"People say when you beat the young, the old come; but for me, after beating the old, here come the young."
Quinn Shepherd sighed inwardly; being Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon really isn’t easy.
Drake Dandy and that woman from Three Marvels Fortress have arrived here, which means the other young experts are nearby too. If they catch up, it’ll be trouble.
Lina the Spirit Fox whipped up a demon wind, sweeping away the insects flying toward them and sending them far off. She said, "Young master, don’t these people go home for New Year?"
"I bet they treat killing me as their New Year’s celebration."
Quinn shook his head, "Besides killing me, they want to kill the emperor too. Killing me probably won’t work, but who knows if they can manage to kill the emperor. After all, he’s a much bigger target than I am."
Lina handled it well, blowing the insects away so Drake Dandy and the others couldn’t find this spot—saving them from discovering Withersilence Gorge too.
Withersilence Gorge wasn’t far from here. When Quinn reached Withersilence Ridge, he saw that its slopes weren’t as steep as elsewhere, but something about this place was different—the whole mountain was gray and dark, with not a hint of green.
Everywhere on this ridge were withered trees—black trees, black earth—giving a deeply unsettling impression.
"What if they really do kill the emperor?" Lina asked.
Quinn led the way into Withersilence Ridge, Lina the Spirit Fox quickly catching up, hopping onto Dragon-Qilin’s back and then bouncing up to his head, peering around anxiously.
"If they really do kill the emperor and the crown prince takes the throne, the Imperial Preceptor’s reforms will be overturned by the new ruler."
Quinn said, "Then the Imperial Preceptor would get rid of the crown prince and put a more obedient emperor in place. Even if he didn’t, I would. I’d even invite the Preceptor to be the fourth Town-Sect Heavenly King of the Cult of the Heavenly Saint—I’ve been saving that seat for him for ages. But they won’t be able to kill the emperor, and the Preceptor wouldn’t want to be our fourth Heavenly King anyway."
Here, withered trees covered the ground, not a single leaf anywhere. The little white fox was tense, feeling as if these dried branches were all claws, the twisted trunks like terrifying faces, making her shiver with fear.
"There’s god and demon blood here—it’s polluted this whole place."
The Nethervault Demon King casually slapped a few flying insects dead, then scooped up a handful of soil and rubbed it between his fingers, surprised. "Strange, this blood is unusual—I can’t tell if it’s god or demon. Seems like it’s both at once, god blood mixed with demon blood. Fascinating…"
Quinn asked curiously, "Demon King, could it be that god blood and demon blood were spilled here at the same time?"
He’d seen demon god blood before—terrifying stuff. Back when he and the Village Chief entered the darkness of the Great Ruins, the Chief wounded a demon god, and just one drop of its blood fell on the earth, withering all the plants and trees within a hundred zhang, just like what happened here at Withersilence Ridge.
But that was just a single drop of demon blood.
Here, the entire Withersilence Ridge gorge was polluted. Clearly, a lot more god and demon blood must have flowed into this place.
"No, it’s different."
The Nethervault Demon King shook his head. "It’s the same blood, but it contains both god and demon attributes. Your perspective is too narrow; you can’t see the trick. God blood brings life, demon blood brings death. The blood that fell on Withersilence Ridge has both, with godly essence hidden in the earth and demonic essence destroying all plants and trees, killing everything that grows from the soil. The trees died, but the roots survived—and actually grew stronger, maybe even became monsters by absorbing the god blood’s vitality."
Lina quickly asked, "So the roots could turn into monsters?"
"They could."
The Nethervault Demon King said, "They’d probably become a very strange creature, covered in tentacles."
Though it’s called a gorge, Withersilence Ridge is actually very high—the terrain only seems low compared to the mountains on either side.
This dark gorge twisted and turned, the mountain path rough and difficult. Back when the Cult of the Heavenly Demon smuggled goods through here, they must’ve suffered plenty.
Every so often along the way, there was a black stone stele, three or four zhang tall, inscribed with rune marks. Quinn studied them and said, "They’re the Holy Cult’s demon-suppressing sigils. Lina, don’t touch them—if you trigger the rune, you’ll get sucked into the stele."
Lina jumped in fright.
"There are quite a few demon-suppressing steles in Withersilence Ridge. Looks like the Cult of the Heavenly Saint put a lot of effort into opening up this route back in the day. It also means there were a lot of monsters here—really scary ones."
Quinn counted the demon-suppressing black stone steles along the road—forty-six so far, and they were only halfway through. If each stele suppressed just one monster, that’d mean forty-six monsters here already.
But each black stone stele was three or four zhang tall—far too big for just one monster. So the number of suppressed monsters here must be truly staggering.
They reached the center of the valley and saw a pond ahead, ringed by snowy mountains. Despite the cold, there was a lake here—astonishing.
Beside the lake stood an ancient tree, withered and sprawling, its canopy casting a wide shadow. Around the tree and the lake, hundreds of black stone steles stood densely packed, completely encircling them!
Quinn and his companions were startled—so many demon-suppressing steles here, could there really be hundreds of monsters trapped?
Though he was the Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon, Quinn knew little about this Withersilence Ridge route or what the cult had faced here in the past.
"Is there a whole monster kingdom here or something?"
Quinn murmured, "But why are there so many steles around this ancient tree? It doesn’t look like they’re here to suppress lots of monsters, more like they’re meant to suppress the tree and the lake themselves."
He’d just said that when suddenly a cry for help came from the lake. Dragon-Qilin, with his tall stature, glanced over the steles and drawled, "There’s a woman bathing in the lake."
"Help, help—!" the woman in the lake cried.
Lina the Spirit Fox quickly jumped onto Dragon-Qilin’s head and looked toward the lake, exclaiming, "Fat Dragon, is that bathing? She’s drowning!"
"She’s bathing."
Dragon-Qilin drawled, "She’s not wearing any clothes, so of course she’s bathing. Have you ever seen anyone drowning naked?"
"Naked?"
The Nethervault Demon King was both startled and delighted. He hurriedly climbed onto Dragon-Qilin’s head to look at the lake, and sure enough, there was a woman struggling in the water, completely naked, her figure alluring as she thrashed about—curves everywhere, making the Demon King stare in awe. He exclaimed, "What a beauty! Hey kid, come take a look!"
Quinn laughed, "We’ve got pursuers behind us—let’s keep moving." Still, he sneaked a peek through the gaps in the stone stele forest.
"Young master is a true gentleman!" Lina praised him confidently.
"Gentlemen outside, save me—"
The woman in the lake wailed, "Quick, knock down the steles and save me—I’ll give myself to you in gratitude!"