The true demon, wearing Zi Ying's alluring and mature face, displayed a completely different, domineering demeanor. "You want to know? Then defeat this seat completely first! Gu Junshi, in this realm, no one has ever been my opponent!"
The demonic body, soaring in the firmament, gathered demonic energy that flowed from its seven orifices and cascaded downwards.
Patches of demonic flames began to attack her side. However, Gu Junshi watched calmly, showing no hint of panic. She instructed Cang Yu Yao, Kai Shan Gui, and others to move aside.
"A mere true demon dares to provoke all twenty-eight heavens? Your arrogance is astounding. If it were a Heavenly Demon, such words might be believable. But you..."
Her face was expressionless, her lowered eyelashes forming an arc, subtly curving into a sneer of mockery.
When she wasn't smiling, her expression was as clear and tranquil as water. All intense emotions seemed to subside in her presence, unable to stir any grand waves.
Simultaneously, the annihilation of silence spread. At this moment, an indescribable yet incredibly vast power began to unfurl.
Behind Gu Junshi, a void space suddenly appeared. She drew forth a condensed long sword, its body devoid of blade or hilt, merely grasped in her palm.
She strode forward rapidly, her figure instantly vanishing from everyone's sight.
When she reappeared, she was already locked in combat with the demonic body in mid-air.
Her sword struck the demonic body, unleashing sparks and flashes of lightning. The true demon glanced as the sword dug into his skin. With a twist and drag, a large amount of demonic energy leaked from within him.
From his wound, supple, writhing snake-like tendrils shot out. Their black bodies were covered with sharp, blooming scales. If they coiled around a person, they would surely tear and crush them.
The slender snake-like bodies whipped towards Gu Junshi like a long lash. The whistling, biting wind churned the waters of the Black River into towering waves, splashing water everywhere.
Clang, clang, clang, clang—
Gu Junshi wielded her sword, moving with fluid grace, parrying, repelling, and cleaving them with constant strikes.
At this moment, the black demon's massive body lunged downwards from above. The descending shadow generated a powerful current, causing the ground below to collapse. The Black River's water was forcefully split in two.
Gu Junshi was forced under the true demon's oppressive pressure. Her hair fluttered wildly, her brows were cold as frost. She slightly crouched, channeling more power into her sword, which suddenly erupted with green flames mixed with a long stream of red. It flew far into the sky, and with a pull, Gu Junshi also instantly moved ten miles away.
The true demon located her position and also teleported. Demonic energy gushed from its mouth and nose. The demon and the person engaged in a fierce battle above Shuofang City.
Towering pagodas were destroyed, buildings were razed to the ground. The fierce sword energy and the vicious, poisonous demonic energy, neither yielding to the other, clashed back and forth.
"Wu Xiang—"
With a fierce roar, the pitch-black sword body turned crimson, like erupting lava. The surrounding temperature soared, and the very air warped and distorted.
She met the true demon's fist with her sword. That fist was larger than a hundred of her.
But her sword held it back against her body. The surrounding power constantly expanded, flickered, and cracked, shaking mountains and rivers... At this moment, Gu Junshi tilted her head up and smiled at the true demon.
"Welcome to my hell."
As these words fell, the sword in her hand suddenly unleashed an even more intense airflow. The red of the flames, the green, and the scorching yet cold light merged into an irresistible force.
The ground cracked and shattered, even affecting the Black River. The surging water was blasted high into the air, then vaporized into mist mid-flight. The mist, in turn, was torn into countless forms by the breathtaking sword energy...
"No—"
A sharp, piercing sound shot towards the sky.
The true demon's body began to etherealize and disintegrate within this power, starting from its fist. Its demonic projection could no longer be maintained.
His piercing voice completely tore through the firmament—
"What is this power?! How can you possess such power? Who exactly are you?!"
The explosive sphere of light directly engulfed the true demon and then detonated. The shockwaves dispersed, like a nuclear blast that instantly leveled the entire Shuofang City.
The true demon's projection was crushed to powder. Only some residual consciousness drilled into Zi Ying's body. It intended to sever its divine soul connection with Zi Ying and abandon this projection.
Gu Junshi rotated her sore wrist and shifted her gaze.
"Trying to run?"
Seeing through its intention, she threw an object into the air.
It immediately intercepted the lightning bolts from heaven and earth, with green and purple electricity surging into it. Then, the wind and clouds changed. Hurricanes carrying violent air currents swept through, leaving the demons and monsters who had fled to a distance stunned and awestruck.
Flames ignited, but not the bright, sunny red of the yang world, but the eerie, green flames from hell.
The entire world seemed to be dragged into another dimension, void and dim, without sun or moon illuminating its entirety. Only a world woven from ancient cracks and fissures, with nether-rivers, red flowers, and... infinite deathly underworlds.
The true demon possessing Zi Ying looked at this realm, its entire demonic being stunned. It frantically looked left and right, "The Underworld?! You are—No wonder you could obtain the Pluto's Token—"
Realization dawned upon it, followed by the sensation of its mind being struck heavily.
"It took great effort to lure you out. If you wish to return to the abyss, you must first ask my permission." Gu Junshi retracted the "Pluto's Token" into her hand.
Once one enters the underworld, there is no returning to life. By dragging it into the underworld, she had utterly reduced it to an undead soul.
As an undead being, how could it possibly resist the Lord of the Underworld!
The true demon finally understood. It had fallen into a trap, deeply schemed against by her, stumbling into her snare.
"Shameless, deceitful, cunning, and insidious human cultivator—" the true demon roared at her, its rage akin to weeping blood.
It truly seemed to hate her to the core.
Gu Junshi, as if not wanting to anger it to death, smiled humbly, "Thank you for the compliment."
The true demon's eyes turned scarlet, its entire body trembling.
The demonic energy in its body was constantly consumed and absorbed by the underworld. Its weakness grew with time. Yet, how could it be willing to let all its past efforts go to waste.
Losing all reason, it said hatefully, "Even at this point, how can I willingly give up? I am unwilling! Therefore, I, the true demon Ahannav, am willing to sacrifice my power, life, and soul to allow my demon army to descend upon this realm. No one can stop it—"
Following its oath and self-sacrifice, beams of materialized power were cleaved from its body. It was then dismembered into countless pieces, with pain and pleasure intermingled on its face, leaving its entire being in a state of fragmentation and distorted near-death.
"Gu Junshi, you cannot stop this either! Wait and see the twenty-eight heavens trampled flat by my race, and the mountains and rivers dyed in blood—"
However, Gu Junshi showed no intention of stopping it. She was neither the chosen savior of the Heavenly Dao nor a righteous protector. The karma and debts created by others would be borne and repaid by them.
Moreover...
She sat like a spectator watching a tiger fight, a cryptic smile on her face, "I never intended to stop you. A thief can steal for a thousand days, but a guard cannot guard for a thousand days. Look at you, so eager to contribute to the demon race's grand ambition. But now, the entire Immortal Alliance knows of the demon race's current movements. If the demon race emerges from the abyss at this time, who knows who will be in a worse situation?"