The roar of the underground demon tower almost alarmed the entire Chixiao Palace.
The incident happened suddenly, and Rong Lian only had time to grab the jade seal beside him and temporarily open the barrier of the entire Chixiao Palace.
Deep red streams of light shot out from the four directions of the eight trigrams in the sky. The seal in the demon niche quietly activated, and turned into a semicircular barrier in the air, covering the entire palace.
The light emitted by the barrier was like a torch lit in the night sky, startling all the demons in the Chixiao Palace who were meditating.
"what happened?"
"The clan protection formation has been activated?!"
There was an uproar among the crowd, and they all walked out of the cave and looked up at the sky.
The ministers of the four great families also stood up from their quiet rooms and looked at the formation that had opened above their heads, filled with confusion and uncertainty.
"Could it be that the ghost realm knew about the war and attacked in advance?"
Unless you are faced with an extremely difficult situation, it is absolutely impossible to rashly activate the protective formation.
This tricky situation refers specifically to the previous invasion of the Lord of the Ghost Realm. However, the last time the Ghost Realm took a stealth approach, and no one was able to detect it until the attack on the underground demon tower, let alone activate the clan protection formation.
At the critical moment when everyone in the clan was in panic, Rong Lian flicked his sleeves and went straight towards the depths of the palace.
The location of the underground demon tower changes every few decades. This time the entrance is located deep in the imperial palace.
Although it is called the Demon Tower, it is actually a funnel-shaped space, a small plane specially created by the ancient demons to imprison ferocious beasts. Later, it was used by successive demon kings to pray to the beast god and imprison guilty people.
Of course, among so many Demon Kings, Rong Lian was the only one who imprisoned so many important officials at one time.
By the time he arrived, the palace above the entrance to the demon tower, which was used to hide the tower, had already been blown away by the violent wind waves, and the red walls and tiles were scattered everywhere.
Looking around, this piece of magnificent palace has turned into ruins, looking extremely desolate.
And in the center of the palace, there was only a wooden door standing suddenly in the void, with an empty space behind it, like a door leading to an unknown place.
The most disturbing thing was that something seemed to be hitting the wooden door again and again, making a dull and terrifying sound that was deafening. Even the cinnabar talismans painted on the wooden door and the dense demon patterns engraved on the door lintel were flickering, turning red and dark on the wooden door, and it seemed that it was about to be unable to resist.
"Your Majesty, this... Soul-Locking Lamp..."
When several trusted ministers saw this scene, they turned pale with shock and began to back off.
The people who follow Rong Lian now were all promoted by him personally. They also helped him a lot when they sent the former emperor's old ministers to the underground demon tower.
Everyone knew that there were only so many positions in the entire clan, and if the old ones didn't leave, the new ones wouldn't come, so they all formed teams to pledge allegiance to the new emperor and dealt with the old ones as quickly as possible.
Now, the Soul-Locking Lamp has been taken away, and there is no means to control the old subordinates anymore. Those old subordinates are all powerful people who have achieved the state of out-of-body experience. They have not stopped practicing in the underground demon tower all these years. If one of them breaks through to the Mahayana stage, even Rong Lian will find it difficult to cope with it, let alone these ministers.
"Whoever dares to reveal the news that the Soul Locking Lamp has been taken away will be killed without mercy today."
Rong Lian, who was standing at the front in the air, turned his head, his red robe fluttering. His dark golden pupils were filled with coldness, and a cluster of white-gold fox fire danced on his slender fingertips, making his flawless face look even more enchanting.
The pressure of the Great Perfection of Out-of-Body State was spread in the air with a "swish", and the cold demonic power directly pierced the minister who spoke first.
The latter was only at the Nascent Soul stage, and when he suddenly came into contact with such unreserved demonic power, he was knocked down from the air, vomited blood, and fainted.
"This dear minister may be tired. Help him down to rest."
Without even glancing at the minister whose life or death was unknown on the ground, he sneered.
The demon servant standing by immediately stepped forward and dragged the man away tremblingly.
Now, with sufficient strength to deter, no one in the entire air dared to speak.
The man just now was already a favorite of the Demon King. He usually flattered him and seemed to be quite favored. I didn't expect that His Majesty would kill him without mercy. This move was indeed intended to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.
Thousands of years have passed, and there are always some people who have become so worn out in a comfortable environment that they forget how many people's bones and blood the Demon King stepped on to climb to the throne, and how bloody the palace coup was.
