Longevity Thunder Ancestor

Chapter 1134 Reunion with the Demon Lord
In a remote part of Kowloon Bay, a purple light suddenly flashed across the boundless sea, and a figure emerged from the water, revealing Ning Fa.

He first let out a soft sigh of relief, then looked around and, upon discovering several sea creatures unique to Kowloon Sea, a smile appeared on his face.

Although it was quite a journey, we finally made it back to Kowloon.

Half a month ago, he originally planned to return to Zhenhai City through the original long-distance teleportation array, but when he got there, he found that the teleportation array on the other end was no longer usable.

It was clearly deliberately destroyed by the people on the other side; it's unclear whether it was done by cultivators from the Qian Yuan Merchant Alliance or members of the Tian Shu Alliance.

But this was no challenge for Ning Fa, because there were other ways to reach the Nine Dragons Sea besides that one teleportation array in the Great Qin.

He learned of two other methods from the soul search of the ancient lord's clone, but to be on the safe side, he ultimately used a hidden teleportation array that he had obtained from Su Wanwan.

Although it took a bit more effort, thankfully there was no major problem.

According to Su Wanwan, this place is located in the northernmost desolate sea of ​​Jiulonghai, millions of miles away from the nearest Blood Thunder Sea.

This was nothing to Ning Fa at the moment, and he immediately sped off south at full speed.

After flying for most of the day, a dozen or so islands appeared ahead, connected by a single island, and a faint smell of blood could be heard from afar.

Ning Fa scanned the island with his divine sense and discovered that there were many corpses of both human and sea monster cultivators.

Ning Fa hadn't paid any attention at first, but after noticing the strange things on the corpses of some of the sea monsters and demons, he let out a soft exclamation and slowed down his escape speed.

With a thunderous roar, he traversed dozens of miles in a few flashes and arrived at the nearest island.

In front of him lay the corpses of more than a dozen sea monster and demon cultivators.

Judging from their residual spiritual pressure, there were actually six Nascent Soul cultivators, and even one elder from the sea race was at the late Nascent Soul stage.

The old man's face, covered in mottled white scales, was filled with terror. His body was covered in countless sword wounds, which had slashed this clearly powerful late-stage cultivator to pieces.

The other sea monster cultivators from both races were in similar dire straits, a truly pitiful sight.

What Ningfa was concerned about was the sword intent remaining on these alien corpses.

Ning Fa's expression immediately changed.

Even though the aura was faint, he could still keenly sense that the attacker's swordsmanship was extremely high, perhaps even higher than his own, and very likely to have reached the fourth step of swordsmanship, the "Heaven and Earth as Swords" realm.

Ning Fa frowned in thought. As far as he knew, in the Nine Dragons Sea, or even the entire human realm, it seemed that no sword cultivators had truly cultivated to the fourth step of the sword path; at most, only a few had come close.

Soon, Ning Fa's expression changed, because he sensed a familiar aura from this sword intent.

"Demon Lord".

Ning Fa finally confirmed who left this sword intent; it must be the Demon Lord, whom he hadn't seen for over a hundred years.

This made Ningfa overjoyed, as he had been searching for the Demon Lord a hundred years ago, before he participated in that operation.

However, the Demon Lord remained missing, leading Ning Fa to even suspect that he might have been secretly harmed by the Cloud-Hidden God, which left Ning Fa with a sense of regret.

Because in his heart, he always regarded the Demon Lord as both a teacher and a friend.

Now it seems that this undoubtedly means the Demon Lord is still alive, and that his swordsmanship has greatly improved.

Ningfa immediately ventured deeper into the island to see if the Demon Lord had left any clues.

As Ningfa ventured deeper into the island, he saw more corpses.

Judging from the horrific state of these corpses, they all seemed to have been killed by the sword energy transformed from the surrounding grass, trees, and rocks. This made Ning Fa even more certain that the Demon Lord might have really taken that step and truly reached the realm of "Heaven and Earth as Swords".

If that's the case, then even if the Demon Lord didn't advance to the Nascent Soul stage, he should still be able to rival ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, just like he did back then.

What puzzled Ning Fa was that, besides the powerful sword, these alien corpses also possessed another unique aura.

This aura was extremely cold and sinister, quite different from the magical aura of ordinary cultivators.

Ningfa frowned and searched the other islands thoroughly, but apart from the hundreds of corpses of the two sea monster races left behind, there were no other special clues.

