I Cheated While Cultivating

On the spiritual level, Zhou Heng was even stronger than in his normal state.

This was due to the foundation set by the Great Bull Herder Picture and the meditation method, and the martial arts inherited from the Sanqing were not just martial arts—they could evolve into countless techniques and laws once one grasped their true essence.

Whether it were the Overturning Heaven Three Palms, the Yin Yang Reversal Divine Light, or the Xuanhuang Pagoda Technique, the Three Treasures Ruyi Fist, the Sword Technique of Conviction, they all transformed into meditative means of attack on the spiritual level.

At this moment, Zhou Heng was doing just that.

With the Great Bull Herder Picture as his base, he condensed an almost lifelike Divine Soul Dharma Body, but he made his own modifications to the imagery and the presentation of the Taoist Rhyme Theory.

This allowed for a better alignment of the Dharma Body and his own body, yielding stronger power when unleashed, and as for the “artifacts” in his hands, naturally, they were all transformations of the Sanqing ultimate teachings.

Demon entities possess the characteristic of indestructibility, especially those at the Absolute Fourth Rank. Their essence is extremely robust and much harder to eliminate.

Therefore, Zhou Heng planned to go all out.

He intended to use the “artifacts” manifested from the Sanqing inheritance to kill them.

Aoove County City of Pingzhou, demonic Qi surged to the sky; deep within this demonic Qi, a delicate palace lay hidden.

It is called delicate because the palace wasn’t large. It was only the size of a typical two-courtyard residence, yet it had all the necessary facilities, including divisions for the main hall and side halls.

Within this exquisite smaller palace, a young man in his twenties lay on a long chair, delighting in the dance of twenty-four beautiful women in the great hall.

Sitting next to the young man was a middle-aged man who showed little interest in the dance of the women. Instead, he frowned and said in a deep voice, “Youhe, have we become too complacent?”

“Complacent?” The young man referred to as Youhe sat up and chuckled, “Does Huang Yu, my senior, think I am not cautious enough, worrying that those humans will take advantage of any weakness and breach our lovely Holy Temple?”

“There are many strong individuals in the Human Race. You and I have not yet become great demons, and openly attacking the Human Race’s County City might very likely attract a Celestial Man,” Huang Yu nodded solemnly and said, “This is dangerous.”

“Ha, a Celestial Man?” Youhe, unconcerned, shook his head and laughed, “What of the Celestial Man? With the nature of our True Spirits, as long as this Holy Temple stands, even if a Celestial Man descends here, they cannot eradicate us, much less imprison us. By the time we might need to flee, it won’t be too late.”

Having said that, he stood up, pointed at those puppet-like dancing beauties in front of him, and laughed, “The beauties from the Human Race are indeed more pleasing to the eye than those from the Nine Nether, with a gentle human warmth.”

At this time, the twenty-four dancing women inside the palace were actually common people from County City of Pingzhou.

They had been drawn into Youhe’s dreamworld, turned into playthings.

“But I am still somewhat concerned,” Huang Yu continued to attempt to persuade Youhe.

“Don’t worry. We have already invaded this place for half a month. If there were any true masters, they would have come by now. Would they have let us continue our leisurely ways?” Youhe waved his hand dismissively, slightly impatient, and with a slight tug, drew one of the dancing beauties into his arms, licked her beautiful face, and smiled at Huang Yu, “One rarely gets to savor such pleasures after coming to the human world from the Nine Nether. Why not indulge yourself?”

“No need. I will use the power of the Holy Temple to probe everything outside.” Huang Yu shook his head, his brow still furrowed, saying, “I’ve had an ominous premonition since a while ago, feeling that something bad may happen.”

“Sigh, you…” Youhe shook his head helplessly and with a casual wave, the women in the palace, including the one in his hands, all burst into a flow of energy, “What a killjoy. Fine, go and check. What could possibly go wrong?”

“Alright.” Huang Yu nodded and was about to get up and leave.

Boom!

Just at that moment, the palace suddenly began to shake violently, as if it had been struck by something, causing Youhe and Huang Yu to stagger and almost lose their balance.

“What’s going on?” Huang Yu’s foreboding feeling intensified, and he looked towards Youhe, “Has something happened?”

Youhe was the true master of this Holy Temple, and undoubtedly knew best what was happening now.

