Chapter 1117 - Capricious
A day later.
The Demons’ Elysium.
This was the ancestral garden of the Demons’ Elysium doubled as the ancestral garden of all of the Wilds’ Demonists. It was located within a hidden realm full of rising and falling mountains. Clouds and mists permeated the air, and the spiritual energy was shockingly dense.
The Heavensdeath Demon Emperor silently led Su Yi back to the sect, then straight to a forbidden ground—
The Platform of Self-Severing!
It stood at the peak of a solitary mountain, and it was fully a thousand feet across. It looked like an ancient ritual ground.
Rumor had it that the founder of the Demons’ Elysium had refined it personally, and it contained the most ancient of Demonist secret glyphs.
Cultivating atop the Platform of Self-Severing could cleanse the heart of filth and wicked thoughts and cut off the six desires. It was perfectly suited to refining the Dao Heart.
Hence the name, the Platform of Self-Severing.
“Brother Su, wait here for now. I’ll make some arrangements, and we can take out all those Nine Heavens Pavilion guys in one fell swoop today, right here atop the Platform of Self-Severing,” laughed the Heavensdeath Demon Empress.
“If you ask me, we ought to just attack directly. There’s absolutely no need for trickery.” Su Yi’s brow furrowed slightly.
“You’ll understand in a bit.” The Heavensdeath Demon Empress flashed him a mysterious smile, then turned and left.
Su Yi subtly shook his head but said no more.
Everyone had their own personality and way of doing things.
When he resolved his difficulties, he preferred to simply cut through them. He’d never liked schemes.
Su Yi walked up to the platform, calmed his heart, and sensed it.
He’d been here in his past life. It was here, on the Platform of Self-Severing, that he gleaned enlightenment into the Nine Great Edicts of the Demons’ Elysium. He’d benefited enormously.
Sitting here and meditating could sever any wickedness and falsehoods within the Dao Heart. It was extraordinarily wondrous.
Before long, a group shot over from afar.
There were a few dozen of them, and all of them were Imperial Realm experts. The strongest was in the Profound Unity Realm!
The leader of the group, a tall, gaunt old man in black robes, walked up to pay his respects. “Old Mo Yu greets you, Your Excellency Su.”
Mo Yu.
He was the grand high elder of the Demons’ Elysium, and he was in the late-stage Profound Unity Realm. His status was transcendent.
But when he faced Su Yi, he was utterly respectful.
Su Yi looked appraisingly at him. “What have you come here to do?”
Mo Yu clasped his fist. “According to the founder’s orders, we’re to keep watch around the Platform of Self-Severing and be ready to circulate the Heaven-Slaughtering World-Severing Formation at a moment’s notice.”
“Oh,” said Su Yi. “Isn’t she being a bit overly cautious?”
The Demons’ Elysium was one of the Four Apexes of the Wilds, and the Heaven-Slaughtering World-Severing Formation was the main formation they used to defend their territory!
Even by the standards of the Wilds as a whole, it was a peak, unparalleled killing formation. When circulated, it might not be able to kill Imperial Apex cultivators, but it could absolutely keep them trapped.
From this, it was easy to imagine how terrifying it was.
Mo Yu fell silent. He dared not overstep by commenting on their founder’s decisions.
Su Yi waved. “Carry on with your business.”
“Yes.” Mo Yu left to carry out his orders, and the other old monsters of the Demons’ Elysium hid themselves around the Platform of Self-Severing.
Time slipped by.
Su Yi stood alone on the Platform of Self-Severing. He couldn’t help but be curious. Don’t tell me something went wrong on the Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s end?
If not, why isn’t she back after all this time?
He’d only just thought this when he heard a group whooshing through the skies. A group of cultivators was headed right toward them, and their leader was none other than the Heavensdeath Demon Empress.
Nine other experts accompanied her, a mix of men and women.
Based on their auras alone, Su Yi recognized their backgrounds. All of them were from the Nine Heavens Pavilion!
Their leader, a thin man in coarse hemp robes, was particularly noteworthy. His aura was extremely terrifying, and his features were as cold and firm as a boulder. Every move he made seemed steady, as if he were utterly unshakeable.
Su Yi didn’t even need to think to be certain that this was the Sixth Warden.
The Heavensdeath Demon Empress had discussed him in particular. She said he was unquestionably an unparalleled figure, a man of extraordinary talent and foundations. He’d only cultivated for eight thousand years, but he was already in the mid-stage Profound Serenity Realm!
That aside, he carried no small number of secret treasures and trump cards.
Of them, the one the Heavensdeath Demon Empress was most cautious of was a sword called Spirit Ashes. It contained utterly taboo, unsurpassed sword intent!
In the face of this secret sword, even an Imperial Apex Emperor like the Heavensdeath Demon Empress felt her hair stand on end; she sensed a lethal threat!
The eight people behind the Sixth Warden were surely the three Executioners and five Jailers who’d come to the Wilds with him.
However, Su Yi’s brow furrowed, as he sensed that something wasn’t quite right here. Given the Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s personality, how could she just lead them directly here? How is that any different from just declaring war openly?
As Su Yi pondered, the Heavensdeath Demon Empress led the experts of the Nine Heavens Pavilion to the mountaintop.
“You must be Fellow Daoist Su Xuanjun. It’s just as the rumors say. You’re indeed reminiscent of a banished immortal, and you’d stand out of any crowd.” The Sixth Warden put his hands behind his back and said indifferently.
He and the other eight members of the Nine Heavens Pavilion stopped a thousand feet from the Platform of Self-Severing. His eyes flashed like cold lightning as he evaluated the distant Su Yi. Otherwise, his expression was flat as the waters of an ancient well.
Su Yi ignored him and looked at the Heavensdeath Demon Empress.
