092 The Myriad Transformation Demon Sect

After beheading the Golden Core elder on Spirit Devouring Island, Pang Yue made his way back to the transmission isle that the Magic Talisman Sect had established in the outer seas.

That day, when he was still a hundred li from the transmission isle, someone blocked his path.

The man looked utterly ordinary, dressed in coarse homespun cloth like an old farmer, standing on a pale auspicious cloud as he smiled warmly at Pang Yue.

The instant Pang Yue saw him, a strange sense of familiarity welled up within him.

"Huiding?" he said, his expression darkening at once.

This demon monk truly was everywhere.

No one knew how many incarnations he had, or where they were hidden. Perhaps even within the Magic Talisman Sect itself, one of his incarnations lay concealed...

"It is indeed this poor monk. Benefactor Pang has made quite a name for himself on Spirit Devouring Island. I hear you even slew one Golden Core elder?"

Huiding's incarnation spoke with a mild smile, entirely unmoved by the killing intent rolling off Pang Yue.

This incarnation was only at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and the spiritual pressure it radiated suggested no formidable secret arts at all. With Pang Yue's current strength, he could kill it in the blink of an eye.

Curious, Pang Yue asked, "What is your purpose in blocking my way, Fellow Daoist? Why not speak plainly?"

Huiding replied at an unhurried pace, "Has Benefactor ever heard of the Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect?"

Pang Yue paused, then shook his head. "I have not. What guidance do you have for me, Fellow Daoist?"

Huiding gave a carefree laugh and looked at Pang Yue. "I would hardly presume to offer guidance. The poor monk wishes to reestablish the Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect. I wonder whether Fellow Daoist would be willing to join my demon sect as an elder?"

"Are you making a joke, Fellow Daoist?"

Pang Yue was first stunned, then laughed.

"I come from the Magic Talisman Sect, and I am a true disciple besides. What benefit would I gain by going to your Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect?"

Huiding shook his head and said, "It seems Benefactor truly knows nothing of my Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect..."

He gave a long sigh and said calmly, "The Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect descends from antiquity, taking the meaning of the Heavenly Demon's endless transformations. The founding scripture of our sect, the Heavenly Demon Ten Thousand Transformations Profound Change Sutra, is something that may truly be called earthshaking and ancient."

"Though our sect has been passed down uninterrupted from ancient times, it has remained little known. Do you know why?"

Pang Yue frowned, vaguely guessing that the sect's cultivation art was one that seized the bodies, power, and souls of other cultivators, refining them into its own incarnations.

It was much like the Heavenly Demon Dao-Seizing Method, only its targets were not heavenly demons, but cultivators!

Huiding said, "Because in this world, every sect, whether orthodox or demonic, is the mountain gate of my Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect."

"All cultivators of the world, all sect inheritances, all treasures, are nothing but resources for my sect's cultivation."

"Even your Magic Talisman Sect was founded by one of our elders!"

"The Chaotic Mysterious Magic Talisman Secret Canon was merely derived by studying the Heavenly Demon Ten Thousand Transformations Profound Change Sutra."

Just those few short sentences sent Pang Yue's thoughts into turmoil.

There was such a sect in the world?

This was the true bearing of a demonic sect.

Pang Yue's gaze flickered. After a long moment, he asked, "Why choose me?"

Huiding smiled gently. "Because you are strong. But if you remain only in the Magic Talisman Sect, then the day you rise to Golden Core may well be the day you perish."

Pang Yue gave a cold snort and fixed him with a blade-sharp gaze.

"It seems you know quite a lot, Fellow Daoist."

Huiding said, "To tell the truth, poor monk has incarnations in both the Heavenly Zen Sect and the Heavenly Demon Sect. Your conflict with Ping Taiyan happened to come to my attention not long ago."

"My incarnation there broke through to Golden Core in recent years and became one of the ten great demon sons of the Heavenly Demon Sect."

"That Ping Taiyan is the common enemy of both you and me. If we do not join forces, then within three hundred years he will likely attain the Primordial Spirit realm."

Pang Yue asked in surprise, "He is even stronger than you?"

