Why are all of us who transmigrated at the same time demons?

The history of Qingxiao Palace thus began a new chapter known as "The Exorcist Celestial Master".

As Fei Xianzi swept away the evil spirits of the mortal world, her gaze once again turned to the unfathomable Netherworld—where perhaps more clues about the origins of the "Ten Capitals" were hidden.

Chapter 264 Demons and Monsters in Chaos: The Immortal Demon

Emperor Hao Chen returned from the Netherworld, and the innate Dao Qi surrounding him seemed to have been tainted with a trace of the coldness and deathly stillness of the Netherworld. He sat upright on the crystal throne, his divine eyes like lightning, sweeping over the magnificent scene of churning clouds and soaring cranes below, but his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

By bestowing the "Three Days of Righteous Law" upon the celestial maiden descending to the mortal realm and appointing her as the exorcist master, he had been planning this move for a long time.

The spread of evil energy in Shidu, and the eerie patterns behind it that transcend ordinary demons, made him feel deeply uneasy.

He had a gut feeling that this was no ordinary disturbance in the underworld.

Recent reports from the lower realms, combined with his personal investigations into the underworld, all point to the fact that the source of the evil in the "Ten Capitals" is far deeper and more ancient than previously thought.

It was not a simple act of destruction, but rather an erosion imbued with a twisted "will," as if systematically hollowing out the foundation of the world.

However, whether it was because he had been crossing the line between life and death too frequently and had been tainted by too much of the aura of the underworld, or because the evil energy of the Ten Capitals itself had a kind of imperceptible corrosiveness, Emperor Haochen had recently been occasionally feeling a very subtle and discordant "stagnation".

This sense of stagnation did not originate from his magical power or physical body, but rather from the "Pure Heaven" he ruled over itself.

For example, the eyes of a certain celestial official on duty seemed even more dull and numb than they had been ten thousand years ago. Although he was still conscientious in his duties, he had lost some of his liveliness.

For example, a group of celestial soldiers patrolling the sky seemed to move in too uniform steps, as if they were being pulled by invisible threads, lacking the vibrant and heroic spirit that celestial soldiers should have.

On one occasion, he even caught a glimpse of a standing fairy maiden, and in the instant she lowered her head and looked down, a fleeting... indescribable, empty longing for something seemed to flash across her eyes.

These signs were extremely faint and fleeting; if Emperor Haochen had not possessed profound cultivation and a mind far more acute than ordinary people, he would have been almost unable to detect them.

At first, he thought he was overthinking it, perhaps it was the influence of the turbid air of the underworld, or perhaps it was the inevitable gloom of the celestial realm over the long years.

With this in mind, he had an idea and issued a decree.

Before long, three ancient immortals, shrouded in celestial light and exuding extraordinary aura, arrived together.

These three are all old friends of Emperor Haochen for many years. They have discussed the Dao together and fought side by side. They are his most trusted assistants.

The Mysterious Old Man, who governs the movement of the stars in the heavens, has white hair and beard, an ancient face, and eyes as deep as the starry sky.

The Wondrous Dharma Sovereign, who holds the reins of heavenly laws and teachings, is dignified and noble, yet her brows reveal a subtle, almost imperceptible, sternness.

The Crimson Blaze True Lord once commanded the heavenly realm's conquests. Although he now appears leisurely, the murderous aura and heroic spirit of the past still linger between his brows.

"Please be seated, fellow Daoists." Emperor Haochen waved away his attendants and personally poured fine wine. "Recently, I have been feeling uneasy, as if there are undercurrents surging in the Heavenly Realm, yet I cannot quite grasp them. I recall the pleasant discussions I had with you all in the past, and I have invited you here for a chat, which may help to resolve my confusion."

The old man Xuanji stroked his beard and chuckled: "Your Majesty is overthinking it. The Heavenly Realm has been at peace for a long time, with strict laws and each immortal and god fulfilling their duties. Where would there be any undercurrents? It must be because Your Majesty is too worried about the affairs of the 'Ten Capitals' in the mortal realm."

