Chapter 297 - The Devil Steps Into Abyss
The Spirit Plane Lord looked down at the Dao Clone of Soul, who had proclaimed his name ‘Devil’ and his title ‘The Devil’, and she felt reluctant to part ways. She had just brought him down to the 1st Layer of Abyss, but she didn’t expect him to be so insistent that she leave him alone…
“Little sister, you can get out of my way now.” Devil glanced at the woman by his side indifferently.
The fact that he, a mortal, was referring to a divinity as ‘Little Sister’ was somewhat absurd, but she actually felt quite comfortable with this, because it reminded her of her brother of the past.
“But brother, Abyss is a dangerous place, and you are only a mortal right now…”
“It doesn’t matter. As soon as I start killing, my soul will grow stronger. As soon as I start slaughtering, this Spirit Soul form of mine will transform into a Slaughter Spirit.” Devil replied with certainty.
“Are you sure…?” The Spirit Plane Lord asked doubtfully, having no idea what gave him the confidence that this could possibly be true. No matter how she examined him, she could only see an ordinary Spirit Soul after all!
“My main body once used the Fiend Transformation Technique as a basis for comprehending slaughter. Whilst I no longer have need for ‘dao’, my slaughter is beyond dao, because my slaughter is engraved into my very blood!” Devil replied with an eery smile, as he continued to walk along these gloomy barren wastelands which seemed to have no beginning nor end.
“But you’re a Spirit Soul, you don’t have any blood…”
“…Go away.”
In the end, the Primordial Sage tapped the Spirit Plane Lord on the shoulder and gave a slight nod. With a sigh, the Spirit Plane Lord could no longer continue to resist both her ‘brother’ and sister like this, so with reluctance, she left this place and returned to the 9th Layer of Heaven.
Devil glanced up at the Primordial Sage, who had remained even after her sister departed.
“You as well, get lost.” He spoke with more aggression towards the Sage, clearly not caring about conducting himself politely or with any sort of restraint around her.
“You don’t want my assistance?” She asked plainly.
“Just who needs your assistance?” Devil snorted coldly and rolled his eyes. “Get out of my way, Sage. Go help those other pitiful clones. Or better yet, protect the main body and make sure that the Primordial Spirit does not learn of the truth.”
“Of course, I am already doing this much.” With these parting words, the Sage faded away, until she could no longer be seen.
Seeing this, Devil furrowed his brows. He stopped walking and continued to stare at where the Sage had been just a moment ago…
“Hey, you better have actually left, damned nosy brat!” He vented out his annoyance due to his own weakness, but in the end, he had no way of knowing whether the Primordial Sage had actually left or not. And so, with an irate harrumph, he turned away and continued to walk.
As Devil walked through the 1st Layer of Abyss, he looked around and furrowed his brows.
“She kept claiming that Abyss is so dangerous, but it’s just an empty wasteland…”
Indeed, he had been walking for close to a full day, yet all that he had encountered was more of the same - grey dry ground beneath his feet, and a grey mist that hung in the air, obscuring his vision.
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A mortal human on the Qi Plane or Blood Plane would find this sort of environment extremely troublesome due to the complete lack of food and water, but life on the Spirit Plane was different. Devil was currently a mortal, but he existed as a Spirit Soul, or as some called them, ‘human spirits’. In this state, his soul would naturally absorb the energy from his surroundings, so even if he didn’t eat or drink for weeks, he would still be fine.
That said, the energy in Abyss was lacking compared to the higher layers, so surviving as a mortal here would definitely be more difficult.
“If I don’t encounter something other than this endless barrenness, then I suppose this place really is dangerous, but only because my energy reserves will eventually dry up…” Devil muttered to himself as he continued to walk.
In the end, he just shrugged and upped his pace, since there really wasn’t much other choice here.
And so, he walked. For five days and five nights, he walked through the gloomy wasteland, until finally, the mist began to thin out. As soon as Devil noticed this thinning in the mist, his instincts kicked in and told him that very soon, he would encounter a big change.
Even though he as an individual had just been born, he knew that his instincts had been honed across hundreds of years of the main body’s life, and these instincts would never be wrong - especially not for him, the Dao Clone with the greatest disposition towards violence!
As the mist continued to thin out, Devil squinted, until he could finally see something vaguely in the distance. Unexpectedly, this object was so far away that he ended up walking for another hour before finally arriving at its base, at which point, the fog was mostly dispersed.
“Halt! State your business, why are you approaching our Verdant Devil City?!”