This battle took place three or four days ago, so the Demon Lord should have already left.

Ning Fa finally stopped in front of the corpses of more than a dozen sea monster and demon cultivators, whose peculiar, chilling aura was even stronger.

Ningfa looked around for a while, then decided not to linger any longer.

Business is important; there will always be another chance to meet again.

He hadn't forgotten to protect the Demon Lord and help him break through to the Nascent Soul stage. With his current strength, he should be able to handle the life-or-death crisis predicted by the Demon Lord.

At this moment, Ning Fa seemed to sense something and suddenly looked at the corpse of one of the early-stage demon cultivators.

Suddenly, a spurt of blood gushed from a deep sword wound on the demon cultivator's chest. The blood condensed in the air into the shape of a small, blood-red sword, which trembled slightly as if it were alive, before shooting off in a certain direction.

Ning Fa's expression shifted, and he immediately followed.

After flying for tens of thousands of miles, a thick white fog appeared on the sea in front of them. The blood arrow disappeared into the fog with a "whoosh".

Ning Fa's escape speed decreased slightly. Even with the strength of his divine soul, his divine sense was somewhat interfered with and distorted when probing into the white mist. However, he still discovered that in the white mist that covered an area of ​​thousands of miles, there was an island of considerable size, and on the island was an aura that he was very familiar with.

Ning Fa raised his eyebrows and flew into the white mist with a burst of light.

Soon, Ningfa arrived at a bamboo grove in the center of the island, where there was a small courtyard with green bamboo and a bamboo pavilion in front of it.

Inside the pavilion, a middle-aged monk dressed in white robes was leisurely drinking tea.

This person had a unique and indescribable appearance, with an aura as ancient and verdant as a tree, and eyes as deep and dark as a pool. He was none other than the long-unseen Demon Lord Zhuang Mingxiao.

Upon seeing Ning Fa arrive, the Demon Lord stood up, looked Ning Fa over carefully, and said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Ning, oh no, I should say Senior Ning, we meet again."

Ning Fa shook his head and said, "Demon Lord, although we haven't spent much time together, I've always considered you a friend, so let's treat each other as equals."

The Demon Lord nodded, then said with a sigh, "When we first met, Fellow Daoist Ning was only at the Core Formation stage. Now, more than a hundred years later, Fellow Daoist Ning has reached a level that I can only look up to."

In terms of the depth of one's karmic connections and one's devotion to the Dao, I, Zhuang, am far inferior to you, fellow Daoist.

"Demon Lord, did you know I was coming?" Ning Fa asked, frowning.

The Demon Lord nodded: "Indeed, in recent years I have calculated that the time I have been waiting for is finally coming. So all these years I have stayed nearby and made my move within a radius of tens of thousands of miles. Finally, today I have waited for you, fellow Daoist."

Ning Fa wasn't too surprised, because he already knew that the Demon Lord also possessed considerable divination abilities.

But he stared intently at the Demon Lord, his expression somewhat grave.

He noticed something was wrong with the Demon Lord's body.

The Demon Lord chuckled self-deprecatingly: "It seems Fellow Daoist Ning has made some discoveries."

Ning Fa frowned and slowly said, "Demon Lord, what's wrong with your body? Why is there such a strong ghostly aura?"

At this moment, in Ning Fa's perception, the Demon Lord's body was no longer made of flesh and blood, but was instead filled with extremely dense Yin energy.

This made Ning Fa wonder if the Demon Lord had abandoned his human form and become a ghost cultivator.
The Demon Lord's wry smile deepened. Instead of answering immediately, he gestured for him to leave.

After Ning Fa entered the pavilion and took his seat, the Demon Lord poured him a cup of spiritual tea, then sighed and said:

"Fellow Daoist Ning should not have forgotten that when we left the Demon Realm, I asked you to protect me and help me advance to the Nascent Soul stage, right?"

At that time, although I knew that I was destined to face a calamity when I advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, and that it would be extremely difficult to withstand, I never knew what this calamity was.

I originally thought that with Fellow Daoist Ning's help, and with Fellow Daoist Ning later hiring that mysterious Heavenly Treasure Immortal Merchant, and with you two as protectors, I should be able to get through this calamity.

But later I discovered that things were far more complicated than I had imagined, because the calamity I suffered came from someone else.

