Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 714 - 698: Battle of Breaking the City [Part 3]

For the first time, Zhouyang directly used the "Godslaying Sword" to attack the Nascent Soul of a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.

In the past, he had used this move several times to attack enemies, but that was always after the opponent's Nascent Soul had emerged, which is entirely different from the current situation.

When a Nascent Soul is within the cultivator's body, it is shielded by the flesh and protected by the Purple Mansion Daoist Palace, making it much more resistant to Divine Sense attacks than when the Nascent Soul has emerged.

Even though Zhouyang's Divine Sense had reached the level of a Late-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator, it would be impossible to directly kill an Early-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator this way, and it could even cause backlash to himself.

Therefore, he would never use this method when the opponent's body was still intact.

However, the situation is different now.

Now his Nascent Soul is protected by a Primordial Spiritual Treasure, and he can use its power to nurture and recover his damaged Primordial Spirit, so even if he experiences backlash, he doesn't need to worry about losing the ability to fight again.

This time, he aimed his sword at the Purple Mansion Daoist Palace of that Illusion Demon Path woman, piercing straight into her Nascent Soul's chest, truly rendering it cold to the core.

However, the Nascent Soul is not a physical entity; though this strike severely injured the woman's Primordial Spirit, it couldn't directly obliterate it.

But when the woman's Primordial Spirit was severely injured, it reflected in her body, causing her, who was originally fleeing rapidly, to scream wretchedly and plummet to the ground like a swan struck by an arrow.

Bang!

Her fair body slammed heavily onto the ground, creating a large pit.

Fortunately, the Nascent Soul cultivator's body is not of a normal person, and her flying height wasn't especially high, preventing her from being smashed into a meat patty.

Just a few breaths after her body hit the ground, a figure of a man in blue appeared beside her.

This blue-clad man had an ordinary and unremarkable appearance, except for his extremely attractive violet eyes.

He looked at the woman in the mud pit, forced into a state of sleep and dormancy due to the severe injuries to her Primordial Spirit, and after a brief contemplation, he lifted her fair body from the ground. He then used his fingers to perform several sealing spells and secret techniques on her body and finally cautiously attached a sealing charm on her forehead, chest, and back.

After accomplishing all this, the blue-clad man nodded in satisfaction, then grabbed the woman's neck from behind, lifting her like a kitten, and flew back to Zhouyang, who was meditating on the ground.

Zhouyang had severely injured the Primordial Spirit of the Illusion Demon Path woman with the "Godslaying Sword," and naturally, he wasn't unscathed.

The secret technique "Godslaying Sword" focuses on a sword without regrets; whether successful or not, using the sword consumes Divine Sense.

The difference between success and failure is merely the extent of this consumption.

For Zhouyang, severely injuring the opponent's Primordial Spirit could be considered both a success and a failure.

It was successful because the opponent had become his captive.

It was a failure because less than twenty percent of the Divine Sense consumed could be recovered.

Thus, even with his strong Divine Sense, after this ordeal, his Primordial Spirit was extremely unstable, forcing him to immediately sit down and meditate to calm the turmoil in his Primordial Spirit.

At this moment, the Primordial Spiritual Treasure guarding his Nascent Soul played a significant role.

With Zhouyang's active activation, the petals immediately unfolded to envelop his entire Nascent Soul.

Inside the flower, Zhouyang felt strands of warm currents released from the blossoms, flowing into his Nascent Soul.

Nourished by these warm currents, he felt as if he had returned to being a fetus in the womb, indescribably relaxed and comfortable. The sharp pain initially caused by the excessive consumption of his Divine Sense was instantly soothed and erased.

Soon after, feeling that the damage to his Primordial Spirit negatively impacting his combat power was minimal, Zhouyang voluntarily ended his rest, activated the treasure, and let his Nascent Soul emerge from the blossom.

From the time he severely injured the Illusion Demon Path woman to the time he finished resting and woke up, only half an hour had passed.

If other Nascent Soul cultivators knew about this, they would certainly be amazed, exclaiming incredulously!

Not even a holy soul-nurturing artifact like the "Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Nourishing Wood" could achieve such recovery in such a short time, far from it.

