Chapter 431: Demon

In an instant, the rolling malevolent energy of heaven and earth churned like a boiling sea, then condensed into a towering mountain of dark force, continuing its descent toward the guesthouse below.

The palm of malevolent energy shattered in an instant, replaced by the mountain carrying the vast, surging tide of force as it pressed down. The terrifying aura caused the entire space above the guesthouse to collapse inward, the light dimming to near-total darkness.

In that moment, whether it was the Yellow Spring experts witnessing this from outside, or the blind man and Ah Xiu's group within the guesthouse's main hall, every one of them found themselves stunned into stillness, overwhelmed by the abyssal, oceanic sense of pressure bearing down on them.

The difference was that the assembled Yellow Spring experts watched with reverent admiration, witnessing their own Holy Lord's rarely seen display of true power, while Ah Xiu's group felt their hearts turn to cold ash, as though they could already see their own bones scattered to nothing.

"We can't just wait here to die. Run."

Though the entire guesthouse had already been sealed within the Rakshasa Holy Lord's aura, Ah Xiu's pretty face wore an expression of grim determination, showing no intention whatsoever of simply waiting for death.

She even moved to call out to the Fifth Elder and the others, intending to try breaking through the Rakshasa Holy Lord's seal and escape this seemingly inescapable death trap.

But just then, Cao Gaoshan appeared in the guesthouse's main hall without a sound and said, "Don't be afraid, Miss Xiu. We still need you to guide us further. My young master wouldn't bear to let you die."

At those words, Ah Xiu's expression went blank. By now the mountain of malevolent energy had already pressed down onto the guesthouse's rooftop, causing the entire space above it to cave inward.

At the same time, every martial world expert throughout the Yellow Spring Market, whether from the Yellow Spring Tribe or any of the other factions, all turned their eyes toward the direction of the guesthouse.

But what the Rakshasa Holy Lord had not expected was for the same thing that had happened before to repeat itself once again.

The mountain of malevolent energy, powerful enough to crush space itself, seemed once again unable to budge the guesthouse below. The moment it made contact with the rooftop, it simply stopped, unable to press down even a fraction further.

The Blood Spring Holy Lord, hovering in the air not far away and watching this unfold, narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Who exactly is this?"

The Rakshasa Holy Lord erupted into fury, his martial pressure surging upward in an instant, the terrifying killing intent within his voice taking on an almost tangible quality, sending shivers through the assembled Yellow Spring experts outside the guesthouse, forcing them all to instinctively retreat several zhang away from the building.

At this point, the blind man and Ah Xiu's group inside the guesthouse's main hall finally seemed to realize something, and expressions of utter disbelief surfaced on every face.

"What... is happening?"

One of the clan members standing beside the Fifth Elder spoke with a trembling voice. Though confused, the terror brought on by the Yellow Spring Holy Lord still gripped him completely.

No one around answered. Even the Fifth Elder had no idea what was happening. Only the small figure with the horn-shaped twists of hair turned to Ah Xiu, his expression shifting through unspoken thoughts, and asked in a low voice, "It can't be. Could it be that this person you mentioned blocked the Rakshasa Holy Lord's strike? But... how is that even possible?"

At those words, Ah Xiu's fine brows pressed tightly together. The shock and confusion in her heart at this moment was no less than that of the Fifth Elder and the others.

Her eyes shifted, and she turned to look at Cao Gaoshan in the hall.

But just then, Ah Xiu heard Li Musheng's voice drift down from the upper floor of the guesthouse.

"All of you get far away from here. If anyone makes a move, the consequences are on them."

Li Musheng's voice was neither loud nor soft, yet it reached the ears of everyone in and around the guesthouse with perfect clarity.

At this moment, the Rakshasa Holy Lord, his face twisted with savage fury and killing intent blazing through the sky, naturally heard Li Musheng's words as well.

But having just experienced the loss of his son, how could he possibly let the man responsible for his death walk away simply because of one casually spoken sentence from Li Musheng?

"Blocking two of my strikes hardly gives you the right to speak so boldly. Today, as a Holy Lord of the Yellow Spring Tribe, I will show you the price of arrogance on my territory."

The black-robed Rakshasa Holy Lord stood alone within the vast, sky-blackening sea of malevolent energy, the boundless true qi of heaven and earth swirling and pouring backward into him.

Savage, deathly malevolence poured from the Rakshasa Holy Lord's body, transforming into a visible, dark shadow that rippled outward in expanding rings, with him at its center.

Wherever it touched, the clouds dissolved, and every towering earthen building and wooden house in the surrounding area silently crumbled to dust.

Black-gold malevolent flames ignited within the Rakshasa Holy Lord's eyes. He raised his palm and curled it into a fist, and as his grip closed, the void around him produced jagged cracks like shattering porcelain.

In the next instant, the Rakshasa Holy Lord vanished from within the boundless sea of malevolent energy in the sky, reappearing right above the guesthouse's rooftop.

"Heavenly Demon's Descending Calamity."

The Rakshasa Holy Lord spoke these four words, his voice booming like a great bell. Everyone who heard it, including the assembled Yellow Spring experts around him, felt as though a malevolent thought had exploded within the depths of their souls, momentarily losing control of their own consciousness.

At the same time, the Rakshasa Holy Lord had already thrown his fist forward, crashing it down toward the guesthouse rooftop that had managed to block his previous two strikes.

In an instant, the dark, malevolent sea in the sky surged backward, and the entire world dimmed in the blink of an eye, plunging into a darkness so complete one couldn't see a hand in front of one's face.

Yet in the next moment, it became clear to see that the space beneath the Rakshasa Holy Lord's fist had produced a crack darker than darkness itself, which spread and shattered outward like a spider's web, as though even the void itself had been pulverized by this single, heaven-shattering blow.

"It's over... who could possibly block this?"

One of the clan members inside the guesthouse's main hall collapsed limply to the ground. The terrifying, malevolent aura radiating from the Rakshasa Holy Lord, combined with the horrifying sight of this single fist descending, seemed to have shattered the last of his will entirely.

The Fifth Elder and Ah Xiu's group were nearly forced to their knees by the Rakshasa Holy Lord's overwhelming malevolent pressure as well, and the severely wounded blind man coughed up blood repeatedly, looking as though he might collapse into unconsciousness at any moment.

Even so, the blind man held on through sheer force of will, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the upper floor of the guesthouse.

Before he had attained the strength to kill at will the way he could now, he had endured countless humiliations and untold suffering, and he was confident he could hold on until the true moment of his death arrived.

What the blind man wanted to know now was whether coming to the Yellow Spring Market to carry out a kill, only to encounter someone as strange as Li Musheng, would turn out to be the worst possible omen or the best.

For him, the worst omen meant death. The best omen meant life.

But what no one present, the blind man included, had expected was that at this very moment, an aura suddenly rose from the second floor of the guesthouse.

And that aura radiated a demonic pressure that countless martial world figures throughout the world would flee from in terror, as though from a venomous serpent.

The demonic path was something the entire martial world considered fair game for righteous extermination by anyone and everyone. Even the six great powers of the remote Western Desert, however lawless and full of hidden criminals, were not demonic factions themselves.

Though the Western Desert harbored countless fugitives from the five great dynasties' demonic sects, none of the six great powers ever accepted demonic cultivators among their ranks.

Because anyone who cultivated demonic arts had already had their mind and heart corrupted by the demonic path, lacking basic humanity, and keeping such a person nearby was understood by everyone to be inviting disaster.

And what now left everyone present even more shocked was that the demonic aura rising from within the guesthouse was extraordinarily terrifying, unmistakably the aura of a true and complete demon lord of the first order.