Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 602 The Heart-Binding Curse

Upon hearing this, the gray-robed Shao Si and the others exchanged surprised and doubtful glances. The only one who founded the demonic path was that Demon Ancestor. Could the master she was talking about be the Demon Ancestor?

Considering the elder's earlier exclamation that this person had two spiritual beings within him, and the one he was currently displaying clearly did not seem to be a true spiritual being, combined with the other person's series of words, it was not difficult to make some guesses. Could the other one truly be the spiritual being of a demonic cultivator, and even know the Demon Ancestor?
Could it be that the spirit of an ancient figure from the era of the Demon Ancestor has possessed him?

The more they thought about Zhen'er coming from the Divine Fire Domain, and the more they thought about how many ancient powerful beings had disappeared after entering the Divine Fire Domain, the more alarmed they became.

Seeing that they remained silent, the bald elder scolded, "Why don't you answer?"

The gray-robed Shao Si tentatively asked, "I have never heard of any sovereign in the Demonic Path. I have only heard of the Demon Ancestor who founded the Demonic Path, the ancestor of all ancestors. May I ask what your so-called sovereign title is?"

"The Demon Ancestor? The Demon Ancestor who founded the Demonic Path?" The bald elder muttered in confusion, feeling that there couldn't possibly be another person who founded the Demonic Path, especially since the title 'Demon Ancestor' was a respectful one. So he tried replying, "Yin!"

Upon hearing this, the four exchanged glances again. The gray-robed Shao Si, looking as if he had just known, said, "Then there is no doubt about it. The Demon Ancestor who founded the Demonic Path is none other than 'Yin,' who is the same person as the so-called master you speak of."

"Oh, he's already been honored as an ancestor." The bald elder suddenly realized, then flicked his cloak and waved his hand, saying, "Quickly take me to pay my respects to the Demon Ancestor."

"Ah, this..." The gray-clad junior officer was taken aback, and the others also had strange expressions.

The bald elder rebuked, "No need to worry. If there is any blame, I will take responsibility for you. Just lead the way."

The gray-clad junior officer tentatively asked, "Who exactly are you, Your Excellency?"

A hint of disdain flashed in the bald elder's eyes as he said, "You are not qualified to know who I am. You will find out when the opportunity arises. Just lead the way!"

The gray-robed young master initially intended to deceive them, but he knew that once they stepped out of the mansion and saw the outside world, they would likely see that the world had changed. Considering that the person was residing in the elder's body, he feared it might cause harm. After all, this elder was a precious treasure, and he couldn't afford to lose him. After thinking for a moment, he honestly confessed, "It's not that we don't want to lead the way, but we can't take you there. The Demon Ancestor was a figure from ancient times, who has been dead for countless years. No one can see him."

"Insolence!" the bald elder roared. "Our lord has reached the Longevity Realm, and his cultivation and strength are unparalleled. How dare you speak so disrespectfully? Do you really think we dare not kill you?"

A powerful figure nearby sighed, “Judging from what you’ve said, you seem to come from ancient times. Little do you know that the world has long since changed. Now, my demonic path is weak and can only hide in the shadows and eke out a living. You can find out about this with just a few questions outside, and I can’t lie to you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the bald elder's eyes flashed, and he too vanished into thin air.

The group was slightly startled, but they couldn't possibly abandon the bald elder, so they immediately gave chase.

The gray-clad junior officer urgently transmitted his voice: "Flying within the capital is prohibited without permission. Anyone caught doing so will be arrested!"

Seemingly heeding the advice, the bald elder, who had flown a short distance, quickly landed.

When they caught up, they found that the other party had overturned a carriage on the road and dragged the carriage and horses into the forest. The people in the carriage had just poked their heads out when they were grabbed from a distance and choked.

The horse, whimpering and struggling to get up, suddenly collapsed, bleeding profusely, its head kicked off.

Seeing that this person had directly arrested someone and started interrogating them, the others who had come after them did not stop him. While watching, the gray-clad junior officer instructed his accomplices to clean up the traces at the scene.

