I Swear I’m Not a Demonic Cultivator - Chapter 14
Chapter 14: I’ve Succeeded
The pale hand pressed against the Azure Cloud Spirit Vein Heart.
Boom—!
At the point of contact between Fang Zheng’s palm and the azure-green heart, an utterly savage and overwhelming devouring force awakened within the Myriad Ghosts Undying Body.
Its target: the boundless, sea-like life energy before him!
Come forth! Let me cleanse you of all impurities!
Fang Zheng inwardly roared with joy.
In Fang Zheng’s perception, his palm had transformed into a purifying vortex. Countless blemishes, marked by the System as “Spiritual Energy Impurities” and “Dust of Time,” were being forcibly stripped, drawn out, crushed, and purified from the Spirit Vein Heart’s depths by his Supreme Righteous Method.
The process was exquisite.
With each absorption, he felt his Wall of All Beings grow ever more indestructible.
With each purification, he felt himself drawing closer to the Human Emperor’s Sacred Body.
Wail—!!!
A piercing, agonized shriek erupted from the deepest core of the Spirit Vein Heart.
It felt no purification.
Instead, it sensed its purest, most primal life essence—accumulated over ten thousand years—being frantically and violently extracted by a greedy demonic claw!
It wanted to resist.
It mustered all its life force, transforming it into a surging tide of azure energy that slammed fiercely against the claw.
But its resistance was futile.
The more it struggled, the more the claw seemed to revel in it.
Far from breaking free, the pure life energy only fueled the claw like pouring a barrel of boiling oil onto a raging fire!
The 329 Ghost Face Totems on Fang Zheng’s body erupted in the most satisfied and frenzied roars of their existence upon contact with the energy.
The rate of consumption skyrocketed a hundredfold!
Fang Zheng felt an unprecedented warmth surging through his entire body, so comforting he nearly groaned aloud in pleasure.
“See! It’s thanking me!”
“It’s actively cooperating! Using its full strength to help me complete this sacred purification!”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Fang Zheng tightened his grip, his resolve unwavering.
Sect Master’s Hall.
Crack.
A crisp sound echoed from the Evergreen Treasure Tree, the symbol of the sect’s fortune.
Yun Lan and the six Elders’ pupils constricted to pinpricks.
At the very top of the Evergreen Treasure Tree, the tenderest, greenest leaf—that newly emerged patch of pitch-blackness—instantly and unstoppably devoured all traces of green.
The entire leaf transformed into pure, ominous black, a symbol of death.
Then, it withered.
Curled, charred, and drained of all vitality.
Finally, under the stunned gazes of the Azure Cloud Sect’s seven highest leaders, it crumbled into a handful of black ash, scattering into the air.
Deathly silence.
The hall fell into a deathly quiet. Everyone seemed frozen in place, as if struck by a binding spell.
Then—
Crack!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A second leaf, a third, a fourth…
The terrifying blackness, like a virulent plague, spread madly across the Evergreen Treasure Tree.
One after another, leaves representing the Sect’s Fortune withered into ash.
In a mere ten breaths, the once vibrant Treasure Tree, shimmering with life, had already withered by nearly half, resembling an old man whose vitality had been instantly drained, leaving only bare, lifeless branches.
“No…”
The Third Elder let out a dreamlike moan, his legs giving way as he collapsed to the ground, the first to fall.
At that very moment, across the entire Azure Cloud Sect—whether they were meditating, cultivating, or practicing martial arts, regardless of whether they were Inner Sect or Outer Sect disciples, or of high or low Cultivation Base—all simultaneously sensed the sudden, catastrophic change.
“What’s happening? The Spiritual Energy in the world… it’s vanishing!”
An Outer Disciple jolted awake from his meditative breathing, feeling like a fish thrown ashore, gasping for air but finding not a trace of Spiritual Energy.
“My Spiritual Energy is going haywire!”
In the training arena, an Inner Sect Heaven Chosen stared in terror at his trembling hands.
