MTLNOVEL Chapter 284: Chapter 153 – Shishu, You’re Seriously Unreliable!
Chapter 153 – Shishu, You're Seriously Unreliable!
The Soul Palace was packed with shadow clones, all working overtime to produce Devourer Gu. The current stockpile simply couldn't keep up with the number of monsters trapped inside the Demon-Sealing Tower.
It had taken a lot of effort to get here—no way was he going to let the opportunity go to waste.
The Demon-Sealing Tower had ten levels in total. Aside from the top floor, which was used to seal the Demon Sword, the remaining nine floors still housed monsters. At present, Chu Yang was clearing out the ninth floor.
There weren't many monsters left on this level. First, because not long ago, the major monsters had stormed the top floor in an attempt to escape. Everyone had wanted to be the first to leave, which led to infighting. A massive battle broke out, and their numbers dropped drastically.
Second, when the attempt to break the seal failed, the monsters were beaten back into the tower by the Sword Saint. Disheartened, the major monsters took many others with them and retreated to the bottom floors, continuing to reign over their territories.
The deeper one went into the Demon-Sealing Tower, the more monsters there were.
Before long, Chu Yang had slain his way from the ninth floor all the way down to the seventh. He was so deep in bloodlust that even the ants in his path got chopped in half. The monsters were fleeing at the mere sight of him.
If not for the urgent shortage of Devourer Gu, he probably would've already charged down to the very bottom. For now, he had to pause and carefully record the tower's internal structure before sending it back to the Soul Palace.
Outside the tower, Qingwei and the others, who had been monitoring the situation, suddenly changed expressions, their faces filled with disbelief.
"The upper levels of the Demon-Sealing Tower... why is there no demonic aura left at all?"
"What the hell is Chu Yang doing in there? We sent him in to repair the formations, and he's gone on a killing spree instead?"
"At this rate, how is his body supposed to hold up all the way to the bottom and repair every formation?"
"You little brat, I know you hate evil with a passion, but can't you look at the bigger picture for once?!"
"No matter how many scenarios we accounted for, we never expected his personality to be the biggest variable. Sect Leader, what should we do now?"
Qingwei fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. "Let's wait a little longer…"
The elders could only watch the Demon-Sealing Tower anxiously, nerves stretched thin.
"Brother Xu, the elders look really worried," Li Xiaoyao said with concern. "Did something happen to Brother Chu in there?"
Xu Changqing replied in a grave tone, "The demonic aura in the top two floors has dropped drastically. He's most likely purging the monsters up there."
Tang Xuejian frowned. "But isn't that the whole point of going into the tower—slaying demons and monsters?"
Xu Changqing explained, "The truly dangerous monsters are all gathered in the lower levels. If he wastes too much spiritual energy fighting on the upper floors, it'll be much harder for him to continue as he goes further down. More importantly, the entire tower is filled with Demon-Transforming Water and seals, so it's nearly impossible to replenish his spiritual energy."
"Under normal circumstances, he should avoid unnecessary fighting on the upper levels, repair the formation, and move on to the next."
"But given his personality, always hating evil to the core... he probably never even thought about this."
The others finally understood why the Shu Mountain elders were so anxious. Based on what Xu Changqing said, if Chu Yang kept killing like this, there was no way he could reach the bottom.
Tang Xuejian gasped. "Then doesn't that mean Daoist Chu is doomed—"
Jing Tian quickly covered her mouth, thinking to himself: My dear lady, is this really the time to be spouting nonsense?
"Brother Xu, we have to go in!"
Li Xiaoyao grabbed Xu Changqing, ready to ride his sword to the tower's summit.
Xu Changqing turned to look at Sect Leader Qingwei and Elder Cang Gu. Then, he shook his head. "If the Sect Leader hasn't spoken, it means things haven't reached the most critical point yet. Wait a little longer…"
Li Xiaoyao yelled, "And what if we wait too long?! What then?!"