In fact, not only others but Zhouyang himself felt extremely delighted at this moment, inwardly calling it a great gain.

Choosing not to refine that violet peculiar flower into an external incarnation was undoubtedly the most correct decision he ever made.

Compared to a Primordial Spiritual Treasure that can quickly restore a damaged Primordial Spirit, the function of an External Incarnation is far inferior.

He stood up from the ground with joy on his face, glanced at the Illusion Demon Dao woman captured by his Incarnation, waved his hand, and stored her inside the [Dongxuan Pearl], intending to interrogate her after the battle was over.

Then he looked around the battlefield in disarray, his gaze lingered for a moment on the broken corpse of that Nascent Soul Cultivator with the surname Wang, and after pondering, he decided to collect the body and the Magical Artifacts scattered around, intending to hand them over to Xu Tianlin for disposal after the battle.

After completing all this, Zhouyang did not stay at the site for long and immediately pursued in the direction the two Blood-haired Evil Ghosts fled.

He had a constant feeling that these Blood-haired Evil Ghosts were not simple. Observing their behavior after appearing, they did not seem like puppets with their intelligence erased by Demonic Cultivators but rather like Ghost Cultivators with intelligence like that of ordinary people.

But he knew in his heart that those Blood-haired Evil Ghosts were definitely not Ghost Cultivators.

To get to the bottom of this, Zhouyang decided to chase to the end, and this time, he would not allow these Blood-haired Evil Ghosts any chance to escape.

But just as he was midway in pursuit, an incredibly intense explosion of spiritual light suddenly erupted from within Demon City ahead.

Someone has self-detonated their Nascent Soul!

This was Zhouyang's first reaction upon seeing the blue and white explosion of spiritual light soaring into the sky.

Having witnessed scenes of cultivators self-detonating their Nascent Soul several times, he was deeply impressed by such situations.

Viewing the blue and white spiritual light soaring into the sky, he even understood that it was caused by a Nascent Soul Cultivator who cultivated Ice Element Techniques self-detonating their Nascent Soul; those blue and white spiritual lights were actually manifestations of their Ice Element Magical Power.

The power of Nascent Soul self-detonation is naturally extraordinary. The Demonic Formation within Demon City, impacted by this immense force, revealed large blank areas in the sky, even allowing one to see the blue sky and white clouds beyond.

If Zhouyang and others wished to escape the city, they could easily leave Demon City at this moment by rushing upward.

But since they voluntarily entered the city for Demon Extermination, they would not abandon all their efforts halfway through.

On the contrary, because of their comrade cultivator's tragic act of self-detonating their Nascent Soul, the remaining cultivators were driven by a spirit of shared enmity, more determined to eradicate the demons and avenge their fallen comrade.

"Fellow Daoists, Demon Extermination and Dao Protection are now underway. Let's unite our efforts to break the Demonic Formation. Do not let Fellow Daoist Feng's sacrifice go to waste!"

Seizing the moment of the Demonic City's array turmoil, Nie Yushuang finally made his voice resound throughout the entire city.

His wrath-filled words instantly resonated with every cultivator within the city.

Zhouyang immediately conjured the [Haoyang Treasure Mirror], [Thick Earth Heaven-Sealing Seal], and [Qianyang Golden Tower], launching a fierce attack at the source of Array Power he sensed nearby.

Simultaneously, his External Incarnation also activated the [Wood Thunder Element Token], unleashing endless thunderbolts to join the attack sequence.

At this moment, over a dozen Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators in the city acted together, seizing the opportunity created by the Nascent Soul Cultivator surnamed Feng's self-detonation to finally shatter the [Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Array] that enveloped the entire Demon City.

However, the shattering of the array was not the end, as the million wronged souls freed from the array's constraints presented Zhouyang and the other cultivators with the final and most challenging problem.

While the [Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Array] was intact, all wronged souls were restrained in those array bases. Now, with the array broken and Granny Ma, who controlled the array, severely injured, she still seized the moment to unleash the array's most lethal move, [Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Devouring].

Zhouyang, having already been one of the cultivators most watched by the demons before the battle began, found his name on the demons' must-kill list.

