Chapter 573 5: Celestial Demon Slaying Immortal Technique

"I appreciate the Demon Lord's concern."

The Golden Giant Buddha, formed from Fang Cheng's Life Soul, replied calmly.

He had fought the Demon Lord's incarnation over a hundred times in the Spirit Ruins Treasure Realm and no longer felt any fear toward him.

Now that he had broken through to the Tribulation Realm, his power had soared. Deep down, he was eager to see who was truly stronger: himself or the Demon Lord's incarnation.

The young man in the white shirt smiled. "You killed my beloved disciple and my Demon Servant. I certainly won't let you have an easy time today."

The Golden Buddha placed its palms together. "I await your instruction, Demon Lord."

...

Just as Feng Yan saw Fang Cheng successfully pass the three tribulations and was about to offer her congratulations, her dark brows furrowed slightly.

She sensed a lofty, unfathomable demonic intent suddenly emanating from Fang Cheng.

Under the shroud of this demonic intent, both Fang Cheng and the entire Feather Divine Soldiers began to undergo a strange transformation.

Clusters of Demonic Light emerged in the void, swarming toward the Feather Divine Soldiers.

Behind the Feather Divine Soldiers, a Yin Yang Vortex appeared. A Cyan Lotus emerged from the yin and yang, emitting layers of divine light to confront the Demonic Light.

Both the Demonic Light and the Cyan Lotus's divine light contained a supreme and profound mystery. Even Feng Yan felt her Dao Heart waver upon seeing it. 'How powerful!' she inwardly exclaimed.

'He's refining the demonic intent...'

Feng Yan understood Fang Cheng's current situation. Knowing that external forces would be of no help, she continued to act as his Guardian, waiting for him to completely overcome this celestial tribulation.

...

「Somewhere above a vast, boundless sea in the Profound Nether Domain.」

Above a vast, roiling sea of snow-white clouds stood a majestic and towering Immortal City.

The city was filled with tall buildings, flickering with strange lights and brimming with an immortal aura.

Outside the Immortal City's four main gates, streaks of Escape Light constantly rose and fell. A dazzling array of transports filled the air: Flying Celestial Chariots, mobile palaces, cloud carts, Barbaric Beast Mounts, Flying Swords, and Spiritual Boats. The scene was one of extreme prosperity, a perfect picture of a flourishing world of cultivation.

This place was the number one power in the Profound Nether Domain, the Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace Immortal City.

The city stretched a hundred li from north to south and a hundred li from east to west. It stood upon a sea of clouds, suspended high in the void, directly over a Spirit Acupoint in the Profound Nether Domain's sea. This Spirit Acupoint was comparable to a Tier Five Spiritual Vein, constantly devouring immense amounts of the world's Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. As a result, the city was one of the foremost Sacred Lands for cultivation in the Profound Nether Domain.

In the center of the Immortal City was a majestic mountain that overlooked the entire city. At its peak was a cluster of resplendent, golden-roofed palaces.

One of these, a magnificent circular hall with a dome, was a hundred zhang tall and stood at the very highest point.

Inside the hall, the floor paved with Red Gold was smooth, level, and spotless.

In the center of the floor was a circular totem composed of countless Spiritual Mechanism gears, rotating slowly with an extraordinary and divine air.

A middle-aged monk in a magnificent purple-gold robe sat cross-legged in the center of the totem, his body surging with vast and mighty Magical Power that flowed like the tide.

He sat as still as a mountain with his eyes slightly closed. From the neck down, his entire body was forged from Profound Gold Spiritual Mechanisms. It gave the strange impression of being a perfect combination of a dozen or so Fifth-rank Magical Artifacts.

But from within his Spiritual Mechanism Body, a powerful and vibrant life force emanated, as if an ancient, ferocious beast lay dormant inside.

At a certain moment, the middle-aged monk seemed to sense something and suddenly opened his eyes.

His eyes had also been modified into Mechanical Prosthetic Eyes, with countless runes flowing within them, deep and vast.

In the void before the monk, a ball of Demonic Light swirled and manifested the figure of a young man in a white shirt.

"This humble monk pays his respects to the Demon Lord."

Seeing this, the monk immediately rose and bowed.

The Demon Lord said coolly, "I am currently unable to spare an incarnation. Go in my stead and capture someone for me."

With that, a stream of light shot out and landed between the middle-aged monk's brows, revealing to him Fang Cheng's appearance and current location.

The monk nodded. "I will obey the Demon Lord's command."

