Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 372 Entrusting Hopes to the Light-Up Pavilion

Shen Minglai's headquarters were not in the bustling city, but on the edge of Denglaishan Village.

Right in front of a lush green mountain peak.

Near Denglai Mountain Village, many of the hills where those villages are located have had large trees cut down to be used for building boats, houses, and firewood.

However, these forests are actually protected in territories designated by powerful sects and influential gangs.

They built houses with firewood, so they didn't need to source materials locally. They also didn't need to store food or farm the land themselves.

They found bare hilltops or monotonous low-lying fields uninteresting.

Leaving these mountains and forests, where the seasons flourish and wither, where wild animals frolic, where people can occasionally go on excursions and hunt in their spare time, is what truly satisfies people's desires.

Shen Minglai's headquarters was also built with a touch of leisure and elegance, with pavilions, towers, rockeries, lotus ponds, gardens, and long corridors, resembling a mountain villa carefully built by a prestigious family to escape the summer heat.

To properly manage such a manor, the manpower required would be no less than that of a heavily guarded gang headquarters.

The flowers in the garden alone require nearly a hundred people to take care of them. Planting flowers, transplanting flowers, replacing flowers, picking flowers for food, and using flowers to make wine all require different people to be responsible.

Shen Minglai loves flowers, and the gardeners also benefit from it. Although they wear coarse dark blue cloth clothes on the outside, they have silk linings underneath, and wear tight-fitting cloth shoes, making them very comfortable.

At dawn, a group of gardeners were patrolling the garden, catching insects.

A lean old man, around sixty years old and wearing a square scarf, was walking along the bluestone path in the garden.

This person's clothes were exactly the same as those of the gardeners, and he was not particularly imposing. He was not accompanied by a large group of guards or maids who followed him closely.

But this person is Shen Minglai.

He built the estate the way it is; he's clearly someone who knows how to enjoy life and loves to indulge in pleasures.

He could spend money like water, buying new slaves every year, whipping his famous horses while drunk, hosting banquets for monks, Taoists, and scholars, and appreciating rare treasures from all over the world.

But he usually stays wherever he pleases each night, sometimes just lying in the pavilion. His meal times are also not fixed, and he decides what to eat on the spot.

How someone enters or leaves depends mainly on what the people in the manor wear most often.

This was all to prevent assassination attempts.

Sixteen years ago, Huangshan Patriarch, who had long resided on Lotus Peak of Huangshan and was known as "Sitting and Watching the Qiantang River, Flying Smoke Divine Spear," came to Denglaishan Village in order to hunt down a notorious bandit.

At that time, many local forces were suspected of having connections with the notorious bandit. Master Huangshan visited each of them to inquire, breaking into several homes in the process.

Shen Minglai is also among the key suspects.

When the Huangshan Patriarch came to the door, Shen Minglai heard the noise and instantly changed his appearance. He also changed his attire to resemble that of a servant, concealing his demeanor, and took advantage of the chaos to escape in a hurry.

That day, three hall masters and two loyal guard commanders died in his gang, but he himself didn't get a scratch.

According to popular belief, after more than a hundred years of changes, although there have been battles and losses, the number of truly skilled masters in the world today should be more than twenty.

However, mainly in recent decades, only eleven have remained active and influential.

The Six Emperors of the Southern Dynasties, and the Five Sages of the Northern Dynasties.

The Huangshan Patriarch is one of the six masters.

Even this patriarch, after breaking up several families in Denglaishan Village, was still persuaded to leave by a group of people.

No one wants to see the place of Denglaishanji occupied by any enlightened person.

Therefore, if any enlightened person interferes too much here, they will soon be met with tacit advice and even physical intervention from people of the same level.

However, as long as the enlightened ones do not linger here, Shen Minglai has nothing to fear.

As soon as the former Huangshan Patriarch left, Shen Minglai returned to his old lair.

He continued to be his boss, managing his business as usual, and lived happily for over a decade.

It wasn't until the last two years that things started going wrong for him.

"Where exactly did that monk from Qingsheng Temple go...?"

As Shen Minglai walked through the garden, he showed no interest whatsoever in admiring the exotic flowers and rare blossoms that he had enjoyed in previous years.

He has been practicing demonic arts for many years, and using other people as a furnace to practice his skills has become his greatest obsession.

Each time an altar is set up, the moon is worshipped and the spirit is drawn in. After being transformed by the human furnace, it is then pulled out and swallowed into the stomach.

It's like condensing the flavors of someone else's entire life into a single bite.

That is incomparable to any other form of entertainment or leisure.

The experience of savoring an entire life in a single bite gives those who cultivate the demonic path a unique feeling.

It was as if he had completely transcended the level of mortals, briefly ascending to some indescribable realm, absolutely high above.

