"It was you who betrayed Old Demon Yin!"
At this moment, how could the Demon Lord fail to understand?
Old Demon Yin had brought this person up many times, seeking to introduce him to the Demon Lord. It was just that the Demon Lord had been occupied with arrangements for slaying the demon and seizing the stele, so he had never paid much attention.
This man was an ancient demon's spy!
The Demon Lord glanced over at Lingzhuzi.
Lingzhuzi's brows were tightly knitted.
"You want me to help you breach the ancient restriction and let him out? Pipe dreams!"
Having been provoked again and again, the ancient demon was enraged to the extreme, wishing he could devour Demonic Qingzhu alive.
Demonic Qingzhu paid it no mind, his expression aloof. "Lord Demon Sovereign had me tell you: between returning to the primary body and being scattered to the wind, or even imprisoned and soul-searched, you know what choice to make! I—"
Halfway through his words, Demonic Qingzhu's body suddenly shuddered, his aura violently fluctuating.
Demonic Qingzhu's face contorted ferociously. He swiftly suppressed Qingzhu's true soul and snarled, "What do you think you're doing?!"
This abrupt change took everyone aback, unsure what had happened to Demonic Qingzhu.
While Demonic Qingzhu and the ancient demon were talking, the others had already been conferring in secret, resolving to strike together with thunderous force to eliminate the comparatively weaker Demonic Qingzhu first.
Though the ancient restriction showed no anomaly at the moment and they did not know what preparations this person had made, getting rid of him first could never be wrong, after which they could deal with the ancient demon at their leisure.
Seeing Demonic Qingzhu's strange aura, the crowd was just about to strike.
Unexpectedly, a faint shout rang out from inside Demonic Qingzhu's body.
"Sword soul, return!"
As soon as the words fell, the sound of breaking wind came from above, and a figure flashed into view.
Everyone looked over in astonishment.
"Huh?"
Lingzhuzi's face filled with surprise.
He actually recognized this person.
The man's name was Ning Wuhui, a disciple of the Tiandao Sect willing to undertake the drudgery of gatekeeping. Still, his innate talent was decent, and he had won a slot to enter the Trial Realm.
When Lingzhuzi led disciples into the Hall of Seven Kills this time, Ning Wuhui had been one of them. However, because Ning Wuhui maintained an extremely low profile in the sect, Lingzhuzi knew very little about him.
Yet he clearly had only late Core Formation cultivation—how had he entered the Spirit-Suppressing Domain?
"You..."
Lingzhuzi was just about to bark a question.
Yet he saw a flash of brilliant light erupt from the crown of Ning Wuhui's head. Astonishingly, a Nascent Soul leapt out, cradling a fragment of something unrecognizable. In a flash, it lunged toward Demonic Qingzhu and sank into his body.
"An external Nascent Soul!"
The Demon Lord named the Nascent Soul's nature in a single phrase.
Once the Nascent Soul entered his body, Demonic Qingzhu froze, followed immediately by frantic rage.
His aura fell into utter disarray, and the expression on his face warped terrifyingly, like a raving demon with crimson eyes. Then, half of his face gradually returned to normal.
The very same face gave off two completely different impressions.
One side demonic, the other human!
Seeing this spectacle, everyone vaguely guessed something, and their movements halted.
The two sides were deadlocked, but evidently, the normal side was gaining the upper hand, and the demonic soul was being suppressed bit by bit.
"Who is he?! I am not a sword soul!"
A roar echoed from within Qingzhu's body. It was the voice of the demonic soul, full of fury and indignation.
"Indeed," Qingzhu's true soul replied as it took the initiative. His eyes regained their clarity, and he let out an almost imperceptible sigh. "You were originally a split soul of killing intent that I severed to cultivate my technique. I could have kept you suppressed, but upon arriving here I was gravely wounded and nearly suffered your backlash. I had no choice but to seal you on Yitian Peak. Yet I never imagined an ancient demon lurked in these mountains. When I returned to find you, you had already vanished—bewitched by the ancient demon, turned into its hound, and wreaked endless slaughter! Fortunately, you never discovered the restriction inside you sealing your memories, and remained ignorant of your true origin."
