Trials of the Abyss
Chapter 761: Suppressing Demons

Chapter 761: Suppressing Demons

Great Demon God Luan Ji stood tall in white robes atop a solitary mountain peak in an unknown world. The scales on his body had been retracted into his flesh, and he resembled a handsome human man with an aloof aura that kept others at bay.

Floating before him was a massive silver mirror, and reflected in the mirror was Pang Jian in the Fifth World of the Abyss.

Pang Jian wailed tearfully on the nameless fragmented land. Violent sobs wracked through his body as if draining his strength and indomitable will.

The pitch-black demonic cloak he wore was soaked in blood, staining it a deep black-red.

The demonic characters etched into the cloak, each representing a Demon God, came alive one after another, writhing as though trying to break free.

"Someone has taken Lord Demonheaven's cloak!"

"I can sense the divine artifact of Sovereign Demonheaven!"

"The Abyss! It's in the Abyss!"

The blood-red characters on the cloak twisted with savage malice.

The Demon Gods on the cloak had been made aware of Pang Jian and the artifact.

"Can the blood of someone not born of the Demon Races still trigger the names on the cloak?" Luan Ji wondered aloud.

He had only meant to teach Pang Jian a painful lesson. He had not anticipated that Pang Jian's mental breakdown, and the blood he coughed up as a result, would lead to this.

He had always held deep respect for Sovereign Demonheaven, and Pang Jian's possession of his cloak meant Luan Ji could not help but regard him as a partial heir of that legacy. Partial, because Pang Jian was not born of the Demon Races.

Then again, even He Motian, though not of the Demon Races, had ascended as a Great Demon God through his Dao of Demon.

Pang Jian's origins did not truly matter. As long as he devoted himself wholly to the demonic path, he too could become an anomalous Demon God, just like He Motian.

That was why Luan Ji considered him a partial heir to the Sovereign Demonheaven's will.

In truth, putting Pang Jian through the agonies of countless lives was not just punishment. It was a test.

As expected, Pang Jian had broken down, screaming until his throat bled and weeping until he collapsed. Despite this, through it all, he did not lose his mind or become a soulless husk.

Luan Ji had inflicted countless souls with the agony of his twisted Dao of Oblivion, fracturing all manner of unbearable agonies into hundreds of alternate lives for them to endure.

Out of a thousand, over nine hundred would have their souls implode midway. The rare few survivors often emerged deranged, nothing more than mindless fiends. Pang Jian, on the other hand, suffered through all those tormenting lives without ending himself or losing his sanity—a rarity among rarities.

Mental fortitude was everything for those walking the demonic path. Evil and madness could consume even those wholly devoted to the Dao of Demon, pushing them into insanity. Only those with unshakable willpower could make it far on this path.

Luan Ji saw that potential in Pang Jian. So long as he was willing to commit to the demonic path, Luan Ji believed Pang Jian could, at least, reach the level of a Great Demon God.

Great Demon God He Motian had shouldered the burden of revitalizing the Demon Races and initiated the plan to give rise to the Primordial Demon after Sovereign Demonheaven's fall. If another prodigy of the Dao of Demon like He Motian were to rise, the Demon Races could once again surge to prominence.

This was why Luan Ji had actually developed a reluctant admiration for Pang Jian.

If you were born of the Demon Races, your blood could've triggered a resonance with the names inscribed in the cloak, but... Luan Ji trailed off with a sigh, his head aching. They will surely seize this chance to dissolve the bindings of their names, making it much harder for the cloak to restrain them. Boy, you're about to face the corruption of every Demon God on that cloak.

Rubbing his chin, Luan Ji mulled over whether to intervene.

Pang Jian had passed his test, which left a favorable impression on him. Luan Ji also did not want all the names to vanish from the cloak, nor did he want Pang Jian to be killed so soon.

Unfortunately, Luan Ji's true body was not in the Abyss. Even if he wanted to help, he simply would not reach it in time.

Aiding Pang Jian in resisting the other Demon Gods would also expose him. Fa Ji, He Motian, and every other Demon God on the cloak, would immediately know he was siding with Pang Jian, turning him into a target.

"How troublesome," Luan Ji muttered in frustration.

Meanwhile, Pang Jian's reflection in the silver mirror flicked his sleeve, revealing a familiar artifact. It was a pool brimming with boundless lightning—the Thunder Pool!

The Thunder Pool expanded to the size of the nameless fragmented land below Pang Jian. Grand palaces within the pool were wreathed in a dense storm of lightning. Arcs of lightning swallowed the area around Pang Jian.

