I Swear I’m Not a Demonic Cultivator - Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Wounded Demonic Pill
Fang Zheng stood before the swirling mass of soul power, listening to the surrounding commotion, and smiled.
He heard suppressed roars.
He heard frantic panting.
He felt the scorching, yearning gazes fixed upon him.
This isn’t greed, he thought. These are beings drowning in a sea of suffering, seeing a beacon of salvation!
Locked away for too long, tormented by evil spirits for too long, their very ways of expressing their desire for purification had become twisted and desperate.
Fang Zheng’s heart was deeply moved.
A heavy sense of responsibility settled in his chest.
Dealing with them one by one would take too long.
To achieve true equality and Universal Salvation, they must be treated equally.
“Don’t be impatient,” Fang Zheng said, his voice clear and resonant despite its soft tone, carrying to every corner of the chamber. “There’s enough for everyone. I will grant you all deliverance together, right now.”
Slowly, Fang Zheng raised his hands and clasped them in front of his chest in a mudra of prayer.
His eyes shone with pure compassion.
He would perform an unprecedented grand purification with the utmost sincerity, ending all suffering here in a single, decisive act.
With a thought, he activated the Grand Purifying and Salvation (Physical) Method at full power!
In Fang Zheng’s perception, the world transformed.
His body became a radiant sun.
Warm, gentle white light emanated from every pore, soothing and unobtrusive.
Wherever the light touched, the icy chill receded, and the rancid stench was purified.
He could even clearly “see” the light illuminating each face, twisted in agony.
Behind him, a majestic phantom of an Ancient Buddha slowly materialized, its face serene and dignified.
He chanted the most fundamental Clear Heart Mantra.
At that moment, each syllable transformed into a profound, soul-soothing Zen chant.
He was a walking Buddha.
And the instant he fully activated his Cultivation Technique, the objective physical reality of the Demon Sealing Pagoda’s first level shifted.
The human named Fang Zheng vanished.
In his place hovered a heart.
A pulsating Demon God’s heart, suspended mid-air, composed of pure flesh and twisted black energy!
Thump!
With a single, faint beat, the stone walls of the entire Demon Sealing Pagoda began to “sweat.”
Droplets of viscous, rancid blood seeped from the hard rock crevices, coalescing into rivulets.
The ground beneath their feet transformed from stone slabs into a writhing, churning swamp of flesh, ravenous and hungry to devour everything.
That wasn’t a Zen chant at all!
It was a demonic resonance of the Dao!
Each syllable savagely commanded their demon souls to crawl out of their physical bodies!
That wasn’t white light!
It was a ghastly, deathly pale radiance capable of vaporizing souls directly!
Roar—!
The nearest Three-Eyed Panther Demon, overcoming its fear, could no longer restrain itself.
Transforming into a bolt of black lightning, it lunged forward, the first to attack!
Immediately, a second, then a third followed!
Hundreds of demonic beasts, like a dam-bursting black flood carrying millennia of pent-up resentment, surged madly toward the pulsating “heart” at the center!
They wanted to snatch it!
To seize that Top Tier elixir that could propel them to the next Realm!
And then, to tear this madman who dared play god before them into two-and-a-half pieces!
The Three-Eyed Panther Demon led the charge.
In its three eyes, only the reflection of the soul power remained.
It stepped within ten meters of Fang Zheng.
Then…
Its forward momentum ground to a halt.
Not stopped, but frozen stiff.
“Uh?”
The Three-Eyed Panther Demon’s thoughts instantly dissolved into blankness.
It felt something… trying to escape.
With agonizing effort, it lowered its head.
A translucent, identical phantom of itself was being forcibly torn from its crown of the head, inch by inch, by an irresistible force!
Its demon soul!
“Waaaah—!”
The soul’s piercing shriek had barely escaped when—
In the next instant, the crimson vortex formed from Fang Zheng’s body devoured it whole!
No chewing.
No struggle.
The demon soul was crushed into pure energy particles the moment it was consumed.
