Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 477 Blood Curse Spans the Sky, Cracks Through the Evening Clouds, A Thousand Bones Sing a Song of Ghosts (Seeking Donations and Subscriptions!)

A crimson light streaked across the sky, leaving behind a pungent, fishy smell and a venomous curse, as if a festering wound had torn the heavens apart.

However, although the Heart-Eating Demon's escape light was fast, the Heavenly Man's perception was even faster!
"Wow—!"

A clear, melodious cry, capable of piercing gold and splitting stone, suddenly resounded through the sky!

Its voice seemed to come from beyond the heavens, carrying a chilling, pure energy that could cleanse evil spirits and penetrate the netherworld.

The Heart-Eating Demon looked up in horror, and turned his head to see that in the extremely high sky, the clouds were parted as if by invisible claws, and a magnificent eagle with feathers as white as frost appeared.

Its sharp golden eyes, cold and unwavering, were firmly locked onto the fleeing, filthy, bloody light below.

"Bai Ling'er!" The Heart-Eating Demon was greatly shocked when he saw this demon. This giant eagle was none other than the Primordial Spirit Bird Rifting Wind White Rainbow Eagle that Jade Cloud Primordial Lord never parted with!

This bird is most adept at tracking and pursuing; even the slightest movement from afar cannot escape its sight.

Clearly, the Jade Cloud Goddess had sensed the moment her beloved disciple Li Ziqiong fell, and sent a spirit bird to her from thousands of miles away.

The white eagle did not immediately swoop down to attack, but hovered high in the sky, like a merciless witness, or like a slowly tightening net of heaven.

The Heart-Eating Demon repeatedly unleashed his signature bewitching demonic sounds and filthy blood miasma, and even threw out a precious Blood-Breaking Diamond, in an attempt to knock the hairy beast off.

However, this celestial bird was extremely agile. It only followed from a distance, and once attacked, it immediately fled far away. Under such circumstances, no demonic arts or techniques could truly harm this seventh-tier spirit bird.

"Damn beast!" The Heart-Eating Demon was both shocked and furious, and there seemed to be a hint of barely perceptible fear mixed in with it.

The white rainbow eagle's behavior suggests that its owner is probably very close!
For Yuxiao Yuanjun, it was indeed within reach.

Just as the white rainbow eagle let out its first clear cry, the Jade Cloud Sovereign, who was meditating in a secluded valley thousands of miles away, had already opened her eyes.

From the depths of those eyes, which held boundless wisdom and icy starlight, an indescribable grief and overwhelming killing intent suddenly erupted.

“My disciple Ziqiong…” A whispered voice, yet the power contained within seemed to freeze time and space.

Without moving, the space where she sat rippled like water, instantly collapsing and stretching. The next moment, her figure vanished from the spot, traversing endless mountains and rivers in a single step!
Wherever it passed, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth spontaneously parted to create an invisible path, all spirits bowed their heads, and the stars and moon lost their light.

That wasn't flying; it was true teleportation, the path trodden by a mortal immortal who had cultivated to the pinnacle of the mortal realm within the laws of the heavens.

The white rainbow eagle sensed its master's arrival and let out another high-pitched, clear cry, as if indicating its location.

Then, it flapped its wings violently—whoosh whoosh whoosh!

In an instant, twelve white hurricanes, stretching from the sky to the earth, appeared out of thin air.

These hurricanes were no ordinary storms; at their core was the primordial Xun wind essence, condensed to its extreme. They spun wildly, collided and entangled with each other, and forcefully carved out a turbulent passage in the surging and turbulent demonic energy surrounding the Five Evil Mountains!

The storm raged, dispersing the poisonous miasma, tearing apart the dark clouds, and strangling the various invisible, fierce demonic entities that had sprung from the mountain-protecting formation.

The Rending Wind White Rainbow Eagle then retrieved a talisman from deep within its feathers and offered it up.

