Chapter 493: Born a Demon
The massive purple demonic stone stood imposingly at the center of Spirit Offering.
Regardless of location, the demonic stone would eventually replace the natural energies of its surroundings with demonic energy.
The world around it would inevitably evolve into a Demon Realm.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Flying vessels belonging to the Demon Scale Race sailed in from the Cosmic Skies Continent and the fragmented lands of the Third World.
Meanwhile, flying vessels carrying members of the Ghost Race, the Celestial Race, and the Flame Race left the Dark Abyss Continent.
The demonic stone, also known as the Demon Lair, had been permitted to be placed in Spirit Offering, meaning the spiritual qi and even murky energy there would slowly change.
Any race outside the Demon Races, or those not cultivating demonic techniques, would find it nearly impossible to survive on a continent saturated with demonic energy.
Even the Ghost Race had no choice but to withdraw in frustration despite having initially been the ones to take control of the Dark Abyss Continent.
Time passed swiftly and two days went by in the blink of an eye.
Great Demon God He Motian's soul fragment within the Demon Lair had just completed the array to receive the Demon Fetus. With the array, the Demon Fetus could descend into the Demon Lair the instant it woke up.
He Motian waited patiently alongside the Demon Races and powerhouses of the Demon Sect, but the Demon Fetus never appeared.
In one corner of Spirit Offering stood a crumbling altar that the Radiant Race had once used to worship the sun in ancient times.
Wu Yuan, the pride of the Demon Sect, leaned against the altar's base. As the wielder of the Purple Demon Eye and the cultivator of the Demon Stone Art, he was destined to one day become the Sect Master of the Demon Sect.
His expression was indifferent as always, and his eyes were dark and serene.
After his divine soul left the Demon Lair and returned to his physical body, he immediately joined forces with Xuan Ying of the Demon Scale Race to slaughter the cultivators on the Demon Abyss Continent.
Wu Yuan showed no mercy in his killings, massacring the same way he struck down his fellow disciple, Chen Lushi, before.
It was his ruthlessness and complete lack of hesitation that allowed him to survive to this day.
Xuan Ying emerged from the shadows, body clad in gleaming silver scales, sharp and cold like a blade.
"You're different from the others," she said. "You haven't fallen onto the demonic path. I noticed you were clear-headed from the beginning. I'm curious—how could you so decisively kill your own kin?"
Chen Xuanfeng and Qu Long, the two peak Immortal Realm elders from the Demon Sect, exuded faint demonic intent from their bodies and divine souls/
The other protectors and inner disciples of the Demon Sect mirrored them as wicked thoughts consumed the hearts.
Xuan Ying knew this meant the Demon Gods in the outer worlds had successfully tempted them.
As a result, their inner greed and malice had been amplified beyond control.
Only Xiang Shengwei was directly possessed by He Motian. The others had all willingly chosen the demonic path, hoping to grow stronger through demonic cultivation.
The Demon Gods in the outer worlds had revealed the vast splendor of the starry skies and swayed them with the promise of becoming Demon Gods.
After all, there had indeed been past cases of Demon Gods guiding other intelligent races in cultivating demonic techniques and aiding them in ascending to become Demon Gods.
The members of the Demon Sect saw this as their chance to carve out a place in the starry skies. Their ambitions led them to surrender to the persuasion of the Demon Gods.
However, Wu Yuan was different. He slaughtered his kin with greater cruelty than the others but had retained his clarity of mind.
Whoosh!
Wu Yuan, having since reached the peak of the Soul Wandering Realm, manifested his divine soul in response to Xuan Ying's question.
His divine soul perfectly mirrored the appearance of his physical body.
There was a deeply engraved mark on the forehead of his divine soul—a jagged, green-purple bone-spiked lotus.
It was the unique demonic imprint of the Great Demon God He Motian.
Wu Yuan also summoned the Purple Demon Eye, now devoid of He Motian's divine image.
Hovering above his physical body, Wu Yuan's divine soul said calmly, "Back then, I could no longer suppress the will of the Great Demon God He Motian. I had two choices—either willingly embrace the demonic path or have a Demon God possess my body.
"It's an easy choice, right?"
Xuan Ying froze, the silver scales covering her face sliding away to reveal her beauty. Staring at Wu Yuan, she gave a slight nod. "Indeed, it was an easy choice."
"I chose the demonic path, but He Motian still didn't trust me, so he left a demonic imprint on my divine soul," Wu Yuan explained calmly. "Honestly, he should have just trusted me.
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"I, Wu Yuan, am a demon born among humans.
"The Primordial Demon chose me and allowed me to cultivate the Demon Stone Art because he had long seen through me. He knew I held no attachment to this world, to the foreign races, the Fey Race, or even the human race. I feel no sense of belonging anywhere.
"Even without He Motian's threats or temptations, I was destined to become a demon. He really shouldn't have bothered."
Whoosh!
Wu Yuan's human-shaped divine soul then transformed into a purple demonic stone and quietly sank back into his sea of consciousness.
