Chapter 385: The Legacy

The Blood River Patriarch, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress, and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master came to the edge of the dark pool, their demonic energy rolling in waves, and took their positions.

Sensing the extraordinarily dense true qi of heaven and earth above the pool, the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master's eyes moved beneath his hood, then shifted toward the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress, "The true qi of heaven and earth here is indeed remarkably unusual. Finding this place was no small feat."

At those words, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's expression remained even. Demonic energy churned at her back, and the faint silhouettes of a demonic sun and demonic moon rose and fell on either side of her, "This old one heard of it through information that reached her. According to Great Xuan's Divine Constable, the bottom of this pool holds a martial divine treasure, though no one has been able to dive in and approach it. Those who try inevitably fall unconscious, or even die."

"The Divine Constable once dove into the pool himself to investigate, and even with his deep martial cultivation, he could not escape falling unconscious. He nearly drowned in the water."

At those words, a crimson gleam flickered in the Blood River Patriarch's eyes. He exchanged a look with the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master and narrowed his eyes, "No matter. Once we open the Demonic Cores and absorb the lifetime cultivation the Demonic Patriarch poured into all nine of them, we can explore whatever is at the bottom of this pool at our leisure."

"If a martial divine treasure truly lies within, then it is a sign of the demonic path's rising fortune, and it shall naturally become ours."

The Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master gave a slight nod, ghostly shadows drifting around him. He reached into his robes and produced two Demonic Cores, "Time is short. Better to open the Demonic Cores without delay, before anything can go wrong."

At those words, the Blood River Patriarch also nodded, then a flash of crimson light crossed his palm and three Demonic Cores appeared in his hand.

Then the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress opened the dragon-head compartment of her walking staff, and three more Demonic Cores flew out.

At this point, all three turned to look at the Inviting Moon Palace's First Palace Mistress behind them.

Seeing this, Wenyue said nothing at all, and simply flicked a finger. A Demonic Core shot out and flew upward toward the heads of the three cult masters.

"Activate the formation."

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress gave a quiet command and drove her dragon-head staff sharply into the green stone at the pool's edge.

In the next instant, lines of demonic script began spreading outward from beneath her feet in every direction, not stopping until they had covered an area of ten zhang in every direction.

At the same time, the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master both struck out as well.

Wave after wave of crimson bloodstained palm prints drove down, and wisps of yin energy drifted like ghostfire, quickly merging into the demonic formation script below.

In an instant, centered on the three of them, a ten-zhang area blazed with layer upon layer of terrifying reddish-black demonic light, emanating an aura of profound dread that visibly consumed and enveloped the entire surrounding space.

The Inviting Moon Palace's First Palace Mistress Wenyue had already slipped back the moment the three acted, positioning herself at the outer edge of the demonic formation the three sects had laid, keeping herself out of it entirely.

She watched the three demonic cult masters opening the Demonic Cores with cold eyes and made no move to intervene.

At the same time, as the demonic formation was activated, the Demonic Cores in the Blood River Patriarch's and the others' hands rose into the air, spinning rapidly and floating above the entire formation.

As the nine Demonic Cores converged and drew together, an intangible force formed between them.

Looking upward, the previously unremarkable Demonic Cores began rising with a haze of demonic light. The light was faint at first, but as the nine cores drew closer together and spun faster, the space above the formation quickly became a dark ring with only nine blurring afterimages chasing one another in endless rotation.

The demonic light on the Demonic Cores grew more and more blazing, and the dense true qi of heaven and earth surrounding the dark pool began rushing in like rivers flowing into the sea, pouring into the circular ring formed by the nine Demonic Cores.

In just a few breaths, the nine Demonic Cores, having absorbed an enormous quantity of true qi from heaven and earth, were blazing in the moonlit darkness like a searing black sun, impossible to look at directly.

At this point, the formation the three demonic sects had laid also began rapidly breaking down, dissolving into lines of complex and arcane demonic script that shot upward like a volcanic eruption from the ground, flowing up into the demonic ring formed by the nine Demonic Cores in the air.

"Crack."

Suddenly, a clear shattering sound rang out. Then the nine Demonic Cores, having absorbed both the true qi of heaven and earth and the power of the demonic formation, began to fracture one after another.

The demonic light that had been blazing like a black sun retreated like a tide and pulled rapidly inward, until nine shattering sounds had faded and the turbulent heavens and earth abruptly fell still.

