The Eternal Way-Chapter 192 : Demons

The first level of the Five-Tiered Pagoda.

It has been a full eight double-hour periods since Li Qi arrived here.

Li Qi was observing the 108 demonic heads, his expression one of rapture and deep absorption, unable to tear himself away.

He had even forgotten that he was in danger now.

Too... too wonderful.

Each of the 108 demonic heads possessed different techniques, methods, Dao, spiritual powers, forms, and emphases.

It seemed as if thoroughly studying these 108 demonic heads could reveal a path straight to the heavens!

Li Qi's curiosity, his desire for knowledge, were all fully ignited by these demonic heads.

It felt like he was back in school, not having to worry about office politics or interpersonal intrigues, only needing to immerse himself completely in solving the problems at hand to gain the greatest sense of achievement and praise from everyone.

Li Qi had already studied up to the fifty-second demonic head.

His eyes held nothing but deeper mysteries, and it seemed he had begun to understand the Six Realms of Rebirth.

With each secret and puzzle solved, his heart became clearer and more tranquil, joy increasing bit by bit, while his curiosity grew stronger.

He truly wished he could keep researching forever.

Just keep going.

If he continued his research, he would be able to clearly understand the marked characteristics on the basis of dependent origination, thereby understanding all phenomena without characteristics.

If he continued his research, he would be able to clearly understand the characteristics based on dependent origination, thereby understanding all contaminated phenomena.

If he continued his research, he would be able to clearly understand the perfected reality, thereby understanding all pure phenomena.

If he continued his research, he would be able to clearly understand the unmarked phenomena based on dependent origination, thereby eliminating all contaminated phenomena. By eliminating all contaminated phenomena, he would attain all pure phenomena.

Such is the root of virtue.

By clearly understanding all unmarked phenomena, contaminated phenomena, and pure phenomena, and through the understanding of unmarked phenomena, eliminating all contaminated phenomena, and attaining all pure phenomena...

A flash of enlightenment rose in Li Qi's heart.

Then, he attained a fruit position, known as the Bodhisattva Skilled in All Dharmas' Characteristics.

As long as he kept solving the puzzles before him, uncovering the true nature of these demonic heads, understanding their techniques, methods, and Dao, then great achievements lay right ahead.

Just keep going.

Just keep going.

Time ticked by, and Li Qi had even forgotten time was passing; he didn't know how long it had been.

Seventy-five heads.

Eighty-two heads.

One hundred and three heads.

Until finally, the one hundred and eighth head.

Li Qi walked up to this last demonic head.

Once he analyzed this final one, he would be able...

To break the first demonic head.

With clear eyes, Li Qi stepped forward, releasing the previously suppressed consciousness, the power of true Dao resonance manifesting at this moment.

Runic lights flashed around, and Li Qi placed a hand on the statue of the demonic head.

Suddenly, the statue came alive!

It was an ugly demonic head, emitting a decaying odor, its emaciated body covered with leather-like black skin. Behind its protruding ears, a massive curved horn rose from its skull. A mouth filled with jagged teeth took up half of its hideous face.

Its hands and feet were long and slender, and wherever its sharp fingers pointed, an inexplicable energy spread out, causing all of Li Qi's curiosity and thirst for knowledge to erupt at this moment!

The accumulated mental demons of 107 heads had amassed unprecedented strength!

Energy streams were forcibly drawn from Li Qi's nostrils and mouth.

Li Qi's pupils instantly turned dead white, like cataracts.

His 'curiosity', 'thirst for knowledge', and 'memory' were forcibly extracted at this moment!

The energy streams converged into a sphere in the demonic head's hand, which it swallowed whole.

Then—

The demonic head started bleeding from the nose uncontrollably, trembling violently, letting out a painful scream.

Unbearable pain surged in its heart, spreading over its body!

Its skin cracked open, intense pain surging, as if boiling water had been poured into its belly, scalding its internal organs! Then, scorching molten iron was poured into the wounds, burning the flesh and organs! It felt as if it were truly in a sea of lava and fire!

"Ahhh—" It couldn't help but cry out in pain, kneeling on the ground, tearing at its skin!

But in an instant,

All the pain suddenly vanished.

Because the demonic head's skull exploded like a watermelon.

Beside it, Li Qi took a deep breath, returning to normal.