The talisman was neither gold nor jade, but flowed with a pure and ethereal light. The moment it appeared, it merged with the boundless wind. The talisman formed a huge eye in the void, like the eye of the Heavenly Dao, illuminating the entire Five Evil Mountains with its majestic and cold light.

Under this talisman, even the deepest hidden Yin Sha nodes and spatial folding traps were revealed one by one.

The Star-Fixing Talisman, once activated, sealed off all intercontinental and inter-realm teleportation arrays within the Five Evils Mountain, turning it into a deadly area within two hours.

The white rainbow eagle, having completed its mission, landed on a lone pine tree atop a mountain not yet completely tainted by demonic energy. It gracefully preened its frost-like feathers, its golden eyes still sharp, leisurely awaiting the arrival of its master.

At the end of the storm passage, the ripples in the void suddenly intensified.

A glimmer of starlight appeared from the endless distance, then rapidly expanded. There was no earth-shattering pressure spreading, only a silence that froze everything, and an all-knowing indifference that accompanied it.

A female Taoist priestess, dressed in a pristine white robe, emerged slowly from the center of the storm vortex, stepping onto invisible steps, and hovered above Mount Wuxie.

The newcomer was none other than the Jade Cloud Sovereign. Her beauty was unparalleled, and her temperament was as cold and aloof as ancient ice. There was no dazzling light or color around her, but she naturally exuded a sense of solitude and detachment, as if she were aloof and viewed all living beings as mere pawns, high above the heavens.

She lowered her eyes and looked down at the Five Evils Mountain, shrouded in dark clouds and churning with demonic energy.

The mountain's steep slopes resembled a horde of ghosts guarding the cliffs, their dark purple walls shimmering with a viscous, blood-like aura. Everywhere were jagged, bizarre rocks, withered vines entwined with decaying bones, and a faint, mournful wail echoed in the wind. This place was hell on earth, a paradise for demons.

To the surprise of Yuxiao Yuanjun, apart from the wailing and churning of the mountain-protecting formation and the sound of evil energy rolling, there was not a trace of life on the entire mountain!

There were no panicked demon sons and grandsons fleeing, no formations attempting to counterattack, and even... the usual clamor and revelry in the demon cave had vanished!
In this world, only deathly silence remains.

Yu Xiao Yuanjun frowned slightly. With her unparalleled cultivation and abilities, her divine sense had already surged into the depths of the Five Evil Mountains like an invisible tide.

Wherever he went, the palaces and pavilions remained, the alchemy furnaces were still warm, and countless blood banners and demonic talismans still hung there, but... all the cultivators who should have been inside, whether they were powerful demonic lords, lowly soldiers in the Qi Refining stage, or even those domesticated demonic beasts and pets... had all disappeared!

Or rather, their flesh, blood, spirit, and every trace of their existence were completely devoured and refined by some extremely domineering and greedy demonic secret technique... leaving only withered, emaciated skeletons with distorted faces, retaining the horrified despair of their last moments, silently scattered within the cold stone steps, passageways, and caves.

The pungent, nauseating stench of blood, death, and resentment permeated every inch of space—the final lamentations of countless souls crushed and drained in an instant!
At the core of the mountain, where the array's eye is located, the demonic energy is so intense that it has almost solidified into a viscous, dark red ocean.

A figure sat cross-legged on a black lotus platform in the center of this boundless sea of ​​blood. It was none other than the Heart-Devouring Demon, or rather... a middle-aged Taoist priest in the body of the Heart-Devouring Demon!
At this moment, the "Heart-Eating Demon" had undergone a drastic change in appearance. His originally rugged, red-haired face was completely distorted, his eyes were sunken, and his pupils were no longer pure demonic blood light, but had transformed into incomparably ferocious beast eyes, flashing with madness, sorrow, and a deep-seated hatred that had been accumulating for thousands of years!

His once magnificent blood-red robe was now tattered, and a hideous, roaring black tiger head tattoo had appeared on his exposed chest!

The tattoo seemed to be alive, constantly consuming the demonic energy and resentful spirits from the sea of ​​blood beneath it, exuding an ancient and savage aura of malevolence.

