Chapter 391: The True Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art

At those words, Daoist Qingyu, with ten devouring demonic vortices revolving around her, still paid no attention to the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress. She only kept her gaze on Li Musheng, appearing to wait quietly for him to make his choice.

At the same time, the entire world went still.

The assembled seven major sects' experts at the foot of the mountain, the Inviting Moon Palace's First Palace Mistress, and Theft Saint Bai Wuying all fixed their eyes on Li Musheng, whose demonic energy blazed to the sky. The atmosphere around them was profoundly heavy.

With the terrifying demonic aura Daoist Qingyu had now revealed, even Theft Saint Bai Wuying would have had no choice but to turn and flee at full speed. There was no question of fighting her.

Li Musheng's expression meanwhile remained entirely even. He looked at Daoist Qingyu's deeply alarming presence and slowly shook his head, "Do not worry. I am not going to kill you. I still need to keep you alive to make a deal with your Junior Brother."

At those words, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress narrowed her eyes faintly, and then broke into a wide, uninhibited laugh, "You see? You want to let him go and he is not even grateful for it. Let me handle it. Better to put an end to him once and for all."

The assembled seven major sects' experts and Bai Wuying all showed unusual expressions.

What Li Musheng was displaying was simply too much self-assurance.

Daoist Qingyu and the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had both obtained the Demonic Patriarch's legacy that countless people in the demonic world dreamed of, and their power had surged to levels beyond imagination. Li Musheng had obtained nothing of the sort. Though all three of them were demon lords beyond question, in terms of demonic aura, Li Musheng was still far behind the other two.

But at this point, Theft Saint Bai Wuying was staring fixedly at Li Musheng, because he had already witnessed Li Musheng's movement technique firsthand.

He understood clearly that if Li Musheng truly wanted to leave, even with Daoist Qingyu and the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress working together, it was unlikely they could stop him.

Yet Li Musheng showed not the slightest intention of leaving. On the contrary, he was making bold claims while facing down both of them.

For a moment, Bai Wuying could not tell whether Li Musheng's demonic nature had clouded his judgment, or whether he simply had a complete and accurate understanding of his own advantage.

At the same time, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress above, seeing that Daoist Qingyu appeared to have no intention of stopping her this time, let her words fall and immediately struck with thunderous force.

And though she spoke of not taking Li Musheng lightly, she absolutely meant it. This first strike was everything she had, holding nothing in reserve. Surging demonic clouds gathered in an instant into a palm of overwhelming size, pressing directly down toward the space where Li Musheng stood.

And to prevent Li Musheng from fleeing, she deployed all nine devouring demonic vortices from around her body, transforming them into nine spiraling storms of devouring force, like nine immense black dragons capable of shaking heaven and earth, locking down the space where Li Musheng stood from every direction and leaving him nowhere to run.

"You dared kill me, dared ruin my plans. Let us see if you survive this time."

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's voice was profoundly cold. After devouring the human demonic medicine and the Demonic Patriarch's cultivations, the demonic nature within her had grown even more intense, visibly beyond suppression, the killing instinct almost completely overwhelming her reason.

But faced with the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's all-out killing strike, Li Musheng remained completely unmoved. He only gave Daoist Qingyu and the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress a passing look and said evenly, "Who told you that is how the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art works?"

And with those words, the space around Li Musheng suddenly plunged into darkness, far blacker than the night surrounding it by countless degrees.

In barely an instant, the space around Li Musheng transformed, becoming a vast and dark void abyss.

At the same moment, the enormous demonic palm the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had launched barely touched the edge of the void abyss before it could go no further.

A terrifying devouring force erupted from the void abyss around Li Musheng and in what seemed like a single blink devoured the entire palm, along with all its surging demonic cloud, leaving not even a trace behind.

And even the nine devouring storm spirals the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had formed from her nine vortices were pulled apart like broken dragons, drawn into the void abyss and swallowed, vanishing in an instant.

Everything happened so fast that by the time the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress realized what was happening, the nine devouring demonic vortices she had formed using the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art had been completely consumed by the void abyss around Li Musheng. She could not have stopped it even if she had tried.

"This... how is this possible? What demonic art is this?"

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's aged and withered face went rigid, then flooded with disbelief. She simply could not comprehend how the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art that had been passed down from the Demonic Patriarch had been so effortlessly suppressed by Li Musheng.

"This is the true Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art. I honestly have no idea what it is you have both been practicing."

The void abyss around Li Musheng drifted in silent suspension, like some terrifying beast waiting to devour whoever came near.