He opened his eyes with a bitter smile: "This was just one demonic head? It still needed to take a risk, actively swallowing my Dao resonance, getting itself overwhelmed."

Yes, among the 108 demonic heads, he spent an entire day to finally analyze one.

This also allowed him to master some Buddhist techniques.

And it was through the true Dao resonance that he mastered them.

"Desire demon, not just evil thoughts, but capable of devouring my memories, stimulating my deepest desires. If it weren't for the true Dao resonance, I might have really fallen here,"

Li Qi shook his head and sighed.

To achieve balance, one must first understand the specific situation.

Earlier, using the restored true Dao resonance for reasons unknown, Li Qi discovered that he could analyze the weaknesses, powers, and the forces they represented behind these demonic heads.

Yes, the forces they represented.

These demonic heads seemed to be merely... tentacles.

Li Qi wasn't sure if this description was appropriate, but from the perspective of true Dao resonance, these demonic heads were merely extensions of some great existence.

Such tentacles, countless in number, are branches of that great existence.

Analyzing these demonic heads is essentially analyzing that great existence itself.

Therefore, the difficulty and danger were especially high.

In analyzing this desire demon, Li Qi risked his life, gradually incorporating these demonic thoughts into his mind, and made a final counterattack.

Before this, he was truly deceived, truly immersed in false satisfaction, basking in the accomplishment of fulfilling his thirst for knowledge.

Even Li Qi's willpower couldn't resist; only by relying on the backup plan of Dao resonance could he triumph.

And there were a total of 108 such demonic heads.

No wonder Chan Zhi the monk went mad.

After all, these demonic heads had already been killed and eaten by Chan Zhi.

Using the Heart-Eating Method, he consumed 108 demonic heads.

The demonic heads remaining here are merely the deeply rooted demonic thoughts in Chan Zhi's Buddha-heart.

Li Qi seemed to have won one, but in reality, the statues of demonic heads here were still 108.

Demonic thoughts deeply rooted in Chan Zhi's Buddha-heart mean that as long as Chan Zhi lives, the demonic heads exist.

And if the demonic heads die, Chan Zhi probably cannot survive either.

Quite a dilemma.

No wonder he even had to travel from the Western Paradise to the Baiyue region just to seek the natural balance of the witchcraft.

Perhaps Venerable Chan Zhi had no other options.

"Truly, it's too difficult," Li Qi rubbed his temples.

His original plan was to analyze these demons to understand Venerable Chan Zhi himself.

Because these demonic thoughts had already merged with Chan Zhi, if he could thoroughly understand these demonic thoughts, not only would he accumulate a great deal of knowledge and insight, but he would also uncover Chan Zhi's weaknesses.

Then, it would be the time to turn the tables.

However, Li Qi underestimated the difficulty of this task.

Venerable Chan Zhi must have foreseen this, which is why he allowed Li Qi to undertake this task.

Li Qi simply did not have the ability to accomplish this in a short period of time.

"I'll check, it's already been... eight hours. Let's rest for now." Li Qi shook his head, sat down, and took out some dried meat and provisions from his storage bag. He condensed water droplets from the air, then used his fire control to boil them, making a pot of dried meat porridge to eat.

After eating, he began to sleep.

Anyway, there was plenty of time, and he had already made preparations. All that was left was to protect himself and wait for rescue.

Before that, he would see what he could do.

Li Qi started to sleep.

Time passed. Although there was a sand timer in the tower for timekeeping, without the sun or moon, it didn't matter when he slept.

However, just as he was sleeping soundly, Li Qi suddenly felt something was wrong.

The sixth sense of the witchcraft was wildly disturbed!

Wave after wave of premonitions urged him to wake up, to wake up!

Li Qi immediately obeyed his inner instincts and opened his eyes.

But when he woke up, he found that the surroundings had changed.

The ground beneath his feet felt so insubstantial, no longer solid, but rather...

The intestines of some creature?

The entire passage was the intestine of some creature, filled with a yellow-green, viscous substance, possibly gastric juices, emitting a nauseating stench.

The surroundings had completely changed. The large intestine-like passage was rapidly writhing, emitting a yellow-green gas that caused Li Qi's body to feel a sharp pain.

He was being digested!

"Damn it!" Li Qi cursed, waving his hands, and two golden auras immediately pierced out.

This time, there were no flashy golden lines.