The bald elder didn't ask anything else. The key point was that the person who suffered an undeserved calamity didn't understand anything, but he did know that the Demon Ancestor was from the distant past.

Knowing that the demonic path had indeed declined and that the so-called righteous path now reigned supreme, the bald elder seemed extremely indignant. He smashed the head of a passenger in the carriage with a single palm strike, then looked up at the sky through the gaps in the tree branches, and said with a sense of loss, "How is this possible? Our Lord is at the height of his power, everyone fears him, afraid that he will punish them, everyone is in danger. At this time, our Lord's demonic arts have reached their peak, and his unification of the six realms is imminent. How could anyone possibly defeat our Lord..."

Judging from his appearance, he didn't seem to be faking it. The onlookers were all secretly speculating and guessing who this person was.

Of course, the more important thing is how to get the elders out of trouble.

Suddenly, the bald elder coldly swept his gaze across the group and asked, "Who defeated our lord?"

Several people shook their heads. The gray-robed junior official said, "Times have changed. When the so-called righteous path was flourishing, the demonic path was nearly wiped out several times, only to be resurrected several times. Most of the events of ancient times have long since been scattered in the dust of time, making it difficult to restore them to their original state. Not to mention our demonic path, even the few words we can find from the Heavenly Court cannot clearly explain the circumstances of killing the Demon Ancestor back then..."

The bald elder interrupted sharply, “No one could possibly kill the Lord. Even I wasn’t completely wiped out, let alone the Lord’s divine powers!”

Despite saying that, he still had to face the reality that the Demon Ancestor had been defeated, and asked again, "Back then, there were only a handful of people who could fight against the Lord. How could someone who could defeat our ancestor be unknown?"

The gray-robed junior official said, "Not only you, but many others are also puzzled and perplexed by this. Some say it was a reclusive ancient cultivator who, seeing the chaos and bloodshed, couldn't bear it and came out of seclusion. Others say that the one who defeated the Demon Ancestor was actually one of our own, a traitor who had been hiding within the Demonic Path and ambushed the Demon Ancestor when he was off guard. These are two relatively reliable versions; the other wild and unfounded claims are even more outrageous."

The bald elder remained silent for a while, seemingly slowly accepting this reality. After a long while, he suddenly asked, "What is the current state of the demonic path?"

One of the experts who had kidnapped Zhen'er couldn't help but ask, "Who exactly are you? If you don't explain your identity, what right do you have to spy on my demonic path?"

The bald elder glanced at them, giving them a cold, sidelong look.

The group suddenly felt something was wrong with their feet. They looked down at the ground and quickly sprang to their feet, but the expert who had just refuted them was unable to jump off the ground in time.

Several alluring pink threads suddenly emerged from the ground and wrapped around his feet. He was shocked and tried to lift himself up, but as if countless rays of light shot out from the ground, countless alluring pink threads shot out and wrapped around his hands and feet, and even his whole body, holding him firmly in place.

"Hey!" he shouted, attempting to use his cultivation level to cast a spell to break the pull.

However, the magic he exerted did not unleash any power. Instead, countless streams of light shot out from his body and flowed into the earth along countless threads.

The gray-clad Shao Si and his companions, who had flown to a nearby tree, suddenly looked around in surprise and discovered that the flowers, plants, and trees in this mountain forest were growing vigorously at a speed visible to the naked eye, almost like a hallucination.

Looking back at his companion who was being held by the silk thread, he saw that he had become emaciated and thin.

They wanted to launch an immediate attack to rescue their comrades, but they were also afraid of harming the elders' bodies and that the commotion would alert the Northern Kingdom.

In that brief moment of hesitation, something even more terrifying happened: the accomplice, entangled in the silk threads, saw his wide-open eyes wither at a visible speed, and black holes quickly formed in his eye sockets.

Countless eerie pink threads vanished in an instant, and the withered human body that had been entangled collapsed like ashes. A living person was thus decomposed into ashes and carried away by the wind, leaving only clothes scattered on the ground.