"What?!"
Shocked, the demonic soul realized something at once. "That jade slip on the Sword Path..."
Qingzhu gave an affirmative hum. "The jade slip was left precisely for you! The speed at which your cultivation advanced far exceeded my expectations, and the seal within you had already loosened, on the verge of restoring your memories. I was forced to resort to this inferior strategy: leaving the jade slip to lure you to me. You and I were originally one entity; a single soul split apart, with no clear primary or secondary. When I found you, your cultivation surpassed mine. If your memories had returned and you came hunting for me, insisting on fusion, I would have had no strength to resist. If we fused, we would have become a raving devil that knew only slaughter. A sword soul, however, is different—forged through the cultivation technique, fusing the divine soul's presence with sword light to breed a demon seed. To devour its master, it must first suppress my divine soul, then consume it when I am powerless to retaliate. Only by misleading you into believing you were a sword soul could I stall for time, stabilize the seal within you, and await the opportune moment..."
While Qingzhu and the demonic soul clashed, inside his Purple Mansion:
The sword soul Nascent Soul released the fragment in its embrace and guided it toward the demonic soul.
At this moment, faint light flickered at the core of the demonic soul. Inside it was yet another fragment, fused with a peculiar restriction and currently being activated by Qingzhu's true soul.
Except for their differing shapes, they clearly originated from the same treasure.
*Clack!*
The two fragments collided and melded into one. Sword edges emerged on both flanks—it was unmistakably a section of some spirit sword!
Upon the blade, the ancient character was also pieced together in full: the character for "Kill"!
As the two fragments merged, the shard of the Killing Sword gleamed with faint radiance, radiating an extraordinary power akin to sword light.
The demonic soul shrieked, refusing to submit, struggling frantically.
With the aid of the Killing Sword shard, the power of the restriction surged, and Qingzhu's true soul gained the upper hand.
On the outside, the madness in Qingzhu's eyes gradually faded.
Qingzhu had not hesitated to lure the demonic soul into his body, bearing humiliation and a heavy burden to resist it for decades.
He had dispatched his avatar to slip into the Trial Realm, obtain Earth Blood Ginseng, form an external Nascent Soul, enter Nether Valley, and retrieve another shard of the Killing Sword.
At long last, he had reached this day, turning defeat into victory!
Resealing the demonic soul was now a foregone conclusion!
The Demon Lord and the others were all figures of extraordinary experience. Although the two souls of Qingzhu were communicating only within his Purple Mansion, observing the changes in Qingzhu was enough for them to piece together roughly what had transpired.
"You're nothing more than a split soul as well! Hahaha!"
The ancient demon laughed madly in schadenfreude, but his laughter abruptly vanished, and he lunged fiercely toward the chasm.
The primary body had outmaneuvered him and backed him into a corner. With no hope of escape, only one path remained.
"Stop him!"
The crowd shouted in unison.
Even as Qingzhu sealed the demonic soul, he uttered earth-shattering news: "Slay this demon quickly! The Witch Clan has also been drawn here by them..."
"What?!"
Fairy Nangui was thoroughly shocked. "The demon-sealing restriction is an ancient restriction of all three races—human, witch, and monster!"
...
Outside the ancient hall:
Qin Sang stood concealed at the edge of the cliff, watching from afar.
His earlier speculation had been verified: shielded by the gray qi, he had walked out of the ancient hall safe and sound.
With true demonic qi permeating the area and top-tier experts everywhere, he dared not draw near, daring only to watch from a distance. What he could see and hear were merely scattered fragments; completely in the dark regarding the various secrets, he could only guess.
Renowned human experts took the stage one after another like revolving lanterns, the situation shifting continuously in a dizzying display.
It was not until Qingzhu appeared and he heard that loud shout that inspiration struck Qin Sang's mind like a bolt of lightning.
Others might not know, but he was well aware that to cultivate the *Origin Soul Sword Nurturing Chapter*, Qingzhu had once severed his own origin soul!
The great battle erupted once more.
As countless thoughts wheeled through Qin Sang's mind, he suddenly heard Bai say, "The fire curse seed is reacting. Old Devil Mou faked his death!"
Chapter 1073