"Heh heh..." A hoarse, dry laugh escaped his throat, grating like the friction of rust, echoing through the deathly silent Blood Sea Demon Palace.
"Yu Xiao! Yu Xiao Yuanjun! You've finally arrived! I've waited for you... for a full three thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight years, nine months, and three days!!"

The voice was no longer purely the evil of a demon, but also mixed with the roughness of a hunter, and the desperate roar of a husband and a father.

The figure of Yuxiao Yuanjun had silently appeared above the blood sea space inside the mountain.

Her gaze, like a cold star, pierced through the viscous blood waves and landed on the face of the Heart-Eating Demon on the lotus platform.

That face, distorted by hatred and an overload of power, still vaguely retained the outline of a valiant hunter from years past.

This reminded her of: Western Shu.

A place name so distant it was almost forgotten on the long path of immortality. For her, it was nothing more than a trivial "dust-clearing" task on her journey.

Location: Western Shu, on the edge of a mountain range, a dilapidated mountain village. Time: 3,700 years ago.

Memories are not as clear as they were yesterday; they are more like a painting that has been blurred by time and re-imprinted by blood and fire.

That was not a natural tiger plague! It was everywhere, not just hundreds, not just thousands.

Starving beasts had forgotten the meaning of fear of humans. The fields and houses reeked of blood and decay. The roar of tigers sometimes came from afar, sometimes from near, like a death warrant haunting the hearts of every living creature.

During the day, no one in the village dared to go out; at night, even with all the oil lamps extinguished and the doors and windows locked, it was still difficult to feel at ease.

However, tigers are creatures with sharp claws and strong teeth, and walls are nothing to them. Often, the sound of doors and windows being smashed and cracked suddenly rang out, followed by heart-wrenching screams, the terrifying sound of bones breaking, and then the sound of greedy chewing and devouring that filled the night sky.

There were even strong, demonic tigers that could leap over walls and ridges with the agility of a nimble ape, snatching away children huddled in corners, their cries piercing the sky.

Even the river could not stop its ferocity. Once, a group of demonic tigers swam across the river in pursuit of their prey, their dark heads floating on the turbulent water, a sight that made one's scalp tingle and was hard to believe!
A plague-like despair gripped western Sichuan. Government troops launched several campaigns, suffering heavy losses and achieving little. Ordinary people were like lambs to the slaughter, their bones exposed in the fields, and for miles around, not a rooster crowed.

At that time, the young Jade Cloud Primordial Sovereign, whose Daoist name was not yet "Jade Cloud," was an unparalleled genius disciple of a cultivation lineage. She was on her master's orders to travel the mortal world, tempering her Daoist heart, slaying demons and monsters, and eradicating wicked and immoral worship. Passing through Western Shu, what she saw and heard was devastation: corpses littered the fields, people were gone, villages were in ruins—a scene of such horror that even this novice Daoist elite was horrified. She concluded that such a massive tiger plague was not a natural disaster, but rather the work of demons!

Following the place where the malevolent energy and the blood energy of living beings were most concentrated, she tracked down to a temple built in a dangerous and treacherous place on the shady side of the mountain.

The temple occupied a large area, with well-arranged halls and pavilions, yet it exuded a heavy, bloody, and chilling aura, with the lingering incense smoke mixed with the stench of beasts.

Above the temple gate hangs a plaque with three large characters: "Temple of the Subduing Tiger God". In front of the temple, there are more than a dozen robust tigers lying obediently, like loyal dogs.

The temple enshrines a statue of a burly man with a tiger bone crown, a mottled animal skin, and a fierce face—Chen Xun!
Yu Xiao Yuanjun's divine sense swept over the area, and she instantly understood. The temple's incense and beliefs were a chaotic mess, mixed with the resentment of countless unjustly killed people and the essence of tiger demons. The "servants of the gods" serving in the temple also carried a strong aura of flesh and blood... This was a wicked and lewd shrine that used human blood and souls as sacrifices!
The temple master, Chen Xun, is a practitioner of the "Tiger Fiend Star Secret Manual"!
Under the guise of driving away and killing tigers, he secretly used evil magic to control a group of tigers and create panic, forcing the people of Western Shu to offer up living flesh and blood to sustain his cultivation. He also coerced the people of Western Shu to build temples, statues and biographies for him, attempting to achieve the status of an evil god!