The three men, including Shao Si in gray, had never seen such a bizarre scene before. They were all stunned, as if an invisible hand had grabbed their necks, preventing them from breathing. They were too frightened to move.

Even if it was a minor Celestial Immortal cultivation level, it was still a Celestial Immortal cultivation level. Yet, in the face of such a confrontation, it couldn't even make a sound before being turned into ashes. This is simply too terrifying.

Even if an evil spirit possessed the elder's body and borrowed from his cultivation, the elder's strength couldn't possibly reach such a terrifying level.

The surrounding vegetation had grown extremely lush in the blink of an eye, with leaves so green they looked almost black and oily.

Even more terrifying, he saw that the feet of his other companions who had landed on the tree branches were also suddenly entangled by strange red threads. Looking down at his own feet, he realized that he didn't know when he had been entangled, which must have happened when he was distracted by the shock.

The three men felt a chill run down their spines and swallowed hard. The image of their comrade, who had been reduced to ashes, unable to escape was still vivid in their minds, and no one dared to make any further moves.

At this moment, they believed that this evil spirit might indeed be a being from the same era as the Demon Ancestor.

"Come down and answer!" the bald elder said casually, without even glancing at them.

So the three of them obediently jumped down, but the strange, loose threads were still wrapped around their feet. They were fearful and wary, and tried to use magic to get rid of them, but they found that even the greatest magic power could be diverted away by the strange threads that were binding them.

The bald elder warned, "Don't waste your time. You bunch of good-for-nothings don't even have the right to escape. I need to know the current state of the demonic path and the state of the world. If any of it doesn't match what I've learned, you'll regret it."

The three people under control looked at each other in surprise and doubt.

"With the decline of the demonic path, what other situation could there be? The only option is to avoid the enemy's sharp edge..." The gray-robed Shao Si finally relented and explained the relevant situation in detail.

However, he only talked about the general trend and the general situation, without going into detail about the specific situation within his own lineage. Even so, it was enough for him to ramble on for quite a while.

During this time, some passersby may have noticed that the vegetation in the mountains and forests was not growing properly, so they ran into the forest to check the situation, only to be killed by the strange pink threads that appeared out of nowhere.

He interjected occasionally to ask questions, and after learning the general situation, the bald elder muttered to himself, "Even the three lineages have split up. The great cause that the master built has declined so drastically..."

After thinking quietly for a while, he suddenly flicked his finger and tore off the gray-clad junior officer's mask to see his true face.

A distinguished-looking middle-aged man appeared, and Ju Shihong, the head of the patrol hall of the Lian Tian Sect, exclaimed in shock, "It's you? Weren't you dead?"

The gray-clad junior official, whose true identity was suddenly revealed, was clearly at a loss. He was none other than Gong Yuanzhi, the son of the Right Assistant Marquis of Nanzhan.

Ju Shihong had met her before, and several times at that. As far as he knew, Gong Yuanzhi had been killed on Lihuo Island. At the time, the incident caused quite a stir. He never expected her to be resurrected here. Considering Gong Yuanzhi's family background, he was even more shocked after thinking about it.

The other celestial expert, whose knowledge was also considerable, was equally astonished.

The bald elder merely glanced at the two's reactions, showing no curiosity whatsoever about Gong Yuanzhi's identity. With a flick of his finger, several red threads wrapped around the three's bodies and quickly entered their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

Soon, a red glow began to appear between the three people's eyebrows.

Gong Yuanzhi asked in horror, "What did you do to us?"

"It's nothing, just the 'Heart-Binding Curse'," the bald elder replied casually, his fingers forming a hand seal as he cast the spell.

"Ah!" Three screams were heard, and Gong Yuanzhi and the other two instantly collapsed to the ground, clutching their heads and howling, looking as if they were neither alive nor dead, and were soon drenched in sweat.

After watching them suffer, the bald elder released his hand seals and looked at the three men who were still panting heavily. He said indifferently, "Since Situ Gu wants to use this as leverage to make a deal, then so be it. Just hand me over to the Lian Tian Sect."

(End of this chapter)