Chapter 389: Dang Kang

Chapter 389: Dang Kang

Although Wang Shouyi’s ability to switch faces so quickly and apply double standards was obvious, none of the surrounding Ascenders dared say a word. After all, the man was not only powerful but also someone from the Kunlun Heavenly Palace. Not someone they could afford to offend!

Senior Chen, now—he was the real deal.

Always standing on the side of righteousness when it mattered most.

Everyone looked at Chen Huaian with eyes full of admiration.

A living saint!

If they kept letting Wang Shouyi send people in twenty at a time, all to be cannon fodder, then even a thousand Ascenders wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the slaughter of the monsters inside.

So the group made brief preparations and entered the Demon Locking Tower together.

To protect the core elite, they still sent the weakest and least talented Ascenders to the front lines. Chen Huaian, Li Qingran, and the other Demon-Slaying Bureau members were placed in the middle alongside the Golden Core and Foundation Establishment stage Ascenders. The rear was guarded by the Qi Refining-level cannon fodder.

Chen Huaian thought the inside of the Demon Locking Tower would be crawling with monsters.

Worst case, a boss would pop out and slap them in the face.

But instead, the first floor of the Demon Locking Tower turned out to be a grand hall.

And it wasn’t nearly as dark as it looked from outside. The walls were lined with a type of special glowing stone, casting the entire space in a hazy, gentle light.

Above them, the domed ceiling curved inward, and on it was a detailed mural. Judging by the wear, it was at least several hundred years old—maybe even a thousand—but still remarkably clear.

The mural showed a cultivator striking himself with a sword.

Then he split into three.

Each clone went off to train in a different realm.

Eventually, all three mastered their own path, and upon merging back together, the cultivator ascended while riding a cloud.

“This mural’s got some serious creativity. Dude hit a bottleneck in his cultivation, so he sliced himself into three versions and told them to go train separately? Then brought ‘em back together for the breakthrough? Genius idea!”

Chen Huaian was amazed by the sheer imagination of it.

If he ever got the chance, he definitely wanted to try it.

“Master, this mural kind of looks like the legend of severing the three corpses,” Li Qingran said, frowning at the mural.

“Sister-in-law, what’s ‘severing the three corpses’?”

Wang Shouyi leaned in, clearly hearing the term for the first time.

“Severing the three corpses means cutting off the three base desires in oneself to purify the heart and better reach enlightenment,” Li Qingran explained, glancing at Chen Huaian. ȓΑ𝐍ố𝐛ĘṢ

Seeing that he was listening intently, she assumed he was testing her and began explaining in more detail: “The three corpses are upper corpse Peng Hou—greedy and violent; middle corpse Peng Zhi—obsessed with wealth; and lower corpse Peng Jiao—addicted to beauty. A cultivator on the brink of enlightenment might one day gain insight and sever all three to ascend.”

“Ohhh, I get it now!” Wang Shouyi smacked a fist into his palm, feeling like a fog had lifted.

“So to follow the Great Dao, one has to give up all desires?”

Li Qingran didn’t answer. Instead, she turned and stared at Chen Huaian with wide, waiting eyes.

“Master, are you going to sever the three corpses someday?”

“Desire for food and beauty is natural.” Chen Huaian shook his head repeatedly. “Sure, severing the three corpses might be a path to immortality, but if you cut them off, aren’t you just a cold machine?

Could someone like that still feel the pain of the world?

Still experience the joy of living?

Heaven might be merciless, but humans shouldn't be.”

“Yes! Master is right!”

Li Qingran nodded like a pecking chick.

She definitely didn’t want her Master severing his three corpses.

If he did that, he wouldn’t like her anymore—how could she allow that?!

“I think this mural is showing a different method of severing the three corpses,” Li Qingran speculated, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Instead of treating the three corpses as defects to be eliminated, this cultivator turned them into clones to train separately. Then, when the time was right, they fused into one to ascend.”

“Then what’s this kind of mural doing in the Demon Locking Tower?”

Chen Huaian made a face.

It’s called the Demon Locking Tower, after all.

Shouldn’t the mural be of cultivators fighting monsters?

Though on closer inspection, the mural wasn’t totally unrelated to demons.

If you looked carefully, you’d see that the area around the cultivator and his clones was packed with demons.

But all of them looked respectful and humble, as if the cultivator was their master and king.

And yet, the cultivator had no demonic traits at all.

The whole thing was just weird.

Still, they weren’t here to admire the artwork.

Wang Shouyi scanned the area—no demons, no Ascenders, not even corpses. But in the center of the hall was a circular pool over a hundred meters wide, where all the light in the hall seemed to converge. From afar, it looked like a giant luminous pearl.

A wellhead!

The term suddenly popped into his mind.

According to the Honored One, the true goal of breaching the Demon Locking Tower was to open the wellhead. Open all nine, and it would fully release the spiritual energy inside and usher in an age of revival and prosperity.

But opening the wellhead also meant unsealing the demons.

The Ascenders’ job was to make sure as few demons got released as possible—ideally, none at all.

That meant they had to wipe out the demons in the tower before the wellhead opened—though that was basically impossible.

“Senior, that should be the wellhead. Let’s go take a look!”

He wasn’t really asking Chen Huaian, just giving a heads-up before leading a group of Ascenders toward the glowing pool.

“Chief, aren’t we going to check it out? What if there’s treasure inside that shiny pool?”

Girls really did love shiny things.

Lin Lingling was practically being pulled in by the pool’s glow.

Chen Huaian and Li Qingran exchanged glances, then followed the group at a slower pace, keeping an eye on their surroundings.

Chen Huaian noticed that at some point, a light mist had started filling the hall.

The closer they got to the “wellhead” Wang Shouyi mentioned,

The denser the fog became.

Eventually, they couldn’t see anything clearly.

Everything was shrouded in white mist.

The voices of Wang Shouyi and the other Ascenders, once still audible, were gone.

Clearly, this fog wasn’t just for hiding things—it was separating them.

Even Baji vanished from his shoulder.

And what about Li Qingran…

Chen Huaian instinctively glanced to his side.

“Master! This fog is strange!”

Li Qingran had her hand on her sword hilt, frowning and scanning their surroundings, her grip on his hand tightening.

Chen Huaian felt slightly reassured.

This fog was powerful, no doubt. Quietly trapping people one by one.

But so what?

The electronic girlfriend game was even stronger.

They were in “hand-holding mode,” which meant they were locked together unless he screwed it up himself.

Li Qingran’s expression turned serious.

“Master, I don’t think we’re in the same hall anymore.”

“Back there, we could still sense directions clearly. But here… I can’t tell anything. This might be an independent space.”

As she spoke—

At the edge of Chen Huaian’s vision, a red light suddenly appeared through the mist.

Like the rising sun at dawn, the glow grew and revealed a lush, mountainous valley.

Suddenly, a loud beastly roar echoed through the valley.

The sound became clearer, blending together.

And it was getting closer.

Chen Huaian tilted his head and listened, then muttered in shock, “Hiss—Why does it sound like the roar is saying two words?”

“You’re not wrong.”

Li Qingran looked toward the valley glowing with morning light and took a deep breath.

“Dang Kang.”

She said.

“The roar is saying: Dang Kang.”

…