These evil gods feed on the people and are far more insidious and vicious than ordinary demons!
With a clear and pure Daoist heart, the Jade Cloud Primordial Lady felt a surge of righteous indignation to vanquish demons and protect the Dao. She acted without hesitation, without issuing any announcements. The order to destroy mountains and temples was already in her hand, and the sword to slay demons and eliminate evil was at her side.

On that day, the clear blue sky above the Fuhu Temple was suddenly transformed by a dramatic change in weather. A figure in pure white arrived on a sword, his voice as cold as ice from the heavens:
"Evil spirits and false gods, how dare you usurp the offerings of incense and poison the lives of the people! You should be punished!"

The sword light! Its brilliance and chilling cold are beyond description.

Like a galaxy descended from the heavens, it was enveloped in unparalleled Daoist charm and lightning!
With a single sword strike, the majestic beast bone archway before the temple shattered with a deafening roar, and the crouching demonic tiger instantly turned to ashes. The sword energy pierced straight through the main hall!
The ferocious statue of the "Tiger-Taming God" was enveloped by a chilling sword intent as the statue was met with utter horror. Before the sword light even reached it, countless cracks had already appeared on the golden body of the statue!

Chen Xun roared out from behind the hall, his body a mixture of demonic power and incense divine power, which transformed into a solid black tiger shadow that rushed straight at the sword light.

He even recognized the female immortal before him—he had seen her portrait before; she was the most outstanding genius disciple of the orthodox immortal sect in the Tongtian Dharma Realm!

Yu Xiao Yuanjun felt only cold killing intent towards such evil spirits. With a change in her sword technique, she split into two streaks of light.

With a single sword strike, the demon vanquished! The sword energy pierced through the tiger's shadow, heading straight for Chen Xun's vital heart!
A single sword strike shatters a god! A powerful sword aura swept through the hall, aiming to utterly destroy the evil god!
"Husband—!!!" A heart-wrenching female voice suddenly rang out!
A slender yet resolute figure rushed out from the inner chamber behind the hall, desperately shielding Chen Xun! It was Chen Xun's childhood sweetheart and wife, with whom he had shared life and death, a woman he had also brought onto the path of cultivation, who, despite her shallow cultivation, was willing to give everything for him!

How exhilarating and sharp is Yu Xiao's sword? In slaying demons, it never holds back even the slightest bit.

"Pfft!" The cold blade easily pierced the woman's soft, warm chest, the sword energy exploding within her body, bursting into a tragic burst of blood. She didn't even have time to say anything more, only using her last strength to turn her head and look at her only son, no more than ten years old, rushing out from the side room behind her, his face full of innocent horror, his eyes filled with pleading and reluctance in farewell.

The chilling aura of the sword piercing her chest and the excruciating pain of losing her life not only ended the woman's life, but also, like the sharpest ice pick, pierced deeply into the eyes of the ten-year-old child hiding behind the hall and Chen Xun, whose eyes were almost bursting with rage!

The child's astonishment, confusion, and fear, followed by his face being instantly overwhelmed by immense grief and turning into a distorted, agonizing scream... were branded into Chen Xun's soul and unintentionally imprinted into the cold eyes of Yu Xiao Yuan Jun.

The moment the woman collapsed, the child let out a horrific scream, lunging at Yuxiao Yuanjun with a deep-seated resentment: "Mother—!! Give me back my mother!!!"

Yu Xiao Yuanjun's brows remained unmoved, her will as firm as iron. With a flick of her sword, she mercilessly enveloped the onrushing child: this child possessed the bloodline of an evil god and had already begun his cultivation in the demonic path; keeping him alive would bring endless trouble.