The residual images of the golden lines were a result of poor control. Now, with his primordial spirit, Li Qi had reached an extreme level of control, so the golden lines disappeared, but the speed increased by a full thirty percent!

The golden auras tore through the organs, and Li Qi flew out of the creature's belly.

He didn't know when he had been swallowed.

But just as he emerged, he saw a terrifying sight.

Indescribable, numerous, and bizarre monsters.

Low growls and roars came from all directions, and the sound of sharp claws and scales scraping the ground was particularly grating.

Blood and flesh splattered, and the pagoda had become a revolting place.

Limbs were scattered everywhere, and the ground was covered with a substance similar to blood and mucus, as if infants were playing with the monster's bodily fluids as paint.

The one hundred and eight demons were alive!

The one hundred and eight arhat statues, their golden bodies now dull, were enveloped in a corrupting aura, their power diminished, and they were now suppressed by the demons!

Li Qi was now in the midst of these living demons.

He had just torn through a demon's belly and emerged.

As soon as he landed, he saw one hundred and seven demons staring at him with slanted eyes.

They looked at each other, large eyes staring at small eyes.

Li Qi's face immediately fell.

Golden auras flickered!

Numerous tentacles flew towards him, and Li Qi reacted quickly, dodging and rolling to avoid dozens of tentacles in an instant.

At the same time, two golden auras began to spin, cutting off more than a dozen tentacles.

The monsters' roars echoed around!

The demons were chasing after Li Qi!

Li Qi's face turned grim. The first level of the pagoda was covered in mucus, emitting a deathly stench.

Even a fool could see that it was toxic, and he couldn't stay here any longer.

As he cut through more demons, their wounds oozed a mustard-like green blood.

Li Qi could see countless piles of flesh, swollen and deformed, no longer resembling human forms, just meatballs covered in human faces.

His attacks seemed to pain them, causing the human faces on the meatballs to scream, making the scene even more horrifying.

The monsters continued to howl, and Li Qi fled through them, looking desperate.

Second floor! The goal was the second floor!

Only the second floor could save him!

Although these demons were subdued by Chan Zhi during his Ninth Rank period, each one was at the Ninth Rank level. If it were just one or two, he could fight them.

One hundred and eight, forget it.

Wait to die!

The only way out was the second floor!

The second floor was Chan Zhi's Bodhisattva heart, formed after subduing the one hundred and eight demons.

Only there was safe!

Fortunately, the pagoda, though large, had its limits, only a couple of hundred meters in any direction.

Li Qi, already a skilled expert at the Ninth Rank, quickly broke through the demons' encirclement under the protection of the golden auras and rushed to the second level.

The entire escape took only a few seconds, but Li Qi had narrowly escaped multiple times.

Over a hundred demons each displayed their unique abilities, nearly pinning Li Qi to the spot.

"Damn... It's a good thing I didn't abandon my martial arts cultivation, or I would have been done for here." Li Qi, having narrowly escaped, looked down at the scene below with relief.

Below, it was still a terrifying sight of a hundred ghosts roaming at night.

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But the second level was radiant and peaceful.

"This pagoda is a manifestation of Venerable Chan Zhi's cultivation... From this, it's clear that Chan Zhi's condition is very serious." Li Qi muttered to himself.

This pagoda, at night, actually had the ghosts overpowering the arhats!

Would the next step be the ghosts overwhelming the Bodhisattva hall?

As soon as this thought crossed Li Qi's mind, he saw the Buddha light on the second floor flicker.

Then, the Bodhisattva statue shed blood tears.

The white Bodhisattva statue turned red and white.

The surrounding Buddha light began to flicker wildly, like a broken light bulb.

Li Qi couldn't help but shiver, cold sweat pouring down his back.

He hurriedly sped up, climbing four levels to the fifth level.

Below was no longer safe!

But just as he reached the fifth level,

Venerable Chan Zhi was gone.

In his place was a seated demon god.

His oily, terrifying body breathed heavily in the air, and countless tentacles with hooks and suction cups replaced his lower body.

These writhing tentacles, like maggots, each had a human face, filled with cruel distortion, but surprisingly, a hint of clarity.

This demon god now looked at the approaching Li Qi with malevolent eyes.

Li Qi's body stiffened, his hair standing on end, his heart skipping a beat.

This is bad.