Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 490 The Five Elements Compass Displays the Vast Universe, Illusion and Reality Rotate, Trapping Demon Immortals (Seeking Rewards and Subscriptions!)

The most powerful aspect of the seventh-order Five Elements Reincarnation Void Array lies not in its attack or defense, but in its ability to evolve forty-nine layers of the Five Elements illusory world.

Once trapped in the formation, a cultivator either needs to be able to see through the changes in the formation and find an opening to break it, or they need to use extremely powerful magic to destroy the forty-nine layers of the Five Elements Illusory World in a very short time.

Why emphasize "in a very short time"?

Because these forty-nine layers of illusory and real worlds will continuously recover and evolve, and the cycle will repeat as long as the spiritual energy continues.

Centered on the Tongxuan World, plus the human cultivators from the surrounding broken worlds, and the demonic heroes brought by Lu Cheng.

Even if all these cultivators were combined, they would still be no match for the Twenty-Four Demon Gods and the Heavenly Army of Ten Thousand Demons.

But at this moment, the two sides are able to fight back and forth, and the losses of the demon race are even greater than those of the human cultivators, all thanks to the advantageous terrain of this formation.

Within the area covered by the Five Elements Reincarnation Grand Array, human cultivators can fight or retreat at will, actively choosing their opponents and using their relatively weaker overall strength to achieve overwhelming numbers and divide and conquer.

Those demon gods with truly powerful magic were trapped in the forty-nine layers of the Five Elements Illusory World. Although they would not be harmed, they were indeed trapped in the formation and could not extricate themselves.

If this continues for a long time, it may truly gradually erode the Heavenly Army of Ten Thousand Demons to the point that it can no longer withstand it.

To the west, the central demon god Bifang spread his wings and landed.

The distant view of the Profound Realm vanished completely; everything before our eyes instantly distorted, disintegrated, and then reformed.
Suddenly, dark clouds filled the sky, thunder roared, and lightning bolts struck intermittently, locking onto Bi Fang's figure in the formation. The space where Bi Fang stood in the void and the surrounding area completely transformed into a vast ocean, with continuous tsunamis reaching hundreds of thousands of feet high.

Bifang is a demon god of fire, so the vast ocean world is used to restrain him.

Several bolts of purplish-red lightning struck simultaneously, forcing Bi Fang to pause.

Immediately afterward, a massive wave crashed down, transforming into a gigantic water dragon that swallowed Bifang whole with its gaping maw. The water dragon plummeted rapidly towards the sea, its enormous body twisting and turning in mid-air.

With a loud thud, it plunged into the water.

The red-robed Taoist, now submerged in the water dragon's body, had a cold expression and had already closed his breath. His demeanor was neither joyful nor sorrowful, but his entire body was wreathed in intense blue flames, resisting the water-based magical power within the water dragon that was constantly trying to invade his meridians.

The water dragon enveloped Bifang as it plunged deep into the sea. Bifang seemed to be constantly squeezed by a tremendous force, which grew stronger and stronger, seemingly without limit.

'What an excellent formation! Humans truly surpass my demon race by a great deal in their mastery of the myriad arts of cultivation!'

Bi Fang's protective magic compressed inward by half an inch, while his azure water-based magic surged even more fiercely into his meridians. Bi Fang's expression changed slightly as a result, and then, in the next moment…

A burst of azure flames suddenly spread out, destroying and burning everything.

At the very center, there was a magnificent demon god with crimson feet and golden claws, roaring proudly through the air and spreading its wings to ignite the heavens.

A vortex of flames spread violently from its body, soaring into the sky, boiling the sea and burning the heavens, purifying everything.

The entire aquatic world collapsed and was burned to ashes in the flames.

When Yinglong, Jiuwei, Bifang, and Xiangliu, the four mid-level demon gods, invaded the formation, they were all blocked by the Five Elements Reincarnation Formation. However, the formation at its current level was undoubtedly unable to stop them. It was fine when it was just testing the formation.