While the two were arguing, the demonic aura from the tower weakened even further. Everyone knew what that meant—Chu Yang was still pressing forward.
"Then we wait…"
Li Xiaoyao gradually fell silent.
Inside the tower, Chu Yang wasn't in the pitiful state everyone imagined. On the contrary, he was having the time of his life.
Although he'd only slain minor monsters with one or two hundred years of cultivation so far, their sheer numbers made up for it. Combined, they equaled five or six Red Ghost Kings in terms of essence.
Quantity had become quality. Chu Yang's swordsmanship proficiency had skyrocketed, and he even grasped the Ten Thousand Sword Technique.
Once the new batch of Devourer Gu arrived, he resumed his rampage.
In the Demon-Sealing Tower, there was no need to hold back. He went full power from the start, using everything at his disposal. Just the Malevolent Shrine alone was enough to mow through the upper levels.
As for the disembodied souls of monsters without physical forms—they were all devoured by [Fengdu].
Since returning from the underworld, the aura of netherworldly energy around [Fengdu] had grown thicker than ever. Chu Yang had a feeling it was on the verge of achieving full release—Bankai.
Upon entering the fourth floor and making his way to the third, Chu Yang finally encountered his first thousand-level old monster inside the tower. Its strength rivaled that of the Red Ghost King.
And then—
Chu Yang one-shotted it with the Malevolent Shrine.
Then the second…
Then the third…
When Chu Yang came back to his senses, he realized the entire third floor was crawling with thousand-years old monsters. Compared to the previous levels, this was clearly going to take more effort—but thankfully, none of them had especially outstanding strength.
It took him half a day to clear out the floor. By the end, the spiritual energy he had absorbed pushed his own cultivation beyond the ten-thousand-year mark.
Using that vast spiritual power, Chu Yang elevated all of his martial techniques to their theoretical limit, even back-calculating the Black Tortoise Divine Art through the Ten Supreme Martial Paths.
His Origin Martial Body received an epic-level boost.
At this moment—
Outside the Demon-Sealing Tower, a heavy silence had fallen. No one had expected that Chu Yang would nearly exterminate all the monsters inside the tower by himself.
This was unprecedented in the entire history of Shu Mountain, which had stood for tens of millions of years.
Until now, the Demon-Sealing Tower had always been a death trap—a grave for monsters and a tomb for Shu Mountain disciples.
No one had ever made it out alive.
That phrase had practically become a curse!
"What a kid! Just two floors left!"
"This is a feat unmatched since the founding of Shu Mountain!"
"Haha! Glorious! Absolutely glorious! These damned monsters deserve nothing less. Giving them time to repent in the tower—how does that bring justice to the innocent civilians they slaughtered?"
"You're right. It's just a pity that I didn't get the chance to go into the tower with Nephew Chu. What a regret!"
The elders burst into hearty laughter. While the Demon-Sealing Tower could torment monsters for centuries and slowly kill them off, the sword immortals of Shu Mountain found more satisfaction in slaying them outright.
Over the years, the sect rules had forced them to bottle up that frustration. Now, seeing Chu Yang nearly slaughter all the monsters in the tower, they felt a long-suppressed joy flooding their hearts.
Li Xiaoyao and the others applauded beside them.
Tang Xuejian asked with a bright smile, "So what kind of monsters are in the last two levels?"
The elders' laughter gradually faded, their expressions turning serious again.
Seeing their reaction, Tang Xuejian shrank behind Jing Tian. "Did I say something wrong again?"
Jing Tian shook his head with a bitter smile. The Tang family heiress truly had an uncanny talent for saying the worst possible things.
"The second floor holds the Heavenly Demon Emperor—a creature like no other. None of the monsters below can even compare to him."
The figure of Drunken Sword Immortal suddenly appeared beside them.
"Three hundred years ago, the Heavenly Demon Emperor led a host of monsters to invade the human realm. Even with thousands of Shu Mountain disciples fighting, we couldn't hold them back. The Sect Leader of that era used an ancient technique called 'Divine Summoning' to trick the monsters and lure them into the Demon-Sealing Tower, where our disciples formed the Five Spirits Grand Array and activated the Demon-Transforming Water to refine them all."
