White Bone Mountain stood a full hundred zhang tall, piled with innumerable bones.
Because the remaining flesh and blood constantly rotted, faint swamp miasma permeated the surroundings, and various poisonous insects containing demonic qi could be seen appearing and disappearing.
At the summit of White Bone Mountain, an eerie temple had appeared at some unknown time, with immense Buddhist qi condensing into a gigantic illusory figure over a thousand meters tall.
The illusory figure displayed an appearance of six eyes and four arms, and one could faintly hear Buddhist scriptures being chanted from its mouth. It should be the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin.
No matter who it was, anyone could sense that the aura emitted by the illusory figure far surpassed that of a demon king.
And precisely because of the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin, hundreds of temples encircled White Bone Mountain, within which lived large numbers of demon beasts.
The demon beasts were all dressed in monk robes, putting on an act as they knelt toward the mountain peak in worship.
Many of the ornaments they wore were ground from stone, containing faint Buddhist light, which their bodies absorbed imperceptibly by this means.
From time to time, long and narrow tentacles would extend from the base of White Bone Mountain, wrapping up nearby wild beasts and quickly devouring all of their flesh and blood.
At such times, the demon beasts would piously perform rites to deliver the dead wild beasts, making the scene appear extremely absurd.
If one looked from above, one would discover that there were clearly gaps left between the temples, indicating that divisions of power also existed among the demon beasts themselves.
In a blue-brick temple in the northwest corner, a group of demon beasts that looked half-human and half-fox were gathered.
Compared to demon beasts that were so devout they chanted scriptures day and night, the fox demons were undoubtedly much calmer, their actions more like routine formality.
An aged fox demon flicked his tail and narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the distant illusory figure.
"Do demon immortals really exist, could it be-"
Hu Wen suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Hu Shi, killing intent flashing across his body. He immediately tore off the latter's right arm.
"Are you courting death? Speaking so carelessly on White Bone Mountain, if this were Qingqiu, you'd have been dragged off long ago to feed Great-Grandmother."
Hu Wen stuffed the severed arm into his mouth and chewed, flesh and bone fragments scattering all over the ground.
Hu Shi endured the pain and repeatedly expressed thanks, but he quickly noticed the surrounding fox demons, whose gazes were filled with greed.
On White Bone Mountain, there was hardly any chance to come into contact with meat. The fox demons had long been driven to the brink.
Hu Wen could not be bothered to pay attention. Hu Shi was soon dragged into the depths of the rear courtyard, from which bone-chilling chewing sounds soon emerged.
Aside from demon beasts who were loose cultivators, demon beasts from established factions like them came to White Bone Mountain more to probe the so-called demon immortal.
Hu Wen himself did not know whether the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin was a demon immortal.
However, it was said that at the moment the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin manifested, temples appeared out of thin air, and the White Bone Great Sage directly bowed in submission at its feet.
A dignified demon king willingly serving as a temple caretaker, how could that not instill fear?
In Hu Wen's heart, he felt that this golden aura capable of affecting the mind had nothing to do with demonic qi, but who could be certain that it was not a demon immortal?
Under such circumstances, many factions had dispatched manpower to investigate.
Hu Wen swallowed the last bite of the severed arm and swept his gaze across the fox demons, then pointed at one of them and asked.
"Did you cultivate the Bitter Sea Great Dao today?"
The fox demon's face turned deathly pale. Anyone with eyes could see the perversity of Buddhist qi, how would he dare touch it?
"Take him down to cultivate."
Hu Wen shook his head.
No matter what kind of existence the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin was, this act had to be performed thoroughly, otherwise it would inevitably become leverage for other factions.
The toad demons from Bottomless Cave reportedly had several who reached completion every day.
And the roc demons of Thunder Duke Peak, nearly half had already set foot in the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin Temple at the mountain summit, while the rest had likewise come into contact with Buddhist qi.
However, although more and more demon beasts were heading toward the temples, the commotion at White Bone Mountain had grown quieter, with only the illusory figure continuing to rise.
There were many demon beasts whose thoughts aligned with Hu Wen's, all secretly observing the situation.