But when these powerful demon gods reveal their true forms and unleash their immense magical power, the collapse of the forty-nine layers of the Five Elements illusory world is only a matter of time.

Even one or two mid-level demon gods might not be able to break this great formation, but with so many demon gods now, plus the Heavenly Army of Ten Thousand Demons, even with human cultivators resisting within the formation, the operation of the entire formation is gradually becoming precarious:
To the west, the fiery flames of Bifang's burning sky fell like rain.

The blue flames did not directly melt through the outermost Five Elements Light Curtain, but rather spread and eroded the barrier like a malignant tumor.

Wherever it passed, the five-colored swirling light emitted a blinding cracking sound.

Below, the area, baked by the terrifying heat through the great array, saw its vegetation instantly reduced to ashes, and its rocks melt into flowing, scorching lava.

Some cultivators with slightly weaker cultivation levels had their protective spiritual light penetrated, and before they could even let out a scream, they were reduced to ashes in the Burning World Azure Flame!

Many more cultivators were scorched by the all-pervasive blazing waves, their minds wavering and their magical power sluggish, disrupting their previously seamless attack rhythm.

"Stabilize your position! Earth element, form the Kun Yuan Immovable Seal!" An old Taoist with white hair and beard roared as he formed a hand seal. A huge, earth-yellow seal phantom rose up, barely protecting a small area and resisting the waterfall of true flames falling from the sky. However, his face was as pale as gold paper.

From the east, the mortal mists of the nine-tailed fox have already seeped in.

The pink mist carried a sweet and alluring fragrance, but the moment it invaded their minds, it ignited all the resentment, fear, anger, and even the most secret desires deep within the cultivators' hearts!
Countless illusions arose, and some cultivators, as if possessed, slashed their flying swords at their former comrades.
A cultivator, his eyes glazed over, tenderly called out his lover's name to the empty space, while the defensive array beneath his feet crumbled inch by inch.

Some even had bloodshot eyes, waving their fists at the sky, as if venting their resentment at the injustice of fate.

The eastern defense line quickly descended into chaos, with the offensive and defensive postures in many areas completely collapsing.

"Guard your mind! Protect your spirit! That's a demonic art to bewitch your mind!"

"Everyone, quickly recite the 'Supreme Sage King's Classic of Constant Purity and Tranquility' to keep your spirit and soul clear and pure, so as to ward off inner demons!"

Some cultivators with strong spiritual senses roared and tried to awaken their companions, but under this widespread mind-controlling technique, such efforts were futile.

To the south, however, lay a desolate, gray-yellow landscape!

Xiang Liu's Netherworld Poison transformed into surging, turbid waves, crashing against the base of the great formation.

That foul power seemed capable of corroding all spiritual energy, not only frantically consuming the earth's spiritual vein essence, which was one of the array's nodes, but also seeping into the ground, turning the originally beautiful battlefield into a swampy wasteland, barren of vegetation, and even causing the spiritual vein's earth energy to emit painful cries.

The cultivators in this area fared even worse. Their protective aura dimmed rapidly upon being tainted by a trace of grayish-yellow aura, their magical power almost came to a standstill, and their physical bodies decayed at a visible rate. Amidst their wails, they were completely swallowed up by the poisonous waves that resembled the Yellow Springs.

"Ah! My legs!"

"My magic... can't be used!"

"help me…"

From all directions, all was in decline; the foundation of the formation crumbled, and the people within were slaughtered. Countless resentments, panic, and despair transformed into a turbid torrent, flowing through the spiritual core of the great formation and surging against Lu Cheng's primordial spirit.

"Trying to sever my arm and disrupt my mind? Is this your 'honorable army'?"

Under these circumstances, Lu Cheng launched another attack from all sides to confront the demon gods. Most of the seventh-tier demon gods fled upon seeing Lu Cheng.

Even if a demon god in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm were to focus solely on defense and try to escape, Lu Cheng would find it difficult to kill him. Even if he could, it would require dozens of times more mental and magical energy.

