Chapter 5283: The True King

“Your disciple? Brother Ren, you shouldn’t pull my leg.” The demon monk chuckled nervously. 

“It isn’t a joke,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist replied with an earnest smile. 

The smile on the demon monk’s face finally vanished. 

“Brother Ren, I didn’t know that you sent your disciple here too,” the demon monk said.

“I didn’t. I left my disciple to grow on his own. I didn’t expect to meet him here either,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist replied.

“That sure is a coincidence.” The demon monk didn’t believe the Ox-nosed Old Daoist’s words, but he still conceded on the matter. “Since he is Brother Ren’s disciple, I shall back down here.”

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist didn’t reply. Instead, he looked at the demon monk with an enigmatic smile.

“Brother Ren, I mean it. There’s no way I would lay my hands on your disciple!” the demon monk said. 

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist maintained his silence.

“Brother Ren, surely you should trust me given our relationship?” the demon monk said.

“Why should I trust you?” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist finally replied. 

“You!!!” The demon monk hadn’t expected the Ox-nosed Old Daoist to reply as such. “What do you mean by this, Brother Ren? Are you going to turn against me over a mere disciple?”

“I might have left my disciple to grow on his own, but I won’t allow threats like you to endanger him. It would be hypocritical of me to say that I’m a good person, but I’m sure killing a person like you count as a good deed,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist said.

“Screw you!” the demon monk hollered. “Just say it if you intend to turn on me. Stop using your disciple as an excuse. You were planning to get rid of me right from the start, weren’t you? I just don’t understand why you saved me back then.”

Shoosh!

With a flick of his sleeves, the Ox-nosed Old Daoist took out a golden wheel. It had a simple design, but it was made out of a unique material that made it nigh indestructible.

“Brother Demon Monk, do you recognize this item?” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist asked.

“I do. You told me that it’s a divine weapon you have spent many years to forge. Its body is already complete, so all that’s left is to nurture a weapon soul. Why are you suddenly asking me that?” the demon monk asked in confusion. 

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist nodded in satisfaction. He stared intently at the demon monk with an enigmatic smile, which unnerved the latter.

“You can’t be thinking of making me your weapon soul?” the demon monk asked.

“Brilliant as ever, Brother Demon Monk,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist replied.

Killing intent flared from the demon monk’s eyes as he clenched his teeth in anger. He roared, “I treated you as a friend, but you have been raising me as a sow?”

“Don’t say that, Brother Demon Monk. Pigs will be insulted by your words,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist replied.

“You put on such a smug face as if you’re in control of everything. I have only treated you with utmost respect out of gratitude to you for saving my life, but it looks like you really think of me as a pushover,” the demon monk sneered.

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist chuckled softly under his breath before saying, “Channel your martial power toward your dantian.”

The demon monk was confused, but he did as he was told. 

“You!!!” 

The demon monk’s eyes blazed with a mixture of fury and terror. He sensed a poison in his dantian that could instantaneously take his life. The Ox-nosed Old Daoist must have planted the poison in him while he was treating him back then. 

“You finally noticed it?” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist asked.

“Brother Ren, you’re a vicious bastard. I earnestly treated you like my own brother and benefactor!” The demon monk suppressed his anger and spoke in an indignant tone.

“Heh…” The Ox-nosed Old Daoist chuckled. He formed a hand seal that roused the poison inside the demon monk’s body.

Sensing the awakening of the poison, the demon monk immediately kneeled down before the Ox-nosed Old Daoist and cried, “Brother Ren, d-don’t kill me. There’s no need to do this. Spare my life, and I’ll willingly slave off for you!” 

But the Ox-nosed Old Daoist ignored the demon monk’s words and continued forming his hand seals. Correspondingly, the poison inside the demon monk’s body began to rouse. 

What happened next stunned the demon monk. 

The poison in his body actually dissipated! He was very certain that the poison had dissipated instead of going into hiding. 

“What do you mean by this?” The demon monk looked at the Ox-nosed Old Daoist in incomprehension. He couldn’t understand what the latter was trying to achieve here.

“You’ll know very soon,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist replied.

The demon monk’s eyes reddened with murderous intent. The earlier incident had taught him that the Ox-nosed Old Daoist was a massive threat to him. If he wished to live freely, he would have to eliminate the Ox-nosed Old Daoist.

Thus, he released his full prowess. He executed a powerful movement skill that allowed him to close the distance between him and the Ox-nosed Old Daoist at an unbelievable speed. Then, he pushed his hand forward like a dagger to impale the latter’s dantian. 

Shoosh!

But much to the demon monk’s shock, the Ox-nosed Old Daoist suddenly vanished right in front of his eyes. He hurriedly scanned his surroundings, only to see that the Ox-nosed Old Daoist was already standing behind him.

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist was looking at him with a leisurely smile as if he was a child throwing a tantrum. 

The demon monk clenched his fists in utmost rage. Even back then, no one had dared to look at him with such eyes in the Totem Galaxy. He couldn’t tolerate how the Ox-nosed Old Daoist was slighting him. 

Gah!

The demon monk roared in fury. His voice trembled the earth, leaving countless cultivators bleeding from their seven apertures. Some even imploded on the spot. 

Seeing that, the severely wounded Long Junlin strained himself to create a martial power barrier to shield everyone. If not for his protection, the billions of cultivators in the Skydomain Lower Realm would have lost their lives. 

Half of Long Junlin’s bloodline had been siphoned away. He still retained his cultivation, but he was in an extremely weakened state. Huge mouthfuls of fresh blood spurted out from him, but he still insistently kept his eyes focused on the sky. 