When the array's divine technique was activated, countless wronged souls surged from the ground around him, submerging him instantly into a sea of ghosts.

Individually, these wronged souls might not be able to overwhelm even a Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivator, but tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands attacking together, could distress even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.

More terrifying was that many of these wronged souls, having died unjustly and suffered torture bound in the array after death, were transformed into extremely vengeful ghosts, filled with grudge.

With such grievances present, even if Zhouyang could purify their ghost bodies with techniques like the "Demon-Suppressing Golden Light", his Primordial Spirit was inevitably impacted by the grievance.

At this moment, Zhouyang could only fully activate the [Qianyang True Flame] to annihilate and purify the oncoming wronged souls and vengeful ghosts, while also dividing his attention to activate that Primordial Spiritual Treasure, once again enveloping and protecting his Nascent Soul.

Despite this, the resentment of those vengeful ghosts continuously penetrated his Purple Mansion, and soon even with the protective Primordial Spiritual Treasure, scenes of illusions appeared within his Primordial Spirit, accompanied by numerous shrill ghostly wails.

Most of these illusions were the most poignant scenes from the vengeful ghosts' past lives, more than 99% being scenes of them being massacred and tortured by Demonic Cultivators.

However, some scenes were formed from the vengeful ghosts' obsessions; they were transformed from wronged souls into vengeful ghosts due to the influence of certain obsessions from their past lives, unwilling to dissipate in the world.

Zhouyang, with a strong will, having personally experienced countless scenes of blood and brutality, was unmoved by the vengeful ghosts' tragic past lives and their cries, unable to sway his determination in the slightest.

But the scenes transformed by the obsession of those resentful ghosts moved him greatly, even reluctant to erase these illusions.

Zhouyang himself was undoubtedly a person with a very rich life. This richness did not refer to how many places he had visited or how many different landscapes and people he had seen, but to the numerous experiences of love, hate, and passion in his life.

Having cultivated until now, after hundreds of years have passed, many events from his youth are hard to remember without deliberate recollection.

Looking at his appearance, he still looks the same as he did hundreds of years ago, never changing.

But his heart has changed!

Whether he admits it or not, he is now no different from those Nascent Soul stage "old monsters" he once criticized in his youth.

At most, his temper is a bit better, and his actions are more righteous, lacking some of the oddities owned by other Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

These are not bad things but rather the necessary growth and transformation every cultivator must experience on their path of cultivation.

But the problem is, growth is not all good; it's not all beneficial.

For instance, a soldier is so used to the scenes of life and death on the battlefield that his mind has transformed due to the baptism of war. Even if his comrade falls at his feet, he can still charge forward with military orders, unstoppable until death.

At such times, anyone would think this soldier is a good soldier, a brave and strong combat hero, and from the bigger picture, what he does is beneficial to himself and those he protects.

But when this soldier gets decorated and retreats from the battlefield to recuperate in a peaceful small town, and a thief suddenly enters his house, discovered by him, his battlefield-honed instincts result in him beating the thief to the ground with his fists and then pulling out a long sword hanging on the wall, slashes the thief at the house without feeling that there is anything wrong with what he did.

Is it really like this in reality?

Of course, this analogy is somewhat inaccurate for the cultivation realm, which follows the survival of the fittest rule, but the logic is the same.

As Zhouyang has cultivated to this point, although his cultivation level is getting higher and higher, his temperament and will are becoming stronger, and his pursuit of the Dao is becoming firmer, the opposite is true for his emotional fluctuation, which is becoming less and less noticeable.

In other words, he is becoming more and more inhuman, transforming more into a transcendent deity untouched by mortal affairs, unlike a mortal.

This may not be a bad thing, but it's not necessarily a good thing either.

Just like now, when Zhouyang was eroded by the resentment left after those resentful ghosts' deaths, by watching the scenes transformed by the obsession of those resentful ghosts in life, he was greatly touched, some long-buried memories resonated with him and surfaced clear in his mind.