Luan Ji's expression shifted in recognition.

"The Thunder Pool!"

The Duke of Thunder of the Thunder Abyss had made it his mission to purge the Ghost Gods and Demon Gods. He gathered Thunder Gods from across the starry skies, forged the Thunder Pool, and constructed the Divine Court of Thunder to achieve this goal, even seeking to ascend as a Sovereign through his ruthless Dao.

At his peak, he was the greatest threat to all Ghost Gods and Demon Gods. Even He Motian and Fa Ji had to avoid facing him directly. Luan Ji himself had crossed paths with the Duke of Thunder and experienced the terrifying power of that Thunder Pool firsthand.

The Duke of Thunder had been the nightmare of all Demon Gods, himself included.

"That boy could've easily summoned that Thunder Pool to annihilate my divine consciousness, so why didn't he?" Luan Ji was puzzled.

Seven ancient forces surged into Pang Jian, flooding his limbs and organs. Even Luan Ji, far away in another world, could sense the vastness of these seven forces.

The stray thoughts and fragmented wills he had implanted in Pang Jian's mind, meant to probe his demonic will and demonic energy, were instantly crushed under their overwhelming pressure.

"What kind of force is this?!" Luan Ji exclaimed in shock. He abruptly realized how shallow and incomplete his understanding of Pang Jian truly was.

This young man, the heir of Sovereign Demonheaven's cloak, was far more powerful than Luan Ji had imagined.

"His Divine Persona!" Pang Jian's Divine Persona had taken the form of golden flames of soul essence in Pang Jian's sea of consciousness.

Each golden flame carried insights into the mysteries of the soul, insights that lay beyond the domain of the Demon Gods.

Demon Gods excelled at manipulating feelings and drawing sustenance from them. Be it mortal desires, immoral thoughts, or malevolent intent.

While these seemed tangentially connected to the soul, their fundamental cores actually differed greatly.

The mysteries of the soul fell under the dominion of the Ghost Gods, the long-standing allies of the Demon Gods.

The only other beings with mastery over the soul were the enigmatic Nether Gods in the bizarre mist, or rather, the Nether Race.

How could this be? Luan Ji wondered to himself. Such mastery of the soul indicates the blood of the Nether Race. But if that were true, he wouldn't be able to command lightning.

No member of the Nether Race has ever walked the path of the Dao of Lightning in my memory! The Dao of the Nether Race and the Thunder Race are innately opposed!

Thunder Gods counter not only Demon Gods and Ghost Gods, but also the Nether Gods! It's to the extent that one could say the Thunder Abyss existed for the sole purpose of containing the Nether Abyss in the bizarre mist.

Luan Ji's mind was in turmoil. The scene in his demonic artifact made him question whether his knowledge was wrong.

"Fa Ji!" Pang Jian's reflection in the mirror pressed his palm firmly against the demonic characters representing Fa Ji.

Two muffled booms rang out in quick succession.

Great Demon God Fa Ji let out a shrill cry of agony from some distant world. The suffering scream told Luan Ji that Pang Jian had struck a truly brutal blow.

A knowing, almost amused smile curled across Pang Jian's lips.

"He Motian."

Pang Jian then pressed his palm against He Motian's name. An annihilating force struck all of He Motian's manifestations at once. Howls of fury echoed from the cloak.

"Qi Ya! Mo Yue! Bai Jin!"

This time, Pang Jian used both hands to trace one demonic character after another.

Demon Gods were struck down all across the starry skies, both within the twenty-six Demon Realms and in the worlds beyond.

Pang Jian had effortlessly extinguished the divine consciousness they had funneled through their names while simultaneously leveraging them to track down their physical bodies. He mercilessly unleashed a storm of thunder and lightning upon them.

All across the starry skies, Demon Gods were charred black, with arcs of lightning streaking from their mouths and nostrils.

It was a catastrophe that swept across the entire pantheon of Demon Gods.

Luan Ji, the instigator of it all, could not help but shrink back at the anguished howls of his comrades, feeling somewhat responsible.

"This has nothing to do with me. I wasn't targeting you all. How was I supposed to know the brat would be this cruel?" Luan Ji laughed bitterly. "His Divine Persona shows traces of the Soulstream of the Nether Abyss, yet he also has the Duke of Thunder's Thunder Pool and can summon lightning to strike you down at will.

"Never has there been such an aberration, be it within or beyond the bizarre mist!"