Due to the fact that he was in a new body, the demonic aura emanating from Luo Yao's body was pretty much expanding through the air without control and shaking up the entire void in the process.
Even though he was no longer out of control, the demonic energies coming from Luo Yao were still messy and disorganized. His sense of self and ident.i.ty was in a state of chaos, and he was also fearful of the sudden and unexpected change in events.
All the people still alive in the East Sea within the proximity of the Luofu Mystical Islands, be it cultivators or normal citizens, had blood on their hands. This was because they resided near the border between the worlds, and humans and demons were in a constant state of conflict.
The constant feuding compounded upon each other and they treated one another with increasing suspicion.
From Luo Yao's own experience, even though he did not have any unspeakable bad blood with the demons, he had grown up hating and fighting against them. Luo Yao himself had killed small demons at the Qi cultivation stage before.
His sudden conversion and rebirth into a demon gave him mixed feelings. He had always been calm and composed, but now he was feeling worried and frightened even. What made him even more uncomfortable was the fact that he had no clue why such a thing had happened to him.
All the bits and pieces that flashed through his mind previously were disconnected and made it all the more difficult for him to chain his thoughts together rationally.
The entire group of dragons kneeling beneath his feet did not give him a sense of satisfaction or glory.
It was the eyes of Yun Jinxi, Cao Zhendong and the others that pierced his heart. He could tell that there was a new kind of wariness and doubt in their eyes. They were originally partners in battle, but now his partners were treating him with suspicion and even obscure tinges of hostility.
Luo Yao subconsciously extended his arm towards the group of humans and wanted to say something before he realized everybody shot backwards like shotgun bullets.
Yun Jinxi screamed, "Don't come any closer!"
Luo Yao retracted his arm like a disturbed scorpion and stared at the young girl in front of him in shock. He could see the fear and suspicion in their eyes - worse still, he began to feel their anger.
Yun Jinxi's entire family had met their ends at the hands of ruthless and warmongering demons, and she was very nearly killed in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle against another pack of demons. Her reaction to the sudden change in his physicality and whatnot was understandable.
However, the increasing sense of disgust coming from the young girl drove him towards hopelessness.
"Luo Yao, can you still recognize us?" Mu Yu was observing Luo Yao's expression closely and probed with a question.
Luo Yao began to speak with a bitter taste in his mouth. "Senior Mu, of course I recognize you guys. I… I don't know what's happening to me, I don't understand anything at all…"
Lu Ning glared at Luo Yao and burst out suddenly, "You're a demon! You were simply residing inside the body of a human. Your previous body was destroyed, but your demonic soul reformed a new body with the help of a magic item."
She paused momentarily before she continued to explain, "Your body is a demonic body. This is the original physical body that your demonic soul inhabited - this is the real you! You are a demon from tip to toe!"
Her face was expressionless, but she was all riled up inside. There really was something wrong with Luo Yao!
Luo Yao's lips trembled upon hearing her words but his face turned even more bitter.
He could tell that Yun Jinxi, Cao Zhendong and the others turned even more hostile towards him after Lu Ning's emotional outburst. It appeared as if Luo Yao had been hiding his ident.i.ty all along and deceived them on purpose, as if he had ulterior motives all along.
Everybody returned to a state of quiet tension as the air became heavier and heavier. Mu Yu wanted to say something, but he had no idea where to start. Even though he had no clue what race Luo Yao's new body belonged to, he could tell that it was something special and extraordinary judging by the reactios of the dragons before him.
He was a little unsure about how to handle the sudden change of events as well. Even if his master, Huang Ming, was here, he was positive that not even Huang Ming would know what to do.
Mu Yu was starting to develop the very same feelings that Luo Yao had lied to them all along, but felt a little guilty as he had watched Luo Yao grow up since he was kid after all. He observed Luo Yao's bitter expressions and heaved a heavy sigh as he thought to himself, "Forget it, forget it. We knew each other after all, and we even almost became teacher and disciple."
Mu Yu was just about to say something when a frightening sphere of energy blanketed everyone and sent chills down everyone's spines.
Such an aura could only come from an immortal soul stage cultivator, and a middle-aged man stepped out from the void and looked straight at Luo Yao.
"Senior Uncle?" Mu Yu was the first to be surprised. The arriving party was the oldest disciple of the Luofu Holy Man. He was the one anchoring down the Luofu Mystical Island while the Luofu Holy Man was holding off the Qiong Qi Grand Sage.
The task of reinforcing Mu Yu was relatively simple and did not require his personal partic.i.p.ation. However, Mu Yu's master was the nascent soul advanced stage cultivator Huang Ming, and Luo Yao's explosive energies disturbed him - and so he was here.
The middle-aged man glanced at Luo Yao before turning back to Mu Yu and the others. "What's happening?"
Lu Ning kept quiet while Mu Yu started to recount the recent happenings from start to finish. The middle-aged man's eyes sparkled as his gaze returned to Luo Yao and looked him up and down - he was trying to match Luo Yao's appearance to a demon race that he had heard of but never seen before.
"A beast of Hades?!" This discovery made this middle-aged man s.h.i.+ver a little bit. He focused all his attention on Luo Yao and waved his hand a single time. Dozens of water pillars spiraled upwards from the sprawling oceans beneath him while dozens of thick cloudy energy plummeted down from the skies. Both forces worked together and imprisoned Luo Yao within.