Devil stopped and stared at the two guards, which quickly turned into 12 guards as they poured out from the giant gateway carved into the gargantuan wooden walls before him.
He slowly looked up at the walls, which were built from interconnected wooden pillars. Interestingly, the peak of each pillar was adorned with a decapitated head pierced into its sharp tip.
Devil’s mouth curled upwards into a smile.
“So it’s really true that the sentient beings that have developed on these more accommodating Layers of Abyss, refer to themselves as ‘devils’…” He spoke leisurely, as if he was completely unfazed by the malicious gazes of the dozen green-skinned humanoid spirits before him.
These spirits could only be distinguished from ordinary human spirits by the colour of their skin and the horns atop their heads, but this difference was enough to let Devil know what they were.
Devil had a simple reason for entering Abyss, and that was to slaughter…but why exactly did he choose to enter the desolate environment of Abyss, rather than seeking out a more reasonable place on the Spirit Plane’s Central Layer?
His reason for choosing Abyss specifically was also simple - it was because he had heard that although most of Abyss was filled with senseless, mindless demonic entities, there were actually a few intelligent races which had developed on the 1st through 6th Layers, and to distinguish themselves from the mindless demons, these beings referred to themselves as ‘devils’.
“But you see…” Devil spoke slowly as his smile became eerily sinister and he started to slowly approach the now very tense guards. “I am the only devil that is allowed to exist in this world.”
WAM!
Suddenly, a crimson aura erupted from Devil’s body. The dull, misty region, was now illuminated by a light that stank of blood, causing the 12 guards to stumble back in shock and horror.
Devil immediately made his move, rushing forth and taking advantage of their expected terrified reaction upon facing his full killing intent.
The Dao Clone of Qi had inherited Yaan’s intuitive dao comprehension, and the Fragment of Qi’s cultivation talent…
The Dao Clone of Mind had inherited Yaan’s conscious dao comprehension, and the Fragment of Mind’s psyche cultivation talent…
The Dao Clone of Soul had no talent to speak of, but he had also inherited something that allowed him to stand above any other mortal in this world - the killing intent that Yaan had developed throughout his life, in its purest form imaginable!
A crimson world surrounded Devil as his black fingernails suddenly sharpened and he plunged them into the closest guard’s throat whilst he laughed without restraint. This region of red was so immense that it actually somewhat resembled a domain!
Devil would not comprehend a single earthly dao; he was neither able to, nor did he want to. However, he believed that these external daos were simply below him, and that in this world, he would be able to reign supreme by relying on his heart and nothing else.
Devil could not use Yaan’s pseudo-domain ability, since that ability relied on external earthly dao comprehension…but that was why it was called a ‘pseudo-domain’, because a true domain could be formed by the heart and the heart alone!
For now, such an ability was still far away from the newly born Devil, but this bloody aura of his was more than enough for his current needs.
CHI!
The guard was pierced through the throat, but he did not bleed blood like Devil had anticipated.
“Hmm?” Devil narrowed his eyes and examined the wound as he slowly pulled back and stood up straight.
Thud…
As the verdant devil fell to the ground, black miasma poured out from his neck. This miasma was spat out similarly to how blood flowed out from the throats of physical beings, only it spread out in every direction, unrestrained by gravity.
Eventually, the guard fell down face first as black miasma surrounded his body.
“I see, so this is what it is like to kill spirits on the Spirit Plane…though I suppose that it might be different for each different type of being.” Devil mused to himself casually. He was slightly surprised by this, but he quickly recovered.
With a light chuckle, under the horrified gazes of the other 11 verdant devils, Devil pointed at the corpse, and it immediately began to wither away…
Only he could see that as the corpse withered, a grey stream of power flowed out from the corpse and into his own spiritual body!
“Slaughter is slaughter after all, physical or spiritual, it makes no difference to me.” Devil spoke as his body began to undergo a change…
His crimson aura became countless times more terrifying. His skin gained a darker, more tanned hue, and his entire presence and aura adopted a quality that resembled death itself.
After refining all of the Slaughter Aura from his first kill in this world, Devil’s transformation was complete. It was exactly as he had told the Spirit Plane Lord - he had transformed into a Slaughter Spirit, marking his first step onto the path of unorthodox soul cultivation!
Devil looked up at the other 11 guards, all of whom were trembling in fear and struggling to continue pointing their weapons his way. When he saw their expressions of absolute terror, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hahaha…I can tell that this world is going to be a lot of fun…”