The childhood longing to become a cultivator, the relentless struggle to establish a Foundation in his youth, the joy of finally succeeding after much toil, the effort paid after taking the position as the patriarch of the Zhou family for its prosperity, the sorrow upon the death of his beloved ones like his mother, the old clan leader...

Those once deeply touching experiences in life that gradually faded over time now resurfaced distinctly in Zhouyang's mind with the triggering of the resentful ghosts' obsession, making him unwilling to abandon them.

Though a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, if willing, could even recall some simple memories from being an embryo, no Nascent Soul stage cultivator would usually desire to use such divine techniques to reminisce about the past.

Because for the cultivator whose heart is set on the Dao, for the Nascent Soul stage cultivator striving to ever climb upwards, not sinking into past matters and always maintaining an enterprising heart is exceedingly important.

If this spirit is lost, a cultivator becomes a "corpse watcher," waiting for the remaining lifespan to pass, turning into a skeleton under time's erosion like countless peers once surpassed by themselves.

Therefore, Zhouyang's current response to the reminiscing triggered by the resentful ghosts' illusion realm is both extremely dangerous and greatly beneficial.

The danger lies in if he becomes overly immersed, unable to extricate himself, it would deliver a massive blow to his Dao heart, making future progression in cultivation extremely difficult.

The benefit is that he leverages resonating memories of past experiences triggered by the resentful ghosts' obsession, equating to another heart's ordeal, and if he can extricate himself in time and return his mind, not only can he regain fading humanity, his Dao heart can become polished and advance further, eliminating any obstacle to future realm breakthrough.

In reality, however, the so-called dangers do not exist for Zhouyang.

After all, although many resentful ghosts exist, they don't all aim solely at him, just more came towards him compared to his peers.

Yet he possesses the Qianyang True Flame to refine resentful ghosts, has the Primordial Spiritual Treasure to defend against the invasion of resentment, his Primordial Spirit is exceptionally robust, enabling him to withstand the assault of the tide of resentful ghosts faster than almost anyone else.

When the last resentful ghost that rushed at him was entirely refined, the illusion realm backed by the resentment attacking his Primordial Spirit lost its power support, quickly dispelled by his protective Primordial Spiritual Treasure, awakening him promptly.

When he awoke, closing his eyes to savor the recent experience, he murmured to himself, "Who would've thought this was a blessing in disguise; if I see that fiend who set up the ghost array again, I can let him (or her) die swiftly, sparing from suffering!"

With those words, he swiftly headed towards the place where Master Cyan Yang was.

Now, without the demon array blocking perception, his perception fully restored to normal, just in time to sense Master Cyan Yang's presence within his perceptual range.

The series of changes had reached this point, and Zhouyang felt it was necessary to first join the others before deciding on the next step in the plan.

Because of his outstanding performance in the array earlier, when the "Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Devouring" divine technique was activated, Master Cyan Yang also became one of the attack targets.

However, he came to the cultivation realm of the Beiting Continent this time for support and especially borrowed several demon-suppressing treasures from the ancestral hall of the sect, among which was the Pure Yang Heart Purifying Pendant, a magical artifact specifically used to protect the primordial spirit and prevent ghostly influences on the mind.

When the resentful souls and ghosts pounced on him, even before they approached, he had already cleansed them with a demon-suppressing treasure, the Great Sun Golden Wheel. The remaining resentment had no effect on him, protected as he was by the Pure Yang Heart Purifying Pendant.

Just because of the power of these two demon-suppressing treasures, he was targeted by others.

While he was suppressing demons, the Blood Robe Elder, who was secretly commanding the blood-haired evil ghost, quietly launched a ferocious attack against him in coordination with his original opponent.

When Zhouyang arrived, Master Cyan Yang was already being utterly suppressed by the two demons, seemingly on the brink of defeat and about to flee.

Upon seeing this, Zhouyang shouted aloud, "Demons, don't run wild, Zhou is here!"

As the shout fell, a purple-gold ruler flew out of his hand, emerging above the Blood Robe Elder's head in the blink of an eye, fiercely striking toward the opponent's head.

The Blood Robe Elder hadn't expected him to possess such a powerful magical artifact besides the Qianyang True Flame, and in his surprise, he couldn't dodge in time and was hit hard by it.