"After forty-nine days, most of the monsters were subdued. Only the Heavenly Demon Emperor, due to his immense power, remained unaffected. Remember, the Demon-Transforming Water was a divine gift from the heavens—its ineffectiveness was terrifying."
"Not only that, the Heavenly Demon Emperor tried to use that force to break out of the tower. In that moment of crisis, the Shu Mountain disciple 'Wei Jing' entered the tower with the Demon-Suppressing Sword and fought him for three days. He managed to severely wound the emperor but died of exhaustion. Since then, the Demon-Suppressing Sword has been lost somewhere inside the tower."
Drunken Sword Immortal took a huge swig of wine, soaking his collar, and exhaled heavily. "The Demon Sovereign Chonglou probably destroyed the tower in search of the Demon-Suppressing Sword, but accidentally took the Demon Sword instead. I doubt even he realized the real sword wasn't on the top floor but buried at the bottom."
Tang Xuejian poked Jing Tian's back and whispered, "So the Demon-Suppressing Sword is the one you wielded in your past life, right?"
Jing Tian nodded with a sigh. "That's why we ended up in this mess. That red-haired freak really drives me crazy."
Li Xiaoyao asked seriously, "So, senior, are you saying Brother Chu might not be able to defeat the Heavenly Demon Emperor?"
Drunken Sword Immortal replied, "The Heavenly Demon Emperor is indeed extraordinary. Even the divine Demon-Transforming Water couldn't subdue him. To defeat him, brute strength alone isn't enough. Chu Yang must find the Demon-Suppressing Sword to stand a chance."
"But the question is—will the Heavenly Demon Emperor even give him that chance…"
The moment the words left his mouth—
The demonic aura on the second floor vanished!
Thump—thump—thump—
Drunken Sword Immortal looked like he'd been struck by lightning. His wine gourd slipped from his hand and rolled to Li Xiaoyao's feet.
Li Xiaoyao picked it up and handed it back with a straight face.
The way he looked at the old man was like he was staring at some shady street fortune teller. Then he patted his shoulder sympathetically and said, "Senior, every time I see you, you look so unreliable. You're not a young man anymore—at least try to act your age."
"The thought that I'll have to call you shishu after joining the sect really worries me."
Drunken Sword Immortal's face turned purple with rage, a thousand curses lodged in his throat, unable to come out.
Jing Tian and the others burst out laughing, and the once-tense atmosphere instantly became lighthearted.
What none of them noticed, however, was that the expressions of Qingwei and the other elders were just as stunned as Drunken Sword Immortal's.
While the mood outside turned cheerful, it was Chu Yang's turn to be upset inside the tower.
He stared at the Heavenly Demon Emperor's blood-soaked corpse with a grief-stricken face. The Devourer Gu had exploded along with it.
He hadn't expected that the Devourer Gu would actually burst from absorbing the emperor's immense power!
"The Heavenly Demon Emperor had at least ten thousand years of cultivation…"
"For a Devourer Gu, that amount might have exceeded its maximum threshold, which caused it to rupture under pressure."
"That was a miscalculation. I should've realized Devourer Gu must have an upper limit for the amount of demonic energy it can devour."
"Looks like I need to prioritize the automated demon-refining tower project. If I lose another one like that, I might literally suffer a heart attack."
Before heading to the final level, Chu Yang took a deep breath and entered the Soul Palace with the Demon-Suppressing Sword in hand.
Inside the Soul Palace, the Magic Chu Yang had already halted Devourer Gu production. He and Pirate Chu Yang were studying the structure and formations of the Demon-Sealing Tower.
Even so, they still had a stockpile of several hundred Devourer Gu.
"Devourer Gu definitely has a threshold for absorbing demonic power. The one that swallowed the Heavenly Demon Emperor's energy just exploded—we lost ten thousand years' worth of cultivation for nothing!"
