Chapter 50: No Questions, No Grudges, No Regrets
“It’s over... It’s all over... The True King is too ruthless!”
Li Jindou was both furious and terrified as the ominous aura from the kiln factory grew ever stronger. The oppressive power emanating from the site filled even someone of his cultivation level with despair.
“Why seal a demon in a kiln factory of all places?” he muttered, trembling as he sensed the birth of a catastrophe.
Worse, his porcelain transformation threatened to spread further, reaching his thighs and waist. His worry deepened as he remembered, Tianqing and Chen Shi are still outside playing!
In a demonic domain, evil spirits thrived. Unlike regular Ghosts-and-Gods Domains, where spirits and living beings were petrified into porcelain, the demonic domain empowered malevolent entities, allowing them to hunt freely, even during daylight.
Li Jindou had witnessed three such calamities in his lifetime, each one reducing entire cities to ruins. In these apocalyptic disasters, death tolls often exceeded a million.
Though rare, demonic calamities were infinitely more destructive than the more common malevolent spirit incidents.
Currently, the domain’s effects were limited to plants, animals, and smaller life forms, which rapidly transformed into porcelain. By the second day, livestock and humans would begin to slow down, succumbing to petrification by the third or fourth day. On the seventh day, cultivators at the Divine Embryo stage would see their Divine Embryos petrify, followed by their flesh.
By the eleventh day, Golden Cores would succumb.
By the nineteenth day, Nascent Souls would fall.
By the thirtieth day, even Primordial Spirits would be petrified.
Li Jindou, drenched in cold sweat, grimly calculated his chances. “With Huangpo Village’s Spirit Guardian, we might last thirty-two days... No more.”
Then his eyes lit up. “The Master of Qianyang Mountain! He’s here!”
He shouted for Chen Shi’s grandfather, but no one answered. Desperate, he crawled out of the west wing using his arms, only to find the Chen residence eerily empty.
“Where is everyone?” Li Jindou snapped. “If no one’s here, I’ll have to act myself!”
Ignoring his half-petrified legs, he hauled himself along, determined to reach the kiln factory.
At Mirror Lake Manor, Xiao Wangsuan emerged from his coffin, his bloodstained robes billowing as he surveyed the crimson-tinged sky. The demonic aura was unmistakable.
“A demonic calamity!” he muttered, his expression grim. Grabbing his longsword, he prepared for a fight despite his injuries. “If the demon’s domain spreads, no one within a hundred miles will survive. I have no choice but to fight.”
In Gangzi Village, Madam Sha examined her grain stores. The rice had turned to porcelain. She walked outside, finding her garden’s vegetables shining with a ceramic sheen.
Villagers screamed in panic as they discovered their food supplies—rice, wheat, oil—all petrified. Even the wildlife was affected; a cormorant spat out a porcelain fish it couldn’t swallow.
“Three days without food,” Madam Sha muttered darkly. “Then what? People will eat animals. And when the animals are gone... People will eat each other.”
She returned to her house, grabbing the Ram-Horn Celestial Lamp. “I can’t fight the underworld. But I can fight you.”
In Fangdian Village, Jin Hongying, disguised as a village girl, sipped watery rice soup. Her injuries from prior battles had mostly healed during her stay here.
When she noticed the sun’s crimson hue, she spat out the rice. “A demonic calamity,” she muttered, her face darkening. “If the demon isn’t stopped, I’ll perish along with everyone else.”
Girding herself for battle, she whispered a prayer to the village Spirit Guardian. “If I don’t return, no need to await my offerings—I’ll be dead too.”
Jin Hongying and Xiao Wangsuan arrived at the kiln factory simultaneously. Though sworn enemies, neither attacked.
“Today, no grudges,” Xiao Wangsuan declared.
Jin Hongying smirked. “Agreed. But if I survive, you’ll return the seal you stole. If not, I’ll take it from your corpse.”
Xiao Wangsuan ignored her, his gaze fixed on the towering eight-armed Doumu Bodhisattva statue dominating the landscape.
Madam Sha joined them shortly after, lamp in hand. “Big tempers won’t help. Whatever grievances you have can wait.”
“Exactly,” Li Jindou said, dragging himself into the fray. “Right now, we’re fighting for our lives.”
“Destroy the demon before it fully awakens,” Jin Hongying said. “We won’t survive otherwise.”
The group advanced, their tension growing as they saw porcelain figures—once Zhao family guards—littering the area. The demonic Bodhisattva sat in the ruins of the factory, its blue-and-white porcelain body gleaming with intricate patterns and dragon motifs.
The demon’s heads swiveled unnaturally, its four faces blinking and grimacing, while three giant kiln workers tirelessly fed porcelain bodies into fiery kilns, repairing the Bodhisattva’s cracks.
“Focus on the kiln workers!” Xiao Wangsuan commanded.
Madam Sha unleashed the power of the Taishang Eight Trigrams Protective Talisman, her Primordial Spirit towering behind her. Li Jindou’s jade wheels spun with lethal precision, Jin Hongying cast her strongest spell, and Xiao Wangsuan’s twin swords danced through the air.
The battle began.
Meanwhile, Zhao Yanlong fled with the surviving Zhao family members, their mounts galloping away from the expanding domain.
But as they reached the boundary, an invisible force repelled them. The illusion of escape shattered, revealing the chilling truth: there was no way out.
The demon’s domain, known as the Demonic Corridor, ensnared them completely.
Screams filled the air as riders and horses were flung skyward, only to crash back to earth. The survivors halted in horror, realizing their only path led back into the domain’s deadly embrace.
The battle at the kiln factory raged on. Though united by necessity, the group faced a harrowing truth: against a demon of this magnitude, their chances of survival were slim at best.
The fight for survival had only just begun.