Chapter 1602: Hundun
Chapter 1602: Hundun
The mountains spanned like the ocean, rising and falling like waves. The dragons all peered up.
Li Qingshan stood in the sky. His emotions fluctuated and surged with the mountains and clouds as the star of Yinghuo drifted between the changing times.
The daemon star had emerged, a true god had fallen, and Qiongqi had submitted!
Before anyone could completely digest all this, he had begun a new round of war, demanding that the demons yield.
"I have not come for peace across the land, but for war across the land."
He required the strength of the twelve Demon Gods, but if they refused to submit, he would not mind a great purge first. Even if all of the Demon Gods perished and the Demon domain was reduced to ruins, heh, that could even be considered as good news.
A cold smile formed on his face, and the black runes twisted and changed as a result. His scarlet eyes shone with ruthlessness, and he did not try to hide it, allowing it to dance and blaze like a storm.
The Demon Gods wavered. His will was completely sincere. He was really willing to destroy the entire Demon domain and make all the rebels perish.
Originally, their greatest source of confidence was that Li Qingshan did not have the courage to turn his blade towards them so easily. He had to earn their support through democracy. They were all ancient Demon Gods with extremely deep foundations, while Li Qingshan was only a new Demon God born for a crisis. He had only just undergone the seventh heavenly tribulation and did not possess the power to crush them.
In simpler terms, Li Qingshan's identity was equivalent to the enemy commander of a coalition army of tribes. When it came down to the important discussions, he still had to discuss it with them. He only possessed slightly larger authority during battle. It was an extremely ancient form of military democracy.
However, Li Qingshan clearly was not satisfied with that. He wanted to be a dictator, or in other words, directly enter the times of battle, when he would possess paramount authority.
They stood in confrontation... Li Qingshan's brutal aura became heavier and heavier. His patience was already close to running out. By the time he waved the Sword of Xuanyuan in his hand, that would be the signal of the beginning of battle. He would not try to recruit them or accept their surrender anymore. He would continue until one side was completely destroyed, until they completely perished.
"As you wish." Suddenly, he heard a gloomy sigh from the distant north. Another Demon God opened his borders. Sigh, if this is a fated tribulation, how am I supposed to escape from it?
He did not support declaring war against the gods and buddhas of the Nine Heavens, but once strife spread through the Demon domain, the heavenly palace definitely would not simply sit on the sidelines. For the sake of this crisis of the world, probably even a godking that had undergone the eighth heavenly tribulation and reached Merging the Void with the Dao like the Zhenwu Emperor would directly take part. In the end, even if they managed to defeat Li Qingshan, they would not be able to survive the brutal strike from the gods and buddhas of the Nine Heavens.
And, they did not think they could defeat the group of pro-war Demon Gods under Li Qingshan's lead at all as a group of pro-peace Demon Gods. Perhaps they possessed greater power, but compared to those murderous, fanged beasts, they could only be regarded as larger herbivores.
As a result, he turned around to persuade the other Demon Gods. "Fellows, at a time like this, we should take the bigger picture into consideration!"
The scales had completely tipped. There was no longer any uncertainty about everything that happened next.
Immediately, all of the Demon Gods yielded to Li Qingshan and offered up the land they ruled. They all said, "As you wish."
That was apart from Demon God Hundun. He had fallen into eternal chaos a long time ago, completely losing his sense of self.
The swirl in the sky revolved rapidly. The laws and powers all gathered towards Li Qingshan. The mountains below fluctuated as the entire ground was lifted up, forming a plateau. It was like a crouching beast waking up from the silence of the earth.
The Black Sun Demon Heart shone brilliantly.
With that, Li Qingshan had taken the entire Demon domain without spilling any blood. He surpassed every Demon God in both authority and power now.
Demon God Qiongqi's praises rang out in his ear, "Congratulations, my king! Congratulations, my king! You've become the true king of Demon Gods! You have sharp instincts and a determined will, which will assist you in achieving victory in future battles. Oh right, I no longer pose a threat to you. I would never do something so pointless, so..."
Li Qingshan obviously understood what he was saying and smiled. "Very well. Please lend me another hand!" Then he pointed the Sword of Xuanyuan towards Hundun's dominion.
"Of course!"
Demon God Qiongqi immediately offered up his full support, granting access to all of the laws he controlled. These were the central laws he controlled, ones that even Li Qingshan could not strip from him as the lord of the Demon domain. He could only borrow them.
The submission of the Demon Gods was not only a formality. This was what mattered most. From that point onwards, Li Qingshan could mobilise the central laws under their control at any time and he could also comprehend them to strengthen the Black Sun Demon Heart and hence gain better control over the Demon domain.
At the same time, it also allowed him to grasp the weakness of every Demon God, giving him greater ruling power.
If telling the Demon Gods to open their dominions was only equivalent to offering up their land and submitting to him, then at this moment, the son of heaven lit the beacons, gathered his vassals, and dispatched his armies to punish those who refused to submit.
"With a swing of the sword, the sky full of clouds disperses. The vassals assemble one after another."
By now, the Demon Gods no longer had any other choice. They could only take the bigger picture into account, releasing their authority to Li Qingshan and offering up their central laws.
