Chapter 1254: Winged Lion Demon Beast’s Breakthrough and a Familiar Demonic Cultivator
After asking around the sect for a bit, he discovered that the winged lion demon beast had also gone to the border to help face off against the demonic cultivators, as a few powerful ones too difficult for Chu Yang to deal with had shown up during the time he had been in secluded cultivation.
In turn, this sudden pressure from fighting against the demonic cultivators had allowed the winged lion demon beast that had already been at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm to smoothly break through to the Soul Ascension Realm without any problems.
The sudden growth in strength not only gave the winged lion demon beast a renewed sense of confidence when it came to competing against a certain rabbit demon beast that had taken its spot as the number one demon beast in the Star Shattering Sect, but also caused it to focus more seriously on its cultivation instead of just lazing around inside the sect like it had done before.
Although the hope of it surpassing the rabbit demon beast was close to nonexistent considering that the rabbit demon beast was far more talented and also had a special bloodline helping further enhance its talent for cultivation, Xuan Hao was still happy to see that the winged lion demon beast had started to work hard for the sect.
At the same time, as he looked into information on the current situation of the winged lion demon beast, he also found out about the current situation of the sect’s borders.
Learning that although the situation could be considered under control at the current moment, with the number of deaths among the elders and disciples being limited, he also learnt that things were different before the winged lion demon beast had gone to the border.
Apparently, a demonic cultivator at the Pinnacle of the Third Demonic Transformation Realm had appeared just a short time after he had entered secluded cultivation and caused close to a thousand deaths among the disciples and elders participating in dealing with the demonic cultivators.
Although only around a hundred of these were from the Star Shattering Sect with the rest of them being from the different independent sects, it was still a significant loss that ended up causing Feng Chen to ask for the winged lion demon beast’s help as Chu Yang and the rest of the Domain Lord Realm cultivators prevented this demonic cultivator from causing any more damage.
In the end, the winged lion demon beast rushed over and engaged in a massive battle with the demonic cultivator that dragged on for two days and nights before the demonic cultivator chose to escape with his tail between his legs.
It was precisely this battle that had allowed the winged lion demon beast to push past it limits and undergo the first tribulation and reach the Soul Ascension Realm in less than a day.
However, the most shocking thing was not the fact that the winged lion demon beast had managed to break through to the Soul Ascension Realm. After all, it had been stuck at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm for a long time and only needed a small push to break through.
Instead, it was the fact that the demonic cultivator returned only a day after the winged lion demon beast’s breakthrough. Having also managed to break through himself, reaching the True Demon Realm.
After a bit more investigation in the form of paying Elder Song a visit, Xuan Hao learnt that the powerful demonic cultivators that the winged lion demon beast fought off on an almost daily basis since it broke through to the Soul Ascension Realm weren’t different demonic cultivators, but instead the same one that had just broken through to the True Demon Realm!
Not just that, but he also learnt about the identity of the demonic cultivator, Su Wuhan, the former ruler of the Azure Sky Kingdom that was now part of the Star Shattering Sect’s territory, a person that he hadn’t heard about in a long time since his sudden disappearance following the fall of the Azure Sky Kingdom.
“I never expected that guy to have become a demonic cultivator. Not to mention, one at the True Demon Realm… After all, he should have only been around the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm during his time as the ruler of the Azure Sky Kingdom” Shaking his head as he quietly muttered this to himself while making his way back from Elder Song’s courtyard, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of understanding towards those choosing to follow the demonic path.
Going from someone who was merely the king of a small kingdom under the massive Sky Empire to a powerful demonic cultivator at the True Demon Realm, comparable to the pinnacle experts of a power like the Sky Empire, it was obvious why so many people decided to willingly become demonic cultivators.
After all, though the life of a demonic cultivator was fraught with dangers around every corner and was even more precarious than an ordinary wandering cultivator. Living each day on the edge of a knife where one wrong step would result in death by having all of their cultivation absorb by another demonic cultivator or being hunted down by powerful cultivators seeking to kill them the moment they left the Frozen Wasteland, there was a clear benefit compared to following the orthodox path.
No requirement for talent.
No need to spend years stuck at a bottleneck not knowing when an opportunity to breakthrough would appear.
All one needed was to follow the demonic path and devour the essence of other living beings to increase one’s own strength until one reached the True Demon Realm and transformed into a true demon.
After that, it was also simple to grow, as one just had to continue devouring the cultivation of others.
The Dao requirement for reaching higher realms? Simple! Just continue slaughtering others and you will naturally comprehend the Dao of Slaughter! Devour others and you will comprehend the related Dao and so on… The demonic path was truly simple and straightforward. Nothing complicated about it.
At least, that was from what Xuan Hao knew about the demonic cultivation at the moment. Maybe it would be different for higher realms.
After all, if it was really that simple to progress by going down the demonic path, the demonic cultivators wouldn’t have been suppressed to the Frozen Wasteland and other similar wastelands. Unable to leave without facing the fierce suppression of the different major powers at the core of the continent.
“Hm… Maybe the thing limiting demonic cultivators is related to their mental state? Perhaps the further they progress, the more their mental state deteriorate until they lose control and become no different from mindless demonic beasts attacking everything in sight…” Muttering this to himself as he arrived back at his cultivation room, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that this made sense.
Not to mention it wasn’t without any proof, as it was a well-known fact that demonic cultivators tended to go insane if they couldn’t improve their strength fast enough and were overwhelmed by their own inner demons.
Of course, this wasn’t something unique to demonic cultivators and could also happen to normal cultivators who experienced qi divination and either gave birth to inner demons or already had some residing inside them that similarly overwhelmed them and transformed them into mindless demons.
Though, compared to demonic cultivators, this kind of thing was rather rare and didn’t happen often.
Even a sect the size of the Star Shattering Sect with hundreds of thousands of cultivators residing in and around the sect, didn’t have more than one or two such incidents a year… And most of these incidents could be solved without killing the affect party by forcibly suppressing the inner demon with overwhelming strength.
Although the cultivation of the other party would essentially be destroyed by doing something like this, at least they would be alive and had another chance at becoming cultivators in the future if they could overcome their inner demons.
In the worst-case scenario where an inner demon became a mental demon, there would be no choice but to kill the other party before it had a chance to grow, something that was understood by both normal cultivators and demonic cultivators alike, as a mental demon was seen as a disaster by both.
Quite ironic considering that demonic cultivators behaved in the same manner as a mental demon in most circumstances.
But then again, the demonic cultivators could still talk among each other and establish their own sects and powers in the Frozen Wasteland. Engaging in some form of trade and teaching younger demonic cultivators.
Even if the ultimate end goal of most of these sects and powers in the Frozen Wasteland was to rear a large number of decently strong demonic cultivators for the powerful demonic cultivators in charge to devour and increase their own strength without having to risk their life hunting down other demonic cultivators on their own…