He glanced casually at the ten vortices at Daoist Qingyu's back, and shook his head as though mildly puzzled.

"Impossible. Absolutely impossible. What I cultivated is the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art, identical to what was recorded in the Demonic Patriarch's own notes."

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's aged face became increasingly savage. She was about to circulate her demonic arts and strike again, but Li Musheng only raised a hand and reached toward her from a distance.

In the next instant, the demonic energy within the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's body went into disarray, and she was drawn involuntarily toward Li Musheng at speed against her will.

Seeing this, Daoist Qingyu's expression shifted, and she reached a palm out to draw the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress back.

But very quickly her eyes changed, and she sensed that the ten devouring demonic vortices revolving around her own body were trembling unstably, showing a tendency to be drawn away into Li Musheng's void abyss.

She immediately yanked her hand back, and in an instant retreated ten zhang.

At the same moment, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had already been half-consumed into the void abyss. Even straining the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art to its limit trying to wrench free, she could not manage it.

And the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress realized she could no longer feel the lower half of her body at all. It was as though it had simply ceased to exist.

"Young hero, I was wrong."

"Please spare me. Whatever you want, I will give you everything."

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress's face filled with terror. The fear in her heart had long since overwhelmed the demonic nature within her, and she cried out desperately for mercy.

But Li Musheng was unmoved. He watched the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress struggling with all her remaining strength, "That is not going to work. The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art I am practicing has had its eye on you for a long time and wants to devour you."

"Just as you devoured your human demonic medicine, you too are my human demonic medicine."

At those words, the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress froze completely, then fixed her eyes hard on Li Musheng.

The nine Demonic Cores had been left by the Demonic Patriarch for his own designated inheritor. Others might open the Demonic Cores and absorb the demonic cultivation within, but it would come to nothing.

Without cultivating the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art, anyone who absorbed from the cores would ultimately become human demonic medicine themselves, to be devoured by whoever had inherited the true art.

She had played the praying mantis to the blood river and the ten thousand malice's cicadas, treating the Blood River Patriarch and the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect Master as her human demonic medicine. And now Li Musheng had been the oriole waiting behind her, treating her as his human demonic medicine in turn. She had done nothing but labor for someone else's benefit.

But this was the brutal nature of the demonic path. The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art the Demonic Patriarch had left was at its core a method of cultivating through battle, where the stronger devoured the weaker and grew ever stronger, until an unrivaled supreme demon lord was eventually forged.

"I... refuse to accept this. What you practice is not the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art at all."

By now the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had been consumed by the void abyss up to her neck, and knowing she had no way back, she let out a savage howl.

Clearly even at this point, she harbored deep resentment over the demonic art Li Musheng had revealed, and insisted that what she had cultivated was the authentic Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art.

Li Musheng paid her no attention, only watched as she was completely consumed by the void abyss, then gave a satisfied nod.

At that point, the void abyss, having swallowed the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress, was visibly larger than before.

The entire area around the Qingxuan Temple fell completely silent. Whether the seven major sects' experts at the foot of the mountain or Theft Saint Bai Wuying, every one of them swallowed involuntarily.

The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress, who had obtained the Demonic Patriarch's legacy and grown so formidably powerful, had been devoured by Li Musheng after barely a single exchange.

This had gone far beyond what anyone had anticipated, and everything had happened so fast that most of them had not even fully processed it.

At that moment, the demonic experts who had been hiding in the Qingxuan Temple's mountain, keeping completely silent through everything, had just witnessed Li Musheng devour the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult's Cult Master.

With all three cult masters of the three demonic sects now gone without exception, none of them had any will to stay an instant longer. Every one of them concealed their forms and began slipping quietly down the mountain, fleeing the ominous ground before them in panic.

But Li Musheng's eyes caught them from the corner, and with a single thought, the terrifying demonic aura surged up around him once more.

The void abyss around him began to rotate slowly, demonic clouds churning within it like the movement of the sun, moon, and stars.

In the next moment, the three sects' demonic experts who had been quietly trying to leave the Qingxuan Temple all changed expression sharply.

"What is happening? Why is the demonic art within my body draining away so fast?"

Every one of the demonic experts from the three great demonic sects could clearly sense their own demonic cultivation draining at a terrifying rate.

And though they circulated their arts with everything they had to try to stop it, their bodies were like sieves with holes all over, and no matter how they tried to block it, they could not.

Before long, the assembled demonic experts found the source of the problem.