Rong Lian glanced at these people and saw that they were all frightened and their expressions became increasingly cold.
He didn't expect these people to help him, at least they shouldn't get in his way. When he promoted these people, he didn't care about anything else, but they were good at protecting themselves. To put it bluntly, Rong Lian didn't care whether the entire demon race became better or worse under his leadership. These were not as important as keeping him happy, so these people would read his words and expressions, and flattery was enough.
But if anyone dares to get in his way in the face of such a major event, Rong Lian will certainly show no mercy.
At this moment, the talisman on the top of the wooden door suddenly went out silently under the violent impact.
It was like turning on a switch, and then the glowing red spells went out one by one.
Everyone held their breath.
The next second, the wooden door disappeared, and countless wood chips mixed with wooden boards fluttered and fell to the ground.
The nine-tailed shadow behind the man in red suddenly became clear, and his figure suddenly disappeared. Instead, there appeared a huge white fox with its body spanning half the sky and nine long tails covering the sky.
The blockade of the Demon Tower was completely broken, and three groups of black mist twisted and rushed into the air.
A ball of black mist turned into a huge green dragon, another ball of black mist turned into a majestic white tiger, and the last ball turned into a red bird flapping its wings.
Among the onlookers, some ministers who still remembered the palace coup a thousand years ago were shocked.
These people were all well-known figures in the demon clan thousands of years ago, and were also the most trusted ministers of the previous emperor. They all came from the four major bloodline families of the demon clan. The green dragon was the former head of one of the families. He was also well-known in the world of cultivation and was a famous figure.
Originally, there should have been an elder of the Qingqiu clan here, but it is said that the elder had his neck bitten off by Rong Lian a thousand years ago, and he tore off his tail one by one, dug out his inner elixir, and died completely. So now there are only three left.
It was obvious that the black mists that escaped from the underground demon tower had no intention of stopping to reminisce.
The green dragon among them roared directly, rushed into the air and wrestled with the nine-tailed fox.
For a moment, tremendous demonic power exploded above the Chixiao Palace, and fur mixed with blood sprinkled down like money. If it weren't for the barrier, I'm afraid the entire northern border would be able to hear this terrible roar.
Rong Lian was facing off against three people, so the pressure was naturally great, and his heart sank again.
The demonic power in the underground demon tower was very thin. When they entered a thousand years ago, the three of them were all in the out-of-body state. When they came out a thousand years later, they still failed to successfully break through to the Mahayana state. Now, in comparison, it was the younger generation Rong Lian who first broke through to the out-of-body state and had a slight advantage in cultivation.
This could be considered a good thing, but with three of them attacking together, Rong Lian would still be unable to withstand it.
So he raised his voice slightly and said in a deep voice: "Traitor, do you still want to taste the feeling of being hit by the Soul Locking Lamp?!"
These three people have been imprisoned in the underground demon tower for many years and have no access to information from the outside world. This is why Rong Lian had previously instructed his subordinates not to reveal the real purpose of the Soul-Locking Lamp being taken away.
Although the Demon King had to consume a lot of energy every time he activated the Soul Locking Lamp, it was not difficult to beat them back to the underground demon tower. This was why Rong Lian had to fight before he could talk about it, otherwise the empty city plan would inevitably reveal flaws.
Since the nine-tailed fox had spoken, the three monsters also spoke in human language in the air.
Qing Jiao sneered, "You shameless boy, you have imprisoned me for many years. Even if you have the Soul Locking Lamp, what does it matter? Since we are not afraid of the Heart Demon Oath, how can we be afraid of your Soul Locking Lamp?"
Speaking of this, Green Dragon, White Tiger and Red Bird became extremely angry.
A thousand years ago, there was a palace coup, and they were supposed to seek benefits for the prince of their tribe and join the team. But even earlier, a man took a sword and attacked the demon tribe.
The man was dressed in white clothes as white as snow, his face was as handsome as jade, and his expression was as cold as ice. He broke into the demon tribe with a sword and beat up their four important ministers one by one, and forced them to swear an oath to their inner demons.
The man's voice was cold, and the sword was even colder, so cold that no one dared to resist.
"I want you to never go against the Crown Prince of Qingqiu at any time in the future."
Under pressure, the four important officials held their noses and swore an oath.
After all, the person they are facing is no one else but the only person in the world of cultivation who is given the title of "Zun".
