Chapter 373 295: Pollution
'This should be the cell that originally held the Withered Bone Monk.'
'That guy really had some skill, managing to escape.'
'A pity it was useless… He could escape the cell, but not the Demon Suppression Tower.'
'It was all for nothing in the end.'
Han Yuan shook his head.
After dealing with the Withered Bone Monk, he began to search for the stairs leading to the Second Layer.
The First Layer suppressed the most vicious and evil of men.
Han Yuan was very curious about what was suppressed on the Second Layer.
Before long, Han Yuan spotted a narrow, cramped stone staircase in a dark corner.
He headed up the stone stairs.
Just then, Han Yuan felt the Orange Cat on his shoulder jump down.
"There are a lot of auras up there that I find disgusting,"
the Orange Cat said.
"Is that so..."
Han Yuan was eager to find out who the owners of these auras were.
However, he soon saw that the surface of the stone steps was densely engraved with scriptures.
Although he couldn't read them, he had seen similar scriptures before when he purified Monk Xu Shi.
'These must be some kind of runes for subduing demons and warding off evil.'
'Engraved into the stone steps, they're probably meant to prevent the demons on the Second Layer from escaping down here.'
As a living person, he naturally wouldn't trigger the scriptures on the steps.
When Han Yuan reached the Second Layer of the Demon Suppression Tower, he felt his body grow even colder. Once again, his eyes were met with rows upon rows of cells.
'Is it exactly the same as the First Layer?'
Han Yuan frowned.
Unlike the First Layer, his arrival on the Second Layer didn't cause a riot. Instead, there were noticeably more strange noises.
The sound of nails scraping against walls, faint whispers that were barely there, and what sounded like someone singing a folk song...
But in the dark, cold cells, these sounds were exceedingly eerie and sinister.
At that moment, Han Yuan heard the sound of crying coming from his left.
He walked over curiously.
He found a little boy squatting in a corner, crying nonstop.
"What's wrong?"
Han Yuan asked earnestly.
"I... I want to go home..."
the little boy said between sobs, his back to Han Yuan.
"Go home... How long has it been since you've been home?"
Han Yuan inquired.
"I don't know... I've been locked up in here for a long, long time."
The little boy stopped crying.
"Why did those monks capture you?"
Han Yuan asked again.
"J-Just... just because I was hungry and ate a few people."
The little boy turned his head around.
Han Yuan's eyes flew wide open.
The creature's head was nothing like a normal human's. It had no facial features, only a cross-shaped cavity in the middle of its face. A crimson tongue suddenly shot out from it, lunging at Han Yuan like a spear.
"Fat Thief!"
Han Yuan found the creature's tongue too disgusting and didn't want to deal with it himself.
The Orange Cat opened its mouth and spat out a ball of fire!
During its Cultivation in the Middle Spiritual Land, the Orange Cat's power had clearly increased a great deal.
The fireball, surging with incredibly turbulent black flames, collided directly with the tongue.
BOOM!
The searing flames exploded.
The "little boy" let out a bloodcurdling scream. Its tongue was instantly scorched black, emitting a foul, burnt smell.
The Orange Cat showed no mercy, continuing to spit out Black Flame Bombs.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Even though the "little boy" desperately tried to dodge the Black Flame Bombs,
it was trapped in a cell with very little space.
The turbulent black flames from the exploding fireballs instantly engulfed the entire cell.
With nowhere to run, the "little boy" was completely annihilated by the black flames, melting into a puddle of black slime.
'This thing... it seems to have been corrupted by an Evil Demon Seed...'
Han Yuan narrowed his eyes.
This "little boy" didn't seem like a pure Evil Demon Seed. It was more like an ordinary person who had been corrupted by one, completely losing their mind and becoming violent and ferocious, their appearance twisted into something terrifying.
So Han Yuan now had a rough idea of what was sealed away on this Second Layer.
It was likely people who had been corrupted by the Evil Demon Seed.
These beings were even more dangerous than the most vicious criminals, which was why they were imprisoned on the Second Layer.
With the "little boy's" death, some of the strange noises subsided.
"They've all stopped playing with you."
Han Yuan said to the Orange Cat with a grin.
"Meow~ If anyone dares show their face near Lord Meow, I'll blast them to death with a Black Flame Bomb!"
the Orange Cat declared arrogantly.
"Then I'm counting on you."
Han Yuan chuckled.
And so, the man and the cat continued their walk through the Second Layer of the Demon Suppression Tower.
As they went deeper, the sinister and eerie aura grew thicker.
The dense darkness gradually coalesced into a terrifying phantom. It appeared silently behind Han Yuan, raising its arm as if to pat his shoulder.
But just as it did, Han Yuan spun around and threw a punch directly at the dark phantom!
BAM!
The dark phantom shrieked as it was shattered into wisps of black smoke by the violent Great Demon Fist Aura.
The Orange Cat also spat out a Black Flame Bomb at that moment, completely annihilating the dark phantom.
"AAH!"
A scream echoed from a nearby cell.
Han Yuan glanced over and saw a strange, pitch-black figure.
With the phantom destroyed, the figure lay on the ground convulsing. Its body seemed to disintegrate, rapidly melting into a puddle of putrid slime.
'Controlling shadows...? If the shadow dies... the main body dies with it?'
Han Yuan seemed to understand something and let out a small laugh.
'These people corrupted by the Evil Demon Seed really have all sorts of abilities.'
Next, Han Yuan encountered several more attacks, all of which he dispatched with ease.
He continued until he reached the end of the Second Layer.
He saw a powerful figure bound hand and foot by iron chains. Wild, weed-like hair obscured its face, but judging from its build alone, the figure was likely even taller than the two-meter-tall Han Yuan. Its swarthy muscles bulged with crimson veins, making for an exceptionally ferocious sight.