“Paimon, have you ever heard of the Ancient Demon Dao?” Xu Zimo asked as they traveled toward Black Demon Temple.
“My lord may not be fully aware of the current state of the Ancient Demon Race,” Paimon replied.
“In truth, even among us demons, things are far from peaceful. The branch you rule over is the strongest and most orthodox, but there are smaller factions of demons that have gathered separately. To gain more power, they’ve turned to forbidden techniques, like the Ancient Demon Dao.”“It's a forbidden technique?” Xu Zimo asked.
“Yes. This cultivation method doesn’t rely on absorbing the world’s spiritforce. Instead, it has others cultivate, and then absorbs their gains.”
Paimon explained, “The technique is divided into two volumes, Alpha and Beta. What Black Demon Temple got their hands on was likely the Beta volume.”
“Are there still other demons in this world?” Xu Zimo narrowed his eyes.
“There probably are,” Paimon said. “While the majority of our kind resides in the Primordial Demon Cave, a few stragglers are bound to have escaped. If this demon is tied to the Ancient Demon Dao, he’s likely an enemy, not an ally. You should prepare for that, my lord.”
“I understand,” Xu Zimo nodded. Then he asked, “What about the ‘other world’ that Black Demon Temple’s founder supposedly visited, do you know anything about it?”
“I don’t,” Paimon shook his head. “Since the fall of the Blessed Epoch, I know little about this new epoch. But the universe is vast. Other worlds wouldn’t be surprising.”
The two moved swiftly. Within moments, they had arrived once again at Black Demon Temple.
At this time, the temple radiated a desolate and lifeless atmosphere.
Passing through hall after hall and empty corridors, Xu Zimo made his way to the abandoned back mountain.
The area wasn’t very large, overgrown with weeds and tangled vines. Clearly, no one had been here for a very long time.
As Xu Zimo walked through the thicket, Paimon closed his eyes, sensing the air.
After a moment, he opened them and said, “There was definitely Infernal Force here. Even though it's well hidden.”
“Can you find its location?” Xu Zimo asked.
“It’s up ahead,” Paimon replied, leading them deeper into the back mountain.
The farther they went, the more the vegetation withered around them. More and more of it looked dead.
It was springtime, this was clearly unnatural.
After ten or so minutes, they arrived in front of a cave.
The cave was dark and hard to see into, shaped like an overturned bowl. Jagged rocks surrounded the entrance.
Inside, there was the faint sound of dripping water.
“This is the place,” Paimon said.
“He’s hidden himself well, I can’t detect much else.”
“Then let’s take a look,” Xu Zimo said.
The two entered the cave. Though it was pitch black, their cultivation was high enough that darkness didn’t impair their vision.
The cave was man-made, though age had worn it down so much it now looked natural.
Drops of water still dripped from the cracks between the stones.
The cave wasn’t deep. After a few minutes, the narrow passage opened into a wide hall.
Along the walls, spaced at intervals, were carved demon faces. In the eyes of each face, a ghostly blue flame burned.
The flames pushed back the darkness of the hall significantly.
Xu Zimo examined the space more closely. It was coated in thick cobwebs, a sign that no one had disturbed it in years.
In the center was a deep pit, about the size of a pool.
Inside the pit, black water boiled and churned like it was being heated by an invisible fire, bubbling constantly.
Around this black pool, a massive pentagram array was inscribed on the ground.
Each point of the star was marked by a different color: red, yellow, green, blue, and gold.
At the very center of the pentagram, everything was pure black.
Other than this setup, the hall appeared mostly unremarkable.
Xu Zimo walked up to the black pool. He could feel the thick presence of Infernal Force within it.
But it wasn’t just Infernal Force, it also contained many other strange energies.
“He’s healing,” Paimon said after observing it for a while.
“Then he won’t be leaving any time soon,” Xu Zimo smirked, then stood up.
He scanned the hall carefully, closed his eyes, and began to sense.
Sure enough, before long he detected a disturbance in the void.
Though faint, he was almost certain, it was a spatial node.
A spatial node was essentially a coordinate in space.
To move from one place to another through the void, you needed this kind of fixed point.
“Let’s go in,” Xu Zimo said to Paimon.
The two tore open the fabric of space in front of them and stepped through.
Xu Zimo could feel the pressure of the void surrounding him. Following the spatial coordinates, they traveled toward the far end.
The distance wasn’t too great. After about ten minutes, Xu Zimo spotted a glowing point of light ahead.
Both of them entered the light.
Suddenly, their surroundings changed, they had entered another world.
It was a small world, surrounded by emptiness. In front of them stood a lone mountain.
The mountain was bare, no vegetation, just a towering, lonely peak in the void.
From below, it didn’t seem particularly majestic. But at the summit, Infernal Force churned endlessly, saturating the realm.
It spread outward in waves, centered on the mountain top.
“Let’s go see what kind of being we’re dealing with,” Xu Zimo said with a grin.
The two of them soared up the mountain, reaching the summit in just a few breaths.
At the top, the wind howled fiercely. A figure stood in the swirling Infernal Force, seemingly in the middle of cultivation.
As Xu Zimo and Paimon arrived, the figure slowly turned to face them.
The surrounding Infernal Force grew even more intense.
It was an old man, thin to the point of being skeletal.
His face had no flesh, only skin stretched tightly over bone.
His sunken eyes glowed eerily as he stared at them.
He wore a black robe and held a demon staff.
The top of the staff was blue, sparkling like a crystal.
“Well, hello,” Xu Zimo greeted with a smile.
“Who are you?” the old man asked in a hoarse voice.
“Eighteen Demon Tribes, what tribe are you from?” Paimon asked coldly.
“The Eighteen Tribes... such ancient memories,” the old man murmured. “Since the Ancient Demon Race was sealed, I haven’t thought of tribes at all.”
“My name now is Demon Thirteen. You’ve come at just the right time. The energy you carry… it’s very tempting.”
Paimon snorted coldly and raised his right hand, then immediately launched a suppression strike at the old man.