His words were calm, but his eyes seemed deeper and less warm than before.

Miaofa Yuanjun chimed in, “Fellow Daoist Xuanji is absolutely right. Under the Heavenly Laws, order is perfectly maintained. A slight sense of decline may be a sign of long-lasting peace. All things have their waxing and waning, and the Heavenly Way has its ebb and flow. Your Majesty need not worry too much.”

Her words remained clear and logical, yet they subtly conveyed a cold indifference that attributed everything to "rules".

The Crimson Blaze True Lord laughed heartily, his voice booming like a bell: "Your Majesty! If you ask me, you're overthinking things! What undercurrents? If there are any villains, I'll just slay them with a single sword strike! Come, come, let's drink!"

He raised his cup and drank heartily, still as bold as ever, but Emperor Haochen keenly noticed that the once burning flame of war deep in his eyes seemed to have dimmed considerably, replaced by a kind of... inexplicable persistence.

Emperor Haochen recounted what he had seen in the Netherworld and the subtle strange sensations he had in the Heavenly Realm, but concealed his concern for "the people in front of him," saying only that he was worried about some kind of unknown corruption.

Upon hearing this, the three ancient immortals exchanged a fleeting, almost imperceptible glance.

The old man Xuanji slowly said, "The Netherworld is unpredictable, and there may be unknown forces that can disturb the secrets of heaven and confuse our senses. What the Emperor sensed may be the residual influence of these forces."

The Myriad Laws Primordial Sovereign nodded: "The workings of the Heavenly Laws have their own logic. Some anomalies may be a prelude to 'purification.' Your Majesty should simply observe the changes."

The Crimson Blaze True Lord waved his hand and said, "If Your Majesty is still worried, I will go to the Netherworld again and see what is causing this trouble!"

Their responses were reasonable, either offering reassurance, providing logical explanations, or demonstrating loyalty.

However, the unease in Emperor Haochen's heart did not dissipate. Instead, it spread slowly like ripples from a stone thrown into a still lake.

He always felt that these three old friends seemed to be missing something, yet also had something more.

What was missing was that genuine concern for the vitality of all things in the world that resonated with him; what was replaced by an indescribable, almost procedural sense of response.

After a brief chat, the three ancient immortals took their leave. Emperor Haochen stood alone in the hall, gazing in the direction they had disappeared, remaining silent for a long time.

In a dimension beyond the perception of Emperor Haochen, in a place known by some as the "Eternal Silence," the images of the three ancient immortals who had just departed suddenly distorted and peeled away, revealing their inner essence.

The figure of the old man Xuanji transformed into a cold collection of starlight that was constantly calculating and trying to maintain the trajectory of the stars, but was full of stagnation.

The Mysterious Law Primordial Sovereign then transformed into a phantom entwined with countless law runes. The runes still shone, but no longer represented order; instead, they represented a rigid, life-suppressing constraint.

The Crimson Blaze True Lord was a dim yet unquenchable flame of violent battle intent, burning with a mad desire for "continuous existence" itself.

They are the immortal demons who have long since fallen.

[Hao Chen... he's starting to notice.] Xuan Ji's thoughts moved like cold star trails, [earlier than we anticipated. His intuition is indeed far beyond the ordinary.]

[So what if he noticed?] The wondrous Dharma's intent carried the ruthlessness of law; **[He couldn't find the root cause. The 'anomaly' he saw was merely the initial symptom of the 'immortality disease' naturally spreading in the celestial realm. He attributed it all to the influence of the netherworld, which is exactly the result we wanted.]

[Heh heh, watching him get misled, groping in the fog, is truly... delightful.] A wicked pleasure burned within his burning desire. [The chess piece he bestowed upon the mortal realm, the Flying Fairy, cleared away some of our 'branches,' perfectly purifying the resentment of death and adding bricks to our great cause!]