“Can you believe a human martial artist has dared to come to this place permeated with demonic qi and attack my Holy Temple?!” Youhe seemed to have seen something unbelievable, his face a spectacle of emotions, “And it’s just a Fifth Rank Sect Master, haha, how interesting, truly interesting!”

As he spoke, he moved towards a wall in the palace and raised his hand to press on a tiger-shaped statue, meanwhile sneering, “Little thing, you’re simply courting death.”

Meanwhile, outside the exquisite palace.

Zhou Heng retracted the Golden Small Seal he had just smashed towards the palace, feeling quite surprised himself, thinking, “The essence of this palace is not low, it might already be comparable to a Celestial Man, and it also exists between the tangible and intangible, with my current methods, it would be difficult to smash it open.”

Roar!

Just then, a pitch-black fierce tiger suddenly charged out from the exquisite palace, exuding murderous intent and malevolence, it opened its huge mouth and lunged at Zhou Heng to bite him.

This fierce tiger was formed by the convergence of demonic qi, incorporating both spirit and matter, with enormous destructive power. An ordinary Great Grandmaster at the Absolute Fourth Rank wouldn’t be able to withstand its attack.

But Zhou Heng was different. The moment the fierce tiger charged at him, he revealed the Treasure Mirror in his hand, using its black side to reflect upon the tiger.

The vicious tiger, under the black light of the mirror, immediately lost all ability to move and crashed down, quickly dissipating into clumps of demonic qi.

Simultaneously, inside the exquisite palace, Youhe, who had been full of confidence, changed color, showing a look of disbelief. The tiger-shaped statue he had touched turned red and exploded into fragments in an instant.

“How is this possible?” Youhe’s expression turned to one of shock and doubt, “He’s just a Fifth Rank Sect Master.”

“This person is extraordinary, very likely the Star Master from the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer!” Huang Yu’s brows furrowed into a knot, as he advised, “I’ve heard of this person before. He is a reincarnation of a powerful being and possesses the ability to control the Ziwei Star Palace; we should leave now.”

“Ziwei Star Palace?!” Youhe turned his head sharply towards Huang Yu, saying, “I don’t believe it, how can a mere Fifth Rank Sect Master wield such a treasure, I have never heard of such a thing…”

Boom!!

Just then, a loud noise sounded, the palace trembled violently once more, this time even causing the entire structure to rotate, the impact even stronger than before.

The various features within the palace were sent into disarray by the collision, and the expressions of Youhe and Huang Yu both changed.

Such a forceful impact had already surpassed what a normal individual at the Absolute Fourth Rank could achieve.

“Let’s go! We leave here immediately.” Youhe made a swift decision without any hesitation, altering his previous line of thought, he said sternly, “Follow me and together we’ll control the Holy Temple.”

He was confident, but he didn’t want to take the risk; a martial artist of merely Sect Fifth Rank, able to unleash such mighty power, was clearly not normal.

In the face of such an anomaly, the best course of action was to beat a quick retreat.

This was the experience shared by many of his elders back in the Nine Nether.

“Alright.” Huang Yu agreed as well.

In fact, he had wanted to leave from the very beginning, but since their journey to the human world was headed by Youhe, he didn’t insist on going against Youhe’s wishes.

Now that even Youhe is planning to leave, he naturally approves with both hands.

At the same time, outside the palace, Zhou Heng looked at this seemingly impregnable palace and fell into deep thought.

“Since the divine soul condensed Heaven Rotating Seal treasure image can’t open this palace, then let’s try something else.” A thought crossed Zhou Heng’s mind as he opened his mouth and spat out a streak of cyan sword light.

This cyan sword light shimmered like ripples on water, carrying endless killing intent, yet it seemed to also condense the mysteries of time.

Sword Technique of Conviction!

Time Eternal!

…

“Let’s go quickly, the bad premonition in my heart has grown worse,” Huang Yu said somewhat anxiously.

“What’s the rush, I’m already starting the holy temple’s mobility prohibition,” Youhe said impatiently: “With that kid’s methods, he can’t break my holy temple for the time being, we have time to leave…”

Clang!

But at this moment, a sudden sword cry rang out, cutting off Youhe’s words.

Both of them instinctively looked up, and immediately, the cyan sword light, like ripples of water, pierced through the palace, arriving above their heads, instantly causing their movements to become rigid.

Youhe and Huang Yu suddenly found they couldn’t move, even their thinking became sluggish, and everything around them came to a standstill as if time itself had frozen.