"Hm?"
Hu Wen raised his head to look at the sky. In just a few breaths, dense dark clouds had already spread out, and torrential rain seemed imminent.
"The rain feels somewhat strange, just recently the sky was completely clear..."
Hu Wen could not help but feel irritated. After pacing a few circles in the courtyard, he killed another fox demon to vent his anger, splattering fresh blood across his monk robe.
The remaining fox demons trembled with fear.
In the worldview of demon beasts, the law of the jungle prevailed, and cannibalizing one's own kind was nothing unusual.
There was even a serpent-dragon in the Jing River that devoured thousands of its own offspring daily, turning the entire river a faint red.
Boom boom boom...
Thunder accumulated within the clouds as violent winds arose, drawing down rain the size of beans.
In the blink of an eye, White Bone Mountain was shrouded in rain, which conveniently washed away the miasma that had lingered for years, making the Buddhist qi even more dazzling.
"What's going on?"
Hu Wen keenly sensed that the demonic qi had become chaotic, like a stirred pool of water.
He walked out of the temple and saw many demon beasts who were also at the Great Demon consummation stage looking toward the sky, each wearing expressions of shock and uncertainty.
A rat demon with white whiskers appeared beside Hu Wen and asked in a shrill voice, "Hu Wen, why is there a trace of something in the air, "
Hu Wen immediately reacted and blurted out, "The smell of damp water vapor?"
Amid his shock, he nervously said to the rat demon, "Jin Mao, with your temperament, you always leave yourself an escape route no matter where you go."
"If anything unexpected happens, then, "
Before Hu Wen could finish speaking, lightning flashed.
Within the pitch-black clouds, a serpentine black shadow hundreds of meters long was revealed, only to vanish again as the lightning dimmed.
Jin Mao shuddered violently, ignored Hu Wen's warning, and burrowed straight into the ground.
Hu Wen cursed under his breath. The fluctuation of his mental state caused his killing intent to surge, and his body instantly transformed into a three-meter-tall giant fox that rushed into the temple.
Screams rang out one after another.
The stench of blood grew ever stronger. Many demon beasts had gone months without tasting flesh and blood, how could they restrain themselves? They began slaughtering their own kind.
Demon cultivators who had seemed so dignified just moments ago revealed their true nature; even Buddhist qi could not suppress the drive of their instincts.
Roar!!!
A dragon's roar rang out from within the dark clouds.
The movements of all demon cultivators abruptly halted as their gazes turned toward the dragon head extending from the clouds.
After Dragon Spine reached the Yin Messenger realm "Flood Dragon Shedding Its Qiu," it fully displayed the true dragon's aura of towering over all living beings.
The qiulong was already considered a young dragon, its appearance nearly identical to that of a true dragon.
Only, due to the influence of the core technique Shadowless Yin Demon, the qiulong was clad in pure black scales, with a pair of bone-white horns atop its head.
Chest Dragon's Roar was unleashed.
Demonic qi transformed into dragon forms, circling around Dragon Spine and pushing the momentum to its peak.
Dragon Spine's long tail lashed downward, and the demon beasts that Ren Qing had subdued descended from the sky, smashing deep craters into the bone-covered ground.
Hu Wen sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
The demon beasts serving the demon immortal were only at the Great Demon realm, yet their bodies were extraordinarily massive, at least six or seven meters tall, and outwardly no different from humans.
They wore daoist robes engraved with beast-head patterns and held white jade horsetail whisks, clearly magical artifacts refined from valuable spiritual materials.
Dragon Spine opened its jaws, with Five-Element lightning accumulating within.
Boom!!!
Lightning struck toward the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin Temple at the mountain summit. The attack pierced through the Buddhist qi and landed directly on the temple eaves, shockwaves erupting out of thin air.
Standing atop the dragon's head, Ren Qing fixed his Double Pupils on the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin Temple, only to find that the lightning had merely shattered a few tiles.
The corner of his mouth twitched. It seemed he could only let the demon beasts do the work.
"I come from the upper realm."