"That black void in the sky. That thing is absorbing our demonic cultivation."

The demonic experts on the Qingxuan Temple mountain looked up. The sky above looked as though a hole had been punched through it, where an enormous dark void abyss rotated slowly above the entire Qingxuan Temple.

And the demonic cultivation draining from the bodies of the assembled demonic experts was transforming into streams of demonic light that were being drawn into the void abyss entirely.

"Run. We have to get away from here immediately."

One of the more powerful demonic experts showed a horrified expression and immediately channeled everything into running, trying to flee toward the foot of the mountain.

But in the next instant, an irresistible and overwhelming devouring force descended from above.

Whether it was the demonic elders transformed into blood river light or the demonic experts manifesting as sun and moon silhouettes, all of them lifted involuntarily and uncontrollably from the forest and mountain paths below.

In an instant, over a hundred demonic experts from the three great demonic sects were all lifted simultaneously into the air above the Qingxuan Temple, dense and overlapping, suspended there against their will.

Every one of them wore expressions of extreme agony. The demonic cultivation and physical blood energy within their bodies flowed out like rivers into the sea, pouring one after another into the void abyss. They could not even manage to open their mouths to shout.

In barely a few breaths, the assembled demonic experts had been drained to husks. When they had no further value, they dropped powerlessly toward the ground like dumplings, one after another.

A succession of impacts rang out across the forest of the Qingxuan Temple, breaking the silence all around.

The seven major sects' experts at the foot of the mountain and Theft Saint Bai Wuying watched every bit of this, and every one of them stood frozen in place, unable to come back to themselves for a long time.

They stared at Li Musheng hovering above the Qingxuan Temple like some demonic god, and at that terrifying void abyss, and could find nothing to say.

Li Musheng himself glanced at the void abyss around him, then gave a slow nod, "Demonic arts really do build power fast. Just like that, even starting from nothing, you could take an ordinary person to the very peak of the martial world."

As he said this, Li Musheng withdrew his gaze and looked briefly toward the direction of the Great Xuan imperial palace.

The Great Xuan emperor had cultivated the Soul-Searching Technique, and like a cunning hare kept multiple escape routes. The Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had been nothing but a puppet he was operating. Killing the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had severely damaged the real Great Xuan emperor's vitality, but he was not truly dead yet.

But where others might have no way of dealing with the Great Xuan emperor, that was not a problem for Li Musheng. He had already marked the man through the Soul-Searching Technique and his refined Formless Puppet Technique long since, and could take the man's true life whenever he chose.

With that thought, Li Musheng shifted his gaze toward Daoist Qingyu, who had made no move throughout.

Sensing Li Musheng's gaze, Daoist Qingyu's expression shifted. Rather than immediately fleeing, she looked at Li Musheng and asked, "You have cultivated the demonic text and devoured the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress. By all reasoning, you should have fully entered the demonic path long since with a deeply entrenched demonic nature that cannot be reversed. And yet why did you only absorb the three demonic sects' experts' cultivation, and not harm the people from the seven major sects?"

When a person truly entered the demonic path, the demonic nature was uncontrollable and the killing did not stop, just as the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress had been moments ago. She had been bent on killing everyone present, and even knowing full well how powerful Li Musheng and Daoist Qingyu were, she could not suppress the killing instinct within her.

Had she possessed the strength to stand above everyone else, she would likely have devoured every last person present without exception.

And Li Musheng's strength was obviously beyond everyone else's, yet his killing was entirely at his own discretion. He killed who he chose and spared who he chose. Though his demonic energy blazed to the heavens and he was the very image of an unrivaled demon lord, he did not behave in the least like someone who had entered the demonic path.

Faced with Daoist Qingyu's question, Li Musheng raised an eyebrow faintly, "I half expected you to ask me the same question as the Great Xuan emperor, whether what I practice is actually the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art."

At those words, Daoist Qingyu glanced at the void abyss behind Li Musheng, then let out a quiet sigh and shook her head, "This poor nun naturally knows. The demonic art you used just now is without question the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art that the Demonic Patriarch left behind."

"Only your talent is simply beyond imagining, and in what was likely no more than a few days you cultivated this art to a level even this poor nun cannot fully comprehend."

"The one thing this poor nun cannot understand is how, given that the demonic text is a true supreme treasure of the demonic path, you have not entered the demonic path."

As she said this, Daoist Qingyu lowered her eyes and said slowly, "Or perhaps... you have already entered the demonic path, and are simply holding it back by force?"