“Aiya, how did it happen so suddenly?!”
Inside a disciple’s Cave Mansion, a bearded Elder trembled as he clutched an Inner Disciple in white socks.
Panic began to spread like wildfire.
Countless disciples surged out of their Cave Mansions and residences, staring blankly at the sky.
They could clearly sense the boundless Spiritual Energy that had sustained the Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation and nourished the myriad disciples was plummeting at a precipitous rate, like a waterfall cascading off a cliff.
In the Sect Master’s Hall, Yun Lan stared blankly at the Treasure Tree, its few remaining leaves clinging desperately to the branches, his body swaying slightly.
His face was as white as a sheet of paper.
He knew everything was lost.
The Demon Lord was on the third level of the Demon Sealing Pagoda.
He was… devouring the Spirit Vein Heart!
He was destroying the Azure Cloud Sect from its very foundation!
Despair washed over him like a tidal wave.
But just as his Dao Heart was about to shatter, a thought, like a drowning man clutching at a last straw, surged madly from the depths of his mind.
Inside the Demon Sealing Pagoda, Fang Zheng was undergoing an unprecedented transformation.
Within the realm of his Inner Vision, the 329 Heroic Souls, bathed in a deluge of life energy, erupted in a thunderous cheer.
No longer mere points of light, they fused together, coalescing into golden threads of divine law that began weaving an unparalleled sacred armor across his body.
Behind him, a colossal, hazy phantom gradually materialized, its towering figure piercing the heavens.
The phantom wore a flat-topped imperial crown and a robe adorned with the sun, moon, and stars. Though its face remained obscured, it radiated an immeasurable aura of supreme authority, one that could suppress all ages and claim sole dominion.
The Human Emperor!
Fang Zheng’s spirit was nearly forced to kneel in reverence by this overwhelming presence.
He understood now.
The ultimate form of the Myriad Ghosts Undying Body was the legendary Human Emperor’s Sacred Body—a mortal vessel capable of rivaling the gods themselves!
Unseen by him, in the objective reality of the world, the 329 pain-contorted Ghost Face Totems on his skin were also merging.
They tore at each other, devouring and being devoured, until they coalesced into a single, monstrous, heavily armored figure—a pitch-black suit bristling with bone spikes and demonic runes.
This armor seemed forged from solidified resentment and despair.
Each joint resembled a howling mouth, and every inch of its plates was etched with malevolent curses from the deepest hells.
An aura of demonic power, far more terrifying than before, erupted from him with earth-shattering force!
Just then, a system notification chimed in Fang Zheng’s mind.
Ding! Congratulations, Host! Fusion and sublimation complete!
The original Cultivation Technique, Myriad Ghosts Undying Body, has successfully evolved into its ultimate form—Human Emperor’s Hell-Suppressing Body!
Cultivation Technique Explanation: Draw upon the resentment of the Nine Hells to forge the Human Emperor’s body! With mortal flesh, perform the deeds of the Dao! You are the walking law, the mobile divine court! This body can suppress all demonic forces and judge all injustices under heaven and earth!
As the last word faded, the devouring ceased.
Fang Zheng’s cultivation base surged directly to the Perfection of the ninth layer of Qi Refining, then broke through to Foundation Establishment in a single leap.
He slowly withdrew his hand.
He lowered his head, gazing at the Spirit Vein Heart pulsating before him.
It remained a verdant jade-green, but its surface was now crisscrossed by deep, eerie black veins.
With each pulse, it simultaneously radiated a stream of purest life energy and a surge of yin-infused death qi.
The opposing forces of life and death had reached a bizarre, perfect equilibrium within it.
“The impurities… I’ve finally purged them all.”
Fang Zheng gazed at his flawless “purification” results, feeling the world-shattering new power coursing through his veins. His heart swelled with unprecedented pride and satisfaction.
Straightening his back, he solemnly declared to the reborn Spirit Vein Heart before him,
“I… have succeeded!”