence Town. By the time the ninth day rolled around, it was the fifteenth day of the third month, a day with a gentle breeze and a bright moon. The radiance from the luminous moon spanned a thousand miles, stretching boundlessly on. Flames flickered on the Karmaless Mountain in tight, uncountable clusters.

“The extraordinary treasure is going to emerge tonight! Who knows, the truth behind the end of the previous era may be unveiled tonight!” someone in the crowd yelled.

One person relayed this piece of news to ten, ten to a hundred until a commotion rippled throughout the Karmaless Mountain. Countless men started running up to Wuyin Monastery, either on their flying swords or beast mounts. The monastery was fated to have a restless night. No monk there was asleep, and neither was anyone hitting the Chinese temple block. All of them guarded the entrance of the Daxiong Hall with Dharma rods in their hands, afraid that the mob would destroy their thousand-year-old monastery.

More and more ran up the mountain, making unending clamor. Many tried to take advantage of the crisis to steal scriptures and cultivation methods from the Scriptures Hall. Out of the four Great Divine Monks, only Xuangui, Xuanji, and Xuanle remained. The one with the highest Dharma cultivation, Abbot Xuantong, was still recovering in seclusion after being tainted by the devil a year ago.

“Monks! Hurry up and hand over the extraordinary treasure! That’s considered a heritage of the previous Era! Your Wuyin Monastery shouldn’t dream of keeping it to yourselves!”

“It’s said that followers of Buddha must give up greed, anger, and obsession. How can you monks hog the extraordinary treasure! Hurry up and hand it over!”

“You monks are so shameless! We want to take a look, not take a blade of grass from your monastery! How can you be so miserly?”

The impassioned mob made a ruckus as more and more people joined them on the mountain. Master Xuanji put his hands together. “Amitabha. That’s good enough. I ask that all benefactors here do not trust the rumors you hear. Monks are not liars. There is no extraordinary treasure that you speak of here…”

“You big-eared monk! You’re sure full of nonsense! We saw with our own eyes how an auspicious sign descended on the Karmaless Mountain a few days ago! How can it be fake?”

“Exactly, exactly! Monks! Hurry up and show everyone the extraordinary treasure!”

The clamor refused to die down as everyone became even more agitated. Xuanji exchanged looks with his fellow two Divine Monks. The minor monks behind them gripped their Dharma rods even tighter, their guard raised. They couldn’t step forward and expel these people, for they weren’t Taoist cultivation sects. Followers of Buddha must show courtesy to people with an open heart. In particular, there were so many of them here. In the event of a conflict and shedding of blood, they would genuinely have committed the greatest sin.

Suddenly, the Big Dipper in the sky moved, and the bright moon gradually ascended to the culmination point. A pillar of light descended, shrouding the monastery’s rear mountain. The crowd immediately cried out in surprise. “The extraordinary treasure is here! The extraordinary treasure is here! On the rear mountain! Everyone, let’s go and take a look!”

A commotion broke out in the crowd as everyone frantically ran toward the rear mountain. Countless men also made their way over on their flying swords. Master Xuanji was alarmed. “Oh, no! It’s the Devil Repressing Tower!” He turned to Xuangui and Xuanle and said, “Senior Brother, Junior Brother, guard this place. I’m going to the Devil Repressing Tower!” He immediately transformed into a golden light and flew toward the rear mountain.

Noises and flickering flames filled the entire Karmaless Mountain. Right now, two stood firmly on a tree crown on the top of a mountain ten miles away. Their clothes rustled in the wind. One of them wore a purple-white long gown and a purple-golden gourd around the waist. His pupils were as red as fire. The other had a carved feather fan in hand. His face was as delicate as a piece of white jade, and his clothes were so pristine that they seemed untouched by dust.

“Brother None-flower, this Magnificent Moonlight deserves its reputation indeed. To think it can gather moonlight.”

“Haha! Then, Red-eyed, how do you plan on thanking me?”

“Forget the thanks. I think it’s time to make our move. Watch out for the janitor monk under the tower.”

The two of them propelled themselves forward on their toes and instantly vanished into thin air, leaving behind only several leaves floating in the air.

Right now, the demons had gathered on the second floor of the Devil Repressing Tower. This included the thousand-year-old Tree Demon, the Nightshade King, Old Demon of the Black Mountain, a few other old monsters, and the smaller demons. With Xiao Chen as the leader, the group of demons merged their powers and concentrated it on one spot.

The clamor outside was gradually getting louder, and the entire tower was beginning to rock as well. The howling of countless vicious devils underground erupted. “Let me out! Let me out…”

The Siberian weasel demon was startled. He got so frightened that his legs began trembling. In a shaking voice, he said, “Bad news, Great Immortal Xiao! Did those damned monks find out? The old monk outside is a terrifying force…”

Frowning, Xiao Chen refocused his attention. “Don’t panic! Right now, we can’t withdraw the demon power, or everything will be in vain!” He pressed two fingers together and increased the output of his True Energy, focusing a light beam at the stone wall in front of him.

He, Nightshade King, and the Old Demon of the Black Mountain were the strongest ones here. The other demons would only be useful if they merged their powers and direct it at the stone wall.

It was right at this moment that Xiao Chen detected a very familiar aura.