Chapter 169 — The Demonic Beast

Under ten thousand pairs of eyes, that giant body—every inch of skin and bone—seemed to tremble faintly; and looking closely, it was countless tiny glittering swords, lodged in every place. From head to tail, from top to bottom, there was not one whole spot left.

The people on the Heaven-Reaching Peak drew in a breath of cold air; somehow a prickling sensation crept up their backs.

Yet that demonic spirit seemed not yet dead; its giant head, bristling with Slaying Immortals qi-swords of every color, slowly turned, looked over its own riddled body, and then slowly lowered its head. Its voice, somehow, was no longer shrill and ferocious; now it was very low, as though with some reluctance, and more than a little pain.

The great maw opened and closed; two streaks of red light flashed across its eyes, like flame, struggling to burn—and at last they broke and scattered.

The next moment, in midair, a great sound suddenly burst from the giant body of the demonic spirit, resounding through heaven and earth; countless qi-swords flew back up, and even the Slaying Immortals formation in the vault of heaven fell into disarray.

Then that giant demonic spirit, once so overbearing, seemed suddenly to become utterly frail; a fierce wind blew past, and its unbreakable bony frame crumbled away like sand and gravel, white bone turned to sand, flesh and blood to stone, scattered on the wind.

The people gazed silently at the horizon; on the very verge of victory, no one cheered. It was as though some strange feeling had settled over every heart.

In the sky, that once-giant body was on the point of scattering entirely on the wind when a cry of alarm suddenly rose from below; then the crowd cried out—within the beast's trunk, though flesh, blood, and bone had all dissolved, a mass of black qi still gathered and would not scatter, slowly turning in the air. After a moment the demonic spirit's body was wholly destroyed, and that mass of black qi slowly dispersed, revealing what lay within.

It was—astoundingly—the form of a youth, none other than the Beast Sovereign who had so suddenly vanished. But the Beast Sovereign now looked nothing like his former elegant ease; he was utterly bedraggled, his one-time gorgeous silken robes now, somehow, riddled with holes, and under the fierce wind of the sky they crumbled away into flying ash.

In a moment he stood stark naked, yet upon his face there seemed no trace of alarm or disappointment; on the contrary, his eyes fixed upon that vast, magnificent sword formation ahead, and he suddenly smiled, stretched his limbs, and standing there whole in midair, clapped his hands and said, "Remarkable, remarkable!"

Dao Yan Zhenren's expression changed; plainly he too had not expected the Beast Sovereign to be so hard to vanquish, to withstand such a display as that—and a glance showed the man merely paler of face, more worn with fatigue, and otherwise unharmed, not a single wound anywhere on his body.

Below, a sudden clamor arose: many of the female disciples of Canglan Mountain had only now come to their senses, their faces flushed crimson, not daring to look at the sky. Yet up in the heavens the Beast Sovereign, naked as he was, cared nothing—as though it had been so since the beginning of the world—and went about as if nothing were amiss, his gaze fixed only upon the ancient sword Slaying Immortals in Dao Yan Zhenren's hand.

Dao Yan Zhenren gave a cold laugh and said, "If you submit now, and agree to destroy your own cultivation and begin anew in the Illusory Moon Cavern of the Qingyun back mountain, to cultivate toward goodness, I may spare your life. Otherwise, beneath the Slaying Immortals sword, no life of such a savage as you shall be kept!"

With that, holding the ancient sword Slaying Immortals, he gave it a light wave, and at once the sky-filling sword radiance, as though in answer, trembled as one, majestic and awe-inspiring. But at that very moment a flicker of pain unexpectedly crossed Dao Yan Zhenren's face; brief as it was, it did not escape the Beast Sovereign's eyes.

The Beast Sovereign stood suspended in the void, strange light keen in his eyes, yet a faint smile at the corner of his mouth. "Such a supremely baleful divine sword," he said mildly, "and on top of it the spiritual qi of these green hills below—that you can hold out this long without showing weakness, you are truly beyond common men."

Dao Yan Zhenren frowned and said in a low voice, "What do you mean by that?"

The Beast Sovereign smiled and did not answer, only shaking his head. "The ancient sword's malevolent spirit must have been born of the baleful qi of heaven and earth, of one origin with me—how could I not know? You force the sword to fight me, and the outcome is uncertain, but most likely the sword qi will turn against you. Such a thing, harming others and yourself—you are no common man, why need I say more? Heh heh." Here the Beast Sovereign gave two cold laughs and went on, "I advise you to cast the sword aside early, or when the sword spirit turns on you in days to come, your fate will be a thousand, ten thousand times worse than mine."

Dao Yan Zhenren gazed at the Beast Sovereign for a long while, then suddenly shook his head and laughed aloud, his eyes full of scorn. "Demons and heretics—what do you know of the benevolent heart of us Daoists! And moreover, the true dharma of our Dao and its supreme divine sword—how could your reckless words comprehend them?"

He gave a clear, long whistle; his arm shook, and the sky-filling sword qi trembled. "Fiend," he said sternly, "meet your death!"

The Beast Sovereign sneered, flame-like light flickering in his eyes, and said fiercely, "Good—today I shall show you the power of the sorcery of my southern wilds!"

Scarce had the words fallen than black qi arose; from his bare skin black breath suddenly flashed, and in a moment his once-fair skin had turned black as ink, and beneath the skin it began to writhe—countless tiny swellings, as though alive, began to quiver without cease.

In far, unknown places, in the empty wilds on every side, a deep, deep "dong, dong" of strange sound suddenly came, like a human heartbeat, utterly uncanny. And gazing at the horizon, beyond the blinding radiance of the Slaying Immortals formation, the sky suddenly dimmed; black clouds came rushing from all four directions, swiftly gathering beside the Beast Sovereign.

Dao Yan Zhenren's face was grave; every part of him on guard, he stared at that strange transformation ahead.

Amid the wreathing black qi, that deep strange sound, as though from the depths of the Nine Netherworld, came faster and faster, denser and denser, so that one could not help feeling one's own heartbeat quicken with it, faster and faster, until at last it seemed about to burst; a few of the orthodox disciples of lesser cultivation could no longer hold out and could only collapse to the ground, struggling to resist with their arts.

And in midair, as the black qi grew ever denser, suddenly a deep roar came—like a beast's growl, or a strange insect bursting from its cocoon. All saw clearly: upon the Beast Sovereign's ink-black body, the skin at his left arm burst open, and from among the countless tiny swellings that writhed ceaselessly beneath the skin, another thing slowly emerged—with hand and fingers, the shape of another arm. And this newborn arm had strong bones, far larger than his own arm, so that no one could imagine how it had stretched out from the original.

Yet this was only the beginning. With burst after low burst, every part of the Beast Sovereign's body seemed to split open, and from each new trunk and limb of every kind emerged. And before long, upon these newborn limbs, more burst open—and yet newer, yet vaster limbs were born.