All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 354 - 4 The Number of the Demon Calamity (1/3)

Chapter 354: Chapter 4 The Number of the Demon Calamity (1/3)

Since An Jing had come to the Northern Border, he had not intended to hide his identity.

The premise was that he needed to appear in the sight of "everyone", not to be cornered alone by Da Chen’s officials or Martial Artists.

Faced with Xu Tai’s respectful yet straightforward inquiries, An Jing chose to directly reveal his identity and purpose. He then ignored the other’s shock and the crowd’s whispering, continuing to observe the demon in his hand.

The original form of this demon was likely a deer.

But this deer’s facial features, or rather, the area centralizing around the brain, had disappeared, turning into a collapsed inward cavity that seemed to lead directly to another dimension.

Its originally grayish-yellow fur had also faded, turning into an indescribable, pale color tinged with some impurities.

"This demon differs from what we initially encountered. The demons back then were purely black, engulfing everything into the darkness of oblivion."

Subdue Evil commented on the demon and concurrently explained the details to An Jing: "Hmm... no, it isn’t exactly black, but it is an indescribable color, the color that taints everything. yet because our perception associates it with black, so it is black."

"This demon is a common ’Corroded Demon’, which mostly appears in environments rich in Demonic Qi, with creatures being naturally corrupted into its form. The cavity on its head leads directly to the Netherworld and represents its true form; destroying this cavity will cause the demon to perish."

"The cavity is the true form?"

An Jing was curious as he indeed saw the cavities on top of the demon’s head gradually receding, finally turning back into the ordinary heads of deer: "How strange, what is the principle behind this?"

Subdue Evil thought for a moment, his memory clear on this aspect, and confidently said, "Heavenly Demons are not truly living beings but are, well, how to put it? An unnatural phenomenon."

"You should know, during the Ancient Times, when Heavenly Demons descended to our world, endless Heart Demons pervaded, severing the lineages of that era."

"Back then, most Heavenly Demons had no form or substance, merely a thread of void intent, a peculiar spiritual sensitivity. They were not stable and couldn’t exist independently in the world, but they could merge with the mental intentions of beings, transforming their hearts, causing a complete metamorphosis into another persona, as if they became someone else."

"This was the initial form of Heavenly Demons, also the first incarnation of the Great Heavenly Demons—the Supreme Heart Demons."

"Back then, we had no clue about the existence of Heavenly Demons. Frequent slaughters occurred between the Great Sects, and while we battled each other in chaos, we thought it was just the turn of karmic retribution, another great calamity approaching."

"Only later, when the strongest among the sects realized that they could no longer control the battle situations of the ten provinces, and increasingly more individuals fell into evil madness beyond explanation by karmic retribution, did they begin to uncover the shadows of Heart Demons."

At this point, Subdue Evil’s tone turned very somber: "That period was most terrifying. No one knew who had fallen, nor why they had fallen, and we couldn’t even discern the exact manifestation of Heavenly Demons."

"It wasn’t until a great master of the Buddha Sect sacrificed himself, transporting the soul of a practitioner corrupted by Heavenly Demons through reincarnation, that the existence of Heart Demons was discovered."

"They had completely merged with the original soul, or devoured it, giving rise to a Heart Demon Seed. Once this Heart Demon Seed matured, it would open a channel within the Soul and Spirit of the person’s Purple Mansion to connect with the obscure entities of the Great Void. The power of the Heavenly Demons then arrived from the depths of the Great Void."

"If the host of this Heart Demon Seed died—whether killed or through natural death—it would fall into the Netherworld and then carve out the ’cavity’ there, and the power from the far end of the Great Void would coalesce in the Netherworld, amassing a terrifying force."

"Because of the slaughters, too many Heart Demon Seeds took root in the Netherworld... By the time we discovered it, it was already too late."

"So that’s how it is..." An Jing thoughtfully said, "If one suggests that an aspect of the world corresponds to the human body, then our present world is like the body, and the Netherworld is like the soul. Heavenly Demons first corrupt the souls of native creatures, then, through the pathway of soul transmigration, invade the Netherworld, thereby controlling the entire body and distorting the Heavenly Dao—it could even be considered the world’s Heart Demon!"