Raising their heads, high in the sky, Yinglong's cold and ruthless golden vertical pupils and Lu Cheng's calm and unwavering gaze crossed the void and collided once again!
There were no words, no murderous intent, but this instantaneous clash of divine will seemed to stir up an invisible spatial storm between the two!

The silent collision of laws made this ravaged world seem to groan under its unbearable burden.

"Such a tragic scene, such heavy casualties, all orchestrated by you, fellow Daoist. Do you find it satisfying?"

Yinglong asked with a smile on his lips.

"The demon god desires to devour my entire race, or to condemn my race to be reduced to pigs and dogs for generations. If that's the case, then let's fight! Do you think this psychological warfare tactic will work on me?"

"Hahahaha, only someone like this is a worthy opponent to fight."

"Since Fellow Daoist Yinglong has already set up the battle formation, why is there any need to observe further?"

"...After today, the Tongxuan World will be reduced to dust and will never exist again."

"This city of Lu awaits your arrival, to unite and fight!"

The course of the entire battle was constantly shifting and repeating itself.

When the demon god's army first attacked, the cultivators of the Tongxuan realm were at a disadvantage in terms of strength. After the demon god's army used a seventh-order attack formation to greatly weaken the Five Elements Reincarnation Void Formation, the two sides entered the formation and fought. Due to the strength of the human god lords such as Lu Cheng, Yang Xiao, and Wan Miao, the morale of the human cultivators was boosted, and they launched a counterattack.

However, at this moment, with the entry of the mid-level demon god into the formation, the seventh-order formation gradually reached its limit, and the human cultivators continued to collapse and shrink, and the situation became precarious.

……

The light screen of the Five Elements Reincarnation Grand Array trembled violently and twisted under the successive impacts of Bifang's Burning Sky True Flame, Jiuwei's Red Dust Mist, Xiangliu's Nine Netherworld Poison, and Yinglong's Myriad Demon Heavenly Army's boundless evil energy, emitting a mournful cry of unbearable strain.

It was as if the furnace of heaven and earth had overturned, attempting to completely refine this last fortress of the profound mystery.

The void within the array trembled, the spiritual energy became chaotic, and countless array patterns flickered uncertainly. The forty-nine layers of the Five Elements illusory world that had evolved were forcibly squeezed and torn apart, revealing the chaotic undertones.

The pressure surging from the Heavenly Army of Ten Thousand Demons was like a tidal wave, one wave stronger than the next, and most terrifyingly, it was endless and relentless, battering the minds of every human cultivator in the formation.

Despair and deathly silence spread like a plague through the remaining defenses.

In the southeastern detached palace, at the heart of a scene where crimson flames intertwine with ethereal pink mist, two figures collide fiercely on the edge of illusion and reality.

The once beautiful and alluring Lady Wanmiao was no longer the fairy she once was. Her clothes were tattered, her face was stained with blood, and the "Hundred Charms Bewitching Barrier" that had enveloped her had been riddled with countless holes by the all-pervasive mortal mist of the nine-tailed fox.

The mist shifted and changed, sometimes transforming into the deep affection of a heartless lover from the past, sometimes revealing the opulent and alluring splendor of the East Sea Dragon Palace, and sometimes solidifying into the suffocating despair of being bound by a blood pact… Every wisp stirred the strongest emotions and desires within her, eroding her Dao heart and devouring her magical power. The true form of the nine-tailed fox demon remained hidden in the mist, her nine enormous tails stirring the heavens and earth. Each sweep caused a violent upheaval of the primordial energy of heaven and earth, bringing with it a cloying, bone-corroding gale.

She parted her lips slightly, her seductive voice captivating: "Of all the trials of life, the tribulations of love are the most painful. My lady, why toil for that heartless blood pact? Why not come with me to this land of tenderness and become a carefree immortal..."

Lady Wanmiao's eyes were bloodshot, a color scorched by boundless desire and intense struggle.