With a "bang," a blood-colored little figure, very similar to the Blood Robe Elder, was smashed by the purple-gold ruler on the spot.

Yet the Blood Robe Elder, whose head should have been smashed, appeared unscathed a few dozen zhang away.

However, the expression of intense pain on the Blood Robe Elder's face showed it was worse than losing an arm.

"Oh, you damn brat dared to sneak attack the ancestor, I will skin you alive and turn you into a blood corpse, making you wish for death!"

Glaring at Zhouyang with pain and anger, his face twitched and trembled, yelling furiously.

It must be said, Zhouyang's young appearance was quite deceptive, making him easily underestimated when facing these cultivators who were generally a thousand or two thousand years old at the Nascent Soul Stage.

Facing the Blood Robe Elder's accusations of sneak attacks, he felt no shame at all, instead righteously retorting aloud, "Evil demons and monsters deserve extermination by everyone. As a Nascent Soul Stage demon cultivator, haven't you already come to terms with this by now?"

As these words fell, they resonated deeply with Master Cyan Yang, who couldn't help but praise, "Fellow Daoist Zhou's words are spot on; such evil demons and monsters no longer deserve to be called human. When dealing with such demons, one should employ any means necessary, with destruction as the highest imperative!"

Hearing the harmonious words of the two, the Blood Robe Elder's eyes bulged with fury, spitting a mouthful of blood at them and cursing, "Bah! Only you hypocrites from the Profound Sun Immortal Sect can justify a sneak attack as so righteous. The person I hate the most in my life is you hypocrites, full of righteous words but more despicable than we demons!"

"Fellow Daoist Blood Robe, why waste words with these sanctimonious hypocrites? Now that the other cultivators are trapped by the 'Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Devouring' divine technique, let's join forces to eradicate these two and achieve great merit!"

A vicious and savage voice echoed from behind the Blood Robe Ancestor, coming from the demon cultivator of the Demon Path who was initially fighting against Master Cyan Yang.

Among the several sects of the Demon Path, the Demon Path's cultivators were the rarest, practicing a most sinister technique—abandoning the human form to occupy a demonized beast's body for cultivation, allowing them to utilize human cultivators' magical techniques while possessing the powerful bodies and talent divine techniques of demon beasts.

However, the human soul and demon beast body were incompatible, easily causing rejection. Even though they can reconcile and ease this discord through special demon techniques, it's still easy for this conflict to lead to deviation, turning them into frenzied monsters.

As a result, even among demon cultivators, very few choose to practice the Demon Path.

But, from another perspective, as long as the Demon Path's cultivators don't deviate and turn into monsters, they stand at the top in strength among their same-tier peers, embodying the strengths of both races.

The one who spoke, looking like a Second-Layer Nascent Soul Cultivator, had fought evenly with Master Cyan Yang, despite the latter possessing several demon-suppressing treasures, which spoke volumes of his strength.

Zhouyang hadn't expected that after capturing a rare Nascent Soul Stage illusion demon cultivator, he would now encounter an extremely rare Nascent Soul Stage demon path cultivator.

Including those he saw before: the white bone demon path cultivator, corpse demon path cultivator, and even past encounters with blood demon and ghost cultivators, he had now witnessed members from all sects of the Demon Path.

He glared at the demon path cultivator who had spoken up.

This person was over three zhang tall, with a red face and fangs, a single horn on his head, not wearing any clothes except for his face. Long, thick, and hard black hair covered his hands, feet, chest, and abdomen, some strands reaching three to four feet long.

In his hairy hands, he held a bone staff demon artifact five to six zhang long, dark golden in color, with demon light flickering on it, seemingly made from an exotic beast's leg bone, rivaling a Tier Six Spiritual Artifact in aura.

Judging by appearances alone, Zhouyang couldn't discern what type of demon beast body this Demon Path cultivator had occupied.

But that didn't stop him from mocking and despising the other.

With a surprised expression flashing across his face, he looked at the demon cultivator with feigned astonishment, shaking his head and jeering, "What a wonder, what a wonder, there really are people in this world who choose to be beasts rather than remain human!"