The Demon Lord's gaze turned cold as he added, "This boy is a grave threat to me. If you cannot capture him, you must execute him on the spot."

The monk placed his palms together, recited a mantra, and said in a deep voice, "This humble monk will do everything in his power."

The Demon Lord grunted in acknowledgment, and his figure vanished.

The middle-aged monk stared at the spot where the Demon Lord had disappeared, silent for a moment.

Eighty years ago, while traveling the Outer Void, he had chanced upon the Demon Lord. The peerless demon easily subdued him and branded his divine soul with a soul imprint, turning him into one of the Demon Lord's four Demon Servants.

Although the Demon Lord had given him a great deal of guidance on the Mechanical Spirit Dao, his path in this life was now completely bound to the Demon Lord.

His only hope was that after the Demon Lord refined the Red Profound Realm into a Demon Country, he could strive to earn the Demon Lord's favor and safely pass his own celestial tribulations.

If he could perform a great service for the Demon Lord in the future and be "sent up" to the Spiritual Sky Realm, it wouldn't be a bad path forward.

According to the Demon Lord, in that Spiritual Sky Realm, there were even Demon Country Grotto Heavens established by great demons comparable to Spirit Immortals, which could stand on equal footing with the cultivators of the Profound and Buddhist Sects.

The Demon Lord also planned to go to the Spiritual Sky Realm in the future.

*

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「Fang Cheng's Sea of Consciousness.」

The Golden Giant Buddha held dominion over the center of the Sea of Consciousness, radiating an aura of serene freedom, purity, and eternal immortality.

The Demon Lord stood in the distance, his hands clasped behind his back.

Behind him, a great blue-black serpent a hundred zhang long was coiled in the sky, wrapped around a withered, deathly-gray hand.

An evil aura descended. The intent of decay, depravity, and filth transformed into vast waves of deathly-gray light that continuously battered the Buddha Light surrounding the Golden Giant Buddha.

The withered, deathly-gray hand seemed to be a condensation of infinite evil, seeking to drag Fang Cheng into an abyss of sin. The mere sight of this hand gave one the feeling of being polluted and corrupted.

The Buddha Light around the Golden Buddha was vast and bright, seemingly endless, but under the assault of the deathly-gray light, it began to flicker and waver.

Even more strangely, the Buddha Light was showing signs of being penetrated and contaminated.

The Demon Lord chuckled nonchalantly. "A pity. The one visiting you today is merely a wisp of my Demon Sense left within the Celestial Dao Origin. If I had come in person, you would have already..."

Before he could finish, a mass of Chaos Qi suddenly erupted from the opposing Golden Buddha's hand. An ancient gateway stood tall within the Chaos Qi, its surface carved with ancient and mysterious text.

*The Mixed Element Seven Tribulations Diagram: Profound Nether's Return to Oblivion.*

An extremely strong Devouring Power suddenly surged from within the ancient gateway.

In an instant, a massive black hole seemed to appear around the Golden Buddha, completely devouring all the deathly-gray light.

The next moment.

The black hole expanded abruptly, swallowing the entire Sea of Consciousness.

Fang Cheng's Sea of Consciousness became a realm of absolute black nothingness, with only the Golden Giant Buddha sitting cross-legged in the center, holding the ancient gateway in its hand.

The Golden Buddha said calmly, "Even if you had come in person today, you could do nothing to me."

A moment later.

The black hole retracted back into the ancient gateway.

The Sea of Consciousness returned to its original state, but the Demon Lord's figure was gone.

...

「In the outside world.」

The Demonic Light dissipated. Fang Cheng recalled the Feather Divine Soldiers and turned to Feng Yan. "I'll have to trouble you to continue standing guard, Fellow Daoist. I need to consolidate my Cultivation."

Feng Yan nodded, her expression slightly strange.

Fang Cheng released the Golden Radiance Tower Ship, entered a pavilion alone, sat cross-legged, and quickly entered a state of selfless oblivion.

The Golden Radiance Tower Ship hung silently in the void, while below it, the sea of clouds surged and rolled endlessly by.

Feng Yan stood at the ship's prow, her thoughts turbulent and her feelings mixed.

Her life had been full of ups and downs and she had endured many hardships. Her breadth of experience was second to none among the Tribulation Realm Great Powers.

But today, she had witnessed Fang Cheng, once a mere Life Soul Cultivator, step into the Tribulation Realm in such a short time, calmly pass three Celestial Tribulations in a row, and even refine a Demon Tribulation.

The astonishing profundity of the Divine Techniques he displayed during the process had left even her in awe.