She now seemed cold and aloof, and her beautiful, youthful face was majestic and dignified.
But when she sensed Su Yi’s gaze, she looked helpless, and she let out a melancholy sigh. “Brother Su, don’t blame me for my heartlessness. Something happened a few days ago that left me no choice but to use various methods to lure you here.”
Su Yi’s gaze focused. “Are you serious?”
The Heavensdeath Demon Empress lowered her head, not daring to meet Su Yi’s gaze. “I originally planned to join forces with you to take these Nine Heavens Pavilion people down together. Alas, worldly affairs are unpredictable. For various reasons, I had no choice but to change camps and work with them to take you down instead.”
Here, she let out a long sigh, her peerlessly beautiful face utterly bleak.
Su Yi rubbed his forehead. “What reasons? You don’t even dare to speak them out loud?”
“Allow me to explain,” the Sixth Warden calmly interjected. “Not long ago, I used a few inglorious methods to seize control over the life and death of every last disciple of the Demons’ Elysium. In doing so, I forced Fellow Daoist Heavensdeath to cooperate with me. She’s the founder of the Demons’ Elysium, and she naturally cannot simply watch as her sect is destroyed. This was her only choice.”
Su Yi’s brow furrowed. His behavior is blatantly shameless and despicable, yet he makes it sound perfectly ordinary, as if he were commenting on the weather. It’s truly unexpected.
“Brother Su, I’m sorry...” The Heavensdeath Demon Empress sighed once more, her voice bleak, helpless, and desolate.
Su Yi fell silent.
Then, he pointed at the old monsters of the Demons’ Elysium hiding in the surrounding area. “So you’re saying that the Demons’ Elysium is going to help them, and that you’re using your central defensive formation to help them take me down?”
The Heavensdeath Demon Empress said nothing. She merely nodded slightly.
The atmosphere was suddenly tense and oppressive.
“Fellow Daoist Su, if you’re willing, we can make a deal,” the Sixth Warden spoke up once more, his expression calm and his words flat. He was as firm and steady as a mountain, as if no wind could possibly shake him.
“What kind of deal?”
“Give us the secrets of reincarnation and the method for unsealing Dark and Gold Treasures. If you do, I can represent the Nine Heavens Pavilion in setting aside our past enmities,” said the Sixth Warden. “I heard that you refused the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart when she extended an invitation. I know you’re difficult to convince.
“But as you can see, should this lead to a fight, you might well be able to struggle and counterattack, but doing so will only hurt the experts of the Demons’ Elysium. If that happens...there’ll be no repairing your relationship with Fellow Daoist Heavensdeath.”
He paused, his tone increasingly calm and indifferent. “More importantly, it seems to me that if this truly comes to blows, you’ll surely be the one to fall in the end. After all, you’re not just up against we members of the Nine Heavens Pavilion. You’re up against Fellow Daoist Heavensdeath and the entire Demons’ Elysium, too.”
Su Yi stood alone atop the Platform of Self-Severing, his brow tightly furrowed.
The atmosphere was increasingly stifled, to the point that it was difficult to breathe.
“Brother Su, what I’m about to say might be shameless and despicable, but if possible, I really don’t want to fight you,” the Heavensdeath Demon Empress couldn’t help but say. She looked up, her typically starry eyes full of helplessness and despondency. “Could you... please.... Just this once... back down? I didn’t think it would come to this either.”
Her voice was increasingly weak, and her delicate frame quivered subtly. She was obviously suppressing her powerful, conflicted emotions.
“You’re doing this to save the lives of your sect. That, I don’t blame you for. But trying to persuade me like this? I can’t help but feel disappointed,” Su Yi said, as calm as ever, his gaze distant and cold. “You ought to understand that I’ve never feared this sort of threat and that I won’t lower my head to anyone, yet you... just had to try and persuade me. Honestly, you’ve really let me down.”
The Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s pretty face paled. She bit down hard on her red lower lip, her expression bleak.
The Sixth Warden took all of this in. He couldn’t help but shake his head. “In that case, we’ll just have to fight directly. Fellow Daoist Heavensdeath, if you please!”
He looked at her, and her expression shifted.
Finally, she took a deep breath, then stared coldly at the Sixth Warden.
“Remember what you promised me,” she said emphatically. “Otherwise, even if it risks the annihilation of my entire sect, I’ll rip your corpses to shreds and scatter your ashes to the wind!”
The Sixth Warden wasn’t at all moved. He said calmly, “I swore on my Dao Heart. I naturally won’t renege on my promise.”
The Heavensdeath Demon Empress then turned to face Su Yi, her unparalleled, jade-like, beautiful face already utterly determined.
She said softly, “Brother Su, no matter how today’s battle goes, and no matter how disappointed you are in me, I’ll do everything I can to protect your life!”
Clang!
The Tiny Heart of the Cosmos floated into Su Yi’s hand. Its boundless hum spread throughout the ten directions.
“No need to waste words. Let’s get started.”
Su Yi’s robes swayed around him, and forceful sword intent silently surged around his tall, upright figure. It pierced the firmament, startling the wind and clouds.
Uproar ensued.
The Sixth Warden and the other Nine Heavens Pavilion experts couldn’t help but narrow their eyes. What powerful sword intent!
And when the Heavensdeath Demon Empress saw this, she pursed her lips, then let out a soft sigh. “My apologies, Brother Su.”
She raised her fair hand into the air and waved.
Boom!
The sky instantly rumbled and boomed.
The appalling energy fluctuations of a formation suddenly burst all around the Platform of Self-Severing. Firelight, like radiant divine flames, enveloped the sky.
Grand High Elder Mo Yu and the other old monsters had now activated the core defensive formation of the Demon’s Elysium!
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