234: Chapter 234 Elder of Ten Thousand Demons, Four Heavenly Demon Bodies

[The footsteps stopped.]

[In the thick darkness outside the hall doors, something was squirming.]

[Countless vines squeezed through the cracks in the door. They were pitch black with dark green patterns on the surface that throbbed like blood vessels.]

[They had no eyes or mouths, but they possessed something that triggered an instinctive fear: they were searching and sniffing like starving snakes.]

Chu Sheng severed the nearest vine with a single sword strike.

[Black sap sprayed from the cut, sizzling as it splashed onto the ground.]

[The severed vine squirmed on the ground for a few moments before two new vines sprouted from the cut, thinner and faster than the original.]

Chu Sheng's pupils constricted; this thing couldn't be cut down—the more he slashed, the more they multiplied.

He sheathed his sword and switched to blasting them with Devilish Qi.

[The Devilish Qi slammed into the vines, blowing a gap in them, but a few breaths later, even more vines surged out from the opening.]

"What is this thing?" Yu Rumeng's voice came from behind him.

She had overexerted herself; her face was pale and her voice sounded weak.

Chu Sheng didn't look back. He stared at the vines that were still pouring in, his mind racing.

Devil Grass from the wasteland.

He had seen it when entering the eighth floor. The Devilish Qi of Greed transformed into tender grass, while the Devilish Qi of Gluttony transformed into devil insects; the two had maintained a balance for thousands of years by waxing and waning against each other.

But he had opened the hall doors. Those doors were originally seamless and sealed shut—not even Devilish Qi could penetrate them.

Now that he had opened the doors, the Devil Grass from the wasteland was flooding in through the cracks like a deluge breaking through a dam.

He cursed under his breath.

[The Devil Grass multiplied, surging from the cracks in the doors, walls, and floor, closing in on them like a tide.]

The Old Grandfather spoke from within the ring: "This is Devil Grass nurtured by Greed using obsession. It specifically devours the spiritual power of intruders."

"Even Gluttony couldn't do anything about this stuff back then."

Chu Sheng gritted his teeth and drew both swords. Sword Qi wove into a dense net in front of him, temporarily holding the Devil Grass at bay.

However, every sword strike consumed spiritual power, and the severed Devil Grass grew even faster when stimulated by that power.

Yu Rumeng was not in good condition.

She had fought her way up from the bottom of the Reverse Demon Tower and endured several fierce battles. Her refinement of the Inheritance of Wrath was not yet complete, her Devilish Qi consumption was too high, and the circulation of her spiritual power had slowed significantly.

Chu Sheng didn't hesitate: "You go first. I'll cover the rear."

Yu Rumeng glanced at him. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but she ultimately swallowed her words.

She turned and ran deeper into the hall, her footsteps fading into the distance.

Chu Sheng swung his twin swords repeatedly. Sword Qi exploded in the corridor, forcing the surging Devil Grass back momentarily before he turned to give chase.

The corridor was long and winding, with Devil Grass crawling out from every crack.

Chu Sheng ran fast, the zhu xian sword flying around him, severing every strand of Devil Grass that tried to entangle him.

But there was too much Devil Grass. Like wave after wave of a tide, it could neither be fully severed nor burned away.

At the end of the corridor was a corner. Chu Sheng rounded it and saw Yu Rumeng; she was standing before a half-open stone door, not yet entering.

Her green eyes were fixed on the interior. Behind the stone door was a small stone chamber, and in the corner of the chamber crouched a person.

It wasn't a corpse—it was a living person, thin as a lath.

His hair was white and sparse, his face a mass of wrinkles, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken.

The old man looked up, his cloudy eyes glancing at Chu Sheng and Yu Rumeng.

His gaze swept over Chu Sheng, then over Yu Rumeng. After pausing for a few breaths, he asked in a raspy voice, "From the Wanmo Hall?"

Chu Sheng's heart stirred.

The Wanmo Hall.

He had killed the Hundred-Eyed Demon King and the Blue Flame Demon King in the Reverse Demon Tower, and the Earth Fiend Demon King had died on the seventh floor. He had already formed a deep grudge with the Wanmo Hall.

