Da Zaojun

“Bronze Buddha, the path you cultivate as the Southern Red Wealth God is indeed not afraid of fire,” said the Five Gods. “But you alone are not enough.”

Wutong Shen actually wanted Hei Luan to take action personally, but Hei Luan was, after all, a phoenix, and was reserved and noble, so she would not easily take action. She would only reveal herself when she occupied a city and transformed its fortune.

"Then let's add General Black Cable Python to assist the Bronze Buddha and keep him in check." Black Phoenix pointed to the generals: "You all test him and make him show his skills. At the critical moment, you can choose to save your life instead of fighting to the death. Just let me see his methods."

The black-coated python spirit uttered in a shrill voice: "Five-Tongued Demon, have you been scared out of your wits by that cultivator? Why are you urging us to go while you yourself stay put?"

"Hehe, I'll just tell you that the person has received the Kitchen God's lineage. Flesh and blood are nothing but ingredients in his hands, and evil spirits are nothing but firewood to start a fire. He also has a magic weapon that can summon people by name. However, he doesn't know what kind of supernatural power he has to find out your true name. If you don't have the skill to conceal your origins, and he calls out your names, you might not fare any better than me."

"Oh?" Hei Luan said, "The art of calling names is also available to my Phoenix Clan. It is the sound of the phoenix's cry, which can be used to cast great spells and control people. Not to mention, no one can surpass the Five Elements Divine Light of the Peacock."

"However, this guy can summon people by name, which should be the way of the Book of Life and Death in the underworld, a kind of causal magic."

"Very well! Bronze Buddha, Black Cable, you two come here."

Suddenly, a vertical eye opened between the black phoenix's brows, its sinister and malevolent appearance resembling a dark abyss between heaven and earth, vaguely related to the black and gray mists encountered in the underworld.

Under these vertical eyes, he could observe fortune and cause and effect. However, they were all demons and monsters, and could not possibly have auspicious light or auspicious energy. They were all filled with black energy, and along with the black energy, there was also bloodshed, disaster, and all kinds of calamities.

Generally speaking, although these calamities reside within oneself, they bring disaster and misfortune to others. The demonic path can suppress them and even transform them for its own use.

But when Hei Luan looked at it, he only saw red flames soaring into the sky, burning away all causal threads and dispelling the calamity.

He was slightly surprised, and then said, "Wutong, you should go too."

Then he took out another treasure, a black veil. This black veil was made of calamity energy, which could put oneself in calamity, but could avoid death. It was a method of using small calamities to transform into large calamities, and large calamities to transform into death calamities. Each time it was transformed, the calamity became more intense, and finally it would erupt.

However, there is no need for an eruption. The Black Phoenix cultivates through calamities, absorbing them on its own to condense its true spirit phoenix feathers.

The Five Evil Gods fearfully accepted the Black Veil of Calamity, knowing that this thing could gather and attract calamity to befall them. They felt it was unlucky, but had to admit that it was a treasure.

Immediately, together with the Bronze Buddha, the Black Cable Python Spirit, and three other great demons, along with six eighth-rank, twenty-four ninth-rank, and three thousand unranked demons, they set up a formation at Sa Huo Slope halfway through Jianxin County to intercept Song Wuji.

Song Wuji's army marched at a relatively slow pace, as it was essentially a sweeping, all-out attack to eliminate all demons and monsters, leaving no survivors.

Just outside Baliting, heading forward from Hungry Ghost Pass, they encountered an eighth-rank demon, a post horse demon, and many other ninth-rank and unranked horse demons at the post station.

Song Wuji was unwilling to fight the eighth-rank demon himself, so he only gave it to Chen Xiu and the others to practice on.

He just frowned and looked into the distance. Even with his aura-observation skills, he could see black energy condensing into dark clouds, blood-red light shooting into the sky, and faintly visible skull-shaped clouds.