The Blood River Patriarch and the other two had already stopped acting, and simply looked up, fixing their eyes hard on the space above, waiting for the Demonic Cores to open.

"Boom."

Just then, the Demonic Cores that had gone quiet erupted with sudden force. A terrifying invisible power burst outward from the nine Demonic Cores at its center, radiating in all directions.

That dreadful force was like an enormous sword that sheared off two mountain cliffs near the dark pool. The forests on the mountain of the Qingxuan Temple were ground to dust by the force and scattered as powder across the sky. The surrounding area was reduced to barren rock in an instant.

Even some of the demonic experts standing guard on the nearby mountain paths were caught in the sudden explosion of power from the Demonic Cores and were instantly reduced to blood mist, with no bodies left behind.

But the Blood River Patriarch and the other two paid no attention to the deaths of their subordinates. They locked onto the Demonic Cores' location with their aura, their eyes fixed unblinking on the space above, and their breathing began to quicken.

At the same time, the seals on all nine Demonic Cores broke apart completely, transforming into nine streaks of blazing demonic light that merged together in an instant, drawn to one another like magnets.

In that moment, the entire world went suddenly silent.

Then, from the merged nine Demonic Cores, an extraordinarily terrifying demonic aura was born slowly, and the fused Demonic Cores became a black vortex of churning demonic energy.

Even the three demonic cult masters were shaken for a moment by the terrifying aura within the vortex, though they showed no fear. On the contrary, their eyes filled with undisguised greed.

In the next instant, the three of them did not hesitate for a moment longer. Their figures launched from the ground and vanished from where they stood in an instant, shooting toward the slowly turning vortex of demonic energy in the air.

Entering the Demonic Core vortex and feeling the vast and boundless demonic cultivation power it contained, the crimson light in the Blood River Patriarch's eyes blazed up intensely. He immediately snapped his head back to look at the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master, and suddenly roared, "Now."

In the same instant, the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master erupted into action with thunderous force. Blood rivers surged, yin winds howled, and both of them unleashed terrifying killing strikes aimed directly at the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress beside them, clearly intending to put her to death.

At the sight, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress seemed entirely unsurprised. She only gave a cold laugh.

Centered at her brow, the shadowy silhouettes of the sun and moon hung suspended and clearly distinct. Her body became rapidly translucent, and in an instant she had retreated several zhang, barely slipping out of the two men's sudden strike.

Seeing that the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had already prepared for this, and their killing blow had been dodged, both the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master darkened in expression.

But neither of them pressed the pursuit. They immediately turned back and began circulating their arts furiously, absorbing the demonic cultivation from within the vortex.

"If she dares come close, we kill her together."

The Blood River Patriarch spoke with cold eyes, then let out a sound of pure satisfaction.

The demonic cultivation power within the vortex was extraordinarily pure and immense. Absorbing a single full circulation far exceeded what a hundred or a thousand sessions of normal demonic cultivation would yield.

In just this brief moment, the demonic cultivation within both the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master had surged explosively, reaching levels of power they had never experienced.

Both of them could already imagine what it would be like once they had absorbed everything in the vortex. Even Martial Saints would be effortlessly crushed.

The thought sparked an impulse in both of them. They exchanged a glance and could each see the greed and killing intent in the other's eyes.

Clearly, both the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master had the idea of killing the other and claiming all the demonic cultivation from the vortex for themselves.

But what remained of their reason brought both of them back to their senses, and neither actually moved.

After all, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress was still watching from the sidelines. If the two of them turned on each other now, it would obviously hand her all the advantage.

Meanwhile, having been forced out of the vortex by the Blood River Patriarch's and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master's ambush, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress stood suspended in the air and did not move.

She held her dragon-head staff, her face deeply lined and aged, and showed no intention of striking back at the two men. She only watched the churning demonic vortex above with a detached expression, saying not a word.

But in the next moment, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's gaze suddenly turned, fixing on the Inviting Moon Palace's First Palace Mistress standing beyond the remains of the demonic formation below. She narrowed her eyes slowly and asked, "I have had a feeling all along that something about you was off. Who exactly are you?"

At those words, Wenyue looked up toward the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress in the air and said with a meaningful tone, "That question ought to come from me, not from you."

For a moment, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress and the Inviting Moon Palace's First Palace Mistress below held each other's gaze.