With that, he closed his eyes, ignoring the lingering skepticism in Xuan Ying's gaze as he attempted to break through to the Nirvana Realm.
He appeared utterly indifferent to everything that had happened in recent days, from the Demon Sect splitting from the human race and the divine image within the Purple Demon Eye being extracted to He Motian's demonic imprint being etched onto his divine soul.
As Wu Yuan had said, he was a demon born among humans.
The Primordial Demon chose Wu Yuan and granted him the right to cultivate the Demon Stone Art because he realized this.
Even someone as ruthless as Xuan Ying would hesitate if ordered to slaughter her fellow kinsmen from the Demon Scale Race, with pain and regret lingering in the aftermath.
Wu Yuan, on the other, would not struggle at all. To him, killing his fellow disciples was no different from slaughtering livestock.
***
Pang Jian's fingers lightly traced the bronze pendant in the Cloud Wilderness of the Resolute Expanse. The Abyssal Demon Sword rested at his feet, sheathed within its scabbard, and a newly constructed Ghost Altar stood beside him.
He had just tossed a slip of paper onto the altar and was waiting for Dong Tianze's reply.
Slipping a wisp of his divine sense into the pendant, he glimpsed a fist-sized orb inside.
The greenish-black orb brimmed with demonic energy.
Even the vast sea of demonic energy beneath the fragmented land in his dantian paled in comparison to the demonic energy held within the orb.
This object...
With a thought, the greenish-black demonic orb silently emerged from the bronze pendant.
Intricate demonic runes abruptly appeared across the orb's surface.
Waves of greenish-black demonic light rippled outward as the orb started to replace the spiritual qi of Cloud Wilderness into demonic energy before his very eyes.
"Pang Jian!" the Abyssal Demon called sharply as he emerged from the sword.
The twelve arrays Li Jie had painstakingly inscribed into the scabbard proved useless against the Abyssal Demon's complete form.
Whoosh!
The Abyssal Demon slipped into the fist-sized demonic orb, halting its process of corrupting the surrounding spiritual qi.
The handsome prince of the Nether Demon Race floated gracefully within the demonic orb.
Pang Jian could only see a flicker of the Abyssal Demon's presence from the outside.
"How was demonic energy condensed into an orb?" Pang Jian asked in surprise.
"What exactly is that bronze pendant of yours?" the Abyssal Demon asked in lieu of a reply, voice laced with unease. "Pure demonic energy can at most condense into demonic crystals.
"It normally can't contain the profound truths of the Dao of Demon. Especially not those that the Demon Gods in the outer worlds have comprehended."
Pang Jian was stunned. "Then what exactly is this?"
"That bronze pendant of yours absorbed and refined the array shrouding the Demon Abyss Continent alongside its demonic energy," the Abyssal Demon explained, voice rising with excitement. "Basically, this orb is a miniature version of the Heaven-Encompassing Demonic Array and contains incredibly pure demonic energy.
"Let me study this demonic orb first. I'll unravel the mysteries behind these demonic runes and the Daos etched into them. Once I've comprehended them, I'll teach you the divine abilities and insights that the Demon Gods have grasped."
The Abyssal Demon did not stand on ceremony and simply dragged the orb into the Abyssal Demon Sword.
"Pang Jian, that bronze pendant of yours is an extraordinary treasure. Treat it with care."
Pang Jian gave a slight nod before sinking his divine sense into the fragmented land within his dantian.
The boundless demonic energy below had condensed into a greenish-black sea, with only a tiny gap separating it from the fragmented land.
Primordial Demon Fusion Art.
Pang Jian silently recalled his battle with the Demon Fetus within the sword, attempting to draw upon the demonic energy as he pondered the mysteries of the demonic technique.
The motionless sea of demonic energy gradually started to ripple, like the gentle ebb and flow of his spiritual sea in days long past.
A greenish-black sea below, a fragmented land above, and the starry skies beyond. The landscape within my dantian is becoming more and more like the Abyss itself. How strange...
He recalled a phrase he had seen a while back.
The true path for all beings in this world lies beneath the Fifth World, in the darkness beneath the darkness.
It was the inscription left in ancient demonic script within the heart cavity of a Frost Dragon on the Fey Spirit Continent.
Outer God Zi Mo of the Ghost Race had once deliberately misinterpreted it, claiming it referred to the Sanctum of Godly and Demonic Genesis.
There was nothing but a dark void of deathly stillness and absolute despair beneath the Fifth World of the Abyss.
Even without entering the Heaven-Earth Cosmos Chest, Pang Jian could sense this space below the Fifth World.
The Demon Fetus was likely enduring endless nothingness there.
So, the path for all beings isn't the vast starry skies beyond the barrier, but further into the darkness below? Pang Jian wondered skeptically.
He refused to believe the cryptic words that the ancient demon had left behind.
Whoosh!
Dong Tianze's figure suddenly appeared in the Ghost Altar, standing beside a gently flowing stream in a valley of flowers.
An elegant young girl stood at his side.
Pang Jian froze.
He could not take his eyes off her. Her presence wholly captivated his heart, mind, and soul.