Their so-called "grand undertaking" is to prepare a "feast of immortality" that will sweep across the heavens.

Taking advantage of their status, they have long since secretly implanted distorted "methods of immortality" into the bodies of celestial officials, soldiers, and maidens who lack cultivation, are nearing the end of their lifespan, or are filled with longing for immortality.

These people at the bottom of the celestial realm have unknowingly become "living resentment bombs" cultivated by them.

[The time is approaching.] Xuanji's mind was filled with calculations. [When Haochen's attention is completely drawn to the lower realm and the Netherworld, when the 'Eternal Sickness' accumulates to a critical point at the bottom of the Heavenly Realm...]

[That will be the time when the 'Purifying Immortal Feast' begins!] The wondrous Dharma's intent carried a twisted solemnity: **[At that time, the Heavenly Laws will 'guide' them towards a frenzied war of mutual destruction and self-destruction! The despair and resentment erupting when billions of immortals perish will be the sweetest elixir for our continued existence!]

[Hahahaha!] Chi Liao's mind roared with laughter, [Let Hao Chen maintain his ridiculous order! When he looks back, his Heavenly Palace, everything he cherishes, will become the resources for our immortality! This is... the true meaning of 'living as long as Heaven'!]

In the eternal silence, the silent clamor of these ancient demons, filled with greed and madness, echoed.

A massive conspiracy targeting the entire celestial realm and even overturning the concept of "immortality" has been quietly laid out.

Emperor Haochen, still searching for the truth in the fog, was completely unaware of this and could only rely on his instincts to be wary of the increasingly strong eerie aura that permeated the glorious appearance of the Pure Heaven.

Unbeknownst to Emperor Haochen, in the quiet of the night, the Dao hearts of those ancient immortals he once considered confidants had already undergone a silent transformation.

It was not a sudden madness, but a slow, continuous, and accelerating "inner decay," a "twilight of thought."

Once upon a time, the celestial sphere in the eyes of the Elder Xuanji was a magnificent poem of the Great Dao, with the trajectory of each star containing infinite vitality and profound principles.

He deduced celestial phenomena as if conversing with ancient sages, finding great joy in the process.

However, from some unknown era, the stars gradually lost their "Tao" in his eyes, turning into cold symbols that required precise calculation.

The deduction was no longer a pleasant experience, but a arduous task. He began to feel tired, a weariness that originated from the depths of his soul.

At first, it was only occasionally necessary to spend a moment recalling the operating parameters of a remote star system.

Later, he found himself involuntarily drifting off when calculating complex star orbits, his thoughts wandering to the boundless and terrifying "nothingness".

He began to fear deduction because it would accelerate the depletion of his mind and expose the fact that he was "aging".

How could this be? A celestial being, a master of the stars, could actually suffer from dementia?

Impossible! His physical body is still vibrant and powerful, and his magical power is still vast and boundless. How could he have aged? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

To maintain his dignity as the "Lord of the Stars," he had to expend more effort to forcefully memorize and imitate past deduction patterns. His eyes became increasingly "profound," but not in the sense of wisdom; rather, they were a deliberate fog created to conceal the growing emptiness within him.

He was puzzled and even annoyed by Emperor Haochen's discourse on "vitality". In his view, maintaining the "precise" operation of the stars was more important than experiencing the "birth and death" contained therein, because "precision" was something he could still control, while "birth and death"... was too distant and too mentally taxing.

His mind had long since lost its way in endless calculations of the stars, leaving only the inertia of maintaining the calculations and the boundless fear that this inertia was about to stop.

Miaofa Yuanjun firmly believed that the Heavenly Laws and Decrees were the cornerstone for maintaining the order of the heavens and guiding all beings toward goodness. She wielded the law with compassion, aiming to educate rather than simply punish.

But at some point, the divine laws in her eyes gradually changed from "guiding ropes" to "binding nets".