In the territory of the Wanmo Hall, this old man of unknown identity had just asked if they were "from the Wanmo Hall."

Without changing his expression, Chu Sheng said, "Yes, from the Wanmo Hall."

The old man nodded and looked away.

He hadn't noticed anything unusual.

Chu Sheng quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

The old man said he had been an Elder of the Wanmo Hall a thousand years ago, ordered to guard the eighth floor of the Reverse Demon Tower.

Later, Gluttony arrived, and the tower turned into a mess.

Everyone else died; only he hid in this stone chamber to drag out a feeble existence.

For a thousand years, he had waited day after day for someone to enter, for someone to take him out.

Yu Rumeng frowned. An Elder of the Wanmo Hall from a thousand years ago?

His cultivation was only at the Sea Opening realm. Even if his cultivation had dropped after being trapped for a thousand years, it shouldn't have fallen all the way from the Dao Palace to Sea Opening.

The old man seemed to see her doubt. He gave a bitter smile and said he had been trapped here for too long—he had even forgotten how to use his cultivation.

Chu Sheng didn't speak. He just looked at the old man, then at the corridor behind him that led deeper in.

The sound of the Devil Grass came from behind them, a fine, rustling noise like countless insects crawling.

Chu Sheng looked back; the Devil Grass had already reached the corner.

The old man stood up. His movements were very slow, like a rusted machine restarting.

He pointed to the corridor behind him: "Follow me. There is a secret passage here that leads directly to the core area."

He paused. "The heart of greed is there. Only by destroying the heart of greed can you leave the Reverse Demon Tower."

Chu Sheng and Yu Rumeng exchanged a look.

Yu Rumeng nodded.

The three entered the corridor. The stone door behind them slammed shut, sealing out the rustling of the Devil Grass.

The corridor was long and sloped downward. The stone walls on both sides were covered in murals.

Chu Sheng looked as he walked. The murals depicted a small snake.

It was coiled in the grass, its body slender and its scales dull.

Later, it encountered a powerful being whose face was obscured. That being extended a finger and tapped the small snake on its forehead.

In the next mural, the snake's body had grown larger, and horns had sprouted from its head.

The old man walked in front, narrating without looking back.

The Demon Venerable of Greed was originally an ordinary small snake. It was enlightened by the Ancestor of All Demons and set upon the path of Cultivation.

Later, through a stroke of luck, it obtained one of the seven Legacies left by the Heavenly Demon Ancestor. It grew from a small snake into a generation's Demon Venerable, plundering the world and accumulating countless treasures.

After his death, his lifelong collection was locked within this tower.

The heart of greed is where his obsession lies.

As Chu Sheng listened, he thought to himself: so Greed's true form was a snake. No wonder he was so protective of his food.

The murals came to an end, and the corridor opened up.

Simultaneously, the auras of four different Heavenly Demon Bodies appeared in the air.

The violent nature of Gluttony, the scorching heat of Wrath, the lethargy of lust, and a type of Greed he had never felt before.

The four auras intertwined, collided, and separated in this space like four rivers flowing into the same ocean.

Chu Sheng's pace slowed.

Four Heavenly Demon Bodies.

lust, Wrath, Gluttony, and Greed.

Two Demon Venerables plus himself and Yu Rumeng.

Four successors of the Heavenly Demons. If they stood together, they would have the power to overturn the Five Regions.

A sudden sense of unease welled up in his heart.

It wasn't because these auras were powerful, but because they appeared too coincidentally.

Deep within the eighth floor of the Reverse Demon Tower, in the core area, the auras of four Heavenly Demon Bodies converged.

Why exactly four?

Why exactly here?

Chu Sheng stopped and stared into the darkness ahead, his hand instinctively gripping the hilt of the zhu xian sword.

The Old Grandfather's voice exploded in the ring, urgent and lowered with unprecedented alertness: "Something is wrong. That old ghost ahead is not right."

Chu Sheng stopped in his tracks.

The old man's footsteps also stopped.

He slowly turned his head, squinting his eyes at Chu Sheng, and asked in a raspy voice, "What's the matter?"