Chapter 485: Corpse Demon and Blood Ao's Love-Hate Relationship

Chapter 485: The Mutual Destruction of Corpse Demon and Blood Ao

Just its size alone felt beyond human capability to match.

Many Spirit Clan members knelt at the Sacred Mountain, bowing from afar in trembling fear.

Though they saw it could devour men, though they knew it was not their ancestral protector, they kowtowed purely out of terror.

Sisi’s heart burned with anxiety. She instinctively wanted to go help, but when Blood Ao appeared, her own people knelt in droves, abandoning even the prisoners they were guarding. The old forces began to rebel again, and Sisi was so furious she spat blood.

Fortunately, her main strength came from the Xia army she had brought from outside. They hadn’t even figured out which side the monster belonged to, but they knew the people they had subdued were rising again. They quickly suppressed the chaos, keeping the situation under control.

Sisi had no choice but to stay at the Sacred Mountain to manage affairs, forcibly suppressing her urge to go help. Her heart was filled with dread—with such a display of power, could those two really defeat it?

The next moment, she saw Zhao Changhe leap into the air, gripping his blade with both hands as he roared in fury: “You can’t possibly be this big! Who are you trying to scare with your posturing?”

Sisi: “?”

At the same time, Yue Hongling merged with her sword, shooting like lightning toward Blood Ao’s eye.

No one noticed that a pitch-black Gu insect drifted out of Zhao Changhe’s ring, darting straight for Blood Ao’s forehead.

“Clang!” A terrifying wall of blood energy erupted around Blood Ao. The sword and blade struck the wall heavily, both rebounding as the wielders flipped backward.

But the wall had indeed weakened slightly from their assault, and the Gu insect seized the chance to charge through.

Then both the Gu insect and Blood Ao let out a startled “Eh?”

The Corpse Demon had intended to use his ancient beast-taming arts to manipulate Blood Ao in reverse, but found it useless—because this Blood Ao was not truly Blood Ao; its soul had been replaced by another existence.

Soul possession…

A human seizing the body of Blood Ao?

This was not like his current state, merely lodged within a Gu insect. This was true possession, body and soul united. Now, the enemy was Blood Ao itself.

His beast-taming arts could only take partial effect, causing Blood Ao’s body to stiffen slightly and resist its master’s commands. But the more crucial communication with the beast’s spirit hit an iron wall, utterly useless.

The enemy was equally astonished: “An ancient Spirit Clan elder of the Imperial Realm? So there are still remnants of your soul…”

His giantification technique collapsed under the Corpse Demon’s beast-taming interference. The massive body began to shrink, rapidly reducing to a blood-red giant turtle about a zhang in size.

Though still far larger than any ordinary turtle or tortoise, and still worthy of being called a giant, it was at least within acceptable bounds.

How could Zhao Changhe let such a moment of stiffness pass? He swung his blade again at the turtle’s head: “I knew it—Lie’s formation tortoise shell was only a few zhang. You, a newborn whelp, pretending to blot out the sky… Let me see if you’re still invulnerable to blades and spears!”

Blood Ao, frozen and unable to move, could only watch as the Dragon Sparrow blade struck its head in fury.

At the same time, Yue Hongling’s sword thrust again toward Blood Ao’s right eye.

Blood Ao closed its eye.

The blade and sword struck the head but could not cut through.

A powerful blood aura, like armor, protected the parts of Blood Ao exposed beyond its shell. Zhao Changhe’s strike was like cutting into thick blood, utterly meaningless.

Yue Hongling’s sword, however, had some effect. Its sharp sword energy pierced the blood sea, just barely touching Blood Ao’s eyelid and pricking it slightly. But the tail end of the sword energy could not even pierce thin silk, let alone Blood Ao’s iron-hard skin.

Blood Ao roared in pain, and a terrifying blood sea erupted violently. Zhao Changhe, Yue Hongling, and the Gu insect housing the Corpse Demon were all blasted away, crashing down several zhang away.

The Corpse Demon was merely a soul, and a damaged one at that, having been tortured by soul-searching. Against a fully formed beast body like this, it was no match.

But the Corpse Demon was oddly excited: “What a body, what a body! Why didn’t I think of this method… Who in this world is more suited to Blood Ao’s body than me? Your fusion isn’t perfect, is it? There’s a rift, isn’t there? Hahaha…”

Blood Ao, severely hampered by the Corpse Demon’s interference, could not pursue the two who had been blasted away: “So that’s it. You are the ancient Spirit Clan beast spirit sage, Blood Wu! You escaped from Huashang Temple!”

The Corpse Demon was stunned: “How do you know that… I see, I see… You’re that bastard, Venerable Doro of Huashang Temple!”

Blood Ao did not answer.

“Ha… hahaha…” The Corpse Demon burst into laughter: “You bastard… Weren’t you supposed to shine with Buddha’s light? Weren’t you supposed to enlighten me? And what are you doing? Not only do you fight a turtle for its body, but you enslave others and devour people! You call yourself an Arhat?”

Zhao Changhe and Yue Hongling exchanged glances.

So, this guy was actually the master of the Maitreya Secret Realm, the venerable of the temple that imprisoned the Corpse Demon?