That was an unparalleled bliss!

Shen Minglai scoffed at the idea that someone in the world would call this kind of cultivation method a demonic path.

He believed that once someone had tasted it, no one would be able to refuse such a secret method again.

The human furnaces brought from the dungeon were replaced batch after batch, and every now and then there were new expectations, which was also the main reason why he was at ease when he was on the surface.

However, in the past two years, Shen Minglai's secret techniques have reached a point where they cannot be improved any further. His backer is only willing to give him medicine, but unwilling to give him higher-level secret manuals.

He was never able to decipher the formula for that elixir. If he dared to continue cultivating with only that small monthly dose, he would surely go insane and destroy himself.

In the past two years, Shen Minglai has not even dared to simply inflict torture, for fear of arousing any ulterior motives and unconsciously using secret techniques.

The dungeon has been empty for almost two years!
Whenever he thought of this, he felt a hunger and restlessness in his heart, as if a python was swallowing his heart and liver bit by bit.

A few months ago, the monks from Qingsheng Temple approached him, and they really appealed to him.

But the monk simply disappeared.

"Or, I could send someone to the north to contact the other monks at Qingsheng Temple?"

Shen Minglai stepped out of the garden, still pondering in his mind.

Next to the garden, in this large courtyard, there is a detached wooden house.

Red-lacquered doors and windows, and heavy black tiles.

This building has three floors, a wide facade, lanterns hanging from the eaves at the four corners, and an arched roof like a mountain ridge.

This is where Shen Minglai sometimes entertains distinguished guests. Upstairs, you can overlook the entire beautiful garden.

While pondering his plans, he unknowingly pushed open the door and entered the pavilion.

squeak! !

The two thick wooden doors made a soft creaking sound. After being opened to their limit, the door panels pressed against the door frame and quickly bounced back, closing perfectly.

Although Shen Minglai did it casually, he was still highly skilled and had superb martial arts, and every bit of his strength was just right.

In the blink of an eye, he had casually taken three or four steps into the threshold, and the door should be closing by now.

But he didn't hear the faint sound of the door closing behind him as promised.

The two doors remained open, frozen in place by an invisible aura.

Shen Minglai's eyebrows twitched, jolting him out of his thoughts. The skin around his eyes tightened, and in that instant, he used his hearing and intuition to their fullest extent to sense what was happening behind him.

His intuition told him that there was no one behind him.

His hearing told him that the wind behind him was still blowing normally.

It seems that apart from the two doors coming to a strange stop, everything else has vanished without a trace.

Shen Minglai suddenly raised his hand, and a short sword shot out from his left sleeve. The short sword was like a mirror, clearly reflecting the figure behind him. The person was still standing outside the door; he was a young man in his twenties.

The moment the short sword touched the figure, a flash of light appeared on the blade, and it arrived in front of Chu Tianshu.

An ordinary ray of sunlight, after being reflected off the sword, gains the impact force of a ballista.

But Chu Tianshu's left index finger, as if he had foreseen the future, was placed upright in front of his heart.

The reflection from the sword struck his index finger, whose skin was glistening and whose nails were shiny.

The fingers were completely undamaged, and the reflection seemed to originate from the fingers and then reflect back onto them.

The short sword suddenly shattered!

Those who cultivate demonic secret techniques have more sensitive and active true energy, which is more ethereal and elusive, like life and emotions, and is more able to attach itself to external things.

An ordinary person's internal energy is heavier than light, so of course they can't hang it up. Even attaching it to the wind to go with the wind is difficult.

However, demonic energy can temporarily reside within light.

Although it didn't carry much hope, it still significantly slowed down the speed of light.

But Shen Minglai was able to instantly channel his true energy into the reflection of the sword, which was already an extremely unique and extraordinary strike!
Chu Tianshu pointed a finger and easily reflected the sword energy back, but a thought flickered in his mind.

Lu Yuande only knew that the demonic path was better at fighting, but he couldn't explain exactly how. He could only say in general terms that they were more ferocious and more unpredictable.

Therefore, Chu Tianshu had not expected to encounter such methods.

The demonic path advocates embracing the turbid energy of the moon with one's whole being, which subconsciously gives people a heavier feeling.

In fact, turbidity and heaviness are not entirely linked.

A cloud of colorful mist is, of course, murky, and it's hard to say which is heavier, a cloud of white mist or a cloud of mist.

But this cloud of colored mist is definitely lighter than water.

The unpredictable and ever-changing nature of the demonic path perfectly embodies the characteristic of "lightness," for lightness makes it easy to change.

The fundamental characteristics of the demonic path should be that it is both light and turbid, and adept at transformation.

Chu Tianshu observed the situation carefully and did not rush to make a move, but Shen Minglai was unaware of this.