She let out a shriek, and the Heavenly Evil Seven Emotions Desire Needle suddenly transformed into seven dark rays, piercing straight into the depths of the mist, triggering a backlash from the Nine-Tailed Fox's own immense desires, temporarily halting its attack.

At the same time, she conjured up a net of love threads that danced wildly like serpents, slicing through the surrounding pink mist. However, the moment the Seven Emotions Needles entered the mist, they were completely consumed by the even greater, turbid force of the mortal world.

Suddenly, a faint silver light pierced through the pink mist, so fast that it almost surpassed the ability of divine sense to detect and perceive. Lady Wanmiao sensed it, but there was no way to avoid it.

That silver light, carrying the karmic force of mortal life that annihilates the soul, pierced through her protective immortal light and penetrated her heart!
The excruciating pain instantly brought her to her senses, allowing her to see the cold, mocking killing intent in the Nine-Tails' eyes.

It was not that they were defeated by Taoist magic and supernatural powers, but rather that they were utterly defeated by the irresistible "desire" and "emotion" that were manipulated at their fingertips.

"In the end... I am inferior to this great demon... Lord Lu, I have even lost my life in this battle..." Lady Wanmiao murmured, her eyes vacant, her body disintegrating inch by inch. There was no earth-shattering spread of spiritual energy, only endless desires and passions accompanied by pure primordial spirit essence being greedily devoured by the nine-tailed fox's mortal mist like smoke.

A powerful figure in the demonic sect perished in an invisible entanglement of love.

In the northwest, a land of corpses and bones, filled with malevolent energy, the Blood Skull Demon Lord was locked in fierce combat with a demon god clad in black scale armor and wielding a massive earth-shattering axe.

His Blood Skull Demon Art was incredibly fierce, stirring up towering waves of blood, with countless skeletal ghost heads rising and falling within them, roaring and tearing at the demon god's protective aura.

However, the demon god possessed immense strength, and each strike of its giant axe carried the power of the law of "annihilation," tearing apart the sea of ​​blood.

Although the demon god's body was constantly being torn open with wounds on its scales, it only fueled the ferocity in its bones, making its attacks even more violent.

The Blood Skull Demon Lord grew increasingly alarmed as the fight progressed. The ferocity of this demon god far exceeded his expectations, and his own magical power was rapidly depleting during the confrontation.

They also sensed the power of the various demon gods outside the formation and the pressure from the gradual collapse within the formation.

'If this fight continues, my chances of winning are only 60% or 70%, not to mention there are other demon gods and demon kings.'

'This is bad, this is bad! This broken formation is about to collapse, and that brat Lu Cheng is barely holding on. If we continue this entanglement, he'll surely die!' A crazy thought began to grow in the Blood Skull Demon Lord's mind:
"As long as I can escape into the chaotic star field outside the formation during the chaos, with the Blood Escape Technique of the Ancestor, I might be able to escape alive! This damned Netherworld Blood Pact... I can just hide in the edge of the universe! At a time like this, Lu Cheng might not care about me!" The fear of death overwhelmed his last fighting spirit.

Although he was somewhat confident in killing the demon god in front of him, he didn't want to waste any more of his magic power.

The Blood Skull Demon Lord gritted his teeth, and the essence blood within his body suddenly ignited, causing a strange, dark red demonic flame to rise around him:

Blood Escape Technique, transforming into a rainbow spanning a thousand miles!

He transformed into an almost imperceptible blood shadow, ignoring the raging axe-wielding demon god, and shot towards the relatively weak corner outside the formation—a dark green crack caused by the Xiangliu poison—with ghostly speed.

Just as the blood-red shadow was about to pass through the rift, at the core of the array, Lu Cheng Daoist, sitting on the altar, was doing his best to maintain the operation of the array and resist the pressure from Bi Fang's Burning World True Flame and Ying Long's Heavenly Army.

The moment the Blood Skull Demon Lord considered defecting, the dark golden twisted rune deep within his soul, formed from the origin of the Netherworld Blood Oath, suddenly emitted a shrill scream.

