Chapter 1725: Secrets of the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons

Zhou Mengyao still spoke in the tone of a master that Qi Xuansu so detested, even carrying a hint of condescending instruction in her voice. “The Master not speaking of such things does not mean the Master did not believe in them. Being difficult to descend into this world does not mean it’s unable to descend.

“‘The Azure Heaven is dead, and the Yellow Heaven shall rise.’ Back then, King Xiao relied on an overwhelming strike from the Azure Heaven to defeat Wang Jujun, a Sage of the Confucian School, and thereby seized the realm. During the Taiping Rebellion, the Great Teacher of the Taiping Sect relied on the Yellow Heaven to defeat the Azure Heaven in turn. It is said that the Yellow Heaven was ultimately suppressed and sealed as well, but opinions differ widely as to exactly where it was suppressed and where it was sealed. Coincidentally, the three emperors who later divided the realm among themselves all participated in suppressing the Yellow Heaven, either directly or indirectly. Some unofficial histories even record that the Yellow Heaven was suppressed within the body of one of those emperors.”

There was an enormous amount of information contained in Zhou Mengyao’s words.

Wang Jujun was none other than the man who had usurped the Red Emperor’s realm. He was placed on the same level as the Confucian School’s Primordial Sage—the Duke of Zhou. Though Confucius was the true founder of the Confucian School, the Primordial Sage could be considered its progenitor.

The lifelong goal of Confucius could be summarized in four words—restrain oneself and restore the Primordial Sage’s rites.

Wang Jujun was also a member of the Confucian School and had once been revered as a Sage. He preceded even the Sage of Principle and the Sage of Mind, and his status was second only to Confucius and the Second Sage. The fact that he could be compared with the Primordial Sage was enough to show just how exalted his standing had once been.

Sage Wang was also a powerful minister. After the emperor died of illness, he installed the two-year-old Ruzi Ying as Crown Prince and governed the court in the toddler’s stead.

In the end, he broke with the Confucian School’s tradition of serving as teachers to emperors and directly seized the Imperial Succession Seal, ascending to the throne himself. Later, his dynasty fell. Wang Jujun was stripped of his title as a Sage and could therefore also be called the Confucian School’s “Deposed Sage.”

The Azure Heaven had defeated a Sage of the Confucian School and an army hundreds of thousands strong.

It was truly difficult to imagine such terrifying power?

It was no wonder the Taiping Sect had needed to borrow the power of the Yellow Heaven to defeat the Azure Heaven.

The Yellow Heaven’s original intention should have been to replace the Azure Heaven, to rule over the realm just as the Azure Heaven had, and then devour the entire world. However, the Yellow Heaven’s vitality was severely depleted after defeating the Azure Heaven, giving others an opportunity to suppress it.

This seemed more like a trap specifically laid for the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons, a stratagem of driving the tiger to devour the wolf. The Taiping Sect had merely been the party tasked with carrying it out. At the same time, the Zhengyi Sect had been carrying out orders to eradicate the Ancient Wuist Sect.

According to Zhou Mengyao, the three emperors who later contended for the realm and ultimately divided it into three had all been connected to this suppression. One of those emperors had not participated directly, but his father had. In the end, the Yellow Heaven had been sealed inside the body of one of those emperors.

An emperor could also be an Immortal. Something capable of subjecting an Immortal to such prolonged torment certainly could not have been an ordinary illness. Even cultivation deviation caused by an inner demon would not have been enough.

If that were the case, then the Yellow Heaven had never truly left the mortal world. Now, with the end of the era approaching, it was difficult to say whether some unforeseen change might occur.

At the same time, this also reminded Qi Xuansu of the humanoid insects.

Although the Heluo God was the master behind the humanoid insects, she was not the one who had created them. She only discovered the humanoid insects after she had entered the Yin Moon. Their original master had long since disappeared. The Heluo God had essentially inherited the whole thing intact.

It was highly likely that the methods used to create the humanoid insects were related to the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons.

If Zhou Mengyao had not been right beside him, Qi Xuansu would have wanted to contact the Heluo God and discuss the matter with her in depth.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Is this the Yellow Heaven?”

Zhou Mengyao shook her head. “It differs greatly from the Yellow Heaven described in the records. It seems more like an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon that was never explicitly mentioned in any surviving account. As for why it has taken this form, Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons have no fixed appearance, so it may have something to do with the environment here.”

Su Yuanzai could not help but say, “Could it be the so-called Cloud God? Or perhaps, during the Golden Horde era, an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon once descended into this world. Since the realm was in utter chaos at the time, its arrival failed to attract sufficient attention. It then came to Yunmeng Marsh and took possession of this pocket realm.”

Zhou Mengyao said, “We can’t rule out that possibility.”

However, Qi Xuansu thought deeper. He suddenly recalled that Long Xiaobai had explicitly mentioned an Immortal’s remains lying beside the alchemy furnace.

Zhou Mengyao had also said that after the Jin Dynasty, Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons could no longer descend directly into the mortal world and had to rely on a vessel or host.

Immortals might be capable of resisting Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons, but what if an Immortal had wanted to harness one for his own use?