He saw his sword, and as soon as it reflected his image, the blade shattered. He was horrified, thinking that the next blow would be fatal.

"kill!"

Shen Minglai roared in anger and shock, unleashing all his true energy without regard for the cost. He suddenly turned his head and pushed his palm towards the door.

The entire pavilion shook violently and deformed.

Chu Tianshu was standing outside the building. At that moment, he felt as if the building in front of him was like countless building blocks falling apart, tilting, flowing, and crashing towards him.

No, it's not falling apart.

The shifted and pressed wood and bricks seem to have formed the outline of a bull's head.

The intricate, interlocking pieces of wood held the bricks together, forming the entire head of the ox.

A normal cow's snout might be located in a softer part of its head.

But the mouth and chin of this giant bull, which is made entirely of wood and stone, are precisely the points where the weight of the entire building is pressing down at this moment.

The heavy bull's jaw slammed directly into Chu Tianshu.

Because the entire process is completed in a single breath.

It makes one suspect that this building was originally a bull demon in disguise, and now it has suddenly revealed its true form just by lowering its head.

Although plants do not have intelligence, they do have emotions; wood is the corpse of a plant.

The extreme emotions contained within the demonic energy instantly awakened these corpses, giving them the possibility of taking action on their own for a moment.

Even with Shen Minglai's skill, it wasn't enough to make such a heavy building undergo drastic deformation and high-speed impact within a single breath.

Most of the force of this attack comes from the wooden building itself.

"It's good at intimidating the lower-ranking soldiers."

As soon as the thought crossed Chu Tianshu's mind, his figure suddenly floated backward, soaring into the air along an arc, and then took seven steps forward in mid-air.

One step on the wind, two steps on solid ground.

It doesn't rely on the forbidden ability to levitate; it's simply the skill of the Southern Shaolin's "Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada."

Before the cow's chin had even fully hit the ground, Chu Tianshu's feet had already swiftly stepped over the cow's head and back.

Because the first step was taken on the wind, the bull's head landed on its back, leaving six deep footprints.

The demonic energy that had been poured into the building was cut off by the six legs.

Purple energy emanated from within the six footprints.

The deformed and unbalanced building, having lost the emotions stirred up by the demonic true energy, immediately showed signs of loosening and disintegrating.

Chu Tianshu's eighth step landed on the cow's tailbone.

Once the wood and stone crumbled, the gaps in the wood beneath his feet immediately widened.

The foot pierced through the gap and stomped hard on something hidden beneath the wood.

That should have been Shen Minglai's head.

He was preparing to escape, and had just reached this spot when he suddenly felt the wood and stones above him loosen, letting in a sliver of sunlight. Knowing something was wrong, he instantly raised his hands overhead and desperately blocked it.

Bang! ! !
The shockwaves exploded in layers, surging and fierce, pushing the nearby soil and rocks away, forming a circular open space.

Shen Minglai's face was already red and purple, and his hands were so hot they seemed to melt the air.

After pressing down on the foot with both palms, he changed his hand gesture, intending to use his tiger claw hand to grab the ankle, knee, and crush the groin.

His demonic techniques come from Taoist classics. Taoism uses many things to represent Yin and Yang, one of which uses the ox as Yin and the tiger as Yang.

The giant ox, though strong, is merely an outer shell; it is therefore considered yin.

Once the giant bull was broken, the balance of Yin and Yang was disrupted, which resulted in the tiger claw hand, representing Yang, gaining power that temporarily increased by three points.

But he changed his gesture, determined to briefly separate himself from Chu Tianshu's feet.

Chu Tianshu spun around on the spot, head down and feet up, his whole body like a magnetically levitated rotating device, moving with extreme silence and fluidity, his waist strength was unbelievable.

When Shen Minglai launched his tiger claw attack, what he was actually facing was Chu Tianshu's right hand reaching down.

The right hand stuck to the wrist of the right paw, and with a swipe, it collided with the left paw.

Shen Minglai's arms were both embraced by the Tai Chi diagram shadow that Chu Tianshu moved with one hand.

Before he could make any further move, his two claws were already pressed together and slammed down by Chu Tianshu's right palm.

Chu Tianshu slammed his two claws down on his own head, the force of his palm penetrating deep into his bones.

arch!!

Shen Minglai vaguely heard strange sounds. His mind lost its fixed shape and he felt as if his skull was filled with a pool of shapeless water.

He felt that indescribable sense of euphoria once again.

However, when cultivating demonic secret techniques, the feeling of elation is like being on a higher level, having transcended oneself and looking down on the humble and insignificant mortals, which is the ultimate bliss.

This time, however, the feeling of floating on air felt like an endless, swirling fall, leaving only fear.

(End of this chapter)