"Lord Yunxiu?" Ning Fa asked thoughtfully.

The Demon Lord nodded, a complex expression appearing in his eyes: "That's right, it's him."

I received this person's assistance when my cultivation was still shallow, which was the key to my rapid progress in cultivation in the early stages.

As I told you, his goal was to use me to stir up trouble within the Demon Sea Alliance, using it as leverage in negotiations with the Heavenly Pivot Alliance. Once he achieved his objective, I became a pawn, imprisoned in the Jade Balance Sea for over three hundred years.

At the time, I thought that the reason why the Tian Shu Alliance didn't kill me directly was because they felt that I had still put in some effort, so they spared my life.

If that's the case, even if I achieve great success in my cultivation in the future, I won't do anything to him.

But later I discovered that negotiating with the Tian Shu Alliance was merely his stated purpose; his true objective was me.

At this point, the Demon Lord revealed a self-deprecating expression.

He paused, then continued:
"Later, by chance, I learned that Yunxiu had actually been interested in my swordsmanship talent."

He planned to refine me into the legendary 'Heavenly Hatred Sword Heart' and integrate it into his natal magic weapon.

This would not only greatly enhance the power of his natal magic weapon, but also increase the possibility of him sneaking into the spirit world through a spatial passage.

That's why he placed a heavy bet on me.

All my early experiences, such as various adventures, rapid progress in cultivation and swordsmanship, and later, when I was full of vigor, I was betrayed by allies and disciples, abandoned by everyone, and imprisoned for hundreds of years. In fact, it was all a scheme he set up to temper my sword heart.

When I approach the fourth stage of swordsmanship and advance to the Divine Transformation realm, that will be the time for him to reap the rewards.

Even if I successfully overcome the tribulation of becoming a Nascent Soul cultivator, I will still be unable to avoid being captured by him and refined into the 'Heavenly Hatred Sword Heart'.

This is the calamity I foresaw.

At this point, even the usually composed Demon Lord was filled with hatred.

Ning Fa was extremely surprised, never expecting the reason behind it to be like this.

Information about Lord Yunxiu involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

This person is extremely mysterious. Although he achieved the Nascent Soul stage early on, very little information about him has been made public.

However, he is extremely powerful and is recognized as the second strongest cultivator in the Nine Dragons Sea, second only to Xuan Yi Divine Lord. Even the Tian Shu Alliance is very wary of him.

Judging from the Demon Lord's description, this person is terrifying. Such scheming and planning are beyond the reach of ordinary people, and just hearing about it sends chills down one's spine.

Even someone as brilliant and talented as the Demon Lord was like a puppet on a string, unable to resist following his arrangements and becoming a pawn in his hands.

The Demon Lord regained his composure, turned the teacup in his hand, and said in a cold voice, "After I realized this, I immediately stopped the plan to advance to the Godhood stage."

At that time, although you, Fellow Daoist Ning, had already asked Tianbao Immortal Merchant for help, I knew that Tianbao Immortal Merchant was hired by you, and that it would take a considerable price to fight against a master like Yunxiu.

And to be honest, I don't think Tianbao Xianshang in his normal state could do anything to Yunxiu.

This person is extremely terrifying and has always hidden his true strength.

In my opinion, his strength is very likely to be slightly higher than that of Xuan Yi Divine Lord, and among our human cultivators, he should only be below Gu Zun and Yuan Zun.

So I didn't ask you for help back then. Instead, I wanted to escape Kowloon Sea, but I discovered that he had already placed a secret restriction on my soul. No matter where I escaped, I couldn't get rid of his pursuit.

But he deliberately left me a glimmer of hope, allowing me to improve my swordsmanship under dire circumstances and thus truly break through to the fourth step of swordsmanship.

So even though I was confident I could cross that threshold, I held back and didn't make the breakthrough.

After trying various methods to break free of the control, I made a do-or-die decision.

Upon hearing this, Ning Fa frowned deeply: "Your method is to transform into a ghost cultivator?"

The Demon Lord picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp, but soon a faint tea mist emanated from his body, clearly indicating that his body could no longer drink spiritual tea like an ordinary person.

The Demon Lord smiled helplessly: "That's right, I am indeed a ghost cultivator now."

Only in this way can I rebuild my physical body and soul, and completely wash away the restriction he planted in my soul.