The Corpse Demon had been captured after causing trouble in his temple. Perhaps he had been on a mission to the Spirit Clan to negotiate a resolution? Then the great calamity struck, and this Venerable Doro was also left on the verge of death. By chance, a page of the Heavenly Book fell into the Spirit Clan’s territory, and the Spirit Clan’s space was protected. This remnant soul took the opportunity to flee into this space, hiding in the Ao Pool to sleep and recover?

No—he had time to set up formations and resonate with the Heavenly Book before entering the space. He hadn’t stumbled in by accident; he had seen the Heavenly Book scatter here and followed it in. His preparations included recovering and obtaining the Heavenly Book after awakening!

In recent years, he had awakened and begun planning his revival. His first move was to find a Blood Ao egg, accelerate its hatching, and seize its body? Under the influence of Blood Ao’s body, he had also comprehended a set of bloodthirsty and murderous techniques, which seemed similar to what Lie had understood, but on a different level. His own Buddhist powers were probably unusable now…

So, the Spirit Clan sage Blood Wu had used his half-baked Huashang Temple Buddhist teachings to fool Maitreya and poison Jiangnan; conversely, the Huashang Temple venerable had taken over the Spirit Clan’s sacred beast body to poison the Spirit Clan.

You two might as well get together.

It just goes to show that when the great calamity arises, between life and death, saints and demons ultimately do the same things, don’t they?

Blood Ao finally spoke slowly: “I wondered why, after all these years of plundering the Spirit Clan’s countless archives and using countless blood sacrifices, I still couldn’t fully control this body… Because with your disappearance and the deaths during the great calamity, the lineage was broken. The Spirit Clan’s beast-taming art lost a crucial secret…”

The Corpse Demon laughed heartily: “Indeed, indeed, I do have that art. Don’t you regret not searching my soul back then?”

Blood Ao’s eyes flashed with a fierce light: “Devour you… and I’ll have that art. You have no body; you are no match for me.”

The turtle’s mouth suddenly opened wide, and a terrifying beam of blood light shot toward the Gu insect housing the Corpse Demon.

The Gu insect emitted gentle ripples—pure soul force, forming a solid barrier that withstood the blood light’s assault.

As Blood Ao had said, having a body or not truly made a difference.

The immense power within Blood Ao’s body was more than the Corpse Demon in its current state could withstand.

But precisely because the Corpse Demon’s art had a restraining effect, Blood Ao’s body was stiff, its soul and body showing signs of separation, as if the two were fighting for control.

To Zhao Changhe and Yue Hongling, this was a meat shield, easier to hit than when they had ganged up on the Corpse Demon earlier.

The Corpse Demon shouted harshly: “One of you attack the center of its forehead to disrupt its spiritual platform; the other pierce its crown to cut it off from heaven and earth. If you can throw off its body-soul coordination, I can seize this body completely! If I can’t hold out, everyone here dies! Hurry—I can’t restrain it for long!”

Without needing its command, Yue Hongling’s sword, like a rainbow piercing the sun, reached Blood Ao’s forehead.

At the same time, the Dragon Sparrow blade bloomed with a crescent blade glow, viciously hacking at Blood Ao’s crown with a thunderous explosion.

The blood sea spread for a hundred li. Within the entire Ao Pool, all the “Forbidden Land Envoys” were washed over by the blood light. Their bodies withered, becoming nourishment for Blood Ao.

The energy around Blood Ao grew even more vivid.

Yue Hongling felt her own blood and qi churn violently, nearly bursting out of her body. In this state, she could not unleash the attack power she wanted. The gap was too vast—it was like an aura effect that she couldn’t even withstand.

Zhao Changhe might be able to endure it; he trained in this.

But what about her?

Would she become a burden in this battle?

Yue Hongling’s eyes grew more resolute. The setting sun on the horizon shone through the gap in the Sacred Mountain, casting a golden glow over her body.

Blood Ao muttered in shock: “Sword Emperor…”

The Ancient Sword Dragon Emperor also hummed and buzzed. Though it was the Azure Dragon’s sword from ancient times and had nothing to do with the Sword Emperor… it recognized the aura of a sovereign.

The emperor among swords—that too was an emperor.

Zhao Changhe didn’t know why Yue Hongling had become connected to the Sword Emperor, but Blood Ao had said it twice now… The early and later meanings of the Sword Emperor…

What he had learned was flashy and probably the early stage, since he had never entered the core of the Sword Mausoleum.

But Hongling, when she roamed the martial world in her early years, had entered an unknown secret realm and obtained a fragmentary inheritance… That might be the unfinished later meaning of the Sword Emperor.

The Ancient Sword Dragon Emperor finally blazed with golden imperial aura. Yue Hongling’s sword intent merged completely with it. Ten thousand zhang of radiant light surged into the blood sea, shattering the indestructible barrier into pieces.

The sword tip pierced the blood crab's forehead, its agonized roar echoing across the land.

Since parting with Zhao Changhe, Yue Hongling had fought at Bashan, ventured into Miao territory, assassinated the Pacification Commissioner, contended with Shi Wuding, perceived the fireworks within the sword, sensed the blood jade of Juntian... silently accumulating until now, she stood at the threshold.

A faint aura of the second hidden treasure emanated from her, on the verge of breaking through, yet still a hair's breadth away.