"Tiger!!!" Chen Xun let out a roar like a wild beast on its deathbed. In that instant, the potential that burst forth broke free from the slight hesitation of the sword intent and pushed the child away without regard for anything else.

But that was all he could do. A cold sword light flashed, and the child's voice abruptly stopped... along with that faint, bewildered spark of life, was completely extinguished.

Chen Xun watched helplessly as his wife and son's bodies fell before his eyes, warm blood splattering all over his head and face.

His last memory was of that figure, pure white as snow, holding a blood-dripping longsword, indifferently sweeping over him and the blood-soaked, ravaged temple.

Then came the devastating rain of swords, the golden statue collapsed, the palace crumbled, and the serving "servants of the gods" turned to ashes amidst screams...

Because his foundation was still shallow and he was burdened with the ferocious aura of a tiger, he was severely injured by the backlash of the shattered divine kingdom and the aftershocks of Yu Xiao's sword. He managed to escape with a wisp of his soul by relying on the secret technique of Blood Escape, and fled into the Yin Sha land deep in the mountains. From then on, he kept company with insects and decaying bones, licking his wounds every day and swallowing endless hatred...

Thousands of years!
From a wisp of remnant soul barely clinging to life, to seizing, devouring, and cultivating the most insidious and dangerous Heart-Eating Demon Art... He has slaughtered cities, destroyed countries, and devoured countless souls and refined countless spirits, and has long since become the Demon Ancestor "Heart-Eating" who strikes fear into the hearts of cultivators in the Tongtian Realm!
The only obsession that sustained him through countless hellish trials was revenge!
Find that white-clad fairy, the "Jade Heavenly Sovereign"! Even if it means being shattered to pieces and having my soul scattered, I will drag her down to the deepest abyss with me!
In the center of the Blood Sea Demon Palace, Chen Xun (the Heart-Eating Demon) on the lotus platform slowly raised his head.

Turbid tears mixed with thick blood streamed down his beast-like eyes; those tears contained only hatred, nothing else.

"Do you see that? Yu Xiao!" His voice was like the grinding of sand, yet also carried the deep roar of a tiger:

"In the land of Western Shu, tigers plagued the people, causing widespread suffering. A hunter named Chen Xun found the 'Tiger Demon Star Secret Manual' in the mountains and mastered the art of driving away fierce tigers. He then made a pact with the people of Western Shu to drive away the tiger menace. The people of Western Shu built temples and buildings to worship Chen Xun for five hundred years without decline."

"I killed tigers and ate people, and practiced magic. My crimes are unforgivable. If you want to kill me, then kill me. Why have you wiped out my entire family!"

"I didn't release that tiger calamity. It was the previous generation of cultivators who practiced the secret manual. After he used the technique, he went into a qi deviation and died. I just accidentally picked up his remaining Taoist book."

I am but a mortal, yet I have received this opportunity. Outside, tigers ravage the land; to practice the Dharma is to die, and not to practice the Dharma is also death. What can I do? What can I do?

At the same time, outside the Five Evils Mountain, three thousand white bone pillars shot out black and red beams of light, weaving a blood-red net that covered the sky a thousand feet high, encircling and covering the Heart-Eating Old Demon and Jade Cloud Yuanjun.

Without the teachings of the Evil Ancestor, even with the Heart-Eating Demon's aptitude for array formations, he would never have been able to control the "Ten Absolute Yin Sha Array of Ten Thousand Spirits Returning to the Void".

This is a sixth-order superior-grade formation connecting to the earth's veins. Within this formation, Nascent Soul cultivators can compete with Deity Transformation cultivators.

Yu Xiao Yuanjun's cultivation and magical power have reached near the pinnacle of this realm, but under the cover of this formation, facing Chen Xun, the Heart-Eating Demon Ancestor who has cultivated obsessions into inner demons and has fallen into complete madness, even Yu Xiao Yuanjun is in a life-or-death crisis.

"So... this arrangement was actually the work of Senior Brother Hunxie, who wanted to kill me here."