She began to feel that "compassion" was an inefficient and unnecessary burden, and that strictly enforcing the "rules" was the most direct and effective way to maintain order.

Her thinking began to become rigid. Faced with new situations, she no longer pondered the spirit behind the law, but instinctively searched for matching clauses in old documents. If she couldn't find them, she tended to deny them on the grounds that they "violated the stability of the heavens."

She forgot that the law is meant to serve living beings, not the other way around.

When Emperor Haochen spoke of the vitality of the lower realm and the strange occurrences in the netherworld, she felt vigilance and rejection.

Any "change" was seen by her as a threat to the existing "order." She could no longer understand the Emperor's cherishing of "life," and only felt that it was a potential disruption of the established rules.

Her mind had long been imprisoned by the laws she wielded, leaving only an obsession with "unchanging" and a cold hostility toward anything that might break this lifeless "unchanging" state.

Chi Liao Zhenjun was once the God of War in the Heavenly Realm. His boldness stemmed from his confidence in his own strength and his unwavering commitment to his beliefs. For him, battle was a way to practice the Great Dao and eliminate evil, a time filled with passion and glory.

However, the endless battles ultimately left behind not only glory, but also a deep-seated weariness and emptiness. He didn't know when it started, but the meaning of battle gradually faded in his heart.

He no longer fights to protect; the battle itself becomes his only way to prove that he "still exists." He fears silence and solitude, because it forces him to confront the ever-expanding wasteland within his heart, a wasteland called "meaninglessness."

He began to deliberately seek out conflict and amplify friction, using the clamor of war to mask the terrifying silence deep within his soul. His "heroism" became increasingly exaggerated, more and more like a layer of oil covering emptiness.

When Emperor Haochen mentioned the potential threat, his first thought was not analysis and protection, but excitement—yet another "prey" that could make him temporarily forget about the "crisis of existence".

Then... one or more coincidental opportunities...

As the old man Xuanji absorbed the fresh soul light, his stagnant mind cracked like ice, and he briefly regained the clarity he once possessed in deducing the galaxy. The stinging pain of his shattered soul was his only remedy for his mental slumber.

As the Wondrous Law Primordial Sovereign listened to the wails of wronged souls, ripples stirred in the heart of the puppet of law. The despair of collapsing faith, like thick ink, allowed her, under distorted control, to rediscover the reality of "existence."

The Crimson Blaze True Lord absorbed the killing intent of the battlefield, his empty will instantly ignited by the bloodshed. The fear of countless lives lost was like strong liquor poured down his throat, reigniting his near-mad trembling and passion.

They gain a fleeting sense of "vividness" by drinking in the suffering of all living beings.

These three ancient immortals maintained their twisted existence by repeatedly absorbing the lives and suffering of all living beings in this "feast".

They are like vampires in the realm of thought, relying on the end of "life" to briefly simulate the feeling of "being alive".

This is precisely the fundamental motivation behind their planning of a larger-scale "Cataclysm of Immortality"—only a grander death and a more overwhelming resentment can inject enough false and evil "vitality" to sustain their almost completely stagnant minds for a longer period of time.

Even ancient immortals who had already attained the Dao of Immortality were in such a state; those celestial maidens, officials, and soldiers with lower cultivation levels were even more threatened by the "longevity disease." Their minds were worn down by the repetitive labor day after day until they became distorted and collapsed.

Loran stood in the depths of the underworld, amidst an impenetrable primordial darkness, gazing upon the evil lurking beneath the serene surface of the heavens.

"Celestial clouds weave a golden cage, celestial rules are etched into jade bones"

Ten thousand years of sweeping moss have aged the steps, a thousand years of offering dew have stiffened the knuckles.

It is not time that erodes the immortal body, but eternity that rusts the spiritual light.

Suddenly, when I saw my black hair turn to snow, I realized that immortality was just a pipe dream.