Once you break the oath to the inner demon, your cultivation will basically not make any progress and you will be plagued by inner demons.
However, since they had sworn an oath to their inner demons, the man put away his sword with satisfaction and walked away.
Although the sword master died later, the oath he made was like water spilled, which could not be taken back. So when the palace coup took place, the four important officials turned a blind eye, neither assisting Rong Lian, who was then the Crown Prince of Qingqiu, nor actively avoiding his edge and giving in everywhere.
But what they didn't expect was that after Rong Lian, the illegitimate prince, succeeded to the throne and got the Soul-Locking Lamp and the Jade Seal of the Demon Clan in his hands, he would attack them first and take advantage of them to throw them directly into the Demon Tower when they were off guard.
The demon clan attaches great importance to bloodline. Others may not know this, but several of their important officials know it very well.
—Rong Lian is nothing more than a bastard with impure blood, how can he inherit the throne
But after taking an oath, no one wanted to directly block their own path of cultivation, so they had to endure it.
Originally, they thought of turning a blind eye and letting this lucky Qingqiu kid, who had the support of Sword Master, succeed to the throne. Unexpectedly, they raised a tiger and it turned out to be a disaster, and it came back to bite them. How could they not hate it
They held a grudge against Rong Lian day and night, and planned to settle the score with him after they were released. Even if it meant going against their inner demon oath, they would not be able to swallow this humiliation!
Heart demon oath? What heart demon oath
After hearing Qing Jiao's words, Rong Lian frowned, and some unreasonable things that had been hidden in his long memories gradually became clear.
Although Rong Lian had made many preparations a thousand years ago, when he ascended the throne and thought carefully, he still found many unreasonable things.
Judging from Qing Jiao's words, could it be that... there was some other hidden story behind his ascension to the throne
Just when Rong Lian was distracted, Qing Jiao seized the moment of his distraction and pierced his heart with its four claws as fast as lightning.
The nine-tailed fox was startled and immediately opened up the demonic power in his hands, but he didn't expect that Qing Jiao's move had gathered all his demonic power, and he broke through it with brute force and went straight to Huanglong.
At the same time, the red bird's sharp beak and the white tiger's palm wind were about to arrive, blocking all his escape routes.
"Don't think that after you have a blood transfusion and can become a prototype, you can become an orthodox person."
The red bird spat, "A bastard is a bastard. It will always be fatherless. Die!"
The hatred between the three of them has been accumulated for a long time. Even if their inner demons break out in the future and their cultivation becomes difficult to improve, they will kill the Demon King on the spot.
He was clearly just a bastard of impure blood, yet he dared to plot like this. They wanted to kill this bastard bit by bit to relieve their hatred.
Under the pressure of the three people, Rong Lian had to change from his original form back to human form. It seemed like he was following the saying "bastard".
The tip of the claw was only inches away from the fox's chest, and the green dragon showed a grim smile.
At this split second, no one noticed that the Buddha amulet on the red-robed Demon King's waist, which had long lost its golden red color, suddenly glowed slightly.
In an instant, unrivaled icy sword energy rose from the night sky.
It was extremely cold and extremely bright, just like the sudden dawning of day.
The whole world seemed to be silent because of this sword.
The green dragon's hideous smile was forever frozen in the air. Before he died, his eyes were still filled with ecstasy of revenge. He didn't even have time to react to what was happening.
In the dark night sky, a shadowy swordsman suddenly appeared.
The swordsman was dressed in pure white robes, his black hair was tied in a silver crown, his eyebrows were straight and sword-like, and his whole body was as cold as a snow lotus blooming on a towering mountain, unattainable, or like a bright moon reflected on the water.
"you... ... "
Rong Lian opened his eyes wide.
Not only him, but also the other monsters who rushed over, and the other two monsters in the air, were also shocked and speechless.
When the Green Dragon's corpse fell heavily to the ground with its eyes open, the Red Bird and the White Tiger finally came to their senses. They seemed to be frightened out of their wits, and tremblingly turned back into human form, kowtowing repeatedly towards the air.
Anyone who has had the good fortune to meet this person will have that demeanor deeply engraved in their memory, and without exception, there is no way they would mistake it.
Because that is a figure that the entire cultivation world has spent countless bright moons on since ancient times, and has only been able to produce one.
Even words are not enough to describe his elegance and grace.
The supreme sword, the pinnacle of all arts.
Lingyun Sword Master.