This act did not really affect Luo Yao himself. However, he could that the demonic powers inside his soul start to boil violently and uncontrollably.
What was more frightening was the fact his purple pupils were flas.h.i.+ng purple lights once again.
Wherever the purple light touched, the middle-aged man's cloud-water prison started to melt and crumble.
The middle-aged man frowned at this turn of events. He held down his voice and said, "I'll take you back to the Luofu Mystical Island for now and find out exactly what is happening to your body. If you have no clue either, then do follow me and resolve your doubts once and for all."
This was not something that he was willing to let go. The mysterious Hades demon race resurfaced for the first time in over four thousand years in the Divine Lands. It was something that necessitated a degree of research and study.
Furthermore, the power that Luo Yao was displaying at this point was a mess but highly charged with destructive capabilities.
It was obvious from Luo Yao's reaction that he had little to no degree of self-control. A tiny amount of stimulus from the outside world could stir up his instinctive defensive mechanisms.
He had to play it safe as it was likely that something else could trigger him the same way if Luo Yao were to be allowed to roam the world by himself.
The middle-aged man had already made up his mind. He did not care whether he had to capture him using force. The best possible outcome was that he was able to bring Luo Yao back to his master, the Luofu Holy Man, so that the latter could make his own judgments and investigations. If that was not possible, then he was ready to eliminate Luo Yao on the spot.
What he did not expect was that the very moment this idea came up in his head, Luo Yao raised his head abruptly and a pair of purple eyes stared straight into his soul. The sinister purple light started to flicker again in Luo Yao's eyes and a stream of Hades' Dark Mantra rocketed towards the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man was in the immortal soul stage but jumped out of his skin anyway. At his level of cultivation, his composure was not so easily eroded and his emotions could only be stirred up by individuals at a higher level than he was.
Even though he did harbor murderous intentions in his mind, he did not exhibit a single trace of it. All he did was consider his options, and even this was immediately picked up by Luo Yao.
Lin Feng was even more intrigued as he watched on with amus.e.m.e.nt. "How did he do that? Such acute telepathy, and such extraordinary sensing abilities! Could this be the natural talent of the beasts of Hades?"
The power of the Hades' Dark Mantra was as overbearing as it could get. It seemed like just a tiny stream of it, but it had the ferocity that felt like it could pierce right through the heavens and annihilate everything in its path.
A haze of fear came over Mu Yu and company. The middle-aged man immediately cast a defensive spell, but was immediately overcome by the destructive ray of purple light and he could only dodge the initial ferocity of the attack.
"Indeed - he doesn't have much control over himself. It will be very easy to cause damage around him whether it's intentional or not. He's only in the nascent soul advanced stage, and even though he's a beast of Hades now, his power is still much greater than what it should be." The middle-aged man's thoughts stopped there as he prepared to flash his immortal soul and channel the powers of his magic items.
All of a sudden, Luo Yao's eyes snapped shut and an agonizing expression came over his face. "Senior Mu, I don't wish to be enemies with everyone."
As he spoke, Luo Yao's body started flickering with purple radiance as his entire body transformed into a ray of purple light and dashed straight into the void.
The middle-aged man was taken back by yet another unexpected sudden change of events. He wanted to pursue, but the gap in the void behind Luo Yao sealed itself as if nothing ever happened and he simply vanished into thin air.
Just a minute moment was enough for Luo Yao to disappear from sight and there was no way the middle-aged man could catch up.
After Luo Yao escaped into the void, he flew to a place far away from the Luofu Mystical Island and paused on top a patch of ocean with the same bitter and agonizing expression on his face.
While he had his own suspicions as to whether or not the Luofu Holy Man and the others would hurt him, he had already made up his mind to return back to the Luofu Mystical Island with Mu Yu and the others. After all, he wanted to find out what exactly was happening to him as well.
Once the middle-aged man started developing murderous intentions, Luo Yao could already feel his demonic soul buzzing incessantly and his demonic powers started to tremble with the same uncontrollable violence.
He knew that he could not stay a moment longer and his only choice was to run away.
He cast his eyes over the vast and endless oceans and glimpsed his own strange patterned body from time to time. He turned to touch the large tail behind his body and reached up to touch the three horns on his head - he started to develop a dreadful feeling that the world was so huge but there was nowhere he could go and there was no place that he belonged.
His body trembled abruptly as his physical body started to disintegrate and he became a patch of golden light mist in the blink of an eye.
The Heavenly Oyster's Golden Pearl reappeared from within the golden lights as the thick mist was sucked back in. The mist all around turned back into its original white color, and Luo Yao's soul existed within the golden light mist.
Luo Yao felt a wave of relief come over his body, as if he had just awoken from a nightmare. However, after studying himself and his soul, he discovered that even though he was in a transparent spiritual form, this form still took the shape and appearance of the hideous half-demon and half-human body.
His emotions returned to a state of grief and hopelessness.
Lin Feng was still watching on from the void as he began to ponder, "It was not the Heavenly Oyster's Golden Pearl reforming its physical body - it was the demonic soul that inserted itself into the Heavenly Oyster's Golden Pearl and temporarily produced a physical body. The level of mastery was also determined by the Heavenly Oyster's Golden Pearl as well. Now that the effects of the pearl were over, it has turned back to its original state."
As soon as he figured out the rough state of affairs, he showed himself from the void. "It seems as if this is a key that can solve a lot of our problems."