'He actually comprehended the Spirit Immortal's legacy to such a degree...'

Feng Yan sighed softly, a hint of loneliness and world-weariness emanating from her.

She hadn't expected the promise she made back then would be fulfilled so quickly.

Since Fang Cheng had passed three Celestial Tribulations in succession, she considered her karmic debt settled and could now return to the Jade Flower Realm.

She wondered if, after her long absence from the Jade Flower Realm, any outstanding individuals had appeared among the descendants of her enemies.

Her enemies were scattered all over the Jade Flower Realm. Her return would inevitably set off another storm of blood and slaughter.

As Feng Yan was lost in her far-reaching thoughts, a seven-colored auspicious cloud drifted over from the distant sky.

The cloud seemed to move slowly, but it was in fact incomparably fast, arriving before them in the blink of an eye.

The auspicious cloud dispersed, revealing a hundred-zhang-tall Black Buddha with a compassionate expression, appearing in the void.

The Black Buddha sat cross-legged on a Dark Gold Lotus Platform. Behind it was a black halo. Its left side was flesh and blood, its left hand forming the Buddhist Sect's mudra of fearlessness.

Its right side, however, was cast from black bronze, like an incomparably precise prosthesis, covered in densely engraved characters of the Rebirth Spell.

Its chest cavity was a hollow latticework of countless gears, and within, a beating Bronze Relic could be faintly seen.

A swastika emblem glowing with golden Buddha Light was embedded in the Black Buddha's forehead, spinning in reverse. Within the black halo behind its head floated a wheel of light made of three layers of rusted gears, which spewed purple karmic fire where they interlocked.

The mechanical sound of chanting drifted over, giving Feng Yan a jarring visual sense of the strange fusion between flesh and Magical Artifact.

Feng Yan raised her eyes to the Black Buddha's left shoulder, where a middle-aged monk stood.

This man was tall and burly, dressed in a magnificent purple-gold robe. His entire body from the neck down was forged from Spiritual Mechanisms. Countless runes flowed within his pair of Mechanical Prosthetic Eyes, deep and vast.

Their eyes met.

A smile that could topple nations appeared on Feng Yan's devastatingly beautiful face.

The middle-aged monk's eyes suddenly exploded, and two plumes of black karmic fire erupted from his empty sockets in a bizarre display.

His Mechanical Prosthetic Eyes, which were claimed to be able to see through the truth and falsehood of all things, could not at this moment fathom the depths of Feng Yan's Cultivation.

'This is bad! The Demon Lord has misled me! How can there be such an expert in this realm?!'

The monk's thoughts raced, and in an instant, the urge to retreat arose.

He didn't know, however, that he couldn't blame the Demon Lord for this. After all, the Demon Lord's true self was countless millions of li away and had only entered Fang Cheng's Sea of Consciousness using a wisp of demonic intent from the Celestial Dao Origin.

He had no idea that Fang Cheng's Guardian was a Great Power at the Eighth Layer of the Tribulation Realm.

This middle-aged monk was a decisive man. He instantly used a Divine Technique, transforming into a streak of Buddha Light and fleeing toward the horizon.

At the same time, the Black Buddha raised its right arm. Countless black cannons appeared on the limb covered in the text of the Rebirth Spell, and they flashed with a blinding light aimed at the Golden Radiance Tower Ship.

In a single moment, tens of thousands of dragon-shaped light cannons, all covered in the text of the Rebirth Spell, were fired.

The void trembled as thousands of bright, dazzling crystal beams shot through the heavens and the earth, striking directly at the Golden Radiance Tower Ship.

Feng Yan sneered. "Since you've come, don't bother leaving."

A terrifying aura emerged behind her, and the phantom of a ferocious beast quietly appeared.

It had the body of an ox, the tail of a dragon, and nine vicious, savage serpent heads that let out a silent roar as they spewed watery light.

*Celestial Demon Slaying Immortal Technique*—Ancient Demon Saint, Jiu Ying!

A vast, boundless expanse of watery light instantly spread out for a thousand li in every direction.

The next moment, everything within the watery light was annihilated, disintegrated into fine particles invisible to the naked eye.

This included the Black Buddha, the tens of thousands of dragon-shaped light cannons, and the middle-aged monk who had fled to the far reaches of the sky.

Body and soul, utterly destroyed!

The phantom of Jiu Ying slowly dissipated. Feng Yan, as if she had just done something trivial, leisurely watched as the watery light filling the sky transformed into a fine drizzle that sprinkled down upon the surface of the sea.

...