Chapter Seventy-Five: Murder and Despair, the Collapse of the Dao Seed

Looking down at Xuansha writhing at my feet like a dying dog, I did not deliver the killing blow right away. Physical death was far too cheap a punishment. What I desired was to utterly destroy him—and the very path of the Demonic Sect itself.

“You cultivate the incomplete 'Heavenly Demon Codex,' do you not?” My tone was calm as I spoke.

Xuansha’s pupils contracted sharply. This was the highest secret of the Demonic Sect—how could I possibly know?

“This technique,” I continued, my voice not loud yet carried by the array so that every spectator heard it clearly, “is built upon destruction and rebirth, seeking enlightenment through slaughter, using the suffering of the masses as nourishment for one’s own transcendence.”

“It sounds like a shortcut. But do you know what lies at the end of this road?”

I did not wait for his reply, but went on:

“It is the Heart Demon. You regard all living beings as ants, but in the eyes of true cultivators, are you not ants as well? Every ounce of resentment you devour, every drop of blood you seize, becomes karmic burden, entwining your very foundation. In times of great strength, you may suppress it. But when you face bottlenecks, or suffer a blow to your heart as you have today, this karma manifests as the most terrifying heart demons, utterly consuming you.”

I reached out, pressing a wisp of Nascent Soul energy lightly between his brows.

“Let me help you.”

Buzz—

Xuansha’s entire body convulsed. He felt an irresistible force surge into his sea of consciousness, detonating all the karmic burdens he had suppressed in an instant.

“Aaaargh—!”

A wail of indescribable agony escaped his lips. Visions swarmed before his eyes: the innocent villagers he had slaughtered, the ancient martial artists he had sacrificed in blood rituals, the lives he had tortured for his amusement… Now, each became a hideous ghost, pouncing from all directions to rend his very soul.

“No! Get away! You ants! Get away from me!” He screamed madly, rolling on the ground, flailing his arms in wild terror, utterly deranged.

Everyone watching was struck dumb with shock.

They beheld the invincible Demon Lord Xuansha, his Dao heart shattered, descending into demonic madness before their very eyes. This was more staggering than ending him with a single strike.

To kill the body is nothing; to destroy the heart is everything.

“Demon Lord!” The four Guardians finally regained their senses. Eyes red with fury, they charged at me without hesitation.

“Noisy.” I did not even turn my head, merely waved my hand lightly.

Four invisible sword auras flashed through the air.

The four Guardians—each powerful enough to dominate a region of the ancient martial world—froze mid-flight. A fine line of blood appeared from brow to heel.

In the next instant, their bodies were neatly sliced in two, blood and viscera spilling onto the ground.

It was a massacre by the blink of an eye.

That ruthless and shockingly bloody scene shattered the psychological defenses of all who watched.

Tang Ao felt his entire body go cold. At last, he understood how wise he had been to make his choice back at Tang Fortress. To become enemies with such a being would have doomed the Tang Clan to oblivion in the blink of an eye.

Ignoring the now fully deranged Xuansha, I turned and swept my gaze through the void, to those hidden observers.

“Today, I came for the Demonic Sect alone.”

“But I would also take this opportunity to set a rule for every cultivator in Shenzhou.”

My voice, brooking no dissent, thundered through the heavens and earth.

“First, no indiscriminate slaughter—innocents and mortals are not to be harmed.

Second, the path of cultivation must follow the righteous way. Should anyone again practice evil arts with the blood and essence of living beings, Xuansha’s fate will be your own.

I care not whether you call yourselves righteous or demonic, immortal or devil. These two rules are the baseline.

Any who dare cross this line—”

I paused, glanced at the convulsing Xuansha, then flicked my finger. A golden flame fell upon him.

“Shall have their souls scattered and never know rebirth.”

In the blaze of golden fire, Xuansha’s screams were abruptly silenced. His body and soul were annihilated, leaving only nothingness.

Having finished, I took Yi Yi’s hand. Amid the awed, fearful, and stunned gazes of all present, I took a step forward and vanished from the scene.

All that remained was devastation—and those two iron laws, enough to reshape the fate of the ancient martial world of Shenzhou.

The Battle of Chunxi Road was like a magnitude-twelve earthquake, shaking the entire world of cultivation.

The name “Master Jiang” had, overnight, transformed from an unknown moniker into a sword of Damocles hanging over every cultivator’s head.

To execute Demon Lord Xuansha publicly, to annihilate the four Guardians in an instant—these acts already defied belief. Yet it was his final edicts that struck terror into all hearts.

They were not open for discussion, but issued as an ultimatum.

They were not advice, but law.

At once, countless demonic sects, especially those whose hands were stained with innocent blood, went into hiding, fearful of being the next to have their souls scattered. Even the righteous sects, stunned as they were, began strictly disciplining their disciples, not daring to overstep in the slightest.

The entire atmosphere of Shenzhou’s cultivation world was transformed by a single man, a single battle.

Of course, none of this concerned me and Yi Yi any longer.

After leaving Rong City, I did not pause. With Yi Yi at my side, I followed the lingering traces of Xuansha’s aura to the miasma-shrouded Ghost Valley of Youyun.

By now, the Demonic Sect’s headquarters was deserted.

News of the Demon Lord and the four Guardians perishing had arrived even before we did. The remaining disciples, terrified beyond measure, had already gathered any valuables they could carry and fled without a trace.

The vast underground palace was left in ruins, filled only with lingering shadows and a sinister, oppressive aura.

“Father, they all ran away,” Yi Yi remarked as she gazed at the empty main hall.

“You may flee the monk, but not the temple,” I replied calmly. “Their roots are here, and what I seek is here as well.”

My spiritual sense flowed forth like mercury, instantly engulfing every corner of the underground palace. The Demonic Sect’s rare treasures and secret scrolls meant nothing to me. My goal was singular—the Primordial Demon Heart.

Soon, I found it in a hidden chamber at the heart of the palace.

There stood an altar, forged from ten-thousand-year-old black ice, and at its center hovered a heart the size of a human head, utterly black. It was still beating, and with every pulse, it seemed to devour all surrounding light and sound, radiating an ancient, primeval evil and chaos.

This was the origin of the Demonic Sect, the wellspring of their power—the Primordial Demon Heart.

Legend held that this was the heart left behind when an ancient Outer-World Heavenly Demon fell in primordial times. The founder of the Demonic Sect discovered it by chance and thus established his order.

“What a wicked thing,” Yi Yi frowned. She could sense the heart was filled with a pureness of corrupt, seductive energy.

“It is not the power that is evil, but those who wield it,” I replied softly. I stepped forward and reached out toward the heart.

The moment my palm touched it, the heart seemed to come alive, unleashing endless resentment and demonic energy. Countless ghostly faces clawed toward my sea of consciousness, seeking to pollute my Dao heart.

“And you, a mere speck, would dare shine?”

With a cold snort, I unleashed the power of my Nascent Soul. Golden light flared from my palm, and the ghastly faces vanished, shrieking, as if snow dashed against a blazing sun.

Clenching my fist, I crushed the heart’s hard shell.

A crisp crack rang out. The Primordial Demon Heart broke into pieces, and that supreme evil energy dissipated like smoke.

At the heart’s core, a diamond-shaped crystal the size of a fist hovered, radiating a gentle white light.

The fourth spirit stone was now in my possession.