"Hmph, utterly foolish. Do you think I can't care about you right now? It's precisely at times like these that we mustn't let you disrupt morale." Lu Cheng thought to himself.

He didn't even glance at the fleeing blood shadow, but instead flicked his finger towards the void before him, at the wisp of blood pact rune representing the Blood Skull Demon Lord's causal soul, and gently touched it:
"The underworld leads the way, the covenant is absolute." A wisp of ultimate dark death energy touched the blood pact rune at the fingertip.

"Ah!!!" A shrill, inhuman howl suddenly tore through the void!

The blood shadow that had almost touched the crack froze instantly, and a blinding, ghostly blood light burst forth from within.

Amidst the blood-red light, countless twisted and struggling, tormented ghost faces formed from blood curse runes emerged, frantically devouring the Blood Skull Demon Lord's primordial spirit.

With the sea of ​​blood depleted, the demonic body crumbled inch by inch, like a weathered rock etched by countless yin winds.

He didn't even have time to scream a second time. In a split second, the demonic flames extinguished, the blood shadow dissipated, leaving only a trace of the purest and most tainted essence of the demonic being instantly engulfed and annihilated by the chaotic energy lurking outside the rift.

A powerful, long-established demon, attempting to betray his master under the nose of his blood pact, will only suffer the most thorough and utter destruction.

The Blood Skull Demon Lord's biggest disadvantage was his lack of knowledge. He thought that even with the Netherworld Blood Pact, Lu Cheng would have to expend a considerable amount of mental and magical power to kill him from such a distance. However, he was unaware of the ferocity of the Netherworld Blood Pact among the ghost cultivators of the Earth Immortal Spirit Realm, which would be a certain death for any Nascent Soul cultivator who violated it.

It wouldn't even require Lu Cheng to expend too much mental energy, so why would Lu Cheng leave this fiend behind under these circumstances?

This scene was even more chilling than the fall of Lady Wanmiao, shocking all the Nascent Soul Demons who had signed the blood pact, making them understand more clearly that today's battle was a fight to the death, and there might be a sliver of hope for survival.

The area where the west and south meet is shrouded in miasma and flows with foul blood. The Venerable Poison Dragon is now at his last gasp after a fierce battle.

The demon gods he faced were not the main force, but there were as many as three of them, each with a different form. Some controlled wind and thunder, some wielded potent poison, and some possessed formidable physical strength. They cooperated with each other, making them fierce and unstoppable.

Relying on his millennia-old poison skills, Venerable Poison Dragon wielded his Dragon Whip like a dragon, creating billowing clouds of poison that suppressed one of the poisonous demons, preventing it from raising its head.

However, he himself had been severely injured by attacks from other demon gods multiple times. His left arm had disappeared, and a hideous blood hole in his chest almost pierced through his back, with green poisonous blood mixed with black demon blood.

"Ten Thousand Poisons Corrode the Heart!" Venerable Poison Dragon roared, his serpent staff gleaming with a dark light. A concentrated, dark green venom, like a divine spear, instantly pierced the head of a Wind and Thunder Demon God!

But the wind and thunderous aura unleashed by the demon god before its death blasted half of his body into a bloody mess. Intense pain and exhaustion washed over him like a tidal wave.

"Even if I die, I'll take a few down with me!" Venerable Poison Dragon knew he had reached his limit, and his gaze turned to the two remaining powerful demon gods before him. Without the slightest hesitation, he abruptly reversed the last remaining primordial magic power and essence of his flesh and blood.

"Heaven and earth share the same poison, eternal silence reigns!" With a deafening explosion, the Poison Dragon Venerable's body suddenly swelled and burst open!
The unimaginable essence of ancient poison, mixed with fragments of his highly toxic magical artifacts refined over thousands of years, transformed into a destructive, time-stagnant, dark green poisonous nebula.

This poisonous cloud did not spread, but was locked in by his last will, suddenly contracting and gathering, collapsing with the two demon gods besieging him at its core.

