"Wretched woman!! You wretched woman! You truly deserve to die!"
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Dull, sickening thuds echoed through the silent hall as Lu Tian brought his boot down again and again upon the woman's head. The cavernous chamber rang with her feeble screams and agonizing groans.
His dark, demonic countenance was hideous to behold, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for breath. Gripping the woman by her hair, Lu Tian strode forward with a gloomy, murderous expression.
"Vile creature... What a fine trick the two of you pulled..."
Song Zhi'ang had been tortured beyond recognition, her face a mangled ruin of torn flesh and blood. Her limbs were crushed, leaving her entirely at his mercy as he dragged her by the hair. Her throat issued wet, rattling gasps, choked with blood and shredded fragments of internal organs. Lu Tian had gouged out both her eyes with his bare hands, leaving behind two crimson sockets that oozed a mixture of red and white fluids. The black flower mark between her brows had shattered and blurred like a withered petal, and her aura had dwindled to a faint wisp.
Her very consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse.
Yet she smiled. The torn corners of her bloody mouth curled upward.
"Lu... Lu Tian..."
"You're... so stupid... to... only now... realize..."
"Heh... heheh..."
"This... filthy world... it is enough that I alone... fell into it..."
"Ye Feng... he... he still has to... go home!"
"I... cannot let him... become... like me..."
Lu Tian's face darkened with venomous fury.
Looking down at the substitute puppet clutched in his hand, the rage in his chest burned even hotter.
He had kept Ye Feng alive so that Ye Feng would kill—kill countless people! Only then would he be able to savor Li Guanqi's reaction when he was finally reunited with his brother.
Yet... only now did he discover the truth.
Every single time he had ordered Ye Feng to slaughter, it had been Song Zhi'ang using the substitute puppet to wear Ye Feng's appearance and commit the deeds in his place.
As for the demon spirit inside Ye Feng, because he had severed his own arm along with other hidden factors, Ye Feng had retained dominance over his own soul. This had kept Lu Tian entirely in the dark; the Ye Feng he had been watching all this time was never truly Ye Feng at all.
And Lu Tian certainly did not know that, simply to shield his presence from Lu Tian's senses, Ye Feng had gnawed on the demon spirit day after day—even though the taste was as sickening as chewing rotting flesh.
***
Beneath Xiantu Cliff, within the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Boom!
Demonic flames scorched the heavens.
The Yinming Profound Flame instantly detonated inside the five men, its terrifying demonic fire eliciting agonizing screams from them in an instant. The meridians throughout their bodies were burned entirely to ash.
Ye Feng gripped his sword with one hand, and Nu Sha erupted with brilliant, blinding light.
"Apocalypse: Nu Sha!"
Amidst the horrifying demonic qi, a dazzling surge of Geng Metal power burst forth.
Having unleashed his demonification, Ye Feng was like a god of slaughter plunging headlong into the encirclement of the five.
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes as Ye Feng's voice sounded in his ears.
"Big Brother, help me! Time is running out, Lu Tian will definitely come! He possesses the Heavenly Demon Physique now, and his power is terrifyingly formidable. Are you confident?"
Li Guanqi's eyes flickered. Flanked by Meng Wanshu, he shot forward like a bolt of lightning, carrying an immense, suffocating pressure.
"The Heavenly Demon Physique? What do you mean? What realm is he in now?"
While pinning down the five opponents, Ye Feng's demon spirit naturally held an innate advantage over them since they shared the same demonic origin. Bolstered by the Yinming Profound Flame, although he was strained fighting them alone, he could briefly suppress them and even spare the breath to explain the situation to Li Guanqi.
"Late Mahayana realm!"
"All these years, the Heavenly Demon Hall has been collecting wrongful souls solely for Sha to absorb!"
"That last great battle was entirely Sha's conspiracy—he wanted to break through by destroying his former body and recasting it into the Heavenly Demon Physique!"
"And he... has also taken control of the Purgatory Abyss!"