It had been an age of chaos, so an Immortal could have used some special means to deliberately summon an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, intending to emulate King Xiao’s feat. However, the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon spiraled out of control and ultimately killed him through the resulting backlash.

For an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, changing bodies was as easy as changing clothes. If the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon had taken possession of the Immortal’s body, it could then remain in the mortal world.

That was another possibility.

The only thing that remained unclear was why Long Xiaobai had been completely unharmed. It seemed they would have to venture deeper into the core region before they could understand the truth.

At this thought, Qi Xuansu said, “Since this involves an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, should we report it to the Golden Tower Council?”

Zhou Mengyao shook her head. “There’s no need. This Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon is constrained by the mortal world. At most, it can wield the power of an Immortal. Though it may be somewhat troublesome to deal with, it hasn’t reached the point where we are helpless.”

Su Yuanzai was also opposed to the idea. “If the Daoist Order intervenes, then I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to gain the opportunity to attain immortality...”

Seeing that neither of them was willing to report the matter to the Golden Tower Council, Qi Xuansu did not insist. He merely became a little more vigilant in secret.

Just then, the enormous human face also noticed the three of them. An eerie smile appeared on that swollen, grotesquely twisted face. Its hollow eye sockets stared at the three of them like two bottomless whirlpools that sought to suck everything into their depths.

Immediately afterward, the mist surrounding the human face began to thin, revealing a void that was emitting a constant gurgling sound, similar to someone swallowing liquid.

Within that sound lurked an indescribable madness and chaos. Demonic whispers surged into the trio’s ears and attacked their souls, forcing them to resist it with their cultivation and shut out the sound.

In a daze, Qi Xuansu saw a vague silhouette emerge within the void behind the enormous face, as though some colossal entity were rising toward the surface of the water, preparing to shoot out from the void.

That silhouette resembled a whale, yet also bore some resemblance to a Heluo Fish. Whatever it was, it certainly did not look human.

Qi Xuansu had already taken out the Taiji Eight Trigrams Mirror and stood ready, his full attention focused on what lay ahead.

Su Yuanzai also summoned his multi-decked ship. The vessel was covered in all sorts of complex formations. Once they were fully activated, the radiance of the formations completely obscured most of the ship’s hull.

Zhou Mengyao still did not use any artifact or weapon. Instead, she entered the state of Heavenly Calculation.

The colossal being stirred restlessly, and part of its body was already gradually breaking through the void and the mist.

It was then that Qi Xuansu realized that the enormous human face earlier was not its head, but rather, it looked as though someone had pushed the mask they were wearing up onto their forehead without actually taking it off.

That twisted and horrifying human face was merely the mask, while its true appearance lay beneath it.

Beneath the mask, Qi Xuansu only saw a mouth resembling a bottomless pit.

The maw was so massive that it resembled an abyss, or perhaps a spatial rift torn open by an Earthly Immortal. Its interior was utterly black and unfathomably deep, with neither boundary nor end in sight, as though it led to some unknown and indescribable world of chaos.

The next moment, a mottled black torrent erupted from the enormous maw.

Although it was entirely black, its shades varied in depth, giving it a strangely mottled appearance. It emanated an aura of emptiness and nothingness.

There was even a faint trace of the Taiyi Supreme Technique’s aura, or in other words, the aura of primordial chaos.

The torrent blotted out heaven and earth, seemingly intent on reducing everything to Primordial Chaos. It covered an astonishingly vast area and had such an intense corrosive power, enough to kill a Heavenly Being in a short span of time.

There was no question that this was an Immortal’s trick.

This alone offered a glimpse of just how terrifying the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons truly were. If the mortal world were not in the Taiji Era, where everything was stable and rigid, these Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons would undoubtedly have been the mortal world’s greatest enemy.

The overwhelming majority of people would have been annihilated from such an attack. However, for Qi Xuansu’s group, it was not quite so terrifying. After all, if the three of them joined forces, they would possess strength surpassing that of an ordinary Immortal.

Zhou Mengyao was the first to act. Though she did not hold a saber nor sword, a dazzling blade light erupted from her, stretching from earth to heaven and cleaving the surging torrent cleanly in two.

Su Yuanzai steered the multi-decked ship, carrying the three of them upward whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Meanwhile, Qi Xuansu activated the Taiji Eight Trigrams Mirror, shielding the multi-decked ship and neutralizing the residual shockwaves.

Even with an immortal object in hand, Qi Xuansu found it extremely strenuous.

Fortunately, he was not an ordinary Pseudo-Immortal. He also had the Heluo God’s incarnation at his disposal. It was because of this that he managed to hold his ground and avoid becoming a burden at the critical moment.

This was a kind of power Qi Xuansu had never encountered before. It was neither true essence, innate qi, divine power, nor magical power. If one absolutely had to give it a name, it should perhaps be called the power of primordial chaos.

Its very existence was a paradox. It was given a tangible form through the intermingling of countless broken and contradictory laws. Even Immortals and deities could only marvel at such a thing. Abilities such as manipulating space and time and overturning the natural order were mere instincts that the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demons were born with.