The characters, ‘Chui Ping Cave’, was carved neatly on top of the cave. There were no signs of defecation by beastly animals, there was no stench either. Shen Lian had previously found out that water deer demons were generally quite hygienic.
It was difficult to find demons who were hygienic. Even after they transform into their human form, they would still display beastly behavior.
However, Shen Lian was not too sure, this was the cave where the Mountain God of the Chui Ping Mountain resided. He was casted out by the Demon King as the Demon King took over the mountain.
Even if he knew for sure, survival of the fittest was always the mechanism of natural selection, celestials too could not escape from that.
An eagle and a water deer came to the cave and swiftly slipped in.
It was a large spacious hall that with no oppressive air. It was not known if that huge space was natural or man-made, perhaps a little bit of both.
The bright hall was lit by braziers while the army of demons lined up on two sides. They were uniformed and disciplined, the standard that could match the quality of human military.
Demons were generally undisciplined. It was a job well done to be able to line them up in such uniformed matter.
A pretty girl in green skirt was sitting on the stone couch inside the hall. She frowned in impatience as her men talked about Shen Lian.
She waved her hand. A dash of mana sealed the eagle commander’s mouth, allowing the water deer demon to speak first.
The water deer demon haltingly summarized the incident. It gave a terrible description but fortunately it did not fabricate the story. The girl in green skirt then allowed the eagle demon to speak, and then combine both sides of the story.
The girl in the green skirt was clearly the demon king who took over the Chui Ping Mountain. An evil looking person with frightening green face was seated below her. At first glance, that person looked scary but if one were to take a closer look, he actually had a well balanced facial features. It was the green eyes that looked terrorizing.
This demonic human or demon said, “We’ve never heard of any cultivations school within the thousand miles radius from here. I wonder which bastard offended our king.”
“Well, don’t you think there will always be people with supernatural powers who think that they are capable just because they have a few tricks under their sleeves?” The girl in green skirt softly knocked on the stone cushion and flicked a finger. A stone sparked in mid air as it gets fired across the hall.
The stone deeply inlaid into the stone wall as Shen Lian appeared next to it.
He did not expect to see a female demon to be the demon king of the cave but he came prepared for the possibility after receiving a message from her via spiritual telepathy.
Previously, Shen Lian felt that her voice was somewhat empty and chilly.
Now that he had met the demon king, he realized that her voice was not just empty and cold but it had special qualities in it. It was cocky but at the same time elegant.
The kind of elegance that comes deep from the soul, a memorable one.
“I did not hurt your men and I did not provoke them. They wanted to fight just because we’re not on the same page. They really need to be disciplined if not they wouldn’t even know how they died.” Shen Lian stood proudly. Although he was standing below her, he looked straight into her.
“There are plenty of spiritually active creatures in the mountains. Crap like that, I can have as many as I want and if they’re dead, they’re dead, it doesn’t matter much to me. Well, I heard from them that you have something to ask me. Go ahead,” the girl in green skirt smiled.
Her green skirt had green patterns on it. If one were to take a closer look, it looked like thousand pair of eyes staring at you.
Shen Lian had yet to master the Insight Qi Technique and thus, he was unable to tell the true form of the demon king. But of course, only a top-notch Dao master will be able to view a demon king’s true form. Besides the top tiered demons who can conceal their demonic state, others whose true form can be easily read would not be able to hide their greatest weakness. They were the ones who would be an easy target.
The four Dao schools were able to plant their feet firmly to the ground was not simply because of talented disciples, but mainly due to their signature Dao techniques which were almost flawless. After all, every generation of immortals would go through Powang and discovered minor weaknesses of their school’s Dao techniques. Apart from Huandan and Powang, the journey to Dao was long and difficult; it was related to the mind, it was an extremely abstruse journey, unexplainable at times but it was definitely achievable.
Just as Shen Lian who were unable to read the true form of the demon king, the girl in green skirt too couldn’t tell Shen Lian’s weaknesses. She felt that Shen Lian was giving out mixed frequencies as his mana was constantly changing. It was difficult for her to have an accurate reading of his Qi.
Although people say that it’s hard for human and demons to coexist but when one reaches the level of the demon king and the other achieved Dao, there will be a mutual understanding among each other and both parties will not provoke each other unnecessarily.
The girl in green skirt had mastered the shape-shifting technique so technically, she’s not a dumb demon. If Shen Lian asked for a small favour, she could just promise him.
But if Shen Lian wants to go for the less friendly approach, she would have her means too.
Shen Lian smiled calmly, “I am here to ask for directions. May I know how do I get to the Temple of Killings?”
The girl’s eyes dilated as she coldy asked, “Why do you ask that?”
Shen Lian replied, “The Temple of Killings’ master, Chen Jianmei, is from the same school as I am.”
As he finished his sentence, a sense of chill could be felt in the hall. Shen Lian noticed that many pair of eyes looked at him, some were fearful, and some with anger. He thought to himself, “Looks like Brother Chen was not a likeable person in Xi Huang too.”
He had only heard of the Temple of Killings but he was unsure of the temple’s exact location and that was why he came by to asked for directions. After all, a demon king would have better sources of information.
To put into figures, it had been sixteen years since Chen Jianmei left Qing Xuan. It had also been sixteen years since his Huandan. This period time was not considered long but it was not short either.
But that was long enough to let the demon population of Xi Huang to know where was the forbidden Temple of Killings.
The girl’s reaction was as expected by Shen Lian.
She asked, “Are you seriously just asking for directions?”
Shen Lian smiled, “Of course.”
The girl in green skirt lifted her fingers and the mysterious patterns on her skirt started to sparkle in black shinny lights. It looked like a beautiful fantasy.
Black and white gases were released from the scallion-liked fingers of the girl in green skirt. Shen Lian did not show any signs of panic, he kept his composure.
The two-coloured gas spreaded out to the front with a three-feet length, and interchanged to form an illusion of the mountains and rivers that looked almost real. There were two eye-catching dots in the illusion, one in black and the other in white.
“The white dot is Chui Ping Mountain while the black represents the Temple of Killings,” the girl in green skirt replied.
Deep down, Shen Lian was impressed. The two-coloured gases were actually the Qi of Yin and Yang. He wondered what was the background of this demon king for possessing such control over the Qi of Yin and Yang to that extend of creating the illusion of mountains and rivers.
He could only make guesses in his heart as he remained a poker face. He was able to memorize the route to the Temple of Killings with just one glance. Looks like he still have a long journey to go.