"You know of our Holy Realm?" A flash of surprise crossed the scholar's face, and he regarded Wei Wuya with an unexpected look.
"I may not know much about the ancient Demon Realm, but I know that you were bitter enemies of the ancient cultivators, and that you once attempted to seize dominion over our human realm in ancient times. That much is enough." Wei Wuya, concealed within the green mist, spoke in a voice cold as ice.
The Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu's faces changed the instant they heard these words. Dark light flickered across their bodies simultaneously as billowing clouds of yin qi surged forth, wrapping them in protective shrouds.
The two stared warily at the scholar and unconsciously retreated two steps.
Though neither of them had ever heard of the ancient Demon Realm or ancient demons, seeing Wei Wuya on such high alert — and recalling the scholar's own fearless confidence — their wariness surged naturally.
"There is no need for the three of you to know what I am just yet. However, I would like to propose a deal. If it succeeds, your cultivation bases could rise dramatically — ascending to the Deity Transformation stage would not be out of the question. Would the three of you care to hear me out?" The scholar's expression remained perfectly composed, each word delivered with deliberate weight.
"Oh? Such a fortunate opportunity? Let's hear it." The Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu exchanged a glance and replied impassively.
"Simple enough. You have surely noticed the ancient demon's body behind me. I would like the three of you to help me lift the seal upon it. In exchange, I will use this body to tear open a narrow fissure leading to the Holy Realm, then borrow the True Demon Qi of a Holy Ancestor and infuse the three of you with it — forging supreme Demonic Bodies. From that point forward, you would become members of our Holy Realm. What say you? With your respective aptitudes, once the infusion succeeds, your cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds, and reaching the Deity Transformation stage would be merely a matter of time." The scholar's voice brimmed with temptation.
"Lift the seal… infuse us with demonic qi?" The Ghost Spirit Sect Master's heart pounded at the proposal.
The prospect of a sudden, dramatic surge in cultivation — even potentially entering the Deity Transformation stage — was far too enticing for any cultivator to ignore.
His gaze shifted, and he saw Wang Tiangu looking back at him with an equally stirred expression. The man was clearly tempted as well.
"What foolishness is this! Do you really think that after being infused with demonic qi, you would still be yourselves? You would most likely lose your minds entirely and become nothing more than puppets of the ancient demon." Wei Wuya had lived for untold years and was cunning by nature. He saw through their thoughts in an instant and spoke without the slightest hesitation to awaken them.
"Brother Wei, what do you mean?" The words struck Wang Tiangu like a splash of cold water, sobering him somewhat.
"What do I mean? Can you truly trust the words of a demon from another realm? I don't know exactly what this 'demonic qi infusion' entails, but this is turbid energy that disregards your original cultivation foundation and forcibly elevates your power. What kind of outcome do you expect from that?" Wei Wuya's voice from within the poisonous mist was utterly merciless.
With each sentence, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu's expressions grew darker. By the time he had finished, their gazes toward the scholar had turned bone-chillingly cold.
The scholar frowned upon hearing this, his lips parting as though he still wished to offer some persuasion. But at that moment, a strange expression flickered across Wei Wuya's face.
From the stone rubble roughly ten feet behind the scholar, a sudden piercing shriek rang out. A slender black shadow shot forth without warning, pierced clean through the scholar's abdomen in a flash, soared more than thirty feet, and then hovered in midair.
It was a bizarre little snake, entirely jet-black, with a razor-sharp head bearing a single snow-white horn the size of a thumb — as keen as a sword's tip. Its body was completely devoid of scales, yet glistened with a dark, lustrous sheen.
The scholar's abdomen had been blown open into a hole the size of a bowl's rim. Being a phantom in nature, there was naturally not a single drop of blood inside. However, an emerald-green crystal core the size of a walnut had been shattered, with only remnants left in the cavity.
"You knew the location of my Soul Stone?" The scholar lowered his head to gaze at his ruined abdomen, a look of disbelief in his eyes.
It was then that Wei Wuya's utterly emotionless voice drifted from within the green mist: "I don't practice the path of ghosts, so naturally I wouldn't know where your Soul Stone is. But my Soul-Breaking Snake is quite adept at dealing with spirits and phantoms. Destroying a phantom formed from a wisp of refined soul — that's child's play."
Upon hearing this, a bitter smile appeared on the scholar's face. Then, with a soft *poof*, his entire body burst apart on its own, dissolving into a mass of ashen-white qi that rolled and churned in all directions.
The Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu watched this with some surprise, but upon glancing at the colossal demon beast nearby, they couldn't help but breathe a deep sigh of relief.
"Fellow Daoist Wei, should we destroy this ancient demon's body?" Wang Tiangu asked, unable to suppress the oppressive weight he felt whenever he looked at the demonic form.
"If it could be destroyed, don't you think the ancient cultivators would have done so already? We should leave everything as it is and depart from this place as quickly as possible." Wei Wuya was silent for a moment before shaking his head.
Wang Tiangu still hesitated, but the Ghost Spirit Sect Master, after a brief silence of his own, voiced his agreement: "Brother Wei speaks truly. This place is far too uncanny. We should leave as soon as we can."
Seeing both of them of one mind, Wang Tiangu naturally had no further objections. He turned, ready to take to the air — but at that precise moment, an eerily calm voice suddenly came from behind them.