Gu Junshi's gaze swept over them, causing their hearts to leap into their throats.
Her dark, profound eyes burned like a crimson abyss, scorching their souls with both pain and shock.
They fell silent and retreated.
In that moment, they almost believed she would tear their very souls apart.
The terror, which originated from the depths of their beings and was utterly unresisted, felt so real.
"You cultivators here, have you killed few people?" she asked, half her bone structure exposed, a fearsome sight even without malice.
"Whether it be demons, beasts, humans, or even fellow cultivators, whose hands are truly clean? Survival of the fittest, I merely followed your rules. What wrong have I done now?"
Her soft words echoed through the four seas and eight directions.
"I was not originally from this world. Your Heavenly Dao dragged me, an outsider, to fill the void it tore open. Who benefited? Who among you is truly innocent?"
As she spoke, Gu Junshi felt an urge to laugh. She removed her illuminating spell. "In the beginning, I had no choice but to focus my ruthlessness on one person. Later, I wished to live like an ordinary person. So, I curbed my arrogance, joined a sect, respected my teachers, cherished juniors, supported elders, and discussed the Dao with like-minded individuals. But what did I gain in return?"
At this moment, the Demon God sensed her memories. With its ability to see through the cause and effect of others, it had no fear of anyone lying to it or trying to conceal anything.
Gu Junshi's every word was true, and the Demon God saw it all with its own eyes.
"Jealousy, schemes, turning against each other, betrayal, imprisonment, coercion, torture... Consider all this as the price you paid for your past naivete and straying from the righteous path," the Demon God finished her sentence.
It spoke only to her. If the Demon God did not wish others to overhear its words, no one else could understand its demonic tongue.
Gu Junshi's demonic face showed no expression. Her sinister eyes curved into a cold, downward arc, mocking all living beings.
"I accept the price this world has taught me, but from now on, no one can make me change, nor can they make me regress!"
The immortal sect members stared at her with trembling hearts, as if every word she spoke could transform into unseen blades aimed at them.
"If one person errs, ten thousand must pay. If ten thousand err, how many do you need to satisfy the retribution? Is one life not enough? How many lives?" the old monk asked, his benevolent and profound brows sweeping over his eyes, like a clear, tranquil pool, devoid of resentment or blame.
The Demon God grew tired of these nonsensical theories. Its hoarse, heavy voice, layered with countless killing intents, descended upon them.
"Kill them. These cultivators have always been 'those who obey me prosper, those who defy me perish.' They understand both right and wrong, but in reality, they are more cunning and shameless than we demons. The Heavenly Dao is even more so!"
The Demon God appeared in the sky behind her, its demonic energy coiling like fiery chains, its red eyes flashing with an eerie, hypnotic glow, as if controlling them.
As the Demon God revealed its might, the cultivators' breaths hitched. They naturally could not see the Demon God's true form; it was chaos, a mysterious and unfathomable, lofty existence.
The more mysterious it was, the less they, at their level, could contend with it. They couldn't even touch a corner of its garment, yet a single breath or sneeze from it could overturn them.
"Demon God..."
The old monk and cultivators at the semi-immortal realm knew more than others, but this knowledge only made them more uncertain.
They had originally believed they had enough time to prepare for the disaster the Demon God would bring. However, Gu Junshi had released it prematurely. In the current situation, forget victory; they didn't even have a sliver of a chance to win.
The old monk, however, seemed to be attempting to sway Gu Junshi with his words.
But the Demon God was released by Gu Junshi, so how could she help them fight against it? It would be fortunate if they didn't conspire together.
Gu Junshi raised her arm and grasped a wisp of blackness. "Of course... they should be killed."
She suddenly turned around. The Wu Xiang in her hand had transformed dramatically. It had been tempered by heavenly lightning and nourished by the Demon God's primordial demonic energy. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a high-grade immortal artifact.
Her eyes lifted for a moment, her aura surged, and she swung a soul-slaying sword towards the Demon God.
Terrible beams of black light shot towards the high heavens, tearing through space and directly from the small world into the other-dimensional space where the Demon God was imprisoned.
The Demon God had only half of its consciousness traversing the small world, with the greater part of its body still temporarily residing in the other-dimensional space, as it could not completely break free from the Heavenly Dao's restraints.
The Demon God never dreamed that Gu Junshi would attack it at this moment. While it had been wary and cautious of Gu Junshi, it was not at this specific time.
The unexpected rebellion left it defenseless, and its divine sense suffered a heavy blow. A sky-shattering tremor caused the earth to crack and tsunamis to surge.
"Ah—Gu Junshi, what are you doing?!"
Gu Junshi tilted her eyes sideways. When she was neither smiling nor angry, her expression was like indifferent wind, chilling and unfathomable.
"I just suddenly thought, these people seem too insignificant to even serve as sparring partners. Within this small world, only Lord Demon God can allow Gu to test my current realm after becoming demonic."
She took a step forward, shattering the spatial barrier, and the black beams of light coiled around the Demon God.
The others were stunned and their scalps tingled by this sudden turn of events, utterly bewildered by what had just happened.
Had they lost their memories, had Gu Junshi gone insane, or had they, in their despair, hallucinated this absurd and unbelievable scene?
Its shocked and enraged expression froze. After a moment of thought, it understood Gu Junshi's intentions.
"I never imagined your ambition is far greater than I thought. You're not satisfied with being a demon, and you actually wish to replace me? With you?"
It never believed Gu Junshi would act against it for the sake of these people or the so-called common folk spoken of by the Heavenly Dao. It had thoroughly examined her memories, her temperament, and her character. It only believed she was too greedy, attempting to devour its demonic essence to ascend in one step.
"I must thank Lord Demon God for imparting your demonic essence. I feel much stronger than before now."
Gu Junshi's words of thanks were infuriatingly casual.
But they also confirmed for the Demon God that its evaluation and judgment of Gu Junshi were absolutely correct.
Since she wouldn't be controlled, it should certainly show her the gap between them, lest she truly believe she could shake a tree with a shrimp's strength.
A black hole began to expand, and within it, a Demon God, its bones emaciated and its red and blue sinews exposed, imprisoned for thousands upon thousands of years, stood unyielding in the void. Its pressure was more terrifying than the Heavenly Dao's might.
It extended a hand that was merely bone and sinew, and with a wave, it declared: "Break!"
The fractured void and chaotic space came to a halt.
"Even if you have become an immortal, so what? I am an ancient Demon God!"