Chapter 178: Inner Demon 2.0

The Illusory Realm was a peculiar place. Li Si always found it deeply mysterious.

It was supposed to correspond to the present world, but if one truly entered with their soul, there was no sense of it being “illusory” at all. It felt solid underfoot; everything they touched felt tangible.

Apart from being excessively dark, the sensory experience was no different from the present world.

Except for one thing: physical bodies couldn’t enter.

If an immensely powerful physical body truly forced its way into the Illusory Realm, it essentially had to “squeeze” through.

Like Jiuxuanzi, or those three Veteran Deities and Demons, the Old Dragon — they all possessed potent physical forms and could navigate the illusory void. But they weren’t truly in it; they were squeezing through it.

The concept was like tossing a stone into water; it wasn’t really going in.

Their physical bodies could only be considered tiny, moveable fragments of the present world.

Conversely, when souls entered the Illusory Realm, they truly dissolved into it, like into water.

Understanding this concept helped grasp the nature of the Illusory Realm. Here, towering mountains pierced the sky, ruins dotted the landscape, and the gray earth could even be dug into by hand, yielding actual soil.

Naturally, souls existed here in a corporeal form: with hands, feet, and flesh that felt real to the touch, even radiating warmth.

Soul Lamps, which could be ignited, could strengthen this kind of body.

Peach Hill loomed ahead, already in a state of full alert. The hillsides blazed with peach blossoms, a fiery spectacle. From afar, it looked like a vast volcano, countless petals swirling, countless roots writhing across the ground. High above Peach Hill, a colossal peach tree, hundreds of miles thick and thousands of miles tall, began to manifest. Then, gazing across the high sky for tens of thousands of miles, all was overshadowed by its enormous canopy.

Innumerable branches and leaves vanished into the darkness, sealing off an area tens of thousands of miles wide. Hanging within were pure, silvery-white peach fruits as large as the moon, casting a soft glow. Staring at them too long brought an overwhelming wave of drowsiness.

Furthermore, 108 giant peach blossoms hung in different positions, constantly evolving different illusions.

This truly was a Peach Blossom Evil God, strength no less than that of the Devil Mushroom Evil God.

Even Zhao Qingxie felt a sliver of fear within her at this moment.

But Li Si charged forward incredibly fast. He leapt onto Peach Hill, unleashed his Soul Fire, and in one breath incinerated countless Peach Blossom Evil Spirits and Peach Blossom Demons. These weakest-tier Evil Entities couldn’t even struggle before the Soul Fire.

This instantly enraged the Peach Blossom Ancestor. Its massive form shuddered lightly. The 108 blossoms shifted, and countless petals cascaded down like rain. It looked incredibly beautiful, but to Li Si and Zhao Qingxie, it was rancid chunks of flesh, entrails, and bones plummeting from the sky.

Amidst this filth and gore, countless naked men and women, each breathtakingly beautiful and radiating sacred purity, suddenly appeared, engaged in passionate copulation.

Then, the men exploded. The women exploded. From each burst emerged a blood-red, shimmering bead. Three thousand six hundred in total.

As these beads appeared, Zhao Qingxie paled. White fur instantly sprouted across her entire body. But the next second, she manifested her Immortal Artifact, washing herself with supreme bolts of lightning, restoring her normal state.

Simultaneously, Li Si was also shocked. The aberrant corruption from these beads even extinguished his Soul Fire, completely overwhelming it.

In the blink of an eye, his Soul Fire, which had covered three thousand miles, was snuffed out.

Utterly unable to withstand it.

Then, he found small, emerald-green sprouts bursting from his own form…

“The Peach Blossom Holy Sons descend. You have suffered one hundred thousand percent Soul Alienation Contamination. You have become the carrier for the Peach Blossom Holy Sons. All your Soul Power has been devoured.”

In a daze, Li Si felt as if he had transformed into a giant peach tree. Three thousand six hundred hazy somethings were draining his essence; he was being sucked dry…

But the next second, a terrifying ocean of lightning violently tore through this illusion. A tide of silver-white radiance swept through, annihilating those three thousand six hundred beads.

Like hell, Peach Blossom Holy Sons! I only like actual peaches.

Li Si’s Soul Fire reignited, undiminished. More than that, once the Soul Fire burned anew, the Soul Alienation Contamination he had just suffered was completely cleansed.

Hmph. My Soul Power is limitless.

Come on! Fight me if you dare!

3600 Peach Blossom Holy Sons slain. 3600 Peach Remnant Exuviae obtained. 360,000 points of Cyan Firewood obtained.

Oh ho! Such generous little pests.

“Are you alright?” Zhao Qingxie asked anxiously. She had sensed the immense evil of those beads. Even with her Immortal Artifact, she could barely protect herself here in the Illusory Realm. She was about to try and aid Li Si, but before she could turn around, the fight was over.

Was this the true power of a Heavenly Eye Spirit Cultivator?

“I’m fine. Protect yourself.” Li Si felt exhilarated. With Soul Fire and the Lightning Sea taking turns scouring the area, large parts of Peach Hill were melting.

High above, another shower of petals began to fall. Then, thirty-six thousand beads manifested. A terrifying Aberrant Corruption, more potent than before, swept out, seemingly intent on draining Li Si and Zhao Qingxie dry in one go.

The Soul Fire and the Lightning Sea were swallowed, drained dry in an instant. This was an unavoidable ultimate strike, equivalent to draining a billion points of Soul Power in one go.

Without Soul Power shielding him, Li Si, the supposed Heavenly Eye Spirit Cultivator, would simply die.

