Chapter 86: The Formless Heavenly Demon, Breaking Free from Shackles

The moment the demonic lotus shattered, Liu Ruyi’s soul was laid bare. The black mist dispersed, leaving her spirit completely unprotected.

“It’s time to end this—a century of enmity,” Li Du, garbed in white, sighed deeply.

“No! Spare me! For the sake of our past!” At death's door, Liu Ruyi no longer bore her usual arrogance.

“Alas! I have no wish to humiliate you,” Li Du sighed again, dark demonic flames coiling around him. “To borrow your own words: with your body, I shall complete my path.”

A torrent of demonic fire descended, transforming into countless grotesque inner demons with blue faces and fanged maws, devouring Liu Ruyi’s spirit entirely. In her final moments, her expression flickered between joy and sorrow—a return to the days of innocence, when she had been a naive mortal.

After consuming her spirit, Li Du stood motionless for a long while. His face cycled through joy, sorrow, anger, serenity—seven emotions flickered across his features all at once. The demonic flames about him flared ever brighter, ten thousand demons swirling around him.

A surge of sinister intent assaulted Lu Qian’s heart, but he recited the Heart-Purifying Mantra, and the inner demons dispersed.

After a long while, Li Du opened his eyes and looked at Lu Qian. “Let’s go.”

Back in the tangible world, Long’er’s body had withered to a dried husk, and Liu Ruyi was also nothing but a corpse. What surprised Lu Qian most was that Li Du’s own body had died as well—there was not a trace of life left.

He looked up at Li Du. “Have you entered the Spirit-Nurturing stage?”

As far as he knew, after reaching the Spirit-Nurturing stage, even if the physical body was destroyed, the soul could survive independently for a time.

The young Li Du shook his head with a smile. “No, this is the path of the Heart Demon—I have become a demon incarnate.”

A heart demon? Lu Qian was puzzled. Was this yet another new cultivation method?

“Then let’s go!” Lu Qian wasted no words.

“No, you go first,” Li Du refused, his stance unwavering. Even with a chance to escape, he chose to remain.

Lu Qian asked, “Why? You’ve set foot on a new path; there's a long road ahead, you can return later.”

Li Du no longer gave off that stifling pressure he once had, not the suffocating aura of Tongyou.

“Perhaps there won’t be a ‘me’ later.” Seeing Lu Qian’s confusion, Li Du smiled faintly. “Without attachment, would I still be a demon?”

Boom!

At that moment, the entire Tongyou Monastery began to tremble. Outside the main hall, emerald-black clouds churned, and a colossal Guiwater Heavenly Serpent emerged from the sea of clouds. Its head was towering, with vertical emerald pupils; its eyes alone were the size of millstones.

Everyone in the monastery felt an overwhelming pressure, as if some immense weight bore down on their hearts.

“Wretched disciple! How dare you slay your own?” Furious roars echoed from all directions.

Whoosh! A streak of emerald light pierced the clouds, descending like a reversed Milky Way. Its target was Medicine Mountain—an attack meant to level the entire peak.

“Do you remember the Netherworld Seal I taught you? Visualize its pattern, conceal your presence, and escape while you can!” Li Du turned back and spoke, as a surge of ghostly flame consumed his form; the light of reason faded from his eyes. As he spoke, he tossed over a jade token.

The shadow crows and the envoys at the gates were spiritual soldiers—they recognized tokens, not faces. With someone to draw the strong one’s attention, escape would be much easier.

The emerald streak was less than a hundred paces away now, its azure light washing over their faces.

“Master! Your disciple has a supreme art to discuss!” Li Du laughed loudly, soaring into the sky.

Boom! The ground exploded, the paper figure was torn apart. His true body, not far away, was thrown several miles down the mountain before coming to a stop—unharmed, he instinctively looked back. The scene before him would be etched in memory forever.

Beneath the giant serpent in the sky stood a monstrous figure ten zhang tall, without substance—a form wrought of pure black mist. Countless wisps of darkness twisted like snarling, fanged demons.

“Li Du! How dare you become a Heavenly Demon! Such audacity!”

Clearly, Tongyou was deeply wary. For cultivators, the most feared threat was the heart demon—insidious and all-pervading. Fall under its sway, and at best, you suffer deviation and loss of cultivation; at worst, your soul is annihilated, your body and path destroyed.

“I am no longer Li Du—call me Mara! Heh heh!” Li Du had sown the seed of demon in his heart, feeding it with his seven emotions and six desires; then, demon turned to path, seeing through all emptiness. This was no longer the Li Du of old.

This demon was a Formless Heavenly Demon.

Formless joy, formless anger, formless sorrow… formless delusion; seven kinds of formlessness, forming a Heavenly Demon. The demon had just been born, its power not yet fully matured.

Yet for those like Tongyou, whose cultivate through unconventional means, this was an especially difficult adversary.

Hearing this, those who had known him in the past looked up with mixed feelings.

“As expected of you, Brother Li—I knew you would not fall,” Chi Hai gazed skyward, smiling.

Those who owed Li Du a debt felt a surge of satisfaction as a century of resentment dissipated.

Whatever the outcome, it would be a memory Tongyou would never forget.

Just a glance at the Heavenly Demon filled Lu Qian’s heart with demonic intent; he immediately visualized the Netherworld Seal in his mind.

In his sea of consciousness appeared a twisted, intricate seal of emerald green.

In an instant, he seemed to merge with his surroundings. Moonlight still bathed him, and he cast a shadow. It was not invisibility, but rather his presence was undetectable by spiritual senses.

Lu Qian took a step, his form stretching, hair falling to his waist, eyes turning gold, his height rising to nine feet. The world transformed before his eyes.

The earth was now veined with faint yellow mist, shifting in density with the terrain—this was the earth’s vital energy, the spirit of mountains and rivers.

The fish-dragon was originally a plant; its harsh living conditions had granted it the ability to see through the land’s secrets.

Lu Qian could now use this vision to discern the movements of his enemies.

He traversed dense forests and eerie ghostly mists.

By the creek, beside emerald waters, stood a refined middle-aged man.

“I thought you’d run. Where did you go just now?” Fang Su smiled from the water’s edge, the breeze stirring his features.

“I went to kill Liu Ruyi,” Lu Qian answered frankly—if Fang Su had truly wanted to capture him, escape would have been impossible.

“She’s dead?”

“I killed both the abomination and her!”

Fang Su was taken aback, then his lips curled into a grin, and he burst out laughing.

“Good lad, ruthless enough!” Fang Su had let him go on purpose, expecting him to flee immediately—not to double back and strike.

Such a nature was indeed formidable.

A splash—the green water rippled as the escorting envoy arrived by boat.

“Come, I have a feeling that Tongyou Monastery’s decision to abandon you and your master was a grave mistake,” Fang Su waved magnanimously.

“Thank you for your help, Steward,” Lu Qian offered a respectful bow.

Boarding the boat, they descended the mountain.

He soon concealed his form, returned to normal, and summoned a paper bird.

The vast lands spread before his eyes, his heart soaring with boldness.

The hidden dragon leaps from the abyss, the open plain lies ahead.

Lu Qian removed his Daoist crown, burned it to ashes with ghostly fire.

The wild wind whipped his black hair, and a sense of breaking shackles and escaping into freedom welled up within him.

“Worlds of gods and monsters, ten directions—here I come!”