"What he wants to achieve... is far from just transforming into the Heavenly Demon Physique. I even suspect he intends to rely on its power to defy the heavens and forcibly ascend! Because I have also felt the presence of the Human-Immortal Realm Barrier, and the power of the Heavenly Demon seems capable of weakening that seal!"
Listening to the vital pieces of information Ye Feng rattled off, Li Guanqi's mind spun with countless possibilities.
Without exception, each matched Ye Feng's deduction.
The sole reason Sha had conducted such wanton massacres was to bolster the power of the Heavenly Demon Physique and forcefully ascend to the heavens.
It was terrifying to consider: had Ye Feng not lurked at Lu Tian's side, and had the Heavenly Demon Hall continued secretly in this manner for another ten or twenty years, Lu Tian's cultivation would have undoubtedly broken through to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm.
With his temperament, he would have chosen to ascend by force to the Immortal Realm without a second thought.
When that happened, Li Guanqi would not even have had a target left to take vengeance on.
Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu unleashed their full might at the same moment, hurtling left and right toward the remaining demon sons.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two silhouettes landed at Ye Feng's flanks, one on either side. Catching sight of them from the corner of his eye, Ye Feng could no longer hold back his tears.
Overcome with emotion, he let out a choked sob and swung his sword with all his might against the men before him.
Even Ye Feng alone was capable of crushing these foes, to say nothing of Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu.
Three against five. Together, the three manifested a vast domain, dragging all five men inside.
A towering surge of sword intent pierced the heavens. Li Guanqi's heart surged with fiery passion, and he unleashed his terrifying power without restraint. Every sword strike carried horrifying lightning, as though purging all the anguish and bitterness he had endured over the years. Moreover, as the Thunder Lord, his lightning commanded divine punishment and repelled all foul and demonic filth. Against demonic qi, the power of thunder held an absolute restraint, making his displayed might all the more overwhelming.
Slash!
"Aargh! No!"
"Red Lotus: God Burial Dance."
Under the sweeping dance of the blade, all five men on the opposing side suffered severe wounds. Meng Wanshu murmured softly,
"Frost Severing Myriad Li!"
Hum!
A majestic arc of sword light swept across the expanse as she chanted beneath her breath,
"Seventeen Bingqi Swords!"
A barrage of fearsome sword rays exploded forth, and the five heavily wounded men were instantly frozen into solid ice.
Demonic spirits shrieked as a chaotic black-gold sword light slashed through the air, cleaving heaven and earth. Mountains and rivers quaked, boulders tumbled from the cliffs, and spatial rifts tore open like savage maws. The three overwhelmed the enemy with absolute dominance, shredding even the fleeing souls into dust with boundless sword qi.
Li Guanqi's chest heaved violently. Driving Red Lotus into the ground, he turned to Ye Feng and threw his arms wide open.
The entire Heavenly Demon Hall lay in utter ruin, shattered by the tremendous aftermath of their battle.
Li Guanqi pulled Ye Feng into a tight embrace, but his hand brushed against an empty sleeve where Ye Feng's shoulder should have met an arm.
Tears spilled from Ye Feng's eyes. His sword dropped from his limp fingers, plunging tip-first into the stone floor. His remaining hand hung frozen in midair, unsure whether he was worthy to return Li Guanqi's embrace.
Li Guanqi's voice trembled faintly as he murmured, "Finally..."
"I've finally brought you back."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than muffled sobs filled his ears, and Ye Feng's shoulders shook violently.
Suddenly!
Demonic qi surged frantically throughout the entire domain, and a chilling voice resonated across the sky:
"You will not take him!"
Lu Tian slowly stepped out from the void, clutching the limbless, mutilated body of Song Zhi'ang. A substitute puppet identical to Ye Feng was tossed carelessly to the ground not far from them.
Li Guanqi instantly gripped Red Lotus and shoved Ye Feng behind his back. Glaring at the distant figure, he spat out with freezing venom,
"Sha!"
Chapter 1129