The entire world, while vibrant and colorful in Taichang Realm, is like the underworld here, filled with black, white, and gray hues. Even the weeds in the wilderness exude a strange, dark, and malevolent aura.

Song Wuji thought to himself, "This place is teeming with demons and monsters; it's somewhat like the various demon kingdoms described in Journey to the West."

Looking at the horse demon at the post station, the horse demon had bulging muscles and black scales all over its body. After transforming, it was half human and half horse, with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse, like the centaur of the West. However, the human body was not complete, at least the head was a horse's head, with a pair of scarlet eyes and only one pair of hands. It was no different from a human, only more ferocious.

"shoot!"

Chen Xiu, accompanied by a 59th-rank demon-hunting archer, took the lead and fired an arrow.

"Shooting a tiger in Pingyang!"

One arrow was fired, followed by fifty arrows fired at once. The eighth-rank horse demon rode on the wind, holding a whip in his hand. He lashed the whip, but could only deflect the ninth-rank arrows.

Chen Xiu's eighth-grade bow was personally forged by Song Wuji using the White Tiger Guardian's Divine Forging and the materials Geng metal and Yang copper. The string is made from the tendons of the Luohu python, and it is already at the embryonic stage of a magic weapon. As for how to refine it into a magic weapon, Chen Xiu needs to make some improvements and start condensing the Cowherd and Weaver Girl Golden Elixir, or he needs to undergo a seventh-grade ritual transformation.

The horse demon was unable to withstand the arrow and was struck directly in the body, piercing through its chest.

The remaining ninth-rank horse demons and unranked horse demons were all killed by a hail of arrows.

"What a pity. If these horse demons hadn't taken human form, but instead were eighth- or ninth-grade warhorses, they could have formed a cavalry force."

"Stealing while one's able!"

Chen Xiu used the supernatural powers granted by the ritual to shoot the horse demon. He then began to use his skills, and although he was clearly a hundred paces away, he still managed to steal something.

The power within the horse demon has been stolen.

A fragment of a divine artifact.

[noon]

It is the Twelve Earthly Branches.

It represents masculine strength and a masculine physique.

Having lost its cleavage, the horse demon let out a mournful cry as Chen Xiu leaped forward, using the eighth-grade martial art taught by Song Wuji, the Wind Tiger Killing Fist, which he had transformed into a spear technique by combining it with his own martial arts talent.

That spear was obtained from the martial monks of the Zhaiseng Secret Realm. It had reached a high grade and pierced the horse demon's throat with a single thrust.

Then a streak of blood-red light swirled and rushed into the Feihou Temple in Taichang Realm, then turned around in the Feihou Temple and entered Chen Xiu's body.

Song Wuji could see clearly that Fei Hou had probably awakened, but he didn't know whether he had awakened with divinity or, like the City God, was just a clay figure.

However, Song Wuji estimated it to be the former, since it was a sacrifice made with the pure power of martial arts, and there was no reason to raise a demon.

"The effect of sacrificing my skull to enhance my martial arts is getting smaller and smaller. Eighth-rank demons can only slightly increase my three treasures' essence, energy, and spirit. I wonder how much benefit I will gain from killing a seventh-rank demon across ranks."

Song Wuji said, "Stop dawdling there. Search the post station. It's probably turned into a secret realm. See if there are any secret realm treasure chests or secret realm tokens."

However, he immediately unleashed his flames and used the refining properties to turn all the horse demons' corpses into materials.

These demons have been eating and tormenting people for years, and their demonic poison is very potent. Song Wuji did not intend to let the cooks take the meat to eat, and he didn't even peel the skin off.

After being refined by fire, the eighth-rank horse demon produced some of its original demonic energy and a piece of horse bone.

[A thousand pieces of gold for a horse's bones]
By offering blood as a sacrifice, one can summon a priceless Ferghana horse.

Song Wuji simply passed it on to Chen Xiu. As for the other ninth-rank horse demons, they only had some other materials and were not worth paying attention to.

(End of this chapter)