When Xianxia Chu Yang said that, Magic Chu Yang and Pirate Chu Yang both felt like they'd flatlined.
"Holy crap! That's a massive loss!"
Pirate Chu Yang looked like he was on the verge of tears.
"Let's just consider it tuition. We overlooked the biological limitations of living beings—if we'd used a magical artifact instead, this wouldn't have happened."
Magic Chu Yang quickly adjusted his mood and said casually, "Forging the Demon-Sealing Tower isn't particularly difficult. We don't need a massive one either. As long as we solve the five elemental power and energy issues, we can build it quickly."
Xianxia Chu Yang added, "Once we repair the Demon-Sealing Tower and restore the Sacred Spirit Pearl, we can use the Five Spirit Pearls to replenish the five elemental powers."
Pirate Chu Yang voiced his concern, "But the Five Spirit Pearls don't have infinite spiritual power. If we keep using them like this, won't they end up ruined?"
Xianxia Chu Yang smiled and said, "The five elemental power in the Five Spirit Pearls doesn't come out of nowhere. They can slowly recover by absorbing the five elemental forces from the world. Of course, we can also accelerate the process using external means."
"With the ten thousand years of cultivation I obtained in the Demon-Sealing Tower, I should be able to speed up the recovery."
Magic Chu Yang chuckled knowingly. "Odds are, we won't even need to lift a finger. Someone else will take care of it for us."
As soon as he said that, a figure flashed through Xianxia Chu Yang's mind, and he started laughing as well.
After chatting for a while, Xianxia Chu Yang left the Demon Suppressing Sword behind in the Soul Palace and returned to the outside world.
Once back, Chu Yang glanced at the blood-soaked ground, then strode toward the final level.
At the same time—
The Drunken Sword Immortal was passionately explaining just how terrifying the demon sealed at the bottom level of the Demon-Sealing Tower was!
The demon locked away at the very bottom was none other than Jiang Ming, a former Shu Mountain Sword Sect disciple who had fallen to demonic cultivation.
"Decades ago, the Sword Sect had a genius disciple named Jiang Ming. He was the adopted son of the Sect Master at the time, Jiang Jue."
"Jiang Ming had trained under Jiang Jue since he was a child. Whether it was Daoist arts or swordsmanship, he mastered them with ease. He never faced any bottlenecks in his cultivation and quickly became one of the strongest of his generation."
"Back then, we still used the name 'Shu Mountain Sect' rather than 'Immortal Sword Sect' when dealing with the outside world."
"It was after that catastrophe that the Sword Sect went into decline. We haven't won a single Sword Qi Duel since."
At this point, the Drunken Sword Immortal sighed.
"The root of that disaster was Jiang Ming's love for a fox demon he met during his travels in the mortal world."
"Love between humans and demons was taboo to begin with, especially for a disciple of Shu Mountain. Once the affair was exposed, Sect Master Jiang Jue sent many disciples to hunt down the fox demon and ordered her to be imprisoned in the Demon-Sealing Tower."
"When Jiang Ming heard the news, he rushed back and found the fox demon on the verge of death outside the tower. On one side was the master who had raised him and the comrades he trained with. On the other was the love of his life. Torn between the two, Jiang Ming succumbed to inner demons and ultimately fell into darkness."
"He was sealed in the Demon-Sealing Tower alongside the Evil Sword Immortal. But compared to the Evil Sword Immortal, Jiang Ming was far more powerful. He was already an unparalleled cultivation prodigy before falling to the dark path. After the Evil Sword Immortal's emergence, Jiang Ming also became tainted by an extradimensional demonic aura."
"We were lucky that only the Evil Sword Immortal escaped when the seal broke this time."
"If it had been Jiang Ming who got out… Shu Mountain would've been wiped from the face of the earth."
After hearing the whole story, everyone was chilled to the bone. If Jiang Ming was truly that powerful, how could Chu Yang possibly deal with him?