Chapter Ninety-One: The Descent of Gods and Demons, the Wings of the Dao Soldiers

In a damp cavern, a monster covered from head to toe in green fur slowly opened its eyes.

Its pupils darted wildly within their sockets. After a moment, they settled. The creature let out a long breath of stale air and muttered, “How strange. Several months have already passed, and I have fully recovered. Yet why has Roy still not returned? Could that wretch have betrayed me? Impossible. Without me, he cannot break through to Demon Marshal level...”

“But without him, neither can I.”

With a faint sigh, the green-furred monster closed its eyes and murmured softly in some incomprehensible tongue. A moment later, it suddenly snapped its eyes wide open.

“This is...?”

“Roy is dead...”

“How could this be?”

Its voice was filled with stunned disbelief. Then it turned shrill, surging with boundless fury.

“Who was it? Who dared kill him?!”

“Junior Brother?”

Seeing Liu Ping standing dazedly in place, Drunken Red Dust called out to him again.

Only then did Liu Ping come to himself. He shook his head slightly, casting aside the stray thoughts in his mind, and closed his eyes to quietly take in the vast torrent of information released by the two small lights in his sea of consciousness.

After a while, he said softly, “Senior Sister, I obtained two spells. I need to enter seclusion.”

Two? Drunken Red Dust was mildly startled. For her to obtain two spells was already a tremendous recognition. After entering that inheritance space, she could clearly feel how difficult it was to gain a spell; even ordinary Earth Immortals would struggle to obtain one. Her junior brother was extraordinary, and she had expected he might receive one spell. She had not expected him to end up like her, with two.

At once she nodded. “Come with me. I’ll take you to a quiet room.”

“Mm.”

Liu Ping did not dare open his eyes, and as he quietly focused on the sensation, he suddenly felt a cool, delicate hand take his own.

It was his senior sister’s hand.

Feeling that smooth, cool touch, like fine jade, he was struck by a ripple of emotion, nearly losing himself for a moment. He silently scolded himself for being so useless; it was only holding hands with Senior Sister, and yet he was so flustered? He hurriedly steadied his mind.

Liu Ping, with his eyes closed, did not see that at this moment a faint blush had risen on Drunken Red Dust’s face. Pretending to be natural while holding her junior brother’s hand still felt rather strange. Thank goodness she had not let him see what she looked like now, or it would truly have been embarrassing.

Drunken Red Dust walked ahead, and Liu Ping followed instinctively behind her.

Soon, they arrived at a quiet chamber.

The spiritual energy in this small heaven-and-earth was already rich, but the power within this quiet chamber was even more astonishing. White spiritual mist had formed and drifted through the air. Liu Ping was seated upon a meditation cushion, and beside him stood a small incense burner. With a gentle wave of Drunken Red Dust’s hand, the incense within was lit.

Wisps of fragrant smoke curled upward. The scent was delightful. It was calming incense, and Liu Ping, who had been somewhat restless, instantly became completely tranquil.

“Thank you, Senior Sister...”

“No need.” Drunken Red Dust gave a slight shake of her head and turned to leave.

Liu Ping took a deep breath and began to do his utmost to absorb the immense amount of information released by the two light spheres in his sea of consciousness.

The spell belonging to the armored maiden was called Descent of Gods and Demons.

It was an extraordinarily heaven-defying spell, forged by blending and constructing itself around the seven great divine and demonic forms of the five elements and yin-yang.

Its origin lay in the ancient gods and demons. The White Emperor had imprisoned thousands of them, observed their nature, tasted their flesh and blood, beheld their source, and seized the workings of heaven and earth to continuously deduce this art.

The first level was the Five-Element Gods and Demons. The second was the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons. The third was the Chaos Gods and Demons. As for the fourth, the Eternal Gods and Demons, it existed only in theory and deduction; even the White Emperor had never cultivated it to completion.

Once the first level was mastered, a body of gods and demons would take shape. When activated, it would use the cultivator’s own body as its core to form a colossal god-and-demon avatar, with boundless might, astonishing speed, and terrifying destructive power.

As Liu Ping quietly comprehended the information and carefully analyzed its combat potential, he grew ever more shocked. If, within the Human Immortal realm, he could fully cultivate the five attributes of the Five-Element Gods and Demons—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—and reach the peak of the first level, then even against a divine immortal across two entire great realms, he would still have the power to fight!