The qiulong's claw pointed toward the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin Temple as Ren Qing roared, "This is the great enemy of our demon kind. Are you willing to be driven by me?"
Hu Wen immediately knelt to the ground and answered without hesitation, "I, Hu Wen, respectfully welcome the demon immortal's descent and am willing to serve with utmost loyalty."
The other demon beasts instantly reacted, kneeling and kowtowing in unison. All factions encircling White Bone Mountain defected on the spot.
There were, however, a few demon beasts deeply immersed in Buddhist qi who stood dazed in place.
Before Ren Qing could act, the demon beasts tore them into pieces, even stacking the heads of their own kind into a crude altar.
Dragon Spine swaggered around for a few laps, extremely satisfied with these ant-like demon beasts, and planned to personally bestow blessings upon them with lightning.
Ren Qing forcefully slapped Dragon Spine on the head, and it immediately became well-behaved.
His Double Pupils could not see what was happening inside the White Bone Four-Armed Guanyin Temple, so he naturally did not know whether Song Zongwu had suffered deviation.
Ren Qing did not wish to risk being tainted by Buddhist qi. For now, the only ones he could rely on were these demon cultivators.
Dragon Spine slowly shrank, then burrowed into Ren Qing's back. Ren Qing rose to a high position and accepted the demon beasts' prostrations.
He sat cross-legged in midair, his gray-black daoist robe fluttering in the wind.
Hu Wen sensed not the slightest trace of demonic qi from Ren Qing, yet because of the overwhelming display just now, he had not the least doubt about the demon immortal.
A wolf demon, eager to earn merit, could not restrain himself and rushed into the range of White Bone Mountain. After only a few steps, he fell into three kneelings and nine kowtows.
The demon beasts watched the wolf demon's devout appearance and could not help but feel a chill in their hearts.
They now worried about how to deal with White Bone Mountain. If merely approaching it caused one to lose sanity, reckless action would only add more bones.
Ren Qing said calmly, "Yellow-Robed Monster."
"Here."
The hyena demon stepped out from the ranks and walked straight toward the Buddhist light.
Black mist protected his body, and the invincible Buddhist light was actually locked in stalemate, allowing the hyena demon to wander within it for several laps.
After returning to his original spot, the hyena demon let his ferocious, ghost-like soul leave his body and again make contact with the Buddhist qi, yet he was still unaffected.
"I shall impart to you all a divine ability, named... Enter... Transform Immortal Art."
Hu Wen and the other demon beasts were shaken to their cores. As expected of a demon immortal, one move and it was an immortal art.
Ren Qing used the ability of Soul Butterfly Projection to pour the information of the technique into their memories.
The Entering God Technique was created by the Supreme Heavenly Demon. Cultivation required using one's body as firewood to ignite the soul's numinous flames, absorbing Heavenly Demon remains, abandoning the body to refine the soul before it could be completed.
The Entering God Technique was something he had obtained from the Wuwei Dao Field. Heavenly Daozi had transformed into the Supreme Heavenly Demon precisely because he cultivated this Beast-Pen Method.
Ren Qing had flipped through it several times in his spare moments, but found the contents rather unremarkable, unable to see what made it special. This was a good chance to investigate it further.
The demon beasts carefully studied the Entering God Art.
For them, demon beasts who only knew instinctively how to absorb demonic qi, it truly was a method of becoming immortal.
As for the demonic aberration techniques once created by demon cultivators, they likely had scarcely been passed down due to demon cultivators being aberrated into beast forms.
Seeing the demon beasts absorbed as if intoxicated by their comprehension of the Entering God Art, Ren Qing could not help but feel somewhat embarrassed. If Rabbit-Toad cultivators descended and discovered that demon beasts had all turned into black mountain goats, one wondered what they would think...
The Heavenly Demon Dream Seed on his forehead opened, and strands of Heavenly Demon qi fused into the bodies of the demon beasts.
Hu Wen and the others were moved to tears with gratitude. The demon immortal not only imparted an immortal art, but even personally expended cultivation to help them lay their foundations, there was simply no way to repay such kindness.