I happened to obtain a ghost cultivation technique in an ancient cultivation cave. Although it was incomplete and could only be cultivated to the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, its grade was as high as the middle grade of the Heavenly Realm. This made me determined to pursue my goal.

After that, I made many arrangements to confuse him.

Later, the Mitian Valley incident happened, and Yunxiu couldn't resist the temptation and became one of the first Nascent Soul cultivators to enter.

Taking advantage of that precious time, I completely transformed into a ghost cultivator and washed away the restrictions he had placed on me.

Since then, I have been hiding in the desolate sea, preparing to advance to the Nascent Soul stage.

After all, in the human realm where ghost energy is scarce, it is extremely difficult to advance to the Nascent Soul stage.

But that's not the biggest problem. The key issue is that I've calculated that on the day I truly advance to the Nascent Soul stage, Yunxiu should be able to find me again, and I might still fail at the last minute.

So even though I've been preparing for this for years, I haven't dared to attempt the Nascent Soul stage and have been waiting for a second chance.

I originally thought this second chance might be due to another change in Mitian Valley, but now I realize that my second chance actually came from Fellow Daoist Ning.

About a month ago, I learned by chance that you, fellow Daoist, not only advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, but also went on a killing spree in the Great Qin cultivation world. Powerful forces such as the Gu family and the Qian Yuan Merchant Alliance were wiped out by you alone.

I knew then that my chance might have come.

So these past few days, I've increased the frequency of my attacks, and sure enough, Fellow Daoist Ning has arrived.

At this point, the Demon Lord looked intently at Ning Fa and asked, "Fellow Daoist Ning, are you still willing to help me one more time?"

The shock on Ning Fa's face subsided, and he smiled slightly: "Back in the Demon Realm, I had already promised you that I would do my best, so naturally I will not break my promise."

The Demon Lord's lips curled up, his smile growing deeper and deeper, before his expression turned solemn: "I cannot thank you enough for such a great kindness. In the future, if Fellow Daoist Ning has any needs, I, Zhuang, will go through fire and water for you without hesitation."

As the Demon Lord finished speaking, a rumbling sound rang out, wisps of gray mist appeared around him, and a roar was heard before disappearing.

This is exactly the situation where the Great Oath of the Inner Demon takes effect, and unlike ordinary cultivators, it is obviously because the Demon Lord is currently in the form of a ghost cultivator.

Seeing this, Ning Fa said helplessly, "You don't need to do this."

The Demon Lord smiled but remained silent.

Ning Fa then asked, "When do you plan to attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul stage?"

"The sooner the better, I'm ready," the Demon Lord said in a deep voice.

Ning Fa nodded, which suited him perfectly, since he was also very busy right now.

At this moment, the Demon Lord seemed to have thought of something, took out a jade slip and handed it to Ning Fa, and said with a smile: "A hundred years ago, Fellow Daoist Ning was framed by a villain and has been missing ever since."

By a stroke of luck, I rescued some people who have close ties to you. I have settled them in a secluded place in the desolate sea, and the exact location is contained in this jade slip.”

Ning Fa was moved, and after scanning the jade slip with his divine sense, his face was filled with joy.

This jade slip not only contains detailed locations, but also portraits of several people, including Ning Huarong.

It turns out that Ning Huarong had disappeared without a trace because she was rescued by the Demon Lord.

In addition, there were also Nascent Soul elders of the Fuling Hall such as Murong Zhaoxue and Tie Hengye, as well as some Core Formation cultivators.

"Thank you, fellow Daoist," Ning Fa said gratefully.

The Demon Lord smiled and shook his head.

Ning Fa couldn't help but feel emotional. He had just heard that Zheng Xuan Yan had transformed into a ghost cultivator, and now the Demon Lord was doing the same. It was truly a cruel twist of fate.

This is also a good opportunity to observe the Demon Lord's breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage, which can be passed on to Zheng Xuan Yan later, and will definitely be of great help to him.

As far as Ningfa knew, once a human cultivator transformed into a ghost cultivator, it was virtually impossible to reverse the transformation, but this did not mean that the path to enlightenment was cut off.

After all, all paths lead to the same destination, and ghost cultivation is just one of them.

Normally, ghost cultivators don't ascend to the Spirit Realm, but rather to the "Ghost Realm," a plane rumored to be on par with the Spirit Realm.

Thinking of this, Ning Fa couldn't help but sigh again.

(End of this chapter)