“What… is… this… situation?”

“What… is… happening?”

Fear overtook their hearts; this was a situation they had never encountered before.

Time had come to a standstill!

This power should not be possible for a Middle Third Rank martial artist to master, even an Upper Third Rank expert would rarely delve into it.

The cyan sword light, like the ripples of the river of time, possessed the power to penetrate everything. Zhou Heng, having condensed his Divine Soul into a treasure image, easily passed through all the barriers of the palace with this sword light.

He arrived at this very spot.

“Are you demon entities?”

Zhou Heng arrived in the palace following the Sword Technique of Conviction’s sword light, looking at Youhe and Huang Yu with a hint of surprise and a frown.

The appearance of these two demon entities was unexpected.

In his experience, demon entities usually were monstrous creatures with demonic spirits, existing between reality and illusion, extremely dangerous but without definite human forms.

Whether it was the demon entities he had learned about from the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer, or those he had encountered before, they were mostly grotesque and rarely resembled humans.

Even when they took on human forms, it was often just a whimsical change to deceive people.

However, the two demon entities he now saw were different; they had a very real feeling about them, as if their current human appearance was their true form.

However, Zhou Heng’s question went unanswered.

Because, under the terrifying power of the Sword Technique of Conviction, time within the palace had nearly stopped, making it impossible for Youhe and Huang Yu to say anything.

“Forget it, since they are demon entities, just kill them.” Zhou Heng tossed the Jade Ruyi in his hand, striking the top of their heads, instantly smashing their brains.

For an ordinary Absolute Fourth Rank martial artist, having their brains smashed would mean the destruction of their physical bodies, and their Dharma Bodies could hardly survive alone, resulting in an extremely weakened state.

But demon entities are different, the essence of their Divine Souls is nearly indestructible; even if their external form is destroyed, their true spirits can still exist tenaciously.

At this moment, Youhe and Huang Yu were in that state, their true spirits emerging from their destroyed bodies immediately, even breaking through the suppression of the purple-gold radiance of the Jade Ruyi, trying to escape.

By then, the effect of Time Eternal had passed, and Youhe and Huang Yu regained their capability to think. Facing such a powerful enemy, their first reaction was to flee.

Unfortunately for them, their true spirits had barely started to move when they ran right into a pitch-black Treasure Mirror.

In an instant, intense and direct killing intent enveloped them, and pure death energy spread, causing the true spirits of these two “people” to lose their indestructible nature and start to disintegrate.

“Humans! You are doomed! How dare you…”

This was the last thought Youhe had before nearing complete annihilation. As for Huang Yu’s true spirit, it disintegrated upon contact with the light of the Yin Yang Mirror, not even leaving a chance for last words.

“Congratulations! You have killed the weak enemy from the ‘Youhe Clan,’ Huang Yu! Fortune Bag [Copper] +1.”

“Congratulations! You have killed the mediocre enemy from the ‘Youhe Clan,’ Youhe! Fortune Bag [Copper] +3.”

Reward notifications sounded.

But Zhou Heng’s heart felt little joy, his brow furrowing even deeper.

This was the first time he explicitly learned that demon entities were actually categorized by race.

The demon entities that appeared in this world mainly belonged to two types.

The first were those naturally born of Demonic Qi contamination, these demon entities were not particularly powerful, usually possessing only demonic instincts, which is what Zhou Heng initially understood demon entities to be.

The second type were demon entities that escaped from the West Wasteland forbidden area, most of these entities were stronger, ranging from Middle to Upper Third Rank, and they were generally blocked outside of the Ninety-Nine States Formation; Zhou Heng didn’t know much about them.

But whether it was one type or the other, Zhou Heng had never heard of them being categorized by race.

“Why is there no mention of this in the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer’s data on demon entities, or is this information restricted to the higher-ups to avoid causing panic among the members?” Zhou Heng speculated.

If demon entities are categorized by race, it means that these entities may already possess a relatively complete civilization system, suggesting that the Nine Nether Demon Realm might be far stronger than he previously believed.

Even the continuous influx of demon entities through the channels of the West Wasteland might have a specific purpose, organized effort, and comprehensive planning.

This means that resisting the invasion of demon entities is not simply a matter of repelling disorderly and randomly appearing foes but resisting the infiltration of another civilized system!

“There is actually such a thing…” Zhou Heng felt a chill run down his spine.

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