Chapter 265 Demons and Monsters in Chaos: A Celestial Descends from the Netherworld

The fairy held the Celestial Master's Sword, and her pure and holy Daoist energy, like a lotus lantern, illuminated the rift leading to the underworld.

The moment I stepped inside, I felt a weight settle over me, as if I were bound by invisible shackles.

This place is completely different from the rules of the mortal world. It is filled with a dense, dark, and deathly aura that would cause ordinary living beings to collapse upon contact. Even immortals need to constantly circulate their profound powers to resist the erosion.

Looking up, the sky was an eternal dark red, devoid of sun and moon, punctuated only by a few pale green "ghost stars" casting a cold light. The earth was barren, covered with jagged rocks and withered, twisted plants.

In the distance, a turbid, rushing river stretches across the land; that is the legendary River of Oblivion, where vengeful spirits often struggle, their wails carried by the wind, grating on the heart and soul.

Further away, the silhouette of a huge black shadow can be vaguely seen; that is the continuous Yinshan Mountains, which are said to harbor terrors that have existed since ancient times.

He walked along a "road" made of countless pale, phosphorescent ghost lights, and along the way saw the cities that the Lords of the Underworld had divided up.

Some ghost towns are built on the foundation of huge skulls, with black iron walls, dried demon skins hanging on the city walls, ghost soldiers patrolling, and a fierce aura soaring to the sky.

Some of them transform into the appearance of a bustling capital city in the mortal world, with pavilions and towers, and bright lights, but inside there are demons dancing wildly, using illusions to deceive living souls.

Even more extreme, some directly occupy a boiling sea of ​​blood or a forest of bones, using it as the core to build a fortress.

The Fairy Flying Fairy first visited the Mighty Ghost King who occupied the "Black Iron Skull City". The Ghost King was ten feet tall, with three heads and six arms, and sat on a throne made of countless weapons, exuding a fierce aura.

Hearing that the Fairy Flying was a Celestial Exorcist appointed by the Heavenly Realm, the Ghost King gave her some face and held a banquet to entertain her (though it consisted of blood food and soul nectar).

But when the Fairy Fei mentioned the words "Shidu", the ferocious face of the Mighty Ghost King suddenly froze, and the bone cup filled with soul nectar in his hand was crushed with a "crack".

"Celestial Master, be careful what you say!" The Ghost King's voice was low, carrying a hint of barely perceptible fear. "The name of such a being should not be mentioned lightly! It's not that I'm unwilling to help, but... the implications are too great! Although we dominate a region, we only struggle on the edge of the Netherworld. The terrors deep within are beyond our comprehension! Please leave!" With that, he directly served tea to see the guest out, his attitude changing from arrogant to obsequious.

The Fairy then sought out the conjured "prosperous ghost city" to meet the Thousand-Faced Enchantress, renowned for her cunning.

The Demon Lord disguised himself as a handsome young man, speaking wittily and attempting to extract information from the Heavenly Realm, but consistently avoided discussing the "Ten Capitals," instead changing the subject.

Pressed by the Fairy Fei, he finally suppressed his smile and sighed softly, "Celestial Master, some taboos, once known, lead to certain death. We, the Lords of the Underworld, may seem carefree, but in reality, we merely survive in the cracks. Those 'Ten Capitals'... according to ancient legends, are related to the 'essence' of the Netherworld. Touching them... may bring the calamity of 'returning to nothingness,' erasing even the traces of our existence. That's all I have to say. Please!"

"That Divine Tiger Lord..." Fairy Fei changed the subject, perhaps she could get some information from that arrogant and haughty Divine Tiger.

The Thousand-Faced Demon Lord looked at Fairy Fei with a half-smile, then made a throat-cutting gesture, followed by a gesture of sewing her mouth shut, which made Fairy Fei's face turn grave.

After repeatedly hitting a wall, Fei Xianzi knew she wouldn't get anything out of these local bullies. Their shared fear only confirmed the terror and secrecy surrounding "Shidu."