"What about Immortal Heaven then?" An Jing excitedly asked. "What does it correspond to?"

"True spirit corresponds." Subdue Evil praised, "Excellent! An Jing, you truly possess great insight; you saw through the operational pattern of the Heavenly Demon and the essence of the division of the Three Realms in no time!"

"But at that time, we had no intelligence at all. When we detected the abnormalities in the Netherworld, the Demonic Qi had already spread throughout the universe through the cycle of reincarnation connecting the Netherworld and the present world. The creatures possessed and transformed by the Netherworld’s Demonic Qi had an essential nexus of their consciousness form a ’Yuan Dong,’ connected to the Netherworld’s ’Endless Abyss’, from which they derive their power."

"The so-called true body of the Heavenly Demon is this ’Yuan Dong’, this ’channel.’ Using swords or blades to destroy its physical body is futile, only with pure life force, sharp Divine Intention, or targeted Art of Magic, can this channel be severed and the demon be slain."

"It was during that era that the Sword Dao prospered because the Sword Intent innately eradicates everything, and the Yuan Dong of the Heavenly Demon was no exception. It could be comprehended early on, allowing ordinary cultivators to also slay demons."

Subdue Evil recalled the times of Ancient Days, his tone melancholic, "My Sword Bearers and numerous Immortal Gods, under the leadership of the Dao Master at that time, transformed the entire Heavenly River of Embracing the Void, completely severing the descent of the ’Supreme Heart Demon’, but the Netherworld’s ’Endless Abyss’ had already taken shape. The Heavenly Demon could still emerge from it, and we could only seal it."

"After that, after that..."

Subdue Evil faltered. Clearly, he had forgotten that part.

—Not really, Subdue Evil, which era are you from, or are you a sword?

Listening to this, An Jing felt some doubts—as Subdue Evil had previously suggested, the era he was from had witnessed the collapse of the Dao Courtyard.

Yet, according to what Subdue Evil had just described, were there Dao Masters when his Sword Bearer was active?

However, that isn’t inexplicable... because the Subdue Evil speaking now is the ’Subdue Evil Sword Spirit’. It is highly likely that He had had many Sword Bearers.

Perhaps the history of the ’Subdue Evil Sword’ is unimaginably long, beginning from the era of the Dao Courtyard, with its earliest Sword Bearer, and the ’Subdue Evil Sword Immortal’ that he personally witnessed belonged to the era after the collapse of the Dao Courtyard.

However, if that’s the case...

An Jing fell into deep thought. He sharply caught onto a terrifying fact hidden in Subdue Evil’s words: "How many times has Embracing the Void actually experienced a Demon Calamity?"

The oldest Demon Calamity, the ’Supreme Heart Demon Calamity’, erupted during the era when the Dao Sect still existed. Then, countless great cultivators fell, and the entire cultivation world unleashed a sweeping war across the universe, causing severe destruction.

Although they overcame this calamity, the collapse of the Dao Sect and Dao Courtyard was likely due to the aftermath of this calamity, just like what happened in the Tianyuan Realm.

After that, the Embracing the Void realm definitely suffered several more Demon Calamities.

No. These Calamities might not have just occurred in one realm.

The Tianyuan Realm, other worlds, and the worlds where the fragments of Subdue Evil reside, probably also experienced the Demon Calamity.

The most recent of these, which resulted in the complete eradication of the Spirit Root and Dao of Qi Refining, destroyed the laws of the old Immortal Gods, creating the completely new Formation Martial Path and Path of Fate Pattern.

Since then, there seem to have been no more Demon Calamities.

Yet even so, the Martial Dao Era was not without turmoil, having gone through five epochs... such an immensely long time has turned historical records into unreliable accounts.

Although Subdue Evil still remembers a bit, what He remembers are only fragments, and He cannot be certain of the specifics.