In that instant, even Zhao Qingxie, protected by her Immortal Artifact, struggled to endure. White fur started sprouting again; she rapidly turned towards becoming a furry peach…

But Li Si only sneered.

Time to show ’em.

A normal Heavenly Eye level Spirit Cultivator, whose Soul Power cap was only around a hundred million points, would be instantly overwhelmed by this ten billion point drain. Anyone else would be sucked dry, turned into medicinal waste.

Yet, Li Si not only filled the gap of the missing one billion Soul Power instantly, he even had time to casually refill himself with another ten billion points.

An even more terrifying wave of Soul Fire erupted!

An even more horrifying Lightning Sea swept everything before it!

He paid no heed to the Peach Blossom Ancestor’s canopy stretching tens of thousands of miles. Li Si poured all his energy into scorching and attacking Peach Hill itself. Everyone knew where the vital energy gathered: at the roots, the essence.

Unsurprisingly, faced with this furious counterattack, the thirty-six thousand Peach Blossom Holy Sons, who had just drained ten billion points, crisply turned into Peach Remnant Exuviae.

Thirty-six thousand Peach Remnant Exuviae acquired. And 3,600,000 (three million six hundred thousand) points of Cyan Firewood.

Equivalent to 3.6 portions of Purple Qi Luck.

Combined with the previous wave, he’d now earned a total of 4 portions of Purple Qi Luck.

At this rate of earning money, and with so many friends on his contact list, what was there to fear from any calamity?

Zhao Qingxie, watching from behind, was utterly dumbfounded. Even if she’d never met a Heavenly Eye level Spirit Cultivator, she could roughly grasp something: in that moment, protected only by her Immortal Artifact, she could have barely lasted seconds. The Peach Blossom Ancestor was absolutely an Evil God Level being.

Yet, Li Si had casually thwarted it.

It was utterly shocking.

So much for helping. She had effectively become a spectator.

In that brief time, at least a third of Peach Hill had become molten slag or been obliterated, revealing densely tangled peach tree roots beneath. These primary roots, many kilometers thick themselves, wriggled and twisted frantically, radiating Soul Corruption incessantly. Each primary peach root, placed outside, would correspond to at least a Void Evil Immortal level entity, emitting Soul Alienation Contamination levels exceeding five thousand percent.

And yet, Li Si attacked them relentlessly with Soul Fire, Soul Lightning, blocking, pursuing, and utterly eradicating them. The issue wasn’t just the destructiveness of his attacks.

It was… How much Soul Power could he possibly have to squander so extravagantly?

What would happen when his Soul Power finally ran dry?!

Now, it was clear the Peach Blossom Ancestor was banking on exactly this. It endured its losses. It sacrificed primary roots willingly, all to entrap Li Si and Zhao Qingxie. Their retreat route was already cut off.

Furthermore, it still produced Peach Blossom Holy Sons unceasingly. The sole goal: deplete Li Si’s Soul Power.

Meanwhile, outside the battlefield on Peach Hill, the Phantom Bride Xia Xiaowan watched silently. After a long while, she casually summoned a duplicate of herself, another Phantom Bride.

“Go tell the Peach Blossom Ancestor,” she instructed it, “that Li Si very likely possesses a Spirit Cultivator’s Divine Artifact capable of infinitely restoring Soul Power. Tell it not to rely on attrition tactics. That’s how the Death Grasping Vine got played to death.”

“I truly underestimated him. To think such a little thing has become such a disturbance! Now he’s suffused with Calamity Qi; attempting to deduce his origins is impossible. However… there might be a way…”

Soon, within Peach Hill, the Peach Blossom Ancestor abruptly changed tactics. In an instant, all sound vanished. Even all the primary roots became inert objects, utterly motionless. The entire place truly resembled a desolate hill. At the peak of this desolate hill, a lone ancient peach tree blossomed, silhouetted against a bright, round moon. Its cold white light washed down, lending an ethereal beauty.

Li Si and Zhao Qingxie found themselves tugged up this hill, utterly unable to resist.

Here, Li Si’s Soul Fire and Soul Lightning were completely unusable. They tried racing towards the peak, but the ancient peach tree at the summit remained visible yet maddeningly out of reach.

“Daydream!” Zhao Qingxie, far more knowledgeable than Li Si, cried out instantly.

But the next moment, Li Si shoved a few Dream-Passing Spirit Pills into her mouth.

He stuffed several down his own throat immediately. He had heard of a place called Daydream too, from Shendanzi. It was said to be one of the ten most baffling anomalies within the Mist.

It defied clear description. Even Spirit Cultivator techniques were useless once trapped within. It had taken the Heaven-Mending Sect two generations and hundreds of thousands of years to create the Dream-Passing Spirit Pills, offering just a sliver of resistance.

Now, having consumed the pills, Li Si and Zhao Qingxie instantly perceived a distinct gray line weaving through the absurd dreamscape. Following this line led them swiftly out of the Daydream.

But matters were clearly not so simple. At the exact moment Li Si escaped the Daydream, he saw himself. Another him. And that other Li Si turned his head and offered him a broad, terribly cheerful grin.

The next instant, however, he regained full control over his own soul.

Just one stark piece of information remained, burning in his mind:

You entered Daydream. Your soul nurtured an Inner Demon. It knows everything you know. It commands everything you command.

Li Si whipped his head around to look at Zhao Qingxie. She smiled back at him, utterly bewitching.

Hellfire… This time I’ve really kicked a gigantic hornet’s nest.