One could imagine how terrifying it was.

Yet heaven was fair.

A technique this fearsome was, naturally, equally difficult to master.

Even now that Liu Ping had inherited this spell, and understood how to cultivate it and its underlying principles as if receiving an infusion of wisdom, he still could not achieve it quickly. The difficulty remained considerable.

Without this inheritance, if one relied only on verbal instruction, then unless one were a prodigy of unparalleled talent, even after spending endless years one might still never truly enter its门槛. This spell was simply too profound.

The second spell, the light sphere that the girl had left behind for him before departing, was called Winged Dao Soldiers.

This was a form of artifact control technique.

However, a spell that the girl had deliberately carried away with her before leaving could hardly be an ordinary artifact-control art.

Ordinary artifact-control techniques could manipulate only a single treasure. Better ones could control three or four at once. More advanced ones might command more than ten artifacts simultaneously. And some specialized secret arts had no limit at all.

But greed leads to indigestion. The more artifacts one controlled, the greater the burden on the soul, and the more absurd the difficulty became.

Controlling two artifacts was already akin to dividing one’s mind in two, let alone commanding an astonishing number of them. If one failed to split one’s attention, then agility would be lost, along with most of the power of attack. The cost would far outweigh the gain.

Thus, within the world of cultivation, most cultivators who possessed artifacts focused on just one, refining it again and again until it became their life-bound treasure.

Winged Dao Soldiers was entirely different. It likewise had no numerical limit, but it went against the grain: it did not require much direct attention at all. One needed only to control the "central command."

Once this art was mastered, so long as one had sufficient spiritual power and enough artifacts, countless artifacts could be controlled at once and shaped into a pair of wings, manipulated with complete ease. Though the only commands were the simple functions of "attack" and "recall," once the artifacts were combined, their power would multiply many times over, carrying the flavor of a sword formation.

Wings formed from innumerable Dao soldier artifacts—that was Winged Dao Soldiers.

After a long while, Liu Ping slowly opened his eyes and let out a breath.

“Winged Dao Soldiers is easy to cultivate. Once I received the inheritance, I entered the gateway almost instantly. As long as I continue practicing in the future, I will naturally comprehend it. As for control, that will require time to build experience and gradually become familiar with it. But Descent of Gods and Demons is truly far too difficult. Even after receiving the inheritance, I still feel as if I have nowhere to begin.”

Shaking his head, Liu Ping emerged from seclusion.

Outside, it was still night. Looking up at the sky full of stars, Liu Ping’s gloomy mood eased considerably.

“I’ve already obtained such powerful spells. What is there to brood over? I’m not some real genius protagonist—how could I become an unparalleled powerhouse so easily? Since I have nowhere to begin right now, I refuse to believe that if I keep cultivating desperately, I still won’t even be able to get started!”

“Junior Brother, you’re out?”

His senior sister had somehow appeared behind him.

Liu Ping jumped in alarm and turned back. “Yes. I obtained two spells—one is Winged Dao Soldiers, and the other is Descent of Gods and Demons...”

“Descent of Gods and Demons?!” Drunken Red Dust was astonished. “You actually obtained the inheritance of Descent of Gods and Demons?”

“Mm. Senior Sister, you’ve heard of it too?”

Drunken Red Dust’s expression grew solemn. “Of course I have. This spell exists within the Five Great Immortal Sects and the Three Great Daoist Orders, but it is placed high upon the shelves, inaccessible to ordinary disciples. Even second-generation disciples of the Earth rank rarely have the chance to practice it. And with its heaven-defying difficulty, throughout the entire cultivation world there are no more than a handful who have learned it. As for reaching the second level, there isn’t a single one.”

“As for the third level, and even the fourth, the crucial scriptures are simply missing... there is no way to cultivate them at all.”

After a pause, Drunken Red Dust asked, “What you obtained was the complete inheritance?”

Liu Ping nodded.

Drunken Red Dust’s expression turned grave as she warned him, “After you master it, do not use it casually unless it is absolutely necessary. That part is minor; it can be covered over. But the most important thing is this: under no circumstances must you reveal that you obtained a complete spell inheritance.”

Within the cultivation world, there was no shortage of ruthless people who would risk everything to kill and seize treasures.

Hearing this, Liu Ping understood the seriousness of the matter and nodded solemnly. “Senior Sister, I understand.”