Then something shifted in the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's eyes, as though a realization had struck. And she suddenly let out a long, strange laugh, "I understand now. So it is you."

With those words, the sun and moon silhouettes revolving around the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress flared with demonic light that vanished from the air in a flash.

In the next instant, she appeared above Wenyue's head, and a demonic sun-and-moon seal came crashing down toward the top of her skull.

Wenyue's face remained expressionless. She shifted her position and pulled back with sharp speed while at the same time opening her mouth and breathing out a soft cloud of hazy mist. The mist spread and billowed like flowing clouds, threatening to envelop the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's figure in a moment.

At the sight, a clear look of wariness crossed the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's eyes.

The Inviting Moon Palace's Thousand Fragrance Sinew-Softening Powder was no mere rumor. Even she had no desire to come into contact with it lightly, especially since she had more important things to accomplish shortly.

With that thought, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress immediately withdrew her hand and shot backward, slipping free of the mist Wenyue had breathed out and coming to rest suspended in the air once more.

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress watched Wenyue, who had now retreated even further from the vortex, her eyes going cold. But she made no further move to attack, and turned her gaze back toward where the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master were.

At this point, the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master, after continuously absorbing the demonic cultivation within the vortex, had each grown in aura to alarming levels, far beyond their previous selves.

Both were brimming with excitement. The demonic cultivation remaining in the vortex was still immense, and both could only imagine how powerful they would become once they had absorbed all of it.

"Even if the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress came for us right now, I could slap her to death with one palm."

The Blood River Patriarch spoke with great satisfaction, then found the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master was completely ignoring him, focused entirely on circulating his arts and racing to absorb as much demonic cultivation as he could.

At the sight, the Blood River Patriarch cursed inwardly, then said no more and threw himself into absorbing from the vortex with full force as well.

As time passed, the Blood River Patriarch's and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master's power grew stronger and stronger. And beyond the demonic vortex, the eyes of the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress grew steadily colder and more piercing.

"Foolish things. What the Demonic Patriarch left behind, did you truly think you could so easily obtain it?"

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress watched the demonic vortex, counting time inwardly while appearing to be waiting for something.

At the same time, just as the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master were furiously absorbing demonic cultivation, the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master's expression suddenly changed, "Something is wrong."

He immediately tore open the front of his black robes, revealing the pale, bloodless skin beneath.

And in his line of sight he could see that beneath the skin of his chest, branching black lines like a spider's web were forming.

These black lines pulsed and spread with a rhythmic rise and fall, feeling of nothing, neither pain nor itching, seeming to have no effect on his body whatsoever.

But in the very moment he had been absorbing demonic cultivation just now, he had suddenly found that the demonic cultivation entering his body was flowing into these black lines.

And what alarmed the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master even more was that these black lines, having absorbed the demonic cultivation, were multiplying and expanding at frightening speed, as though they intended to cover and take over his entire body.

The Blood River Patriarch had discovered the same thing happening to himself, and immediately stopped absorbing from the vortex. He circulated his demonic arts at once, trying to stop the black lines from spreading.

But what neither of them had expected was that it had absolutely no effect.

On the contrary, the moment the two stopped absorbing from the vortex, the black lines began drawing the demonic cultivation from within their own meridians and cores instead.

The power they had just absorbed was draining away rapidly, and there was nothing either of them could do to stop it.

"How can this be? What is happening?"

The Blood River Patriarch's and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master's expressions were extremely grim.

Though both tried every means they could think of to halt what was happening, the black lines only multiplied and spread more furiously, covering their chests, abdomens, and backs in barely a few breaths.

What alarmed them even more was that their demonic cultivation was plummeting at a terrifying rate, and their own power was growing weaker and weaker.

"Pull back. Leave immediately."

The two came to their senses and immediately scrambled out of the demonic vortex.

At that point, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's mocking voice rang in their ears, "Finally seen fit to come out. How was the Demonic Patriarch's legacy? Satisfying?"

At those words, the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master both came to a halt outside the vortex.

But neither of them appeared ready to give up on the demonic cultivation remaining in the vortex. They only stared at the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress with cold eyes, mustering bravado they did not feel, "If you dare come any closer, I will end your life with a single palm."

At those words, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress suddenly burst into laughter and shook her head, "Why would I need to come over? You have only been doing embroidery for me."