"He is born for demonic cultivation. I admit I am inferior," Huiding said without the slightest change of expression.

Pang Yue considered it in silence for a while, then suddenly asked, "What constraints, or dangers, come with becoming an elder of the Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect?"

Huiding smiled. "There are no constraints. It is only that once it is known you cultivate the Heavenly Demon Ten Thousand Transformations Profound Change Sutra, I fear the world will have no place left for you."

"How many are in the sect at present?"

Pang Yue asked again.

Huiding replied, "Counting Benefactor, just two."

Pang Yue: "..."

"If Junior Brother agrees, I will teach you the demon scripture at once. In the future, you will help me shoulder the task of restoring our sect's former glory."

Huiding looked at Pang Yue expectantly.

Pang Yue suddenly smiled. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Good! I knew Junior Brother would not refuse me!"

Huiding immediately changed his manner of address and clapped his hands with delight.

As he spoke, he produced a scroll of scripture and tossed it toward Pang Yue.

Pang Yue reached out and caught it. With a sweep of his divine sense, he saw densely packed lines recording an extraordinarily profound inheritance within the text.

Huiding continued, "Poor monk still has another great gift for Junior Brother."

With a sweep of his sleeve, clouds formed in empty air, carrying an unconscious cultivator toward Pang Yue.

Huiding said, "In the East Sea, the only sects worthy of my attention are the Heavenly Demon Sect, the Heavenly Zen Sect, and the Heavenly Sword Sect. I already have incarnations in the first two. Junior Brother's sword arts are profound, so you ought to go to the Heavenly Sword Sect."

"If you do not wish to be treated by Ping Taiyan as a calamity to be cut down, then you had best hurry and master the Heavenly Sword Sect's peerless sword arts. At the very least, you will have some means of preserving your life."

The meaning was plain enough: Ping Taiyan came from the Heavenly Demon Sect, and only a sect inheritance of the same level could contend with him.

Pang Yue looked at Huiding, pointed at the unconscious man at his feet, and asked, "This man is from the Heavenly Sword Sect?"

"Indeed."

Huiding nodded.

Three days later.

On a desolate island in the outer seas, Pang Yue slowly withdrew his power. The demon qi around him shifted and changed, elusive and unstable.

"The Heavenly Demon Ten Thousand Transformations Profound Change Sutra... truly is even more wondrous than the Magic Talisman Secret Canon!"

He could not help but sigh.

This demon scripture seemed to possess the power to seize the very workings of heaven and earth. The demon qi it refined could birth limitless transformations and imitate all manner of powers.

It could even corrupt cultivators and seize everything they possessed for its own use.

Compared with the Chaotic Mysterious Magic Talisman Secret Canon, this demon scripture lacked nothing in the ferocity of the Heavenly Demon Dao-Seizing Method. On the contrary, it was almost gentle and safe.

As long as one subdued the opponent, one could unleash the power of corruption and take everything from them:

body, soul, mana, even talent and memory.

No wonder Huiding had said that the cultivators of the Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect used all sects and all cultivators under heaven as their own resources.

Even the Magic Talisman Sect had been created by a Ten Thousand Transformations Demon Sect elder in person.

He glanced at the young man not far away and fell into thought.

This man's bone age was only a little over thirty, yet his cultivation had already reached the fourth stage of Foundation Establishment.

To cultivate to such a level in barely more than thirty years... compared to him, Pang Yue's own true body was simply...

Whether in his past life or this one, the saying "comparison is the thief of joy" had always seemed like an unshakable truth.

Pang Yue did not know whether agreeing to Huiding's proposal was simply walking into the jaws of a tiger.

But one thing was crystal clear to him:

In the contest for the Great Dao, there was no second road to take.

Only by gambling everything could one win even a sliver of life.

He was Ping Taiyan's tribulation.

And was Ping Taiyan not also his tribulation?

Since he had the "qualifications" to become Ping Taiyan's tribulation, did that not also prove, from another angle, that he had the potential to threaten Ping Taiyan?

Only when this calamity of his had fully matured would Ping Taiyan emerge to "meet the tribulation."

But what he wanted was not merely maturity.

He wanted to transform into the other's death tribulation.