Yu Xiao Yuanjun looked around, and despite facing great danger, she remained calm.

Given the current cultivation levels of the Heart-Eating Demon Ancestor and Jade Cloud Primordial Sovereign, it's one thing if they don't meet, but once they do, Jade Cloud Primordial Sovereign will know the whole story of what happened back then without even needing to calculate, and she will realize that she is in the wrong.

Destroying mountains and temples to wipe out blood-eating ghosts and gods is something that orthodox religious practitioners should do.

However, Chen Xun's family's situation was ultimately understandable. Moreover, the temple of Chen Xun's Tiger-Taming God was built to drive away the tiger threat and protect the people of Western Shu. Such a cause and effect had already disrupted the cultivation of Yu Xiao Yuan Jun.

"In this life, I have followed the Tao and done good deeds. Although there have been oversights and mistakes, I have ultimately accumulated millions of merits. Heaven is just and impartial. I do not believe that I will perish here."

Accompanied by such whispers, Yuxiao Yuanjun unleashed the Nine Heavens Yuxiao Mystic Light to protect her body. Streams of mystic light intertwined and circled around her figure, forming an array that was incomparably sacred, as if a celestial deity had descended to earth.

"That's right. You have accumulated millions of merits through your daily good deeds. Therefore, as long as you survive this tribulation of mine, you will surely be able to attain enlightenment and ascend to the heavenly realm, where you will enjoy a long life of at least tens of thousands of years."

"But my obsession has clouded my judgment, leading me to commit evil deeds daily and accumulate a million sins. Therefore, even if I kill you today, my fate will be to ascend to the ancient demon realm, where I will be condemned to eternal damnation, never to be free. Hahahahahahahahahahaha... But I am willing to accept it."

At this moment, Chen Xun sat upright on the Blood Sea Demon Lotus, completely sweeping away the malevolent and demonic energy, his mind clear and he understood the cause and effect of good and evil.

"Today, this Five Evils Mountain! The spirits, flesh, and blood of all the demons and evil spirits on this mountain! Along with my own body and life! I will offer them all as a sacrifice to my wife and children in Western Shu!!"

He clasped his hands together abruptly, then suddenly and violently tore them apart, as if taking off a piece of clothing, tearing off a large patch of skin from his chest and abdomen, leaving it bloody!

A raging torrent of blood-red demonic flames erupted from his chest... The crimson light slashed wildly across the Five Evil Mountains, like streaks of blood and tears flowing from the heavens.

The Ten Deadly Yin Sha Formation of the Myriad Spirits Returning to the Void had already unleashed its full power. The black and red demonic light emanating from the three thousand white bone pillars intertwined into a net. What was condensed inside was no longer ordinary Yin energy, but the overwhelming resentment and evil released in an instant when countless demonic cultivators perished. It carried a vicious karmic force that was enough to erode immortal bones, as if it wanted to refine this world and return it to the despair and nothingness before the chaos was created.

The sea of ​​blood still churns, and the murderous aura still gnaws at the bones.

"Ah Zhu, Hu'er, your father has avenged you... Your father is coming to find you now."

A thousand miles around the Five Evils Mountain collapsed with a deafening roar. Amidst the smoke and dust, only two beams of white and red light floated in the air. Moments later, they spontaneously combusted without fire, and the ashes scattered with the wind…

Outside the mountain, a white eagle cried out in anguish, flying back and forth before finally taking flight into the heavens. In the distance, several golden insects, dragging their heavily wounded bodies, crawled further and further away.

This feud, which had lasted for three thousand years, has finally come to an end. It is said that:
A blood curse rips through the evening clouds, while jade feathers shatter the miasma and ride the wind and thunder.

The talisman seals the six stars as a lock, and the array rises, causing a thousand corpses to sing ghostly songs.

The bones of the Tao cannot shed the tears of injustice, and the devil's heart will eventually turn into a sacrifice to the soul.

A tear in the robe, a howl of hatred for Western Sichuan, sweeping across the mortal world and burning the jade sky.

(End of this chapter)