“What’s happening?”

He couldn’t see what was happening amidst the black aura, but he could tell that there was something weird about the demon monk’s roar. He sensed emotions of anger and pain within the roar, which didn’t make sense since the demon monk had already won the battle. 

Meanwhile, a flood of black aura rushed out from the demon monk’s body, gushing further up in the sky till it reached the edge of the realm. There, the black aura morphed into a humongous wyvern. 

The wyvern was so large that it practically shrouded the entire realm in shadows. Even Long Junlin would have been terrified to face the demon monk in the latter’s current state.

Through undergoing full demonification, the demon monk was able to exert strength several times greater than his current cultivation level. It was reminiscent of a forbidden medicine, just many times more potent. Naturally, there was a severe backlash to unleashing this move, which was why the demon monk was in great pain. 

This was the demon monk’s strongest secret skill, and he was showing it to the world for the first time. His confidence swelled. 

“You’re right. There’s no way I would spare your disciple. Now that I know your true face, I don’t feel any guilt toward you anymore. You and your disciple can go to hell now,” the demon monk spoke with a voice as deep as the toll of a bell. 

While the crowd was unable to see the demon monk and the Ox-nosed Old Daoist through the concealment of the black aura, they could still hear those words loud and clear.

“Did they have a fallout?” Long Junlin was astounded.

Meanwhile, the Ox-nosed Old Daoist didn’t respond to the demon monk’s threat. His human body was no different from a speck of dust compared to the demon monk’s humongous wyvern form, but he still maintained his composed attitude. The smile on his face hadn’t faltered in the least, and he was still looking at the demon monk as if he was nothing more than a clown. 

“Don’t you dare look at me with such eyes!!!” the demon monk roared.

His voice shattered space itself, plunging the surroundings into absolute darkness. The only ones who could still see were him and the Ox-nosed Old Daoist. 

The wyvern opened its massive mouth and unleashed a terrifying breath of black aura on the Ox-nosed Old Daoist. The sheer difference in their sizes made it seem as if a god was exacting heavenly retribution upon a mortal. 

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist shook his head and chuckled. Without moving even a finger, his spirit power converged together to form a barrier in front of him, and the terrifying breath was stopped in its tracks. 

Unwilling to give up just like that, the demon monk intensified the prowess of his breath, further shattering the surrounding space. Space was being destroyed faster than it was reconstructed, making it seem as if the world was doomed to endless darkness. 

This was how powerful the breath of black aura was. 

There was not a single shockwave from the clash in the sky that had reached the ground, but even so, the sheer pressure was straining Long Junlin so much that he could hardly maintain his martial power barrier any longer. 

Many of the cultivators he was protecting crouched to the ground and resolved themselves to death. 

The demon monk had grown so powerful that it looked as if he was a god with the world under his thumb. Yet, the terrifying breath he unleashed was unable to push back the comparatively insignificant Ox-nosed Old Daoist at all, let alone harm him. 

Gah!

The demon monk roared once again. 

This time, shockwaves began rippling from his breath. The sheer might of the shockwaves was more than enough to destroy the realm.

Weng!

However, the shockwaves were blocked by a barrier before they could travel far. A gargantuan barrier had manifested around the humongous demon monk, completely isolating him. The wyvern morphed by the demon monk was humongous as it was, but it paled in comparison to the gargantuan barrier. 

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist had crossed his thumb and pinky to form a circle, which happened to be the shape of the gargantuan barrier.

Pah!

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist suddenly clenched his fingers together, causing the gargantuan fingers to swiftly contract.

Boom!

Explosions that were more than enough to destroy the realm broke out, but there were hardly any casualties. After all, the Ox-nosed Old Daoist was tanking the force of the explosions with his gargantuan barrier. 

On the other hand, the demon monk was in a terrible state. The contracting barrier had forced him to dispel his wyvern form, causing his body to scatter into countless bundles of black aura that floated around him. The dissipation of his energy meant that he had lost his ability to fight. 

Footsteps echoed as the Ox-nosed Old Daoist made his way toward the demon monk.

“You couldn’t understand why I have dispelled the poison in you and questioned me for the reason. I shall answer your question now. 

“I informed you about the poison in your body to tell you that your life has always been in my grasp. That’s what it means to be meticulous. I dispelled your poison to tell you that I can easily take your life even without relying on poison. That’s what it means to be strong.” 

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist raised his hand and exerted a powerful suction force. The demon monk’s body began degenerating into clumps of black aura, which were then absorbed by the wheel weapon. 

The powerful demon monk had fallen into such a pitiful state that he couldn’t even let out a squeak while he was being assimilated. He could only watch helplessly as he was absorbed into the wheel. 

The sky had already fallen silent, but no one dared to raise their heads other than Long Junlin and a few other Totem Dragon Clansmen. It was almost as if they thought that the enemy wouldn’t see them as long as they averted their eyes. 

It was hard to think logically in times of extreme fear. The earlier fight was so devastating that the clash between the Totem Dragon Clan and the demon monk looked tame in comparison. 

The Ox-nosed Old Daoist glanced downward. 

The crowd was unable to see him through the thick layers of black aura, but he was able to clearly see the scenery beneath. Looking at the billions of Totem Galaxy’s cultivators who dared not to even raise their heads, he laughed disdainfully. 

“The myriad realms of the Three Regions’ Six Galaxies see our Ancestral Martial Galaxy as mere ants. Soon, you’ll know who the true king of the vast world of cultivation is,” the Ox-nosed Old Daoist sneered before turning his sights toward the Trial of the Strongest.