"No!!!" The terrified roar lasted only a moment. The two powerful demon god bodies, along with the space they occupied, were completely dissolved and annihilated by the extremely concentrated poison.

That area transformed into a brief void filled with deadly poisonous laws.

The Venerable Poison Dragon sacrificed his life, origin, and soul, unleashing his final and most glorious attack, perishing together with the two demon gods.

This old demon was extreme in nature and committed many evil deeds. He had cultivated magical abilities to enhance the power of his self-destruction, so the power of his self-destruction was much greater than that of ordinary cultivators of the same realm.

For most cultivators, even when forced into a desperate situation, dying together with the enemy is not an easy thing. After all, most cultivators are not always prepared to fight to the death with the enemy when calamity strikes.

In the due south of the Tongxuan Dharma Realm lies the source of filth and poison. This is the land where Xiangliu wreaks havoc, where nine enormous serpent heads, as large as mountains, draw upon nine streams of foul undercurrents, corroding spiritual veins, tainting magical treasures, and destroying life.

Wherever it goes, the earth turns into a stinking swamp. Once a cultivator gets involved, their physical body quickly decays and their primordial spirit is defiled.

This place was where the human defenses collapsed the fastest. Yang Xiao, the ancestor of the Chaos, clad in a scarlet gray robe, descended upon the sky above the nine-headed serpent Xiang Liu like a demon god returning from hell.

He was the demon lord who, besides Lu Cheng, killed the most demon gods and demons present.

"Nine-headed worm, filthy and deserving of death!" His voice was like rolling thunder, containing boundless murderous intent and killing aura.

Yang Xiao activated his profound skill, and the "Five Fiends Primordial Qi" surrounding him was no longer chaotic, but condensed into a solid dark gold!

Each wisp of qi was as heavy as a mountain, churning the void and emanating a terrifying aura that could crush everything and obliterate all laws.

Boom!

Two extremely filthy torrents of poison, like venomous pythons from the Netherworld, spewed from the two snake heads, carrying the law of putrefaction and entangling Yang Xiao.

It collided with the Five Fiends' Primordial Qi, resulting in a violent explosion.

"Bai Mei just killed a human cultivator in the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, so I can't fall behind her."

Although Yang Xiao possessed great magical power, the demon god Xiang Liu did not seem to be afraid of him.

Although it only possesses mid-stage Nascent Soul power, its cultivation years far exceed those of Yang Xiao. Moreover, having devoured the innate Qi and traced back to the source blood, it has killed more than one or two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators of the human race in the past.

Xiang Liu's nine heads, each with a different shape and a hideous, twisted form, simultaneously erupted in piercing hiss. Its eight long necks, covered in scales and venomous slime like giant serpents from the underworld, thrashed wildly, and its nine foul-smelling maws opened wide!
call--!
Deep blue, dark blue, purplish black, pale white... nine streams of filthy poison from the Netherworld, each containing a different primordial law of filth, poured down like the River Styx bursting its banks.

Wherever it passed, even the void was etched with dark, festering marks, and the remaining spiritual energy of plants was instantly absorbed and turned into dust.

"Well done!"

Yang Xiao roared fiercely, and a hazy phantom appeared behind him. It was the Five Fiends Primordial Treasure Mirror, his life-and-death treasure.

The illusory image spun, drawing together the primordial evil energy of the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) between heaven and earth, condensing it into an enormous, chaotic balloon that crushed down.

"When the five evils unite as one, all laws cease!"

Wherever the light passed, the toxic storm formed by the nine streams of foul poison was devoured, crushed, and refined by this chaotic sphere of evil light that unified the five elements and reversed their mutual generation and restraint.

Compared to the demon gods who develop the potential of the primordial bloodline, human cultivators cultivate the Dao by following the natural way and comprehending the laws of heaven and earth. Those with poor comprehension will naturally not be able to comprehend anything, but those with high comprehension may not necessarily be unable to far surpass their predecessors.

(End of this chapter)