Li Qingshan seemed to see a mighty landscape painting slowly unfurl before his eyes. It contained the very nature of the Demon domain. That was his gate to the eighth heavenly tribulation and Merging the Void with the Dao.
However, one part of this painting was dark, sunken in chaos.
Demon God Hundun was the strongest of the twelve Demon Gods. The power he possessed even surpassed the eleven other Demon Gods combined. He controlled and wielded the strongest laws out of all of the Demon domain's laws, the laws of chaos.
He had once been infinitesimally close to the black sun and the very nature of the laws of the Demon domain. He had the opportunity to become the lord of the Demon domain through his own powers. However, it was exactly because of this that his self-consciousness was rapidly eroded away and assimilated by the laws of chaos, until he completely descended into chaos himself.
He was powerful because he was chaotic, and he was chaotic because he was powerful. That was his fate.
Over the process of several hundred thousand years, his followers constantly diminished, either killing one another in internal strife or being slaughtered in his chaos. An extremely small number of demonfolk maintained their faith in him.
The other Demon Gods also used this advantage to gnaw away at Hundun's dominion. He was the strongest Demon God, but his dominion was instead the smallest out of the twelve.
However, this final piece of territory was of utmost importance. It directly affected whether the Demon domain could be completely unified. It had to do with the completion of this landscape.
Li Qingshan gathered his focus. Using his identity as the ruler of the Demon domain and the power of the eleven dominions and eleven Demon Gods, he forcefully breached all passes and swallowed Hundun's dominion in a single gulp, obtaining the last piece of the puzzle.
The twelve dominions were completely connected now.
Li Qingshan widened his eyes. What a glorious landscape painting!
On one side, it depicted the wicked earth of the Demon domain, and on the other, it showed the pure earth of Sukhāvatī. One side was pain and wickedness and the other was happiness and kindness, yet at the same time, they blended together and served as the background of one another. It was unbelievably exquisite.
If all of this originated from the primordial qilin, then just how powerful was the primordial qilin supposed to be? Probably both the power and laws it possessed was well beyond anything that gods right now could match!
Then just how powerful was the buddha supposed to be as he had split the entire Qilin Paradise in two?
He was far too engrossed in it that he even failed to notice that right beneath him, a peak rose up among the mountains above the plateau, plunging into the sky. In the blink of an eye, it became the tallest peak in the Demon domain before continuing to grow.
A hysterical howl rang out from the depths of the Tang valley. A monster that resembled a tumour twisted about madly.
Li Qingshan's head suddenly lightened, and he plunged head-first, falling onto the tallest mountain. His mind was a violent mess. Sometimes, he wanted to dance around, and at other times, he wanted to burst into tears.
It was Demon God Hundun! Even after losing his sense of self, he resisted the annexation instinctively.
The howl had exceeded any audible range, and it completely ignored the distance as well. Not only did the soundwaves shake, the laws fluctuated as well, directly jolting his soul. Human Immortals and Heretic Gods would immediately plunge into insanity as their consciousness collapsed. Even true immortals would suffer from cultivation deviation upon hearing that.
"The Spirit Turtle Transformation!"
A spirit turtle appeared behind Li Qingshan, suddenly suppressing his disturbed mind. His eyes became deep like the ocean, rapidly weaving the laws to set up numerous defences so that he could fend off this chaotic howl. His mind immediately felt much clearer.
However, Demon God Hundun had found where he was. His tumour-like body rapidly expanded and surged, crawling out from the depths of the Tang valley.
Beneath Li Qingshan's feet was the tallest peak in the Demon domain, the place closest to Sukhāvatī. The depths of the Tang valley where Demon God Hundun was located was the lowest point in the Demon domain, where millions of years of foul miasma had accumulated, which currently surged and rose. Once it spread, it would probably reduce a good majority of the Demon domain into a land of death. At least half of the demonfolk would be exterminated.
At the same time, the laws of chaos rapidly twisted and tore apart the lines of defence he set up. Once he was locked onto, Demon God Hundun would appear before him in the next moment.
Everything really would get out of hand by then. Demon God Hundun could no longer be regarded as a true god according to normal logic anymore. Instead, he had become something almost akin to space-devouring beasts. He had become a phenomenon of nature, representing the darkest and most twisted side of the Demon domain.
Li Qingshan was aware that facing Demon God Hundun right now was basically no different from internal strife. It might even be even more troublesome.
If the Demon Gods suddenly withdrew all of their laws when he reached the most intense part of the battle, leaving him to face Demon God Hundun alone, he might even be in danger of dying.
The Demon Gods said nothing, all wanting to see how he would deal with Demon God Hundun. You want our power, so we've given you our power. If you can't win, then you might as well go die, dragged into the depths of the Tang valley by Demon God Hundun, never to be freed again.
However, against something that lacked a sense of self, Li Qingshan was very experienced.
At that instant, he completely hid his existence, not only hiding his aura or tricking his senses, but severing all of his ties to Demon God Hundun.
Of course, completely severing it was impossible. With his powers, he could only sever it for an instant.
After that instant, Demon God Hundun had already forgotten who Li Qingshan was. He had forgotten all of his fury and hatred as well, slowly dropping back into the depths of the Tang valley.
All of the Demon Gods were convinced. Demon God Qiongqi exclaimed, "My king, you actually possess intelligence!"
"Do you want to be suppressed for ten thousand years?"