Thud.
The Three-Eyed Panther Demon’s body collapsed, instantly transforming into a mummified husk drained of all life force.
This was just the beginning.
Like a string of firecrackers, the remaining demonic beasts began to explode in a chain reaction.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One head, ten heads, a hundred heads!
Every demonic beast that charged within Fang Zheng’s nine-meter radius, regardless of its Cultivation Base or species, experienced the same fate simultaneously:
Its demon soul was forcibly torn from its body.
Its agonized screams were instantly silenced.
Its flesh withered into a desiccated husk.
The entire first level of the Demon Sealing Pagoda became the stage for a silent, efficient, and uniformly orchestrated mass death.
Not a single beast managed to touch the hem of Fang Zheng’s robe.
Within the span of a single incense stick’s burning time…
The chaos dissolved into deathly silence.
The ground was carpeted with layers upon layers of desiccated demonic beast corpses, each frozen in a different pose of death.
At the center of this macabre pile, Fang Zheng stood with his palms pressed together, still immersed in the joy of “Universal Salvation.”
Before him, the mass of “Primordial Soul Power” had swollen into a small mountain.
Ding! Purification successful! You have successfully provided the ‘Three-Eyed Panther Demon’ with a deep soul spa service…
Ding! Purification successful! You have successfully formatted the ‘Centennial Tree Demon’s’ soul…
Ding! Purification successful!…
The System’s notifications flooded Fang Zheng’s mind in a frenzy.
…Statistics complete.
Congratulations, Host! You have purified a total of 328 demonic beasts this time! Immeasurable Merit!
Congratulations, Host! You have obtained 328 Earthbound Spirits, automatically stored in your ‘Pet’ Backpack.
Fang Zheng slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a long, turbid breath.
爽!
This feeling of saving all living beings is even more exhilarating than cultivating!
He opened the System Backpack.
The once-empty System Backpack was now crammed with over three hundred Chibi-style miniature demonic beasts, huddled together and trembling.
“Amitabha,” Fang Zheng murmured, surveying his “pet army” with a satisfied nod.
Merit Perfection.
It was time to alleviate suffering on a higher plane.
He looked up at the staircase leading to the second level.
Just then—
Crack—!
A crisp sound echoed from above.
The immense energy, formed from the combined soul power of over three hundred demonic beasts, resonated violently with the first level’s seal.
A pitch-black fissure slowly spread across the center of the first level’s domed ceiling.
From the crack, an aura leaked out—an aura a hundred times colder and more ancient than that of all the demonic beasts on the first level combined.
Meanwhile, on the other side…
Azure Cloud Sect, Sect Master’s Hall.
The Tower Guardian Elder stared intently at the Soul-Suppressing Spirit Mirror before him.
On the mirror’s surface, over three hundred points of light represented the lives of the demonic beasts on the first level.
Suddenly,
a light at the very edge of the mirror flickered once and went out.
The Tower Guardian Elder rubbed his eyes.
The next instant—
Crack!
A soft sound.
Not one light, not ten.
All three hundred and twenty-eight lights extinguished simultaneously!
The entire area representing the first level on the mirror plunged into utter darkness.
Not a single survivor remained.
Pfft—!
The spirit mirror was psychically linked to the Elder’s mind. The sudden shock made his head ring, and he spat out a mouthful of old blood.
The color drained from his face, leaving only pure terror.
Before he could even scream—
BOOM—!!!
The Soul-Suppressing Spirit Mirror, a relic passed down for millennia, shattered violently before his eyes!
Countless shards, propelled by gale-force winds, ripped through his robes and pierced his Demonic Pill.
The searing pain jolted him out of his stupor.
The Tower Guardian Elder collapsed to the ground, as if all his strength had been drained away. His fingernails clawed desperately at the floor as hoarse, inhuman howls clawed their way from his throat, breaking and shattering with each desperate cry.
“Disaster! Sect Master! Disaster!”
“The soul lamps on the first level… they’ve all gone out!”